photos by Chris La Putt

""Occupying the original occupier" tUnE-yArDs in Columbus Circle." - Bill Bragin

Merrill Garbus in Columbus Circle - 2/9/2012

As tUnE-YarDs' show at Lincoln Center's Allen Room, part of the American Songbook series (which Bill Callahan played one night earlier), was coming to an end last night, the tweets started pouring in: "@brooklynvegan tUnEyArDs will be playing Columbus Circle within the hour. Get there!", "@brooklynvegan can u spread word that Tuneyards doing free show out by Lincoln Center fountain", "@brooklynvegan tune yards are playing in Columbus circle NOT lincoln center fountain", and "@brooklynvegan She said it was NOT a show. A gathering." Whatever it was, it included video cameras, and you can see what it looked like along with pictures from the actual show and the setlist from the show, below...

Continue reading "tUnE-YarDs played Allen Room & then Occupied Columbus Circle (pics & setlist)"

photos by Dominick Mastrangelo

Bill Callahan @ the Allen Room - 2/8/2012


Following performances by a diversity of musicians including Keren Ann and Thurston Moore, Bill Callahan continued Lincoln Center's 2012 American Songbook Series last night (2/8) at the Allen Room, a show Mr. Callahan said seemed like an appropriate finale to his "Apocalyspe Tour." Here are some pictures.

tUnE-yArDs plays the series tonight (2/9).

In other news, Bill Callahan recently covered Leonard Cohen's great ""So Long Marianne" for a MOJO Magazine covers CD. Listen to that, with more pictures from the NYC show, below...

Continue reading "Bill Callahan played the Allen Room (pics), covered Leonard Cohen (stream)"

Regina Spektor at Bowery Ballroom in 2009 (more by Tim Griffin)

Regina Spektor is playing a show on February 23 at Frederick P. Rose Hall at Lincoln Center, a benefit for the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS). The HIAS "is the international migration agency of the American Jewish community. They provide rescue and refuge around the world for Jews and other refugees escaping violence, repression, and poverty." Tickets, starting at a $55 option and ranging to a $250 option, are on sale now.

Regina has a new album on the way called What We Saw From The Cheap Seats coming out this May. She left this message regarding the album via facebook:

Hi! So! I'm very excited to say that this summer i recorded a new record with Mike Elizondo in LA land! It's been finished for a little while but i had no idea when it would be out in the world until now... We're trying to get everything ready for it to come out in May (but i will share some stuff before then for sure!!!)
It's called---"What We Saw From The Cheap Seats"
big cheers to you all,
regi

Continue reading "Regina Spektor announces new LP, playing Lincoln Center"

Lou Reed & Laurie Anderson
occupying Lincoln Center the other day (photo via strongfeatures)

today in NYC
* yMusic @ Rockwood Music Hall
* Justin Vivian Bond @ Joe's Pub
* Pretty Good Friends @ Union Hall
* David Torn, Dave King @ The Stone
* Hannibal Buress @ Knitting Factory
* John Doe, Robert Ellis @ City Winery
* Cyndi Lauper & friends @ Beacon Theatre
* Williamsburg Salsa Orchestra @ Brooklyn Bowl
* Tim Berne, David Torn, Ches Smith @ The Stone
* Grasshopper, Mark Dwinell, Giant Claw @ Zebulon
* Black Pus, Witch Hat, Fuck Ton @ Death By Audio
* Latterman, Nude Beach, P.S Eliot @ The Bell House
* Jamie Woon, Erika Spring, Selebrities @ Glasslands
* Erykah Badu & The Cannabinoids @ Best Buy Theater
* Eyehategod, Doomriders, Hull, Knight Terror @ Europa
* Rachel Mason, Hans Chew, Woodsy Pride @ Vaudeville Park
* Ivan & The Terribles, Starina, Desert Stars @ Cake Shop
* The Hounds Below, Crazy Pills, Party Lights @ Union Pool
* Stephane Wrembel Presents The Django Experiment @ Barbes
* David Wax Museum, Spirit Family Reunion @ Le Poisson Rouge
* Monica Lionheart, Xenia Rubinos, Sweet Electra @ The Rock Shop
* Algernon Cadwallader, Band Name, Old Table @ Big Snow Buffalo Lodge
* Idiot Glee, Celestial Shore, Philip Seymour Hoffman @ Cameo Gallery
* Ski Lodge, Indian Rebound, Sea Monsters, Sunbears! @ Arlene's Grocery
* Night Manager, Brown Bread & Von Holt, Advaita, Alex Drewchin @ Party Xpo
* Teddy Thompson, Bhi Bhiman, Daniel Wayne, Balthrop, Alabama @ Public Assembly
* Rosita Kess, Richard Julian (w/ Doug Wieselman), Jesse Harris @ Rockwood Music
* Freddie Stevenson, Aiden Moore, Zane Carney, John Schmidt, Sarah Blacker, Suzie Brown, Ben Lear, Marvelous Toy, Karen Dahlstrom, WILLOW @ Rockwood Music Hall

There's a Vegan Holiday Shop-Up @ Pine Box Rock Shop (12 Grattan St., Brooklyn) from Noon-5pm.

There's a record show at Brooklyn Bowl at noon.

Lou Reed is one of Cyndi Lauper's many guests at Beacon Theater tonight. The other day he spoke along with Philip Glass at Lincoln Center on behalf of the Occupy Movement. Video below...

what else?

Continue reading "What's going on Sunday?"

When: Thursday December 1, 2011 at 10:30PM.

What: A General Assembly at 10:30 PM at Lincoln Center. Join us in an open conversation about the effects of increased privatization and corporatization of all aspects of society, and the use of nonviolent civil disobedience around the world to reclaim the commons. Composer Philip Glass will join the general assembly and mic-check a statement.

Continue reading "Occupy Wall Street going to Lincoln Center today (Philip Glass included), hunger strike threatened"

On Monday, November 28, 2011 the Lincoln Square Business Improvement District and presenting sponsor Time Warner will host the Twelfth Annual Winter's Eve at Lincoln Square - New York City's largest holiday festival! Winter's Eve kicks off with a neighborhood tree lighting ceremony and features free entertainment, food tastings, in-store activities and shopping around and about this colorful and vibrant neighborhood.
Stores, restaurants, cultural organizations and public spaces in the district will be buzzing with activities for both children and adults. At the same time, sidewalks along Broadway from Time Warner Center at Columbus Circle to 68th Street will be alive with performers, street musicians, jugglers, stilt-walkers and more, making for a festive fun-filled stroll through the streets of this dynamic Upper West Side neighborhood.

WHEN: Monday, November 28, 2011, 5:30 PM, Rain, Snow or Shine!

WHERE: The celebration begins with a neighborhood tree lighting ceremony at Dante Park at Broadway& 63rd Street and continues along Broadway from Time Warner Center to 68th Street.

Bill Callahan @ MHOW in July (more by Dana (distortion) Yavin)

Lincoln Center's acclaimed series American Songbook returns to the elegant Allen Room in January for its fourteenth season celebrating the diversity of American popular song. For 16 nights the series will explore the best of the golden age of musical standards through to today's most dynamic songwriting. The music of Broadway, Latin culture and hip-hop, bluegrass, rock, and pop will be presented, along with three evenings devoted to great American composers and lyricists. The 2012 season - January 11 through February 11 - will bring to the stage some of today's most gifted interpreters of song, including Tony Award winners Laura Benanti, Michael Cerveris, and LaChanze, as well as the "Queen of British Musicals," the great Elaine Paige. In keeping with American Songbook's tradition of honoring great composers and lyricists, those being celebrated this season are William Finn (The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Falsettos), folk icon Woody Guthrie, and Jule Styne (Gypsy, Funny Girl). A relatively new composer on the scene, multiple Tony-winning Lin-Manuel Miranda (In the Heights) will open the series with a new rap composition about Alexander Hamilton. Also performing in the rap/hip- hop vein is the exciting ensemble Ozomatli.

From the rock canon will be J.D. Souther, performing songs he wrote for Linda Ronstadt and the Eagles as well as newer compositions, guitar god Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth doing an acoustic set, and the wildly expressive Merrill Garbus, known as tUnE-yArDs.

Singer/songwriters, both emerging and veteran, are part of American Songbook as well. Diva of the demi-monde Keren Ann is part of the series, as is the man whose deep voice and masculine presence has earned him the nickname "The John Wayne of Indie Rock," Bill Callahan.

The spectacular Allen Room is located in Frederick P. Rose Hall, home of Jazz at Lincoln Center on Broadway at 60th Street. 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 14, 2011 at Lincoln Center's website www.AmericanSongbook.org, via CenterCharge at 212-721-6500, at the Alice Tully Hall, Avery Fisher Hall Box Office, or at the Frederick P. Rose Hall Box Office. Tickets for the Friends of Lincoln Center go on sale November 3, and single tickets go on sale to the public beginning November 14.

Continue reading "Lincoln Center's American Songbook 2012 Season (Thurston Moore, tUnE-yArDs, Bill Callahan, Keren Ann & more)"

by Jacob Blickenstaff

The Relatives @ Damrosch Park Bandshell

As any hard-living soul singer and Rebecca Black can tell you, after Saturday Night comes Sunday morning. Following the all-day Girl Group Extravaganza at Lincoln Center Out of Doors, it was time to take in some Family Day programming and Goin' to Church music. The afternoon program in Hearst Plaza on July 30th featured the Stax Music Academy and Vy Higgensen's Gospel for Teens choir. The Stax Academy tore through complex Jackson 5 songs and Stax-era staples, teaching the audience to dance the 'Funky Chicken' with delight. As for the Gospel For Teens Choir, you'll just have to check out the pics(below) to believe it. Family day did not equal 'kiddie music' by any means. Both the Stax and GFT groups displayed mature artistry via talent and determination.

The evening program featured recently rediscovered psych-funk gospel group The Relatives (who were a highlight of last year's Ponderosa Stomp) and headliner Mavis Staples who performed, one day after she appeared at Newport Folk Fest, a lengthy and thoroughly satisfying set which included a cover of Curtis Mayfield's 'This Is My Country'. Amen.

More pictures from Lincoln Center Out of Doors Sunday (day and night), below...

Continue reading "Mavis Staples, The Relatives, & 'Family Day' @ Lincoln Center Out of Doors (pics)"

"Just two years after a $107 million renovation at its Lincoln Center home, the troubled New York City Opera plans to move out and perform in various places around New York, officials of the company said on Friday.

City Opera disclosed its plans as it announced that it had settled on a slimmed-down budget for five operas and three concerts, starting in October, after speculation that financial woes would force it to halt performances.

The opera's departure would be the first major defection from America's premier arts complex, although City Opera has been talking about a move for 30 years. The New York Philharmonic also flirted with the idea of relocating, to Carnegie Hall in 2003, but that deal fell through." [NY Times]

Another summer, another Lincoln Center-presented Midsummer Night Swing. This year's series of dancing events runs from June 27-July 16 with one highlight being the June 28th "Soul Train" night featuring a live set by Pee Wee Ellis and Fred Wesley along with an extended DJ set by Biz Markie.

Tickets are now on AmEx presale (through Friday, March 25 @ 10pm) for the two Neil Young shows happening at Lincoln Center's very Fisher Hall in April. Bert Jansch has been announced as the opener.

Tom Ze

Lincoln Center Festival 2011 Announced
Three LEADING International Companies Highlight
LINCOLN CENTER FESTIVAL 2011 - July 5-August 14

Mariinsky Ballet (Kirov) returns to Lincoln Center, joining Royal Shakespeare Company and The Cleveland Orchestra

OTHER FESTIVAL 2011 PRESENTATIONS:

* Director Peter Brook directs the U.S. Premiere of A Magic Flute
* Druid Theatre Company performs Seán O'Casey's classic drama The Silver Tassie, directed by Tony Award-winner Garry Hynes
* Royal Danish Opera offers U.S. Premiere of Poul Ruders' opera Selma Ježková; Royal Danish Orchestra performs an orchestral concert and an evening of chamber music
* Amon Miyamoto directs U.S. Premiere of Yukio Mishima's The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, starring popular Japanese star Go Morita
* Merce Fair, a day-long immersion in performances, workshops, video and art installations, celebrates the artistry of choreographer Merce Cunningham
* Influential Brazilian singer-songwriter Tom Zé makes rare U.S. concert appearance
* David Michalek's large-scale, outdoor video installation, Portraits in Dramatic Time, to be shown each evening from July 5-31 on Josie Robertson Plaza

Neil Young will hit the road solo on April 15th, stopping for two nights at NYC's Avery Fisher Hall along the way. Neil's new album was released towards the end of 2010. His Warner Brothers-affiliated label points out that:

"The eight-song Le Noise, among Young's most critically-embraced albums, is a collaboration between the acclaimed rock icon and musician, songwriter, and multiple Grammy Award-winning producer Daniel Lanois, known for his work with U2, Bob Dylan, Peter Gabriel, Brian Eno, Emmylou Harris, Willie Nelson, The Neville Brothers and many others. Le Noise was released by Reprise Records on September 28th, 2010."

Continue reading "Neil Young announces solo tour in support of Le Noise (dates)"

words by Andrew Frisicano, photos by David Andrako

I was prepared to be disappointed by the Dan Deacon/So Percussion collaboration on Thursday night. I've seen Dan Deacon several times over the past few years and it has always seemed like more or less the same show ("Hey, it's that people-bridge thing."). With So Percussion, the last I saw of them was an evening-length piece at BAM titled Imaginary City. There the music was competently performed, but presentation was underwhelming; the ensemble got swallowed in their junkyard of instruments, too delicately played for the large theater space. My hope was that the group would be less calculated and more playful, which is when they're at their best, with Deacon (the amazing finale of their Matmos collaboration had them alternately chugging and playing beer cans).

Another reason to be skeptical: if you can remember back to May 2009, So Percussion described a Deacon-penned piece they'd be playing at a performance that month. An e-mail from the group warned that the piece "may include pouring liquids onstage, amplified coke bottles, and other oddities..." Well, it didn't end up coming together in time for the show. But it did last night. I figure, any project delayed more than two years is either a catastrophic trainwreck (Chinese Democracy) or a landmark breakthrough (Finnegans Wake or something). Part of that curiosity is what drew me to the show.

The night was divided into two halves, the first with So Percussion and Dan Deacon performing individual sets, then with the groups together. So Percussion's Jason Treuting was absent for the evening, off spending time with his new baby, who'd just been born two hours earlier, and substitute drummer Eric Rosenbaum did a great job of filling in. The band had the crowd sing "Happy Birthday" into a cell phone for the newborn, which was the first of several crowd-performances of the night.

Their opening set comprised of several short pieces, mostly based on videos submitted by friends: a bearded man using an electric toothbrush, a child playing with an orange balloon (replicas were thrown into the crowd to play with), and Martin Schmidt from Matmos looking very John Cage-ish, straight-backed and in a bow tie, playing a succession of musical objects into the camera. The ensemble improvised over the clips in meditative waves, aided by guitarist Grey McMurray.

Up next was Dan Deacon's solo set, which he didn't really perform in at all. In an obvious reach-out to prose scores (by John Cage and others I'm less familiar with) and aleatoric pieces like Terry Riley's In C, Deacon passed out a 24-step pamphlet with instructions for audience members to perform in their seats. The steps were to be repeated variously, before moving to the next in the sequence. Some instructions said to focus on breathing, others instructed you to sing a tone or scream, several involved using a cell phone, either to set off its alarm, create feedback with a neighbor's phone, or call a friend and have them sing to you (one stranger serenaded the near-silent hall to "Proud Mary"). The gambit paid off, both as a natural extension of the crowd-participation Deacon has previously employed and as a link to "new music" tradition.

There was an intermission, then "Ghostbuster Cook: The Origin of the Riddler," a collaborative piece with So Percussion, whose performance centered on drumming a row of soda bottles of varying sizes. They emitted a marimba-like sound that Dan Deacon manipulated with a row of effects. The next stop was a series of bass drums and congas, that sounded at times like a drum corps. When Dan Deacon fired up his sequencers, which took a few moments to lock in with the drums, it was the closest the night would get to a standard Dan Deacon set: overwhelming sound with chaotic execution (So Percussion didn't seem exactly at ease with their cues here). The group moved back to the pitched containers while members emptied more soda bottles into plastic tubs. Stoppers at the bottom of two playable bottles were let out and a misting sound filled the hall. Then, the silence. For what must have been more than ten minutes, So Percussion stood perched over their marimbas and vibes waiting for the running water to stop (no doubt a reference to the silence of John Cage's 4'33"). One enraged audience member exclaimed "Are you fucking kidding me?" before storming out the back. Then the water ended, and the group came in with an arrangement of twinkling mallet percussion, with a melody that hinted at Danny Elfman's film scores and polyrhythms that tugged in several different directions.

Was the night a success? Partly. Dan Deacon seemed serious about his concert hall debut; the prose score was fun and effective. So Percussion's solo set was a stellar example of what makes the group great: aural treats born out of playful experimentation. Their collaboration was a risk that had an admirable scope, and paid-off in parts, but stopped short of making a cohesive whole (again, the thing was called "Ghostbuster Cook: The Origin of the Riddler"). If Deacon and the group had put together a suite of short pieces, with spots to recalibrate and adjust, I suspect the result would have been a full success.

As it was, only one crowd member in a sold-out crowd leaving (as far as I could tell) is more than a minor victory. The biggest regret is the fact that the program's final piece, So Percussion's "I Love You, Goodnight," didn't happen. They skipped that song, possibly for time, or perhaps because Jason was absent, but I wish I had a video of it to post here: It's an amazing lullaby to send off an audience.

More pictures from the Ecstatic Music Festival show at Merkin Concert Hall (the next one is Craig Wedren, Jefferson Friedman & ACME on Saturday) below...

Continue reading "Dan Deacon, So Percussion & the audience played Merkin Hall (pics)"

David Rubenstein Atrium

Catch Gordon Voidwell for free tonight (1/20) at Lincoln Center. A full list of other free "Target Free Thursdays" and other free shows at the David Rubenstein Atrium (Broadway between 62nd and 63rd Streets) is below...

Continue reading "upcoming free shows @ David Rubenstein Atrium"

words & photos by Dominick Mastrangelo

On an old bio page for Rhode Island's The Low Anthem, the last line reads, "The snowball gathers speed."

And in this winter of near-record snow perhaps there's no better way to describe the past year and the year ahead for the folk rock quartet. In recent days they played Letterman and a spot on WNYC's Soundcheck and capped it with a breathtaking performance at Jazz at Lincoln Center on Thursday night (1/13).

The band is already out in support of their upcoming release, Smart Flesh, due February 22nd via Nonesuch (tracklist below), and the unique venue and view that the Allen Room provides, overlooking Columbus Circle seemingly prompted the band to up their game just a bit more.

For their American Songbook set, a beautiful pump organ that was given to the band, was shipped from Providence just for the performance. It hovered over the much smaller pump organ the band usually plays during their shows. Lead singer Ben Knox Miller said it might be the only show they play with it due to the cost of moving such a large, fragile instrument from city to city. Miller's brother, Steve, came up to crank the organ on the couple songs it was used and after one song Miller thanked him for "performing that demeaning task."

The band said they worked during soundcheck to get the sound just right. Given how full songs like set-opener "For Those Who Write History Books" sounded or the snap of the drums on the unusually subdued cover, "Sally Where'd You Get Your Liquor From" or how hushed yet crisp the harmonies of "Ghost Woman Blues" (which they performed on Letterman) were, the extra effort to get the sound just so paid off.

When the band came out for their one-song encore, "This God Damn House," Miller asked everyone to ready their phones as he does almost every time they play the song. And in the instant toward the end of that melancholy song, when Miller whistled into his two cell phones, the audience's phones, set to speaker, crackled to life. Miller turned as he whistled and faced the massive windows and cityscape before him in a bit of wonder. Or perhaps because the sound of that haunting chirp echoing through the room resembled crickets - and that late-night country staple contrasted so starkly against the rushing city below.

UPDATE: The Low Anthem will return to NYC to play Bowery Ballroom on March 8th. Tickets are on sale.

More pictures from the NYC show, new album info, new video the Letterman video, and more dates, below...

Continue reading "The Low Anthem played 'American Songbook' @ Lincoln Center (and Letterman) -- pics & video & more tour dates"

photos by Chris La Putt

Ariel Pink

I'm pretty sure the Big Apple Circus is considered a humane circus, so hopefully that means they treat all those white ponies that ran in circles at Tuesday's show, really well. There were ponies, and contortionists, and Ariel Pink who caused a Kodak moment by climbing one of the tent's support beam things while singing, and there was Nick Zinner and Aska, and Amazing Baby and more at the second day of Lincoln Center's 'Rock & Roll Circus' which went way better than the first/Japanther night did. A full set of pictures from both days, with video of Ariel Pink and the ponies, continues below...

Continue reading "Ariel Pink, ponies & the rest of the Rock & Roll Big Apple Circus @ Lincoln Center in pics & video"

photos by Amanda Hatfield

The So So Glos

About 100 fans of the Brooklyn-based band Japanther rushed the stage during the Rock N' Roll Circus in Damrosch Park at 11:30 p.m., said the event's co-producer, Jessica Resler.

"People were crowd-surfing and jumping on each other. It was like, what the hell just happened?" Resler said.

A teenager who went to see her favorite band with two pals said she was scared to death.

"Oh, my God, it was crazy. I was off my feet for a whole minute. I thought I was going to die in there," said Jessica Schmidt, 18.

"I thought my friend was going to get trampled because he fell and hit his head pretty hard."

The event, which attracted more than 1,000 people, took place in the tent that normally houses the Big Apple Circus, which helped produce the event. -[NY Post]

Continue reading "more pics from the Rock n Roll Circus night 1 (So So Glos, the Pharmacy, mad security guards, etc)"

photos by Chris La Putt

""Ladies and gentlemen get out of the ring or they will not play"" - Leia Jospe

"A riot at the circus #2011" - Leia Jospe

"that was one of the craziest, oddest shows i've been to in a while. pandemonium broke loose. if tomorrow's day 2 even happens, that'll be the last time lincoln center opens its doors to rock bands. it was pretty fun till the very end. stupid kids, agro's for dorks."
[Anonymous | January 4, 2011 1:11 AM]

Continue reading "the Japanther show @ Big Apple Circus didn't go so well (pics)"

photos by Richard Termine

DOWNLOAD: Antony - Thank You For Your Love (MP3)

"This is how it must feel to be an ovum," the singer Antony Hegarty said with a tone of gentle amusement as latecomers flooded down the aisles of Alice Tully Hall during the concert he presented there on Saturday night. It was the second time this singer, who goes by his first name, stopped to let stragglers find their seats. Earlier he had abruptly cut off a song just started -- "Ghost," from his rapturously lovely new album, "Swanlights" -- then tried to smooth over an awkward silence by whistling Satie's "Gymnopédie" No. 1...

...Here, performing as part of Lincoln Center's White Light Festival, Antony stood shrouded in shadow and sheathed in a flowing black gown. In place of his Johnsons, the Orchestra of St. Luke's accompanied him in songs largely drawn from "Swanlights" and its predecessor, "The Crying Light." Rob Moose, elsewhere a musically polyamorous violinist, conducted; at the piano was Thomas Bartlett, a sensitive chamber-pop singer otherwise known as Doveman. [NY Times]

I think there were at least two big issues that caused people to be late. One of them was the show's kind-of-unfortunate 7:30pm start time (7:30 sharp on a Saturday night with no opener). The other was that the 1/2/3 trains were all screwed up, and I personally spent the first 30 minutes of the show sitting underground in a train that wasn't going anywhere. At least there were people dressed up for Halloween adorning all the stations and cars. That made the situation feel slightly less tense. That said, by the time I got there, every seat in the house was full, so late or not, everyone eventually got there, and what I saw was unsuprisingly beautiful and worth finally making it there for.

Nico Muhly was responsible for many of the arrangements of the night, and behind Antony and the orchestra was the film "Mr. O's Book of the Dead", a 1973 film by Chiaki Nagano featuring the Butoh master Kazuo Ohno and his troupe. Kazuo is the one on the cover of Antony and the Johnsons' 2009 CD The Crying Light. And as the NY Times sums up nicely, it was "Projected overhead throughout the performance -- even during the awkward breaks -- it was both a potent visualization of gender ambiguity, vulnerability and pain, and a garish distraction from music's transfixing intensity and beauty."

It was Antony's only North American show this year. Hopefully he'll tour some more in support of his new album "Swanlights" which was released on October 12th via Secretly Canadian. Download "Thank You For Your Love" from that LP above, and watch Antony's performance of the same song from the October 8th episode of Letterman in the video, under the rest of the pictures from Lincoln Center, below...

Continue reading "Antony played w/ an orchestra & Doveman & a movie @ Lincoln Center (pics) "

My Brightest Diamond @ LPR in 2008 (more by Kyle Dean Reinford)

Lincoln Center's acclaimed series American Songbook returns in January for its thirteenth 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 songwriting. The 2011 season - January 12 through February 20 - will bring to the stage some of today's most gifted interpreters of song, starting with the luminous legend Barbara Cook, the multi-faceted Joan Osborne, as well as the newest toast of Broadway, Kate Baldwin. It will feature opportunities to hear the acclaimed opera star
Pfizer is a proud sponsor of Lincoln Center's American Songbook 2011.

Stephanie Blythe and stage and film actress Anika Noni Rose who make their solo pop concert debuts, and the enduring influence of Latin music in the American Songbook canon will be represented by the modern bossa nova of Bebel Gilberto and the Cuban rhythms of Broadway star Raul Esparza. Arguably the greatest songwriting team in American Songbook history are the brothers George and Ira Gershwin, and they will be the subject of a Rob Fisher tribute with an array of dazzling voices.

DOWNLOAD: Antony - Thank You For Your Love (MP3)

Antony and the Johnsons will play their only North American live show of 2010 at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall on Saturday, October 30. They will be performing with the Orchestra of St. Luke's, which will be conducted by Rob Moose. Chiaki Nagano's film "Mr. O's Book of the Dead" starring Kazuo Ohno will be featured during the performance. The performance kicks off Lincoln Center's White Light Fest. Tickets can be purchased here.

Abrams Image will simultaneously release a special edition of "Swanlights" which will include the CD inside a 144-page hard cover book containing Antony's paintings, collages, photography and writing. The album only version of "Swanlights" on Secretly Canadian will also include the song "Flétta", a duet with Björk. The album and book are a continuation of Antony's work exploring his connection to the natural world.

The Antony show at Lincoln Center "is part of the Great Performers Chamber Orchestra series"

Antony's newest video, for "Thank You For Your Love" (MP3 above), can be watched below...

Continue reading "Antony & the Johnsons annnounce Lincoln Center show w/ orchestra & film (on sale now), album & book out soon"

DeVotchKa at Bowery Electric (more by Toby Tenenbaum)

DeVotchKa will play Damrosch Park with Angus & Julia Stone and "special surprise guests" at Lincoln Center as part of CMJ on 10/23. Tickets are now on sale (online and at Other Music). The show is part of a sprinkling of dates for Devotchka, who will hit Chicago, Philly, Grand Rapids, and Colorado on the trek.

The show, in addition to being part of CMJ, will be the kickoff of a new series of "Sideshows". More details TBA.

Australian duo Angus & Julia Stone, currently on a massive tour, also play a CMJ show at the Bell House on 10/22 (tickets) and Maxwell's in Hoboken on 10/24 (tickets).

Everyone's tour dates and some videos, below...

Continue reading "DeVotchKa playing a 'Sideshow' @ Damrosch Park for CMJ w/ Angus & Julia (and other tour dates) "

Hallogallo 2010 @ Lincoln Center (more by Benjamin Lozovsky)

Two streams are embedded below. The first is the complete Hallogallo performance from Lincoln Center via WNYC. The second is the appearance Michael Rother made on Brian Turner's show on WFMU yesterday. The latter includes interviews with Rother, Steve Shelley & Aaron Mullan, and segments of their Primavery Sound show along with a bunch of Rother's recorded material (Harmonia, Neu and solo stuff included). Check it out....

Continue reading "stream Michael Rother's recent NYC & WFMU appearances "

photos by Benjamin Lozovsky, words by Andrew Frisicano

Before the headlining Neu! & Hermeto Pascoal shows, Asphalt Orchestra marched across Lincoln Center's network of plazas to perform a half-hour set of music, ending in Damrosch Park. Earlier that week the group debuted a new piece by David Byrne and Annie Clark (St. Vincent) titled "Two Ships," and they included that song in their set Friday night.

More pictures and a video of that tune is below....

Continue reading "Asphalt Orchestra played a David Byrne/Annie Clark song (and others) @ Lincoln Center Out of Doors (pics, video) "