Category Archives: Pop and Rock

Tonight may be your last chance to see The Feelies this year!

Posted on July 4, 2010 | Leave a comment

Glenn Mercer and Bill Million of The Feelies at Maxwell's in Hoboken, N.J., on Saturday, July 3. (Photos copyright 2009, Steven P. Marsh)

As has been the habit of The Feelies since their comeback in 2008, they booked shows around a holiday — in this case the Fourth of July at the band’s musical home, Maxwell’s in Hoboken, N.J.

Glenn Mercer's singing: strong and clear

This year the band booked three shows starting Friday and ending tonight, on the holiday itself. If you love The Feelies and you haven’t seen them yet this year, now’s the time to book. Will You Miss Me When I’m Gone? made it to last night’s gig, and we’re glad we did.  The set was much the same as always — The Feelies have typically played the same set, with slight variations, at every show since the reunion. This is a band that likes predictability. But frontman Glenn Mercer‘s singing seemed stronger, clearer and more confident than ever, and the overall sound was crisp and clear —something that has not been a hallmark of many recent shows.

One thing worth noting, though. The band did do quite a few new songs — some of which have been in rotation for awhile, with a couple of other, even newer tunes, one of which remains untitled. It was a real treat to hear new material. It sounds strong and very much in keeping with what fans know and love The Feelies for without sounding like retreads.

Bass player Brenda Sauter played and looked great, and wasn't wearing the wrist brace she usually sports.

We’re hearing that it’s not clear when the band will play again, since no other gigs are booked so far this year. And a member of the band’s team says the quintet is going into the studio after tonight work on a new album.

Doors for tonight’s show are at 8 o’clock at Maxwell’s, 1039 Washington St., Hoboken, N.J. Showtime is 9 p.m. There’s no opening band, so get there by 9 or you’ll miss out. Tickets are $25, and still available here.

If you drive, allow extra time. It’s the Fourth of July, and there will be crowds of people out to watch fireworks. It’ll be hellish getting around, and parking will be extremely difficult, especially if you usually count on parking along Sinatra Drive, which is closed for the weekend. Take public transportation if possible.

Click to the jump for more photos from last night’s show.

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Celebrate the 4th of July with Stew and Dan Zanes

Posted on July 3, 2010 | Leave a comment

Dan Zanes.

Stew, of The Negro Problem and Passing Strange, has a lot on his plate these days, what with a new Shakespeare score being performed in Connecticut right now, a couple of musicals in the pipeline and some concert appearances. All of that is in the news section on the left side of Stew’s homepage.

Heidi Rodewald and Stew. (Copyright 2009, Steven P. Marsh)

For all the Stew completists who read Will You Miss Me When I’m Gone?, tomorrow is the most important upcoming date. Stew is one of the “special guests” at the FREE Dan Zanes Jam & Jubilee, The Battery 4th of July Concert and Family Festival, presented by River To River in Battery Park.

Gates open at 1 p.m., with festivities kicking off an hour later. You can spend the day in Battery Park, dancing to the rhythms of La Cumbiamba eNeYe and singing along to Dan’s brand of Broadway classics! In addition to Stew, guests include spoken word poet Caridad De La Luz (La Bruja) and Joan Osborn.

You can even participate in the fun, as musicians of all ages are invited to perform 76 Trombones in a spectacular 4th of July Parade! You can download the sheet music and get detailed information on the festival website.

It should be a blast!

Victor Williams is Othello in the Shakespeare on the Sound production, with songs and music by Stew and Heidi Rodewald.

Meanwhile, if you haven’t been to Connecticut to see Othello, directed by Joanna Settle with songs and music by Stew and his longtime partner Heidi Rodewald, there’s still time.

Shakespeare on the Sound‘s Othello is performed outdoors at 7:30 nightly (except Monday) through July 11 at Baldwin Park, 100 Arch St., in Greenwich, Conn. While Stew and Heidi don’t perform live, you’ll get the full impact of their work on the recorded backing tracks and live singing by the actors. Last year Stew scored A Midsummer Night’s Dream for SotS, and is was fantastic.

Seating is on the ground around the stage, so be sure to bring blankets or low chairs (nothing that would block the view of people seated behind you) for comfort. Or if you want to go first class, you can fork over a $50 donation for a reserved seat in on of SotS’s chairs.

And why not arrive early and turn it into dinner theater! It’s a great spot for a picnic before the show. There is a concession stand selling decent food and beverages, including wine and beer.

Admission is by donation. You could walk through the gate without paying a dime, but that just wouldn’t be right. Show your support for Stew and Heidi by dropping a donation at the gate. $20 per person is suggested, but more or less is just fine.

nically free, but donations are expected at the gae.

The park is right on the Long Island Sound and within walking distance of the Metro-North station. It’s a beautiful setting, easily accessible from NYC. Click here for transit info.

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Beach Fossils fills in at the last minute at South Street Seaport’s Pier 17

Posted on July 3, 2010 | Leave a comment

Beach Fossils at the Pier 17 Stage at South Street Seaport on Friday night, July 2. (Photos copyright 2010, Steven P. Marsh)

If not for Beach Fossils, Will You Miss Me When I’m Gone? would not have made it to South Street Seaport on Friday night. But we are very glad we did.

Dustin Payseur of Beach Fossils.

So the resourceful River To River Festival folks, who presented tonight’s free show at the Seaport, called the suddenly famous Dustin Payseur and his band of merry men — John Pena, Sennott Burke and Tommy Lucasto— to fill the headlining spot. And even though they’re from Brooklyn and not Texas (there’s a Texas On Tour event at the Seaport to which the show was thematically linked), they did a great job.

Beach Fossils kept the audience entranced.

The noisy but melodic young Brooklyn quartet agreed to fill in as headliner at the free show after YellowFever’s Jennifer Moore got stopped at the airport in Houston Friday morning for carrying a chef’s knife onto her NYC-bound airplane. (Her day job is in the kitchen at Rudy’s BBQ in Austin.) Although things were eventually sorted out, and Jennifer was deemed no threat to national security, all that happened too late for her to make another flight that would get her to the show on time.

Beach Fossils.

Beach Fossils played a solid set that lasted just under an hour. That’s when Dustin announced: “This is our last song. We were supposed to play longer, but we don’t have any more songs!”

Talk about truth in advertising. With only one rather new album out, it’s no surprise that the band had nothing else to play, But they left us wanting to know what comes next.

Opener Woven Bones also turned in a solid set for the slight crowd. They seemed much more on than when we saw them last month opening for The Ponys at the Mercury Lounge. Click through to the jump for more photos of Friday night’s sunset gig.

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Liars, Fucked Up, High Places play the Northside Festival in Greenpoint, Brooklyn

Posted on June 30, 2010 | Leave a comment

Liars closed out Saturday night's Northside Festival show. (Photos copyright 2010, Steven P. Marsh)

The Northside Festival in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, seemed an odd affair. The music was presented on a small, chain-link-fence-enclosed patch of blacktop on the waterfront at the apex of Commercial and Dupont streets. It was a very unlikely looking place for a music venue.

Little Liars: Liars singer Angus Andrew's niece and nephew grooved vigorously to the noise rock.

But looks are often deceiving, and this festival, sponsored by L Magazine, proved no exception to that notion. The Saturday night show, only the second rock show ever hosted at the Newtown Barge Terminal Playground, as the site is officially named, featured Liars as headliners with Fucked Up and High Places as openers. It was fantastic.  The only shame was that so few people came out for it. The venue appeared to be at half capacity at best, even if you counted the freeloaders who took in a virtually unobstructed view from just outside the venue’s fence.

The music was great. Although I went to hear Fucked Up, a Toronto band that is one of the most energetic punk units active today, I was pretty impressed by the other acts as well.

Liars kept the crowd entranced for a long set of noise rock with the vocal stylings of Angus Andrew.

Freeloaders: It was easy to see and hear the whole show without paying a dime.

But Fucked Up really blew the place up, with singer Damian Abraham’s crowd-hugging and can-smashing antics in addition to mind-blowingly fast and loud songs.

They say a picture’s worth 1,000 words. With Fucked Up, a picture’s worth twice that. So take in these visuals:

Fucked Up arrives onstage with Damian chewing up and spitting out pages of he Northside Festival program booklet.

Fucked Up on stage.

Damian crushes his first can of the night.

Damian tries a 40.

Click through to the jump for many more amazing photos of Fucked Up and the other opener, High Places.
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The Bill Murray Experience: No, not that Bill Murray, but quite an experience!

Posted on June 26, 2010 | 1 comment
Britney Spears

The Bill Murray Experience at The Cupping Room Cafe on June 25. (Copyright 2010, Steven P. Marsh)

Will You Miss Me When I’m Gone? knew nothing about The Bill Murray Experience until a couple of days ago, when the old-timey New York City based band was featured in this New York Post video about Play Me, I’m Yours, the art project that has put 60 pianos — available for anyone to play — in public places around New York City.

But it was love at first sight — and sound! Singer Jessy Carolina has an amazingly bluesy voice and her bandmates — Horatio Baltz on lead guitar, Jay Sanford on upright bass and the irrepressible Blind Boy Paxton on banjo — provide the perfect setting for it. It’s a new generation tackling early American roots music, jazz and pop standards from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It’s repertoire that has been a rich source over the years for artists like Leon Redbone, with tunes like “My Melancholy Baby” and “I Ain’t Got Nobody.”

How we’ve missed them is a mystery. They are fantastic, and proved it last night in performance before a small and not entirely attentive crowd at The Cupping Room Cafe at West Broadway and Broome streets in Manhattan’s Soho neighborhood.

Peter Stampfel, of Holy Modal Rounders fame, knows a thing or two about this kind of music. And he sums up the band’s primary appeal quite well — it’s Jessy’s emotive and engaging singing. “She doesn’t sing songs as much as she embodies them. Her singing and moves are both about as good as it gets,” Stampfel says.

But Jessy needs the rest of the band to pull it off. Her interplay with the players — especially the jovial, overall-wearing Paxton — is charming adds so much to the overall feel of the performance.

BME plays around NYC quite a bit, at places like the “secret” Shanghai Mermaid, 893 Bergen St., Brooklyn, where they play at 9 tonight, June 26 and at the Jalopy Theater, 315 Columbia St., Red Hook, Brooklyn, where they’re performing at 8 p.m. Monday, June 28.

Here’s a clip of the band that gives you great sense of its joyous, freewheeling style at a June 20 show at the Main Street Museum in White River Junction, Vt.

Of course any band that takes Bill Murray’s name in vain has to evoke Murray’s spot in Jim Jarmusch’s 2003 film Coffee and Cigarettes. Remember “Bill Groundhog Day, Ghostbustin’ ass Murray”? How could you forget? We’ll leave you with that:

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Posted in Blues, Folk, Jazz, Music, News, Pop and Rock, Theater

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Bang on a Can Marathon: 12 hours of free music tomorrow

Posted on June 26, 2010 | 1 comment

The Winter Garden during the 2009 Bang on a Can Marathon. (Copyright 2009, Steven P. Marsh)

The Bang on a Can Marathon, one of the highlights of the New Music scene in New York City, is tomorrow. Don’t miss it.

It’s the perfect way to spend a summer Sunday, sampling new music and taking in the sights and sounds of  Battery Park’s waterfront. You can come and go as you please in the climate-controlled Winter Garden, and you don’t even have to leave for a meal, because many of the Winter Garden restaurants will remain open throughout the performance.

Among the acts featured throughout the day are Vernon Reid, perhaps best known for his involvement in Living Colour, Signal ensemble and the fantastic Burkina Electric. But there’s plenty more to hear, see and do throughout the 12 hours.

  • When: Noon to midnight, Sunday, June 27.

Scroll down or click here for the full schedule and details in a previous Will You Miss Me When I’m Gone? post.

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

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Glenn Branca to perform in NYC this Saturday

Posted on June 16, 2010 | Leave a comment

Glenn Branca.

Seminal minimalist composer and noise-guitar hero Glenn Branca is doing a rare live solo performance this Saturday, June 19, at NYC’s (Le) Poisson Rouge.

It’s been two years since his last solo appearance in NYC — a set with The Paranoid Critical Revolution at a more low-key venue, The Issue Project Room. Saturday’s show at LPR will also feature The Paranoid Critical Revolution, playing music from its new CD Euphobia.

Branca, who composes for orchestra as well as his own ensemble has been a big influence on a number of guitarists in the avant garde wing of rock music. Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo of Sonic Youth and Page Hamilton of Helmet are among Branca’s disciples and played in his ensemble.

The show also is the official release party for the DVD of Ericka Beckman‘s No Wave film 135 Grand St. 1979, which will be screened. It includes the only extant footage of two of Branca’s earlier ensembles, Theoretical Girls, The Static, along with shots of a number of other bands of the period.

7 p.m. Saturday, June 19. (Le) Poisson Rouge, 158 Bleecker St., NYC. $13 in advance; $15 day of show. Tickets available by clicking here.

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Procol Harum thrills with its return to the U.S. after a seven-year absence

Posted on June 11, 2010 | 1 comment

Procol Harum, with Gary Brooker on voice and keyboards, Geoff Einhorn on guitar, Geoff Dunn on drums, Matt Pegg on bass and Josh Phillips on Hammond organ, at The Tarrytown Music Hall on June 10, 2010. (Photos copyright 2010, Steven P. Marsh)

A huge blast from the past shook The Tarrytown Music Hall to its foundations last night when Procol Harum took the stage of the 1885 show palace for 2 1/2 hours.

This is the band’s first visit to the United States since 2003, when it hit the road — making a stop in New York at the late, lamented Bottom Line club — in support of its last studio album, The Well’s On Fire.

The Tarrytown Music Hall.

For those who remember PH from its early days — the band became an international phenomenon with the 1967 hit “A Whiter Shade of Pale” — singer-pianist Gary Brooker is the only onstage member left from those days. But Brooker, who co-writes the band’s songs with lyricist Keith Reid, Procol’s nonperforming member, is the voice of the band. As long as he’s singing, there’s no doubt that it’s Procol Harum.

The crowd files in.

Brooker’s voice has gotten a bit gravelly and more nuanced over the years, but the 65-year-old showed last night that he’s still got his vocal chops. He and the rest of the quintet ripped through an energetic set, covering the whole range of the band’s 43-year history.

Brooker couldn’t help but point out that anyone in the audience who had money invested with Lehmann Brothers would see the prescience of one of the band’s newest songs, “Wall Street Blues,” from The Well’s On Fire, seemed

The band, and the audience, are a little less energetic than they once were. But the music stands the test of time. There was no dancing in the aisles and the crowd — comprising people of all ages, including a few pre-teens — was pretty respectful. But the performance brought fans to their feet numerous times throughout the evening and ended with a standing ovation when the band wrapped the set.

Procol Harum is on tour in the U.S. now, opening for Jethro Tull, a band whose heyday coincided with PH. To a die-hard Procol Harum fan, there’s something wrong with Tull as the headliner. But, luckily, Procol took time off from its opening duties to book some shows of its own while it’s touring with Tull. Procol’s playing tomorrow night, with Renaissance opening, at the Showroom at the Tropicana Casino & Resort in Atlantic City tomorrow (June 12, 2010) and next Wednesday (June 16, 2010) at Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, Pa. (The Longwood show is sold out, but tickets are likely available from resellers.)

More photos after the jump.

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WOOM charms New York with DIY rock

Posted on May 26, 2010 | Leave a comment

Sara Magenheimer and Eben Portnoy make charmingly DIY music together as WOOM onstage at Death By Audio in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, on May 19, 2010. (Photos coypright 2010, Steven P. Marsh)

WOOM, a charming, Oakland, Calif., -based DIY duo, played two shows in New York City before heading to Europe to tour as an opener for Xiu Xiu well into June.

Will You Miss Me When I’m Gone? was fortunate to catch their set at Death By Audio in South Williamsburg, Brooklyn, last Wednesday (May 19, 2010), the night before they headed to Newark Liberty International Airport to head out on tour. The pair — Eben Portnoy on guitar and vocals and Sara Magenheimer on vocals and electronics — played a fuzzy, beat-driven set that was an absolute joy to hear.

WOOM at Death By Audio.

An Intimate Exchange of Ideas

The pair played their hearts out, bouncing ideas back and forth between them casually but with obvious skill.

The band is due back in New York City at the end of June for the Northside Festival, which runs from June 24-28 in Williamsburg and Greenpoint. Festival badges are $50 and available here.

WOOM’s first full-length album is scheduled to drop on June 28 on Ba Da Bing Records. In the meantime, check out WOOM’s music on MySpace.

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Roky Erickson and Okkervil River rocked Webster Hall

Posted on May 26, 2010 | 8 comments

Okkervil River (Lauren Gurgiolo, guitar, Will Sheff, guitar-vocals, Scott Brackett, keyboards-trumpet, Cully Symington, drums, Patrick Pestorius, bass, and Justin Sherburn, keyboards-guitar) back legendary psychedelic rocker Roky Erickson on Tuesday night, May 25, at Webster Hall. (Photos copyright 2010, Steven P. Marsh)

An Unlikely Pairing

As unlikely as it may have seemed at first, the new collaboration between psychedelic rock legend Roky Erickson and Austin, Texas-based band Okkervil River, the results are stunning.

Their new album together, True Love Cast Out All Evil, was the first evidence of a truly symbiotic musical relationship. But with enough studio tricks, just about anybody can make a decent album. The true test is in live performance.

Well, they proved to a New York audience — a melding of gray-beard, old-school Roky fans and younger Okkervil River aficionados — at Webster Hall in the East Village last night (May 25, 2010) that they really know how to kick out the jams live, too. Continue reading →

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