Music
Brooklyn Rail Highly Selective Music Events
A thoughtful, discerning, and carefully compiled list of the most notable, promising and unique musical events for the months of July and August in New York City.
In Conversation
Black Pussy, Whitesplaining
DUSTIN HILL with Jordannah Elizabeth
Black Pussy is a Portland, Oregon-based neo-psychedelic rock band with all white male members. If you search for their music and forget to put the word “band” next to “Black Pussy,” you’ll get graphic pornography with black women subjects.
Wire Nears Forty
By Dan JosephFormed in London in 1976, Wire occupies a unique position in the alternative rock pantheon. Never a household name, the band is still best known for a trio of albums from its earliest days, Pink Flag, Chairs Missing, and 154.
In Search of a Most Excellent Guitar
By Geoffrey ClarfieldFor years I had heard that Córdoba is a city filled with master guitar-makers and -players. Now here I was on a sunny winter morning, standing in the Plaza del Potro, the “potter’s plaza,” in old Córdoba, a place described by Cervantes in Don Quixote.
Outtakes
By Steve DalachinskyAt my age, with all the music I’ve experienced, it’s very interesting to view inter-generational artists within a short period of time—all of them with unique qualities and skills. I was recently asked in an interview if there were any young players out there that interested me. My answer was “Yes. They range from ten to eighty-two years of age.”
NIGHT FALLS ON RED HOOK:
Little Black Egg Big Band and Oren Ambarchi at Pioneer Works, June 28
By Michael Blair
Since celebrating their thirtieth anniversary with a string of historic shows at Town Hall in December, Yo La Tengo has spent the last few months surfacing in surprisingly different guises. At Pioneer Works last month, the group collaborated with a host of New York jazz veterans to make up Little Black Egg Big Band.
OLD-FASHIONED INSTRUMENTS, UP-TO-THE-MINUTE SOUNDS:
Colleen at SubCulture
By Jeff Tompkins
The June 23rd Wordless Music concert by Colleen, with Katya Mihailova, at SubCulture, was an oasis of cool in several respects.
Diary of a Mad Composer
By George GrellaMusically, Robert Schumann’s Dichterliebe is known as art song, meaning it’s a set of songs, based on some kind of poetry, written a long time ago in a language other than English. In this case, the songs come together to tell a complete story, like a concept album.
