this week in music

SUMMER STREETS

The people will occup Park Ave. for three successive Saturdays during annual Summer Streets program (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Park Ave. & 72nd St. to Foley Square
Saturday, August 4, 11, 18, free, 7:00 am – 1:00 pm
www.nyc.gov

The New York City government — or at least Mayor Michael Bloomberg — is on a mission to make its citizens healthier. While that has led to controversy over trans fats and the size of soft drinks, it has also resulted in the annual Summer Streets program, when Park Ave. is closed to vehicles from 72nd St. all the way down to Foley Sq., instead to be filled with people walking, jogging, skating, and biking between seven in the morning and one o’clock in the afternoon. On August 4, 11, and 18, the third annual Summer Streets will include activities for the mind and body throughout the route, which features several rest stops. At Fifty-first St., there will be a tai chi class taught by the Taoist Tai Chi Society of the USA, bachata lessons from the Piel Canela Dance Company, a double dutch performance by the National Double Dutch League, theatrical teasers from the upcoming New York Fringe Festival, salsa lessons from Salsa New York, and an Ecuadorian dance performance courtesy of the Ayazamana Cultural Center. At Fortieth St., you’ll encounter restorative yoga and meditation by Yoga Agora, massage therapy from Pegasus Wellness, and a site-specific urban art installation. At Twenty-fifth St., you can rent bikes and rollerblades for free and learn about recycling. At Astor Pl. and Lafayette St., Crunch will host a series of public workouts, including Sunrise Salutations and Masala Bhangra, and you can find another site-specific urban art installation. At Spring and Lafayette, the REI Outdoor School will hold bicycle seminars, with free repairs from Bicycle Habitat, and you can climb a rock wall. And finally, at Foley Square, there is yoga from Shape Up NYC, a Taiwanese Temple Fair from Chio-Tian Folk Drum & Arts Group, a dance cardio workout led by Broadway Bodies, free zip-lining, more art, a mobile playground, and live performances from Still Saffire, Asphalt Green, and the National Double Dutch League. Even if that is all too much to swallow, just going for a leisurely stroll down a vehicle-free Park Ave. makes for a memorable experience.

PARKED! A FOOD TRUCK FESTIVAL 2012

Get ready for some big crowds and long lines at Parked! food truck festival (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Pier 17, South Street Seaport
Saturday, August 4, free, 10:00 am – 9:00 pm
parked.meanredproductions.com

The fifth annual Parked! food truck festival rolls into the South Street Seaport on Saturday, featuring an international collection of gastronomic delights on wheels in addition to live music and other activities. Among this year’s mobile eateries are the Jam Stand, Taim, Bongo Bros., Schnitzel & Things, Red Hook Lobster Pound, Chinese Mirch, Valducci’s Pizza, Takumi Taco, and Green Pirate Juice. We highly recommend starting with the fried mac and cheese bites from Gorilla Cheese, teriyaki balls from Mimi & Coco, and tantalizing spicy rice cakes from Kimchi Taco before moving on to the excellent burger from Frites n Meats and a side of yucca fries from Big D’s Grub Truck. We’re hoping for more dessert choices than just the ubiquitous Van Leeuwen Ice Cream, but that’ll still do in a pinch. The musical lineup focuses on the blues with John Hammond, the Juggs, the Loom, Ulysses Cannon, the Liza Colby Sound, and Johnnie Lee Jordan & the Boys taking the stage on Pier 17; there will also be beer and champagne gardens as well as such children’s activities as face painting, the David Rockwell-designed Imagination Playground, and magicians. More than twenty thousand gourmands took part in last year’s Parked! festival, so be prepared for long lines, especially between five and seven o’clock, when all the people who bought the Parked Pass show up to eat their $65 worth.

CELEBRATE BROOKLYN! WILD FLAG, MISSION OF BURMA, TED LEO

Wild Flag will headline one of the best free shows of the summer season August 3 in Prospect Park with Ted Leo and Mission of Burma

Prospect Park Bandshell
Prospect Park West & Ninth St.
Friday, August 3, free (suggested donation $3), 7:00
www.bricartsmedia.org

“Hey, hey, can you feel it? The way it sways you, the hum in your chest?” indie supergroup Wild Flag asks on “Romance,” the lead song of their debut, eponymously titled 2011 record, continuing, “You make my feet move, you turn my head loose. That’s why I love you best.” Fans and critics alike have been feeling it, moving their feet and showing their love for singer-guitarist Carrie Brownstein (Sleater-Kinney, Portlandia), keyboardist Rebecca Cole (the Minders, the Shadow Mortons), guitarist Mary Timony (Helium, Autoclave), and drummer Janet Weiss (Sleater-Kinney, Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks), who play thrilling beach-ready riot grrrl pop with groovy harmonies and exuberant beats on such spirit-lifting tunes as “Glass Tambourine,” “Boom,” “Future Crimes,” and the galloping “Racehorse.” Wild Flag will be headlining one of the best free shows of the season on August 3 at the Prospect Park Bandshell as part of the Celebrate Brooklyn! series. The night begins with local outdoor favorite Ted Leo, who will be performing a solo set, but there’s no reason to fear that he turns into a treacly singer-songwriter without the Pharmacists. Leo will be followed by Boston-based postpunk legends Mission of Burma, who earned their well-deserved reputation during their brief run in the early 1980s but have come back with a vengeance after reuniting in 2002, currently out on the road behind their kickass new disc, Unsound, a hard-driving, propulsive collection of fiery songs that never let up, with guitarist Roger Miller, bassist Clint Conley, drummer Peter Prescott, and tape manipulator and engineer Bob Weston tearing through such relentless tracks as “Dust Devil,” “Semi-Pseudo-Sort-of-Plan,” “Fell –> H2O,” and “ADD in Unison.” Get there early, because this one should be packed.

FIRST SATURDAYS: CARIBBEAN RHYTHMS

Zing Experience will help celebrate Haitian culture at Brooklyn Museum on Saturday night

Brooklyn Museum
200 Eastern Parkway at Washington St.
Saturday, Augsut 4, free, 5:00 – 10:00 (some events require free tickets distributed in advance at the Visitor Center)
212-864-5400
www.brooklynmuseum.org

The Brooklyn Museum is getting into its annual Caribbean groove with its August First Saturdays program, celebrating the cultural heritage of Haiti. The free evening begins at 5:00 with Val Jeanty, Buyu Ambroise, and Zing Experience showcasing a mix of Haitian music and also includes dance performances by Makeda Thomas (FreshWater), NICODA (How We Are Connected), and League of Unreal Dancing and a dance workshop taught by Ifetayo Cultural Arts Academy. There will be a screening of Reina de mi misma, Queen of Myself: Las Krudas d’ Cuba, Celiany Rivera-Velázquez’s 2010 documentary about the lesbian hip-hop group Las Krudas, as well as a book talk with Elizabeth Nunez, who will discuss her 2011 novel, Boundaries, which deals with a Caribbean immigrant in New York. There will also be gallery talks and a hands-on art workshop, along with time to see such exhibitions as “Raw Cooked: Ulrike Müller,” “Aesthetic Ambitions: Edward Lycett and Brooklyn’s Faience Manufacturing Company,” “Playing House,” “Rachel Kneebone: Regarding Rodin,” “Newspaper Fiction: The New York Journalism of Djuna Barnes, 1913–1919,” and others.

CHARLES LONG: PET SOUNDS

New Jersey-born artist Charles Long has populated Madison Square Park with a group of colorful, amorphous musical creatures (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

MAD. SQ. ART
Madison Square Park
25th St. between Madison & Fifth Aves.
Through September 9, free
www.madisonsquarepark.org
pet sounds slideshow

For several years, California-based multidisciplinary artist Charles Long been inspired by the Los Angeles River, particularly the detritus that washes up on the shore and the excrement of the blue herons and white egrets that snakes down the concrete, forming abstract images that he sees as creatures and interprets into sculptures. He has also collaborated with such musicians as Stereolab, Wilderness, and Mark Mothersbaugh. Long’s latest work, the site-specific “Pet Sounds,” combines his love of abstract shapes and experimental music in engaging, playful ways. Taking its name from the classic 1966 Beach Boys album, “Pet Sounds” winds through the center of Madison Square Park, as handrails create a new path populated by a group of colorful amorphous shapes that emerge from the railing and make sounds when people touch them. A kind of three-dimensional Rorschach test, the smooth biomorphic blobs, which add bright doses of blue, yellow, gray, pink, and purple to the very green park, resemble body parts, animals, and, well, excrement. Different sounds emerge from different sections of some of the pieces, resulting in a cacophony that is not quite as smoothly harmonic as the Beach Boys but still tons of fun. It might look like a kids’ playground, but adults are more than welcome to let out their inner child and create their own mini-symphony with these inviting organic shapes. Long’s largest public sculpture to date, “Pet Sounds” will remain on view through September 9.

MAD. SQ. MUSIC: AN EVENING OF FOLK

The Roches and Wainwrights will perform together in Madison Square Park on August 1

THE OVAL LAWN SERIES: SUZZY AND MAGGIE ROCHE, SLOAN WAINWRIGHT, AND LUCY WAINWRIGHT ROCHE
Madison Square Park
Between 23rd & 26th St. and Madison & Fifth Aves.
Wednesday, August 1, free, 6:30
www.madisonsquarepark.org
www.roches.com

The First Family of Female Folk will be in Madison Square Park on Wednesday night for an evening of original and traditional songs as part of the Mad. Sq. Music Oval Lawn Series. For thirty-five years, sisters Suzzy and Maggie Roche have been performing together, either in a trio with sister Terre, with brother Dave, or singing backup with Paul Simon, the Indigo Girls, and others. They’ve also teamed up with the next generation, joined by Suzzy’s daughter, Lucy Wainwright Roche, whose father is Loudon Wainwright III, and keep it all in the family with Loudon’s younger sister Sloan as well. On Wednesday in the middle of beautiful Madison Square Park, Suzzy, Maggie, Sloan, and Lucy will come together for a free show that should be filled with warmth, humor, and great music.

54/10 MUSIC MARATHON

Alice Lee, the Henry Millers, and Night Fevers play the Ars Nova 54/10 Music Marathon on August 4

Ars Nova
511 West 54th St. at Tenth Ave.
August 1-11, $5 in advance, 8:00
212-489-9800
arsnovanyc.com/5410

The third annual Ars Nova 54/10 Music Marathon features more than two dozen up-and-coming bands playing the Hell’s Kitchen venue August 1-11, in a mix of genres that should titillate adventurous music lovers. The Lobbyists and Jake Winstrom will get things going on Wednesday night, with the Pete Ayres Band, Roof Access, and Curtis & Reinhard taking the stage August 2 and Hawk and Dove, Kate Kilbane & the Cellar Doors, and the Bengsons scheduled for August 3. Among the other participants are the Henry Millers, Molly & the Class Acts, Lady Moon, Jaggery, and Miko and the Musket. The marathon comes to a close August 11 with the Weight Boys Band, Pigpen Theatre Co., and Die Roten Punkte. The above website includes a bio and sample song from each performer, revealing the diverse array of sounds, from country, bluegrass, indie and experimental pop, and retro Tin Pan Alley to jazz, folk, New Age, and techno. Advance tickets are only five bucks; the price goes up to $10 online and $15 at the door starting August 1.