photos by Dominick Mastrangelo

Bill Callahan @ the Allen Room - 2/8/2012


Following performances by a diversity of musicians including Keren Ann and Thurston Moore, Bill Callahan continued Lincoln Center's 2012 American Songbook Series last night (2/8) at the Allen Room, a show Mr. Callahan said seemed like an appropriate finale to his "Apocalyspe Tour." Here are some pictures.

tUnE-yArDs plays the series tonight (2/9).

In other news, Bill Callahan recently covered Leonard Cohen's great ""So Long Marianne" for a MOJO Magazine covers CD. Listen to that, with more pictures from the NYC show, below...

Continue reading "Bill Callahan played the Allen Room (pics), covered Leonard Cohen (stream)"

Bill Callahan @ MHOW in July (more by Dana (distortion) Yavin)

Lincoln Center's acclaimed series American Songbook returns to the elegant Allen Room in January for its fourteenth season celebrating the diversity of American popular song. For 16 nights the series will explore the best of the golden age of musical standards through to today's most dynamic songwriting. The music of Broadway, Latin culture and hip-hop, bluegrass, rock, and pop will be presented, along with three evenings devoted to great American composers and lyricists. The 2012 season - January 11 through February 11 - will bring to the stage some of today's most gifted interpreters of song, including Tony Award winners Laura Benanti, Michael Cerveris, and LaChanze, as well as the "Queen of British Musicals," the great Elaine Paige. In keeping with American Songbook's tradition of honoring great composers and lyricists, those being celebrated this season are William Finn (The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Falsettos), folk icon Woody Guthrie, and Jule Styne (Gypsy, Funny Girl). A relatively new composer on the scene, multiple Tony-winning Lin-Manuel Miranda (In the Heights) will open the series with a new rap composition about Alexander Hamilton. Also performing in the rap/hip- hop vein is the exciting ensemble Ozomatli.

From the rock canon will be J.D. Souther, performing songs he wrote for Linda Ronstadt and the Eagles as well as newer compositions, guitar god Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth doing an acoustic set, and the wildly expressive Merrill Garbus, known as tUnE-yArDs.

Singer/songwriters, both emerging and veteran, are part of American Songbook as well. Diva of the demi-monde Keren Ann is part of the series, as is the man whose deep voice and masculine presence has earned him the nickname "The John Wayne of Indie Rock," Bill Callahan.

The spectacular Allen Room is located in Frederick P. Rose Hall, home of Jazz at Lincoln Center on Broadway at 60th Street. The Allen Room possesses one of New York's greatest settings - a stunning vista of Central Park and the Manhattan skyline that provides an evocative backdrop for the performers.

TICKETS can be purchased online beginning November 14, 2011 at Lincoln Center's website www.AmericanSongbook.org, via CenterCharge at 212-721-6500, at the Alice Tully Hall, Avery Fisher Hall Box Office, or at the Frederick P. Rose Hall Box Office. Tickets for the Friends of Lincoln Center go on sale November 3, and single tickets go on sale to the public beginning November 14.

Continue reading "Lincoln Center's American Songbook 2012 Season (Thurston Moore, tUnE-yArDs, Bill Callahan, Keren Ann & more)"

photos by Dana (distortion) Yavin

""Slit, my throat, Callahan!" So shouted one fan mid-set at Bowery. He was right. Bill Callahan killed everyone in that room." - Hammer to Nail

Ed Askew started things off with a set of songs sung with a raspy-yet-gentle voice over keyboard accompaniment.

Bill Callahan and his two bandmates took to the stage shortly afterwards... to play a set drawing heavily from Callahan's most recent post-Smog releases, Apocalypse and Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle.... The set also included many golden-oldies from classic Smog albums such as Supper and A River Ain't Too Much Love. -[Plastic Impossible]

Bill Callahan, whose album Apocalypse dropped on Drag City earlier this year, will wrap up his current tour and ready for an appearance at the previously discussed Pickathon in Happy Valley, Oregon in early August. The "indie roots music festival" will take place over three days and will also feature appearances from Mavis Staples, Black Mountain, Lee Fields & The Expressions, Califone, and many others.

All tour dates, pictures from MHOW and some videos from Bowery below...

Continue reading "Bill Callahan & Ed Askew played Bowery Ballroom & MHOW (pics & video)"

by Andrew Sacher

Psychedelic folk legend Ed Askew reissued Imperfiction, initially pressed in 1984 on a small quantity of cassettes, on vinyl (and digitally) via Drag City on March 22. The album is Askew's second reissue and third overall. He released Ask the Unicorn in 1968 and quickly faded into obscurity. His 2nd album Little Eyes never got a proper release when it was recorded in 1970, but was reissued by De Stijl in 2003. Currently, Askew continues to record music and posts MP3 albums on his bandcamp. Listen to "Deep Water" off Imperfiction below.

Ed Askew will play a week of dates with The Black Swans in June. Their short East Coast trip starts with a hometown show at Bruar Falls on June 9. Askew also plays with Woods and Magik Markers as part of the Northside Festival on the day he gets back, June 17, at St. Cecilia's RC Church in Greenpoint. Tickets are still on sale.

As previously mentioned, Ed will also be opening for his label-mate Bill Callahan at five shows in July, Music Hall of Williamsburg on July 11 and Bowery Ballroom on July 12 included. Tickets for both NYC shows are still available.

All tour dates, "Deep Water" and the full album tracklist, below...

Continue reading "Ed Askew playing shows in support of 'Imperfiction'"

How were the Will Oldham audiobook readings that book place in NYC yesterday?

Will's Drag City labelmate Ed Askew is performing at the Suffolk tonight (4/30). It's his only scheduled date (at the moment) before he hits the road in July with his Drag City labelmate Bill Callahan. Ed opens for Bill at both Bowery Ballroom and Music Hall of Williamsburg. Tickets for both shows are still on sale. All tour dates are listed below...

Continue reading "Will Oldham was here (he read), Ed Askew plays a show tonight (Saturday), touring w/ Bill Callahan (dates)"

DOWNLOAD: Bill Callahan - "Baby's Breath" (MP3)

"A couple of years ago," [Bill Callahan] explains, "I realised that I was an entertainer" - he pauses for a moment, as if waiting for an unseen drummer to round off a punchline - "and that helped me immensely. From the first time you can look in the paper and you accept that you're the entertainment for some people that night," he continues, "it becomes so much more enjoyable to play live. Before that I was always wondering, 'What am I?'"

Callahan's moment of clarity has benefited both audience and performer. First, he abandoned the wilfully off-putting stage name Smog (on the characteristically gnomic grounds that "hanging on to it any longer didn't seem healthy"). Then 2009's Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle - the second album released under his own name, and one of his most accessible records to date - struck a chord with a wider audience. -[The Guardian]

In May Bill kicks off a European tour followed by a tour of the U.S. in June that brings him to NYC for a pair of appearances: Music Hall of Williamsburg on July 11 and Bowery Ballroom on July 12. Tickets for both shows go on AmEx presale Wednesday, 4/6, at noon, and then general sale two days later (Friday, 4/8).

All tour dates and the song stream are below.

Continue reading "Bill Callahan announces new album & tour (MP3 & dates)"

Animal Collective @ ATP NY (more by Ryan Muir)

So how the hell did Merriweather Post Pavilion-- an album closer in spirit to the sub-aquatic psychedelia of 2005's Feels and Panda Bear's 2007 solo Person Pitch than its predecessor-- wind up in the Billboard Top 20 and outsell both the Arctic Monkeys and Franz Ferdinand's most recent albums in North America? That mystery is ultimately the most wonderful thing about the album. Unlike so many indie-rock crossover artists before them, Animal Collective did not breach the mainstream by cleaning up their act, or adopting classic-rock conventions, or scoring a strategic soundtrack or iPod-commercial placement. And, above all, they did little to formalize their defining mercurial quality. [Pitchfork]

Pitchfork also listed their Top 100 Tracks of 2009, and the Top Albums of the Decade.

Animal Collective is DJing the Museum of Natural History in January.

photos by Ryan Muir

Like Lee Ranaldo, Bill Callahan's Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle was one of my favorite albums of the year. Bill is currently on tour in the South with his labelmates (and Brooklyn residents) Lights. They won't come anywhere near NYC unfortunately - the last chance we had to see Bill was during his June tour that brought him to Le Poisson Rouge & Music Hall of Williamsburg with Sir Richard Bishop as opener. An unpublished set of pics from the Brooklyn show, with all dates, below...

Continue reading "Bill Callahan on tour (dates) ++ a lost set of pics from MHOW"

photos by Lori Baily

Here's a second set of pictures from night one of Sonic Youth at Music Hall of Williamsburg on November 24th (part of their three recent NYC shows). Unlike the first set though, this post also has shots of that night's opener Talk Normal (including some impromptu behind-the-scene portraits with the headliner). Talk Normal play NYC next on Saturday, December 5th at Secret Project Robot with Air Waves, US Girls and Total Slackers.

SY member Lee Ranaldo sat down with WFNX (the broadcast cousin of The Boston Phoenix) before their show there to discuss his favorite albums, SY and otherwise, of the decade...

WFNX: But you, Lee, what's the album from Sonic Youth you think is pivotal to this decade?

Lee:I would say for this decade, it's The Eternal, the most recent one. Because in a way I think it really - it's so cool at the end of this decade when we've been playing together for so long to be really energized about the most recent music you've made. The aughts started for us with Murray Street, made in New York City in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 and all that. Sonic Nurse we made with Jim O'Rourke, and then we made another record, Rather Ripped, on our own, and then we hooked up with Mark, Mark Ibold on bass, and made this one, and it bodes well for the future that we're having a lot of fun with this one.

Continue reading "Talk Normal playing shows (dates), played w/ Sonic Youth (pics) ++ Lee Ranaldo talks about the decade (video)"

Monsters of Folk's debut album is out Tuesday on CD, and the collaborative project of Conor Oberst, Jim James, M. Ward and Mike Mogis is one of the year's most pleasant musical surprises. Catch them on tour in October and November.

Crayon Angel: A Tribute to the Music of Judee Sill is one of the year's best tribute albums, and includes contributions from Beth Orton, Bill Callahan, and Final Fantasy (who is touring with the Mountain Goats in November).

Other albums I have heard and can recommend this week include Amy Millan's Masters of the Burial, Castanets' Texas Rose, The Thaw & The Beasts, Hallelujah the Hills' Colonial Drones, Le Loup's Family, Owen's New Leaves, Rose Melberg's Homeade Ship, and Vic Chesnutt's At the Cut.

Reissues of note this week include the Beastie Boys' remastered Hello Nasty (complete with bonus disc of rarities) and three Mudhoney discs on vinyl (Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge, Mudhoney, and Superfuzz Bigmuff ),

What new music can you recommend this week? What's on your shopping list?

Continue reading "Largehearted Boy's Interesting CD Releases This Week"

photos by Jacob Blickenstaff

Bill Callahan gave a free in-store performance at Other Music in NYC on Saturday (4/18). The show was the last stop on a week-long record store tour that Bill set out on in support of his new album, out now, on Drag City Records. The show also conincided with Record Store Day, for which Other Music had a full day's schedule of entertainment planned (and a lot of limited Record Store Day records to sell).

In June, Bill will set out on a proper headlining tour. That includes the two previously-announced NYC shows at LPR and MHOW. All dates, and more pictures from Other Music, below...

Continue reading "Bill Callahan - Other Music in-store pics & all 2009 tour dates"

Bishop Allen @ Other Music - March 10, 2009 (Modern Mystery Blog)

Record Store Day (April 18, 2009) at Other Music...

Continue reading "Other Music's 2009 Record Store Day schedule "

DOWNLOAD: Bill Callahan - Eid Ma Clack Shaw (MP3)

I'm not sure whether Bonnie Prince Billy's May 21st show at the Apollo Theater has completely sold out yet or not, but a 2nd NYC show has been added, much farther downtown, at Santos Party House. Tickets for the the May 20th show are on sale now (thx Keith!). Lightning Dust opens.

BPB's new album, Beware, was released by Drag City on March 17th. The same label is releasing Bill Callahan's new album, Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle, on April 14th. Download "Eid Ma Clack Shaw" from that album, above.

Bill Callahan (of Smog)'s new record, Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle will be released April 14th on Drag City. That same week, Callahan will be going on a promotional tour of U.S. record shops, with a NYC show at Other Music on Saturday, April 18th. April 18th, as you might remember, also happens to be Record Store Day. All dates below.

Callahan will also play two more NYC shows this summer, presumably as part of a larger tour (TBA). The first NY show is Saturday, June 13th show at (Le) Poisson Rouge (Tickets are on sale). The next is one night later, Sunday, June 14th at Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn with Sir Richard Bishop and His Freak Of Araby Ensemble. That show, which is part of the Northside Festival, goes on sale today at noon (and stay tuned for more info on how to get a badge that gets you into all Northside shows).

Bill Callahan's Brooklyn show is the second MHOW Northside announcement. The first was John Vanderslice who is playing our own showcase at the same venue two days earlier. Like CMJ does in October for the whole city, The Northside Festival is acting as an umbrella for most of the shows happening at most of the venues in Williamsburg from June 11-14. Badges will be sold that let you jump from show to show to show (capacity permitting). More details will be announced.

All Bill Callahan tour dates, the new album cover art and tracklist, and a Black Cab Session performance video, below...

Continue reading "Bill Callahan - new album, a record store tour (Other Music) & 2 other NYC shows (1 for the Northside Festival) "

DOWNLOAD: Bill Callahan - Sycamore (MP3)

Bill Callahan & Joanna Newsom @ The Parish, 2006 (CRED)

Bill Callahan's new album Woke on a Whaleheart came out in April, and he'll finally tour behind it this Fall. Tickets are on sale for a September 6th Southpaw show, and for one the next day at Highline Ballroom - both are with Sir Richard Bishop. All tour dates below....

Continue reading "Bill Callahan (Smog) - 2007 Tour Dates & MP3"