Results tagged “rockband”

One could say at this point that the music industry is like a child in a swimming pool, flailing its arms wildly while wearing goggles so tight and fogged up that it's reduced to unearthly shrieks while gulping down and regurgitating mouthfuls of urine-saturated water. But according to a profile piece in the Times, vinyl and turntable sales are thriving, the proverbial upper arm floating devices that...well, it's not going to save you from drowning, but it'll keep you above water a little longer.

      

Last night may have been the first time since it opened this spring that Citi Field was home to fans cheering loudly for over two consecutive hours. That's because fresh off his return to (the top of) The Ed Sullivan Theater, Paul McCartney once again played on the home field of the Mets where the Beatles had their legendary Shea Stadium shows. And by all accounts, Macca brought it.

There’s usually not much mystery to a Be Your Own Pet show. You get about a half-hour of nonstop, rapid-fire post-adolescent punk, with lots of shouting and shimmying from Jemina Pearl. There are far worse ways to spend an early evening in February. This Wednesday, however, things went down a bit different. About halfway through the set, some older creep started talking back to the charismatic young front woman between songs. It seemed all in good fun, with the tiny singer (jokingly?) bragging about how she’s been kicked out of bars in Nashville for fisticuffs. The dude then gets up on stage, makes some sort of kissy move towards her, and promptly gets smacked across the face HARD as the rest of the band jumped in to take him down. So yea, it Got Awkward real fast. The band brushed themselves off, shook hands with the pervy perp to call a truce with the intruder, and continued on with the rest of their set. Interesting night, to say the least. (pic via Ryan Dombal's flickr)

EVENT: Tonight Coney Island historian Charles Denson will be enlightening all about the "Genesis of the Coney Island History Project" at the American Folk Art Museum. He'll be discussing "the fascinating changes Coney Island has undergone" from its amusement park glory days to its struggle to survive. Expect to see some never-before-seen photos. More info here. 6:30pm // American Folk Art Museum [45 W 53rd St] // $10 MUSIC: We highly recommend getting over to...

EVENT: White Castle is sponsoring an "over the top" (heh) event today at Port Authority...it's the 30th Annual White Castle Empire State Golden Arm Tournament of Champions. Over 100 ladies and gents will face off to become the arm wrestling champ! The event starts at 12:30 and the finals begin at 3:30pm. More info here. 12:30 and 3:30pm // Port Authority Bus Terminal [North Wing/Main Concourse at 625 8th Ave] // Free MUSIC: The Scotland...

There's a band looking for a frontman in Brooklyn...and they're bypassing Craigslist postings, MySpace bulletins and good 'ol fashion flyers to get the open position filled. They say "we like internet" and are therefore selling their frontman position on eBay in this Buy a Rock Band auction.

THEATER: In November, Tom Stoppard’s latest smash hit Rock ‘n’ Roll will transfer from London to Broadway (delighting Rushmore fans by bringing Brian Cox – AKA Dr. Guggenheim – in tow.) In the meantime, fans of our most intellectually dazzling living playwright can plug into Stoppard Goes Electric, an evening of three short teleplays that Stoppard penned for BBC early in his career. According to the Boomerang Theatre Company, which is producing the program, some have never been seen live on stage before. Ends Sunday.– John Del Signore

MUSIC: Last week Craig Finn made a solo appearance amongst the books at Barnes & Noble, tonight he's with his rock band, The Hold Steady, playing another free show. Joining them are the Old 97’s, and newer band, Illinois. A triple-threat lineup with a can't-be-beat pricetag.

We've survived the sirens for many years, and if this truly was the last Siren Fest ever, it certainly went out with a bang. Coney Island was packed full of thrifty music fans for the 7th annual Siren Festival this weekend. Despite the current trend of awful weather for every worthwhile free outdoor concert this summer so far, nobody could complain about the perfect day at the beach this past Saturday.

This week ended with the launch of the seventh and final Harry Potter installation. But while the world was consumed with Pottermania, it's important to remember that there were more serious things going on in the world, too - two of them in -Ist cities.

Although the mass media informs us that our nation was monolithically united around last night's final Sopranos episode, we believe a small pocket of dissenters were tuned into CBS, where the 61st Annual Tony Awards were broadcast over the span of three hours. We know from The Playgoer’s pithy live-blogging that there were big musical numbers by each of the nominated musicals, a (“thankfully”) drunk Eddie Izzard and an appearance by American Idol sensation Fantasia Barrino belting out a song from The Color Purple.

Everybody wants to be a rock star, perhaps none more ardently than theater folk, some of whom have been prodding the form toward rock since the sixties. Sam Shepard famously insisted that he wanted to be a rock and roll star, not a playwright; recently the likes of theater company Les Freres Corbusier and playwright Adam Rapp (who moonlights in a band) have expressed a sensible desire to tap into the Bowery Ballroom demographic.

READINGS: Jonathan Lethem reads from his new novel You Don't Love Me Yet. In it, Lethem leaves Boerum Hill for LA "to recount the near-fame experience of a Los Angeles alternative rock band". A girl, a boy and a band - sounds like a hipster love story to us!

Nicole Atkins is more than "just" a girl with a guitar. Her live shows are amongst the best we've seen - energetic, personable and with a sound so big there's little else to do but feel a part of the music. Tomorrow afternoon she'll take the stage at our show in Austin, and we suggest coming by if you're at SXSW. For New Yorkers staying in town, she'll be playing Bowery Ballroom on March 19th.

Tonight we'll definitely be heading over to the second show of the series, which will feature Andrew Bird. They're calling it a violin recital, which is cute, but we bet he'll even whistle a little! Joining Bird will be the duo A Hawk and a Hacksaw and pianist Steven Beck.

Have you heard of Plastic People of the Universe? The band, from Prague, was a major part of the underground culture there. This underground culture is often linked back to starting just after Allen Ginsberg visited Prague, and was then expelled from Czechoslovakia, in 1965. It's also linked to a rare copy of the Velvet Underground's first record showing up there and inspiring those in the music circle. The PPU (who got their name from the Frank Zappa song "Plastic People"), and others, sprouted up and went against the Communist regime, and were often arrested by the Czech communists in the 1970's because of this. In 1989 the (bloodless) overthrow of Communist rule occured, and was called "the Velvet Revolution."

As we stated before, there is far far more to CMJ than our little series of parties. Over 1000 bands were in town last week, and while nobody could possibly catch them all, the idea is to see as much as you can and maybe discover a few new favorites. Rather than scrape together a drab roundup of the day by day, we decided to award certain aspects of CMJ for making a mark on the 2006 marathon. Here we go...

THEATER: In September 2005, theater director Peter S. Petralia embarked on the Trans-Siberian Railway, connecting with artists from around the world for as long as the train stayed in the station. He would give them an art "package" and they, in return, would send something back to him. His collection of art objects and stories have culminated in Invisible Messages, currently running at P.S. 122 through Sunday. The multimedia work uses Petralia’s art-experiment as a springboard to examine the imaginary lives of three divergent people. Martin Denton at nytheatre.com calls the multimedia work a “compelling meditation on … the invisible messages that we constantly send out to the world about ourselves as we ‘perform’ our lives." - John Del Signore

Sam Shepard once declared that he didn't want to be a playwright, he wanted to be a rock and roll star. So the current rock and roll revival of his 1972 play, The Tooth of Crime, would seem to be a perfect match for his ambitions.

Just after their premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, Gothamist interviewed local filmmakers and brothers, Jay and Mark Duplass. Now their hilarious, sweet little indie movie, about a road trip to deliver a purple barcalounger, The Puffy Chair is finally getting a theatrical release in New York at the Angelika. Gothamist sat down to chat again with director and co-writer Jay about DIY movie marketing, getting the perfect indie soundtrack and how to do a superb New York night out on a struggling filmmaker's budget. Jay and Mark will also be in town this weekend for Q&As following the 8 pm screenings on Friday and Saturday and to introduce the 10:15 pm showings.

Right now we feel like the bear climbing the mountain of previews, knowing that in a couple weeks we'll reach the top and see a whole slew of shows opening (at least, that’s how we like to sing the mountain-climbing bear song). We can hardly wait for later in March when everything’s in full swing, but there’s more than enough to keep us awash in Playbills…er, hand-folded programs…for now.

Now that you're finished pretending you care about football, it's time for the music version of Monday-morning quarterbacking: What are you going to do with your week? To the videotape....

CELEBRATION: There's nothing like flowers to cheer you up in the dreary month of January. The Museum of Chinese in the Americas presents Arts in Full Bloom at 3rd Annual Lunar New Year Flower Market. The Flower Market reinvents tradition by incorporating performers and artists as the colors and fragrances of auspicious plants and blossoms linger in the air and atmosphere. The flowers are widely used decoratively as symbols of prosperity, fortune and abundance.

If there's one week that folks might be at a loss for things to do in the city, this is the week. You might think not a creature was stirring, but how many times do we have to tell you? This is New York. The kids are definitely nestled all snug in their beds. What to your wondering eyes should appear this week? Take a look....

Adam Gardner and Dave Schneider, The LeeVees

Pickings this week are slimmer than last month's turkey. If your Christmukkah party schedule allows, give yourself an early present and forage for some rock and roll scraps.

Move over Brooklyn Vegan, now there's something leaner. And tastier, too. Mmmm, meat. Hello, I'm Catherine's Pita (henceforth known as Gothamist), and I'm here to tell you about the shows most likely to satisfy your hunger for the rock this week. Here's what's on the menu:

THEATER: PS 122 & Act French present The Itching of the Wings (La démangeaison des ailes) as part of the series which brings new French theater to us. The play itself is an "autopsy of daydreams" and presents, among other things, a visit from a rock band dimensionalizing the polyphony of music, movement, text and image that is a history of the history of art and ideas. With music by Stockhausen, Kid Koala, Raymond Scott, Aphex Twin, John Williams and Big Yum Yum.

The Art Brut hype started around June when the critics universally praised the UK rock band's debut album. Tiny Mix Tapes wrote, "I feel strange writing this review considering how big Art Brut will become over the next few months. No American dates are scheduled thus far, but they’re doing the UK festival circuit this summer and are poised to win just about everyone over." Eventually American dates were scheduled, and as usual NYC gets to be one of the first to experience the overseas sensation. This week you have FOUR chances to catch them. (@ Maxwell's, Mercury Lounge, Northsix and Tribeca Grand)

Wow, Apple puts U2 on an iPod and all of a sudden, U.S. politicans want a piece of the Irishmen! The New York Times says that the globally conscious band is "distancing" itself from campaign fundraising, as Senator Hillary Clinton and Senator Rick Santorum are both planning fundraising events tied to U2 concerts. According to the article, in response to a report from NewsMax about Bono "teaming up" with Santorum, Bono's Debt AIDS Trade Africa group issued a statement saying U2 wasn't connected to any political fundraising events. Even if the fundraiser's husband is a fellow ubersexual? (For the record, Gothamist hates the term "ubersexual" - we're sticking with "a man's man.") While Gothamist understands that U2 would be attractive to politicians because Bono has become an eloquent spokesperson on behalf of many issues, but we wonder why there aren't any American bands that good enough? Surely, there must be an indie rock band with the right kind of convictions that the senators could try to associate themselves with!