this week in music

RED ROOSTER

New York band recently celebrated CD release at DROM

New York band returns to DROM behind new CD

RED ROOSTER
DROM
85 Ave. A between Fifth & Sixth Sts.
Thursday, January 21, $10, 10:00
212-777-1157
www.dromnyc.com
www.redroostermusic.com

Formed in 1998 by lead vocalist Jay Erickson and lead guitarist Nat Zilkha, Red Rooster enters its second decade with its third release, the impressive WALK (Wondermore, September 2009), which follows 2002’s PORCH SONGS and 2005’s DOSE. The longtime friends expand their brand of alt-country folk Americana roots rock with a wide array of instruments on the new disc, featuring Susannah Hornsby (Bruce Hornsby’s niece) on accordion and vocals, Andrew Green on banjo, Dave Gould on saxophone, Brandon Doyle on French horn, Jamie Forrest on mandolin, Dick Neal on dobro, Jon Howe on harmonica, Simon Wettenhall on trumpet, Jeremy Randol and Lucas Ives on drums, Daniel Engelman on bass, and Peter Nilsson on keyboards. “Lord, these songs won’t get me far / I’m gonna write them as far as they’ll go,” Erickson sings on the opening track, “Bluebird,” and the band does indeed take them as far as they will go. Lush harmonies and bluesy interludes drive “Satisfied Mind,” while funky horns and guitars propel “The Places in Between.” The centerpiece of the album is the noirish story-song “Let It All Go,” with a panoply of sweet guitars and horn solos and an infectious chorus.

WALK was recorded in Brooklyn and upstate New York, and that dichotomy is evident in both the music and the lyrics as the city and the country continually do battle. “The city flows down in the street / Subway tracks lay down the beat / I miss the sound of the shuffling creek beside me,” Erickson sings on “Black Point Road.” The yearning “Washington Square” is a kind of companion piece to “Raining in Los Angeles,” spanning three thousand miles of heartbreak. The New York-based band held a CD release party last October 30 at DROM and is returning there on January 21, playing at 10:00. (Madison South opens up at 9:00.) Meanwhile, WALK is available as a “pay what you want” download at the band’s Web site and comes with three bonus tracks, including a cover of the Police hit “Every Breath You Take.”

SAVOIR ADORE

Savoir Adore will talk like machines and humans at the Mercury Lounge on January 14

Mercury Lounge
217 East Houston St.
Thursday, January 14, $10, 10:30
www.myspace.com/savoiradore
www.mercuryloungenyc.com

Deidre Muro and Paul Hammer claim that they started a band as an “accident,” that they were fooling around with some songs, shared them with friends, and eventually became a little more serious about it. Briefly known as Les Frogs, Muro and Hammer renamed themselves Savoir Adore and are currently on tour supporting their debut full-length, the lush, adventurous IN THE WOODED FOREST (Cantora, September 2009), joined by David Perlick-Molinari (who, with Hammer, is part of YouTooCanWoo Prod.), bassist Sasha Brown, and drummer Tim McCoy (who leads the Papercuts). A mix of pure pop delights and sweet instrumental-heavy tunes that walk the fine line between nature and technology, the infectious album features two of the best-titled songs of last year, “The Scientific Findings of Dr. Rousseau” and “Transylvanian Candy Patrol,” but Savoir Adore is about a lot more than just unusual names (even though their first EP was called THE ADVENTURES OF MR. PUMPERNICKEL AND THE GIRL WITH ANIMALS IN HER THROAT). “We Talk Like Machines” has a hook most bands would kill for, with the chorus of “Early Bird” right behind it. “The fires burning bright, everyone’s out tonight! 1 and 2 and 3 and 4, the starry night’s our disco ball!” Muro declares on MERP, which is a good description of Savoir Adore itself. “Creatures of every kind, they all have lost their minds! Colors flying everywhere, a kaleidoscope in the air!” Savoir Adore will be at Mercury Lounge on January 14, taking the stage at 10:30 following two other Brooklyn-based bands, Mon Khmer (9:30) and Cruel Black Dove (8:30).

MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. DAY

The life and legacy of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., will be honored all over the city this holiday weekend

Multiple locations
www.mlkday.gov

Observed for the first time in 1986, Martin Luther King Jr. Day has been celebrated on the third Monday in January ever since (except in a handful of states, the last of which didn’t get on board until 2000). In recent years, it has also become known as the Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service, offering volunteer opportunities across the country. There will be special events honoring what would have been MLK’s eighty-first birthday all over the city this holiday weekend. Today at the Museum of Jewish Heritage, the annual MLK concert, “The Afro-Semitic Experience presents the Road That Heals the Splintered Soul,” will feature the sounds of both the Jewish and African diaspora ($15, 2:00). SOB’s will honor the day with one of its leading early proponents, poet and musician Gil Scott-Heron, on Sunday night ($25, 7:30).

On Monday, the twenty-fourth annual Brooklyn tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., takes place at BAM, featuring keynote speaker Danny Glover, live performances by the New Life Tabernacle Mass Choir and Kenny Muhammad the Human Orchestra, and a screening of Bill Guttentag and Dan Sturman’s documentary SOUNDTRACK FOR A REVOLUTION (free, 10:30 am). The Children’s Museum of Manhattan pays tribute to MLK with several programs on one of its Special Open Mondays, with four Raising Citizens: Make a Difference workshops examining MLK’s legacy and a pair of performances by the Harlem Gospel Choir (free with $10 museum admission, 11:30 am). At Symphony Space, “Artists Celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr.,” sponsored by the JCC in Manhattan, includes the Klezmatics, Daniel Bernard Roumain, and Lemon Andersen, with emcee Celeste Headlee and a keynote address by John Ruskay (free, 6:30). And NYU’s annual MLK Celebration Week will ask the question “Who Will You Inspire to Dream?” with six days of lectures, panel discussions, and film screenings (January 18-23, free).

COIL

Performance Space 122
150 First Ave. at Ninth St.
January 6-17, $20 per performance, $55 passport for any five shows
www.ps122.org

The COIL festival is back at P.S. 122, featuring fourteen companies performing over twelve days, some in conjunction with the Under the Radar festival running concurrently at the Public Theater. Among this year’s presentations are Richard Maxwell’s ADS, which looks at the theater itself; Gisèle Vienne’s hard-hitting JERK, based on text by Dennis Cooper; Morgan Thorson’s HEAVEN, with live music by LOW; and the return of Temporary Distortion’s AMERICANA KAMIKAZE, which ran at P.S. 122 last fall. We can’t recommend Megan V. Sprenger / mvworks’ “…within us.” highly enough; when we caught the show last May at P.S. 122, we called it “a brilliant evening-length piece of confrontational dance theater that gets right in the audience’s face — literally. . . . a thoroughly involving hour that leaves the talented dancers and the brave audience feeling energized and alive.” Several off-site COIL productions include LeeSaar the Company’s PRIMA at the JCC, WaxFactory’s BLIND.NESS at the Abrons Arts Center, and Maria Hassabi’s SoloShow at a private studio in Chelsea; when we saw SoloShow at P.S. 122 in November, we referred to is as “a highlight of the Performa 09 biennial,” a beautifully constructed piece that displays Hassabi’s awe-inspiring athleticism and strong body.

UNDER THE RADAR

Stephen Earnhart’s adaptation of Haruki Murakami’s THE WIND-UP BIRD CHRONICLE should be one of the highlights of the Under the Radar festival

The Public Theater (and other venues)
425 Lafayette St. between East Fourth St. & Astor Pl.
January 6-17, $15-$30
212-967-7555
www.publictheater.org

Held in conjunction with the APAP Conference, the sixth annual Under the Radar festival comprises twenty theatrical productions from seven countries, with well-known companies as well as lesser-known entities bringing their work to the Public Theater and other venues. SITI Company’s Anne Bogart and Charles L. Mee Jr. have teamed up with the Martha Graham Company for AMERICAN DOCUMENT, which will be shown as a work-in-progress. Andrew Dawson gets up close and personal with the moon in SPACE PANORAMA. Sekou and Steve Connell examine morality in THE WORD BEGINS. Doris Mirescu and Dangerous Ground Productions turn John Cassavetes’s HUSBANDS into a three-hour presentation, while the Ohio Theatre transforms Haruki Murakami’s dense THE WIND-UP BIRD CHRONICLE into a 105-minute multimedia drama at their space on Wooster St. Pig Iron Theatre Company reprises its Obie-winning CHEKHOV LIZARDBRAIN at the CSV Cultural Center, while Phil Soltanoff and David Barlow go crazy in LA PARTY at HERE Arts Center. During the festival, the LuEsther Lounge at the Public Theater will be hosting live music and dance performances for free (January 7-17, 9:00 pm – 1:00 am), including Reggie Watts and DJ Reborn on January 7, ELEW on January 9, Rachelle Garniez on January 10, and the Middle Church Jerriese Johnson Gospel Choir on January 17.

BEAR CEUSE

Cameron Matthews will get down to business at Arlene’s Grocery on January 6

Cameron Matthews will get down to business as Bear Ceuse at Arlene’s Grocery on January 6

Arlene’s Grocery
95 Stanton St.
Wednesday, January 6, 11:00
www.myspace.com/bearceusemusic
www.arlenesgrocery.net

While a freshman at St. Louis University, Cameron Matthews won MTVu’s Best Music on Campus competition. Now a postgrad English major, he changed his name to Bear Ceuse, made a sweet EP with Xmas (Nick Risler of Radical Sons), and has also released his own EP, the strong 80, that is available for free here. Still slinging pizzas three days a week, Matthews displays an eclectic taste in music, playing guitar-heavy pop and languid, bittersweet ballads with healthy doses of country, folk, and even bluesy soul, sort of M. Ward mixing it up with Ryan Adams with a voice that echoes both Neil Young and Bono. From the hard-driving opener, “I Saw It Beating,” to the jangling “Vodka Parade,” through the yearning finale, “Kiss Another,” the EP is one damn fine listen. Bear Ceuse, featuring Matthews on guitar, Patrick Creceilus on bass, and Ben Majchrzak on drums, will be headlining Arlene’s Grocery on January 6 at 11:00, preceded by Jon Gant (7:00), Luke Elliot (8:00), the Blaire Reinhart Band (9:00), and Mounia Tajiou (10:00). Along with his originals, Matthews could always throw in a few covers, anything from Andrew Bird, Bright Eyes, and Damien Rice to Bob Dylan, the Beatles, and David Bowie, although we love his take on Ray Charles’s “Drown in My Own Tears.” And what’s not to love about a guy who once wrote a song called “In Defense of J. Alfred Prufrock” (not to mention “Marxist Marriage”)?

AU REVOIR SIMONE

Au Revoir Simone headlines trio of Brooklyn bands at the Highline Ballroom

Highline Ballroom
431 West 16th St. between Ninth & Tenth Aves.
Thursday, January 7, $15-$20, 7:00
212-414-5994
www.highlineballroom.com
www.myspace.com/aurevoirsimone

In 2007, Heather D’Angelo, Erika Foster, and Annie Hart delighted us with THE BIRD OF MUSIC, but their follow-up, the brand-new, stripped-down STILL NIGHT, STILL LIGHT (Our Secret Record Company, May 2009), took them to the next level. Through twelve intimate songs, the three keyboardists sing about love and loss, backed primarily by a drum machine (and some live drumming by Ben McConnell and Otto Hauser on a few songs). “I’m moving on / I hope you’re coming with me / ’cause I’m not strong / without you,” they sing on the gently pulsating “Shadows,” which beats like an aching heart. On the stark “The Last One,” they declare, “I’m the one to forget / the one you won’t regret / So let me go.” And as clear as “Take Me as I Am” and the mostly instrumental “Only You Can Make You Happy” are, “Trace a Line” is more mysterious in sound and lyrics as they sing, “We’re making room for alibis / when something tells me telling lies / is only ever trying to be true.” STILL NIGHT, STILL LIGHT is a gorgeous, infectious record, another beautiful collection of heartfelt songs by one of Brooklyn’s best minimalist groups. Au Revoir Simone will be playing the Highline Ballroom on January 7 with fellow Brooklynites Class Actress and up-and-coming solo artist Alexa Wilding.