this week in music

THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC

Dreyer classic will get impassioned screening with live music at Encounter festival

THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC (Carl Th. Dreyer, 1928)
New York Marriott Marquis, sixth floor
1535 Broadway
Sunday, January 17, $30, 8:00
www.crossroadsculturalcenter.org

As part of the New York Encounter festival, Carl Th. Dreyer’s controversial 1928 classic silent film, THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC, will be screened at the Marriott Marquis, accompanied by a live performance of Richard Einhorn’s “Voices of Light,” the composer’s 1994 oratorio inspired by the film. The composition will be performed by the Metro Chamber Orchestra, directed by Phil Nuzzo, and the Communion and Liberation Choir, directed by Christopher Vath. The film stars Renée Jeanne Falconetti, in her second and final movie role, as the title character, facing her final days. Dreyer (ORDET, VAMPYR) created a stunning look for the film, featuring extreme close-ups that get right in the viewer’s face. Thought to be lost, the complete film was discovered in a Norwegian mental institution in 1981 and ultimately released on DVD by Criterion.

THE HEAVY

British band the Heavy will get down and dirty in three area shows (photo by Will Cooper-Mitchell)

Tuesday, January 12, Music Hall of Williamsburg, $15-$17, 9:00
Thursday, January 14, Bowery Ballroom, $15-$17, 9:00
Saturday, January 16, 92YTribeca, $12, 9:00
www.myspace.com/theheavy73
www.bowerypresents.com
www.92y.org

Read any article or review about British band the Heavy and you’ll be hit with a flurry of musical references, from the White Stripes, Massive Attack, and Sam Cooke to PFunk, Bo Diddley, and James Brown, from the Stooges, Tom Waits, and Little Walter to Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, Jimi Hendrix, Gnarls Barkley, and, believe it or not, Bing Crosby. But this foursome from Noid, England – lead singer Swaby, guitarist Dan “T” Taylor, bassist Spencer “Big Daddy Spence” Page, and drummer Chris Ellul – are no mere human jukebox regurgitators. They burst onto the indie scene with 2007’s GREAT VENGEANCE AND FURIOUS FIRE, which featured such groovy hits as “Coleen” and “That Kind of Man,” and followed it up with another rousing sonic blast, THE HOUSE THAT DIRT BUILT (Counter, October 2009), ten songs that will blow your mind while you shake your booty and get plenty filthy. Tunes such as “Oh No! Not You Again!,” “Sixteen,” and “Cause for Alarm” channel garage rock, R&B, funk, blues, rap, hip-hop, and reggae, attacking your senses while satisfying your soul. The Heavy will be opening for the Hotrats on January 12 at the Music Hall of Williamsburg and on January 14 at the Bowery Ballroom (with Sean Bones), followed by a gig on January 16 at 92YTribeca with James Dean Wells of the Gay Blades. You can also catch them live on MTV Iggy on January 13 at 12 noon and on WFUV at 3:30, as well as on WNYC the next day at 2:00.

CRACKER / CAMPER VAN BEETHOVEN

Cracker and Camper Van Beethoven will mix things up at the Highline on January 15 (photo by Danny Clinch)

Highline Ballroom
431 West 16th St. between Ninth & Tenth Aves.
Friday, January 15, $22-$25, 8:30
212-414-5994
www.myspace.com/crackerhatesmyspace
www.highlineballroom.com

David Lowery will be doing double duty on January 15 as he brings both Cracker and Camper Van Beethoven to the Highline Ballroom. Cracker, the Virginia-based band that has scored such hits as “Teen Angst,” “Low,” “Get Off This,” and one of the great live songs of all time, “Euro-Trash Girl,” will be featuring songs from their latest album, the excellent SUNRISE IN THE LAND OF MILK AND HONEY (429 Records, September 2009). Although the disc is filled with Lowery’s trademark ironic sense of humor and cofounder Johnny Hickman’s infectious guitar hooks, the songs were written for the first time as a group, with drummer Frank Funaro and bassist Sal Maida pitching in. Harking back to the sound of the late 1970s and early 1980s, the foursome packs quite a punch on such fine tunage as “Show Me How This Thing Works,” “Hand Me My Inhaler,” and the instant Cracker classic “Turn on Tune in Drop Out with Me,” getting help from such friends as Counting Crows leader Adam Duritz, Drive-By Trucker Patterson Hood, and X man John Doe along the way. Opening up will be Lowery’s seminal country folk punk outfit, CVB, whose current incarnation consists of longtime members Victor Krummenacher on bass, Greg Lisher on guitar, and Jonathan Segel on violin and other instruments, with Funaro sitting behind the drum kit. CVB is responsible for such critical cuts as “Take the Skinheads Bowling,” “New Roman Times,” “Might Makes Right,” and “Joe Stalin’s Cadillac,” with Lowery getting more specifically political than he does with Cracker. This is one of those don’t-miss shows you’ll regret not going to, so we hope to see you there.

Johnny Hickman and David Lowery have a blast at Cracker / Camper Van Beethoven show at the Highline Ballroom (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Update: Grizzly-bearded David Lowery did double duty at the Highline Ballroom on January 15, first playing a 100-minute set with Camper Van Beethoven, followed by another two hours with Cracker. The first set was a rousing look back at the history of seminal indie rockers CVB, dominated by Lowery’s politically tinged lyrics and Jonathan Segel’s virtuosic violin playing. Along with such favorites as “Take the Skinheads Bowling,” “Eye of Fatima,” and “Joe Stalin’s Cadillac,” the band covered the Clash’s “White Riot,” Black Flag’s “Wasted,” and the Status Quo’s “Pictures of Matchstick Men,” which was an MTV hit for them more than twenty years ago. After a break, Lowery returned with Cracker for a more amiable, freewheeling set as he told long stories about a grandmother requesting “the song about the whore” (“Eurotrash Girl”), performing “Yalla Yalla” in Iraq, and claiming that “Merry Christmas, Emily” was one of the only Christmas songs about a Jew. Guitarist and cofounder Johnny Hickman, looking resplendent in a dazzling white suit, led the way on “Lonesome Johnny Blues” and Bob Dylan’s “The Man in Me.” The night ended with members of both bands jamming through an extended take on the Pink Floyd acid instrumental “Interstellar Overdrive.” (For a slideshow and the setlist, go here.)

CULTUREMART ’10

Ximena Garnica and Shige Moriya will reprise FLOATING POINT WAVES as part of CultureMart at HERE Arts

HERE Arts Center
145 Sixth Ave.
January 11-31, $15
212-647-0202
www.here.org

The tenth annual CultureMart festival takes place at HERE Arts January 11-31, featuring twelve workshop productions and a postshow discussion series making up three weeks of experimental opera and dance, avant-garde theater and puppetry. Michael Bodel reimagines Bellini’s LA SONNAMBULA, Toni Dove examines virtual multiple personality in LUCID POSSESSION, Yoav Gal goes multimedia to retell the story of Moses in MOSHEH, and Erin Orr and Rima Fand follow DON CRISTOBAL, BILLY-CLUB MAN onstage and off with hand, large, and shadow puppets, inspired by Federico Garcia Lorca. Laura Peterson’s WOODEN takes place in a naturalistic environment of sculpted trees and metal, while Johari Mayfield’s THE VENUS RIFF looks at science and religion in regard to the stereotyping of women over the last few hundred years. We’re particularly looking forward to FLOATING POINT WAVES by dancer/choreographer Ximena Garnica and video artist Shige Moriya, who collaborated on FURNACE at last month’s Cave Butoh Festival. Tickets for all events are $15 and go fast.

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).