Tag Archives: Free

Shearwater shows David Bowie some love in Brooklyn

Jonathan Meiburg and Shearwater at Brooklyn's Rough Trade on March 16, 2016. (© 2016, Steven P. Marsh/willyoumissme.com)

Jonathan Meiburg and Shearwater at Brooklyn’s Rough Trade on March 16, 2016. (© 2016, Steven P. Marsh/willyoumissme.com)

Jonathan Meiburg the lead singer and head honcho of the crew of talented hired guns that call themselves Shearwater these days (or Johnny & the Meiburgs, as one former member dubbed the band) have been playing songs from David Bowie’s 19979 album “Lodger” lately while touring then new album, “Jet Plane and Oxbow.”

On Tuesday night, the band put those 10 songs together and played them in album order at Rough Trade in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

“This is the first time we’ve played them together in order,” he told a small but enthusiastic crowd — which included Okkervil River frontman and onetime Meiburg bandmate Will Sheff. Continue reading

LAST CHANCE: Enter to WIN tickets to see Os Mutantes at LPR on Sept. 15

Os Mutantes (Facebook)

Os Mutantes (Facebook)

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.

For more information, go here.

WIN TICKETS to see legendary Brazilian Sixties psychedelic band Os Mutantes at LPR — the band’s only US show this year

Os Mutantes 1968: Arnaldo Baptista, Rita Lee, and Sérgio Dias Baptista.

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.

TICKET ENTRY INFO AFTER THE JUMP

Continue reading

Update: Rodeo Bar announces shutdown

Rodeo Bar is ending its policy of free live music at the end of July.

New York’s Longest-Running Honky-Tonk to shut down at the end of July; The Eugene Chrysler Band to play the venue’s final show

UPDATE: Around 11:45 a.m. Thursday, just hours after Will You Miss Me When I’m Gone? posted an item confirming that Manhattan’s Rodeo Bar was no longer booking bands, the bar posted a notice on Facebook  that it’s shutting down altogether  after July 27. This is the full post:

Dear Rodeo Bar patrons and music lovers,

We are deeply saddened to announce that after 27 years in business, Rodeo Bar and Grill is closing its doors after July 27, 2014.

Here at New York’s longest-running honky-tonk, we stayed open during some of the city’s toughest times — Hurricane Sandy, the 2003 blackout, 9/11 — but recent rent increases, combined with a changing landscape, have made it impossible for us continue.

For the past three decades, Rodeo Bar has been home to thousands of bands, and we’re proud to have helped define the country, Americana and rockabilly scene in New York City for all these years. But more than that, we were supported by an incredible community of people from New York and all over the world who helped make this bar great. We can’t thank y’all enough.

For the rest of July, we’re open every night, and the music schedule is killer — and free, as it always has been. So come on down and join us for every show, every Shiner, and every moment with the horse trailer we call home. We’re going out with our boots on.

Much Love, and Until the Buffalo Sings,

Rodeo Bar

The final show at the Rodeo has just been announced: The Eugene Chrysler Band at 10 p.m. on Saturday, July 26. The announcement promises free CDs and guest stars.

My original post appears after the jump.

Continue reading

Check out the Bang on a Can Marathon: Hear amazing music for free

Bang on a Can founder Michael Gordon introduces a performance of his composition "Exalted," featuring the Young People’s Chorus of New York City and JACK Quartet, at the 2011 Bang on a Can Marathon. (Photo  © 2011, Steven P. Marsh/willyoumissme.com)

Bang on a Can founder Michael Gordon introduces a performance of his composition “Exalted,” featuring the Young People’s Chorus of New York City and JACK Quartet, at the 2011 Bang on a Can Marathon. (Photo © 2011, Steven P. Marsh/willyoumissme.com)

Roomful of Teeth, Jherek Bischoff, Anonymous 4, So Percussion, more featured on 8-hour program

Head to the Winter Garden at Brookfield Place at the World Financial Center  in lower Manhattan on Sunday afternoon for a fantastic exploration of New Music.

The 2014 edition of the annual Bang on a Can Marathon starts at 2 p.m. and runs through 10 p.m. You can come and go as you please, sampling everything from serious compositions by Bang on a Can‘s founding composers — Michael Gordon, Julia Wolfe, and David Lang — to works by rock band The National’s Bryce Dessner, along with performances by the inimitable Meredith Monk, Jherek Bischoff, So Percussion, and female vocal quartet Anonymous 4.

Tap or click here to see the full performance schedule.

This event is really a must to experience in person — you’ll see artists mingling with audience in chance encounters throughout the show, get to see and buy CDs and merchandise at the huge merch table, and maybe even take a break to go shopping in the urban mall.

And be sure to check out Found Sound Nation, which hosts its Street Studio – a mobile recording studio where anyone can spontaneously create and record original music!

If you can’t get there, you don’t have to miss out, though. It will be webcast in HD audio and videol.

Tap or click here to WATCH LIVE.

 

Asphalt Orchestra plays the Pixies: Surfer Rosa — FREE this Sunday

Asphalt Orchestra performing on the Lincoln Center Plaza. (Photo © 2010, Steven P. Marsh)

Asphalt Orchestra performing on the Lincoln Center Plaza. (Photo © 2010, Steven P. Marsh)

Avant-garde marching band will open for a Kronos Quartet ‘Kronos at 4o’ show

Asphalt Orchestra hits Lincoln Center Out of Doors this Sunday, July 28 with a brand-new project: a cover of the fan-favorite Pixies album Surfer Rosa.

The avant-garde marching band, a cocreation of LCOOD and Bang on a Can, is well known for its inventive reinvention of pop songs mixed with compositions written specifically for the costumed clan.

Asphalt Orchestra co-leader Ken Thomson describes the evening this way:

We are covering the classic Pixies record Surfer Rosa.
45 minutes of new music, Asphalt-style, choreographed and on stage.
All arranged by us in super-cool arrangements that use the original as a canvas for truly new versions of these tunes.

The free show starts at 6 p.m. with a set of Asphalt classics (Bjork, Zappa, Bregovic) on the plaza.

At 6:30, the music moves to the Damrosch Park Bandshell where Jacob Garchik’s “atheist gospel trombone project” The Heavens will be performed.

Asphalt plays next and then the evening’s headliner, Kronos Quartet, takes over.
Every second of music is free, with no ticket required and nobody hassling you for a  “donation” at the gate. Lincoln Center Out of Doors is one of those rare New York City institutions that truly is free — even free of guilt.

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

Todd Reynolds, Sxip Shirey and an ‘awesome array of violinists’ open for Laurie Anderson tonight

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.

Celebrate the 4th of July with Stew and Dan Zanes

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.