It’s hard not to imagine a backwoods grandpa with a clay jug of something he refers to as “white lightning” when you hear the word “moonshine,” but a new generation of at-home distillers is changing that. Kings County Distillery founders Colin Spoelman and David Haskell explore this trend in their new book, The Kings County Distillery Guide to Urban Moonshining:... Read more about this event >>
We all watch it, usually licking our lips and salivating uncontrollably. It’s everywhere in our society, from storefronts to your great aunt’s Pinterest. Food porn is a delicious perversion, and it’s about time for a close-up. The Food Porn Party NYC exposes a variety of gourmet eats in a dozen short films as part of the Food Film Fest. But this is no tease; audience members... Read more about this event >>
Like Carrie Underwood before her, Kellie Pickler came into her own after appearing on American Idol but went on to carve out a country music niche that soon blew her reality TV roots out of the water. Though she only made it to sixth place on Idol, after she was kicked off Pickler was soon picked up for a record deal from BNA and released her debut Small Town Girl in late 2006. Since then... Read more about this event >>
This weekend, Halloween parties don’t get bigger than Calvin Harris’s gig at Pier 94 tonight. Go there if you’re into large crowds and larger hooks (the guy did produce “We Found Love,” “Feel So Close,” and “Sweet Nothing”). Ticket prices, however, are equally outsized, so if you’re looking to save some money to invest in your... Read more about this event >>
Whether it’s calm or agitation they’re generating, the quartet of pianist Kris Davis, trumpeter Ralph Alessi, saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock, and drummer Tom Rainey have an idiosyncratic way of sharing their nuanced expressionism. The freely improvised pieces on their new album for the Skirl label is one of the year’s most persuasive jazz outingseach of the six tracks are... Read more about this event >>
Originally taking place on the Queen of Hearts cruise ship, a Halloween bash featuring the mature, muscular disco of Hercules & Love Affair has moved to a secret Brooklyn location. Essentially a solo project from Andy Butler featuring a revolving cast of talented vocalists such as Kim Ann Foxman and Shaun Wright, Hercules & Love Affair are still going strong since their dynamic DFA debut,... Read more about this event >>
As one of the revolutionaries in the New York art movement of the 1940s, Robert Motherwell started a gang of sorts that included other abstract or “automatic” artists, as he called them, like Jackson Pollock, Lee Krasner, William Baziotes, and Willem de Kooning. And the leader of the gang, or at least the person who could actually sell their work, was Peggy Guggenheim, who gave... Read more about this event >>
Local no wave skronk-mongers Cellular Chaos are the real effin' deal: Improvising extremist Weasel Walter slings the most criminally underrated shred ax on the Brooklyn DIY scene, 63 year-old jazz vet and drum-thwacking dinosaur Marc Edwards (dude has backed David S. Ware and Cecil Taylor) mans the destructive kit, and front-lady colossus Admiral Gray stands front and center, hooting,... Read more about this event >>
"I have a feeling you wanna be the female Henry Miller," Kevin Barnes wryly chants on "Belle Glade Missionaries," from Of Montreal's latest release, Lousy with Sylvianbriar. Belle Glade refers to the notoriously crime-ridden Florida city with an extraordinarily high rate of gun violence, and the band foments the spirit of rebellion, channeling Bob Dylan and adding their own irreverent twist.... Read more about this event >>
Take in some great art and maybe purchase some pieces for yourself when the Contemporary Art Fair NYC and American Fine Craft Show NYC brings nearly 200 artists to the Javits Center for three days. The exhibitors at the Contemporary Art Fair NYC include established and emerging artists working in painting, mixed media, photography, and sculpture. The American CraftShow NYC offers fashion,... Read more about this event >>
The New York Botanical Garden, located far uptown but within walking distance of the 2, 4/5, D, and Metro-North trains, is beautiful in the spring and summer, when the flowers are in full bloom and the leaves are at their fullest. But really, it might be best in the fall, when the toughest of those flowers are hanging on while the first of those leaves begin to fall. This week, take the train... Read more about this event >>
From his scandalous conical bra for Madonna to his punk-rock wedding dress for Beth Ditto to his stage costumes for Marilyn Manson, Jean Paul Gaultier has never met a rebel he didn’t want to dress. Exploring Gaultier’s diverse universe, the exhibit The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk, making its only East Coast stop at the Brooklyn Museum,... Read more about this event >>
Bad news, Future fans who purchased tickets to see the Atlanta rapper open Drake’s Barclays gig: The guy behind the prettiest hooks in hip-hop got kicked off the tour for telling Billboard that the songs on the headliner’s recent album, Nothing Was the Same, is full of hits but not ones that make you want to fall in love. He’s right, of course—even the lush “Hold... Read more about this event >>
Alan Jackson is probably best known for his 9/11 tribute song "Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning)," but fans know that his career began back in 1989 when he signed to Arista's country division and issued his debut album Here in the Real World the following year. His particular brand of country music has always centered on the everyday occurrences that blossom into unforgettable... Read more about this event >>
To say you’ve “grown up” with Sparks, the Los Angeles–raised brothers who released their debut album in 1971, is to suggest a vertigo-inducing oscillation of witty pop kicks and refreshingly distanced cerebral strategies. Like Queen, only funnier, Russell Mael’s eternal falsetto plays off Ron Mael’s needling baroque omnipop keyboards in songs ranging from... Read more about this event >>
Rock of Ages, the celebrated hymn based on First Corinthians, will not appear in this Broadway musical. Instead expect the hits of Foreigner, Styx, Pat Benatar, and Journey. The nominal plot centers on a romance conducted in the unsalubrious environs of the Sunset Strip circa 1987. Read more about this event >>
We’ve encountered fashion muse and on-air personality Alexa Chung twice: Once in an elevator, in which we stared at her casually chic short shorts and jaunty top and then looked at our own outfit in disgust; and another time on Sixth Avenue, where Chung, wearing a black leather miniskirt, was smoking a cigarette, oblivious to the tourist gawking at her. That effortless style might come... Read more about this event >>
No artist better represents the shambles of the black male psyche than Chris Brown. Even though his forthcoming album was named X, in part as an attempt to symbolically move on from his turbulent past, his recent verse on DJ Khaled’s “I’m Still” shows him to be incapable of truly letting go and moving on with his life and career. Openly courting the infamy of his own... Read more about this event >>
Back in the day, dancers would spend years in someone else's company, perfecting their skills and learning the ropes, before striking out on their own. Lately, many artists, right out of school or nearly so, go public way before they’re ready. Not John Heginbotham. He’s graced the Mark Morris Dance Group and other sophisticated ensembles since graduating from Juilliard in 1993,... Read more about this event >>
Every year they come to the room at the same time. What’s different is the material they choose and, especially, the brilliant medleys they put togetherand please don’t call these masterpieces mash-ups. What’s always the same, and thank providence for that, are the good cheer, the amusing hubby-wifey banter, his hilarious off-the-cuff impersonations, her emotionally... Read more about this event >>
Starting with the sunny, Sunday-morning harmonies that open “Good Ass Intro”, Chance the Rapper’s April mixtape, Acid Rap, is a striking accord of feel-good, neo-soul sounds and compulsively-rhymed, P.T.S.D.-afflicted raps. Chance was apparently raised in a loving, middle-class home, but not far from the “Chi Raq” war zone which is home to Chicago’s... Read more about this event >>
Led by saxophonist Bryan Murray, the Haggards perform outlandish, inventive, and often hilarious jazz-instrumental renditions of tunes by the great country songwriter Merle Haggard. Guitarist/banjoist/vocalist Eugene Chadbourne, who's been infusing country music with hyperactive improvisation and humor for decades, kicks their goofy brilliance into overdive on the quintet's terrific third... Read more about this event >>
Chi-town metal long-hairs Oozing Wound have head-banged their hardcore-cum-thrashtastic bludgeon into their exclusive hometown Thrill Jockey Records realm. Utterly ferocious with an unrivaled ear-splitting heaviosity, the new Retrash is a bulldozing epic of sleazy throat-bawling metal terror that would make those old dudes in Metallica and Slayer blush. Even better still, the heavier-than... Read more about this event >>
Chi-town metal long-hairs Oozing Wound have head-banged their hardcore-cum-thrashtastic bludgeon into their exclusive hometown Thrill Jockey Records realm. Utterly ferocious with an unrivaled ear-splitting heaviosity, the new Retrash is a bulldozing epic of sleazy throat-bawling metal terror that would make those old dudes in Metallica and Slayer blush. Even better still, the heavier-than... Read more about this event >>
While Alex Borstein may be best known as a former cast member of MADtv and Lois on Family Guy, her stand-up comedy is not to be missed (just google “Alex Borstein vagina soap”). Tonight, she makes a rare New York appearance at What’s So Bloody Funny?, a benefit for the National Hemophilia Foundation (yes, she will be doing her popular character Ms. Swan). The evening also... Read more about this event >>
This year, she transformed Santigold into a tentacular, voracious beast covered in “spores that emit polluting smoke like factory chimneys”—among other unlikely feats. Kenyan-born artist Wangechi Mutu works in video and large-scale collage to explore gender, race, and consumption, particularly in the context of the black female body, which she often represents as a gangly... Read more about this event >>
Former Mark Morris dancer John Heginbotham's first evening-long work was inspired by surrealist choreographer Francis Picabia's 1924 absurdist ballet Relâche. Heginbotham has also choreographed director René Clair's footage of a leaping ballerina and a rooftop chess match, screened as part of Picabia's Dadaist extravaganza, for his own very promising reprise, which also features... Read more about this event >>
Led by scatting mandolinist Jeff Austin, Colorado's Yonder Mountain String Band is a super-tight improvising bluegrass quartet that reliably transforms wherever they happen to play into a sizzling skillet of inventive picking, compelling crooning, and general high, lonesome mayhem. The Founding Fathers, meanwhile, consist of Infamous Stringdusters members who fled Nashville for... Read more about this event >>
The maestro’s two-drummer outfit is one of his most overtly swinging groups. As it searches for the sweet spots, it makes a swirl of sound that always dodges the okey-doke and reaches around the corner for something a bit more valuable. You can actually hear that exploration vibe come from the stageit’s a crucial part of Lovano’s art at this late date. Read more about this event >>
While Holy Ghost! challenged Phoenix's melodic ebullience, Factory Floor became critical darlings with their skeletal throb-rock debut, and James Murphy ran off brewing coffee somewhere, DFA scored two bonafide house hits thanks to longtime family member Juan Maclean. Both "You Are My Destiny" and "Feel Like Movin'" include effervescent vocals from ex-LCD Soundsystem member Nancy Whang, and... Read more about this event >>
Jazz, for the most part, is about connection, and the chemistry the recent MacArthur Grant recipient generates with his appropriately applauded team is the “aww shit” kindyou know, like when Big Daddy Kane’s pen hits the paper. On the bandstand there are moments when the communication is jaw-dropping. Since they’ve been bouncing around Europe for the past couple... Read more about this event >>
Theater at Madison Square Garden: Stop it already with your ironic enjoyment of the theme from Super Mario Brothersthat's actually a pretty lazy choice as nostalgic video game music goes. At this show, nearly thirty years of tunes from the Legend of Zelda game series will get a full orchestral treatment, which should reveal more of the complexity. Until then, just keep scanning the... Read more about this event >>
Kenny Dixon Jr., a/k/a Moodymann, throws roller disco parties in his hometown of Detroit and has been known to hand out T-shirts at gigs that say "Your Girlfriend Prefers 12 Inches." It would be a mistake to think Moodymann is a gimmick, though: For over two decades house fans have considered Dixon an unparalleled raconteur and inimitable selector of deep funk and soul. It will be intriguing... Read more about this event >>