this week in music

PANORAMA NYC VIDEO OF THE DAY: “ALL MY FRIENDS” BY LCD SOUNDSYSTEM

Who: LCD Soundsystem
What: Panorama headlining set
Where: Randall’s Island Park, Panorama Stage
When: Sunday, July 24, $125, 9:10
Why: On April 2, 2011, we were inside Madison Square Garden, wishing a fond farewell to dance-punk icons LCD Soundsystem as the innovative and influential band played its final show ever. “And to tell the truth / Oh, this could be the last time / So here we go / Like a sales force into the night,” lead singer James Murphy sang during one of the group’s biggest songs, “All My Friends.” In July 2012, a documentary of that grand finale was released, Shut Up and Play the Hits, with Murphy looking like he might already be regretting breaking up the band. But as he also declares in “All My Friends”: “Though when we’re running out of the drugs / And the conversation’s winding away / I wouldn’t trade one stupid decision / For another five years of life.” And yes, five years after that last stand at MSG, LCD Soundsystem returned, playing a couple of tiny shows at Webster Hall this past March, followed by summer festival gigs. On July 24, they’ll be back in their home city, headlining the third day of Panorama NYC, which takes place Friday, Saturday, and Sunday on Randall’s Island. (You can see the full schedule and set times below.) So what happened to bring Murphy, Pat Mahoney, Tyler Pope, Nancy Whang, Matthew Thornley, Al Doyle, Gavin R. Russom, David Scott Stone, Phil Mossman, J. D. Mark, and Phil Skarich back together? Murphy shared the details on the band’s website.

“i asked pat and nancy to come over to my apartment for coffee and told them: ‘i’m going to record some music. should i make up a band name, or make a “james murphy” record, or should it be lcd?’ we all thought a good amount about it. we have had lives for the past 5 years, which has been nice, and those guys have made amazing music with museum of love, the juan maclean, and all sorts of other things. i’d managed to do a bunch of fun, dumb stuff which mostly annoyed people who were into the band because, well, subway turnstiles and a coffee aren’t lcd, basically. at any rate, they both said ‘let’s make an lcd record.’”

So the band is doing its thing again, playing live shows and making new music, so we couldn’t be more excited to see them at Panorama on Sunday night. You might also find us on the Despacio dance floor, an immersive music environment created by Murphy, David and Stephen Dewaele of Soulwax, and recording engineer John Klett.

panorama friday

panorama saturday

panorama sunday

THE RUBIN BLOCK PARTY

Rubin Block Party will have Nepalese-inspired theme this year (photo courtesy Rubin Museum of Art)

Rubin Museum of Art
West 17th St. between Sixth & Seventh Aves.
Sunday, July 17, free (including free museum admission all day), 1:00 – 4:00
rubinmuseum.org

Block parties are a type of social ritual, so it is rather apropos that the Rubin Museum of Art’s annual summer block party, taking place on July 17 on Seventeenth St., is being held in conjunction with the exhibition “Nepalese Seasons: Rain and Ritual,” which runs through March of next year. Hopefully it won’t rain between 1:00 and 4:00, when the museum will host Nepalese-inspired music and dance by Dikyi, Sonam Rinzin with Brooklyn Raga Massive, and Kabina Maharjan Singh and her son; educational activities with KathaSatha, Walung Community of North America, Yulha Fund (“Voice of the Himalayas”), and Mero Gaon; traditional Nepali dress demonstrations with Adhikaar; interactive weaving demonstrations with Grassroots Movement in Nepal; yoga with Susan Verde; art workshops in which participants can make rainsticks, frog masks, pinwheels, prayer flags, flower garlands, and hybrid animals; an interactive “Karma Chain” weather ritual; henna tattoos; Himalayan food from Café Serai; ice cream from Van Leeuwen; and more. In addition, the museum will be open for free all day long (11:00 am – 6:00 pm), so you can check out such exhibits as “Gateway to Himalayan Art,” “Masterworks of Himalayan Art,” “Genesis Breyer P-Orridge,” and “Sacred Spaces” in addition to “Nepalese Seasons: Rain and Ritual,” with museum tours and gallery searches for children. Namaste!

OUTDOOR CINEMA: L’ATALANTE

Michel Simon has loads of fun as a somewhat decrepit first mate in Jean Vigo’s classic L’ATALANTE

L’ATALANTE (Jean Vigo, 1934)
Socrates Sculpture Park
32-01 Vernon Blvd.
Wednesday, July 13, free, live music at 7:00, screening at sunset
718-956-1819
www.socratessculpturepark.org

Swiss actor Michel Simon is spectacularly hilarious as an aging, somewhat decrepit first mate with a peculiar lust for life and cats in French auteur Jean Vigo’s fourth and final film, L’Atalante. After barge captain Jean (Jean Dasté) and Juliette (Dita Parlo) get married in her small, tight-knit country town, they head for the big city of Paris on the long boat, L’Atalante, that he captains as his job. First mate Père Jules (Simon) and his young cabin boy (Louis Lefebvre) come along for the would-be honeymoon, attempting to make sure it’s a smooth ride, which of course it’s not. Juliette wants to enjoy the Parisian nightlife, Jean is a jealous, overprotective stick-in-the-mud, and Père Jules — well, Père Jules is downright unpredictable, pretty much all id, living life footloose and fancy free even if he doesn’t have much money or many true friends. When a love-struck bicycle-riding peddler (Gilles Margaritis) tries to woo Juliette, Jean grows angry, and an emotional and psychological battle ensues. But through it all, Père Jules just keeps on keepin’ on, never getting too concerned, confident that everything will work out in the end, because that’s what happens in life.

Jean (Jean Dasté) is jealous of a hotshot peddler (Gilles Margaritis) trying to steal his wife (Dita Parlo) in L’ATALANTE

The son of anarchist Miguel Almereyda, who chose his last name because it is an anagram of the French phrase for “there is shit,” Vigo had been labeled a subversive for his first film, À propos de Nice, and his third film, Zéro de conduite, had been banned. So he went a little more conventional, at least for him, with L’Atalante, rewriting with Albert Riéra an original script by Jean Guinée. The film is an insightful tale of love and romance, of wealth and poverty, of hard social conditions, focusing on a wacky man who has experienced a lot in his life, even though he looks like a bum, reminiscent of Simon’s brilliant portrayal of Priape in Jean Renoir’s Boudu Saved from Drowning. Whether putting on a puppet show, displaying his tattoos, getting his fortune read, or walking around with cats on his shoulders, Père Jules is one of the most endearing and memorable characters in the history of cinema, a unique figure who surprises over and over again, and Simon’s portrayal is just amazing; it’s hard to believe that he was only thirty-nine when he made the picture. The highly poetic film, featuring a lovely score by Maurice Jaubert, also echoes F. W. Murnau’s Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans, only from a comic, often slapstick angle. After shooting was completed, Vigo’s already failing health took a turn for the worse, and a battle ensued over final cut involving the producers and editor Louis Chavance and cinematographer Boris Kaufman (Dziga Vertov’s brother, who went on to shoot such American classics as On the Waterfront and 12 Angry Men). Vigo died in October 1934 at the age of twenty-nine, only a few weeks after L’Atalante was released. L’Atalante is screening July 13 in Long Island City as part of Socrates Sculpture Park’s free summer Outdoor Cinema series, programmed by Film Forum, and will be preceded by a live performance by Le Petit Pepinot, with French food available for purchase from Le Fond and La Maison du Soufflé. The seventeenth annual series continues through August 24 with such other international films as Rokhsareh Ghaem Maghami’s Sonita, Lou Ye’s Suzhou River, and Werner Herzog’s Aguirre, the Wrath of God.

OUT IN THE STREETS 2016

out in the streets 2

Who: The So So Glos, Potty Mouth, Future Punx, Frankie Rose, Teen, Honduras, more
What: Out in the Streets Music & Arts Festival
Where: Vander Ende-Onderdonk House, 1820 Flushing Ave., Ridgewood, Queens
When: Saturday, July 16, and Sunday, July 17, $24 per day, $38 weekend pass, $60 VIP package
Why: The fourth annual Out in the Streets festival takes place July 16-17 at the historic Vander Ende-Onderdonk House in Ridgewood, the oldest Dutch Colonial stone house in the city, dating back to the mid-seventeenth century. Saturday features Freind (1:30), Softspot (2:15), Party Static (3:00), B Boys (3:50), Future Punx (4:40), Beverly (5:30), Big Ups (6:20), Guerilla Toss (7:10), Potty Mouth (8:00), and the So So Glos (9:00), while Sunday’s lineup is Dead Stars (1:30), the Teen Age (2:15), Weekender (3:00), Boytoy (3:50), the Britanys (4:40), EZTV (5:30), Pill (6:20), Honduras (7:10), Teen (8:00), and Frankie Rose (9:00). In addition, there will be an after-party on Saturday at Sunnyvale in Brooklyn at 11:00 with Chappo and Surf Rock Is Dead ($10 at the door, $5 with festival wristband). You can listen to a mixtape of all of the bands here, then meet us out in the streets next weekend.

LOUIS ARMSTRONG’S WONDERFUL WORLD 2016

louis armstrong festival

Who: Dr. John, Kermit Ruffins, Soulive
What: Free music festival with beer garden, family-friendly activities, and food trucks
Where: Flushing Meadows Corona Park, Queens
When: Saturday, July 16, free with advance registration (beer garden access $11.54), 1:00 – 8:00
Why: The third annual Louis Armstrong’s Wonderful World festival celebrates the life and legacy of the great Satchmo, who was born in New Orleans but moved to New York City in the 1920s and to Corona, Queens, in 1943, just down the road from Flushing Meadows Corona Park. That residence, at 34-56 107th St., is now home to the Louis Armstrong House Museum. On July 16, the great Dr. John, Kermit Ruffins, and Soulive will perform for free on the main stage in the park. There will also be a Backyard Bash with family activities, a food court with local food trucks, and DJ sets at Pops’ Place at the Queens Museum, featuring music by the influential and innovative, one and only Armstrong.

BASTILLE DAY CELEBRATION

bastille day

60th St. between Fifth & Lexington Aves.
Sunday, July 10, free, 12 noon – 5:00 pm
www.bastilledaynyc.com
fiaf.org

On July 14, 1789, a Parisian mob stormed the Bastille prison, a symbolic victory that kicked off the French Revolution and the establishment of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. Ever since, July 14 has been a national holiday celebrating liberté, égalité, and fraternité. In New York City, the Bastille Day festivities are set for Sunday, July 10, along Sixtieth St., where the French Institute Alliance Française hosts its annual daylong party of food, music, dance, and other special activities. There will be a Wine, Beer, Cocktail, and Cheese Tasting in FIAF’s Tinker Auditorium at 12 noon, 1:30, and 3:00 ($25), as well as luxurious ninety-minute Champagne & Chocolate Tastings in Le Skyroom at 12:30 and 3:00 ($75) featuring delights from G. H. Mumm, Piper-Heidsieck, Drappier, Brimoncourt, Billecart-Salmon, La Caravelle, Neuhaus, La Maison du Chocolat, Valrhona, MarieBelle, and Maman Bakery. The annual raffle ($5 per ticket) can win you such prizes as trips to Paris and New Orleans, concert tickets, beauty treatments and gift baskets, lunches and dinners, and more. Food and drink will be available from Babeth’s Feast, Barraca, Booqoo Beignets, Dominique Ansel Bakery, Éclair Bakery, Epicerie Boulud, Financier, Bec Fin, Le Souk, St. Michel, Tipsy Scoop, François Payard Bakery, Mille-feuille, Oliviers & Co., Ponty Bistro, and others. Taking the stage will be cast members from An American in Paris (12:30), CanCan dancers led by Sarah O’Dwyer (1:15 & 2:15), a French puppet show by Samantha Grassian (1:30), the Hungry March Band (2:30), the Sheridan Fencing Academy (3:15), and Myriam Phiro’s Accordion Trio (4:00). The festivities also include a roaming French Mime for Hire (Catherina Gasta), a photobooth, a book signing with Marc Levy (A Spin on the Horizon, 1:00), the annual Citroën Car Show (1:00 – 5:00), a live screening of the UEFA Euro final between France and Portugal (3:00), and more. Vive la France!

TICKET ALERT: PANORAMA NYC

Who: Arcade Fire, Alabama Shakes, Major Lazer, Kendrick Lamar, the National, Sufjan Stevens, LCD Soundsystem, Sia, A$AP Rocky, many more
What: Panorama NYC music and art festival
Where: Randall’s Island Park
When: July 22-24, $125 per day ($230 VIP), $369 for three-day pass ($699 VIP), ferry $25 per day, shuttle $30 per day
Why: Goldenvoice, the promoters behind such festivals as Coachella, Stagecoach, FYF, Hangout, Firefly, and Splash House as well as 2008’s All Points West at Liberty State Park, is giving it another go in the metropolitan area this summer with Panorama NYC, a three-day fest taking place on Randall’s Island July 22-24. The innovative Panorama Stage, which features a wraparound HD video screen that is 30 feet high and 170 feet long, will host such bands as Arcade Fire, Alabama Shakes, Major Lazer, and Silversun Pickups on Friday, Kendrick Lamar, the National, Blood Orange, and Foals on Saturday, and LCD Soundsystem, Sia, Run the Jewels, and Kurt Vile & the Violators on Sunday. Meanwhile, the Pavilion stage boasts such groups as Schoolboy Q, FKA Twigs, and Broken Social Scene on Friday, Sufjan Stevens, Flosstradamus, and Daughter on Saturday, and A$AP Rocky, Grace Potter, and SZA on Sunday. At the more intimate Parlor you can catch DJ Khaled, Netsky, and Madlib on Friday, Kaytranada, Alunageorge, and Horse Meat Disco on Saturday, and Classixx, Tourist, and Holy Ghost! on Sunday. (Complete set times are below.) The festival also features the Despacio dance floor, created by James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem and David and Stephen Dewaele of Soulwax with recording engineer John Klett. In addition, the Verge will be presenting the Lab, a seventy-foot video dome and projection Façade that will house seven multimedia digital art experiences, consisting of Emilie Baltz and Philip Sierzega’s “Cotton Candy Theremin,” Future Wife’s “Visceral Recess,” Dave & Gabe’s “Hyper Thread,” Gabriel Pulecio AKA lustix’s “Infinite Wall,” Mountain Gods’ “Giant Gestures,” Red Paper Heart’s “The Art of Pinball,” and Zachary Lieberman’s “Reflection Study.” Keep watching twi-ny for more coverage of Panorama as the big weekend approaches.