This Halloween, Gossip Girl and budding pop star Leighton Meester skipped out on trick-or-treating to join forces with Weezer at their Hammerstein Ballroom show in NYC. During a special performance of the band’s first single “(If You’re Wondering if I Want You To) I Want You To,” she traded off lead vocals with front man Rivers Cuomo. Nat Wolff (of the Naked Brothers Band) joined in on guitar! Check out the concert footage!
You can now download Leighton’s single “Somebody to Love” featuring Robin Thicke from iTunes here. Watch for the video to drop soon! Leighton’s debut album will be released early next year.
New Yorkers are really getting lucky. As if the entire weeklong musicfest CMJ wasn’t enough entertainment, those in New York have the chance to hit up not one, but two secret free shows in the coming week.
First up, is the DJ stylings of Girl Talk. The show is Sunday, Oct. 25 at a secret location. It’s part of the Kia Soul Collective tour and OJ Da Juiceman will also perform. The sow runs from 2-7 p.m.
There is a catch- to gain access to the show, you have to test-drive the all-new 2010 Kia Soul at Reed Space at 151 Orchard Street in NYC. You have until Saturday, Oct. 24 at 7 p.m. to do this and learn the location of the Girl Talk show.
Then if you’d rather singalong than dance-along, check out the secret Weezer show Wednesday, Oct. 28 at 7 p.m.
To access this one you, have to enter a contest.
You can gain access to the primary contest here or you can be more creative and honor Weezer’s “The Sweater Song” by uploading pics of you in an ugly sweater on Facebook here.
In the five years that I’ve lived in the Boston area I’ve not yet indulged myself in its rich local music scene. Not until the show at T.T. The Bear’s Place on Friday night in Cambridge. With four bands on the bill it was an exciting and gritty night of local music.
When I first moved to Boston I thought little about its local music; there were no big names that I was familiar with and I was too lazy and too intimidated by the new scene to do the digging myself. Over the course of the last few months I’ve opened my ears to the local music scene, discovering radio programs that spotlight local music, meeting people who are experienced in its scene, and, well, by playing Guitar Hero and Rock Band.
Harmonix, the half video game developer half musician melting pot that created Guitar Hero (1&2) and Rock Band is located in my very own Cambridge, Massachusetts. Mere blocks, in fact, from the music venue T.T. The Bear’s. Harmonix is unique in the fact that is employs a large number of musicians from local bands and features songs from the bands in the video games. One of these bands, The Main Drag, I got to experience live on Friday night.
If there was one thing that was predominate in all the performers that night it was the energy; Boston band, The Bynars started it all off with a fury of sound and each subsequent band kept up the pace. Next up was The Main Drag. With five members of the band also working for Harmonix, they brought down the house with their performance of the Rock Band 2 featured song, “A Jagged Gorgeous Winter.” Their set also featured a spirited cover of LCD Sound System‘s “All My Friends.” The Main Drag was one of the highlights for me and also won over my friends visiting from Los Angeles, we were particularly impressed with their adventurist guitarist who at one point attempted to play his guitar with a xylophone mallet. Insane.
The energy did not recede there, power pop magicians, The Appreciation Post, galvanized the stage next. They were the tightest performers of the night, with a high energy guitarist of their own really burning up the left side of the stage. The highlight of the set for me was definitely the excellent cover of Pinkerton-era Weezer, “Tired of Sex.”
Closing out the night was Brooklyn band, Plushgun. I really couldn’t imagine that the headliners would be able to push the energy level even further, but somehow they did. The lead singer’s vocals were compelling, channeling shades of Brian Molko, and we couldn’t help but notice his resemblance to misterSeth Rogan. Plushgun were handing out drum solos, foot stomps and high fives like candy and ended their set with a crowded stage full of dancing fans. It was a great way to end a supremely entertaining night of local and near local music.
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