this week in music

MUSIC AT CASTLE CLINTON: PATTI SMITH

Patti Smith will be joined by her band for free July 14 show at Castle Clinton (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

RIVER TO RIVER FESTIVAL
Castle Clinton, Battery Park
Thursday, July 14, free, 7:00
212-835-2789
www.rivertorivernyc.com
www.pattismith.net

It’s been quite a year for Patti Smith. The New York City-based writer, poet, musician, and always captivating ethereal presence won the National Book Award for her moving, revealing memoir, Just Kids, which focused on her relationship with visual artist Robert Mapplethorpe, and in May she won Sweden’s prestigious Polar Music Prize. “By devoting her life to art in all its forms, Patti Smith has demonstrated how much rock ‘n’ roll there is in poetry and how much poetry there is in rock ‘n’ roll,” the award committee said in a statement. Over the last year, she’s given a series of intimate performances, including celebrating the fortieth anniversary of her seminal 1971 show at the Poetry Project by returning to the venue with Lenny Kaye and presenting a special program at the Morgan Library in conjunction with the exhibition “William Blake’s World: A New Heaven Is Begun.” She even recently guest-starred on an episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent. But she’ll be returning to her rock-and-roll roots on July 14 as she plays a free show with her band at Castle Clinton in Battery Park; tickets will be given out starting at 5:00 for the 7:00 concert, but you’re going to have to get there early if you want to grab one of the limited, coveted seats. Smith will also be participating in the Escape to New York three-day festival in Southampton on August 5 ($100, with Best Coast, Chairlift, Lissy Trulie, the Postelles, and the Static Jacks), and there are still some tickets left ($40) for “Patti Smith: Artist and Muse,” her December 2 tribute to Alfred Stieglitz and Georgia O’Keeffe at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where she’ll be performing with her daughter, pianist Jesse Smith. But there’s nothing quite like seeing her with her full band, rocking out to such classic songs as “Gloria,” “Because the Night,” “Frederick,” “Dancing Barefoot,” “Wicked Messenger,” “Waiting Underground,” “Peaceable Kingdom,” and “People Have the Power.”

WHITE HILLS RECORD RELEASE PARTY

Dave W. and White Hills will celebrate release of their latest album at Union Pool on July 14 (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Union Pool
484 Union Ave. at Meeker
Thursday, July 14, $8, 9:00
www.myspace.com/whitehills
www.unionpool.blogspot.com

White Hills are hopping mad. Frustrated by corporate control over government, the New York City-based space-rock trio blast away against the status quo on their latest record, the explosive H-p1 (Thrill Jockey, June 2011). Guitarist Dave W., bassist Ego Sensation, and drummer Lee Hinshaw let loose all over the disc, recorded in a two-day flurry in Williamsburg, joined by such special guests as Shazzula Nebula on synthesizers (seven tracks), Antronhy on drums and electronics (two), and Kid Millions on drums (two). Powering through a sea of psychedelic madness using a distortion box instead of a compressor and influenced by the Abstract Expressionists, While Hills surges through the subtly screeching twelve-minute “Paradise,” the hard-driving neo-classic rock of “Upon Arrival,” the ten-minute space-age “No Other Way.” Hard-to-decipher lyrics show up in three of the songs, floating in the background like another instrument. The album is bookended by the propulsive “The Condition of Nothing” and the massive title track, a seventeen-minute opus of rage and fury. “We can barely pay our rent each month but we are willing to pull out our credit cards and go into debt each time a new iPhone promises a better connection. The joke is on us,” explains Ego. “H-p1 is symbolic of the simplification of complex ideas to keep the masses from questioning the system.” A dark, exciting live band that often features Ego and Dave W. in wild costumes and face makeup, White Hills will be celebrating the release of H-p1 on July 14 at Union Pool with Man Forever (with Kid Millions) and Weird Owl. Prepare to be taken away into another galaxy.

SEASIDE SUMMER CONCERT SERIES: JOAN JETT AND THE BLACKHEARTS

Joan Jett and the Blackhearts will strut her impressive stuff at free Seaside Summer Concert Series in Coney Island on Thursday night

West 21st St. & Surf Ave.
Thursday, July 14, free, 7:30
Series continues Thursday nights through August 18
718-222-0600
www.brooklynconcerts.com
www.joanjett.com

Since she was a teenager in Maryland, Joan Jett has been showing how much she loves rock and roll, turning her Suzi Quatro obsession into a nearly forty-year career that has featured some of pop and punk’s most endearing classics. First with the Runaways and then with the Blackhearts, Jett has powered her way through a memorable collection of originals and covers, from “Cherry Bomb” and “Bad Reputation” to “Do You Wanna Touch Me (Oh Yeah)” and “Crimson and Clover,” from “Fake Friends” and “Everyday People” to “Little Liar” and “I Hate Myself for Loving You,” from “Light of Day” and “Love Is Pain” to “Bits and Pieces” and “Change the World.” Live she’s a bundle of furious energy, sweating it up in a bikini top that reveals her taut figure. Although she’s released only one studio album since 1995, the 2006 record Sinner, which included such tracks as “Naked” and “Androgynous” (and several collaborations with riot grrrl Kathleen Hanna), she never feels like a mere retro act, giving it all she’s got night after night. One of the legendary women of rock, Jett will be kicking off Marty Markowitz’s free Seaside Summer Concert Series this Thursday night with Girl in a Coma at 7:30 at West 21st St. & Surf Ave., next to the Brooklyn Cyclones’ MCU Park in Coney Island. The series, which has moved from its previous location in Brighton Beach’s Asser Levy Park because of problems with the local community, continues through August 18 with such groups as the Monkees, the Spinners, and Cheap Trick.

BASTILLE DAY FÊTE

60th St. between Fifth & Lexington Aves.
Sunday, July 11, free, 12 noon – 6:00 pm
www.bastilledaynyc.com
www.fiaf.org

On July 14, 1789, a Parisian mob stormed the Bastille prison, a symbolic victory that kicked off the French Revolution and the establishment of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. Ever since, July 14 has been a national holiday celebrating liberté, égalité, and fraternité. In New York City, the festivities take place along Sixtieth St., where the French Institute Alliance Française hosts a daylong party of food, music, dance, and other special activities. There will be tastings ($8-$15) inside FIAF, including wine and cheese, cocktails, and beer; a Citroën car show; live performances by Veveritse, Cancan Dancers, Pierre de Gaillande, Gay Marshall doing Edith Piaf, Les Chauds Lapins, Malika Zarra, accordionist Harlan Muir, Les Sans Culottes, and Banda Magda; storytelling by Michèle Voltaire Marcelin; such races as the stationary Tour de France and the Garçons de Café; free language and food workshops; a children’s pétanque contest, arts and crafts, face painting, and kids’ games; raffles and drawings; and, this being a French fair, a mime act.

SEAPORT MUSIC FESTIVAL: TED LEO AND THE PHARMACISTS / SCREAMING FEMALES

Ted Leo and the Pharmacists and Screaming Females should be a scream tonight at the South Street Seaport (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

South Street Seaport, Pier 17
Saturday, July 9, free, 6:30
www.seaportmusicfestival.com
www.tedleo.com

For the past ten years, indie punk icon Ted Leo has been playing an annual free show in New York City, from Siren and RiverRocks to Castle Clinton, the McCarren Park pool, and the South Street Seaport. Tonight, Leo and his band, the Pharmacists, are back at Pier 17, headlining the official kick-off show for next Saturday’s 4Knots Music Festival, which features the Black Angels, Titus Andronicus, Davila 666, Oberhofer, Mr. Dream, and Eleanor Friedberger. Tonight at the Seaport, Leo will be celebrating the tenth anniversary of The Tyranny of Distance by playing the record in its entirety. “The whole album’s like an Irish wake to me,” he writes on his website about looking back at the making of the disc, “and what happened afterward surprised me more than anybody!” He also explains, “It’s become a bit of an urban legend that we bring ten plagues down upon the city every time we play an outdoor summer show, but it’s really just storms (and a blackout). No locust or Angel of Death. And it’s actually not just limited to New York City. AND it’s actually not true.” In addition to such Tyranny tracks as “Biomusicology,” “Dial Up,” “The Great Communicator,” and “You Could Die (Or This Might End),” Leo will be playing other songs from throughout his solid career. And be sure not to miss the opening band, the great New Jersey outfit Screaming Females, led by wicked guitarist and chief screamer Marissa Paternoster, who joined Leo onstage at last year’s Siren Festival in Coney Island.

RED BULL CREATION: ENERGY IN MOTION

Brooklyn’s own NYC Resistor has made it to the finals of the Red Bull Creation competition, being held Sunday in McCarren Park

McCarren Park
North 12th St. at Bedford Ave., Williamsburg
Sunday, July 10, free, 3:00 – 7:00
www.redbullusa.com

The future will unfold on Sunday afternoon as sixteen teams will gather in McCarren Park for the finals of the Red Bull Creation challenge. Each team, including Brooklyn’s own Buildface, NYC Resistor, and Alpha One Labs, has been given seventy-two hours to design something that can move a one-hundred-pound person from point A to point B, without the use of fossil fuels. The only other rules involve incorporating an Arduino controller and keeping the size of the creation somewhere between a bread box and a box truck. The bulk of the work is currently taking place in a hackerspace laboratory, with the results being displayed on Sunday between 3:00 and 7:00 in the former public pool and concert venue in Williamsburg. Judging how “useful, imaginative, and inspiring” each creation is will be Hackett, Simone Davalos, Flash Hopkins, and Glenn Derenie, deciding who goes home with cash and technological tools. The free event will also feature live performances from That 1 Guy at 4:50 and Eclectic Method at 6:20.

MEGAN REILLY

Megan Reilly will be featuring songs from her upcoming album at two local shows (photo by Godlis)

Thursday, July 7, Lakeside Lounge, 162 Ave. B, free, 9:00
Saturday, July 16, the Living Room, 154 Ludlow St., 10:00
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. Reilly, a mesmerizing live performer who gets lost in her powerful songs, will be at the Lakeside Lounge on July 7 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). Reilly will also be playing July 16 at 10:00 at the Living Room. For our recent twi-ny talk with Reilly and Mastro, click here.