Road trip! Our two teams that covered the Oscars are currently either seeking chiropractic care or driving around the western U.S. searching for wireless Internet signals. They're all sifting through thousands of photos, but we'll be back on the red carpet, er, momentarily. Meanwhile, our new music maven Damien Neva is back with a feature. ~ Ed.

New York, February 24, 2007 – The night before the Academy Awards and far, far away from the red carpet saw Bethesda, Maryland's Trans Am play to a packed Knitting Factory.   Without their drummer who fell ill the night before, Trans Am soldiered through two sets playing their futuristic music replete with synthesizers, vintage keyboards, and vocoders.  

The opening acts, Brooklyn's Pterodactyl and Oneida, however stole the show.  Bassist Zach Lehrhoff grimaced, screamed, and jumped his way through Pterodactyl's program of guitar feedback and distortion.   Oneida, joined on stage by Ex Models's Shahin Motia and Trans Am's Philip Manley, played a virtually uninterrupted forty-minute pulsing drone of drums, keyboards, and guitars.   Oneida's Fat Bobby sat transfixed at his keyboard as if he was feeding eight miles of red carpet through a sewing machine, which was nearly enough for the awards show the following night! - Damien Neva