In a show of good faith, Reader, we’re taking the first steps to building a more stable, healthy relationship.

Take a few, soon-to-be joy-filled minutes and take a look at this interview we took part in, conducted by Kristin of Rose Pedals Vegan Weddings. Doing so, you’ll then get a brief, glittering glimpse inside our tiny little world of font-hatin’, cat-lovin’, and invite-makin’. You can see one such invite—available via Thomas-Printers—above.

And, astute as you are, Reader, I’m sure you remember the interview we conducted with Kristin last fall, but if you’re interested in vegan weddings and how she started her business, check that out again here.

Now. Tell us a little bit about yourself. This is a two-way street, after all. Are you more of a cat person? No? Dogs? Do you like beets (you really should)? Long walks on the beach…? Give us something.

Big Deal • Chair

Reader, in the early nineties, back when many of us were just getting our post-Dave-Kendall-120 Minutes footing on the musical landscape and ‘alternative’ gave way to ‘indie,’ the cute little genre of indie pop—with it’s tiny guitar hooks, intimate, unassuming vocals, and sometimes good, sometimes a-million-miles-from-good rhythm sections—quietly rocked across America. Artists like Lois, Small Factory, The Softies, Tsunami, and a hundred others, along with labels like K Records, Simple Machines, and Teen Beat kept us made our lives a little lighter and made us enthused to be a part of tiny, self-reliant world of music.

A couple weeks ago, it was announced that chickfactor—the nineties indie pop zine and now Web zine—would be celebrating its 20-year anniversary with “five blissful nights of sparkling indie pop on the Northeast Corridor of the USA (three in NY; two in DC) including the first shows in years by Black Tambourine, Small Factory, Pipas, The Aislers Set, A Girl Called Eddy, The Softies, The Lois Plus, The Legendary Jim Ruiz Group and Fan Modine and rare performances from such pop luminaries as Stevie Jackson (Belle + Sebastian), Frankie Rose, Lilys, Lorelei, Dot Dash, Versus, Bridget St John and Honey Bunch.” 

Needless to say, those of us who consider ourselves nineties indie pop nerds wet our oversized second-hand corduroys. Two of the Brooklyn shows sold out pretty quickly, but as of writing, the third seems to have some tickets left, and, again, as of writing, I think the DC-area tickets have yet to go on sale. We’ll be excited to see some familiar faces and hear a little bit of the music that we grew into adulthood with at those shows this April. 

With The Song (formerly Music Monday—what…? It’s bird-themed!), we’ve always had in-mind that we’d very much be forward-looking, attempting to keep pace with the sometimes-hectic pace of the musical creative culture of the day. So, rather than post an old Retsin song and dwell on the past—which, we admit, is fun—we’re instead writing today about a band the reminds us about all the good things from this early age of indie pop and twee.

England’s Big Deal spin simple, intimate stories with their songs that harken back—for me—to Ida’s debut, when it was just Dan Littleton, Elizabeth Mitchell, a couple guitars, and a whole lotta earnest emotion. It’s bright and fuzzy and beautiful and touches on all the sweet little elements that lit the indie fire in our hearts in the first place, back when we’d read lyrics on the bedroom floor and whiled the days away learning new guitar chords and making falafel from a box mix.

The duo—comprised of Londoner, Alice Costelloe and native Californian, Kacey Underwood—released their debut on Mute in Europe late last year and it’s due to hit state-side tomorrow. In the meantime, check out, “Chair,” a catchy bedroom pop gem, and their summertime dream of a video for Distant Neighbor. The band will also be hitting up this year’s SXSW festival, as will The Chain Gang of 1974 + The Big Pink, who we profiled over the past few weeks, as will every other band we profile with The Song until we jet on down to Austin to see in person all one million of the bands playing SXSW this year. Here’s hoping they have vegan BBQ! 

And for anyone who doesn’t like the band name, Big Deal, they evidently were first going to be called Hard Cheese. So there’s that. Also, yes, I kind of have that dude’s haircut.

The Big Pink • Stay Gold

British electro duo, The Big Pink, first hit the scene back in 2007 with some high-demand seven inches and singles, followed by a proper full-length on the venerable label, 4AD. While critically well-recieved, the 2009 release, A Brief History of Love, didn’t produce a lot that I could personally latch on to. Plenty of good songs and a nice overall sound, but nothing that blew me away or made me fee like I had to hear more.

But if the first single from their sophomore effort, Future This (out in the states tomorrow), is any indication of the album as a whole, sign me up for being blown away. The single, this week’s Song from said album, “Stay Gold,” seems like a great way to start off and thus counteract a seemingly low-motivation week. In fact, it seems like a great way to start off a dance party. Man. I hope this week’s a dance party.

Check it out and, if you like it, sign up for their newsletter for a free download of the song’s AraabMUZIK Remix. And take a look at their recent 4AD live session below.

First things first: After 2 exhausting years of interning for this Web log (re: pitching ideas and making Troy write them, eating at restaurants and asking Troy to take pictures of the food, finding cool things at stores and saying aloud, “Wouldn’t it be cool to feature this on the blog?” and then assuming Troy will take care of it) I have finally earned my keep and have been granted my own column, entitled The Preen. Featuring everything from local jewelry designers to fabulous cruelty-free cosmetics, The Preen will take you on a wild reading adventure. Trust me, you’re going to love it. And you’ll be even prettier because of it. I mean, let’s face it, beauty is like the most important thing ever. We’ve all watched enough nerdy girl makeover movies to know that’s true.

Alright, so let’s get this show on the road.

My first feature for The Preen involves a little back story. It’s a beautiful tale of friendship, a request for seafoam green bridesmaid dresses, ever-lasting love, and, most importantly, a lost social security card. Actually, I’m realizing now that the story is too long for one blog post, so I will skip ahead to the ending: They tied the knot on a beautiful, yet chilly, day in October with all their friends and family in attendance. Not one bridesmaid could find a seafoam green dress. The end.

Now let’s get to the good stuff.

As part of a dear friend’s bridal party, I was recently given the task of finding a gift for the beautiful bride-to-be. I gave it several months of thought and came up with a long list of things I did and did not want. I wanted the gift to be wearable. I wanted it to be a keepsake. I wanted it to commemorate the wedding day. I didn’t want it to be prissy. I wanted to support a local designer. I wanted all the bridesmaids to feel like they were part of the gift. I didn’t want the bride to feel pressured to wear it on the wedding day. To be honest, I was completely overwhelmed by my list.

After visiting In God We Trust’s  Bedford Avenue store, I knew I found my answer. A beautifully hammered, solid brass bracelet, The Boyfriend Cuff can be hand-stamped with up to 8 letters/numbers. With the support of my fellow bridesmaids, I purchased 3 bracelets and asked IGWT to hand-stamp the inside of the cuffs with the wedding date, the bride and groom’s first initials and the first initials of the 6 bridesmaids. The hand-stamping is, well, done by hand, so the letters don’t align perfectly, thus giving it a bit of edginess – a perfect fit for our bride’s style. They can be worn stacked on one wrist or worn one at a time and the result is effortlessly stylish with a hint of nostalgia. And the bride loved them.

Mission accomplished.

PS: It turns out that seafoam green is THE color for Spring 2012. The bride was so ahead of the trend!

We made the list!

Last week, Isa Moskowitz of the Post Punk Kitchen—who’s so famous, she’s got a Wikipedia page (WE want a Wikipedia page – *pouty kick at the ground*)—released her PPK 100, “100 ingredients, recipes, chefs, restaurant, tips, cookbooks, tools and websites” that made them swoon in 2011, one of the vegan-est years yet! As Isa puts it:

“I compiled the list by asking everyone from my mom to my favorite musicians what inspired them in 2011. I also posed the question on Twitter and Facebook (of course!) so that I could get as much feedback as possible. Since this is the Post Punk Kitchen 100, naturally there are a few items from Terry and I that made it on to the list, but I tried to make it as diverse as possible, giving shoutouts to the other people that made our 2011 a delicious year. I also tried to include things that everyone could afford to do right now today as well as a few items that you can add to your bucket list. For instance, I still don’t have a $400 blender but I can certainly swing an avocado masher. And hopefully there’s a tip or trick in here that will even save you money!”

We thought she’d just be putting together a few links when she first mentioned it to us. Foolish us! She went all out, with 100 separate entries from partially frozen olive oil to homemade candy bars to tips on peeling garlic, all super-well-written and in-depth. Holla!

When you get a chance, give it a read. And if you’re interested, we’re numbers 11 (the broth bag), 57 (hand pies), and 98 (solo supers). Now get eatin’ Reader!

Reader, if you, like us, are vegan and live and work in South Brooklyn, you, like us, likely hold a complicated mix of admiration + contempt for North Brooklyn, specifically the areas of Williamsburg and Greenpoint. These days, those neighborhoods are essentially spilling over with vegan cafés, pizza places with vegan slices, vegan doughnut joints, awesome Mexican street food with seitan and Daiya options, and outstanding Sicilian-style restaurants with beautiful interior design and separate, exceptional vegan menus.

And in South Brooklyn, we’ve got V-Spot.

Obviously exaggerating a bit for the sake of emphasis. We’ve got other options in the area—from mostly vegan pan-asian to awesome nearly raw cafés to a wealth of relatively veg-friendly non-veg restaurants. And not to dig too much specifically on V-Spot. But we need more, South Brooklyn. Nay, nay—we DESERVE more.

Turns out, Paris-based hotelier, restauranteur, and, evidently, comic-book-enthusiast  Cyril Aouizerate agrees. Roughly four weeks ago, he cut the ribbon on a brand new vegetarian (vegan, minus some honey) restaurant that we guarantee will blow you away. Maimonide of Brooklyn structures its menu around open-face sandwiches they call MOBs—flatbread made from locally sourced Champlain Valley whole grains, shaped into Brooklyn Bridge style arches (you read that right), and topped with creatively combined vegetables, legumes, and vegetarian spices and sauces.

On our visit last week—after walking into Maimonide’s beautiful Atlantic Avenue spot and being greeted by our the staff, dressed like comic-book-style monks—we were given complimentary baked kale chips and ordered the Iron Man MOB (roasted shiitake mushroom, sauteed kale, horseradish aioli, parsley) and the Belly Charmer (tagine of eggplant, zucchini, and carrot, moroccan spices, pistachio, mint, cilantro), both pictured below on a tray Aouizerate had made to call out and honor the neighborhoods of Brooklyn. And yes, they were both really, really good.

Other interesting-sounding MOBs include the Aphrodisiac (celery root braised and mashed with ras al hanout, asparagus, toasted almond), the Rock MOB (creamy white beans with fennel seed and almond milk, escarole, fresh pear, basil), and the Brave Heart (sun-dried tomato, caper and parsley pesto, rosemary grilled portobello mushroom, lemon). The menu also features some snazzy sounding salads, a really nice, creamy corn soup topped with popcorn (“in memory of the Native Americans who used to grow corn on boerum hill in Brooklyn”), and vegan chicken-style nuggets (they were out of those when we visited though).

The kinda-hard-to-remember, off-kilter name, Maimonide, owes its origins to the medieval philosopher, rabbi, advisor to Egyptian kings, and physician, Moses ben-Maimon—AKA, Maimonide—who, well ahead of his time, evidently advocated a vegetable-based diet. The comic book (yes, comic book) that Aouizerate had produced for the restaurant’s opening not only introduces us to the restaurant itself, but presents us with Maimonide’s updated personification—a pizza delivery guy who, after crashing into a melon stand, becomes a superhero with vegetable-based super powers, donning a tiny turban and some mad kicks. Obviously. New York Magazine’s got a partial scan of the thing if you’d like to see what we’re talking about.

Better yet, stop by and pick one up yourself. The food’s superb, the space is absolutely bizarrely beautiful—a hidden gem among the urban bustle of Atlantic Avenue—and the service is great. Our server—who was seemingly endowed with the super power of uncanny politeness—also mentioned that they’re hoping to soon use the cavernous space for live music and regular DJs soon, as well as bring in wine and beer in February.

Maimonide is located at 525 Atlantic Avenue, b/t 3rd + 4th Avenues, a quick walk from the Atlantic-Pacific subway station and well-worth the trip. They’re currently open seven days a week from noon to midnight. And give us a shout if you hit them up for lunch—we’re a mere two blocks away!

Below: The Iron Man + Belly Charmer on the custom-made Brooklyn serving tray; the Iron Man; yucca fries, kale chips, and corn soup; purdy lighting; detail of the American flag panel art; Homage to Lemon; and samples of Anti Oxidant dessert MOD with single-malt bourbon banana confit, chocolate fig marmalade, and fresh mint.
 

The Log.OS • Cancerous

It’s been a little while since we, the Interweb, has had a strange, mysterious band to get all abuzz over. Sure, there was Blank Dogs, back in 2007, but that was four years ago and they’ve since proved to be just another super-prolific Brooklyn band influenced by early new wave. And then there was smoothly mysterious debut, last year, of The Weeknd—AKA,  Canada’s Abel Tesfaye. But after copious (well-deserved) accolades, appearances on Drake’s release, and even some love from the final season of Entourage, Mr. Tesfaye isn’t exactly the music world’s Deep Throat (PS—click that link and visit The Weeknd’s site to download all of Tesfaye’s release free, including the one he just put out Dec. 21—tré impressionnant).

So we’re back to square one in 2012, I guess. No weird, unaccounted for creative endeavors here it seems. I guess we’ll…BUT WAIT! What’s that? There’s a brand new ‘band’ that no one can find any solid ‘pictures’ of and their ‘site’ is just a weird jumble of images that gives away their album of trippy soul for free‽ AND they spell their name all fucked-up like‽‽ Okay. Now we’re talking.

We seriously know little to nothing about The Log.OS other than it seems to be a project from producer/musician/beat-deconstructor/jewelry-designer(?), Ken Barrientos who pulls in some breathy, ethereal vocals from Nikko Gray (note—fine example of a simple, pretty site) and Iman Omari (note—auto-play audio…always a bad idea). And that the resulting music paints a pretty chilled-out, glitched-out soundscape of beautifully done new soul. Give his/their song, “Cancerous,” a listen to see what we mean. And if you like it (note—you will), visit his/their site to download the whole thing. For free. Beware though—said site with free download is rife with crazy pop-up ads that, while benign, are still annoying.

Last spring, when we first heard that Brooklyn was going to be getting its very own vegan doughnut makers, we flipped our shit. Pardon our French—we resolved to curse a LOT more in 2012.

Seriously though, Reader, if you’ve been as dedicated as I know you have been over the past years, we’re telling you nothing new by saying finely made vegan doughnuts send us over the moon. Or, at least to Seattle. Doubting Thomases, please refer to our open letter to Mighty O Donut from 2009, pleading with them to come to Brooklyn.

Thankfully, New York doesn’t need the West Coast to bail them out. What was I thinking‽ No, before Mighty O could respond to my heartfelt, pain-filled letter, word arrived that two dapper young men would soon begin creating tiny, artisan doughy rings of perfection right here in Brooklyn and shipping them out to vegan-friendly establishments throughout the boroughs. Said dapper young men, Dun-Well Doughnuts (notice the fancier spelling—SUCK IT MIGHTY O!), were interviewed by none other than the Kindness of Ravens crüe in April of last year. You can read that bit here.

“So why bother us with old news,” you ask, rather rudely, I might add, Reader. Here is why—Dun-Well has now opened their very own brick-and-mortar storefront in the ever-hip land of Williamsburg. And it is awesome.

We made a quick pre-holiday jaunt over to the newly anointed establishment last month to procure for ourselves a bakers’ dozen of the finest doughnuts we’ve had…ever, I think. Honestly—lovingly crafted, beautiful, tasty, and original. Among the flavors of the day that we snagged: Original Glazed (think a 1000% better Krispy Kreme donut); jelly-filed Peanut Butter + Jelly; Raspberry Glazed; Pecan Pie (with bits of crust on it!); Chocolate Glazed; Chocolate with Peanuts; Ginger Snap; Coconut; the divine Cinnamon Sugar; Vanilla Glazed with Chocolate Sprinkles; the powdered Raspberry Jelly Filled; and, for fans of the cake-y stye drop doughnuts (read: me), a Death by Chocolate chocolate-glazed chocolate cake donut and a holiday-themed Peppermint one, with peppermint flavored glaze and little bits of peppermint candy. Yes. It was VERY difficult to not eat all 13 in the car ride down to Virginia. And, as a holiday side-note, Katie’s parents totally loved them all. And, to top it off, had a completely vegan Christmas dinner this year. Go, Frichtels!

Point being, get your ass to Dun-Well. You know us—we ain’t gonna’ say something’s awesome unless it’s awesome. This shit’s awesome (resolution). 222 Montrose, literally right across the street from the L train Montrose stop.

Below, various photos of the awesomeness, including co-proprietor, Christopher, boxing up the day’s catch.

The Chain Gang of 1974 • Undercover
Happy new year, Reader! We hope you, like us, are super-psyched for this year of excitingly inevitable armageddon. I mean, think about it, all those things that usually stress you out—Am I making enough money? Should I leave New York, work at a car dealership, and buy a house, so I’m successful like all those high school friends from Facebook? Did I feed the cat today?—TOTALLY don’t matter.

Okay, that last one matters. We’d get an earful when we got home if Mr. McVittes missed a meal. But point being, MANY things we usually worry about day-to-day will certainly not worry us this year because, according to Nostradamus, countless calendar-making Mayans, and our friend Justin’s kinda nutso hippy aunts, it won’t matter much if we pass gas during pilates class come year-end. Assuming we get to year-end. And no, we’ve never passed gas during pilates class. What do you think we are, MONSTERS‽

All that in mind, why not start the year of with some feel-good electro dance tunes? We first heard LA by way of Denver by way of Hawaii by way of San Jose band, The Chain Gang of 1974 (AKA, songwriter Kamtin Mohager) over the summer of cataclysm-less 2011 and quickly filed them/him away in the Notable Not Phenomenal file in our ears’ filing cabinet. Really good stuff, but it didn’t stand out much for us. This week’s Song of the Week, though, “Undercover,” has essentially been on constant repeat in our office/home/rental cars over the past couple months. There’s definitely some significant 80’s influence there with the vocals and synths, but it’s inventive and substantial enough to make it far from redundant. Not sure if it’ll play us out to the end of days, but it’s holdin’ up pretty well so far! Check it out. And give more of his latest album, Wayward Fire, a listen over at the band’s site, where you can also join up on their mailing list fro another free single.