Last night I shook the hand that has given us this: Jose Gonzalez, Crosses

n keeping with my history of saying silly things when I meet talented musicians that I deeply admire, showcased here and here, I told The Dreamy José González what an honor it was to meet him and that I would love to shake his hand. He looked at me like he wasn't sure if my plan was to take his hand home with me, but he hesitantly put it out there for me to shake. Nice guy. Nice grip, too.

Can you imagine coming out of a really great show (Dean Wareham doing Galaxie 500 at the Bell House in lovely Gowanus) and having José González just kinda standing there at floor level behind a turntable with no handlers or hangers on in site? Me either! I walked straight up to him and there was only about 5" between me and the dreamy José González. Pretty incredible. I love this man. Listen to what he can do with a Joy Division song, here covering Love Will Tear Us Apart: Jose Gonzalez-Love Will Tear Us Apart

He was doing a DJ set at The Bell House that night, which just happened to coincide with the Dean Wareham doing Galaxie 500 show. Speaking of great Joy Division covers, here's how Dean and band closed the show:

Galaxie500-Ceremony

Dean Wareham still sounded fantastic despite the years since he was first singing/writing with Galaxie 500. Supposedly this gig at the Bell House was the last time he will perform Galaxie 500 material in New York. Not sure if that means he'll be performing it everywhere else but here moving forward, but the implication was that we were seeing something special.

My favorite Galaxie 500 song, Blue Thunder: Galaxie500-Blue Thunder

Sartorically, he managed to pull off a white-on-white ensemble that only a rock star could get away with. That in itself was impressive.

Since I'm talking about great covers, here's a cover José González did of the song Heartbeats by fellow Swedes, The Knife, followed by their original. Amazing that that's the same song, right?!

JoseGonzalez-Heartbeats
TheKnife-Heartbeats

I've been flying under the radar the past month since the unexpected and tragic death of my little brother on May 10. To say I've been figuratively and literally under the covers would be an accurate description of my day to day life right now. May not be back here to post for a while again.That said, I do have an epic show coming up - EMA at the Mercury Lounge in July. If that doesn't get me to throw the covers off my head I don't know what would.