Guitar god Tommy Keene performs Thursday at The Bowery Electric.
Maybe Tommy Keene has discovered the Fountain of Youth.
Oh, don’t get me wrong. He’s aged. He’s not the skinny kid guitar-slinger he was when he exploded out of Maryland and onto the rock scene in 1982 with his debut album, Strange Alliance.
He’s earned every line on his 57-year-old face. But his voice, searing guitar playing, and songwriting still have all the energy and feel of his younger self.
Whatever he’s doing is really working for him, so he should keep on doing it.
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.
If you’re a curiosity seeker who decided to check out singer-songwriter Amy Bezunartea because you heard — or heard about — the NSFW lyrics in her new single, “Oh the Things a Girl Must Do,” good for you.
But stick around, there’s more — a lot more — to this artist than one line that incorporates slang for vagina:
Oh the things a girl must do
If you only knew
Just how much the world wants to see
Everyone’s having fun
When it’s over you can tell
They all want the pussy
But they don’t like the smell
NPR’s “All Songs Considered” praises the work while falling all over itself to call out the song’s frankness, using “graphically” in its headline. As if that weren’t enough, the NPR post also carries the warning label “LANGUAGE ADVISORY: This song contains sexually explicit language,” and uses the terms “a shocking turn” and “NSFW (not safe for work)” in the text.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
These artists will be doing a string of shows together in the coming weeks.
The Music Hall gig is “the first show we’ve ever done with them,” Barrere tells Will You Miss Me When I’m Gone? by phone from his Los Angeles-area home. “This’ll be an interesting soiree.”
“John Hall [Orleans’ frontman] and I have been swapping mp3s of different songs and stuff, and I think they’ll probably play a couple with us,” Barrere says. “Fred and I will do our usual acoustic opening set and we’ll get a little help on a couple of songs. And then they’ll do their set and we’ll probably jump in at the end of theirs. So it’ll be kinda cool.”
While the two acts haven’t played live together before, Barrere notes that he and Tackett share some history with Hall, who was a Democrat who represented the Hudson Valley’s 19th Congressional District from 2007 to 2011.
“John played on the original recording of [Little Feat’s] ‘All That You Dream,'” way back in 1910 or something like that,” Barrere says with a laugh.
Barrere and Tackett share a lot more history than that, though.
Don’t risk missing this show: Read through to the jump for a link to advance-sale tickets
Cake Shop is celebrating its 10th anniversary this month by hosting shows featuring artists who have played the tiny but influential underground (literally and figuratively) Lower East Side club during that decade.
While most Cake Shop shows, including the #CS10 anniversary specials, are pay-at-the-door affairs, it seems that management made a wise choice to provide advance sale tickets for the gig on Friday, May 22, featuring Condo Fucks, a “Connecticut” band whose fictional bio offers clues for the uninitiated:
Eschewing such Condo Fucks originals as ‘Fuckin’ Gary Sandy’ and ‘Let’s Get Rid Of New Haven’, the trio – Georgia Condo (drums), Kid Condo (guitar), and James McNew (bass) – instead tear through covers of The Small Faces, Richard Hell, Beach Boys, Electric Eels, Troggs, Flaming Groovies and Slade classics in the style that previously won them so much acclaim from the Nutmeg State’s music journalists and radio programmers all those years ago.
Still not sure who these musicians are? You haven’t been paying attention. So shame on you. Continue reading →
The husband-wife duo Over the Rhine, whose songs deal thoughtfully with life’s “big questions,” hit the Irvington Town Hall Theater on Saturday night, after stops Thursday at the Towne Crier and Friday at Club Helsinki Hudson.
I got the chance to speak with Linford Detweiler about his thoughts on the band’s 25-years together and what’s ahead, including a barn raising to create a venue and studio at the home he and Karin Bergquist share in southern Ohio.
Special ticket prices are now available for the show. Orchestra seats are available for only $20, balcony seats for $15, and a few select seats as low as $10. Type in the discount code OTRIRV at checkout when you buy online here.
If you’re looking for a family friendly musical event this weekend, Saturday night’s Walkabout Clearwater Chorus and Coffeehouse get-together in White Plains, New York, may be just the thing for you.
The April 11 coffeehouse is the latest in a long series of ongoing monthly gatherings that starts with an informal, low-key audience singalong as a warmup to a concert by notable solo artists and groups springing from the world of folk music.
Walkabout Clearwater has been around for more than 30 years. Founded by Pete Seeger in 1984, it springs from the same agenda that spawned the environment-friendly Hudson River Sloop Clearwater organization, whose best-known project is the annual Great Hudson River Revival festival held every year at Croton Point Park in Westchester County, New York (this year on June 20 and 21).
Continues below videos.
“Walkabout Clearwater is dedicated to promoting environmental awareness and social action through song, education, and other activities,” the group’s website explains.
Anyone can buy a ticket to hear the guest artists. But if you want to get really involved with Walkabout Clearwater’s heart, you can join the chorus, a low-stress, no-audition singing group that rehearses separately at 6:30 p.m. on the first Thursday of every month at the South Presbyterian Church, 343 Broadway in Dobbs Ferry.
IF YOU GO
WHAT: Walkabout Clearwater Coffeehous, featuring Joe Crookston and Mustard’s Retreat
WHEN: Doors at 6:30 p.m., Saturday, April 11. Audience sing-along at 6:45, concert at 7:30.
WHERE: Memorial United Methodist Church, 250 Bryant Avenue, White Plains, New York.
TICKETS: $18 in advance, $23 at the door, $15 for students, $10 for children 6-12. Tap or click www.WalkaboutClearwater.org or call 914-946-1625.
Will You Miss Me When I'm Gone? 