this week in music

MATT & KIM

Matt & Kim’s live shows are always exuberant, out-of-control dance parties (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Webster Hall, Grand Ballroom
125 East Eleventh St. between Second & Third Aves.
Tuesday, October 26, and Wednesday, October 27, $17, 7:00
212-353-1600
www.websterhall.com
www.myspace.com/mattandkim

Over the last few years, keyboardist Matthew Johnson and drummer Kimberly Schifino have grown from local darlings to a beloved internationally recognized act. They met at Pratt and started playing together in 2004, growing a cult following that blew up after the success of their 2009 disc, GRAND. Better known simply as Matt & Kim, they’re back with their latest release, SIDEWALKS (Fader, November 2), which so far has been teased with the lead single, “Cameras,” but you’ll be able to hear the entire album prior to each of their shows this week at Webster Hall. Inspired by Gnarls Barkley’s crossover success with the monster hit “Crazy,” on the new album Matt & Kim have gone a long way toward capturing the infectious exuberance of their live shows, fun dance parties led by their never-ending smiles and Kim standing on top of her drum kit and crowd surfing. SIDEWALKS, which clocks in at ten songs in a brisk thirty-five minutes, is another good-time record, from the rollicking “AM/FM Sound” to the nearly anthemic “Cameras,” which has all kinds of things going on in it. One of the keys to Matt & Kim’s attraction is that they put up no barriers, physical or psychological, between themselves and their adoring audience. In fact, they can be seen at outdoor gigs watching themselves on the screens behind them as if they can’t believe they’re the ones on the stage, playing to thousands of ardent admirers also not afraid to release their inner geek. “These years they come and go / but today is here to stay / I think I know / I know where you’re coming from,” Matt sings on “Where You’re Coming From,” furthering the connection between performer and listener. The Webster Hall shows offer a great chance to catch the endearing duo in a smaller, relatively intimate setting after their headlining gig at this summer’s Siren Festival, and tickets are only seventeen bucks. Atlanta rapper Donnis will open both shows.

REVEALING MEXICO WEEK

Rockefeller Center
47th to 50th Sts. between Fifth & Sixth Aves.
October 25-30
www.revealingmexico.com
www.rockefellercenter.com

In 1810, Mexico declared its independence from Spain. One hundred years later, the Mexican Revolution began, seeking political and social change in the country. In honor of the two events, one celebrating its bicentennial, the other its centennial, Mexican culture will be invading Rockefeller Center this week, built around a photography exhibit and book signing for John Mack and Susanne Steines’s REVEALING MEXICO (powerHouse, September 2010, $75). “Both the good things and the bad things have shown themselves to us within a short amount of time, and both have shown themselves with extreme intensity: the marvelous magic of Mexican culture and the gruesome social reality of the country,” Mack and Steines write in the book’s authors’ note. “We discovered very soon that the reasons for Mexico’s contradictions are highly complex. We also understood that it would be difficult for anybody having lived in this country for longer than ten years to still be able, after such a time span, to borrow power from the amazement that Mexican culture inspires and to use this power to call for an overcoming of anything that keeps Mexico from moving toward a dignified future.” While states such as Arizona have clamped down on foreigners, New York City will once again be opening its doors; in addition to the photo display, there will be Mexican opera and Mariachi music in the skating rink, a free concert by the Nortec Collective’s Bostich + Fussible, a meet-and-greet with Mexico’s soccer captain, Rafael Márquez, and specially prepared Mexican cuisine at the Rock Center Café, Iguana, Toloache, Yerba Buena, Café Frida, Crema, El Aquila, Casa Vieja, Barrio, Hecho en Dumbo, the Taco Truck, and La Palapa.

WORLD STAGES: PEKING OPERA FESTIVAL

The Peking Opera Festival returns to the Skirball Center for its tenth anniversary

NYU Skirball Center for the Performing Arts
566 La Guardia Pl.
Sunday, October 24, $38, 7:00
www.qishufang.com
www.skirballcenter.nyu.edu

As part of its World Stages series, the NYU Skirball Center for the Performing Arts is presenting the tenth annual Peking Opera Festival on Sunday night, October 24. Now in its twenty-second year of “promoting Chinese and Chinese-American culture by bringing Peking Opera — one of China’s national treasures — to a world audience and to foster a deeper cultural understanding between East and West,” the Qi Shu Fang Peking Opera Company will perform “The Monkey and the Princess Iron Fan,” from the epic THE JOURNEY TO THE WEST, in addition to the excerpts “Pick Up the Jade Bracelet” and “The Stone Marker at the Border,” each of which tells a traditional Chinese legend. At previous festivals, the company, which is based in New York City and incorporates martial arts, acrobatics, dance, spectacular costumes, and live music into its productions, has performed such pieces as “Women Generals of the Yang,” “Monkey King: Havoc in Heaven,” “The Flaming Phoenix,” “Melon Garden Brawl,” and “The Nine-Tailed Fox Spirit” at such area venues as the New Victory Theatre on Broadway, the Kaye Playhouse at Hunter College, the Theatre at St. Clement’s, and Flushing Town Hall, where we caught them back in June 2006. The Skirball Center’s World Stages series continues on November 13-14 with ¡Flamenco Festival Gitano! and November 20 with Taiko Thunder: Kenny Endo.

CMJ BEST OF THE FEST: CLOSING NIGHT

DOM will be back at the Bowery Ballroom on the final night of CMJ (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Bowery Ballroom
6 Delancey St. between Bowery & Chrystie St.
Saturday, October 23, $18, 4:00
www.cmj2010.com
www.boweryballroom.com

It’s the last day of CMJ, and you can get just about the best summary of what it’s all been about at the Bowery Ballroom tonight, where a stellar lineup of bands from New York, Florida, Virginia, Maryland, and California cover the musical spectrum of the current indie world. The fun, frantic Static Jacks get things going at 4:30 with their fourth show at the festival, followed by MA.Mentor, Braids, Fake Problems, Lord Huron, and Lia Ices. Things kick into high gear with the Lower Dens at 9:15, who were impressive Thursday night at Santos Party House, concluding most songs with strong experimental meanderings. At 10:00, Jack Tatum’s one-man band, Wild Nothing, takes the stage, with DOM up next, who have been proving at CMJ that they’ve grown tremendously since their Siren set this past summer. The evening finishes up with the dreamy double bill of Neon Indian at midnight and Surfer Blood at 1:00, two of the hottest bands on the indie scene. Be sure to show up early and just stay cemented in your spot, because it’s gonna be packed.

Also
Oberhofer, Bruar Falls, 7:00
Shark?, Spike Hill, 7:15
Gringo Star, Ace of Clubs, 8:00
Sherlock’s Daughter, Piano’s, 8:00
Superhumanoids, Santos Party House, 8:00
The Golden Filter, Webster Hall, 8:00
Screaming Females, Maxwell’s, 8:15
Heavy Cream, Knitting Factory, 10:30
Turbo Fruits, Knitting Factory, 11:20
Marnie Stern, the Delancey, 12 midnight
School of Seven Bells, Santos Party House, 12 midnight

CMJ BEST OF THE FEST: DEAN & BRITTA

Friday, October 22, NYU Skirball Center, 566 La Guardia Pl., $20-$30, 8:00
Friday, October 22, Bowery Ballroom, 6 Delancey St., $15, 11:30
www.myspace.com/deanandbritta
www.cmj2010.com

Dean Wareham and Britta Phillips will be doing double duty on Friday night at CMJ, first holding the final New York City performance ever of “13 Most Beautiful: Songs for Andy Warhol’s Screen Tests” at 8:00 at NYU’s Skirball Center before heading over to the Bowery Ballroom for “Dean Wareham Plays Galaxie 500.” Two years ago, the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh commissioned Dean & Britta to compose scores for screen tests that the silver-haired artist shot at the Factory from 1964 to 1966; they searched through hundreds of the black-and-white films (each four minutes and sixteen seconds in length) until they decided on Lou Reed, Nico, Edie Sedgwick, Dennis Hopper, Paul America, Susan Bottomly, Ann Buchanan, Freddy Herko, Jane Holzer, Billy Name, Richard Rheem, Ingrid Superstar, and Mary Woronov. The result is a stunning collection of gorgeous instrumentals (“Silver Factory Theme,” “Incandescent Innocence”), covers (Bob Dylan’s “I’ll Keep It with Mine” and the Velvet Underground’s “I’m Not a Young Man Anymore”), “Knives from Bavaria” from the Dean & Britta record L’AVVENTURA, and other trippy tracks, including the phenomenal “Teenage Lightning (and Lonely Highways),” that the duo, accompanied by Anthony Lamarca and Matt Sumrow, will perform live at the Skirball while the screen tests are projected behind them. Then it’s off to the Bowery Ballroom, where Dean and Britta, who have been partners on- and offstage ever since Phillips joined Luna in 2005, will play songs from the brief tenure of the much-missed Galaxie 500, which released the Rough Trade albums TODAY (1988), ON FIRE (1989), and THIS IS OUR MUSIC (1990) once upon a time. Also on the bill are Crocodiles, Wakey! Wakey!, Brian Bonz & the Major Crimes, James Vincent McMorrow, and Young Buffalo.

Also
UME, Mercury Lounge, 7:00
Bad Rabbits, Pure Volume House, 8:00
Four Tet, Webster Hall, 8:30
Fishbone, (le) poisson rouge, 9:00
MiniBoone, Crash Mansion, 9:30
La Strada, Bruar Falls, 10:00
Shinobi Ninja, Sullivan Hall, 10:30
Takka Takka, Bruar Falls, 11:00
Hypernova, Cameo Gallery, 11:30
We Are Country Mice, Cake Shop, 11:50
Lower Dens, Rockwood Music Hall, 12 midnight
Nada Surf, Mercury Lounge, 1:00 am

FUV LIVE AT ZANKEL

Rita Houston is back for the sixth season of FUV Live at Zankel (photo by Lynda Shenkman Curtis)

Zankel Hall, Carnegie Hall
Fifty-seventh St. at Seventh Ave.
Indigo Girls: Saturday, October 23, $42-$48, 10:00
Series continues through April 8
www.carnegiehall.org
www.wfuv.org/event/zankel

True New York City institutions Carnegie Hall, WFUV, and Rita Houston are teaming up again for their sixth season of FUV Live at Zankel, which in the past has featured such performers as the Cowboy Junkies, Shelby Lynne, Suzanne Vega, Rosanne Cash, Richie Havens, and Jorma Kaukonen playing intimate gigs at Zankel Hall. The series is curated by longtime radio host and FUV music director Houston, who selects the acts by thinking, “Who’s going to sound really good in this room?” Making its first appearance ever at Carnegie Hall, the Indigo Girls will play the downstairs listening room on October 23, followed by Martin Sexton’s Solo Holiday Show on December 11, the indefatigable Richard Thompson on March 19, and Edie Brickell introducing her new band, the Gaddabouts (with Steve Gadd on drums, Pino Palladino on bass, and Andy Fairweather Low on guitar), on April 8. The diverse group offers a good idea of the range of artists who can be heard on Fordham’s sixty-year-old station, home to such programs as “Woody’s Children” with Bob Sherman, “The Grateful Dead Hour,” “Sunday Breakfast” with John Platt, “Mixed Bag” with Pete Fornatale, “Vin Scelsa’s Idiot’s Delight,” and “The Whole Wide World with Rita Houston.” Get your tickets now to these Zankel Hall shows, because they will sell out.

CMJ BEST OF THE FEST: FLECK PR SHOWCASE

Kerry Davis and Two Tears will be serving up plenty of tasty garage rock and punk with Gringo Star, Howlies, and other bands at Fleck PR Showcase

Fontana’s
105 Eldridge St. between Broome & Grand Sts.
Thursday, October 21, 8:30
www.cmj2010.com
www.fleckpr.com

This is the one we’ve been waiting for. Many of the shows at the CMJ Music Marathon, which features more than 1,200 bands playing some one hundred venues, are sponsored by music magazines and websites, public relations firms, beverage companies, and other music-related businesses. On Thursday night, Fleck PR, which specializes in garage rock and punk, will be presenting seven of their artists, including three that help make this one of the best lineups of the festival. The evening begins with L.A.’s Nightmare and the Cat, followed by NYC’s Two Tears, Atlanta’s Gringo Star, Brooklyn’s hunters, Atlanta’s Howlies, Brooklyn’s Stalkers, and the Lower East Side’s Doppelganger. We’re particularly looking forward to seeing Two Tears, Gringo Star, and Howlies. We first fell for Gringo Star and their punk-injected southern garage rock with a twist at the 2008 CMJ, where they played songs from their debut disc, ALL Y’ALL; they’re headed back to the studio to record a new album, and it’s about time. (They’ll also be playing the Cameo Gallery on Friday night and Ace of Clubs on Saturday.) Last month we raved about former “one lady band” Kerry Davis, now known as Two Tears, who blasts short bursts of experimental bluesy garage punk with such titles as “Eat People,” “Die Tonight,” and “Shit Fucking Job.” Howlies have just followed up their February 2009 debut, TRIPPIN’ WITH HOWLIES, with the stunningly awesome five-track EP STUNNED, the illegitimate child of mid-’60s Stones and late-’70s Ramones, with bold dashes of southern rock and surf punk thrown in for very good measure. (Howlies will also be at the Living Room and Union Hall on Thursday night before the Fontana’s gig, followed by shows Friday afternoon at the Heartland Brewery and Friday night at Piano’s.)

Also
Savoir Adore, Public Assembly, 3:30; Bowery Electric, 7:15
New Collisions, R Bar, 8:00
Franz Nicolay, Coco 66, 8:15
French Horn Rebellion, the Studio at Webster Hall, 9:15
Hsu-nami, Fat Baby, 10:15
Reggie Watts, Comix, 11:00
Hypernova, R Bar, 11:00
Das Racist, Santos Party House, 11:30
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Music Hall of Williamsburg, 11:30
Drink Up Buttercup, Bowery Electric, 11:45