this week in music

NITZER EBB

Nitzer Ebb will get bodies moving at the Gramercy on November 16 (photo by Emma Cohan)

Gramercy Theatre
127 East 23rd St. at Lexington Ave.
Tuesday, November 16, $33.25, 7:00
www.myspace.com/nitzerebbmusic

While we weren’t part of the initial Nitzer Ebb revolution that began in the mid-1980s with such albums as BASIC PAIN PROCEDURE (1983), THAT TOTAL AGE (1987), SO BRIGHT SO STRONG (1988), and BELIEF (1989), we have quickly fallen under the British band’s powerful techo spell with INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX (Artists Addiction, November 2010), their first new record in fifteen years. When they declare “Get down on your knees” on the disc, we can’t help but get down on our knees, and you’ll be hard-pressed not to as well. And when they proclaim, “Left right left / left right left / move that body / move that body,” with the help of Depeche Mode’s Martin Gore, we get right in line. Essex duo Douglas McCarthy and Vaughn “Bon” Harris fill INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX, which inexplicably took a while to get released here in the States, with big-sounding electro-pop and thrilling techno beats, although they do slow things down on the beautiful Chili Peppers-esque “Going Away from Me.” “Again and again, I come back,” they sing on “I Am Undone,” and indeed they are back, playing a small club gig that is a far cry from their European arena tour in early 2010 supporting Depeche Mode. Joined by drummer Jason Payne, who first played with NE on the 1995 BIG HIT tour, Nitzer Ebb will be at the Gramercy Theatre on November 16, with Tense and Twitch the Ripper opening up.

YOUTH BRIGADE

Youth Brigade will look back on thirty years of punk Sunday night at the Mercury Lounge

Mercury Lounge
217 East Houston St.
Sunday, November 14, $12-$15, 7:00
www.mercuryloungenyc.com
www.myspace.com/youthbrigadebyo

Thirty years ago, the brothers Stern — Shawn (guitar and vocals), Mark (bass), and Adam (drums) — formed Youth Brigade, a California punk band that went on to record such albums as SOUND & FURY (1982) and TO SELL THE TRUTH (1996) and such tracks as “I Hate My Life,” “Did You Wanna Die,” “Fuck You,” “Somebody’s Gonna Get Their Head Kicked In,” and “Where Are All the Old Man Bars.” Shawn and Mark also founded BYO (Better Youth Organization) Records back in 1982, and the history of the band and the label is captured in the documentary LET THEM KNOW: THE STORY OF YOUTH BRIGADE AND BYO RECORDS (Jeff Alulis, 2009). In honor of their thirtieth anniversary, the band is back out on the road; before heading off on their first European tour in seven years, which will take them to the Netherlands, Greece, Germany, Italy, France, Switzerland, Belgium, and Spain, they’ll be making a highly anticipated stop at the Mercury Lounge on November 14. The festivities begin at 7:00 with a screening of LET THEM KNOW, followed by live performances by TV Tramp at 8:30 and the Scandels at 9:10 before the headliners take the stage at 10:00. Just be ready for YB to rip up the halls and tear down the walls, and beware that pool of blood on the dance hall floor. . . .

ZERO FILM FESTIVAL

November 13 & 20, Nutroaster Studios, 120 Ingraham St., Brooklyn, $12-$15, 7:00
November 14-19, Invisible Dog Art Center, 51 Bergen St., $5 donation
November 13-20
www.zerofilmfest.com

The Zero Film Festival was founded by Richard Hooban as a platform to show truly independent, self-financed works. Now in its third year, the festival gets under way tonight with an opening party that includes two blocks of short films, four cinematic installations, visually enhanced live performances by Oberhofer, Sherlock’s Daughter, and Asobi Seksu, and a dance party with DJ Dmitry and free booze. The festival then continues at the Invisible Dog Art Center November 14-19, with screenings of international shorts, features, and special installations that the programmers promise “you will not see anywhere else.” The November 18 slate includes visually enhanced performances by Dirty Churches, Paradise Band, and Contradia. The festival concludes on November 20 with an awards ceremony, a DJ set by Bear in Heaven, a dance party with DJ Morsy and DJ Scallywag, and visually enhanced performances by Natureboy and School of Seven Bells. Admission to the opening and closing parties are $12 in advance, $15 at the door, while all other screenings request a $5 donation. This is a great opportunity to see lots of fascinating films as well as see some hot up-and-coming bands in one-of-a-kind settings.

GRINDERMAN

Grinderman will feature songs from its bold new disc at the Best Buy Theater on November 14 (photo by Deirdre O'Callaghan)

Best Buy Theater
1515 Broadway at 44th St.
Sunday, November 14, $37.50, 8:00
212-930-1950
www.myspace.com/grinderman
www.bestbuytheater.com

“Come on, baby, blow my mind!” Nick Cave proclaims on “Mickey Mouse and the Goodbye Man,” the opening track on GRINDERMAN 2 (Anti-, September 2010). The fifty-three-year old Gothic renaissance man may be asking his baby to blow his mind, but he is sure to blow listeners’ minds on the second album from his side project, Grinderman. Again featuring Bad Seeds Warren Ellis on various stringed instruments, Martyn P. Casey on bass, and Jim Sclavunos on drums, Grinderman does it bigger and louder — and better — than on their debut disc, which was released in April 2007. GRINDERMAN 2 features nine mind-blowing tunes, from “Worm Tamer” and “Palaces of Montezuma” to “Bellringer Blues” and the deceptively titled “Kitchenette.” Cave’s morbidly wicked sense of humor shines on such tracks as “Heathen Child,” as when he sings of the title character, “Got a little gun / Sitting in the bathtub / Having some fun,” and on the aforementioned “Mickey Mouse,” on which he declares, “Try not to wake the executioner / He’s sleeping with a fireman’s axe / He leaves his glass eye on the pillow / And his dentures floating there in a glass.” Cave has been enjoying one hell of a decade; he wrote the screenplay for the 2005 Western THE PROPOSITION, released the 2009 novel THE DEATH OF BUNNY MUNRO, composed the soundtrack for numerous films with Ellis (THE PROPOSITION, THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD, THE ENGLISH SURGEON, THE ROAD), and wrote the score, again with Ellis, for Gísli Örn Gardarsson’s theatrical productions WOYZECK and THE METAMORPHOSIS, the latter of which arrives at the Brooklyn Academy of Music November 30 – December 4. Grinderman will be playing the Best Buy (formerly Nokia) Theater on November 14, with Armen Ra opening.

DEX ROMWEBER DUO

Sibling punkabilly duo will be at Bowery Ballroom and Music Hall of Williamsburg this weekend (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Friday, November 12, Bowery Ballroom, 6 Delancey St., $15, 8:00
Saturday, November 13, Music Hall of Williamsburg, 66 North Sixth St., $15, 8:00
www.myspace.com/dexterromweberduo

In Tony Gayton’s 2006 documentary TWO HEADED COW, such musicians as Neko Case, Jack White, Chan Marshall (Cat Power), and Exene Cervenka shared their love of Dexter Romweber, one of music’s best-kept secrets despite his wide influence over the course of several decades. In 1983, guitarist Romweber formed the experimental roots-rock outfit Flat Duo Jets with drummer Crow Smith, based out of Athens, Georgia, and Carrboro, North Carolina. Romweber went solo in the late 1990s before hooking up with his sister, Sara, who had previously played drums in Let’s Active and Snatches of Pink. Touring as the Dex Romweber Duo, last year the siblings released RUINS OF BERLIN (Bloodshot), a blast of good old-fashioned punkabilly featuring guest appearances by Case (“Still Around”), Marshall (“Love Letters”), and Cervenka (“Lonesome Train”). They later recorded the chestnut “Last Kind Words Blues” and the Dex original “The Wind Did Move” with White, whose Third Man Records released the duo’s LIVE AT THIRD MAN vinyl-only LP this past April. Nearly twenty years ago, we caught Flat Duo Jets at Wetlands, then saw the Dex Romweber Duo at last year’s Bloodshot Records fifteenth anniversary bash at the Bell House, where they powered through such songs as “Mexicali Baby,” “If You Love Me,” “Cigarette Party,” and “Grey Skies,” and wondered just what the hell we were waiting for all those years in between, when we should have been following Dex a lot more closely. The Dex Romweber Duo will be at the Bowery Ballroom on November 12 and the Music Hall of Williamsburg on November 13, on a bill with Nightmare Waterfall and Man or Astroman?

28 NORTH

28 North continues its packed residency at Arlenes Grocery the next two Thursdays

Arlenes Grocery
95 Stanton St. between Ludlow & Orchard Sts.
Thursday, November 11, 18, $8, 10:00
212-358-1633
www.arlenesgrocery.net
www.myspace.com/28norththeband

“Give me what I want / I’ll give you what you need,” 28 North declares on “The Shine,” and that is precisely what is happening this month at Arlenes Grocery, where the Pittsburgh four-piece is holding a Thursday night residency that began on November 4 and continues November 11 & 18 at 10:00. Guitarists Michael Lindner and Alex Stanton, bassist Jonathan Colman, and drummer Tyler Bond play feel-good southern roots rock that blends Americana with 1970s classic rock on such songs as the countryish “The Last Goodbye,” the poppy “Call Me Up” and “Carry the Rains,” the funky “Set It Down,” and the metalish “Prayer to Mars.” The unsigned band has one disc out, an eponymous album released in April, but they have an extensive songbook of more than 250 tunes, from such originals as “Pride,” “Mystery,” “Beast Jug,” and “Sneaky Woman” to a surprise cover of the Cranberries’ “Dreams.” Michelle Cleary (7:00), the Hotcakes (8:00), Let’s Destroy (9:00), the Kid Henry (11:00), and Propane Cowboy (12:00) are also on the bill November 11, with Rory Sullivan (7:00), Bram Johnson (8:00), Big Mosey (9:00), Lily Sparks (11:00), and Bo Peep (12:00) playing November 18.

NEW YORK CITY HORROR FILM FESTIVAL

Vincent D’Onofrio’s DON’T GO INTO THE WOODS is centerpiece of horror film fest

Tribeca Cinemas
54 Varick St. at Laight St.
November 10-14
212-941-2001
www.nychorrorfest.com
www.tribecafilm.com

Just in time for Halloween — well, not quite — the ninth annual New York City Horror Film Festival returns, screening more than forty scary features and shorts at Tribeca Cinemas. The festival gets under way November 10 with a free kickoff bash at Soirée on Bowery, with five bands, an hour of free beer, short films, and appearances by many of the filmmakers and actors. The opening-night selection is Stevan Mena’s BEREAVEMENT, about a psychotic man who kidnaps a six-year-old boy and raises him on a pig farm where really bad things happen. Other programs are anchored by such films as Andy Mitton and Jesse Holland’s YELLOW BRICK ROAD, Frank Richard’s THE PACK, Colm McCarthy’s OUTCAST, Israel Luna’s TICKED-OFF TRANNIES WITH KNIVES, and James Mogart’s WON TON BABY. The centerpiece is DON’T GO IN THE WOODS, the directorial debut of Vincent D’Onofrio, who will be on hand for a postscreening Q&A and after-party featuring live music from the film, about a band that gets caught up in a bloody slasher mystery. In addition, Robert Englund will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award on Saturday night, accompanied by a screening of Wes Craven’s original A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET.