this week in music

TWI-NY TALK: TODAY THE MOON, TOMORROW THE SUN

Today the Moon, Tomorrow the Sun will go wild at Cameo Gallery on May 24 (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Cameo Gallery
93 North Sixth St.
Tuesday, May 24, $5, 8:00
718-302-1180
www.myspace.com/cameogallery
www.myspace.com/todaythemoontomorrowthesun

Today the Moon, Tomorrow the Sun’s debut full-length album, Wildfire (Avengeling, May 2011), is one of those records that just explodes out of the speakers and keeps reverberating in your head. After a brief, calm intro, “We Were Wild” blasts off in a blaze of synth and hard-rocking guitar as lead singer Lauren Gibson proclaims, “So if you’re not proud of / the cold that you’ve become / turn up the heat / pick up the pace with your feet.” TTMTTS has a lot to be proud of with Wildfire, a sizzling hot record that should get plenty of people picking up the pace with their feet. Featuring Gibson on guitar and keyboards, Cregg Gibson on guitar, Micah Silverman on bass and keyboards, and Jeremy Cole on drums and electronics, the band has been building a loyal fan base in their hometown of Atlanta and beyond with a series of EPs, including 2008’s striking Lightning, and such kick-ass songs as “Traits of a Traitor (Autonomic),” “Apologia,” “Like It or Not,” and “Never. Always. Good.” But they’ve reached a whole new level with Wildfire, fifty minutes of unrelenting thrills and chills. When Lauren sings, “The beast beats / you hear the sound / take your blood heat / you feel it now,” on “Old Monster,” just try not feeling the beast. TTMTTS will be at Cameo Gallery in Williamsburg on May 24 with She Keeps Bees, Ivana XL, and Little Insects.

twi-ny: Wildfire is a major step forward for you, your first full-length album after several EPs, and it features a much bigger, broader sound. Did you change the way you write and record with the longer LP in mind, or did you follow the same procedures of your earlier recordings?

TTMTTS: We definitely changed our approach this go-around. In the past, as songs were written we would play them live and record them pretty much how we played them live; so basically the newest songs we were playing out would become an EP every nine months or so. With Wildfire, we knew we wanted to write a full-length album. During the heat of the summer of 2010, we decided to take six weeks off the road and lock ourselves in our practice space/studio to write. We also wanted to try creating songs within a studio setting . . . doing as much preproduction work as we could, recording demos and listening back and writing more from there. We wanted to experiment with different sounds and instrumentation and dig a little deeper than we’ve been able to in the past.

twi-ny: So many great bands have come out of Atlanta in the last few years, including the Black Lips, Deerhunter, and Gringo Star. What’s in the water down there? Who are some of your favorite up-and-coming local groups?

TTMTTS: Pretty sure what’s in the water down here is PBR. There are a ton of great bands in the ATL. Since we’re on the road so much we unfortunately haven’t gotten to see quite a few that we’d like to. We’ll be in the studio a little more this summer and are hoping to catch a lot of live music while we’re in town. A few bands we have seen that we love (and I’m sure we’ll be forgetting some other greats) include: Jungol, Royal Thunder, Baby Baby, This Piano Plays Itself, Sealions, A: The Color, O’Brother, Mighty High Coup, the Booze, and the list goes on and on. . . .

twi-ny: You’re playing May 24 in Williamsburg. What kinds of things are you planning to do while you’re here?

TTMTTS: Finding cool, free things to do. Any suggestions? That, catching up with old friends, and LAUNDRY!

twi-ny: Of course, we suggest you check out This Week in New York for lots of cool, free things to do here in the city. Your name comes from what the Weekly World News claims would have been a Polish astronaut’s first words if Poland were the first country to put a man on the moon. What would come the day after tomorrow?

TTMTTS: Today is actually May 19, so forget the sun and the moon, the day after tomorrow is . . . the Rapture. ; )

TEDDY THOMPSON

Teddy Thompson will sing about love and heartbreak at City Winery on May 21 and 27

City Winery
155 Varick St. at Vandam St.
Saturday, May 21, $18-$28, 8:00
Friday, May 27, Off the Cuff w/ Friends, $18-$25, 8:00
212-608-0555
www.citywinery.com
www.myspace.com/teddythompson

Last year we were having trouble watching eclectic British singer-songwriter Richard Thompson perform solo at City Winery because the woman in front of us, who had a clear view, kept leaning over a railing, blocking us completely. After a little while, we decided to nicely ask her if she could stop doing that; when she turned to us, mouthing the words to the song Thompson was playing, our heart instantly froze as the woman we suddenly recognized to be Thompson’s former wife and singing partner, Linda Thompson, said in a friendly way, “I’m sorry. Of course. I’ve seen him enough. After all, I used to live with him, you know.” Richard and Linda Thompson produced some of the greatest records of the 1970s and 1980s, from I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight to Shoot Out the Lights. The relationship also produced the musical progeny known as Teddy Thompson, who has been releasing his own records since 2000, including Separate Ways (2005), Upfront & Down Low (2007), and A Piece of What You Need (2008). His latest, Bella (Verve, February 2011), is an intimate song cycle inspired by his most recent ex-girlfriend. (There seem to have been a lot of ex-girlfriends for the thirty-five-year-old musician.) Melding the folk-rock style of his father with the country twang of his mother, Thompson paints a searing portrait of love and loneliness through direct lyrics and boldly admitting his shortcomings when it comes to honesty and fidelity. “I been looking for a girl who drinks and smokes / Who takes a lot of drugs and can take a joke / Where does this girl of mine hide herself away / Whoever she is I hope she’s on her way,” he declares in the album’s opener, “Looking for a Girl.” Later, on “I Feel,” he admits, “There’s a road that I travel and it’s long and it’s narrow / Without signs along the way to take you home / You were there when I needed something to believe in / But I’ll only let you down and break your heart.” And on “Over and Over,” he confesses, “Some time ago I came up with a plan / Shit on myself so that no one else can / I have perfected this stance / You better keep your distance,” the last line echoing a song by his dad. The production is steeped in traditional country rhythms with flourishes of 1960s pop, with strings and Thompson’s falsetto voice evoking Roy Orbison (when not sounding, on several songs, like Jackson Browne); the album also features a lovely duet with another musical progeny, Jenni Muldaur, the daughter of Geoff and Maria Muldaur, on “Tell Me What You Want.” Born in London and living in New York City for the last decade, Thompson, with drummer Ethan Eubanks and bassist Jeff Hill, will be playing a pair of hometown shows at City Winery, on May 21 and, by popular demand, on May 27 for a show being billed as “Off the Cuff w/Friends.”

BNLX

BNLX is back for another pair of area shows

Friday, May 20 Piano’s, 158 Ludlow St., 212-505-3733, $7, 8:00
Saturday, May 21 Rock Shop, 249 Fourth Ave., 718-230-5740, $10, 10:30
www.myspace.com/bnlxmusic

As we wrote back in February, whenever a new pop band emerges from the shadows, the music industry rushes to pigeonhole them, but some groups defy categorization. The mysterious BNLX, who surfaced in 2010 in Minneapolis by releasing a series of four-track EPs in plain brown cardboard packages, is one such band. Just a look at the songs they covered on BNLX4 makes you scratch your head in wonder: Can’s “Soul Desert,” Rhianna’s “Shut Up and Drive,” Black Flag’s “Rise Above,” and a smokin’ version of fellow Minneapolis native Prince’s “When Doves Cry.” Led by husband-and-wife-team Ed Ackerson and Ashley Ackerson, who run the Minneapolis label Susstones, BNLX plays joyful pop built around groovy synths and fuzzy guitars, evoking such forerunners as X, the B-52s, Norman Greenbaum, and Cracker in such rave-ups as “Do Without,” “Where Is the Love,” and “Frogger.” The impossibly infectious “Blue and Gold” is one of the most beautifully crafted pop songs of last year; when Ed sings, “I’ve been here before,” you might think you have too, but you haven’t. The BNLX First One Year Plan continues with the release of BNLX5, another outstanding collection of fine tunage, described by the band as “four ‘music’ compositions expressing Nordic, Gallic, Tri State, and West Coast idioms.” The quartet of power-pop gems are laden with catchy hooks; Ed Ackerson even channels Morrissey on the too-cool “Garbage Strike.” The EP concludes with a ridiculously amazing version of Ice Cube’s “It Was a Good Day” that we’ve had on repeat play all week. BNLX, consisting of e.a., a.a., knobby, and blinky, will be at Piano’s on May 20 at 10:00 with Kleenex Girl Wonder (8:00), Thunder and Lightning (9:00), Creepoid (11:00), Fantan (12 midnight), and Arpline (1:00) and at the Rock Shop in Brooklyn on May 21 with Black Onassis. We can’t wait for BNLX6.

LYKKE LI

Lykke Li lit up Webster Hall on May 17 (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Webster Hall
125 East 11th St. between Second & Third Aves.
Wednesday, May 18, $30, 8:00
www.websterhall.com
www.myspace.com/lykkeli

Swedish sensation Li Lykke Timotej Zachrisson lit up Webster Hall on May 17, returning to New York City to celebrate the release of her long-awaited second album, Wounded Rhymes (Atlantic, March 1). An intoxicating blend of Stevie Nicks and Sinead O’Connor, the twenty-five-year-old Li and her band were all dressed in black, Li in a shawl covering a bodysuit, her hair tightly pulled back like one of Robert Palmer’s backup singers. On a stage with long black strips of filmy cloth hanging from the ceiling, smoke machines pouring out cloudy mists, and lights continually flashing, Li put on a dazzling seventy-five-minute set that included songs from Rhymes, 2008’s Youth Novels, and such singles as “Possibility,” from the New Moon soundtrack, music steeped in synthesizers and percussion. She played autoharp on the lovely “I Know Places” and added her own percussion to “Rich Kid Blues.” Although far from a melancholic evening, many of her songs deal with loneliness and heartbreak; “Sadness is a blessing / Sadness is a pearl / Sadness is my boyfriend / Oh, sadness, I’m your girl,” she opines on “Sadness Is a Blessing,”and in “Unrequited Love” she wails, “Oh my love, I’ve been denied it / Oh my love is unrequited.” But long before she tore into the set-closing “Get Some,” from the new record, she had the crowd wrapped around her finger like a lonely lover’s charm. Li will be back at Webster Hall on May 18, with Grimes opening up.

JOEY RAMONE BIRTHDAY BASH 2011

Fillmore New York at Irving Plaza
17 Irving Pl. at East 15th St.
Thursday, May 19, $35.25 (with fees), 7:00
www.joeyramone.com
www.livenation.com

Musician, legend, icon . . . New York native Joey Ramone would have been celebrating his sixtieth birthday on May 19, and, as has become a grand local tradition, the eleventh Joey Ramone Birthday Bash will be held that evening at the Fillmore New York at Irving Plaza. Joey (born Jeffery Hyman) died of lymphoma in 2001, and the annual affair is, as always, a fundraiser benefiting the Joey Ramone Foundation for Lymphoma Research. The festivities, put together each year by Joey’s brother, Mickey Leigh, and a dedicated cast of friends and supporters, are, inevitably, a celebration of everything Ramones, who were honored earlier this year with a lifetime achievement Grammy. Fans from all over the planet have been known to come celebrate Joey’s enduring legacy (as well of that of his now-fallen bandmates Johnny and Dee Dee) and enjoy film clips, interviews, art displays, and plenty of live music. This year’s lineup includes Joey favorite Black 47, Television’s Richard Lloyd, the Rattlers, Holly Beth Vincent, Sunday Masquerade, Bebe Buell, the Incident, and a band led by ex-Strangler Hugh Cornwell with Steven Fishman and Blondie’s Clem Burke, aka Elvis Ramone. The night always concludes with a marathon medley of beloved Ramones songs, from the obscure to the popular, performed by a virtual who’s who of fellow travelers, from an ex-Ramone or two to those who simply share an era, an ethos, or an influence with Forest Hills’ finest. Leigh is also expected to play songs from his brother’s long-rumored solo album. As tradition holds, Sean O’Sullivan’s Punk Pipers ring out the night on bagpipes sometime in the wee hours. “I want to keep it uplifting, so I’m not going to start talking any timelines,” Leigh writes on Joey’s official website. “I think all of us here are well aware of what this year marks. I always want this to be a special occasion, and something for us to be happy about.” And what’s happier than Ramones songs?

A GREAT NIGHT IN HARLEM: TENTH ANNIVERSARY

The Apollo Theater will host the tenth annual “Great Night in Harlem” benefit on May 19

Apollo Theater
253 West 125th St. between Seventh & Eighth Aves.
Thursday, May 19, $55-$1500, 7:00
212-245-3999 ext. 10
www.jazzfoundation.org

Dedicated to helping elder jazz and blues musicians facing medical, financial, legal, and housing crises, the Jazz Foundation of America has been hosting the annual benefit “A Great Night in Harlem” since 2002. Founded in 1989 by Herb Storfer, Ann Ruckert, Cy Blank, Phoebe Jacobs, and Dr. Billy Taylor, the organization handles some five thousand cases a year on its mission of “saving jazz and blues, one musician at a time.” This year’s benefit takes place May 19 at the legendary Apollo Theater in Harlem, featuring live performances from across the musical spectrum, including Macy Gray, Dr. John, Lou Reed, Ronnie Spector, Donald Fagen, Christian McBride, Terry Adams, the Hot 8 Brass Band, and surprise guests, produced by Hal Willner. In addition, there will be special appearances by Danny Glover and Michael Imperioli and other Sopranos cast members. The 2011 Dr. Billy Taylor Humanitarian Award will honor financial wizard Michael Novogratz, founder of the nonprofit Beat the Streets, which helps New York City public school students through the sport of amateur wrestling. Tickets for the event begin at $55 for the concert alone and go as high as $1,500 for a preconcert reception and gala dinner and after-party.

TWI-NY TENTH ANNIVERSARY TALK: MEGAN REILLY AND JAMES MASTRO

Megan Reilly will team up with Jim Mastro at twi-ny’s tenth anniversary party on May 18 at Fontana’s (photo by Godlis)

Fontana’s
105 Eldridge St. between Grand & Broome Sts.
Wednesday, May 18, free, 7:00 – 9:30
212-334-6740
www.fontanasnyc.com
www.meganreilly.com
www.guitarbar.com

Born in Memphis and based in New Jersey, alt country folk rocker Megan Reilly has spent much of her career surrounded by some of the tristate area’s finest musicians, including bassist Tony Maimone, drummer Steve Goulding, keyboardist Eric Morrison, and guitarists Tim Foljahn and Jim Mastro. Melding Loretta Lynn with Thin Lizzy on her two fine albums, Arc of Tessa and Let Your Ghost Go, Reilly creates atmospheric moods on such haunting ballads as “With You” and “Nighttime,” gets bluesy on “Tropic on Cancer,” and plays infectious pop hooks on “Girl” and “Let Your Ghost Go.” Hoboken fixture Mastro, who owns the popular Guitar Bar on First St., is the consummate sideman, producer, guitarist, and bandleader whose endless array of gigs have ranged from the Bongos and the Health & Happiness Show to Ian Hunter’s Rant Band and various collaborations and live performances with Syd Straw, Amy Speace, Richard Lloyd, Robert Plant, and many others. Reilly and Mastro have been playing together for much of this decade, and they’ll be teaming up May 18 at twi-ny’s tenth anniversary celebration at Fontana’s, which also includes live performances from Paula Carino and the Sliding Scale and Evan Shinners and readings by Andrew Giangola, Nova Ren Suma, Dean Haspiel, and Kyle Thomas Smith.

twi-ny: You each have collaborated with many different musicians who play very different styles. What’s it like working with each other?

Megan Reilly: Jim’s playing is very lyrical and deep and atmospheric. Playing with him makes me a better singer and player. He tastefully compliments everything I’m doing, which I’m really grateful for.

James Mastro: To me, Megan’s songs are all about emotional landscaping — these stark, bare songs that always have little things flowering in spots. She writes like no one else I know — starting in one direction but then taking a turn in a maze that I wouldn’t have thought of, but still ending up in the right place. Her voice and melodies directly affect the way I play, and are what I play off of; she makes my job easy.

twi-ny: Megan, at the anniversary party you will be playing songs from your next album, which will be recorded this summer. Can you share the titles of some of the new songs? How will the record compare to the sound on your earlier discs?

James Mastro, seen here playing the Hoboken Music & Art Festival with Ian Hunter and R.E.M’s Peter Buck and Scott McCaughey of the Baseball Project, will team up with Megan Reilly at twi-ny’s tenth anniversary bash (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

MR: I’m a mother now. My sister thinks my voice has become more earthy. And I’m singing a lot about floating in water or being swept under it. Part of that is from floating in a pond in Vermont several summers ago with all this sky above me, giving me such comfort at a difficult time when no words could. And part of the theme of water also comes from carrying a child. And there’s the subject of my great aunt who emigrated from Ireland and drowned herself in the East River in the mid-1950s. That one is called “The Lady of Leitrim.” It’s something I’ve wanted to write about for a long time. But despite the nature of that song, I think this is a hopeful and self-assured record. It’s got a lot of strength in the sound of it. Jim is a really confident player.

twi-ny: Everyone talks about the changing indie music scene in Brooklyn, but both of you live in New Jersey. What’s going on these days musically in the Garden State?

JM: Hoboken’s still a thriving scene full of great players, songwriters, and bands. Maxwell’s is still going strong, and there have been more and more DIY guerrilla-style concerts being put on that’s always good for shaking things up and keeping people excited about music.

MR: There are some wonderful places to play here, Outpost in the Burbs and Maxwell’s. Those venues have hosted some of my best recent shows. And the people here really seem to appreciate what we’re doing. I’m really happy here.