Constant updates, as not every club in New York with live music actually advertises it (sad but true), and the bands who play there often don’t announce what’s happening until the week of the show. So it’s worth your while to check back every now and then if you didn’t see something that caught your eye the last time you visited. As always, weekly events first, followed by the daily calendar:
Sundays from half past noon to 3:30 PM, bluegrass cats Freshly Baked (f.k.a. Graveyard Shift), featuring excellent, incisive fiddle player Diane Stockwell play Nolita House (upstairs over Botanica at 47 E Houston)
Every Sunday the Ear-Regulars, led by trumpeter Jon Kellso and (usually) guitarist Matt Munisteri play NYC’s only weekly hot jazz session starting around 8 PM at the Ear Inn on Spring St. Hard to believe, in the city that springboarded the careers of thousands of jazz legends, but true. This is by far the best value in town for marquee-caliber jazz: for the price of a drink and a tip for the band, you can see world-famous players (and brilliant obscure ones) you’d usually have to drop $100 for at some big-ticket room. The material is mostly old-time stuff from the 30s and 40s, but the players (especially Kellso and Munisteri, who have a chemistry that goes back several years) push it into some deliciously unexpected places.
Also every Sunday in May the Jack Grace Band plays Rodeo Bar around 9:15 PM. Grace plays what sound like classic country hits from the 50s and 60s, until you realize that they’re all originals. He’s a very funny performer, although some of his songs, the minor-key Tom Waits-ish ones, are white-knuckle intense. His wife Daria, from Melomane plays bass.
Also every Sunday excellent country twangsters Sean Kershaw & the New Jack Ramblers play Hank’s in Brooklyn around 9:30ish, frequently with special guests or a guest band after the previous event, the weekly rock jam, is done.
Also on Sundays, there are free, 5:15 PM organ recitals at St. Thomas Church. This is a prestige venue for touring organists from around the world, the sonics are spectacularly good and so is the old Skinner organ.
Mondays in May (and pretty much every month, when he’s not on tour), Rev. Vince Anderson and his band play Black Betty in Williamsburg, two sets starting around 10:30 PM. The Rev. is one of the great keyboardists around, equally thrilling on organ or electric piano, an expert at Billy Preston style funk, honkytonk, gospel and blues. He writes very funny, very politically astute, frequently salacious original gospel songs and is one of the great live performers of our time. Moist Paula from Moisturizer is the lead soloist on baritone sax.
Also Mondays the Barbes house band, Chicha Libre plays there starting around 9:30. They’ve singlehandedly resurrected an amazing subgenre, chicha, which was popular in the Peruvian Amazon in the late 60s and early 70s. With electric accordion, cuatro, surf guitar and a boisterous rhythm section, their mix of obscure classics and originals is one of the funnest, most danceable things you’ll witness this year. Perhaps not so strangely, they sound a lot like Finnish surf rockers Laika and the Cosmonauts in their most imaginative moments.
Every Tuesday at 9 PM the boisterous and very popular brass-heavy gypsy jazz band Slavic Soul Party plays Barbes at 9. Get here as soon as you can as the opening act is usually popular as well.
Every Wednesday, Will Scott and drummer Wylie Wirth play mesmerizing, hypnotic, completely authentic Mississippi hill country blues along with Scott’s own melodic, tuneful blues originals at Jay St. Bar in Dumbo, starting around 8:30 PM. Junior Kimbrough, R.L. Burnside and Asie Payton are sadly gone but Scott continues their tradition of music that is as danceable as it is trance-inducing, and does his influences justice.
Thurs May 1, 1 PM for a nice financial district lunch break the Manhattan School of Music Chamber Sinfonia is at Trinity Church, performing works by Haydn, Monteverdi and Stravinsky.
Also Thurs May 1, 5:30 PM if you’re lucky enough to get out of work on time, there’s an organ recital at the Church of St. Mary the Virgin on West 46th St. featuring excellent New York organist Christopher Creaghan.
Also Thurs May 1 charmingly dark accordionist/chanteuse Cassis plays the Living Room at 7, opening for haunting Bedsit Poets frontwoman Amanda Thorpe playing the cd release for her new one Union Squre at the Living Room, $10.
Also Thurs May 1, a good oldtimey bill at Spikehill starting at 8 PM with Brotherhood of the Jugband Blues, then yodeling banjoist Curtis Eller’s American Circus and then Bliss Blood’s blissfully good barrelhouse blues band Delta Dreambox.
Also Thurs May 1, 8 PM a nice twinbill at the Music Hall of Williamsburg with the Ivan Milev Band playing their gypsy stuff, opening for the Budos Band who are sort of like Tortoise on speed, adv tix not required.
Also Thurs May 1 multi-instrumentalist/chanteuse Rachelle Garniez plays her regular monthly gig at Barbes, 10 PM. What Lou Reed was for Lester Bangs, what Dylan was for Greil Marcus, what R. Kelly is for that girl at the Times (just kidding about that one, Rachelle), this unassuming woman is the artist we’ve probably given the most press to here. Because, although she has a rabid and adoring cult following, she should be vastly more popular than she is. There is astonishing imagination in her retro jazz/blues/cabaret/gypsy inflected songwriting, brutally subtle power in her lyrics and she’s an absolutely hilarious, spontaneous live performer. Oh yeah, also maybe the best keyboardist in town, whether on piano or accordion. OK. Now you know.
Fri May 2 at 7 PM an all-ukulele bill at Bowery Poetry Club with a rare solo performance by the Moonlighters’ Bliss Blood along with Doug Skinner, Jennifer Kwok, Ben Lerman, Carmen Borrgia, Ballard C Boyd.
Also Fri May 2, 8 PM Catspaw plays Trash, 8 PM. These two women and a guy on bass deliver all the fun of original rockabilly and surf music with none of the affectation or the pose. How refreshing. And their song Southbound Line has to be one of the best of this decade.
Also Fri May 2 frequently mesmerizing concert harpist/chanteuse Katie Brennan plays the cd release for her sensationally good new one Slowly at Jimmy’s No. 43, 43 7th St. (between 2nd & 3rd Aves.), 9 PM. She sounds nothing like that goofy-voiced girl who was all the rage about a year ago (what was her name? How quickly fads like her come and go); instead, Brennan has staked a claim to sultry Neko Case/Eleni Mandell territory.
Also Fri May 2 absolutely riveting, haunting, oud-and-accordion-driven East African dance band revivalists Sounds of Taraab plays Shrine uptown, 9 PM, 2271 Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd. betw 133-134 St.
Also Fri May 2, 9 PM a killer triple bill with arguably the best gypsy band in NYC, Luminescent Orchestrii, oldtimey ragtime blues cats the Wiyos and boisterous Cajun acoustic band Feloche at Drom on Ave. A.
Also Fri May 2 veteran expat Jamaican reggae crooner Winston Irie plays Otto’s, 10 PM. His lo-fi keyboard-driven sound, at this dive especially, will make you think you’re at a similar lo-budget joint in the nasty part of Kingston. Irie, mon.
Also Fri May 2, 10 PM the excellent country band Jerry Teel & the Big City Stompers play Union Pool, 10 PM. Teel has had quite a career, with noise-rockers the Honeymoon Killers, the late, great Chrome Cranks and retro garage guys the Knoxville Girls. He ran the legendary Fun House studios here on the Lower East Side til relocating to New Orleans – where he lost pretty much everything when the levees broke. Now back in the area, Teel and his velvet-voiced wife Pauline are backed by a killer band featuring JJ Jenkins on lead guitar and the Dog Show’s Jerome O’Brien on bass.
Also Fri May 2 the Vivian Girls – a pyrotechnic amalgam of Link Wray, early Lush and the Shangri-La’s – play the Silent Barn in Queens, 10 PM. They’re also playing Cake Shop at 9 on May 3.
Sat May 3, 9:30 PM Ninth House’s dark baritone frontman Mark Sinnis – the missing link between Johnny Cash and Ian Curtis – plays his acoustic Nashville gothic stuff upstairs at the Living Room.
Also Sat May 3, 9:30 PM, long-running, sprawling Brooklyn funksters Groove Collective play Drom. Bounce to those amazing basslines,
Also Sat May 3 scorchingly good delta blues guitarist Lenny Molotov – something of an American counterpart to Richard Thompson, with his stinging, smart, socially aware lyricism and spectacular chops - plays with his band at Sidewalk, 10 PM.
Also Sat May 3 it’s another of legendary surf music promoter Unsteady Freddy’s shows at Otto’s starting at 10 with the Tritons, Reverb Galaxy, the uncommonly oldschool, twangy, subtle Mr. Action & the Boss Guitars and then the sensationally good, somewhat improvisationally-inclined Venice Beach Muscle Club sometime in the wee hours. For those who prefer Mr. Action at Lakeside on a Friday night, they’re at Lakeside on May 16 at 11.
Also Sat May 3 dark, guitar-fueled noir glam punks the Bellmer Dolls wind up their residency at the Charleston, 11 PM.
Sat May 3 a hip-hop bill starting around 9 at Galapagos featuring a rare appearance by the best rap group on the East Coast, the furiously and brilliantly political Dead Prez playing a short set around 11ish.
Also Sat May 3 the hilarious, picture-perfect retro pre-rockabilly country trio (“ballads, boogies and blues,” according to the band) Susquehanna Industrial Tool & Die Co. play Rodeo Bar, 10:30 PM.
Sun May 4, a major event in the history of classical music, and it’s free! At the Town Hall: a spectacular reunion, the first New York performance in thirty years by TASHI – the quartet of soloists who made their New York debut in 1973 – Pianist Peter Serkin, violinist Ida Kavafian, clarinetist Richard Stoltzman, and cellist Fred Sherry, playing
Josquin des Prez (c. 1440-1521) Ave Maria…Virgo Serena
Thomas Morley (c. 1557-1603) Christes Crosse
(recomposed for TASHI 2007 by Charles Wuorinen (b.193 
Toru Takemitsu (1930-1996) Quatrain II
And last but not least, one of the major events in the Messiaen centennial:
Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992) Quartet for the End of Time
Ticket Price: Free
Where to get Tickets: Tickets for Free for All at Town Hall are available ONLY at the The Town Hall Box Office, starting at noon on concert days, Sunday, April 27, and Sunday, May 4, 2008. Both performances begin at 5 pm. Free tickets may be picked up at the box office any time between noon and show time. Two tickets per person. First come first served.
Also Sun May 4, early, 2 PM, for those not too hungover for some amusingly anti-corporate liberation theology, Rev. Billy & the Stop Shopping Choir play an afternoon show at Highline Ballroom.
Also Sun May 4 Lianne Smith plays the Living Room, 7 PM. A unique song stylist, subtly witty lyricist, and imaginative electric guitarist who likes a lot of reverb. And one of the most riveting voices around, a former rockabilly goddess who discovered indie rock and sounds a little like Wire but a whole lot funnier. And a hilarious performer when she’s in the right mood.
Also Sun May 4, 9 PM Bliss Blood’s ever-more-popular Bessie Smith-inspired barrelhouse blues band Delta Dreambox plays the National Underground. They’re also at Barbes on May 9 at 8 PM.
Also Sun May 4 excellent, loud Brooklyn noise-rock/shoegaze types Apollo Heights play a loft show at Dead Herring, 141 South 5th Street. Willliamburg, time TBA. They’re also at Lit on May 6 at 11:30.
Mon May 5, here’s what could be the best single show of 2008: keyboard monster Greta Gertler continues her Monday residency at Banjo Jim’s at 7 PM with a spectacularly good band comprised of her fellow panstylistic rock goddesses: Rachelle Garniez, Serena Jost, Alice Bierhorst and Carol Lipnik! This is the kind of crew that could swap instruments on every song a la Blue Oyster Cult (hey Greta: double double dare you to play Joan Crawford!!!).
Also Mon May 5, 8:30 PM beatnik jazz legend David Amram leads a quintet at Cornelia St. Cafe. Now in his seventies, he still refuses to slow down. Equally at home playing classical on French horn, jazz on the piano or revisiting the ghost of his pal Jack Kerouac, he’s earned his legendary status.
Also Mon May 5, 9 PM it’s the debut of Whisperado’s Mud Room Event at Kenny’s Castaways beginning with the Leonard Cohen-inspired, minimalist dark folk of Tam Lin and then the caffeinated, Dylanesque stylings of Whisperado themselves.
Tues May 6, Michal the Girl – a great singer whose catchy powerpop was one of the best things going back at the old Luna Lounge around the turn of the century – plays an acoustic show featuring lots of new material at the Rockwood, 7 PM.
Also Tues May 6 violinist Jenny Scheinman – who’s just wrapped up a long stand at the Vanguard with Bill Fressell – plays her own stuff at Barbes at 7 followed by the very popular Balkan brass band Slavic Soul Party. $10 cover for SSP.
Also Tues May 6, 9:30 PM, $15 adv tix available and enthusiastically recommended, Tammy Faye Starlite plays Joe’s Pub. From the moist lips of the evangelist herself: “Tammy Faye Starlite, the celebrated and somewhat salacious country chanteuse-cum-evangelist, brings her sweet gospel chansons to the stage of Joe’s Pub in order to pray for our country and to implore the cheerless, peccant souls of New York City to elect a leader who will follow the dictates of a Southern Baptist Lord and lead us into the ultimate, eschatalogical battle of Armageddon (we’re already on our way!) which will ultimately bring about the Second Coming of Christ. With songs by Tammy Wynette, Bob Dylan (the Christian incarnation) and Charlie Daniels, plus a brand new Tammy Faye original, she hopes to unite these fragmented 48 contiguous United States (Alaska and Hawaii don’t count - their indigens look different) and help make this a truly Christian nation, the way Jesus (and Ann Coulter) intended, as stated in Matthew 2:13: “And ye shall elect a leader who will protect the sanctity of life, and perpetuate an overtly heterosexual, gun-wielding, bellicose culture of abstinent imperialists, guarded from all evildoers by His holy Blue Cross and His impenetrable Blue Shield .” Songs include “Where Is America Going,”, “Saved,” “Don’t Liberate Me, Love Me” and Tammy’s own ode to White Supremacy, “White As Snow.” Sponsored in part by Pastor Rick Warren and the Saddleback Church, with additional support from Dr. James Dobson and Focus on the Family.”
Also Tues May 6, sprawling horn-and-keyboard-driven groovemeisters Chin Chin play the cd release for their new one at Union Pool, 11 PM. True story: one of the crew here is a notorious non-dancer. At a Chin Chin show awhile ago, even though he was being totally ghetto and drinking a 40, a couple of beautiful women came up to him and asked him to dance. And they dragged him out on the floor with them. No joke. This could happen to you.
Weds May 7, legendary 60s psychedelic artifacts the Electric Prunes play B.B.King’s, $22.50 adv tix available at the club box office. Don’t laugh: the group responsible for the classic single Too Much to Dream (and Mass in F Minor, which has to be one of the ten best stoner albums ever made), is back, with a couple of original members. Check out their myspace for a scary/cool listen to their new stuff, equal parts eerie garage band and Roky Erickson-style cautionary tale.
Also Weds May 7 Moisturizer plays two deliriously fun sets of their indescribably fun baritone sax/bass/drums instrumentals at Black Betty starting at 10ish.
Thurs May 8, lunchtime, Ljova and Kontraband play their completely wild, intense original gypsy stuff at 1 PM at Trinity Church. They’re also at Drom on May 10 at 8.
Also Thurs May 8, early evening, 7 PM, ever-more-guitarishly intense Brooklyn new wave/early 80s revivalists the Larch play the cd release for their new one Gravity Rocks at Arlene’s. Potently adrenalizing Richard Lloyd-influenced lead guitar, smart and socially aware songwriting and Liza from the WonderWheels smirking behind the keyboard.
Also Thurs May 8, 7 PM at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, an impressive, free evening of French romantic organ music (mostly for two organs) along with liturgical works for choir featuring Marcel Dupre’s Quatre Motets; the Louis Vierne Messe Solennelle, and another mass by Widor.
Also Thurs May 8, brilliantly haunting British expat Americana chanteuse Jan Bell plays with her band the Cheap Dates at Highline Ballroom, 7:30 PM, opening for longtime womens’ music singer Ferron who headlines later on.
Also Thurs May 8, the reliably excellent, smartly aware, lusciously romantic oldtimey Moonlighters play 9 PM at the National Underground. They’re also here on May 22 at 9, and at the Jalopy Café in Red Hook on May 16 at 9
Thurs May 8 and May 15 the highly regarded, pretty self-explanatory NY Gypsy Allstars play Drom, 10 PM
Also Thurs May 8, 10 PM at Barbes, if you need a gypsy fix later in the evening, ANSAMBL MASTKIA. From the Barbes website: “Greg Squared leads this mostly Balkan-inspired ensemble which plays tunes ranging from the plaintive clarinet ‘miroloi’ of northern Greece to the funkier grooves of the Serbian and Macedonia Roma (gypsies); from the mysterious qualities of Turkish calgija music to the driving power of Bulgarian wedding music. with Matt moran - percussion; Reuben Radding - bass; Joey Weisenberg - guitar; Matthew Fass - accordion; Catherine Foster - trumpet and Greg Squared - Sax and clarinet.
Also Thurs May 8 Eli “Paperboy” Reed plays the cd release for his new one Roll With You at Joe’s Pub, 11 PM. Wow. This guy, his horn section, rhythm section and the rest of the band are amazing. Otis Redding reincarnated, or so you would think until you see his white face. Incontrovertible proof that soul transcends ethnicity.
Three chances to see excellent French ska/funk/Balkan/brass band rockers Samenakoa: Fri May 9 at the Jalopy Café in Red Hook, 10 PM; Sat May 10 at 11 at Barbes and Sun May 11 at 10 at Drom.
Also Fri May 9, half past midnight the wildly popular eerie oldtime goth band O’Death plays the Music Hall of Williamsburg, adv tix $12 absolutely necessary, available at the Mercury box office.
Early Sat May 10, 11 AM “Sudan: A Musical History” airs this Saturday at 11 PM on Radio New York 91.5 FM in the debut of Afropop Worldwide. Featuring the music of Mohammed Wardi, Abdel Gadir Salim, Omer Ihsas (Darfur), Al Balabil (Nubia), Emmanuel Kembe and rapper Emmanuel Jal (Southern Sudan), Rasha (new voice of the diaspora), and many others. There’s also extensive companion information on www.afropop.org including links to feature stories, photo essays, discographies, and a podcast with program highlights in case the radio show is too early for you.
Sat May 10, 6 (six) PM the legendary queen of rockabilly, Wanda Jackson plays the Knitting Factory, $20 adv tix available, still vital and having a party after all these years.
Also Sat May 10, 7:30 PM Spanking Charlene plays Luna. If the X show at Irving Plaza (May 24) is too rich for your blood, Spanking Charlene provide a worthwhile alternate. Frontwoman Charlene MacPherson is the real deal, a fiery, powerful belter and her husband/guitarist has a real feel for dirty, distorted, punky Americana rock. And the songs can be very funny. They’re also at Lakeside on May 17 at 11
Also Sat May 10 former Roulette Sisters frontwoman and National steel guitarist Mamie Minch plays her mix of salaciously entertaining and darkly haunting original blues songs at Barbes, 8 PM. Her forthcoming album Razorburn Blues is something of a change, with an emphasis on stark, sometimes emotionally wrenching songwriting.
Also Sat May 10, 9 PM Orientalist jazz improvisers Ilham, which is Arabic for “inspiration” feat. Gaida Hinnawi (Vocals), Rufus Cappadocio (Cello), Amir ElSaffar (Santoor, Trumpet) and the brilliant Brahim Fribgane (Oud, Percussion) play Alwan for the Arts.
Also Sat May 10, 10 PM scorching garage-punk band the Mess Around play the Charleston. Radio Birdman, MC5, Kinks influences and a completely kick-ass live show. They’re also at Trash at May 30 at 8,
Also Sat May 10 Zane Campbell plays Rodeo Bar, 10:30 PM. The legendary Ola Belle Reed’s nephew is a certifiable hellraiser who pioneered alt-country in New York two decades ago, before the rest of the world discovered it. See for yourself.
Also Sat May 10, 11:30 PM tuneful, atmospheric, dreampop-influenced rocker Samara Lubelski and her band play the Silent Barn in Queens.
Also Sat May 10, 10:15 PM, early (by Lakeside standards), Simon & the Bar Sinisters blast into Lakeside. Old-school LES squatter punk who cleaned up his act and became one of the great rockabilly/surf guitarists (and bassists!) around. If you’re lucky they’ll do their dirty Batman theme and the ska cover of In-a-Gadda-Da-Vida.
Also Sat May 10 Bobby Radcliff, another damn good real blues guitarist (as opposed to fake blues guitarists – you know who they are, yuppies call them god, ad infinitum), plays Lucille’s, 8 PM. Faster, jazzier, more incisive and intense than he’s ever been.
Also Sat May 10 fiery, rustic country rockers Her & Kings County play downstairs at the National Underground, 10:30 PM. With the three guitars and the steel, they really get the twang cooking.
Sun May 11, noon Dr. John-influenced singer/guitarist Lipbone Redding and his oldtime ragtime/swing/blues trio play Jules Bistro on St. Mark’s, where they frequently do a brunch show. They’re also back here on Friday May 16 at 8 PM.
Sun May 11, early, 7 PM, lush, atmospheric art-rockers the Quavers play Barbes. Live, they create songs by playing loops, one after the other, adding them to the mix until they have a song: it’s amazing to watch. Another amazing player, gypsy guitarist Stephane Wrembel follows at 9 PM.
Also Sun May 11 Joe Maynard from Maynard & the Musties opens for Jack Grace at the Rodeo Bar, 7:30 PM. Great segue: two of the funniest (and smartest) songwriters in country music.
Mon May 12 deviously multi-stylistic keyboardist/singer Greta Gertler winds up her “casting lines” (that’s Australian for “going fishing”) project at Banjo Jim’s with her regular band plus unnamed special guests. She can literally play anything and make it funny and captivating at the same time. Most recently she’s been messing around with ragtime and early 80s new wave with equally fun results.
Mon May 12 Mavrothi Kontanis and his sensationally intense, haunting, powerful Greek rebetika band play Barbes at 8 followed at 9:30 by one of New York’s most reliably good live acts, Chicha Libre. Mavrothi Kontanis is also here on May 26 at 8.
Also Tues May 13 at Barbes, 7 PM it’s Nanina. From the Barbes site: “Nanina’s repertoire is a panorama of vocal Georgian music. They perform Alilos (orthodox carols) chants from the eastern and western liturgy, and rousing and/or humorous folk songs from several regions accompanied by panduri, chonguri or chunir. With Jodi Hewat, Carl Linich, and Aurelia Shrenker. Then, at 8, AE: Aurelia Shrenker and Eva Primack sing songs that’ll make your eyes water and your toes tingle. Tonight they will share music from Appalachia, Caucasus Georgia, Bulgaria, Albania, Greece, Ukraine, Corsica and beyond, with accompaniment on dulcimer, accordion, and the Georgian panduri.”
Also Tues May 13 through 17 Pharaoh Sanders plays Birdland, $35 general admission, shows 8:30 & 11. A legend who played with everybody, fifty years ago: Miles, Trane, you name it, and somebody whose sax can still conjure up a firestorm of spirits when he puts his mind to it.
Also Tues May 13 deliriously fun accordion-and-violin-driven klezmer/gypsy rockers Golem play Joe’s Pub, 9:30 PM $20 adv tix available.
Also Tues May 13 vocal jazz group the Old Rugged Sauce plays Lakeside at 10 PM. With horns, guitar and keys and a pretty standard repertoire, they’re pretty much what you’d hear somewhere in the Midwest – except that their arrangements are amazing. And even the more impressive considering that none of these guys is in it for anything but the sheer fun of it
Also Tues May 13 and 15 Mike Ness plays Irving Plaza, 11ish, adv tix $35 available at the box office and get ‘em now if you’re going, they’ll sell out fast. The original Americana punk, maybe better than ever after all these years.
Thurs May 15, 1 PM the bracingly powerful, equally intense and amusing Metropolitan Klezmer – whose new live album is sensationally good - play a free lunchtime show at Trinity Church.
Also Thurs May 15, 9 PM legendary blues crooner Bobby Bland plays B.B. King’s, $25 adv tix available at the box office. You never know with this guy: B.B. King’s former valet could phone it in, or he could give you goosebumps. He still has that growl, and the ladies still love him, fifty years after he put down B.B.’s bags and got on the mic.
Also Thurs May 15, 10 PM banjo player/songwriter Al Duvall - absolute king of the innuendo-laden double entendre - plays his hilarious, original, early 1900s style ragtime tunes at Pete’s. If you’re lucky he’ll do the one about the sex change operation (from the days before they had anesthesia).
Also Thurs May 15, Suicide plays Europa, time TBA. That’s right, Alan Suicide, from CBGB, 1976. Their sound hasn’t changed one iota, and it could be described as unlistenable. For serious noise-rock fans and anyone who actually likes Metal Machine Music.
Fri May 16 Graham Parker plays Joe’s Pub, 7:30 PM, $25 adv. tix available and worth it. One of the greatest songwriters of alltime, plain and simple. Started out slowly aping Van Morrison in the mid-70s, then discovered new wave and hit it big for a few years. His two most recent albums are as good as anything he’s ever done, as virtriolic, funny and tuneful as ever.
Also Fri May 16, 9 PM the Jack Grace Band and Wayne Hancock play a double bill at the Jalopy Café. Grace is our hometown country throwback ham and an underrated lead guitarist; Hancock’s fiery mix of honkytonk and western swing is as exhilarating as it is funny.
Sat May 17, starting in the morning at 11 AM it’s Wall to Wall Bach at Symphony Space, free, but get there early for this terrific event. The American Symphony Orchestra (under the baton of Maestro Leon Botstein) and a slew of artists performs preludes, fugues, cantatas, suites, concerti, sonatas and more (gavottes? Airs?), concluding with a resounding performance of the B minor Mass.
Also Sat May 17, 8 PM, the Chelsea Symphony plays at St. Paul’s Church, 315 W 22nd Street (btwn 8th & 9th), on a program including excerpts from Shostakovich’s Tenth and Twelfth Symphonies and the entire, horrifyingly powerful Symphony No. 9. The program repeats on Sun 5/18 at 3 PM with a slightly better program: Lawhead - Rondo for Strings, Harp and Brass; Saint-Saens - Introduction and Rondo Capricioso and then the Shostakovich fireworks.
Also Sat May 17 Brian Jackson plays BAM Café, 9 PM. Gil Scott-Heron’s 70s electric keyboardist and sparring partner still brings the funk with the same sprightly optimism as he did thirty years ago.
Also Sat May 17, 9:30 PM, deliriously danceable, haunting, incredibly generous ouzo-swilling Greek rebetika revivalists Magges play Mehanata. You have not lived until you have danced to Magges, and you heard that here first.
Also Sat May 17 Witches In Bikinis play Kenny’s Castaways, 10 PM. More of a theatrical event than a concert: The Trip (the Jack Nicholson movie) meets Rocky Horror. Campy, yes, but genuinely funny, both lyrically and musically, to the extent that the show would work equally well if the witches, in their matching colored wigs and bathing suits, weren’t all dancing around with hardly anything on.
Also Sat May 17, 10 PM Burnt Sugar plays Luna. Hmmm…Luna has a big stage, let’s see how many people it holds. Fifty? OK, then we’ll bring the whole band. Greg Tate’s slowly unwinding vamp-jazz megaplex are great to listen to if you’re in a pensive mood.
Also Sat May 17 Jimmy Nations plays Rodeo Bar, 10:30 PM. Carolina expatriate and a sensational rockabilly/blues/honkytonk lead guitarist who actually deserves a comparison to Wayne Hancock, and whose originals sound like the real thing from fifty years ago.
Also Sat May 17, Public Enemy frontman Chuck D makes an appearance on a hip-hop bill at Galapagos. First-ballot hall-of-famer. One of the greatest lyricists of alltime. If you never got to see PE in their prime, might actually be worth braving the moat here to see him.
Sun May 18, early, 7 PM Amy Allison plays Banjo Jim’s. She’s sensationally funny, super smart, has a beautifully unique voice and while her new, more rock oriented songs are sometimes wrenchingly dark, she still plays a lot of her older, more countryish, amusing material for a rapt cult audience who know all the words and request stuff issued on obscure compilation cds back in the 90s that Allison has long since forgotten.
Also Sun May 18, semi-legendary mandolinist Andy Statman – equally dazzling at both bluegrass and klezmer - plays Barbes at 9 PM, early arrival (i.e. an hour early) very strongly advised, as this guy is used to playing vastly larger clubs.
Tues May 20, 5 PM legendary, ethereally gorgeous, all-female Balkan vocal group les Mysteres des Voix Bulgares plays the Peter Jay Sharp Theatre, 416 West 42nd St.
Also Tues May 20, 9:30 PM noir accordionist Marni Rice - equally influenced by French chanson and American garage rock - plays the Parkside, followed at 10:30 by scorching twangmeister Tom Clark and his killer band.
Also Tues May 20, 10 PM at Drom it’s Eljuri AKA Cecilia Villar Eljuri, a somewhat jangly Ecuadorian singer/guitarist whose electric songs blend influences from her home country with janglerock and reggae. She’s good. Fans of Chicha Libre should check her out.
Weds May 21 excellent southwestern gothic rocker James Apollo plays Union Pool, 8 PM. Dark, dusky, hypnotic, slow-burning intensity.
Also Weds May 21 the English Beat plays Maxwell’s, 9ish, $25 adv tix will probably sell out fast. If you like aging fratboys in their forties, this is probably the place to be. Seriously, though, this jangly multiracial British crew were, along with the Specials, the best of the second-wave ska bands of the late 70s and early 80s.
Thurs May 22 in the afternoon,1 PM at Trinity Church – the New York Scandia Symphony, Dorrit Matson, conductor, performs works by Sibelius, Foerster and Langgard.
Thurs May 22, 7 PM Toby Williams, the soaring frontwoman of hilarious lounge jazz satirists Cocktail Angst plays the Marriott Residence Inn, southwest corner of 39th and 6th Avenue with her regular non-faux jazz combo. Cost: free, “Low key nice jazz gig,” as her myspace puts it.
Also Thurs May 22 powerpop siren Patti Rothberg plays the cd release for her new album Double Standards – a sizzling, guitar-fueled mix of upbeat, catchy, slightly new wave-ish tunes that could be the great long lost Go-Go’s album - at the Gramercy Theatre, 8 PM
Also Thurs May 22, 9:30 PM at Joe’s Pub Ukrainian actress Mariana Sadovska plays haunting, ghostly Carpathian mountain music backed by jazz group. Centuries-old yet cosmopolitan at the same time, should be a good time for all you gypsy rock types.
Also Thurs May 22, 10:30 PM Demolition String Band blast into Rodeo Bar. Fiery electrified bluegrass guitar, soaring girl/guy vocals, like the country side of X. Their new album Different Kinds of Love is their most rocking yet.
Also Thurs May 22 the Mercenaries play Lakeside, 10 PM. Some of their stuff is pretty standard Stonesy meat-and-potatoes rock, sometimes they venture toward the more melodic side of Guided by Voices. Either way, the guitars are cranked up.
Fri May 23 long-running, reliably amusing faux-French garage rockers Les Sans Culottes – with Moist Gina from Moisturizer playing her spectacularly propulsive, melodic lines on bass – open for one of our favorites, surfy, psychedelic, chicha revivalists Chicha Libre at Joe’s Pub, 7 PM, $15
Also Fri May 23 at Barbes, 8 PM it’s sultry, innuendo-driven French chanson revivalists Les Chauds Lapins with Meg Reichardt (ex-Roulette Sisters) and Kurt Hoffman (ex-Ordinaires) followed by accordionist Rob Curto’s Grupo Sanfona playing both original and classic Brazilian forro music (yet another style with an eerie, gypsyish feel).
Also Fri May 23, 10:30 PM scorching art/punk/noise rockers System Noise, with the riveting Sarah Mucho on lead vocals play the Blaggard as part of a battle of the bands sponsored by the Shure microphone company. Meaning that things will run on time and if Shure gets their way, the sound will actually be ok.
Also Fri May 23, 10:30 PM the Greyhounds play Rodeo Bar. Dark swinging rockabilly band who venture into surf occasionally
Early evening Sat May 24, 4:30 PM at Cake Shop hauntingly, brilliantly lyrical rocker Randi Russo plays her first show in ages since breaking up her band. Paleface - who did the white funk thing long before it ever got popular in the 90s (and was supposedly Beck’s flatmate for a few years back in the 80s - not that it’s important) plays later at 10 at Cake Shop followed by Schwervon (Major Matt Mason and Nan Turner’s lo-fi project) who are flat out hilarious.
Also Sat May 24 9 PM Amir ElSaffar’s Two Rivers: Iraqi-American trumpeter leads a jazz ensemble including the sensational oud virtuoso Zafir Tawil and Tareq Abboushi (Buzuq and Percussion) at Alwan for the Arts.
Also Sat May 24 hilariously retro ragtime banjo songwriter Al Duvall plays Hank’s, 9 PM. Steeped in history and good fun: if you’re lucky he’ll play the one about the sex change operation from the days before anesthesia.
Also Sat May 24, 10 PM 1st Village (the Drom house band) plays their Turkish vocal and instrumental numbers with 2 guitars, keys and a rhythm section at their home base.
Also Sat May 24 New York’s finest electric Chicago-style blues guitarist Johnny Allen – whose voice is every bit as potent and soulful as his solos – plays Terra Blues, 10 PM.
Also Sat May 24 X plays Irving Plaza, 9 PM, adv tix $25 available at the box office. All original members. After all these years the best and most musically interesting of the LA punk bands haven’t lost a step, a group you really should investigate if you want to know something about American music.
Sun May 25 dark, brilliantly lyrical acoustic songwriter Erin Regan plays a short set upstairs at Cake Shop, 5 PM.
Sun May 25, 7 PM at Barbes it’s Bridget Kibbey playing solo on classical concert harp: a big star in the world of symphonic music, here’s your chance to hear her close up and intimate. Followed by the great Django Reinhardt disciple Stephane Wrembel playing gypsy jazz at 9
Also Sun May 25 at 7:30 PM Nour (Armenian for pomegranate, Arab for divine light) plays Drom. Levantine dance music and all kinds of pan-Arab brilliance from this five-piece
Mon May 26, one of the best double bills of the year so far with two remarkably similar noir rock bands at Bowery Ballroom, 10ish, adv tix absolutely necessary and available at the Mercury box office. Openers Botanica spun off from Firewater, whose dark, eerie keyboardist (Paul Wallfisch) will be playing with both bands. Botanica is the more musicially diverse and subtle of the two; Firewater, the headliners have more of a gypsy punk vibe. Both have released two of the greatest albums ever made by New York bands: The Ponzi Scheme, Firewater’s 1996 swipe at consumerism and the robber barons of the world, and Botanica vs. the Truth Fish, the brutal and bitter 2004 post-9/11 masterpiece.
Also Mon May 26 ex-Moonlighter Daria Grace’s charmingly oldtimey Prewar Ponies open for the boisterously jazzy Hot Club of Cowtown at Rodeo Bar, 9:30 PM.
Tues May 27 impressively diverse cello player RUFUS CAPPADOCIA plays Barbes at 7, early. Equally adept at Balkan music, classical and jazz, he’s played with everyone from Aretha to the Matt Darriau’s Paradox Trio.
Also Tues May 27 Mamie Minch plays the cd release for her solo debut, Razorburn Blues at Union Hall, 7:30 PM. Sultry alto singer, a throwback to people like Memphis Minnie with her National resonator guitar and strikingly smart, effortlessly rustic oldtimey songs. Imagine the Moonlighters at their darkest and sexiest.
Also Tues May 27 the swinging, upbeat, oldtimey ragtime/hokum blues band the Second Fiddles play Rodeo Bar, 10:30 PM.
Weds May 28 the Five Points Band play Rodeo Bar, 10:30 PM. Where do they find these people: this is a ghoulabilly parody band, like the Cramps fronted by Cab Calloway. Their cover of the B-52s’ Strobe Light is hilarious.
Thurs May 29 at St. Patrick’s Cathedral there’s an Olivier Messiaen Anniversary Recital at 7 PM featuring organist Gail Archer.
Also Thurs May 29 alternately haunting and dreamlike pan-Orientalist Middle Eastern jazz-rockers Pharaoh’s Daughter play Banjo Jim’s, 8:30 PM. Warning: this is a very popular band, get there early if you’re going.
Also Thurs May 29, 10:30 PM Mechanical Bull play Rodeo Bar, 10:30 PM. Hilarious country parody band from upstate – songs about drunk driving, box wine – you get the picture.
Fri May 30 first-wave British punk/new wave legends Wire play the first show of the summer season at South St. Seaport, free, time TBA, guessing around 8. All original members. The first out gay band in rock history has a couple of certifiable classic, weird, eerie albums (Pink Flag and Chairs Missing) and reputedly still has it live.
Also Fri May 30 alternately haunting and deliciously groove-driven shoegaze/dreampop rockers El Jezel plays the cd release for their new one The Warm Frequency at Crash Mansion, time TBA.
Also Fri May 30 A diverse bill at Highline Ballroom starting at 8 with the all-female, roughly twenty-accordion Main Squeeze Orchestra (whose psychedelic orchestrations are some of the most imaginative you’ll hear these days), followed by rousing Balkan brass band Slavic Soul Party and then Hungry March Band who mine a similar vein with equal competence and fun.
Also Fri May 30, 9 PM rambunctiously sloppy, loud Pennsylvania party band Drink Up Buttercup play their “campfire metal” i.e. amusing faux oi-punk at Cake Shop, 9 PM.
Also Fri May 30, in case you missed them earlier in the month, the always brilliant, romantic, oldtimey Moonlighters play Barbes, 10 PM.
Also Fri May 30 Peg Simone (retro jazzy chanteuse) followed by the Reid Paley Trio (Tom Waits as played by the Chrome Cranks) at Ace of Clubs 10 PM
Also Fri May 30, 10 PM the actually good, horn-driven, female-fronted self-explanatory NY Funk Exchange plays the Lucky Cat in Williamsburg.
Sat May 31 yodeling banjo player/authentic oldtimey songwriter Curtis Eller and his band American Circus play Barbes at 8 PM.
Also Sat May 31 there’s a free outdoor multi-performer acoustic show at the Sixth St. Garden, 6th St. and Ave. C at 8 PM including the darkly captivating Maya Caballero and others.
Also Sat May 31 Burnt Sugar plays Banjo Jim’s, 11:30 PM. No, this is not a joke. No, they can’t fit the entire band inside the club, so the guess is they’ll try to squeeze maybe seven or eight of them into the area that serves as a stage. This version of Greg Tate’s sprawling, atmospheric one-chord vamp orchestra won’t even need anything more than their amps.
Upcoming in June:
6/1 Dwight & Nicole Banjo Jim’s 11:30 PM
6/3 6-9 PM it’s the annual museum mile festival – 5th Ave closed 82nd Street to 105th Street. Free adm at El Museo del Barrio; The Museum of the City of New York; The Jewish Museum; Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, Smithsonian Institution; National Academy Museum & School of Fine Arts; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum; Neue Galerie New York; Goethe-Institut New York/German Cultural Center; and The Metropolitan Museum of Art
6/5 at Trinity Church, 1 PM “A Journey through the History, Mystery, and Music of Pere Lachaise.” ?!? musicians? Program? Doors covers?
6/5 8 PM Mohammed Reza Shajarian (the “Voice of Iran”) at Town Hall, 8 PM, adv tix $38 at their box office
6/6 Des Roar at Rehab, 9:30 PM
6/7 the Slackers at Irving Plaza 8 PM adv tix $16.50
6/7 Roscoe Trio/Bottle Rockets Mercury Lounge 9 PM
6/7 Mike Hunt Band Lakeside 11 PM
6/7 Sadies Maxwell’s time TBA
6/10 LJ Murphy at Rehab, 8 PM
6/10 The Strawbs (1974 lineup!) at B.B. King’s 9 PM adv tix $22.50 available
6/11 Israel Vibration B.B. King’s 8 PM $20.50 adv tix available
6/12 Isaac Hayes at Prospect Park Bandshell supposedly 5:30 PM
6/13 9 PM Thalia Zedek at Union Pool
6/18 Thalia Zedek at the Mercury Lounge, time TBA
6/21 Polvo at Bowery Ballroom, 11 PM
6/22 Polvo at Maxwell’s, time TBA
6/21 Spanking Charlene Lakeside 11 PM
6/26-27 Peter Murphy Gramercy Theatre 9 PM $35 adv tix at Irving Plaza box office
6/26 Mercenaries Lakeside 10 PM
6/28 8 PM Las Rubias Del Norte Union Hall
6/28 Crooklyn Dodgers reunion show with Chubb Rock, Jeru the Damaja and O.C. at Prospect Park Bandshell, time TBA
6/28 Scott Morgan’s Powertrane feat. Deniz Tek from Radio Birdman!!!!! at Maxwell’s only $12, insanely cheap. They’re also at Southpaw the previous night 6/27 for the same price.
Thursdays, July 3/10/17/24/31/ Aug 7 through August 7, 2008 organ concerts at Trinity Church, performances take place from 1 PM - 2 PM at Trinity Church, Broadway at Wall Street.
7/5 Apollo Heights/Dengue Fever/Rachid Taha at Central Park Summerstage, 3 PM, recommended with considerable trepidation, early early arrival (i.e. 2:30 PM) advised for the extremely dedicated fan.
7/10 Freddie McGregor at Prospect Park Bandshell, time TBA
7/20 Sway Machinery and Golem at Prospect Park Bandshell, time TBA
7/22 Jarvis Cocker at Terminal 5, adv tix $37.50 available at the Mercury box office
7/25 Steve Wynn & the Miracle 3 play the Dream Syndicate’s classic album Days of Wine & Roses all the way through at Maxwell’s, 10ish, $15
7/25 Brian Jonestown Massacre at Terminal 5