today in NYC
* the Halloween parade
* Justin Bond @ Joe's Pub
* tribute bands @ Union Pool
* Sun Ra Arkestra @ Sullivan Hall
* The Dresden Dolls @ Irving Plaza
* The Black Crowes @ Best Buy Theater
* The Old Ceremony, Mascott @ The Rock Shop
* Rocky Horror Picture Show Anniversary Party @ Le Poisson Rouge
* World/Inferno Friendship Society (Hallowmas 2010) @ Brooklyn Bowl
* The Felice Brothers, Adam Haworth Stephens @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
* Robbers On High Street (as ELO), Black Dragon, Blue Album Group @ Mercury Lounge
* Delicate Steve, Golden Ages, Crinkles, Lawrence Welks and Our Bear To Cross @ Cake Shop
* Das Racist, Keepaway, Pictureplane, The Intelligence, The Beets, Cassie Ramone & Justin from The Babies as The White Stripes, Janka Nabay, Blissed Out @ Ridgewood Temple (Todd P's Halloween Party)

This year is the 38th Annual Village Halloween Parade.
This year's theme: "Memento Mori"

Twenty years ago the iconic Day of the Dead puppets first appeared in the Village Halloween Parade, our festival of All Souls to ritual traditions worldwide -the Guede in Port-au-Prince, the Skull and Bones Gang of New Orleans, in the calaveras of Oaxaca, the Midnight Robbers of Trinidad, and beyond. Often it is in the places where tragedy is more ubiquitous and everyday existence can be more of a struggle, that expressions of the Dead are the most exuberant, a reminder that life itself, despite itshardships, is a gift. The Dead - as they return to drink coffee, play checkers, watch TV,but above all, to dance - offer us a mirror to see with fresh eyes the everyday things in our lives, rendered invisible by routine. Every sound, action, and motion we take for granted, they rejoice in - on the one night they can. So each year, when the skeletons take their place at the head of the Halloween Parade, they are not grim expressions of the morbid but rather joyful reminders of all that is vital.

As the beloved dancing skeletons enter their third decade in the Village Halloween Parade, we seek to honor them - and in doing so, to honor all those who have walked in their footsteps. Official Parade puppeteers Superior Concept Monsters, Master Puppeteer Basil Twist and Haitian Artist Didier Civil plan to work with the Mexican, Haitian and arts communities to make and remake, create and re-create, re-envision and resurrect the entire Day of the Dead section, calling forth not only the spirits of the Dead, but many of the puppets of past VHP artists that had long been absent from the streets of Greenwich Village. Drawing on traditional forms from Trinidad to Tibet, Haiti to Mexico, new 12'-foot tall skeletal puppets will add new life to the VHP's jubilant underworld - a cortege drawn by galloping night-Mares, an illuminated Ghost Train, and a dozen brand-new dancing Calaveras skeletons and who knows what else to join their brethren at the head of the Parade.

As the perennial community of Halloween volunteers gathers again this year to build and rehearse our memento mori ("Remembrance of Death") we'll look back on 37 years of Halloween in NY with another Latin adage: "Vita Brevis Ars Longa" : life is short, but art endures.

Also check out the previous post (and its comments): "What's happening on Halloween weekend in NYC this year?"

The Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black was supposed to play Santos Party House, but the venue is closed.

Did you catch Legendary Pink Dots at Le Poisson Rouge the other night? Since their tour was announced, they were also added as opener for tonight's Dresden Dolls show at Irving Plaza.

That Dresden Dolls show also promises "special guests, rare performances, and a cacophony of Brechtian entertainment." AND: "This triumphant return will be documented by the Dresden Dolls fan base in a project spearheaded by This One Is On Us. Fans from all over the world will record, edit, design, and promote to produce a DVD of the evening for all the world to cherish and enjoy. This project aims to blur the link between author and reader even further - until both are one and the same."

Tonight's show at Union Pool show:

HALLOWEEN
8PM $5
DAMN! a Halloween tribute to WHAM!
(Max and Kev from Pizza Party on EVR)
THE CURE(Warm Ghost)
VIOLENT FEMMES(McDonald's)
ELO(Members of The Mad Scene and The Flaming Fire)
DANZIG/MISFITS(Members of Love as Laughter, Children, and Violent Bullshit

Check out Violens' new Halloween-friendly video for "Violent Sensation Descends" below...

Check out Howlies' new Halloween-friendly video for "Zombie Girl" below...

What else?

Continue reading "What's going on Sunday? (Halloween) "

Halloween (more by Paul Birman)

What are some good Halloween shows happening this year? There's always the parade. And Todd P has his thing. Knitting Factory has all the metal you need. Hippies will be down the shore gambling. The Dresden Dolls are at Irving Plaza. World/Inferno Friendship Society do two shows at Brooklyn Bowl. The Felice Brothers and Adam H. Stephens of Two Gallants play MHOW (not a very Halloween-like option). Robbers on High Street will be ELO at Mercury Lounge. A Weezer cover band opens for them.

Deidre of Savoir Adore and French Horn Rebellion hosts Deidre's Hoochie Coochie Halloween at Zebulon. Michael T hosts a Rocky Horror Picture Show anniversary party at Le Poisson Rouge. The always-costumed Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black play Santos. What else?

There's always Saturday/Mischief night to celebrate. Since Halloween is on a Sunday this year, Halloween will probably last all weekend long (plus, Halloween technically begins at midnight). Guns n Roses cover band Mr. Brownstone are at Brooklyn Bowl this Saturday evening before Das Pop play the Halloween party there later that night. Allo Darlin play the Mondo Halloween Party at The Rock Shop in Brooklyn on 10/30. The previously mentioned Pelly Twins Pre-Halloween Partay is happening that night too:

Saturday October 30th @ 171 LOMBARDY
:: PELLY TWINS PRE-HALLOWEEN PARTAY
:: http://pellytwins.blogspot.com
:: DOM
:::: SMITH WESTERNS
:::::: Yellow Fever
:::::::: Total Slacker
:::::::::: Sweet Bulbs
| 171 LOMBARDY |
502 Varick Ave @ Lombardy St | East Williamsburg, Brooklyn
L-Grand St, G-Nassau | 8pm | all ages | $tba

Antony and Cloud Cult both also play that night, as do Devo, The Drums & Neon Trees as part of the 2nd annual RXP Halloween concert at Hammerstein Ballroom. Too corporate? Within the Land of The Ash takes place in warehouses and on the streets of Brooklyn, burlesque, fire and music included. Mean Red meanwhile will be throwing down at Brooklyn Masonic Temple.

What else?

Get in the mood with some videos below...

Continue reading "What's happening on Halloween weekend in NYC this year?"

"Yeah, that was me next to Andy Rourke at the NY Dolls show last nite..."-proBRUCEr

"Guy falls down on stage. Guy jumps on other guys shoulders. Guy crawls up curtain. Only at the New York Dolls." -tiffanynapper

photos by Lori Baily

New York Dolls played a show at Warsaw in Brooklyn on Saturday, May 22nd with openers Foxy Shazam and Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black. The ticketholders from the canceled Naughty by Nature show were invited to attend the NY Dolls gig, as were (reportedly) residents of the Ohm apartment building in Chelsea.

Coming up, frontman David Johansen has a show of his own at Highline Ballroom on June 27th (tickets). Batusis, Syl Sylvain's group with the Dead Boys' Cheetah Chrome, have a tour this July with a date at NY's Irving Plaza on July 23rd. Tickets are on sale, and that will be the New York debut of the band (they weren't on the Joey Ramone B-day show as previsouly reported). The Dolls also have a three shows (non-NYC) in June.

Those dates and more pictures from the show are below...

Continue reading "NY Dolls, Foxy Shazam & the Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black played Warsaw - pics & Batusis tour dates"

Voluptous Horror of Karen Black (w/ more clothes on than usual)

The lineup for the New York Dolls show at Warsaw in Brooklyn on Saturday, May 22nd has been filled out with opening acts performance-art/punk Voluptous Horror of Karen Black and party glam band Foxy Shazam. Tickets are still on sale. We have two pairs to give away as well. Details are below.

The Warsaw has a bunch of other shows coming up too. Details on those (and ticket links) and videos of both NY Dolls openers (including a brand new "What's In My Bag?" at Amoeba with Kembra Pfahler of Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black) are below...

Continue reading "Voluptous Horror of Karen Black added to NY Dolls show (win tix), Au Revoir Simone & other bands playing Warsaw too"

"Fund-raising spectacular CRACK-A-THON set to be unleashed this Friday and Saturday nights! Watch it all stream live at CRACKATHON.TV. Join the "Crack-Munity" and donate your hard-earned cash for a truly great cause...your entertainment future! With a final flourish, GWAR prepares to forever change the face of fund-raising, with their CRACK-A-THON 2010! With less than 24 hours left until the beginning of the all-free web-streaming event, the MF Gallery was the scene of laconic activity as drug-addled slaves lurched about, all seemingly clueless. But this final schedule of celebrity guests was nevertheless semi-enthusiastically announced!

The full schedule with guests and whole bunch of new tour dates (including that previously mentioned gig at Starland Ballroom), below...

Continue reading "Gwar Crack-A-Thon this weekend (stream it) - full schedule, all guests & more 2010 tour dates announced"

The 2008 Biennial, the seventy-fourth in the series of Whitney Annual and Biennial exhibitions held since 1932, presents eighty-one artists working at a time when art production is above all characterized by heterogeneity and dispersal. However, within the enormously differentiated field that we (perhaps absurdly) continue to yoke under the term "contemporary art," certain prevalent modes of working and thematic concerns are particularly germane to the moment.

@ The Whitney Lower Gallery
April 04 - Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black
April 18 - DJ Olive & Marina Rosenfeld
May 09 - Gang Gang Dance
May 23 - Matthew Brannon & Lucky Dragons

Gang Gang Dance are also playing March 9th in the Park Avenue Armory (also part of the Biennial), and at Southpaw in Brooklyn on April 29th, and all the dates below...

Continue reading "Whitney Biennial 2008 kicks off tomorrow, Gang Gang Dance"

more photos by Edwina Hay below...

Continue reading "photos from the 2007 Deitch Art Parade"