Monthly Archives: May 2009

Tortoise will perform for free tomorrow night, less than 24 hours after a sellout show at The Bell House in Brooklyn.

It’s that time of year. The Bang on a Can Marathon, 12 hours of music featuring dozens of groups encompassing hundreds of performers, starts at noon tomorrow in the Winter Garden of the World Financial Center in Battery Park City as part of New York City’s River to River Festival.

The marathon was created by Bang on a Can, one of the nation’s preeminent new-music organizations. You might think of it as a more civilized, air-conditioned All Points West festival for contemporary composed music.

Click here for the full schedule.

It’s a come as you are, come-and-go event. You can check out what appeals to you or what you don’t know, and leave if you don’t like it. It’s programmed in two-hour chunks, so set times are not strict and things do get moved around. But acts almost always appear somtime during their scheduled two-hour window. For example, you can count on hearing Marathon headliners like Ryuichi Sakamoto and Tortoise in the 10 p.m.-midnight segment.

Everyone will have their preference, and here are a few of my picks:

• Noon-2 p.m.: BoaC co-founder Michael Gordon‘s seminal work Trance is on the schedule, performed by Signal, one of the best new-music ensembles around.
• 2 p.m.-4 p.m.: Todd Reynolds String Quartet will perform Stringsongs by Meredith Monk. Todd is an amazingly talented violinist, a patient and caring teacher and a good friend of Will You Miss Me When I’m Gone?
• 4 p.m.-6 p.m.: This is a segment rich with great stuff. Lionheart and Ethel perform excerpts from Phil Kline‘s John the Revelator, a multi-part work for quartet and voice that merges elements of the Roman Catholic Mass with popular music and takes its name from the well-known American traditional song. The Smith Quartet, whose work I don’t know, will be performing Gavin Bryars‘ The Sinking of the Titanic. And the Bang on a Can All Stars, the Marathon’s house band, will play new works by guitarist-and-composer Bill Frisell, who will join the band.
• 6 p.m.-8 p.m.: Ars Nova Copenhagen performs For love is strong by Pulitzer Prize winner David Lang, another of BoaC’s co-founders.
• 8  p.m.-10 p.m.: Ken Thomson, an amazingly energetic sax player and leader of Gutbucket, brings his 9-headed Saxophone Monster to the stage to perform his own composition, Rut. Athelas Sinfonietta Copenhagen & Ars Nova Copenhagen play Thirst by Julia Wolfe, the third BoaC founder. Another ensemble worth catching is Victoire, an electroacoustic quintet performing “Like a Miracle” and “I am coming for my things,” both writtend by Victoire founder Missy Mazzoli.
• 10 p.m.-Midnight: Pianist Ryuichi Sakamoto will perform new works of his alone and with the All Stars, who will also play Steve Martland‘s Horses of Instruction. It’s always worthwhile sticking around for the final act of the day, which this year is slated to be Tortoise, a Chicago-based post-rock instrumental ensemble. I’m not extremely familiar with this band, but I’m excited to see them live. They have sold out The Bell House in Brooklyn tonight. So if you don’t have tickets for that show, the Marathon is the only way to see Tortoise here until July 21, when they appear at Le Poisson Rouge.

A new feature this year is the Marathon live-Tweet team. Check Twitter throughout the 12 hours for updates and impressions from the team, filed with the #bangonacan hashtag.

Grizzly Bear with the ACME string quartet at Town Hall in New York City on Friday, May 29.

If there were any doubters in the crowd at Town Hall for the second and last night of Grizzly Bear’s stand at the Times Square venue, they were won over by night’s end.

The band had nearly perfect sound, and made even the looser, older songs, sound like sonic kin to the newer, fussier songs.

Poor, boomy sound that plagued the opening act, Here We Go Magic was absent from the headliner’s set. And a string quartet from ACME, an NYC-based new music ensemble, beautifully rounded out the Grizzly Bear sound.

Here We Go Magic.

Things will be a little slow on Will You Miss Me When I’m Gone? today. This blog’s entire management team (that would be me!) has been called to appear for Grand Jury service.

I’m doing my duty. Be back soon!

Friends and family of Jay Bennett gathered in Urbana, Ill., last night to honor the rock musician and former member of Wilco who died in his sleep over the weekend.

Among those who gathered was Edward Burch, a longtime friend of Jay’s and his collaborator on Jay’s first post-Wilco album, The Palace at 4 am.

According to a report on local TV station WCIA:

Jay Bennett wrote a lullaby for his baby niece 19 years ago. Now the lyrics are taking on new meaning. “So sleep now, my darling,” sang Edward Burch strumming his guitar. Burch wants to make sure his friend of 20 years rests in peace so he’s keeping his music alive. “He had such a great heart,” said Burch. “He wouldn’t just show me how to play the cord, but he would also explain why in musical terms it works the way it did.”

Here’s a clip of the report (you’ll have to watch a car-dealer ad before the report starts, but bear with it):

Vodpod videos no longer available.

New Yorkers marching on 14th Street in Manhattan at 6 p.m. today.

It’s a cliche, but it’s true. A picture is worth a thousand words. Pardon the interruption in the usual Will You Miss Me When I’m Gone? discussion of music and other performing arts.

Meg White

UPDATE: According to a statement on the White Stripes web site: “The wedding was officiated by the most reverend Benjamin Swank.” Swank is believed to be Benjamin “Swank” Smith, former drummer in the Soledad Brothers, a band that worked with Jack White.

Meg White and Jack White of the White Stripes must have had a good laugh when Meg decided to wed Jackson Smith in Jack’s Nashville backyard on Friday.

After all, Meg and Jack, ex-husband-and-wife, for years kept alive a tangled myth about their relationship, insisting that they were brother and sister, not ex-spouses who have continued to play together as the White Stripes long after their divorce.

Jackson Smith and his mom, Patti.

So it seems fitting that Jack would somehow factor into the wedding of Meg and Jackson, who’s the son of rock poet Patti Smith and the late MC5 guitarist Fred “Sonic” Smith.

The other couple to marry in the double ceremony were Jack Lawrence — bass player in The Raconteurs and The Dead Weather, Jack’s other bands — and his girlfriend Jo McCaughey, the Associated Press reports.

There’s no word yet on whether Jack played any active role in the ceremony or simply provided the venue.

Congratulations to both happy couples!