by Andrew Sacher

DOWNLOAD: yMusic - "Proven Badlands" (composed by Annie Clark) (MP3)

My Brightest Diamond at Prospect Park in August (more by Amanda Hatfield)

My Brightest Diamond (aka Shara Worden) is set to release her third full length album All Things Will Unwind on October 18 via Asthmatic Kitty. She's already revealed the excellent track, "Reaching Through to the Other Side," which you can grab HERE. Now she's got a video for another album track, "Be Brave," which you can watch below. The song's got backing vocals by DM Stith, was engineered and mixed by Pat Dillett (Laurie Anderson, The National), and features instrumentation by yMusic, who play on every track of the album. The video was directed by Murat Eyuboglu, who has directed other videos for Shara in the past, and stars Jessica Dessner as a dancer.

Shara's got some upcoming dates in the next few months including an album release show in NYC on October 14 at Littlefield with yMusic and DM Stith, who both appear on her album. Tickets for that show are on sale now. All dates are listed below.

Speaking of yMusic, they will release their debut LP Beautiful Mechanical on September 27 via New Amsterdam Records. The album features tracks composed by Shara Worden, St. Vincent (Annie Clark), Son Lux, Sarah Kirkland Snider, Judd Greenstein, and Gabriel Kahane. You can download the St. Vincent-penned piece, "Proven Badlands," above and check out the album's tracklist below.

All dates, video, and tracklist below...

Continue reading "new My Brightest Diamond video & tour dates, new yMusic LP info & Annie Clark MP3 too"

by Andrew Frisicano

DOWNLOAD: Gabriel Kahane - Last Dance (MP3)

Pianist Gabriel Kahane has a new album, Where are the Arms, coming out September 13th on 2nd Story Sound Records. His compositions deal both in classical and pop modes (he's worked with Sufjan and the Kronos Quartet), and on the record it's no different. The piano-pop songs both are sinewy and direct, elevating common-place subjects with his intricate arrangements. "Last Dance," above, clocks in at less than four minutes and still contains a dizzying series of twists that lead into a devastating second half. Get the song, make its premiere here, above.

Gabriel just finished a June residency at Rockwood Music Hall and has no NYC shows coming up currently (though there is a show on July 29th in Westchester). Look for NYC dates in the fall.

Next year, The Public Theatre will stage his musical-theater work February House in May.

More info on February House, tour dates and videos (including "Neurotic and Lonely" from 2006's Craigslistlieder) are below...

Continue reading "Gabriel Kahane releasing 'Where are the Arms' (MP3 premiere)"

"I was fortunate to catch The Punch Brothers at the Bowery Ballroom on Saturday night. I think I've seen them perform a good six times in the last year and a half? Honestly, I've lost count, because I've probably seen Chris Thile (who is part of the band) just as many. I consider it such a privilege to live in a city that not only breeds and encourages new talent but also offers up many an opportunity to see the music I love. I could (and have) gone on about this band before, but each concert I attend is different and amazing. The Secret Sisters opened and Karen Elson, the supermodel married to Jack White, performed with the bands as well." [Delighted & Charmed]

That review refers to the 1/15 Punch Brothers and Secret Sisters show at Bowery Ballroom where special guest Karen Elson joined both bands.

Punch Brothers will return to Bowery Ballroom on April 16th, this time for a revival of p-Bingo Night...

"p-Bingo Night is Punch Brothers' creative process (made slightly more entertaining, hopefully) on display at the Living Room [ on Thursday nights in 2009 and 2010]. In addition to other delights, you can expect to see the Brothers trying out new material, improving existing material, and appropriating material that they wish was theirs, i.e. Radiohead, Bach, D'Angelo, James King, etc., right in front of your very eyes... or ears, rather, though music is generally better seen than heard. Also, there will be Special Guests, the coattails of whom the Brothers will surely ride to fame and fortune! Please note: little to no bingo will be played."

Tickets for the April Bowery show are on sale. Check below for the full slate of PB dates which stretch from coast to coast and into June.

Among those dates are also two solo dates for Punch Brothers mandolin master Chris Thile. The first of those dates, Feb 8th, will see him team with Michael Daves for a sold-out date at Rockwood Music Hall. The second is March 2nd at Le Poisson Rouge with Gabriel Kahane and Brad Mehldau. Tickets are still available.

Gabriel Kahane also plays a show at Merkin Concert Hall as part of the Ecstatic Music Festival three days after LPR.

Tour dates videos below.

Continue reading "more Punch Brothers & Chris Thile gigs (Gabriel Kahane too)"

As previously announced, the 2011 Ecstatic Music Festival, presented by New York City's Merkin Concert Hall in association with New Amsterdam Records, is a showcase of imaginative collaborations between more than 150 genre-pushing composers, songwriters and performers who represent a new generation of artists combining diverse influences and techniques to explore the intersection of classical and pop music. All concerts will include premieres. The festival opens with a free seven-hour marathon on January 17, 2011, and continues with 13 additional concerts until March 28, 2011. All concerts will take place at Merkin Concert Hall.

The Ecstatic Music Festival 2011 is almost here. Subscriptions and single show tickets are on sale. The full updated schedule (tUnE-yArDs, So Percussion, Dan Deacon, Craig Wedren, ACME, Nadia Sirota, Buke & Gass, Doveman, Owen Pallett, Bang On A Can All-Stars, and more included), and a trailer, below...

Continue reading "Ecstatic Music Festival kicks off on 1/16, runs through 3/28 (updated schedule w/ tUnE-yArDs, Dan Deacon, Owen Pallett)"

My Brightest Diamond @ Bowery Ballroom in January (more by Chris La Putt)

Shara Worden (My Brightest Diamond) will be curating a two-night event with music, film and more at 92YTribeca in NYC on March 5th and 6th.

Over two nights, Shara hosts a tremendous cast of artists to showcase the different ways people create. From the sewing installations of Dena Verdesca, to the yarn circle lead by Amy Fritch, to the provocative photography and Tableau Vivant performances of Sarah Small, to the paper art installation and spontaneous poetry of Tim Fite, to the live projections by video artist Deborah Johnson and the flower graffiti of Nikki Borodi - you will hardly recognize the 92YTribeca gallery and mainstage as the spaces are transformed by these wildly creative artists. To add to the magic, Shara has brought together live performances by puppeteer Lake Simons, Brooklyn acappella group Black Sea Hotel, songwriters Dayna Kurtz & Mamie Minch, a screening by filmmaker Cathryn Davis Zommer, plus a special performance by Shara Worden with the dynamic chamber ensemble yMusic and other surprise guests artists to be announced.

The nights - dubbed "Diamonds, Teeth and Yarn" - will kick off 92YTribeca's Women's History Month calendar. Tickets to both nights are on sale. The full schedule, as listed below, includes at least one "Special Guest To Be Announced".

Shara played Bowery Ballroom in January. She's also on the new Clogs' album; she and the band will be at Big Ears Festival in Knoxville at the end of March, where yMusic (playing with Shara at 92YTribeca) will perform a piece by St. Vincent.

yMusic will be playing with Gabriel Kahane on Wednesday, March 3rd as part of the American Songbook Series at Lincoln Center's Allen Room (where Dirty Projectors will play Getty Address with Alarm Will Sound this Friday). On March 5th and 6th (the same nights as these 92YTribeca shows), yMusic will be at Symphony Space with Gina Gibney Dance Company.

All tour dates and the lineup for Shara's two 92YTribeca events are below...

Continue reading "Shara Worden curates 2 nights @ 92YTribeca -lineup includes yMusic who play w/ Gabriel Kahane, St Vincent & more"

Lincoln Center's acclaimed series American Songbook returns in January for its twelfth season celebrating the diversity of American popular song. For 16 nights of pop, folk, cabaret, country, rock, and show tunes, the series will explore the best of the golden age of musical standards through to today's most dynamic contemporary songwriting. The 2010 season - January 13 through March 6 - will bring to the stage some of today's most gifted interpreters of song, including top jazz artist Dee Dee Bridgewater and rock's gritty queen, Marianne Faithfull. It will feature opportunities to hear the acclaimed stage actress Martha Plimpton and Broadway star Leslie Uggams in intimate concert settings. Two of the hottest composers on the theater scene - Jeanine Tesori ("Shrek The Musical" and "Caroline, or Change") and Michael Friedman "Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson" and "Gone Missing") - will perform evenings of their music along with special guests. The growing presence and influence of Latin music in the American Songbook canon will be represented by David Hidalgo and Louie Perez, two of the founding members of the band Los Lobos. Hidalgo and Perez will explore their four decades of writing and performing songs that are some of the best in Latin roots-rock. The series will close with an evening with one of Broadway's most enduring divas, the fabulous Chita Rivera.

American Songbook will be presented in the spectacular Allen Room of Frederick P. Rose Hall. 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 1st at Lincoln Center's website AmericanSongbook.org, via CenterCharge at 212-721-6500, at the Avery Fisher Hall Box Office, or at the Frederick P. Rose Hall Box Office. Tickets for The Friends of American Songbook go on sale October 27th.

Suzanne Vega, Dirty Projectors, St. Vincent, Gabriel Kahane, and Nellie McKay are also playing shows as part of the series.

Dirty Projectors' most recent NYC show was a short set at the Bell House as part of the New Yorker Festival. Their next NYC shows are sold out gigs at Bowery Ballroom and Music Hall of Williamsburg. Full Lincoln Center schedule below...

Continue reading "Dirty Projectors, St Vincent, Nellie McKay, Marianne Faithfull, others part of 2010 season of Lincoln Center's American Songbook"

by Andrew Frisicano

[Gabriel] Kahane is twenty-seven, and his listeners seem roughly the same age. He is well on his way to developing an original creative personality; his music absorbs everything from nineteen-twenties neoclassicism to blue-grass and modern indie pop, with potent melodies bridging the disparate styles. [New Yorker]

Kahane kicks off a residency at the Rockwood Music Hall on June 1st (tonight). He'll be there Mondays at 10pm through the rest of the month.

On June 12th, Kahane also performs at PS 139 Auditorium (330 Rugby Rd, Brooklyn) as part of the Ditmas Park Concert Series...

"Come hear the remarkably creative and talented singer-songwriter/pianist Gabriel Kahane, performing with a host of special and equally talented friends."

One of the singer's most well-known friends would have to be Sufjan Stevens, who appears on Kahane's eponymous 2008 disc. Kahane in turn is credited with "the piano cadenza on Sufjan Stevens' 'You are the Blood'" from the Dark Was the Night compilation.

Kahane's Craigslistlieder, a 2007 song cycle with lyrics compiled from Craigslist posts, has been re-released as a free download from Family Records. New single "LA" is streaming on MySpace.

All tour dates, with a video of Kahane performing Craigslistlieder material, below...

Continue reading "Gabriel Kahane - June residency at Rockwood Music Hall"

photos by Eric M. Townsend

Chris Thile & Danny Clinch

On Wednesday, December 10 the Morrison Hotel Gallery [hosted] the second live show in their Bowery gallery space which once housed CBGB's Gallery. Famed photographer and musician Danny Clinch [performed] with the Clinch Mob on the opening night of his most ambitious photography exhibition ever. The show will feature 30 pieces, including 5 oversized 4-foot by 5-foot images and 3 limited edition brushed aluminum photos. The Tangiers Blues Band will also perform and Clinch will sit in on harmonica.

The "show and sale will continue through the new year". Other guests/performers at the opening were Willie Nelson's harmonica player Mickey Raphael and Nickel Creek's Chris Thile..

Chris Thile will also be the special guest during Gabriel Kahane's performance at Rockwood Music Hall tonight/Monday (12/15). More pictures from the gallery opening below...

Continue reading "Chris Thile @ Danny Clinch's Morrison Hotel Gallery opening (pics), Gabriel Kahane Monday @ Rockwood Music Hall"