this week in music

ATP: I’LL BE YOUR MIRROR

ALL TOMORROW’S PARTIES USA 2012
Pier 36
East River between Manhattan & Brooklyn Bridges
September 21-23, $60-$75 per day, three-day pass $199
www.atpfestival.com

At long last, after more than ten years, the ATP festival is finally coming to New York City. All Tomorrow’s Parties, the international music festival that has taken place in the UK, Australia, Asbury Park, and the Catskills, will be presenting I’ll Be Your Mirror this weekend at Pier 36 on the East River between the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges. Past ATP festivals have been curated by the likes of Sonic Youth, Pavement, Portishead, Mogwai, the Breeders, Matt Groening, Modest Mouse, the Flaming Lips, and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds; taking the reins at IBYM 2012 is Greg Dulli, leader of the recently reunited Afghan Whigs, who has invited friends and colleagues to participate from all over the musical map. Things get going on Friday with Frank Ocean, Philip Glass and Tyondai Braxton, Janeane Garofalo, Lightning Bolt, Lee Ranaldo’s “Hanging Guitar,” Hannibal Buress, DJ Edan, and Kurt Braunohler. Saturday’s schedule includes the Afghan Whigs, the Roots, José González, the Mark Lanegan Band, Dirty Three, the Antlers, JEFF the Brotherhood, the Dirtbombs, Scrawl, Emeralds, Vetiver, Afterhours, Charles Bradley and the Extraordinaires, Joseph Arthur, and DJ Questlove, while Sunday’s roster consists of Godspeed You! Black Emperor, the Make-Up, Hot Snakes, the Magic Band, Autolux, Thee Oh Sees, Lee Ranaldo, the Album Leaf, BRAIDS, Quintron and Miss Pussycat, Tall Firs, Blanck Mass, the Psychic Paramount, Endless Boogie, Demdike Stare, and DJ Jonathan Toubin. In addition, Criterion and Dulli have come up with a great selection of films that will be shown during the weekend, with Quadrophenia on Friday, The Night of the Hunter, Something Wild, The King of Marvin Gardens, and Dazed & Confused on Saturday, and Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me, Paul Fejos’s Lonesome, The Royal Tenenbaums, Eating Raoul, and Harold & Maude on Sunday. Dulli has also recommended a handful of books, some of which will be highlighted on the Lapham’s Quarterly Literary Stage: James Ellroy’s The Black Dahlia, Steve Toltz’s A Fraction of the Whole, Denis Johnson’s Nobody Move, Katherine Dunn’s Geek Love, and Joan Didion’s Play It as It Lays, with Evan Michelson and Mike Zohn of Oddities talking about Geek Love on Saturday and Julie Klausner of How Was Your Week discussing Play It as It Lays on Sunday. To get in the mood, you can check out Dulli’s festival mixtape here.

HAPPY TALK

The Rubin Museum examines the pursuit of happiness with a series of cool programs through December

Rubin Museum of Art
150 West 17th St. at Seventh Ave.
September 23 – December 21, $20 – $35 (Love Songs $85, Cabaret Cinema free with $7 bar purchase)
212-620-5000
www.rmanyc.org

Rubin Museum genius programmer Tim McHenry is at it again, coming up with yet another unique and fascinating series at one of the city’s most exciting institutions. “Just how happy are you?” the man behind the perennially thrilling Brainwave festival asks. “The alleviation of suffering is central to Buddhist belief; the result is a form of happiness. The pursuit of happiness is cited as an inalienable right in the Declaration of Independence; the result is what, exactly? Are we talking about the same condition?” We all want to be happy, but happiness is different for every one of us. On September 23, Happy Talk kicks off with a series of inspired pairings, as artists from a variety of disciplines sit down with scientists, philosophers, and other big-time thinkers to discuss what inner and outer, personal and public joy is all about. That first session will feature entertainment legend Elaine Stritch with Duke Institute for Brain Sciences member P. Murali Doraiswamy and will be followed by such promising duos as performance artist Laurie Anderson and Harvard psychiatry professor Daniel Gilbert, meditation expert Sharon Salzberg and visual artist Josh Melnick, Dexter star Michael C. Hall and Cambridge research psychologist Kevin Dutton, playwright Neil Labute and singer-songwriter Aimee Mann, and award-winning actress Julianne Moore and Berkeley philosophy and psychology professor Alison Gopnik, among others. As a sidebar, the Rubin’s Friday-night Cabaret Cinema turns its attention to the theme of “Happiness is…,” with Dan Kleinman introducing Woody Allen’s Annie Hall on September 21, Molly Neuman discussing Alfred Hitchcock’s Strangers on a Train on September 28, and Lili Taylor talking about Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life on October 5; the series continues through December 21 with such other films that deal with various levels of unhappiness as Five Easy Pieces, 8½, The 400 Blows, Brief Encounter, South Pacific, and Grapes of Wrath. In addition, the Rubin will premiere Victress Hitchcock’s documentary When the Iron Bird Flies, which examines Tibetan Buddhism’s path around the world, October 19-24, with most screenings including special speakers. And finally, on December 7, Rosanne Cash will present “Love Songs,” an evening of music with a trio of happy musical couples: Cash and John Leventhal, Steve Earle and Allison Moorer, and Larry Campbell and Teresa Williams. Wanna know one of the things that makes us happy? Our regular visits to the Rubin Museum, which never fails to ignite our minds and put huge smiles on our faces.

VENDY AWARDS

Governors Island
Saturday, September 15, $45-$145, 12:30 – 5:00
www.streetvendor.org/vendys
www.govisland.com

We’re a bit spoiled when it comes to food trucks, as we work in a part of town where every day is a food truck festival, with as many as ten mobile eateries in relatively close proximity to the office. But the most important food truck festival of the year takes places this Saturday, when the eighth annual Vendy Awards will be handed out on Governors Island. Following public nominations, the finalists have been announced, with celebrity judges Kate Krader, Eddie Huang, Das Racist, Kelly Choi, and Julissa Ferreras in addition to citizen judge Sara Lipton and judge-host James Cunningham weighing in on the decision. Going after the Vendy Cup, won in past years by King of Falafel, Country Boys/Martinez Taco, Calexico Carne Asada, NY Dosa, Sammy’s Halal, and Hallo Berlin, are the Cinnamon Snail, Piaztlan Authentic Mexican Food, Hamza and Madina Halal Food, Uncle Gussy’s, Xin Jiang Prosperity Kebabs, and Tortas Nezas. Attendees participate in the voting for the other awards, including the People’s Taste Award; up for best dessert, captured previously by Kelvin Natural Slush Co., Wafels & Dinges, and the Treats Truck, are Imperial Woodpecker Sno-Balls, Coolhaus, Monsieur Singh Lassi, La Bella Torte, Melt Bakery, and Andy’s Italian Ices & Espresso Bar. The Best of Market Vendors nominees, for best nontruck street-food vendor at fairs and markets, are Mayhem & Stout, Baby Got Back Ribs, Parantha Alley, Lumpia Shack, and Pestle & Mortar. The Rookie of the Year candidates, following in the footsteps of Souvlaki GR and Schnitzel & Things, are Phil’s Steaks, Okadaman, Chinese Mirch, Cambodian Cuisine Torsu, Morocho, and Fun Buns. Ticket holders will get to sample food from all the nominees (but expect long lines), with unlimited beer, wine, and soft drinks, live performances, and a raffle, with a portion of the proceeds going to the Street Vendor Project, which advocates for street vendors as part of the nonprofit Urban Justice Center. In that spirit, halal vendor Sammy Kassem has been selected as the Most Heroic Vendor for battling against harassment and threats in Bay Ridge.

VIDEO OF THE DAY: “AIN’T THE ONLY ONE HAVIN’ FUN” BY THE TURBO FRUITS

We’ll have more to say about the Turbo Fruits and their great new album, Butter, which was released on Tuesday, when they head back to New York City in October for CMJ. In the meantime, you definitely don’t want to be the only one not havin’ fun tonight, as the Nashville-based garage rockers will be at Mercury Lounge with Roomrunner. Butter, the first release on Kings of Leon’s Serpents and Snakes label — and also available as a special limited-edition hot-butter vinyl LP — was recorded in eight days and features such groovin’ tracks as “Where the Stars Don’t Shine,” “Harley Dollar Bill$,” “Sweet Thang,” “Colt 45,” and “Ain’t the Only One Havin’ Fun.” We’ve been waiting for this one for three years, since 2009’s awesome Echo Kid (“Naked with You,” “Mama’s Mad Cos I Fried My Brain”), so we’re psyched that TF head Jonas Stein has at last settled on a full-time lineup — with Dave Tits on bass, Kingsley Brock on guitar, and Matt Hearn on drums — that sounds better than ever and is forging full-speed ahead. Tonight should be one helluva sweet thang indeed.

BIKE-IN MOVIES: SHUT UP AND PLAY THE HITS

James Murphy says farewell to LCD Soundsystem in multifaceted concert documentary

SHUT UP AND PLAY THE HITS (Dylan Southern & Will Lovelace, 2011)
The Well
272 Meserole Ave.
Saturday, September 15, free with RSVP, 7:00
347-338-3612
www.thewell.com
www.shutupandplaythehits.com

On April 2, 2011, after ten years of building a devoted following that was still growing, electronic dance-punk faves LCD Soundsystem played its farewell show at Madison Square Garden. Directors Dylan Southern and Will Lovelace, who previously documented the British band Blur in No Distance Left to Run, capture the grand finale in the often bumpy, sometimes revelatory concert film Shut Up and Play the Hits. The movie is divided into three distinct sections that take place before, during, and after the massive blowout, with Southern and Lovelace weaving between them. There is extensive footage of the event at the Garden, including performances of such LCD classics as “Dance Yrself Clean,” “All My Friends,” “Us v Them,” “North American Scum,” and “Losing My Edge.” Although the multicamera approach tries to make you feel like you’re there, onstage and backstage with front man James Murphy, keyboardist Nancy Whang, bassist Tyler Pope, drummer Pat Mahoney, and various special guests, it lacks a certain emotional depth, and the sound, primarily during the first songs, is terrible, although that could have been the fault of the tiny theater we saw it at more than the film itself. The second section features music journalist Chuck Klosterman (Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto) interviewing Murphy at the Spotted Pig in the West Village a week before the concert, asking inane, annoying questions that Murphy strains to answer. But the most fascinating part of the film by far, and how it starts, involves Murphy the day after the show. He allows the camera to follow him everywhere, from waking up in his bed with his dog to carefully shaving with an electric razor to visiting the DFA offices for the first time in a year. It’s hard to believe that the night before he was a grandiose rock star but now he is walking his pooch, sitting on a bench in front of a coffee shop, and spending most of the day alone. The camera literally gets right into his face, showing every gray hair, zooming in on his puffiness and his deep-set, nearly dazed eyes. The film would have benefited from less time with Klosterman and more with Murphy as he contemplates his past, present, and future. It also would have been interesting to hear from the other members of the band, but Shut Up and Play the Hits is specifically about Murphy, who, at forty-one, suddenly doesn’t know what to do with his life, having left an extremely successful gig that was only gaining popularity. The film is having a special showing on September 15 at the Well’s outdoor space in Brooklyn on a thirty-foot screen as part of the “Bike-In Movies” series and will kick off with a set by DJ Dubspot. Admission is free with advance RSVP, and the bar and kitchen will remain open throughout the event.

THE JOSHUA LIGHT SHOW

The Joshua Light Show will team up with a diverse series of experimental musicians for six groovy shows at the Skirball Center

NYU Skirball Center for the Performing Arts
60 Washington Sq. South
September 13-16, $20-$68
212-998-4941
www.nyuskirball.org
www.joshualightshow.com

A key figure in the psychedelic movement of the late 1960s, the Joshua Light Show created dizzying, kaleidoscopic, all-too-groovy projections at the Fillmore East, Woodstock, Carnegie Hall, and other venues, where their liquid lights exploded in a vast array of colors behind Janis Joplin, the Grateful Dead, Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd, Jefferson Airplane, and other legendary musicians. Over the last several years, JLS has returned with a vengeance, performing at Lincoln Center, the Hayden Planetarium, the Hirshorn Museum, Art Basel in Miami, and the recent Transmediale festival in Berlin. This week founder Joshua White and his talented crew, which still primarily uses analog techniques to mix their creations live, will be at the NYU Skirball Center for six performances over four nights, beginning Thursday, when they are joined by Scottish percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie and master harpist Zeena Parkins. Friday night features the minimalist father-and-son duo of Terry Riley and Gyan Riley at 7:30, followed by the inspired quartet of John Zorn, Lou Reed, Bill Laswell, and Milford Graves at 10:00. On Saturday night, MGMT cofounders Ben Goldwasser and Andrew VanWyngarden will play two shows, with GlobalFest closing things out on Sunday with the Boston-based Ethiopian-American Debo Band and the New York-based Brazilian-American Forro in the Dark. Each performance will last approximately one hour, with JLS onstage improvising alongside the musicians; the JLS team includes White, photographer and installation artist Alyson Denny, experimental composer and vocalist Nick Hallett, filmmaker and musician Seth Kirby, Ana Matronic of the Scissor Sisters, live cinema artist and designer Brock Monroe, painter and comic-book artist Gary Panter, production manager Doug Pope, performance artist and director Bec Stupak, and sound designer Jeff Cook.

TWI-NY TALK: BETTINA RICHARDS

Bettina Richards is celebrating twentieth anniversary of Chicago-based Thrill Jockey label

THRILL JOCKEY: 20 YEARS
Friday, September 14, Death by Audio, 49 South Second St., $13.50, 8:00
Saturday, September 15, Webster Hall Grand Ballroom, 125 East Eleventh St., $20, 5:30
www.thrilljockey.com

For twenty years, Chicago’s Thrill Jockey Records has been releasing some of the most exciting and challenging music around, from well-known bands and emerging up-and-comers, in multiple genres, often with highly sought after special limited-edition vinyl pressings. The label, whose wide-ranging roster includes such groups as the Sea and Cake, Oval, Eleventh Dream Day, the Fiery Furnaces, High Places, Future Islands, Tortoise, and Pontiak, was started back in 1992 by Bettina Richards, a major music fan who is still running things today. “Bettina is a shining light in the increasingly dark recording industry who still has an unwavering enthusiasm for discovering new music and championing the people she believes in,” notes David Halstead, who worked with Bettina at Thrill Jockey for many years and is now at Solid Gold in Brooklyn. “Her dedication to DIY music culture and her ability to make it work in today’s climate is nothing short of inspiring. Thrill Jockey never panders to the lowest common musical denominator, and she deserves massive amounts of respect for still wanting to take chances — even if she’ll never admit that ‘classic era’ Guided by Voices was nothing but pure genius.”

Richards and Thrill Jockey are celebrating their twentieth anniversary with a series of live shows around the country and in London. The tour stops in New York this weekend for a pair of concerts, Friday night at Death by Audio with White Hills, Guardian Alien, Man Forever, Dan Friel (formerly of Parts & Labor), and Rhyton, followed by Tortoise, Future Islands, Matmos, Liturgy, D. Charles Speer and the Helix, and the Black Twig Pickers at Webster Hall on Saturday. In between taking care of her twins and blasting black metal, Richards discussed Thrill Jockey and the state of the music business in our latest twi-ny talk.

twi-ny: How did you come up with the name Thrill Jockey?

Bettina Richards: In 1992, I was working at Pier Platters records store in Hoboken while living on the Lower East Side. I also was an intern for Todd Abramson, the head honcho at Telstar Records; as a side, he also books many clubs today, like Maxwell’s. Todd is not only a serious music geek, he is a big fan of some B movies, especially, it seems, of a more delinquent nature. At about the time that I was planning on starting the label, Todd showed me an especially funny preview for a film called Speed Crazy. In this film a few hooligans disrupt a small town by behaving in a simply terrible fashion, being loud, driving their hot rods too fast, etc. As I recall it, the voice-over proclaimed that three thrill jockeys terrorized Mercerville.

I was printing the jackets for the Zipgun single that I did, and I had found a really cheap printer around 42nd St. (This was in 1992.) They were very friendly and chatty on the phone; they kept saying they did not work with too many companies run by women. I really did not think much of it at the time. I went to pick up the sleeves and discovered that the printer almost exclusively printed VHS cases for pornographic films. They said, “Great company name! We do not have many people that print soundtrack records for their films.” So, good record label name — perhaps. Great pornographic film company name — for sure!

twi-ny: What were your initial goals when you started Thrill Jockey? Did you ever think it would still be thriving after twenty years?

Bettina Richards: My goals were pretty much what they remain today: Simply put, to release music we love, and to treat the musicians as equal partners in our advocacy. I followed the model of Dischord and Touch and Go, two labels that I admire. While we work hard to keep ahead of technology and to be creative thinkers in the way we approach the business of music, I never much think about Thrill Jockey as an entity beyond a few years into the future. So the short answer to the question would be no, I never imagined the label at twenty years old.

twi-ny: What does it take to be a Thrill Jockey band?

Bettina Richards: It is very hard to put that into just a few words, but I will try. I think a common thread among musicians we work for is that they would all be doing what they are doing regardless of who was listening, that they are willing to take risks musically, and finally that they always have a certain aspect of abandon in their music. From one of our newest artists, Black Pus, to one of our oldest bands still recording, the Sea and Cake, they are all-in and uncompromising.

twi-ny: How has the Chicago indie music scene changed since 1992? Who are some of your favorite signings?

Bettina Richards: Everywhere has changed since 1992, considerably. I really do not have favorites among the records that I have released. I really do love them all. I could tell you a story about each and every release. While the label owes its longevity, in large part, to our better known bands like Tortoise, Freakwater, Trans Am, the Sea and Cake, the Fiery Furnaces, Future Islands, Wooden Shjips, and Liturgy, we simply would not be the same label without Oval, Radian, Eleventh Dream Day, Pontiak, the Lonesome Organist, Barn Owl, Sidi Touré, Jack Rose, or Gaunt. To borrow some words from John Coltrane, “It all has to do with it.”

twi-ny: You mentioned before that you are equal partners with your artists. Does that 50-50 model still work in the digital online era?

Bettina Richards: Indeed it does — extremely well.

twi-ny: What kind of music do you listen to when you’re away from the office, relaxing at home?

Bettina Richards: I have four-year-old twins, so you will have to refresh my memory as to what relaxing is like!

There is very little difference between what I listen to while at work and while at home, even to what I play for my twins. So aside from the records that we put out, I play lots of records on the always exciting Drag City Records, Blackest Rainbow, Experimedia, Immune, and reissue labels like Monk, Four Men with Beards, and Mississippi Records. I have lately been on a real heavy bent playing a lot of Watain, the Body, Mutilation Rites, Krallice, and Hell. While that has been my most recent tear, it has been peppered with a healthy dose of Charlie Parr, Elektro Guzzi, Joe Bataan, Porter Ricks, Duke Ellington, Cat Stevens, and music from the early twentieth century from India and Pakistan. (Yesterday it was an early recording by Ali Akbar Khan). Been getting into those Fugazi live recordings that Dischord has been posting. Always close to my record player are Fleetwood Mac, Fats Waller, Wanda Jackson, the Jesus Lizard, Al Green, Curtis Mayfield, EPMD, and Neil Young.