by Bill Pearis

DOWNLOAD: Jeffrey Lewis - Cult Boyfriend (MP3)

Jeffrey Lewis' new album, A Turn in the Dream-Songs, came out a few weeks ago and the East Village mainstay is about to head out on tour for it, one that concludes November 25 at Mercury Lounge (with Diane Cluck). That's the day after Thanksgiving, and a good reason to get your butt off the couch. All 2011 dates are below.

A Turn in the Dream-Songs is another fine example of Lewis' witty, thoughtful, boho worldview. For a taste, download single "Cult Boyfriend" at the top of this post. With lines like "When you're a cult boyfriend life is always intense/They're in love or they're indifferent, no one's on the fence" and references to WFMU and Meet the Feebles, this is pretty much an instant classic. (I bet JL superfan Eddie Argos wishes he wrote this one.) The whole record is pretty great and features appearances by members of The Wave Pictures, Au Revoir Simone, Schwervon, Dr. Dog and The Vaselines.

His songs are all the more charming live though. Anyone who's seen him live knows Lewis does "documentaries," which pairs his conversational folk with his comic illustrations, covering such topics as the Fall of the Roman Empire, The Fall (as in the band) and the history of Rough Trade Records (his current label). The History Channel, as briefly mentioned before, commissioned a series of these, including one on Sitting Bull which won a Webby for Best Writing.

A couple of those videos, plus tour dates and cover art (by Lewis) to the new album, are below.

Continue reading "Jeffrey Lewis released a new album, going on tour, is working with The History Channel"

Nat Baldwin @ Bowery Ballroom in January (more by Bao Nguyen)

Nat Baldwin has been busy playing bass with Dirty Projectors, but he's also been working on his own material. To hear some of those double-bass-and-voice songs, check out Nat's set at Issue Project Room on May 22nd, which is streaming and downloadable at Freemusicarchive.org (there are also a bunch of cool instrumental interludes in that set).

He plays Issue Project Room on November 11th, along with Jen Shyu, Sabrina Lastman and Chris Mann, as part of the venue's three-night Vital Vox Festival. Tickets are on sale.

Before then, Nat Baldwin plays Zebulon twice, on October 13th with Diane Cluck and Spencer Kingman, and on October 27th with Buke & Gass and Delicate Steve.

Video of Nat covering Arthur Russell's "A Little Lost" at Silent Barn in August is below...

Continue reading "upcoming & past Nat Baldwin shows (dates & recordings) "

photos by Greg Cristman

Master Musicians of Bukkake @ Issue Project Room

Much like its inspiration, the Pan-devoted, beatnik-adored Master Musicians of Joujouka, the floating infinity conjured by the Master Musicians of Bukkake draws on a tradition that echoes across millennia. Around in various formations since 2003, the Seattle entity has coalesced into a seven-piece in time for its first East Coast performance, headlining a marathon tribute to avant-everything label Important Records in the Issue Project Room courtyard. MMoB's collaborative web includes psych-trance-ritual ecstatics from Earth, Sun City Girls and the free-improv world, which makes each new project a mutable feast of electronic drones, Buddhist temple bells, gamelan breakdowns, fuzz-box meditations, and innovations like "Rag-Dun Tibetan trumpet" and "leprosy synth." -[Time Out]

Despite the rain and subsequent relocation indoors, Important Records strutted like a peacock at Issue Project Room, showing off their roster with performances by headliner The Master Musicians of Bukkake, as well as Cave, Chord, Helena Espvall & Fursaxa, Kouhei Matsunaga, New Monuments, Duane Pitre, and Diane Cluck (no Ocean, unfortunately)).

More pics from the show are below...

Continue reading "Important Records showcased @ Issue Project Room - pics (Master Musicians of Bukkake, Chord, Cave & more) "

by BBG

DOWNLOAD: Master Musicians of Bukkake - "Perde Kaldirma" (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Master Musicians of Bukkake - "Patmos" (MP3)

Ocean at Show No Mercy (more by Justina Villanueva)

Important Records will round up a gang of bands from their roster to perform at Issue Project Room on August 15th as part of a collaborative effort between the label and venue. Master Musicians of Bukkake will headline the event, bringing along Jozef Van Wissem, Duane Pitre, Helena Espvall + Fursaxa, Arborea, Kouhei Matsunaga, Ocean, The New Monuments (C. Spencer Yeh, Ben Hall and Don Deitrich), CAVE and Diane Cluck. Tickets are on sale.

Master Musicians of Bukkake musically have very little to do with that depraved sexual act, but much more to do with the Pacific Northwest's penchant for experimentalism:

Featuring members of EARTH, ASVA, BURNING WITCH, THE DIMINISHED MEN, and special guests from Secret Chiefs 3 and the thriving Istanbul music scene... MMOB has now solidified into a 7 piece cosmic psyche force. Like a reverse dark side of the New Age sound, ...Master Musicians of Bukkake perform ritualistic electric excursions into the outer and inner reaches. Relying more on the electric power of psyched guitars, analog synth chants, and exotic heavy percussion. ...Outer spaced gamelan, dusty fuzz rock from celestial deserts, meditations of a deranged Krishna gathering, and the Blurry acoustic guitar majesty of The Cascade mountains all reveal themselves....

MMOB's latest release is Totem 2, is out now via Important. The LP was recorded, mixed and produced by Randall Dunn (Six Organs of Admitance, Sunno))), Earth ,etc). Dig on two songs from that LP above.

Meanwhile, a few of the bands playing the Important Records celebration have new releases to celebrate. Duane Pitre is celebrating the release of his new LP of guitar and string minimalism, out now via Origin via Thrill Jockey Records (stream excerpts). Fursaxa has a new-ish LP of freak folk in Mycorrhizae Realm featuring Helena Espvall on cello.

CAVE has another date on the eve of the Important Records show; look for the California psychedelics to take the stage at Cake Shop on August 14th (not The Studio at Webster Hall as originally announced). CAVE's Pure Moods 12" is out now via Drag City.

Full Cave, Arborea, and Diane Cluck dates, as well as some video are below.

Continue reading "Important Records bands playing Issue Project Room & other dates - Master Musicians of Bukkake, Ocean, CAVE & more"

photos by Zachary Alex Stern

Cocorosie's latest album, Grey Oceans, was released on May 11th by Sub Pop. Exactly one month later (this past Friday night), they headlined a show at Terminal 5 in NYC. Their friend Diane Cluck opened the show. Pictures and videos from the show, and more dates (they're on the road until July 2nd), below...

Continue reading "Cocorosie played Terminal 5 w/ Diane Cluck - pics, videos & more tour dates"

by Andrew Frisicano

DM Stith plays The Stone on X-Mas...
pictured @ 92YTribeca in October (more by Vincent Cornelli)

The Stone has a great lineup of innovative pop-based acts scheduled for this December. Curators Sam Kulik (multi-instrumentalist who plays trombone in Nervous Cabaret) and David Garland (singer & songwriter and host of WNYC's "Spinning On Air" and "Evening Music") are the month's guest curators at the space.

Let's get into some highlights.

Skeletons Big Band and Capillary Action bring their new large-ensemble compositions (which Skeletons have been playing out since September) to the venue on Sunday, December 6th.

Danielson will somehow pack his "family group" into the venue for a night of music on December 22nd. They just put out a new 7" single on his Sounds Familyre label. The video for its lead track "Moment Soakers" is below. Later that night, you can also see M6, a six-person vocal ensemble that performs the work of innovative composer Meredith Monk.

Sisters Ruth and Merrill Garbus (the latter of which heads tUnE-yArDs) will split an evening on December 23rd.

Diane Cluck is there on December 16th.
Larkin Grimm plays after David Garland on the 17th.

Rob Moose plays violin and other instruments with Antony and the Johnsons, My Brightest Diamond, Sufjan Stevens and others. He plays his first-ever solo show at the venue on December 18th.

Currituck County aka Kevin Barker is the late show on the 19th, and the one and only Dave Deporis will be there on the 27th.

And for those with an open Christmas Day, the venue presents an 8pm set from Asthmatic Kitty-signed songwriter DM Stith and a 10pm set that promises to be entertaining: David Garland (piano, clarinet), son Kenji Garland (some-input mixer) and guests present "Processing Xmas" which will features "Familiar seasonal songs processed and emancipated; family improvs; audience sing-alongs; a warm get-together on a winter night."

On December 29th Extra Life, typically a brooding, dark prog ensemble, will play as a duo, with frontman and guitarist Charlie Looker accompanied by the group's violinist Caley Monahon-Ward.

Then the month and year end with "JOHN ZORN'S ANNUAL END OF THE YEAR IMPROV" on Dec. 30th, and a TBA New Year's Eve event.

The Stone's full December schedule is below...

Continue reading "The Stone's December lineup (is really great) - Danielson, DM Stith, Skeletons, Dave Deporis, David Garland & more"

by Andrew Frisicano

DJ Scott Devendrof @ Sycamore

New Brooklyn bar Sycamore (1118 Cortelyou Rd) has begun booking shows. So far, there have been two gigs at the venue which is one of the only spaces for live music in Brooklyn's Ditmas Park neighborhood that is also home to Solo (formerly Cornerstone) and the troubled Vox Pop. Other nearby businesses include Mimi's Hummus, the Flatbush Food Coop and The Farm on Adderly, and if visiting, you can also walk around to see the many beautiful Victorian homes.

One of the two Sycamore shows so far was Hoferlanz (a.k.a. Benjamin Lanz who's played with The National, Beirut, Sufjan Stevens and My Brightest Diamond) with Sebastian Kruger (Inlets) on Thursday, March 26th.

The venue's third show happens tonight (4/8) with French guitarist Pedro Soler. Other acts on the developing schedule include Ecstatic Peace artist Hush Arbors on April 23rd (the gig "will be the first show [he's] done in New York since '05"), Sounds Familyre band Ben + Vesper on May 2nd, Nick Krgovich of No Kids on May 20th, and Asthmatic Kitty's Hermas Zopoula (video below) on June 12th. Full lineup below.

The flower shop by day, bar by night was recently featured on the cast-of-Hair-naked cover of Time Out NY. Scott Devendorf of the National, a band who has more than one member living in that neighborhood, frequently DJ's at the bar (as you can see in the picture above).

Neighborhood blog Flashbush Vegan (no relation) describes the look of the bar at its opening in September '08:

Patrons enter through the cute flower shop, where a few stools provide a quiet drinking spot and a neat lookout on Cortelyou Road. A jukebox sits at the entrance of the bar and in the back are two cozy horseshoe-shaped couches tucked into the corners. The inside was so jam packed that we had to step outside to their beautiful garden, which has received quite an overhaul since the days of Cortelyou Vintage. Ivy covers three of the walls and there's a large wood patio that steps down into a pebble-covered area with more seating and even a stand-alone cast iron fireplace. We couldn't help but feel a little sorry for the neighbors, though, whose windows and terraces overlook the bar's garden. Maybe they can get a few free drinks every now and then.

Shows at Sycamore take place in a separate area, affectionately called the "whiskey cellar" with a stage and none of the noise from the bar. Jessica, the venue's show booker, told us, "We're starting slowly, to be sure everything is done right. The goal is about 3 to 4 shows a week, and in general, to feature one artist/evening [which they can] do whatever they want with --- this could mean longer, relaxed sets, trying out new material, inviting 'special guests,' tap-dancing, juggling..."

Full lineup, and a video of Hermas Zopoula playing in his yard in Burkina Faso, below...

Continue reading "Sycamore hosting live shows (and selling flowers) in Ditmas Park (Brooklyn) - upcoming schedule"

DOWNLOAD: Chris Schlarb - Section IV (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Chris Schlarb - Section I (MP3)

To those located in the New York City area, Asthmatic Kitty are happy to announce a rare opportunity to experience a performance of musician and producer Chris Schlarb's debut solo record, Twilight & Ghost Stories in its entirety. Chris will be performing this modern composition on Saturday, February 7th, at The Stone with many of the artists who assisted in the creation of this work of personal identity and catharsis. Twilight is a dense 40-minute work featuring a disparate cross-section of musicians from the avant-garde, independent folk, jazz, and electronic communities. When performed with a live ensemble the piece is conducted using a custom built lightbox to simulate the layers of sound found on the album.

Performance will feature all New York-based musicians
Diane Cluck - voice and acoustic guitar Shannon Fields - omnichord, glockenspiel, clarinet Roberto C. Lange - electronics (Savath y Savalas) Mick Rossi - piano (Philip Glass Ensemble) Katherine Young - bassoon G. Lucas Crane - tapes, electronics (Vanishing Voice) Tom Abbs - acoustic bass, dijeridoo Chad Taylor - drums (Iron & Wine) Chris Schlarb - acoustic guitar, electronics, lights and special guests

Chris Schlarb's Twilight & Ghost Stories - Saturday, Feb. 7th @ The Stone, 8pm & 10pm

Joan as Policewoman will play shows at 8 and 10 pm at the Stone in NYC on New Years Eve. The 'Annual End The Year Improv Night' with John Zorn happens at the same venue three nights earlier. Other names on the Stone's schedule for December (curated by Jennifer Charles) include Gary Lucas, Erik Friedlander, Doveman, Alan Licht, Hal Willner's Parade (Yuka Honda & Sean Lennon), Elysian Fields, JG Thirwell, and Marc Ribot's Ceramic Dog (tonight, Sunday December 7th).

January's schedule, curated by Craig Taborn, doesn't have many names
I recognize, but February, curated by Shannon Fields of Stars Like Fleas, has Twi the Humble Feather, Tunde Adebimpe of TV on the Radio, Chris Schlarb, Diane Cluck, Jon Natchez, Kelly Pratt, Lexie Mountain Boys, Megafun, John Zorn, Ecstatic Sunshine, Sam Amidon, and Tristan Perich,

For other NYC shows on New Years Eve, browse HERE.

Joan Wasser (as Policewoman) and at least one band member also contribute to Gramercy Arms.

Marc Ribot is also playing December 9th at Blue Note and December 11th at Knitting Factory.

Titus Andronicus @ Maxwell's (more by Leia Jospe)

today in NYC
* DANCE
* Baltimore Round Robin (early and late)
* Diane Cluck @ Joe's Pub
* Lykke Li (acoustic) @ Santos Party House
* Secret Machines & TK Webb @ Webster Hall
* Wild Yaks, Frankpollis @ Monkey Town
* Elk City, Boy Genius, El May @ Union Hall
* John Vanderslice, Michael Showalter @ 92YTribeca
* The Juan Maclean, Holy Ghost!, Chairlift @ Bowery Ballroom
* Love as Laughter, Citay, Magical, Beautiful @ Southpaw
* The So So Glos, Titus Andronicus, Woods, Le Rug @ Market Hotel
* Autodrone, A Brief Smile, Her Vanished Grace, Boy Genius @ Pianos
* The Spinto Band, Frightened Rabbit, The Sw!ms @ Music Hall of Williamsburg

Chuck Berry was born today in 1926.

Video of Diane Cluck singing "Easy to be Around" below...

What else?

Continue reading "What's going on Saturday?"