this week in music

JUMP INTO THE GOSPEL

Jump into the Gospel is playing a Wednesday-night residency at Piano’s in June

Piano’s
158 Ludlow St.
Wednesday, June 15, 22, 29, $8-$10, 10:00
212-505-3733
wwwww.myspace.com/jumpintothegospel
www.pianosnyc.com

No, Jump into the Gospel is not a religious fundamental group trying to recruit new conservative zealots. Instead, it’s a crew of five dudes who play exhilarating synth power pop rooted in ’80s grandiosity. And rather than striving for the ultimate redemption, they only want what most of us do: a little wealth and success. “I like my investments / I want my humvee mansion / I steal all the children / goddamn, I need a pension,” Louis Epstein declares on the funky “Humvee Mansion,” from their self-titled debut EP that came out this past February (and is available for free download here). On “Photovoltaic,” guitarists Epstein and Ben Vescovi, bassist Lakis Pavlou, drummer Chris Stein, and keyboardist Erik Tonnesen play a ridiculously catchy hook that you’ll swear you’ve heard before, but don’t think too hard about it and just let it take you away. On their recently released pre-apocalyptic single, “2012,” Epstein sings, “The end’s not your friend”; no, for this up-and-coming New York City band, the beginning is looking a lot friendlier. JITG will be continuing a 10:00 Wednesday-night residency at Piano’s, where they’ll be playing June 15 with Imaginary Cities, the Stationary Set, Living Days, and the Twees, June 22 with Sleepy Vikings, the Stationary Set, the Rassle, and Prospector, and June 29 with Evan Donahue, Sleepy Vikings, the Stationary Set, Fort Lean, and the Hussle Club.

BIG APPLE BARBECUE BLOCK PARTY

Perhaps the weather will cut down the ridiculously long lines at annual Big Apple Barbecue in Madison Square Park (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Madison Square Park
23rd to 26th Sts. between Fifth & Madison Aves.
Saturday, June 11, and Sunday, June 12, 11:00 am – 6:00 pm
Admission: free; $8 per plate of barbecue, $4 per dessert
www.bigapplebbq.org
www.madisonsquarepark.org

When it first began nine years ago, we were instantly addicted to the Big Apple Barbecue Block Party, in which BBQ experts from around the country offered their delectable delights in a city starving for good ’cue. But soon the crowds became so ridiculous, the lines hours and hours long, that it just wasn’t worth it. And then the Union Square Hospitality Group, which sponsors the event in Madison Square Park, began selling a Fastpass a few years ago, a ticket that allows you to pay extra to cut the line — and then those lines started getting long as well. It all left a bad taste in the mouth, but we’re willing to give it another shot, all in the anticipation of fine barbecue; we’re also thinking that maybe the weather will keep a lot of people away. This year’s pitmasters include Joe Duncan from Baker’s Ribs in Dallas (St. Louis-style ribs), Mike Emerson from Pappy’s Smokehouse in St. Louis (baby back ribs), Chris Lilly from Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Q in Decatur (pulled pork shoulder), Patrick Martin from Martin’s Bar-B-Que Joint in Nashville (western Tennessee-style whole hog), the ever-popular Mike Mills of 17th Street Bar & Grill in Murphysboro (baby backs), Raleigh’s Ed Mitchell (whole hog, all-natural whole turkey barbecue), Jimmy Hagood from BlackJack Barbecue in Charleston (pulled pork shoulder), Tommy Houston from the Checkered Pig in Danville (St. Louis-style ribs), Myron Nixon from Jack’s Old South in Unadilla (beef brisket), Garry Roark from Ubon’s Barbeque of Yazoo (pulled pork shoulder), Drew Robinson from Jim ‘N’ Nick’s Bar-B-Q in Birmingham (smoked sausage), and Michael Rodriguez from the Salt Lick Bar-B-Que in Driftwood (beef brisket sausage). There are also several booths from New York City, but we never understand why people would wait two or three hours to get a small plate of food from a restaurant they can go to anytime they want. Bambi Kino, Guitar Shorty, and Dale Watson will perform on Saturday, with Doug Wamble, Those Darlins, and Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears playing on Sunday. Among the free seminars are “Corn: The Great Comrade,” “Dips & Drinks,” “The Raw Deal: Killer Sides from Raw Ingredients,” “Southern Living Fourth of July Feast,” “Kentucky Toast,” and “To Live and Die in Avoyelles Parish.”

BROOKLYN FOLK FESTIVAL 2011

Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition (BWAC)
499 Van Brunt St.
June 10-12, $20 per day, $55 weekend pass
718-596-2506
www.brooklynfolkfest.com

Brooklyn’s vibrant grass-roots music scene is on display this weekend at the third annual Brooklyn Folk Festival, which will feature both old-school performers from the golden age of 1960s folk as well as newer acts, with styles spanning the folk spectrum, from bluegrass and old-time string band to jug band, acoustic blues, and world music from Africa, Mexico, and Eastern Europe. The festival got under way Friday night at atmospheric local hot spot Jalopy with a full lineup that included such legends as Peter Stampfel and Tommy “Uncle Monk” Ramone in addition to the prolific Feral Foster, host of the venue’s weekly free “Roots and Ruckus” series. On Saturday and Sunday the action shifts to the Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition, a spacious gallery located in a Civil War-era warehouse at the end of Van Brunt St. in Red Hook. The diverse roster of musicians appearing throughout each afternoon and into the evening reads like a veritable who’s who of local talent. Among the many acts performing are Brooklyn’s reunited Roulette Sisters, acclaimed bluesman “Blind Boy” Paxton, the infectious male/female amplified guitar ‘n’ drums duo Boom Chick, and North Carolinian banjo player Clifton Hicks, who specializes in traditional Appalachian mountain music. There will also be screenings of films by John Cohen and from the archives of Alan Lomax (free with day or weekend pass), a Hazel Dickens Singing Workshop, Beginning and Intermediate Old Time Jamming with Alan Friend, Songs of the Sea and Tavern group singing with Heather Wood, and Banjo: Tunings and Styles in Old Time Music with Down Home radio host Eli Smith, each an additional $10.

EGG ROLLS & EGG CREAMS ’11

The Chinese and Jewish communities of the Lower East Side will come together for annual Egg Rolls & Egg Creams Festival on Eldridge St. (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Museum at Eldridge Street
12 Eldridge St. between Canal & Division Sts.
Sunday, June 12, 12 noon – 4:00 pm
Admission: free
212-219-0302
www.eldridgestreet.org

The eleventh annual Egg Rolls & Egg Creams block party will bring together the Jewish and Chinese communities of the Lower East Side on June 12 for what is always a fun day of food and drink, live music and dance, history, culture, and lots more. Among the highlights of the festival are the kosher egg creams and egg rolls, yarmulke and challah workshops, tea ceremonies, a genealogy clinic, Yiddish and Chinese lessons, Hebrew and Chinese calligraphy classes, mah jongg, cantorial songs, Jewish paper cutting and Chinese paper folding, face painting, and free tours (in English and Chinese) of the wonderfully renovated Eldridge St. Synagogue, which now boasts the East Window designed by Kiki Smith and Deborah Gans. Last year’s performers, many of whom will be back again on Sunday, included the Chinatown Senior Center Folk Orchestra, Qi Shu Fang’s Peking Opera, the Shashmaqam Bukharan Jewish Cultural Group, Ray Muziker Klezmer Ensemble, and Cantor Eric Freeman.

RADIAN

Radian will be in Brooklyn on June 8 for a rare show

Union Pool
484 Union Ave. at Meeker Ave.
Wednesday, June 8, $15, 9:00
718-609-0484
www.myspace.com/radianvienna
http://unionpool.blogspot.com

Austrian trio Radian creates fascinating cinematic soundscapes bult on layers of ambient electronic noise and acoustic and amplified instrumentation. Featuring Mosz Records cofounder Stefan Németh on guitars and synthesizers, John Norman on bass, and Martin Brandlmayr on drums, vibraphones, samples, and editing, Radian restructures, reorganizes, and rearranges its sound into a palimpsest through computer manipulation on such records as 2000’s TG11, 2002’s Rec.Extern, and 2004’s Juxtaposition, but they take it to a whole new level on their most recent disc, 2009’s Chimeric (Thrill Jockey). The six-track LP is, according to the band, “not a polished album. Within our context it is raw, broken, even dark sometimes. . . . A lot on this album is about control and the loss of control. The risk of failure.” Songs such as “Feedbackmikro / City Lights,” “Git Cut Derivat,” and “Kinetakt” move in and out of fractured chaos, powered by Brandlmayr’s ecstatic percussion. The songs twist and turn around quiet, even silent passages, always on the cusp of an explosion that never quite takes place. You can catch Radian tempt chaos, loss of control, and the risk of failure when it comes to Brooklyn for a rare show June 8 at Union Pool with Sawyer/Yeh/Wooley Trio and Koen Holthamp.

UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF LE TIGRE: WHO TOOK THE BOMP? LE TIGRE ON TOUR

Le Tigre concert documentary will screen June 7 at the Maysles Institute, with Kathleen Hanna, Johanna Fateman, and director Kerthy Fix on hand to discuss the film and more

WHO TOOK THE BOMP? LE TIGRE ON TOUR (Kerthy Fix, 2010)
Maysles Cinema
343 Malcolm X Blvd. between 127th & 128th Sts.
Tuesday, June 7, $10, 7:30
212-582-6050
www.mayslesinstitute.org
www.letigreworld.com

In 1961, Barry Mann and Gerry Goffin wrote, “I’d like to thank the guy / who wrote the song / that made my baby / fall in love with me.” The title of that be-bop song, “Who Put the Bomp,” inspired one of music’s first fanzines and later the punk record label Bomp! Records. In their 1999 song “Deceptacon,” the riot grrrl group Le Tigre flipped that question around, asking, “Who took the bomp from the bompalompalomp? / Who took the ram from the ramalamadingdong?” In the song they also dare, “Let me hear you depoliticise my rhyme.” Formed in 1998 by former Bikini Kill leader Kathleen Hanna, zine writer Johanna Fateman, and visual artist Sadie Benning, who was replaced in 2000 by DJ and projectionist JD Samson, Le Tigre challenged the male-dominated world of rock and punk, championing individuality and sexual freedom while redefining gender roles. In 2004, Hanna, Fateman, and Samson set out on a world tour in support of their third and final album, This Island, and asked their lighting designer, Carmine Covelli, to capture it all on film. The result is the engaging Who Took the Bomp? Le Tigre on Tour, in which Covelli and director Kerthy Fix go onstage, backstage, and behind the scenes as the influential trio heads across four continents and ten countries, playing exciting live shows, meeting the media, taking pictures with Slipknot, revealing what they pack in their luggage, exercising in the gym, and talking about facial hair. They also discuss more serious issues such as gender identity, lesbianism, and their DIY mentality, which flew in the face of the music industry. The seventy-two-minute film, which features live multimedia performances of such songs as “Hot Topic,” “Keep on Livin’,” “Viz,” and “Deceptacon,” is screening on June 7 at 7:30 as part of the Maysles Institute’s monthly “Under the Influence of” series and will be followed by a Q&A with Fix, Hanna, and Fateman.

JOSHUA LIGHT SHOW: FULLDOME

Hayden Planetarium, American Museum of Natural History
Central Park West at 81st St.
June 3-5, $40, 8:00
212-769-5200
www.amnh.org
www.joshualightshow.com

“It’s random and improvised but not out of control,” Joshua White said following the June 2 rehearsal of his latest Joshua Light Show project, “Fulldome,” being presented this weekend at the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History. “We know what’s going to happen.” White, a native New Yorker, founded the Joshua Light Show in 1967, integrating light and music at Fillmore East concerts featuring such groups as the Doors, the Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, and the Grateful Dead. JLS music curator and producer Nick Hallett composed the score for the 360-degree “Fulldome,” with narration and vocals by Scissor Sister Ana Matronic (including a version of Jefferson Airplane’s “White Rabbit”), percussion by Laraaji and Z’EV, and drone, electronic noise, chamber opera, psychedelia, and other musical forays courtesy of Hallett, sound designer Jeff Cook, and Oneida. Ana Matronic also works the liquid light loops, mixing colored liquid onto slides under a microscope that is projected off a mirror and onto the circular ceiling, adding a sort of living element to the visual collage being unfolded. White, Ana Matronic, and fellow artists Alyson Denny, Seth Kirby, Brock Monroe, Doug Pope, Bec Stupak, and Gary Panter use old-fashioned analog techniques in addition to more modern computer technology (“Why? Because we can,” White said) to achieve the mesmerizing, kaleidoscopic, even forensic effects, building like a jazz band at first feeling one another out, then coming together in exciting solos, duets, and other combinations that feed your head and swallow you whole if you let them, which you most definitely should. “Fulldome,” a kind of fantasy that is part Fantastic Voyage, part “Journey to the Center of Your Mind,” taking you through space and deep underwater — as well as anywhere else you are ready to psychically travel — will be presented Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights at 9:00, preceded at 8:00 by an after-hours visit to the excellent interactive exhibition “Brain: The Inside Story.” Also, on June 4 at 6:00, the Joshua Light Show will be part of the World Science Festival program “Illuminating Light: The Journey of a Photon Through Time and Mind,” which will consist of a JLS performance, followed by a discussion with AMNH director of astrovisualization Carter Emmart, neuroscientist Joy Hirsch, and “Brain” curator Rob DeSalle ($15).