MUSIC
Save Tonic | Now Playing
Musicians are by necessity resourceful, and necessity's of course the mother of invention, so the venue's embarked on a benefit series to work their way out of the morass. It's the listening public's opportunity to enjoy-and pitch in to keep downtown's crucial contemporary musical lab dishing up the sonic goods.
This week's benefit dates include Hurray, Doveman and Stars Like Fleas in an early set Friday, with Miho Hatori of Cibo Matto and Smokey Hormel early Saturday, followed by Billy Martin of Medeski Martin and Wood and Mark Ribot. Heavy-hitters continue weighing in later in the month: Yoko Ono celebrates her 72nd birthday with Sean Lennon on Saturday, Feb. 18, then Lennon pairs with Vincent Gallo on Feb. 24. Sex Mob-who've played Tonic since it opened in 1998-roll in on Feb. 26. Things have to happen now, so peel back the earflaps and the billfolds for as much of a good thing as possible.
"It's been amazing, the amount of support we've received from musicians and audiences," Melissa Caruso Scott said on the phone. She opened Tonic with her husband John Scott, initially as an entertainment venue with a comedy night. Tonic hit its mostly musical stride "in about three months-or maybe two," Scott said. "We've always tried to provide a space where musicians were comfortable trying out new ideas, and where established musicians could present new projects."
That they've succeeded at both is no surprise. John Zorn elected early on to make Tonic his preferred venue; it soon became one of the wonders of the music world. Choice gigs this week include Roberto Rodriguez from Los Cubanos Postizos with his Septeto on Tuesday; Monday saw clarinetist Anthony Burr and cellist Charles Curtis playing works by Alvin Lucier. Just a smattering from Tonic's past smorgasbord yields Marc Ribot doing supersonic guitar layers last year with his trio, and with bassist Henry Grimes in Ribot's band Spiritual Unity, while Petr Kotik stretched the instrumental envelope with SEM's percussion ensemble in May. Klezmer brunches; Zorn's multifarious month-long 50th birthday in '03 (electric Masada, the String Trio, duets with Milford Graves-and that's just a start).
There was legendary bassist Peter Kowald, legendary guitarist Derek Bailey, drummer Han Bennink and pianist Misha Mengelberg's Instant Composer's Pool; Medeski Martin and Wood's live recording; Min Xiao-Fen playing pipa with ex-Beefheart guitarist Gary Lucas; Marilyn Crispell's solo piano followed by Uri Caine doing the same. Dave Douglas, Elliott Sharp, Charles Gayle, Wadada Leo Smith with Anthony Braxton one night and with Ikue Mori another, with Mori aboard for a gig with Kim Gordon, DJ Olive and Jim O'Rourke. Lee Ranaldo with Tonic mainstay Alan Licht?the list is as diverse as it is amazing, with Tonic's potentiometer remaining on redline.
In a phone conversation, Anton Fier, one of downtown music's crucial drummers, recalled his first visit to Tonic, during a difficult hiatus after Fier had broken up his band, the Golden Palominos. Drummer Joey Baron played a solo gig that Fier felt wouldn't have happened anywhere else in New York-and which vitalized him to return to playing music.
"In terms of results and of feeling, there's nothing else like Tonic in New York," said Fier, who now both gigs and works there. "The sound people really know the space and they really make it work. And when musicians are treated with respect, they feel really grateful. That's why everyone wants to help, because they are aware of that. This is a very special place."
Tonic, 107 Norfolk St. (betw. Delancey & Rivington), 212-358-7501.
-Alan Lockwood
Pistolera
Tues., Feb. 15
Pistolera started shortly after frontwoman Sandra Velasquez's previous group, Caramelize, broke up. The singer/guitarist headed back to her native San Diego to regroup, write some new songs and form this new project with her cousin Ani Cordero (of the band Cordero) on drums and bassist Pablo Martin (of the Beeps). The band's songs, mostly sung in Spanish, mix down-home Mexican norteño rhythms like cumbias, rancheras, and bandas with rootsy indie rock.
Pianos, 158 Ludlow St. (betw. Stanton & Rivington Sts.), 212-505-3733; 10:30, $8.
-Monika Fabian
Mos Def
Weds. & Thurs., Feb. 9 & 10
The mighty Mos Def lights up 42nd St. this week at B.B. King Blues Club, the choice venue for hiphop. Finally in town to support his latest, The New Danger-and not with some big band extravanganza or a small jazz quartet-this evening should prove interesting for the purists. Criticized by some for the heavy Black Jack Johnson lean of the album, Mos proves unconcerned, mixing together the various sonic elements swimming around in his head so effectively, it's hard to stay disappointed. The man laps most MCs effortlessly, with strong lyrics that could never be compared to the fluff on the radio airwaves. You must give the man credit for bringing the funk to those who'd never nod their head to a guitar riff. Also, the club gets respect for putting this man on for two nights, followed by Kool Keith on Friday.
B.B. King Blues Club, 237 W. 42nd St. (betw. 7th & 8th Aves.), 212-997-4144; 11, $45.
-Steven Psyllos
Gym Class | Thurs., Feb. 10
Music critics are always on the lookout for the next great white hope. Like parasites, they attached themselves to the folky Conor Oberst last week, who has a sour voice and can't really write a catchy tune. Everyone was yearning for him, though, because he has a neat haircut. The kind that makes the Tisch girls' hearts flutter.
Poetry and emotional contemplation are all well and good?at rehab or in Lifetime movies, but, please, keep it out of the rawk. This week, three fine young fellows of most rocking origin will be laying the sonic smack down at Lit. Gym Class, a trio climbing up through the electro-punk gutter, recently inked a deal with My Best Friend Records out of Germany, a subsidiary of the techno-induced Traum. With a hard-on for Can's Tago Mago, Lil' Jon's Crunk Juice and DFA production, the band has cultivated a loyal following among the indie set.
What separates these three from the other navelgazers and mopers is the group's stage presence. Lead singer and guitarist Dylan Maiden, with his Beatles frop cut and haunting eyes, pops around the stage like a man grasping for his last breath of punk solitude. With no bass player, they keep the dark groove rolling with noisy, sci-fi synth lines by Jay Guillermo and heavy garbage-can-pounding percussion from native Lawng Eylander Jesse Serwer.
With its electronic warbling, Gym Class' music seems ripe for reinterpretation. With the help of producer DASO, the band's gothic screams could actually become dance-floor hooks.
Lit, 93 2nd Ave. (betw. 5th & 6th Sts.), 212-777-7987; 10, $5.
-Dan Martino
Pierrot Lunaire | Sun., Feb. 13
Dawn Upshaw takes on the eerie lilts, the lurid flits and thrusts of Arnold Schoenberg's song cycle Pierrot Lunaire, in a program with James Levine and the Met Chamber Ensemble. As intimately disruptive a blast as modern music's made, Schoenberg came up with Pierrot in 1912, laying the cornerstone for much of 20th-century serial music while radically reinventing European bel canto and appalling contemporaries.
Weirdly organic and musically unhinged, Pierrot's daring flaunt and his subsequent work make Schoenberg a provocative ticket to this day (his great, unfinished opera Moses und Aron sported a nude orgy scene for its 1990 New York premiere by City Opera, filling houses and scoring media buzz). He picked a vocal foil for remarkable atonal rigor (and compositional insistence on tone row repetitions) with style he termed Sprechstimme, which has Pierrot's soprano imitating a reciter-or is that a reciter imitating a soprano? Either way, the 21 songs give fantastical results: Belgian poet Albert Giraud's storyline has the famed commedia dell'arte character in a rather ghastly night quest for love, to music that slashes and haunts among eight instruments from piccolo and bass clarinet to cello and piano.
Upshaw finishes her two-year Perspective series at Carnegie in April, in a recital with pianist Richard Goode. With major stage power in Mozart operas, she's won the latitude to do what she likes-and she clearly thrives on challenges. In splendid voice last month in Zankel Hall, Upshaw sang contemporary music's great song cycle, Gyorgy Kurtag's Kafka Fragments. Whether drilling at a wickedly brief song repeating "Nein!" or drawing Kurtag's more somber pieces into resonant, protracted conclusions, Upshaw's impassioned feeling had a terrific ally in Geoff Nuttall, whose charged violin was her sole accompaniment, excepting Peter Sellar's odd, housewife staging.
Along with Pierrot, Levine's programmed chamber pieces are as compact as they are arch. Schoenberg described his Five Orchestral Pieces to composer Richard Strauss as "absolutely unsymphonic," then scaled them down to the version for 11 instruments that Levine and his choice Ensemble will play. Elliott Carter's "Luimen" from 1997 balances harp, mandolin and guitar with vibe, trumpet and trombone. "Piccola musica notturna" was written in the early 1960s for eight musicians by Luigi Dallapiccola, the Italian composer who got kick-started on from conservatory models like Mozart and Wagner when he heard-that's right, Pierrot Lunaire.
Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall, 881 7th Ave. (57th St.), 212-247-7800; 5, $48-$64.
-Alan Lockwood
Alexi Delano & George Rontiris
Sat., Feb. 12
DJs Alexi Delano (Poker Flat) and George Rontiris (H-Productions) will be spinning some slippery, seductive beats this Saturday, headlining the launch of a new weekly at a newish venue on Ave. B, Climax. Traveling the arc between organic house and precision tech-house, you know Alexi Delano from his skilled production as ADNY, featured on such fine labels as Wave, Turbo and Corner Shots; you know G-tech from the rhymes he spits over the illest boom-bips as well as the choice DJ residencies he's held around town. This ain't the first time these cats collaborated, nor will it be the last, but trust me, there's no finer line-up this weekend. This is the premium blend.
Climax, 14 Ave. B (betw. Houston & 2nd Sts.), 212-260-7100; 10, free.
-Steven Psyllos
PLUG Independent Music Awards
Weds., Feb. 9
Tonight's PLUG Independent Music Awards will laud acts that "often won't get the recognition we hope & fight to give them." To that end, they've pitted Ted Leo + Pharmacists, the Libertines and TV on the Radio (among others) against each other for "Indie Rock Album of the Year." You know-bands that never get recognition. Tom "Never Heard of Him" Waits will no doubt kick Nick "whatshisname" Cave's ass if he snatches "Male Artist of the Year," and just imagine the scandal if Death Cab for Cutie takes "Live Act of the Year"-instead of that often-unrecognized Interpol. Far be it from me to not support a production that strives to "celebrate the artists who live and flourish in the margins," but holy fuck. Tonight, spend $20 plus drinks to find out which publicists stuffed the PLUG website's ballot box, or maybe head down to Tonic, a truly independent club that could really use your money.
Webster Hall, 125 E. 11th St. (betw. 3rd & 4th Aves.), 212-353-1600; 8, $20.
-Jeff Koyen
Henry Threadgill's Zooid | Weds. & Thurs., Feb. 9 & 10
Like Ornette Coleman, Chicago-born avant garde jazz composer Henry Threadgill-an early proponent of that town's Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians-was birthed into the blues. It informs everything he does, whether it's the wicked post-Bop, free jazz and roaring ragtime that pours forth from clearly enunciated notes whether on clarinet or alto saxophone. It fuels the circus-marching atmosphere of his latter-day compositions and the odd instrumental configurations applied to his bands, electric or acoustic.
But where Coleman is frenetic and incendiary with his blue rage, Threadgill is pragmatic, mannered and insular-a blue man. Dryer of humor and sound, Threadgill takes in the blues and sprays-not spits-his torpor. Perhaps it's shown through best on band recordings like the ones he made under his Zooid ensemble's moniker. His first all-acoustic band since the Sextet, and his first band since X-75 leaning so heavily on string arrangements, Zooid (which is an organic cell whose independent movement forms its own colony) popped up in 2001 for Threadgill's Pi label CD, Up Popped the Two Lips. Finding its mix of tripping timbres, lengthy harmodelics and boldly colored textures in a blend of Middle Eastern folk, flamenco, cheery chamber jazz and merry classical composition, Threadgill and company (including acoustic guitarist Liberty Ellman, oud-ist Tarik Benbrahim and cellist Dana Leong) knock the voodoo off its ass with a truly inspirational, original sound.
Knitting Factory, 74 Leonard St. (betw. B'way & Church St.), 212-219-3006; 8 & 10, $20.
-A.D. Amorosi
Dan Hicks & The Hot Licks | Weds., Feb. 9
We shouldn't still be talking about Dan Hicks. Talking about Dan Hicks should be akin to cracking wise about R. Crumb or Kinky Friedman or Maria Muldaur or Tom Waits when he was still stuck in Tin Pan Alley and not sounding as if he'd been banging on one. But the loopy, hot-jazz-jiving Hicks is, as he should be, an ongoing story, someone of whom "the continuing legend of" is a worthwhile story.
From his young roots in the psychedelic 60s to his mustachioed elder-statesman present, Hicks is the gruff king of the wry, wiry jazz-country sound with equal doses, sonically and lyrically, of cowboy and playboy about him and his acoustic swing outfit, the Hot Licks (of whom violinist/mandolinist Sid Page is the only remaining original member). Hicks could make your heart ache with paranoid love songs like "I Scare Myself" or make you giggle with "How Can I Miss You When You Won't Go Away?" You were never quite sure which cheek his tongue was in.
Taking time off-a decade or so-didn't make Hicks less persnickety. Or make him take himself more seriously, as has Dylan. Instead, his most recent studio recording, Beatin' the Heat, is just as weird and hotwired as his past recordings with fiddler Page picking up the rear. Only now, there's a winsome, elegant loneliness to the proceedings that'll surely bring a tear to your eye. Make sure you get there early. Mos Def takes the stage at 11 for his own showcase.
B.B. King Blues Club, 237 W. 42nd St. (betw. 7th & 8th Aves.), 212-997-4144; 7:30, $27, $25 adv.
-A.D. Amorosi
Mike Doughty
Tues., Feb. 15
I sure wasn't the first person to describe Soul Coughing's music as being perfect for fucking. And I wasn't the only person disappointed by their break-up. But since going solo, front man Mike Doughty (and former New York Press contributor) has hardly stopped singing soulful, sensual songs. More important, though, his career seems far removed from the usual concerns about chart numbers and sales. How many successful singer-songwriters grant permission to tape their live performances, just so long as the equipment doesn't "obstruct the view?of fellow concertgoers" and the recordings not be sold for any profit? Doughty was the first successful musician I knew personally to support file-sharing, and he still grants amnesty to downloaders ("Please don't feel guilty?donate generously to [Musicians Industry Program])". Tonight, expect a full house and lotsa swooning.
Warsaw, 261 Driggs Ave. (betw. Eckford & Leonard Sts.), Bklyn, 718-387-0505; 9, $26.
-Jeff Koyen
New York Flamenco Festival 2005
Through WEDS., Feb. 23
This year's flamenco festival pairs up maestros and maestras who demonstrate and appreciate the elegance and richness of the dance. Although the dance leg is mostly over, this week's musical and cultural events are some of the festival's best.
Over at Carnegie Hall, Mayte Martin will blend classical music and jazz elements into this Catalonian sound on Friday night. On Saturday, the musical meeting of Enrique Morente's canto and Tomatito's intricate traditional guitar work will undoubtedly be an unforgettable time.
In tandem, the Instituto Cervantes hosts a series of lectures and films on flamenco. Guitarist Jose Maria Gallardo del Rey gives a free bilingual talk and demonstration on Friday. Finally, in tribute to Spanish filmmaker Carlos Saura, the institution will be playing most of his flamenco-themed movies every Wednesday night, all month long.
Carnegie Hall, 57th St. (7th Ave.), 212-247-7800; call for times and ticket prices. Instituto Cervantes, 211-215 E. 49th St. (betw. 2nd & 3rd Aves.), 212-308-7720; call for times and ticket prices.
-Monika Fabian
Marco Benevento & Leslie Helpert | Mon. Feb. 14
Brooklyn's Projectile Arts collective presents an intimate and relaxed evening of inspired musical collaboration tonight with pianist Marco Benevento and singer-songwriter Leslie Helpert, who currently enjoys going by the moniker "Serpentfly." Separately, these two have been drawing critical acclaim in the realms of exploratory jazz and folk music, Benevento for his incendiary live performances with drummer Joe Russo and Phish's Mike Gordon and Helpert for her carefully crafted songs and nuanced vocal inflections; together they'll focus their creativity on fresh interpretations of classic love songs and ballads from across the musical spectrum.
This is the first on-stage meeting of two young, energetically linked artists working in radically different styles, so tonight promises a high degree of novelty. Think of it as two iPods meeting in the night: Before you know it, Billie Holiday is singing Dylan's "Don't Think Twice" backed by Brad Meldhau and a chorus of wood-nymphs, the strange and beautiful sophistication transporting you entirely.
The Lucky Cat is one of Williamsburg's coziest little spots-it was made for nights like this-and its candlelit ambience should have your love meters going off the deep end. Tonight's show also benefits the ongoing work of Projectile Arts-a community of filmmakers and artists dedicated to cross-cultural communication through creative expression-so you can feel extra warm and do-goodery.
The Lucky Cat, 245 Grand St. (betw. Driggs Ave. & Roebling St.), Williamsburg, 718-782-0437, 8, $10 sugg. don.
-Alan Lockwood
Neko Case & the Sadies | Sun. & Mon., Feb. 13 & 14
Playing together for two nights, Neko Case and the Sadies will give you a fine example of all that was right with the Americana/country rock scene of the late 60s and early 70s. With Neko Case, it's hard to ignore a voice that's big enough to have been born out of the Grand Ole Opry, yet still carries all the sawdust grit of any old Nashville honky-tonk. She's doing only a handful of shows in select cities with the Sadies (so consider yourself lucky) in support of her new live album on Anti Records, The Tigers Have Spoken-featuring a fine collection of covers including "Soulful Shade of Blue" by one of Neko's childhood idols, Buffy Saint Marie, as well as Loretta Lynn's statement of gender double standards, "Rated X." The small dose of Neko originals she cowrote with longtime friends the Sadies, who superbly back her on these performances. What makes this live record stand out is the fact that what you hear on the LP is the same thing the audience was treated to at the intimate shows where it was recorded; there are no overdubs here.
Coming from that same headspace, the Sadies' country 'n' western freight train rolls through with a hazy psychedelic surf vibe and dreamy layered harmonies not heard since Gram Parsons cast his spell over Chris Hillman and the rest of the Byrds during their Sweetheart of the Rodeo days. The Sadies consist of brothers Dallas and Travis Good, both on vocals and guitars, along with Sean Dean on bass and drummer Mike Belitsky. These mainstays on the Canadian country and indie-rock scene will be treating us to songs off their fifth full-length release Favorite Colors out on Yep Roc, which really shows how they have come full circle as songwriters. It's a fine sampling of heartfelt songs with a little help from such famous friends as Robyn Hitchcock, who sings lead vocals on "Why Would Anybody Live Here," and Blue Rodeo's Greg Keelor, as well as members from Calexico.
Bowery Ballroom, 6 Delancey St. (betw. Bowery & Chrystie St.), 212-533-2111; 8, $20, $18 adv.
-Jimmy Ansourian
Sage Francis | Weds., Feb. 9
Rather than be your run-of-the-mill, relaxed-fit-poet MC with a degree in sociology from CalState and an approach to hiphop more about pulling dorm girls than aggressively attacking the beat, Sage Francis is an anomaly. Rather than swallow the daisy chain of command that is Def product, Francis sounds like comic novelty Napoleon XIV nervously attacking the awkward non-niceties of growing up and looking for truth, no matter how bicameral, schizophrenic or plain pained it can be.
Outraged, outrageous and funny, this white-boy slam-battle captain (he won the 1999 Superbowl Battle, the 2000 Scribble Jam and is a top-ranking slam-poetry contestant) makes, with the help of the equally incendiary musical backing of Anticon Inc., a self-referential manifesto of loves and hates. If his first CD, Personal Journals, focused on establishing that brutish but painstakingly detailed lyrical vision, his second CD, A Healthy Distrust, finds the baritone rapper attacking the minutiae of the minutiae. "I'll pull the wool over their vision, pull the pin and push it in 'em/using women as pin cushion-a super villain/with some war paint and jokes done in poor taste," he spiels across "The Buzz Kill."
Unlike another more famous white rapper who uses misogyny as a tool, Francis genuinely rattles the cages, placing cyclical savagery in an ugly context rather than letting us guess how much he really likes it.
Bowery Ballroom, 6 Delancey St. (betw. Bowery & Chrystie St.), 212-533-2111; 8, $15.
-A.D. Amorosi