this week in music

FREE ENERGY

Philly band Free Energy will be in town for two area shows this week, on either side of Thanksgiving

Wednesday, November 24, Bowery Ballroom, 6 Delancey St., $15, 9:00
Friday, November 26, Music Hall of Williamsburg, 66 North Sixth St., $15, 9:00
www.myspace.com/freeenergymusic
www.freeenergymusic.com

Philly band Free Energy, born of the remnants of Minneapolis’s Hockey Night, glory in guitar-based pop firmly based in a 1970s classic rock universe where “the streets are all safe / And you know deep down / You can find a better way,” as they sing in “Dream City.” Scott Wells, Paul Sprangers, Evan Wells, Geoff Bucknam, and Nick Shuminksy don’t care that they don’t have that indie hipster edge and that they might not go out on a limb taking chances, perfectly content to remain out on those safe streets. They know what they like, and they play it. Yes, that is indeed cowbell on the first track of the James Murphy–produced STUCK ON NOTHING (Astralwerks, May 2010). Yes, “Dark Trance” does borrow the main riff from Cheap Trick’s “Surrender.” And yes, Free Energy was joined by tour mates Titus Andronicus at a recent Atlanta gig for a cover of Bruce Springsteen’s “I’m Going Down.” So what? You all know you blast CT or the Boss when you’re driving down the highway or through the suburbs anyway, so why not hear it in downtown Manhattan or Brooklyn? Free Energy will keep on keepin’ on at the Bowery Ballroom on Wednesday and the Music Hall of Williamsburg on Friday, with Foxy Shazam and Hollerado.

HANK & CUPCAKES

Hank & Cupcakes will bring the beat to Brooklyn Bowl on Tuesday night (photo by Alan Lugo)

Brooklyn Bowl
61 Wythe Ave.
Tuesday, November 23, free, 8:00
www.brooklynbowl.com
www.myspace.com/hankandcupcakes

You never know quite what to expect at a Hank & Cupcakes show, but you can be sure it’ll be one crazy time. The Brooklyn-based experimental duo of husband-and-wife team Ariel Scherbacovsky and Sagit Shir come from all over the musical and geographic map. Both were born in Israel, Hank spent part of his childhood in Australia, Cupcakes studied classical music for six years, they were once in an acoustic band that specialized in Beatles tunes, and they spent time in Havana together checking out the local music scene. Named after Charles Bukowski characters, Hank plays bass and electronics, with Cupcakes on drums and lead vocals, and what lead vocals they are: Cupcakes sings with a dynamic range, belting out everything from funky R&B (“Ain’t No Love”) to dance rock (“Pleasure Town”) to lovely, soulful pop ballads (“New Day,” “Roses”), her voice always front and center. When she blasts out, “You want out but you’re losing control / You gotta go but you can’t say no to the beat,” well, you won’t be able to say no to the beat. And just when you think you have them all figured out, they’ll hit you with a cover of Joy Division’s “She’s Lost Control.” Hank & Cupcakes will be at Brooklyn Bowl on November 23 for a free show with Kenan Bell and Biker Daughter.

CHERRY VANILLA: LICK ME

Barnes & Noble Lincoln Triangle
1972 Broadway at 66th St.
Monday, November 22, free, 7:30
212-595-6859
www.barnesandnoble.com
www.cherry-vanilla.com

Poet, actress, songwriter, publicist, Mad woman, and all-around good-time girl Cherry Vanilla holds nothing back in her free-wheeling memoir, LICK ME: HOW I BECAME CHERRY VANILLA (Chicago Review Press, November 2010, $24.95). Born Kathleen Anne Dorritie in 1943 and raised in Queens, Vanilla tells of a life filled with lots of sex, lots of drugs, and lots of rock & roll. A chronic bedwetter as a child, she later developed OCD, picking at cuts and blemishes all over her body. She dreamed of being in show business, first working at Madison Ave. advertising firms before getting involved in the burgeoning downtown arts scene, hanging out at the hottest clubs and enjoying a never-ending stream of lovers. She starred in Warhol’s off-Broadway show PORK and went from groupie to music publicist to poet and performer; her stories about working with David Bowie just as he was trying to break through in the States are intimate and revealing — and might come as quite a surprise for longtime Bowie fans. She talks in-depth about her desire to bed such men as Kris Kristofferson, Warren Beatty, Leon Russell, and Bowie — but you’ll have to read the book to find out which attempts were successful. Among the many celebrities she meets in her ever-evolving career, some who became close friends, others just passing through her wild life, are Mick Jagger, Patti Smith, Joel Schumacher, Debbie Harry, Helmut Newton, Joni Mitchell, Don Johnson, Melanie Griffith, Sting, Candy Darling, Ringo Starr, Angie Bowie, Rudolf Nureyev, May Pang, and Mick Ronson, and she shares some very interesting details about many of them. But Vanilla never comes off as needlessly gossipy or self-aggrandizing; instead, LICK ME is an honest portrait of a woman who knew what she wanted and went after it. The book also includes excerpts from her 1970s diaries and a sixteen-page black-and-white insert that features several shots of her in two of her favorite positions, either partially or fully unclothed. Cherry Vanilla will be at the Lincoln Triangle Barnes & Noble on November 22, discussing her outrageous life and signing copies of the book.

SUPER SABADO: WE HEART MUSICA

La Bruja will lead a spoken-work workshop at free Super Sabado celebration of music at El Museo del Barrio (photo by Rosalie Rivera)



FREE THIRD SATURDAYS
El Museo del Barrio
1230 Fifth Ave. at 104th St.
Saturday, November 20, free, 11:00 am – 8:30 pm
212-831-7272
www.elmuseo.org

El Museo del Barrio’s monthly free Saturday program today celebrates local music, with singing and dancing with Louie Miranda, a maraca-shaking workshop, Disco 104: Baila con nosotros! classes in zamba Mexicana, salsa, hip-hop, and bomba, Face the Music’s “Volcano,” spoken-word performances by Universes and workshop led by Caridad de la Luz “La Bruja,” and photo ops with El Museo’s All Star Band. In addition, there will be gallery tours of the current exhibitions “Nueva York (1613-1945)” and “Voces y Visiones: Four Decades Through El Museo del Barrio’s Permanent Collection” as well as a special “Visual Rhythms” bilingual tour. And yes, everything is free.

DELFT BLUES: ARTS AND LIVE JAZZ

Heleen Schuttevaêr will lead free jazz shows at the Holland Tunnel Gallery as part of 5 Dutch Days celebration of art and music

Holland Tunnel Gallery / Stairmasters
61 and 59 South Third St., Brooklyn
Friday, November 19, 5:00 – 8:00
Saturday, November 20, and Sunday, November 21, 3:00 – 7:00
718-384-5738
www.5dutchdaysnyc.org

As part of the 5 Dutch Days celebration continuing across all five boroughs through Sunday, honoring the rich Dutch cultural heritage in New York, the Holland Tunnel Gallery / Stairmasters in Brooklyn will be hosting a series of free live jazz concerts along with the exhibit “50 Artists Reinventing Delft Blue Pottery.” In conjunction with the four hundredth anniversary of trading between the Netherlands and Japan, the three-story space will be displaying ceramic works by more than one hundred artists, including Marjolijn van den Assem, Ka-Kyung Cho, Maartje Folkeringa, Hans van Uden, Nathalie Trovato, Joe Barnes, and Mireille Brouwer, curated by painter Paulien Lethen, whose paintings will also be on view, along with works by Jan Mulder. In addition, Dutch jazz vocalist and pianist Heleen Schuttevaêr (who is Lethen’s sister and Mulder’s partner) will be hosting free live music performances all weekend, featuring guitarist Ron Jackson, bassist Joris Teepe, drummer Jean-Clair-de Ruwe, and singer Jula Aimée on Friday, bassist Debbie Kennedy, de Ruwe, pianist Jarrett Cherner, singer Maria Christina, and trumpeter Diederik Rijpstra on Saturday, and Jackson, de Ruwe, Teepe, and singer Jerry Sheldon on Sunday, with many special guests scheduled as well. The 5 Dutch Days festival also includes a look at the restoration of the stained-glass window “Arrival of the Half-Moon,” an open house at the Holland Society of America, a Noonday Prayer tulip planting at St. Mark’s Church-in-the-Bowery, the Peter Stuyvesant Ball at Pier 60, a scavenger hunt, visits to the Dyckman and Wyckoff Farmhouse Museums and the Lefferts Historic House, workshops, an illustrated lecture, a garden tour, a concert by Sylvan Winds, and other events.

A TRIBUTE TO JIM CARROLL

Barnes & Noble Union Square
33 East 17th St.
Thursday, November 18, free, 7:00
212-253-0810
www.barnesandnoble.com

On September 11, 2009, poet, musician, and famed heroin addict Jim Carroll died at the age of sixty. In celebration of the publication of his posthumous novel THE PETTING ZOO (Viking, November 2010, $25.95), a group of his friends, led by 2010 National Book Award winner Patti Smith and guitarist Lenny Kaye, will gather together tonight at the Union Square Barnes & Noble to pay tribute to the BASKETBALL DIARIES author, who also released such fine albums as CATHOLIC BOY and DRY DREAMS.

BARN OWL

Barn Owl will be at the ISSUE Project Room on November 18

ISSUE Project Room
The Old American Can Factory
232 Third St., third floor, Brooklyn
Thursday, November 18, $10, 8:00
718-330-0313
www.myspace.com/barnowlband
www.issueprojectroom.org

On Barn Owl’s brand-new album, ANCESTRAL STAR (Thrill Jockey, November 2010), San Francisco duo Evan Caminiti and Jon Porras take listeners on a sonic journey through inner space and outer consciousness (or is that outer space and inner consciousness?), creating gorgeous dronescapes that feel as if they are about to explode at any moment. But instead, they remain floating within an ambient darkness that gently rumbles just beneath the soul. Both Caminiti and Porras play guitar, with Porras adding drums and harmonium; other contributors include Marielle V. Jakobsons on violin on two songs, the Norman Conquest (who produced the record) on modular synth on the title track, and one of Caminiti and Porras’s other groups, Portraits, lending Eastern percussion to “Incantation.” Several tracks, including the Western-like “Visions in Dust,” feature background vocals by Caminiti and Porras as well as the Norman Conquest. The names of the songs give you an idea of what you’re in for — “Cavern Hymn,” “Twilight,” “Awakening,” the aforementioned “Ancestral Star” and “Incantation” — as Barn Owl winds them through improvisational experimentation that result in brief, beautiful excursions as well as longer, drifting head trips. It’s not all doom and gloom, but it’s also not high-spirited electronica. Barn Owl will be at the Issue Project Room on November 18 with High Aura’d, Tom Carter, and Loren Connors.