Fast Times, Good Times With The Academy Is

Last night I caught The Academy Is show at Roseland for their NYC stop for the Bill & Trav's Bogus Journey Tour. The Academy Is' 80s-themed tour name goes along well with their newest album name, that plays off the 1982 Cameron Crowe film as well, called "Fast Times at Barrington High." Barrington High is where Adam Siska (Bass) and William Beckett (Vocals) went to high school.

Adam and William shared some high school memories with me earlier that day in an exclusive video interview for On The Verge. While they sometimes felt like outsiders in high school, they warmly remember tapping into their love for music and allowing that to help them cruise through their years at Barrington High. Well that, and for Adam, cutting class helped too. I had to agree with him there.

After a long day of interviews with the likes of us, Sirius Radio, MTV and Seventeen, the guys went on to play an adrenaline-rushing hour-plus long set at Roseland. I recalled when I sat with William for On The Verge that day he was collected, insightful and dare I say... sweet. When I finished the interview, my impression of both William and Adam was that they were incredibly down to earth, smart, sweet guys. When I saw them on stage last night, they were rockstars: animated, sexy and fully playing off the crowd. There was but one moment of the show that reminded me of the guys I had met earlier that day: William is gearing up to play Winter Passing on acoustic guitar and gets hit by a full-cup white bra. While a typical rockstar (think 80s metal) might've picked the bra up and checked it out before draping it over his guitar neck, William instead tossed the bra to the back of the stage and said, "What are you gonna do now? You threw your bra on stage..." I laughed.

Back into rockstar-mode, William seemed to have down a perfectly choreographed mic-flipping, swinging and throwing routine that drove the fans crazy. All this while passionately belting out hit after hit - from the new loves like, About A Girl to old favorites (and apparently Butcher's favorite song to play live), Classifieds.

Enjoy the photos below (for you Butch fans, notice his old guitarist Michael sporting one of the new Butch Walker tees from the Sycamore Meadows tour). And of course, get ready, On The Verge is coming soon...

The Sounds at Webster Hall Hot beats, hot Sweds and hot pants

Thursday night started off with a bang. Unfortunately, the bang was more of a thump when Morningwood's guitarist fell off the stage right before doors. No one is really sure exactly how it happened, but it was a show-stopper for the band as the guitarist had to be rushed to the ER. Morningwood tried to make amends with the crowd, giving away a few dozen t-shirts.

The Sounds took the stage a bit earlier and treated the audience to a sexy, spitting, new wave rock n' roll romp, more than making up for the crowd's earlier disappointment. Their energy immediately took over and, in seconds, everyone was having an undeniably amazing time.



For the first few songs we couldn't help but notice lead-singer Maja's barely-there short shorts. It's possible that my friend Sonia and I were even more intrigued by the shorts than guys at the show. Sonia commented that perhaps Maja shouldn't be rocking the shorts quite that short. At first, I agreed, but as the show went on, I realized the shorts epitomized a fuck-you-cool attitude that is so apparent when you listen and especially when you see The Sounds perform. I envied Maja for her explosiveness on stage - squatting, jumping, pulsating, dancing atop the drum set and her sexy fellow Swed band mates. Maja's absolute confidence was captivating and unequivocally sexy.





See The Sounds. 'Hot and sweaty (they) just do it, do it, do it real good and give it all to you.'





*by Jordana (who is breaking out her Sounds tunes for some cardio-kickboxing inspiration)

There's A Reason He's Still Single.

In my two and a half months of post long-term relationship single life, I've met a lot of men. It's amazing how many charming, cute and seemingly-eligible bachelors there are out there when you open your eyes and are ready to see them. And it's so easy to meet them. Just last week I locked eyes with a guy on the 2 train. Embarrassed, and not really wanting to get to know my fellow commuters outside of the boxcar, I looked away and rushed off the train, hiding amongst the masses of the evening rush hour. I was halfway up my block (and rocking out to Motion City Soundtrack on my iPod) when I was startled by the 2-train guy, patting my shoulder.

To my point - they are around every corner, every city block, in every cab and train, at the gym, at the grocery store, the seemingly-eligible men are everywhere I go!

Seems great, right? So many men, so little time?

Not at all.

How do I pick the good ones? Just because a guy chases me off the train, does that mean I should give him a chance? Who do I let through and who do I pass up?

Despite the hoards of men all around, meeting a decent one doesn't come easy. The curating process is a bitch.

There's just always something wrong.

Most recent loser: John.

I thought I had been a curator worthy of the finest art museums on Museum Mile. I thought I had weeded out the creeps for a real man. A smart, fun, witty and ever so cute one! I was even ready, if all continued smoothly, to drop the runners-up, the b-team and the c-team of the "mediocre but maybe this will become awesome eventually" men.

John and I had an amazing first and second date and many great conversations. Dates with John were spontaneous, but well thought-out on his part. For example, he knew how much I liked live music so he picked a show for us to go to – after which we hopped around to every dive bar on the Lower East Side before a late night dessert at Yaffa Café. Knowing I was a vegetarian, on our first date he took me to one of the best vegan restaurants in the city where we enjoyed four courses and three hours of stimulating conversation.

I knew I liked him a lot. And he seemed to like me, too. Each time I saw him he told me many times that he loved being around me, that I was amazing, smart and beautiful. Why was this man still single? How could it be that he'd lived ten years longer than me and still hadn't found anyone yet?

Of course there was a reason!

The first sign that something was off was when I called him on a Sunday night and he cut me short because he was at work. I was a little put-off by the conversation, but understood he was at the office, and who likes to chat when you're at the office on the weekend anyway? He called me back two hours later, but he was even more distant. He asked if we could just talk during the week, and, hardly listening to my reply, hung up the phone.

When the apology e-mail came 24 hours later, I was happy to agree to see him again on Valentines Day.

When he picked me up, he claimed that all the flower shops within three blocks were out of roses and he felt awful because I "deserve all the roses in the city." I swear, he really said that..

I wasn't expecting flowers and didn't care that he showed up empty-handed (really, I didn't!). What bothers me now is that he was clearly lying and I was too hung up on trying to hold onto what I thought was a good catch to question his damn line. Even if he had gone to all the flower shops within three blocks (there are about
four) and couldn't find roses, if he'd made that much effort to look, he probably would've come back with tulips or something, right?

That night he told me that he wanted to spend every second with me.
He wanted to go to work with me, sit in boring meetings with me, watch me write contracts!

And then things really went downhill.

The next day he cancelled our plans for the following night because of a hang over. On Saturday he was "visiting family til late" and on Monday, he left the lamest voicemail message: "It's definitely been a while. I blame myself. I'd really love to see you today, but I have plans. Talk to you later!"

I get it – it's over. Unfortunately, it took me those few hits to my ego because I didn't want to admit that I bagged a bad apple.

But, in life and lust and dating disasters, there's always a message:

Ahh, the reason why he's still single at 35! (That is, unless he's not actually single and has a girlfriend he's cheating on). Any way you look at it, John is a huge asshole.




*by Jordana, who wasn't sure if she should post this, but who is dedicating this to dating women everywhere. Just say no to assholes.