Get it while you can: Boss Hog is back

Somewhere in the deep recesses of the EV Grieve "drafts" folder, I had a post in the works titled "Whatever happened to...Boss Hog." They were my favorite local band for years...part of a post-scum rock scene on the LES that included the likes of Unsane, Railroad Jerk, Cop Shoot Cop and the Honeymoon Killers, among others.

Well, I won't babble on about Boss Hog's biographical nuts and bolts and the seismic demographic shifts that have eroded the Orchard/Ludlow corridor. Maybe another day. Anyway, after a handful of releases spanning 1989-2000...the band just seemingly disappeared after 2001. Mainstays Jon Spencer and Cristina Martinez (husband and wife) had a son...and Spencer continued on with The Blues Explosion and Heavy Trash. I'd see the two around once in awhile, in Union Square or in store. But I'm not the "hey, I'm a big fan, what the fuck you guys doing now?" type person.

Today, Brooklyn Vegan drops a report that allowed me to delete my "Whatever happened to..." post. Boss Hog will be getting back together to play a few gigs next month.

BOSS HOG - 2008 TOUR DATES
Dec 3rd - Maxwell's, Hoboken, NJ
DEC 5th - ATP Nightmare Before Christmas MINEHEAD, UK
DEC 8th - The Luminaire LONDON, UK
DEC 17th - The Bowery Ballroom NEW YORK, NY ??

If you want to know more about Spencer and the pre-Boss Hog days of Pussy Galore, Alex has you covered.

Meanwhile...from the archives....


The video for "Hustler" from the "Girl +" EP:



From CBGB in 1993:



An AmRep ad for their Big Action Box single:

Happening by the Holland

Since Jeremiah broke the news on Nov. 4 that the Holland may be gone for good, there has been plenty of chitchat among my circle of friends about the bar. Meanwhile, Brooks paid a visit to the getting-gutted bar and passed along some possibly good news that the Holland may reopen in the new year. By pure randomness, I happened to be by the ass-end of Port Authority Friday after work. I walked by the Holland on Ninth Avenue. It wasn't pretty.





Three workers were carrying crap out of the Holland basement and tossing it into the dumpster. Nothing was left inside the space where the bar was. And the workers didn't seem all that pleased that I was nosing around.

I kind of like Bass Plucked Lute for a restaurant name

One of the many vacant storefronts along East Ninth Street between Avenue A and First Avenue will soon be a Moroccan restaurant. (OK, we're assuming Moroccan given that Sintir is "a three stringed skin-covered bass plucked lute used by the Gnawa people of Morocco.")

Noted

On the side of the Sheen Brothers bodega on 10th Street and Avenue B. This was not here the other day. The graffiti, not the bodega.

BOA unveils new plan to combat rising consumer debt

At 110 Third Ave.

As long as it's not so fancy pants that a taco will cost $5

At San Loco on Avenue A.

Looking at the South Bronx 1982-1984

The Museum of the City of New York has a new exhibition of interest.

Broken Glass: Photographs of the South Bronx by Ray Mortenson
Nov. 14 through March 9

Made between 1982 and 1984, the photographs in Broken Glass: Photographs of the South Bronx by Ray Mortenson focus on the burned out, abandoned, and razed structures of entire city blocks in the South Bronx, documenting the aftermath of a widespread urban economic crisis that plagued the United States in the 1970s.

Now and then at the Rainbow Room

The Rainbow Room, where the likes of Ella Fitzgerald and Count Basie entertained well-dressed crowds on the 65th floor of 30 Rockefeller Plaza, is now in its 75th year of operations. The Post made note of what the United States was like when it opened:

When the Rainbow Room first struck up the band in 1934, the Great Depression was in full swing. Bank closings and home foreclosures were rampant and unemployment rates soared. The Giants had won the NFL championship by spoiling a foe’s otherwise perfect season. A Harvard-educated lawyer from the Democratic party had recently wrestled the presidency from the Republican incumbent with a message of hope — and, in doing so, secured House and Senate majorities. And, by no coincidence, strong yet fancy cocktails were all the rage.

Sound familiar?

The club, which is now only open two weekends a month, is awaiting word to see if they will get landmark status from the city.

Not ready for any of this

The Holiday Market at Union Square was being set up yesterday...

Duane Reade had their shit out in October.



Food Emporium had their stuff up the day after Halloween.




The holiday lights went up on 10th Street sometime this past week.



And 57th and Fifth?

I'm still trying to enjoy my Labor Day.

Last call for the P & G

Brooks has the bad/sad news that the P & G Cafe will close at the end of the year. There's talk of another P & G at another location some day.

Previously on EV Grieve:
The P & G Cafe: An appreciation

Related:
Alex has some more NYC-related videos...including one from Depeche Mode that features the P & G.

Five rather random photos taken around the vicinity of Penn Station last night

Important notice: We spent all your money

Thought that's what it said for a minute.

Clown rings opening bell yesterday; Post suitably outraged

The Post even devoted an editorial to the subject.

"Poison"

The Times checks in today with a piece on the East Village/LES rezoning battle. “I implore you to see the plan for what it is — poison,” said Malcolm Lam, who spoke on behalf of the Coalition to Protect Chinatown and the Lower East Side.