this week in music

DEERHOOF

Deerhoof is back in New York City to battle evil at the Music Hall of Williamsburg on Tuesday night

Music Hall of Williamsburg
66 North Sixth St.
Tuesday, September 20, $17, 8:00
www.myspace.com/deerhoof
www.musichallofwilliamsburg.com

Back in February, we wrote how San Francisco-based Deerhoof had come to the rescue of the stagnant music world with their latest album, Deerhoof vs. Evil (Polyvinyl, January 2011), on which guitarists John Dieterich and Ed Rodriguez, drummer Greg Saunier, and bassist Satomi Matsuzaki do what they do best, taking listeners on a journey through a multitude of crazy sounds, hard-to-decipher lyrics, and offbeat, ever-shifting melodies that delight while they confound. Well, they’re shaking things up again, collaborating with such guests as Physical Forms, Xiu, Xiu, WOOM, the Raccooonists, and Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy and his two sons, inviting them to play over instrumental tracks from the new record and releasing them on 7″ vinyl. In addition, they have reissued two earlier albums, 2004’s exciting Milk Man, featuring such killer tracks as “Giga Dance,” “Milking,” “C,” “Desapareceré,” and the title song, and 2007’s Friend Opportunity, with such songs as “The Perfect Me,” all of which have found their way into recent setlists. Deerhoof will be at the Music Hall of Williamsburg on September 20 with Mick Barr and White Suns.

THE KITCHEN BLOCK PARTY

A Free Neighborhood Street Fair
West 19th St. between Tenth & Eleventh Aves.
Saturday, September 17, 11:00 am – 4:00 pm
212-255-5793
www.thekitchen.org

For forty years, the Kitchen has been presenting cutting-edge multidisciplinary art, theater, and dance. The nonprofit organization will kick off its fall season today with a block party on West 19th St. featuring family-friendly artist-led booths and activities, including face painting, mask making, temporary tattoos, cookie decorating, and more. Among the artists participating in the annual event are Michael Paul Britto + Elia Alba, Miles Bumbray, Nathan Carter, Francisca Chaidez-Gutierrez, Michael DeLucia, Torkwase Dyson, Jonathan Ehrenberg + Bryan Zanisnik, Escape Artist + Saintchic, Brent Green + Donna K, Simone Leigh + Chitra Ganesh, and Paul Mpagi Sepuya + Timothy Hull. There will be live music and dance performances by DJ Laylo and Eli Efi, Pegasus Warning, Olabunmi and the Hamana Djembe Orchestra, and others, while food will be provided by Asiadog, Chelsea Thai, Choncho’s Tacos, Coconut Rob, and Je & Jo. You can also venture inside the venerable institution to see the exhibitions “Joe Winter: The Stars Below” and “Jennie C. Jones: Absorb/Diffuse” and pick up tickets to such upcoming events as Wally Cardona, Jennifer Lacey, and Jonathan Bepler’s Tool Is Loot, Faustin Linyekula/Studios Kabako’s more more more… future, and Anna Sperber’s FOREVERANDADAY.

PEPPER

Hawaiian trio Pepper surfs into town September 17-18

Webster Hall
125 East 11th St. between Second & Third Aves.
Saturday, September 17, $25-$30, 6:00
www.websterhall.com
www.myspace.com/pepperlive

“I wouldn’t cry / It might make a flood / And I don’t know / if I can swim that good,” Kaleo Wassman sings on “Lonely,” a daring admission for a member of a reggae surf punk band from Hawaii. Pepper was formed in Kailua-Kona in 1997 by guitarist Wassman, bassist Bret Bollinger, and drummer Yesod Williams, going the DIY route by endlessly touring and self-releasing such albums as Kona Town (2002), In with the Old (2004), No Shame (2006), and Pink Crustaceans and Good Vibrations (2008). On the trio’s most recent release, the October 2010 EP Stitches, Pepper wakes up to fool around with a drunk girl only to look in the mirror and feel lonely anyway. (The album consists of the songs “Wake Up,” “Drunk Girl,” two versions of “Mirror,” and “Lonely.”) There should be no loneliness — and potentially plenty of drunk girls and guys — at Webster Hall on Saturday night, September 17, when Pepper, which has sold more than half a million records through its own label, plays on a bill with the Expendables and Ballyhoo! and will follow that up with a gig at the Crazy Donkey in Farmingdale the next night.

RIGHT NOW! (A WeDaPeoples Cabaret)

Nona Hendryx, Nelson George, and Citizen Reno team up for a night of music, comedy, poetry, and social commentary at the Harlem Stage Gatehouse

Harlem Stage Gatehouse
150 Convent Ave. at West 136th St,
Saturday, September 17, $45, 7:30
212-281-9240
www.harlemstage.org

Writer, director, and cultural critic Carl Hancock Rux has brought together three uniquely talented individuals for Right Now!, a WeDaPeoples Cabaret taking place September 17 at the Harlem Stage Gatehouse. Funk/rock/soul/R&B legend Nona Hendryx, comedian Citizen Reno, and award-winning writer and filmmaker Nelson George will come together to examine social and individual identity in our highly politicized and increasingly fragmented world. Trenton’s Hendryx will feature songs from her brand-new, politically charged Mutadis, Mutandis album (her first full-length record in nearly twenty years), Brooklyn’s George will honor the life and career of poet-activist Gil Scott-Heron (including introducing a short film by Rux about the recently deceased Heron), and New York City native Reno will look at the events of 9/11 and their aftermath as only she can.

EMIL & FRIENDS

Fans can say hello as they behold Emil & Friends celebrate new album at Piano’s on Thursday night

Piano’s
158 Ludlow St.
Thursday, September 15, $8, 9:00
212-505-3733
wwwww.myspace.com/emilandfriends
www.pianosnyc.com

Celebrating the upcoming release of Lo & Behold (Cantora, October 11, 2011), the follow-up to last year’s Downed Economy, Boston native Emil Hewitt, now a Williamsburgian who fronts Emil & Friends, will lead the band in the final night of its September residency at Piano’s on Thursday night at 9:00. The new record ranges from fresh, bright pop to funky R&B to fashionable indie rock on such tracks as “Crystal Ball,” “Prescriptions,” and “Lo & Behold.” On “Endless Waves,” the band says “hello,” and you can do the same at this show that says goodbye to summer and their residency. Also on the bill are Fort Lean (8:00), Echo-Friendly (10:00), and Thunder and Lightning (11:00).

CARLITO CARVALHOSA: SUM OF DAYS

Carlito Carvalhosa’s “Sum of Days” is a palimpsestual participatory treat for the eyes and ears (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Museum of Modern Art
The Donald B. and Catherine C. Marron Atrium, second floor
11 West 53rd St. between Fifth & Sixth Aves.
Wednesday – Monday, $22.50 ($12 can be applied to the purchase of a film ticket within thirty days)
212-708-9400
www.moma.org
sum of days slideshow

For his “Sum of Days,” Brazilian artist Carlito Carvalhosa has created a palimpsestual participatory passageway in MoMA’s Marron Atrium that is more than initially meets the eyes — and ears. Sheets of white translucent fabric hang down from the high ceiling, forming a mazelike twisting walkway lined with a series of dangling speakers and microphones at different heights, recording current ambient sound while playing back the sounds of the installation’s previous days, melding everything together into a symphonic cacophony of the piece’s past and present, with the older sounds fading away in the background. Just as it’s hard to differentiate among the various noises and make out actual words, people’s vision is also impacted by the long sheets, which turn other visitors into shadowy figures walking by like ghosts. Many people go through the installation very quickly, but you should take your time, letting the sights and sounds envelop you for an energizing, ethereal experience. Once a week through November 10, a special sixty-to-ninety-minute musical performance will take place within the exhibition, but while MoMA has announced the lineup — Lisa Bielawa, David Crowell, Jon Gibson, Philip Glass, Carla Kihlstedt, Michael Riesman, Mick Rossi, and Andrew Sterman — the concerts will be announced on the actual day of the event via MoMA’s Twitter feed (@MuseumModernArt), although we can tell you that the first one is scheduled for September 15.

MOVIES ON THE SQUARE: ALL SINGING! ALL DANCING! ALL NEW YORK!

Milos Forman’s HAIR, set in Central Park, will kick off free musical film series in Washington Square Park

Washington Square Park
September 15, 19, 22, free, half hour after sunset
www.ifccenter.com
www.nycgovparks.org

NYU and the IFC Center are celebrating the renovations in Washington Square Park with three nights of film screenings that also say goodbye to summer. “Movies on the Square: All Singing! All Dancing! All New York!” begins on September 15 with Milos Forman’s 1979 cinematic version of the revolutionary Broadway musical Hair, starring John Savage, Treat Williams, and Beverly D’Angelo as part of a group of hippies and a straitlaced draftee hanging out in Central Park, pontificating about life, love, and the Vietnam War. On September 19, Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, and Jules Munshin (who?) are three sailors going out on the town in Kelly and Stanley Donen’s decidedly Hollywood-ized version of the Leonard Bernstein/Comden & Green musical On the Town, featuring the classic “New York, New York.” The series closes on September 22 with Charlie Ahearn’s pivotal 1983 graffiti party, Wild Style, which includes appearances by street-art legends in addition to a seminal hip-hop soundtrack.