Speaking of "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry", the Dessner brother-curated festival coming to the Brooklyn Academy of Music in May (May 3-5 to be exact), I have the names of a few people who will be part of it.

The Brooklyn Youth Chorus, who worked with the Dessners in 2011 (for a show at St. Ann's and an Ecstatic one at Merkin Concert Hall), will sing a major new work written for them by Bryce Dessner. The NOW Ensemble will perform Sarah Kirkland Snider's "Pale As Centuries", a work they premiered in October at the Miller Theatre as part of the SONiC Festival. That happens on May 5, 2012. The Brooklyn Youth Chorus date is TBD, but it will happen sometime within the fesival's three days in one of the "various venues in the Peter Jay Sharp Building."

Stay tuned for more lineup additions (including probably a bunch of indie rock ones). Tickets go on sale in March.

Tickets are on sale now for the National-curated ATP Fest happening in the UK in December. As previously mentioned, Sharon Van Etten, My Brightest Diamond, Wye Oak, Megafaun, The Antlers, Buke and Gase (FKA Buke and Gass), Lower Dens, Owen Pallett, Boris, Tim Hecker, Kronos Quartet, Suuns, and Dark Dark Dark are all playing that.

Meanwhile, NOW Ensemble plays with Dan Deacon in March as part of the 2012 Ecstatic Music Festival which begins this week. Listen to/watch a festival preview at the Greene Space even sooner.

by Andrew Sacher

DOWNLOAD: yMusic - "Proven Badlands" (composed by Annie Clark) (MP3)

My Brightest Diamond at Prospect Park in August (more by Amanda Hatfield)

My Brightest Diamond (aka Shara Worden) is set to release her third full length album All Things Will Unwind on October 18 via Asthmatic Kitty. She's already revealed the excellent track, "Reaching Through to the Other Side," which you can grab HERE. Now she's got a video for another album track, "Be Brave," which you can watch below. The song's got backing vocals by DM Stith, was engineered and mixed by Pat Dillett (Laurie Anderson, The National), and features instrumentation by yMusic, who play on every track of the album. The video was directed by Murat Eyuboglu, who has directed other videos for Shara in the past, and stars Jessica Dessner as a dancer.

Shara's got some upcoming dates in the next few months including an album release show in NYC on October 14 at Littlefield with yMusic and DM Stith, who both appear on her album. Tickets for that show are on sale now. All dates are listed below.

Speaking of yMusic, they will release their debut LP Beautiful Mechanical on September 27 via New Amsterdam Records. The album features tracks composed by Shara Worden, St. Vincent (Annie Clark), Son Lux, Sarah Kirkland Snider, Judd Greenstein, and Gabriel Kahane. You can download the St. Vincent-penned piece, "Proven Badlands," above and check out the album's tracklist below.

All dates, video, and tracklist below...

Continue reading "new My Brightest Diamond video & tour dates, new yMusic LP info & Annie Clark MP3 too"

DOWNLOAD: Clogs - On the Edge (MP3)

The National @ the Studio (more by David Andrako)

Not only did Bryce play a live MTV taping with the National last night, he's playing a fashion week party tonight (Wednesday) and three shows this weekend at St. Ann's Warehouse (Thursday-Saturday), AND he has an Ecstatic Music Festival show on Thursday night too...

Composer/Guitarist Bryce Dessner of The National is excited to premiere two separate compositions in New York City on Thursday, February 10. The first commission was awarded to Bryce by Bang on a Can All Stars' People's Commissioning Fund. The piece will be performed at Merkin Hall by Bang on a Can All-Stars (details HERE).

Bryce will be performing his second piece, "Tour Eiffel" at St. Ann's alongside Nico Muhly, Sam Amidon and the Brooklyn Youth Chorus Feb 10th-12th.

AND, the Bang on a Can show is one of at least two Ecstatic Music Festival shows Bryce is part of, and the St. Ann's show is one of two gigs Bryce has scheduled with the BYC kids. Bryce's other band Clogs teams up with the Brooklyn Youth Chorus and Shara Worden for a show at Merkin Concert Hall on May 12th. Shara Worden also plays Merkin Concert Hall four days later with Sarah Kirkland Snider (I think Shara was kept off the bills until after her recent Lincoln Center show). Tickets for those and other Ecstatic Music Fest shows are on sale.

More National tour dates HERE. Clogs dates below...

Continue reading "Bryce Dessner is having a very busy week, Shara Worden playing w/ Clogs & Brooklyn Youth Chorus in March"

As previously announced, the 2011 Ecstatic Music Festival, presented by New York City's Merkin Concert Hall in association with New Amsterdam Records, is a showcase of imaginative collaborations between more than 150 genre-pushing composers, songwriters and performers who represent a new generation of artists combining diverse influences and techniques to explore the intersection of classical and pop music. All concerts will include premieres. The festival opens with a free seven-hour marathon on January 17, 2011, and continues with 13 additional concerts until March 28, 2011. All concerts will take place at Merkin Concert Hall.

The Ecstatic Music Festival 2011 is almost here. Subscriptions and single show tickets are on sale. The full updated schedule (tUnE-yArDs, So Percussion, Dan Deacon, Craig Wedren, ACME, Nadia Sirota, Buke & Gass, Doveman, Owen Pallett, Bang On A Can All-Stars, and more included), and a trailer, below...

Continue reading "Ecstatic Music Festival kicks off on 1/16, runs through 3/28 (updated schedule w/ tUnE-yArDs, Dan Deacon, Owen Pallett)"

today in NYC
* Jay-Z @ NYPL
* Whiplash @ UCB
* Leni Stern @ Barbes
* Chicha Libre @ Barbes
* DJ Shadow, Pigeon John @ Irving Plaza
* Sufjan Stevens, DM Stith @ Beacon Theatre
* Minor Stars, Parlour, Kordan, deVries @ Pianos
* Easy Action, The Men, Pregnant @ The Acheron
* Adam Rudolph's Go Organic Orchestra @ Roulette
* Cheer-Accident, Stats, Inzinzac, Xaddax @ Cake Shop
* Steve Lewis & the Vagrants, Oh Land @ Mercury Lounge
* Mumford & Sons, Cadillac Sky, King Charles @ Terminal 5
* Fiction Plane (Sting's son), The Globes @ Mercury Lounge
* Jason Anderson, Mount Moriah, Modest Midas @ The Rock Shop
* Charlie Hunter Trio, Mark Guiliana's Beat Music @ Le Poisson Rouge
* Feather and Folly, Zachary Cale, La Defense, Plates of Cake @ Zebulon
* Jimmy Herring & Jamie Mclean of Widespread Panic @ Highline Ballroom
* Vicky Emerson, The Bowmans, Tony Scherr Trio, Jim Campilongo Electric Trio, Tony Mason @ The Living Room
* Jonsi, Kjartan Sveinsson of Sigur Ros, The Hilliard Ensemble, Latvian National Choir, Wordless Music Orchestra @ The Church of St. Paul the Apostle
* Hot Tub w/ Kurt Braunohler, Hannibal Buress, Shonali Bhowmik, Scott Moran, Jane Borden, Julian McCullough @ Littlefield

Easy Action (members of Negative Approach) hit the Acheron tonight.

Mike Birbiglia is confirmed to appear at Whiplash at UCB tonight (reservations still available as of this posting)

Sarah Kirkland Snider has a new video for "The Lotus Eaters" featuring Shara Worden and Signal. Check it out below...

What else?

Continue reading "What's going on Monday?"

DOWNLOAD: Sarah Kirkland Snider's "This Is What You're Like" (feat. Shara Worden) (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: William Brittelle - Dunes of Vermillion (MP3)

Sarah and Shara...

New Amsterdam Records is pleased to announce a very special evening of complete performances of two upcoming albums by two of our co-Directors: Sarah Kirkland Snider's PENELOPE, featuring the extraordinary vocalist Shara Worden (My Brightest Diamond) with New York "supergroup" Signal (conducted by Brad Lubman), and William Brittelle's TELEVISION LANDSCAPE, featuring an ensemble comprised of members of Alarm Will Sound, NOW Ensemble, The Long Count, and more.

This very special evening will take place on Saturday, April 3rd at the Bell House in Brooklyn. Check out one song from each, above. Tickets are on sale.

The show is the only chance to hear Penelope performed live by Shara and Signal any time soon. They promise it won't happen again until at least after the album comes out in August which is probably around the time that Shara Worden also officially becomes a mom. Shara's recent busy-while-pregnant schedule has included sets with Clogs and her own band, My Brightest Diamond, at Big Ears, as well as a surprise appearance with Regina Spektor (and Nicole Atkins) at Irving Plaza.

"Regina Spektor was joined on stage for duets with Only Son's Jack Dishel, who beatboxed the h-e-double hockey sticks out of "Hotel Song." Jersey native, Nicole Atkins, sang her heart out choosing a new song, "Towers," over the audience requested favorite, "Neptune City." Shara Worden (My Brightest Diamond) rocked while timing her "pregnancy breaths" into performances of "Inside a Boy" and "Feeling Good." Spektor delighted fans with favorites like "Après Moi," "Us," "Blue Lips," On the Radio," "Fidelity," "Better," "Music Box," "Eet," and "Laughing With." Her rendition (lyrics in hand) of "Hallelujah" was hauntingly gorgeous. She ended the evening with "Samson" and graciously thanked her string section, all the performers, and the audience for supporting such an important cause." [quasihip]

Congrats to Shara and her husband. Videos from that show along with more info on the pieces being performed Saturday, below...

Continue reading "Sarah Kirkland Snider releasing (MP3) & performing Penelope w/ soon to be mom Shara Worden, Signal, William Brittelle"

by Andrew Frisicano

Nadia Sirota

There were (more) strings at September 25th's inaugural show for the Archipelago music series, which happens at Galapagos one Friday a month through next May. Like the Undiscovered Islands fest in May, the shows will be featuring music that crosses boundaries between classical, indie, etc. (and like that fest, it's also being set up by the New Amsterdam label.)

The full schedule is below. It's full of treats (like a way-off show with music by Shara Worden aka My Brightest Diamond in April). The first show featured violist Nadia Sirota and percussion quartet Line C3. Coincidentally, Worden and Nadia will both be playing with the Dessner Bros.' BAM Next Wave show, The Long Count, at the end of October.

Both acts on the first night performed works by Nico Muhly (Line C3 did "Ta and Clap," written by Nico for them in 2004, and he joined Nadia for his piece "Keep in Touch," which features a vocal sample from Antony Hegarty of Antony and the Johnsons). Nadia & Nico actually discuss their collaborations in an episode of New Amsterdam's Podcast series.

Speaking of New Amsterdam, they also have a CMJ showcase coming up with Cantaloupe Records at (Le) Poisson Rouge on October 21st. Tickets are on sale. That will feature the music of David Lang and Julia Wolfe (Bang on a Can co-founders) and performances by NOW Ensemble, Darcy James Argue's Secret Society and more. Clips of the Lang-scored film (Untitled) will be screened between performances (the soundtrack of which will be out October 13th).

Full details on the Archipelago series below...

Continue reading "Archipelago music series to feature Shara Worden, Craig Wedren & more ++ New Amsterdam & Cantaloupe do CMJ"

by Andrew Frisicano

Darcy James Argue

New Amsterdam Records is putting on Undiscovered Islands, a month-long exhibition of work by label artists and friends at Brooklyn's Galapagos Art Space (16 Main St in DUMBO). The series' four Friday shows start May 8th. Tickets are on sale now.

The lineups include two record release shows: one for Darcy James Argue's Secret Society's Infernal Machines on Friday, May 8th; and another on May 15th for Nadia Sirota's first things first. Sirota will be appearing with the Chiara Quartet, itsnotyouitsme, Clarice Jensen, Nico Muhly and others.

Friday, May 22nd's show will feature ensemble Signal premiering Sarah Kirkland Snider's Penelope with Brad Lubman, Steven Mackey and Rachel Calloway, and So Percussion playing new works.

The final Undiscovered Islands of the month will feature NOW Ensemble and Abigail Fischer premiering Missy Mazzoli and Stephen Taylor's "Song from the Uproar" followed by a preview premiere performance of William Brittelle's Television Landscape on Friday, May 29th. New work Television Landscape is described in the release as "a fully-notated concept album that brings together the epic tradition of Pet Sounds, Purple Rain, and OK Computer with Brittelle's idiosyncratic... compositional style."

Continue reading "Undiscovered Islands - an 'indie' classical series in May @ Galapagos, Matmos in Princeton & more "