this week in music

CULTUREMART 2012

YOU ARE DEAD. YOU ARE HERE. opens Culturemart 2012 with an intimate look at the Iraq war (photo © Jared Mezzocchi)

HERE Arts Center
145 Sixth Ave. at Dominick St.
January 24 – February 11, $15
212-647-0202
www.here.org

The January parade of experimental theater festivals, which has already included Coil, Under the Radar, American Realness, and the Times Square International Theater Festival, continues with HERE’s annual Culturemart. Referring to itself as a “vital testing ground,” Culturemart will present a dozen works in progress from January 24 through February 11 in a variety of disciplines, beginning with Christine Evans, Joseph Megel, and Jared Mezzochi’s You Are Dead. You Are Here., an interactive multimedia examination of the relationship between an American soldier and an Iraqi blogger during the Iraq war. Among the other productions are Aaron Landsman’s participatory City Council Meeting, Jake Margolin and Nick Vaughan’s A Marriage: 1, involving a couple who watches Fox News in a motel room for twenty-four consecutive hours (and is supplemented by an exhibition at HERE), Bora Yoon’s audiovisual one-woman show Weights and Balances, Betty Shamieh’s The Strangest, which imagines the story of the Arab killed in Albert Camus’s The Stranger, and Alexandra Beller/Dances’ other stories, which delves into narrative itself. Tickets to all events are only fifteen bucks, so it’s always worth checking out something different and unusual at one of the city’s best spots to see cutting-edge productions.

VIDEO OF THE DAY — DUSTIN WONG: “DIAGONALLY TALKING ECHO”

A former member of Ecstatic Sunshine and Ponytail, Dustin Wong has also released several experimental solo records in which he pushes the boundaries of six-string songcraft. He has now followed up 2010’s Infinite Love, what we called “two discs of gorgeous guitar meanderings layered with tape loops and sound explorations,” with Dreams Say, View, Create, Shadow Leads (Thrill Jockey, February 21). The Hawaii-born, Japan-raised techno-geek describes the record, in part, thusly: “When I begin to explore and to build a song through a series of pedals, I begin with the tuner. It helps keep my guitar’s pitch consistent. An octave pedal and the distortion pedals allow me to change the textures and colors of the guitar. The delay pedal determines the tempo and the pattern. Once these sounds are determined, it then gets replicated and repeated through a loop pedal. Repeating that process, I lay different sounds and melodies on top. After the loop pedal comes the envelope filter that changes the color of the sounds but in a different way, more like a blend or like a dye. At the end of this chain of pedals awaits another delay pedal that corresponds to the delay pedal before the looper, further accentuating and changing the patterns of the loop. I see all these pedals as a kind of textile factory. The sheets and colors are determined, then the patterns are laid on top, one layer after another until it becomes a fabric mille feuille. Once that cake looks done it gets replicated again through another delay pedal. I can keep building these sounds on top of each other and decide whether I want to take half of the cake’s slices or not. If I do, I can gaze at the symmetrical void of what I have taken.” Got that? We might not understand what he’s talking about, but we can tell you that he bakes one helluva tasty cake.

Dreams Say, View, Create, Shadow Leads features sixteen tracks that attempt to re-create Wong’s live experience; among the songs are “Abstract Horse Slow Motion,” “Triangle Train Stop,” “Pencil Drove Hill Moon,” “Space Tunnel Graffiti,” and “Diagonally Talking Echo,” the video of which can be seen above. For this new project, Wong is also inviting listeners to send him recordings of their dreams and he will convert them into a piece of music for his Soundcloud page starting on February 20. But before that, you can catch Wong live at 285 Kent on January 21 ($12, 8:00) with Akron/Family and Bad Weather California and at Glasslands on February 3 ($10, 8:30) with Hospitality and Glass Ghost. Wong will also be holding a record release party on February 24 at La Sala at Cantina Royal in Brooklyn with Lichens.

SONG OF THE DAY — HEARTLESS BASTARDS: “PARTED WAYS”

Looking to make a statement with a current or former loved one this Valentine’s Day? You might want to consider giving that (in?)significant other the latest album from Austin rockers Heartless Bastards, who will be releasing their latest, Arrow, on Partisan Records on February 14. The new disc, which features such songs as “Marathon,” “Got to Have Rock ‘N Roll,” “Only for You,” and “Low Low Low,” was produced by Spoon drummer Jim Eno; you can check out the first single, “Parted Ways,” above and pick up the bonus song “Bye Bye Baby Blues” if you preorder the album from iTunes. You can also catch the Heartless Bastards — singer/guitarist/songwriter Erika Wennerstrom, guitarist Mark Nathan, bassist Jesse Ebagh, and drummer Dave Colvin —at Webster Hall on February 24 ($20, 6:00), after you’ve gotten V-Day out of your system.

VIDEO OF THE DAY — STEVE EARLE: NPR MUSIC TINY DESK CONCERT

STEVE EARLE & ALLISON MOORER RESIDENCY
City Winery
155 Varick St. at Vandam St.
Monday nights through February 6, $45-$65
212-608-0555
www.citywinery.com
www.steveearle.com

The always charming Steve Earle and his wife, Allison Moorer, continue their Monday-night residence at City Winery through February 6, joined on January 16 by Charlie Mars, January 23 by Mike Doughty, January 30 by the Mastersons, and February 6 by the Dust. Earle had a strong 2011, releasing the Grammy-nominated I’ll Never Get Out of This World Alive (New West, April 2011) in addition to a same-titled novel (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, May 2011) and appearing in the second season of the HBO series Treme. We’ve seen Earle many times over the years, solo, with a band, and with special guests, and he always puts on a helluva show, filled with fun stage patter and both serious and wild and crazy songs.

MLK DAY 2012

MLK Day features a host of special events and community-based service projects throughout the city (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Multiple venues
Monday, January 16
www.mlkday.gov

In 1983, the third Monday in January was officially recognized as Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, honoring the birthday of the civil rights leader who was assassinated in Memphis on April 4, 1968. Dr. King would have turned eighty-three today, and you can celebrate his legacy tomorrow by participating in a Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service project or attending one of several special events taking place around the city. BAM’s twenty-sixth annual free Tribute to MLK includes a keynote speech by education chancellor Denis M. Walcott, the community art exhibition “Picture the Dream,” a musical performance by Toshi Reagon and BIGLovely and the Institutional Radio Choir C.O.G.I.C. of Brooklyn, and a screening of the stirring documentary The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975. The JCC in Manhattan will be holding a blood drive and a food-service project during the day, then team up with Symphony Space for “Moving Ideas: A Conversation Between Choreographers Jawole Willa Jo Zollar and Liz Lerman,” including excerpts from Zollar’s Give Your Hands to Struggle and Lerman’s The Matter of Origins, which were both partially inspired by Dr. King and Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel; a concert by Daniel Kahn and the Painted Bird; Zalmen Mlotek’s “Soul to Soul: A Celebration of African-American and Jewish Song” with Elmore James, Tony Perry, and Cantor Magda Fishman; and a screening of Nick Parker and Jazmin Jones’s documentary The Apollos. The Museum of the Moving Image will be honoring King with a screening of Michael Roemer’s seminal Nothing But a Man, in which Ivan Dixon and Abbey Lincoln play a young couple battling racism in 1960s Alabama. The Children’s Museum of Manhattan will teach kids about King’s legacy with its “Make a Difference Pledge” and performances by the Harlem Gospel Choir, while the Brooklyn Children’s Museum has “Let’s Join Hands,” a “Historical Snapshot” talk with civil rights activist Yolanda Clarke, and a living legacy collage and hand wreath workshop. And Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola is hosting Jazz at Lincoln Center’s annual “Dr. Martin Luther King Celebration” with the Warren Wolf Quintet, with Tim Green, Christian Sands, Kriss Funn, and Billy Williams.

CRACKER / CAMPER VAN BEETHOVEN

 Johnny Hickman and David Lowery are set to have another blast at Cracker / Camper Van Beethoven show at the Highline Ballroom (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Johnny Hickman and David Lowery are set to have another blast at Cracker / Camper Van Beethoven show at the Highline Ballroom (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Highline Ballroom
431 West 16th St. between Ninth & Tenth Aves.
Saturday, January 14, $22-$25, 7:00
212-414-5994
www.myspace.com/crackerhatesmyspace
www.highlineballroom.com

In what has become a very welcome annual event, David Lowery will be doing double duty on January 14 as he brings both Cracker and Camper Van Beethoven to the Highline Ballroom. The evening generally begins with a rousing look back at the history of seminal indie rockers CVB, dominated by Lowery’s politically tinged lyrics and Jonathan Segel’s virtuosic violin playing. Expect such favorites as “Take the Skinheads Bowling,” “Eye of Fatima,” and “Joe Stalin’s Cadillac,” along with some cool covers, including the Status Quo’s “Pictures of Matchstick Men,” which was an MTV hit for CVB more than twenty years ago. Then Lowery switches gears for the more amiable, freewheeling Cracker, the Virginia-based band that has scored such hits as “Teen Angst,” “Low,” “Get Off This,” “Turn on Tune in Drop Out with Me,” and one of the great live songs of all time, “Euro-Trash Girl.” Lowery will tell some funny stories, guitarist and cofounder Johnny Hickman will look resplendent, and then the two groups will jam out on an interstellar finale. Nothing but good times, guaranteed.

SONG OF THE DAY — CRAIG FINN: “NEW FRIEND JESUS”

Craig Finn’s debut solo album is due January 24, followed by a tour that will have him holding steady at Mercury Lounge and Maxwell’s (photo by Mark Seliger)

“People say we suck at sports / but they don’t understand / It’s hard to catch with holes right through your hands,” Craig Finn sings on “New Friend Jesus,” one of the tracks from the Hold Steady leader’s debut solo album, Clear Heart Full Eyes, due from Vagrant Records on January 24. “New Friend Jesus,” which you can check out here, is one of eleven songs on the disc, which also includes such tunes as “Honolulu Blues,” “No Future,” “Terrified Eyes,” and “Balcony.” (The first five hundred preorders come with a bonus bandanna.) Finn will be in New York City for two sold-out shows at Mercury Lounge on February 29, but there are still a few tickets left for his March 1 show at Maxwell’s in Hoboken. And you can catch Finn performing the new album’s “Jackson” in his apartment for the A.V. Club here.