In case you missed it, the lineup for this year’s Wakarusa Music Festival was finalized late last week. Topping the bill is a solid eclectic mix with Pretty Lights, The Avett Brothers and Primus all set to headline the festival, with LMB favorites Umphrey’s Mcgee, Girl Talk, Ghostland Observatory, Big Gigantic, EOTO, Orgone, Blitzen Trapper and tons more joining them to round out the festival’s ninth year in operation.
The festival returns to the Ozarks on May 31-June 3, 2012 and tickets are still on sale. READ MORE
It looks like one of our favorite seasons of the year — “Festival Lineup Announcement Season” — is officially upon us. Wakarusa has come out of the gate nice and early with their initial 2012 lineup, including Pretty Lights, Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, G. Love & Special Sauce, and an acoustic trio featuring Bob Weir, Chris Robinson, and Jackie Greene. This year’s Wakarusa festival is set for May 31 – June 3 at Mulberry Mountain in Ozark, Arkansas. READ MORE
This week in NYC shows, there’s some great jazz, including Pat Metheny (Tues @ The Blue Note), Wynton Marsalis (Fri & Sat @ Lincoln Center), and Brad Mehldau and Joshua Redman (Sun @ Bailey Hall). Other than some classic jazz, there’s a nice mix of funk, folk, rock, and a ton of live electronic dance music to round out the week.
READ MORE
Karl Denson | photo by whitperson
Although Hurricane Irene ended up being rather wimpy — considering all of the preparations and dire warnings — it certainly screwed up a lot of NYC concerts and festivals this past weekend. Brooklyn Bowl had to postpone BP’s Saturday show, so I was denied what would have certainly been a raging, late-night throwdown (including a fist-pumping “Inside the Tinman” according to the band). Here’s hoping that the weather clears up nicely this week and lets the show(s) go on.
Speaking of which, there are two standout shows this week at outdoor venues…Bright Eyes and Dr. Dog are teaming up for a show at the Williamsburg Waterfront, which should be pretty stellar. For something a bit more keyboard-centric, the Beekman Beer Garden has Bruce Hornsby & the Noisemakers with Marco Benevento opening, a show I’m definitely eyeing as a nice outdoor option to break up the week.
For something a little funkier, Karl Denson’s locking down Brooklyn Bowl for a two-night party on Thursday and Friday. That sounds groovy, but I’m also eyeing some of the unique collaborations that are happening over the weekend. First, we’ve got Joe Russo — on break from drum duties for the Dead — pulling together a bit of a NYC super-group with Erik Deutsch, Scott Metzger, & Andy Hess at Cameo Gallery in Brooklyn. The show is now billed as Rumble Dogs, and even though I have no clue what music they’ll be playing, it’s bound to be pretty amazing with that core group of players on the bill. Another interesting night of collaborative groups goes down at Brooklyn Bowl on Sunday. Stanton Moore, Will Bernard, and Robert Walter are playing the Bowl’s early show, while Steve Molitz, DJ Logic, & Freekbass are handling late-night freakout duties with what’s being billed as “Headtronics.” Assuming that’s short for some form of “heady, electronic” music, then I’m guessing it’ll be an interesting dance party with a bit of a jammy bent. If you want to dance to something a little more in the indie-electro vein, then I definitely recommend checking out Small Black at the Palms in LIC on Saturday (and, according to Songkick, also on Monday night). Of course, for the bigger fans of straight-laced electronic dance music, Randall’s Island (venue for the Electric Zoo Festival) is probably the place to the be this weekend.
As always, there’s quite a lot more happening this week in NYC than I’ve got time to dig into above. So, have at it…
Interesting shows from this week’s NYC concert calendar:
READ MORE
The Disco Biscuits have been busy this year still supporting all their new music and the release of their much-anticipated Planet Anthem LP. The band finished up their summer tour with a show this past Saturday, Sept. 11th at Bank of America Pavilion in Boston and brought along RJD2, Raekwon and MiM0SA to open. Our good friend Adam Marcinek was there to capture the action and the new Bisco face-melter of a laser light show that few touring bands can rival these days, so read on for the full photo gallery and links to download or stream the show from the Internet Archive. READ MORE
liveatmoog.com
The new season for Live at Moog was just announced.
Each week a new session will debut on Pastemagazine.com’s homepage and on LiveatMoog.com. Each episode features multiple songs, behind-the-scenes footage and exclusive info on each band. This season features Amanda Palmer, RJD2, Umphrey’s McGee, Joseph Arthur, Cage the Elephant, Evan Dando, and Rogue Wave. Adding to the excitement, this season Moog is giving away a Moog Guitar signed by the Live At Moog artists to one lucky viewer.
If you missed the shows from their first sessions, they’re all up on the Paste site.
photo by Mr T in DC
It has only been a few months since I made the move to Brooklyn from Charlottesville, so I thought I’d give a little Cville music shout-out. Although it’s a pretty small city, Charlottesville has always had a fairly bustling live music scene. But over the last few years, it had been marred by a ton of turnover with the town’s mid-size music venues. The Satellite Ballroom closed, Gravity Lounge shuttered its doors, and Is hardly lasted a year. The Paramount was a nice size, but it was much less focused on the mid-tier, touring rock bands that helped make the scene vibrant. And the entire time I lived in the town, there was an ongoing restoration of the historic Jefferson Theater that simply never came to fruition.
Well, it looks like things are finally starting to pick up again. Gravity Lounge reopened under new management as The Southern and it looks like the long and storied Jefferson Theater renovation will finally be completed. They recently announced their grand opening including a pretty solid lineup of bands for late 2009 and early 2010. Good stuff.
READ MORE
