Sweet Things Bake Shop, created by the non-profit Lower Eastside Girls Club, is the best kind of bakery—the kind that services your sweet tooth while doing good. In addition to being a bakery, it provides entrepreneurial training and business skills development through its "cookie academy" to economically disadvantages girls ages 13-17. So, go buy sweets from Sweet Things Bake Shop!Just in time for Valentine's Day, you can opt for their special Valentine's Day Cookie Tin that includes three hand made and hand painted heart shaped butter cookies, a fair trade chocolate bar and a girl made greeting card made of recycled materials.

 

Each tin is $20. order from info@girlsclub.com or call 212.982.1633 x108 

Photo by rockographer.com (full gallery)

I denied the Super Furry Animals for too long. How could a band with such a silly sounding name also craft such great pop songs? The last opportunity I had to see the Welshmen live was when a friend's band was opening for them in 2000. The friend ended up breaking down and not making it, and consequently, neither did I.

Fast forward eight years, and having heard nothing but amazing things about their live show, I have been doing my best to wade through their back catalog while also trying to keep up with the new output. It's a formidable assignment, considering their eights LPs, more if you include solo and side projects, so you'll forgive me if I still don't have song titles committed to memory. What I do have is the live experience—finally!—and the revelation that this band is a must for any live music fan.

So for this mini tour to celebrate the U.S. release of their eighth album, "Hey Venus!", we braved that long walk from the PATH train down to Maxwell's, stopping only for some wining and dining with our Jersey friends. If we had any intention of seeing openers Holy Fuck we blew it. After a brief stop at the bar, frontman Gruff Rhys appeared onstage to much hootin' and hollerin' (perhaps the crowd liked his cute pom-pom hat).

The band started with a medley of upbeat rockers like "The Gateway Song," "Golden Retriever," "Ice Hockey Hair," and "Do Or Die." With a big, fuzzed-out guitar tone and Gruff's shimmering vocal delivery, I wondered if the rest of the set would be as sublime. As a few members swapped laptop, keyboard and guitar duties, they went on to capture their more spacey, mellow recordings like "Zoom!" and "The Gift That Keeps Giving." There was some difficulty with the talkbox for "Juxtaposed With You," but they moved into the built-in encore of "Rings Around the World" and "The Man Don't Give a Fuck" (among others) while Gruff rocked a giant space/motocross helmet. I've already got my tickets for Bowery Ballroom in February. –Carl Gambrell

The Brooklyn Masonic Temple, in Ft. Greene, was built in 1909 and has hosted a number of fraternal organizations over the years, as well as various weddings, meetings and birthday parties.

But for (probably) the first time, the Temple hosted a full-on metal show last night, featuring scene vets Neurosis, Southern upstarts Mastodon and the relatively unknowns U.S. Christmas.

Is this the next great, off-beat venue in NYC, a la The United Palace and Warsaw? The Temple, which is fairly bare bones in its layout, has room for about 1000 people, with a large, unobstructed floor and a seated balcony. Beer ($5 for 16 oz. of Bud or Sierra Nevada) was handled by a ticket system, and lines were few...except for the men's room, which had up to 40 people in line at points (favorite moment: one of the few women at the show walking by the line, laughing and pointing, then sauntering into the gigantic—and empty—women's bathroom).

As for the sound...that's a work in progress. US Christmas, which featured a surprisingly large number of grey-haired pony-tailed types, actually hit the right balance between Sabbath-y metal thunder and atmospheric layering (thanks to a whole lotta theremin use). They also elicited the only real laugh of the night, albeit unintentionally.

Me to girlfriend: "Which one would you do, if you had to?"

Girl: (Pointing to antlers on the frontman's mic stand) "The singer, because he's obviously 'horny.' Thanks, I'll be here all week!"

Mastodon, the night's headliner in all but name, struggled a bit to work through the sludgy mix; it was sufficiently brutal, if a bit same-y after an hour (props to the security, however, for allowing a decent amount of moshing and not being, as one patron eloquently put it, "dicks"). Neurosis, always one of the more progressive bands in the scene, used their keyboards, a large video screen and bass line that could be charitably termed "oppressive" to create a true stoner vibe...as evidenced by the skunkweed smell that immediately wafted in during the band's first note.

Mastodon and Neurosis play the Brooklyn Mason Temple (photo gallery) [Metromix New York]

Irony's a bitch.

Williamsburg author Jami Attenberg, who was nice enough to recently show Metromix around her 'hood and give us a tour of the area's more underappreciated landmarks (all featured in her new book "The Kept Man"), came home from her book tour the other night to find... well, let her explain it.

From Jami's blog:

"I got home and found I got fucking evicted and really I just don't care about anything right now but finding a home for my cat and a storage space for my stuff and an apartment for myself that isn't going to cost a fortune and require me to live in a box. We all got evicted. The whole building. It started with a matzo factory in the basement that was in violation of every code like ever, and then the sprinkler system, and then whoa, looks like we're not zoned for live/use after all.

Don't worry: The irony of writing a book in part about the gentrification of Williamsburg, going out on book tour for it, only to return and be ejected from it likely forever, DOES NOT ELUDE ME.

So forgive me if I skip the whimsy for a few days while I try to figure out my life. I've been running on empty for ten days now, and I guess I'll just have to work with that a little bit longer."

AM New York cites fire code issues and the lack of a Certificate of Occupancy as the reasons. 

In any case, Jami will be reading tonight (Wednesday) at the Boxcar Lounge and then again on Thursday at Pete's Candy Store. Go show her some love...and maybe offer her a sublet.

December saw a lot of restaurants pushing openings back. And that combined with the exodus of chefs, publicist and actual restaurant patrons from the city to celebrate the  holidays left New York a virtual no feeding zone. Well, December is over. And this week's party schedule proves it. Restaurant insiders will be giving cab drivers an extended holiday gift Thursday. Three, count 'em, three parties are happening that night:

Chop Suey - Zak Pelaccio's newest culinary consulting gig - officially "opens" (they are actually open already) in the Renaissance hotel 

 Astor Center on Lafayette and 4th  unveils its new digs 

 and

Cafe Notte, Coffee and Wine Bar  on the UES also celebrates an opening that night.

 Time to pull out the comfy shoes.

Photo: Christine Tadler

Despite owning the Ciccone Youth "Whitey Album" and, like most fan boys of my age, bowing before the alternate-tuned sounds rock royalty Thurston Moore has been making for 30 years, I have never seen Sonic Youth or any side project in a live setting. And that's a bit sad. With Thurston Moore's latest solo offering (only his second in 13 years), "Trees Outside the Academy," landing as one of my favorite listens of 2007, I decided to rectify this lack in musical experience Tuesday night at the Knitting Factory.

It was a showcase for several bands on the Thurston-curated Ecstatic Peace label, and I was psyched that this family of bands would only enhance the evening's charm for me. Unfortunately, I arrived too late to catch the sparse build-ups of the Tall Firs and wedged myself into the crowded main room just in time to watch MV & EE, a psyche-folk outfit featuring Samara Lubelski on bass (whom Thurston also recruited for his group). Their old-tyme sounds filtered through a '60s ethos (and "esoteric guitar equipment") didn't bring me to the cosmic plane they might have hoped for, but it is certainly more out of left field compared to your average jam band and worth a listen if you are so inclined. With a lot of noisy guitars building through the songs, it's obviously more freak than folk.

After a brief foray through the Knit's other floors I returned to see Thurston on stage. The room was packed and I was in the far back reserved for folks over 6 feet in height. Though he clearly was supporting his latest effort I wondered if there would be any surprises during the set. Would J Mascis make an appearance on lead guitar? Would they cover a Crucifucks song? I was thinking too far ahead. They started with the glorious "Frozen Gtr" opener from "Trees" and continued with other stellar selections "The Shape is in a Trance" and "Wonderful Witches." Without the help of a second guitar the songs were missing some of their recorded strength, but the lovely violin playing from Lubelski (combined with Steve Shelley's masterful back beat and Thurston's slacker frontman energy) made for a great show—I just added those searing guitar leads in my head.

A brief encore with just Thurston on electric guitar and Steve Shelley on drums knocked out some songs from his first 1995 solo record, "Psychic Hearts"—a treat for longtime loyals. After pining for this moment for years it was great to see this stripped down line-up make Thurston still sound like the king. --Carl Gambrell

On Saturday Jan. 12, gay restaurant and lounge Therapy will host an event dedicated to stopping violence against gays and to honor all LGBT persons who have been murdered because of their sexual orientation and gender identity. Doing good is always a nice way to start off the New Year! From 5:30-8 enjoy drink specials and yummy munchies provided the chefs at Therapy and the company of committee hosts including Chad Allen, Allan Cumming, Neal Boulton and many others.