this week in music

HARLEM DAY: NEW YORK, NEW YORK

Sunday, August 21, 10:00 am – 7:00 pm
West 135th St. between Fifth Ave. & Malcolm X Blvd.
www.harlemweek.com

Harlem Week, which actually runs through July and August, presents Harlem Day on Sunday, featuring a full slate of diverse activities, most of them free, with the theme “New York, New York.” On the schedule are the Small Business Expo, the Upper Manhattan Auto Show, the International Exhibitors & Vendors Village, the NY City Health Village, and the NY City Children’s Festival. Among the live performances on the Fifth Ave. and St. Nicholas stages will be a thirtieth anniversary celebration of KISS-FM, with musical tributes hosted by Felix Hernandez, while the YMCA stage will include an Open Line KISS-FM radio broadcast, a Back to School fashion show, dance, spoken word, R&B, jazz, reggae, and more. Harlem Week continues this month with a Jazzmobile screening of Oscar Micheaux’s 1920 silent film Within Our Gates with a musical score by Wycliffe Gordon on Friday night at the Miller Theater, the Charlie Parker Jazz Festival on August 27 in Marcus Garvey Park with Toots Thielemans, James Carter, Tia Fuller, and Cecile McLorin Salvant, the ImageNation Outdoor Film Festival screening of the Michael Jackson film This Is It in St. Nicholas Park also on August 27, and several special Amateur Nights at the Apollo.

JEFF THE BROTHERHOOD

Jake Orrall, shredding it up last year at Santos Party House, will be at (le) poisson rouge with brother Jake on Sunday night (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

(le) poisson rouge
158 Bleecker St.
Sunday, August 21, $18, 7:00
212-228-4854
www.myspace.com/jeffthebrotherhood
www.lepoissonrouge.com

Nashville duo Jeff the Brotherhood, consisting of Orrall brothers Jamin on three drums and three cymbals and Jake on three-string guitar, play a dizzying blend of psychedelic postpunk garage power pop that explodes on record and onstage. Making music since their high school days ten years ago, JTB is on the road in support of their latest disc, the instantaneously affecting We Are the Champions (Infinity Cat, June 2011), the follow-up to their 2009 breakthrough, Heavy Days. Featuring such killer tracks as “Cool Out,” “Bummer,” “Mellow Out,” “Stay Out Late,” and “Shredder” (and no hint anywhere of the overused Queen classic), the brothers Orrall, well, shred their way through thirty-four minutes of unabashed rock-and-roll fury, evoking the Ramones and the Replacements (and even Weezer) as they cut it loose and fast. On “Ripper” they repeat, “I don’t wanna,” but you’re definitely gonna wanna check them out when they play (le) poisson rouge on August 21, curiously sandwiched between legendary doom metal band Pentagram, which just released Last Rites, their first record in seven years, and North Carolina heavy metal acolytes Valient Thorr. When we saw JTB last year at Santos Party House, they tore the place apart, with Jake ripping it up on top of the bar and going deep into the crowd as Jamin kept pounding away on his kit. Sure, they’re playing on a Sunday night at LPR, but as they say on the new album, “I know everybody stays up late,” so don’t worry about work Monday morning and have a blast.

SUMMER STREETS 2011

Fifth annual Summer Streets program opens up thoroughfares from Park & 72nd to the Brooklyn Bridge (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Central Park to the Brooklyn Bridge
Saturday, August 20, 7:00 am – 1:00 pm
www.nyc.gov

The final of three Summer Streets days takes place today from 7:00 am to 1:00 pm, as walkers, runners, bike riders, joggers, skateboarders, and other people not using motorized vehicles (we’re not sure about Segways) can travel from Central Park to the Brooklyn Bridge without having to navigate through buses, taxis, cars, trucks, and other gas-guzzling traffic menaces. Beginning at Park Ave. & 72nd St. and making its way down Park Ave. to Lafayette St. before turning toward the bridge, Summer Streets will feature five rest stops with special activities, including tai chi classes, salsa and bachata lessons, and a live performance by Still Saffire at Park & 51st; safety demonstrations, a picnic area, and bike helmet giveaways at Park & 25th; a health and fitness zone at Astor Pl. & Lafayette; an adventure zone with a rock climbing wall, yoga, and flat fixing workshops at Spring St. & Lafayette; and sand sculpting, music and dance performances (Les Racquet, Still Saffire, NJ Nets Dancers, National Double Dutch League), and FringeNYC sneak peeks at Foley Square (Duane & Centre Sts.), among other events at each location. Even if you’re not interested in any of the special activities, just getting outside and looking down a Park Ave. filled with people enjoying the six hours of freedom is energizing and contagious.

ICEAGE

Scandinavian teenage postpunk quartet Iceage is back for two area shows promoting debut album

Saturday, August 20, Cake Shop, $10, 8:00
Monday, August 22, Mercury Lounge, $10, 9:30
www.myspace.com/egaeci

Speeding by at Ramones-like speed, Scandinavian postpunk quartet Iceage’s debut album, New Brigade (What’s Your Rupture?, June 2011), consists of eleven propulsive tracks that clock in at barely more than twenty-five minutes. The Danish teens play a furious mix of Joy Division, the Clash, the Pogues, and the Black Lips, adding in a flurry of black metal, on such songs as “White Rune,” “Teeth Crush,” “Total Drench,” and “Collapse.” Elias Bender Rønnenfelt sings in English, accompanied by Johan Surrballe Wieth on guitar, Jakob Tvilling Pless on bass, and Dan Kjaer Nielsen on drums. Chaotic flourishes power “Eyes” and “Broken Bone,” while a sirenlike wailing guitar sears across “Never Return.” And through it all, Nielsen’s slightly muffled, exhilarating drumming pounds away at your body. “I lie in a pool of spit and fear / But I won’t stay weak or hurt or shattered,” Rønnenfelt sings on the album closer, “You’re Blessed,” and it’s impossible not to get caught up in his youthful exuberance. Iceage will be playing Cake Shop on August 20 with YOU. and Frank (just Frank) and Mercury Lounge on August 22 with Hoax and Hank Wood and the Hammerheads.

PARKED! 2011

The Frites ‘n’ Meats truck is back on the street after suffering a terrible fire and will be at Saturday’s Parked! mobile food extravaganza at the South Street Seaport (Photo by twi-ny/mdr)

South Street Seaport
Saturday, August 20, free, 10:00 am – 9:00 pm
www.meanredproductions.com

Now in its fifth year, Parked!, an annual convergence of New York food trucks presented by Mean Red Productions, pulls into the South Street Seaport on Saturday after previous stops at BKLYN Yard and on Governors Island. From 10:00 am to 9:00 pm, thirty of the city’s finest gourmet mobile eateries will be offering a potpourri of international edible excellence, along with live music by Anais Mitchell, Naomi Shelton and the Gospel Queens, Two Man Gentlemen Band, and Mikey Palms, DJs, children’s activities (face painting, a temporary playground), cooking demonstrations, and more. If you’re worried about long lines, you can buy a $50 VIP pass that allows you access to an express lane, samples from any ten trucks, and one free drink, but it’s only good between 5:00 and 7:00, which makes no sense to us, but that’s the deal. (If they sell all five hundred passes, won’t that guarantee that there will be lines on the express lanes as well during that two-hour period?) Anyway, among the participating mobile vendors are main course possibilities Big D’s Grub, Frites ‘n’ Meats (back on the street after a terrible fire), Feed Your Hole, Gorilla Cheese, Kimchi Taco, La Cense Burger, Desi, Red Hook Lobster Pound, Schnitzel and Things, Mexicue, Taime Falafel, and Valducci’s Pizza, such dessert choices as CoolHaus Ice Cream, the Cinnamon Snail, Van Leeuwen Ice Cream, Wafels & Dinges, the Cupcake Crew, and the Treats Truck, and such drink options as JoyRide, Kelvin Natural Slush Co., Green Pirate Juice, and Wooly’s Ice. In addition to their regular menus, the trucks will be selling specially selected items at five and eight dollars each. Bon appétit!

VANS HOUSE PARTIES

Tokyo Police Club headlines one of the final Vans House Parties of the summer

25 Franklin St., Brooklyn
Thursday, August 18, and Wednesday, August 24, free with RSVP, 7:00
www.vans.com

The fashion company Vans, sponsor of the annual Warped Tour, has also been hosting a series of free concerts on Franklin St. in Brooklyn all summer long. Among the bands who have played one of these House Parties are No Age, Superchunk, Fucked Up, Screaming Females, and Man Man. The final two shows are being held August 18 with Tokyo Police Club, Against Me!, Big Freedia, Japanther, and Team Robespierre and August 24 with Converge, Cold Cave, and All Pigs Must Die. Advance RSVPs are a must via the above website, but that doesn’t guarantee entry, which is still first come, first served.

ALEX WINSTON: VELVET ELVIS

Alex Winston offers a taste of what to expect from her upcoming January full-length debut album with the tasty little Velvet Elvis EP, due out September 19 (HeavyRoc), which includes two versions of “Velvet Elvis” as well as the new “Fire Ant.” On the title track she sings, “Ma said I ain’t right / Clutching on you all night / But you’re my, you’re my guy / Elvis,” and we have to admit that whenever we hear the Detroit-born Winston, well, she’s our gal. Keep watching twi-ny for information on when her tour comes to town.