by Andrew Frisicano

Philip Glass isn't the only 20th-century composer with a big birthday this year. Avant-garde composer John Cage would've been 100, and there are numerous chances to see his work (even more than usual) because of it. The shows below cover quite a bit of ground--eg. 1940's "Living Room Music" on the same program as 1991's "Four3"--and the best place to experience the pieces is definitely in a group.

Avant Music Festival, happening February 10-18 at Wild Project (195 E 3rd St at Ave B), explores the work of Cage at several shows. There's an afternoon/evening program on Saturday, February 11th, which includes a 4pm performance by Bang on a Can's Vicky Chow of Cage's "Sonatas and Interludes" for prepared piano, followed by a longer evening set. Tickets are on sale.

New music quartet loading performs as part of that Avant Music show, and will also presents an Evening of John Cage on Thursday, March 8th at Greenwich House Music School.

Issue Project Room, which just moved into a new home, has some Cage-related shows coming up, such as Stephen Drury playing his "Etudes australes" on February 24 and "On Silence: Hommage to John Cage" which features 13 new pieces that are all 4 minutes, 33 seconds long.

So Percussion hosts "We Are All Going In Different Directions--A John Cage Celebration" at Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall on March 26th. They'll be performing Cage's music, as well as that of Matmos and Cenk Ergün (who should be appearing) and Dan Deacon's "Bottles." Tickets are on sale.

It's the last stop in a Cage-dedicated tour, which also visits Boston, Toronto and Austin (info below). On March 27th, recordings from the tour will be released by Cantaloupe Records as Cage 100: The Bootleg Series, a limited-edition package with a blank 4'33" LP, a CD of "tracks chosen by chance operations" and a full archive of the shows online.

That show is part of Carnegie Hall's American Mavericks series, which also includes performances by Alarm Will Sound, William Basinski, JACK Quartet, San Francisco Symphony, WHY? and Danielson.

Also part of that is John Cage Unbound--A Living Archive, an online project through New York Public Library, which is going to collect performances and talks of Cage's work by musicians and students (and user-submitted videos). It's also going to have an archive of scores, photographs and other artifacts. Two videos from that--one of pianist Margaret Leng Tan showing you how to prepare a piano, and one with So Percussion crumpling paper (they love to do that)--are below.

Check out more videos, including 4' 33" performed by an orchestra, Andrew W.K. and a wall, below...

Continue reading "John Cage turns 100; lots of shows & other ways to celebrate"

As previously announced, the 2011 Ecstatic Music Festival, presented by New York City's Merkin Concert Hall in association with New Amsterdam Records, is a showcase of imaginative collaborations between more than 150 genre-pushing composers, songwriters and performers who represent a new generation of artists combining diverse influences and techniques to explore the intersection of classical and pop music. All concerts will include premieres. The festival opens with a free seven-hour marathon on January 17, 2011, and continues with 13 additional concerts until March 28, 2011. All concerts will take place at Merkin Concert Hall.

The Ecstatic Music Festival 2011 is almost here. Subscriptions and single show tickets are on sale. The full updated schedule (tUnE-yArDs, So Percussion, Dan Deacon, Craig Wedren, ACME, Nadia Sirota, Buke & Gass, Doveman, Owen Pallett, Bang On A Can All-Stars, and more included), and a trailer, below...

Continue reading "Ecstatic Music Festival kicks off on 1/16, runs through 3/28 (updated schedule w/ tUnE-yArDs, Dan Deacon, Owen Pallett)"

by Andrew Frisicano

Dirty Projectors at Allen Room on Feb 19th...(via)

Dirty Projectors' 2005 album, "The Getty Address," is far more a contemporary chamber opera than indie-rock. It uses woodwinds, brass, strings and orchestral percussion; its music has dissonances and complexities galore, and only fitfully settles into a steady beat. Lincoln Center's American Songbook series is a natural place for it, and on Friday night at the Allen Room, Dirty Projectors performed "The Getty Address," backed by the chamber ensemble Alarm Will Sound. It was arranged for the concert by Matt Marks and conducted by Alan Pierson.

It was probably the most abstruse offering to date in the series. Just five years after its release "The Getty Address" sounds like both a precursor and a tangent to the rock Dirty Projectors went on to make. It delved into compositional obsessions that would later be channeled into barely less complex songs. [NY Times]

Dirty Projectors played The Getty Address in full on Friday, February 19th, joined by new music ensemble Alarm Will Sound. For the encore, the band returned to play drummerless Bitte Orca tracks "Temecula Sunrise," "Cannibal Resource," "Two Doves" and "No Intention." The show took place at Lincoln Center's Allen Room, one night after Nellie McKay played there. Dirty Projectors do it again on February 27th in L.A.

Between those shows, Alarm Will Sound plays at (Le) Poisson Rouge on Tuesday, February 23rd to showcase the music of the group's own Caleb Burhans. Tickets are on sale. Caleb also performs at a late show at the venue with his layered, lush guitar/violin duo itsnotyouitsme. Avant-electronica act Son Lux opens - tickets to that are on sale. The show is a CD release party for itsnotyouitsme's new album, fallen moments, out now on New Amsterdam Records. AWS's A/Rhythmia came out last year on Nonesuch.

Dave Longstreth and three other composers will be on hand to introduce their work when it's premiered on Wednesday, February 24th at Merkin Hall by Bang on a Can All-Stars (it'll be the world premiere of Longstreth compositions "Instructional Video," "Matt Damon" and "Breakfast at J&M"). Tickets are still on sale.

As Dave Longstreth and Dirty Projectors get more involved with the classical world, they're also getting more intertwined with mainstream pop. Solange Knowles, who performed with Of Montreal (again) in January, covered the DP's popiest tune, "Stillness Is the Move," in 2009. The singer joined the band for a performance of the song and a cover of Groove Theory's "Tell Me" at a Fashion Week party held at Ace Hotel on Feb. 13th. Videos of that set are below...

Continue reading "Dirty Projectors played an album w/ an orchestra @ Allen Room & with Solange during Fashion Week ++ more shows "

Back in 2005, an earlier iteration of the Dirty Projectors released their concept album The Getty Address, which Pitchfork's Jason Crock called "a modern opera about post-9/11 America, the destruction of our natural wilderness, the confrontation between Hernan Cortes and the Aztecs in the early 16th century, and a protagonist named after Don Henley." An ambitious album, to say the least.

Dirty Pro frontman Dave Longstreth has come a long way since that album, but he hasn't forgotten it. And at two forthcoming shows in New York and Los Angeles, the band will play the album in full, with the 15-piece ensemble Alarm Will Sound and conductor Alan Pierson helping out. They'll also play songs from last year's Bitte Orca at both shows.

The New York show will go down February 19 at Lincoln Center, as part of the American Songbook concert series. The L.A. show is scheduled for February 27 at Walt Disney Concert Hall, and the band will co-headline with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. During the first half, the Philharmonic will play orchestral pieces that Longstreth picked out. The band will take over and play the album during the second half. [Pitchfork]

The NYC show is already sold out, though tickets are still available for the one in LA. I can only imagine how much preperation needed to go into all of this (and for only two shows), so it's not a surprise that the Dirty Projectors will not be one of the artists playing the Tibet House Benefit show this year.

A letter Dave Longstreth wrote to Don Henley as well as the source of the above picture, at thegettyaddress.com. A recent free digital 7" the band released, is in a previous post.

Other upcoming DP shows include the Big Ears Fest and Coachella.

Dirty Projectors' last NYC shows took place at Music Hall of Williamsburg and Bowery Ballroom. David Byrne showed up at one of them. David Byrne more recently showed up at St Vincent's show just this past Friday night at The Allen Room which is the same location and part of the same 'American Songbook' series that the Dirty Projectors are playing on February 19th. All dates and two Getty Address videos below..

Continue reading "Dirty Projectors playing 2005 album The Getty Address in full w/ orchestra @ NYC & LA shows "

After many months of planning, Wordless Music is deliriously proud to announce details of Warp20 NYC, the second and only U.S. installment in a series of worldwide events taking place this year in Paris, Tokyo, London, and Sheffield.

Warp20 NYC will be a four-day celebration of the music, films, and 20th anniversary of the the peerless UK label Warp Records, without which there would surely have never been a Wordless Music series.

On September 3-6, in venues across New York City, Warp artists Battles, Flying Lotus, Chris Clark, !!!, Prefuse 73, Pivot, and Hudson Mohawke will headline shows in two different venues, while The New Museum offers free and continuous screenings of full-length features, documentaries, music videos, and shorts from several dozen directors hailing from around the globe.

The fest so far includes a September 4th show at Terminal 5 with Battles, !!!, Prefuse 73 and Pivot. Tickets go on AmEx presale today at noon. General sale starts Friday, July 24th at noon.

The other confirmed fest show will be a free concert at the World Financial Center Winter Garden with Flying Lotus, Chris Clark and Hudson Mohawke on September 5th.

The "kick off" for Warp20 NYC (two months before the fest...) will be tonight's (7/22) Alarm Will Sound show at (Le) Poisson Rouge. The program for the night commemorates the five-year anniversary of the group's 2005 album Acoustica with chamber orchestra arrangements of music by Aphex Twin, Autechre, Mochipet, John Dowland, and The Beatles. Nic Offer from the band !!! will DJ the late show. Tickets for both the late and early shows are still on sale.

Also starting tonight (7/22), and also celebrating 20 years of a record label's existence: XX Merge (the Merge Records party in North Carolina).

In addition to the above-mentioned acts, Warp is also home to Grizzly Bear, who will be playing a free Pool Party show on August 30th.

The full program for tonight's LPR show, with more info on Warp20 NYC, below...

Continue reading "Warp Records' 20th Anniversary Fest - shows at Terminal 5 (Battles, !!!, more) & WFC (Flying Lotus) & LPR (tonight)"

This one goes out to all of Dan Deacon's biggest fans.....

Owen Pallett (Final Fantasy) @ Tonic

This year's Bang on a Can Marathon (co-presented by the River to River Festival and arts>World Financial Center) will be taking place at the World Financial Center Winter Garden in New York City from 6pm on May 31st through 6am on June 1st. As always, the Marathon is FREE and open to the public!

The full schedule is below....

Continue reading "Bang on a Can NYC Marathon schedule (this weekend)"