Flight of The Conchords
The Heath at The McKittrick Hotel
June 1st

THEY BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Well, the never really went away – juss got all big and Hollywooded, but no matter how many riches and fames they’ve accumulated, they will always be good ole Bret and Jemaine, or good ole Jemaine and Bret (depending on how you like to order your favorite Kiwis) of Flight of the Conchords  

After a 3 year break from touring, the boys are about to embark on a big tour, and so they needed to fine tune their roadshow before showing the road, and set up a 5 night residency at the Heath.  For some reason I skipped out on their last tour, so it has been 7 years since I last saw them live, but now I got to see them in a venue that only served 200, and all 200 of us were well served

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Sure, B & J sounded a little raw and undisciplined – starting and stopping and restarting tunes new and old, constantly being out of rhythm with one another, but luckily these two can fill dead air and stage hiccups with endless witty stage banter, like Jemaine asking the audience if they actually paid money to see this show [we all happily did].  But none of us cared how unvarnished the presentation was – cause we were all there to laugh with them, and at them (no one does self-deprecating humor like them), and so we did

They tried out 5 to 6 new/newish songs (see setlist below), and while these newbies don’t seem destined top anything they’ve created before, they were good enuff for everyone to sit thru AND thoroughly enjoy.  Most times you don’t want to hear any band play any new stuff, but most bands aren’t this one and that’s both a good thing AND a bad thing.  And the old stuff?  Still AWESOME, after all these years!  Even a song like ‘Bowie’, which was a once a creative lark, is now a song of soulful passion – a valentine to a man they and we love(d), who once fell to earth, but is now back in the stars, forever orbiting in greatness

Maybe one day someone will write a song about how great the Flight of the Conchords are.  That would be some mighty meta stuff there – meta world peace yo!

Setlist – Chips and Dips^ / The Seagull^ / Foux du Fafa / F**k on the Ceiling^ / The Ballad of Stana^ / Father and Son^ / Think About It / Business Time / Bowie / Shady Rachel^

Encore – The Most Beautiful Girl (in the Room)

^ not sure of the actual song title – as the songs were new or never released

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The Muppets
Reconnecting The Rainbow
Official Website | Trailers & Mo
PG | 98 min

The 2011 Muppet movie accomplishes two very simple goals – it makes us oldie folkies remember the long forgotten Muppets, and introduces them wacky puppets to a whole new generation of moppets.  Other than that?  It’s got a lot of good positive energy and a lot of crappy cameos (it’s like The Hangover meets the cast of CBS’ comedy line-up.  WOW!!!  NOT!!!!!!).  OK, so David Grohl as fake-ish Animal was solid like rock candy, but James Carville????  More like lame-e-o!!!  Other than that? It rightfully employs Flight of The Conchordser Bret McKenzie to pen some very muppetish songs, and the show’s director James Bobin, to ringmaster the madness.  The Muppets hactually feels like an extended episode of Conchords, cept without the actual Conchords.  Kinda would have rather seen Bret & Jemaine debate being a man or a muppet than Jason Segel and that kid on that geek show no one watches.  Still, The Muppets is fun, despite taking any real chances or leaps.  Well, they did take a chance by introducing a new muppet named Walter, but Walter is so whatevs.snoreszzz that you’ll hope like we do that he gets cut from the next flick.  EAT IT WALTER!!!!

moral of the story: new Muppet movie is be good, but if you want to (re)introduce Kermit & Co to today’s world, why not juss re-release the most sensational inspirational celebrational Muppetational original Muppet Movie from 1979??? we recently saw it before seeing the new one, and we muss say, it has more danger and excitement in 5 measly minutes than the new one has over 90.  and the cameos?  don’t even get us started on the radness of the cameos!!!!

Glad Mag: spanks to Golden Dispencer, we’ve un-forgotten the Muppet Magazine!!!

Verdictgo: Jeepers Worth A Peepers

Muppets move right along, currently at a theater near jews

and until next thyme the balcony is clothed…

MacGruber
Forte Winks
Official Website | Trailers & Mo

MacGruber is Saturday Night Live‘s first skit turned big screen adventure released in over a decade, and it happens to be the funniest one since Wayne’s World.  Granite, we didn’t bother seeing any of the flicks that came between the two (ok, we saw Wayne’s World 2), but we’re gonna venture a logical guess that none of them were even remotely good or co-starred Powers Boothe or Val Kilmer.  MacGruber as a skit was overly repetitive and mildly amusing at best, but as a 90ish minute feature, it worked well enuff, even with the new, dirtier jokes getting recycled several times over.  And as an action movie, it wasn’t half bad neither!  Credit Will Forte and Kristen Wiig (and Ryan Phillippe?), who put a serious face on some not so serious bidness, and to SNL for not giving up on their characters, which have always been their bread and butter.  Here’s hoping that Lorenzo McIntosh gets his named called up to the big leagues/screens next

Our Forte: our mos flavorite Will Forte bit doesn’t hail from SNL, but from Flight of The Conchords, as an aspiring actor/dry cleaner and record producer Mr. Gucci

Verdictgo: Jeepers Worth A Peepers

MacGruber is currently playing at a theater near jews

and until next thyme the balcony is clothed…

Röyksopp – Junior | Karen O And The Kids – Where The Wild Things Are Soundtrack | Unofficial Eastbound & Down Soundtrack | Flight of The Conchords – I Told You I Was Freaky | Fantastic Mr Fox Soundtrack | Lily Allen – It’s Not Me, It’s You | U2 – No Line On The Horizon | Air – Love 2 | Muse – The Resistance | The Swell Season – Strict Joy | Moby – Wait For Me | Jean-Benoit Dunckel – Cyprien Soundtrack

*out of a total of 12.31 albums that we listened to in the ‘009. yep, wees still far removed from today’s music, but we’re old and don’t have time for Lady Pupugaga and new things and stuff and don’t have a clue as to who 99.99% of the bands being Brooklyn Veganed about be, but no sweat off our backs cause this was a banner year for us in concerting (see below), as we took in 2 out of the top 3 shows we hath ever seen, and some of the others may go down in herstory as top 20ers, which is really saying something, but we’re not really saying anything, and if you know anything about music, yer probably not getting yer music knowledge here, but whatevs.net

Flight of the Conchords + Kristen Schaal @ Radio City Music Hall
Travis @ Webster Hall
Franz Ferdinand @ Roseland Ballroom
Leonard Cohen @ Radio City Music Hall
Phish @ Jones Beach
Fleetwood Mac @ MSG
Fatboy Slim @ Terminal 5
Blur @ Hyde Park!!!!!
Paul McCartney @ Shea II
Paul McCartney @ FedEx Field
Moby @ 9:30 Club and Irving Plaza
U2 @ Giants Stadium
Davy Jones @ BB Kings
Brian Wilson @ Bergen PAC
The 25th Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Anniversary Concerts – Night 1 @ MSG
The 25th Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Anniversary Concerts – Night 2 @ MSG
An Evening with Fran Healy and Andy Dunlop from Travis @ Joe’s Pub
Röyksopp @ Webster Hall
Matisyahu @ Sixth & I Synagogue
Phish @ MSG
Fiery Furnaces @ Bowery Ballroom

the past is the passed

’08
’07
’06
’05
’04
’03

in closing there waz one album, which was born in 1966 and wasn’t studio completed until 2004, that (shlong-overduedly) ruled our ears for all of 2009 and will until the dayz wees thighs dies: Brian Wilson – SMiLE. own it, rip it, d-lode it, love it

PTI and CBS Sunday Morning are Jesus and Moses of TV. bow to them daily/weekly (cept when both Wilbon & Korny are out or if Bob Ryan is guesting). here are 13 other TV shows we enjoyed, and if you have any taste, did too

1. Misfits (E4, England) – remember how hammazin the first season of Heroes waz? well take that, throw in some chavy shirts and ASBO Skins and what you ends up with is sure and pimply the bestest and brightest show of 2009. only 6 glorious episodes eggsist, and if you live outside of the UK, you won’t even get a chance to watch any em, and thus we openly encourage you to get all illegal and download thems!! it’s dramatastic, HIGHlarious, there’s some NSFWness, it gets 17 nazillion bonus pts for being mainly filmed in and around Thamesmead (remember how much we love to viddy that place well?), and then there’s this…

please America, do not remake this show. juss import it as is

2. 30 for 30 (ESPN) – if your DVR doesn’t have a season pass set to this yumcredible series of docs, you probably don’t have a DVR. The Jimmy The Greek one was one of the moist heartbreaking things we saw in 2009, period. we expect the Bartman one to do the same in 2010. still, this doesn’t make up for the fact of how unwatchable SportsCenter is

3. Curb Your Enthusiasm (HBO) – the Seinfeld reunion bits were hactually the least compelling parts of season 7, which sez quite a lot about Larry David’s neverending (please, LD, NEVER end em!!!) kvetching exploits spread out over another batch of 10 perfect episodes. we said goodbye to the Black family, but spankfully Leon stayed behind. how else were we to learn that he was Bar Miff-vaed 3 times?

4. Skins (E4, England) – unlike on American shows where the kids stay in high school forevers or in the picture juss way too long, Skins does what it does best – turn its nose to the status quo for teen TV, and then shoves a bunch of drugs up it, cranks the music, drops the clothes and wham-o til the breaka breaka dawn. gone are the kids we’ve grown to know and love (we miss you Sketch!!) and in came a whole new generation of f&ck-ups, ones we were thighly skeptical about at first, who are now our new BFFs… that is until they get tossed aside after season 4! but you already know this cause we never shut up about Skins and the twins who are filthy Fitch

5. Eastbound & Down (HBO) – three words: Kenny ‘F%cking’ Powers. two more: Stevie Janowski

6. Dexter (Showtime) – first they turned Jimmy Smits into killer gold, then John Lithgow went all triple platinum this year. which TV star is next to fall victim to Dex’s midnight runnings? might we suggest Bob Newhart?

7. At The Movies (Syndicated) – normally this show wouldn’t be on this list since it’s a year-round bestness HoFamer (ala PTI/CBS Sun Morn), but sadly was removed from such a distinction after Ben Lyons (and the other Ben) took it over and turned it into amateur amateur (1/2) hour. it was beyond dreadful (and prompted one of the funniest pieces we’ve ever read outta Ebert), but the umpossible became possible when the in over the headcases were dumped for actual legitimate film critics!! kudos to Michael Phillips & AO (A-Oooooooooooooo!) Scott for so quickly righting the ship. sail on sailors!!!

8. Big Love (HBO) – how does Bill continue to make it all work? that unanswered question keeps us glued and drooling with the passing of each intense episode. disaster always looms large, and we hope it surfaces like woooooah with dirty rumors about Margene and Ben flying high

9. The Office (NBC) – say what you will, or what she said, but besides Da Ali G Show, it remains the funniest show of the decade. ‘I will have the spaghetti. With a side salad. If the salad is on top, I send it back.‘

10. Mad Men (AMC) – needed more Paul Kinsey, but then again, what didn’t?

11. Flight of The Conchords (HBO) – the song-smithery dropped off drastically, and how could it not considering the first season was comprised of about 10+ years worth of material and the second season only 2, but the comedy didn’t skip a beat-off. one word: Garfunkling

12. Kendra (E!) – take the b(r)east part of The Girls Next Door out of the mansion, pair her with an equally sweet and not so sharp soul-mate and let the freak flags fly high! bonus points to Too $hort’s bangin ‘Go Kendra’ ditty, esp in an era when theme music is dying a quick death

13. Breaking Bad (AMC) – has replaced Mad Men as the show that’s beyond critically acclaimed that no one watches

14. Lost (ABC) – it’s hard to deny the magnitude of awesomeness and creativity that Lost has displayed since its debut, but think things went a lil too overboard this past year. yet, nuttin beat the revelation of who Miles’ dad was!

here’s a bunch of series we watch(ed), but are purty indifferent to: 30 Rock (please stop giving them the Emmys and other awards that The Office deserves more ), True Blood (those accents make us want to cut our ears off) Desperate Housewives, Gossip Girl (they blew their load too large in season one), Community (don’t you dare sleep on our boy Abed!), Weeds, In Treatment, Bored To Death + Entourage (everyone finally wised up this year to the fact that this show really f&cking sucks… but we can’t stop watching it either)

and a big middle finger to: the disappointing Prisoner, the too Diablo Codyed United States of Tara, every single episode of Californication besides the final one + that Mormon douche bag from Real World Brooklyn