this week in music

CROSSING THE LINE 2012

French Institute Alliance Française and other locations
Florence Gould Hall, 55 East 59th St. between Madison & Park Aves.
Le Skyroom and FIAF Gallery, 22 East 60th St. between Madison & Park Aves.
September 14 – October 14, free- $45
212-355-6160
www.fiaf.org

Tickets are now on sale for the sixth annual Crossing the Line festival, a month-long program of interdisciplinary performances and art sponsored by the French Institute Alliance Française at venues across the city. Running September 14 through October 14, the 2012 edition of CTL, curated by Gideon Lester, Lili Chopra, and Simon Dove, features a host of free events, with most ticketed shows twenty dollars and under. The festival opens on September 14 with the first of three concerts by innovative guitarist Bill Frisell, playing with two of his groups, the 858 Quartet and Beautiful Dreamers, in FIAF’s Florence Gould Hall; he’ll then be at St. Ann & the Holy Trinity Church in Brooklyn the next morning at 8:00 for the world premiere of his solo piece “Early (Not Too Late),” followed that night by the world premiere of the multimedia “Close Your Eyes” at the Invisible Dog, a collaboration with musician Eyvind Kang and visual artist Jim Woodring. Brian Rogers, cofounder and artistic director of the Chocolate Factory, will present Hot Box at the Long Island City institution, a chaotic look at mayhem, stillness, and disorder using a live video feed. Festival vet Gérald Kurdian returns with The Magic of Spectacular Theater at Abrons Arts Center, combining music and magic. DD Dorvillier / Human Future Dance Corps brings Danza Permanente to the Kitchen, reimagining a Beethoven score for four dancers, with acoustic design by Zeena Parkins. Choreographer Sarah Michelson will deliver Not a Lecture / Performance, while Jack Ferver will blend psychoanalysis with dance in the very personal Mon Ma Mes, both one-time-only presentations at FIAF. Joris Lacoste’s 4 Prepared Dreams uses hypnosis on April March, Annie Dorsen, Tony Conrad, and Jonathan Caouette. Congolese dancer and choreographer Faustin Linyekula, who dazzled CTL audiences last year with more more more . . . future, will participate in a discussion on September 17 with director Peter Sellars, followed by his solo work Le Cargo on September 18. Pascal Rambert’s Love’s End examines the disintegration of a relationship, with Kate Moran and Jim Fletcher at Abrons, while Raimund Hoghe teams up with Takashi Ueno at the Baryshnikov Arts Center for Pas de Deux, a playful look at the history of the classical duet. For Diário (através de um Olho Baiano), one of numerous free events, Bel Borba, collaborating with Burt Sun and André Costantini, will create a new piece of art every day somewhere in the city throughout the festival, with all coming together for a grand finale. Also free is David Levine’s Habit, a live ninety-minute-drama that loops for eight hours in the Essex Street Market, and OMSK / Lotte van den Berg’s Pleinvrees / Agoraphobia, in which the audience (advance RSVP required) wanders around Times Square listening on their cell phones to a man making his way through the area as well. In addition, Steven and William Ladd’s Shaboygen installation will be up at the Invisible Dog, and Céleste Boursier-Mougenot’s audiovisual portraits will be on view at the FIAF Gallery. Once again, CTL has included a little something for everyone, from performance art and dance to video and photography, from theater and concerts to the unusual and the indefinable.

SONG OF THE DAY: “MALDITO BENDITO” Y LA BAMBA REMIX BY TECHNICOLOR CATERPILLAR

Bilingual six-piece Latin folk band Y La Bamba is back in New York this week, playing two shows in support of their latest album, Court the Storm (Tender Loving Empire, February 2012). The follow-up to their 2010 debut, Lupon, the new record, produced by Los Lobos wiz Steve Berlin, features such songs as “Squawk,” “Moral Panic,” “Idaho’s Genius,” and “Michoacan” and includes an appearance by Neko Case on the title track. In addition, “Bendito” has been remixed as “Maldito Bendito” by fellow Portland group Technicolor Caterpillar. Y La Bamba is led by the unique voice of Luz Elena Mendoza, which wafts over Latin-inspired rhythms and harmonies, with lyrics that reveal her religious upbringing. “I can’t save my own life if I could / I can only save my dreams,” she sings on “Hughson Boys,” continuing, “Blessings to the world / Blessings to the dark places I give room to / Be free for so long / So long.” Y La Bamba will be at the Knitting Factory tonight and Mercury Lounge tomorrow, with Chris Pureka opening both shows.

VIDEO OF THE DAY: “THE FIRST TIME EVER I SAW YOUR FACE” BY AMANDA PALMER AND THE FLAMING LIPS (NSFW)

In her previous video, “Want It Back,” Amanda Fucking Palmer covered her unclothed body in black ink. The former Dresden Doll has cleaned herself up, in a way, for the follow-up, a remake of the folk-pop ballad “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face,” which became a hit for Roberta Flack in 1972. A collaboration with the Flaming Lips, the video features AFP rolling around in a bathtub, no ink to be seen anywhere, in what she calls “a very naked, very joyful little present from me and the Flaming Lips!!” Palmer and her band, the Grand Theft Orchestra, are about to hit the road in support of their upcoming album, Theatre Is Evil, which was financed on Kickstarter with the help of such friends as Kristin Hersh, David Mack, husband Neil Gaiman, Robyn Hitchcock, DJ Spooky, and others making artistic contributions. The record features such tracks as “Smile (Pictures or It Didn’t Happen),” “The Killing Type,” “The Bed Song,” and “Lost” in addition to “Want It Back.” AFP and the GTO will be celebrating the September 11 release of Theatre Is Evil with a show that night in the Grand Ballroom at Webster Hall.

JANET CARDIFF AND GEORGE BURES MILLER: THE MURDER OF CROWS

“The Murder of Crows” is an intriguing, involving immersive experience at the Park Ave. Armory (photo by James Ewing/Park Avenue Armory)

Park Avenue Armory
643 Park Ave. at 67th St.
Tuesday – Sunday through September 9, $12 (open Labor Day Monday)
212-933-5812
www.armoryonpark.org
www.cardiffmiller.com

“Close your eyes and try to sleep,” Canadian-born sound artist Janet Cardiff repeatedly sings in a lullaby that is part of “The Murder of Crows,” a beautifully immersive installation continuing at the Park Ave. Armory through September 9. “Dreams will come / And when they’re done / It won’t be long / Until the dawn,” she adds. Closing one’s eyes and waiting for the coming of the proverbial dawn is the best way to experience “The Murder of Crows,” which was originally commissioned for the 2008 Biennale of Sydney. A collaboration between Cardiff — whose wonderful installation “The Forty Part Motet” can be seen at P.S. 1 in Queens through September 4 — and her husband, George Bures Miller, the thirty-minute “sound play” features ninety-eight speakers, fifty-five chairs, twenty-one amplifiers, and a gramophone horn on a lone desk. It was inspired by Goya’s late-eighteenth-century print “The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters,” number forty-three of eighty works that make up “Los Caprichos,” a series that was critical of Spanish society. In the print, Goya buries his head in his arms on a table, surrounded by bats and owls, as if his nightmares are coming to life. In “The Murder of Crows” — the title refers to the collective noun used for a group of crows, intelligent, opportunistic birds that do so many things together, including mourning — Cardiff recounts several disturbing dreams, speaking through the gramophone horn, with sound effects, a traditional Tibetan prayer chant, and orchestral compositions arranged by Tilman Ritter and performed by Deutsches Film Orchester Babelsberg emanating from the speakers, which reside on chairs, hang at different heights from the ceiling, and are set on stands surrounding the chairs. “The Murder of Crows” touches on such issues as racism, globalization, war, and loss in evocative narrative fragments, including a surprising dose of unexpected humor, that create visual landscapes despite being a sound-based project. Visitors can enter the expansive Wade Thompson Drill Hall at any time during the piece and stay as long as they’d like, letting the dreamlike sounds wash over them as they remain in their seats or wander around the speakers, each one emitting something different. “The Murder of Crows” is yet another fascinating production at the armory, which has quickly become one of New York City’s most exciting venues for inventive, often cutting-edge art, dance, film, and music programming.

VIDEO OF THE DAY: “GIMME THE SWEET AND LOWDOWN” BY SOCIAL DISTORTION

For more than thirty years, Southern California’s Social Distortion has been at the forefront of punk rockabilly, playing it hard, loud, and fast on such records as 1983’s Mommy’s Little Monster, 1988’s Prison Bound, and 1992’s Somewhere Between Heaven and Hell. Such powerful songs as “Story of My Life,” “Bad Luck,” “Ball and Chain,” and “99 to Life” came to define the genre, along with their killer cover of Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire.” Following an arena stint supporting the Foo Fighters, Social D, led by original front man Mike Ness along with guitarist Jonny “2 Bags” Wickersham, bassist Brent Harding, and drummer David Hidalgo Jr. (son of Los Lobos cofounder David Hidalgo), is back out on the road headlining smaller venues in support of their 2011 Epitaph release, Hard Times and Nursery Rhymes, which includes the driving “Gimme the Sweet and Lowdown,” for which the Mad Twins, Olya & Vira Ishchuk, just created an animated video that makes numerous references to Ness’s real life. “I can tell you now / you’ve really gotten the blues,” Ness sings. “I can tell you now / that I’ve walked in your shoes.” Social D will be at the Roseland Ballroom on October 26 with the Biters and Lindi Ortega.

HUDSON SQUARE MUSIC & WINE FESTIVAL: POUNDCAKE

Poundcake will close out the fourth annual Hudson Square Music & Wine Festival behind City Winery on August 28 (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Behind City Winery
155 Varick St. between Vandam & Spring Sts.
Tuesday, August 28, free, 5:30
212-608-0555
www.citywinery.com
www.teddythompson.com

In May 2011 at City Winery, as Teddy Thompson fans were escorted to their reserved seats and ordered their food and drinks (including special bottles of Teddy Thompson wine), a surprisingly familiar face took the stage as part of the opening act. Announced as “Poundcake,” the three-piece band — consisting of guitar, stand-up bass, and drums — rambled through a good-time set of classic and obscure country and early rock covers, with the lead singer and the backup band making continuous tongue-in-cheek remarks about Teddy Thompson and how much the lead singer resembled the British-born, New York City-based son of Richard and Linda Thompson, who was touring behind his latest record, Bella, a deeply personal, poignant examination of a shattered relationship. In 2010, Teddy Thompson, along with his drummer, Ethan Eubanks, and bassist, Jeff Hill, started doing gigs as Poundcake, without officially admitting who their ersatz leader was. Poundcake plays engaging sets that feature such tunes as Patsy Cline’s “Why Can’t He Be You,” the Everly Brothers’ “Wake Up Little Susie,” Elvis Presley’s “That’s All Right, Mama,” Chuck Berry’s “Brown Eyed Handsome Man,” and Buddy Holly’s “It’s So Easy” and “Every Day,” the latter, that May night, sung by Eubanks after several starts in which the drummer mangled the words and Thompson harassed him for it. The trio engages in funny, self-deprecating between-song banter, making for an extremely entertaining show. Poundcake will be closing out this summer’s fourth annual Hudson Square Music & Wine Festival, sponsored by City Winery, on Tuesday, August 28, with a free outdoor concert at 5:30.

JANET CARDIFF: THE FORTY PART MOTET

Janet Cardiff’s “The Forty Part Motet” features beautiful music at MoMA PS1 (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

MoMA PS1
22-25 Jackson Ave. at 46th Ave.
Thursday – Monday through September 4, suggested admission $10
718-784-2084
www.momaps1.org
www.cardiffmiller.com

It might not quite be Carnegie Hall, but beautiful music is continuously emanating from a rather sparse white room at MoMA PS1 in Queens. For “The Forty Part Motet,” Canadian-born sound artist Janet Cardiff individually recorded forty members of the Salisbury Cathedral Choir performing Thomas Tallis’s sixteenth-century choral composition “Spem in Alium Nunquam habui” (“In no other is my hope”). Then, working with her husband and partner, George Bures Miller, who served as editor, Cardiff created an installation of forty speakers on stands, eight groups of five apiece organized in an enveloping circle, with each singer’s voice coming out of a different speaker. Beginning with coughs and whispers that kick off the fourteen-minute piece, “The Forty Part Motet” is a thrilling experience, even for those who might not generally have an ear for classical music. As visitors walk around the large room, which has natural light pouring in on two sides, they can sit in the center and let the glorious sounds wash over them, then approach each speaker to hear that singer’s unique contribution to the overall piece, resulting in a very personal, intimate connection. Cardiff, whose “Her Long Black Hair” led people on a mysterious journey through Central Park in the summer of 2004, is a master at using sound as her primary element in telling unusual and complex stories; her magnificent 2008 collaboration with Miller, “The Murder of Crows,” is currently wowing audiences through September 9 at the Park Ave. Armory. “The Forty Part Motet” is on view through September 4 at MoMA PS1, which is also showing “Lara Favaretto: Just Knocked Out,” “Jack Smith: Normal Love,” “Zackary Drucker: At Least You Know You Exist,” “Esther Kläs – Better Energy,” “Max Brand: no solid footing – (trained) duck fighting a crow,” “Wendy” by HWKN, and solo projects by Rey Akdogan, Edgardo Aragón, Ilja Karilampi, and Caitlin Keogh.