Super 400

ONE TIME ONLY Those quirky Albany Underground Artists are at it again. In collaboration with Barter One, Community Arts United and 200 Proof Magazine, they will bring a one-night-only arts-and-music show to the beautiful building at 1 Engelwood Place (at the corner of State Street and Englewood, where State meets Western Avenue) in Albany. Lark Tavern regulars Nouveau Chill (including DJ Michael Campion, saxophonist Brian Patneaude, keyboardist Nick Lue and percussionist Danny Whelchel) will perform at this event. If you have trouble finding the place, we are told that a giant necktie installation will point you in the right direction.

DOUBLE SHOUT-OUT Pitch Control Music—the hiphop collective who advocate “breaking [away] from the same no-meaning-no-soul-no-direction-no-need-to-say-anything-at-allness”—are proud to announce two new debut records, by two of their lesser-heard artists: The Exception by Shyste and Glory Days by AWar. The Pitch Control posse will be at the Lark Tavern in Albany tomorrow (Friday) night to celebrate the release of these albums; in addition to Shyste and AWar, performers will include Nacerima Records artist El Gant and Diabolic form the Stronghold Crew in New York City. There will be a live visual performance by Maxwell Dunbar (we hear he’s painting a mural; don’t worry—we were told that there will be no aerosols). Pitch Control founders Sev Static and Dezmatic will host. The show, which is $5, starts at 10 PM. For more information, call the Lark Tavern at 463-9779.

LIVE, LOCAL. . . . Area rockers Super 400 have decided to record their next two shows in order to produce a live album. According to bassist Lori Friday, “the older songs have taken on new forms over the years, and the newer ones keep sounding better show to show, so we wanted to get a proper re cord of it for release.” Avid fans, take note: If you scream loud enough, you might actually be heard on the album—the recordings will take place locally, at the band’s March 12 gig at the Lark Tavern and their April 23 show at the Ale House in Troy. The new live album is expected to be out in the late spring. For more information or to contact the band, visit super400.com.

SWIMMING WITH THE BIG FISH Local beloved electronica artist Sara Ayers, who was voted Best Electronica by Metroland a couple years back, is featured on the new Chemical Brothers album, Push the Button, which was released at the end of January on Virgin Records. The Brothers’ “Come Inside” prominently samples Ayers’ “Everyday We Die a Little,” which originally appeared on her CD Voices on Dark Woods Recordings. For more information on Ayers, visit her Web site at saraayers.com.

YOU KEEP MAKING NEWS, WE’LL KEEP WRITING ABOUT YOU Soul-rock duo Mudfunk (formerly the Sean Rowe Project) were selected to perform at the first Motor City Music Conference in Detroit. This event—modeled after other successful conferences like SXSW, CMJ and MC2—will showcase more than 400 bands in genres spanning gospel and country to hiphop, rock and techno. In related news, the band also have been invited to be one of 60 bands who will perform at this year’s Dewey Beach Popfest in Dewey Beach, Del. For more information, visit the band’s new Web site at mudfunk.com. For more information on the Motor City Conference, visit motorcitymusic.com.

WE’RE BIGGER, BETTER, AND NOW WE’RE GONNA MAKE NOISE Since the Troy branch of the Daily Grind was kicked out of the tiny little corner where it resided in the Keenan Building in Troy, it found a much larger niche at 462 Third St. The owners of the Grind decided to put their huge new space to good use: They now have a weekly open mic hosted by Steve Candlen, and starting this weekend, they will have free Friday night shows from 8 to 11 PM. It all starts tomorrow (Friday) night when Sensemaya take the stage. For more information, call the Daily Grind at 272-8658.

—Kathryn Lurie

IT’S NOT TECHNICALLY MUSIC-RELATED, BUT . . . We feel like we’ve done a poor job of reporting on last week’s hacking of Paris Hilton’s T-Mobile Sidekick II, so we went snooping through her notes and found the following tucked between listings for “eggplant dike ass” and Fred Durst: “Mike sandwich met at esquire looking for bands 917 [number withheld].” For those who aren’t familiar with Mike Sandwich, his self-named “electric boogaloo” band are based in New York and play our neck of the woods regularly. Although we were unable to reach him directly, Web site Defamer.com was (via Instant Messenger), and Sandwich revealed to them that he received close to 100 calls in the days following the hack, mostly wannabe scenesters and “random calls from hopeless garage band guys.” He joked that the hack was a publicity stunt, and that publicity-whore Hilton was “getting kind of courtney loveish.” His missed-call log took a more serious stance: “100 frickin’ calls in an hour and a half? Bollocks!” Sandwich has since changed his number (don’t even try it), and resumed work on his new album, which is due later this year.

—John Brodeur