Tickets are on sale at noon for the Nas & Damian Marley show at Highline Ballroom.

Natalie Merchant is playing shows at Town Hall in NYC on July 15th & 16th. Tickets are on sale at noon.

Tickets are on sale at noon for the Primus / Gogol Bordello show at Williamsgurg Waterfront.

Tickets are on sale at noon for the Gogol Bordello show at Starland Ballroom.

Tickets are on sale for the Brian Jonestown Massacre show at Music Hall of Williamsburg.

Tickets are on sale at noon for the Dead Weather show in Prospect Park.

Tickets are on sale at noon for the Gories show at Bowery Ballroom.

Barenaked Ladies are playing Radio City Music Hall on August 13th. Tickets are on sale.

50 Cent is playing Hammerstein Ballroom on June 22nd. Tickets are on sale at noon.

Juliette Lewis plays Music Hall of Williamsburg on August 21st. Tickets are on sale at noon.

Tickets are on sale for the Melvins/Isis show at Music Hall of Williamsburg.

OK Go are playing Terminal 5 on October 29th. Tickets are on sale at noon.

Tickets are on sale at noon for the Phenomenal Handclap Band show at Music Hall of Williamsburg.

Tickets are on sale at noon for the Gov't Mule show in Central Park.
Check out the ENTIRE Central Park Summerstage schedule.

The Babies @ Knitting Factory last week (more by Dominick Mastrangelo)

tonight in NYC
* Ben Folds @ Town Hall
* Joan Osborne @ City Winery
* Red Sparowes, Doomriders @ Mercury Lounge
* Fang Island, Dinowalrus, Univox @ Maxwell's
* Ra Ra Riot, Plants and Animals @ Union Hall
* William Parker and Ellen Christi Duo @ The Stone
* The Skatalites, Meta & the Cornerstone @ BB King's
* Natalie Merchant @ the NY Society for Ethical Culture
* Prince Rama, GDFX, Pearly, The Dreebs @ Shea Stadium
* Freelance Whales, Lawrence Arabia, Sherlock's Daughter @ Bowery Ballroom
* Malkuth, Greg Ginn and the Taylor Texas Corrugators, CSC Funk Band @ Cake Shop
* Wizardry, Ruby Bullet, Thinning The Herd, Descender, Sos @ Studio at Webster Hall
* Au Revoir Simone (DJ), Gators, VEGA (DJ), Bad Brilliance, CX Kidtronik @ Santos
* Titus Andronicus, The Babies, The Static Jacks, Average Girl @ Fordham U's Rodrigues Coffee House
* Daniel Perlin, Christina Wheeler w/ Vernon Reid, Danny Blume & Benton C Bainbridge @ Issue Project Room

Fang Island is touring with Red Sparowes and Doomriders, but tonight they play their own shows - Fang Island at Maxwell's, and the other two at their first of two shows in a row at Mercury Lounge.

Eek-A-Mouse was supposed to also play the Skatalites show at BB King's tonight, but cancelled due to "visa issues".

The Titus Andronicus / Babies show at Rodrigues Coffee House tonight is free.

Tuesday, APRIL 13, 2010
Rodrigue's (at Fordham University)
441 East Fordham Road
Bronx, NY 10458

7:30 pm, FREE, ALL AGES
Subway: B or D to Fordham Road

The Static Jacks and Average Girl are also on the bill. UPDATE: which according to commenters is STUDENTS ONLY.

White Mystery played Cake Shop on Saturday. Punkcast video from that show below...

What else?

Continue reading "What's going on Tuesday?"

David Byrne w/ Dirty Projectors @ Bowery Ballroom

I have, after many years, finished the Here Lies Love CD project - at least this iteration of it. It will come out [February 23rd] on Nonesuch. It's a collaboration with Fatboy Slim, an upbeat series of songs sung each one by a different singer. The songs are about Imelda Marcos and Estrella Cumpas, the woman who raised her. The package includes 2 CDs (22 songs), a DVD with videos of 6 of those songs, and a 100-page book that explains it all. Singers include Florence Welch (of Florence + The Machine), Sia, Santigold, Nellie McKay, Sharon Jones, St. Vincent, Róisín Murphy and many more (even me on 1 and 1/2)... I am pretty excited about this, but who knows, it might just make people crazy.

We'll see. There will be more concrete news, with links and music, in early January.

In the meantime, I have decided to rebrand myself, inspired by Philip Morris changing their name to Altria, Blackwater to Xe, and the train I'm riding on right now that calls itself Acela - none of which mean anything, but they are cleverly evocative. When I decide on the magic word, you'll be the first to know.

-David Byrne

What should David Bryne's new name be? The full tracklist for the new record, which also features vocal turns by Steve Earle and Allison Moorer (who both just played NYC on Friday), Cyndi Lauper, Tori Amos and Martha Wainwright, is below.

Here Lies Love premiered in March 2006 Australia, and Byrne brought the song cycle to Carnegie Hall as part of the venue's Perspectives Series in February 2007. As a stage show, the songs fit into a four act narrative, laid out in detail on Byrne's website. Those at either performance got a first look at the then-in-progress work...

Here Lies Love takes the form of a series of fairly traditional pop songs (verse-chorus-verse) played in a variety of styles (disco, rock, funk, latin, ballad) by Byrne and a small group of colleagues. Augmenting the core of guitar, bass and drums, is a percussionist and a keyboard player. The vocals are shared by Dana Diaz-Tutaan (Imelda), Ganda Suthivarakom (Estrella), and Byrne, who represents the 'voice' of other key players in Imelda's life. The stage itself is unadorned, although behind the band a small screen plays news clips and home movies of Imelda's life.

As already mentioned, the songs themselves are simple pop tunes, leaning heavily on the disco and dance genres, and could fit neatly onto any number of Byrne's solo albums. They are tuneful enough, and skillfully played, but I wonder about the connection of the music to Imelda's life. Would it have been possible to blend some traditional Filipino sounds and flavours into the music of Here Lies Love (although, admittedly, Imelda was a fan of Western dance music)? [Tidy Boy]

David Byrne will appear at a free, unticketed (first come, first served) event at the Bell House on Monday, January 11th. He presents "a short video/audio lecture called 'Creation in Reverse,' speaking to the ways that venue and context shape artistic creation, followed by a Q&A."

More Here Lies Love info and a video on the performance are below...

Continue reading "David Byrne rebranding, releasing an album w/ Fatboy Slim & lots of guests, giving a free lecture in Brooklyn "

Continue reading "Hal Willner's Vintage Disney Film Music @ St Ann's (benefit)"

Mudhoney @ Bowery Ballroom, NYC - Dec 2, 2007 (CRED)

* Spice Girls played Toronto
* Don Imus is back on the air
* Read a Replacements book
* Go to a Replacements event @ Ace of Clubs
* See Richard Hawley @ Other Music for free
* See St Vincent @ Other Music on the Internet
* You won't be able to get the State on DVD (yet)
* The Colbert Report is happening at UCB
* See what comedy shows happen every Monday
* Celebrate w/ Jinners, The Big Sleep & Cheeseburger @ KF
* Pete Doherty confirms Amy Winehouse collaboration
* Richie Rich and Jenna Jameson confirm a collaboration too

As previously mentioned, Natalie Merchant is playing five nights at Hiro Ballroom. Is that good news? I'm not being a jerk, but my initial reaction was that nobody around here would really care. Now I'm not sure. What else?