Vivian Girls kicked off Sounds Like Brooklyn festival at BAM, followed by insane set by Les Savy Fav (photo by twi-ny/mdr)
Brooklyn Academy of Music and other venues
Howard Gilman Opera House
30 Lafayette Ave. between Ashland Pl. & St. Felix St.
January 29-30, February 4-6
BAM tickets: $20-$25
718-636-4100
www.bam.org
The Sounds Like Brooklyn Music Festival, first held in 2007, has featured such local acts as the National, Chairlift , Citizen Cope, Mos Def, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Gordon Chambers, and Beirut at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the festival’s home base. Not only do the annual two weekends of shows promote the World’s Greatest Borough, but it does so in style, with bands playing the elegant Howard Gilman Opera House. This year’s lineup includes indie punksters Les Savy Fav and shoegazing surfpoppers the Vivian Girls on January 29, Rain Machine and Anti-Pop Consortium on January 30, and Ra Ra Riot and the Antlers on February 5, three inspired pairings that should rock the house, even if the audience has to remain in their seats. (And don’t you dare think of taking any photos or video!) We can’t wait to see what LSF lead singer Tim Harrington has in store; the last time we checked out the band, the hairy vocalist tore off most of his clothes, hopped up on a monitor, and posed like Christ on the cross. The group tours relentlessly but is much more shy about recording; their last album, LET’S STAY FRIENDS, came out in 2007. Don’t be surprised if a nearly naked Harrington puts a garbage can over his head while singing the mellow pop of “What Would Wolves Do,” the angry punk of “The Equestrian” and “The Sweat Descends,” or the playful harmonies of “Patty Lee.” Meanwhile, the Vivian Girls — guitarist Cassie Ramone, bassist Kickball Katy, and drummer Ali Koehler — are touring behind their delightful 2009 disc, EVERYTHING GOES WRONG, which features such hopeful tunes as “Before I Start to Cry,” “Never See Me Again,” “Death,” “I Believe in Nothing,” and “The End.” An offbeat mix of 1950s girl groups and 1990s grunge, the Vivian Girls, named after bizarre characters created by lunatic outsider artist Henry Darger, should bring a different kind of note to the festivities. “At 3 AM I sleep again / Watch the tides rise right between my eyes / It’s in my head / Well, I’ll be dead before the sun will rise again,” they sing in “Lake House.”
Ra Ra Riot brings its captivating live show to BAM as part of Brooklyn festival (photo by twi-ny/mdr)
Also on tap are the Dred Scott Trio and the Sweet Divines at BAMcafé, tuneyards, takka takka, and Rose Parade at the Bell House, Falling Short of Luxury and Fill the Hunter at Frank’s Lounge, Small Black at Brooklyn Bowl, Dance for Brooklyn with Maya Azucena at Galagos, Saxon Shore and American Dollar at the Knitting Factory, the Vandelles, Dinowalrus, and the Naked Hearts at littlefield, and other shows at Zebulon, Station 171, Sputnik, Southpaw, Pete’s Candy Store, le Grand Dakar, and Goodbye Blue Monday, offering a chance to see some up-and-coming bands at venues many people aren’t necessarily that familiar with.
Tim Harrington began special BAM performance with hysterical site-specific dance piece (pohto by twi-ny/mdr)
Update: Following a strong, steady set by Vivian Girls, Les Savy Fav tore apart the Howard Gilman Opera House at BAM on January 29, beginning with Tim Harrington, clothespins clipped to his beard, performing a site-specific dance piece, eventually going into the crowd and picking people in the front up out of their chairs one by one, then explaining that he would continue with his performance art until everyone got up out of their seats, which resulted in a stampede to the stage, security guards running for cover, and all hell breaking loose for the rest of the night, which included Harrington running up and down the aisles of the ornate theater, scuttling by on his butt, entering a plastic phallic object, taking the shirt right off a fan’s back, giving himself a giant wedgie, and eventually donning a bizarre monkey suit and howling. BAM will never be the same.
Having just played the New York Jewish Film Festival at Lincoln Center, Adam Elliot’s stop-motion animated MARY AND MAX is now the opening-night selection at the second annual ReelAbilities: NY Disabilities Film Festival, which runs January 28 through February 2 at the JCC in Manhattan and other venues. Winner of numerous awards all over the world, MARY AND MAX is the touching, unforgettable tale of two loners who become pen pals, sharing the details of their hopes and dreams over decades. Mary (voiced by Bethany Whitmore as a young girl and Toni Collette when she gets older) is an oddball child living in a small town in Australia. Seeking a friend, she sends a letter to a random person she finds in a phone book. Max (Philip Seymour Hoffman) is a childlike middle-aged man suffering from Asperger’s Disorder in New York City. Through the years, their long-distance relationship goes through emotional ups and downs, building to a surprising ending that still has us scratching our heads. Elliot, who won an Oscar for his short film HARVIE KRUMPET in 2003, wrote, directed, and designed the sets and characters for MARY AND MAX, inspired by the photography of Diane Arbus. He brings Mary and Max to life in charming ways, adding little details and flourishes that will endear you to them even though they both are very, very strange. The film, wonderfully narrated by Barry “Dame Edna” Humphries, required more than 130,000 individual frames and 212 puppets and took 57 weeks to shoot; the result is simply charming. (MARY AND MAX will be screened January 28 at the JCC in Manhattan, January 30 at the JCC in Staten Island, January 31 at the Cinema Arts Centre in Huntington and at Abilities! in Albertson, and February 1 at Columbia University.)
