this week in music

THE CREATORS PROJECT

Visitors can walk up, down, and across installation that is making waves at the Creators Project (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Multiple locations in DUMBO
October 15-16, free with RSVP
www.thecreatorsproject.com
creators project slideshow

It’s definitely worth taking a chance to see if you can still RSVP to the second day of the Creators Project today, where you can check out extremely cool projects from emerging and established artists with installations at several locations in DUMBO. All of the live music was held yesterday, so there’s sure to be less of a crowd experiencing Jonathan Glazer and J. Spaceman’s meditative “A Physical Manifestation of Ladies and Gentlemen, We Are Floating in Space” at 56 Water St., interacting with Minha Yang’s “Meditation” at 81 Front St., moving in unison over Cantoni and Crescenti’s “Soil” at 30 Washington St., playing with Zigelbaum and Coelho’s “Six-Forty by Four-Eighty” and SuperUber’s “Super Pong” at 55 Washington St., and getting immersed in David Bowie, Mick Rock, and Barney Clay’s black-box four-screen video “Life on Mars Revisited.”

Attendees take a break by relaxing in meditative installation in DUMBO (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

You should wait till later in the day when it’s a little darker to see United Visual Artists and Scanner’s “Origin,” but all afternoon you can enjoy food and drink rom AsiaDog, Brooklyn Bangers, Cemita’s, Landhaus (grilled bacon on a stick!), Mile End, Milk Truck, Solber Pupusas, Red Hook Lobster Pound, Brooklyn Oyster Party, and Brooklyn Roasting Company.

MEGAN REILLY

Megan Reilly will be featuring songs from her upcoming album at free Brooklyn show (photo by Godlis)

Zebulon
258 Wythe Ave.
Sunday, October 16, free, 9:00
www.zebuloncafeconcert.com
www.meganreilly.com

Back in May, Memphis-born alt country folk rocker Megan Reilly previewed several songs from her upcoming album at twi-ny’s tenth anniversary party at Fontana’s. Joined by guitarist James Mastro, the Jersey girl played a haunting, heartfelt set, her sparkling new material filled with evocative love and longing. This week she was excited to tell us that she was joined in the studio by the legendary Lenny Kaye, who contributed guitar to two tracks. Reilly, a mesmerizing live performer who gets lost in her powerful songs, will be at Zebulon on October 16 at 9:00 for a free show with a truly great band, consisting of Mastro (the Bongos, the Health & Happiness Show, Ian Hunter’s Rant Band), drummer extraordinaire Steve Goulding (the Mekons, Garland Jeffreys, the Waco Brothers), and bassist supreme Tony Maimone (Pere Ubu, They Might Be Giants). Brooklyn folkie P.G. Six is also on the bill. For our recent twi-ny talk with Reilly and Mastro, click here.

SLAPSTICK ON THE STREETS OF NEW YORK: SPEEDY

Harold Lloyd has a crazy time in Coney Island in SPEEDY

SPEEDY (Ted Wilde, 1928)
Museum of the Moving Image
35th Ave. at 36th St., Astoria
Sunday, October 16, free with museum admission, 3:00
718-777-6800
www.movingimage.us

Much like the end of the silent film era itself, the last horse-drawn trolley is doomed in Harold Lloyd’s final silent film. Big business is playing dirty trying to get rid of the trolley and classic old-timer Pop Dillon. Meanwhile, Harold “Speedy” Swift, a dreamer who wanders from menial job to menial job (he makes a great soda-jerk with a unique way of announcing the Yankees score), cares only about the joy and wonder life brings. But he’s in love with Pop’s granddaughter, Jane, so he vows to save the day. Along the way, he gets to meet Babe Ruth. Ted Wilde was nominated for an Oscar for Best Director, Comedy, for this thrilling nonstop ride through beautiful Coney Island and the pre-depression streets of New York City. A restored 35mm print of Speedy is being shown October 16 at 3:00 at the Museum of the Moving Image with live accompaniment by pianist Donald Sosin, preceded by an illustrated lecture about the making of the movie by film historian John Bengtson, author of Silent Visions: Discovering Early Hollywood and New York Through the Films of Harold Lloyd (Santa Monica Press, May 2011, $27.95), and will be followed by a book signing.

CROSSING THE LINE: FAUSTIN LINYEKULA STUDIOS KABAKO: MORE MORE MORE… FUTURE

Faustin Linyekula’s MORE MORE MORE… FUTURE has its New York premiere at the Kitchen this week as part of FIAF’s Crossing the Line Festival (photo © Agathe Poupeney)

The Kitchen
512 West 19th St. between Tenth & Eleventh Aves.
October 12-15, $15, 8:00
212-255-5793
www.fiaf.org

Part of the “Endurance/Resistance/Inspiration” section of FIAF’s ninth annual Crossing the Line Festival, dancer/choreographer Faustin Linyekula’s more more more… future examines the past, present, and future of life in his native Democratic Republic of Congo. “We deserve more than the vanishing shadows of delusions. We deserve more than headlines and media compassion,” he writes about the evening-length piece, having its New York premiere October 12-15 at the Kitchen. “More than the false happiness that blinds our minds. More than assistance, we deserve justice. More than money, we deserve dignity. More than a glorious past, we long for a future.” Wearing colorful, oversized, enveloping costumes created by Lamine Badian Kouyaté/Xuly Bët at the very last minute, three dancers, including Linyekula, move to live music played onstage by a five-piece band led by music director and guitarist Flamme Kapaya, set to poems by political prisoner Antoine Vumilia Muhindo, a childhood friend of Linyekula’s. “To be positive is the most subversive. Celebrating is a way of resisting,” Linyekula notes.

COLUMBUS DAY PARADE 2011

Parade and other events celebrate Italian cultural heritage (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Fifth Ave. from 44th to 72nd Sts.
Monday, October 10, free, 11:30 am – 3:00 pm
www.columbuscitizensfd.org

More than one hundred groups and thirty-five thousand marchers will make their way up Fifth Ave. on Monday in celebration of the Italian heritage and the spirit of Christopher Columbus for the sixty-seventh annual Columbus Day Parade. Grand Marshal Joseph Plumeri will lead such participants as Pia Toscano, the Sacred Heart University Marching Band, the Stony Brook University Marching Band, the cast of the musical The Italian Fairy, folk dancers, and many more; past grand marshals have included Paul Sorvino, Bobby Valentine, Dan Marino, Henry Mancini, Danny Aiello, Vincent Gardenia, Yogi Berra, and Frank Capra. In addition to the centerpiece parade, there is a cultural exhibit in Grand Central Terminal’s Vanderbilt Hall (through October 10), a wreath-laying ceremony in Columbus Circle (October 9, 9:30 – 11:00 am), a mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral (October 10, 9:30 – 10:45 am), and a concert at the Rose Theater in Frederick P. Rose Hall celebrating the 150th anniversary of Italy’s unification, with the Petruzzelli Theater Orchestra from Bari, soprano Marina Shaguch, tenor Massimiliano Pisapia, and Maestro Alberto Veronesi (October 9, $100-$250, 4:00).

TRANS AM: FUTUREWORLD

Trans Am goes back to the past with FUTUREWORLD at Union Pool

Union Pool
484 Union Ave.
Saturday, October 8, and Sunday, October 9, $15, 9:00
718-609-0484
www.transband.com
http://unionpool.blogspot.com

On Saturday and Sunday night at Union Pool, people will be partying like it’s 1999 as Trans Am zooms into Brooklyn, celebrating the release of a remastered version of their classic 1999 album, Futureworld, being reissued by Thrill Jockey complete with two bonus tracks (“Nazi/Hippie Empire” and “Now You Die, Thriddle Fool”). On the album, bassist and vocalist Nathan Means, guitarist Philip Manley, and drummer Sebastian Thomson let loose a barrage of sound, from the opening ninety-seven seconds of bluesy screeches that make up “1999” to the seven-minute technorobotic title track, from the drum-heavy punk fury and distorted vocals of “City in Flames” to the heavy metal–ish “Am Rhein,” from the spacey, meditative “Runners Standing Still” and the space age “Futureworld II” to the marching-band-like “Positron” and the mystical, slowly building “Sad and Young.” Mixed by James Murphy, Futureworld is like a furious ride across long stretches of highway in a souped-up car, the radio station constantly changing as towns flash by in a blur. Trans Am will be playing the album in full both nights at Union Pool, followed by a set featuring other songs from throughout their eighteen-year career, which includes such other albums as Surrender to the Night (1997), Who Do We Think You Are? (1999), Liberation<,em> (2004), and Thing (2010). The Psychic Paramount opens both shows.

MEKONS

Jon Langford will lead the Mekons in an electric show at the Bell House Friday night and an acoustic show Saturday night at City Winery (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Friday, October 7, the Bell House, 149 Seventh St., with Chris Mills, $18-$20, 8:00
Saturday, October 8, City Winery, 155 Varick St., $22-$28, 10:00
www.mekons.de

“You know our time is running out,” the Mekons proclaim on the rollicking “Space in Your Face,” one of eleven tracks on their outstanding new album, Ancient & Modern: 1911–2011 (Bloodshot, September 2011), their twenty-sixth studio record in a long career that has included such masterworks as The Quality of Mercy (1979), Fear and Whiskey (1985), Edge of the World (1986), So Good It Hurts (1988), and Rock ‘n’ Roll (1989) as well as the more recent Punk Rock (2004) and Natural (2007). Through all the changes in the music industry over the last thirty-plus years, one thing has remained constant — the Mekons are still one of the great, underrated bands, a cult favorite and critics darling that has flirted with breakout success that never quite reached the mainstream. But that hasn’t stopped Jon Langford, Sally Timms, Tom Greenhalgh. Robert “Lu” Edmonds, Sarah Corina, Steve Goulding, Susie Honeyman, and Rico Bell from releasing consistently strong albums and even stronger live shows, whether sitting around in a semicircle playing acoustic instruments, carefully being watched over by den mother Timms, or rocking out at an old-fashioned blowout. As they’ve been doing since the late 1970s, on Ancient & Modern: 1911–2011 they mix country, folk, rock, pop, Celtic, psychedelia, troubadour, sea shanty, Tin Pan Alley, and just about any other genre you can think of on jaunty, intelligent songs, including such standouts as “Geeshie,” “The Devil at Rest,” “I Fall Asleep,” and the vintage-Mekons-sounding “Honey Bear.” They’re in town for a pair of shows this weekend, playing “a wild night out with the electrified Mekons” at the Bell House tonight, followed by “a quiet night in with the acoustic Mekons” at City Winery tomorrow. We’ve seen them perform at both ends of the spectrum, as well as in the middle, and at various levels of intoxication (us and them), and they never fail to deliver an exciting, thrilling, unpredictable show. A world that includes the Mekons is just a better place for everyone, whether they know it or not.