Music Hall of Williamsburg upcoming shows
RAISE THE ROOF: A Benefit for the Northside Town Hall Community and Cultural Center
Nada Surf (electric) / They Might Be Giants / Charles Bissell (of The Wrens)
special guest DJs
- Venue:
-
Music Hall of Williamsburg
- Date:
- Wed 10/28
- Notes:
- 18+
- Doors: 8:00 PM / Show: 9:00 PM
- $25 advance / $25 day of show / $75 VIP ticket *
- Northside Town Hall
- official website
- The Northside Town Hall Community and Cultural Center is a joint project of two longtime North Brooklyn neighborhood groups, Neighbors Allied for Good Growth (NAG) and The People's Firehouse, Inc (PFI.) Located on the site of the former Engine Company 212 firehouse in Williamsburg, the firehouse will serve as a home for these organizations to continue to serve, organize, and advocate for the community.
PFI will continue to operate programs in housing/property management, tenant advocacy, energy efficiency and home weatherization, fire prevention assistance, workforce development services, computer training, and English as a Second Language.
NAG will operate ongoing programs in the areas of community planning and development, preserving local jobs, improving the State Park (whose establishment NAG led), fighting against low-income tenant displacement and harassment, assuring that local construction is performed safely and legally, and other issues to help preserve and enhance the community.
* VIP tickets include special seating, hors d'ouvres and wine from Red Tail Ridge Winery. (http://www.redtailridgewinery.com)
- Nada Surf
- official website
- myspace
- Nada Surf bring their trademark sense of harmony and musical craftsmanship to 12 of their favorite songs with their latest release, if i had a hi-fi, their first album of covers. Only a group with their wide-ranging and eclectic taste could bring songs from such artists as Kate Bush, Dwight Twilley and the Go-Betweens together into a coherent, intelligent record. hi-fi also includes some intriguingly obscure numbers like Spanish band Mecromina’s “Evolution” and Bill Fox’s power-pop “Electrocution.”
Although a great deal of thought went into the song selections, the band’s intent is not to make an overarching musical statement. Singer-guitarist Matthew Caws says, “We really just wanted to do it organically, whatever we felt like covering in the moment, rather than trying to sum up our influences or something. It’s whatever we were excited about in the months before making it. And I think we got to everything we wanted to.” The result is both inspired and casual, like a conversation with a friend who shares your taste but also pushes your musical boundaries. A vintage Moody Blues tune, the proto-prog tempo-shifting “Question,” shares space with The Soft Pack’s blissfully rudimentary “Bright Side,” Depeche Mode’s grand “Enjoy the Silence,” and experimental music icon Arthur Russell’s terse but sweet “Janine.”
Although the band had just returned from a worldwide tour in support of their 2008 release Lucky, and had looked forward to some time off, if i had a hi-fi mysteriously reenergized them. “The material came together spontaneously,” says Caws. “We'd get together and kick ideas around and soon we had an A list, a B list, a C list.... .” They're particularly proud of the title, which is both a callback to the musical platform of their youth and a palindrome.
if i had a hi-fi was recorded over three weeks in September at Resonate Studios in Austin, TX with long-time collaborator and part-time keyboardist Louie Lino. Fans who attend shows during the spring tour will be able to get their hands on the record before it’s in stores, offering true believers the opportunity for a double-first: hearing the songs for the first time and being able to take them home.
The tour begins March 25th with three “Album Shows” in NYC. On consecutive nights, Nada Surf will perform their three most recent albums: Let Go, The Weight Is A Gift, and Lucky in full, along with songs from if i had a hi-fi, fan favorites and b-sides. The band will then continue on to cover both the East and West coasts.
- They Might Be Giants
- official website
- myspace
- We are a band from Brooklyn that has been around for twenty five years now. Our new album is called The Else.TMBG will be on tour through this summer promoting it and our latest kid’s project "Here Come the 123s". You might not know we got a Grammy a couple of years back for the theme to Malcolm in the Middle, and we do the music for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (we recorded Bob Moulds theme, and wrote and recorded all the bombastic orchestral music with our bombastic orchestral friends).
- Charles Bissell
- Charles Bissell is a member of the indie rock band The Wrens. He writes and sings many of their songs, and plays a mean guitar. Also known as Charles Mexico or, at his solo shows, as “Pedal Boy”. This is because as a solo artist, he playes various songs origianally performed by The Wrens (as well as a few covers of artists ranging from Dire Straits to Shinea O’Connor) simply by singing over looped guitars.
The set up of his live show, in fact, is not dissimilar to that of Andrew Bird. This is partially because one of Bissell’s first live solo shows was supporting Andrew Bird, and he admits to have gotten numerous technical pointers from Bird.
OTHER UPCOMING SHOWS FROM THE BOWERY PRESENTS
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