Fun Fun Fun Fest in Austin - Nov 7, 2009 (by Chad Wadsworth)

There have been plenty of chances to catch The Jesus Lizard since they reunited. They've played Europe and a bunch of festivals. They played the Pitchfork Festival, Fun Fun Fun Fun Fest, and even ATP NY just a short drive north of the city. They even played in NYC on Halloween at a Vice party. They have not however yet played a completely public show as a reunited band in NYC. That is until tonight, 11/16, at Irving Plaza with Skeleton Key (and tomorrow at the same venue with Noveller). Tickets are still available for both shows (though only a "handful" left for tonight at the door).

If you stand close to the stage, be ready to catch David Yow. He is known to jump the second they hit the stage. Above picture from Day One of Fun Fun Fun Fest. Video and all dates below...

Continue reading "Jesus Lizard are here! See David Yow jump (at Irving Plaza Monday & Tuesday night) (and other tour dates) "

The Jesus Lizard plays at 11:45pm at ATP tonight (9/11). They play Irving Plaza in NYC on November 16th with recently added openers Skeleton Key and Noveller. They play Fun Fun Fun Fest in Austin on Saturday November 7th... at 8:35pm which means you need to decide between them, Ratatat, The Pharcyde and Destroyer. On Sunday, November 8th, people need to choose between Danzig and Of Montreal. Full FFFFest schedule below...

Continue reading "Fun Fun Fun Fest set times ++ Jesus Lizard NYC openers announced (and the ATP NY show is TONIGHT) "

Sam Hillmer (left) playing with Zs @ the Yard (more by Sarahana)

You Are Here (The Maze) is a performance festival in a sculptural maze taking place at Williamsburg's Death By Audio from September 10 - October 2, 2009. Emphasizing the sprawling and interconnected nature of New York's underground, a trip through the maze offers a peak inside NYC's diy art/music scene. A meditation on passage and desire, You Are Here engulfs the space and presents beckoning inhabitants, dead ends, and uplifting epitaphs. Medium and genre vary and overlapping and simultaneous performances are frequent, each performer establishing a different corner or dead end as his or hers.

The lineup and installation is being put together by TROUBLE (Sam Hillmer & Laura Paris). Acts in the three-week schedule include Calvin Johnson, Screaming Females, Mick Barr, Ty Segal, Grooms, Extra Life and others.

Skeletons kick off the first night of the festival on September 10th as the Skeletons Big Band, a 12-piece band (expanded from their usual four) that's also playing September 7-9th at Roulette. There they'll be performing "New Works for a Larger Ensemble" which includes "excerpts and new arrangements from their record in progress "PEOPLE," a long form piece based around conversations in Greyhound busses and stations, and beyond..."

The full schedule for the Maze (and the lineup for Skeletons Big Band) is below...

Continue reading "Death By Audio's The Maze - schedule (includes 1 of 4 upcoming Skeletons Big Band shows & much more) "

words by Black Bubblegum, photos by Lori Baily

Bastard Noise

"LOUDER!" "TURN IT UP!"

After leaving Melvins at Webster Hall on Friday (May 15, 2009), where the thundering basstones of Trevor Dunn were vibrating my chest, it was a little odd that the sounds emanating from British power electronic terrorists Grey Wolves over at Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn, were comparatively silent. As their No Fun Fest set went on, the volume would increase from "mildly harsh" to "razor sharp", but one thing stayed constant: the squalls of caustic harsh noise squelching out of the PA.

Sound fun? It was. Behind that backdrop, Grey Wolves spewed caustic lyrics about hate, terrorism, and a desire to "fuck the pain way", and not like Peaches sang playfully in 2000. In between the confrontational lyrics, the vocalist sneered and grabbed his crotch, but not in the Jackson Family manner, the kind that would make your mother call the po-po. Intense, immense, a tad shocking, and completely enjoyable.

After Grey Wolves, my journey into the Melvins past would continue with their ex-bassist Joe Preston and his solo project Thrones. With a looping pedal, drum machine, and some sort of vocal harmonizer (anyone know?), Joe churned out compelling and doomy rhythms, leads, and everything in between, making for a fascinating one man show. I had originally thought that the Wolves In the Throne Room/A Storm Of Light show coming up with Krallice at The Studio @ Webster (5/26, tickets here) was the definite winner of the NYC shows on that tour, but after seeing Thrones on Friday, its a toss up... unless I make it to Coco66 on 5/21 to catch him with Blues Control, then I may go see him again with WITTR at Europa on 5/22 (tickets here)

The last act for the evening was Bastard Noise, the noise project of fallen powerviolence legends Man Is The Bastard. I caught a few songs from the noise-terrorists, enough to see Eric Wood thrashing around like a madman and require another listen from their awesome new album Rogue Astronaut.

How were all the acts who came before them? For poor Raglani, it was his last with his gear. Pictures and video from the whole night below...

Continue reading "No Fun Fest @ MHOW - night 1 in pics, video & review "

UPDATE: the May 31st benefit show at Bell House has been postponed

The 3rd annual Willie Mae-Ra-Thon is a four-day, all-Brooklyn music extravaganza with 20 diverse and talented bands taking the stage at Brooklyn venues such as Union Pool, The Bell House, and the newly opened Bruar Falls. Participating bands include legendary indie rock bands Antietam and Babe the Blue Ox, art punk upstarts Taigaa! and Pterodactyl, experimental funk ensemble Burnt Sugar and Brooklyn noise-pop faves Parts & Labor, among others.

The Willie Mae-Ra-Thon runs from Thursday, May 28th through Sunday, May 31st. All shows are 21+. The annual event is organized by the Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls Advisory Board, which is made up of camp volunteers, camper parents, and other members of the Rock Camp community.

Another Willie Mae benefit coming up this summer is Ladies Camp, an 18+ weekend version of its rock school. Three day sessions start on Friday, July 24th and Friday, August 7th at Urban Assembly School of Music & Art, in Downtown Brooklyn.

The camp is also putting on a Spring Carnival on Saturday May 30th and Sunday, May 31st at 163 Plymouth Street in DUMBO. More info on that, and the Mae-Ra-Thon, below...

Continue reading "Willie Mae rock camp Mae-Ra-Thon benefit & carnival - shows by Parts & Labor, Antietam, Pterodactyl & more "

NYC's very own critically-acclaimed lyricist Jean Grae will perform at NYC's New Museum on Friday, May 1st along with "the soul-inspired hip-hop of Derrin Maxwell and the gritty, heavily-fried underground funk of 3beanstew." Tickets are on sale.

That show is part of the museum's Get Weird series. A week later (Friday, May 8th), Get Weird hosts the Younger Lovers (featuring Brontez Purnell of Gravy Train!!!!) and Gamma Rays. Tickets are on sale.

During the No Fun Fest, taking place May 15th-17th at the MHoW, the New Museum will partners with Rhizome and the No Fun to present "No Fun 2009: Infinite Sound and Image" on Saturday, May 16th. The live-music and silent film screening includes Jim O'Rouke (a man with many credits including Sonic Youth and producing Wilco), Robert Beatty (of Hair Police and Three Legged Race), Sarah Lipstate (of Noveller), and C. Spencer Yeh (of Burning Star Core). Noveller and C. Spencer Yeh both also make separate NFF appearances. Tickets for the New Musem show are on sale. Full program details are below.

The museum combines its Get Weird music series and its Younger Than Jesus exhibit (artists less than 33 yrs old) and gets a show with BARR/Brendan Fowler and MEN on Friday, June 12th. Tickets are on sale for that too.

All details, with more upcoming New Museum music events (including Nick Hallett performing Meredith Monk, Karlheinz Stockhausen and others) below...

Continue reading "Jean Grae, Jim O'Rourke & others playing the New Museum"

by Andrew Frisicano

April 11th will be ISSUE Project Room's 6th anniversary. We're amazed at how much has happened in this period of time. ISSUE started on East 6th street as an impromptu and spontaneous music, experimental cinema and performance venue...quickly gaining attention and expanding from 60 performances a year to over 250. By 2005, ISSUE had to leave the East Village and migrated to an iconic and beautiful silo along the banks of the Gowanus Canal. This unusual and extraordinarily fun location was voted "Best Art Bayou" by the Village Voice and named "New York's Best Kept Secret" by the Whitney Museum.

Producing amazing performances by Rhys Chatham, Anthony Coleman, Marianne Amancher, Elliott Sharp, Jandek and WFMU's own Kenny G, ISSUE Project Room enjoyed its stay at the silo immensely but then had to move once again. This time to its current location at the Old American Can Factory at 232 3rd Street in Brooklyn. This room, the "sanctuary", was formerly a rehearsal studio for a circus troupe. Instead of trapeze artists, we've now got Stephan Moore's 16 channel hemispherical speaker system hanging from the ceiling, enabling us to move sound over and around the heads of the audience.

This past year we found out that we were awarded a rent free, 20 year lease on the elk's club room at the former Board of Education building at 110 Livingston Street. It's a pretty amazing room and an amazing opportunity to build a kind of "Carnegie Hall of the Avant Garde" for the next 20 years. It's up to us to bring it up to code and move in, though...so we'll be fundraising for the time being...getting ready for the future. [ISSUE Project Room via Free Music Archive]

To celebrate (and raise money), the Brooklyn venue has lined up some special benefit performances for the month of April.

One highlight (of many) is Moby's "first-ever live electronic/ambiant performance" on Friday, April 24th. Tickets for the show are on sale now - regular and VIP. The full package includes: "an intimate pre-performance cocktail party with Moby [to] hear advance tracks from his forthcoming album, meet and talk with the artist, and enjoy a sneak-preview of his new music video directed by David Lynch." Not surprisingly, Moby was one of many artists who recently appeared at Radio City Music Hall to help raise money for the David Lynch Foundation. Moby was also a part of the Issue Project Room fundraiser that took place at Santos Party House last year (that Tony Conrad also performed at).

On ISSUE Project Room's actual birthday, April 11th, Pitre, with special guest avant-composer/filmmaker Tony Conrad, will perform original composition ED09 "with a 17-piece string/woodwind ensemble". Tickets are on sale. ISSUE Project Room is where Tony teamed up with Genesis P-Orridge (of the reunited Throbbing Gristle) for two shows earlier this year. Video from one of those shows below.

The IPR schedule also has a Tuesday, April 21st show with producer and SNL music supervisor Hal Willner featuring Sean Lennon, Yuka Honda, Chloe Webb and special guests. Tickets to that are on sale. One of the albums Hal recently produced is the new Marianne Faithfull. Still waiting to hear if he'll be back at Prospect Park this year.

Noveller/Sarah Lipstate (who is playing Cinema 16 at the Bell House on Sunday, April 19th) performs at the ISSUE Project Room on Saturday, April 25th as part of artist-in-residence Duane Pitre's Bowed Harmonic-Guitar Ensemble.

Some videos and the venue's full April schedule, below...

Continue reading "Issue Project Room is 6 -- April (pre-move to Livingston St) benefit/birthday schedule w/ Moby, Hal Willner & more"

by Andrew Frisicano

Noveller (Sarah Lipstate)

Noveller is the solo project of Brooklyn-based sound artist and filmmaker Sarah Lipstate. She has performed in Rhys Chatham's Guitar Army, and as a member of Glenn Branca's 100 guitar ensemble. In March 2008, Lipstate joined Parts & Labor as their new guitarist.

Monthly film and music series Cinema 16 will return to the Bell House on Sunday, April 19th. The event last visited the venue on February 25th with Wild Yaks and Artanker Convoy providing the live soundtrack to the night's silent films.

This month's event presents: Experimental Brooklyn musician and singer Julianna Barwick performs an original score for "1734" (a short by Joel Schelmowitz) and "Pleasure Dome" (by Kenneth Anger). Brooklyn filmmaker and sound artist (and also Parts & Labor guitarist) Sarah Lipstate as her solo project Noveller performs an original score to a selection of her own original films.

Sarah also has shows coming up at Monkeytown, Issue Project Room, The New Museum, and at Music Hall of Williamsburg (for No Fun Fest). All of her dates, a live performance video, and more background on Cinema 16 and short films by Joel Schelmowitz and Kenneth Anger, below...

Continue reading "Noveller (Sarah Lipstate) - Cinema 16 & other appearances "

here's some new pictures & tour dates with a sort of old interview (that I'd rather post than throw away) (hope you don't mind)....

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words by Black Bubblegum, photos by Lori Baily

Dan Friel @ Cake Shop, NYC - New Years Eve (Dec 31, 2008)

ATP NY (2008) (think all the way back to September for a second) was littered with luminaries. We've previously documented our run-ins with some of the great performers, but we also ran into a few artists who were just there for the good time. One of those artists was Dan Friel.

Friel is probably best known for his participation in Parts & Labor, the Brooklyn experimental noise pop/rock band he formed in 2002 with BJ Warshaw (also of Shooting Spires). Over the years, Parts & Labor have released three LPs and multiple seven-inches, contributed to many a compilation, and even dropped a split LP with Tyondai Braxton (Battles). All along, Dan Friel has been working on solo material... dropping EPs and a cassette leading up to 2008's triumphant Ghost Town, out now on Important.

We cornered Dan Friel at ATP (literally... he could NOT escape) for a couple minutes to discuss the festival and his plans for the next few months.

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So Dan, what were some of the motivating factors for you coming to ATP? What are some of the bands you really wanted to check out?

Dan Friel: Today I'm pretty excited about seeing Polvo. I've been sort of starting to listen to them again, a bunch in the last couple of years which I think a lot of people have, and it will be great to see them play again. I haven't seen Lightning Bolt in a couple of years, so that'll be pretty cool. I've never seen Low, and that's kind of a big deal because I like their records quite a bit. And Fuck Buttons and Alexander Tucker are both friends and amazing people. So I'm excited to check that out.

continued below...

Continue reading "an interview w/ Dan Friel, pics from New Years Eve"

No Fun Fest 2009. May 15,16,17 at Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn. Daily Schedule,ticket info/prices will be announced by January 12.

Full lineup below...

Continue reading "Sonic Youth, Merzbow & Bardo Pond playing No Fun Fest 2009 (full 3-day, Brooklyn lineup)"