this week in music

RYAN TRECARTIN: ANY EVER

Ryan Trecartin’s “Any Ever” consists of unique viewing environments in which to watch his rather unique films (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

MoMA PS1
22-25 Jackson Ave. at 46th Ave.
Thursday – Monday through September 5, 12 noon – 6:00 pm
Suggested admission: $10 (free for MoMA ticket holders within thirty days of ticket)
718-784-2084
www.ps1.org
summer open house sneak peek

Texas native Ryan Trecartin has come along at just the right time, the go-to artist for the YouTube / reality TV generation. The thirty-year-old multimedia artist makes color-drenched, amateurish films featuring himself and his friends in wacky outfits, speaking in high-pitched voices as they comment on various sociopolitical themes in crazy ways. For “Any Ever,” his exhibition at PS1 that continues through September 3, Trecartin has created individual viewing environments for seven of his films created between 2007 and 2010 in Miami, made in collaboration with Lizzie Fitch. Divided into two sections, Trill-ogy Comp, consisting of K-CoreaINC.K (section a), Sibling Topics (section a), and P.opular S.ky (section ish), and Re’Search Wait’S, comprising Ready, The Re’Search, Roamie View: History Enhancement, and Temp Stop, the exuberant films are set amid a partying world that celebrates gender identity and individuality while attacking global corporate culture, transumerism, and market research. The works are projected in sculptural viewing areas that often incorporate elements of the films, including airline seats, a white conference table, bleachers, comfortable raised couches, and other playful milieus. With “Any Ever,” Trecartin has created a loud, frenetic, in-your-face world that is one heckuva fun party, even if it gets repetitive when taken in all at once.

Don’t let the calm, relaxing entrance area fool you; Ryan Trecartin’s “Any Ever” multimedia installation is about to get a lot crazier (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

On August 31, MoMA PS1 will host a PopRally closing party for the exhibit, with MC Akeem_Ouch, live performances by AraabMUZIK, Glass Popcorn, and #HDBOYZ, guided tours of the show led by Veronica Gelbaum (who plays “Ready” in Re’Search Wait’S), appearances by Spicee Cajun, Raul de Nieves as Lindsay Lohan, DJs Telfar, Physical Therapy, and Fatima Al Qadiri, and other very strange guests. You can also catch “Any Ever” — as well as “Francis Alÿs: A Story of Deception” (through September 12) and “Summer School presents Gus Van Sant and James Franco: My Own Private River” (through August 29) — at the final Warm Ups of the season, with Tanlines, NguzuNguzu, Teengirl Fantasy, Sun Araw, and Physical Therapy on August 27 (which has just been canceled, as PS1 will be closed on Saturday and Sunday because of Hurricane Irene) and Horse Meat Disco, Midnight Magic, Justin Miller, and BICEP on September 3, taking place in Interboro Partners’ “Holding Pattern” courtyard installation.

STEPHEN MALKMUS AND THE JICKS: FREE ACOUSTIC IN-STORE PERFORMANCES

Thursday, August 25
Academy Annex, 95 North Sixth St., 718-218-8200, 6:00
Other Music, 15 East Fourth St., 212-477-8150, 9:00
www.matadorrecords.com

On “Tigers,” the opening track on Mirror Traffic (Matador, August 23, 2011), the brand-new album from Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks, Malkmus sings, “Trust me because I’m worth hating.” We’ve been trusting the king of indie pop since the early 1990s, when he was blowing our minds with such records as Slanted & Enchanted and Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain as leader of the seminal band Pavement. We hated when that group broke up, but they recently got back together and are rereleasing expanded editions of their classic discs, so it’s all good again. It’s also good that Malkmus’s fifth album with the Jicks, which currently also includes guitarist Mike Clark, bassist Joanna Bolme, and drummer Jake Morris, is another terrific effort, filled with pop gem after pop gem. On “Senator,” Malkmus may claim, “My duty to the Republique / is to use double speak because the Halo’s off,” but there’s little double speak by the indie god on these fifteen songs, from “No One (Is As I Are Be)” and “Brain Gallop” to “Stick Figures in Love” and “Gorgeous Georgie.” The songs travel all over the indie spectrum, sometimes within a single song, courtesy of another indie god, Beck, who produced the record. Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks will be at Terminal 5 on September 26 with Holy Sons, but you don’t have to wait that long to see them, as they’ll be doing free in-store acoustic performances on August 25 at Academy Annex in Williamsburg at 6:00 and Other Music at 9:00, first come, first served. And as of this posting on August 24, you can stream the new album for free on NPR by clicking here.

U.S. OPEN QUALIFYING TOURNAMENT & MORE

The U.S. Open will turn on the lights for this year’s qualifying tournament August 23-27 — and admission is free (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Billie Jean King National Tennis Center
Flushing Meadows Corona Park
Qualifying tournament: August 23-27, free
Arthur Ashe Kids’ Day: August 28, $10-$44
U.S. Open Championship: August 29 – September, $52 – $1,013
www.usopen.org
www.nywatertaxi.com/tennis-ferry

The draws are just about to be announced for the 2011 U.S. Open, which runs August 29 through September 11, but you don’t have to wait until then to see some fine tennis. The qualifying tournament gets under way today at 11:00 am and continues through Friday, with 128 men and 128 women from around the world trying to play their way into the annual championship, and admission is free, a far cry from the lofty prices for the real deal beginning next week. You can also get ready by attending Saturday’s sixteenth annual Arthur Ashe Kids’ Day, with special children’s activities, autograph sessions, tennis clinics, and appearances by tennis stars as well as actor Bradley Cooper and Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony and musical performances by Jason Derulo, Cody Simpson, Diggy Simmons, Jessica Jarrell, Mindless Behavior, Girls Nite Out, Action Item, Jacob Latimore, and others. And on Sunday, the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center will be open for free, allowing fans to walk the grounds and check out the players getting in their final practices before the tournament gets under way on Monday. To continue the less expensive side of the U.S. Open, Delta has teamed up with New York Water Taxi to offer free Tennis Taxi rides from the South Street Seaport and East 35th St. throughout the championship (August 29 – September 11), leaving twice a day, at 9:30/9:45 and 5:30/5:45, with large-screen TVs on board and special cocktails available. (If you want to guarantee a seat, you can reserve a ticket online for a $1 fee.)

CROOKED FINGERS: BREAKS IN THE ARMOR

Crooked Fingers’ Breaks in the Armor is due from Merge Records on October 11 and the band will be at Maxwell’s on November 3 and Mercury Lounge on November 4, but you can check out the album trailer above right now. For more on Crooked Fingers, click here.

BLUES BBQ 2011

New Orleans funksters Bonerama headline August 21 Blues BBQ on Pier 54

Hudson River Park, Pier 54
West 14th St. & the Hudson River
Sunday, August 21, free, 2:00 – 9:00
www.hudsonriverpark.org

Rain or shine, the twelfth annual Blues BBQ will be held this afternoon on Pier 54 in Hudson River Park, featuring a slew of good eats and good music. Blues performances kick off at 2:30 with Marquise Knox, followed by Diana Braithwaite & Chris Whiteley (3:45), Walter Trout (5:00), Shakura S’Aida (6:15), and New Orleans brass funk rockers Bonerama (7:30), who have been known to cover such great tunes as the Beatles’ “Helter Skelter” and “Yer Blues,” Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World,” Fats Domino’s “I’m Walkin’” and “Let the Four Winds Blow,” the Allman Brothers’ “Whipping Post,” and the Grateful Dead jam “The Other One > Dark Star.” Providing the smoked meat treats are such local favorites as Brother Jimmy’s BBQ, Daisy Dukes BBQ, Dinosaur Bar-B-Que, and Ember Room.

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.