WEDNESDAY APRIL 7 PHILLIP GLASS AND THOM MAYNE Resonating Frequencies ...
DAY APRIL 7
PHILLIP GLASS AND THOM MAYNE
Resonating Frequencies is a conversational lecture series that pairs up musicians with architects to find connections between music and architecture. Past participants include DJ Spooky and Greg Lynn. Tonight's mash-up is almost perfect: The skewed repetition of Thom Mayne's designs is like a series of endless arpeggios in physical space. GREAT HALL AT COOPER UNION, 7 E. 7th St. (3rd Ave.), 212-279-4200, 8, $12.
DZUL DANCE COMPANY
Javier Dzul injects his Mayan heritage into contemporary dance. In Rites of Nostalgia: The Things I Miss...My Daughters, My Country, My Culture, Myself, which runs until Saturday, Dzul and his Graceful and Beautiful! dance troupe meld athletic movement and a fresh approach to partnering to create a choreography inspired by the paintings of our favorite tortured artist, Frida Kahlo. Plus: free wine and cheese. WILLIAMSBURG ART NEXUS, 205 N. 7th St. (betw. Driggs Ave. & Roebling St.) Willamsburg, 718-599-7997, 8, $15.
THURSDAY APRIL 8
FEEDBACK
James Fei curates Feedback at THE KITCHEN, an early salvo in the big New Sounds New York festival. Fei invited sound pioneer David Behrman, along with Jim O'Rourke and Nic Collins. They're gonna prove how amplification systems can be folded in on themselves, "creating oscillations that are inherently unstable and chaotic." Behrman fits a piano with guitar pickups, with Fei and the newbloods exercising more elaborate demonstrations of mics, amps and aural bliss. 512 W. 19th St. (betw. 10th &11th Aves.), 212-255-5793, 8, $15.
RODE HARD AND PUT AWAY WET
Jokes about musical-loving lesbians, pregnancy tests, SUV moms and, of course, gay dads. What more could an audience ask for? Aside from free beer, we mean. Comedy duo Casey Wilson and June Raphael, dressed like Cyndi Lauper circa 1982, present their new multimedia show at the UPRIGHT CITIZENS BRIGADE THEATER. Some may opine that there is some sort of dirty meaning to the title, aside from being Son Volt lyrics. They're wrong. No, wait-now we get it. 307 West 26th St. (betw. 8th & 9th Aves.), 212-366-9176, 8, $5.
FRIDAY APRIL 9
THE THIRD MAN
Not enough zither in your life these days? Then go see the greatest postwar thriller ever made and get your fill. Afterward, you and your jackass film school buddies can retire to a bar and argue loudly over whether it was Reed or Welles who really directed the Ferris Wheel sequence. FILM FORUM, 209 W. Houston St. (betw. Varick St. & 6th Ave.), 212-727-8110, 1:30, 3:30, 5:30, 7:30, 9:30, $10 [repeats Sat.-Thurs.].
ON!AIR!LIBRARY!
Celebrating the release of On!Air!Library!'s self-titled opus, a slate of New York bands minus the "New York Sound" promises the future of moody indie pop. Inouk's pristine chorale and driven musicianship threaten to bring back both prog and chops; the Occasion's sleepy and subtle shoegaze, punctuated by percussion, is entrancing like the roll of distant thunder. In headliner position, O!A!L! offer creepy-crawler vocals that alternately recall the pixie dirges of Jesus and Mary Chain and the lusty howls of Portishead. SINé, 150 Attorney St. (Stanton St.), 212-388-0077, 8, $8.
THE FLATLANDERS
Anyone disappointed by alt-country/no depression/pot-smoking hillbilly music can place a lot of blame on Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Joe Ely and Butch Hancock. These three kind of started all that as the Flatlanders over 30 years ago. Then their subsequent solo careers made them overblown underground heroes. Anyway, Ely got better, and the trio's recent reunion provides touching folksiness, happy trash-rock and bizarre honky-tonk indulgences. The aging-rocker industry would've benefited more from three new solo albums, but selective consumers-aka cynical jerks-are better off with this surprisingly impressive return. B.B. KING BLUES CLUB, 237 W. 42nd St. (betw. 7th & 8th Aves.), 212-997-4144, 8, $27.50, $25.50 adv.
SATURDAY APRIL 10
CECIL B. DEMILLE RETROSPECTIVE
We're ready for our close-up, motherfucker. As evidenced by Sunset Boulevard, DeMille was the most revered filmmaker of his time. It's odd, then that his weighty, star-studded epic style isn't cited as a filmmaking influence, well, pretty much ever. Has he ever been mentioned on a single episode of Inside the Actor's Studio? Admittedly, The Ten Commandments is hilarious, but otherwise, what's the big deal? The answer to these questions and less will be answered, first in today's screening of documentary Cecil B. Demille: An American Epic. Once that doc has your taste buds ready for more Cecil B. Dementia, check out the rest of the retrospective being held over the next two weeks. AMERICAN MUSEUM OF THE MOVING IMAGE, 35 Ave. (36 St.), Astoria, 718-784-0077, 4, $5-$10.
JUNKIE XL
This Amsterdam producer and party animal was responsible for the first (legal) remix of Elvis Presley, "A Little Less Conversation." Since going number one in the UK., he's become a sought-after DJ and live act. His new album, Radio JXL: A Broadcast from the Computer Hell Cabin, is a masterful mash-up of digital funk and electro. His live gigs expand off a Big Beat foundation with the usual tools and even a few live instruments. Who says you can't ever trust a junkie? AVALON, 662 6th Ave. (20th St.), 212-807-7780, 10, $15-$30.
SUNDAY APRIL 11
EASTER
Jesus comes back from the dead, hungry for human flesh. Just kidding. He comes back as a bunny rabbit with lots of Cadbury Eggs and pink Peeps! If you like watching kids puke from eating five pounds of candy first thing in the morning, this is the day for you.
RACHELLE GARNIEZ
Imagine Willie Nelson or Nina Simone playing covers for beer money at a sake bar on a rainy Sunday. Here's your chance to play "stump the musician," request your favorites and then hear them live, solo on accordion, as played by one of the greatest songwriters of our time. For free. Plus you get to pet the club's ancient, rheumatic French bulldog throughout the performance. CHIBI'S SAKE BAR, 238 Mott St. (Prince St.), every Sunday through April 25, 212-274-0025, 7, free.
MONDAY APRIL 12
THE NEW YORKER PRESENTS "HUMOR LIVE"
Oh, you can bet there'll be knowing titters, smug chuckles and superior smirks to beat the band when The New Yorker sponsors an evening of stand-up comedy! Find out what humorous results ensue when Susan Sontag, Joyce Carol Oates and Gore Vidal find themselves adrift in a lifeboat! Or what John Cheever said upon walking into a bar with a duck! With Andy Borowitz, Noah Baumbach and George Saunders. A benefit for the Public Theater for some reason. JOE'S PUB, 425 Lafayette St. (betw. E. 4th St. & Astor Pl.), 212-539-8778, 7:30, $15 + 2 drink minimum.
TUESDAY APRIL 13
AIR
Even though they're Sofia Coppola's favorite band and French, we just can't hate on this electro-duo. The Virgin Suicides soundtrack was so pretty, so Pink Floyd-they should have called it the Lighter Side of the Moon. Recent release Talkie Walkie is more of the same, yet even more digitally ethereal. One of the songs is a car commercial already, but still. Don't worry about any of that. Just shut down your mind, open your ears and start floating when they play "Cosmic Bird." With the Mosquitos. HAMMERSTEIN BALLROOM MANHATTAN CENTER, 311 W. 34th St. (betw. 8th & 9th Aves.), 212-485-1534, 6:30, $37.
JOHN MCCAIN
He looks a little like Johnny Carson with WASP-y jowels, still hates commie gooks and loves campaign finance reform. He's everybody's favorite Arizona senator, John McCain! The sometimes-traitor to his party and former POW signs his book Why Courage Matters: The Way to a Braver Life, described by Publisher's Weekly as a "meditation on the nature of courage." Considering that parts of McCain's life are lifted from The Deer Hunter, we reckon the advice is pretty good. Plus, this is the perfect opportunity to pull a Thomas Friedman and ask if he'd be Kerry's running mate. BARNES & NOBLE, 1972 B'way (betw. W. 67th & W. 68th Sts.), 212-595-6859, 12:30, free.
ANOMOANON
Anomoanon is fronted by Ned Oldham, the other brother in Palace Brothers (a Bonnie Prince Brother?). Like his Bonnie Prince Brother Will, Ned's lyrics traffic in the tragic and the silly, the pointed and the poignant. Call it roots rock if you must, but these roots are gnarled, dirty and deep. If the family in As I Lay Dying ever had a hootenanny, it would sound a lot like the music gracing us tonight. With Arbouretum and Cockfighter. Tonic, 107 Norfolk St. (betw. Delancey & Rivington Sts.), 212-358-7501, 8, $8.