Brooklyn Rail Highly Selective Music Events

October 2016

By the Editors

• October 6: Tristan Perich’s Impermanent at Green-Wood Cemetery. In a rare performance in the Chapel at Green-Wood Cemetery, percussionists Owen Weaver and Dennis Sullivan perform Tristan Perich’s Impermanent, for tubular bells and two-channel 1-bit electronics. The event is part of the unSeen Green series at Green-Wood, organized by artist Aaron Asis.


• October 7: Peter Evans and Taylor Ho Bynum at Pioneer Works. Evans is releasing a monumental, two-hour solo album, Lifeblood, and Bynum has a new disc out on his own Firehouse 12 label, Enter the Plus Tet. Both kinds of music for this show, with Evans playing a solo set, exploring the extended possibilities of the trumpet, while Bynum follows up with his exciting unit of cellist Marika Hughes, guitarist Evan Patrick, bassist Stomu Takeishi, and drummer Chad Taylor.



• October 7: Brooklyn Art Song Society at Brooklyn Historical Society. This is the season opener for the Society, and it doubles as a fundraiser and an introduction to their five concert series of vocal music in and from fin-de-siécle Vienna. This is one of the most prominent series on the classical music season; the October 7 concert has music from Strauss, Pfitzner, and Zemlinksy, and further programs will cover the expected (Mahler, Berg, Webern, Schoenberg) and the surprising and welcome, in the form of a cabaret night (March 3) and Hanns Eisler’s complete Hollywood Songbook, with words by Brecht (November 4). Go, and give.


• October 7 - 9: Nilsson Schmilsson Film Series at BAM. BAM presents a weekend of films featuring soundtracks and/or performances by the inimitable Harry Nilsson, bonkers pop genius and national treasure. For the film connoisseurs among you, there are screenings of Midnight Cowboy and Robert Altman’s Popeye. For the less stuffy, catch Otto Preminger’s trippy Skidoo, and Nilsson himself alongside Ringo Starr in the schlocky Son of Dracula. Finally, be sure to bring the kiddos to see the animated The Point, based on Nilsson’s concept album, with narration by Starr—Nilsson reportedly conceived the whole thing while on acid, but you don’t have to tell the little ones that.


• October 8: Cassette Store Day. Yes, it’s a thing! And it’s been a thing for three years already. Our friends at Northern Spy—one of our favorite labels—are celebrating with three new tapes: Bumblin’ Creed by Padang Food Tigers and Sigbjørn Apeland, Liberty Ashes from the venerable Horselover Fats, and Joe Westerlund’s Mojave Interlude. Despite DIY background of the day, these are all carefully crafted releases, full of easy feelings, gentle sounds, and evocative introspection. If you can’t find these in your local cassette store (is there such a thing), digital will be available starting October 14.


• October 8: Glenn Branca Ensemble premieres The Light (for David) at Roulette. The leading name in art rock pays tribute to the most artistic figure in the history of rock: Glenn Branca makes his debut (astonishingly enough) at Roulette with the world premiere of his tribute to David Bowie. Also on the bill is a performance of a revised version of Branca’s classic The Third Ascension. Expect noise, tears, and power.


• October 8: Tony Moreno Quintet at 55 Bar. Drummer and educator Moreno had much of his musical life washed away by Hurricane Sandy. His new double-CD, Short Stories shows how much he’s reclaimed, it’s terrific, rich small group jazz. Enjoy the fire of the live music, and your $20 admission includes a copy of the CD to bring home with you.



• October 13: Omni, EZTV, and Muuy Biien at Rough Trade. Omni, a trio from Atlanta, Georgia, plays smart spastic rock, melodies ping-ponging back and forth from guitar to bass, each song dismantling pop structure but hanging together all the same. Muuy Biien, from nearby Athens, is sounding more like 1980s Berlin on its third album, Age of Uncertainty, with its Nick Cave and Einstürzende Neubauten vibes.



• October 14 - 23: Béla Fleck Residency at Symphony Space. As part of the month-long Project Americana series, Béla Fleck’s curatorial residency will feature concerts with the likes of Victor Wooten, Abigail Washburn, and Wu Fei—among several others. Project Americana also features the documentary film series about Alan Lomax, “Lomax, the Songhunter.”


• October 16 - 17: Passin’ Thru Festival at Roulette. (You’d have a fine October just going to Roulette) A new, compact jazz festival from Passin’ Thru Records, curated by the great Oliver Lake. His exciting, powerful big band plays on the 16th, along with the Josh Evans Quintet, and the next night catch Trio 3 and 10^32K. The former is Lake, Reggie Workman, and Andrew Cyrille, the latter—one of our favorite groups—is trombonist Frank Lacy, bassist Kevin Ray, and drummer Andrew Drury. Expect rocking, soulful, keening improvisation and hellacious swing.


• October 15: Hank Roberts Sextet at Greenwich House. Cellist Roberts has been a quasi-ghostly presence in New York City, flitting in and out, composing and playing, over the past twenty years. He’s now realized an ambitious work for an ensemble full of terrific musicians: Dana Lyn, Mike McGinnis, Vinnie Sperazza, Brian Dye, and Jacob Sacks. Roberts himself is a wonderful player, at ease in jazz and contemporary composed music. This is an occasion.



• October 19: Oozing Wound, PC Worship at Shea Stadium. Oozing Wound’s fourth record, Whatever Forever, is out this month. Noisey calls the group “the Nirvana of thrash,” which might just make 2016 “the year thrash broke.” If that turns out to be the case, let’s recall that Slanted & Enchanted also came out in 1991—so there’s got to be a Pavement of thrash, too, right? PC Worship seems as good a candidate as any. See both bands at Shea Stadium, before the jocks at your high school ruin them for you.



• October 24: Jock Gang, Deerhunter at Webster Hall. Jock Gang is a young band from Atlanta, Georgia with a fluid, near-improvised aesthetic flavoring a smart pop sensibility, a reminder that as harsh as John Cale’s electrified viola might have been, the Velvet Underground sure played some pretty songs. Jock Gang opens for fellow Atlanta band Deerhunter; Aldous Harding rounds out the bill.


• October 26: Sunwatchers, Drunken Sufis, CP Unit at Shea Stadium. Drunken Sufis celebrate the release of their new album Pala Pala. The band’s last record, Cotton Candy Cluster Bombs, featured twenty-six instrumentals in twenty-three minutes. The new record is on the mellower side, but still infectious, to judge from early single “Saturnalia.”



• October 27 - 29: The Gentleman Rests at JACK. Just in time to push every anxious button and scratch every obsessive itch, Dave Ruder presents his newly revised opera that sets the actual 2001 scene of Al Gore presiding over Congress and sealing George W. Bush’s tainted victory in the 2000 Presidential election. Yes, this is on the verge of a latest nightmarish election, but it’s also close to Halloween for those who relish horror.



• October 29: Matt Moran and Slavic Soul Party! at National Sawdust. Moran’s large ensemble has a joyous, winning new album out, a decontextualization of Duke Ellington’s Far East Suite with a stomping, slightly intoxicated Balkan brass sound. The music is great, and live it is wild—don’t be surprised if a mosh pit breaks out.



• November 2 - 4: Optics 0:0 at Roulette. Roulette’s accomplishments and ambitions have grown since moving into the lovely auditorium space at the downtown Brooklyn YWCA (John Cage used to whitewash the walls there for cash). This series is the venue’s own, first multi-media festival, directed by Victoria Keddie, and reaches back into Roulette’s roots in video and performance art. The survey of historical and new work, installations, broadcasts, and performances, encompasses Ben Vida, Ann Magnusson, Richard Serra, Camilla Padgett-Coles, and a host of names that will warm the hearts of connoisseurs and the curious.


• Nov. 3 - Honus Honus at Mercury Lounge. Back in the late 2000s, when the term freak folk had some currency, Man Man was a frightening apparition, more raucous than rustic, not so much bearded as unshaven. Ryan Kattner led the group under the Honus Honus moniker. Now, three years after the group’s last LP, he’s returned with a solo effort, Use Your Delusion, with a softer, sunnier vibe befitting Kattner’s move to LA.


• November 3 - 6: Charlie Haden’s Liberation Music Orchestra at Jazz Standard. Hoist a few (don’t pour one out, what a fucking waste) for the late, great Charlie Haden. Carla Bley will conduct a revival of Haden’s most beloved and moving organization, music that Haden imagined might make for a better world. This will be a poignant mix of memories and impossible dreams.