this week in music

FIRST SATURDAYS: TRANSFORMATION

Cordero will get Saturday night party started at Brooklyn Museum on January 2 (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Brooklyn Museum of Art
200 Eastern Parkway
Saturday, January 2, free after 5:00 (some events require advance free tickets available an hour or two before showtime)
718-638-5000
www.brooklynmuseum.org

The Brooklyn Museum’s monthly First Saturdays program rings in the new year with its monthly array of free activities, beginning at 5:00 with Cordero, a rousing live band formed by Ani Cordero in Tucson in 1999 with members of Calexico and Giant Sand and based in New York City since 2000; Cordero plays smooth, surprisingly subtle Latin pop that is always on the verge of busting loose. At 6:00, Daphne Brooks will talk about funk rock and James Brown. At 6:30, the Midnight Checkout Queens will play live along with a screening of HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH (John Cameron Mitchell, 2001). At 7:00, Venus Ensembles will headline the annual Winter Masquerade Ball, so be sure to come in costume. At 9:00, John Sellers will talk about his book PERFECT FROM NOW ON: HOW INDIE ROCK SAVED MY LIFE. Also at 9:00, Expressway Music hosts a karaoke contest for free FELA! tickets, and Jonathan Toubin spins tunes during the always hot dance party. And as always, the evening includes a gallery talk, a hands-on art workshop, and admission to all of the current exhibitions: “Who Shot Rock & Roll: A Photographic History, 1955 to the Present,” “James Tissot: ‘The Life of Christ,’” “Body Parts: Ancient Egyptian Fragments and Amulets,” “Reflections on the Electric Mirror: New Feminist Video,” “Patricia Cronin: ‘Harriet Hosmer, Lost and Found,’” and “From the Village to the Vogue: The Modernist Jewelry of Art Smith.”

WILLIAM BLAKE / JANE AUSTEN / CHARLES DICKENS / GIACOMO PUCCINI

William Blake, “Mysterious Dream,” watercolor over traces of black chalk

Morgan Library & Museum
225 Madison Ave. at 36th St.
Closed Monday
Admission: $12 adults, $8 children under sixteen (free Fridays 7:00 – 9:00)
212-685-0008
www.themorgan.org

While they’re not exactly the Rat Pack and didn’t exactly hang out together – although there is some overlap of when they existed here on earth – William Blake (1757-1827), Jane Austen (1775-1817), Charles Dickens (1812-70), and Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924) make for quite a foursome at the Morgan Library this holiday season. A master engraver, painter, Romantic poet, and religious nut, Blake was a visionary artist who claimed that some of his work came from, well, otherworldly visions. “William Blake’s World: ‘A New Heaven Is Begun’” (through January 3) includes such awe-inspiring pieces as “Satan,” “Chaucer’s Canterbury Pilgrims,” the gorgeous watercolor series he did illustrating the Book of Job (even throwing in Jesus for good measure), the wacky “First Book of Urizen,” a letter from Blake to one of his patrons, a pair of plates of his most famous poem, “The Tyger,” and his anti-New World screed, “America: A Prophecy.” Blake, who died poor and was buried in an unmarked grave, had remarkable skill and a mind that just did not quite fit in his time.

The Morgan takes a revealing look at one of England’s greatest novelists in “A Woman’s Wit: Jane Austen’s Life and Legacy” (through March 14), comprising original manuscripts, letters, and illustrated editions as well as Blake’s portrait of Harriet Quentin, which Austen saw in London. Austen, who published anonymously because of her gender, penned such classic books as PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, MANSFIELD PARK, EMMA, and SENSE AND SENSIBILITY, all dealt with in this exhibition. Her writings are placed in context alongside satiric cartoons by James Gillray and diary entries and a documentary film in which other authors discuss Austen’s lasting influence. The letter from her sister Cassandra announcing Jane’s death is simply heartbreaking.

John Leech, detail, “Mr. Fezziwig’s Ball,” original watercolor illustration for Charles Dickens’s CHRISTMAS CAROL, first edition, 1843

Running through January 10 in the McKim Building, “Charles Dickens’s A CHRISTMAS CAROL” features Dickens’s original marked-up manuscript of the holiday tale, written in six weeks in 1843 and bound in red leather shortly after its publication. The book is in the McKim Building, which will be open to the public for free on Tuesdays from 3:00 to 5:00, Fridays (except Christmas and New Year’s Day) from 7:00 to 9:00 (when the entire museum is free), and Sundays from 4:00 to 6:00. Finally, the Morgan is displaying more than three dozen items that look into the life and legacy of Italian composer Giacomo Puccini in “Celebrating Puccini” (through January 10), including letters, posters, and original manuscripts for LA BOHÈME and MADAMA BUTTERFLY.

CHRISTMAS DAY EVENTS

The Flaming Lips celebrate CHRISTMAS ON MARS with screening at IFC

Even though most arts institutions and music clubs are closed on Christmas Day, there are still plenty of cool things to do after the presents are given out, the table has been cleaned, and exhaustion is setting in. And for those who don’t celebrate Christmas, well, there’s a handful of events to choose from. Christmas is a big movie day, whether people go to the theater after celebrating the holiday with friends and family or instead pair it with Chinese food, at least partially in homage to A CHRISTMAS STORY. At 92YTribeca, screenings of Mel Brooks’s still hysterical BLAZING SADDLES (2:30) and occasionally funny but mostly silly SPACEBALLS (4:00) will be accompanied by an all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet ($25-$30). Film Forum’s ongoing Madcap Manhattan series will be showing a special double feature of the original MIRACLE ON 34th STREET with Preston Sturges’s CHRISTMAS IN JULY, while the IFC Center will be presenting the rather bizarre CHRISTMAS ON MARS: A FANTASTICAL FILM FREAKOUT FEATURING THE FLAMING LIPS at midnight all weekend. Jewish singles might want to head uptown to the main branch of the 92^nd St. Y for the JDate Christmas Day Chinese Food and Comedy event, thirty-five and over only, please (3:00, $30). The Museum of Jewish Heritage will be holding its annual “Challah-lujah: The Tradition Continues,” a concert featuring Joshua Nelson and the Kosher Gospel Choir, with a family program at 11:00 am ($10-$20) and a show for general audiences at 1:00 ($35). At the Jewish Museum, the Family Celebration includes art workshops, a live performance by Metropolitan Klezmer, the “Strike a Surreal Pose” photo booth in conjunction with the Man Ray exhibition, guided tours, and free hot chocolate ($12 adults, children under twelve free). And at the Museum at Eldridge Street, Greg Wall and Klezmerfest will lead audiences on a musical journey in Klez for Kids ($8-$12, 11:00 am).

Later in the evening, (le) poisson rouge is hosting the Freedom Party, a night of classic hip-hop, dancehall reggae, neosoul, and more with DJ Cosi, DJ Marc Smooth, and DJ Herbert Holler ($15, 11:00 pm), while at SOB’s, T-Vice and Kreyola lead a pair of Manhattan Haitian Dance Parties at midnight and 2:00 am ($30).

DRINK UP BUTTERCUP

: Drink Up Buttercup was one of the stand-outs at this year’s CMJ Marathon (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Glasslands Gallery
289 Kent Ave. between South First & Southe Second Sts.
Tuesday, December 22, $7, 8:00
www.myspace.com/theglasslands
www.myspace.com/drinkupbuttercupband

When we first saw the crazy Bucks County band Drink Up Buttercup at the Mercury Lounge on July 3 of this year, we were immediately taken by their DIY charm; after the dazzling set, played with an intoxicating, reckless abandon, lead guitarist and singer Jim Harvey was stalking around, desperately looking for a small piece of missing equipment, while the rest of the band packed up their gear in the back of his dad’s rug van. (At the time, Jim and his half-brother, Farzad Houshiarnejad, who contributes keyboards, bass, and smash percussion, were working for their father part-time, selling and delivering Oriental carpets.) But since then, the band has signed with Yep Roc, which led to their own van, a relatively plain white one that bass player and keyboardist Ben Money excitedly showed us before a CMJ gig at Cake Shop, proudly beaming that it came complete with Nintendo built in. But when Harvey broke a guitar string early on at the Ludlow St. show, he had to stop the set and ask if anyone in the audience or from one of the other bands had a guitar he could use so they could continue. While waiting, he led the foursome – which also includes the still-teenage Mike Cammarata on drums – into the center of the narrow, packed club, where they sang a cappella until a replacement guitar arrived, at which time they returned to their manic set, switching instruments, banging on a trash can and toolkit, bounding dangerously across the stage, and bumping against each other and the low ceiling.

: Drink Up Buttercup gets wild and crazy night after night (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

A few days later, they toned things down only a bit for an acoustic set in the scenic Delancey rooftop garden, where they powered through another stellar performance that really showed off the strength of their vocal harmonies, musical chops, and songwriting abilities – as we’ve said before, their tunes just kick ass, in whatever format they’re played. And they’ve just expanded their repertoire – which features such raucous songs as “Mr. Pie Eyes,” “Sosey and Dosey,” and “Seasickness Pills” – with their first single on Yep Roc, the groovy new “Even Think” backed with the older “Heavy Hand,” available for free download from their Web site, along with a remix of “Even Think” by Andrew W.K. One of the busiest and best bands at this year’s CMJ Marathon, DUB will be at Glasslands Gallery in Brooklyn on December 22 playing on a bill with True Womanhood, the Art of Shooting, Schocholautte, and Total Slacker that gets going at 8:00. You just have to see these guys. Really. We’re not kidding.

JOHN LENNON: THE NEW YORK CITY YEARS

December 8 marks the 29th anniversary of the murder of John Lennon (photo by Bob Gruen)

December 8 marks the 29th anniversary of the murder of John Lennon in New York City (photo by Bob Gruen)

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Annex
76 Mercer St.
Through January 3
Timed tickets: $26.50
www.rockannex.com

It’s hard to believe that it’s been twenty-nine years since John Lennon was gunned down on December 8, 1980, by Mark David Chapman in front of the Dakota, where Lennon had lived with wife Yoko Ono for much of the 1970s. Lennon and Ono had just released the album DOUBLE FANTASY to wide acclaim and appeared ready to spend more time in the public spotlight. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Annex looks back at this period of Lennon’s life in the exhibition “John Lennon: The New York City Years,” comprising letters, photographs, instruments, handwritten lyrics, clothing, works of art, and other memorabilia and paraphernalia collected by Ono and curator Jim Henke. While the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame – a rather dubious institution to begin with – is located in Cleveland, the organization set up an annex in SoHo last December. If you haven’t heard of it or been there, you’re not the only one; it has just been announced that the annex will be closing its doors on January 3. While the Web site claims that it’s merely “concluding its stay in New York” in preparation for a tour, low interest and attendance certainly contributed mightily to the decision. Of course, the admission charge of $26.50 for advance timed tickets didn’t help. However, if you’re seeking a way to pay tribute to the Smart Beatle, checking out this exhibit isn’t the worst idea we can think of.

THIS IS SPINAL TAP SING-ALONG

Everyone gets to join in at Spinal Tap singalong in TriBeCa

THIS IS SPINAL TAP (Rob Reiner, 1984)
92YTribeca
200 Hudson St. at Canal St.
Saturday, December 19, $13, 11:00 pm
212-415-5500
www.92YTribeca.org/film

Get ready to smell the glove, and beware the patron saint of quality footwear. The 92nd St. Y outpost in TriBeCa is hosting a late-night sing-along of the greatest mockumentary ever made, the towering classic THIS IS SPINAL TAP, Rob Reiner’s triumphant tale of three heavy metal heads – Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest), David St. Hubbins (Michael McKean), and Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer) – and a series of highly flammable drummers as the band attempts a comeback. The hysterical film, which does indeed go all the way up to eleven, includes cameos by Bruno Kirby, Ed Begley Jr., Dana Carvey, Fran Drescher, Billy Crystal, Howard Hesseman, Paul Benedict, Paul Shaffer, Anjelica Huston, Fred Willard, and, yes, the one and only Patrick MacNee. Prizes will be given out – as well as one free beer per ticket holder – so come in costume, ready to belt out such unforgettable hits as “Hell Hole,” “Big Bottom,” “Sex Farm,” and, of course, “Stonehenge.”

HOLIDAYS 2009

Thursday, December 10 Washington Square Park Holiday Tree Lighting, with Mary Hurlbut and the Rob Susman Brass Quartet, free, 6:00

Friday, December 11 El Museo’s Holiday Posada and Parranda Party, El Museo del Barrio, $60, 7:00

Annual Christmas Revels return to Symphony Space

Friday, December 11
through
Sunday, December 13 The Christmas Revels, Symphony Space, $15-$45

Friday, December 11
and
Friday, December 18 Caroling at the Morgan, featuring singers from Mannes College, Morgan Library, free, 6:30

Saturday, December 12 NYC Santacon, www.nycsantacon.com, 10:00 am

Saturday, December 12 Flaubert’s Holiday Concert: Winter Tales with Flaubert Frog, Bryant Park, Le Carrousel, free, 1:00

Saturday, December 12 Phil Kline’s Unsilent Night, Washington Square Park arch, free, 7:00

majorleaguedreidel

Saturday, December 12 Hanukkah Gone Metal: 2009 Major League Dreidel Spin the Dreidel Tournament, with Gods of Fire and Category of Sixx, Knitting Factory, $10, 7:00

Saturday, December 12 Reverend Billy and the Life After Shopping Choir’s Holiday Revival concert, Brooklyn Lyceum, $10, 8:00

Saturday, December 12 Third annual Menorah Horah!, with the Schlep Sisters, Sapphire Jones, Sauci Calla Horra, and Golem, hosted by Kenny Mellman, Southpaw, $12-$16, 8:00

Saturday, December 12 Sephardic Music Festival Opening Night: Smadar Levi, Sarah Aroeste, and the Naming, 92Y Tribeca, $15-$20, 9:00

Saturday, December 12
and
Sunday, December 13 Music for St. Nicholas, Bartow-Pell Mansion, free tickets available at 718-601-7399, 1:00 & 3:00

Saturday, December 12, 19, 26
and
Sunday, December 13, 20, 27 Wild Holiday Party: Presents to the Animals, Prospect Park Zoo, free with zoo admission

Sunday, December 13 Annual Holiday Concert, featuring ensemble with members from the Scandinavian Chamber Orchestra of New York, Scandinavia House, $25, 4:00

Sunday, December 13 Darlene Love Christmas Show, B.B. King Blues Club & Grill, $45-$50, 8:00

Monday, December 14 Children’s Holiday Party, Museum of the City of New York, $75-$150, 3:00-6:00

Wednesday, December 16 “To All, Wassail”: 19th-Century Holiday Concert, Merchant’s House Museum, $25, 7:00

Wednesday, December 16 ChrismaHanuKwanzakah: A Holiday Anxiety Spectacular, Galapagos, $25, 7:00

Thursday, December 17 LES Stories: Holidays in the City, hosted by HR Britton, Tenement Museum, free but RSVP required, 6:30

Paul Winter is back at St. John the Divine for thirtieth annual solstice celebration

Thursday, December 17
through
Saturday, December 19 Solstice Journey: Paul Winter’s 30th Annual Winter Solstice Celebration, the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, $35-$80

Friday, December 18
and
Saturday, December 19 Holiday Candlelight Tours, $6-$18

Friday, December 18
and
Saturday, December 19 BLACK CHRISTMAS (Bob Clark, 1974), 12 midnight

Saturday, December 19 Chanté-Noël: A Martinique Holiday Celebration, Le Skyroom, French Institute Alliance Française, $20, 6:30

Sunday, December 19 Christmas with Aaron Neville, featuring Charles Neville, Highline Ballroom, $37.50-$40, 8:00

Saturday, December 19
and
Sunday, December 20 Santa in Central Park, Belvedere Castle, midpark at 79th St., free, 12 noon – 3:00 pm

Saturday, December 19
and
Sunday, December 20 Ronnie Spector’s Xmas Party, B.B. King Blues Club & Grill, $30-$35, 9:00

Sunday, December 20 Louie Multicultural Holiday Show, Children’s Museum of Manhattan, free with museum admission (tickets distributed beginning at 12:30), 2:00 & 3:00

Sunday, December 20 Jews and Chinese Food: A Love Affair, talk with Jennifer 8. Lee, author of THE FORTUNE COOKIE CHRONICLES, followed by buffet dinner, 92nd St. Y, Buttenwieser Hall, $39, 7:00

Monday, December 21
through
Wednesday, December 23 Charlie for the Holidays: CITY LIGHTS (Charles Chaplin, 1931) and MODERN TIMES (Charles Chaplin, 1936), $15

Tuesday, December 22 CAROLS FOR CHRISTMAS: ROYAL COLLEGE OF MUSIC CHAMBER CHOIR (Christopher Swann, 1985), Metropolitan Museum of Art, Bonnie J. Sacerdote Lecture Hall, Uris Center for Education, free with museum admission, 2:00

klezmatics

Wednesday, December 23 Klezmatics: The Woody Hanukkah Sessions, City Winery, $30-$50, 8:00

Thursday, December 24 A Very Jewish Christmas, with Marion Grodin, Jon Fisch, Rachel Feinstein, and Gary Gulman, Gotham Comedy Club, $20 plus two-beverage minimum, 7:30 & 9:30

Thursday, December 24 Jewltide 7, with Dan Saks and the Funkadeli All Stars and DJ Mr. Jonathan Toubin, Southpaw, $10-$15, 9:00

Mel Brooks delivers silliness and Chinese food on Christmas Day

Friday, December 25 Chinese & a Movie: Mel Brooks Double Feature, all-you-can-eat buffet begins at 2:00, BLAZING SADDLES at 2:30, SPACEBALLS at 4:00, $25-$30

Saturday, December 26 Charanga Soleil — Holiday Fiesta/Fête, BAMcafé Live, free, 9:00

Sunday, December 27 Global Weekends: Kwanzaa Spirit 2009, American Museum of Natural History, Milstein Hall of Ocean Life, free with museum admission, 12 noon – 5:00m