this week in music

RAFAEL SANCHEZ: THE LIMIT AS THE BODY APPROACHES ZERO

Rafael Sanchez's performance series at Exit Art concludes today with a six-hour extravaganza

Exit Art
475 Tenth Ave. at 36th St.
Saturday, July 31, free, 12 noon – 6:00 pm
Exhibition continues through August 25 (closed Sunday & Monday)
212-966-7745
www.exitart.org

Since his solo show “The Limit as the Body Approaches” opened at Exit Art, Newark-born artist Rafael Sanchez has been presenting live performances on weekends, examining street fashion, chaos, masculinity, sexuality, love, and music. The performances conclude today with five pieces beginning at 12 noon and continuing through 6:00 pm, including “Can’t Keep Running Away” about avoidance coping; a reenactment of a Bad Brains song; “Habibi Adid,” in which Sanchez will be in a plexiglas case being filled with sand, honey, and ants; an improvised performance with four acquaintances of Sanchez; and “Diamond Sea (Part Two),” set to the Sonic Youth song.

LATINO CULTURAL FESTIVAL

Contra-Tiempo Urban Latin Dance Theatre kicks off annual Latino Cultural Festival in Queens on July 29

Queens Theatre in the Park
Flushing Meadows Corona Park
July 29 – August 8, free (with RSVP) – $35
718-760-0064
www.queenstheatre.org

The fourteenth annual Latino Cultural Festival, celebrating the ever-growing Latino community in Queens, launches tonight at the Claire Shulman Playhouse with L.A.-based Contra-Tiempo Urban Latin Dance Theatre ($30-$35), kicking off eleven days of music, film, dance, and comedy. Tomorrow night, Yomo Toro ($20-$25), the Jimi Hendrix of Salsa, takes over the main stage, followed by Pistolera and its offshoot, the bilingual group Moona Luna, on Saturday (free). The festival also features “Tango y Vida” (August 1, $30-$35), the Alejandro Caceres Dance Companay’s “Dilei” (August 3, free), a screening of Natalia Almada’s Mexican drama AL OTRO LADO (August 4, free), an open mic night hosted by Bonafide Rojas (August 4, free), a tango dance party with Los Chantas Tango Quartet (August 4, free), an evening of Latin American music with Leon Gieco, Claudia Acuña, Aquiles Baez, and Lucia Pulido (August 5, $20-$25), Cuban singer-songwriter Carlos Varela (August 6, $25-$30), Colombian superstar Jorge Velosa (August 7, $25-$30), and Peruvian Grammy winner Susana Baca (August 8, $25-$30). If you buy tickets for multiple shows, you get a twenty percent discount, and most free events require advance RSVP.

HARLEM WEEK

Multiple locations in Harlem around 135th St.
Through August 29
Admission to most events: free
www.harlemweek.com

Harlem Week is under way, and it’s much more than just seven days of special events and cultural activities; it actually continues through the end of August, featuring health and job fairs, a college expo, swimming, tennis, basketball, charity runs, and farmers markets in addition to film screenings and live music and dance, most of which is free. Tonight, Jazzmobile presents Houston Person in U.S. Grant National Memorial Park, while tomorrow the Metropolitan Opera Summer Recital Series continues with a performance at the Jackie Robinson Park Bandshell. On August 3, National Night Out will feature outdoor concerts, followed the next night by Tia Fuller in the Jazzmobile. (Future Jazzmobile musicians include Wycliffe Gordon on August 10, Akiko Tsuruga on August 18, and Jimmy Heath on August 21.) On August 7-8, ArtCrawl Harlem ($40-$55) will take art lovers on a trolley tour of such galleries as Casa Frela, the Dwyer Cultural Center, the LeRoy Neiman Art Center, and the Studio Museum in Harlem, followed by a reception with food, wine, and music. August 14 (“Summer in the City”) and 15 (Harlem Day), the NYC Children’s Festival is chock-full of special events and activities, with “Dancing in the Street” paying tribute to Bob Marley, the annual “Uptown Saturday Nite” celebration, free outdoor film screenings in St. Nicholas Park, “A Salute to the Children of Haiti,” a business expo, crafts markets, fashion shows, and more.

TWI-NY TALK: AMY GRIMM

WHATEVER BLOG PARTY
Glasslands Gallery
289 Kent Ave., Williamsburg
Thursday, July 29, $8, 8:00
http://wwwwhatever-amy.blogspot.com
www.glasslands.blogspot.com

You know you’re at the right show if indie music princess Amy Grimm is there. Three years ago Grimm started Whatever . . ., what she calls “ a simple and honest blog . . . bringing you an intellectual and rebellious musical point of view.” Grimm focuses on up-and-coming new bands, writing from a very personal first-person perspective, championing lesser-known groups while cutting through the hype. An avid tweeter whose pieces can be found on the Huffington Post, Grimm also holds monthly showcases at the Glasslands Gallery in Brooklyn, featuring indie groups that you might not have heard of yet but you’re likely to soon. Grimm is passionate about her love of music and will do whatever it takes to share that love, even if it means having musicians sleep on the floor of her apartment in order to make sure they can play her showcase. She’ll be back at Glasslands this Thursday, July 29, with a lineup that includes Pretty Good Dance Moves, Rumanian Buck, Bambara, and Ego Puppets. Shortly after meeting the charming, exuberant Grimm at the recent Northside Festival in Williamsburg, we conducted an e-mail interview in which she discusses her favorite bands, the reaction to her blog, and, of all things, Woodstock.

twi-ny: Next month will mark your third year of blogging on Whatever. What has the experience been like overall? Do you have a favorite post/interview?

Amy Grimm: The whole Whatever blog experience has been a really great one. I’ve gotten lots of positive response from people in regards to the blog, so that makes me feel really good, that people are reading my words and taking what I have to say about the state of indie music into account. In terms of my favorite interviews that I have done, I have to say I have three and they were with Bottle Up and Go, Jesse Malin, and Ethan Gold. I just love love Bottle Up and Go’s music, and Keenan and Fareed are two such cool, unpredictable guys and their answers to my questions were the best part of the interview. And Jesse is just such a New York legend and he was so gracious and interesting and such a gentleman during that interview, it was a fantastic experience. Ethan Gold was the producer of Elvis Perkins’s debut album, ASH WEDNESDAY, and has some really awesome music of his own that he’s done and he is just an all-around fascinating guy who made my mundane typical e-mail interview questions jump off the page with his responses. And as for my favorite post it was something that wasn’t written by me; it was written by my dad and it was his memories of being at Woodstock for the fortieth anniversary last August. Growing up, my siblings and I would always ask him what it was like to be at Woodstock and he would always respond with “It was muddy,” so it was brilliant beyond belief to read a detailed account of his memories of Woodstock.

twi-ny: What does it take for a band to get invited to a Whatever showcase? What do you look for most in a band?

AG: A band gets invited to play a Whatever blog party one of two ways: 1) By word of mouth doing these parties for almost a year now, I’ve cultivated a nice little group of musician friends who play my parties on a regular basis (i.e., the Art of Shooting & Schocholautte), and those guys will let me know about a band or an artist that they think I should be booking for a party or be writing about in my blog. And also people like Rami [Haykai] from PopGun Booking will send me band and artist recommendations as well. All these guys have such stellar musical tastes, so I trust their recommendations completely! Without the recommendations of the Art of Shooting, Schocholautte and PopGun Booking, Savoir Adore, Drink Up Buttercup, Rumanian Buck, and J.A.C.K. would never have played any of the Whatever blog parties. 2) The second way is just basically me getting out there and going to shows and finding what I like. What I look for is how good the band is musically and what their buzz factor is, i.e., will they draw well on Wednesday or Thursday night.

twi-ny: Who are some of your favorites that have performed at one of your shows in the past? Who are you looking forward to booking in the future?

AG: Oooh, so many! But if I had to choose for a CD or a DVD (investors and indie labels . . . hint hint!), I would say Schocholautte, the Art of Shooting, Right on Dynamite, Rumanian Buck, Freshkills, Wizardry, North Highlands, deVries, Drink Up Buttercup, J.A.C.K. . . . that CD or DVD would be a double CD or DVD ’cause there have been so many good performances at the Whatever blog parties over the last year. Well, right now I’m totally obsessed with These United States and their new album, WHAT LASTS, and I’m also really obsessed with Elvis Perkins and AA Bondy at the moment. It would be a total dream for me to get Elvis, AA, and These United States to play a blog party. Besides indie folk country rock, I’m also quite into Shark? [who were originally scheduled for the July 29 show but had to postpone for personal reasons], the Darlings, and the Sundelles, and those bands may be playing a Whatever blog party really soon.

CHANNELING CHILTON

The late Alex Chilton will be honored with benefit tribute show at City Winery on July 28

A NIGHT OF ALEX CHILTON’S MUSIC
City Winery
155 Varick St. between Spring & Vandam Sts.
Wednesday, July 28, $28, 8:00
212-608-0555
www.citywinery.com

In 1987, Replacements lead singer Paul Westerberg sang, “Children by the million sing for Alex Chilton when he comes ’round / They sing ‘I’m in love. What’s that song? / I’m in love / with that song.’” People by the hundreds will be singing for Chilton this Wednesday night at City Winery in a special benefit tribute as a diverse group of musicians who were influenced by and/or played with Chilton will come together and play his songs, with the money raised going to the Gulf Restoration Network. Chilton, a founding member of the Box Tops and Big Star and one of the most respected songwriters of the last forty years, died suddenly in New Orleans in March at the age of fifty-nine, right as Big Star was set to play a showcase at SXSW, a festival usually reserved for up-and-coming bands. Among those who will be on hand to honor Chilton are Yo La Tengo, Marshall Crenshaw, Doug Garrison, René Coman, Alan Vega, Jon Spencer, Fran Kowalski, Lesa Aldridge, Jay Proctor, Bill Cunningham, Terry Manning, Evan Dando, Jesse Malin, Danny Kroha, Ronnie Spector, original Cossack Chris Stamey, former Box Top Gary Talley, and Big Star’s own Jody Stephens and Jon Auer. Expect to hear such classics as “Thirteen,” “September Gurls,” “The Letter,” “I’m in Love with a Girl,” “In the Street,” and “Cry Like a Baby” and other songs you didn’t realize were affiliated with Chilton in one way or another.

WE GIVE OURSELVES AWAY AT EVERY MOMENT

The legacy of Merce Cunningham will be honored with one-of-a-kind tribute in Rockefeller Park



AN EVENT FOR MERCE
Rockefeller Park, Battery Park City
Esplanade Plaza, West St. at Liberty St.
Monday, July 26, free, 6:00
www.artsworldfinancialcenter.com

In honor of the first anniversary of legendary choreographer Merce Cunningham’s passing, Annie B Parson and William Knapp are curating a unique program tonight in Battery Park City, at the same location where Cunningham posthumously held his final Event, last August 1-2 in Rockefeller Park. Choreographers Lucinda Childs, Bill T. Jones, Susan Marshall, Jon Kinzell, and Faye Driscoll will present both new pieces and excerpts from their repertoire that have been adapted to meet Cunningham’s site-specific, event-driven criteria. In addition, cellist David Eggar, experimental guitarist Geoff Gersh, and laptop specialist Kotchy will perform live music based on the chance compositions of John Cage, Cunningham’s longtime collaborator and partner. The production will take place in the round, further testing both the choreographers and the audience in this don’t-miss tribute.

STANTON STREET SUMMER SUNDAYS

Lower East Side Summer Sundays finale is chock-full of free family-friendly activities

Stanton St. between Allen & Ludlow Sts.
Sunday, July 25, 12 noon – 5:00 pm
Admission: free
www.lowereastsideny.com

The Lower East Side Summer Sundays series comes to a conclusion today with another afternoon of free family-friendly activities. The festivities include tastings from Meatball Shop, Boubouki, and La Newyorkina, face painting, skateboarding lessons, belly dancing, canine nutrition tips, palm readings, live performances by Jessica Delfino, Lily Sparks, and Jamie Bendell, booths sponsored by the NY Fire Department, the Museum at Eldridge St., the Educational Alliance, the LES Ecology Center, and Green Mountain Energy, and much more.