Vice UK

New York - Repeal Day

Tomorrow is the 73rd anniversary of the repeal of the Volstead Act, the day America came to its senses and ended Prohibition. While the prospect of a dry society appealed to a number of civic-minded organizations (such as the Klan), its reality fell a weee bit short of all the noble intentions, sparking both organized crime and the artistic set's involvement with drug-centric Negro jazz culture while simultaneously draining tax revenue from the agencies in charge of fighting these twin menaces. Hat trick! Another funny effect Prohibition had was bolstering the nation's rate of wife abuse, one of the exact problems the Temperance League claimed it would solve. Sigh, good time. Anyways, here's a little chuckler featuring TVCarnage's Big Pinky in honor of the occasion.

New York - Workin' Man's Blues?

We were at a bar with these tradesmen the other day and one of them was going on and on about how he'd taken off a day of overtime just to hang out with his buds. He kept bringing it up like it was the greatest thing man had ever sacrificed for man, so finally we were like, "Christ guy, what are you guilting out your pals over, $200?, $300?" The guy was like, "Um, try $1,000." After our spit take we did some quick napkin calculations and decided to figure out how this working-class schlub can pull in $75 an hour doing basic electrical work on the same houses the average middle-class family is struggling not to lose and still be considered a rung down the social ladder.

New York - WFMU Radio

New York's got a good number of "best" things going for it but perhaps the most stand-out entry, considering that by and large American radio is a solid sea of grating, monotonous pap, is Best Nerd Radio, WFMU. If you've never listened to it take the college station from wherever you grew up, keep the same dorky DJs but give them the ability to speak without stuttering and actual senses of humor, multiply the size and obscurity of their record library by a few healthy thousands, and you're starting to get an idea of its greatness.

New York - Rape

So we’re sitting at Lulu’s or Lucy’s or whatever it’s called on A and that Specials AKA song comes on where the girl gets raped. Do you know it? It’s called The Boiler which means spinster or cougar and it’s kind of a spoken word song where this 30 something woman goes out on a date with some hooligan guy and he rapes her. He’s all, “I bought that gear you got on, I paid you in here tonight” etc then he drags her in an alleyway and rapes her.

New York - Built By Wendy

What happened to Wendy Mullin ? After she did that nautical line where a Thin Lizzy cover band played the launch and everyone was wearing those ropey bracelets, she got a call from Wrangler asking her to design their next line. She emailed us a brief text that simply said, “I might rich” and then fell of the face of the earth.

New York - Cleaning House

We just moved around our office here in Vice, and everyone knows that when you move you find a lot of crazy shit you didn't know you had. Along with the sex toys and kitschy enamel kitten figurines, we also found this weird picture and a giant stack of ridiculous letters--the best of which we'll post here for you to enjoy.

New York - Minor League Wedding

We were down at Coney Island this weekend for some mediocre baseball, and decided to stick around for the wedding. Yep, as if merely proposing at a stadium wasn't tacky and broish enough, these two bastions of maturity decided to do the deed on homeplate at a minor league ballpark, in front of many a hirsute, t-shirt-clad baseball fan and their yammering kids. Nothing says class like opening your wedding to drunken heckling. On top of that, they did that thing soldiers do where all their comrades line up and mark an arch with their swords, only this case it was fucking minor league ballplayers
their bats for some guy from Radio Disney that none of them had met before. And on top of THAT, the team had just lost, badly, and it was painfully obvious how little any of them wanted to be there--no matter how much giddy little boygroom grinned and punched them in their chests.

The whole thing was basically the Jewish equivalent of getting married while tubing, although to be fair it did open the window to future possibilities. I'm pretty big on PlayStation, maybe I can convince my girl to get married at the Sony store.

New York - Ima Robot One-sheet

“Black Jettas” was kind of all right in a jokey sort of way for like six minutes, but after reading this we've come to realize that there is no way that Ima Robot could ever write a seriously good song because their whole life is a really bad joke. Just like this gut-wrencher: 16 kicked-out band members in nine years? Who do you think you are, Destiny's Child? Heyoo! But for some serious hilarity, please consider the following, the actual, honest-to-god, swear-we-didn't-make-this-up-under-penalty-of-being-suspended-over-an-open-flame-by-our-pit-hairs-and-pubes promotional letter good old Ima's publicist sent out with their new album.

NEW YORK - CANADA DAY BUMMER

This guy named Jon Feldman has a Canada Day party at Mama’s Bar (3rd and B) every year for Canadian ex-pats living in New York. This year started out fairly bad: there was a $5 cover at the door, Mama’s was hot, the poutine used shredded cheese instead of curds, and there appeared to be a ton of Quebs there wearing fleur de lys shirts. Now, I’m a separatist as much as the next guy but it’s more in a “this lazy ass has been living in our basement for 400 years and now he wants to move out and get a job—good” kind of way rather than a “Quebec would thrive without us let them blossom” kind of way. The point is, what the fuck were they doing there? That’s like someone who’s mad they didn’t get invited to your birthday party showing up and putting their fingers in the cake. Actually, that’s almost exactly what happened.

THE STREETS - THE HARDEST WEEK

We made video commentary loaded with confessions, anecdotes and inside jokes from Mike Skinner while listening to his new record, The Hardest Way to Make an Easy Living (out today). It's in 11 downloadable, iPod ready video tracks that our friends at Music for Robots and Lemon Red are unveiling daily. They also have contests for passes to see the Streets (and everyone else) at Intonation Music Fest (curated by Vice Records.) Check it out, cross your fingers and enter to win!
Brooklyn Listening Party Info: