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 >>
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 >>
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 >>
A couple of seasons ago, we attended a ThreeASFOUR presentation in a West Village loft that resembled an underground party more than a Fashion Week event. Designers Gabriel Asfour, Adi Gil, and Angela Donhauser have long remained true to their aesthetic, and they rarely present their shows in a typical runway setting because they see their avant-garde pieces as art, not as clothes meant for a... 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 >>
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 >>
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 >>
The late Mike Kelley was renowned for his ability to work in every conceivable medium—collage, drawing, performance art, video, copulating sock monkeys—and for appearing on a Sonic Youth album cover (1992’s Dirty). Today, MOMA PS1 presents the largest exhibition of the L.A. pop artist’s work to date, which occupies the entire museum with 200 culture-obliterating works... 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 >>
It’s been turbulent times at El Museo del Barrio, where they recently cut back on hours and staff and are facing charges of gender discrimination brought by former director Margarita Aguilar. But with their major biennial opening today, all that is put aside to make room for what matters most: the work. La Bienal 2013, titled “Here Is Where We Jump,” brings together 37... 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 >>
Twenty years ago, the Orb sampled Pat Metheny playing Steve Reich's "Music for Counterpoint" for their seminal chill-out composition "Little Fluffy Clouds," launching the duo on a path to rave superstardomor at least as much renown as an ambient chill-out act can expect to achieve. Ever since, original member Alex Paterson and a revolving lineup of contributors have been twisting minds... Read more about this event >>
Black Dice are a bunch of weirdos who daringly indulge in nearly every electronic-based avenue that avails itself, from thrash-influenced noise to ambient psych fuckery. Currently based in Brooklyn, the band has been through a lot of identity crises and on a lot of tours over the past 16 years. Like Animal Collective with more pedals and less vocals, Black Dice create bizarre sonic panoramas... Read more about this event >>
Steve Earle is an American powerhouse. Over the past 20 years, the singer-songwriter, actor, producer, and native Texan has established himself as a storyteller and ace guitar player, combining rootsy blues and country with a political streak and a penchant for rock and roll recklessness. Earle's latest release is The Low Highway, a reflection on forgotten Midwest forgotten landscapes that... Read more about this event >>
The wandering musical mystics of Bengal, Bauls such as Shafi Mondol maintain a centuries-old tradition combining Hindu and Sufi roots. Mondol plays a long-necked fretless lute called a dotara and will be accompanied by the one-stringed, droning ektara and drums as he performs songs about spiritual life and love, many written by 19th century tunesmith Lalon Fokir, with a blend of grace with... Read more about this event >>
Borrowing the title of his 2011 album, British dub producer Neal Fraser's "Roots of Dubstep" tour casts historical perspective upon dance music's uptempo mutation of Jamaica's cavernous sonic deconstructions. For Fraser, dub is the sound of freedom, audio experimentalism, and massive amounts of mind-twisting echo. Here he'll captain the soundboard while the thunderous Subatomic Sound System... Read more about this event >>
The silly witches flying in on their brooms for this immediately post-Halloween coven meeting are, in alphabetical order, Jackie Hoffman, Christine Pedi, Mary Testa, and Christine Zbornik. If you tried to find four funnier women in the New York metro area, you couldn’t. Go ahead. Try. Waste your time. See if we care. Bottom line: Get on your own brooms and soar over to 54 Below. Sorta... Read more about this event >>
"Timescapes, an engrossing 22-minute multimedia experience, traces the growth of New York City from a settlement of a few hundred Europeans, Africans, and Native Americans to its present status as one of the worlds great cities. Created by Jake Barton of Local Projects and James Sanders, co-writer of the PBS series New York: A Documentary History, and narrated by actor Stanley Tucci,... Read more about this event >>
When graffiti first began popping up all over New York more than four decades ago, no one could have guessed that the urban art form, which originated in Philadelphia in the ’60s, would eventually spread around the world. Remembering the heyday of subway pieces and beyond, Write of Passage is a new exhibition that explores the impact of modern American graffiti on global culture and the... Read more about this event >>
Apple picking is a common fall entertainment, but you’d be hard-pressed to find a tarter, sweeter crop than offered by Richard Nelson in his Apple Family cycle. The Public Theater revives the three early plays, the better to harmonize with the latest and final drama about the upstate clan, Regular Singing. Read more about this event >>
Not long after Alison Bechdel wrote a letter to her parents telling them she was a lesbian, her father, Bruce, was struck and killed by a Sunbeam Bread truck. But, she wonders in her bestselling 2006 graphic memoir, Fun Home, could it have been a suicide? Returning to her childhood, she tells of growing up with her funeral-director dad, a closeted homosexual who maintained a tyrannical rule... Read more about this event >>
At first glance, Dorothea Rockburne’s works look like straightforward lines on a wall, but they are far from simplistic. They are mathematical solutions. Rockburne has said that “drawing is the bones of thought,” and has applied her studies in math and astronomy to her work since the late ’60s. “Dorothea Rockburne: Drawing Which Makes Itself,” an exhibition... Read more about this event >>