this week in music

MEATOPIA

Governors Island
Sunday, July 11, 11:30 am – 4:30 pm
Free ferry from Battery Maritime Building
Tasting tickets: $25-$150
www.meatopia.org

If the annual, ridiculously overcrowded Big Apple BBQ in Madison Square Park simply overwhelms you as it does us, perhaps you’ll find Meatopia, taking place this Sunday on Governors Island, more to your liking. For five hours, thirty chefs and bbq teams will be serving ribs, marinated steak and chicken, roasted lamb, grilled bacon sandwiches, pit-smoked brisket, smoked duck tacos, and other delicacies, from such restaurants and groups as Aureole, Hill Country, La Esquina, China Grill, RUB, Mr. Bobo’s Traveling BBQ Allstars, the Meatball Shop, the Smoke Joint, the Hurricane Club, Wildwood Barbeque, Suenos, the Food Lab, and the Harrison. There will also be live performances from Jen Larsen & North River, the Strung Out String Band, the Second Avenue Mountain Boys, Roosevelt Dime, and the Brotherhood of the Jug Band. In addition, chefs Andrew D’Ambrosi and Shaun Hergatt will do battle in a cookoff at 1:30 in the High Plains Bison tent. Admission to the food fest is free, but tasting tickets, which range from $25 to $150, are selling fast in advance.

RIVERROCKS: PHOSPHORESCENT/DAWES

Phosphorescent will headline the first of three free RiverRocks shows at Pier 54 this summer (photo by Miss Martha Jewelle)

Hudson River Park, Pier 54
West 14th St. & the Hudson River
Thursday, July 8, free, doors at 6:00, concert at 7:00
212-627-2121
www.riverrocksnyc.com
www.myspace.com/phosphorescent

Based in New York City by way of Athens, Georgia, Phosphorescent will be kicking off the free summer season of live music at Pier 54 over the Hudson River on July 8, highlighting songs from the band’s latest album, HERE’S TO TAKING IT EASY (Dead Oceans, May 2010). Led by founder, guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter Matthew Houck, Phosphorescent plays heartfelt Americana roots rock, with Scott Stapleton on piano, Jeffrey Bailey on bass, Christopher Marine on drums, Jesse Anderson Ainslie on guitar, and Ricky Jay Jackson on pedal steel. The new record takes listeners across the country, from L.A. (“Los Angeles”) to the South (“It’s Hard to Be Humble [When You’re from Alabama])” up north to Coney Island (“The Mermaid Parade”). “I wound up walking out by the ocean today / And there were naked women dancing in the Mermaid Parade,” Houck sings on the latter ballad. “And O Amanda, did you see me today / Watchin’ those women dancing in the Mermaid Parade /And O Amanda, did you see me today / Watchin’ those women waltz by in the Mermaid Parade.” We can’t promise there will be naked dancing women on the pier, but there should be a lot of bare skin if the brutal heat wave continues. The more rural sounding California quartet Dawes will open the show, supporting their full-length debut, NORTH HILLS (Ato/Red, September 2009). The line can get rather long for Pier 54 concerts, so get there early — and if you don’t bring a bag (which would need to be searched by security), you can usually go straight to the front. The series continues July 22 with the Antlers and Dinosaur Feathers and August 12 with Deerhunter and Real Estate. If you visit here, you can download a free sampler with songs by all six groups scheduled to play Pier 54 this summer as part of RiverRocks.

Update: Following the show, the band’s van was stolen overnight in Greenpoint, along with all of their equipment, including irreplaceable instruments. A devastated Houck soon sent out the following message:

“So many people / Friends and strangers / Have stepped forward / So quickly and with such generosity / It has transformed this thing / Into a truly amazing and heartwarming / Affirmation of community and love and spirit; / Good vibes and support arriving from far and near / And I want to express how humbled and / Tremendously appreciative / We all are.”

For those who believe in karma, all of that good energy couldn’t have hurt, as the van has been recovered, complete with all of the gear, seemingly undamaged. “Speechless right now,” Houck said.

STEVE EARLE/ALLISON MOORER & FRIENDS

Married Greenwich Village duo Allison Moorer and Steve Earle will be joined by special guests during four-week summer residency at City Winery (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

City Winery
155 Varick St.
July 8, 15, 29 & August 5, $45-$65, 9:00
212-608-0555
www.citywinery.com

Husband-and-wife singer-songwriters Steve Earle and Allison Moorer begin a four-week summer residency at City Winery on July 8 with a sold-out show featuring Rosanne Cash, who just played a terrific set with her band on Governors Island on July 4. Earle, a fierce political activist and engaging live performer, mixes country, folk, blues, and rock on such records as GUITAR TOWN (1986), COPPERHEAD ROAD (1988), I FEEL ALRIGHT (1996), and THE REVOLUTION STARTS NOW (2004); his wife, meanwhile, is a more traditional country artist who has released such discs as CROWS (2010), MOCKINGBIRD (2008), and THE DUEL (2004). On July 15 the Greenwich Village couple will be joined by Earle’s son, Justin Townes Earle, a fine singer-songwriter in his own right, as evidenced by his excellent first two albums, THE GOOD LIFE (2008) and MIDNIGHT AT THE MOVIES (2009); his third, HARLEM RIVER BLUES, is due September 4. On July 29, the Preservation Hall Jazz Band comes up from New Orleans to take the stage with Earle and Moorer; the guest for August 5 has yet to be announced. If you’ve never seen Steve Earle live, this is a great opportunity at an intimate venue to catch one of the most underrated, controversial, and talented performers of the last twenty-five years.

OUTDOOR CINEMA 2010

Free live music and film screenings will run in Socrates Sculpture Park Wednesday nights in July and August

Socrates Sculpture Park
Vernon Blvd. & Broadway, Long Island City
Wednesdays July 7 through August 25
Live performances at 7:00, film screenings at sunset
Admission: free
718-956-1819
www.socratessculpturepark.org

For its twelfth annual summer season of free movie screenings, Socrates Sculpture Park has teamed up with the Museum of the Moving Image and Rooftop Films to “celebrate the cultural diversity of Queens” on Wednesday nights in July and August. Each evening begins with a live performance, followed by a film at sunset. The series gets under way July 7 with Todd Chandler’s road movie FLOOD TIDE, with a live score played by Dark Dark Dark. Outdoor Cinema goes to Ireland on July 14 with Tom Moore and Nora Twomey’s THE SECRET OF KELLS, with Swedish short films on July 21 and Vera Chytilová’s Czech drama DAISIES on July 28. Each night will also feature local vendors selling food from the “host” country. The August schedule has not been announced yet. Be sure to get there early, not only to get a good spot but to check out the art installation “Cityscape: Surveying the Urban Biotope,” which continues through August 1. (For a complete, day-by-day list of free summer movies in New York City, click here.)

MACY’S FOURTH OF JULY FIREWORKS: AMERICAN HARMONY

Macy’s Fourth of July Fireworks will be held on the West Side again this year (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Televised live on NBC-TV
Broadcast live on WINS 1010
Sunday, July 4, free, 9:20 pm (approx.)
212-494-4495
www.macys.com/fireworks

After last year’s move to the West Side in honor of the four hundredth anniversary of Henry Hudson’s discovery of the Hudson River, Macy’s Fourth of July Fireworks will stay on the Hudson for 2010, ready to set off more than forty thousand shells from a half dozen barges located between Twenty-fourth and Fiftieth Sts. over the course of twenty-six minutes. The theme of the thirty-fourth annual display is “American Harmony,” with a score performed by the New York Pops, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Straight No Chaser, Broadway Inspirational Voices, and the U.S. Army Soldier’s Chorus, with Justin Bieber and others scheduled to sing live on the Norwegian Epic cruise ship. The score can be downloaded here so you can listen along as the shells light up the sky. Vehicular traffic will be closed on the West Side Highway between Twenty-second and Fifty-ninth Sts. on Twelfth Ave., with viewing spots not available along the Hudson River Park promenade and bike path, and there will be extremely limited access to Piers 54 and 84.

Reaching a thousand feet high, this year’s fireworks, presented by SOUSA, will include blue jellyfish and the return of the ghost shells as well as an expanded version of the Golden Mile. Look for whistling dragons and screaming cicadas during “Stars & Stripes Forever,” silver domes, patriotic comets and daffodils and a cascading silver wall during “God Bless America,” rainbow fans and interlocking rings with sparkling centers during “Alexander’s Ragtime Band,” chrysanthemum bursts, red umbrellas, geometric patterned loops, glittering coconuts, crackling salutes, spiders, and titanium crackers comets during the Armed Forces Medley, smiling faces and swimming bees during “Boogie-Woogie Bugle Boy,” green glimmer strobes and mosaic patterns during “Summertime,” rolling dice and cube shells during “When the Saints Go Marchin’ In,” fish, fireflies, and a red sparkling mile during “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” and floral reports, bright lightning, titanium salutes, and more during the grand finale National Anthem.

DAN ZANES JAM & JUBILEE



BROADWAY2BATTERY: THE BATTERY 4th OF JULY CONCERT AND FAMILY FESTIVAL
Battery Park
State St. & Battery Pl.
Sunday, July 4, free, 2:00
www.rivertorivernyc.com
www.danzanes.com

One of the leaders of 1980s alternative band the Del Fuegos, Dan Zanes has found a second career playing music for kids in his group Dan Zanes and Friends. His latest album, 76 TROMBONES (Festival Five, November 2009), consists of Broadway songs owned by Paul McCartney, including “Hello, Dolly,” “I Can Do That,” “I Won’t Grow Up,” and the title track. Zanes has earned the coveted spot of headlining the annual July 4 concert in Battery Park, which in recent years has gone to Yo La Tengo, Sonic Youth, Dr. John, and the New Pornographers. Zanes will be joined downtown by such friends as Stew (PASSING STRANGE), Caridad De La Luz (La Bruja), and Joan Osborne, with La Cumbiamba eNeYe starting the party at 2:00. There will also be jugglers, stilt walkers, and other buskers as well as a parade of seventy-six trombones that anyone can join, so bring your instrument if you want to march.

TEXAS ON TOUR: THE OLD 97’s

The Old 97’s will celebrate the Fourth by bringing a little bit of Texas to the South Street Seaport

Pier 17, South Street Seaport
Sunday, July 4, free, 7:00
www.southstreetseaport.com
www.old97s.com

As part of the continuing Texas on Tour series at the South Street Seaport, which began July 1 and continues through July 5, alt country favorites the Old 97’s will be playing a free show on July 4 at 7:00. Led by singer-songwriter Rhett Miller, the Old 97’s will be featuring songs from their most recent album, 2008’s BLAME IT ON GRAVITY, while selling the new MIMEOGRAPH, a four-song EP with live covers of the Stones’ “Rocks Off,” the Fratellis’ “For the Girl,” REM’s “Driver 8,” and David Bowie’s “Five Years.” The band is also offering a free download of three other live songs if you friend them on Facebook, the old “St. Ignatius,” “Victoria,” and “4 Leaf Clover.”