WEDNESDAY MARCH 31 FRENTE When Melbourne band Frente first blew us away ...
RCH 31
FRENTE
When Melbourne band Frente first blew us away with their poppy folk-rock at Irving Plaza in 1994, we assumed Australia was rife with such acts just waiting to break. No such luck. Seven years later, Frente is disbanded, but tonight you can hear all the old songs when pixie-haired frontwoman Angie Hart takes the stage with old Frente guitarist Simon Austin at FEZ. Hart's voice, now fronting Spendid, is as tenderly strained as ever. 380 Lafayette St. (Great Jones St.), 212-533-7000, 10, $12.
THE MILLERITE REDEEMERS
1940s-style country music-guitar, bass, fiddle-with a twisted urban sensibility. Songs about homeless dogs in Fort Greene, Elvis cults and World Weekly News headlines. The guitarist is a real live Nashville transplant; the bass player looks like a serial killer and the fiddler is a pretty, dreadlocked black girl. With Mr. McGregor. BLU LOUNGE, 197 N. 8th St. (Driggs Ave.), Williamsburg, 718-782-8005, 8:30, free.
THURSDAY APRIL 1
SQUAREPUSHER
Tom Jenkinson, the auteur behind the sometimes-too-intense-for-human-ears ensemble Squarepusher, is an accomplished drummer, bass player and total musical lunatic. We've had his new Warp Records release Ultravisitor on heavy rotation since we got it. It's a good way to test people. If the 800 blips per minute computer funk jive makes them leave, they're cowards. If they start dancing, we tell them of our secret stash of porn. SOUTHPAW, 125 5th Ave. (betw. St. John's & Sterling Pls.), Park Slope, 718-230-0236, 9, sold out.
ELECTRIC ENGINE
Sprung from the ashes of the late, great Moths, this rootsy trio sounds like a mix of early Wilco (before they got all Pet Sounds and shit) and Guided by Voices. Their latest CD, Music Building, jangles and clangs with the sweet sound of a much-loved and much-abused tube amp on its last, fuzzy legs. LUNA LOUNGE, 171 Ludlow St. (betw. Houston & Stanton Sts.), 212-260-2323, 8:30, free.
W.A.R.R. (WE'RE AGAINST REMAKE REDUNDANCY) MARCH
SATURDAY APRIL 3
NEW YORK TARTAN DAY PARADE
You won't hear any sex-with-sheep jokes or Mark Renton's "We were colonized by wankers" rant today. Such anti-Scottish sentiment will be drowned out by Highlands pride and bagpipes. The simplest way to describe Tartan Day is to call it the Scottish St. Patrick's Day, but that would no doubt insult members of the Scottish anti-defamation league or whatever. Let them go cry themselves to sleep on their huge pilla'. 6TH AVE. (betw. 44th & 58th Sts.), 2, free.
AQUI
The best metal band on the planet today. Actually, make that the second-best metal band ever, getting beat out only by Black Sabbath. Aqui is a new local band that does complicated art-metal with bits of psychedelia. See them now before the bandwagon comes along. And when it does come along, be sure to shout "Aqui? I've been into them for years." THE HOOK, 18 Commerce St. (Columbia st.), Red Hook, 718-797-3007, 8:30, $10.
SUNDAY APRIL 4
THE BIOTIC BAKING BRIGADE
The mere mention of the Biotic Baking Brigade fills us with a craving for pie. Over the years, the BBB and its cohorts have pied (always vegan-style) a slew of the globe's most famous targets, from Milton Friedman to Willie Brown, Bill Gates to Ronald McDonald, the Swedish king to Ken Lay. Tonight, head to BLUESTOCKINGS for a party to celebrate the release of Pie Any Means Necessary: The Biotic Baking Brigade Cookbook as well as a screening of The Pie's the Limit (a personal favorite) and Pie Fight '69, by the director of Academy Award-nominated documentary The Weather Underground, Sam Green. 172 Allen St. (betw. Stanton & Rivington Sts.), 212-777-6028, 7, $5.
BASEBALL WALKING TOUR
Baseball's opening weekend. The Mets are in Florida and Montréal. The Yankees are playing the Tigers and Yankees Future Stars. So, unless you're a huge Cyclones fan, there's no decent game to go to. And you can't consider yourself a true baseball nerd unless you've done something like take a walking tour of baseball history. It meets in Green-Wood Cemetery, so you know there's going to be a lot of teary-eyed nostalgia and choked rage about the Dodgers, which is always entertaining to watch. Brooklynites never tire of bitching about that, even if they were bums then and they're bums now. Ha! Batter up! Meet at GREEN-WOOD CEMETERY, 25th St. (5th Ave.), Sunset Park, 718-788-7850, 1, $10.
ASYLUM STREET SPANKERS
As one of the best string bands around, the Spankers used to concentrate on traditional jazz numbers from the 1920s and 30s. But as their lineup and audience evolved and grew, so did their repertoire. Their new CD, Mercurial, is a collection of covers ranging from "Shine on Harvest Moon" to "T.V. Party" and "Dance This Mess Around." This latest New York stop on their perpetual world tour will be in support of that, as well as a new live DVD, Sideshow Fez. KNITTING FACTORY, 74 Leonard St. (betw. B'way & Church St.), 212-219-3006, 8, $15.
MONDAY APRIL 5
MELT BANANA
Melt Banana are a sashimi platter of metal, electronica and bizarrely precious pop. Yasuko Onuki is as much Hello Kitty as Fuck Off and Die Kitty; the stage shows are chaotic spectacles. Best of all, they're opening tonight for Mike Patton's equally awesome Fantomas. IRVING PLAZA, 17 Irving Pl. (15th St.) 212-777-6800, 8, $25, $22.50 adv.
TUESDAY APRIL 6
NOWHERE TO HIDE
1999's Injeong sajeong bol geot eobtda (Nowhere to Hide to round-eyes) was described by the New York Times' Elvis Mitchell as "a film that wants only to excite itself." When audiences went out looking for this experiment in onanistic cinema, they found an ultraviolent, hectic Japanese action flick. Expect wall-to-wall violence and completely immersive movie-going. Director Lee Myung-Se will introduce the film, and maybe field questions about the whiplash plot. KOREAN CULTURAL SERVICE IN NEW YORK, 460 Park Ave., 6th Fl. (57th St.), 212-759-9550, 6:30, free.
CONTRIBUTORS: Adam Bulger, Kate Crane, Lana Dilina, James Griffith, Travis Jeppesen, Jim Knipfel and Sarah Shanok.