this week in music

DANCEAFRICA 2013

The Bronx-based Harambee Dance Company is part of 2013 DanceAfrica festival at BAM (photo by Derrek Garret)

Brooklyn Academy of Music
30 Lafayette Ave. between Ashland Pl. & St. Felix St.
May 24-27, free – $50
718-636-4100
www.bam.org

Last week, the incomparable Baba Chuck Davis, the founder and artistic director of BAM’s annual DanceAfrica festival, was one of the grand marshals of the seventh New York Dance Parade, the theme of which was “Unity Through Dance.” That same theme can apply to Davis and DanceAfrica, which this year brings three international companies to the Howard Gilman Opera House stage. Zimbabwe’s Umkhathi Theatre Works will perform the tribal dance Isitshikitsha, the hunting-and-gathering dance Chinyambera, the Shangani tribal dance Muchongoyo, and the social gathering Setapa, joined by the BAM/Restoration DanceAfrica Ensemble. Atlanta’s Giwayen Mata’s program will include Perseverance: In My House, set to DJ Fresca’s “Amaphoyisa,” and the Lamban Dansa. Harambee Dance Company, which hails from the Bronx, will present the historical and spiritual journey Reflections, the partying Midnight in the City, and the musical piece “You Goin’ Get This Work.” As a special treat, Washington, DC’s Sweet Honey in the Rock will sing “Sabumoya,” “I Remember I Believe,” “Wholly Wholly,” and “Let There Be Peace.” As always, Davis will provide his welcoming address (“Ago!” “Amée!!”), introduce the Council of Elders, and honor those who are no longer with us. Meanwhile, BAMcinématek’s FilmAfrica will screen such movies as Taghreed Elsanhouri’s Our Beloved Sudan, Clemente Bococchi’s Black Africa White Marble, Charlie Vundla’s How to Steal 2 Million, and Rémi Bezançon and Jean-Christophe Lie’s animated Zarafa. BAMcafé Live continues the African celebration with a pair of free concerts: Abdou Mboup and Waakaw on May 24 and a Late Night Dance Party with Ralph McDaniels and Video Music Box on May 25. And the always fun DanceAfrica Bazaar will set up shop along Lafayette Ave. and Ashland Pl. Saturday through Monday, a global marketplace with great food, clothing, fashion, arts & crafts, and much more.

INSECT MUSIC

David Rothenberg will jam with humans and insects at special Ear to the Earth program at Judson Church (photo by Charles Lindsay)

INSECT MUSIC
Judson Church
Wednesday May 22, suggested donation $15, 7:30
www.bugmusicbook.com
www.davidrothenberg.net

You better watch out, because Brood II is on its way, ready to strike at any minute. It’s been seventeen years since Magicicadas have hit New York City, but they’re preparing to emerge, buzzing the metropolitan area with their 7 kHz mating call. The nymphs, which will grow quickly into adult cicadas, will appear once the temperature hits a steady sixty-four degrees, but David Rothenberg is already set for the onslaught. The self-described musician, composer, author, and philosopher-naturalist has just released Bug Music: How Insects Gave Us Rhythm and Noise (St. Martin’s, April 2013, $26.99) and the accompanying Bug Music CD (Terra Nova), completing the trilogy that began with Why Birds Sing: A Journey into the Mystery of Birdsong and Thousand Mile Song: Whale Music in a Sea of Sound. “Each shrill, whining, or whooshing song is a call to the endless nature of love,” he writes in the new book. “However fast love goes we know it will return, the one sure thing that will never be exhausted as all the rest of nature gets spent, used up, or destroyed. Cicadas on the branches, eternal optimists, lovers of the moment.” Rothenberg will headline the special program “Insect Music” on May 22 at Judson Church, presented by Ear to the Earth, consisting of an introduction by Cicada Mania founder Dan Mozgai, the world premiere of Richard Knox Robinson’s half-hour film Song of the Cicadas, a panel discussion with Rothenberg, Robinson, performance artist and former political prisoner Tim Blunk, and David’s son, Umru Rothenberg, moderated by Radiolab founder Robert Krulwich, and a live performance by David Rothenberg on clarinets and laptop, Pauline Oliveros on accordion, Harmonic Choir member Timothy Hill providing overtone vocals, and Garth Stevenson on double bass, along with recordings of cicadas, crickets, katydids, leafhoppers, water bugs, and other insects.

VIDEO OF THE DAY: “I SAW YOU FROM THE LIFEBOAT” BY LIARS

“We never can just settle on formula — that would make me insane,” Liars frontman Angus Andrew said about his band’s most recent album, last summer’s palindromic WIXIW. “We have to take risks and just fuck things up anew every time. It’s ingrained.” Since the new millennium, Liars has consistently been taking risks and fucking things up anew, on such records as 2001’s They Threw Us All in a Trench and Stuck a Monument on Top, 2004’s They Were Wrong, So We Drowned, and 2010’s Sisterworld, experimenting in multiple genres, from postpunk to dance to electronica, but always with unique twists. Singer-guitarist Andrew, guitarist and synth player Aaron Hemphill, and drummer Julian Gross should provide plenty of twists this weekend, when they play the Temple of Dendur at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on Saturday night, followed by a show Sunday night at (le) poisson rouge with Doldrums as part of the Wordless Music series; the concert was initially supposed to take place in the Brooklyn Masonic Temple, near the band’s sometime home base. As a bonus gift to their fans, Liars has just released a video of a new song, “I Saw You from the Lifeboat,” which contains a link to a free download of that tune as well as the new “Perfume Tear”; after the two New York shows, the group will head across the pond for concerts in Spain, Italy, France, England, Switzerland, and Israel.

AN EVENING WITH BLACK FRANCIS

Black Francis is on the road with Reid Paley, heading toward tour-ending show at Symphony Space on May 17 (Twitter photo courtesy Black Francis)

Symphony Space, Peter Jay Sharp Theatre
2537 Broadway at 95th St.
Friday, May 17, $15 – $45, 6:00
212-864-5400
www.symphonyspace.org
www.blackfrancis.net

For more than a quarter of a century, Boston-born singer, songwriter, and guitarist Charles Thompson IV has been at the forefront of the indie music scene, performing under a variety of guises and with a series of bands. Better known as Frank Black and Black Francis, Thompson formed the Pixies in 1986 with Kim Deal, Joey Santiago, and David Lovering, releasing a mere four albums (Surfer Rosa, Doolittle, Bossanova, and Trompe le Monde) that helped define alternative rock and influence countless musicians ever since. He is also the leader of Frank Black and the Catholics (Pistolero, Dog in the Sand), is part of a duo with Reid Paley (Paley & Francis), has teamed up with his wife, Violet Clark, in Grand Duchy (Petits Four, Let the People Speak), and has made solo albums as both Frank Black (Teenager of the Year) and Black Francis (Bluefinger, NonStopErotik). An iconoclast who likes to do things his own way — he also is a Stuckist painter, a group that rails against conceptual art and was cofounded by British artist Charles Thomson — Black Francis is currently on the road, playing solo shows featuring songs from throughout his storied career, driving from venue to venue with his opening act, Reid Paley. They’ve already appeared at such spots as the Mint in New Orleans, Underbelly’s in Jacksonville, and the Jewish Mother in Virginia Beach, and Francis recently tweeted that the May 15 concert at the Spaceland Ballroom in New Haven would be “an all nude show.” Paley and Francis conclude their brief tour on May 17 with a special show at Symphony Space, although we’ve heard nothing about whether it will be with clothes on or off.

VIDEO OF THE DAY: “BURIED IN THE MURDER” BY THE LONELY WILD

Throughout their debut album, The Sun as It Comes (Ursa Major, April 2013), L.A.-based quintet the Lonely Wild sing of beating hearts and drums as people battle to survive economic, political, and personal crises amid fire and flames. “You can’t ignore the sound of one drum / when it’s played by hands of millions,” founder and lyricist Andrew Carroll and Jessi Williams proclaim on the opening title track. Featuring members from California, Indiana, Missouri, and other locales, the Lonely Wild takes on matters of individual and group conscience on the record, the follow-up to their 2011 debut EP, Dead End. The title song was inspired by the Arab Spring, while “Banks and Ballrooms” was influenced by investigative journalist Matt Taibbi’s Griftopia: A Story of Bankers, Politicians, and the Most Audacious Power Grab in American History. “You’ve done no wrong / You should be mad / This ain’t the good life / that you worked to have,” Carroll sings on the tune. Most of The Sun as It Comes is set in a highly cinematic Western landscape that ranges from romantic ballads (“Over the Hill”) to horn-laden controlled chaos (“Everything You Need”) to the anthemic, nearly postapocalyptic “Buried in the Murder,” which ends with screaming vocals and wailing guitars. Carroll, Williams, lead guitarist Andrew Schneider, bassist Ryan Ross, and drummer Dave Farina will be at Mercury Lounge May 16 with Ravens & Chimes and the Lonelyhearts and at Union Hall May 17 with Yellow Red Sparks and the Lonelyhearts. In addition to songs from their EP and LP, perhaps you’ll get a bit of their cool mash-up of Depeche Mode’s “Personal Jesus” and Pink Floyd’s “Money.”

HERE LIES LOVE

David Byrne turns story of Imelda Marcos and the Philippines into spectacular new musical HERE LIES LOVE (photo by Joan Marcus)

The Public Theater, LuEsther Hall
425 Lafayette St. by Astor Pl.
Extended through June 30, $80.50 – $95.50
212-967-7555
www.publictheater.org

“I thought to myself, wouldn’t it be great if — as this piece would be principally composed of clubby dance music — one could experience it in a club setting?” David Byrne asked upon the release of his 2010 two-disc concept album about Imelda Marcos, Here Lies Love, a collaboration with Fatboy Slim featuring vocal contributions from Tori Amos, Steve Earle, Martha Wainwright, Natalie Merchant, Florence Welch, Cyndi Lauper, Nellie McKay, and others. “Could one bring a ‘story’ and a kind of theater to the disco? Was that possible? If so, wouldn’t that be amazing!” And amazing it is, to put it lightly. Byrne has turned Here Lies Love into a spectacular, must-see event, an immersive, endlessly creative theatrical experience that has been extended at the Public through June 30. Scenic designer David Korins has transformed LuEsther Hall into a rockin’ dance club where the audience is encouraged to shake it to hard-thumping tunes spun by a DJ (Kelvin Moon Loh) as they enter the space, which has stages at either end and a cross-shaped platform at the center. (The majority of the crowd moves about on the floor, with a smaller contingent sitting in chairs in the balcony, watching from above.) For the next ninety minutes, Byrne (concept, lyrics, music), Fatboy Slim (music), choreographer Annie-B Parson, and go-to director Alex Timbers (Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, Peter and the Starcatcher, the upcoming Shakespeare in the Park production of Love’s Labour’s Lost) tell the story of Imelda Marcos (Ruthie Ann Miles), from her younger days as a poor villager in Tacloban with her best friend, Estrella (Melody Butiu), to her romance with politician Ninoy Aquino (Conrad Ricamora), marriage to eventual Filipino dictator Ferdinand Marcos (Jose Llana), and ever-expanding wealth and power.

Imelda Marcos (Ruthie Ann Miles) wonders where it all went wrong in David Byrne’s theatrical extravaganza at the Public (photo by Joan Marcus)

The nonstop action takes place on a constantly changing set rearranged by a crack crew as the lead actors, as well as a talented ensemble cast (each of whom is worthy of mention: Renée Albulario, Natalie Cortez, Debralee Daco, Joshua Dela Cruz, Jeigh Madjus, Maria-Christina Oliveras, Trevor Salter, and Janelle Velasquez) that goes through numerous costumes (designed by Clint Ramos), pop up all over the theater, march up and down the sides, and walk through the crowd. Peter Nigrini’s projections range from archival news footage to live shots of reporters interviewing the main characters, with the audience right in the middle of it all as if they are one with the Filipino populace as the People Power Revolution approaches. Byrne’s lyrics are sharp and insightful, never proselytizing or judgmental, highlighted by such numbers as “The Rose of Tacloban,” “Eleven Days,” “Order 1081,” and the title song, tracing the political history of the Philippines in the twentieth century as seen through the eyes of a fascinating woman who didn’t just collect expensive shoes. Here Lies Love is a staggering achievement, an engrossing and involving extravaganza of cutting-edge theater at its finest.

VIDEO OF THE DAY: “WATER” BY ERIC BURDON

Back in 1981-82, Eric Burdon, who made his name as lead singer of the Animals in the 1960s and later with War, starred in Christel Buschmann’s Comeback and released an accompanying soundtrack album. Though the British rocker was only forty-one at the time, the movie was somewhat of a quiet comeback for him as well as the semiautobiographical character he plays. More than thirty years later, however, Burdon is in the midst of a much bigger revival. In the last fifteen months, the vocalist behind such classic songs as “It’s My Life,” “We Gotta Get Out of This Place,” “Spill the Wine,” “When I Was Young,” and “Sky Pilot” joined Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band onstage at SXSW, recorded a stellar four-track blues EP with Cincinnati band the Greenhornes (produced by Brendan Benson), underwent back surgery, signed a book deal for his third memoir, teamed up with Rilo Kiley’s Jenny Lewis for a new version of “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood” for the True Blood soundtrack, guested for an entire night on the Late Show with David Letterman, and released a strong solo album, ’Til Your River Runs Dry (ABKCO, January 2013). “The year I’ve had since 2012 SXSW would be the envy of any young band starting out,” Burdon wrote on his Facebook page in March. “In fact, even if I were still in my twenties, I would consider it the best year of my career. To think that it happened to me at the age of seventy-one is a dream come true.” Burdon will be at the Highline Ballroom May 15-16 for a pair of intimate shows with the current lineup of the Animals, featuring guitarists Eric McFadden and Billy Watts, keyboardists Red Young and Teresa James, bassist Terry Wilson, percussionist Wally Ingram, and drummer Tony Braunagel [ed. note: Many thanks to Duke for correcting the lineup], playing songs from throughout his career, including tracks from the new album, which examines dealing with inner demons (“Devil and Jesus”), the legacy of Bo Diddley (“Bo Diddley Special,” “Before You Accuse Me”), honoring antiwar protestors (Memorial Day”), and the need for clean water (“River Is Rising,” “Water”).