Category Archives: Music

Seth Olinsky (center), performing with his band Akron/Family at NYC's Bowery Ballroom on May 6 will be a section leader for Rhys Chatham's A Crimson Grail for 200 Electric Guitars (Outdoor Version) in Damrosch Park in August. (Photo by SPM. All rights reserved.)

If I could play the electric guitar, I know where I’d be this August: in New York City rehearsing and playing in the world premiere of Rhys Chatham‘s A Crimson Grail for 200 Electric Guitars (Outdoor Version) at Lincoln Center Out of Doors in Damrosch Park.

If you can play, you should consider applying. You’re eligible if you’re  a professional, semi-pro or competent amateur electric guitarist (there’s room for a few bass players, too) who can read music. This is your big chance to play this minimalist masterpiece with 199 other performers from around the country and make some history.

The piece — a version of the expansive original written by Chatham for indoor performance in Paris by 400 guitarists — is composed to create a glistening cloud of sound, obscuring most details of individual plucking, strumming the technique in its wake. So performers need to check their egos at the door and be prepared to be part of a six-string mind meld of sorts.

This outdoor version was slated to be premiered at Lincoln Center Out of Doors last summer, but was canceled at the last minute over the objection of most of the 200 guitarists because of rain.

If the weather cooperates this summer, the chosen guitarists will get to work under the tutelage of accomplished section leaders David Daniell (improvisational guitarist and composer), John King (guitarist and composer who’s worked with Kronos Quartet and the Bang on a Can All-Stars, among others), Seth Olinsky (Akron/Family) and Ned Sublette (The Ned Sublette Band).

As with most things in life, there’s lots of fine print. Read it all here. It’s nothing terribly onerous — you basically just have to show up for 12 hours of rehearsal over three days prior to the performance (Aug. 5-7). Oh, and you have to commit to spending Aug. 8 in a daylong soundcheck, rehearsal and the actual show. Oh, and the only pay is the satisfaction of a job well done. But that should be a pretty good payoff.

Still game? Then apply here!

The Dead Weather (Jack White’s OTHER other band) has played only two small shows since appearing on the music scene in March.  And already the all-star band, with White behind the drum kit, Allison Mossheart of The Kills on vocals, has pulled together a 27-date kicking off in Louisville, Ky., on June 11, with an album, Horehound, slated to drop on July 14, in the midst of the tour.

The Dead Weather at the Bowery Ballroom in NYC. (Photos by SPM. All rights reserved.)

The Dead Weather absolutely rocked the house at NYC’s Bowery Ballroom on April 14 (UPDATE: Exclusive photos added), the band’s their first truly public outing. Jack let Allison have the spotlight most of the evening, and she made the most of it — teasing the audience with her powerful, raw vocals and her seductive moves.

That show came barely a month after Jack unveiled the band to an invited audience of 150 at the March 11 opening of his Third Man Records HQ in Nashville.

Tour dates, presale ticket info and more photos after the jump. Continue reading →

Bodies in motion: MONO at the Society for Ethical Culture. (Photo by SPM. All Rights reserved.)

Perhaps it was the venue (the churchlike Society for Ethical Culture on Central Park West in Manhattan), or perhaps it was the fact that the opening act was a string orchestra, but the crowd at Japanese noise rock band MONO‘s sold-out 10th anniversary show last night (the show repeats tonight at Le Poisson Rouge in the West Village) was about as reverential as they come. One fan positioned near the front in the center section insisted on standing up during the performance and was eventually ejected.

It was good to see a rock audience pay attention to the music, remarkable, in fact. It’s in part due to the decisive impact that Wordless Music, which presented last night’s show, is having on New York’s music scene. Promoter Ronen Givony is certainly not the first person to pair classical and rock artists on a bill or to bring those two divergent musical worlds together. (Think of Procol Harum recording an album with Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, for instance, or many of Bang on a Can’s show, to name just two.) But Wordless Music has really struck a chord over and over again in its short life.  (The inaugural Wordless Music show as Sept. 18, 2006, and featured Glenn Kotche, Nels Cline, Jenn Lin and Elliot Sharp.)

The instrumental quartet MONO has a huge cult following here in the U.S. Continue reading →