this week in music

DEERHUNTER

Bradford Cox and Deerhunter will be celebrating release of HALCYON DIGEST at Webster Hall on Friday night (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Webster Hall
125 East 11th St. between Second & Third Aves.
Friday, October 15, $20, 6:00
212-353-1600
www.myspace.com/deerhunter
www.websterhall.com

Deerhunter plays New York City so often, it might feel like they’re a local band, but they actually hail from that hotbed of indie rock, Atlanta, home of such twi-ny faves as the Black Lips, Gringo Star, and Today the Moon, Tomorrow the Sun. Bradford Cox, Moses Archuleta, Lockett Pundt, Joshua Fauver, and Whitney Petty headlined a free show at Pier 54 in August, and now they’re back for a gig October 15 at Webster Hall on a bill with Real Estate (who were also at the pier with them) and Casino Versus Japan. This time around, Deerhunter will be celebrating the release of their dazzling new album, HALCYON DIGEST (4ad, September 28, 2010). The record opens with the dreamy, willowy “Earthquake,” which incorporates the sound of a vinyl swoosh that becomes the drumbeat as the song floats listeners away on an ethereal cloud. From the cheery 1960s Britpop of “Memory Boy” and “Basement Scene” to the sweetly subtle, driving VU-like guitar line of “Fountain Stairs” to the deep sax on “Coronado” and the great six-string outro on “Desire Lines,” Deerhunter has reinvented itself yet again. HALCYON DIGEST ends with “He Would Have Laughed,” a tribute to Cox’s late friend Jay Reatard, the Memphis garage punk who died last year at the age of twenty-nine.

LOS CAMPESINOS!

Los Campesinos! are unlikely to be boring at two area shows (photo by Jon Bergman)

Music Hall of Williamsburg
66 North Sixth St.
Friday, October 15, and Saturday, October 16, $21.40, 9:00
www.myspace.com/loscampesinos
www.musichallofwilliamsburg.com

Los Campesinos! fully deserve the exclamation point at the end of their name, as they do everything in a big way. There’s plenty of big and nothing dull about their latest full-length album, ROMANCE IS BORING (Arts & Crafts, January 2010), fifteen blasts of loud, hip-shaking power pop that mixes in ’80s new wave, punk, funk, and blaring horns into its anthemic, aggressive party rock (and we mean that in a good way). Their follow-up to 2007’s STICKING FINGERS INTO SOCKETS, 2008’s HOLD ON NOW, YOUNGSTER, and last year’s WE ARE BEAUTIFUL, WE ARE DOOMED, the disc emits the endless glee of Matt & Kim and the deep, dark yearning of My Bloody Valentine. The seven-piece Cardiff band sings about vomit and physics (“In Media Res”), phallic cake and cauterized ventricles (“Romance Is Boring”), toilet walls and huffing a Sharpie (the driving “We’ve Got your Back [Documented Emotional Breakdown Number 2]”), erections and heat rash (the synth-heavy “A Heat Rash in the Shape of the Show Me State; or, Letters from Me to Charlotte”), plugholes and piss-soaked jeans (the relatively calm “Coda: A Burn Scar in the Shape of the Sooner State”), and petrol and dog shot (the orchestral “I Just Sighed, I Just Sighed, Just So You Know”) in songs that are as fanciful as their titles. Everything they are about is encapsulated in the epic-sounding “This Is a Flag. There Is No Wind,” a three-and-a-half-minute journey through indie music. Then, just this past August, Los Campesinos! released a four-song remix follow-up EP to ROMANCE IS BORING called ALL’S WELL THAT ENDS, which makes sure you don’t get bored with the former, which we weren’t, but we’re psyched to be able to hear the Princess Version of “Romance Is Boring,” “Letters from Me to Charlotte (RSVP),” “Straight in at 101/It’s Never Enough,” and “(All’s Well that Ends) In Media Res.” Los Campesinos! played Irving Plaza earlier this year, and now they’re back for two shows at the Music Hall of Williamsburg on October 15-16, with Byrds of Paradise and Johnny Foreigner.

COLUMBUS DAY PARADE

The Columbus Day Parade will march up Fifth Ave. today (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Fifth Ave. from 47th to 72nd Sts.
Monday, October 11, free, 11:30 am – 3:00 pm
www.columbuscitizensfd.org

The Columbus Day Parade used to celebrate the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus. The only problem was that there were already people living there. So now it “celebrates the spirit of exploration and courage that inspired Christopher Columbus’s 1492 expedition and the important contributions Italian-Americans have made to the United States.” Beginning at 11:30 this morning at 47th St., high school marching bands, community organizations, folk groups, and more will make their way up Fifth Ave., dancing, singing, and paying tribute to the vast history of Italians in America. This year’s sixty-sixth annual parade, led by Grand Marshal Maria Bartiromo and honorees Frank Bisignano (the CEO of JPMorganChase) and Jason DeSena Trennert (the founder of Strategas Research Partners), features special live performances from PINOCCHIO, THE ITALIAN MUSICAL. Related events include a wreath laying at Columbus Circle at 9:30 and a cultural exhibition at Vanderbilt Hall in Grand Central Terminal.

AUSTIN McCUTCHEN’S PSYCHEDELIC COWBOY SHOW

The Sweetback Sisters will be part of pscyhedelic cowboy show in Brooklyn on October 9

Union Pool
484 Union Ave. at Meeker St.
Saturday, October 9, 9:00
www.myspace.com/unionpool
www.thesweetbacksisters.com

Union Pool is the place to be on October 9 to catch an evening of eclectic (and electric?) country music. The bill features several bands, including Austin McCutchen, the Five Deadly Venoms, and local favorites the Sweetback Sisters. The Sweetbacks are a uniquely attired and entertaining six-piece. Frontwomen Zara Bode and Emily Miller make for a sweet-voxed, talented duo whose love of the stylings of Roger Miller and the Davis Sisters translates into a rollicking pastiche of country crooning and western swing that won’t disappoint admirers of Patsy Cline or Hank Sr. While the Sweetbacks embrace the genre’s kitsch in all its honky-tonk glory — take, for example, such songs as “My Uncle Used to Love Me but She Died” and “I Want to Be a Real Cowboy Girl” — it’s the combo’s top-flight, engaging music that puts it a “two-step” ahead, leaving schtick behind. The band is rounded out by a cast of characters straight out of Characterville: a polymath composer/fiddler from the deep woods of West Virginny, a swingin’ slap-bassist, a fresh-faced mandolin-playing drummer who looks like he should be walking door-to-door handing out tracts, and a lead guitarist whose propulsive surf leads ring out strong from his Telecaster. It all adds up to a combination of odd, inspired covers and sharp originals in a country vein, wells of achingly sweet harmony, and a strong, friendly stage presence.

THE INSOUND DESIGN STORE: A POP-UP MUSIC GALLERY

Peggy and Kip from the Pains of Being Pure at Heart will DJ this weekend at the Insound pop-up store on Mulberry St. (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

201 Mulberry St.
October 8-10, 10:00 am – 10:00 pm
DJs & Drinks: 7pm to 10pm nightly
Admission: free
www.insound.com

Super-cool insound.com has been twi-ny’s go-to place for indie CDs for years, and we’ve sported more than a few of their cooler than thou T-shirts to McCarren Park as well. We almost bought a turntable there, to twirl Insound’s amazing vinyl offerings, many of them specially designed limited pressings. But they’ve primarily existed online only, save for a brief pop-up shop on Grand St. last December. So we were far too excited to see Insound again manifesting as the Insound Design Store, actually open on Mulberry Street, if only for a few days. Aficionados of fine sound and design can use all five senses in the physical realm to eyeball the bright and subtle colors on a selection of silk-screened concert posters, feel the “hand” on the T-shirts, strap on a pair of headphones, and fondle the vinyl and CDs. DJs Nick Zinner (from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs!) spins live on October 8, Kip Berman and Peggy Wang (from the Pains of Being Pure at Heart!) on October 9, and Fred Armisen (from Saturday Night Live!) on October 10. Beer will be there too, from 7:00 to 10:00 each night.

CONFLUX FESTIVAL

Urban historian and guerrilla photographer Steve Duncan will give keynote address at seventh annual Conflux Festival (“Sewer, NYC” photo © Steve Duncan)

NYU Barney Building
34 Stuyvesant St.
October 8-10, $5-$9
www.confluxfestival.org

More than seventy-five digital artists will converge on the East Village and the Lower East Side for the seventh annual Conflux festival, which focuses on “contemporary psychogeography, the investigation of everyday urban life through emerging artistic, technological, and social practice.” The festivities begin Friday night with the keynote address from urban historian and guerrilla photographer Steve Duncan, followed by a live multimedia performance of “Ulysses Syndrome” by the Soundwalk collective. Saturday’s activities include a sermon and walking tour with Reverend Billy and Savitri D and the panel discussions “FlowSlow,” “Super G Residency,” and “Public-Space Art and Foursquare,” ending with a live performance by Fall on Your Sword. There will be more panel discussions on Sunday, including one hotly anticipated gathering of Duncan, Moses Gates, Julia Solis, and twi-ny fave Miru Kim, in addition to a live “Forwards/Backwards” performance by Mike Rugnetta and Patrick Davison. Another cool aspect of Conflux is a group of site-specific installations, workshops, and performances, including “Tone Garden” by Stephanie McCarty and Andrew Siu, “Barcode Cinema” by Kristin Lucas and Lee Montgomery, “I cannot compete with this” by Rebecca Nagle (in Times Square), “Six Degrees of Attachment” by Nathaniel Lieb and Sarah Nelson Wright, “Love Box” by Sabine Gruffat and Bill Brown, “Urban Hobo” by Betsy Davis, “Public Utility Trail Network” by Katarina Jerinic, “Knish Alley Revival” by Laura Silver, and “Telepresence” by Derek Lerner, among dozens of others.

NEW YORK COMIC CON & ANIME FESTIVAL

Comic Con will team up with the New York Anime Festival this weekend at the Javits Center (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Jacob K. Javits Convention Center
11th Ave. between 34th & 39th Sts.
October 8-10
Weekend Pass: $50 (Friday Pass $30, Saturday Pass $40, Sunday Pass $30)
www.newyorkcomiccon.com
www.newyorkcomiccon.com/en/NYAF

This year New York Comic Con teams up with the New York Anime Festival for a three-day party of the best in comic books, graphic novels, superheroes and villains, animated shorts and features, artists, writers, filmmakers, video games, collectibles, live music, and so much more. A lot of the fun comes from just watching your fellow attendees, many of whom show up in elaborate costumes. Among the many guest on hand to sign autographs (some free, some ticketed, some paid) and/or participate in panel discussions, concerts, and sneak-peek screenings are Adrien Brody, Michelle Forbes, Bruce Campbell, Joyce DeWitt, Cary Elwes, Lou Ferrigno, Maggie Q, Morgan Spurlock, Boom Boom Satellites, J. Michael Straczynski, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Seth Green, VAMPS, Stan Lee, Todd McFarlane, Frank Miller, Puffy AmiYumi, M. Knight Shymalan, Tricia Helfer, Eric Bana, Priscilla Barnes, William Katt, Tara McPherson, Noah Wyle, Echostream, and James Marsters. (Sorry, folks, but Gil Gerard canceled.) Below are just a handful of recommended events by day.

You never know what or who you’ll enounter at the annual New York Comic Con and Anime Festival (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Friday, October 8: Oyama X Nitta Shamisen Concert, Room 1E09, 2:00

Friday, October 8: Remembering Harvey Pekar, with Jeff Newelt, Dean Haspiel, Peter Kuper, Rick Parker, Joseph Remnant, and Danny Fingeroth, Room 1A22, 4:30

Friday, October 8: Robot Chicken, screening and panel with Seth Green and Matt Senreich, IGN Theater, 6:45

Friday, October 8: MUTANT GIRLS SQUAD, Room 1E02, 7:45

Friday, October 8: Dash Shaw and Chip Kidd in Conversation, Room 1A14, 8:15

Saturday, October 9: MTV Geek with Stan Lee and Bill Plympton, Room 1A08, 11:00 am

Saturday, October 9: Mort Walker and Beetle Bailey, with Mort Walker and Tom Spurgeon, Room 1A15, 1:00

Saturday, October 9: Spotlight on Dean Haspiel, with Dean Haspiel, Walter Simonson, Nick Bertozzi, Joan Hilty, and Jonathan Ames, moderated by Christopher Irving, Room 1A23, 2:45

Saturday, October 9: Minori Chihara Concert, IGN Theater, 7:30

Saturday, October 9: Roddenberry Is Back! with Eugene “Rod” Roddenberry Jr. and Trevor Roth, Room 1A23, 9:00

Sunday, October 10: Castles, Forests, and Bath Houses: The Worlds of Hayao Miyazaki, Room 1E13, 11:00 am

Sunday, October 10: Welcome to the Space Show, Room 1E03, 1:00

Sunday, October 10: The Walking Dead on AMC, with Andrew Lincoln, Jon Bernthal, Sarah Wayne Callies, Laurie Holden, Steven Yeun, Frank Darabont, Robert Kirkman, and Gale Anne Hurd, IGN Theater, 2:15

Sunday, October 10: Voice and Art — Veronica Taylor and Misako Rocks!, Room 1E12, 3:00

Sunday, October 10: Bruce Campbell Spotlight, with Bruce Campbell, Room 1A08, 4:00