Tag Archives: Nyack

Don’t miss TRØN & DVD: Free listening party in Nyack tonight, show in Manhattan Monday

Posted on October 20, 2017 | Leave a comment

TRONcolordad copy.jpgDon’t miss out on one of the best musical events of the year: the release of Nyack hip hop duo TRØN & DVD‘s first full length album.

“Afraid of the Dark,” the tough-but-funny pair’s debut, dropped Friday, Oct. 20, on Kiam Records.

Brothers Norvin and Darian Van Dunk, who perform as TRØN & DVD, sat down with me recently for an extended interview for The Journal News/lohud, which appeared on Page One of Wednesday’s newspaper and is also available online. GO HERE to read the interview. (They also got some love from Nyack News & Views a few weeks back.)

The Kiam Records Shop, the label’s home base at 95 Main St/. in Nyack, is hosting a free listening-and-CD-signing party at 7 p.m. Friday. Label chief Jennifer O’Connor promises drinks and snacks.

On Monday, TRØN & DVD will perform the album from start-to-finish at the storied Mercury Lounge in Manhattan. Tickets are a mere $10 for what is certain to be an excellent show. GO HERE to buy your tickets online.

 

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Posted in Free, Hip Hop/Rap, lohud.com, Music, News, Recordings, Rockland County

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Nyack ’80s Prom Saturday night to benefit the Rockland Pride Center

Posted on May 19, 2017 | Leave a comment

fKfZ1ZK1Thr_Je0iwrZeQr2kdb-EtJfu_VJcaDfROMDgfCnUbKovb8ySStHpyAfkCLYW4T0ilWHGlyqvuYvpLM1V6-cr8GgMS8yv3azPvZfSZH5ta0eokVH156HeXWh9STOEBRUI.jpegIf you’re feeling nostalgic for the ’80s, consider spending this Saturday night in Nyack dancing to the decade’s hits spun by DJ Vision Quest (Kiam Records founder Jennifer O’Connor) and helping fund the Rockland Pride center while your doing it?

Participants are encouraged — but not required — to dress to the decade and bring their best dance moves, whether it’s the Moonwalk, the Hammer Dance, the Running Man, or maybe the Lambada.

The Kiam Records Shop is co-hosting an the 80s prom at the Nyack Center to benefit the new Rockland Pride Center, an LGBT organization that promotes a social-justice and anti-racist agenda. It provides services for people of all ages, including support groups, senior care, youth group drop-ins, educational resources, and mental health care.

All proceeds raised from the ‘80s PROM will help fund the new Rockland Pride Center opening this fall.
Aside from the boss’ DJ talents —she’s taking requests and dedications! — Kiam Records is also providing a $200 gift certificate for the downtown Nyack shop. All ticket holders will be entered into a raffle for that prize.
 
Aside from the music and raffle, the prom also features a do-it-yourself corsage station, an 80’s photo booth, a kissing booth, and “pride punch.”
Everyone 21 or older is welcome to the party at the Nyack Center, on South Broadway at Depew St., Nyack.
The party starts at 8 p.m. Saturday, May 20, and the beat goes on until midnight.
Get your tickets ($25-$100) in advance online by going HERE or at the door. Either way, you’ll be helping the community — and having a great time, too.

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Posted in Benefit, Music, News

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Music for the End of the World (VIDEO)

Posted on November 12, 2016 | Leave a comment

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However we feel about what happened Tuesday, we all could use some decompression right about now.

What’s better than music for soothing the savage breast, after all?

There’s a perfect opportunity in Nyack, New York, at 4 p.m. Sunday, Nov.13, when TRANSIT, a New Music collective, presents a program that includes a rare — for this 21st Century-oriented group — performance of Olivier Messiaen’s “Quartet for the End of Time” at GraceMusic.

TRANSIT describes itself this way:

A New Music collective based in NYC, TRANSIT takes a comprehensive twenty-first century approach to new and experimental music by performing, commissioning, and recording the music of emerging composers, while also fostering strengthened relationships between living composers and the general public through TRANSIT-produced concert series and special initiatives.
TRANSIT’s members include a resident composer (Daniel Wohl) and five performers who are amongst the most vibrant young players in the NYC New Music scene. Its core ensemble consists of a mixed chamber
instrumentation: violin (Andie Springer), cello (Evelyn Farny), clarinet (Sara Budde), piano (David Friend), and percussion (Joe Bergen), and
often incorporates electronics, non-traditional instruments, and multimedia components.
TICKET INFO AND DETAILS AFTER THE JUMP

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Posted in Concerts, Contemporary, Contemporary Classical, Music, News

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Rockland County’s Martha Mooke performs music from ‘No Ordinary Window’ on Sunday

Posted on April 2, 2016 | Leave a comment

martha-mookeNyack composer and electro-acoustic violist Martha Mooke brings her spectacular sounds to ArtsRock‘s Music at Union Arts Center series this Sunday afternoon.

She’s a spectacular violist, and her compositions on her latest album, “No Ordinary Window,” are beautiful, boundary-busting windows into her own sonic imagination.

“I slip through the cracks of defined boundaries,” she told me in a recent interview.  “I keep re-creating my way…. I try to take on challenges.”

Read my recent interview with Mooke for The Journal News/lohud.com by going here, and then grab some tickets for Sunday afternoon’s show.

IF YOU GO

When:  2 p.m., Sunday, April 3.

Where: Union Arts Center, 2 Union St, Sparkill, New York

Tickets: $20 in advance/$25 at door/$10 students, available online by going here.

 

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Posted in Concerts, Contemporary, Contemporary Classical, Interview, lohud.com, Music, News, Recordings, Rockland County

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‘Surface Noise’: A self-effacing title for Jennifer O’Connor’s brilliant new album

Posted on February 3, 2016 | 1 comment
The cover of Jennifer O'Connor's album "Surface Noise" (March 4, 2016, Kiam Records) features an ambitious abstract painting, "There 48," by Brooklyn artist Joan LeMay.

The cover of Jennifer O’Connor’s album “Surface Noise” (March 4, 2016, Kiam Records) features an ambitious abstract painting, “There 48,” by Brooklyn artist Joan LeMay.

I’ve never been one to make best-of lists when it comes to music. I enjoy so much of what I hear that it’s difficult to pick favorites.

So I won’t say that Jennifer O’Connor‘s forthcoming album, “Surface Noise,” out March 4, 2016, on Kiam Records, is a sure-fire pick for my best of 2016 list, since I’m not likely to compile one.

I can say it’s the best new album I’ve heard so far in this still-young year — and I fully expect to feel that way about it when this year is winding down.

“Surface Noise” is packed with 12 songs that explore love, loss, and the challenges of life with a casual brilliance about this album that makes it the best work this talented artist has produced so far.

ORDER JENNIFER O’CONNOR’S “SURFACE NOISE” VIA KIAM RECORDS NOW — GO HERE

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Posted in Folk, mp3, Music, Pop and Rock, Recordings, Review, Singer-Songwriter, Uncategorized, Video

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Nyack’s Bill Irwin puts on his ‘Old Hats’ again

Posted on January 21, 2016 | Leave a comment
Bill Irwin in the world premiere run of "Old Hats" at Signature Theatre Company. (© 2013 Joan Marcus)

Bill Irwin in the world première run of “Old Hats” at Signature Theatre Company. (© 2013 Joan Marcus)

Scroll to the bottom of this post for access to a special 2-for-1 ticket deal for Bill Irwin’s “Old Hats,” which returns to Off-Broadway next week. Then click through to read the full story.

 

You know Bill Irwin.

Maybe you didn’t see him on Broadway, clowning around onstage in baggy pants in “Fool Moon” 1n 1993, or playing the comical Mr. McAfee in “Bye Bye Birdie” in 2011.

Maybe you didn’t grow up with him as Mr. Noodle on “Sesame Street.”

But if you watch “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,” “Law and Order SVU,” or “Sleepy Hollow,”  you’ve probably seen him playing everything from psychologists to over-the-top villains.

Bill Irwin as the title character in "Uncle Vanya" at Lake Lucille, NY, in 2007. (©2007 Steven P. Marsh/willyoumissme.com)

Bill Irwin as the title character in “Uncle Vanya” on Lake Lucille in New City in 2007. (©2007 Steven P. Marsh/willyoumissme.com)

Or maybe you saw him locally, in some of the summer plays on Lake Lucille in northern New City. He appeared as the title character in Anton Chekhov’s “Uncle Vanya” in 2007 and the clown Radish in Chekhov’s “Platonov” in 2008.

He’s a versatile actor who admits he works hard to stay that way for a practical reason: to pay the bills. (The Lake Lucille shows may be an exception since they’re labors of love for all involved!)

“It isn’t really an aesthetic choice as much as it is just trying to make the monthly nut,” he told me recently as we sat down for a chat for The Journal News/lohud.com.

He says he and wife Martha Roth take the need to pay the bills pretty seriously.

Bill Irwin clowns around as Radish in Chekhov's "Platonov" on Lake Lucille in New City in 2008. (©2008 Steven P. Marsh/willyoumissme.com)

Bill Irwin clowns around as Radish in Chekhov’s “Platonov” on Lake Lucille in New City in 2008. (©2008 Steven P. Marsh/willyoumissme.com)

“Everybody has a monthly nut, but we have a chant: Monthly nut, monthly nut!”

Irwin and David Shiner, his partner-in-clowning, are returning to the New York City stage next week for a return engagement of their 2013 revue “Old Hats” — with splendid young singer-songwriter Shaina Taub as their onstage foil, master of ceremonies, and music director, filling the shoes of quirky chanteuse Nellie McKay, who originated the part.

The show was a delight the first time around, and sounds like it’ll be just as much of a hoot this time — with some changes that’ll make it well worth seeing again.

Check out my FULL INTERVIEW by clicking here, or pick up this Sunday’s edition of The Journal News on your local newsstand.

GO HERE FOR INFORMATION ON HOW TO GET 2 TICKETS FOR THE PRICE OF 1.

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Posted in Broadway, Interview, lohud.com, Off-Broadway, Theater

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Get a taste of Nyack violoist Martha Mooke’s new CD, ‘No Ordinary Window,’ with brunch this Sunday

Posted on December 10, 2015 | Leave a comment
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Pioneering composer and electro-acoustic violist Martha Mooke of Nyack at the Art Cafe in Nyack on Nov. 17, 2015. (Photo: Peter Carr/The Journal News)

Veteran electro-acoustic violist Martha Mooke is unleashing her new CD on the world with a brunch and concert on Sunday, Jan. 13, at Manhattan’s Cutting Room.

She’s no ordinary violist, so it’s fitting that her new disc, with its beautifully rhythmic, meditative tunes that open windows that offer a peek at the sonic world of her imagination, is titled “No Ordinary Window.”

“I slip through the cracks of defined boundaries,” she says. “I keep re-creating my way…. I try to take on challenges.”

I had a chance to spend an hour talking with Mooke about the project, her career, and her life in Nyack.

Click here to read the full interview I wrote for The Journal News/lohud.com.

And be sure to check out her live performance on Sunday.

IF YOU GO

When: Sunday, Dec. 13. Doors at 11:30 a.m., show at 1 p.m.

Where: The Cutting Room 44 E. 32nd St., Manhattan, thecuttingroomnyc.com/.

Tickets: $30, including brunch, concert, and cocktail. Available online at Ticketfly by clicking here.

 

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Posted in Concerts, Contemporary Classical, Music

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Amy Bezunartea: Pop hero or new villain?

Posted on September 2, 2015 | 1 comment

Amy Bezunartea performs at Rockwood Music Hall Stage 3 on Sept. 1, 2015. (© 2015, Steven P. Marsh/willyoumissme.com)

Amy Bezunartea performs at Rockwood Music Hall Stage 3 on Sept. 1, 2015. (© 2015, Steven P. Marsh/willyoumissme.com)

If you’re a curiosity seeker who decided to check out singer-songwriter Amy Bezunartea because you heard — or heard about — the NSFW lyrics in her new single, “Oh the Things a Girl Must Do,” good for you.

But stick around, there’s more — a lot more  — to this artist than one line that incorporates slang for vagina:

Oh the things a girl must do
If you only knew
Just how much the world wants to see
Everyone’s having fun
When it’s over you can tell
They all want the pussy
But they don’t like the smell

NPR’s “All Songs Considered” praises the work while falling all over itself to call out the song’s frankness, using “graphically” in its headline. As if that weren’t enough, the NPR post also carries the warning label “LANGUAGE ADVISORY: This song contains sexually explicit language,” and uses the terms “a shocking turn” and “NSFW (not safe for work)” in the text. 

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Posted in Concerts, Music, Pop and Rock, Review, Singer-Songwriter

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Big news for Nyack: New record shop opens Friday

Posted on December 11, 2014 | 2 comments

10623871_1514707008788818_7892763302898987429_oBig news: At 11 a.m. Friday, Nyack will have a record store again.

I remember the days when Nyack had a big record shop.

Unless my memory is truly failing me, it was Pic-a-Disc at Main and Franklin, in the space now home to Murasaki Japanese restaurant.D.S.Z. Barbers. I can’t recall the name of it, but it It was a pretty substantial place.

But it left town many years ago, moving to Nanuet —  in the small strip center on Route 59 that’s home to the kids’ barber, Tiny Trims — before disappearing altogether.

More recently, there was the nearly invisible subterranean Vinyl Lounge on Broadway, but that’s closed.

Now Nyack  singer-songwriter Jennifer O’Connor, who already has her own record label, Kiam, is expanding the brand by opening The Kiam Records Shop in a much more visible location: 95 Main Street, next to the Olde Village Inn. (To call for info: 845-353-5426)

O’Connor, an established artist, who mad two well-received albums for Matador and three other independent discs, moved to Nyack from Brooklyn in 2012. She’s already started presenting music at Prohibition River. Now she’ll be selling (and buying) new and used vinyl albums, books, clothing, and more in her new shop across the street from the restaurant.

It looks like O’Connor’s really committed to Nyack.

If you can’t be there when the doors open, please stop in sometime soon to check out O’Connor’s shop. (I hope to get there sometime on opening day.)

There’s a party from 6-9 p.m., when Doug Gillard (Guided By Voices, Nada Surf, Death of Samantha), will stop in before his show at Prohibition River to sign records and possibly play a few songs.

It’s good to shop small, and shop local. I’m betting you’ll find something for somebody on your holiday gift list — and maybe for yourself. And you’ll save yourself a trek to Brooklyn or Manhattan.

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Posted in Music, News

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The Machine Brings the World of Pink Floyd to Tarrytown Tonight

Posted on November 8, 2014 | Leave a comment

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The Machine, one of the best Pink Floyd tribute acts around, was formed 26 years ago by Nyack’s Tahrah Cohen and Joe Pascarell.

Tahrah is still in the band, keeping the beat at the drum kit.

Check out my interview with her for lohud.com here, and then grab one of the very few remaining tickets to the band’s hometown show at the Tarrytown Music Hall on Saturday night, Nov. 8.

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Posted in Concerts, Interview, Music, Pop and Rock

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