this week in music

COMING TOGETHER / ATTICA

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)

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.

SING FOR HOPE PIANOS

A woman plays a Sing for Hope piano in front of the Old Stone House in Brooklyn (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

FIT grad Nina Allen chose a floral design for her piano, which can be found in front of the Old Stone House in Brooklyn (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Multiple locations in all five boroughs
Through June 16, free
www.singforhope.org

You can tickle the ivories in some unusual places through June 16, as Sing for Hope Pianos dot the landscape of the city in both color and, of course, black and white. Founded in 2006 by Juilliard-trained sopranos Camille Zamora and Monica Yunus, Sing for Hope “activates artists as agents of transformation in underserved areas and promotes the ideal of art for all.” There are eighty-eight specially designed pianos across the five boroughs, in parks and public spaces where anyone can just take a seat and play, amateur or professional, first-timer or Carnegie Hall veteran. As opposed to three years ago, when all the pianos were designed by multidisciplinary British artist Luke Jerram for what he called “Play Me, I’m Yours,” this year’s pianos are by such artists as Paolo Pecchi (Central Park Tennis Center), Maxine Nienow (Times Square), Michael Scoggins (Little Red Square), Jennie Booth (Jackson Heights Post Office), William Raynolds (Soundview Park), Arianna Huffington and the Huffington Post Team (Thomas Jefferson Park), Stefan Sierhej (Brooklyn Bridge Park), Laura Ricciardi (South Street Seaport), Brenda Hyungyung Bae (Governors Island), Care Bonewitz (Grand Army Plaza), and Nina Allen (Old Stone House). You can read about each artist and piano on the official website, which also has a map so you can track down keyboards near wherever you are. Among the special events still to come are a Beaches and Barbeques party in Prospect Park’s Grand Army Plaza on June 8 at 2:00, a Trains, Boats, and Automobiles Tour at Brooklyn Bridge Park on June 8 at 4:00, a Manhattan Borough Tour meeting at Riverside Park’s Pier 1 on June 13 at 5:00, and the River View Photo Challenge at the Staten Island Ferry Terminal on June 14 at 4:00, among other local gatherings. At the end of the program, the pianos will be donated to public schools, health-care facilities, and community organizations.

EGG ROLLS & EGG CREAMS FESTIVAL 2013

Annual Egg Rolls & Egg Creams fest flies into the Lower East Side on June 9 (photo by Kate Milford)

Museum at Eldridge Street
12 Eldridge St. between Canal & Division Sts.
Sunday, June 9, 12 noon – 4:00 pm
Admission: free
212-219-0302
www.eldridgestreet.org

The thirteenth annual Egg Rolls & Egg Creams block party once again will bring together the Jewish and Chinese communities of the Lower East Side on June 9 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.

EP OF THE DAY: THE MAGIC’S GONE BY THE HAIRS

Not to be confused with French electropop trio the Hairs, Brooklyn trio the Hairs have been having a blast since 2010, putting out such lo-fi pop ditties as “Duh! X 12,” “I Remember Alien Gonzales,” and “Scabies Babies,” which can all be heard in the Bandcamp compilation hAIRS mAKE mUSIC, along with the acoustic-based single “Hellninja,” which was inspired by the Buffy the Vampire Slayer television series. Their new EP, the four-track The Magic’s Gone, is a big, bright burst of fresh air, as the group ratchets it up more than a notch on a quartet of songs that evoke the diverse range of They Might Be Giants, Guided by Voices, the Beach Boys, Thunderclap Newman, the Cure, Nirvana, and Peter Bjorn and John. “It’s tragic / I need a doctor / How will I survive this?” Hairs leader Kevin Alvir sings on the title track, which is as buoyant as a summer breeze. The EP also includes the well-named “Tennis Penis,” the apologetic “Bury the Hatchet, the Chainsaw, and Whatever Else,” and the poetic “Birds Shit Then Sing,” on which Alvir declares, “I need some release / I need some release / Birds shit then sing on key.” The Hairs will be celebrating the release of The Magic’s Gone at Cake Shop on June 8 with Radical Dads and Hippy, then will be back again on June 14 with Small Reactions, Gold-Bears, and Literature.

VIDEO OF THE DAY: “STORMBREAK” BY KINGS DESTROY

Kings Destroy in not the motto of Game of Thrones; instead, it’s a Greenpoint-based five-piece that likes things hard and loud. With a pedigree that hails from such bands as Killing Time, Breakdown, Uppercut, and Electric Frankenstein, lead singer Steve Murphy, guitarists Carl Porcaro and Chris Skowronski, bassist Aaron Bumpus, and drummer Rob Sefcik have followed up their 2010 debut, And the Rest Will Surely Perish, with A Time for Hunting (War Crime, June 3, 2013), which features such heavy tracks as “Decrepit,” “Shattered Pattern,” “Blood of Recompense,” and “Stormbreak.” You can stream the album for free here. Kings Destroy will be at St. Vitus on June 7 for a record release party, on a bill with Windhand, Clamfight, and Belus.

BIG APPLE BARBECUE BLOCK PARTY 2013

Nearly 150,000 hungry people are expected to line up at the eleventh annual Big Apple Barbecue Block Party this weekend

Nearly 150,000 hungry people are expected to line up at the eleventh annual Big Apple Barbecue Block Party this weekend

Madison Square Park
23rd to 26th Sts. between Fifth & Madison Aves.
Saturday, June 8, and Sunday, June 9, 11:00 am – 6:00 pm
Admission: free; $9 per plate of barbecue, $3 per drink
www.bigapplebbq.org
www.madisonsquarepark.org

One of the season’s most crowded festivals, the Big Apple Barbecue Block Party will be serving up bbq from eighteen pitmasters in Madison Square Park on Saturday and Sunday, along with foot-stompin’ music, seminars, cooking demonstrations, and other events. A variety of ’cue will be prepared by Mike Mills (Memphis Championship Barbecue, Las Vegas, 17th Street Bar & Grill, Murphysboro, IL), Scott Roberts (Salt Lick BBQ in Driftwood, TX), Joe Duncan (Baker’s Ribs in Dallas), Garry Roark (Ubon’s Barbecue in Yazoo City), Chris Lilly (Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Q in Decatur, AL), Drew Robinson (Jim ’N Nick’s Bar-B-Q in Birmingham), Patrick Martin (Martin’s Bar-B-Que Joint in Nashville), Mike Emerson (Pappy’s Smokehouse in St. Louis), Tommy Houston (Checkered Pig in Danville, VA), Rodney Scott (Scott’s Bar-B-Que in Hemingway, SC), Jimmy Hagood (BlackJack Barbecue in Charleston), Ed Mitchell (Raleigh), John Wheeler (Memphis Barbecue Co., Horn Lake, MS), and Sam Jones (Skylight Inn, Ayden, NC). The New York City entrants are John Stage (Dinosaur Bar-B-Que), Kenny Callaghan (Blue Smoke), and Charles Grund Jr. (Hill Country). The Saturday music lineup features the Spampinato Brothers (1:00), Barrence Whitfield & the Savages (2:45), and Marcia Ball (4:30), with Sunday consisting of the Myles Mancuso Band (1:00), Elizabeth Cook (2:45), and the Dirty Guv’nahs (4:30). Among the seminars are “From Tide to Table” with Chris Hastings, “Barbecue & Bivalves” with Mike Lata, “A Cure for What Ails You” with John Currence, and “Smoke, Bitters, Cucumbers, and Citrus . . . Cocktails from the Kitchen” with Joseph Lenn and Ashley Christensen. New this year is the Weber Grilling School, which will hold classes with Kevin Kolman; tickets are $30 and include a copy of Weber’s New Real Grilling cookbook. To best navigate the crowds, we suggest going with a group of friends, with each person waiting on a different line, then meeting up for your feast while listening to the live music.