Montreal experimental art-rock trio BRAIDS will be playing the Northside Festival on June 15, previewing songs from their upcoming sophomore full-length, Flourish // Perish (Arbutus, August 20), the follow-up to 2011’s Native Speaker. The band — which now consists of Raphaelle Standell-Preston on guitar, keyboards, and lead vocals, Austin Tufts on drums, and Taylor Smith on bass (fourth founding member Katie Lee left the group last year) — spent a year writing and recording the album in a Montreal studio, coming up with ten tracks, including “Victoria,” “Hossak,” “Girl,” “Ebben,” “Amends,”and “Juniper.” They’ll be at Cameo Gallery on Saturday night on a bill with Yellow Ostrich, Bell Mare, and Widowspeak.
this week in music
NORTHSIDE FESTIVAL VIDEO OF THE DAY: “HELLO LOVE” BY THE YOUNG THINGS
New York quartet the Young Things will be playing the Northside Festival on June 14, celebrating the release of their debut album, Hello Love/Goodbye Sexual (Battle Worldwide, June 4). On the record, Mike, Josh, Neil, and Jon channel the Beatles circa 1966-68, with some Queen and Pink Floyd thrown in for good measure, creating a garage-based kind of NYC Britpop — the LP was produced by Lenny Kaye — on such tracks as “No One Taught You How to Fall in Love Alone,” “All Human Life,” and “Sore Eyes.” On “Hello Love,” they sing, “Hello, love, I’m writing you to tell you how I’ve been / Money’s tight and times are tough across the Brooklyn Bridge.” They’ll be on the Brooklyn side of the (Williamsburg) bridge Friday night at the Grand Victory with the Boxing Lesson, Purple, Spires, and headliners Har Mar Superstar, who make a guest appearance on the Young Thing’s “Goodbye Sexual.” (For a look at Mike playing two acoustic tracks from the record on Jon Chattman’s “A-Sides Sessions” Huffington Post video show, go here and here.)
NORTHSIDE FESTIVAL VIDEO OF THE DAY: “CHANNELING” BY THE LUYAS
Montreal-based five-piece the Luyas are on the road in support of their most recent album, last October’s Animator, which features such tracks as “Montuno,” “Fifty Fifty,” and “The Quiet Way,” exploring dreams, death, and the natural environment. “Your name’s mostly water / It is mostly the sea / I wanted to hold you like the beach holds the ocean / Like the wind holds the trees up so slightly,” Jessie Stein sings on “Your Name’s Mostly Water.” Stein, Pietro Amato, Mathieu Charbonneau, Bucky Wheaton, and Sarah Neufeld will be be at 285 Kent at the Northside Festival on June 13 for the Infinite Best showcase, on a bill with Lush Life, Ava Luna, Julian Lynch, and Twin Sister.
VIDEO OF THE DAY: “THANKSGIVING” BY STEPHEN KELLOGG
After a tumultuous 2012 that included the birth of his fourth child, the loss of his grandmother and mother-in-law, the renovation of his house, an inspirational TEDx talk (titled “I Can’t Get No [Job] Satisfaction”), and the Hi-Ate-Us Tour, after which he and his longtime band, the Sixers, went on hiatus, self-effacing American singer-songwriter Stephen Kellogg has encapsulated his unique world view in his beautiful new solo album, Blunderstone Rookery (Elm City, June 18, 2013). Kellogg is bold and blunt throughout the record’s eleven tracks, evoking Lyle Lovett, Bruce Springsteen, Justin Townes Earle, and his personal favorite, Tom Petty, on guitar-driven songs that examine love, heartbreak, hopes, dreams, home, and family. “What can I possibly say? / I’m not even sure if I think you should stay / It’s like I don’t know where to start / Do I set it on fire just to protect my heart?” he asks on the opening number, “Lost and Found.” Kellogg gets swampy for the blues-infused “The Brain Is a Beautiful Thing,” channels Petty and the Boss on “Forgive You, Forgive Me,” goes country on “Crosses,” and adds a horn section on “Good Ol’ Days,” on which he declares, “Sometimes the best thing that can happen is / you take a punch in the face.” But at his heart, the thirty-six-year-old Kellogg is a positive, upbeat guy who loves and celebrates the gift of life and family, as evidenced by the ten-minute acoustic opus “Thanksgiving,” with Kellogg explaining, “In America, this is home / Stories, everybody’s got one / This is mine, you will have your own / Nothing like the real thing, nothing like it.” The Connecticut-based Kellogg has been telling the stories that populate Blunderstone Rookery on YouTube, sitting down by a fire and reading the lyrics to each song as if they were chapters in a book. Kellogg will be at Rockwood Music Hall on June 14 ($20, one-drink minimum, 7:00) for a special Countdown to Blunderstone show with special guest Seth Giler. In addition, earlier that day, at 3:00, he will take part in a Livestream Session, spinning the whole record, answering fan questions, and playing live.
NORTHSIDE FESTIVAL 2013
Danish punks Iceage headline MHOW show on opening night of Northside Festival
Northside Festival
Multiple venues in Greenpoint and Williamsburg
June 13-20
www.northsidefestival.com
Now in its third year, the Northside Festival features four days of indie music followed by four days of films, along with a two-day conference that examines the future of technology and business. Greenpoint and Williamsburg will be more alive than usual with the sounds of bands filling the streets and clubs June 13-16. Eighty-dollar badges are still available for the music events, or you can get individual tickets to the shows, which will be held at such locations as Union Pool, the Glasslands, the Trash Bar, the Gutter, Bar Matchless, Europa, Saint Vitus, Cameo, the Music Hall of Williamsburg, and many more. In addition, more than thirty films will be screened at Nitehawk Cinema, Williamsburg Cinemas, Videology, UnionDocs, and other locations. Below are our recommendations, organized by day; keep checking back for updates and changes.
Thursday, June 13
Monarch presents Julia Haltigan (8:00), Wyatt (8:45), Cole Williams (9:35), Aabaraki (10:20), Kendra Morris (11:15), Bar Matchless, $10
Iceage, A Place to Bury Strangers, Lower, Bennio Qwerty, and Bambara, Music Hall of Williamsburg, 8:00, $15
Pitchfork presents: Foreplay (8:30), Majical Cloudz (9:15), very special guests (10:00), Body/Head (Kim Gordon & Bill Nace) (11:00), Saint Vitus, $15
JD Samson presents Pat Party: with DJ sets by JD Samson, Amber Valentine, Will Automatic, and Sveta, Union Pool, 9:00, free
A musical number by drag persona Ruby Roo, including scenes from I Love Lucy and more, Sugarland, 12 midnight, free
Friday, June 14
Surprise guest at the Jameson Black Barrel Lounge at Villain, 3:00
Dear Georgiana (7:30), the Sundelles (8:15), and Sonny & the Sunsets (9:00), Knitting Factory Brooklyn, $12
Sally (8:30), Vivienne Eastwood (9:30), Radical Dads (10:30), and Black Wine (11:30), Legion, $8
Whatever Blog presents Libel (9:00), Butchers and Bakers (9:30), the Meaning of Life (10:00), Lazyeyes (10:30), and Shilpa Ray (11:00), the Gutter, $5
Gigawatts presents Sham-Poo (9:00), Le Rug (10:00), SHAPES (11:00), and the So So Glos (12 midnight), Public Assembly, $10
Saturday, June 15
Zachary Cale (4:00), Mappa Mundi (5:00), and Whale Belly (6:00), Pete’s Candy Store, free
Whatever Blog presents the Veda Rays (8:00), Low Fat Getting High (9:00), American Darlings (10:00), Dead Stars (11:00), and Clouder (12 midnight), Legion, $5
New York Night Train presents the Gories and Daddy Long Legs, Brooklyn Bowl, 8:00, $12
Metal Sucks presents Scale the Summit, Mouth of the Architect, Inter Arma, and Sannhet, Saint Vitus, 8:00, $15
PopGun presents DJ sets by Flying Horse and Ladyhawke and live performance by French Horn Rebellion, Glasslands, 11:30, $15
Sunday, June 16
Stereoactive NYC & Hillytown present JPK (1:00), Lisa/Liza (2:00), Owel (3:00), Coalsack in Crux (4:00), Leda (5:00), Ball of Flame Shoot Fire (6:00), Cultfever (7:00), Weird Children (8:00), Sunset Hearts (9:00), MiniBoone (10:00), Shark? (11:00), Clouder (12 midnight), Spike Hill, free
Rocks Off presents Subhumans, Adolescents, Drunken Rampage, the Krays, Music Hall of Williamsburg, 7:00, $15
Monarch presents sami.the.great (8:15), Heloise & the Savoir Faire (9:00), Something in Spanish (9:40), Hank & Cupcakes (10:25), Bright Light Bright Light (11:15), and My Midnight Heart (12:15 am), Public Assembly, $10
Grooms (8:30), Pop. 1280 (9:30), and the Soft Moon (10:30), 285 Kent, $15
COMING TOGETHER / ATTICA
Rebecca Lazier adapts Frederic Rzewski’s Attica-related compositions into an immersive, site-specific work at Invisible Dog
The Invisible Dog
51 Bergen St. between Smith & Court Sts.
June 13-15, $20
www.theinvisibledog.org
www.rebeccalazier.com
In 1971, pianist Frederic Rzewski composed a pair of minimalist works inspired by the Attica prison riots in upstate New York, which left more than three dozen people dead and forever changed the public’s view of the treatment of prisoners. Nova Scotia native Rebecca Lazier has used the two pieces — “Coming Together,” which features the slowly repeated sentence “Attica is in front of me,” spoken by a survivor of the riots who had been asked “How does it feel to have Attica behind you?,” and “Attica,” with words taken from a letter written by inmate Sam Melville, who died during the uprising — to create the site-specific Coming Together / Attica, running at the Invisible Dog in Brooklyn June 13-15. The U.S. premiere will be performed by Rashaun Mitchell, Silas Riener, Asli Bulbul, Jennifer Lafferty, Pierre Guilbault, and Christopher Ralph, with Mellissa Hughes as vocal soloist and live music by Newspeak, conducted by David T. Little for eight instruments. The fifty-minute show takes place on the third floor of the art space, set across four thousand square feet, with lighting design by Davison Scandrett and prison-related costumes by Mary-Jo Mecca. Lazier’s piece is divided into three sections: “Coming Together,” “The Quiet,” and “Attica,” combining music, movement, and text to explore isolation, oppression, memory, and adversity in an immersive presentation that, at one point, switches the relationship between audience and performer, playing with the idea of who is being held captive by whom.
MUSEUM MILE FESTIVAL 2013
Museum Mile Festival attendees can get a sneak peek at El Museo del Barrio’s “La Bienal 2013: Here Is Where We Jump, which includes Edgar Serrano’s “A dios” (acrylic and latex on canvas, 2012 / photo courtesy of the artist)
Multiple locations on Fifth Ave. between 82nd & 105th Sts.
Tuesday, June 11, 6:00 – 9:00 pm
Admission: free
www.museummilefestival.org
Several uptown museums will be opening their doors for free as part of the thirty-fourth annual Museum Mile Festival, taking place Tuesday night, June 11, from 5:45 to 9:00. Fifth Ave. will be filled with live performers and family-friendly activities between 82nd & 104th Sts., including chalk drawing, face painting, Sammie & Tudie’s Imagination Playhouse, the Little Orchestra Society, Silly Billy the Very Funny Clown, Isle of Klezbos, Magic Brian, various DJs, and more. The participating museums (with at least one of their current shows listed here) include El Museo del Barrio (“La Bienal 2013: Here Is Where We Jump”), the Museum of the City of New York (“A Beautiful Way to Go”), the Jewish Museum (“Six Things: Sagmeister & Walsh,” “Jack Goldstein x 10,000”), the National Academy (“Jeffrey Gibson: Said the Pigeon to the Squirrel,” “Pat Steir: Blue River”), the Guggenheim (“New Harmony: Abstraction Between the Wars, 1919-1939”), the Neue Galerie (“Koloman Moser: Designing Modern Vienna 1897-1907”), and the Metropolitan Museum of Art (“Photography and the American Civil War,” “The Civil War and American Art”), along with the Goethe-Institut (which has moved downtown), the Museum for African Art (which is building a new home), and the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum (which is currently undergoing 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.