How can you not love a band that records a punk blowout called “Matt LeBlanc” in which they proclaim, “My love was only meant for you”? Brooklyn indie duo Steel Phantoms, consisting of former Islands drummer Aaron Harris and guitarist Jesse Newkirk, kick out the jams on that song and a half dozen others on their upcoming, eponymously titled EP, which is due July 16. The follow-up to the band’s 2010 self-titled EP and the 2011 EP Forer, the new record features a big sound with haunting background vocals and multiple melodic shifts on such tracks as “Sunflares,” “We Can’t Fail,” and the opener, “Curtain Call,” which is highlighted by rollicking drums (and takes an additional bow at the end of the closing number, “Skin Tone”). Steel Phantoms will be at Cameo Gallery in Williamsburg on May 31 with Snowden and We Barbarians.
this week in music
HOWL! FESTIVAL 2013
Tompkins Square Park
Ave. A to Ave. B between Seventh & Tenth Sts.
May 31 – June 2, free
www.howlfestival.com
“I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness,” begins Allen Ginsberg’s Howl, which serves as the centerpiece for the somewhat annual Howl! Festival in and around Tompkins Square Park this weekend. The madness kicks off Friday at 4:30 with the Great Howl!, with Tyler Burba performing songs by Ginsberg, Bob Holman orchestrating a lineup of poets, and a group reading of Ginsberg’s masterpiece; among the participants are Hettie Jones, David Henderson, Jennifer Blowdryer, Lydia Lunch, Bob Rosenthal, Eliot Katz, Edwin Torres, and Nancy Mercado. On Saturday afternoon, there will be live performances on the Great Howl! Stage by Miami Rice, Anna Copacabana, Tall Pines, Ward White, Faith . . . , Richard Lloyd, and Vangeline Theater’s Mosaic. Meanwhile, the Beatification Stage will be holding a marathon poetry reading celebrating the tenth anniversary of the Poetry Project at St. Mark’s Church-in-the-Bowery, hosted by Todd Colby and including Jenny Zhang, Maggie Estep, Jennifer L. Knox, Mike Doughty, Carl Hancock Rux, CA Conrad, Bo DePena, Jason Nazary, and others. There will also be a children’s carnival, live painting on canvases surrounding the park, Riki Colon’s Men in Skirts presenting And I Still Rise, and the Allen Ginsberg Magnetic Field, consisting of installations, demonstrations, interactive projects, community nonprofit organizations, and more. On Sunday, Great Howl! Stage performers include Karen Marie, Bear 54, Diane Gentile, Andy Shernoff, Jack Skuller, and the Liza Colby Sound; dance will take over the Beatification Stage (along with Marguerite Van Cook’s Rockland series); and the Great Ladies of the Lower East Side will be honored in Low Life 7: Bowery Bombshells, paying tribute to Emma Goldman, Cookie Mueller, Mae West, Slugger Ann, Ellen Stewart, Patti Smith, and others.
FREE SUMMER DANCE 2013
Stephen Petronio Company will perform the site-specific LIKE LAZARUS DID on June 29 at St. Paul’s Chapel (photo by David Rosenberg)
Saturday, June 1
Red Hook Fest: Brown Rice Family, Gangstagrass, Camille A. Brown & Dancers, Avenida B, Nicholas Leichter Dance, the Hungry March Band, Louis J. Valentino Jr. Park & Pier, 12 noon – 7:00 pm
Sunday, June 2
SummerStage: Harborlore Festival: Dancing the Waters, with Annie Ferdous, Kaina Quenga, and Rita Silva, Kaiser Park, 3:00
Friday, June 14
SummerStage: Jamal Jackson Dance Company, Movement for the Urban Village, all levels open dance master class, Herbert Von King Park, 7:00
Friday, June 14, and Saturday, June 15
Hudson River Dances, with Naomi Goldberg Haas/Dances for a Variable Population, 14th St. Park, 5:00 & 6:30
Thursday, June 27
Celebrate Brooklyn! Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, Prospect Park Bandshell, 8:00
Saturday, June 29
SummerStage Kids: Bronx Family Day with KR3TS Dance Company, the Gizmo Guys, LuckyBob: Variety Performer, Double Dutch Dreamz, and DJ set by Idlemind “the Appropriate Agent,” St. Mary’s Park, 4:00
River to River: Stephen Petronio Company, Like Lazarus Did (LLD 6/29), St. Paul’s Chapel, 7:30
Tuesday, July 2
River to River: luciana achugar with Elastic City, Feeling Is Believing, walk begins at 100 Wall St., advance RSVP required beginning June 1, 7:00
Saturday, July 6, 13, 20
and
Sunday, July 7, 14, 21
4Chambers, Judy Oberfelder Dance Projects, Officers’ House #15, Nolan Park, Governors Island, 11:30 am, 1:00 pm, 2:30, 4:00, 5:30
Advance RSVP is required for luciana achugar’s special River to River walking performances
Tuesday, July 9
through
Thursday, July 11
River to River: luciana achugar with Elastic City, Feeling Is Believing, begins at 100 Wall St., 7:00
Friday, July 19
SummerStage: Rennie Harris Collective Inc., Queensbridge Park, 8:00
Saturday, July 20
SummerStage: Dance Iquail!, with live music by Iquail Shaheed, Christopher Ralph, and Amber Perkins, Queensbridge Park, All Levels Open Dance Master Class by Karisma Jay at 7:00, performance at 8:00
Tuesday, July 23
SummerStage: Martha Graham Dance Company with special guest, Dancin’ Downtown at the Joyce contest winner, Rumsey Playfield, Central Park, 8:00
Wednesday, July 24
SummerStage: Martha Graham Dance Company with special guest, Dancin’ Downtown at the Joyce contest winner, Rumsey Playfield, Central Park, 8:00
Wednesday, July 24
and
Thursday, July 25
Lincoln Center Out of Doors: Kronos at 40, with Mark Dendy Dance & Theater Projects presenting the world premiere of Ritual Cyclical, Hearst Plaza, 6:00
Wednesday, July 31
SummerStage This Is_Hip-Hop: RSC Ghetto Made, by Rock Steady Crew, Rumsey Playfield, Central Park, 8:00
Thursday, August 1
Lincoln Center Out of Doors: A Tale of Two Nations, open rehearsal with Maracatu Nação Estrela Brilhante, and Nation Beat, Josie Robertson Plaza, 6:00
Celebrate Brooklyn! Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal, Prospect Park Bandshell, 8:00
Lincoln Center Out of Doors: Pavement by Kyle Abraham & Abraham.in.Motion, and The Living Word Project: Marc Bamuthi Joseph’s Word Becomes Flesh, Damrosch Park Bandshell, 7:30
Friday, August 2
Lincoln Center Out of Doors: A Tale of Two Nations, with Maracatu Nação Estrela Brilhante, and Nation Beat, and Big Chief Monk Boudreaux & the Golden Eagles, Damrosch Park Bandshell, 7:00
Saturday, August 3
Lincoln Center Out of Doors: El Gusto, ZvidDance: Dabke,, Damrosch Park Bandshell, 7:00
TWIN is one of three pieces Dance Heginbotham will perform at Lincoln Center on August 8 (photo by Julia Cervantes)
Thursday, August 8
Lincoln Center Out of Doors: Dance Heginbotham with the Raymond Scott Orchestrette (world premiere of Manhattan Research, plus Twin and throwaway), and Butler, Bernstein & the Hot 9, Damrosch Park Bandshell, 7:30
Friday, August 9
SummerStage: Harlem Dance Caravan, with Forces of Nature Dance Theatre, Camille A. Brown & Dancers, Illstyle & Peace Productions, and OPUS Dance Theatre, Marcus Garvey Park, 8:00, All Levels Open Dance Master Class by Dana McBroom-Manno at 7:00, performances at 8:00
Saturday, August 10
Dance at Socrates: Julia K. Gleich / Gleich Dances, presented by Norte Maar, Socrates Sculpture Park, 3:00
SummerStage: Harlem Dance Caravan, with Forces of Nature Dance Theatre, Camille A. Brown & Dancers, Illstyle & Peace Productions, and OPUS Dance Theatre, Marcus Garvey Park, 8:00, All Levels Open Dance Master Class by Calvin Wiley at 7:00, performances at 8:00
Saturday, August 10
through
Friday, August 16
Downtown Dance Festival, Battery Park Dance Company, Battery Park
Sunday, August 11
SummerStage Harlem Family Day: Illstyle & Peace Productions, Robbi K, DJ set by Stormin’ Norman, “Sweet Billy & The Zooloos,” Marcus Garvey Park, 4:00
Friday, August 16
SummerStage: The Francesca Harper Project, East River Park, All Levels Open Dance Master Class by Cecilia Marta at 7:00, performances at 8:00
Saturday, August 17
Dance at Socrates: Edisa Weeks / Delirious Dances, presented by Norte Maar, Socrates Sculpture Park, 3:00
SummerStage: Speak featuring live music by Marla Mase and Tomás Doncker, book and lyrics by Marla Mase, choreography by Adrienne Hurd, and direction by Sara Berg, East River Park, All Levels Open Dance Master Class by Craig Smith at 7:00, performance at 8:00
Wednesday, August 21
SummerStage International Contemporary Circus Festival: Circus Now! featuring: AcroArts Productions, Frequently Asked Questions, Hybrid Movement Company, hosted by Bindlestiff Family Cirkus, Marcus Garvey Park, 7:00
Saturday, August 24
Dance at Socrates: Takehiro Ueyama / Take Dance, presented by Norte Maar, Socrates Sculpture Park, 3:00
Saturday, August 31
Dance at Socrates: Rachel Cohen / Racoco Productions, presented by Norte Maar, Socrates Sculpture Park, 3:00
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.