this week in music

SUMMER SOLSTICE CELEBRATION 2014

Socrates Sculpture Park celebrates summer solstice with tenth annual festival

Socrates Sculpture Park
32-01 Vernon Blvd.
Saturday, June 21, free, 5:00 – dusk
718-956-1819
www.socratessculpturepark.org

It’s time to celebrate the longest day of the year, midsummer, on June 21, as festivals take place all over the Northern Hemisphere. In Long Island City, the tenth annual Summer Solstice Celebration in Socrates Sculpture Park consists of a bevy of free activities from 5:00 to dusk, offering the opportunity for the mind, body, and soul to restore their connection to the natural and spiritual worlds. There will be face painting by Agostino Arts, art workshops sponsored by Free Style Arts Association, Materials for the Arts, the Noguchi Museum, and the Queens Museum, a solstice ritual with Urban Shaman Mama Donna, live performances by Andrew Hurst and Shona Masarin, and site-specific sound performances presented by Norte Maar, featuring Tristan Perch; Lesley Flanigan, Maria Chavez, and MV Carbon; Audra Wolowiec; and David Tudor’s Rainforest I by Composers Inside Electronics. While at Socrates, be sure to check out the current exhibitions as well: Žilvinas Kempinas’s “Scarecrow,” Paweł Althamer’s “Queen Mother of Reality,” Meschac Gaba’s “Broadway Billboard: Citoyen du Monde,” and Austin+Mergold’s “Folly: SuralArk.”

MAKE MUSIC NEW YORK SUMMER 2014

Make Music New York is back for its eighth year, celebrating the longest day of the year with more than 1,300 free concerts across the city on June 21. There are participatory events, live music in parks and plazas, unique gatherings in unusual places, and just about anything else you can think of. Below are only some of the highlights, arranged alphabetically.

After Dark: PBJ Edition, People’s Breukelen Jamwich, Breukelen Coffee House, open mic 8:00 – 10:00, round robin jams 10:00 – midnight

Berlioz Band: presentation of Hector Berlioz’s Symphonie Funèbre et Triomphale, conducted by Jeff W. Ball, with all wind players regardless of skill level invited to participate with preregistration, Bryant Park, 3:00 & 4:30

Joe’s Pub Block Party: with Young Old Man, Todd Almond, Too Many Zooz, Bridget Barkan, Dahka Band, and more, 425 Lafayette St., 11:00 am – 7:00 pm

Mass Appeal: meet-ups for eighteen instruments in eighteen locations, including accordions in City Hall Park, flutes in the Dalehead Arch in Central Park, gongs in Worth Square, guitars in Union Square, ukuleles in Madison Square Park, and found sound for John Cage’s “49 Waltzes” at 147 sites in all five boroughs

Porch Stomp: nearly three dozen live performances and workshops focusing on roots music, with anyone invited to join in, Nolan Park, Governors Island, 1:00 – 5:00

Punk Island: more than ninety punk bands, Coast Guard Pier, Staten Island, 11:00 am – 9:00 pm

Red Baraat’s 100+ BPM: Bhangra band led by Sunny Jain perform specially commissioned piece for NPR, joined by any and all brass players and percussionists, Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn, 4:30

The Sound of Downtown: And Death Shall Have No Dominion, a participatory singing event for a synchronized headphone choir, conceived and composed by Pete M. Wyer, with live music by the Asphalt Orchestra, converging on Rockefeller Park at 11:45 am

The Sound of Downtown: Digital Sanctuaries, a musical pilgrimage through Lower Manhattan, urban music mobile app walk by Susie Ibarra and Roberto Rodriguez, guided tours at 1:00 from India House, 3:00 from Peter Minuet Plaza, and 5:00 from Tear Drop Park

NORTHSIDE 2014: WEEKEND

NORTHSIDE FESTIVAL
Multiple locations in Brooklyn
Friday, June 13; Saturday, June 14; Sunday, June 15
Festival runs June 12-19
www.northsidefestival.com

The fifth Northside Festival heads into the weekend with another slew of shows at a wide variety of venues in Brooklyn. We’ll be making our daily suggestions as the party continues through June 19.

Friday, June 13
The War on Drugs, Woods, Julianna Barwick, 50 Kent, $20-$25, 6:45

Linda Perry Curates Roya, Perfect Pussy, Shilpa Ray, Knitting Factory Brooklyn, $10-$12, 8:00

The Whatever Blog and DJ Mojo from Breakthrough Radio Presents: White Mystery, J.A.C.K., Whiskey Bitches, Vulture Sh*t, Sharkmuffin, Bar Matchless, $8, 8:30

Albert Hammond Jr., Drowners, Music Hall of Williamsburg, $20-$25, 9:00

Heart Bleeds Radio Presents: Shark?, the Planes, My Teenage Stride, the Teen Age, Pet Rescue, $7, 9:30

Saturday, June 14
Scenic Presents: The Dead Milkmen, Warsaw, $25, time TBA

Space Ninety 8’s “For the Record” Vinyl Signing Series: Eleanor Friedberger, Space Ninety 8, free, 1:30 – 2:30

Thee Oh Sees, the Blink Shake, King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, Walter TV, McCarren Park, free with advance RSVP, 2:00

Beirut, Ratking, Malang Jobarteh, 50 Kent, $35, 6:45

Pitchfork Presents: Marissa Nadler, Youth Code, Pharmakon, Pyrrhon, Couch Slut, Saint Vitus, $12-$14, 8:30

Sunday, June 15
Eleanor Friedberger, Alvvays, Brooklyn Bowl, $15, time TBA

Exploding in Sound Presents: Bueno Flesh Wounds, Guerilla Toss, Ovlov, Krill, Celestial Shore, Mattress Financial, Baked, Leapling, Flagland, Washer, Manors, Heliotropes, Creepoid, Baby’s All Right, $10, 3:00

White Iris Presents: White Rabbits, Ski Lodge, Incan Abraham, Ludwig Persik, Rathborne, Cathy, Cameo Gallery, $15, 6:00

BB Queen Presents: Life Size Maps, Sofa Club, Slonk Donkerson, Big Muff Radio, Journalism Grand Pantry Men, Bar Matchless, $6, 7:45

Brooklyn Bazaar & the Bunce Group Present: F*ck Buttons, Lichens, Odonis Odonis, Warsaw, $18-$20, 8:00

NORTHSIDE 2014: DAY ONE

NORTHSIDE FESTIVAL
Multiple locations in Brooklyn
Thursday, June 12
Festival runs June 12-19
www.northsidefestival.com

Brooklyn’s Northside Festival is back for its fifth year of live music, film screenings, art, panel discussions, and a trade show and jobs fair at venues throughout the north side of the world’s coolest borough, at such venues as Brooklyn Bowl, Warsaw, the Trash Bar, the Gutter Spare Room, the Grand Victory, the Music Hall of Williamsburg, Europa, Spike Hill, and many others. Below are the highlights for opening night of this eight-day party.

Javotti Media Presents: Talib Kweli with nine-piece band, featuring sets by Res and NIKO IS, Brooklyn Bowl, $15-$20, 6:00

Scenic Presents: Titus Andronicus, Eagulls, D’NT, Low Fat Getting High, Warsaw, $20-$23, 7:00

Vans & FYF Present: Charles Bradley & His Extraordinaires, Mac DeMarco, Benjamin Booker, House of Vans, free with advance RSVP, 7:30

Sharon Van Etten, Shilpa Ray, Music Hall of Williamsburg, $20, 8:00

Lazerpop Party!: DJ sets by Neon Indian, Chrome Sparks, Lemonade, Glasslands, $15, 11:30 pm

MUSEUM MILE FESTIVAL 2014

Uptown institutions stay open late and open their doors for free for Museum Mile Festival

Multiple locations on Fifth Ave. between 82nd & 105th Sts.
Tuesday, June 10, 6:00 – 9:00 pm
Admission: free
www.museummilefestival.org

There’s really only one main problem with the annual Museum Mile Festival: It’s too short. On Tuesday, June 10, from 6:00 to 9:00, nine uptown art and cultural institutions will open their doors for free and fill Fifth Ave. between 82nd & 104th Sts. with family-friendly activities for the thirty-fifth year. There will be live outdoor performances by the Asphalt Orchestra, Sammie & Trudie’s Imagination Playhouse, Silly Billy the Very Funny Clown, Avenida B, Josh the Juggler, Bill Ferguson, and Magic Brian, in addition to face painting, art workshops, chalk drawing, the Museum of Motherhood, and more. The participating museums (with at least one of their current shows listed here) are El Museo del Barrio (“Presencia: Works from El Museo’s Permanent Collection”), the Museum of the City of New York (“Palaces for the People: Guastavino and the Art of Structural Tile,” “In a World of Their Own: Coney Island Photographs by Aaron Rose”), the Jewish Museum (“Other Primary Structures,” “Mel Bochner: Strong Language”), the National Academy (“The Annual 2014: Redefining Tradition”), the Guggenheim (“Italian Futurism, 1909-1944: Reconstructing the Universe”), the Neue Galerie (“Degenerate Art: The Attack on Modern Art in Nazi Germany, 1937”), and the Metropolitan Museum of Art (“Charles James: Beyond Fashion,” “Out of Character: Decoding Chinese Calligraphy”), along with the Africa Center / Museum (which is building a new home) and the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum (which is undergoing a major renovation). Don’t try to do too much, because it can get rather crowded; just pick one or two exhibitions in one or two museums and enjoy.

EGG ROLLS AND EGG CREAMS FESTIVAL 2014

Annual Egg Rolls & Egg Creams fest flies into the Lower East Side on June 8 (photo by Kate Milford)

Museum at Eldridge Street
12 Eldridge St. between Canal & Division Sts.
Sunday, June 8, free, 12 noon – 4:00 pm
212-219-0302
www.eldridgestreet.org

The fourteenth annual Egg Rolls & Egg Creams block party once again will bring together the Jewish and Chinese communities of the Lower East Side on June 8 for what is always a fun day of food and drink, live music and dance, history, culture, and lots more. Among the highlights of the festival are the kosher egg creams and egg rolls, yarmulke and challah workshops, tea ceremonies, a genealogy clinic, Yiddish and Chinese lessons, Hebrew and Chinese calligraphy classes, mah jongg, cantorial songs, Jewish paper cutting and Chinese paper folding, face painting, and free tours (in English and Chinese) of the wonderfully renovated Eldridge St. Synagogue, which boasts the East Window designed by Kiki Smith and Deborah Gans. In past years, the festival has included performances by the Chinatown Senior Center Folk Orchestra, Qi Shu Fang’s Peking Opera, the Shashmaqam Bukharan Jewish Cultural Group, Ray Muziker Klezmer Ensemble, and Cantor Eric Freeman, some of whom will be back again for this year’s multicultural celebration.

FIRST SATURDAYS: BROOKLYN LGBTQ PRIDE

Judy Chicago, “Birth Hood,” sprayed automotive lacquer on car hood, 1965/2011 (Courtesy of the artist. © Judy Chicago. Photo © Donald Woodman)

Brooklyn Museum
200 Eastern Parkway at Washington St.
Saturday, June 7, free, 5:00 – 11:00 ($10 discounted admission to “Ai Weiwei: According to What?”)
212-864-5400
www.brooklynmuseum.org

The Brooklyn Museum is currently home to four temporary exhibitions that deal with different types of activism, which together fit in extremely well with its June free First Saturdays program, a tribute to “Brooklyn LGBTQ Pride.” Now on view are “Ai Weiwei: According to What?,” a stirring retrospective that examines social, historical, and political elements of art and freedom in China ($10 discounted admission on Saturday after 5:00); the expansive “Swoon: Submerged Motherlands,” which incorporates feminist ideals into such environmental issues as climate change and waste; the gripping “Witness: Art and Civil Rights in the Sixties,” which looks at the depiction of the civil rights movement in painting, sculpture, and photography; and the colorful “Chicago in L.A.: Judy Chicago’s Early Works, 1963–74,” which follows Judy Chicago before she became a feminist icon. On June 7, there will be live performances by the Shondes, Rivers of Honey, and AVAN LAVA, a movement workshop led by Benny Ninja Training Academy in memory of voguing master Willi Ninja, an excerpt from The Firebird, a Ballez by Katy Pyle and the Ballez, the drag-oriented BUSHWIG festival hosted by Horrorchata and Macy Rodman, a talk by multidisciplinary artist and activist Alexander Kargaltsev on being a gay Russian artist, a hands-on art workshop in which participants will create a dancing figure in clay, a discussion with members of the Lesbian Herstory Archives, and pop-up gallery talks. (Some events require free tickets distributed in advance at the Visitor Center.)