Category Archives: Free

Bang on a Can Marathon: Today’s the day

Posted on May 13, 2018 | Leave a comment
Bang on a Can Marathon 2018

Artists scheduled to perform at the Bang on a Can Marathon 2018

What day could be more appropriate than Mothers’ Day for the mother of  all Bang on a Can Marathons.

The free 10-hour multi-genre show kicks off at noon at New York University’s Skirball Center for the Performing Arts.

Featured artists and composers include Bang on a Can founders David Lang, Michael Gordon, and Julia Wolfe, along with one of their mentors, Terry Riley — and, of course, the Bang on a Can All Stars.

But performances aren’t limited to contemporary classical. Singer-songwriter and Magnetic Fields‘ frontman Stephin Merritt is appearing in the first hour of the show, with cellist bandmate Sam Davol, to appeal to the pop audience. Another artist with proven crossover appeal, Brooklyn singer-songwriter Xenia Rubinos, appears later in the day.

If you can’t make it to Skirball, a livestream is scheduled. GO HERE to connect (free registration required to watch).

Check out the full performance schedule after the jump

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Posted in Concerts, Contemporary, Contemporary Classical, Free, Music, News, Pop and Rock

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Don’t miss TRØN & DVD: Free listening party in Nyack tonight, show in Manhattan Monday

Posted on October 20, 2017 | Leave a comment

TRONcolordad copy.jpgDon’t miss out on one of the best musical events of the year: the release of Nyack hip hop duo TRØN & DVD‘s first full length album.

“Afraid of the Dark,” the tough-but-funny pair’s debut, dropped Friday, Oct. 20, on Kiam Records.

Brothers Norvin and Darian Van Dunk, who perform as TRØN & DVD, sat down with me recently for an extended interview for The Journal News/lohud, which appeared on Page One of Wednesday’s newspaper and is also available online. GO HERE to read the interview. (They also got some love from Nyack News & Views a few weeks back.)

The Kiam Records Shop, the label’s home base at 95 Main St/. in Nyack, is hosting a free listening-and-CD-signing party at 7 p.m. Friday. Label chief Jennifer O’Connor promises drinks and snacks.

On Monday, TRØN & DVD will perform the album from start-to-finish at the storied Mercury Lounge in Manhattan. Tickets are a mere $10 for what is certain to be an excellent show. GO HERE to buy your tickets online.

 

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Posted in Free, Hip Hop/Rap, lohud.com, Music, News, Recordings, Rockland County

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Rockland County honors Bruce Springsteen’s local legacy Thursday evening

Posted on August 18, 2016 | Leave a comment
Bruce Springsteen (DoD News Features)

Bruce Springsteen (DoD News Features)

You may have forgotten — or maybe never knew — that some of Bruce Springsteen’s distinctly New Jersey-oriented tunes were actually recorded in Rockland County, that tiny part of New York State just north of the Garden State line and west of the Tappan Zee Bridge.

He recorded his albums “The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle” and “Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J.” — as well as the title track of his breakthrough third studio album, “Born to Run” — at the former 914 Sound Studios in Blauvelt, New York.

The Blauvelt Auto Spa May 5, 2015. Bruce Springsteen

The Blauvelt Auto Spa May 5, 2015. Bruce Springsteen recorded “Born to Run” in the building 40 years ago, when it was the 914 Sound Studios. (Photo: Peter Carr/The Journal News)

At 6 p.m. today, there’s a ceremony at the site — now an auto spa — where a historical marker will be installed. It’s being followed by a concert by Joe Delia, a keyboardist/composer who has played with Springsteen.  Rockland-born guitarist/songwriter Joe D’Urso and other guests will also be on the bill.

The event starts at 6 p.m. at the Blauvelt Coach Diner, 587 Route 303, Blauvelt.

It’s free. But get there early, because while the dedication ceremony should have plenty of room for anybody who shows up, fewer than 200 will be able to enter the diner for the concert afterward. But don’t fret if you can’t get in. Organizers say the overflow crowd will be able to listen in on speakers set up outside.

My buddy Robert Brum from The Journal News/lohud.com has played a big role in making this historical event a reality. He’s written extensively, and lyrically, about the history. Click here to read Brum’s beautifully written and presented piece about the roots of Springsteen’s song on its 40th anniversary.

Brum also wrote about the campaign for the historical marker. Go here to read that.

 

 

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Posted in Free, lohud.com, Music, News, Pop and Rock, Rockland County

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LAST CHANCE: Enter to WIN tickets to see Os Mutantes at LPR on Sept. 15

Posted on September 9, 2015 | Leave a comment
Os Mutantes (Facebook)

Os Mutantes (Facebook)

Don’t forget to enter by 11:59 p.m. today for a random drawing to win tickets to see the fantastic Brazilian psych-rock band Os Mutantes‘ only US appearance this year at (le) poisson rouge in Manhattan next Tuesday, Sept. 15.

Enter by email to win a pair of tickets. Go here to create the email entry automatically, or do it the old-school way by typing the subject line  “Os Mutantes tickets” into an email addressed to willyoumissme@optonline.net. (Your information will NOT BE SHARED with anyone other than the ticket folks at LPR, who need it to verify the winner’s identity.) Deadline for entries is 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on Sept. 9, 2015. The winner will be chosen at random and notified on Sept. 10.

For more information, go here.

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Posted in Concerts, Free, Music, Pop and Rock

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Young Marble Giants’ Stuart Moxham on NYC Tribute to ‘Colossal Youth’: ‘Standing Ovation’ (Video)

Posted on September 1, 2015 | Leave a comment
Young Marble Giants tribute organizers Tom Shad on bass and Renée LoBue on vocals. (© 2015, Steven P. Marsh/willyoumissme.com)

Young Marble Giants tribute organizers Tom Shad on bass and Renée LoBue on vocals. (© 2015, Steven P. Marsh/willyoumissme.com)

Last Thursday, the album “Colossal Youth” —  an enduring post-punk gem by Welsh trio Young Marble Giants — got quite a workout.

First, the original three members of the band, brothers Stuart Moxham (guitar and keyboards) and Phil Moxham (bass)  and vocalist Alison Statton, reunited in London for a little thing called the Meltdown festival, curated by David Byrne.

Five hours later, a crew of indie-rock veterans from New York and New Jersey gathered in an East Village bar to play the influential album in a tribute show organized by Dumptruck bassist Tom Shad and Elk City vocalist Renée LoBue.

Stuart Moxham, in particular, was touched by the idea that New York rockers would be honoring his band’s work on the same night of the Meltdown reunion. He expressed a touch of sadness that he couldn’t be there to see it — as he was otherwise occupied.

But Tom Shad made sure the festivities were captured on video for Stuart and for posterity.

Will You Miss Me When I’m Gone? asked Stuart to share a few thoughts after he had a chance to watch it. (He says it took him awhile because his smartphone crapped out on the video and he had to get to an Internet cafe to watch.) See what Stuart had to say, in its entirety, after the jump.

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Posted in Concerts, Exclusive, Free, Music, Pop and Rock

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WIN TICKETS to see legendary Brazilian Sixties psychedelic band Os Mutantes at LPR — the band’s only US show this year

Posted on September 1, 2015 | 1 comment
Os Mutantes 1968: Arnaldo Baptista, Rita Lee, and Sérgio Dias Baptista.

Os Mutantes 1968: Arnaldo Baptista, Rita Lee, and Sérgio Dias Baptista.

One Will You Miss Me When I’m Gone? reader has a treat in store: A free pair of  tickets to see Brazilian psychedelic rock band Os Mutantes at Manhattan’s (le) poisson rouge.

It’s the band’s only U.S. date this year, and thanks to the wonderful folks at LPR, I have a pair to give away. Read through to the jump to learn how to enter.

Os Mutantes has been a favorite of mine for some years, although I knew nothing about the band in its heyday. Email and the Internet have helped me learn a lot about what was going elsewhere in the world while I was growing up hearing the Beatles on the radio.

Brothers Arnaldo Baptista and Sérgio Baptista Dias joined forces in 1966 with singer Rita Lee to form a band that became a key part of  the wildly experimental Tropicália movement in their homeland.

Here’s Os Mutantes’ debut album from 1968. It still sounds remarkable after all these years.

TICKET ENTRY INFO AFTER THE JUMP

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Posted in Concerts, Free, Music, Pop and Rock, World Music

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Stellar lineup pays tribute to Young Marble Giants’ “Colossal Youth” in Manhattan Thursday 

Posted on August 23, 2015 | 3 comments

YMGCY

Stuart Moxham of YMG says he’d give, well, something precious to be in the New York audience. Read his comment after the jump.

What happens when a couple dozen veterans of the New York-New Jersey indie rock scene join forces to put on a tribute to a near-perfect — and perfectly simple — album released 35 years ago by three young, relatively inexperienced Welsh post-punk musicians?

We’ll find out at 8 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 27, when the gang convenes at The HiFi Bar in Manhattan’s East Village for “An NYC Tribute to Young Marble Giants ‘Colossal Youth.'”

The show, organized by Dumptruck bassist Tom Shad  and Renée LoBue, Elk City’s singer, will feature a slew of performers playing and singing the songs from the influential cult album’s 15 all-too-brief songs.

More after the jump.

Different singers will tackle the Young Marble Giants catalog. Here's a montage of a few of the vocal assignments posted on the event's Facebook page.

Different singers will tackle the Young Marble Giants catalog. Here’s a montage of a few of the vocal assignments posted on the event’s Facebook page.

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Posted in Concerts, Festivals, Free, Interview, Music, Pop and Rock

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Jennifer O’Connor Launches Free Music Series at Nyack’s Prohibition River

Posted on November 6, 2014 | 2 comments
Singer-songwriter Jennifer O'Connor moved to Nyack in 2012.

Singer-songwriter Jennifer O’Connor moved to Nyack in 2012.

You may recognize singer-songwriter Jennifer O’Connor‘s name — perhaps for her two critically acclaimed Matador Records: Over the Mountain, Across the Valley and Back to the Stars in 2006 and Here With Me in 2008.

Since the end of her contract with Matador, O’Connor has continued to make music, which she’s released, along with the work of other artists, on Kiam, the record label she operates.

While she continues to perform her own material — she opened for Laura Cantrell at Rough Trade NYC in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, last month — she says lately she’s been doing music for TV shows, movies, and commercials.

O’Connor’s also became a Rocklander, moving to Nyack from Greenpoint, Brooklyn, late in 2012.

“I really love it out here,” she tells Will You Miss Me When I’m Gone? by email.

Jennifer Castle

Jennifer Castle

Recently, she added concert promoter to her list of vocations. She’s presenting shows in the upstairs room at Prohibition River, a bar and restaurant at 82 Main St. in Nyack. On Friday, Nov. 7, Jennifer Castle, a Toronto-based singer-songwriter,  will do 2 sets, starting at 9 p.m.

The open-ended series will feature free concerts by artists — including O’Connor — from 9 p.m.to midnight, mostly on Fridays.

O’Connor says she started the series because she saw a need.

“I started booking shows at Prohibition because I think there is a need for more music (especially from touring acts) to come through town,” O’Connor says. “And it’s also proven to be a great way for me to get involved with the community — musically and just in general.  It’s been a lot of fun so far.”

Here’s the schedule as of now, but O’Connor says to stay tuned for more artists to be added:

• Friday Nov. 7
Jennifer Castle (indie folkie from Toronto who’s worked with Constantines, Fucked Up)

• Friday Nov. 14
Michael Purcell Trio (jazz)

• Saturday, Nov. 22
Jennifer O’Connor

• Friday, Dec 5
Ryan & Ryan (folk)

• Friday,  Dec 14
Doug Gillard (Guided By Voices, Nada Surf)

• Friday, Dec 26
Regret The Hour (indie rock)

 

 

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Posted in Concerts, Folk, Free, Music, News, Pop and Rock, Singer-Songwriter

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Check out the Bang on a Can Marathon: Hear amazing music for free

Posted on June 22, 2014 | Leave a comment
Bang on a Can founder Michael Gordon introduces a performance of his composition "Exalted," featuring the Young People’s Chorus of New York City and JACK Quartet, at the 2011 Bang on a Can Marathon. (Photo © 2011, Steven P. Marsh/willyoumissme.com)

Bang on a Can founder Michael Gordon introduces a performance of his composition “Exalted,” featuring the Young People’s Chorus of New York City and JACK Quartet, at the 2011 Bang on a Can Marathon. (Photo © 2011, Steven P. Marsh/willyoumissme.com)

Roomful of Teeth, Jherek Bischoff, Anonymous 4, So Percussion, more featured on 8-hour program

Head to the Winter Garden at Brookfield Place at the World Financial Center  in lower Manhattan on Sunday afternoon for a fantastic exploration of New Music.

The 2014 edition of the annual Bang on a Can Marathon starts at 2 p.m. and runs through 10 p.m. You can come and go as you please, sampling everything from serious compositions by Bang on a Can‘s founding composers — Michael Gordon, Julia Wolfe, and David Lang — to works by rock band The National’s Bryce Dessner, along with performances by the inimitable Meredith Monk, Jherek Bischoff, So Percussion, and female vocal quartet Anonymous 4.

Tap or click here to see the full performance schedule.

This event is really a must to experience in person — you’ll see artists mingling with audience in chance encounters throughout the show, get to see and buy CDs and merchandise at the huge merch table, and maybe even take a break to go shopping in the urban mall.

And be sure to check out Found Sound Nation, which hosts its Street Studio – a mobile recording studio where anyone can spontaneously create and record original music!

If you can’t get there, you don’t have to miss out, though. It will be webcast in HD audio and videol.

Tap or click here to WATCH LIVE.

 

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Posted in Concerts, Contemporary, Contemporary Classical, Free, Music, News

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‘I’m talkin’ little Jimmy Baldwin, baby — you gotta go to Another Country if you wanna get to Giovanni’s Room

Posted on April 9, 2014 | Leave a comment

‘Passing Strange’ alums bring new work to the New York stage in celebration of James Baldwin

BaldwinSome of my readers may recognize the main headline of this post as a quote from the musical play “Passing Strange.”

It’s Mr. Franklin, the church choir director talking, sitting in a VW Bug with some of his musical charges, holding a “prayer circle” whose sacramental ritual involved smoking weed.

It was hardly the only touching moment in the 2008 Tony-winning musical, but it was one of the more memorable.

I often say, jokingly, that everything in my life somehow connects to “Passing Strange.” When I look at the artists and performances that have inspired me over the years since I first encountered the show in a developmental form then known as “Travelogue,” back around 2004, many of them are somehow connected to the existential musical play.

Later this month, three key members of the “Passing Strange” family — Stew, who wrote the book and lyrics and co-wrote the music with Heidi Rodewald, and actors from the original production Colman Domingo and Eisa Davis — and a slew of other notable writers and performers will be involved in the New York Live Arts “Live Ideas Festival: James Baldwin, This Time!”  (Tap or click here for schedule and ticket options.)

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Posted in Dance, Free, Uncategorized

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