This week's Chikpiks

Update: Due to some out-of-date information in my sources for Chikpiks, I just found out that Bert Jansch, due to an illness, is NOT playing at City Winery tonight; in fact he's had to cancel his North American tour. I for one wish him a quick recovery so that we all might get a chance to see him play here sometime soon.



Well, it's hot. Here are some shows:

Thursday, August 20

Bert Jansch *CANCELLED*


Like a lot of people my age (which is probably younger than you think) I'm not ashamed to admit that I hadn't heard of Bert Jansch before several of his songs were included on the soundtrack of the 2006 Noah Baumbach film The Squid and the Whale. (I am a little ashamed to admit that never would have heard of that film if it hadn't been for a certain Irish ex-boyfriend. But whatever, those were heady times). And aside all associations with high-minded New York-based film auteurs, "The Bright New Year," off his self-titled 1965 debut album, features Jansch's signature acoustic folk guitar work, always for me conjures up the sad pint-drinking mysticism of the British Isles (with a little help of memories of certain exes). His latest release, The Black Swan, came out in 2006 and is on par in every way with his earlier work.

His appearances on these shores are rare, and I would especially recommend him if you're a fan of Nick Drake. The two deserve to be mentioned in the same breath.With Alasdair Roberts.

City Winery
9 PM
$20

Friday, August 21

The Antlers (Record release)

Not to be confused with The Crystal Antlers (or the Crystal Stilts, for that matter, and oh, dear, is that a long, slippery road), The Antlers are a Brooklyn trio fronted by Peter Silberman (center), who, according to his Web site, "draw[s] inspiration from the likes of Raymond Carver, Leonard Michaels and Sylvia Plath." Yes, that is as obnoxious as it sounds, but try to evaluate The Antlers based solely on their musical merits, which have the expansive scope of with some jangly, joyful guitarhooks thrown in, and Silberman's Bon Iver-reminiscent vocals. Plus Darby Cicci, the bassist (right) is totally worth doing. They play the Mercury Lounge on Friday to celebrate the release of their album Hospice on Frenchkiss. It kind of seems like it might be huge. With Murder Mystery, Twin Thousands and Brent Arnold.

Mercury Lounge
8 pm
$10
21+

Saturday, August 22

Talibam!, The Phenomenal Handclap Band



The Phenomenal Handclap Band, which I suppose can be best be described as a cross-borough coed eight-member funk/soul collective, headed by DJs/producers Daniel Collas and Sean Marquand, friended me on MySpace, then were promptly covered in Elle, of which I feel quite proud. (It doesn't really mean anything, except that none of their members are ugly, but still). They will be glamorous, they will be loud, their live show will get you dancing. Plus it's at P.S.1, in the afternoon (and possibly outdoors?) so you'll still have time to check out the museum, then head south and check out the show listed below, should you be so inclined.

P.S. 1 (Summer Warm Up)
2 PM
All Ages
$10

Saturday, August 22

Real Estate, Air Waves, Ducktails, Beach Fossils, Fluffy Lumbers (Underwater Peoples Showcase)



Yeah, so does this show actually exist? It's not some kind of practical joke? Because this...this pretty much features every currently buzzed-about lo-fi band I can think of. It's fascinating if true. I hope to write more about the wonderful, Byrds-esque guitar work of Beach Fossils at some point later, so I'll just add that in the case of Fluffy Lumbers, I'm really not sure how much lo-er fi you can get before you're just one long string of continuous static, like your grandpa's old ham radio. But anyway, who's going to help me out? Ric? Anybody? With (take a deep breath) Family Portrait, Pill Wonder, Dana Jewell, Andrew Cedermark, Liam the Younger, Alex Bleeker & The Freaks, Frat Dad.


Market Hotel
5:30 PM
All Ages
$5


Mp3 - The Old Triangle - Bert Jansch

Mp3 - Two - The Antlers

Mp3 - Youll Disappear - The Phenomenal Handclap Band

Margaret Atwood on Twitter? It's true.

The interactive, worldwife tour for Margaret Atwood's new novel The Year of the Flood is to involve actors and music composed exclusively for the book, which needless say sounds supremely awesome. (I can't find a complete tour schedule as of this post, but rest assured I will stay on top of this). The book itself is a sequel, or rather companion book, to 2004's speculative novel Oryx and Crake).

In order to keep us up to date, she has not only set up a tour blog but also has begun tweeting on Twitter. (As of today, she already has over 4,000 followers. Oh, Peggy, why must you make it so hard for me to ever catch up?)

To be sure, I never thought I'd see the day when I'd be able to type @MargaretAtwood, and that her perpetual and regal genius would be as real as your average pr0nbot or marketing scammer, but it's a delightful prospect. Now would probably be a good time to note, for the benefit of full disclosure, that my love for Atwood's writing has been boundless ever since I read The Handmaid's Tale (voluntarily, not for class) my sophomore year of high school. You know that writer who you discover and immediately decide to read his or her entire oeuvre right then and there? Well, that's Atwood for me. Ultimately, The Blind Assassin came out at the top of the list. Neither I, nor my writing, was ever the same after that book. Please read it.

To tie-in with the release of The Year of the Flood, Virago has redesigned Atwood's back catalog. Here's what The Blind Assassin looks like, all turned out with its new cover:



Beautiful.

Update:

Atwood's complete tour schedule for The Year of the Flood, featuring music composed by L.A.-based composer Orville Stoeber, can be found here. It's one hell of a trip, comprising the U.S., Canada and Europe, and kicks off August 23rd aboard none other than the Queen Mary 2.

The American leg of the tour is as follows:

Oct 4 2:00pm	Denver	Tattered Cover Book Store, 1628 16th Street, 80202	Reading & Book Signing	Details to come
Oct 6 8:00pm	San Francisco	San Francisco City Arts & Lectures-Herbst Theatre, 401 Van Ness Avenue	Literary performance with music followed by book signing	415-392-4400 or click here
Oct 7 7:30pm	Seattle	Town Hall Seattle, 1119 8th Avenue, 98101	Reading & Book Signing in association with Elliott Bay Books	Details to come
Oct 9 8:00pm	Los Angeles	University of California, Royce Hall. 340 Royce Dr. 90095	Literary performance with music followed by book signing in association with UCLA Live! Series	310-825-2101 or click here
Oct 24 8:00PM	Toronto	International Festival of Authors, Fleck Stage (formally the Premier Dance Theatre), Harbourfront Centre, 270 Queens Quay West	Reading	416-973-4000 or click here
Oct 25 8:00pm	Cambridge	First Parish Church, 3 Church St, 02138	Literary performance with music followed by book signing- in association with Harvard Book Store	Details to come
Oct 27 7:00pm	New York	Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway at 95th Street	Literary performance with music followed by book signing	Details to come
Oct 30 8:00pm	Washington	George Washington University, Lisner Auditorium, 730 21st Street NW, 20052	Literary performance with music followed by book signing	Details to come
Oct 31 TBD	Austin	TBD	Reading & Book Signing in association with Texas Book Festival	Details to come
Nov 6 TBD	Chicago	DePaul University, Merle Reskin Theater, 60 E. Balbo Drive	Literary performance with music followed by book signing	Details to come
Nov 8 TBD	Miami	TBD	Reading and Book Signing in association with Miami Book Fair	Details to come

Be the Dog? No thanks.

There's a play called "Be the Dog" premiering at the New York Fringe Festival later this month. According to the article on BroadwayWorld.com, it is "based on the short stories of Dave Eggers, Be the Dog celebrates and ridicules a world of complicated human relationships - through the eyes one simply exuberant dog...Written by Emily Kaye Liberis, it was produced as her senior thesis project at Boston University's School of Theatre in 2007. She developed it there with director Jason McDowell-Green."

So this...this pretty much exemplifies what is wrong with everything. That some poor, misguided theatre student couldn't find any better material to waste two years working on than a bunch of crappy experimental fiction by the most overexposed writer imaginable. Couldn't she at least have stretched a out a little bit? To Aimee Bender, maybe? Or even Amy Hempel? Or, you know, somebody new? Oh yeah, and if that weren't enough, we have to capitalize on the whole "Marley and Me" lovable dog trend, too.

"Be the Dog" premieres at the Robert Moss Theatre. Tickets are $15. 440 Studios is located at 440 Lafayette St. between Astor Place and East 4th St. directly across from The Public Theater. Elevator to the 3rd & 4th Floors. Here's the complete schedule:

Wednesday, August 26 @ 6.15pm
Wednesday, August 26 @ 9.45pm
Friday, August 28 @ 4.15pm
Saturday, August 29 @ 10.00pm
Sunday, August 30 @ 12.00pm

Woof.

What's the deal? Your very own weekly Publisher's Lunch deal snark

This week's inaugural selection falls under the Fiction/Debut category. The Lunch Weekly-provided description reads as follows:

Rainbow Rowell's FLAGGED, a fresh take on the office comedy in which a shy but endearing I.T. guy whose job is to monitor the company email falls in love with a girl in his office whose emails are constantly flagged, to Erika Imranyi at Dutton, at auction, by Christopher Schelling at Ralph M. Vicinanza.

Indichik says: Okay. Two things: First, there's no possible way I will ever read a book, short of a memoir of a life spent in the adult-film industry, by anyone named Rainbow. Second, "fresh take on the office comedy"has been an oxymoron for at least past ten years or so, given that at least one story in every lit mag I've read has featured a story about some poor sap just out of college (a doppelganger for the author five years ago) fooling himself into thinking's he's cleverer than everyone else his age because, just like everyone else, he wants to share the witty barbs he came up with while working at some awful job.

Ha ha, it's funny because working in a cubical is dull! Ha ha, it's funny because my boss is a moron! Ha ha, it's funny because my co-workers are weird!

Then tack on a gimmicky po-mo plot involving modern technology, as a vehicle for a cliched romance, in which no doubt some gorgeous, non-threateningly quirky girl inexplicably falls for an ugly, socially-inept nerd, and there's literary gold.

This concludes the inaugural edition of What's the Deal?

Sian Alice Group MP3 Review

I've been hearing this band's name floating around for what seems like forever, mostly because of my familiarity with their Social Registry labelmates Gang Gang Dance (at Beyond Race Magazine, I somehow overnight become the designated "GGD person"), but not until now, when I finally got around to listening to them, did it occur to me that they're actually British, which...cool. Their album 59.59 is just out, and they'll be in New York for two nights in September (13th and 14th).

So. The "heaven" referred to in "Way Down to Heaven" is more like "heaven" as described by a death-metal band. The bassline is hyper-insistent and sneaks up on you, starting out slow and friendly like an al fresco lunch date, coupled by high repeated repeated harmonic choruses that recall the more hippy-spooky side of Fleetwood Mac. All of this is later ambushed by some feedback-heavy lead guitar laced over and under the vocals, which somehow gives way to a sound that psychedelic-ish, but not quite. It's too controlled to give the sense of out-and-out primitive chaos you get from Gang Gang Dance. So basically, it's GGD more suitable for the dentist's office, but...if you're dentist don't, you know, actually play it in your office.


mp3 - Way Down To Heaven - Sian Alice Group

PB&J are BRM Band of the Week

Who knew John Eriksson (right), the drummer for Swedish pop gods Peter Bjorn and John, made all those phat boutique beats on Living Thing just with his mouth?

The band is on tour this summer with Depeche Mode (they played MSG last Monday) and paused to talk to me.

Peter Bjorn and John are Beyond Race Mag's Band of the Week.

MP3 - Nothing To Worry About - Peter Bjorn And John

This week's Chikpiks (with a rather generous definition of "week")

Vacation mania, my friends, vacation mania. This weeks' Chikpiks are all higgledy-piggledy, taking us through next Saturday, just so I don't miss anything. Then they'll be back again (hopefully) on Monday.


Thursday, August 6

Mark Kozelek
Music Hall of Williamsburg

Kozelek, lately of Sun Kil Moon and late of Red House Painters, is sort of the musical equivalent of Thomas Pynchon -- you don't see him that much, but you don't really have to in order to know that he's weird. Red House Painters, was the slowcore act of the '90s, taking disturbing angst and craft it into hauntingly beautiful refrains. If you like Mogwai, just wait'll you hear 1993's Red House Painters (I). Sun Kil Moon, by contrast, has been mainly underwhelming. They are/were both Kozelek, and so is this show -- except now he's by himself. See if you can handle it. With Mia Doi Todd.

8PM
18+
$25

Wednesday, August 12

Bat for Lashes
Webster Hall


Shameless drama queen Natasha Khan may stand at the forefront of the British freak-folk movement, but I still think she looks just like Posh Spice.

8 PM
18+
$20



Thursday, August 13

Yeasayer, Amazing Baby
Pier 54 (Hudson River Park)


This is more or less irrelevant, but I currently have, for going on several months now, Simon O'Connor's (far right, with Amazing Baby) phone number listed in my contacts for some reason. One of these days I'm going to call him, either for an interview or a date (I haven't decided which, yet.) I'm not sure which one his father would disapprove of more. (Well, okay, yeah I do).

6PM
All Ages
Free

Friday, August 14

Animal Collective
Prospect Park Bandshell (Celebrate Brooklyn)




I kind of hate myself for mentioning this, but I know I would also kind of hate myself if I didn't. Come to think of it, is it sold out? It's probably sold out. But if it isn't and for some reason you're looking for another reason to go, I will say that at their last NYC show, spotted in the audience were the kid from The Sixth Sense and the chick from Slums of Beverly Hills. So, yeah. At this show, who knows? You might spot one of the guys from BASEketball. With Black Dice, Dam Funk.

5:30 PM
All Ages
$30


School of Seven Bells
South St. Seaport


While you're hobnobbing with beautiful has-beens from 1998 in Prospect Park, I will most likely be here, seeing this dreamy trio, being lullabyed off to my lucid dreams bytwo girl identical twins and a guy, dreams in which I will be shopping somewhere other than Abercrombie & Fitch. With The xx and a guest DJ.

6 pm
All Ages
Free


Saturday August 15

Kurt Vile
Silent Barn



Matador Records. Philly. Mean guitar. Prettiest hair in music. Next big thing. There, I said it. With Tommy Jay, Blues Control.

8 PM
All Ages
TBA


Carry Me Ohio - Mark Kozelek

Beach On The Moon (Recycled Lyrics) - Kurt Vile