this week in music

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.

EVERYDAY SUNSHINE: THE STORY OF FISHBONE

Angelo Moore and Norwood Fisher are the heart and soul of Fishbone (photo by Erin Flynn)

EVERYDAY SUNSHINE: THE STORY OF FISHBONE (Lev Anderson & Chris Metzler, 2010)
reRun Gastropub Theater
147 Front St. between Jay & Pearl Sts., Brooklyn
October 7-13
718-766-9110
www.fishbonedocumentary.com
www.reruntheater.com

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 has its New York theatrical premiere October 7-13 at the reRun Gastropub Theater in Brooklyn in conjunction with the release of Fishbone’s latest release, the seven-track EP Crazy Glue (DC-Jam, October 11, 2011). Metzler, Anderson, Moore, and Fisher will appear in person at many of this weekend’s screenings, at least one of which will also include a live performance.

ROCK ‘N’ ROLL NEVER FORGETS: DENNIS ELSAS

Dennis Elsas will take audience on audiovisual ride through his life and career in radio at 92YTribeca

A MULTIMEDIA JOURNEY THROUGH THE PERSONAL ARCHIVES OF DENNIS ELSAS
92YTribeca
200 Hudson St. at Canal St.
Tuesday, October 4, $18, 7:00
212-415-5500
www.denniselsas.com
www.92y.org

Back in the 1970s and ’80s, WNEW-FM had one of the all-time-great DJ lineups, with such musical stalwarts and wily veterans as Scott Muni, Dave Herman, Vin Scelsa, Pat St. John, Carol Miller, Pete Fornatale, and Dennis Elsas playing a mix of progressive and classic rock, pop, and folk. Elsas, who can currently be heard on SiriusXM Classic Vinyl and WFUV (along with Scelsa’s “Idiot’s Delight” and Fornatale’s “Mixed Bag”) and teaches the Rock Revolution in Music and Media graduate course at Fordham, will be giving a multimedia lecture on October 4 at 92YTribeca, talking about his musical history, from growing up listening to top-40 radio to being part of the progressive FM movement to interviewing living legends. Even if you don’t know him by name, you’ll recognize that soothing voice as soon as you hear it.

NATIONAL ADOPTION REUNION WITH GAVIN DeGRAW

Gavin DeGraw will be hanging out in Central Park with the animals on October 4, looking to set a Guinness World Record

Naumburg Bandshell, Central Park
Tuesday, October 4, free, 4:00 – 6:30
www.animalalliancenyc.org
www.gavindegraw.com

Gavin DeGraw isn’t about to let the awful attack he suffered in August in the East Village keep him down. The New York-based singer-songwriter behind such singles as “In Love with a Girl,” “We Belong Together,” and “I Don’t Want to Be” and such albums as Chariot (2003), Free (2009), and his latest, Sweeter (RCA, September 2011), is about to set off on a U.S. tour, but first he’ll be playing a free show October 4 at the Naumburg Bandshell in Central Park. The performance is part of Petco’s National Adoption Reunion, which is attempting to break the Guinness World Record for the Largest Gathering of Adopted Shelter Animals, currently at 250. To participate, just bring your pet (dogs must be on a leash, cats, rabbits, and other animals in a carrier) and proof of adoption from a shelter or rescue organization (the animal cannot have been purchased from a pet store or breeder) to the park at 4:00. There will also be dogs available for adoption on-site. National Adoption Reunion is the centerpiece of the third annual New York Week for the Animals, cosponsored by the Mayor’s Alliance for NYC’s Animals and which also includes such upcoming events as the New York Audubon Evening Autumn Migration Walk, a birding tour of Bryant Park, the workshop “Trap-Neuter-Return: How to Manage a Feral Cat Colony,” a Dogs Have Angels Too book signing and adoption with Sara Cavallaro, the second annual Anjellicle Cats Rescue Catbaret, the Pup Parade & Blessing of Animals for Veterans, a Creepy Creatures Weekend at the New York Botanical Garden, the second annual 5K Run for the Horses, and other special activities and adoption clinics through October 9.

ATLANTIC ANTIC

Atlantic Ave. between Hicks St. & Fourth Ave.
Sunday, October 2, free, 12 noon – 6:00 pm
www.atlanticave.org

It looks like it should be quite a beautiful day for the thirty-seventh annual Atlantic Antic, where more than one million people are expected to enjoy food, art, music, dance, and more along Atlantic Ave. in Brooklyn, from Hicks St. to Fourth Ave. On outdoor stages and inside bars and restaurants, you’ll be able to catch live performances by the Winsor Terrors, Les Sans Culottes, Charanga Soleil, the Dysfunctional Family Jazz Band, the Jack Grace Band, BR and Timebomb, the Black Coffee Blues Band, Alex Battles’ Whisky Rebellion, the Brotherhood of the Jug Band Blues, and many more. The afternoon also includes lots of family-friendly activities between Boerum Pl. & Smith St,, with pony rides, magicians, puppet shows, kids’ bands, face painting, inflatable rides, and plenty more. Among the participating establishments are the Chip Shop, the Waterfront Ale House, the Brazen Head, the Flying Saucer, Gumbo, and Hank’s Saloon, and there will be local booths galore selling all kinds of items you won’t find at standard street fairs. And for the eighteenth year, the New York Transit Museum is hosting the Bus Festival on Boerum Pl. between State St. & Atlantic Ave., featuring vintage buses, workshops, free tours, and other fun things.

BRING TO LIGHT: NUIT BLANCHE NEW YORK 2011

Marcos Zotes’s “CCTV/Creative Control” will look down on “Nuit Blanche” visitors from the Milton St. water tower (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Multiple locations throughout Greenpoint, Brooklyn
Saturday, October 1, free, 6:00 pm – 12 midnight
www.bringtolightnyc.org

Greenpoint will shine bright tonight for “Bring to Light: Nuit Blanche New York,” the second annual multimedia festival featuring site-specific projections and performance art in the gentrifying neighborhood. Begun ten years ago in Paris and now held in numerous cities around the world, “Nuit Blanche” celebrates the community in which it takes place; in the case of Greenpoint, an industrial zone that has seen an influx of artists (and hip bars, restaurants, and music clubs) over the last few years, “Nuit Blanche” seeks to build interest in expanding and opening up more of the waterfront to public use. In fact, executive director Ethan Vogt and director of operations Tom Peyton got the city to allow access, just for one night, to several areas that are usually closed to the public. “Bring to Light” consists of more than fifty installations scattered throughout Greenpoint, from a trio of Richard Serra videos from the 1960s and ’70s to Krzysztof Wodiczko’s “Veterans Flame Greenpoint” (footage of a flame flickering to Afghan war stories told by Polish and English-language veterans), from Jeremy Blake’s Winchester Trilogy to Raphaele Shirley’s light-and-water-based “Light Cloud on a Bender,” from Sean Boggs’s slide sequence “Passerby” to Jeff Desom’s panoramic restaging of Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window. Among the interactive performances are Rita Ackermann’s “A Backwards Walking Flash Mob,” in which one hundred participants will be filmed walking backward; Daniel Canogar’s “Asalto,” in which people are filmed crawling across a green screen, the results of which will be projected onto a tall building across the street, as if dozens of men, women, and children are climbing up the facade toward the heavens; and Ellis & Cuius’s “The Company,” in which visitors can walk under and around an arch of dangling Tungsten lightbulbs that react to sound and movement (and will host live performances in the space). If you take the East River Ferry from Thirty-fourth St., you’ll be greeted by Diller Scofidio + Renfro’s “Soft Sell,” a video of a large lipsticked mouth welcoming visitors to Greenpoint (and which was originally created for Times Square in 1993, just as it was about to undergo massive changes itself), and can later find Alex Villar’s “Splitting Image” in the park, about a commute on the ferry. And keep an eye out for Marcos Zotes’s “CCTV/Creative Control,” a projection of an enormous watching eye under the Milton St. water tower. There’s art just about everywhere you look, so grab a program, follow the map (or just walk around aimlessly), and enjoy what should be a fascinating and fun — and free — evening of unique and unusual art and architecture.