The now-annual Blue Note Jazz Festival will sprinkle over 50 shows at venues across the city during its twenty day reign (June 10th - 30th).

"After the success of the inaugural Blue Note Jazz Festival, we decided to make this a yearly event as a way to continue expanding audiences, cultivate young talent and promote this wonderful music throughout New York City," Blue Note President Steven Bensusan said. "This year's performances go beyond jazz to include everything from flamenco, soul, and Latin to tap, blues and R&B, all with the common thread of improvisation. But the heart of the festival is and will always remain the type of jazz that we present night after night at the Blue Note club."

Highline Ballroom, B.B. King's, Central Park Summerstage, The Apollo, Henry Street Playhouse, Brooklyn Bowl and Sullivan Hall are all on board to host parts of the festival, which will feature everyone from Béla Fleck to Stephanie Mills, Bootsy Collins to Yasiin Bey (formerly Mos Def) and many, many other notables. Full list of shows, below...

Continue reading "Blue Note Jazz Festival announces 2012 lineup"

"Superfly Presents and A.C. Entertainment are excited to announce the initial lineup for the 2012 Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival. The 11th annual four-day camping and music festival will be held on June 7 - 10 on the same beautiful 700-acre farm in Manchester, Tennessee, 60 miles south of Nashville. A full list of confirmed acts follows, and more will be announced in the coming weeks. The final Bonnaroo 2012 lineup will total over 125 bands and over 20 comedians performing on 13 stages over four days.Tickets for the event will go on sale on this Saturday, February 18, 2012 at 12 noon EST exclusively at bonnaroo.com."

Radiohead, Beach Boys, Phish, Little Dragon, SBTRKT, The Antlers, Bad Brains, Laura Marling, St. Vinent, Tune-Yards, Flying Lotus, and many more are playing Bonnaroo this year. Full list below...

Continue reading "Bonnaroo 2012 lineup announced"

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)"

photos by Chris La Putt

Eleanor Friedberger / David Johansen

What Kind of Love Is This:
The Music of BOB DYLAN & THE BAND
w/ Steven Bernstein (Sex Mob, Levon Helm Band), John Medeski (Medeski, Martin and Wood), Rob Burger (Laurie Anderson, Marianne Faithful, Iron & Wine), Tony Scherr (Bill Frisell, Norah Jones, Sex Mob), Kenny Wollesen (Norah Jones, John Zorn, Bill Frisell, Sex Mob), and special guests Jolie Holland, Laura Cantrell, Nicole Atkins, John Wesley Harding, and Eleanor and Matthew Friedberger of The Fiery Furnaces. And special Guest Vocalists Chocolate Genius, and David Johansen (New York Dolls).

That's how Sunday night's Bob Dylan tribute show at Le Poisson Rouge was listed. The full setlist with performers listed, more pictures from the event, and two videos, below...

Continue reading "Bob Dylan was celebrated @ Le Poisson Rouge (pics, video & setlist) -- David Johansen, Fiery Furnaces & many more"

Bob Dylan by Greil Marcus: Writings 1968-2010 was recently released, just in time for the holidays...

"The book begins in Berkeley in 1968, and ends with a piece on Dylan's show at the University of Minnesota--his very first appearance at his alma mater--on election night 2008. In between are moments of euphoric discovery: From Marcus's liner notes for the 1967 Basement Tapes (pop music's most famous bootlegged archives) to his exploration of Dylan's reimagining of the American experience in the 1997 Time Out of Mind. And rejection; Marcus's Rolling Stone piece on Dylan's album Self Portrait--often called the most famous record review ever written--began with "What is this shit?" and led to his departure from the magazine for five years. Marcus follows not only recordings but performances, books, movies, and all manner of highways and byways in which Bob Dylan has made himself felt in our culture.

Together the dozens of pieces collected here comprise a portrait of how, throughout his career, Bob Dylan has drawn upon and reinvented the landscape of traditional American song, its myths and choruses, heroes and villains. They are the result of a more than forty-year engagement between an unparalleled singer and a uniquely acute listener."

You can buy it at Amazon, or maybe pick up a copy at the Strand tonight, 12/1, where Greil will be speaking in conversation with Stephen Hazan Arnoff, Director of the 14th Street Y, "and special guests Matt and Eleanor Friedberger of the Fiery Furnaces, who will perform a few songs."

Eleanor & Matt Friedberger will also be on hand at the 14th St Y and Le Poisson Rouge on Sunday, December 5th, for a day of Dylan events. The concert at LPR is this:

What Kind of Love Is This:
The Music of BOB DYLAN & THE BAND
w/ Steven Bernstein (Sex Mob, Levon Helm Band), John Medeski (Medeski, Martin and Wood), Rob Burger (Laurie Anderson, Marianne Faithful, Iron & Wine), Tony Scherr (Bill Frisell, Norah Jones, Sex Mob), Kenny Wollesen (Norah Jones, John Zorn, Bill Frisell, Sex Mob), and special guests Jolie Holland, Laura Cantrell, Nicole Atkins, John Wesley Harding, and Eleanor and Matthew Friedberger of The Fiery Furnaces. And special Guest Vocalists Chocolate Genius, and David Johansen (New York Dolls).

$35 tickets are still on sale for that part, and $75 tickets which I guess get you into everything at both spaces, are on sale too. If you just want in the symposium happening at the Y, that's $45, described as "a one-of-a-kind exploration of Bob Dylan and the Band's work, featuring scholars, critics, writers, and artists"

Greil Marcus: Author of the definitive book on Bob Dylan and The Band, Invisible Republic: Bob Dylan's Basement Tapes.

Christopher Ricks: Renowned critic and scholar of English literature and poetry, and author of Dylan's Visions of Sin.

John Niven: Novelist whose book Music from Big Pink vividly imagines the world of Bob Dylan and The Band.

Dana Spiotta: Author of mesmerizing portraits of the 60's underground, including Eat the Document.

Matt Friedberger: Co-founder of the visionary rock band The Fiery Furnaces.

D.A. Pennebaker: Pioneering film documentarian, whose credits include Don't Look Back, the first film on Bob Dylan.

Stephen Hazan Arnoff: Executive Director of the 14th Street Y writes and teaches widely on music, art and religion.

Wesley Stace (John Wesley Harding): Singer-songwriter and award winning author of Misfortune.

William G. Scheele: Museum curator and former Equipment/Stage Manager for Bob Dylan and The Band.

Bob Dylan himself, who recently played three nights in a row at NYC's Terminal 5, is not listed anywhere. Maybe he'll come watch. More info on the whole thing at 14th St. Y's site.

John Wesley Harding also has a show coming up at City Winery.

by Andrew Frisicano

Marc Ribot & Caged Funk plays at Rose Live Music tonight (June 17th). For that Marc joins keyboardist Bernie Worrell (ex-Parliament Funkadelic, Talking Heads), guitarist Marco Cappelli, bass player Brad Jones, drummer JT Lewis, and DJ Logic on turntables for a set of "John Cage looped, hi-jacked, detourned, and scratch mixed." Some background...

In rehearsing for a performance of John Cage's 'Sonata for Two Voices' (1933) at Issue Project Room last winter, guitarist Marco Cappelli and Marc Ribot made a strange discovery. The two guitarists overcame the gap between the rhythmic complexity of the piece and Mr. Ribot's somewhat limited sight reading skills by 'looping' measures: constantly repeating each difficult passage until it became easier. It was in this way they became aware of a strange fact about John Cage's music that would have probably surprised (and possibly dismayed) the composer himself: John Cage was one funky dude. The resulting project, "Caged Funk", is a further exploration of this little known aspect the late composer's work. Tonight's performance is an open rehearsal. This work was commissioned by and will be premiered July 8,2010 at the Ludwigsburg Festival 2010 in Germany.

On June 26th, Marc plays with another super-improv group at (Le) Poisson Rouge - a quintet with guitarist Leonid Fedorov, bassist Vladimir Volkov, John Medeski on keys, and percussionist Ches Smith. Tickets are on sale.

Marc Ribot goes on to play at The Stone on June 29th with bassist Greg Cohen, and for free at the Stuy Town Oval on June 30th with Marc Ribot y Los Cubanos Postizos and La Cumbiamba eNeYe. After that, dates in Canada and Europe.

Videos and all dates are below...

Continue reading "Marc Ribot @ Rose Live Music w/ Bernie Worrell & other dates "

Crystal Stilts @ Less Artists More Condos (more by Gabi Porter)

Popcorn Youth: What led to the formation of Crystal Stilts?

JB Townsend: Brad [Hargett], the singer, and I had just been playing around for about a year before we really started playing out around 2002. We met in Florida, before we moved to [Brooklyn], and we both wanted to get out of there. We really didn't take it too seriously -- we were just playing for fun. But then we ended up able to record at a space in Greenpoint called Junkyard, which was used by a lot of bands on the Social Registry label. We started recording and released a 7". Someone sent it out to college radio, and it did ok. We were really surprised; we had absolutely no expectations whatsoever. And that was a big encouragement to take it all a little bit more seriously.

today in NYC
* DANCE
* NO Pants event
* Aziz Ansari @ Comix
* The Lisps @ Zipper Theater
* Patti Smith @ 92YTribeca
* Dengue Fever @ Maxwell's
* Marco Benevento Trio @ Sullivan Hall
* Street Meat (comedy) @ Cake Shop (free)
* Freaks Ball IX @ Southpaw w/ Rana
* Takka Takka & Tamar Eisenman @ BAM Cafe
* Camper Van Beethoven & Wormburner @ Bowery Ballroom
* Holy Ghost!, Trouble & Bass & Lemonade @ Studio B
* Great Lake Swimmers & A Hawk and a Hacksaw @ Mercury Lounge
* John Doe, Exene Cervenka & Justin Townes Earle @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
* Crystal Stilts, Tyvek, Box Elders, Medication & Kid Romance @ Market Hotel
* Tony Conrad & Genesis P Orridge @ Issue Project Room
* Hey Willpower, Hot Lava, Math the Band, Mixel Pixel & Hologram @ Death By Audio
* Golden Triangle, K-Holes, Suckers, Ian Svenonius (DJ Set) & Jonathan Toubin (DJ Set) @ Glasslands
* Elevated Entity w John Medeski, Vernon Reid, Amayo & others @ Hiro Ballroom

Marco Benevento at Sullivan Hall, Freaks Ball at Southpaw, and John Medeski at Hiro Ballroom - all in one night. That doesn't seem like very good planning.

Donald Fagen of Steely Dan was born today in 1948.

Howlin' Wolf died today in 1976.

Tickets are now on regular sale for both of the upcoming Levon Helm shows at Beacon Theatre.

Taylor Swift is playing Saturday Night Live tonight and Fleet Foxes are playing it next week.

The end of Zune?

Lillo Brancato sentenced to 10 years in jail.

Okkervil River recently played The Bell House in Brooklyn. They were in town to play Letterman. Video from that TV performance below...

What else?

Continue reading "What's going on Saturday? (besides snow)"