Speaking of "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry", the Dessner brother-curated festival coming to the Brooklyn Academy of Music in May (May 3-5 to be exact), I have the names of a few people who will be part of it.

The Brooklyn Youth Chorus, who worked with the Dessners in 2011 (for a show at St. Ann's and an Ecstatic one at Merkin Concert Hall), will sing a major new work written for them by Bryce Dessner. The NOW Ensemble will perform Sarah Kirkland Snider's "Pale As Centuries", a work they premiered in October at the Miller Theatre as part of the SONiC Festival. That happens on May 5, 2012. The Brooklyn Youth Chorus date is TBD, but it will happen sometime within the fesival's three days in one of the "various venues in the Peter Jay Sharp Building."

Stay tuned for more lineup additions (including probably a bunch of indie rock ones). Tickets go on sale in March.

Tickets are on sale now for the National-curated ATP Fest happening in the UK in December. As previously mentioned, Sharon Van Etten, My Brightest Diamond, Wye Oak, Megafaun, The Antlers, Buke and Gase (FKA Buke and Gass), Lower Dens, Owen Pallett, Boris, Tim Hecker, Kronos Quartet, Suuns, and Dark Dark Dark are all playing that.

Meanwhile, NOW Ensemble plays with Dan Deacon in March as part of the 2012 Ecstatic Music Festival which begins this week. Listen to/watch a festival preview at the Greene Space even sooner.

Tickets just went on sale for a few different BAM shows including the previously mentioned series that Questlove is doing called "Shuffle Culture", and a bunch of shows with Dr. John: "Dr. John: Insides Out: A Louis Armstrong Tribute", "Dr. John: Insides Out: Locked Down", and "Insides Out: Funky But It's Nu Awlins." "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry," the National thing, doesn't go on sale until March.

Roger Waters tickets go on sale at 10am.

Jay-Z tickets go on sale at 11am.

Pete and Pete tickets go on sale at noon.

Jeff Mangum kicks off his sold out three-night run at BAM with The Music Tapes tonight (1/19). The Brooklyn shows are part of a longer tour for the two Neutral Milk Hotel bandmates. Updated dates, Philly included, are listed below.

Jeff himself is auctioning away 2 pairs of tickets for Saturday's (1/21) show! Each pair also comes with 2 original signed Jeff Mangum drawings. The tickets are being auctioned on ebay with a current bid (as of this post) of $300 and the proceeds will be donated to Occupied Real Estate, a project regarding the foreclosure crisis by Not An Alternative and Occupy Wall Street (not the first time Jeff has shown his support). You can bid on the tickets/drawings HERE and HERE.

Updated Jeff Mangum dates (sold out Coachellas included) below...

Continue reading "Jeff Mangum begins BAM run w/ the Music Tapes tonight, auctioning off art & tix to 1 show (info & updated tour dates)"

The National at Beacon Theatre in 2011 (more by Toby Tenebaum)

Bryce and Aaron Dessner (of The National) are curating 'Crossing Brooklyn Ferry,' a music festival taking place in BAM's spaces from May 3 - 5. Each night will include a variety of NYC artists, film screenings, accompanying scores, and a late-night dance party. Lineup announcement coming soon and tickets go on sale in March.

Questlove is curating April 19 & 20 at the same Brooklyn venue:

Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson, the charismatic drummer and producer of the Grammy Award-winning hip-hop group The Roots, comes to BAM with an immersive musical experience. Enlisting a stellar lineup of artists, Questlove and musicians perform a free-flowing playlist--a kinetic mix of songs and sounds from unexpected musical bedfellows--that celebrates and reflects our current shuffle culture.

Jeff Mangum plays BAM this Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

Just added! Thu, Jan 19, 2012 at 8pm
Fri, Jan 20, 2012 at 8pm (Sold out)
Sat, Jan 21, 2012 at 8pm (Sold out)
Doors open at 7:30pm

The second date was added after the first date, which was part of a bigger tour announcement, sold out.

a ticket to see Jeff in Jersey City (via Deanna Cannonball)

"Jeff Mangum's two sold-out shows at the Loew's Jersey theater in Journal Square on November 5 and 6 resembled a church service more than a rock concert.

The 1,500-strong audience sat quietly throughout both performances; the artist sat too, lit from above, on a bare stage flanked by four acoustic guitars. The audience applauded politely after each song; sometimes they clapped as the familiar chords of some cherished old favorite began, too. Once or twice -- following Mangum's earnest entreaties -- the crowd attempted to sing along, although even that sounded more like hymns in a cathedral than generational anthems at a big rock show.

Worship may be too strong a word to describe the relationship between Mangum and his fans, but barely so." [Jersey City Independent]

Continue reading "Jeff Mangum played 2 nights in Jersey City, announces more tour dates, BAM"

words & photos by Ryan Barkan

Feist played the Howard Gilman Opera House at BAM Wednesday night (11/2). It was the show that needed quadruple confirmation back in August. It was her first proper New York show since 2008, though a lucky few caught her play a surprise show in crypt in Harlem exactly one month ago.

After a surprisingly great (to me, first time seeing them) opening set by The Happiness Project, fronted by fellow BSS member Charles Spearin, Feist and friends took the stage around 9pm. They played a long, two-hour set leaning heavily on material from the newly-released Metals in addition to fun classics from way back, and the witty banter we have all grown to love. Highlights from the set include a skull-faced crowd member being invited up to the stage by Feist for a lively, dancey "My Moon My Man," new tracks like "The Bad In Each Other" and "How Come You Never Go There," and the gorgeous backing vocals of Mountain Man.

The encore brought a bundle of goodness so...good...that it was hard for Feist not to affirm that we made her not want to wait three years to come back again. Feist and Mountain man silenced the crowd with a stunning rendition of "Cicadas and Gulls". It's amazing how powerful four voices, one instrument, and one simple song can be in bringing a room to quiet admiration. Probably my favorite moment of the night. The rest of the band joined for a 50's version of "Bittersweet Melodies," and "Sealion," the latter seeing the stage surrounded by a hundred or so audience members invited up by Feist. Whistling ensued, Feist wore a hat, folks sat, lots of devices were taking photos and video. The coda of the evening came with a gripping rendition of 2005's "Let It Die."

More pictures from the show below...

Continue reading "Feist played BAM's Howard Gilman Opera House (pics, review)"

"The Barclays Center, the 18,000-seat arena at the heart of the project, will host performances by artists selected by the Brooklyn Academy of Music in a programming alliance between the two neighboring institutions, their directors said. The collaboration will include three or four shows a year and allow the academy to bring to Brooklyn work that would not fit into its theaters -- the largest of which has 2,000 seats -- with costs underwritten by the arena." [NY Times]

photos by Rahav Segev, words by Andrew Frisicano

Laurie Anderson's Delusion, the first production in this year's BAM Next Wave Festival, is in effect the artist opening up her notebook to the audience. The 90-minute work recounts dreams, stories, parables, musings, jokes and melodies strung together with moody cinematic projections. Some of the stories we've heard before, like "Another Day in America," a song intoned as Laurie's male alter-ego, from her stellar LP Homeland was was released earlier this year. Others - an emotional story about the death of her mother, sharp one-liners and surreal scenarios about the afterlife - were fresh from the workshop.

Above all though, Laurie's sonorous voice, and her ability as a monologuist to travel to different places (the moon, Iceland, dreams), drove Delusion. The metronomic brilliance of the words and cadences would've been enough to propel a one-woman show in any downtown space. Here, they were supported by the projections and stage elements - one main screen in the center, with a smaller projector focused on a covered seat, and two smaller screens on either side.

Her supporting cast loomed beyond those side screens: violinist Eyvind Kang and horn & reed player Colin Stetson. Their silhouettes, namely that of Colin's unmistakeable bass saxophone, rocked steadily behind the backlit screens as they added layers to the evening's instrumental moments. The pair peaked up mainly during Delusion's chaotic interludes, when a red light washed over the stage, evoking the landscape of hell, with Anderson the Mephistophelean figure guiding the madness.

Clearly, Laurie was having a good time on stage, during the goodtime moments, with a permanent grin and a wink. The wink, as we found out, might be genetic; it also speaks to her style of communication: subtle, everyday gestures that unfold in countless ways. "Not a lot of people know this but..." one of her stories goes.

Delusion is at BAM Harvey Theater through October 3rd, every day except Monday. Tickets are on sale.

More pictures from the show are below...

Continue reading "Laurie Anderson's 'Delusion' continues @ BAM (pics & review)"

Nick Cave w/ the Dirty Three @ ATP NY 2009 (more by Ryan Muir)

"You wake up one morning to discover that you've turned into a giant bug. It's the stuff of nightmares, unless you're Kafka's oddly placid Gregor Samsa--more concerned about being late to work than anything else. Iceland's Vesturport Theatre and its fearless director Gísli Örn Gardarsson (who made their US debut with Woyzeck at the 2008 Next Wave Festival) present a topsy-turvy stage adaptation of Metamorphosis, whose protagonist leaps, scrambles, and skitters, telegraphing his mounting despair.

The performance is a tour de force, supported by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis' delicately inflected score. The excellent cast, each member embodying the alienation and dysfunction of Kafka's unsparing tale, enhances the precariousness of the predicament as it morphs into outright cruelty. [BAM]

Ticket subscriptions (a package of tickets to 4 or more shows) are on sale now. Single tickets go on sale August 30th for Friends of BAM and September 7th for everyone else.

After the December 2nd show there will be a post-performance talk with actor/director Gísli Örn Gardarsson and others from the show for ticket holders. Maybe that'll be around the time Nick Cave brings Grinderman back to NYC in support of their upcoming 2nd album.

Nick Cave & Warren Ellis released a soundtrack to The Road, via Mute, in January. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds put some reissues in March.

Cave and Ellis previously collaborated with Vesturport Theatre on their adaptation of Woyzeck (which debuted in 2006 and was part of the 2008 Next Wave Festival). Trailers with music excepts from both shows are below...

Continue reading "a Nick Cave & Warren Ellis scored show is coming to BAM"

words by Rachel Kowal, photos by Getty Images for American Express
--

All week, The National has sponsored nightly events at their "High Violet Annex" to celebrate the release of their highly anticipated fifth album, High Violet. On Friday they even performed a set of National songs at the space. Saturday night's sold-out "ZYNC from American Express Presents The National to Benefit Red Hot" show at BAM capped off the week's festivities which started earlier the same evening at the Annex where 70-or-so lucky attendees were, unexpectedly, given tickets to the BAM show and then bussed to the Brooklyn venue to see the show...

the bus @ BAM

The BAM show began with a brief behind-the-scenes video about their recording process, and then the band launched into "Mistaken for Strangers" and then played a string of new songs. Though the National is technically a quintet, as many as nine additional people joined them on stage to play a variety of string and brass instruments. Sufjan Stevens joined the band to sing backing vocals (like he did on Letterman) on a handful of songs. Sometimes National-members Padma Newsome and Thomas Bartlett (Doveman) made a rare appearance together on stage (usually its one or the other as a member of the band). The biggest surprise band member of the night was the Arcade Fire's Richard Reed Parry who sang backup and played a variety of instruments throughout the set. Richard, Sufjan and Thomas all also contributed to High Violet which is out now.

With its ornate molding, dramatic curtains, and theater-like seating, BAM may be a bit of an odd choice to host what is essentially a rock show, but the beautiful space complimented the dapperly dressed band and gave them enough room to spread out on stage. Possibly sensing that something was not quite right, lead singer Matt Berninger hopped off the stage and began pulling people up into a standing position early into the show.

Throughout the show, Berninger was a sight to behold. One moment, he'd take a sip of white wine and sing softly into the mic stand and the next, he's wildly pacing back and forth on stage with his head down, pounding his hands together like a mad man. The contrast between Berninger's smooth baritone voice and his manic behavior makes for a dynamic performance. During the four-song encore, Berninger leapt off stage again and rushed the audience in the orchestra section. With his impossibly long mic chord trailing behind him, Berninger climbed desperately over anything in his path - be it chairs or people. From the middle of a row, he stood recklessly on a chair, screaming the chorus to "Mr. November" into the faces of ecstatic fans.

When all was said and done, The National played the entirety of High Violet in addition to a number of older songs. Film directors D. A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus were on hand to direct the live webcast of the concert that was happening on YouTube (the band addressed the Internet audience a few times), and which you can still watch there (some videos below too).

After the show, a fancy ZYNC-sponsored afterparty was held around the corner at One Hanson Place, aka the Williamsburgh Savings Bank Tower, downstairs in the old bank's bottom floor (now used as an event space). The National, their friends and associates, partied until late with an invite-only crowd that also included members of Grizzly Bear and Beirut, and some celebrities who had attended the show (like Julia Stiles). And there was a lot to party about - recently completed Europe tour and a week of festivities in NYC aside - High Violet is selling really well too. More pictures from the show and the afterparty, with the setlist and some videos below...

Continue reading "The National & guests played BAM & YouTube (pics & video) "

The National on WNYC's Soundcheck

The National's Brooklyn Academy of Music show on May 15th will be going on presale tomorrow (May 6th) at 10am. Tickets are here (pw: "VIOLET"). They go on general sale through BAM May 7th at 10am. Apparently you don't actually need a ZYNC card to get the tickets. You can also try to win your way in (and get flights and a hotel) through KEXP and via KCRW.

The show is a benefit for the Red Hot Organization (which the Dark Was the Night project also supported) and will be filmed by Don't Look Back D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus for an Internet simulcast on YouTube.

The National recently appeared on WNYC's Soundcheck, and videos of their performance on that show are posted below...

Continue reading "National BAM show tickets, presale & contests, WNYC videos "

photos by Kevin Mazur/ Wire Image

"Yoko Ono, Paul Simon, Eric Clapton, Bette midler, freaking amazing!" - nico843

Yoko's Plastic Ono Band will be playing a special show at BAM's Gilman Opera House on Tuesday, February 16th. The show includes guest spots from original/former Plastic Ono band members Eric Clapton, bassist Klaus Voormann and drummer Jim Keltner. Other guests include Justin Bond, Kim Gordon, Bette Midler, Thurston Moore, Mark Ronson, Scissor Sisters, Martha Wainwright, Haruomi Hosono, Paul Simon and son Harper Simon, and current Ono Band members Cornelius, Yuka Honda and Sean Lennon.

Continue reading "Yoko's Plastic Ono Band played BAM w/ Eric Clapton, Paul Simon, Bette Midler, Scissor Sisters & more (pics)"

"WE ARE PLASTIC ONO BAND on February 16 sold out immediately! Due to popular demand, a special dress rehearsal show featuring Yoko Ono and her core band (Sean Lennon, Yuka Honda, and Cornelius) has been added. They have never done anything like this before and probably never will again. This will certainly be a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and while no special guest artists are slated to rehearse, you never know..." [Bam]

words & photos by Dominick Mastrangelo, more words by Zach Pollack

Ra Ra Riot

Ra Ra Riot played to a sold-out crowd at the Howard Gilman Opera House in Brooklyn on Friday (2/5). The Syracuse-based band played an energetic set and threw in a couple of Kate Bush covers (finishing the show with "Hounds Of Love".) "Suspended in Gaffa" appeared on 2008's critically acclaimed The Rhumb Line of which the band played all of its songs.

The Antlers, architects of one of last year's critically acclaimed records, Hospice, opened with a taut, haunting set, placed in stark contrast to the headliner's flowing, uptempo pop songs. - Dominick

Ra Ra Riot headlined the show, featuring a string quartet and a four man horn section. The band sounded impeccable live, and carried though their set with the poise, grace, and energy of a well practiced rock band. In four short years since forming the band Ra Ra Riot has grown a large fan base, which was certainly apparent at The Howard Gilman Opera House Friday night. Cellist Alexandra Lawn and violinist Rebecca Zeller add to the already dense rhythms of the band with their sweeping string section.

Friday night's show was the third and last 'Sounds Like Brooklyn' show at BAM this year. The first two were Les Savy Fav / Vivian Girls and Rain Machine / Anti-Pop Consortium. More pictures from Ra Ra / Antlers, below...

Continue reading "The Antlers & Ra Ra Riot played BAM (pics)"

by BBG

DOWNLOAD: Saxon Shore - "This Place" (MP3)

Saxon Shore (photo by Geordy Peterson)

American post-rockers Saxon Shore hit back. It Doesn't Matter, the quintet's follow-up to 2005's The Exquisite Death of Saxon Shore is a welcome return to form for the band and their original leader Matthew Doty.

Having gone through a long period of upheaval - be it line-up changes and relocations - the band spent four solid years as a unit before plucking up the courage to hit the Tarbox Road Studios Cabin out in Cassadega, New York.

Apt then, that the unearthing of It Doesn't Matter follows a line of melodic delicacy that recent post-rock efforts appear to have departed. Album opener "Nothing Changes" rocks gently into the onslaught of feedback drenched guitars while 'Bar Clearing Good Times' maintains an unexpected steadiness that other same-vein bands like Explosions In The Sky often make the habit of breaking from. -[Altsounds]

Les Savy Fav @ BAM - 1/29/10 (photo by Steven P. Marsh)

'Sounds like Brooklyn' kicked off last night (1/29) at BAM (the only venue hosting shows during this first weekend of the fest) with Les Savy Fav and Vivian Girls...

"To my surprise, [Les Savy Fav] played very tight rhythms that zagged all over the place but were not sloppy. I was reminded of times I had seen Modest Mouse, Built To Spill or The Flaming Lips, with the music being loose and jangly, yet deliberate and well-crafted at the same time. The band itself held my interest quite well, as they played the straight men to the antics of Harrington, who, instead of being a distraction, complemented the instruments rather well, reminding me at times of Jello Biafra with his voice and dialogue with the audience. Yes, he was a crazy looking fat dude running all over the stage and into the crowd, but his angry-goofy-gibberish song rants, energy, enthusiasm and sheer earnestness overcame my pre-judgment. At the start of LSF's set, Harrington dropped into the crowd beckoning people to stand, and it ended up being the right thing to do. Despite the opera house setting with assigned seating, it quickly became apparent that it would take a lot more than that to contain the force that is Les Savy Fav." [Qbertplaya]

The full Sounds Like Brooklyn schedule, along with a Les Savy Fav video from last night, below...

Continue reading "Les Savy Fav played BAM, Saxon Shore playing the Knit, 'Sounds Like Brooklyn' underway - full schedule & more "

Yoko's Plastic Ono Band will be playing a special show at BAM's Gilman Opera House on Tuesday, February 16th. The show includes guest spots from original/former Plastic Ono band members Eric Clapton, bassist Klaus Voormann and drummer Jim Keltner (one former "member," Ringo Star, isn't scheduled to be there, though he is in NYC on Jan 14th). Other guests include Justin Bond, Kim Gordon, Bette Midler, Thurston Moore, Mark Ronson, Scissor Sisters, Martha Wainwright, Haruomi Hosono, Paul Simon and son Harper Simon, and current Ono Band members Cornelius, Yuka Honda and Sean Lennon. Tickets are on sale.

Plastic Ono Band (sans guests) will also be at this year's Noise Pop Festival in San Fran on Febraury 23rd. The group's new sprawling record, Between My Head And The Sky, the first 'Ono Band' record since the '70s, came out last September. A flyer for the show is below...

Continue reading "Yoko Ono Plastic Ono Band playing BAM w/ lots of special guests (Eric Clapton, Paul Simon, Bette Midler) (tix on sale)"

photos by Stephanie Berger

BAM's 2009 Next Wave Festival is in the process of wrapping up (there are two dance shows - Mortal Engine (opens tonight) and The Good Dance-dakar/brooklyn - left). Past shows included So Percussion's Invisible City and The Long Count, Philip Glass's Kepler and the last music-based show, DJ Spooky's Terra Nova: Sinfonia Antarctica (with International Contemporary Ensemble), which happened December 2nd-5th. How was it? The pictures in this post are from that show. A few more of them, along with the Mortal Engine trailer, below...

Continue reading "DJ Spooky played BAM (pics), Mortal Engine starts tonight "

Les Savy Fav rides the ladder at Fun Fun Fun Fest (more)

"Launched in 2007, Sounds Like Brooklyn Music Festival (formerly known as Brooklyn Next) is BAM's annual showcase of the some of the most innovative music coming out of the borough. The program features concerts in the BAM Howard Gilman Opera House, BAMcafé, and partner venues around Brooklyn that highlight the breadth and depth of music produced by Brooklyn artists working in jazz, hip-hop, rock, electronic, brass band, and every other hybrid genre in between. As a vehicle for artist development, Sounds Like Brooklyn focuses on emerging and mid-career musicians working at the intersection of innovation and tradition."

Continue reading "Les Savy Fav, Antlers, Vivian Girls, Ra Ra Riot & more playing 2010 BAM Sounds Like Brooklyn shows"

by Andrew Frisicano

DOWNLOAD: Aaron Dessner - We Were Born (from the Long Count) (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: The Long Count - Bull Run (feat. Kelley Deal) (MP3)

Twins! (the Dessners & the Deals)

The Long Count kicks off its three show engagement at BAM's Gilman Opera House tonight (10/28). Tickets are still available for the show, as well as for the Friday (10/30) and Saturday (10/31) performances.

The 70-minute music and multimedia piece, commissioned by BAM Next Wave Festival, is the work of Bryce and Aaron Dessner of the National and visual artist Matthew Ritchie. But they haven't been working alone. At every step of composing and arranging the Long Count over the past year, the brothers have tapped into their crew of skilled collaborators. The 12-piece orchestra that will be joining them on stage counts talents like NYC violist Nadia Sirota (who played last month's Archipelago series show), sax/bass clarinet player Colin Stetson, and Antony & the Johnsons' guitarist/violinist/conductor Rob Moose (who in particular assisted with some of the arranging duties).

As previously mentioned, the Breeders' Kim and Kelley Deal (twins) collaborated with the Dessners (also twins) on much of the music - they sing for nearly half of the show. Other vocal turns will be taken by the Nationals' Matt Berninger and My Brightest Diamond's Shara Worden.

All four singers play roles in the narrative of the Long Count, which takes its story from the Mayan creation myth of Popol Vuh. In that, multiple sets of twins (in the story and on stage) experience repeated cycles of life and death until giving birth to the world as we know it. The original tale ties in strongly with a ballgame played by its main characters - an element which the Dessners have woven in with their love of baseball, particularly Cincinnati Reds and the Big Red Machine.

Musically, the Long Count sections posted above, both from the show's work-in-progress performance at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign on September 11th, showcase the piece's diversity. The first, "We Were Born," highlights the minimalist pedigree of the show, while "Bull Run" layers those elements with fearsome orchestral lines and extremely creepy vocals by Kelley Deal.

Paired with the spooky nature of Mathew Ritchie's animation (which you can preview here) the show looks to be a good Halloween night warm-up as any. In fact, the early Saturday night show has the most tickets available, and it follows a pre-show Q&A (ticketed separately) led by Brandon Stosuy (who's curating the Mount Eerie + metal show at Market Hotel later in the night).

Bryce generously answered some of our questions over the phone while in the last week of rehearsal (and in the hectic center of CMJ week). More photos from the production, and that interview, where he reveals the existence of an unreleased Christmas album he made with Sufjan, details on the new National record and more, below...

Continue reading "an interview w/ Bryce Dessner of The National whose show, The Long Count, opens @ BAM tonight ++ 2 MP3's"

Tickets are now on sale for the fall BAM Next Wave shows. Those include The Long Count (Dessner brothers + Matthew Ritchie with guest vocalists Kim and Kelley Deal, Shara Worden and Matt Berninger) (tickets), So Percussion's Imaginary City, Terra Nova: Sinfonia Antarctica (with DJ Spooky and ICE) and Philip Glass's Kepler, a preview video for which is below...

Continue reading "BAM Next Wave (National-Breeders) tickets on sale "

by Andrew Frisicano

DOWNLOAD: Aaron Dessner - We Were Born (from the Long Count) (MP3)

The Long Count
Oct 28, 30 & 31 at 8pm

Bryce Dessner, Aaron Dessner, and Matthew Ritchie

In an inspired collision of creative worlds, three inexhaustibly original artists--brothers Bryce Dessner and Aaron Dessner of indie rock royalty The National and omnivorous visual art phenomenon Matthew Ritchie--combine talents to create a song-filled myth about the beginning of time. A feast of images, instrumentals, and songs thick with primordial mystery, The Long Count pairs Ritchie's protean forms with a twelve-piece orchestra and the Dessners' gothic mix of electric and orchestral sounds.

Guest vocalists Kim and Kelley Deal (The Breeders [who are at the Bowery August 18th & 19th]), Shara Worden (My Brightest Diamond), and Matt Berninger (The National) round out the line-up in this visionary collaboration between music and art.

Shara Worden has been keeping super busy and impressing Decemberists audiences across the country when she sings her part in the Hazards of Love production (and when she's doing Bob Dylan). Upcoming Decemberists dates include September 21st in Montclair, NJ.

Kim Deal, in addition to the above-mentioned BAM and Bowery shows, will be in NYC (and around the country) with the Pixies in November. The shows at Hammerstein Ballroom are now on sale.

The National recently played a set at All Points West in Jersey City.

Worden/National collaborator Sufjan Stevens premiered his show "The BQE" as part of BAM's Next Wave Festival in 2007. That show is being released as a DVD and going on tour, as is Sufjan himself.

Also below is a video from "a 20-minute animated and musical collaboration developed by Bryce Dessner and Matthew Ritchie" that premiered at the Kitchen in March (Sufjan Stevens played the harmonium), and trailers and music (!) for the other BAM Next Wave commissions including Imaginary City (the So Percussion show), Terra Nova (the DJ Spooky/ICE collaboration) and Meredith Monk's Songs of Ascension...

Continue reading "an MP3 from the upcoming National-Breeders-Worden show @ BAM, Long Count ticket info, Next Wave video previews"

BAM has announced the schedule for the Next Wave Festival 2009, a series of fourteen new music, theater and dance pieces that'll run from September 15th to December 19th.

The lineup includes a number of awesome-looking BAM commissions and premieres.

Bryce Dessner & Aaron Dessner of The National (and Dark Was the Night fame) and Matthew Ritchie have put together a piece called The Long Count, to feature Kim and Kelley Deal (The Breeders), Shara Worden (My Brightest Diamond, Decemberists) and Matt Berninger (The National) on vocals (Oct 28th-31st).

Imaginary City, a new 70-minute work by So Percussion, will be accompanied by video and take inspiration from the Italo Calvino novel of the same name (Oct 14th--17th). Meredith Monk will compose and perform in Songs of Ascension alongside her vocal ensemble and the Todd Reynolds String Quartet (Oct 21st--25th). (As a side note -- Reynolds and Monk both appeared, separately, at the Bang on a Can benefits at LPR on June 3rd.)

The program features a concert staging of the Philip Glass opera Kepler (Nov 18th, 20th, 21st). And, maybe in time for the first snow (...) a performance by DJ Spooky and the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) of Terra Nova: Sinfonia Antarctica, a piece "based around DJ Spooky's sound recordings in the Antarctic that explore the acoustic qualities of ice" (Dec 2, 4 & 5).

Most of the programs above will have an "Artist Talk" companion program, free to those with tickets to the event.

There's a couple ways to get tickets to the series. Friends of BAM will get the first stab at subscription packages, which let you pick a combo of shows to attend, on Monday, June 15th. Subscriptions for the general public go on sale Monday, June 22nd. Single ticket sales for Next Wave Festival starts Tuesday, September 8th (Aug 31st for Friends of BAM).

Full music lineup below...

Continue reading "BAM Next Wave Festival 2009 - members of The National, The Breeders, Shara Worden, So Percussion, DJ Spooky..."

by Andrew Frisicano

New York-based composer Steve Reich has won the Pulitzer Prize for music with his piece Double Sextet. Reich composed the work for two identical sextets of instruments, each made up of flute, clarinet, violin, cello, vibraphone and piano.NPR]

The second half of The Only Moving Thing was a new joint composition by Bang on a Can artistic directors David Lang, Michael Gordon and Julia Wolfe, called singing in the dead of night. Gordon's Trance is being performed at (Le) Poisson Rouge on Wednesday, April 22nd.

On May 20, BAM is hosting a screening of The South Bank Show: Steve Reich. The event, which also includes a reception and a Q&A with Reich himself, is free, but "exclusively for Friends of BAM".

More info on Double Sextext, with a NYT review of its debut and videos of eighth blackbird rehearsing and recording the piece below...

Continue reading "Steve Reich wins a Pulitzer, appearing at BAM for a Q&A "

photos by Stephanie Berger

"It is not unusual these days to hear Merce Cunningham called the world's greatest living choreographer. I go further: I have long thought that he is the greatest living artist since the death of Samuel Beckett, almost 20 years ago.

His latest world premiere, "Nearly Ninety," presented at the Brooklyn Academy of Music on Thursday (his 90th birthday), is not a perfect work of art...

...The music, composed and performed by John Paul Jones, Takehisa Kosugi and Sonic Youth (Kim Gordon, Thurston Moore, Lee Ranaldo, Steve Shelley), sounds now like a rock musician's worst hangover, as if the pot and the kettle were calling each other every color under the sun before settling down and breeding a whole tribe of tintinnabulations. One powerful guitar chord out of the blue happened on Thursday to coincide with the most electrifying gear change in the Goggans-Squire duet, but even such moments are mere effects... [NY Times]

Continue reading "Merce Cunningham at 90 - Sonic Youth, John Paul Jones & more @ BAM, Brooklyn - pics"