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.
Stew in his breakup show, "Making It," at St. Ann's Warehouse in February 2010. (Copyright 2010, Steven P. Marsh)
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
Wilco's first takeover at MASS MoCa. (© 2010 Steven P. Marsh)
Will You Miss Me When I’m Gone? is never happy to be the bearer of bad news. But you need to know that Wilco announced today that the band is taking a year off from presenting the Solid Sound Festival at MASS MoCA, the awesome art musuem in North Adams, Mass.
Jeff Tweedy and his Wilco bandmates have with great success presented the three-day Solid Sound Festival for the past two years, bringing music, art and friends together on the low-key industrial campus in Western Massachusetts.
We’ve been watching since before Christmas for an announcment of the dates of the next three-day music fest. Finally, around 1 p.m. today, came a tweet from @WilcooftheDay listing the long-awaited info:
#SolidSound Update: The next Solid Sound Festival will be held June 21-23, 2013 at MASS MoCA in North Adams, Ma.
2013? Huh? What happened to 2012? Before we could ask the question, almost as if somebody could read our minds, came this tweet:
The 3 day event will take a 1 year hiatus, but Wilco will perform at the North Adams museum this summer in a benefit concert for MASS MoCA.
And when will that concert happen? Came the reply to our unasked question:
not announced yet
Sigh.
Stay tuned for details on why Wilco’s taking a year off and details about the benefit concert at soon as they become available.
Posted in Concerts, Folk, Humor, Music, News, Pop and Rock, Punk, Recordings, Theater
Tagged @WilcooftheDay, Jeff Tweedy, MASS MoCA, Solid Sound Festival, Wilco
Sharon van Etten at the Music Hall of Williamsburg last April. (Photo © 2011, Steven P. Marsh)
What can we say? This just-added Sharon Van Etten gig should be a great early runthrough of the material from her forthcoming third album, Tramp, due out on Jagjaguwar Feb. 7.
UPDATE: If you thought you could wait a minute past noon E.T. to try for tickets, you’ve already missed out.
Tickets go onsale at noon today (Wednesday, Jan. 11) for a show next Wednesday, Jan. 18, at the tiny (its capacity is just 250 people) Mercury Lounge. Doors open at 7 p.m., with a 7:30 set time. Buy tickets here. Sorry. Not surprisingly, this tiny venue sold out in a matter of minutes.
This appearance comes a day after she shows up for an appearance on WNYC-FM’s Soundcheck with host John Schaefer. That one’s sold out, but it’ll be on the air and on the web.
It looks like tickets are still available for her shows with Shearwater late next month, too, at The Music Hall of Williamsburg and the Bowery Ballroom.
Sharon’s flying high, and with good reason. Don’t miss this amazing artists at one of these gigs.
Theo Bleckmann and his all-star players do Kate Bush songs at (Le) Poisson Rouge. (Photos 2010, Steven P. Marsh)
It’s been 16 months since we saw the great singer Theo Bleckmann do his best Kate Bush impression in his show Hello Earth! The Music of Kate Bush, at (Le) Poisson Rouge in the Village.
Theo Bleckmann
Take our word for it, it was pretty awesome.But if you won’t take our word for it, check out a live recording from that September 2010 show here.
Bleckmann, who got a Grammy nomination for his interpretation of the songs of Charles Ives, is a great song interpreter with supple voice and a real feel for his material. You can get a listen to the latest version of his fabulous show tonight and it won’t cost a penny.
You’ll be entertained and enthralled by this week’s Target Free Thursdays presentation at Lincoln Center’s newest public space, the David Rubenstein Atrium, on Broadway between W. 62nd and W. 63rd Streets. There’s food ( the good sandwiches of ‘wichcraft) and plenty of seats.
Just show up by 8:30 p.m. (earlier if you hope to get a seat) at the Atrium to catch Hello Earth! The Music of Kate Bush.
Jon Brion builds a song at (Le) Poisson Rouge in New York City, Oct. 3, 2011. (Photos © 2011, Steven P. Marsh)
The amazing composer/performer/arranger/producer Jon Brion is a fixture on the Los Angeles music scene, with his regular appearances at Largo— gigs that draw on his huge circle of musical friends. So it was a thrill to see that he was going to spend several nights in New York City this October. It was his first visit since 2002, when he spent a couple of night in residence at the Canal Room.
John Brion
We got a chance to catch his set on Oct. 3, his third night at (Le) Poisson Rouge on Bleecker Street in Greenwich Village. He did not disappoint, working his butt off in his one-man-band style, looping guitar, piano and drums and moving seamlessly through the pop landscape with net or set list.
Check out more photos of Jon’s Oct. 3 show after the jump.
Posted in Concerts, Music, Pop and Rock
Tagged (Le) Poisson Rouge, Canal Room, Jon Brion, K.Flay, Kristine Flaherty, Largo, Los Angeles
Bimbo's 365 Club (© 2011, Steven P. Marsh)
Will You Miss Me When I’m Gone? made a pilgrimage to the West Coast a couple of weeks ago. And this time, we were determined to hit a San Francisco music club we’d missed previously. It’s the supper club and music venue with the potentially provocative name: Bimbo’s 365 Club.
OK, we admit we weren’t put off by the name — it’s what Tuscan immigrant Agostino Giuntoli’s boss at a San Francisco restaurant called him because he couldn’t pronounce the kid’s name. (“Bimbo,” pronounced beem-bo, is Italian for boy.) Giuntoli was a smart guy, who apparently didn’t have any problem with the nickname. And it turned out to be a much catchier name for the nightclub he opened with Monk Young, his name-challenged s former boss, now his partner, in 1931.
We really didn’t know much about the place until the advent of singer Chris Isaak‘s Showtime network sitcom, The Chris Isaak Show. If you don’t remember the show, it ran from 2001-2004 and pretty much purported to be a fly-on-the-wall look at Isaak’s life in San Francisco — although the show was actually shot in Vancouver. One of the show’s most endearing and curious features was Isaak’s regular pilgrimage to Bimbo’s basement to visit Mona, who in the show played the club’s mermaid Dolphina, for advice about his love life.
The mermaid — created through projections, not real women in tanks of water — was and still is a feature of the real Bimbo’s. Mona (actress BobbyJo Moore) appeared nude on a turntable in the basement. Her image was projected into a “tank” in the club’s lounge.
We needed to see Bimbo’s and check out the mermaid. And luckily, it turned out that Laura Marling was performing there while we were in town. (Don’t be misled by the “365” in the club’s name. It comes from the club’s former address at 365 Market St. and doesn’t refer to being open every night of the year.)
Laura Marling and her band at Bimbo's 365 Club. (Photo © 2011, Steven P. Marsh)
It was great fun. Laura Marling was awesome, delivering a confident, rocking set. And her opener, Alessi’s Ark, a singer-songwriter with one backup player, did a surprisingly lovely performance.
Alessi's Ark at Bimbo's 365 Club. (Photo © 2011, Steven P. Marsh)
But we couldn’t find any sign of the “real” Dolphina. Sure, there was a statue in the swanky lobby. But we couldn’t even immediately figure out where the mermaid tank was based.
Before the evening was over, we finally — and to our slight disappointment — discovered that Dolphina appears only occasionally at Bimbo’s, projected into a faux aquarium that spends most of its time behind curtains on the back bar. The rest of the time, there’s a small aquarium with some fish in it behind bar in the retro-elegant lounge.
The club has a no-cameras rule that they did try to enforce, so we had to rely on crappy BlackBerry photos inside the place. But here’s the tiny fish tank that had to suffice on Sept. 18:
The resident fish tank at Bimbo's is behind the cash register in the cocktail lounge, providing a point of reference to show how small the tank is. (© 2011, Steven P. Marsh)
By the way, don’t forget to check out music from Laura Marling, Alessi’s Ark, and Chris Isaak, who has a new album, Beyond the Sun, a tribute to the classic recordings of Sun Records of Memphis, out this month.
Posted in Concerts, Music, News, Pop and Rock, Recordings, Review
Tagged Alessi's Ark, Bimbo's 365 Club, Chris Isaak, Dolphina, Laura Marling, mermaid, San Francisco, Showtime, The Chris Isaak Show
Sxip Shirey, Todd Reynolds and friends at Lincoln Center Out of Doors. (Photos © 2011, Steven P. Marsh)
How often do you go to a show and feel like you’ve heard such an amazing opening act that you’re ready to skip the headliner?
Not often, I’ll bet.
Todd Reynolds
But that’s exactly the way I felt at Lincoln Center Out of Doors on Wednesday night, Aug. 10. It was another triumph in New York’s best free outdoor concert series, which The New York Times describes perfectly as “generous, warm, high-spirited real entertainment for a big audience.”
Don’t get me wrong, Laurie Anderson was the headliner of the free show in Lincoln Center’s Damrosch Park. She is — and was that night — amazing. But openers Todd Reynolds and Sxip Shirey, joined by six violinists and a tuba player, blew the house down with their collaboration. I could have gone home floating on air after their set, feeling perfectly satisfied.
Lou Reed slips heads backstage at Lincoln Center Out of Doors.
Todd, the inimitable Digifiddler, kicked off his set with some of the inventive work from his new album, Outerborough. Laurie’s husband, Lou Reed, slipped through the crowd and backstage while Todd was really wailing on “Crossroads,” a Michael Lowenstern-composed “duet” with bluesman Robert Johnson.
In short order, Todd was joined by six more violinists, each of whom is pretty amazing in his or her own right (Caleb Burhans, Conrad Harris, Pauline Kim Harris, Yuki Numata, Courtney Orlando, and Ben Russell). The Sxip, the multi-instrumentalist clown prince of the NYC indie music scene entered along with Adam Matta (the Human Beatbox) and tuba player Don Godwin of Raya Brass Band. (Check out a rehearsal clip of Todd and Sxip cutting loose here.)
The energy that flowed among all these talented musicians as they jammed onstage was palpable. And there was lots of love flowing from stage to audience and back again.
Posted in Concerts, Contemporary Classical, Free, Pop and Rock, Review
Tagged @digifiddler, @earspasm, @LCOutOfDoors, @SxipShirey, Adam Matta, Aurora Nealand & the Royal Roses, Ben Russell, Betsy Franco, Caleb Burhans, Christine Lavin, Conrad Harris, Courtney Orlando, Damrosch Park, Don Godwin, Jonathan Nosal, Laurie Anderson, Lincoln Center Out of Doors, Lou Reed, Michael Lowenstern, Miss Saturn, Pauline Kim Harris, Raya Brass Band, Spike's Side Show, Sxip Shirey, Todd Reynolds, Ward Hall, Yuki Numata
If you can’t picture yourself at Maxwell’s in Hoboken, N.J., at 3 o’clock on a Saturday afternoon, it’s time to make an exception.
Tomorrow, Aug. 13, that’s exactly where you should be. If you’re there, you’ll be helping young adults who have aged out of New Jersey’s foster-care system through the Roots & Wings foundation and listening to four great bands in the process: Speed the Plough, Yung Wu (a side project of Feelies percussionist Dave Weckerman), Wild Carnation (which includes Feelies bassist Brenda Sauter) and Charlotte Sometimes.
Of course this is just one of three shows, featuring 12 bands, being staged at the legendary Hoboken club this weekend as part of CamelFest 2011 in support of Roots & Wings. It’s sponsored by Great Meadows, N.J., -based Dromedary Records.
Speed the Plough (Photo by Katie Demeski)
Tonight’s show’s, which starts at 8, features Richard Barone, Robbers on High Street, Readymade Breakup and The Mommyheads. Tomorrow night, also at 8, it’s The 65’s, The Library is on Fire, Varsity Drag and Stuyvesant.
Tickets are $10 per show. They’re available online (click here for tonight, tomorrow afternoon, tomorrow night) and at the door.
Posted in Benefit, Concerts, Music, News, Pop and Rock, Recordings
Tagged Brenda Sauter, Charlotte Sometimes, Dave Weckerman, Dromedary Records, Hoboken, Maxwell's, Readymade Breakup, Richard Barone, Robbers on High Street, Roots & Wings, Speed the Plough, Stuyvesant, The 65s, The Library is on Fire, The Mommyheads, Varsity Drag, Wild Carnation, Yung Wu
The Digifiddler himself, Todd Reynolds. (Photos © 2011, Steven P. Marsh)
Sxip Shirey opening for Cibo Matto at Brooklyn Bowl in July 2011. (© 2011, Steven P. Marsh)
When Laurie Anderson takes the stage at Lincoln Center Out of Doors in Damrosch Park on Wednesday night, Aug. 10, the crowd will already have gotten wound up with the sonic stylings of the Digifiddler himself, Todd Reynolds, along with multi-instrumentalist Sxip Shirey, human beatbox Adam Matta, and a clutch of New York’s best violinists (Caleb Burhans, Conrad Harris, Pauline Kim Harris, Yuki Numata, Courtney Orlando, and Ben Russell).
I don’t know exactly what’s in store with this performance and haven’t asked Todd. I know it’ll be creative and entertaining — and I want to be surprised.
Adam Matta
Oh, and by the way, Laurie Anderson’s a great live performer, too. Be sure to stick around after Todd, Sxip and company are finished.
Laurie Anderson
The show starts at 7:30 p.m. at the Guggenheim Bandshell in Damrosch Park, behind New York State Theater in Lincoln Center. There are plenty of seats, room to roam and there are food and drink vendors on site. Admission is free.
Don’t miss it. It promises to be spectacular.
Posted in Concerts, Free, Music, Pop and Rock
Tagged @digifiddler, Adam Matta, Free, Laurie Anderson, Lincoln Center Out of Doors, Sxip Shirey, Todd Reynolds
Will You Miss Me When I'm Gone? 