Category Archives: News

Have you seen The Total Bent yet?

Posted on March 14, 2012 | 2 Comments

Stew, Heidi and members of The Loser's Lounge at Barbés in Park Slope, Brooklyn. (Photos © Steven P. Marsh)

Will You Miss Me When I’m Gone? was supposed to see The Total Bent, the new show by Stew and Heidi Rodewald of Passing Strange fame, in one of its very first Public Lab performances at The Public Theater in downtown Manhattan last month. But then construction delays at the theater — the Public is undergoing a massive, and much-needed, facelift — got in the way.

That created some pretty massive chaos, forcing The Total Bent‘s schedule to push back. Some shows, including ours, were canceled and rebooked.

So we haven’t seen the show yet. We’ll be there for the penultimate performance on Sunday afternoon, March 18.

All the changes also forced the scuttling of interviews and press access to the creative team.

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Charli XCX cuts loose at Santos Party House

Posted on March 13, 2012 | Leave a comment

Charli XCX at Santos Party House in Manhattan. (Photos © 2102, Steven P. Marsh)

British phenomenon Charli XCX is, at the ripe old age of 19, a seasoned veteran of the pop music scene. After all, she exploded on the dance scene in the UK all of four years ago, at the tender age of 15, self-releasing two EPs, Emelline/Art Bitch and !Franchesckaar! in 2008.

Charli XCX (real name Charlotte Aitchison) has supported Robyn and The Ting Tings, and just wrapped up a tour opening for Sleigh Bells. Now she’s ready to take on the U.S. Her first official U.S. release is due this spring. So she decided to check out the lay of the land with a show in Philadelphia and two in New York City before heading to Austin for the South By Southwest music conference.

Her second stop in NYC was at Santos Party House in Chinatown on Monday night, March 12. The line of fans waiting outside the 400-plus capacity club stretched up the block on Lafayette Avenue and around the corner for the absurdly early set.

She eased the pain of the wait a bit when she came outside to smoke a cigarette after her rather belated soundcheck and saw the fans queued up. She stopped and chatted with fans, and even posed for some snapshots before going off to the smoking corral. Very attentive, sweet, personable and normal,

Onstage Charli adopted a much more in-your-face persona, which suited her overall delivery.

Read on for more photos, info and a set list after the jump.

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The La’s remain a phantom on the American music scene

Posted on March 2, 2012 | Leave a comment

Lee Mavers of The La's

We are gutted. Completely. How could it happen that Lee Mavers, the voice of The La’s, could destroy our hopes of seeing the band in New York City?

One-album-wonders from Liverpool (yes, it’s not just the hometown of The Beatles), The La’s — or perhaps more specifically, lead vocalist Lee Mavers and a band of merry hired guns — were supposed to show up at Webster Hall in Manhattan’s East Village for a long-awaited show on March 12.

But an unhappy email arrived in our inbox on Thursday:

“It is with regret that The La’s have had to cancel their show at the Webster Hall on Monday, March 12th, 2012. Unfortunately, front man Lee Mavers has damaged the tendons in his index (playing) finger.  He has been to see a doctor and been informed that it will not have recovered in time for his New York show.”

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Musical ecstasy: Ecstatic Music Festival starts tonight

Posted on February 4, 2012 | Leave a comment
John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats. (Photo © 2010, Steven P. Marsh)

John Darnielle's band The Mountain Goats is one of the great acts in this year's Ecstatic Music Festival lineup. (Photo © 2010, Steven P. Marsh)

Friends have been asking for recommendations on what shows to check out in the second annual Ecstatic Music Festival at Merkin Concert Hall.

Sxip Shirey (© 2011, Steven P. Marsh)

The two-month festival, put together by Judd Greenstein and New Amsterdam Presents, an arm of the innovative New Amsterdam Records label, is an absolute must. It’s so chock full of great artist pairings that it’s tough to pick just one or two. Last year’s festival was strong, and the lineup this year looks even stronger. And ticket sales seem to reflect that, given that some of the shows have been sold out for awhile.

But some shows are still available, and tickets are around even for the sold-out gigs.

There’s one I’m really looking forward to is the Saturday, March 24 bill featuring The Mountain Goats, the homemade indie-rock project of John Darnielle, paired with the early music vocal quartet Anonymous Four. We’re not sure how this one will play out, but both groups are so good at what they do, and so genre-busting, that it should be remarkable.

Todd Reynolds (Photo © 2011, Steven P. Marsh)

Another highlight early in the festival is the amazingly indescribable music-maker Sxip Shirey and Angélica Negrón, with special guests electro-violinist Todd Reynolds, Noveller, Jonny Rodgers& Face the Music on Tuesday, Feb. 7.

And we don’t mean to give tonight’s opening show short shrift, but we have to think tickets for this one evaporated in seconds: Jherek Bischoff and the Wordless Music Orchestra, with special guests David Byrne, Craig Wedren, Greg Saunier, Mirah, Zac Pennington, and more. But if you’re willing to try to score a ticket, we’re sure it’ll be worthwhile!

For the full schedule, click through to the jump for the festival press release, courtesy of our pal, New Amsterdam publicist Jill Strominger.

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Quite an event with Antony and the Johnsons

Posted on February 3, 2012 | Leave a comment

Antony Hegarty with his 60-piece orchestra on the Radio City Music Hall stage. (Photos © 2012, Steven P. Marsh)

What can we say about the wonderfully strange singer Antony Hegarty, who on Jan. 26 managed to transform Radio City Music Hall into his own special dreamscape?

Antony, who often performs with a band as Antony and the Johnsons, had some members of his band as part of a 60-piece orchestra for this light-and-music show dubbed Swanlights.  He attracted a sold-out crowd that included celebrities such as Tilda Swinton, Jenny Shimizu, Rufus Wainwright, Lady Bunny, Michael Stipe and many more.

Lady Bunny in the lobby of Radio City Music Hall.

(Check out The New York Times review of the show here.)

The show, commissioned by the Museum of Modern Art and originally designed for presentation in the museum’s atrium, reached so far that it was doomed to fall a bit short. But even so, the evening was stunning and engaging, as the transgender Antony, dressed in a simple, flowing gown, came out an sang a selection of his marvelous songs with lush accompaniment, a visually stunning set, and, for the most part, well-done lighting.

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This Strange Freak’s name is fog

Posted on February 3, 2012 | Leave a comment

The Englert Theatre, one of the University of Iowa's performing arts venues in Iowa City. (Photo courtesy Jacob Yarrow, Unversity of Iowa)

Weather scuttles Stew & The Negro Problem’s Iowa Omnibus show — for now

What does Mother Nature have against Iowa City, Ia.?

Stew at Joe's Pub on Jan. 23, 2012. (Photo © 2012, Steven P. Marsh)

In 2008, the Iowa River overran its banks and devastated the city, destroying much property in the city, including the notable Max Abramovitz-designed Hancher Auditorium on the University of Iowa campus.

The flood-ravaged Hancher Auditorium, designed by Max Abramovitz, the architect of Avery Fisher Hall in New York City.

The latest natural disaster didn’t cause physical damage that we know of, but the psychic damage is certainly huge. A “freak fog” closed the local airport and kept Stew and Heidi Rodewald and their band, The Negro Problem, from making it to Iowa City in time for their Feb. 2 gig.

As we reported the other day, Stew & The Negro Problem were to present Iowa Omnibus as the centerpiece of a Feb. 2 show at the Englert Theatre, a civic auditorium that is housing some of UI’s performing arts productions. It was commissioned by UI’s Hancher Auditorium, the campus performing arts presenter, inspired by Stew and Heidi’s 2010 Brooklyn Omnibus shows, as well as their hit musical, Passing Strange.

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Maya Beiser and Pablo Ziegler: Two to tango

Posted on February 1, 2012 | 1 Comment

Maya Beiser performs at (Le) Poisson Rouge in 2009. (Photo © 2009, Steven P. Marsh)

Cellist and pianist-composer pay tribute to tango great Ástor Piazzolla

Maya Beiser, one of the best cellists at work today returns to her roots on Tuesday, Feb. 1, joining tango master Pablo Ziegler, a composer and pianist, for a program of tangos in tribute to the late Ástor Piazzolla.

Pablo Ziegler (Photo by Oscar Balsucci)

Their program, Canyengue, the Soul of Tango, offers Ziegler’s arrangements of some of Piazzolla’s best-known numbers along with some that are rarely heard. Percussionist Satoshi Kateish will sit in on some of the tunes. Performances of some of Ziegler’s compositions and Beiser’s solo rendition of Osvaldo Golijov‘s Mariel, will round out the program.

The Latin Grammy-winning Ziegler was a member of Piazzolla’s band for 10 years, and went on to form his own tango ensemble, so he lives and breathes the fiery musical form.

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Last chance to see Stew & The Negro Problem in NYC

Posted on January 24, 2012 | 1 Comment
Stew, Heidi Rodewald and The Negro Problem at Joe’s Pub on Jan. 23, 2012. (Photo © 2012, Steven P. Marsh)

If you didn’t get to Joe’s Pub last night to see Stew &  The Negro Problem and grab a copy of the new album, Making It, all is not lost. 

They’ve got another CD-release show at Joe’s at 9:30 tonight (Tuesday, Jan. 24). Tickets, $30, are available here. Book now. If you miss it, you’ll be sorry.
 
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Stew just can’t shed his Negro Problem

Posted on January 22, 2012 | Leave a comment

Stew in his breakup show, "Making It," at St. Ann's Warehouse in February 2010. (Copyright 2010, Steven P. Marsh)

Three shows at Joe’s Pub mark Tuesday’s release of Stew & The Negro Problem’s new album, Making It

The cover of Making It features a photo by Stew's daughter, Bibi.

First of all, let’s say “welcome black” to Stew & The Negro Problem.

It’s been 10 long years since Stew (born Mark Stewart in 1961) and his band The Negro Problem made a proper, official album: 2002′s Welcome Black. But on Tuesday, Jan. 24, the wait is officially over when Making It gets its official release.

Thank goodness. It’s long overdue. But you’ll surely find it worth the wait.

It’s a crazy, creative look at the breakup of Stew’s relationship with his longtime girlfriend and musical collaborator Heidi Rodewald. The breakup came in the run-up to the pair’s amazing theater project,  Passing Strange, which briefly thumbed its nose at the Broadway establishment from the Belasco Theatre over six months in 2008. (It also lives on in a Spike Lee film of the show’s final performances.)

Heidi Rodewald and Stew. (Copyright 2009, Steven P. Marsh)

Stew and Heidi managed to survive the breakup and continue their artistic relationship, albeit not without some problems. This album documents the breakup, and in some ways, the promise of their continued collaboration.

This is Stew’s fourth album under the rather provocative name of The Negro Problem, though on  this release on TNP records, the band is billed as “Stew & The Negro Problem.” And even though Stew seemed to abandon the band name in favor of his own moniker, Stew and Heidi haven’t released a rock album since 2003′s Something Deeper Than These Changes, billed simply to Stew. (Yes, there was a Passing Strange soundtrack in 2008, but that wasn’t a Stew record, let alone a Negro Problem record!)

Let’s just say it’s about time! It’s always seemed to me that Stew needs The Negro Problem to fuel his angry-not-as-young-as-he-used-to-be-man persona. (Truth be told, he’s used The Negro Problem name occasionally in recent years, but this seems to be a definitive return home.) Continue reading →

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All New York City Opera tickets for shows at BAM are $25 to celebrate settlement

Posted on January 20, 2012 | Leave a comment

20120120-181251.jpgGreat news: Not only has City Opera averted a strike, it’s found some angels to allow it to offer all tickets for its operas at the Brooklyn Academy of Music for just $25.

George Steel, the general manager and artistic director made the announcement in an email blast late Friday afternoon:

I am also delighted to report that as a gift to the City of New York, The Reed Foundation and The Peter Jay Sharp Foundation have bought the remaining seats for all performances at BAM, allowing us to offer these seats at a special price of $25 to celebrate our new beginning. I invite you to purchase tickets today to take advantage of this incredibly generous and thoughtful gift.

That means you can see Rufus Wainwright’s Prima Donna and Giuseppe Verdi’s  La Traviata for a song. Go here to get your tickets now.

While the three-year deal struck by the struggling opera company with its singers and instrumentalists keeps things going, it’s not a happy ending it means less money for an already hard-hit group of musicians. But without the deal, it appeared NYCO would have vanished forever.

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