The Duke & The King at Mercury Lounge in 2009 (more by Jacob Blickenstaff)

The Summer BBQ Blow Out Festival is coming to City Winery this Saturday (8/6). The fest features a lot of food by gourmet chefs and performances by Midnight Magic, Computer Magic, New Villager, and Punches. TIckets are still on sale now and we're also giving away a pair. Contest details below.

The Duke & The King are also playing their album release show at City Winery on Saturday (8/6), though the show is completely separate from the Summer BBQ Blow Out which is outside. Tickets are on sale now.

Lots of other interesting things are happening at City Winery in the upcoming months as well. Bebel Gilberto is continuing her residency at the venue throughout the month of August. Tickets are on sale for all of her upcoming dates including 8/17, 8/24, 8/27, and 8/31.

Martha Wainwright will kick off her own residency at City Winery in November. Tickets are on sale now for 11/11 and 11/21. As mentioned, Martha also plays NYC this month at Cooper Square Hotel on August 22 as part of Joe's Pub's Summer Salon Series.

Tom Morello (of Rage Against the Machine, Audioslave) aka The Nightwatchman plays the NYC venue on September 1 as a short run of September dates in between his US tour with Incubus and his UK tour with Rise Against. The tours are in support of his recently released EP Union Town and the upcoming full length World Wide Rebel Songs. Tickets for the 9/1 City Winery show are on sale now. All Tom Morello dates below.

Keren Ann plays City Winery on September 30 and October 1 before she heads out on a European tour in November. Tickets for both shows are on sale now. All Keren Ann dates below.

As mentioned, Jay Farrar is playing City Winery on October 14 and 15. He's since added a third show at the venue on October 16. Tickets for all three shows are available.

Marianne Faithfull is playing a three-night run at the venue from December 18 to 20. The shows are her only scheduled US shows at the moment. Tickets for all three shows are on sale now. All Marianne Faithfull dates below.

All dates and Summer BBQ Blowout contest details below...

Continue reading "Duke & the King, Bebel Gilberto, Keren Ann, Tom Morello, Jay Farrar, Marianne Faithfull, Martha Wainwright & other shows"

Felice Brothers at Spiegelworld in 2008 (more by Faith-Ann Young)

The Felice Brothers just finished up a tour in support of the recently released Celebration, Florida which started with two shows at Maxwell's in March and culminated in two sold out nights at The Bell House last week (some videos of that below). After a number of festivals this summer, including Clearwater Festival and Newport Folk Festival, The Felice Brothers return to New York to play Webster Hall on September 29. Tickets go on sale Thursday (5/26) at noon. The show is currently their last US date before heading out on a European tour in late November.

In related news, ex-Felice Brother Simone Felice's The Duke & the King have signed with Anti- Records, who will release their self titled LP on August 2. The album is made up of previously released material from the group's first two albums that were released in the UK but never officially in America. Check out the album art, tracklist, and a video below.

All tour dates, some videos, and other stuff below...

Continue reading "The Felice Brothers played the Bell House, add Webster Hall show +++ The Duke & the King signed to ANTI"

The Duke & the King @ Mercury Lounge in 2009 (more by Jacob Blickenstaff)

Send Your Thoughts & Prayers To Simone Felice
June 2nd at 7:13pm

Hello our beloved friends and fans,

We must tell you all, with a heaviness we cannot convey of the news that our dearest brother Simone Felice has been scheduled for emergency open-heart surgery as a result of Aortic Stenosis. The operation will take place tomorrow at Albany Medical Center. We are devastated, yet hopeful that he will pull through. We will not be playing Mountain Jam and all dates for June and July have been cancelled.
He loves you all more than you could ever know, so please send all of your thoughts & prayers Simone's way.
We will keep you informed of his condition in the coming days.

Love always & forever,

Simi Stone
Bobby Bird
Nowell Haskins

The surgery was this morning. Get well soon Simone!

Simone, also an author, left the Felice Brothers to form the The Duke & the King. He is still scheduled to play a solo show at City Winery with Nicole Atkins on August 7th.

The Felice Brothers are currently on tour with Dave Matthews and will be keeping busy playing shows all summer. All dates below...

Continue reading "Simone Felice underwent emergency open-heart surgery (Duke & the King show @ Mountain Jam & other dates cancelled) "

Pete Seeger @ Clearwater Festival 2009 (more by Chris La Putt)

Clearwater Festival, the annual benefit for the Hudson River environmental group of the same name, will be happening this year at Croton-on-Hudson's Croton Point Park on June 19th & 20th. Pete Seeger, the non-profit's founder, plays every year - joining him this year will be Steve Earle, Rhett Miller, Joan Osborne, Buckwheat Zydeco, Felice Bros and more. More of the initial lineup is below. Tickets to the fest are on sale (and currently almost half the door price). Pictures from last year's day one are HERE and day two are HERE.

A bit farther Upstate in Hunter, NY, the three-day Mountain Jam will be happening June 4th-6th. The lineup for that includes Gov't Mule, Levon Helm & Friends, Drive-By Truckers, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, The Avett Brothers, Dr. Dog, Les Claypool, Jay Farrar (of Son Volt), These United States, Justin Townes Earle (note dad, playing above) and Tao Rodriguez-Seeger Band (the same, except grandpa). The full current lineup is below, and tickets are on sale.

Later this summer (in July), Camp Bisco will be in Mariaville, NY.

Lineups so far for both fests are below...

Continue reading "Mountain Jam (6/4-6) the Clearwater Festival (6/19-20) have announced initial 2010 NY concert lineups & tickets "

Brooklyn, NY - 2/26/10 (davidfg)

Levon Helm (with special guest Donald Fagen) and The Duke and The King were set to share a bill at the Wellmont Theater in Montclair, NJ tonight (2/26), but "Due to weather conditions - tonight's show postponed to Friday March 12th". Tickets are on sale if you don't have one already.

AA Bondy @ Union Hall in 2008 (more by Zach Stern)

tonight in NYC
* Christy & Emily @ The Stone
* Further @ Hammerstein Ballroom
* Colin Stetson Band, Buke & Gass @ Zebulon
* Violens, Acrylics, Class Actress @ Mercury Lounge
* Glint, Patrick Davy and The Ghosts @ Brooklyn Bowl
* AA Bondy, The Duke & the King, Willy Mason @ Bowery Ballroom
* Jonathan Coulton, Paul and Storm @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
* Mia Riddle & Her Band, Big Honey Mama @ Knitting Factory Brooklyn
* Gray Goods, The Naked Hearts, Darlings, She Keeps Bees @ Cake Shop
* Municipal Waste, Brutal Truth, Phobia, Cauldron @ Gramercy Theatre
* FIXED Holiday party w/ Hot Chip (DJ), JG Wilkes, JDH, Dave P @ Le Poisson Rouge
* Philip Seymour Hoffman, Frat Dad, Total Slacker, Beach Fossils, Eartheater @ Shea Stadium

Stay tuned for more about tonight's Violens/Acrylics/Class Actress in This Week in Indie.

Matisyahu kicks off 8 nights of Hannukah shows Thursday night.

Hot Chip (or members?) are in town to DJ at the Fixed holiday party at Le Poisson Rouge tonight. Hot Chip will be back to play actual shows in April.

Last we spoke, Willy Mason was the only one opening for AA Bondy (at Bowery Ballroom tonight). They've since added The Duke & The King (featuring Simone Felice of the Felice Brothers) who played a show at Mercury Lounge in August.

Some recent live Bondy videos below...

What else?

Continue reading "What's going on Wedneday?"

words & photos by Jacob Blickenstaff

The Duke & The King had their record release show at NYC's Mercury Lounge on Tuesday night for their new album "Nothing Gold Can Stay" on Ramseur Records. The band is centered around the duo of Robert "Chicken" Burke and Simone Felice (of the Felice Brothers) and was filled out with simple instrumentation of violin, bass and a sometimes drummer/singer in a Wu-Tang T-Shirt (The Deacon). Simone and the Chicken traded off leading songs on guitar, harmonizing and playing the drums at an informal pace, feeling out which song would be played next in an intuitive, democratic manner. Simone Felice had the most presence as a leader with a confident, steady voice and the body language of both a bird stretching its wings and a snake coiling up on itself. There was a genuine appreciation among the musicians for each other, Simone and the Deacon hugged a couple times on stage, and when the violinist played a pretty intro Simone remarked, "That was beautiful, play that again!" The music was refreshingly pure; like the people who bring down the organic apples to the Union Square Farmer's Market, it was a reminder that current music can be made by simple means with out all the ego and unnecessary modern distractions.

The Duke & The King are now on tour and will be back in NYC to play a show at City Winery with Cory Chisel on August 25th. All dates and more pictures from the Mercury Lounge show below...

Continue reading "The Duke & The King - Mercury Lounge pics, 2009 tour dates "

Nels Cline @ Central Park Summerstage on Saturday (more by Paul Bachmann)

tonight in NYC
* DANCE
* Steely Dan @ Beacon Theatre
* The Roots @ Highline Ballroom
* Frankie Negron @ Red Hook Park
* Craig Wedren w/ ACME @ Joe's Pub
* Kath Bloom, Little Wings @ Zebulon
* Los Campesinos!, Girls @ Webster Hall
* Depeche Mode, Peter Bjorn & John @ MSG
* Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit @ City Winery
* Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit @ Hudson Square
* Incubus, The Duke Spirit @ Radio City Music Hall
* Erykah Badu, Janelle Monáe @ Beach at Governors Island
* Dark Habits DJs with Mia Clark, Sara Jaffe @ Bruar Falls
* White Hills, Modey Lemon, Fiasco, Prisms @ Death By Audio
* Portugal the Man, Pistola, The Sway Machinery @ Union Pool
* Sister Mantos, Mirror Mirror, Light Asylum, Rachel Mason Band @ Glasslands
* Gary Panter & Devin Flynn, R. Stevie Moore, Ear Pwr, Toro y Moi @ Cake Shop
* The Rural Alberta Advantage, The Dig, Hollerado @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
* Stories in High Fidelty w/ Dean Wareham, Dan Kennedy, Rob Harvilla @ Union Hall
* Bushwick Book Club w/ Corn Mo, Susan Hwang, M. Lamar @ Goodbye Blue Monday
* Duke & the King, Tyburn Saints, Morning Pages, Maya Solovey @ Mercury Lounge
* Jenny Scheinman w/ Nels Cline, Jim Black, Matt Penman @ Le Poisson Rouge

Free outdoor music tonight includes Frankie Negron at Red Hook Park and Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit at Hudson Square. Jason and band also play inside City Winery for another show tonight.

The Rural Alberta Advantage play a free show with The Dig and Hollerado at the Music Hall of Williamsburg.

The Duke & The King play Mercury Lounge tonight...

"The Duke and the King is an alliance of Simone Felice of the Felice Brothers and his longtime friend (and sometime George Clinton collaborator) Robert "Chicken" Burke, along with a highly talented cast of others. They have pulled off a quite remarkable feat on Nothing Gold Can Stay - each song somehow sounding like a classic, each live performance suggesting we are in the presence of a rare, fiery brilliance." [The Guardian]

songs:illinois says, "The new record from The Duke & The King may not be a full fledged concept album but it might as well be. The album is so full of songs about lies, recriminations, bad choices, lost loves, regrets and the joys and horrors of a misspent youth that you get the picture pretty quickly." Videos below..

Los Campesinos! and Girls kick off their tour with a show at Webster Hall. Last night they played Union Pool.

The Roots continue their residency at Highline Ballroom, and they just announced a show with Common at Terminal 5.

Erykah Badu and Janelle Monáe play the first AEG show at the Beach at Governors Island.

Depeche Mode and Peter, Bjorn & John play a second night at Madison Square Garden. PB & J are also playing a secret show somewhere.

Shudder to Think's Craig Wedren plays at Joe's Pub with classical group ACME (American Contemporary Music Ensemble). Shudder to Think comes to town September 2nd.

Jenny Scheinman performs in her last gig for a while with Mischief & Mayhem (Nels Cline, Jim Black and Matt Penman) at (Le) Poisson Rouge.

The monthly Bushwick Book Club series tackles the Bible at Goodbye Blue Monday. Songwriters include Corn Mo, Susan Hwang, M. Lamar, Sweet Soubrette and Emilyn Brodsky. Flyer below.

Dean Wareham follows up his Dean & Britta Celebrate Brooklyn show on Saturday with a reading at Union Hall. The event, Stories in High Fidelty, will also feature music writer Dan Kennedy and Village Voice music editor Rob Harvilla.

Mia Clark (Electrelane) and Sara Jaffe (ex-Erase Errata) read from the new book The Art of Touring at Bluestockings, then DJ at Bruar Falls tonight.

The Cribs, whose lineup now includes Johnny Marr, put out a new video for "Cheat On Me," posted below. Marr previously gigged with Modest Mouse, who just released their Heath Ledger-directed video for "King Rat," also below.

What else?

Continue reading "What's going on Tuesday?"