Central Park Summerstage (more by Chris La Putt)

The schedule for the 2010 SummerStage series, which has music not just at Central Park, is out, and there are some great looking shows to highlight.

At Central Park, the first "rock" show happens on Saturday, June 5th with Living Colour, Ebony Bones!, Pillow Theory and CX KiDTRONiK. Baaba Maal, who just played Irving Plaza, will be at Central Park too on Monday, June 14th The Tinariwen show on Saturday, June 26th also features Syrian beat & mikeman Omar Souleyman. Gil Scott-Heron plays Central Park in June and Marcus Garvey Park in August.

There's also El Guincho, Bostich and Fussible and others in Central Park on July 7th. Reggae legend Jimmy Cliff plays Central Park on Sunday, July 11th. Raphael Saadiq performs there Saturday, July 17 at 3pm. The Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba/Fool's Gold show on Sunday, July 25th will also feature "West African electronica" band Burkina Electric.

On Wednesday, July 21st, there'll be a Comedy Central's The Daily Show and Friends Central Park gig hosted by Lewis Black with John Oliver, Rob Riggle, Wyatt Cenac, Adam Lowitt and Rory Albanese.

There's also music from St. Vincent, Tune-Yards and Basia Bulat on August 1st at Central Park. The xx play with Jack Penate and Chairlift there on August 8th. At the same spot, Public Enemy play an August 15th day show to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Fear of A Black Planet, and the Specials play on August 22nd with Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears and $mall ¢hange.

The borough-wide shows kick off with Jay Electronica in Red Hook Park on June 1st. Also at that park is Dan Deacon on Tuesday, June 15th. White Rabbits play East River Park on August 12th.

There's lots of great jazz too: McCoy Tyner plays with Ravi Coltrane, Esperanza Spalding and Francisco Mela as part of the CareFusion Jazz Festival on June 23rd. He also plays in the Charlie Parker Jazz Fest, which comes at the end of the summer with an incredible lineup. McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Scott, Jason Moran and the Bandwagon and Revive da Live play during the day at Marcus Garvey on Saturday, August 28th. Then the next day, James Moody, Catherine Russell, Vijay Iyer and The JD Allen Trio play at Tompkins Square Park.

The park benefit shows include John Butler Trio and State Radio on June 15th (tickets on sale), The Flaming Lips on July 26th, The Black Keys with the Morning Benders on July 27th and 28th, Hot Chip/Hercules & Love Affair/Holy Ghost on August 4th, Govt' Mule on August 11th (tickets), and one of the four Pavement shows September 21-24. Plus there's a "songbook of Simon & Garfunkel" benefit on June 8th.

Not all "Summerstage" shows are in Central Park anymore which drives home the point even further that the name of the venue in Central Park is actually "Rumsey Playfield" which hosts non-"Summerstage" shows too. Those so far include Coheed/Torche, CAKE, Ween, and Broken Social Scene.

The full Summerstage free show schedule is below...

Continue reading "Summerstage (Central Park & elsewhere) - full 2010 lineup "

SummerStage 2009's last show of the year (more by Chris La Putt)

"On Tuesday, June 8, 2010, City Parks Foundation will welcome guests to the SummerStage 25th Anniversary Celebration in association with Michael Dorf & City Winery, an annual fundraising benefit, to support CPF's free year-round arts programming. This year's benefit will feature the songbook of Simon & Garfunkel with unique duets performed by Shawn Colvin, Aimee Mann, Dar Williams, Loudon Wainwright III, Lucy Wainwright Roche, Joan Osborne, Stephen Kellogg, Dean & Britta, Cory Chisel, The Holmes Brothers, John Forte, Valerie June, John Roderick, Ricky Skaggs, Willie Nile, Paula Cole, Alejandro Esovedo, Ollabelle (house band) and many more.

Tickets for this benefit will run you from $1000 to $25,000. Tickets to the other "benefits" (aka regular old ticketed shows) at the venue, are much cheaper. Those include John Butler Trio / State Radio, The Flaming Lips, The Black Keys, Hot Chip, Gov't Mule and Pavement.

The 2010 SummerStage series has also expanded its free shows outside of Central Park to include parks in all five boroughs. Look for free "Summerstage" music, theater and other events this summer in Brooklyn's Von King Park and Betsy Head Park, Bronx's St. Mary's Park and Crotona Park, Queens' Springfield Park, and Marcus Garvey Park East River Park in Manhattan, and others. Those parks have always had free shows, but for whatever reason, they are now "Summerstage".

The free-show lineup is 100% ANNOUNCED being slowly released (we're posting it all day today) (also check out the full free Celebrate Brooklyn lineup). Some of the Summerstage lineup, along with the list of theater productions (happening in all of the above-mentioned parks), is posted below...

Continue reading ""SummerStage" expands into other parks, theater events, annual fundraising benefit & some other shows announced"

photos by Samantha Marble

DOWNLOAD: Gators! - Dinner With the Band theme song (MP3)

The Sword @ IFC House in Austin

IFC House at SXSW this year was a venue dedicated to all things IFC. Bands performed in front of video cameras for webcasts and possible IFC channel tv coverage. They had everyone there from Neon Indian to Broken Social Scene to The Sword who played a show in conjunction with a Dinner With The Band party at the venue. Chef & DWTB show host Sam Mason, and show creators Greg and Darin Bresnitz, were among those in attendance at the packed metal and food event. Pictures from that show are above and below.

The IFC Channel's rock 'n roll cooking show, Dinner With the Band, kicks off its official first season, with ten new artists, on Tuesday, April 27th (it then airs on the cable channel every Tuesday at 10:30pm). That's still two weeks away, but another party in the show's honor will happen at Santos Party House in NYC tonight (4/12). The free event will feature DJ sets by Au Revoir Simone and Vega, and live performances by Gators! (they wrote the show's theme song - MP3 above), Bad Brilliance, and CX Kidtronik. Andrew WK, along with Sam and Thu Tran, host the night which simultaneously celebrates Thu's IFC show "Food Party" (whose new season starts in two weeks too). "There will be FREE Thu Tran inspired munchies, beer and Sam Mason signature cocktails from 7-8PM". The flyer, along with more pictures from the Austin show, below...

Continue reading "The Sword played an IFC party in Austin (pics), Au Revoir Simone & Vega DJ a free one in NYC tonight (flyer)"

most of the photos by Kyle Dean Reinford

I know Girl Talk doesn't write the music that makes his set magical. He (Gregg Gillis) just mixes the songs together in a good way. He also creates the perfect visual party experience to go with it. Everyone I talked to that saw him at All Points West on Friday agreed that it was one of the best sets of the weekend. The stage was packed with people dancing, and so was the field. Not the most environmentally friendly artist at the Radhioead and Jack Johnson-headlined 'green festival', but the large plastic blow up things and toilet paper shooting into the wild crowd just made it that much more of a fun and debaucherous spectacle.

I've seen Girl Talk a bunch of times and I liked the bigger outdoor festival show way better than the the small cramped ones, or maybe Greg just got better at it. Or maybe a festival, where Girl Talk is just one of many acts, is better because of the variety. Regardless, his next NYC show was just announced. And it's big, and hopefully it will be just as fun...

GIRL TALK
WITH SPECIAL GUESTS THE DEATH SET, CX KiDTRONiK & HEARTS OF DARKNESSES

SAT. NOV. 15 • 8:30 PM @ TERMINAL 5
$20 advance tickets are on sale Friday August 15 at noon.

This new date comes at the end of his fall tour. More APW (August 8, 2008) pics below...

Continue reading "Girl Talk played APW (pics), adds NYC show @ Terminal 5"

DOWNLOAD: The Cool Kids - That's Stupid (The Mixtape) (ZSHARE LINK)

The Cool Kids are playing Rock The Bells. All the tour dates below.

I'm assuming Girl Talk will announce a NYC date after All Points West happens. Will it be October 8th to kick off the big tour he just announced or will it be when he gets back in the middle of November after playing Massachusets? The new record is out now. All dates below.

ALSO BELOW: A new video by No Age who are playing NYC soon.

Continue reading "Girl Talk tour, Cool Kids mixtape, No Age video "