But while clearing out photos on my phone thought I’d share a picture and a couple comments about some random live music I saw last weekend in New York. First the photo:

One of the things I like about New York is the sheer number of talented people everywhere. I was in a random bar (Otto’s Shrunken Head) on Sunday night and heard live music coming from the back room, and eventually went to check it out. There was a diverse line-up of bands and musicians, of which I saw the last couple. The final band was introduced as “Acid Rays” but I asked the guitarist afterwards to confirm the name, and he said they “used to be” Acid Rays but changed line-up and dropped the singing so it wasn’t a definitive sort of thing. Anyway they were pretty good for a random 1 a.m. band: acoustic guitar through effect pedals, a cellist/violinist who played electric cello and electric violin (and I have never even seen an electric cello before!) and a drummer. Good stuff.

I was thinking of the line from the back of Yo La Tengo‘s Electr-o-pura where, among various absurd notes for each song, they say: “One of My Favorite Instruments-The Electronic Flute.”

Last Friday, 5/8/09, I went to the Warehouse to check out the DC Listening Lounge‘s Sound Scene show called “The Human Body.” It was a good show of audio installations and experiments, with a number of solid performances. I didn’t see all the live music, but managed to be impressed by a couple performers. One was a group going by the name of Black Snake in the Daisy Patch. The promo website for the event described them as “meld[ing] acoustic instruments (guitar, banjo, harmonium, cello) and found sound samples into a beautiful and compelling musical collage.” A guitar-violin-xylophone (??) trio, with some other instruments thrown in, they reminded me and my friends somewhat of The Books. They were pretty great especially considering they apparently composed the whole thing the day of the event.

I also caught a performance by Janel and Anthony which was overdue — they’ve been playing around town for at least a few years and I have been too lazy to see them. It’s too bad I’ve been so negligent, they were great. Cello and guitar but not in a boring folky way, with some distorting effects from time to time. I liked them a lot. Check them out via myspace.

Here’s a cell phone shot of Black Snake in the Daisy Patch:

Sadly I missed the other performances. I’ll do my best to make it out to more events like this in the future…