As of late, the country that gave us Björk and Sigur Rós has also been able to boast about its buoyant classical-music scene, thanks in part to the Bedroom Community label. One of its latest releases, composer-conductor Daníel Bjarnason’s Processions, is a honey of an album. Bjarnason fuses influences from Sigur Rós (for whose Abbey Road recording of Ára bátur Bjarnason led the London Sinfonietta and London Oratory Boy’s Choir) and Jón Leifs (Iceland’s answer to Aaron Copland) to create a sound that comes eerily close to defining classical music’s undefinable brave new world.

Together with his Bedroom Community comrade Sam Amidon, Bjarnason will celebrate the stateside release of his debut album with a concert on Wednesday (March 3) at (Le) Poisson Rouge, joining forces with Efterklang for one triple threat of an evening. Over an energizing coffee, we had an equally energizing conversation.

Iceland is sort of like Europe’s final frontier: an island farther north and farther west than most of the rest of the continent. What’s the music scene like there?
Like you say, sometimes it’s like we’re straddling two worlds, because we’re in Europe and America. But we get a lot of influences, and have them from both sides. Reykjavik is [more] like a small town, but it feels like a big city because there’s a lot going on there. It’s almost perfect, the size of it, because you have access to everybody in all genres doing everything. And you probably know them anyway, so it’s easy—it’s very easy—to do whatever you want to do. If you want to work with someone, you can just call them or say, “Hey, let’s try doing this or that.” It’s a melting pot in many ways. Like New York. Read more »

Four Tet at (Le) Poisson Rouge
After taking a few years to concentrate on his stimulating duo with drummer Steve Reid, British soundscapist Kieran Hebden returns to NYC in support of a new album under his Four Tet alias.

Stew and Heidi Rodewald: Making It at St. Ann’s Warehouse
The team behind the hit musical Passing Strange premieres a new multimedia work in Dumbo.

Kneebody at 45 Bleecker
This futuristic jazz-funk ensemble kicks off a four-night residency featuring special guests.

Daniel Lanois’s Black Dub at Bowery Ballroom
Producer to the stars Daniel Lanois hits town with his moody, groove-oriented Black Dub band.

John Zorn’s Masada Marathon at Abrons Arts Center
John Zorn ropes in a host of downtown luminaries for this two-night fest. Nearby at the Stone, you can catch Ahleuchatistas, an edgy prog-punk-jazz fusion trio that records for Zorn’s Tzadik label.

Tim Hecker, Tapes, Radian and Mountains at (Le) Poisson Rouge
The Unsound Festival New York buzzes along with an evening of boundary-blurring sound artists, including dreamy ambiences from Tim Hecker and Mountains, as well as a grainier brand of electricity from Austrian combo Radian (pictured).

Happy Ending Music Series: Holly Miranda at Joe’s Pub
In the latest installment of this popular series, fast-rising singer-songwriter Holly Miranda shares the stage with author Joshua Ferris.

Midnight Masses at Union Pool
This NYC-Texas combo, run by members of …And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead and Dragons of Zynth, brings its dark, dreamy sounds to Williamsburg. (You can see the band’s exclusive performance in TONY’s office right here.)

Eric Church at the Fillmore New York at Irving Plaza
A lot of hard-twanging guitars, a working knowledge of Merle Haggard and AC/DC, and a pinch of corny hokum—add it all together and you get Eric Church, country music you can believe in.

Vijay Iyer and Mike Ladd: Holding It Down at the Harlem Stage Gatehouse
Iyer’s a cerebral jazz eclectic with an earthy touch, and Ladd’s a provocative poet and spoken-word artist; neither is done justice by those reductive descriptions. The pair has done potent work in past collaborations; for this new one, inspired by the Iraq War, the voices of veterans have been incorporated.

Essentially, the violin is a piece of hollowed-out wood with four strings attached to it via another piece of wood. But get it in the right hands, especially the hands of Hilary Hahn, and it contains a cathedral of sound. More than a decade after releasing her prodigious debut album of Bach partitas and seven years after her last Bach recording, Hahn once again returns to the composer she describes as “the touchstone that keeps my playing honest” with the radiant album Bach: Violin and Voice. Celebrating its release yesterday, Hahn brought a Bach party like no other to (Le) Poisson Rouge. Read more »

It’s generally agreed that bass-baritone Eric Owens is easily one of the most badass young singers performing today. His espresso-rich voice can swing from sweet poignancy in Porgy and Bess, to haunting lyricism in A Flowering Tree, to thunderous bravado in El Niño. He’s also no stranger to new American music, working closely with John Adams and upstaging a highly publicized 20-ton wall in the New York premiere of Elliot Goldenthal’s Grendel. So when we heard that Owens was dipping his toe into jazz and standards tomorrow night at (Le) Poisson Rouge, we had to talk to him about the American sound, the “CNN composer” and Philadelphia’s musical influences (which, yes, include, DJ Jazzy Jeff). Click past the jump for more.

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Watching Sonia Wieder-Atherton play is like watching Rudolf Nureyev dance. Her instrument is as much a part of her body as her arms or legs, and she makes it sing in a way that would seem impossible from anyone else. In her second U.S. recital, the French cellist transported (Le) Poisson Rouge to Russia and Mitteleuropa in an enjoyable, if not all-too-brief concert.

Featuring selections from her new release on Naïve, Chants d’Est, the evening was a journey of a program, including music by Bartók, Janacek, Dohnányi and Prokofiev interspersed with traditional Jewish music and Tatar dances. Wieder-Atherton lends a new voice to those left in a diaspora after the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, reviving their musical mother tongues. Her allegros are vivacious, at times even ballsy; her softer moments are hushed and reverent, and in those moments you could see the audience lean in to hear every breath. Read more »

Shrinebuilder converged upon a packed house of metal-minded citizens at (Le) Poisson Rouge Sunday night, Rwake and Liturgy in tow. The new group is composed of indie-metal heavyweights Scott “Wino” Weinrich (the Hidden Hand, the Obsessed, Saint Vitus), Al Cisneros (Sleep, Om), Scott Kelly (Neurosis) and Dale Crover (Melvins), and made a number of mostly East Coast appearances earlier this week during its incipient mini tour.

First, a word on Liturgy, the evening’s opener. This visionary black-metal outfit could not have emerged at a better time. Its latest record, Renihilation, is precedent-setting in its rapturous din, and casts new light on the heretofore grim and hallowed landscape of its genre. Liturgy summoned it all for a chaotic set on Sunday, nicely augmented by (Le) Poisson Rouge’s excellent acoustics. Look for this band to build on its already swelling reputation as heavy hitters in Brooklyn’s metal scene.

Relapse Records sextet Rwake slowed things down a bit with a heady, polished doom set. Vocalist “C.T.” growled and hollered mighty verses that locked in nicely with the classically inflected, off-kilter ax work of the band’s two guitarists. How nice to see a band of this genre allowing itself to eschew the Black Sabbath worship and forge its own compositional steel. Brooding and forceful, yet in the pocket—and only a little shreddy.

A wise man once noted that doom metal relies on anticipation—of the downbeat, the resolution of the chord, often both. Brand-new doom fraternity Shrinebuilder capitalizes on this concept of delayed fulfillment. Of course, given the band’s ridiculously experienced lineup of players, it’s not surprising that these guys know their way around a sludgy tritone. Shrinebuilder’s sound is meaty, progressive and, in a live setting, nuanced in a way that doesn’t shine through on its recently released, self-titled studio effort. Guitars seemed to literally swarm around its rock-solid rhythm section, building up to crushing chorus licks played in unison. Four-way vocals (even drummer Dale Crover kicked in a few background croons) served to supplement the thick jamming.

With all the “supergroup” hype about these guys circulating in the underground metal scene, Shrinebuilder’s NYC debut was itself anticipated to an insane degree. The reality is that Sunday’s set probably produced mixed reactions from devoted attendees. The bottom line: It would be hard to say that the band brings anything truly fresh to the table, yet harder to argue that Shrinebuilder’s collaborative mastery of tried-and-true rock conventions isn’t still totally badass.—Luke Teegarden

In 1996, while completing a semester abroad in London, I became unhealthily obsessed with the Birmingham band Broadcast. The group, then a quintet, had a sole seven-inch to its name, “Accidentals.” Though newly jelled, the band already was its own beast. The musicians turned not to the Kinks or the Velvet Underground but rather to the film scores of Krzysztof Komeda and records of the electronic-music pioneer Joseph Byrd and his short-lived ’60s group, the United States of America. Their concerts were low-budget yet thoroughly stylized, the five musicians appearing as shadows against black-and-white films. Before returning to the States, I went to one of the band members’ homes to interview Broadcast for Puncture magazine. I’m sure my parents appreciated their son using the money he was given to witness the glories of Europe to travel to Birmingham and ask questions to a gang of red-eyed British musicians. (In fairness, while in Birmingham, I also toured the Cadbury factory.)

In the ensuing years, the band—which I interviewed again, for Time Out, in 2003—has evolved in a manner that is radical but not surprising. The 2009 version of Broadcast that turned up at (Le) Poisson Rouge was not the quintet I remember from London, but a lonely duo: the core couple of Trish Keenan and James Cargill. Read more »

1. Maxwell and Common at Madison Square Garden
Neosoul star Maxwell just released his first album since 2001, the delicious BLACKsummer’s Night, which forms the first installment of a trilogy; tonight he raises the temperature at the Garden. Impressive support comes from hip-hop vet Common (who provides the boomy narration on Kid Cudi’s new album).

2. Great Lake Swimmers, Nina Nastasia and Sharon Van Etten at Music Hall of Williamsburg
Toronto songman Tony Dekker headlines as Great Lake Swimmers, and we’re stoked about tonight’s openers: Singular singer-songwriter Nina Nastasia has a new album in the offing and always electrifies live, and you can check out local songsmith Sharon Van Etten performing live for TONY here.

3. Main Squeeze Orchestra at (Le) Poisson Rouge
This 18-piece all-gal orchestra is conducted by Walter Kuhr, who runs the accordion shop Main Squeeze. Tonight it celebrates the music of Kurt Weill…on accordion.

4. Mono and Maserati at the Bowery Ballroom
Avant metalers Mono share a bill with the krautrockin’ Maserati. Heads will nod.

5. Jo Lawry at the Bar Next Door
Sweet-voiced jazz singer Jo Lawry plays with her band. Sneak a preview of the combo playing Live at TONY here.

If the recent review of Wildbirds & Peacedrums in TONY had you intrigued, you’re in luck. The enchanting Swedish percussion-and-voice duo plays a whole bunch of local shows in the coming days, including gigs tonight (September 15) at (Le) Poisson Rouge, tomorrow (September 16) at Cake Shop, Friday (September 18) at Bruar Falls, next Monday (September 21) at Bowery Ballroom and next Tuesday (September 22) at the Bell House. On the eve of all that madness, W&P was kind enough to stop by the TONY offices for an unplugged performance.

You banged your head to The Beatnigs, you pumped your fist to The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy; these days, Michael Franti (pictured left), a key member of those outfits, delivers his insightful, penetrating message over the soulful grooves of his most durable combo, Spearhead. The band plays tonight at Terminal 5, sharing a bill with the Venezuelan discoteers of Los Amigos Invisibles.

We don’t know about you, but for us, nothing says summer is coming to a close like  the final show of the season at the Nikon at Jones Beach Theater. That’s an awful lot of pressure for The Killers to take onto their shoulders; thankfully, Brandon Flowers seems to be fond of shoulder pads.

Proving once again that New York is their kind of town (a point they made in this fresh TONY interview), Pet Shop Boys sashay into the Hammerstein Ballroom for the first of two local shows tonight.

Does pianist Satoko Fujii release too many CDs for her own good? When it comes to an artist so consistently distinguished, perhaps the better question is where to get started in exploring Fujii’s fecundity. Take it from us, you could do much worse than to check out her Min-Yoh Ensemble tonight at the Stone. As heard on the 2007 album Fujin Raijin (which we reviewed here), the quartet weaves traditional Japanese min-yoh melodies into spacious, mesmerizing meditations.

And if meditation is the furthest thing from your mind, head over to (Le) Poisson Rouge, where anarchic German Gypsy-music collective 17 Hippies and local Brazilian-dance combo Forró for All will have you dancing in your seats at a bare minimum.

By now you’ve heard that Pixies are coming back to town in November to play their entire Doolittle album start to finish. But if you need a fix before then, you’re in luck: Our favorite Pixie, Kim Deal, hits town tonight with her other band, The Breeders, playing shows tonight and tomorrow at the Bowery Ballroom. Yes, they’re officially sold out…but we know good and well how crafty you are. (You can read our official TONY preview here, and a Hot Seat Q&A with Deal here.)

Catch an intimate glimpse of a singer-songwriter on the rise at (Le) Poisson Rouge, where Diane Birch—previewed in TONY and photographed in action here on the Volume—will be serving up soulful originals from her debut disc, Bible Belt.

Ready for some fun in the sun? Party where it used to be out of bounds with The B-52s, who play the Beach at Governors Island this evening.

Or tune your head to the opposite end of the musical spectrum, when veteran keyboardist and violinist Eddie Jobson—known for his exploits in English art-rock bands Curved Air, Roxy Music and U.K.—arrives at B.B. King Blues Club & Grill for a stop on his first-ever solo headlining tour in America. Last seen back in January with the then-new group UKZ (covered here), Jobson brings a band of heavy-hitting musos, including guest Warr Guitarist Trey Gunn and the insane drum-porn tandem of Simon Phillips and Marco Minnemann.

Elsewhere: Amy Speace and Mitch Easter share a bill at Southpaw; Regina Spektor chats and sings during a free in-store at the Barnes & Noble above Union Square; and progressive-jazz pianist Jason Moran steers his long-running trio, Bandwagon, into the Village Vanguard.

Bronx duo The Martinez Brothers is an interesting, remarkable pair. To say that Chris and Steve took to music early would seem strange, since they’re still only 17 and 20, respectively. Yet despite their age the two have quickly begun to make a name for themselves as they spin their own take on dance music all around the world, including major shows scheduled for London, Ibiza, Paris and Singapore this year.

As demonstrated in a photo gallery featuring images we captured earlier this summer at (Le) Poisson Rouge, part of what makes a Martinez Brothers set so great is the enjoyment they reveal in performing. The two will be playing Dance.Here.Now this Thursday (July 30) at Santos Party House, a venue that should lend itself perfectly to their style. For more history, see out the 2008 documentary after the jump, and check out our interview from 2006.
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Monotonix

Summer is kicking into full gear now, with everything from free shows to big festivals to late-night club gigs. In our humble opinion, this is what you should be getting into this weekend.

Friday
Paul McCartney—you may have heard of him—plays CitiField 44 years after the Beatles landed at Shea. He also plays the home of the Mets Saturday and Tuesday. (Read our show preview here.)

Two beloved blasts from the indie past—Superchunk and Versus—play a free one at South Street Seaport.

Saturday
Najat Aatabou, a Moroccan party-music queen, gets it going at Avery Fisher Hall. (Read our show preview here.)

A ton of A-list artists, including Stevie Wonder and Aretha Franklin, pay tribute to Nelson Mandela at Radio City Music Hall. (Read our show preview here.)

The Siren Music Festival hits Coney Island with some of indie’s best and brightest, including Built to Spill, Japandroids and Monotonix.

Oxford Collapse plays its last show ever at Collective Hardware. Damn, we liked them.

Nigeria’s famed King Sunny Adé heads up the African Festival at Celebrate Brooklyn at Prospect Park.

The Warped Tour pleases the teen set at Nassau Coliseum.

And for a late night jolt, don’t miss The Very Best at (Le) Poisson Rouge. (Read our feature on them here and our guide to a few of the trio’s choice samples here.)

Sunday
Rock the Bells features performances from Nas with Damian Marley, The Roots, Common and more. The hip-hop fest hits Nikon at Jones Beach—be sure to check out The Alchemist’s performance with Evidence, and read our review of his latest record here.

Necrophagist and Suffocation headline the Summer Slaughter tour. (Read our review of Suffocation’s new one here.)

Alpha Blondy and Lee “Scratch” Perry—a couple of reggae greats—assume control of SummerStage.

And if you’re searching for more indie cred, look no further than the Pool Party, with Dirty Projectors, Magnolia Electric Co. and Crystal Antlers at East River State Park. (Read our recent feature on Dirty Projectors here.)

It’s been a great year for instrumental music that doesn’t fit comfortably into a genre. Recently we’ve seen Beacons of Ancestorship, a spotty but still compelling album from Tortoise, which plays (Le) Poisson Rouge next Tuesday (July 21); Psychic Maps, a jaggedly heavy, richly textural disc from Dysrhythmia, which celebrates the album’s release this Saturday (July 18) at Union Pool; as well as Houseplant, a subtly wistful release from AlasNoAxis, helmed by local avant-jazz drum star Jim Black. Then on September 1 comes The Visitor (Drag City), a typically lush and visionary set from the ever-enigmatic Jim O’Rourke. But maybe the most exciting of 2009’s entire instrumental crop is Central Market, a solo release from Battles member Tyondai Braxton. Stream a track below and read on for more info.

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We’re proud to say that we were relatively early to jump on the bandwagon of Asher Roth, who headlines the Great Hangover Tour at Nokia Theatre Times Square tonight. After extending the impish Pennsylvania MC a shout-out during his mixtape days, we featured him on the eve of his breakthrough release, Asleep in the Bread Aisle. Additionally, we shot some live video at Roth’s last area appearance in April. Check out that footage below and get psyched for this evening’s festivities, at which Roth will be joined by fellow It rapper Kid Cudi.

If you’re not in the hip-hop mood, check out another deafeningly hyped young artist: Nathan “Wavves” Williams—playing at Bowery Ballroom tonight—who has recently seen his life turned into a perverse sort of reality show by the music blogosphere. Drama aside, Williams’s fuzzed-out, hook-filled punk tunes are among the catchiest on the current indie landscape. Opening is psych-folk-ish Volume fave Woods. (Check out our recent Woods Q&A here.)

And if you’re at all attuned to the jazz world, you’ve no doubt read tons of breathless press concerning Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society, hitting (Le) Poisson Rouge tonight. Check out TONY’s take on the self-proclaimed steampunk big band here.

Elsewhere in the city, it’s all about the free, outdoor shows, and there’s something for every taste. Left-field guitar virtuoso Kaki King hits Stuyvesant Town Oval, eccentric jazz nostalgist Don Byron salutes Motown sax powerhouse Junior Walker at Madison Square Park, freestyle mainstays George Lamond and Judy Torres stop by the Bronx’s Crotona Park, and Count Basie associate Frank Foster helms his eponymous big band up at Grant’s Tomb.

At the clubs tonight, women rule. The raging female-fronted metal unit Jucifer takes no prisoners at Cake Shop. Nashville songsmith Sarah Siskind (who recently taped an exclusive outdoor a cappella performance for the Volume) brings her Bon Iver–approved tunes to Joe’s Pub. And thoughtful pop storyteller Aimee Mann takes the stage at City Winery.

It’s also a strong night for Latin-music fans, as Jamaican reggae crooner Beres Hammond performs at BAM Howard Gilman Opera House, and the charismatic Sergent Garcia makes his U.S. debut at S.O.B.’s. Last but not even remotely least, the Jonas Brothers—a little up-and-coming band you may have read about in the pages of TONY—faces the adoring throngs at Izod Center.

Wednesday’s top show pick is Juana Molina, who hits Central Park SummerStage in the company of Curumin. Molina, an experimental-minded singer-songwriter from Buenos Aires, got her start as a comedic actor, so you can safely expect a whimsical vibe to peek through at tonight’s gratis performance. But as you can see from the bizarre video below, Molina’s music also has an enchanting and even vaguely creepy quality. Read Jay Ruttenberg’s preview of the show in the current issue of TONY.

Elsewhere around town, nostalgia reigns. First, there’s a somewhat nonsensical but sure-to-be insanely fun triple bill at Nikon at Jones Beach Theater featuring Def Leppard, Poison and Cheap Trick. (Read Sophie Harris’s preview here.) Another ’80s throwback comes courtesy of veteran Aussie band The Church, which brings its haunting tunes to Fillmore New York at Irving Plaza in the company of Swervedriver’s Adam Franklin. Elsewhere, catch homages to two pinnacles of jazz fusion: Tabla player Badal Roy, bassist Michael Henderson and friends revisit Miles Davis’s future-funk landmark On the Corner in a free show at Nelson A. Rockefeller Park, and the Mahavishnu Project continues its tribute to the incendiary work of guitarist John McLaughlin’s Mahavishnu Orchestra at (Le) Poisson Rouge.

If you’d rather keep an eye on tomorrow’s stars, head to Southpaw, where the white-hot young hip-hop act Tanya Morgan plays in support of its new second full-length. Yesterday, the trio filmed an exclusive freestyle for the Volume—check it out here.

Rounding out tonight’s highlights are a bunch of cool free events: African harpist extraordinaire Madou Sidiki Diabaté at Zuccotti Park; the Friends with Benefits reading series at Bruar Falls, featuring torrid tales from TONY fave Jeffrey Lewis and others; dance-friendly Brazilian outfit Forró in the Dark at Stuyvesant Town Oval; saxist Houston Person at Grant’s Tomb; progressive Canadian bluegrass quintet The Duhks at Madison Square Park; and the Songs for a Summer Night cabaret convocation at Tudor City Greens Park.

NYC songstress Leona Naess brought her velvety tones to (Le) Poisson Rouge last night—and photographer Heami Lee was there to catch the action. Click past the jump for more shots, and take a listen to “Not the Same Girl” from her latest album, Thirteens.

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The venerable Jersey indie legends The Feelies often surface around big holidays. Tonight the band kicks off the July 4th weekend with the first of three shows at Maxwell’s, in Hoboken. If you’re going to see the Feelies, this is the place to do it. Can’t stand the PATH train? There are other shows:

The Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players bring their slides to (Le) Poisson Rouge. Tammy Faye Starlite and Corn Mo share the bill. (Click here to see Rachel Trachtenburg sing about carriage horses while playing the ukulele…and hula-hooping.)

Gabriel Alegria Afro-Peruvian Sextet plays a free show at Tutuma Social Club.

Bay Area punk John Dwyer brings his garage-pop outfit Thee Oh Sees to Glasslands Gallery.

The great jazz pianist Cyrus Chestnut plays Iridium with his trio.

How can you not want to spend more time with the genius mind responsible for this painting? Said artwork—which was recently auctioned off for charity—is the handiwork of none other than Jay Reatard, who has set the indie-rock universe ablaze in recent years with his bilious and mightily impassioned garage pop. You can catch him tonight for free at Stuyvesant Town Oval, where he’s likely to unveil some tuneage from his upcoming Matador full-length, Watch Me Fall. Just make sure not to piss off Mr. Reatard,  lest you end up like the unfortunate security guard caricatured above.

In search of something less raucous? Read on.

Introspective New York–London songwriter Leona Naess hits (Le) Poisson Rouge, in the company of Norah Jones associate Jesse Harris.

Latin-jazz lifer Eddie Palmieri brings his festive Afro-Caribbean Jazz Sextet to Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola.

Floridian outfit Fake Problems plies its gritty folk-punk at Mercury Lounge.

The Roots continue their budget-priced, special-guest-packed residency at Highline Ballroom.

Innovative jazz pianist Myra Melford matches wits with the stellar rhythm team of bassist Mark Dresser and drummer Matt Wilson—in a band collectively known as Trio M—at Smalls.

Contemporary-roots stylings reign as Claire Lynch Band and Missy Raines and the New Hip perform a free show at Madison Square Park.