The Hive Dwellers

The show scheduled to take place at the Flatiron Hotel Rooftop Patio tonight (4/6) was moved due to a cell phone tower being still located there (aka fear of cancer). Where was it moved? To Market Hotel!

TONIGHT:

====| FRIDAY 4/6 @ @ THE MARKET HOTEL <-venue-change!- |====
:: HIVE DWELLERS --------- feat CALVIN JOHNSON - unamplified acoustic performance
:::: Hamish Kilgour & Leila Adu -- mem THE CLEAN
:::::: the Curious Mystery
:::::::: Katie Eastburn --- x Young People

| THE MARKET HOTEL |
959 Broadway @ Myrtle Ave | Bushwick, Brooklyn
JMZ - Myrtle Ave, G-Myrtle-Willoughby | 8pm | $8 | ALL AGES
no alcohol will be served at Friday's event

This is a big step for Todd P and the Bushwick venue that is working its way toward being legit. In fact, this will be the first public show at Market Hotel in almost two years, and a rare chance to see the old space before renovation begins.

Tonight's Brooklyn show is also just one stop on a larger tour for the Hive Dwellers who also play Staten Island, Hartford CT, SUNY Purchase and Bard by Wednesday. Some of their dates, including tonight, are with their separately touring K Records labelmates The Curious Mystery whose other upcoming shows include a residency at NYC's Ace Hotel. All dates for both bands are listed below...

Continue reading "Hive Dwellers (with Calvin Johnson) & K Records' the Curious Mystery on tour; playing MARKET HOTEL (tonight)"

words by Andrew Frisicano, photos by Annie Reichert

Sam Mickens @ Union Pool April 18th, 2010

Dear citizens of America & the Earth,

On this day, April 20th, 2010, I officially issue a challenge, on behalf of myself and my Ecstatic Showband, to Ms. Sharon Jones & her Dap-Kings, to a battle of the bands to determine who is truly the greatest working soul band in Brooklyn. Song for song and musician for musician, I believe this should prove a burning and exhaustive contest.

The issuance of this challenge bears no spirit of disrespect or denigration towards Ms. Jones and her work; in fact my feelings are full of admiration and esteem. It does however bear the assertion that cultural vanguards must be replaced, and that only through an environment of healthy and virile competition can the illest work be produced. We will meet Ms. Jones in the venue of her choosing and with any preconditions she wishes to impose. If Ms. Jones fails to respond to this challenge I will accept the title of Heavyweight Soul Champion of Brooklyn by default.

Thanks and best regards,
Sam Mickens

Falsetto-voiced singer Sam Mickens (of the Dead Science) released the above challenge two days after his 'Ecstatic Showband and Revue' played a Sunday, April 18th show at Union Pool in Brooklyn. More pictures from that show are posted below.

The band will be opening Thee Silver Mt. Zion's Sunday, May 16th show at Bowery Ballroom (one of two NYC shows on the Mt. Zion's tour, tickets still on sale).

The Estatic Showband's band's individual members (which can vary at any given show) regularly play around town themselves. Drummer Mike Pride is particularly prolific, with almost nightly gigs. Tonight (4/22) he has two: an early show with Jonathan Moritz Trio at Zebulon, and a late gig with bass/keyboardist Jamie Saft as noise-improv duo Kalashnikov at Southpaw with Shaker jazz group Shakers n Bakers and Ben Perowsky's Moodswing Orchestra.

At Union Pool, the group also featured guest vocalists that included Keesha Mishawn, Katie Eastburn (of Young People), Charlie Looker (of Extra Life who, along with the Luyas, open for Owen Pallett at Webster Hall) and Steven Reker. See some of them fronting the band in the pictures below.

As for Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings, the band was just stuck in Germany because of a volcano, and their upcoming summer tour include two nights at the Apollo Theater on April 30th and May 1st. They were supposed to appear on Letterman this week, but that isn't happening because of the volcano (rescheduled for May 4th).

More Union Pool pictures and older videos are below...

Continue reading "Sam Mickens played Union Pool (pics), challenges Sharon Jones, opening for Thee Silver Mt. Zion & stuff"

Remember Death By Audio's 12-hour benefit on July 25th for something called You Are Here: A Maze?

Sam Hillmer & Laura Paris, who dubbed their art collaboration Trouble, had the first You Are Here festival in 2007, at 44th street between Sixth Avenue and Broadway. Paris drew out the floor-plan of the maze, while Hillmer, who plays tenor saxophone for the Zs, booked bands to play in the space and coordinated efforts to bring people inside to interact with the maze.

"It didn't seem like the kind of thing that could just sit in a gallery, it needs constant traffic," Hillmer explained. "That is the piece, people dealing with the situation [presented by the maze]."

This year's festival, scheduled for Spetember 10th through October 2nd, will take up the entire space of Death by Audio and feature a maze constructed out of salvaged doors from Built It Green, a nonprofit organization that sells surplus building materials. The space will also have woodchip-covered floors ("to reference mazes built out of bushes," Hillmer notes). The twists and turns of the venue will be littered by some 200 of Paris' sculptures, molded from some of her pieces and then cast repeatedly. [Greenpoint Gazette]

According to the promoter, "Medium and genre vary and overlapping and simultaneous performances are frequent, each performer establishing a different corner or dead end as his or hers." Sounds fun.

The preliminary lineup (aka almost a month's worth of shows at the venue while the maze is up) mixes interesting out of town names (Calvin Johnson, Ty Segal, The Coathangers) with local acts like Skeletons (as 'Skeletons and the Kings of All Cities'), Mick Barr (he is local right?), Extra life and Stars Like Fleas. Full lineup to be announced soon but more of it is below, along with video footage of the first Maze (starring Dave Longstreth, Thee Oh Sees and others), and other details and the flyer for the new Maze...

Continue reading "Death by Audio maze installation running Sept 10-Oct 2 (Skeletons, Mick Barr, Calvin Johnson, Extra Life, Ty Segall)"

by Andrew Frisicano

Mirah + No Kids @ Highline Ballroom (more by Kyle Dean Reinford)

Mirah will play a show at NYC's Market Hotel on Sunday, May 3rd with TJO (aka Tara Jane O'Neil), Tall Firs, and Air Waves. Mirah's latest record, (a)spera, came out on K Records on March 10th. O'Neil's own K Recs release, A Ways Away, is due out May 5th.

Market Hotel is a considerably different venue than the Highline Balroom, which Mirah and O'Neil played when they last visited NYC during last year's CMJ. In May, Mirah will tour across Europe with Tara.

Mirah, Tara and No Kids all also meet at What the Heck Fest in Anacortes, WA, which runs July 17th-19th. The line-up for the three-day fest is posted below. Passes are on sale.

No Kids, who also played that Highline show, have their own NYC dates coming up in May. Singer Nick Krgovich will play two shows with To Bad Catholics, his side-project with No Kids singer/synth player Julia Chirka. They'll visit the Cake Shop on Tuesday, May 19th with Skeletons. Then, they'll perform at new Ditmas Park venue Sycamore on Wednesday, May 20th. Katie Eastburn (from Young People) opens both shows.

Nick Krgovich recently gotten into writing musicals (which seems to be a something of a trend). Perfomances of Krgovich's "In The Yard, Havin' Fun," commissioned by Vancouver's PUSH Festival, took place in early February. The show included contributions by Parenthetical Girls, Juana Molina, and others.

On No Kids' Myspace is a remix of the band's "For Halloween" done by "Robby from the terrific PDX [a.k.a. Portland] group WHAT'S UP?...for an upcoming 12"."

"In The Yard, Havin' Fun" poster, all tour dates and full What the Heck Fest line-up, below...

Continue reading "Mirah, Tara Jane O'Neil & No Kids - new albums, projects, NYC shows, 2009 tour dates & What the Heck Fest"