Tag Archives: Molly Hamilton

MoMA NIGHTS 2014

La Luz kicks off woman-centric MoMA Nights summer outdoor concert series on July 31 in the sculpture garden (photo by Zoe Rain)

La Luz kicks off woman-centric MoMA Nights summer outdoor concert series on July 31 in the sculpture garden (photo by Zoe Rain)

Museum of Modern Art
Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden
11 West 53rd St. between Fifth & Sixth Aves.
Thursday nights, July 31 – August 28, free with museum admission, 5:30 – 8:00
212-708-9400
www.moma.org

Every summer, the Museum of Modern Art’s lovely Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden becomes one of the city’s most beautiful spots to enjoy outdoor music. Free with regular admission, MoMA Nights, which this year focuses on woman-led bands, begins on July 31 at 6:30 (doors open at 5:30, with limited seating) with a performance by all-female Seattle quartet La Luz, who pays tribute to girl-group sounds. The series continues August 7 with LA dream popsters Tashaki Miyaki, named for guitarist Rocky Tashaki and drummer and vocalist Lucy Miyaki (bassist and vocalist Dora Hiller fills out the trio). Frankie Cosmos, a local four piece led by singer-songwriter Greta Kline, will highlight tunes from its March 2014 studio debut, Zentropy, on August 14. The jazzy, funkadelic THEESatisfaction, the Seattle duo consisting of Stasia “Stas” Irons and Catherine “Cat” Harris-White, takes over the garden on August 21. MoMA Nights comes to a close August 28 with Brooklyn twosome Widowspeak (Molly Hamilton and Robert Earl Thomas), whose “True Believer” was twi-ny’s song of the day back on November 13.

SONG OF THE DAY: “TRUE BELIEVER” BY WIDOWSPEAK

Brooklyn-based duo Widowspeak has followed up its sophomore full-length, the doomsday-inspired Almanac — which was also influenced by the sudden departures of founding member Michael Stasiak and bassist Pamela Garabano-Coolbaugh — with the six-track EP The Swamps (Captured Tracks, October 2013). “I burned my share of sage / closed up the mouth of our cave /and tried to keep it all from you,” singer-guitarist Molly Hamilton sings on the new disc’s “Smoke and Mirrors,” but she and guitarist Robert Earl Thomas have emerged relatively unscathed from their end-of-the-world worries. The EP serves as a bridge between their second and third albums, one that they firmly set in the southeastern swamps of America. As with Almanac, the EP creates an immersive, cinematic atmosphere, transporting the listener to the swamps on such songs as “Calico” and “True Believer.” As she sings in the exquisite title track, “And in the swamps I’d rest / I’d think about it less / or maybe I’d let it sink in / I want to tell the truth again.” The EP cover is also an important part of the whole, a photograph taken by Hamilton on the night of the Supermoon this past June of a swamp diorama she built. Thomas, who hails from Chicago, and Tacoma native Hamilton will be at Bowery Ballroom on November 8 with Pure Bathing Culture and Spires.