The Dough Rollers defy expectations at Brooklyn Bowl

The Dough Rollers, Brooklyn Bowl, June 26, 2013, © 2013, Steven P. Marsh

The Dough Rollers perform at Brooklyn Bowl on June 26, 2013. (Photos © 2013, Steven P. Marsh)

We don’t mind change. We may grow to love a band’s sound, but if it never evolves, a band can quickly becomes a parody of itself.

The Dough Rollers started off in 2008 as a high-concept conceit cooked up by two celebrity kids. Malcolm Ford (son of Harrison Ford) and Jack Byrne (son of Gabriel Byrne and Ellen Barkin) bonded over the love of old blues music, and started playing together. Their act — two guys in sharp, retro outfits, hair slicked back, etc. — tried to replicate the classic sound of the blues. While the two of them were the core of the group, they often had fiddle-vocalist Julia Tepper as a co-conspirator. (She joined them on their first, and so far only, album, the self-titled disc.)

The Dough Rollers in their earlier incarnation at The Bell House in Brooklyn, April 24, 2010. (Photo © 2010, Steven P. Marsh)

The Dough Rollers in their earlier incarnation at The Bell House in Brooklyn, April 24, 2010. (Photo © 2010, Steven P. Marsh)

Few acts could sustain the conceit. Leon Redbone is the only one that springs to mind at the moment, and his whole performing life is in character.

Click through to the jump for more photos and info. Continue reading

Bang on a Can Marathon: 9 hours of New Music in a new home this Sunday

A crowd of listeners at the 2011 Bang on a Can Marathon at the Winter Garden. (Photos © 2011, Steven P. Marsh)

A crowd of listeners at the 2011 Bang on a Can Marathon at the Winter Garden. (Photos © 2011, Steven P. Marsh)

This Sunday is a special day.

Yes, it’s Father’s Day, but that’s not it.

Sunday is also the day that Bang on a Can is throwing its big, genre-bending musical party for New York City — the Bang on a Can Marathon.

Mark your calendar and don’t miss it. But don’t head to the Winter Garden at the World Financial Center, where the free marathon New Music concert has been held for the last few years.

From 1-10 pm on Sunday (be sure to take Dad to brunch early and then bring him along to the show afterward), Bang on a Can will fill Pace University’s Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts at 3 Spruce Street with nine hours of music — some of it familiar, some you’ve probably never heard before.

It’s the kickoff event of the River to River Festival, one of the city’s great free performing-arts series.

Bang on a Can had to move the marathon this year because the Winter Garden is under construction. The Schimmel Center is a smaller venue, a concert hall with fixed seating rather than a mall atrium with open, casual seating. So that means changes in the format.

Asphalt Orchestra performing at the 2011 Bang on a Can Marathon.

Asphalt Orchestra performing at the 2011 Bang on a Can Marathon.

For starters, you’ll need to get a free seating pass before you go in to sample the sounds. That’s just so the organizers can make sure the audience never exceeds the capacity of the 743-seat hall. They’ll be handing out the passing starting at noon — an hour before the first onstage event — on a first-come, first-served basis, so get there early to snag a good seat.

In addition to listening to the music, be sure to jump in on Twitter, too, by following on @bangonacan.

While most of the action is in the hall, if you get there early, you’ll encounter Bang on a Can’s Found Sound Nation. From noon until 5 pm, it’ll be operating its Street Studio, where anyone who wants to give it a try can create and record original music. Look for it at Park Row and Spruce Street.

Check out the full schedule after the jump.

Continue reading

One night only: Dave’s True Story reunites tonight

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Dave’s True Story: David Cantor, guitar, Kelly Flint, vocals, Jeff Eyrich, bass

It’s been years since the band Dave’s True Story broke up.

And tonight (Thursday, June 6) they’re getting back together in a living room on Manhattan’s Upper West Side.

Sultry singer Kelly Flint tells us it’s a one-time thing. No prospect of a reunion tour or anything. It’s just Kelly, guitarist and band namesake David Cantor and bassist Jeff Eyrich (Kelly’s ex-husband) getting together once for old times as favor for friends who run a little music series called Music on 4.

If you aren’t already booked to attend, prepare to cry in your beer, because you won’t be able to get in. That’s what we’ll be doing along with you tonight.

And if you feel bad about missing a great show you didn’t know about, think how we feel — missing it because we hesitated too long before trying to book tickets.

This show has special meaning for Marisha and Ihor, the couple who run Music on 4 (a lovely, intimate house concert series) in their comfortable living room just off Central Park West. Marisha explains in the invitation to tonight’s show:

Dear Friends,
Of all the amazing bands who have passed through our home, this is THE band closest to our hearts.
No other group has ever inspired Marisha to write the invitation!
They have been there since the very beginning; DTS shows were our date nights – remember the Howard Johnson’s in Times Square?
As a couple, we followed them to the far-flung reaches of the state (where was Middleburg?)
Once Ihor finally said, “Yes”, DTS played at our wedding.
When Music on 4 was born, Jeff Eyrich was our midwife, making those early shows possible when we were still twisting our friends’ arms to make up an audience.
Now, five years later, we could not be happier that they’ve come together again to play for you. If you’ve heard them you love them already. If not, come prepared to fall hard.

It seems like DTS, once a vital part of the New York City music scene, has been gone for ages. It has been more than half a dozen years.

By the time the trio won a Vox Populi award in the Independent Music Awards in 2007, it had pretty much given up the ghost. Flint (a Westchester County resident) had fully immersed herself in a return to her roots as a singer-songwriter, leaving the loungey sounds of DTS behind.

We love what Kelly’s done on her own — working in media, doting on her wonderful son Ben (talk about memories — we remember a pregnant Kelly performing in heat aboard the museum barge in Red Hook) and still creating  interesting music. Jeff and David also have gone on to do their own things, too.

But none of their separate projects has caught the wave the way DTS did. In 2000, critic Terry Teachout did a full-page piece for The New York Times that some would say really helped the band take off.

Now, 13 years later, we have three solo careers and a bunch of recordings, most of which are available from the usual outlets, and possibly from the band’s website (although it’s not clear that the site is maintained).

If you’re lucky enough to attend tonight’s show, please send us a photo or two, or a few lines about it. We’re sorry to miss it.

Scott Miller tribute in New York City on June 29; now with free download info

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Artists including A.C. Newman of The New Pornographers, Ted Leo, Will Sheff of Okkervil River, Charles Bissell of the Wrens, Kleenex Girl Wonder (with Matt LeMay on drums), Tim Thomas of Babe the Blue Ox will pay tribute with performances and readings to the late Scott Miller on June 29 at Cake Shop in Manhattan’s Lower East Side.

Scott Miller

Scott Miller

Miller , who died April 15 at 53, was a San Francisco-area musical mainstay and founder of the influential bands Game Theory (1981-1989) and The Loud Family (1991-2006+)

Tickets, at $30 plus a small service charge, go on sale Monday via Brown Paper Tickets by clicking here.

The proceeds go to The Scott Miller Family Memorial Fund in support of his widow, Kristine, and their two daughters, Julianne Elizabeth and Valerie. the fund already has raised $47,000.

Read about a West Coast tribute and learn how to get free downloads of much of Scott’s music after the jump. Continue reading

Ken Thomson joins Bang on a Can All-Stars

When Evan Ziporyn recently left the Bang on a Can All-Stars, it seemed to us that there was inly one player who immediately came to mind as a replacement: Ken Thomson.

We met him when he was working for Bang on a Can’s Cantaloupe record label. But we quickly discovered what a fantastic, versatile wind player and composer he is.

You might know him as the peripatetic sax-playing leader of Gutbucket, or a leader of the Bang-Lincoln Center Out of Doors marching band, Asphalt Orchestra.

No matter how you know him, you know he’s up to the challenge of filling Evan’s shoes and taking the All-Stars to the next level.

Congratulations to Ken. Well done.

Here’s the press release:

Bang on a Can All-Stars Welcome Ken Thomson

We are thrilled to welcome high voltage clarinetist Ken Thomson to the Bang on a Can All-Stars! This past year, during our national search, we played with stunning clarinetists from all over the country. We were honored to share the stage with so many great performers. After a search far and wide, in the end we came back home to one of our own. Ken has been a part of the Bang on a Can family for many years. As a founding member of Asphalt Orchestra (our rad street band) and as faculty at the Bang on a Can Summer Festival at MASS MoCA, Ken has graced us with his dynamic and physical performances.

He has already jumped right in with a European tour taking place right now through Belgium, Sweden, the UK, and Iceland, to be followed by his first home-town performance as an official All-Stars at the Bang on a Can Marathon on Sunday June 16.

Welcome Ken!

Donnacha Dennehy and Alarm Will Sound leave us Hunger-ing for more

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Alarm Will Sound (Photo by Justin Bernhaut)

Famine isn’t a cheery topic. And when we’re talking about the Great Irish Famine of 1845-1852, it could seem like musty and old as well as unpleasant.

And, let’s face it, the Great Famine is not a happy subject.

Luckily, when the fantastic Irish composer and Crash Ensemble bandleader Donnacha Dennehy takes on the monumental subject, it assumes a magical, transcendent quality.

Dennehy and the awesome 20-member New Music ensemble Alarm Will Sound gave New York its first taste of The Hunger, a still in-progress theater piece that combines the ensemble with live singing by an Irish  sean nós singer and a mezzo-soprano, at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall on Saturday night, April 6.

We were mesmerized for all 45 minutes of urgent playing coupled with recordings of Irish sean nós singing and the keening of a mother for her dead child, along with and live singing by the extraordinary Rachel Calloway.

Calloway sang lyrics based on the first-hand accounts of the famine by the American nonconformist Asenath Nicholson, who spent two years in Ireland working with those dying of starvation. Her words in song are gripping, terrifying and urgent.

The piece is destined to be a full evening of performance by Alarm Will Sound, sean nós singer Iarla  Ó Lionáird and one of our very favorite mezzos, Dawn Upshaw. While Upshaw will likely put the finished work into an even higher category, we were mightily impressed with Calloway’s work on Saturday.

This taste leaves us starving to hear more.

While The Hunger was the marquee event of Saturday’s program, Alarm Will Sound got plenty of opportunity to show off its New Music chops in the first half, as well. The evening was intended to draw attention to the fact that the 12-year-old group, led by Alan Pierson (who also helms the Brooklyn Philharmonic), has amassed quite a bit of music written specifically for it.

One of its oldest commissions, David Lang‘s increase, composed in 2002, was the highlight of the first half. But the world premiere of the noisy, energetic Fly By Wire, by the suddenly ubiquitous Tyondai Braxton and New York premiere of Charles Wuorinen‘s Big Spinoff, were plenty of fun. Journeyman, composed by Alarm Will Sound’s pianist, John Orfe, also had its New York premiere Saturday.

Vital Vox Take 2: A festival of the human voice, supercharged and guaranteed Sandy free!

Vital Vox was knocked down, but not out, by Superstorm Sandy.

Vital Vox was knocked down, but not out, by Superstorm Sandy.

If you like the sound of the human voice, but like it even better with a little extra oomph, the Fourth Annual Vital Vox Festival is for you.

The two-evening event, as always, features some of today’s most amazing vocal artists. But this year’s twist is called “Vox Electronics” and focuses on amazing artists who take their sound to a new level with electronic manipulation of all kinds.

It’s scheduled for Monday and Tuesday, March 25 and 26, at Roulette in Brooklyn.

The intriguing festival was scheduled for last October, but a little storm named Sandy had other plans. But organizers have regrouped and are ready to go with a slightly retooled lineup.

Monday night’s program features Philip Hamilton, Loom Trio (an ensemble that includes Vital Vox co-artistic director Sasha Bogdanowitsch) and violinist-vocalist Sarah Bernstein‘s duo project Unearthish with  percussionist Satoshi Takeishi.

Pamela Z performs at the 2008 Bang on a Can Marathon in the Winter Garden at the World Financial Center in Manhattan. (Photo © 2008, Steven P. Marsh)

Tuesday brings in Lisa Karrer and David Simons, Bogdanowitsch  with Loom Ensemble and Pamela Z.

For our part, Pamela Z was our entree into the world of manipulated voice, and remains among our top two or three favorites in this arena. The things she can do to her voice with a Mac laptop and an occasional piece of percussion is pretty awesome. And when she pulls out her full arsenal — especially her Body Synth gesture controller — look out!

The festival’s other co-artistic director, Sabrina Lastman, was scheduled to perform in October, but isn’t on the new program.

Every artist on this bill has serious vocal chops. One of them could make your top three. Why not give them a listen?

Fourth Annual Vital Vox Festival, 8 p.m. Monday, March 25 and Tuesday, March 26. Roulette, 509 Atlantic Avenue (at Third Avenue), Boerum Hill, Brooklyn. Information at the Vital Vox website  or follow Vital Vox on Twitter. Tickets, $15/$10 for students, seniors and members available at the Roulette website.

Guilty: Babe the Blue OX makes its best album ever

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First release from Brooklyn perennial in 15 years

We didn’t really know Babe the Blue OX in its 1990s heyday, when the band was a regular(-ish) feature on bills around New York City. We heard and appreciated some of its recordings, and were charmed by its Paul Bunyan-esque name and Barbra Streisand-ish album titles.

For whatever reason, we never saw Babe live until a couple of years ago, when the members decided to come out of accidental retirement and start playing on a semi-regular basis again.

(Full disclosure: We met and became friendly with singer-guitarist Tim Thomas through his day job as a fund-raiser for a nonprofit long before we even realized he was in Babe.)

Listen to Guilty and read more after the jump. Continue reading

Bang on a Can introduces new compositions at the Peoples Commissioning Fund concert

See what a little cash from a lot of people can do

While we’re generally ecstatic about New Amsterdam Records’ Ecstatic Music Festival, we’re particularly psyched about the latest installment of Bang on a Can’s long-running Peoples Commissioning Fund concert series.

It’s slated for 7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 14, at Merkin Concert Hall in Manhattan.

The contemporary classical organization since 1997 has been collecting contributions, mostly small, from lots and lots of music lovers (that’s the “Peoples” part), aggregating them (the “Fund” part), and using them to commission (the Commissioning part) new work from composers new and established.

Bang on a Can calls this “a radical partnership between artists and audiences” that uses crowd-sourcing to fund new work. While the idea probably never was unique to Bang on a Can , it no doubt opened the door to other funding machines, such as Kickstarter and PledgeMusic.

The concept shatters the longstanding model of big-bucks patrons fueling the production of new work. This crowd-sourcing concept, which predates the social media boom, has raised almost $300,000 since its inception and made it possible for Bang on a Can to help in create more than 50 new works. Continue reading

Ticket price for Wilco’s 2013 Solid Sound Festival increases $25 on March 11

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You have less than a week to buy your weekend passes to this great festival before the price goes up

Will You Miss Me When I’m Gone? has told you before, and is taking this opportunity to tell you again: Solid Sound, Wilco’s music and arts festival at MASS MoCA is one of the best music festivals ever. We’ve attended the first two editions and have no intention of missing V3 this year — on June 21-23 at the museum in North Adams, Mass.

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