this week in music

RED BULL SOUND SELECT: BRIAN FALLON AND THE BOUNCING SOULS

Gaslight Anthem leader Brian Fallon has curated the September edition of the Red Bull Sound Select showcase series and will play a set with the Bouncing Souls at MHOW (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Music Hall of Williamsburg
66 North Sixth St.
Monday, September 30, $3, 8:00
www.redbullsoundselect.com
www.musichallofwilliamsburg.com

At the end of July, fellow Jersey bands the Gaslight Anthem (The ’59 Sound, American Slang) and the Bouncing Souls (Maniacal Laughter, Ghosts on the Boardwalk) played a hot show on Pier 26 in Hudson River Park to a bevy of fans shouting along with every word and forming a wicked mosh pit. On September 30 at the Music Hall of Williamsburg, Gaslight Anthem leader Brian Fallon will be joining longtime punks the Bouncing Souls for the monthly edition of the Red Bull Sound Select series, which Fallon curated in conjunction with Brooklyn Vegan. The main event is Fallon playing a set with the Bouncing Souls; don’t be surprised if they tear through a raucous version of “East Coast! Fuck You!” Opening up will be a pair of Brooklyn groups, garage-popsters Nude Beach and Red Bull Sound Select band Aye Nako, who describe themselves as “four weirdos trying to find their confidence / sexuality / harmony / pay day,” specializing in such genres as “homopop, queercore, punk, and non-college rock.” You can stream Aye Nako’s strong debut, Unleash Yourself, here. Tickets are a mere three bucks and are available only at the door the night of the show.

ATLANTIC ANTIC 2013

A huge crowd is expected at the annual Atlantic Antic festival, which this year honors Marty Markowitz

Atlantic Ave. between Hicks St. & Fourth Ave.
Sunday, September 29, free, 12 noon – 6:00 pm
www.atlanticave.org

The centerpiece of the thirty-eighth annual Atlantic Antic, a free festival of food, music, games, family-friendly activities, and more taking place Sunday, September 29, along Atlantic Ave., is a public farewell to outgoing borough president Marty Markowitz, who will be crowned honorary King of Brooklyn. More than a million visitors are expected for the party, which includes live performances indoors and outdoors, with the Windsor Terrors, the Black Coffee Blues Band, Strictly Belly Dancing, Les Sans Culottes, Liam the Magician, a domino tournament, Rolie Polie Guacamole, DJ Hard Hittin Harry, a book signing and reading by Melanie Hope Greenberg, teen jazz duo Octave Higher, Brandi and the Alexanders, Boricua Betty, the Get It, Junior Rivera and Son de Caney, the Dysfunctional Family Jazz Band, and many others. Among the participating establishments are the Chip Shop, the Waterfront Ale House, the Brazen Head, Pacheco & Lugo, Khamit Kinks, Last Exit, Gumbo, and Hank’s Saloon, and there will be local booths galore selling all kinds of items you won’t find at standard street fairs. And for the twentieth year, the New York Transit Museum is hosting the Bus Festival on Boerum Pl. between State St. & Atlantic Ave., featuring vintage buses, workshops, free tours, and other fun things, with admission to the museum only one dollar.

TWI-NY TALK: DICK VALENTINE OF ELECTRIC SIX

Dick Valentine and Electric Six ride into the city in support of latest album, MUSTANG

ELECTRIC SIX
Bowery Ballroom
6 Delancey St. between Bowery & Christie St.
Sunday, September 29, $18-$20, 9:00
212-533-2111
www.electricsix.com
www.boweryballroom.com

For nearly fifteen years, unpredictable Detroit band Electric Six has been having a blast, playing wild and crazy live shows and releasing such intoxicating albums as Danger! High Voltage, Señor Smoke, the splendidly titled I Shall Exterminate Everything Around Me That Restricts Me From Being the Master, and Heartbeats and Brainwaves. Although they’ve gone through numerous personnel changes, Tyler Spencer, aka Dick Valentine, has always been front and center, the group’s primary songwriter and lead vocalist. On their new record, the galloping Mustang (Metropolis, October 8), Valentine, guitarists Da Ve and Johnny Na$hinal, bassist Smorgasbord, drummer Percussion World, and keyboardist Tait Nucleus? take listeners on a rollicking journey through multiple genres, from the opening blast of “Nom de Plume” to the yearning ballad “Iron Dragon” to the Nick Cave/Roxy Music-like finale, “Cheryl vs. Darryl.” Electric Six brought its “Save the World, Save the World” tour to the Bell House this past Wednesday and will next be at Bowery Ballroom on September 29 with My Jerusalem and Les Sans Culottes. While in town, Valentine discussed with twi-ny the new record, Adam Levine, and the misspelling on the cover of Mustang.

twi-ny: Mustang explodes out of the speakers in a burst of heavy metal, punk, funk, hard rock, prog rock, black metal, disco, dance pop, and other styles. What is your songwriting process like? Do you set out to tackle specific genres in advance?

Dick Valentine: We just knew that having just done a synth and drum machine record for our previous studio release, we wanted to have a lot of guitars on this album. And live drums on every track. I have to say of all the albums we’ve done, this was the one where I came with the least amount of concrete ideas and finished songs on my end, so the rest of the guys, especially John Nash, really stepped up and got it done.

twi-ny: On “Adam Levine,” you tell the Maroon 5 frontman and “The Voice” coach to “burn in hell, motherfucker”; tell us, how do you really feel about him? Are personalities like Adam Levine good or bad for the music industry?

Dick Valentine: This song is not actually about Adam Levine. . . . That’s a popular misconception. It’s about feeling awful and then feeling worse because you know it will just continue. I’ve never met him, but he seems like a fine example of a human being. A human being who grew up in Beverly Hills. As far as his impact on the music industry, you’d have to ask Donny Osmond because that’s where this shit started.

twi-ny: In the past, you’ve said that your songs are “about absolutely nothing,” so should we not read any political metaphors into “Late Night Obama Food,” especially when you say, “We are starving, but we’re eating more than we ever did before”?

Dick Valentine: Yeah, that’s right.

twi-ny: Going back to “I Buy the Drugs” for a moment, what actually happens if you send a self-addressed stamped envelope to P.O. Box 900, Los Angeles, CA 90212?

Dick Valentine: I have heard it has something to do with FOX broadcasting. That was not intentional, but that makes sense as I believe that ZIP Code does in fact cover Century City and Westwood.

twi-ny: In “Gimme the Eyes,” you say, “When you come to New York see what your money buys.” You played the Bell House on September 25 and will be at Bowery Ballroom on September 29; what do you spend your money on when you’re here in the city?

Dick Valentine: Diapers. In a Park Slope parent way, not in a David Vitter way.

twi-ny: We can’t let you go without asking about the cover of Mustang; what was your initial reaction when you saw that the band’s name was misspelled on the back of the woman’s jean jacket?

Dick Valentine: We were elated.

DUMBO ARTS FESTIVAL 2013

Micah Stansell’s “Inversion (with Water)” combines sound and image in the Manhattan Bridge Archway & Anchorage

Multiple venues in DUMBO
September 27-29, free
www.dumboartsfestival.com

More than two hundred thousand visitors are expected to take part in the seventeenth annual Dumbo Arts Festival this weekend, running Friday night, Saturday, and Sunday. The streets and galleries will be home to three days of art, music, site-specific installation, workshops, open studios, and live performances, with everything free. The New York Photo Festival will be hosting the New York Photo Awards at 37 Main St., Gleason’s Gym is sponsoring “The Art of Boxing” at 77 Front St., “DADA’s Playground” will include family-friendly sculptures in the Kidlot, Mighty Tanaka welcomes people to the work of street artist Skewville in “Welcome to Skewville,” United Photo Industries’ “Photoville” continues on Brooklyn Bridge Park’s Pier 5, Anthony Heinz May’s “Appropriation of Nature” can be found on the park’s John St. Path, Ilya and Emilia Kabakov’s “Ship of Tolerance” sails into East River Cove, Abhaya Yoga will hold “Live Beats & Yoga Flow” at 10 Jay St., Clifford Ross & Taikoza’s “Immersive Harmonium Video and Japanese Drums” and Micah Stansell’s “Inversion (with Water)” take advantage of the Manhattan Bridge Archway & Anchorage, Andrey Bartenev and Mei Ann Teo’s “Bubbles of Hope” will roam all around the area, Amelia Marzec’s “New American Sweatshop” repurposes electronic waste into communication devices at 85 Washington St., dancers Jake Bone, Lynda Senisi, Damani Pompey, Ellyn Sjoquist and Alessandra Delle Grotti will perform Kensaku Shinohara’s “Math Time” on Main St., and CAM, DALeast, Eltono, Shepard Fairey, Faith47, MOMO, Stefan Sagmeister, and Yuko Shimizu will decorate DUMBO Walls in Bridge Park Two.

Andrey Bartenev and Mei Ann Teo’s “Bubbles of Hope” will roam around DUMBO on Saturday afternoon

There are lots of interactive installations, including the Heather Hart Experience’s “Bartertown (Trading Post Xi: The Magic Feathers),” in which participants can exchange objects, ideas, and just about anything else; Daina Taimina’s “Hyperbolic Hyperbolic Hyperbolic,” involving crocheting and paper cut-outs; Samuel Jablon and the Underpass Poets’ “Poet Sculpture” will feature readings on movable crates (by Steve Dalachinsky, Yuko Otomo, Vito Acconci, and many others, as well as an open mic); Rev. Lainie Love Dalby will bless festivalgoers as part of “HUMBO (Hope Under the Manhattan Bridge Underpass): A Blessing Performance to Burst Open Your He(art)”; the South Asian Women’s Creative Collective will present “Sublime,” interactive performance art pieces by Monica Jahan Bose, Ruby Chishti, Anjali Deshmukh, Swati Khurana, and Sunita S. Mukhi; and Kaloyan Ivanov’s “Void Simulacrum” invites the audience to work on a fifty-foot-long piece of fabric by Jane’s Carousel.

BAM NEXT WAVE FESTIVAL: ANNA NICOLE

Sarah Joy Miller is front and center in glamorous production of ANNA NICOLE at BAM (photo by Stephanie Berger)

BAM Howard Gilman Opera House
30 Lafayette Ave. between Ashland Pl. & St. Felix St.
Through September 28, $25-$235
718-636-4100
www.bam.org
www.roh.org.uk

If Anna Nicole ends up being New York City Opera’s final presentation, then the organization (founded in 1943 and dubbed the People’s Opera by Mayor Fiorello La Guardia) is certainly going out with quite a, well, bang. Commissioned by London’s Royal Opera House and originally performed at Covent Garden, Anna Nicole is a playfully entertaining pop operetta based on the life of celebrity diva Anna Nicole Smith, following her life from her early years as Vickie Lynn Hogan in Mexia, Texas, through her apprenticeship as a stripper in Houston and then her success as a model in print ads and as Playboy Playmate of the Year. Composer Mark-Anthony Turnage, librettist Richard Thomas, and director Richard Jones tell the tale chronologically as Anna Nicole (Sarah Joy Miller) argues with her mother (Susan Bickley), marries and divorces her first husband, Billy Boy (Ben Davis), visits Doctor Yes (Richard Troxell) to get a huge pair of golden Winnebagos, meets and marries billionaire octogenarian J. Howard Marshall II (Robert Brubaker), and becomes a tabloid regular and reality TV superstar. It’s all bright lights and flashy colors on Miriam Buether’s wonderfully cheesy sets and Nicky Gillibrand’s riotous costumes while the cast, which includes sixty-six members of the New York City Opera, belt out self-referential, tongue-in-cheek lyrics that contain the kind of language not usually heard at opera houses around the world, highlighted by F-bombs galore and a host of naughty nicknames for breasts. The story skips around in often confusing ways, too much time is spent on some relatively insignificant sections just for shock effect (for example, the stripper scene), and Thomas, who cowrote Jerry Springer: The Opera, never really gets inside Anna Nicole’s head, which keeps the audience at a distance. In addition, Miller doesn’t quite embody Anna Nicole, and it is occasionally hard to interpret what she’s singing, forcing the audience to read the surtitles, which is not necessary for all the vocalists. The standout performers are Bickley and tenor Brubaker, who is a hoot, especially in his glam outfit. This coproduction with BAM continues at the Howard Gilman Opera House through September 28; it would indeed be a shame if this were New York City Opera’s swan song, as they are willing to take on challenges that other companies wouldn’t touch with a ten-foot (stripper?) pole. (You can contribute to keep their 2013-14 season alive here.)

THE DAN BAND

The Dan Band continue their residency at Stage 48 on September 27 (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Stage 48
605 West 48th St. between Tenth & Eleventh Aves.
Friday, September 27, $26, 8:00
Residency continues October 26 and December 12
www.thedanband.com
www.stage48.com
the dan band slideshow

Actor and comedian Dan Finnerty has carved out quite a niche for himself. Finnerty, who has appeared in such stage productions as Hair and Stomp, has spent the last decade heading the Dan Band, an outrageously funny group that specializes in covers of songs originally performed by women. On August 15 the Dan Band, who made a name for themselves by appearing in a trio of Todd Phillips movies, Old School, Starsky & Hutch, and The Hangover, began a four-show, four-month residency at Stage 48 on the Far West Side. Backed by a live band, Finnerty, wearing a mechanic’s outfit and a backward-facing baseball cap, and his two nerdy cohorts, Gene Reed and John Kozeluh, glided their way through such gems as ABBA’s “Fernando,” Anita Ward’s “Ring My Bell,” Christina Aguilera’s “Genie in a Bottle,” Vanity 6’s “Nasty Girl,” Suzanne Vega’s “Tom’s Diner,” Irene Cara’s “Flashdance (What a Feeling)” and “Fame,” and the pièce de résistance, Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart,” complete with non-radio-friendly bonus lyrics. They closed with their cult hit, “Candy Shop,” a raunchy original in which Finnerty sings, “You be a nympho / I’ll be a nympho / Got the magic stick / I’m the love doctor.” Finnerty walked across every inch of the stage, joined the suited Reed and Kozeluh in some corny choreographed moments with bells, Hula hoops, and other objects, and wandered into the audience numerous times, establishing a funny rapport with some of the fans up front. Finnerty, who has been married to actress and comedian Kathy Najimy since 1995, is in the process of recording the band’s third album, following 2005’s all-covers The Dan Band Live! and 2007’s all-original Ho: A Dan Band Christmas, featuring such key tracks as “I Wanna Rock U Hard This Xmas,” “Get Drunk & Make Out This Christmas,” and, of course, “Ho Ho Ho.” Though seemingly a one-trick pony, the Dan Band has so far avoided becoming overly gimmicky, as the shtick still works; they put on one damn entertaining show. The Dan Band will be back at Stage 48 on September 27, October 26, and December 12, so if you’re looking for some stupid fun, then this is the place to be.

MARCO BENEVENTO PRESENTS: A CIRCUIT BENT PIANO ROCK PICTURE SHOW IN EXPLODING COLOR

Marco Benevento will combine music and images at special presentation at the Winter Garden

Brookfield Place Winter Garden
200 Vesey St.
Thursday, September 19, free, 8:00
212-945-0505
www.brookfieldplaceny.com
www.marcobenevento.com

Pianist Marco Benevento, who has melded jazz, pop, and indie on such records as Between the Needles & Nightfall, Me Not Me, and his latest, the just-released TigerFace, will be at the Brookfield Plaza Winter Garden on September 19 for the special free presentation “A Circuit Bent Piano Rock Picture Show in Exploding Color.” Benevento will be joined by bassist Dave Dreiwitz (Ween), drummer Andy Borger (Norah Jones, Ani DiFranco), and video artist Jay Cooper, playing original songs to projections that will include new images as well as their previous videos. Benevento is entering another phase of his career, reaching the point where he can do exactly what he wants. “It’s nice to try to create with people who are in the same boat as me – they’re kind of doing well, but they’re also kind of trapped in this vague cloud of ‘what kind of music are you?’” he explained in a statement. Formerly known as the World Financial Center, Brookfield Plaza has been home to numerous productions that have combined live music with projected images, from DJ Spooky’s “Rebirth of a Nation” to the Alloy Orchestra performing to Buster Keaton shorts, so this evening should add to that welcome tradition.