10 Best Lessons Learned at This Year's Jelly NYC Shows

Photo Credit - Our good friend Sheena Beaston

We have thoroughly enjoyed a whirlwind summer of Sunday concerts brought to us by the fabulous folks at Jelly NYC and Tell All Your Friends PR. ONE MORE LEFT?! We learned a few things. Did a few things we regret. Looked at a lot of pretty things. Heard some good music and some shit music. Found ourselves needing an agent to approve candid press photos. Chewed some things that energized us briefly. Learned that publicity is a fine art and rain is a bastard. And that we would never wish working the door at the All Saints Lounge upon anyone (Shelly we solute you.) This year's Jelly shows were the equivalent of going to day camp -- good times, noodle salad.

And for all that, we've decided to compile our list of the 10 Best Lessons Learned at This Year's Jelly NYC Shows:

10. Vita Coco trumps all.
9. Energy drinks should be relegated to liquid form only!
8. Lee Fields can still bring the funk and soul even in the rain, so can Chromeo?
7. The @Allsaints_ Lounge will turn you on to fashion and make you desire to date models exclusively if applicable...thanks for that.
6. The Strange Boys record well. Period.

Check out the Top 5 after the jump! Cumulative summer photos to come. Retweet this! Again, special thanks to @tayfpr and @jellynyc!


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5. Everyone we know is a lush, including us and we love that.
4. Plastic Adirondack chairs can only support a certain size person.
3. Grog gets you drunk while protecting from scurvy.
2. Even the rain doesn't keep the New York Times away.
1. Mad Men is much much better when drunk.

Williamsburg Waterfront Part III

Since we're relatively new to the whole photo pit thing, it was pretty great being on the front lines of the legit mayhem that was the Black Lips portion of Sunday's set at the Williamsburg Waterfront. As seen in many photos and videos on other blogs already, there was much stage diving, security guard breaching and general bouts of chaos. It was refreshing to see fans going nuts to music. It was almost like 1995 in there. The excitement did much to cover the lull from some of the new tunes that you know we're not the biggest fans of. They're not bad --just boring. Yet, there is really nothing better than a Black Lips live set. Urine or no urine. Preferably, the latter.

Health opened the festivities with a thrashing set that was way louder than expected, but certainly welcome. One note guitar shedding, effects pedals, noise, and general volume characterized what was a vibrant and fantastically messy set from the band. While we'll still opt for the remix CD over their studio record, the set was pretty solid from a band that we're only marginal fans of.

After the Black Lips, it rained and we left. Then the headliners ...Trail of Dead were canceled anyway! They'll be at All Points West this weekend though. Until next week... which is fixing to be maybe the highlight of the summer -- No Age (!), Deerhunter and Dan Deacon. See you there. Photos after the jump!

Pool Party Part II: Dirty Projectors, Magnolia Electric Co., Crystal Antlers

[MP3] The Dirty Projectors - "Stillness is the Move"
[MP3] Magnolia Electric Co. - "Josephine"

Another Jelly NYC Pool Party at the Williamsburg Waterfront is rapidly approaching, and this time, the bill is a bit more, well, blogger friendly (at least in our eyes.) The Dirty Projectors, as you know, are vying for record of the year with Bitte Orca; yet, the extremely massive Magnolia Electric Co. catalog, with newest edition Josephine, continue to satisfy our mellow souls daily. Crystal Antlers, who are replacing White Denim (much to our bemuse) are a dark horse for us -- their EP did receive a "Best New Music" from Pitchfork in 2008, while their newest album Tentacles, has been met with mixed reviews. Needless to say, we are loving the set of up the new Pool Parties and can't wait to see how the intricate sounds of the Dirty Projectors translates to the outdoors, and how Magnolia handle the sunshine.
See you all there!

Rest of the summer line up after the jump.

July 26: ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead, Black Lips
, HEALTH, 
Grupo Fantasmo

August 2: Deerhunter, No Age, Dan Deacon

 (Round Robin show)

August 9: 
Simian Mobile Disco (DJ set)
, Fiery Furnaces
, Dark Meat, 
The Netherlands

August 16: Del the Funky Homosapien, 
Gravy Train!!!
, DD/MM/YYYY, Kenan Bell



August 23: 
Girl Talk
, Max Tundra
, Wiz Khalifa

August 30: Grizzly Bear
, Beach House

Stark Goes Poolside

Ok, so it wasn't McCarren. We knew it was going to be different. Yesterday, Stark ventured to the Williamsburg Waterfront to the first "pool" party of the year hosted by Jelly NYC. Our outing served less as a concert experience and more as a referendum on the new operation in place after the unfortunate reclaiming of the original McCaren Pool site. For the most part, Jelly nailed it. There were familiar vestiges from McCarren (Dodgeball) and some unfortunate new additions (fenced in beer corral). While the drinking area was limited to the sidelines, the sight lines from the lower portion of the beer cage, and from the VIP area were clear. Coupled with the warm salt breeze off the river, the advent of large portions of grass and the NYC skyline as the backdrop of the stage, you really couldn't ask for a better place to spend an afternoon. Of course, the new location doesn't hold the same rustic charm of the old McCarren, yet it does well and provided us with a damn fine Sunday.

We weren't massive fans of the artists yesterday (Fucked Up, Mission of Burma, Ponytail and Jemina Pearl) but next week features the stacked line-up of Dirty Projectors, Magnolia Electric Co and Crystal Antlers (White Denim replacement). Out of the bunch, we GUESS Ponytail was the best. * We missed Jemina. Instrumentally Ponytail are a great band, and their songs are tight - but we're sorry, we know how much everyone loves her - Molly just gets annoying and always seems in the way of the songs. Sorry kids, it's just not our bag. Until next weekend, we sign off, sun-tinged, a little hungover and tired. Photos of the fun after the jump.

Williamsburg Waterfront Pool Parties Kick Off This Sunday!

Finally! Let the Sunday shenanigans begin. No longer will my god given day of rest be relegated to laundry, lounging, reading, whining, eating, copulating, procrastinating, paper mache-ing, croqueting...nevermind.

Jelly NYC presents the first Williamsburg Waterfront Pool Party concert of the series this Sunday at East River State Park. The line up: Mission of Burma, 
pitchfork Best New Music receiver Fucked Up, 
Ponytail
and Jemina Pearl formerly of every band in the Tennessee region. Just kidding. But, she was a former member of Be Your Own Pet (their split equals tear for some folks) and former (not sure if they are still dating) girlfriend of Jeff Novak, frontman in Cheap Time (Nashville post punkers) though. It's going to be an intense Sunday to say the least.

See the rest of the summer schedule after the jump.

July 19: 
Dirty Projectors
, Magnolia Electric Co., White Denim

July 26: ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead, Black Lips
, HEALTH, 
Grupo Fantasmo

August 2: Deerhunter, No Age, Dan Deacon

 (Round Robin show)

August 9: 
Simian Mobile Disco (DJ set)
, Fiery Furnaces
, Dark Meat, 
The Netherlands

August 16: Del the Funky Homosapien, 
Gravy Train!!!
, DD/MM/YYYY, Kenan Bell



August 23: 
Girl Talk
, Max Tundra
, Wiz Khalifa

August 30: Grizzly Bear
, Beach House