Recent Posts in books
November 17, 2009
3 Velvet Underground members reuniting in a NYC library, Lou Reed played w/ Renée Fleming (video) + 2 new VU books
Former Velvet Underground members Lou Reed, Maureen Tucker and Doug Yule will make an extremely rare joint public appearance on Dec. 8 at the New York Public Library. The three will discuss the Velvet Underground's music and legacy with rock journalist David Fricke as part of the "LIVE from the NYPL" series.It's tricky wording ("unprecedented reunion of Reed, Tucker and Yule, on Tuesday, December 8th, LIVE from the NYPL!", but I guess we have to assume that the three band members will NOT be playing music. Anyone know for sure?The unprecedented reunion of the legendary New York band comes on the heels of the publication of "The Velvet Underground: New York Art," a new compendium of previously unseen photographs, poster and cover designs by Andy Warhol, Lou Reed's handwritten music and lyrics, underground press clippings and other reviews, flyers, handbills and posters. The book, published by famed Italian book house Rizzoli, contains a recorded conversation between Reed and Tucker as well as contributions from Vaclav Havel and Jon Savage.
The event will take place in New York City at the Celeste Bartos Forum in the NYPL's Stephen A. Schwarzman Building on 5th Ave. and 42nd St. General admission tickets are $25, and $15 tickets are available for library donors, students and seniors through the NYPL website. [Billboard]
The book that the library event is celebrating (The Velvet Underground: New York Art), is not the one pictured above. The pictured book is another new one (by music critic Jim Derogatis) called The Velvet Underground: An Illustrated History of a Walk on the Wild Side.
The Velvet Underground changed lineups many times. Notably missing from the library event are John Cale (alive and well) and Sterling Morrison (RIP). The band formed in 1965. Doug Yule replaced John Cale in 1968. Lou Reed left in 1970, and then the band didn't even break up until February of 1973. Drummer Maureen Tucker was in the band the longest (though technically she's not an original member - the very first drummer was Angus MacLise - RIP).
Lou Reed is playing (or maybe not actually playing) music at Columbia's Miller Theatre on Friday, February 5, 2010.
On October 30th, Lou Reed joined Metallica at the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame concert at MSG in NYC for a rendition of "Sweet Jane". It will be aired on TV Thanksgiving weekend, but you can watch audiences videos of it below. Metallica just returned for two headlining shows at the same venue the other day.
Moby performed "Take a Walk on the Wild Side" at a concert in Paris on November 13th. Video below.
One day later (11/14), Lou himself performed in Prague with the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Jirí Belohlavek. It was a concert in honor of the 20th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution (not to be confused with Lou's band with a similar name). Renee Fleming joined Lou for a beautiful and operatic version of "Perfect Day". Suzanne Vega also performed at that show. Check those videos out below too...
Posted by brooklynvegan at 9:07 PM | Comments (67)
November 13, 2009
Greil Marcus, Chuck Klosterman, & members of the Hold Steady - various NYC events & tour dates
by Andrew Frisicano
The Hold Steady @ Rothbury Festival in July (more by Graeme Flegenheimer)
Craig Finn and Tad Kubler of The Hold Steady, along with author Chuck Klosterman, will be the featured guests at this month's Radio Happy Hour at (Le) Poisson Rouge on Saturday, November 14th (2pm). In past months, the live variety show's hosts have included Andrew W.K., Norah Jones and TVotR's Tunde Adebimpe. Clips of those past shows are below. Tickets are on sale.
Interestingly, Finn is in the process of co-adapting Chuck Klosterman's 2001 memoir Fargo Rock City with writer Tom Ruprecht (of the David Letterman show). It should also be noted that Finn & Kubler's pre-Hold Steady gig Lifter Puller will get its entire catalog of CDs re-released online on December 1st, along with a new book titled Lifter Puller Vs. the End Of and a single/rarities collection.
After Radio Happy Hour, you can catch their Hold Steady bandmate Franz Nicolay at Southpaw for "HARTZVEYTIK! A Heartbreak Survival Society Social." Also on the bill are The Low & the Lonesome, Ariel Schrag, Royal Pink, Soft Power (feat. Mary Timony) and The Shondes. There will be vegan cupcakes. Tickets are on sale.
Then, on Thursday, November 19th, see rock cultural criticism godfather Greil Marcus when he appears uptown at Columbia University's Altschul Auditorium (417 International Affairs Building, 420 West 118th St) at 6pm. The event is a "lecture-performance" for the 20th-anniversary re-release of his book Lipstick Traces: A Secret History of the 20th Century, out this month. The book deals with "the cross-currents, tangles, and whirlpools that made such vastly different movements as dada, lettrism, the Situationist International, and punk part of a single current." The event is free and open to the public. A video of Marcus discussing his 2006 book In The Shape of Things to Come is posted below. Greil Marcus wrote the book on Bob Dylan (actually a few of them) - the same night Dylan plays the last show of three shows even further uptown at United Palace Theatre.
Franz Nicolay has more upcoming tour dates, including a show at Mercury Lounge on November 16th (tix). Those and "Lipstick Traces" videos, and the flyer for that event, below...
Posted by brooklynvegan at 8:31 AM | Comments (5)
October 14, 2009
Iggy Pop spoke @ Barnes & Noble in Tribeca (pics), performing Raw Power @ ATP NY in 2010!
photos by Tim Griffin
Yesterday I wrote that "Iggy Pop, as well as Pavement (who are curating the other ATP UK weekend in May), are both rumored to be in the running for ATP NY in 2010." An hour later a commenter wrote, "heard the interview. iggy said they would be doing raw power upstate new york for atp next september...woops!!!!!!" A few hours after that, Iggy confirmed it while speaking at the Barnes & Noblie in Tribeca!
The NYC bookstore appearance was set up to promote a new book about The Stooges. Iggy joined author Robert Matheu who opened the night by talking about how he made the book, and how long it took him to secure 20+ year old images and negatives from photographers. Iggy did a lot of talking and they answered a lot of questions. Tim says, "He was asked about music that influenced him, and cited many types of music from Stravinsky and Dvorak to chanting to the Doors and and Louis Armstrong." Afterward they stuck around and signed autographs.
Iggy's ATP NY confirmation is not only the first artist announcement for the 2010 upstate New York festival, it's the first confirmation we have that it's even definitely happening at Kutscher's again. Iggy is also doing "Raw Power" in May for ATP in the UK, though unfortunately (obviously) without Ron Asheton (RIP)...
"Asheton, whose brother Scott is the Stooges drummer, died of a heart attack in January this year.More pictures from Barnes & Noble below....Pop, 62, told The Australian [in May] that he had plans to re-unite with the remaining Iggy and the Stooges line-up, with noughties Stooges addition Mike Watt on bass.
Pop said that while the original Stooges ended with Asheton's death, "there is always Iggy and the Stooges, the second growth of the band''.
"I had a meeting in LA last week with James (Williamson),'' Pop said. "It was the first time we had seen each other in 30 years. So we talked about doing something together. Raw Power would be the repertoire.''
The landmark album, mixed by Pop's friend David Bowie, has been cited by Nirvana's Kurt Cobain and many other rock stars as their favourite album and is considered one of the most influential in rock history, despite the fact that it sold so poorly on release.
Pop also revealed that Asheton had left six or seven "hard-driving rhythm tracks'' that could also be used in a future project."
Posted by brooklynvegan at 1:16 AM | Comments (44)
October 13, 2009
Iggy Pop - Barnes & Noble today (new Stooges book), ATP UK (playing Raw Power) & Marc Ribot (played Century of Song)
Iggy Pop @ Road Recovery Benefit in May (more by Arcadia Media)
Iggy Pop will be at the Tribeca Barnes & Noble (97 Warren St) tonight (10/13) at 7pm. He's speaking with Robert Matheu, who just wrote The Stooges: The Authorized and Illustrated Story, about the book and his life. Entry is first come, first served.
On September 11th and 12th, Iggy Pop joined Marc Ribot, Ceramic Dog, and singer Tine Kindermann at this year's Century of Song Festival (part of Germany's Ruhr Triennale), which was curated by Ribot. The set list from the first of those gigs (posted below) covers a broad range of material, from "Les feuilles de morte" (Autumn Leaves) off Pop's new album to German folk song "Schwesterlein" (Little Sister) to "I Wanna Be Your Dog" and "Mass Production" (the latter from 1977's The Idiot). Video clips from that set are posted below.
Marc Ribot's Ceramic Dog are touring Europe through October. Iggy Pop and the Stooges are scheduled to play Rio in November and perform Raw Power in full at ATP's Don't Look Back shows on May 2nd and 3rd at London's Hammersmith Apollo. Also on the ATP bill are Suicide, who'll be playing their first album like they did at ATP NY. Tickets are on sale now.
Iggy Pop, as well as Pavement (who are curating the other ATP UK weekend in May), are both rumored to be in the running for ATP NY in 2010.
Dates, and above-mentioned setlist and videos are below...
Posted by brooklynvegan at 1:51 PM | Comments (25)
August 24, 2009
Spike Lee's Michael Jackson birthday party happening near Prospect Park West (the possible future HBO show topic)
It is official: Spike Lee's party in honor of Michael Jackson's birthday will be held in Brooklyn, but in Prospect Park, not in Fort Greene Park.The much larger park was selected in anticipation of the 10,000 people expected for the event. "The Nethermead is most accessible from the 16th Street and Prospect Park Southwest entrance, the Bartel-Pritchard entrance, the 9th Street entrance..." More directions below.The party will take place at the Nethermead, a meadow in the center of Prospect Park, according to an e-mail message from a city official on Friday.
The date, Aug. 29, which would have been the singer's 51st birthday, and the time, from noon to 5 p.m., remain unchanged.
[NY Times]
It's a big week for Spike Lee. In addition to being involved with this party, his "Passing Strange" movie just came out, sort of, maybe (you can catch it at the IFC Theater).
Another Michael Jackson birthday tribute show is happening in NYC on August 29th at the Nokia Theatre in Times Square. At that event, Q-Tip (who is DJing) and guests Mark Ronson and DJ Spinna will bring, among other things, "never-before-heard remixes of Michael Jackson hits." Tickets are still on sale.
The biggest show of all scheduled for that date, Michael Jackson's funeral in LA, has been postposted until September 3rd.
And in other Prospect Park West news...
If Carrie Bradshaw and her "Sex and the City" cohorts ever felt lonely in their single-gal lives, at least it was because they actually lived alone. But in Amy Sohn's new chick-lit tome "Prospect Park West," which hits stores Sept. 1, once-glamorous city lasses still feel abandoned. Only now they're isolated in loveless marriages, raising kids they resent.I hope that TV show never happens. Directions to Saturday's free park party are below...The book has already been optioned by HBO and Sarah Jessica Parker's production company. The story, which focuses on four stroller moms, from Brooklyn's Park Slope, is touted as fodder for "SATC: The Next Generation." [NY Post]
Posted by brooklynvegan at 1:28 AM | Comments (22)
August 4, 2009
The Art of Touring - a book w/ related NYC events (tonight)
Hello Everyone,The above-mentioned NYC reading & DJ sets are tonight (8/4) (not to be confused with the reading @ Union Hall) (or the Nick Cave one happening in September) .Myself [Mia Clarke of the indefinitely-on-hiatus band Electrelane] and Sara Jaffe (formerly of Erase Errata) have co-edited a book called The Art of Touring. The book features artwork, photography and writing reflecting life on the road, plus a DVD of live footage. Contributors include Sonic Youth, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Devendra Banhart, Electrelane, the Ex, Le Tigre, Explosions in the Sky, Jem Cohen, Tara Jane ONeil and many more.
The book is published by the wonderful Portland-based imprint, Yeti.
We are going to have a couple of events to celebrate the release of the book. The first will be in NYC on August 4th 2009. We will have a reading at Bluestockings bookstore in Manhattan from 7pm, featuring Sara Jaffe, Jem Cohen, Sara Marcus, myself and others. Then, from 10pm-2am, I will be DJing as one half of DARK HABITS at Bruar Falls in Brooklyn.
Any NYC-based people, it would be lovely to see you there!
Then tomorrow (8/5) at Bruar Falls:
FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS reading series:Portland, Oregon's Fontanelle Gallery is hosting an exhibition of photos from the book, which opens August 6th. The gallery is also holding a special event on August 22nd with Sara Jaffe, Tara Jane Oneil, and Julianna Bright (The Golden Bears). More info on the exhibit and event below...
SARA JAFFE [ERASE ERRATA]
SUSAN HWANG [BUSHWICK BOOK CLUB]
AARON HARTMAN [OLD TIME RELIJUN]
SHARON VAN ETTEN 8PM
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Posted by brooklynvegan at 5:56 PM | Comments (5)
Nick Cave releasing double CD, will be in NY in September...
...to talk about The Death of Bunny Munro
"The lead singer of the Birthday Party, the Bad Seeds, and Grinderman, Nick Cave has been performing music for more than thirty years. His album Murder Ballads has sold close to one million copies. In addition to his previous novel, he has authored King Ink, a collection of lyrics and poetry, and the screenplay and score for the film The Proposition. He recently composed the soundtrack for the film adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's The Road. Born in Australia, Cave now lives in Brighton, England."Regina Spektor, who also has a show coming up at Radio City, is appearing at the same book store in August.
[Barnes & Noble, Union Square, NYC - September 14, 2009]
Nick Cave & Warren Ellis are releasing White Lunar, a double CD set...
Nick Cave and Warren Ellis have been creating music together for more than fifteen years, with The Bad Seeds, Grinderman and The Dirty Three. More recently, they have collaborated on soundtracks for such films as The Proposition (2005) and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007). White Lunar, a two CD set to be released by Mute on September 22, 2009, contains music they composed from the aforementioned films, along with a selection of their cinematic scores, including rare and previously unavailable material.Dirty Three are playing ATP NY, Bowery Ballroom, and other places in September.
Arctic Monkeys played a Nick Cave cover at Highline Ballroom last night. An official video of them doing that, a video of Nick reading from the book, and the track breakdown for the Nick & Warren CD, below...
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Posted by brooklynvegan at 4:05 PM | Comments (6)
July 17, 2009
Q-Tip - an album, a book (Industry Rules) & a Summerstage show Saturday (w/ Little Dragon who is @ LPR tonight)
Q-Tip @ Highline Ballroom in December (more by Leia Jospe)
Ballantine Books will publish Industry Rules by Q-Tip, world-renowned artist, producer, DJ, and lead MC of hip-hop's legendary A Tribe Called Quest...Q-Tip was inspired to write Industry Rules as he acknowledged upcoming milestones in his personal life and professional career--most notably, 2010 marks the twentieth anniversary of A Tribe Called Quest's first album, People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm (Jive Records, 1990). The main idea for the book grew from a verse Q-Tip penned a year later, in the group's critically acclaimed 1991 release The Low End Theory. In the song "Check the Rhime," he raps, "Industry rule number 4080: record company people are shady." The book will expand on the 4080th rule and include more of Q-Tip's thoughts on the entertainment business, fashion, love, and morality.Q-Tip will playing the Central Park Summerstage on Saturday, July 18th (3pm-7pm) for a free show with Chester French, Little Dragon & Benji B. His album Kamaal/The Abstract, originally recorded in 2001, is finally due out September 15th on (BMG-owned) Battery Recrods.
Little Dragon will also be at the The Freedom Party NYC at (Le) Poisson Rouge on Friday (tonight). Tickets are on sale.
Q-Tip album art, tracklist, book info, and Little Dragon tour dates, below...
Posted by brooklynvegan at 3:48 PM | Comments (3)
June 24, 2009
Joe Pernice - a book, an album & 2009 Tour Dates (Bowery)
by Bill Pearis
Joe Pernice (of Pernice Brothers, Chappaquiddick Skyline and Scud Mountain Boys fame) wrote about The Smiths album Meat is Murder for the 33 1/3 series, one of the few (only?) titles that was a short story, not an essay. That led directly to a book deal for Joe's first proper novel, It Feels So Good When I Stop, due out August 6 on Penguin imprint Riverhead. That book will spawn a soundtrack, a single and a tour, including an August 7th show at Bowery Ballroom with The Walsh Brothers. (Tickets are on-sale.) Here's the back-of-the-book blurb:
In the vein of Nick Hornby's High Fidelity, Pernice's debut is a coming-of-age tale for the modern-day slacker, and an unlikely love story with a masculine perspective--but with a mordant humor and unexpected warmth that will resonate with male and female readers alike. Set to a carefully curated soundtrack of Nick Drake, The Pogues, and Peter Frampton, It Feels So Good When I Stop is the story of a deeply flawed but irrepressibly likeable hero stumbling towards adulthood, learning about heartbreak and redemption, and struggling to love and commit on his own terms.Joe adds:
It's not a book for kids, which is a general way of saying it's not for anyone offended by raw language and sex. I sent an email to my family telling them that my book should not be read by anyone under twenty-one, anyone over fifty-five and Judy (my sister).There's also a It Feels So Good When I Stop CD:
Though the book is not explicitly about music, there are quite a few incidental (and not so incidental) musical references throughout. Songs ranging from James and Bobby Purify's "I'm Your Puppet" to The Chills' "Rolling Moon" to "That's How I Got to Memphis" by Tom T. Hall to "Soul and Fire" by Sebadoh. Ashmont Records is planning on releasing in some form--somewhere around the publication of my novel--the "soundtrack" to It Feels So Good When I Stop.The It Feels So Good When I Stop soundtrack is out August 4 on Pernice's Ashmont label, and features nine covers and one new song, though maybe not in this order:
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Posted by brooklynvegan at 9:29 PM | Comments (6)
June 5, 2009
Amanda Palmer & Neil Gaiman @ Housing Works, NYC - pics
photos by Dese'Rae L. Stage
[Wednesday] night after an impossibly drizzling/humid day, Neil Gaiman & Amanda Palmer performedat Housing Works Bookstore as a part of SPIN's "Liner Notes", an event that combines a musician and an author to discuss creativity. This was the second event of the series, the first being Augusten Burroughs with Tegan (of Tegan & Sara).Amanda Palmer plays a much bigger and proper music show tonight, June 5th, at Highline Ballroom. Housing Works is having a street fair this weekend. More pictures of Amanda and Neil at Housing Works, including one of what looks to be Amanda holding up a naked picture of herself, below...The set opened with Gaiman reading a section from he and Palmer's soon-to-be released book Who Killed Amanda Palmer? The piece seemed to be a preface or at least an opening story to the book, a collection of photographs of Amanda Palmer dead with short stories by Gaiman.
After the story, Palmer launched into "Astronaut", the first song off the "Who Killed Amanda Palmer?" album, a great choice. [cupcake witch]
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Posted by brooklynvegan at 4:25 PM | Comments (16)