David Cross' Taste of the Kitsch at Kutsher's: All Tomorrow's Parties

Anyone up at All Tomorrow's Parties this weekend knows that the festival's unusual venue — Kutsher's Country Club — is nearly as fascinating as the hours of drony rock. David Cross was kind enough to take us on a tour of their gift shop, where purses worthy of the Flava Flav collection mingle with racks of tie-dye. Click above to watch him give the woman behind the counter the third degree.

And don't miss our reports on the music with exclusive interviews and live footage:
• Animal Collective, Deerhunter, Sufjan Stevens Bring Lullabies and Assaults to All Tomorrow's Parties (featuring Animal Collective and Deerhunter videos)
• The Feelies, Dirty Three With Nick Cave Revisit Classic Albums at All Tomorrow's Parties (featuring Dirty Three and Suicide videos)

• 
  MUSIC Exclusive Live Chat With Linkin Park and Incubus
• 
  MOVIES & TV Peter Travers: 'The Avengers' Has it All
• 
  POLITICS Matt Taibbi: Jon Corzine Is the Original Zimmerman
• 
  VIDEOS Exclusive Premiere: Tenacious D's 'Tinnitus'

Song Stories

“Piano Man”

Billy Joel | 1973

Billy Joel’s first hit, “Piano Man,” was – ironically – an autobiographical lament about how his first album wasn’t a hit. When Cold Spring Harbor didn’t take off, Joel briefly became a lounge pianist in Los Angeles, and this song, about that experience, expressed his frustrations and fears at the time: “And they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar/And say, ‘Man, what are you doing here?’” “It was all right,” Joel said later, about the gig. “I got free drinks and union scale, which was the first steady money I’d made in a long time.”

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