That's The Hookup » Music

The Strangest Night Of My Life As A 20 Year Old, Including The REFUSED Secret Show in Brooklyn

keat — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 06:37:46 +0000

Since I turned 20 last weekend and stole a hotel room, I felt like I have been on a really long acid trip. Tonight’s escapades only confirmed this feeling. After waking up at 12 pm with a hangover I can only blame on my first OK Cupid date(s)…yes, I back to backed…I did my usual deal, went to class, felt sorry for myself, and drank a lot of coffee. But the minute I left the prison I call college I had to have slipped down a rabbit hole.

One of my good friends from touring was in the city today with none other than the Hot Topic rockrapcore legends Deuce from Hollywood Undead, Brokencyde, Blood On the Dancefloor, and a few other unmentionables (see videos below). Despite the fact that I am as into rockrapcore (yes, that is a genre) as I am into tentacle porn I love my friends and do everything I can to spend time with them especially if they are touring pals that I see once every never. So, of course, we headed to Times Square for everyone’s touristy itch and popped into Jimmy’s Corner for a drink. Jimmy’s Corner is a hole in the wall midtown bar that I just thought was creepy. Turns out Jimmy, the owner was actually Mohammad Ali’s trainer, and upon a closer look had his bar decked floor to ceiling with the most incredible celebrity candids including a snapshot of Michael Jordan and Michael Jackson holdin’ it down…um what?

Click here to view the embedded video.

Within 20 minutes of being at Jimmy’s Corner, we somehow ran into part of Brokencyde (I feel so weird typing this), and as a crew of 10 people I convinced everyone to come to my Monday night hang out, Don Pedro’s in Brooklyn for the season finale of Ru Paul’s Drag Race, complete with 3 live drag performances. Again…um what? This weak’s episode was a drag (all puns intended), but I was able to witness 6 men see cross dressers in their natural habitat for the first time in their lives and none of them felt compelled to call anyone a “faggot”. People that have a coalition of mothers rallying against them were able to keep their cool.

After a good two hours of fishy fun, we left for one of Brooklyn’s finest metal bars, St. Vitus, only to be whisked out within less than an hour by tweets about REFUSED playing a secret show in Bushwick. While I’m not going to sit around and act like I’ve been listening to punk since I was in diapers or know any Refused song besides the one that was definitely in a video game soundtrack, I knew this was important and D-Bo and I *had* to go. So off we went in a gypsy cab to The Archeron for the show everyone that’s spent $40 on tickets for the Terminal 5 or summer tour shows would give their first born to see.

Beginning sharply at 1am, only the first 200 of us were shoved into a living room sized venue that I’ve seen ex boyfriends’ bands play at, all whilst dodging ~~kids~~ grown ass men that had been crowd surfing since the first chord was struck. A more than memorable set looked, felt, and smelled like everything you’d ever wanted from a legendary punk show, and reaffirmed my liking for punk and hardcore, by reminding me that music I care about makes me feel good, and makes it more than ok to get really fucking weird.

Now…to get ready for my final presentation in International Marketing.

Cheers,

Keat

Martin Solveig | The Night Out | Smash Episode #4

joe — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 12:25:33 +0000

Superstar DJ/producer Martin Solveig has created a series of shorts entitled “SMASH”. These shorts are hilarious and if you follow the dance music world at all, they will be even funnier! If you don’t, still watch because they’re still pretty funny. It’s like if the producer of Spinaltap created a similar movie about the life of a lovestruck DJ. Guest stars include, A-Trak, Madeon, Porter Robinson, Dillon Francis & more!

The Shins | The Rifle’s Spiral

Skript — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 16:16:04 +0000

The Shins, dropping a new song and video called The Rifle’s Spiral. Great song and vid, featuring some pretty awesome stop motion Tim Burton-esque animation off the new album Port of Morrow.

Here is a preview.

Click here to view the embedded video.

You can watch the entire thing Here.

_SKRIPT.

SBTRKT | Hold On | Video

joe — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 12:16:41 +0000

A LOSS FOR WORDS – PIROUETTE

thekcrussell — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 18:52:08 +0000

Click here to view the embedded video.

Check out the premiere from A Loss For Words’ new video for Pirouette, off their latest album release, No Sanctuary. Make sure you go out and support these guys on tour before they leave for Japan at the end of the month. You can also catch them on the Vans Warped Tour all summer long!

Swedish House Mafia | ABSOLUT GREYHOUND – OFFICIAL Music Video

joe — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 12:50:16 +0000

Check out the new (dropped last month) sponsored song/video by Absolut x Swedish House Mafia. The video looks like it was shot in the Salt Flats of Utah and features futuristic dog racing using S.H.M. to power the dogs.

NEW “OK GO” VIDEO | SKYSCRAPERS

bigjus — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 20:13:09 +0000

Here they are again with another cool video. this one is alot more tame compaired to the last few, but awesome none the less. and awesome song too.
check it out!!!!!

PAIR YOUR MUSIC WITH YOUR DRINK – DRINKIFY.ORG – YOU HAVE TO CHECK THIS OUT!!!!!!

bigjus — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 23:18:30 +0000

THIS IS SO FUCKING AWESOME!!!!!!! so you pick ANY band or musician and then they not only play a song from the artist, but they give you a drink that perfectly matches the music GENIUS!!!!!! you will have no choice but to have fun with this.. check it out

GO HERE NOW!!!!! DRINKIFY.ORG

Swag in Review | Sol Republic Tracks Headphones

keat — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 22:11:15 +0000

While I was down in Austin at SXSW, Sol Republic hooked it up with a fresh pair of their V8 Sound Engine Tracks headphones. My Urban Ears headphones recently died on me after a long year of wear and tear, and the $20 no-name headphones I bought on a whim really weren’t cutting it for me. Having used these bad boys for about a week now, I have to say I am seriously impressed. The company advertises the Tracks as virtually indestructible and interchangeable, which they really are. Let’s take a look:

: Fully assembled, the Tracks are pretty sleek, I must say.

For $100, you get yourself a nice pair of headphones, that in looks totally rival Beats By Dre in a way that doesn’t scream “I am a total fucking douchebag”. The Sol Republics come with all the basic needs including a mic and volume adjustment buttons on the cables, as well as a raised jack. The raised jack is more important than you’d think! I have found that headphone jacks that lie flush with your device (for me it’s an iPhone) don’t always fit properly when you’ve got a case on your phone/iPod.

If you use a Mophie Case for example (the ones with the extra battery), a lot of headphone jacks are too thick to fit through the case design above the headphone input, and require you to take part of your case off in order to listen to music.

In terms of sound quality, I am not the type of person that knows about decibel levels and wuff wuff sub woof stuff, but they sound great; better than my Urban Ears, and the padding around the earpieces keep out most exterior sound without being noise canceling. I personally am not a huge fan of noise canceling headphones, seeing that I’m already oblivious enough to the world, noise canceling headphones could be *too* good and totally get my ass hit by a car.

Now, on to the crazy part: the Tracks can be disassembled, meaning that both ear pieces can be slid on and off of the head piece, and the wires can be removed from the ear pieces.

: Disassembled, you get 4 pieces: 2 earpieces, a headpiece, and a set of wires.

: Everything is subtly but clearly marked so that the right piece goes in the right place.

This is my FAVORITE part about these headphones! Besides the fact that the individual manufacturing of each piece makes me feel like they’re a bit higher quality that my previous pair of headphones (this is probably just consumerism pumping through my veins), there is a huge convenience factor to this design.

First of all, when I am traveling to and from school/work/etc, I can pull out the wires and stuff them in my purse so that they don’t get caught on everything. Second of all, I give headphones a run for their money throughout their lifetime, and I can easily see myself getting wasted and chipping the side of the headpiece, or just being generally careless and somehow snapping it. If that happens, Sol Republic sells replacement headpieces in various colors for $30, which I would totally take over having to dish out $100 for a new pair. I had to retire my Urban Ears when the wire started to fall out of the jack, but if I had had a pair of Sol Republics, I could have just gone out and bought a new wire, rather than having to get an entirely new pair.

Generally speaking the Sol Republic Tracks totally rule, but there were a couple of things I wasn’t a fan of:

: Not a fan of the glued-on padding :/

The main thing that bummed me out about the Tracks was the padding used on the top of the headpiece. Although it is pretty decent foam it is secured with adhesive, rather than seamlessly incorporated into the piece. I have long hair, and whenever I wear these around my neck, my hair always gets stuck in the glue and ripped out. Totally not fun.

The other thing that I wasn’t crazy about was the way the shininess of the earpieces wears. I’ve had these headphones for a little over a week now, and I’m already starting to see blatant scratches on them…not to mention they get super smudged with fingerprints (see pics above). I feel like if the earpieces had a matte finish, rather than the metallic high gloss finish they currently come with they might not get knicked up so quickly.

Overall though, I am totally thrilled with these! For the $100 or less price range, I would recommend Sol Republics simply based on the interchangeability of all of the pieces, making them a better long-term investment.

Weekend Happenings

Skript — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 23:07:25 +0000

Usually winter weekends are filled with trips to the movies and the studio. As the weather starts to get warmer, crawling out of my studio apartment becomes a little bit easier.

This weekend was filled with good food, friends, music, and weather.

Walking around north station, on a nice day.

Caught a Bowerbirds show at the Paradise Rock Club, always an awesome venue to see a show in Boston.

Dry the River opened up for Bowerbirds and put on an impressive show.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Bowerbirds took the stage and put on a nice little set as well.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Rounded off the weekend grabbing brunch with the lady and my friend Ethan at Brookline Lunch in Central.

All in all, pretty successful weekend.

_SKRIPT.