Backing the Browns in NYC

Given the team’s dismal 4-7 record this year, it is probably unwise to watch the Cleveland Browns alone. No, one certainly needs the camaraderie of others when it comes to watching the goings-on at the Factory of Sadness. In New York, there is probably no better support group than the Union Square Browns Backers. An official Backers club, the group congregates to watch the game each Sunday at Brother Jimmy’s BBQ on E. 16th Street. The organization has its own private room with 12 televisions and gets special treatment from the restaurant in the form of half-price wings and $12 pitchers of beer. The 80+ members continue to grow in number as all one needs to do to join is show up.

This week the Browns are at home takingĀ  on the hated Baltimore Ravens, who have a much better record of 8-3, so it is perhaps best to once again prepare for disappointment. Game time is 4:05pm.

Black Keys in the city

Akron native sons The Black Keys hit New York this weekend in anticipation of their new album, El Camino, due out Tuesday. Tonight they are appearing on Saturday Night Live with Steve Buscemi. They will also be on The Colbert Report on Tuesday and the Late Show with David Letterman on Wednesday. Monday, however, promises to be the highlight of their media blitz. The duo is playing a free show at Webster Hall, which will be streamed live on MTV Hive. Tickets to the show apparently have to be won; you must like Southern Comfort on Facebook (I know, I know, I had a hard time saying I like that syrupy elixir too) and await for their further instructions at 9:45 Monday morning.

While singer and guitarist Dan Auerbach still resides in the Rubber City, drummer Patrick Carney moved to New York last year. His younger brother Michael Carney, a graphic designer who has created nearly all the packaging for the band’s albums, including El Camino, and who won a Grammy for his work on 2010′s Brothers, also made the move from Ohio in recent years. The Black Keys announced spring tour dates this week and will be returning on March 12 to play Madison Square Garden. Check out the video for “Lonely Boy,” the first single from El Camino, below.