Nels Cline @ Central Park Summerstage on Saturday (more by Paul Bachmann)

tonight in NYC
* DANCE
* Steely Dan @ Beacon Theatre
* The Roots @ Highline Ballroom
* Frankie Negron @ Red Hook Park
* Craig Wedren w/ ACME @ Joe's Pub
* Kath Bloom, Little Wings @ Zebulon
* Los Campesinos!, Girls @ Webster Hall
* Depeche Mode, Peter Bjorn & John @ MSG
* Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit @ City Winery
* Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit @ Hudson Square
* Incubus, The Duke Spirit @ Radio City Music Hall
* Erykah Badu, Janelle Monáe @ Beach at Governors Island
* Dark Habits DJs with Mia Clark, Sara Jaffe @ Bruar Falls
* White Hills, Modey Lemon, Fiasco, Prisms @ Death By Audio
* Portugal the Man, Pistola, The Sway Machinery @ Union Pool
* Sister Mantos, Mirror Mirror, Light Asylum, Rachel Mason Band @ Glasslands
* Gary Panter & Devin Flynn, R. Stevie Moore, Ear Pwr, Toro y Moi @ Cake Shop
* The Rural Alberta Advantage, The Dig, Hollerado @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
* Stories in High Fidelty w/ Dean Wareham, Dan Kennedy, Rob Harvilla @ Union Hall
* Bushwick Book Club w/ Corn Mo, Susan Hwang, M. Lamar @ Goodbye Blue Monday
* Duke & the King, Tyburn Saints, Morning Pages, Maya Solovey @ Mercury Lounge
* Jenny Scheinman w/ Nels Cline, Jim Black, Matt Penman @ Le Poisson Rouge

Free outdoor music tonight includes Frankie Negron at Red Hook Park and Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit at Hudson Square. Jason and band also play inside City Winery for another show tonight.

The Rural Alberta Advantage play a free show with The Dig and Hollerado at the Music Hall of Williamsburg.

The Duke & The King play Mercury Lounge tonight...

"The Duke and the King is an alliance of Simone Felice of the Felice Brothers and his longtime friend (and sometime George Clinton collaborator) Robert "Chicken" Burke, along with a highly talented cast of others. They have pulled off a quite remarkable feat on Nothing Gold Can Stay - each song somehow sounding like a classic, each live performance suggesting we are in the presence of a rare, fiery brilliance." [The Guardian]

songs:illinois says, "The new record from The Duke & The King may not be a full fledged concept album but it might as well be. The album is so full of songs about lies, recriminations, bad choices, lost loves, regrets and the joys and horrors of a misspent youth that you get the picture pretty quickly." Videos below..

Los Campesinos! and Girls kick off their tour with a show at Webster Hall. Last night they played Union Pool.

The Roots continue their residency at Highline Ballroom, and they just announced a show with Common at Terminal 5.

Erykah Badu and Janelle Monáe play the first AEG show at the Beach at Governors Island.

Depeche Mode and Peter, Bjorn & John play a second night at Madison Square Garden. PB & J are also playing a secret show somewhere.

Shudder to Think's Craig Wedren plays at Joe's Pub with classical group ACME (American Contemporary Music Ensemble). Shudder to Think comes to town September 2nd.

Jenny Scheinman performs in her last gig for a while with Mischief & Mayhem (Nels Cline, Jim Black and Matt Penman) at (Le) Poisson Rouge.

The monthly Bushwick Book Club series tackles the Bible at Goodbye Blue Monday. Songwriters include Corn Mo, Susan Hwang, M. Lamar, Sweet Soubrette and Emilyn Brodsky. Flyer below.

Dean Wareham follows up his Dean & Britta Celebrate Brooklyn show on Saturday with a reading at Union Hall. The event, Stories in High Fidelty, will also feature music writer Dan Kennedy and Village Voice music editor Rob Harvilla.

Mia Clark (Electrelane) and Sara Jaffe (ex-Erase Errata) read from the new book The Art of Touring at Bluestockings, then DJ at Bruar Falls tonight.

The Cribs, whose lineup now includes Johnny Marr, put out a new video for "Cheat On Me," posted below. Marr previously gigged with Modest Mouse, who just released their Heath Ledger-directed video for "King Rat," also below.

What else?

Continue reading "What's going on Tuesday?"

words by Andrew Frisicano, photos by Natasha Ryan

Modest Mouse played Terminal 5 in NYC on Sunday, March 15th, with openers Japanese Motors, Tab the Band, and Mimicking Birds. It was the last date on the band's spring 2009 tour with Jim Fairchild of Grandaddy filling in on guitar for Johnny Marr of the Smiths who has had the job for a few years (on a somewhat related note, one day after Johnny wasn't here, Morrissey was).

In related news..

Modest Mouse plans to release the music video actor Heath Ledger directed before his death in January 2008. [Ledger] helmed the animated clip for "King Rat," a bonus tune off 2007's We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank. No specific date has been set for the release, which is expected to happen "soon." The video was animated by [director/animator/Monty Python member] Terry Gilliam....

The band will drop a 7" orange vinyl single April 18 (out digitally April 21) with two new songs, "Satellite Skin" and "Guilty Cocker Spaniels." Though the band hasn't confirmed any other releases, New Jersey record store Vintage Vinyl reports MM will offer three more singles before releasing an eight-song EP, No One's First and You're Next, this August.

Modest Mouse will perform "Satellite Skin" on the Late Show with David Letterman on March 18. [Spin.com]

More NYC show pictures, and the setlist, below...

Continue reading "Modest Mouse - Terminal 5 pics & setlist, the Heath Ledger video, Letterman & other news"

Mickey Rourke, considered THE coolest guy in Hollywood by all of the other "genuine" cool guys, won the Gold Globe this evening for Best Actor in "The Wrestler."

As if art is imitating life, Rourke played a down and out professional wrestler who makes a valiant comeback just as Mickey is doing as you read this.

The crowd went wild as Mickey has always been well loved and a favorite amongst his acting peers.

Additionally, Bruce Springsteen received the best song prize for the title track to "The Wrestler," stating, "This is the only time I'm going to be in competition with Clint Eastwood," said Springsteen, referring to the filmmaker who had a song nomination for writing the title tune to his "Gran Torino." "It felt pretty good, too!" [The Lang Report]

In other Springsteen news, he is going to play at an Obama pre-inauguration event, you can catch him in the Superbowl halftime show, he made a lot of money in 2008, he's up for two Grammys, and he has a new album called "Working on a Dream" coming out January 27th...

Continue reading "Bruce Springsteen wins Golden Globe, playing Inauguration show, releasing new album"

Actor Heath Ledger was found dead Tuesday of a possible drug overdose in a Lower Manhattan apartment, the New York Police Department said. The Academy Award nominated actor was 28. "Pills were found in the vicinity of the bed," police spokesman Paul Browne told CNN.

"This is being looked at as a possible overdose, but that is not confirmed yet." Police later said the pills "appear to be over the counter" sleeping medication. Ledger was unresponsive when he was found by a housekeeper who had gone to wake him for an appointment with a masseuse in the Soho apartment, Browne said. [CNN]

Continue reading "Heath Ledger, RIP"