The Black Lips will lead what should be a crazy after-party to this year’s expanded 4Knots Music Festival (photo by twi-ny/mdr)
South Street Seaport, Pier 17
Saturday, July 14, free, 1:00 – 8:00
www.villagevoice.com/4knots
After a decade of the Siren Festival in Coney Island, the Village Voice moved its annual summer concert last year to the South Street Seaport and rechristened it the 4Knots Music Festival, which included great performances by, among others, Brooklyn’s Eleanor Friedberger and Oberhofer, San Juan’s Davila 666, and New Jersey’s Titus Andronicus on one main stage. This year 4Knots is expanding to two stages, better resembling its Coney Island beginnings, where sweaty music fans would dart between Stillwell Ave. and West Tenth St. to catch the band of their choice. Taking place on July 14, this year’s 4Knots kicks off with brief sets by the Smiling Lies at 12:15 and Fast Years at 12:30, after which decisions will have to be made between shows on the Main Stage and the Skippers Stage. There should be time to see some of every band, but that valuable spot will be snatched up the second you leave one area for the other. The Skippers Stage will feature Doldrums at 1:00, Devin at 2:00, Team Spirit at 3:00, and Delicate Steve at 4:00, while the Main Stage will be home to Nick Waterhouse at 1:30, Bleached at 2:30, Hospitality at 3:30, Crocodiles at 4:30, the Drums at 5:30, and headliners Archers of Loaf closing things out at 6:30. The after-party should be even crazier, with Black Lips, Kid Congo Powers and the Pink Monkey Birds, DJ April March go-go dancer Anna Copa Cabanna, and host DJ Jonathan Toubin holding court at the Beekman Beer Garden Beach Club at 89 South St. Tickets are $15 and worth every penny, especially if you’ve never seen Atlanta’s Black Lips, a crazed group of dudes who play legendary shows where just about anything can and will happen.
When they were junior high school students in South Central Los Angeles in 1979, Angelo Moore and Norwood Fisher formed the core of Fishbone, what would soon become one of the most exciting live bands on the planet. Chris Metzler and Lev Anderson document the band’s rise and fall — and rise and fall, and rise and fall, etc. — in the stirring Everyday Sunshine: The Story of Fishbone. Using archival footage, old and new interviews, and playful animation, Metzler and Anderson follow the group — Moore and Fisher along with fellow founding members Chris Dowd, Walter “Dirty Walt” Kibby II, and Kendall Jones — through its many personal and financial struggles as it tries to deal with such socioeconomic issues as racism, violence, and the anti-liberal bias taking hold of the nation in Ronald Reagan’s 1980s. Fishbone held nothing back on such albums as In Your Face (1986), Truth and Soul (1988), The Reality of My Surroundings (1991), Give a Monkey a Brain and He’ll Swear He’s the Center of the Universe (1993), and Chim Chim’s Badass Revenge (1996), mixing in pop, punk, funk, ska, reggae, R&B, soul, jazz, and hardcore, prancing about the stage without shirts, diving into the crowd, and always speaking their mind, and they hold nothing back in Everyday Sunshine as well. Narrated by Laurence Fishburne, the film really picks up speed when it delves into the Rodney King beating and the mysterious circumstances involving Jones’s religious transformation and the band’s attempt at an intervention. The decidedly unusual tale also features an impressive lineup of talking heads offering their views on the history of Fishbone, including Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Perry Farrell from Jane’s Addiction, fIREHOSE’s Mike Watt, No Doubt’s Gwen Stefani and Tony Kanal, the Roots’ ?uestlove, Gogol Bordello’s Eugene Hutz, Parliament-Funkadelic’s George Clinton, Primus’s Les Clayool, Living Colour’s Vernon Reid, Circle Jerk Keith Morris, Ice-T, and, perhaps most informatively, Columbia Records executive David Kahne, who lends fascinating insight into what made Fishbone great — and what kept them from greater success. While you definitely don’t have to know a thing about Fishbone to enjoy this very intimate documentary, longtime fans should eat it up. Everyday Sunshine is screening on July 11 in Marcus Garvey Park as part of the ImageNation Outdoors summer series and will be preceded by live performances by GAME Rebellion and Daví. The festival continues with such free screenings as Night Catches Us on July 21 at Weekesville, Africa United with live music by Taj Weekes & Adowa, Shine & the Moonbeams, and Randolph Matthews on July 29 in Springfield Park, and Taking Root! A Tribute to Wangari Maathal on August 1 in West Harlem Pier Park.
