Weeksville Heritage Center in Brooklyn (1698 Bergen Street) is hosting a 'Garden Party every Saturday in July. The free shows will open at 4pm, except the first one on July 2nd which opens at 2pm. Pharoahe Monch (who plays a few shows in July) and Baolji play that Emancipation Day Celebration.

Theophilus London (whose last NYC show was at Music Hall of Williamsburg during the Northside Festival) plays the Garden Party on July 23 with Phony PPL (who also opened for Theophilus at Brooklyn Museum). The free show is two days after Theophilus plays a not-free show at Bowery Ballroom on July 21. Tickets for the Bowery show are still on sale.

Theophilus' debut LP Timez Are Weird These Days comes out July 19 on Warner Brothers and features contributions from Holly Miranda and Sara Quin.

Full Garden Party lineup below...

Continue reading "Weeksville Heritage Center hosting free shows, Theophilus London playing other shows too (Bowery included)"

by Andrew Frisicano

"Saw Marc Ribot, MeShell Nedegocello and Chocolate Genius play together last night @ Rose Live Music. It was amazing and in Williamsburg!" -just_some_pix

Silent Movies...

Inventive avant guitarist Marc Ribot will be releasing a new record, Silent Movies, September 28th on Pi Recordings. As its title suggest, the album expands on Ribot's work scoring film (this year he performed several times with Charlie Chaplin's The Kid)

The album reflects Ribot's fascination with movies and contains pieces intended to function as music for films: some are adaptations of music he has actually written for films, others for classic silent movies that he scored for his personal amusement, still others for films of his own imagination. His goal is to explore, as he says "the strange area between language and spatiality that exists partly in between music and visual image, and partly as a common property of both." Whatever the inspiration, Silent Movies is replete with beautiful melodies and quietly wistful playing of a sort seldom heard from Ribot and delivers a program filled with gentle, haunting songs that evoke the feel of a different time. As he says in the CD's liner notes, the recording project "did indeed have the feeling of having walked backwards into the beautiful frame of a silent movie."

Though the album is a solo work, Ribot, a tireless collaborator, is pairing up with new friends for three nights at Rose Live Music on August 18th (yesterday), 19th (tonight) and 22nd. The first two feature bassist/singer Meshell Ndegeocello, guest vocals Chocolate Genius and drummer Deantoni Parks. For the last, Ribot plays with his Ceramic Dog sidemen Shahzad Ismaily and Ches Smith, and writer Ariana Reines. More info on those is at the Rose Live Music site.

Also coming up is a release show for Silent Movies on September 15th at (Le) Poisson Rouge. Tickets are on sale.

All of Marc Ribot's upcoming tour dates (and the lineups for each) plus a video of Ribot with the Lounge Lizards and John Lurie (whose current "disappearance" got a full write-up in a recenty New Yorker) are below...

Continue reading "Marc Ribot releasing 'Silent Movies', playing more shows "

Asobi Seksu (by Angel Ceballos)

With the BKLYN Yard shuttered for good, many of the summer events scheduled for the space have been forced to cancel. One that's survived is the Sunday Best party, which successfully moved to Bushwick's Brooklyn Fire Proof, where it continues weekly.

Two more shows that will go on, albeit in different venues, are the August 7th Me'shell Ndegeocello show, now to happen at (Le) Poisson Rouge (tickets), and the August 21st Asobi Seksu show. That'll take place across the street from the former BKLYN Yard, at 383 Carroll St (the former home of Dumpster Pools and Glassphemy). Tickets are on sale.

Tour dates for both acts are below...

Continue reading "new venues for Asobi Seksu & Me'shell Ndegeocello (and other dates) "

Central Park Summerstage (more by Chris La Putt)

The schedule for the 2010 SummerStage series, which has music not just at Central Park, is out, and there are some great looking shows to highlight.

At Central Park, the first "rock" show happens on Saturday, June 5th with Living Colour, Ebony Bones!, Pillow Theory and CX KiDTRONiK. Baaba Maal, who just played Irving Plaza, will be at Central Park too on Monday, June 14th The Tinariwen show on Saturday, June 26th also features Syrian beat & mikeman Omar Souleyman. Gil Scott-Heron plays Central Park in June and Marcus Garvey Park in August.

There's also El Guincho, Bostich and Fussible and others in Central Park on July 7th. Reggae legend Jimmy Cliff plays Central Park on Sunday, July 11th. Raphael Saadiq performs there Saturday, July 17 at 3pm. The Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba/Fool's Gold show on Sunday, July 25th will also feature "West African electronica" band Burkina Electric.

On Wednesday, July 21st, there'll be a Comedy Central's The Daily Show and Friends Central Park gig hosted by Lewis Black with John Oliver, Rob Riggle, Wyatt Cenac, Adam Lowitt and Rory Albanese.

There's also music from St. Vincent, Tune-Yards and Basia Bulat on August 1st at Central Park. The xx play with Jack Penate and Chairlift there on August 8th. At the same spot, Public Enemy play an August 15th day show to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Fear of A Black Planet, and the Specials play on August 22nd with Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears and $mall ¢hange.

The borough-wide shows kick off with Jay Electronica in Red Hook Park on June 1st. Also at that park is Dan Deacon on Tuesday, June 15th. White Rabbits play East River Park on August 12th.

There's lots of great jazz too: McCoy Tyner plays with Ravi Coltrane, Esperanza Spalding and Francisco Mela as part of the CareFusion Jazz Festival on June 23rd. He also plays in the Charlie Parker Jazz Fest, which comes at the end of the summer with an incredible lineup. McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Scott, Jason Moran and the Bandwagon and Revive da Live play during the day at Marcus Garvey on Saturday, August 28th. Then the next day, James Moody, Catherine Russell, Vijay Iyer and The JD Allen Trio play at Tompkins Square Park.

The park benefit shows include John Butler Trio and State Radio on June 15th (tickets on sale), The Flaming Lips on July 26th, The Black Keys with the Morning Benders on July 27th and 28th, Hot Chip/Hercules & Love Affair/Holy Ghost on August 4th, Govt' Mule on August 11th (tickets), and one of the four Pavement shows September 21-24. Plus there's a "songbook of Simon & Garfunkel" benefit on June 8th.

Not all "Summerstage" shows are in Central Park anymore which drives home the point even further that the name of the venue in Central Park is actually "Rumsey Playfield" which hosts non-"Summerstage" shows too. Those so far include Coheed/Torche, CAKE, Ween, and Broken Social Scene.

The full Summerstage free show schedule is below...

Continue reading "Summerstage (Central Park & elsewhere) - full 2010 lineup "

If you showed up to Metrotech at noon today, you probably noticed that Rokia Traoré wasn't there. In fact, her entire U.S. tour was cancelled this time around. Zap Mama played the free afternoon show today instead, and Meshell Ndegeocello takes her place at Friday night's free Lincoln Center Out of Doors show (8/7).

Orchestra Baobab

"2008 BAM Rhythm & Blues Festival at MetroTech Jump Starts a Summer of Soul Featuring Music Superstars Oleta Adams, Meshell Ndegeocello, The Skatalites, Alice Smith, Orchestra Baobab, Phoebe Snow, Lionel Loueke with Somi, Otis Clay and Ryan Shaw, Leela James, and Richie Havens with Marcus Carl Franklin"....

Continue reading "2008 BAM Rhythm & Blues Festival at MetroTech "