this week in music

BRYANT PARK FALL FESTIVAL

The Orchestra of St. Luke’s is one of the companies giving free performances as part of this week’s Bryant Park Fall Festival

Bryant Park Fountain Terrace and lawn
40th to 42nd Sts. at Sixth Ave.
Setpember 13-20, free
www.bryantpark.org

Fashion Week festivities might have moved from Bryant Park to Lincoln Center, but that doesn’t mean that the former is just going to hide its head in the sand. Beginning today at lunchtime, Bryant Park will be hosting its own Fall Festival, eight days of live music and dance featuring performances by the New York City Ballet, the Metropolitan Opera, the Brooklyn Philharmonic, Parsons Dance, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, the Black Rock Coalition, Ricky Ian Gordon, and, ironically enough, Jazz at Lincoln Center. Shows take place daily at 12:30 and 6:00, and everything is free.

SHERLOCK’S DAUGHTER

Australia’s Sherlock’s Daughter comes to the Bowery Ballroom and the Music Hall of Williamsburg this week (photo by Kyle Dean Reinford)

Monday, September 13, Bowery Ballroom, 6 Delancey St., $25, 8:00
Tuesday, September 14, Music Hall of Williamsburg, 66 North Sixth St., $25, 8:00
www.myspace.com/sherlocksdaughter

Based in Sydney, five-piece band Sherlock’s Daughter, led by New Zealand vocalist Tanya Horo, is touring behind its self-titled five-song EP, which features beautiful harmonies, soothing melodies, and alluring rhythms. Guitarist Tim Maybury, bassist Liam Flanagan, electronics specialist Jonti Animal, and drummer William Russell create mysterious sounds that wrap around you with just the right amount of uneasiness to keep you slightly off balance but always wanting more on such welcoming tunes as “Sons and Daughters,” “Song for Old People,” and “Kids.” And they also have a way of making relatively mundane lyrics float wonderfully in the ether; on “In the End,” Horo sings, “In the end we will hold on to all that’s in our hearts / Don’t be sad or be frightened / We don’t need to part / Love can’t hurt us now,” and you believe every word of it. They’ll be playing the Bowery Ballroom on September 13 and the Music Hall of Williamsburg on September 14, opening up for this small little British band known as Charlatans UK.

TWO TEARS / GRINGO STAR

Kerry Davis will lead the Two Tears into Cameo Gallery on September 13

Cameo Gallery
93 North Sixth St.
Monday, September 13, 8:00
www.myspace.com/thetwotears
www.myspace.com/cameogallery

After stints in Paris and Dubai, former “one lady band” Kerry Davis is now based in New York City, where she’ll be playing a hometown gig September 13 with her group the Two Tears. Davis, on guitar and vocals, will be joined by Des Roar bassist Ryan Spoto, and Mutilation Rites drummer Justin Ennis as they blast short bursts of experimental bluesy garage punk that is not nearly as cannibalistic as you might think from such titles as “Eat People” and “I Like Your Face” nor as depressing as indicated by such titles as “Die Tonight,” “OOooo I’m Blue,” and “Shit Fucking Job.” In “Senso Unico,” Davis declares, “I hate my life,” but you won’t hate hers when she and Two Tears perform at Brooklyn’s Cameo Gallery on September 13 with Atlanta’s Gringo Star, one of the standouts at the 2008 CMJ Music Marathon. Gringo Star, which plays punk-injected southern garage rock with a twist, is about to go back into the studio to record their follow-up to their debut disc, 2008’s ALL YALL, with producer Ben Allen. Opening up are two Brooklyn bands, the whispery, lo-fi Caveman and the minimalist Soft Black.

FERRAGOSTO 2010


Belmont’s Little Italy
Arthur Ave. between East 187th St. & Crescent Ave.
Sunday, September 12, free, 12 noon – 7:00 pm
www.facebook.com

At last year’s annual Ferragosto in the Bronx, some seventeen thousand people celebrated New York City’s Italian heritage, with food, live entertainment, specialty vendors, and much more. This year’s festival takes place on September 12, featuring performances by the Bronx Wanderers, the Caleps with Gino Venuto, Commedia Dell’arte, Dominic Chianese, Christopher Macchio, Maria Fraccola, and Moreno Fruzzetti as well as a tribute to the Three Tenors, sponsored by the Belmont Business Improvement District.

NEW YORKER FESTIVAL

Justin Timberlake and Jesse Eisenberg will kick off the New Yorker Festival with a screening of their new film THE SOCIAL NETWORK, which will be followed by a Q&A with the two stars and screenwriter Aaron Sorkin

Multiple venues
October 1-3
Tickets: $25-$150 (most events $25-$35)
www.newyorker.com/festival

And they’re off! The race to get the hottest tickets to this year’s New Yorker Festival will begin September 10 at 12 noon, as literary snobs, wanna-be writers, and the glitterati battle it out to see conversations, lectures, book readings, live music, panel discussions, film screenings, and other events featuring such stars as Steve Carell, James Taylor, Justin Timberlake, Lorrie Moore, Yo-Yo Ma, Stephen King, Regina Spektor, Paul Goldberger, Ian Frazier, Neil Gaiman, Patricia Clarkson, Michael Chabon and Zadie Smith, David Simon, mumblecore masters Andrew Bujalski, Greta Gerwig, and Joe Swanberg, and many others. Good luck getting tickets for “Living History,” in which Peter Carey, E. L. Doctorow, and Annie Proulx share their thoughts with moderator Simon Schama; Paul Reubens talking about life, with Susan Morrison; Werner Herzog telling tales with Judith Thurman; Calvin Trillin’s annual tasting walk from Greenwich Village to Chinatown; a private tour of the Frick with Peter Schjeldahl; and “The Cartoon Caption Game,” in which audience members participate in a live caption-writing contest in the Condé Nast executive dining room.

HOWL! FESTIVAL 2010

Live painting surrounds Tompkins Square Park during Howl! Festival (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Tompkins Square Park
Ave. A between Seventh & Tenth Sts.
September 10-12
Admission: free
www.howlfestival.com

The on-and-off Howl! Festival, celebrating the seminal work by Allen Ginsberg, is back in Tompkins Square Park this weekend, with free events September 10-12 on two stages, beginning with the group reading of “Howl” on Friday at 5:00, featuring Anne Waldman, John Giorno, Jennifer Blowdryer, Steve Dalachinsky, Mariposa, and many more, emceed by Bob Holman. Saturday and Sunday will include live art installations, yoga, a circus, Butoh dance, performance art, a musical tribute to Arthur Russell, poetry readings, and other very cool events, culminating with the “House of Howl!” variety show and “Low Life 4: Beat Girl.”

BROOKLYN BOOK FESTIVAL

Former honoree Paul Auster will talk with 2010 BoBi award winner John Ashbery during Brooklyn Book Festival (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Multiple locations in Brooklyn
Sunday, September 12, free, 10:00 am – 6:00 pm
www.brooklynbookfestival.org

The fifth annual Brooklyn Book Festival takes place on Sunday, September 12, with a host of literary events at such locations as the Borough Hall Courtroom, St. Francis College Auditorium, and the Brooklyn Historical Society. The festival opens at 10:00 in the morning with the promising “It’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll (But I Like It),” with Steve Almond, Jennifer Egan, and Colson Whitehead reading from music-inspired writings, followed by a Q&A, as well as Stewart O’Nan, Siri Hustvedt, and T Cooper discussing “How Things Shake Out.” Jon Scieszka, E. Lockhart, and Mac Barnett will team up for “You’ve Got to Be Kidding,” Paul Krugman and Robin Wells will converse about “The Economic Crisis and What to Do About It,” Naomi Klein, Kurt Andersen, Jordan Flaherty, and Paul Reyes will get serious for “The Culture of Disaster: How Crisis Defines America,” while Kate Christensen, Sam Lipsyte, and Rakesh Satyal will get personal for “Me . . . in the World.” Amy Goodman and David Zirin will lead a tribute to the late Howard Zinn, Paul Auster will talk with 2010 BoBi award winner John Ashbery, Sarah Silverman will get down and dirty with David Rakoff, and Cristina Garcia, Steven Millhauser, and Peter Straub will delve into “Hallucinations of Your Neighbors.” Among the dozens of other participants are Dennis Lehane, Bernice L. McFadden, Michael Connelly, Francine Prose, Matthew Sharpe, Jacqueline Woodson, Phillip Lopate, Kristin Hersh, John Hodgman, Kristen Schaal, Adam Haslett, Kate Milford, Ben Katchor, Jessica Abel, Melvin Van Peebles, Mona Simpson, Pete Hamill, Venus Williams, Charles Fuller, and many, many more. Although all programs are free, some require advanced tickets, which will be distributed an hour before the presentation. There will also be a bevy of “bookend events” held September 10-12 at Light Industry, Greenlight Bookstore, Coco 66, the Bell House, powerHouse Arena, BAM Rose Cinemas, St. Ann’s Warehouse, and other spots, featuring film screenings, flash readings, live music, cocktail hours, and pizza; highlights include Rob Sheffield chatting up TALKING TO GIRLS ABOUT DURAN DURAN, Carolyn Kellogg in “An Intimate Conversation with John Waters,” Russell Banks discussing Atom Egoyan’s 1997 adaptation of his novel THE SWEET HEREAFTER after a screening of the film, live performances by Mountains and Lymbyc Systym, and a free showing of COSMOS: A PERSONAL VOYAGE in Brooklyn Bridge Park, complete with telescopes.