by Andrew Frisicano

DOWNLOAD: Corey Dargel - Fingers (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Corey Dargel - Touch Me Where It Counts (MP3)

Corey Dargel & Co.

The final show of the monthly Archipelago music series at Galapagos will take place Friday, May 21st (tonight). Singer/composer Corey Dargel is using the show as a release party for his new record, Someone Will Take Care of Me, out May 25th on New Amesterdam. That double album includes two song cycles, Thirteen Near-Death Experiences and Removable Parts, which he'll be performing songs from at the show with the help of International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), pianist Kathleen Supove and drummer David T Little. The two songs are from the record (one from each work).

Also performing at the concert will be American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME) and singer Craig Wedren (from Shudder to Think), who will be debuting songs by composer Jefferson Friedman. The three have worked together in the past - videos from their performance of Friedman's song cycle On in Love at Miller Theatre in 2009 are posted below.

Friends-
please join me on Fri, May 21 for a rare and awesome evening of new music that will blow minds.
For the last year or so, composer Jefferson Friedman and I have been collaborating on a song cycle which fuses/abuses classical and vocal music, essentially smashing both traditions wide open and shooting the whole thing on an orchestral rocket to the moon. I'll be singing with ACME (the American Contemporary Music Ensemble), and we'll be premiering 3 new pieces in addition to the 3 we debuted last year.
Hope to see you listening.
Thanks,
Craig

Tickets are on sale ($5 off with code "NEWAM"). BrooklynVegan also has a pair of tickets to give away. Details on the give-away, videos and more info on the show are below...

Continue reading "Corey Dargel releasing a new album (MP3s), playing w/ Craig Wedren, ICE, ACME & others (tonight) (win tix)"

Following the New York American debut of his "Music for Silents" performance series in October 2009, Siouxsie and the Banshees co-founder, bassist, and songwriter Steven Severin returns to Gotham for the New York premiere of his live soundtrack performance to Jean Cocteau's 1930 silent movie classic, "Blood of a Poet", [at Galapagos Art Space on January 16th].

Steven will perform his "The Seashell and the Clergyman" program, which also features contemporary color films, on the following night, January 17th at Galapagos Art Space.

A rare avant-garde appearance and event that is not to be missed!

photos by Greg Cristman

Happy Holidays! I take on more than I can handle. That results in a lot of unposted content. In the name of catching up, while also taking it easy during this final week of the year, here's some of that lost material.

Little Annie & Paul Wallfisch played Galapagos in Brooklyn on December 9th. More pictures from their show below...

Continue reading "Little Annie & Paul Wallfisch @ Galapagos in Brooklyn - pics"

words by Andrew Frisicano, photos by Steven P. Marsh

As its length [about an hour] suggests, this was a leisurely "In C," and it began [at Le Poisson Rouge on Sunday the 8th] with a prelude of sorts: a rich aural haze surrounding a honking, spirited saxophone line that darted about for five minutes before the steady, pulsing C signaled the start of Mr. Riley's work. The ensemble, which included standard strings and woodwinds, as well as a few guitars, an accordion, a piano and percussion, moved between extremes of dense, flowing textures and transparent pointillism, with Mr. DeSantis's additions -- including what sounded like instrumental sounds played backward -- occasionally providing otherworldly effects.

By design, "In C" sounds different in every performance, and this was as good a reading as many, but not the best I've heard: that distinction is still held by the vigorous Darmstadt performance at Galapagos in 2007. [NY Times]

That's a review of the 'In C Remixed' album release concert that took place at (Le) Poisson Rouge on Sunday, November 8th. The night's performers, Grand Valley State University New Music Ensemble, were joined by 'remixer' Dennis DeSantis on laptop and electronics. The piece moved casually and steadily, and wasn't without its charms (the opening sax breakout noted above was an especially warm introduction), but my only regret was not finding a chair for the hour-long take. The two pictures here are from that show.

The 2007 "best" In C performance referenced above will happen again when the Darmstadt series brings "In C" back to Galapagos on Monday, November 30th. The performance celebrates the five year anniversary of the series, which is curated by Nick Hallett and Zach Layton. For the piece they've recruited "a battery of avant-guitar gods (David Grubbs, Alan Licht among them), veteran composer-performer Jon Gibson (who played in the very first performance of In C), singers, instrumentalists across a wide span of tones and timbres, electronic musicians....all keeping to the beat of drummer Ryan Sawyer." All that and visuals by Joshua Light Show (who did the trippy background for Yo La Tengo at Roseland in September). Tickets (only $10+fees) are on sale.

On December 3rd, 4th & 5th, Darmstadt: Classics of the Avant Garde series will bring its second annual "Essential Repertoire" festival to the Issue Project Room. The theme for this year's fest focuses on the "30th anniversary of the seminal New Music New York concerts curated by Rhys Chatham and held at The Kitchen, which put the still-burgeoning Downtown Scene...under a mainstream spotlight and redefined the presentation of experimental music." The concerts are programmed accordingly, with music from "'Blue' Gene Tyranny, Connie Beckley, David van Tieghem, Jill Kroesen, Jon Gibson, Ned Sublette, Peter Gordon, Peter Zummo, Petr Kotik, Phill Niblock, and a performance of Meredith Monk's Dolmen Music by the M6 (who are at the Stone in December). Advanced tickets for night one are on sale, but not for two and three.

If more Terry Riley is your thing, he's been announced as the artist-in-residence at this year's Big Ears Festival in Knoxville, TN, March 26th-28th. A retrospective of his work will take place during the fest, and that'll be sure to include "In C." Tickets and more info TBA.

More details on Darmstadt and a clip from last year's festival are below...

Continue reading "Terry Riley's 'In C' was @ LPR, will be @ Galapagos +++ Darmstadt @ Issue Project Room & Big Ears Fest info"

by Andrew Frisicano

Nadia Sirota

There were (more) strings at September 25th's inaugural show for the Archipelago music series, which happens at Galapagos one Friday a month through next May. Like the Undiscovered Islands fest in May, the shows will be featuring music that crosses boundaries between classical, indie, etc. (and like that fest, it's also being set up by the New Amsterdam label.)

The full schedule is below. It's full of treats (like a way-off show with music by Shara Worden aka My Brightest Diamond in April). The first show featured violist Nadia Sirota and percussion quartet Line C3. Coincidentally, Worden and Nadia will both be playing with the Dessner Bros.' BAM Next Wave show, The Long Count, at the end of October.

Both acts on the first night performed works by Nico Muhly (Line C3 did "Ta and Clap," written by Nico for them in 2004, and he joined Nadia for his piece "Keep in Touch," which features a vocal sample from Antony Hegarty of Antony and the Johnsons). Nadia & Nico actually discuss their collaborations in an episode of New Amsterdam's Podcast series.

Speaking of New Amsterdam, they also have a CMJ showcase coming up with Cantaloupe Records at (Le) Poisson Rouge on October 21st. Tickets are on sale. That will feature the music of David Lang and Julia Wolfe (Bang on a Can co-founders) and performances by NOW Ensemble, Darcy James Argue's Secret Society and more. Clips of the Lang-scored film (Untitled) will be screened between performances (the soundtrack of which will be out October 13th).

Full details on the Archipelago series below...

Continue reading "Archipelago music series to feature Shara Worden, Craig Wedren & more ++ New Amsterdam & Cantaloupe do CMJ"

Dan Deacon @ NYU (more by Anna Scialli)

Dan Deacon and his ensemble kicked off their current tour at NYU in April. and now they're back for three NYC shows this weekend. The first, which previously had a TBA location, will be happening in Brooklyn tonight (5/15) at 979 Broadway Backyard (map). Todd P writes

2NITE, early! - a huge outdoor DAN DEACON ENSEMBLE extravaganza, starts early evening in the same HUGE lot under the train in Bushwick where Lightning Bolt played last fall! It's a beautiful urban outdoor space, & we've got an amazing rainout location hooked up directly across the street in that gorgeous old neoclassical bank building "martial arts studio" @ Broadway & Stuyvesant. It'll be phenomenal, rain or shine!

The second (early with Teeth Mountain opening) and third (late with Future Islands opening) shows are both at Bowery Ballroom on Saturday night (5/16). Both appear to be sold out.

Dan Deacon played with So Percussion at the Brooklyn Masonic Temple show on December 11th, 2008, with the Dirty Projectors. On Friday, May 22nd, So Percussion are scheduled to premiere a new piece by Dan Deacon at Galapagos in Brooklyn. That composition, still a work-in-progress, "may include pouring liquids onstage, amplified coke bottles, and other oddities..." The show is part of the Undiscovered Islands series (which presents a show with violist Nadia Sirota and others, tonight/Friday).

Full lineup for the Friday night Dan Deacon show below...

Continue reading "Dan Deacon is here -- 1st of 3 shows is in Bushwick tonight ++ So Percussion performs Dan's work next week"

by Andrew Frisicano

Darcy James Argue

New Amsterdam Records is putting on Undiscovered Islands, a month-long exhibition of work by label artists and friends at Brooklyn's Galapagos Art Space (16 Main St in DUMBO). The series' four Friday shows start May 8th. Tickets are on sale now.

The lineups include two record release shows: one for Darcy James Argue's Secret Society's Infernal Machines on Friday, May 8th; and another on May 15th for Nadia Sirota's first things first. Sirota will be appearing with the Chiara Quartet, itsnotyouitsme, Clarice Jensen, Nico Muhly and others.

Friday, May 22nd's show will feature ensemble Signal premiering Sarah Kirkland Snider's Penelope with Brad Lubman, Steven Mackey and Rachel Calloway, and So Percussion playing new works.

The final Undiscovered Islands of the month will feature NOW Ensemble and Abigail Fischer premiering Missy Mazzoli and Stephen Taylor's "Song from the Uproar" followed by a preview premiere performance of William Brittelle's Television Landscape on Friday, May 29th. New work Television Landscape is described in the release as "a fully-notated concept album that brings together the epic tradition of Pet Sounds, Purple Rain, and OK Computer with Brittelle's idiosyncratic... compositional style."

Continue reading "Undiscovered Islands - an 'indie' classical series in May @ Galapagos, Matmos in Princeton & more "

Grizzly Bear's new album will be released by Warp Records in May. There's no title or tracklist or much else known about it yet, but Nico Muhly did some arrangements for the Brooklyn Youth Chorus and a string quartet, all of whom are credited as contributors on the new record.

Nico Muhly also did arrangements for the Grizzly Bear / Brooklyn Philharmonic show coming up at BAM on February 28th. Tickets for that are sold out, BUT tickets go on sale Monday for a Valentine's day show at Galapagos in DUMBO. "The New Yorker will debut a new series of cabaret-style evenings, The New Yorker Speakeasy. Conversations and cocktails... no password required." The February 14th edition will be hosted by The New Yorker's fiction editor Deborah Treisman and feature performances/conversations by Gabriel Byrne, Jeffrey Eugenides, Victor Rasuk, Karen Russell, Grizzly Bear, "and more". Expect maybe four songs from the band after an introduction by New Yorker music critic Sasha Frere-Jones.

The last Grizzly Bear-related show in NYC was the Department of Eagles one at Bowery Ballroom.

Final Fantasy also plays the show at BAM, and has two other shows coming up at The Kitchen.

Grizzly Bear and lots of others appear on the new 4AD charity comp "Dark Was the Night.

Grizzly Bear performed their new song "Two Weeks" on Letterman over the summer. It will probably appear on the new album. Watch & listen below...

Continue reading "new Grizzly Bear album in May, New Yorker Speakeasy tix"

Obama vs McCain, 2008 Village Halloween Parade (bnittoli)

Here are a selection of events happening in New York City on November 4th, 2008.

(le) poisson rouge is hosting a free event with two jumbo projection screens and The Obama Girls of Comedy.

Galapagos (in its new DUMBO location) is having an "Obama-Fabulous Election Night Party". A projection screen and The Yes We Can!-Can Girls. $10.

Sound Fix will be hosting an "Election Night Broadcast Blowout".

New Amsterdam Records is having an Election Night Party at Nuyorican Poets Cafe

The Onion's 'War For The White House Election Night Spectacular' will take place at Fontana's. There will be a big screen, free drinks, and comedy by Todd Barry, Mike Birbiglia, Kristen Schaal and Kurt Braunohler, and Pangea 3000. Free with RSVP. "To RSVP, please email nypromo@theonion.com with 'Election Night RSVP' in the subject. Your name and the name of your guest MUST be included in the body of the email.". This event is now SOLD OUT.

Rival Schools are playing Maxwell's.

Judson Church is hosting "An Election Night Concert of Free Improvisation". Featuring performances by 19 artists including John Zorn & Joan La Barbara. $10, 6pm-midnight. Check out this PDF for more info.

continued below...

Continue reading "Election Night Events in NYC"

I just realized Miracle Fortress was in town for this random show that Earl Greyhound are also playing at the venue formerly know as Galapagos tonight....

Continue reading "Miracle Fortress - NYC tonight!?, Montreal, Iceland & UK too"

Public Assembly & Music Hall of Williamsburg (cred)

According to Gothamist, the new owners of the Williamsburg space that held Galapagos have decided upon a name. That name is Public Assembly. It is not clear whether or not someone actually won the contest though.

I guess they changed their mind about "Natural Selection"...

We need your help to rename the performance space formerly known as Galapagos. The new owners of the Williamsburg venue plan to keep the space as it is for the most part, with the addition of improved audio equipment... and a new name.

Check out the space at www.70north6th.com

Submit your suggestions here and you could win a $1,000 bar tab, plus a year's free admission for you and a guest. [Nameourspace.com]

A press release was sent out about Natural Selection.....

Continue reading "Natural Selection (officially) taking over Galapagos "

TONY has it that Southpaw owner Matthew Roff, currently involved in the final stages of opening new Prospect Heights beer garden Franklin Park, plans to sign a lease tomorrow on the Galapagos space in Williamsburg.

The name: Natural Selection. "We're all fans of Darwin, obviously," says Roff, who will partner with the owners of popular South Slope watering hole Bar Four. "We were originally going to call it Madagascar but we thought that might be too much of a slap in the face."

Roff plans to retain the location as a performance space, and tells us the transformation could be "weeks away." Galapagos, as has been widely reported, will relocate to Dumbo sometime in 2009.

(thx J)

Matthew Dear @ Galapagos (bunker) - April 4, 2008 (100five)

Hey,

Just a quick note to let you know about some fuck up stuff that happened yesterday night (April 4) at Galapagos Art Space, during Matthew Dear show.

Matthew, who was celebrating his birthday yesterday, had been playing a killer set for 2 hours or so. Suddenly he got a message on his computer saying that his hard disk drive was unplugged...

The music stopped, he checked and found out that the drive was actually missing... basically someone STOLE his hard drive in the middle of his set and ruined the all show!!!

This is SO WRONG!!! The management of the place asked people if they had seen anything, but nobody did, and the guy probably ran away...

FYI, Matthew just moved few month ago from Detroit to Brooklyn. We are privileged to have him here. Shame on the guy who did this.

If you need more details, you can contact me. Thank you.

If anyone has anymore details, please contact me and I'll pass it on. Matthew Dear is opening for Hot Chip tonight (April 8) at Music Hall of Williamsburg.

mud wrestling @ SXSW (Rebecca Smeyne)

mud wrestling @ Galapagos (Tod Seelie)

* Wussy is playing Cake Shop
* The LK IS REALLY playing Rehab
* Morcheeba is playing Webster Hall
* Morcheeba is playing the Apple Store
* "The Rutles" are playing Blender Theater
* Ida & The Glorytellers are playing Union Hall
* Delta Spirit & Port O'Brien are playing Pianos
* Moby is speaking & stuff @ the Rubin Museum of Art
* The Raveonettes are playing Bowery Ballrooom
* Drive By Truckers & The Whigs are playing Terminal 5
* Del Tha Funky Homosapien is playing Highline Ballroom
* Crystal Castles, Health, Team Robespierre, and Apache Beat are playing Merc

March 31st - save the date. 3 bands TBA & a bunch of comedians at Pianos.

Mudhoney are going on tour.

What else?

DOWNLOAD: The King Left - The Storm In A Teacup (MP3)

CSS @ Pianos, BrooklynVegan show - CMJ 2006 (CRED)

3 blogs, 3 sets of free public parties on the LES
* Tue-Sat w/ Underrated Indaba & This Side Up
* Wed-Sat w/ Gothamist & WOXY
* Wed, Fri & Sat w/ BrooklynVegan

And with official CMJ activities going on at the Puck Building and NYU this year, it's now easier than ever for CMJ attendees to jump from parties to panels to the day stage, etc....

bonus (& for those who prefer Brooklyn)
* After The Jump @ The Annex & The Yard (Brooklyn)
* Tue-Sat w/ SoundFix @ SoundFix Records
* Fri w/ Crashin’In @ Galapagos

The MP3 at the top of this post is by The King Left - catch them for free at noon on Saturday at my show at Pianos.

"The Tub Project" in DUMBO - Sept 29, 2007 (CRED)

I've always liked the DUMBO Arts Under the Bridge Festival. I don't get "Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass" that often, so it's always a good excuse to visit the neighborhood. The art-stuff ranges from painting & photograph galleries, to political messages, to random people doing weird things in the street. DUMBO is always getting better - for instance Galapagos is moving there, and it's always getting worse - do any artists even still live there? Even with all the real estate development though, I still like to think of DUMBO as a progressive place - not the kind of neighborhood to overlook a blatant act of animal cruelty happening right on their own streets.....

Dondi the elephant in DUMBO - Sept 29, 2007 (CRED)

Using her massive trunk to hold brushes, Dondi the elephant paints and showcases her artistic prowess. A presentation by renowned artist Vitaly Komar, who established an elephant art academy in Thailand with fellow artist Alex Melamid, will follow. Special project initiated and exclusively sponsored by Two Trees Management & Dumbo Improvement District.

Then again, according to the elephant art academy's website, they are actually working AGAINST elephant cruelty. So, who knows.

And in somewhat related news.....

A production of Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” will replace a hip-hop festival next summer in a DUMBO venue controlled by the Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy — and organizers of the rap show believe that race played a role.

The Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival — which brought thousands of people and big-name rappers to the park-and-condo waterfront development site in 2006 and 2007 — had already scheduled its 2008 production for the weekend of June 22.

But organizers were shocked last month to discover that the Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy had given those days to St. Ann’s Warehouse to stage a Polish rendition of that Scottish play. [The Brooklyn Paper]

The festival site doesn't mention the controversy. Maybe they'll get a different date? If not, hopefully they'll find a new location - one where the parents won't be freaking the f*uck out.

new Galapagos

In December we asked, is Galapagos closing? To that the owner said NO WE ARE NOT. Today the times reports....

In a move that has greater symbolic significance than mere real estate hopscotch, Galapagos Art Space, the pioneering bar and performing arts space that helped put Williamsburg, Brooklyn, on the cultural map, is moving a few neighborhoods down the East River, to Dumbo.

Galapagos, which has played host to a broad array of New York’s musicians, dancers, theater artists, performance artists, fine artists and burlesque dancers during its 12-year existence, is scheduled to move into the space, a 102-year-old, 10,000-square-foot former horse stable at 16 Main Street, in the spring or summer of 2008.....

.....“We’re doubling our size and halving our rent,” said Robert Elmes, who started Galapagos in 1995, when it opened in fits and starts on North Sixth Street, which at the time was notable mainly for the rancid smell of nearby meat-processing plants.....

....In Williamsburg, Galapagos Art Space will continue its full schedule until the weekend of June 17, with plans to operate intermittently throughout the summer..... [NY Times]

GALAPAGOS ON HALLOWEEN 2006 (CRED)

In case you missed this in the comments here and at Curbed:

Galapagos Art Space isn’t closing; the rumor is just a rumor, like the 'supervenue' rumor in October.

But cultural infrastructure is evaporating in our white-hot real estate market. If a pier in Red Hook, not even the one with the best view, sells for forty million dollars, and a parcel of land in Greenpoint can fetch one hundred and forty million, then it will become increasingly difficult, desperate by some accounts, for artists to maintain a meaningful presence in our city.

The real estate rumors that swirl around the arts are evidence of a community under great stress, wondering where it should go and fearful of how it will get there.

Robert Elmes
Director Galapagos Art Space

ALSO: Stop by Galapagos on January 9th for a free screening of the new, appropriately entitled movie "Before the Music Dies". Here's the trailer...

Previously
Brooklyn's Galapagos closing too?

"Word on the street: an acquaintance heard it from a friend, who heard it from a friend who knows the owner of Galapagos - he's selling out in the next year or so to cash the space in to make way for more CONDOS going up in the hood (NOOOOOOO!!!!!)." [Flora Fling's Filings]

"...someone mentioned that Galapago, the great alternative art space which is next door, will also go down with the wrecking ball." [NY Press]

It's not clear when the club's expansion plan was last updated, but I would rather see them expand than close. The last event currently listed on their schedule is for 2/14. Northsix ( right next door) is definitely closing soon.

"He started off with British punk band The Mekons in 1976. Since the mid1980s he and his fellow musicians started to show a growing interest in folk and country music. Over the years, he has taken on many other projects, in and outside of music. He has released a number of solo recordings as well as recordings with other bands outside of The Mekons, most notably the Waco Brothers. He is strongly involved with the Chicago-based independent record label Bloodshot. Langford is also a prolific and respected visual and comic artist best known for his striking portraits of country music icons like Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, and Elvis Presley." [Wikipedia]

Jon Langford is playing a free acoustic show at Galapagos in Brooklyn tonight. He'll be reading from his new book too. All tour dates below...

Continue reading "Free Jon Langford show @ Galapagos tonight | Tour Dates"

David Deporis put on a moving performance that included the debut of his new band (temporary or not, I don't know) at Kitchen Sink Music's free show at Galapagos on January 29, 2006.

Continue reading "David Deporis & band @ Galapagos, NYC | pics"

David Deporis (with a full band) and The Undisputed Heavyweights played Kitchen Sink Music's 2nd monthly show at Galapagos in Brooklyn last night. Wes & Casey of the Heavyweights, David Deporis & band, and Patrick & Wynn from Kitchen Sink posed for a shot outside.

OUTSIDE GALAPAGOS, BROOKLYN, NY | JAN 29, 2006

STANDING (right to left): Wes (Undisputed Heavyweights), Wynn Walent (Kitchen Sink Music), Casey Shea (Undisputed Heavyweights), Patrick Hammond (Kitchen Sink Music), David Deporis, Tim Luntzel (bassist for David Deporis, Bright Eyes, etc...)

KNEELING (left to right): Thomas Bartlett (keys & assorted sounds for David Deporis, Doveman, etc..), Brian Geltner (drums for David Deporis, Johnny Society, Nervous Cabaret, etc..)

Previously
Undisputed Heavyweights, David Deporis & Recorder Quartet