Bklyn Sounds 6/12/2024—6/18/2024

This Week's Shows: 'Breezy Birthday BBQ' / Bendik Giske / 'Coloring Lessons Juneteenth Block Party' / Lesley Mok / Laraaji (at Sunrise) / 'Soul Connection' / 'New York Guitar Festival' / + more

Clockwise from top left: jaimie branch, Bendik Giske, Ron Trent (who will be appearing at the ‘Coloring Lessons Juneteenth Block Party’) and Lesley Mok.

With summer upon us, the weeks and weekends are no longer as my own, not as devoted to musicking as I’d like them to be, with family and “projects” moving to the fore. I am less often in town, at fewer shows, even as I still continue to celebrate what’s happening with the rhythm improvisation community stages and spaces.

Logistically, and longtime Dad Strain readers already know this, what does happen with Bklyn Sounds is that, on weeks I’m away, the long features get scaled back and the pay-walls comes down. I dunno why I instituted this early on, but I quite like the utilitarian aspects of that policy.

Hopefully it brings more people into the community, and gives free subscribers an opportunity to see some of the value of a paid subscription. For example: this week there’s two different Dada Strain Discounts, one to the New York Guitar Festival, another to the Laraaji sunrise set at a secret Greenpoint loft (see below). (So PLEASE SUBSCRIBE!) It also allows me to write up more events, which, as anyone who regularly musics in New York knows, is a summer delight, and very easy to do. The DIY music sh*t in the city is teeming.

So, thank you for reading, listening, following and supporting. Go dance with someone you barely know, and go hear music you were previously unfamiliar with. It’s been spiritually proven to be good for you. Love your friends and convene with the sonic ghosts all around us, they’re all speaking more and more loudly.

This Week’s Shows:

The Means of Production is a new, primarily (I think) instrumental sextet that I found thru DJ- smartie MissHap’s feed, and who sound a lot like a funk-minded Tortoise to me. At least, that’s what I get from its lovely self-titled debut, the cause for tonight’s album-release jam. Great weird-jammie bill too: The Spacemen are a local astral-minded quintet (incl. horns, synths, theremin) with a couple of excellent releases on 577. Two Girls NYC is a new duo, electronics-minded Kate Slauter and “zodiac” saxophonist Moist Paula whom you’ve seen play with a lot of people, including TV on the Radio and Burnt Sugar. MissHap holds down the DJ booth before-between-after. (Wed 6/12, 8p @ Alphaville, Bushwick - $12adv/$15)

The aging reference point for this incredible triple-bill is a double that took place on this same Summerstage, July 4th 1992, when Sonic Youth and Sun Ra shared a spirit of independence. It was a New York classic, now long gone, with Ra returned to Saturn, and the Youth disintegrated. But this evening, on which Kim Gordon struts her current post-trap no wave, and the Sun Ra Arkestra celebrate Marshall Allen as a 100 year-old cultural touchstone, both again playing for free, is a new-era celebration. Now joined by the at-times-inexplicable, at-times wondrous leapfrogging noise of Slauson Malone 1, who is a very worthy young emissary. Highest Recommendation! (Thurs 6/13, 6p @ Summer Stage, Central Park - FREE)

The Amani Fela-curated Still/Moving series of community shows, mainly at Lower East Side’s Ki Smith gallery, obliterates anything I think I might know about what’s going on in NYC music, intersecting the experimental, improvisational and beat-oriented. At times though, I catch up enough to know something special is going down, and this evening’s Still/Moving #52 is one of those. Not sure if drummer Lesley Mok, bassoonist Joy Guidry and vocalist/flutist Ka Baird are playing together or separately (or if they’ll be performing on those instruments), but that’s a lot of exceptional talent in a basement. Bonus: J. Mordechai will be providing “sounds.” (Thurs 6/13, 7p @ Ki-Smith Gallery, Manhattan - $25)

On an overflowing night of sound, this bill is a keeper for indie/noise contingent: Austin, TX’s Water Damage are post-hardcore noise-mountain builders, with endless underground pedigrees, two drummers, and emotional soul in their constructions (think rough-hewn Godspeed minus the art-school). Incredible live, often with special guests. The trio Weak Signal is my favorite city rock band, the next in the long line of working-class guitar poets who like three chords and distortion. Gift Horse makes songs and rhythms with wonky synths - I wonder if this night will see the duo a little more distortion-oriented. Highest Recommendation! (Thurs 6/13, 8p @ Union Pool, Williamsburg - $17)

Unexpected listing of the week is a revival of one of the most musically influential NYC nights of the early 21st century. GHE20 G0TH1K REGENESIS, will feature co-founding DJ, Venus X, “and Friends” spinning a mix — hip-hop and dembow, R&B edits and trap beats, club and ballroom, all manner of bass-oriented rhythm’n’noise and lo-fi NOW music from throughout Black Atlantic and Afro-Latin diaspora — mainstreamed long ago, but which in the right hands still sounds like blowing up the colonized world and starting afresh. Venus’ are the right hands. Hope there will be more. (Thurs 6/13, 11p @ TV Eye, Ridgewood - $20adv/$25)

FILM & MUSIC: A series of screenings at Alice Tully under the heading of The Ephemeral Cinema of Sam Green, showing the Oscar-nominated film-maker’s “live cinema documentary” collaborations with musicians on-hand to perform the “scores.” On Thursday, that’s 32 Sounds, Green’s work with JD Samson on the emotional tonality and memory-spark of music. (It’s my fave.) Saturday, there’s two showtimes of A Thousand Thoughts, with Kronos Quartet; and on Sunday, The Love Song of R. Buckminster Fuller, with Yo La Tengo. Tix available to all screening as of writing (Tues night).  (Thurs 6/13, Sat 6/15 & Sun 6/16, various times @ Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center - Pay What You Choose)

On a purely sonic tip, Norwegian saxophonist Bendik Giske is like a post-techno Colin Stetson, fueling circular low-end reed lines using deep heavy electronics. But beyond the conservatory training, Giske regards himself as a “queer performance artist,” a conceptualist, and his austere minimalism + costumed effection is informed by queer theory. The beauty is jazz-, club- and avant-cabaret-adjacent, well beyond any norms. Pretty sure it’s his (long-awaited) NYC debut, though still trying to confirm that; I’ve certainly been waiting to see him for a long long time. With Concrete Husband. (Fri 6/14, 7:30p @ Public Records, Gowanus - $23) 

Soul Connection is an excellent house, R&B and street-soul party produced by two DJs, Honey Bun and Lovie, strongly holding down the deep, Black, classic-and-classy 4/4 sound of NYC. It’s a long-time “connection’ that seems to be developing wonderfully, and organically. Tonight, they’re also hosting “special guests’ from the UK. (Fri 6/14, 10p @ Good Room, Greenpoint - $15)

A stacked bill celebrating the 10th anniversary of C’mon Everybody, the Bed-Stuy community queer club with bookings that occasionally expand the room to welcome us breeders. Tonight is one of those. Midnight Magic is, at this point, 21st century NYC disco royalty, needing little introduction. Botswana-born Lollise is a New York artist of many dimensions, whose electronics- and Black Atlantic riddims-heavy music is basically great pop. Peer Pressure’s That Matt is an excellent DJ. (Fri 6/14, 10:30p @ C’Mon Everybody, Bed-Stuy - $18)

There are a few WOW performances at the 25th Anniversary New York Guitar Festival that hopefully turn into regular collaborations. None more so than first night headlining duo of Marc Ribot and Leyla McCalla, whose pairing is a stroke of genius; or the second night’s meeting of two overlapping New Yorks, with Sonic Youth guitarist Lee Ranaldo paired with zither master Laraaji. The bill is full of other great global-minded string players as well, including Medicine Singers and Yonatan Gat, Yasmin Williams, members of the Brooklyn Raga Massive, Innov Gnawa and Bembeya Jazz, and more. Dada Strain Discount in full effect. (Fri 6/14 & Sat 6/15, 8p @ Merkin Concert Hall, Manhattan - $45-$65, use the code “NYGF20” for 20% discount) 

Not sure how long Spectrum has been back, but the excellent Red Hook arts-and-ideas venue/organization has been doing very-occasional nights at the Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition space on the pier at the end of Van Brunt. On Saturday, it’s producing the Van Brunt Solstice Festival, two stages worth of marvelous artsy oddballs, including Speaker Music, Selendis Sebastian Alexander Johnson 7tet, Claire Dickson, Melissa Almaguer and Samantha Kochis, gushes and others. (Sat 6/15, 6p @ Spectrum, Red Hook - $20-$30)

The last night of bassist Thomas Morgan’s residency at The Stone results in a potentially amazing trio, with Craig Taborn on piano and Immanuel Wilkins on saxophone. All three are fluent with every chapter in the song and playbook, be the chapter about eccentric takes on standards, about flying through goth-jazz clouds, or the one about the blank page. (Sat 6/15, 8:30p @ The Stone, New School, Manhattan - $20)

Random Detroit Techno sighting of the weekend takes place at the after-party for the East Village Zine Fair at Mi Sabor Cafe, a Dominican restaurant with after-hours soundsystems. Aux 88 is a classic bass-heavy electro duo who debuted on Octave One’s Direct Beat label in the early ‘90s, and whose space-age booty sound felt like a cornerstone of classic Detroit. Seems like it’s been a while since they’ve been around, so this is a welcome surprise. Co-produced by Lifesavers, 8-Ball Community, and Printed Matter, the event also features DJ Warning, Ladies Drink Free, Bodega Bruja, and Recreational DJ. (Sat 6/15, 10p @ Mi Sabor Cafe, Myrtle & Broadway - $10-$25) 

After the Guitar Festival at an uptown kunsthalle earlier in the evening, Laraaji returns to a more familiar setting, performing a sunrise set at the wonderful — and contrary to my April report, still quietly operating — loft space in Greenpoint. It’s an overnight program with the loft residents, KG & fieldtalk, playing a durational set that begins at sundown Saturday. Anyone is welcome to join at any time, but sunrise is at 5:24a. Dada Strain Discount in full effect. (Sun 6/16, 5a @ secret Greenpoint loft - $40adv/$50, used the code “DADALOVE” for a 25% discount) 

Of the many great things Brandon and Craig musclecars have brought to fair Gotham, their annual Coloring Lessons Juneteenth Block Party is near-top of the list, about as great as a historically meaningful musical celebration can get. This year, they’ve got another incredible line-up, joined by Ron Trent, Lovie, Cleo Reed playing live, Mo Yasin, Kilopatrah Jones, Shawn Dub, people selling records, books and food. But most of all, just incredible vibes. Highest Recommendation! (Sun 6/16, 10a @ The Lot Radio, Greenpoint - FREE, please donate) After that’s done, head over to Good Room, where some of these folks and inevitable guests (last year’s tag-team of Osunalde-Karizma-Spinna was a lifelong highlight) will keep the commemoration going. (Sun 6/16, 9p @ Good Room, Greenpoint - $10)

Luke Stewart and Lester St. Louis’ Assembly has a decidedly electronic feel to it this month. Assembly #18 features the digital-noise hellraiser and poet Mercury Symbol, a welcome appearance by the great producer Afrikan Sciences, and a round with Tan Blew, an artist alias of Amani Fela’s. LSTR DJs before-between-after. (Sun 6/16, 8p @ Sisters, Fulton Street - $20)

BREEZY BIRTHDAY BBQ! The forever undefeated jaimie branch would have turned 41 on Monday. The late trumpeter, organizer and mighty musicker is Dada Strain’s patron saint, and we will shout her name on the Red Hook record shop sidewalk where her legend is omnipresent. Come though! Highest Recommendation, for laughter and tears. (Mon 6/17, 3p @ 360 Record Shop, Red Hook - FREE)   

There are many things to love about Pink Siifu as a musician, rapper, producer and bandleader, but lay some respect too on his community musicking bonafides. Like playing at Cafe Erzulie when he rolls through town instead of a bigger (and inevitably whiter) space. This evening features him and Turych Benjy touring last year’s posse-minded IT'S TOO QUIET​.​.​'​!​!, with one of that album’s many guests, Detroit ghettotech duo, Hi-Tech, along for the ride. (Tues 6/18, 8p @ Cafe Erzulie, Myrtle & Broadway - $35) 

Massive evening of guitar-heavy improvisation: Sally Gates will play solo. Visiting Asheville shredder Tashi Dorji will be in a duet with drummer Lesley Mok. And local musicking polymath Che Chen, who plays the instrument in 75 Dollar Bill, is in a quartet with drummer Ryan Sawyer, clarinetist Patrick Holmes, and multi-brass/-reed wonder kid Tomin. Great potential. (Tues 6/18, 8p @ Union Pool, Williamsburg - $18)

Artifact, Sleepwalk’s monthly experimental music series, produced by Brian Wenner and Matthew Ryals, returns. Artifact #5will feature the veteran live electronics and synthesizer musician Keith Fullerton Whitman, whose recent archival “Name Your Price” dump onto his Bandcamp page includes a handful of musically diverse wonders, both melodic and abrasive. Also: Lea Bertucci, an electro-acoustic composer and multi-instrumentalist whose work with tapes is excellent, and Sync Sapro, an audio-visual artist engaged with heavy industrial drones. (Tues 6/18, 8p @ Sleepwalk, Bushwick - $13adv/$15)