And for the second year in a row, our comics editor Jeff Newelt AKA JahFurry and Kochie Banton performed a heiny-zetzing uber-charged reggae set.

Here’s a snippit caught on video by Rafael Fuchs.

Full gallery.

Sponsored by FlatRate Moving.

HEEBONISM featuring Diwon and guests
December 24th @10:30pm

Update:
We have just added a slew of new performers and special guests to this year’s HEEBONISM, including Tesly Snipes, the world famous Brooklyn based DJ, JahFurry, Heeb writing reggae dittyer, Y-Love, the revolutionary emcee and Tj Di Hitmaker, the Jamaican dancehall Jersey bwoy.

Tickets: $15 in advance. $20 at the door.
Purchase tickets here.

(Le) Poisson Rouge
158 Bleecker Street (between Thompson and Sullivan)

Take the A,C,E or B,D,F,M to West 4th Street; Exit at West 3rd Street and walk west toward MacDougal; make 1st right on MacDougal; Make 1st left on Bleecker Street. (Le) Poisson Rouge is on the south side of Bleecker Street.

Heeb Magazine presents a night of standup comedy at Lolita Bar on 266 Broome Street (between Orchard St & Allen St) on the Lower East Side New York, NY 10002. Featuring comedians, Rich Vos (Opie & Anthony), Megan Neuringer (UCB), Louis Katz (HBO), Ilana Glazer (UCB), Aaron Glaser (UCB/PIT) and Megan Sass (StorahTelling, UCB).

Starts at 8:30 pm
$5 cover
No drink minimum!
Happy hour 5-8pm
Come early to get a seat! This show will sell out!

For venue info visit http://www.lolitabar.net
For facebook event visit here
For all other inquiries info@heebmagazine.com

Produced by Heeb Magazine and Geoff Kole. Sponsored by Flatrate Moving.

In our first year as a sponsor, Heeb and FlatRate Moving proudly join the 5th annual Other Israel Film Festival in presenting three short films focused on the subject of forbidden love. After the screening, enjoy casual discussion over complimentary wine and cheese, generously provided by FlatRate Moving. So bring your Lactaid pills and 12 bucks for admission. You may want to reserve beforehand, actually, because where else in the Big Bagel are you going to score wine and forbidden love (never mind cheese) at such a Jewy price?

Come play our version of an American classic for *FREE*

$5 beers and $6 cocktails, prizes all night!

Hosted by Aaron Glaser, “one of those comedian Jews.”

120 Orchard St. (between Delancey & Rivington)

For a decade since 2000, I have flown down to the music journalists’ version of Spring Break positively stoked on live music. I would spend weeks beforehand formulating my plan of attack picking out the bands I HAD TO SEE vs. the bands I had to see. I had A-list showcases, Plan B performances, and a stack of RSVP’s to after-parties, and an armful of wristbands for after-after-parties. And when I was there, walking down the the centrally located 6th St., I ran into friends and colleagues from all over the world, drank lotsa beer, and heard some truly inspiring stuff. Like, aural memories my ears will never forget. I can go into story after story about the bands I saw in impossibly small and intimate settings, like the time I caught the Yeah Yeah Yeahs when I was close enough to get spat on by Karen O, or the night I hung out in an awful bar for sets by Hot Chip, M.I.A., and LCD Soundsystem consecutively, or the weekend I saw Bloc Party five times over one weekend each time by accident.

But this isn’t a trip down the beer-soaked and urine-scented Memory Lane. This is about the year I didn’t go, and it seems, in 2011, sweet anticipation lost its virginity to bitter cynicism. I followed the festival closely because of my terrible case of FOMO – absorbing blog entries, “reliable” outlets (whatever that means), the Twitter feeds of my fellow journalists, live streams, and emails on message boards. Despite being ostensibly grounded by the wife (see: new baby, needy dog), I would try to be as close to the experience as one can be via technology. It’s a bit depressing, innit? Imagining some dude in his boxers sitting in a dark living room scouring for show reviews 140 characters at a time. But as the weekend progressed, and the more I read about the four day music marathon, the more I felt maybe I had been better off staying at home.

It started with New York Magazine’s Vulture pop music columnist Nitsuh Abebe’s nearly two posts about anxiety. First, anxiety about the festival as a whole, and then anxiety over the future of hip-hop. Abebe even referenced NPR’s Ann Power’s own anxiety and feelings of inadequacy in his first essay. “Chasing down new sounds, for a living or just as a fan, is mostly a huge joy,” she wrote, “because music feeds every part of the body and the soul. Yet this pursuit, like anything that defines us culturally, brings up issues of authority and inclusion that can confuse and alienate.”

Whoa. This thing is supposed to be fun, right? But my impression from most, like the sentiment shared by two of my favorite music journalists/ bloggers, is that this was the year when the festival’s cup overfloweth. Shows like Odd Future (hip-hop punk), DFA 1979 (hipster punk) and The Strokes (tofu punk) all gained buzz traction because of the riots these acts inspired. The surreally hyped rap collective Odd Future taking great pride in being the weekend’s nefarious upstarts was huge Internet fodder (never mind the controversial rape lyrics. We’ve forgotten about that, apparently), while DFA79′s Sebastian Grainger performing awkward stand-up/ stage banter while police tried to end their performance at the Beauty Bar due to rioting has given this has-been act the attention it so desperately wants (notice bassist’s Jesse Keeler’s joke in this video about beating up a horse? Later on, one of its fans threw a beer bottle at a police horse. “Cool.”). And what about the Strokes? It’s not like they’re excited about the prospect of playing together live–what would inspire the kind of desperation that warrants a group of kids to break down fences for a group of 30-something dudes rocking begrudgingly?

Controversy, small “c,” aside, what about the music? Aside from my pal Aaron Richter, who Twittered for our music magazine self-titled and took a pretty adventurous route, reviews came in like one of those mock Coachella posters. Some raved about the Meat Puppets, others got giddy about seeing Fishbone and Foo Fighters. Rolling Stone magazine even had Tracey Bonham perform at their showcase (remember her? No? How about now?). Then there were all-caps REVIEWS about Kanye’s and Diddy’s appearances, respectively. Yes, I said “Diddy.” Duran Duran, Moby, and TV on the Radio were also there. Everyone tried to get into those shows. Das Racist seemingly performed 17,000 times (hardest working dudes out there. Period), and I learned a thing or two about new metal bands (maybe because I follow this guy). Also, in the next few months, you’ll hear more about genuine discoveries like Cults, Austra, the Chain Gang of 1974, and Jamie Woon, but I also could have told you about them simply by reading, say, a Stereogum, and not necessarily from flying down to Tejas.

I would be remiss, though, if I did not admit that I still wanted to be there. Frustrations and lines aside (of which both were seemingly abundant), I think I would have felt less pressured to MUST. DISCOVER. BAND. at SXSW than I had years previous. Because of the proliferation of finely curated music blogs, frankly, I’m discovering some wonderful stuff all year round. I don’t think I would need one crammed four-day weekend to do it. And while it’s easy for me to say this now after the fact, after I wasn’t there, I’m eager to test out my newfound serenity in 2012 (right, honey?).

One major problem I do foresee, though, is that A) there’s a music blog launched every 0.3 seconds and B) a festival like SXSW thrives off our collective wont to GET INTO THAT EXCLUSIVE THING. Combine thousands upon thousands of  first adapters and seekers with even more exclusive events and the two culminates into hostility, disgruntlement, angst, and, well, rioting. And as disappointing as it is that SXSW is basically turning into a skinny jeans Jugaloos gathering, it is also not surprising. We can only have throngs and throngs of people trying to squeeze into makeshift venues the size of a studio apartment for so long until it gets ugly. And on that note, SEE YOU NEXT YEAR!

Heeb friend and photographer Seth Kushner not only had a piece in the show, which you’ll see evidence of below, but he kindly lent his lens to the proceedings to capture the flavor. Below we have Seth’s photos in order of performer and at the end, the obligatory vee-are-der-voild group shot.

First Sarah Glidden (previously interviewed in HEEB) read from How To Understand Israel in 60 Days or Less, a memoir of her Birthright trip to Israel.

Sarah Glidden

Next was “BOUND” from Seth Kushner’s CulturePOP Photocomix Profiles performed by author / erotic anthology editor Rachel Kramer Bussel (the subject of the piece) and illustrator / pinup gal Katelan Foisy reading a story within the story.

Katelan Foisy & Rachel Kramer Bussel

For the next piece, “THB: THE MASKED KARIMBAH,” its creator “comics destroyer” / fashion artist (DKNY, Diesel) Paul Pope had to run out of town last sec, so filmmaker / animator Shahriar Shadab subbed with aplomb with support from myself and hip hop artist Akim Funk Buddha who beatboxed and rocked sound effects.

Akim Funk Buddha, JahFurry, Shahriar Shadab

Miss Lasko-Gross, creator of the autobiograhical graphic novels A Mess of Everything and Escape from Special, performed a portion of a surreal new fantasy work, Henni:

Miss Lasko-Gross

This summer, Heeb snagged a sweet exclusive, presenting the prologue to  Al Jaffee’s MAD LIFE the new biography of the 89-year-old cartoonist / creator of the MAD Fold-In with 65+ new illustrations by Jaffee. I recently interviewed him on stage at Drew University and later I told him about this event.  Being the sprightly young gent he is, Jaffee proclaimed, “I’d like to try that.” In the car back from the talk, we decided on doing some of his classic Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions live and Jaffee slayed the crowd.

Al Jaffee

Artist / Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School impresaria Molly Crabapple and writer John Leavitt performed from their steampunkish webcomic The Puppet Makers along with actors Katelan Foisy, Syd Bernstein, and Dennis Preski.

Molly Crabapple and Syd Bernstein

I dedicated my work as producer/performer/MC/curator of this event to the memory of two late great American originals, Frank Zappa (we performed on what would have been his 70th birthday) and my friend and hero Harvey Pekar. I had the priceless experience of being Harvey’s editor/producer on his webcomics THE PEKAR PROJECT. People ask me if the American Splendor (starring Paul Giamatti as Harvey and Harvey as himself) movie was accurate, and I say yes, but the movie emphasized his curmudgeonliness, when, in all my two years of working almost daily with Harvey, what stood out most was his sweetness, kindness, enthusiasm for the work of others, and extreme generosity. That wasn’t brought out so much in the film but what can you do? For this event I performed four of his stories, each drawn by a different artist (click their names to read their respective Pekar stories): Rick Veitch, Rick Parker, Joseph Remnant and Sean Pryor.

Jeff Newelt AKA JahFurry

The most baroque of the bunch was led by author / illustrator Cynthia Von Buhler (wielding the chainsaw below) performing EVELYN EVELYN: A Terrible Tale in Two Tomes illustrated by Buhler and written by Amanda Palmer & Jason Webley with a forward by Neil Gaiman, coming from Dark Horse in March. Joining Cynthia was singer/songwriter Howard Fishman,  as well as Rachel Boyadis and myself putting in a fowl performance on the number “Chicken Man.”

Cynthia Von Buhler & Howard Fishman

Friends-since-high-school Josh Neufeld (artist, American Splendor; creator A.D.: New Orleans After The Deluge) and Dean Haspiel performed THE TACKY TIC by Neufeld (read it!) a highlarious autobiographical tale involving, yes, a tic tac, and the topical issue of bullying.

Josh Neufeld

Dean Haspiel (artist, American Splendor; Emmy Award-winning cartoonist on HBO’s BORED TO DEATH (Zach Galifianaki’s character “Ray Hueston” is loosely-based on Dean), editor of the true-life webcomics series NEXT-DOOR NEIGHBOR, co-creator CUBA: My Revolution)  closed the show with two of his swagger-saucy STREET CODE autobiographical comics and for an encore we showed a “motion comic,” directed/produced by Daniel Kramer,  of Dean Haspiel’s BILLY DOGMA: SEX PLANET

Dean Haspiel

To close the show, all the performers, except Al Jaffee who at 89 had already stayed out late enough!!, gathered:

L-R, BACK: Daniel Kramer, Dean Haspiel, Liz Klenk, Jeff Newelt, Rachel Kramer Bussel, Sarah Glidden, Katelan Foisy, Syd Bernstein, John Leavitt, Rachel Boyadjis, Cynthia Von Buhler, Howard Fishman, Molly Crabapple. L-R, FRONT: Miss Lasko Gross, Josh Neufeld, Akim Funk Buddha, Shahriar Shadab. Not pictured: photographer Seth Kushner. Floating: Al Jaffe

Title: Salsa Slam
Location: Bell House, Brooklyn, NY
Description: @ Union Hall and the Bell House
Date: 09-12-2010