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Hey Summer 2012: Come at me, Bro

Here we are again – on our own and with all of you – standing at the precipice of the end of spring and the unofficial beginning of the summer season in New York City as we tumble into Memorial Day Weekend. Time for daytime drinking, barbecues, bathing suit babes and hunks, mosquitoes, non stop complaining about the heat, riots, dumb festivals, freak thunder storms, hot romance, ice cream trucks and sweaty, raunchy blues. I expect all of that and more (Mothra attack? Please???) as the Summer of 2012 is looking to be a doozy and a half…

While it’s pretty quiet on the live show front this weekend and nowhere near as manic as it’s been all month, those who are smart enough to not try to escape the city with all the other lemmings will find plenty of rock and roll diversions for their long weekend…Oh the ways we celebrate fallen soldiers by falling on our faces:

Friday May 25th

Sweaty rock and roll show at party crib 285 Kent in Williamsburg, featuring The So So Glos and Lost Boy! Not too familiar with the other acts Life Size Maps (who do a poppy punk thing with some experimental flourishes if their bandcamp page is any sign) and young kid four piece punk band The Big Ups, but there you go, show! DJ’s TBA, 8pm doors, $10 cover…

Tonight at Hoboken’s finest venue, the legendary Maxwell’s, catch live performance by The Manitobas (the new all star band fronted by Handsome Dick Manitoba of The Dictators), supported by the wild and raucous duo of punks in love The Naked Heroes! This one kicks off at 9pm, $15 cover…

Here’s Handsome Dick waxing angry poetic about how much the East Village sucks now before the band rips into histrionics

Monthly throw down Real Gone! is here to kick off the endless summer and salute the freak flag with three wild live acts: from 10pm on, shake it to power pop priestess Jana Peri and her band, Philadelphia heavy psych band St. James and the Apostles and Bethlehem, PA psychsters Original Sin…as always your groovy hosts and DJ’s KittyBeat, Dr. Jones, Xerox and special guest Jack Savage throw down garage punk, psychedelia and deep soul in the front room…all this for no cover from 10pm till close at Otto’s Shrunken Head…

And here are your great DJ record parties for the evening:

* Metropolis Vintage Happy Hour kicks off the wild night that is a Friday at Home Sweet Home, with that wild ginger savage Charly Himmel spinning trash, punk, glam and whatever else she damn well pleases from 8pm till 11pm (with 2 for 1 drinks specials), followed of course by Jonathan Toubin and Shakin’ All Over Under Sideways Down from 11pm till closing time with his ’45 record collection of 60′s floor movers and rump-a-bumpers ($3 cover after midnight)…

*Phast Phreddie and Girlsoul do The Discophonic Walk at hormone heavy, pina colada palace The Commodore in Williamsburg from 10pm till close, spinning all ’45s of soul, funk, garage, ska, R&B and everything else that shakes the foundation…no cover!

* The loud and lovely La La Linda has got her weekly swing at The Ding Dong Lounge in the Upper West Side, calling tonight’s edition Living Stereo - she threatens – and not lightly, mind you – to play wild sounds “from Godzilla to Garage to Punk to Pulp Fiction” – fuzz, funk, and soul all up in your face, with VJ Linear Regression making your eyes and mind melt together…10pm till the sweet end, no cover…

* New piñata! New sex dolls! Same insane lust for life! It’s Finger Lickin’ Fridays at Grand Victory, where mah boys Drew Redmond and Charles Gaskins throw the kind of rock and roll bachelor party I would like to imagine for myself, spinning all kinds of greasy R&B, soul, surf, rockabilly and garage rock while encouraging what could only described shenanigans. They’ve also gone out of their way to create s FREE mix CD of some of these rad sounds for you people. Come on, now! Making the party from 11pm till close, with no cover!

Saturday May 26th

Thee Midnight Monster Hop, it’s terrifiying fun and is on at Otto’s Shrunken Head – no bands this time around but that just means you can move furiously in the back room to the sounds of Mike N’ Stein (The Memphis Morticians) and Mike Lewi, spinning 50′s R&B, rockabilly and garage rock all night from 10pm till 4am, no cover…

DJ C’mon is at Idle Hands in the East Village waging The Saturday Takeover, playing garage rock, power pop and punk music from 1opm till 4am where whisky flows and burgers broil…no cover…

And could that really be it for Saturday night? Let us know if we’re missing something, which is always possible seeing as we are so tragically human…

Drew is back on Sunday with whatever the hell is going on Sunday through Tuesday…Have a Joy!

-Captain Heartlock