Blondes at Monster Island in 2010 (more by Erez Avissar)

PopRally is presenting an evening of music, light, and sound, which features a live performance by Brooklyn electronic duo Blondes (aka Zach Steinman and Sam Haar) and a DJ set by Juan MacLean at MoMA on January 21. According to a press release, visitors will also have the exclusive opportunity to view the exhibitions Contemporary Art from the Collection, 1980-Now; Thing/Thought: Fluxus Editions, 1962-1978; Sanja Ivekovic: Sweet Violence; and Projects 96: Haris Epaminonda. Tickets are on sale now. More details below.

Blondes will release their self titled debut LP on February 7 via RVNG Intl. and are also opening for Matthew Dear at Bowery Ballroom (3/2). Tickets for that show go on sale Friday (1/6) at noon.

Details for the MoMA show below...

Continue reading "Blondes playing MoMA, opening for Matthew Dear"

Real Estate have a full schedule of shows coming up in multiple countries throughout April and May. Three of those shows are in NYC in the nest 10 days. Tonight (4/16) they headline Monster Island. On Saturday, April 24th they play a MoMA PopRally event. On Sunday, April 25th they do a Kidrockers "Earthrockers" show with Apollo Sunshine at Bowery Ballroom. Tickets are on sale (make sure you have a kid to take with you). More details on all of those shows and all dates below...

Continue reading "Real Estate playing Monster Island, Earthrockers, a MoMA PopRally event & other shows (2010 tour dates) "

photos by Chris La Putt

Spike Jonze @ MoMA

Just got back from NYC. I made a special trip up to the Big Apple to check out "An Evening of Skate Videos" - an event held by Poprally in support of the Moma's exhibit honoring the work of Spike Jonze, co-owner of Girl Skateboards and director of "Video Days" (the epic Blind Skateboards video), and director of "Where the Wild Things Are." The panel included a who's who of the skateboarding world, they included Spike Jonze, Patrick O'Dell (MC for the evening), Mark Gonzales, Lance Mountain, Jake Phelps, Tobin Yelland, Ty Evans, Greg Hunt, and Ed Templeton. Some other notable's that showed up included Giovanni Reda, Steve Rodriguez, Steve Olson, Jason Dill, Mike O'Meally, and Pitcrew Local Tyler Tufty. It was a great night of some classic skate videos and a great chance to get some great comments by those that were involved with them. Following the event, the band No Age put on a kick-ass show while the Colt 45 flowed.

Good Times! [Eastern Imagery]

After playing LPR on Wednesday, Oct. 14th, No Age's next stop on their four-show NYC run last week was at MoMA, where the band appeared with Spike Jonze and friends. After the skate-video clips and well-attended panel, No Age played in the lobby. It was No Age's first of two consecutive museum shows, though the second, the band's performance at the New Museum on Friday, October 16th, wasn't a regular set, but a live score to the 1989 Jean-Jacques Annaud film The Bear.

No Age @ MoMA

Village Voice: Does it seem uncanny for you guys, within a week's span, to be playing at the MoMA and then at Todd P.'s venue, then at the New Museum?

Randy Randall from No Age: No, it's not strange at all. For us, it's something we've always wanted to do. We come from a world of Todd P. auto-part store shows, yet we've always been fans of going to museums and galleries as patrons. We've always played places like Death By Audio, a venue with totally fun energy in the room. But sometimes, the rooms are too small and not everyone can get in. So we have to play (le) Poisson Rouge, a place with a bar, where your feet won't get stepped on, and money is paid to security guards and whatnot. That's more strange to us. The museum events we're playing are going to be fun and we've been fortunate now to get booked in places like that. It's hard to book those yourselves.

More pictures from MoMA are below...

Continue reading "No Age played with 'The Bear' @ The New Museum, and w/ Spike Jonze & skaters @ a MoMa PopRally event (pics)"

No Age and Spike Jonze are both involved in an upcoming PopRally event at MoMA happening October 15th. For the night, "An Evening of Skate Videos," the museum "invited Patrick O'Dell (Epicly Later'd) to assemble an evening of influential skateboarding videos from the 1980s to today -- including Jonze's own legendary contributions to the genre -- and to bring together a panel of significant skateboarders and filmmakers, including Jonze himself, to discuss their work. An after party with a live performance by No Age follows the film program."

The event is in conjunction with the museum's mid-career retrospective of Jonze's work (titled "Spike Jonze: The First 80 Years") taking place from October 8th-18th. A schedule of the screenings at MoMA (which include his music videos, feature films like Being John Malkovich, etc., and his work as a producer) is below. The opening event on October 8th pairs Jonze with Maurice Sendak, the author of Where the Wild Things Are. Jonze's film adaptation of the book is coming out October 16th and features a soundtrack by Karen O "and the Kids".

""Where the Wild Things Are" seems sure to appeal to the sensibilities of a certain cohort of urban young adults -- the type who read comic-book novels and wear skateboard sneakers; who might concur with a note I saw one day scrawled on a legal pad in Jonze's office: "There is no difference between childhood and adulthood." Finding an audience beyond that demographic, though, may well pose a challenge to Warner's marketing department, which is trying to position the movie as a family-friendly film for kids of all ages. They have adopted a broad-based strategy to lure children into the theater, buying advertising on Nickelodeon and the Cartoon Network. They'll also be making a special effort to reach what one executive described to me as "hip, tastemaker" kids: Ugg will be selling a special "Where the Wild Things Are" kids' boot, and Urban Outfitters has a collection of "Where the Wild Things Are" T-shirts and shadow puppets." [NY Times Magazine]

The No Age performance at MoMA is in addition to the band's four other upcoming shows in the NYC area. One of those will be the band performing a live score to the Jean-Jacques Annaud film The Bear at the New Museum on October 16th (no tickets yet). They played with the movie at L.A.'s Cinefamily on August 30th and you can find a video of that show (with the full Jonze/MoMA schedule) below...

Continue reading "MoMA Spike Jonze exhibition w/ another NYC No Age show "

Tuesday night @ MoMA (more by Tim Griffin)

Check out the video below...

Continue reading "the Department of Eagles' "No One Does It Like You" video that premiered at MoMA last night"

photos by Tim Griffin

PopRally, the ongoing event series at MoMA and P.S.1, will host the world premiere of the video for No One Does It Like You (2009) by Department of Eagles, produced by the Directors Bureau, directed by Patrick Daughters and Marcel Dzama, and featuring costumes and sets designed by Dzama. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with Daughters and Dzama moderated by MoMA assistant curator Sarah Suzuki, and a live performance by Department of Eagles.

Guests of this event will receive an exclusive limited-edition poster by Dzama.

The above description of last night's event at MoMA (3/24) should help you understand what is going on in the pictures below...

Continue reading "Department of Eagles played SXSW & MoMA's Pop Rally -pics"

by Andrew Frisicano

Department of Eagles @ Bell House, Oct. 6, 2008 (more by Kyle Dean Reinford)

On Tuesday, March 24, Department of Eagles will premiere the video for "No One Does It Like You" at the MoMA, followed by a live show and a Q&A with video directors Patrick Daughters and Marcel Dzama, as part of the museum's PopRally series. Advanced tickets are supposed to be online NOW ON SALE HERE.

Patrick Daughters, responsible for numerous music videos including Feist's "My Moon My Man" and "1234," and "Maps" by the Yeah Yeah Yeah's (who are releasing new album It's Blitz! today 3/10), works with The Directors Bureau, who produced the video.

Costume and set designer for the video Dzama has been published by McSweeney's, and has done album art for Beck and The Weakerthans.

Half of Department of Eagles is Daniel Rossen of Grizzly Bear - the band who may or may not be playing the just-announced Dark Was The Night concert at Radio City on May 3rd. The busy Grizzly Bear also just announced a US tour (w/ 2 NYC dates), and, on February 26, played BAM with the Brooklyn Philharmonic.

Department of Eagles are also playing two shows at SXSW this year: an official showcase in a church on March 18th, and the Pitchfork party two days later. Daniel will be keeping especially busy in Austin because Grizzly Bear's itinerary includes two shows at SXSW too.

Check out the MoMA event poster, a live video of "No One Does It Like You", and a recent interview Department of Eagles conducted with KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic, below...

Continue reading "Department of Eagles to screen a video & perform @ MoMA"

by Klaus Kinski

Max & Gabe D & friend @ MoMA - Jan 6, 2009 (by Fred Benenson) (via)

I don't get to see nearly as much comedy as I used to, but the scene is as vibrant as ever. If the mood strikes and I find myself wanting to get my yuck-on there is absolutely no shortage of one-off shows and recurring weekly shows. The Tribeca branch of the 92nd St Y has been booking some insane comedy shows recently. I caught Zach Galifianakis there a few weeks ago and was mightily impressed by the performance space and the insane, reasonably priced beer list at the bar. Sound Fix in Williamsburg has free comedy every Wednesday and Thursday. Joe Mande and Noah Garfinkle host Totally J/K every Wednesday at 9:30pm, while Max Silvestri, Gabe Liedman and Jenny Slate host Big Terriffic at 8:00pm on Thursdays. These shows fill the void left by the demise of Rififi and its staples Invite Them Up and The Greg Johnson & Larry Murphy Show by attracting big names like Zach Galifianakis, Sarah Silverman, Janeane Garofalo, Todd Barry, Eugene Mirman, and zillions more. Speaking of Greg Johnson, he's got a free show every Sunday at Pianos. And speaking of Invite Them Up, former host Bobby Tisdale now has a semi-regular, RSVP only show happening in Greenpoint called Wards of Merkin. It's usually $10 and there's usually free booze and top shelf comedians. And don't forget that the UCB Theater and The Pit have calendars bursting with options as does Comix's underground lair Ochi's. And that's just barely scratching the surface of the goings ons. Below are some shows currently on my radar...

Continue reading "NYC comedy @ 92Y, SoundFix, Comix, Pianos, UCB, places"

People like Fred Armisen, Carrie from Sleater-Kinney (and NPR) (man, she was rough on Tallest Man on Earth), Joe Mande and Nick Kroll will be watching comedy shorts (with piano accompaniment) tonight...

Continue reading "ThunderAnt, Max Silvestri, others & film @ MoMA Tuesday"

Ted Leo @ Castle Clinton - July 17, 2008 (The What-If Waltz )

DJ Ted Leo @ Siren Fest - July 19, 2008 (sokane1)

The ArT of DissenT
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
7:00-10:00 P.m.
MoMA
Theater 2, The roy AnD niuTA TiTus TheATer 2

For many artists, politics are an essential component of both their art and their interactions with community and commerce. In this panel, artists and musicians discuss how politics and art mix in their work and working processes.

Justseeds was founded in 1998 by artist and editor Josh MacPhee, who reached out to like-minded artists to create the Justseeds/Visual Resistance Artists' Cooperative. Since 1981, PAPER TIGER (PTTV) has combined media art and activism to create an alternative spin on the traditional television format. Musician Ted Leo has released five politically charged--and critically acclaimed--albums with his band the Pharmacists.

Following presentations by the artists, Gretchen Wagner, Curatorial Assistant, Department of Prints & Illustrated Books, The Museum of Modern Art, moderates a discussion.

A reception follows the event.

More Siren Fest pics HERE.

photos by Ryan Muir

Sigur Ros
TUESDAY, JUNE 17, 2008
7:00-11:00 P.m.
MoMA

PopRally invites you to a special performance by the celebrated Icelandic band Sigur Rós, in conjunction with the exhibition Take your time: Olafur Eliasson.

Featuring thirty-eight works installed at both MoMA and P.S.1, Take your time explores the highly experimental work of Olafur Eliasson, whose immersive environments and large-scale installations elegantly recreate the extremes of landscape and atmosphere in his native Iceland. Eliasson's work recontextualizes elements such as light, water, ice, fog, stone, and moss to create unique situations that shift viewers' perceptions of place and self.

Sigur Rós creates ethereal, transcendent music that often induces a feeling of wonderment--a stirring accompaniment to Eliasson's explorations of space, color, and illumination.

This event includes an exclusive viewing of Take your time, which closes to the public on June 30.

I think Sigur Ros surprised everyone yesterday (Icelandic National Day) by playing for almost two hours. Less surprising was that a museum lobby is not the ideal setting for a concert. It wasn't bad. There were just a lot more people talking and drinking and walking around than at the completely silent, seated show at Grand Ballroom the night before. MoMA also doesn't have a stage. More pictures, and the setlist from the museum show, below....

Continue reading "Sigur Ros @ MoMA (Pop Rally), NYC - pics & setlist"

Continue reading "more details on Sigur Rós' NYC museum show (tickets, etc...)"