"Rufus Wainwright and the City Opera singers/pianist that came with him put on a really lovely and charming show tonight. #FillsMyHeart" - Jennifer Jones

Crowd at Rufus' World Financial Center show (via Daniel Mazur)

Rufus Wainwright packed the house (as pictured above) when he performed excerpts from his opera Prima Donna at World Financial Center on Tuesday (6/28). According to Dumbo Books of Brooklyn, the fantastic performance also featured:

Arias from Verdi, Puccini, Wagner, Bizet and Massenet performed by soprano Anne-Carolyn Bird, mezzo-soprano Laura Vlasak Nolen, tenor Robert Mack, and bass-baritone Matthew Burns, and Kevin Murphy, City Opera director of music administration, on the piano, and a couple of great Rufus Wainwright non-opera songs, 'Damned Ladies"' and the exquisite 'Who Are You New York?'

Check out a video from the performance below.

Rufus also recently recorded a cover of Richard Thompson's "Down Where the Drunkards Roll" with his father Loudon Wainwright III. Check out a video of the recording session over at The Guardian.

Loudon will be at the Barnes & Noble in Union Square on July 7 performing music and reading from his essay "My Cool Life" which comes with his new 40 Odd Years boxed set. Priority seating is available with the purchase of the box set which Loudon will be signing copies of. The event starts at 5 PM.

The video of Rufus below...

Continue reading "Rufus Wainwright played the WFC, Loudon playing a store"

words & photos by Andrew Frisicano

"13 consecutive hours of experimental and avant-garde noodling" - NY Times on the Bang on a Can Marathon as quoted by Glenn Branca

The 2011 Bang on a Can Marathon went down on Sunday, June 19th, at the World Financial Center in NYC. As usual, a healthy contingent stayed for the duration (not me, I made it from around 5pm to the end). But even in just those last few hours there were some incredible performances. I caught Bang on a Can All-Stars playing with Philip Glass (who also opened with a solo performance of his "Metamorphosis IV"), a lively set from Sun Ra Arkestra, a show-stealing piece by Evan Ziporyn for himself and three other clarinetists, and a closing, full-on rock set by Glenn Branca Ensemble, who played from his album The Ascension: The Sequel.

Before that, Signal performed a droning, dramatic piece by BoaC cofounder Julia Wolfe, and Talea Ensemble and soprano Tony Arnold lead the NY premiere "An Index of Metals" by Fausto Romitelli, which tapped a laptop for atmospherics that bounced around the room's different speakers. Asphalt Orchestra similarly made good use of the Winter Garden space, marching around various quadrants of the room (and starting off the day with an outdoor performance). As you'll see in the pictures below, the Sun Ra Arkestra also made their way around the room, leaving the stage in a procession to the back.

As with past years, the Winter Garden was an adequate but not ideal venue. The sound could vary dramatically in different corners of the massive room, from bone dry in front of the stage to an echoey wash-out in the wings and the back (most noticeable when a speaker takes the mic, and is unintelligible from various vantage points). At the same time, the open space encourages the concert's free-flowing, low-pressure atmosphere, which is a huge part of its recurring appeal.

More pictures from the day, and a couple of videos, below...

Continue reading "2011 Bang on a Can Marathon (pics, video & review)"

The Bottom Line presents New York on my Mind tonight (6/22) at World Financial Center Winter Garden. The free River to River show was originally scheduled to take place in Rockefeller Park but has been moved due to weather. Performers include Rosanne Cash, Marshall Crenshaw, The GrooveBarbers, Garland Jeffreys, Willie Nile, Martin Rivas, Suzzy and Lucy Wainwright Roche, Catherine Russell, Vin Scelsa, Loudon Wainwright III, Dar Williams and many more.

Note that Tift Merritt's 7pm Madison Square Park show was also moved to the "rain location on the southern end of the park."

Other upcoming events at Rockefeller Park (weather permitting) include R&B singer Chrisette Michele on June 29, Poets House Annual Celebration with a lineup of poets (TBA) and musical guests Jose James and Bobbi Humphrey on July 6, and A Celebration for Jonathan Schwartz featuring a collection of singers paying tribute to Schwartz on July 13.

Asphalt Orchestra at Lincoln Center (more by Benjamin Lozovsky)

The Bang on a Can Marathon returns on Sunday (6/19) with a mammoth thirteen hours of FREE live music kicking off at 11AM at NYC's World Financial Center Winter Garden (200 Vesey Street). Featuring over 150 musicians/composers, the fest includes performances from, and compositions by, names like Philip Glass, Glenn Branca Ensemble, Sun Ra Arkestra, David Byrne/Annie Clark, Bryce Dessner, Frank Zappa, Bjork, Yoko Ono, and many more. The full lineup and schedule is below.

Continue reading "Bang On a Can Marathon Sunday -- full schedule"

House of Rufus will be released on July 18 and contain 19 discs including 6 studio albums, 2 concerts on CD, 4 discs of rarities/demos/collaborations/etc, and 6 DVDs. "All of this will be housed in a beautiful red velvet encased, 90-page hardback book containing rare and unseen photos, Rufus' early hand-drawn tour posters, handwritten lyrics, four art prints and other memorabilia, extensive sleeve notes featuring interviews with Neil Tennant, Martha Wainwright, Linda Thompson and Lenny Waronker and an introduction by Rufus." The set is up for pre-order now, and more details can be found on Rufus's site.

Much more imminent are the two Kate McGarrigle tribute shows happening at NYC's Town Hall in May. Check Ticketmaster for tickets to those.

No tickets needed for this one though:

Tuesday June 28, 2011
New York City Opera - Rufus Wainwright Goes To the Opera!
Presented by Arts World Financial Center

Join New York City Opera singers, pianist Kevin Murphy, and the great singer/songwriter and opera composer, Rufus Wainwright, who hosts a performance featuring excerpts from his opera Prima Donna (which receives its New York premiere at New York City Opera in Spring 2012) and a selection of his favorite arias. Wainwright will also perform excerpts from a selection of songs inspired by his love of opera.
7pm. World Financial Center Winter Garden, 220 Vesey Street.

Other free shows this summer at NYC's World Financial Center include the 12-hour Bang on a Can Marathon and two shows by Ivan & Alyosha

Rufus debuted a new song in March at a benefit called the Hope North Ping Pong Ball. Watch a video of that below...

Continue reading "Rufus Wainwright performing opera excerpts @ World Financial Center, releasing 'House of Rufus' box set"

photos by Kyle Dean Reinford

Ivan and Alyosha & NYC's Living Room

Seattle's Ivan & Alyosha played a pair of NYC dates in March: 3/3 at Bowery Ballroom supporting Bobby Long and 3/4 at the Living Room (where these pictures come from). Since then they visited SXSW, and hopped on tour with John Vanderslice. That tour ends in Seattle on 4/21. In June they'll return to NYC to play two free shows in one day at NYC's World Financial Center. That's listed like this:

Ivan & Alyosha
Presented by Arts World Financial Center and Arts Brookield

Seattle's Ivan & Alyosha are not nihilist indie rockers, but a new brand of tender dreamers. They navigate the music world contemplating their path as a band, and, despite the uncertainty, Ivan & Alyosha's soulful folk tunes suggest a band inspired, hopeful, and longing, unafraid to probe their collective faith and doubts. Acoustic, 12:30pm. One New York Plaza. Also full band, 5:30pm. June 23 World Financial Center Plaza, 220 Vesey Street.

UPDATE: These two shows are NOT the same day.

All tour dates and more pictures from the Living Room are below....

Continue reading "Ivan & Alyosha played the Living Room (belated pics), playing 2 free NYC shows (and other dates)"

Asphalt Orchestra outside Lincoln Center in 2010 (more by Benjamin Lozovsky)

Sunday June 19
Bang on a Can Marathon
Presented by Bang on A Can and Arts World Financial Center

Bang on a Can returns with its incomparable 12-hour super-mix of genre-defying music featuring over 150 astounding musicians and composers from throughout the world. Highlights include Philip Glass performing live with the Bang on a Can All-Stars; music by Bryce Dessner of The National; sonic downtown legend Glenn Branca; the outerplanetary Sun Ra Arkestra; the Asphalt Orchestra playing music by David Byrne/Annie Clark, Yoko Ono, and Frank Zappa; the intrepid Signal in a blistering string orchestra work by Julia Wolfe plus New York premieres by Richard Ayers, Fausto Romitelli, Poul Ruders, Toby Twining and much more! 12pm-12am. World Financial Center Winter Garden, 220 Vesey Street.

For more on what this 12-hour free show is like, check out our pictures from 2010.

Meanwhile catch Bang on a Can performing Steve Reich at Carnegie Hall on April 30th.

In July Bang on a Can head to MASS MoCA for 20 days. Details below...

Continue reading "Bang on a Can Marathon initial 2011 lineup announced, Summer Festival at MASS MoCA too "

Alloy Orchestra - Terry Donahue, Ken Winokur, Roger Miller

ALLOY ORCHESTRA is a three man musical ensemble, writing and performing live accompaniment to classic silent films. Working with an outrageous assemblage of peculiar objects, they thrash and grind soulful music from unlikely sources.

Performing at prestigious film festivals and cultural centers in the US and abroad (The Telluride Film Festival, The Louvre, Lincoln Center, The Academy of Motion Pictures, the National Gallery of Art and others), Alloy has helped revive some of the great masterpieces of the silent era.

An unusual combination of found percussion and state-of-the-art electronics gives the Orchestra the ability to create any sound imaginable. Utilizing their famous "rack of junk" and electronic synthesizers, the group generates beautiful music in a spectacular variety of styles. They can conjure up a French symphony or a simple German bar band of the 20's. The group can make the audience think it is being attacked by tigers, contacted by radio signals from Mars or swept up in the Russian Revolution.

Alloy collaborates with some of the worlds best archives and collectors (such as the George Eastman House, The British Film Institute, Paramount pictures, Film Preservation Associates and The Douris Corporation) to present audiences with the very best available prints of some of history's greatest film.

Mission of Burma's Roger Miller has been a member of the Alloy Orchestra since 1999, when he replaced original member Caleb Sampson who took his own life. Between the reincarnated Mission of Burma, Birdsongs of the Mesozoic, Alloy, the occasional guitar lesson and other projects, Roger keeps busy.

Mission of Burma are playing twice in NYC at the end of January. Alloy Orchestra are playing three free NYC shows in February. More details below...

Continue reading "Alloy Orchestra playing 3 free shows w/ silent movies in Feb."

photos by Greg Cristman

Robert Fripp, the man behind "Frippertronics" and the brain behind progressive kingpins King Crimson, played four shows at the Winter Garden of the World Financial Center in NYC on 12/3 and 12/4. Each day he played at 12:30pm - especially convenient for the downtown lunch crowd on Friday, and again at 7:30pm. The shows were billed as "Soundscapes", "site-specific, often done in majestic spaces, and always created in the spirit of the moment..."

"Fripp played his sunburst colored Les Paul as he sat next to a rack of devices and floor pedals. The tone was clear and went through different loops and sound delay. There are no hard riffs or arpeggios, but instead light orchestral spacey phrases occasionally punctuated with some minimalistic soloing. The closest thing to compare soundscapes to for the uninitiated is probably film soundtrack music. The relaxing calm of the music appeared to comment on, but not be interrupted by the holiday noise of shoppers and tourists that came in and out of the atrium. The music works as something that you can sample and walk away from by design, take from it what you will. The only identifiable familiar part of the almost hour long set was a brief quotation from the 1974 King Crimson album Red from the song "Starless."" [Mark's Music Loft]

That review came from the third of four shows. The pictures in this post are from the 2nd, and more of them are below...

Continue reading "Robert Fripp played 'Soundscapes' @ the Winter Garden (pics)"

After many months of planning, Wordless Music is deliriously proud to announce details of Warp20 NYC, the second and only U.S. installment in a series of worldwide events taking place this year in Paris, Tokyo, London, and Sheffield.

Warp20 NYC will be a four-day celebration of the music, films, and 20th anniversary of the the peerless UK label Warp Records, without which there would surely have never been a Wordless Music series.

On September 3-6, in venues across New York City, Warp artists Battles, Flying Lotus, Chris Clark, !!!, Prefuse 73, Pivot, and Hudson Mohawke will headline shows in two different venues, while The New Museum offers free and continuous screenings of full-length features, documentaries, music videos, and shorts from several dozen directors hailing from around the globe.

The fest so far includes a September 4th show at Terminal 5 with Battles, !!!, Prefuse 73 and Pivot. Tickets go on AmEx presale today at noon. General sale starts Friday, July 24th at noon.

The other confirmed fest show will be a free concert at the World Financial Center Winter Garden with Flying Lotus, Chris Clark and Hudson Mohawke on September 5th.

The "kick off" for Warp20 NYC (two months before the fest...) will be tonight's (7/22) Alarm Will Sound show at (Le) Poisson Rouge. The program for the night commemorates the five-year anniversary of the group's 2005 album Acoustica with chamber orchestra arrangements of music by Aphex Twin, Autechre, Mochipet, John Dowland, and The Beatles. Nic Offer from the band !!! will DJ the late show. Tickets for both the late and early shows are still on sale.

Also starting tonight (7/22), and also celebrating 20 years of a record label's existence: XX Merge (the Merge Records party in North Carolina).

In addition to the above-mentioned acts, Warp is also home to Grizzly Bear, who will be playing a free Pool Party show on August 30th.

The full program for tonight's LPR show, with more info on Warp20 NYC, below...

Continue reading "Warp Records' 20th Anniversary Fest - shows at Terminal 5 (Battles, !!!, more) & WFC (Flying Lotus) & LPR (tonight)"

by Andrew Frisicano

Ryuichi Sakamoto & the Bang on a Can All-Stars

"This year's marathon offered works by 28 composers on Sunday, from noon to just past midnight, at the World Financial Center in Lower Manhattan. Like the last several, it was presented as a free concert, part of the River to River Festival. Early in the day listeners came and went, but by 5 p.m. the center's atrium (which holds 2,000) was packed, and it remained so to the end." [NY Times]

Sunday, May 31st was the 22nd annual Bang on a Can Marathon in the World Financial Center's Winter Garden. The 2008 fest ran from 6pm to 6am, with a 4am Dan Deacon set in the early morning lull. This year's concert took a more diurnal approach, with a noon start and a finish coming after Tortoise's encore-less set a little past midnight. When the final introducer asked who'd been there since noon, a weary cheer came from that select but healthy part of crowd. Near night's finale, the Winter Garden stairs and seats were all full, and as Tortoise set up, even more filtered in, perhaps from one of the other shows that night.

Around 10pm, Ryuichi Sakamoto sat behind the room's piano for a quiet solo piece punctuated by sparks of crackling static. Mid-set he paused to call a BoaC tech over to fix the piano, before finishing with a burst of dreamy chords and carefully spare melodies.

After welcoming the Bang on a Can All-Stars on stage (a sextet of guitar, bass, percussion, cello, keys and clarinet), Sakamoto and two band members "conducted" with pocket mirrors, reflecting the room's lights on the white backdrop in what looked like lens flare from a sunny photo. The sustained textures of the ensemble's first piece gave way to a more structured, percussive songs that focused on a repeating three-bar phrase and its variations.

The BoaC All-Stars remained on stage for their performance of Steve Martland's Horses of Instruction, apparently an old standard for the group. They certainly had fun with it, adding percussionist Eduardo Leandro on marimba. Clarinetist Evan Ziporyn traded for a tenor sax as he led the piece jumping and gesticulating through the changes. The busy work juxtaposed the restrained Sakamoto songs with parts that moved from shredding cello to Frisell-like guitar comping to swinging and pulsating drums. The song was a sufficient energy boost to prep the crowd for Tortoise, who'd be closing the night.

Tortoise was recently discussed at length in a review of their show at the Bell House one night earlier, but briefly speaking, the band played a short, 7-song set largely driven by its two drum kits. Other songs abandoned the drums for malleted percussion, which moved the group away from driving jams to more minimal pastures. Their volume drowned out the room's rattling air conditioners, but at times the drums, right up front, overwhelmed the total group sound in the echoing hall. Granted, shifting, propulsive beats are kind of Tortoise's raison d'être, and their groove-heavy songs capped the Marathon with engaging, kinetic energy. A collection of psyched devotees jammed along in an area next to the stage.

The Marathon officially kicked off this year's River to River Festival, which will host many shows throughout the summer. Tortoise will be back as well, with a July tour that includes a show at (Le) Poisson Rouge.

Bang on a Can will use the Marathon's momentum to host two benefits this week -- both taking place Wednesday, June 3rd at LPR. The big-money early show and bargain-priced late show will feature established big names and talented up-and-comers, respectively. More specifically, Steve Reich, Meredith Monk, David Cossin, Wu Man, Maya Beiser, Talujon and Doug Aitken appear for the intimate dinner and music early benefit. So Percussion, Gutbucket, Newspeak and NOW Ensemble hold it down late. Tickets for the late show are still on sale.

Check out some videos from the whole day, and a few more pics from the late-night portion, below...

Continue reading "Bang on a Can Marathon 2009 in review w/ pics & video "

by Andrew Frisicano

Dorit Chrysler @ World Financial Center, 2008 (more by Ryan Muir)

The next free show at NYC's World Financial Center will be "Songs of Love & Despair: A Musical Tribute to Pablo Neruda" on Wednesday, April 15th. The event, "curated and produced by David Spelman, known worldwide for his biannual New York Guitar Festival," will include Clogs, Irene & Vojtech Havel, Colin Stetson, Pedro Soler with Benat Achiary, Bob Holman, Laurie Anderson & Cecilia Vicuna. The last show for Clogs (the instrumental band w/ members of The National) was at BAM on February 26th.

The Pablo Neruda tribute will take place in WFC's Winter Garden (220 Vesey St) -- the same spot as the annual Bang on a Can Marathon which is scheduled this year for Sunday, May 31st. Tortoise will be performing at that event.

If you haven't been to the venue (where all shows are free), "The World Financial Center is a complex of buildings across West Street from the World Trade Center site in Lower Manhattan in New York City, overlooking the Hudson River. This complex is home to offices of major corporations including Merrill Lynch and American Express as well as Dow Jones and its Wall Street Journal division among others. The entire complex is owned by Brookfield Properties, except for the space occupied by American Express."

Also performing there this summer will be Anthony Gonzalez from M83 on Tuesday, July 14th.

Mountains, who we wrote about in February, play the venue on Tuesday, July 7th with Scanner.

More WFC dates with descriptions, below...

Continue reading "2009 free shows @ NYC's World Financial Center (Clogs, Mountains, Laurie Anderson & more...)"

by Andrew Frisicano

M83 @ Webster Hall (more by Kyle Dean Reinford)

M83 has been added to Pitchfork Festival, which is taking place from July 17th - Sunday, July 19th in Chicago. Other bands added to the bill include Black Lips, Fucked Up, Wavves, the Dutchess and the Duke, and Matt and Kim. The whole, updated lineup is below. Tickets for the fest are still on sale.

Five days before he performs in Chicago, M83's Anthony Gonzalez will perform a free show at NYC's World Finanial Center Winter Garden (July 14th). For that NYC gig:

Anthony Gonzalez, M83's chief stargazer, performs a special one-off ambient performance. New York-based artist Janet Biggs begins the night with a screening of her short film, Vanishing Point.

The NYC show announcement is one of the first for the mostly unannounced 2009 River to River Festival (a series of free shows at various venues all over NYC all summer). More WFC show updates on the way.

More Pitchfork Fest info below...

Continue reading "P4k Fest updates lineup, M83 (solo) playing a free NYC show"

photos by Ryan Muir

watching Ulrich Schnauss @ the Winter Garden, NYC - June 24, 2008

His music is hard to describe. A combination of machine music and classic shoegaze, his tunes often remind me of a waterfall of sonic wonder, layer upon layer that could easily sound like chaos, but somehow manages to transport the listener somewhere else. It's as if the rain starts slowly and then becomes a deluge. If you haven't heard him, check out his albums. Great works. [Mf]

Now that last night's free show at the World Financial Center happened it can be announced that Ulrich Schnauss will also be playing a show at Union Hall in Brooklyn tonight (June 25, 2008). Auburn Lull, Luxa and Screen Vinyl Image are also on the bill. More pictures from the Winter Garden, and all tour dates, below....

Continue reading "Ulrich Schnauss played the World Financial Center (pics) ++ Union Hall TONIGHT & other tour dates"

This one goes out to all of Dan Deacon's biggest fans.....

Owen Pallett (Final Fantasy) @ Tonic

This year's Bang on a Can Marathon (co-presented by the River to River Festival and arts>World Financial Center) will be taking place at the World Financial Center Winter Garden in New York City from 6pm on May 31st through 6am on June 1st. As always, the Marathon is FREE and open to the public!

The full schedule is below....

Continue reading "Bang on a Can NYC Marathon schedule (this weekend)"

More free shows in NYC this summer.....

Continue reading "Winter Garden 2008: Ulrich Schnauss, Fennesz, Four Tet, Steve Reid, the music of Johnny Cash...."