photos by Autumn Andel

Eleanor Friedberger @ Crystal Ballroom

Almost a month before she heads out on tour with Wild Flag, and one night before she plays City Winery as part of John Wesley Harding's Cabinet of Wonders, Fiery Furnace Eleanor Friedberger will make an appearance at the Union Square Barnes & Noble as part of Upstairs in the Square with writer Christopher Bollen (on 9/22).

This past Wednesday (9/7), Eleanor shared a bill in Portland with Mini Mansions and The Kills at Crystal Ballroom as part of the MusicFestNW festival. A set of pictures from that show is in this post. More of them, with all tour dates, below...

Continue reading "Eleanor Friedberger played MusicFestNW w/ The Kills (pics), playing Barnes & Noble (and other dates)"

Moby at Electric Zoo 2010 (more by Zach Dilgard)

Moby has a number of North American dates scheduled for the next few months, including a few festival appearances. As mentioned, he'll DJ Electric Zoo in NYC on September 2. Tickets are still on sale. He'll also play an instore at Barnes & Noble in Union Square on September 7, where he'll also talk to filmmaker Lucy Walker about his recently released LP Destroyed and its accompanying book. The event starts at 5 PM and priority seating is available with the purchase of the Destroyed book or CD.

Moby plays NYC again on October 25 at the beautiful Angel Orensanz, three days before he plays Moogfest. According to Moby:

i'm doing my first ever ambient/acoustic show in new york city in a beautiful old synagogue on the lower east side. it's the only show like this on the tour, and the venue is very small, so if you want tickets i'd recommend getting them now. 1/2 the show will be acoustic versions of my songs, and the other 1/2 will be live ambient/electronic performances. ok, hopefully see you there/then.

Moby also recently released a video for the Destroyed track, "Lie Down in Darkness." Check that out, along with all dates below...

Continue reading "Moby playing an ambient show @ Angel Orensanz, appearing in a bookstore & other stuff (dates)"

"Rufus Wainwright and the City Opera singers/pianist that came with him put on a really lovely and charming show tonight. #FillsMyHeart" - Jennifer Jones

Crowd at Rufus' World Financial Center show (via Daniel Mazur)

Rufus Wainwright packed the house (as pictured above) when he performed excerpts from his opera Prima Donna at World Financial Center on Tuesday (6/28). According to Dumbo Books of Brooklyn, the fantastic performance also featured:

Arias from Verdi, Puccini, Wagner, Bizet and Massenet performed by soprano Anne-Carolyn Bird, mezzo-soprano Laura Vlasak Nolen, tenor Robert Mack, and bass-baritone Matthew Burns, and Kevin Murphy, City Opera director of music administration, on the piano, and a couple of great Rufus Wainwright non-opera songs, 'Damned Ladies"' and the exquisite 'Who Are You New York?'

Rufus also recently recorded a cover of Richard Thompson's "Down Where the Drunkards Roll" with his father Loudon Wainwright III. Check out a video of the recording session over at The Guardian.

Loudon will be at the Barnes & Noble in Union Square on July 7 performing music and reading from his essay "My Cool Life" which comes with his new 40 Odd Years boxed set. Priority seating is available with the purchase of the box set which Loudon will be signing copies of. The event starts at 5 PM.

The video of Rufus below...

Continue reading "Rufus Wainwright played the WFC, Loudon playing a store"

photos by Andrew St. Clair

DOWNLOAD: The Dodos - Don't Stop (MP3)

"In 45 minutes the show with Showalter starts! It's gonna be amazing, I can tell by his purple sweater. Color of royalty. He's feelin' it!" - Neko Case

Neko Case helped Michael Showalter promote his new book at an event at Barnes & Noble in Union Square last night (2/24), or to be more specific, Upstairs at the Square. Katherine Lanpher hosted. Neko sang four songs (setlist below). Showalter read a couple passages including a beat poetry inspired poem and a chapter about what to put in a Hollywood script. He also discussed the orgin of The Baxter, and they both talked about their writing process. Pictures from the bookstore are in this post.

Uptairs at the Square returns to Barnes & Noble in Union Square twice in March. Wednesday, March 9 will feature Rebecca Skloot (The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks) and Cubic Zirconia (Follow Your Heart), and Thursday, March 24 has my favorite Keren Ann (101) with Barbara Browning (The Correspondence Artist).

Audience members included Eugene Mirman (who will again join Michael at the Bell House this weekend) and Todd Barry (who just announced an April tour with Neil Hamburger - dates below) (not to be confused with Neil's February and March tour).

Earlier in the day Neko "leaked" a new Dodos song via her Twitter. She wrote, "Fave song off new Dodos. Bummed I didn't didn't get to sing on it (I shouldn't be so greedy cuz I did sing on lots)." Download that above. The Dodos are heading out on tour in March and they'll be playing lots of SXSW shows in the process. Their updated dates, a BrooklynVegan day party included, are below.

Michael Showalter is also touring, though he won't be at SXSW. Neko Case is not touring, though she did just play a show at the Bell House and is giving away her car.

More B&N pictures, Dodos & Barry dates, and Neko's setlist, below...

Continue reading "Neko case played 'Upstairs at the Square' w/ Michael Showalter (pics), 'leaked' a new Dodos song (MP3) "

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.

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."

Continue reading "Iggy Pop spoke @ Barnes & Noble in Tribeca (pics), performing Raw Power @ ATP NY in 2010!"

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...

Continue reading "Iggy Pop - Barnes & Noble today (new Stooges book), ATP UK (playing Raw Power) & Marc Ribot (played Century of Song) "

...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."
[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.

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...

Continue reading "Nick Cave releasing double CD, will be in NY in September..."

Regina Spektor - Beacon Theatre, NYC - 06/17/2009 (absolutelyaudrey)

Half an hour into her joyful set at the Beacon Theater [June 17th] Regina Spektor has completely lost her place. She is giggling at first and then laughing and then almost gurgling with pleasure. "Rehearsing at the Beacon theater," she says, "there's so many of you". then she shrugs, "Fuck it," and turns back to arranging the song with her string section. "I'm so happy," she says and she is obviously in a great mood.

Except for two songs on guitar ("I wish I knew more") Spektor sits at her piano throughout the set. She opens with "Folding Chairs" off her new album and continues with another seven new songs till reaching an oldie, a splendid "On The Radio", and it doesn't matter. All the new stuff is maybe her best stuff ever, every song cuts deep with a bouyancy that is like maybe a ball bouncing on the ocean: the undertow pulls her down but she is still light and above it. [Rock NYC Live and Recorded]

Regina Spektor rounds out July with tour dates in Europe, and currently has a set of North American shows planned for September. Her full schedule is below.

She's also appearing at Barnes & Noble's "Upstairs at the Square" series on Tuesday, August 18th with host Katherine Lanpher and writer Kurt Andersen. The event at the store's Union Square location (33 E 17th St in NYC) will include an interview and a performance. Entrance is free, but admission is first come, first served. Considering the fact that her Beacon show sold out (see above), a sizeable crowd should be expected.

Set list and videos from the Beacon Theatre show, with all tour dates, below...

Continue reading "Regina Spektor played Beacon Theatre, playing Barnes & Noble (and other places - all tour dates)"