this week in music

UNINHABITABLE MANSIONS

Brooklyn indie supergroup is supporting strong debut album

Tuesday, December 15, Bowery Ballroom, 6 Delancey St., $12-$15, 7:30
Sunday, December 20, Cameo, 93 North Sixth St.
www.myspace.com/uninhabitablemansions

Uninhabitable Mansions is an art collective and Brooklyn mini-supergroup that features Annie Hart from Au Revoir Simone, Danny Comer and Chris Diken from Radical Dads, Doug Marvin from Dirty on Purpose, and Robbie Guertin and Tyler Sargent from Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Their debut album is a steady stream of inventive indie pop that enjoys stopping and starting, dropping in and out and back again, with most songs developing slowly and quietly at the outset. Indeed, UM is in no hurry, which is a good thing, because the characters in their songs are often lost souls, waiting for something or someone, not knowing where they’re going. “There’s nothing here to see for miles,” they sing in “Big Kick,” which charges out of the gate with a searing guitar line that lasts for nearly a minute before the lyrics begin. (The six-strings go deliriously screechy at the end.) In the acoustic-based “Do You Have a Strategy?,” which features an infectiously quirky hook, they explain, “You say someday our bones will turn to dust / Darling, it’s true, but what’s the rush / A little rust wouldn’t hurt you / Let’s stop right here / The days will wait for us.” In the trifecta of “Do You Have a Strategy?” “Midnight Topography,” and “Maps: Not Accurate,” references are made to missing landmarks, shifting skylines, standing in thin air, and maps, over and over. They sing of escape, looking for a way out, drifting, floating, heading in the wrong direction, searching for a “place that nobody knows.” “Staring at the ceiling and you start to get the feeling that / There’s nowhere to go,” they sing in the poppy “We Already Know.” The band’s subtle, ethereal sound befits the line “We’re sick of solid ground” from the album’s opener, “The Speed Is Deceiving,” and indeed, much of the record itself is deceiving, in compelling ways. In addition to being musicians, UM also makes unique literary and art projects; for example, on their Web site, you can purchase Diken’s short story “The Killer at the Beach” paired with a trench coat designed by Sara Jones as well as T-shirts, handmade books by Guertin, and even a yardstick. On December 15, they’re playing with the Antlers and Sharon Van Etten at a sold-out Bowery Ballroom show, but there are still tickets available for their December 20 gig at the Cameo Gallery inside the Lovin’ Cup Cafe with Revival Times and Pocketknife.

A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS

charliebrown

Brooklyn Lyceum
227 Fourth Ave.
Through December 20, $10, 2:00 & 7:00
718-857-4816
www.brooklynlyceum.com

The Brooklyn Lyceum, which once was home to NYC Public Bath No. 7, is now playing host to the Pig Brooch Theatre Company’s live production of the holiday classic A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS through December 20. Charles Schulz’s delightful animated special was first shown on television in 1965 and has been an annual favorite ever since. A veteran of several Fringe Festivals, Pig Brooch will faithfully perform the show verbatim, with a jazz trio playing Vince Guaraldi’s magical score. The company includes actors, singers, and comedians from the Metropolitan Opera House, Broadway, and the Upright Citizens Brigade. And to keep everybody warm and cozy, hot chocolate and apple cider will be available. In addition, on December 19-20, the Holiday Craft Market returns to the Lyceum, featuring local crafters, food, and more for much-needed last-minute shopping.

MESSIAH

The Trinity Choir will perform Handel's "Messiah" at Trinity Church Wall Street

Trinity Church
74 Trinity Pl.
Sunday, December 13, 3:00, and Monday, December 14, 7:30, $30-$50
212-602-0848
www.trinitywallstreet.org

In 1770, George Frideric Handel’s “Messiah” held its New World premiere in Trinity Church. The holiday favorite is back again, as the Trinity Choir teams up with the Trinity Baroque Orchestra and concertmaster Robert Mealy, guest-conducted by Jane Glover. “The whole is beyond any thing I had a notion of until I Read and heard it. It seems to be a Species of Musick different from any other, and this is particularly remarkable of it,” the Bishop of Elphin wrote of the Dublin premiere of Handel’s “Messiah” in 1743. “That tho’ the Composition is very Masterly and artificial, yet the Harmony is So great and open, as to please all who have Ears & will hear, learned & unlearn’d.” In the Trinity Choir program notes, Mealy writes, “In re-creating the musical conditions of Handel’s own performances, we may hope that we re-create the reactions of Bishop Elphin’s fellow-listeners: ‘They seem’d indeed throughly engag’d frome one end to the other . . . which Show’d that they were not only pleas’d but affected with the performance.”’

If you can’t make Handel’s masterpiece at Trinity Church, you can catch it December 13 at 3:00 at Lehman College with the Bronx Opera Chorus and the Orchestra of the Bronx ($10-$25), at Avery Fisher Hall December 15-19 with the New York Philharmonic ($31-$109), at the Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank, New Jersey, on December 20 ($10-$45), and at Carnegie Hall on December 23 with the Masterwork Chorus and Orchestra ($13.50-$85).

ARCTIC MONKEYS

Arctic Monkeys are at Terminal 5 for two shows

Terminal 5
610 West 56th St. between 11th & 12th Aves.
December 10-11, $34.50-$39.50, 8:00
212-665-3832
www.myspace.com/arcticmonkeys
www.terminal5nyc.com

If Noel Gallagher had a nicer, cleaner, more talented son, it might just have been Arctic Monkeys lead singer Alex Turner. With his heart on his sleeve, Turner writes lyrics that reflect a man who has spent too much time looking at his mug in the mirror of the pub’s bathroom. Displaying a restless spirit filled with punk attitude, Turner’s songs are about mardy bums and balaclavas, preaching to those more British than the British yet not old enough to vote. Nearly every Monkeys song is a fast, brash, extremely catchy two minutes about being young and distraught. In fact, they have hardly ever experimented past their guitar/bass/drums formula until their latest album, HUMBUG (Domino, August 2009), on which they crank up the synths and go psychedelic under stoner-rock legend Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age, Them Crooked Vultures). Homme pushed them outside their comfort zone to expand their musical range, and instead of tirelessly churning out short blasts of anger and passion, they ventured into four-minute alt rock, touching base on a wide variety of topics – and even recorded a ballad, “Cornerstone,” the finest track on the CD and possibly the best song Turner has ever written, chronicling his troubles accepting a breakup while traveling from bustling pub to bustling pub asking every stray female if he “could call her your name.” The Monkeys, greasy haired rebels burdened by the containment of adolescence into three stanzas and a chorus, are in New York City for two nights at Terminal 5, just as their first two records, 2006’s WHATEVER PEOPLE SAY I AM, THAT’S WHAT I’M NOT and 2007’s FAVOURITE WORST NIGHTMARE, are appearing on lots of best-of-the-decade lists. New Jersey’s Screaming Females open the show.

JEFF THE BROTHERHOOD

The Corrall brothers are back in town for two psychedelic gigs (photo by Greg)

The Orrall brothers are back in town for two psychedelic gigs (photo by Greg)

Sunday, December 6, Bowery Ballroom, 6 Delancey St., $18, 8:00
Monday, December 7, Mercury Lounge, 217 East Houston St., $8, 7:00
www.myspace.com/jakeandjamin
www.mercuryloungenyc.com
www.boweryballroom.com

Somehow, even though Nashville’s Jeff the Brotherhood was one of the busiest bands at the CMJ Music Marathon in October, we just kept missing them, our primary disappointment of the festival. However, good fortune is shining on us all as brothers Jake and Jamin Orrall are back in the city for two gigs, supporting Ted Leo on December 6 at the Bowery Ballroom and headlining the next night at the Mercury Lounge (10:00) with Dinowalrus (9:00), Sisters (8:00), Coin Under Tongue (7:00), and a DJ set by Stupid Party. Jeff the Brotherhood’s HEAVY DAYS (Infinity Cat, October 2009) has been in heavy rotation on our computer, offering blast after blast of pure psychedelic garage rock on such tunes as “U Got the Look,” “The Tropics,” “Bone Jam,” “Screaming Banshee,” “Doo It,” and “I’m a Freak,” which features an appropriately great freak-out. Although the December 6 show is sold out, there are still tickets for December 7, so be sure to catch Jake and Jamin letting out a groovy barrage of sound with just drums and guitar.

HOLIDAY CHEER FOR ’FUV 2009

Rosanne Cash will be checking her list at annual FUV holiday fundraiser

The Concert Hall at the New York Society for Ethical Culture
2 West 64th St. at Central Park West
Tuesday, December 8, $45-$500, 8:00
800-745-3000
www.wfuv.org/events/holiday/2009

One of the last of the great radio stations, WFUV, broadcasting out of Fordham University, is hosting its fifth annual benefit concert on December 8 at the Society for Ethical Culture, raising much-needed funds to be able to continue such programming as Echoes with John Dilberto, the Grateful Dead Hour, American Routes with Nick Spitzer, Beale Street Caravan with Daren Dortin and Pat Mitchell, the World Cafe with David Dye, Mountain Stage with Larry Groce, a Thousand Welcomes with Kathleen Biggins, Woody’s Children with Bob Sherman, the Whole Wide World with Rita Houston, Mixed Bag with Pete Fornatale, and Idiot’s Delight with the legendary Vin Scelsa. This year’s concert is headlined by Rosanne Cash, who is touring behind her latest album, THE LIST, a collection of essential country songs her father gave her when she turned eighteen. Also on the bill are Providence’s the Low Anthem and former Soul Coughing leader Mike Doughty. Tickets are $45-$75, with $250 and $500 VIP seats that include admission to the preconcert cocktail party.

RAILROAD EARTH

Railroad Earth will be playing last area show for a while on December 10 (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Music Hall of Williiamsburg
66 North Sixth St.
Thursday, December 10, $25, 9:00
www.musichallofwilliamsburg.com
www.myspace.com/railroadearth

The jam-band label has vexed New Jersey’s Railroad Earth, a sextet who bring percussion to the acoustic mix with a bluegrass-derived sensibility even as they incorporate influences from Celtic to folk into their engaging repertoire. Over time RRE has mastered the science of being able to stretch out and improvise, without getting over-noodly or self-indulgent, two whammies that turn many off of the jam-band scene — often folks who live for melodic, well-written music by artists such as the Band or Neil Young. Railroad Earth sounds like themselves yet draw from a similar pedigree; we can’t get enough of such fine tunage as “Smilin’ Like a Buddha,” “Mighty River,” and the chooglin’ “Warhead Boogie.” They’ll be playing the Music Hall of Williamsburg on December 10 in what will be the last area show featuring the current lineup, as bassist Johnny Grubb is leaving the band; it’ll be the last show around here for a while too, as fiddler Tim Carbone devotes more time to his new group, the Contribution, and lead singer Todd Shaeffer goes on tour with the re-formed From Good Homes. The Infamous Stringdusters will open the show.