photos by Tim Griffin

Passion Pit

It's now Saturday and Fun Fun Fun Fest's second day is already underway and streaming on Pitchfork.

Yesterday, Friday, while BBG was holding down the black stage (which Danzig eventually played), Tim (who ran into Ryan Gosling more than once), was handling most of the other music the Austin fest had to offer. A quick selection of Tim's pictures from Friday continues below...

Continue reading "Fun Fun Fun Fest 2011 -- Day 1 in pics (part 2) -- Passion Pit, Reggie Watts, Omar Souleyman & more)"

Omar Souleyman at Summerstage in July (more by David Andrako)

Syrian dabke singer Omar Souleyman recently released the live album Haflat Gharbia on Sublime Frequencies. You can purchase the album at the Sublime Frequencies webstore. The album features recordings of international shows Omar has been playing over the course of the last two years.

He's got some European tour dates scheduled including a few this month and another string of shows in December. Before the December shows, Omar will be in the US for Fun Fun Fest, which takes place in Austin, TX from Nov 4-6. The day before the fest, Omar will play NYC at Santos Party House (11/3). Tickets are on sale now. Opener TBA.

Back in June, we mentioned that Omar was remixing material off Bjork"s upcoming album Biophilia. On July 26, One Little Indian released his remixes of "Crystalline," "Tesla," and "Mawall." Check out a video of a vinyl rip of Omar's "Crystalline" remix, with all dates, below....

Continue reading "Omar Souleyman playing NY before Fun Fun Fun Fest & stuff"

DOWNLOAD: Okkervil River - Your Past Life as a Blast (MP3)

Okkervil River at Terminal 5 in June (more by Amanda Hatfield)

After the Soundtown Music Festival and a few shows with The Decemberists and Fruit Bats this month, Okkervil River will kick off a headlining tour, much of which is with Wye Oak. The tour kicks off at State Theatre of Ithaca in Ithaca, NY with Bird of Youth and NewVillager and also includes appearances at VIrgin Free Fest and Midpoint Music Festival. Okkervil River and Wye Oak were both scheduled to also play Truck America in the Catskills but the festival has since been cancelled (hence the Ithaca show). All dates are listed below.

Okkervil River recently released a 7-inch for "Your Past Life As A Blast" off their new record I Am Very Far. Grab that song for free above.

Bird of Youth (aka Beth Wawerna), who opens the Okkervil River show in Ithaca and whose debut album Defender was produced by Will Sheff of Okkervil River, has some of her own shows coming up too. She plays tonight (8/18) at The Living Room at 9 PM after a 'WFUV Live members only broadcast' by Nick Lowe at 7 PM (Nick also opens for Wilco in September at Summerstage). Bird of Youth also plays September 29 at Union Hall with Amy Klein (of Titus Andronius) and Jo Schornikow (of The Shivers). Tickets are on sale now for that.

Okkervil River are also set to play Fun Fun Fun Fest which takes place in Austin, TX from November 4 - 6. The festival announced more artists for the already-incredible lineup today including fellow big Austin indie band Spoon (their only 2011 show), the Black Lips, Omar Souleyman, Sergio "Sexy Sax Man" Flores, Cannibal Corpse, "and more". The full lineup is at FFFest's site and tickets are still on sale.

All dates and a video below...

Continue reading "Fun Fun Fun Fest adds bands (like Spoon), Okkervil River touring, Bird of Youth playing shows too (dates)"

photos by David Andrako

"Thoroughly awesome Central Park SummerStage Ratatat show tonight! Preceded by an Omar Souleyman dance party in a torrential downpour." - Miranda Mammen

"Omar Souleyman killed it at Santos 2nite!
the bubu gang also ruled! xelent!" - Jesse Lent

Ratatat

Ratatat headlined the sold-out Central Park Summerstage last night (7/13) with support from Omar Souleyman and Black Pus (aka Brian Chippendale of Lightning Bolt). It rained pretty hard during Omar Souleyman but things cleared up for Ratatat's set, which was accompanied by an array of video clips and visuals. Omar then played a much drier set after the show at Santos with Janka Nabay and others.

More pictures and videos from the Summerstage show below...

Continue reading "Ratatat, Omar Souleyman & Black Pus played Summerstage (pics & video)"

Omar Souleyman at Bonnaroo in June (more by Dana (Distortion) Yavin)

Syrian dabke mastermind Omar Souleyman plays Summerstage tonight (7/13) as part of a pretty eccentric lineup. Ratatat headlines the show and Black Pus is also on the bill. The show is sold out.

If you missed out on getting tickets, you'll have another chance to see Omar, who will play a late show tonight (7/13) at Santos Party House afterwards, with a lineup of other "world musicians" (for lack of better terms). Bubu King Janka Nabay is on the bill, along with Azizaman and Rainstick. Tickets for this show are still on sale.

All tour dates below...

Continue reading "Omar Souleyman playing NYC TWICE TODAY & other dates"

photos by Dana (Distortion) Yavin & Graeme Flegenheimer

Scissor Sisters

Bootsy

Eminem

BONNAROO 2012 PRE-SALE BEGINS FRIDAY, JUNE 17TH, 2011 AT 12:00 PM EASTERN.

Thanks to all who joined us for the tenth Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival! We had so much fun that we want to give you the opportunity to buy tickets to the 2012 festival!

Starting Friday, June 17 at 12:00 PM Eastern we will offer a limited number of specially priced general admission tickets for $209.50 plus service fees.

These pre-sale tickets will be available in a limited quantity through Friday, July 1, 2011 at 11:59 PM Eastern or while supplies last.

There is a limit of (10) general admission tickets per order.

Ticket fees are $23.35 per ticket, which includes a $6.00 facility fee, $3.00 contribution to Coffee County, $1.00 charity donation, and service fees.

Continue reading "Bonnaroo 2011 Day 3 in pics (Bootsy Collins, Black Keys, Eminem, Scissor Sisters & more) +++ Bonnaroo 2012 on sale!"

Bjork at Housing Works in 2009 (more by Ryan Muir)

Bjork has been stirring things up lately as she preps her upcoming seventh album Biophilia. The album, which has no official release date yet, is set to be a multi-media affair that encompasses a 10-song album in many formats. There's the traditional format, and music videos for every track directed by long-time collaborator Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind), and an iPad app produced with interactive artist Scott Snibbe for each track, and a Biophilia live show which is premiering later this month at her three-week residency at Manchester International Festival. Exact dates are listed below.

Regarding the iPad apps, The Guardian reports:

Biophilia for iPad will include around 10 separate apps, all housed within one "mother" app. Each of the smaller apps will relate to a different track from the album, allowing people to explore and interact with the song's themes or even make a completely new version. It will also be an evolving entity that will grow as and when the album's release schedule dictates, with new elements added...For one song, Virus, the app will feature a close-up study of cells being attacked by a virus to represent what Snibbe calls: "A kind of a love story between a virus and a cell. And of course the virus loves the cell so much that it destroys it." The interactive game challenges the user to halt the attack of the virus, although the result is that the song will stop if you succeed. In order to hear the rest of the song, you have to let the virus take its course. Using some artistic license, the cells will also mouth along to the chorus. It's this determination to fuse different elements together - be it juxtaposing a female choir from Greenland with the bleeps and glitches of electronic music pioneers Matmos during the Vespertine tour, or meshing soaring strings and jagged beats on the Homogenic album - that helps explain the power and success of Björk's collaborations.

In support of the album, Bjork launched a new website, which according to her twitter, includes an "interactive Biophilia universe". The site has an audio clip at the bottom of Bjork speaking about innovations in electronic music and how she is excited to apply them to Biophilia. According to a message on the homepage when viewed in Firefox, "this website has been developed using the latest html5 technology. to experience it fully, we recommend you to use the following browsers: safari, chrome."

The album features the employment of two brand new instruments created for Bjork by Icelandic organ maker Bjorgvin Tomasson. One is an organ that Bjork controls digitally with a computer, and the other, which Bjork calls a "gameleste" is a hybrid of a celeste and a gamelan.

So far, we've been graced with two clips from the upcoming album. Back in December, an instrumental track off Biophilia appeared on the Solar System iPad app. She also posted a 33 second clip of herself driving while the new song "Crystalline" plays on the car stereo. Check both of those out below. According to her twitter, "Crystalline" will appear in full towards the end of June. She also posted a picture on facebook hinting at a video for the song:

It had also been announced in February that Bjork is releasing a collaboration with Omar Souleyman, who played Music Hall of Williamsburg last night (6/12). No details on the collab have been released since, though a 2011 release date is anticipated. UPDATE: the collaboration is just a remix of a Biophilia track.

No live U.S. Bjork dates to announce yet, but the Bjork-covering jazz orchestra Bjorkestra plays Highline Ballroom Tuesday (6/14) as part of the Blue Note Jazz Festival. Tickets are on sale, and can be purchased with a 50% off discount by using the access code "BIGBAND". (note: Ticketweb seems to be having issues, so try again later if you can't get to the link).

Videos and tour dates below...

Continue reading "Bjork slowly revealing 'Biophilia' (performing it live in the UK), Bjorkestra playing Highline (now 50% off!)"

Omar Souleyman at MHoW last year (more by Lori Baily)

Syrian musician Omar Souleyman is returning to the states this summer and has added a June 12th show at Music Hall of Williamsburg with Ali Shaker. That NYC gig is in addition to previously announced dates at Bonnaroo, Chaos in Tejas and the Winnipeg Folk Festival. Tickets to the Brooklyn show go on AmEx presale Wednesday morning, and then on general sale Friday (4/15).

In related news, Austin festival Chaos In Tejas has made some major moves recently, adding Baroness, Citizens Arrest, Crystal Antlers, The Donkeys, Burning Love, and Trap Them to the fold and losing one band, Low Threat Profile. To pick up tickets for individual shows or a pass for the whole event, head to the Chaos in Tejas page.

Chaos in Tejas is one of the stops on the Converge/Burning Love/Trap Them tour which hits Santos on May 25th. Tickets for the NYC show are on sale.

Current Chaos in Tejas flyer, all set times, and all Souleyman tour dates are below.

Continue reading "Omar Souleyman playing Brooklyn after Bonnaroo +++ Chaos in Tejas updates lineup & schedule"

Bonnaroo (June 9-12 in Manchester Tennessee) has announced the 2011 lineup (slightly early), and like the rumored Lollapalooza lineup, Eminem is among the headliners. Bonnaroo also has Grammy winners Arcade Fire and the Black Keys, in addition to Lil Wayne, Mumford & Sons, the Strokes, The Decemberists, Florence & the Machine, Girl Talk, Beirut (haven't seen them in a while), and many more. Full list below...

Continue reading "Bonnaroo 2011 lineup is here"

words by Andrew Sacher, photos by Kellyann Petry

Brooklyn based garage rock band The So So Glos, who announced from stage that they're no longer signed to Green Owl who just released their EP Low Back Chain Shift, opened the show. The audience was initially unresponsive, but the band didn't let their energy die. By the second to last song, "Execution," the crowd started to feed off of the band's enthusiasm and broke out into a full blown push pit.

Instrumental downtempo artist Ras G played a DJ set mainly focused on hip hop influenced electronic beats. The set contained a great deal of improvisation and most songs flowed directly into the next. His songs put a greater emphasis on using monotonous ambience than melody to complement his beats. He added to the diversity of the show, but being sandwiched between two hard hitting rock bands definitely overshadowed his calmer performance.

If you ever find yourself in a darkened room, and three tall figures in black hooded cloaks who call themselves Death appear in front of you, you're about to encounter one of two things; either an eternity of suffering and punishment, or the reunited proto-punk trio from Detroit executing a half hour of raw fury. Once the band removed their cloaks, revealing that they were not in fact satanic demons, Death made no hesitation to crash down on the opening chords of "Views" and turn the entire room into a mass frenzy. The level of intensity only heightened when Death went straight into "Keep On Knocking" and proceeded to play For The Whole World To See in its entirety (other than switching the order of "Freakin' Out" and "You're A Prisoner").

Just when it seemed like the show couldn't get crazier, Death's Dannis Hackney attacked his drums in "Rock-N-Roll Victim" with a ferocity matched only by his brother Bobby's piercing shouts, which cut through the music even more sharply than on 1975's recorded version. After truly making the audience feel like victims of Death's rock-n-roll, they lent a little bit of breathing room with "Let The World Turn." This song gave Death a chance to show off their more psychedelic, progressive side with Bobbie Duncan's reverb drenched guitar acting as the only complement to Bobby Hackney's confident vocal delivery. About two minutes in, however, the band schizophrenically shifted back into breakneck rock and roll, reigniting the audience's frenzy.

Later on, Bobby Hackney took the time to introduce the band members and honor his brother David, the original guitarist of Death, who passed away in 2000. "We refer to him not as the late David Hackney, but the early David Hackney," Bobby told the crowd, who responded with shouts of support. Hackney also took time before their last song to deliver one more speech. He told the audience that back in the '70s, under the reign of Nixon, anyone over the age of eighteen was constantly in fear of being drafted. Hackney added that although we don't have that problem today, the government is always taking new approaches to get in our way. "No matter what it is, we still say: POLITICIANS IN MY EYES!" The crowd erupted with applause as the one single Death was able to release back in 1975 thundered through the room, ending the set even more forcefully than it began.

Earlier that day I sat down with Death who answered some of my questions. Read that interview HERE.

Fucked Up didn't get kicked off by the cops this time, but they undoubtedly incited a riot. The assault of Fucked Up's triple guitars coupled with the fact that frontman Damian Abraham spends as much time in the audience as he does on stage was worthy of at least a misdemeanor. The audience didn't think twice about adding to the beast that the band created. At least one person stage dived every other second into the sea of mosh pits. After a half hour of pure aggression, Fucked Up ended their set with a rendition of Nirvana's "Breed."

If you were to walk in on the middle of Omar Souleyman's set, you wouldn't know what the hell was going on, but you would know that you wanted to be a part of it. Omar Souleyman, who played Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn three days earlier, is a pop musician from Syria who plays a style of music native to his country known as dabke. Whether or not you're familiar with dabke, you can enjoy its perfect mix of Arabic melodies and dance beats. Omar Souleyman built upon that sound with a prophetic vocal delivery that captivated the audience until the moment he left the stage. It's unlikely that anyone in the audience understood a word of what Souleyman was saying or singing, but not even the language barrier could prevent a dance party breaking out both on and off stage.

Wu-Tang Clan member Raekwon, whose solo debut Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... was one of the defining albums of the golden age of hip hop, has been making a huge comeback after the release of 2009's Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... Pt II, the thematic follow-up to his debut. Since its release, he has been performing constantly and writing prolifically (including releasing 2010's Wu-Massacre with Method Man and Ghostface Killah, and is currently working on another solo album expected to be released in 2011). Raekwon's performance at SUNY Purchase's Fall Fest furthered the impact of his comeback. He performed songs off of both parts of Cuban Linx in addition to some Wu-Tang classics, including a throwback/dedication to O.D.B. In between songs, he gave appropriate advice for a college crowd, advocating a balance of partying while still getting a degree: "You can do your drugs and still be a smart mothafucka." He remained positive even when a fight broke out on stage during one of his songs. Raekwon stopped the song and did everything in his power to clear the stage and break up the fight: "Push that bitch off stage!"

Raekwon opens for Disco Biscuits at Terminal 5 in December, and the rest of Wu-Tang tours the same month. More pictures from Fall Fest below...

Continue reading "Purchase Fall Fest in pics & review (Raekwon, Omar Souleyman, Death, Fucked Up, So So Glos & more) "

photos by Lori Baily

[Omar Souleyman] appeared... with only his principal accompanist, the keyboardist and composer RiOmar Souleymanan Sa'id... Mr. Souleyman paced and emoted, singing rhythmically in Arabic about love and revenge, punctuating the songs with drawn-out "ehyeahhhhh" sounds and then letting Mr. Sa'id's tight improvisations take over. Mr. Souleyman never took off his jacket or sunglasses or spoke any English -- in songs or between them. He barely bent his knees. He was only going to party with us halfway.

[Souleyman's] beats are universal, East thoroughly merged with West, among other things a cross between choubi, from Iraq, and Antillean rhythms. But beyond solemnly blowing some kisses to the audience, he's not an ingratiating performer, and the remoteness of his body language combined with the passion in his singing registered as a form of spectacular, non-negotiable cool. He seems authentic, which partly explains his growing popularity in the West. But he also seems emotionally unreachable, which may be the rest of the explanation.
[New York Times]

Omar Souleyman, who is much more upbeat than his opener was, also played Purchase's Fall Fest on his tour which is also now complete. More pictures from Music Hall, below...

Continue reading "Omar Souleyman & Deakin @ Music Hall Of Williamsburg (pics)"

by Andrew Sacher

DOWNLOAD: The So So Glos - "Lindy Hop" (MP3)

So So Glos Fans (more by Zach Stern)

The lineup has been announced for this year's SUNY Purchase Fall Fest, an annual one-day, students-only festival which will take place on November 5th in the SUNY Purchase Student Center (The Stood). Fall Fest '10 (aka Halloween 2) will be headlined by Raekwon, and features a very varied lineup of other acts including Death who just announced a NEW album...

BASEMENT OF WHAT WAS ONCE KNOWN AS GROOVESVILLE STUDIOS - DETROIT, MI - May 7th, 2010

"After searching for almost eight hours, I removed a box with a Master in it and vaguely saw some big red letters on the box below it. I shinned the light on this box to clearly see the writing in big red letters DEATH. I screamed with excitement DEATH!!, DEATH!!, DEATH!! Everyone in the building starting to scream and wildly cheer and applause. Upon seeing those tapes, it brought it all back, David had written those big red letters on the tape. Engineer Jim Vitti had jokingly drew a skull and crossbones on the box after the name to which David did not like telling him "We are not that kind of Death". I was full of emotion, I cried. We were all elated, Jacque was elated, I called up Dannis who was in Vermont and he began to joyfully celebrate. I thought about David. If David were here with us all that has happened to Death up to this point would pale in comparison to what we found today. The tapes were right where Brian said they were sitting there awaiting us for 34 years." - Bobby Hackney

Spiritual, Mental, Physical is the new Death CD/LP and it will be released 01/25/11.

The So So Glos will also be performing at SUNY, and are about to embark on a Five Borough NYC tour to celebrate the release of their new EP, Low Back Chain Shift, which came out Tuesday, October 12. The NYC tour happens to take place during CMJ, kicks off in Staten Island, includes a Queens BBQ with Patrick Stickles of Titus Andronicus, and a showcase at Pianos...

Friday, Oct. 22
at Pianos
158 Ludlow St

Force Field PR Official CMJ Showcase
08pm - Lord Huron
09pm - La Sera
10pm - Violens
11pm - Woven Bones
12am - Wild Nothing
01am - The So So Glos

FREE w/ CMJ Badge
or $10 advance / $12 at door

Omar Souleyman will be performing at SUNY as the concluding date on his current tour, which also includes a November 2nd show at MHOW. Updated dates below.

Fucked Up is also returning to Purchase after getting their set cut short by the police at their 2008 Culture Shock Performance.

Full Purchase lineup, videos, and other tour dates below...

Continue reading "Purchase Fall Fest, new Death, So So Glos dates, Omar Souleyman's updated schedule & stuff"

Omar Souleyman at Summerstage (more by Andrew Frisicano)

Between [sets by Tinariwen and Toubab Krewe], Syrian "techno" artist Omar Souleyman made his New York debut. He succeeded in getting the crowd up and dancing, and he had a belly dancer on stage for part of the set (with a DJ set between). -[Andrew Frisicano in July]

Souleyman released his new compilation Jazeera Nights this year via Sublime Frequencies. Though Souleyman has been performing for more than fifteen years, the release is only his third available in the US. Culled from live recordings spanning 1995 and 2009, Jazeera Nights is out now.

All tour dates (more TBA?) and some live videos below...

Continue reading "Omar Souleyman is returning (MN, Brooklyn & other dates) "

by Andrew Frisicano

Omar Souleyman @ Central Park Summerstage

"He is a legend in north Africa. Omar Souleyman in about 15 years has recorded around 500 studio and live albums and apparently has a godlike status in Syria, his country. Originally his music orbits around Syrian folk-pop, it is sung in Arabic and his audience is mainly in North-African countries.

Recently Omar Souleyman has became the hype of the indie blogosphere. He has been picked up by Pavement for their "exotic" slot on the second day at their All Tomorrow Parties festival. The hype mounted so fast that the third stage at Minehead centre was packed [with] thousands of guys wearing Pavement/Pixies/Sonic Youth/Dinosaur Jr T-shirts dancing to the disco music of Souleyman. Among these fans [was] the Dodos drummer who played [his own set the next day] wearing the official Souleyman T-Shirt." [Live on 35mm]

The next night in New York, Tinariwen performed with Sway Machinery at the Bell House, and Omar Souleyman played in the Old American Can Factory Courtyard with CSC Funk Band.

More pictures from Central Park, and some videos from all the NYC shows, below...

Continue reading "Omar Souleyman & Tinariwen played shows in Manhattan (Summerstage) & Brooklyn - pics & video "

by Andrew Frisicano

Grouper @ Terminal 5 in May 2009 (more by Natasha Ryan)

So we managed to sneak into Grouper's rare Brooklyn gig on Friday night and still aren't sure what we witnessed over the course of her main 60-minute set. (She also presented a new tape collage piece.) To be honest, the entire thing looked/sounded incredibly creepy, as if one of The Shining's redrum-happy twins suddenly learned how to sculpt dronescapes and acoustic something-or-others from an ancient keyboard and several effects pedals. It didn't help that the room was humid as hell--literally--with Issue Project Room's single, solitary fan getting switched off in the middle of the first 'song' because it was interfering with Liz Harris' signal. [self-titled]

Coming up, Matt Mottel (Issue's artist-in-residence) brings his jazz duo Talibam! to the venue for a free performance on Wednesday, June 9th. On Friday, June 11th, composer and tape artist William Basinski presents his piece "Vivian and Ondine" at a free show at 110 Livingston (Issue's new being-remodeled space).

Man Forever (Kid Millions from Oneida's new composition for multiple rock drummers) performs with composer/musicians Elliott Sharp, Zeena Parkins, Frank Vigroux and Hélène Breschand on June 25th. Tickets are on sale. Man Forever have a new record almost out, and the project will be touring this summer.

The self-titled debut - two monolithic, hypnotic improvisations for arrays of carefully tuned drums- is due out [June 22nd] in an edition of 300 LPs featuring hand-pulled screens on recycled record jackets from Jagjaguwar vinyl imprint St. Ives. The touring quintet of Kid Millions, YEAH YEAH YEAHS drummer Brian Chase, Oneida cohort and KNYFE HYTS drummer Shahin Motia, drummer Allison Busch of AWESOME COLOR, and SIGHTINGS bassist Richard Hoffman, will be augmented by local percussionists in each city.

Man Forever plays tonight (June 8th) at the Tank with Dump (James McNew of Yo La Tengo), M&M and the New York debut of the Sloppy Heads (who have a new Kid Milions-produced 7", First Gasp, which you can download here as a ZIP). That show has tickets on sale.

Man Forever also headline a Monster Island show on Friday, June 11th.

The night after Man Forever at Issue - Zs, who just put out a new record, play Issue with sound/multimedia artist David Linton (on Saturday, June 26th).

Separate from Darmstadt is the venue's ISSUE Project Room's Sunday Concerts in the Courtyard series that'll be bringing a Sunday, June 27th lineup of Omar Souleyman (who plays Central Park the day before with Tinariwen) and CSC Funk Band (featured here) to the Old American Can Factory courtyard. Tickets are on sale. The other shows in that series are posted below.

On top of all that, Issue will be participating in the two-venue, 65th-birthday celebration for improv legend Anthony Braxton (father of Tyondai from Battles) happening on June 18 and 19th. It's at (Le) Poisson Rouge on the 18th and Issue on the 19th. Details, tickets links and video are below.

The full Issue/Darmstadt schedule, video from Zs' Gulf Coast benefit show at Shea Stadium on June 2nd, and more are posted below...

Continue reading "Darmstadt continues @ Issue Project Room, Man Forever, Zs, James McNew, Omar Souleyman & Anthony Braxton's birthday"

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 "

photos by Zach Dilgard

Grace Jones

"Late of the Pier played a 20 minute shmeh set and crystal castles had no sound. crookers were better than usual and orbitol were awesome. grace jones is fucking mad and fucked up the schedule. Fever Ray is a shamanic wonder." [The Naked Smiles Club]

Continue reading "Sonar 2009 in pictures"