Marissa Nadler’s Haunting New Album Could Be Her Best

Over the years Marissa Nadler has carved out a deep niche as a purveyor of allusively menacing, atmospheric Nashville gothic rock songs which lean more toward the gothic than to Nashville. Her most recent, self-titled album from last year found her embracing Americana closer than ever, with rewarding results. Her new one, The Sister, reverts to the chilly High Romantic art-rock angst of her 2004 cult classic Ballads of Living and Dying, with a similarly minimalist yet envelopingly ambient sweep. It’s the best thing she’s done since then and it might be the best thing she’s ever done, end of story. Her breathy, expectant voice conveys both apprehension and a resolute, sometimes resigned stoicism. The instrumentation here typically begins spare and severe and builds from there, with echoey layers of vocals set to nimbly fingerpicked acoustic guitar drenched in almost as much reverb as Nadler’s voice, fleshed out with lush washes of synthesizer that add a nebulous Pink Floyd orchestral majesty.

Nadler never hits anything head on: she makes the listener figure out what’s going on via a painterly parade of images. The chilling opening track, The Wrecking Ball Company is loaded with them: “You said you’d leave the wrecking ball to break the cement ’round the heart, the company of mad machines,” she intones somberly. As the song rises and the story of the forsaken woman unwinds, the synth looms in, cold and inescapable. Building from a skeletal classical piano intro and distantly ominous vocalese, Love Again, There is a Fire slowly reveals a woman’s fate, as “Yellow lights and amber clouded over pretty skies, ember after ember.” Likewise, Christine, a deftly fingerpicked twelve-string guitar tune ponders “Some silhouette stuck in the town in between…the sea will surround you,” Nadler insists, as the keyboards make a tidal pool behind her.

Apostle is the closest thing to country here, with the occasional quietly dramatic whoosh of cymbals behind the brooding, deadpan ambience, a bitter tale of dissolution and despair. She follows that with Constantine, a distantly bitter but coyly humorous tale of life on the road and then To a Road, Love, which could be U2 if Nadler decided to flesh out the anthemic changes instead of keeping them terse and simple: when the interlude at the end, with the stark cello, ringing twelve-string and soaring, choir-like synth comes in, the effect is nothing short of magical.

The catchiest, and angriest song here is In a Little Town, a quiet but emotionally searing memoir of childhood and loss in a backwater where you “studied to appease,” or by implication, faced the consequences. The final track is the Siouxsie-esque Your Heart Is a Twisted Vine, Nadler’s voice interpolated within rising and falling, dreampop-flavored washes of electric guitar. There have been so many good albums released this year – who said that the album as art form is dead, huh? – that trying to pick a favorite is like shooting fish in a barrel. But this is the best of the dark ones. Pretty much what you’d expect from an artist who chose the URL songsoftheend when she first put her songs up on myspace all those years ago.

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Imani Uzuri’s Unique Sound Travels Everywhere

There’s a point on Imani Uzuri’s new album where the cello is playing a gypsy horn line over a tango beat as a sitar rings and pings in the background and an otherworldly choir of Balkan gospel voices go up, and up, and up in a swirling, fiery crescendo. That track is called Meet Me at the Station – it starts as a pensive country blues song and expands from there. It’s one of many high points on the aptly titled Gypsy Diaries, due out June 5; Uzuri plays the album release show at 7 on June 1 at Joe’s Pub. As of today, $15 advance tickets are still available but probably going fast.

You could file what Uzuri does under soul music, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. A world traveler and musical omnivore, she blends global styles seamlessly but impactfully. Given the instrumentation on the album – Christian Ver Halen’s acoustic guitar and bass, Todd Isler’s versatile percussion, Neel Murgai’s sitar (!), Kaoru Watanabe’s flute, Tarrah Reynolds’ violin and Marika Hughes’ cello – the songs often build to an unexpected, epic grandeur. Uzuri has a powerful yet nuanced contralto voice that occasionally will reach stratospheric heights, with an ecstatic, gospel-fueled intensity. As dark as the music can be here, her message is one of liberation and self-empowerment. And it’s not prosaic and obtuse like Ani DiFranco, or empty and cliched like Erykah Badu: what Uzuri is after is transcendence. The album begins with a tone poem of sorts that fuses vintage soul with qawwali and ends with a rustic, 19th century style a-cappella field holler. In between there’s acoustic rock, Brazilian, Mediterranean, funk and a lot of blues and soul styles. Several of the songs, particularly the casually funky acoustic flute tune I Sing the Blues work a vamp up to a hypnotic, insistent mantra that Uzuri hammers home, again and again.

The third track, Winter Song grows from a Greek string riff to pensive fingerpicked guitar blues, a lush anthemic chorus lit up by the sitar and finally a sweeping, apprehensive yet ultimately triumphant coda. Likewise, the most rock-oriented track here, Whisperings (We Are One) hits a soaring crescendo with Uzuri’s voice going full force against a south Indian-tinged melody. And the ba-BUMP beat of Gathering, a modern update on a field holler, eventually builds to a mighty wallop as the strings rise with it. There’s also the funky, bossa-inflected flute tune You Know You Love Me, the gorgeously brooding, epic Soul Still Sings, a couple of songs that start sparsely and build to more of Uzuri’s signature mantra vocal riffs, and the dreamy Indian-flavored lullaby I’m Ready. Eclectic enough for you?

Live Music Calendar for NYC for June and July 2012

New July/August calendar is here and constantly being updated. For directions and other information on the venues where these shows are happening, check the exhaustive guide to over 200 New York live music venues at NYMD’s sister blog, Lucid Culture.

Times listed here are set times, not the time doors open – if a listing says “9ish,” that means it’ll probably start later than advertised. Always best to check with the venue for the latest information on set times and door charges, since that information is often posted here weeks in advance. Weekly events first followed by the daily calendar:

Oldschool Chicago style blues guitarist Irving Louis Lattin has a lot of June shows coming up.  He’s at  Terra Blues at 7 PM on 6/1, 6/7, 6/9 and 6/20.

Mondays at the Fat Cat the Choi Fairbanks String Quartet play a wide repertoire of chamber music from Bach to Shostakovich starting at 7.

Mondays starting a little after 7 PM Howard Williams leads his Jazz Orchestra from the piano at the Garage, 99 7th Ave. S at Grove St. There are also big bands here most every Tuesday at 7.

Mondays in June at 9 PM Steven Bernstein’s Millennial Territory Orchestra plays the Stone, $10. They might do their Stone (that’s Sly) or their originals or both or who knows – lots of fun in an intimate space, show up early at 7:30 and catch some of the open rehearsal.

Mondays at the Jazz Standard it’s all Mingus, whether with the Mingus Orchestra, Big Band or Mingus Dynasty: as jazz goes, it’s arguably the most exhilarating show of the week, every week. The first-rate players always rise to the level of the material. Sets 7:30/9:30 PM, $25 and worth it.

Mondays 6/11, 6/18 and 6/25, 8 PM-ish Valerie Kuehne plays Goodbye Blue Monday. Irrepressible, sometimes assaultive, surreal avant-garde cellist/composer/singer and a charismatic performer with a punk edge.

Also Monday nights Vince Giordano’s Nighthawks, a boisterous horn-driven 11-piece 1920s/early 30’s band play Sofia’s Restaurant, downstairs at the Edison Hotel, 221 West 46th Street between Broadway & 8th Ave., 3 sets from 8 to 11, surprisingly cheap $15 cover plus $15 minimum considering what you’re getting. Even before the Flying Neutrinos or the Moonlighters, multi-instrumentalist Giordano was pioneering the oldtimey sound in New York; his long-running residency at the old Cajun on lower 8th Ave. is legendary. He also gets a ton of film work (Giordano wrote the satirical number that Willie Nelson famously sang in Wag the Dog).

Mondays at Tea Lounge in Park Slope at 9:30 PM trombonist/composer JC Sanford books big band jazz, an exciting, global mix of some of the edgiest large-ensemble sounds around. If you’re anybody in the world of big band jazz and you make it to New York, you end up playing here: what CBGB was to punk, this unlikely spot promises to be to the jazz world. No cover.

Mondays at the Vanguard the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra – composer Jim McNeely’s reliably good big band vehicle – plays 9/11 PM, $30 per set plus drink minimum.

Mondays in June, 9:30ish Chicha Libre plays their home turf at Barbes. The world’s most vital, entertaining oldschool chicha band, they blend twangy, often noir Peruvian surf sounds with cumbia and other south-of-the-border styles along with swirling psychedelic jams and deep dub interludes. Show up early because they are insanely popular.

Mondays at 10 PM Gato Loco plays Zirzamin. One venues calls them a “psycho mambo band,” but that doesn’t translate their irrrestibly catchy but dark sound. Based in oldtime 1920s Cuban tunes and beats but with an irreverent current-day sensibility, they’re one of the funnest bands in town right now. Depending on who’s available, they may roll out their low-register unit which includes baritone sax, tuba, baritone guitar and bass.

Also Mondays in June Rev. Vince Anderson and his band play Union Pool in Williamsburg, two sets starting around 11:15 PM. The Rev. is one of the great keyboardists around, equally thrilling on organ or electric piano, an expert at Billy Preston style funk, honkytonk, gospel and blues. He writes very funny, very politically astute, sexy original songs and is one of the most charismatic, intense live performers of our time. It’s a crazy dance party til past three in the morning. Paula Henderson from Burnt Sugar is the lead soloist on baritone sax, with Dave Smith from Smoota on trombone, with frequent special guests.

Tuesdays in June clever, fiery, eclectic Balkan/hip-hop/funk brass maniacs Slavic Soul Party play Barbes at 9. Get there as soon as you can as they’re very popular. $10 cover.

Wednesdays at 9 PM Feral Foster’s Roots & Ruckus takes over the Jalopy, a reliably excellent weekly mix of oldtimey acts: blues, bluegrass, country and swing.

Wednesdays at 9:30 Roosevelt Dime plays their unique mix of oldtimey string band music with a dash of classic 60s soul at Brooklyn Winery, 213 North 8th Street, Williamsburg.

Wednesdays at midnight snarling imaginative lo-fi Bollywood rock band Yankee Bang Bang – who’ve got an intriguing new album out – play Broomies, 921 Broadway in Bushwick.

Thursdays and Fridays in June Bulgarian alto sax star Yuri Yunakov and band play Mehanata starting around 10. One of the most intense and gripping improvisers in gypsy music.

Fridays in June at 9 Naomi Shelton and the Gospel Queens play oldschool 1960s style gospel at the Fat Cat.

Saturdays at 3 PM at Bargemusic there are impromptu free classical concerts, usually solo piano or small chamber ensembles: if you get lucky, you’ll catch pyrotechnic violinist/music director Mark Peskanov and/or the many members of his circle. Early arrival advised.

Saturdays in June, plus June 28 at 4:30 PM Raya Brass Band at Radegast Hall. Their new album Dancing on Roses, Dancing on Cinders is one of the year’s best; they take haunting, intense Balkan vamps and jam them out for minutes on end without any drop in that intensity.

Saturdays eclectic compelling Brazilian jazz chanteuse Marianni and her excellent band at Zinc Bar, three sets starting at 10 PM.

Sundays there’s a klezmer brunch at City Winery, show starts around 11:30 AM – 2 PM, $10 cover, no minimum, lots of good bands.

Sundays from half past noon to 3:30 PM, bluegrass cats Freshly Baked (f.k.a. Graveyard Shift), featuring excellent, incisive fiddle player Diane Stockwell and an A-list of players play Nolita House (upstairs over Botanica at 47 E Houston). Free drink with your entree.

Three Sundays in July: 7/1, 7/8 and 7/15 jazz guitarist Peter Mazza – a subtle and soulful player whom Gene Bertoncini has endorsed – leads a series of intriguing trios at the Bar Next Door, 7:30 PM

Every Sunday the Ear-Regulars, led by trumpeter Jon Kellso and (frequently) guitarist Matt Munisteri play NYC’s only weekly hot jazz session starting around 8 PM at the Ear Inn on Spring St. Hard to believe, in the city that springboarded the careers of thousands of jazz legends, but true. This is by far the best value in town for marquee-caliber jazz: for the price of a drink and a tip for the band, you can see world-famous players (and brilliant obscure ones) you’d usually have to drop $100 for at some big-ticket room. The material is mostly old-time stuff from the 30s and 40s, but the players (especially Kellso and Munisteri, who have a chemistry that goes back several years) push it into some deliciously unexpected places.

Sundays in June at 9 gypsy guitar genius Stephane Wrembel plays Barbes. He’s holding on to the edgy, danceable spirit of Django Reinhardt while taking the style to new and unexpected places. He’s also very popular: get there early.

5/29, 7 PM Mariachi Flor de Toloache frontwoman/violinist Mireya Ramos at Barbes followed at 9 by Slavic Soul Party.

5/29-30 pianist Dave Kikoski (of the Mingus Orchestra) leads a tuneful trio with Ed Howard on bass and Al Foster on drums at the Jazz Standard, 7:30/9:30 PM, $20

5/29, 7:30 PM pianist Timothy Andres plays works by Brahms, Schumann, Ingram Marshall, Ted Hearne, and his own compositions at le Poisson Rouge, $15 adv tix rec.

5/29, 8 PM intense violin/bass/drums improv/atmospheric/assaultive trio Iron Dog at Freddy’s; they’re at Local 269 at 10 on 6/10

5/29, 8 PM the NY New Music Ensemble plays works by Franco Donnatoni, Annelies van Parys, Phillippe Hurel and Gerard Grisey at Merkin Concert Hall, $20/$10 stud.

5/29 purist, guitarishly brilliant, jangly country/psychedelic rock band Chris Erikson and the Wayward Puritans at Rodeo Bar, 9ish

5/29, 10 PM Bang on a Can’s Vicky Chow solo on piano at the Stone, $10.

5/30, 7:30 PM stunningly eclectic classical/Middle Eastern/gypsy/worldbeat string band Trio Tritticali play the album release show for their phenomenal new one at the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music, 58 7th Ave. (corner of Lincoln Pl.), Park Slope, $10/$5 stud.

5/30, 8 PM the Tarras Band – sort of the klezmer equivalent of the Mingus bands – playing the great Dave Tarras’ originals and arrangements at 6th St. Synagogue, $15 incl. a drink.

5/30, 8 PM unpredictably bracing, intense avant garde vocalist/composer Amy X Neuburg at the Stone, $10

5/30 soaring but subtle Americana chanteuse/songwriter Hope Debates & North Forty at Rodeo Bar, 9ish.

5/30, 10:30 PM smart, politically aware newschool bluegrass harmony crew 2/3 Goat at Cafe Steinhof in Park Slope.

5/31, 7 PM the mysterious Tiki Brothers, who play kick-ass psychedelic instrumental versions of 60s rock hits and reinvent surf rock classics, at Rocky Sullivan’s in Red Hook

5/31, 8 PM eclectic Afrobeat band Timbila– who kicked ass at last year’s Howl Festival –  followed by the Hot Sardines playing 20s hot jazz at Barbes.

5/31, 8 PM acclaimed avant garde cellist Cornelius Dufallo plays world premieres by Kinan Azmeh, Paul Brantley and Tim Hodgkinson as well as originals and works by JacobTV, Svjetlana Bukvich-Nichols and Patrick Derivaz at Bargemusic, $35/$30srs/$15 stud.

5/31, 8 PM an intriguing jazz doublebill with the Seung-Hee Han Band feat Frank LoCrasto and Adam Kolker followed at 9:30 by guitarist Mike Baggetta with Jason Rigby on sax, Zack Lober on bass and the inimitable George Schuller on drums at ShapeShifter Lab, 18 Whitwell Placebtw 1st St. and Carroll St., Park Slope

5/31-6/3 legendary European bop trumpeter Tomasz Stanko leads a quartet with Dave Virelles – piano; Thomas Morgan – bass; Gerald Cleaver – drums at the Jazz Standard, 7:30/9:30 PM, $25 ($30 Fri-Sat).

5/31, 8 PM Tammy Faye Starlite’s spot-on, cruelly funny Blondie cover band the Pretty Babies at Maxwell’s, $8

5/31, 8 PM the New Amsterdam Symphony Orchestra plays an eclectic program of Mozart’s Symphony No. 36, Borodin’s In the Steppes of Central Asia and Khachaturian’s Masquerade Suite at Symphony Space, $20.

5/31, 8:30 PM the klezmer-fueled Ayn Sof Arkestra & Bigger Band – NYC’s most exciting original big band jazz ensemble – at 6th St. Synagogue, $10

5/31, 9ish Ashen Keilyn’s long-running, well-loved, jangly, moody indie band Scout at Bowey Electric, $8

5/31 frequently haunting oldtime country and bluegrass with Michaela Anne and the Honeycutters at Rodeo Bar, 9ish.

5/31, 9:30 PM dark acoustic Americana/blues/torch song group the Sometime Boys’ cd release show at the Parkside.

5/31, 10 PM the Gregg August Group does what’s essentially a live rehearsal at the Fat Cat. A powerful, politically aware composer and a smartly melodic player, one of the most interesting four-string guys in jazz

5/31, 10 PM Joe Pug – who’s quickly building a vast catalog of smartly lyrical, fearlessly political Americana/blues songs – at Bowery Ballroom, $13 adv tix rec. Make sure to avoid the putrid couplecore act who play at 9.

6/1-2 American Composers Orchestra’s annual new music readings at the DiMenna Center, 450 W. 37th St, free & open to the public, reservations rec. for the 6/1 working rehearsal and run-throughs on 6/2 feat. new works by Ryan Chase, Peter Fahey, Michael-Thomas Foumai, Paul Kerekes, Pin Hsin Lin, and Benjamin Taylor.

6/1, 5:30 PM oldtime fiddler Jackson Lynch at the American Folk Art Museum, free.

6/1, 6 PM bad segue, good show: eclectic tango/classical clarinet virtuoso Thomas Piercy followed at 8:30 by Canadian darkwave chanteuse NLX at Caffe Vivaldi.

6/1, 7 PM captivating worldbeat chanteuse/songwriter Imani Uzuri plays the cd release for her eclectic new one the Gypsy Diaries at Joe’s Pub, $15 adv tix rec

6/1, 7:30 PM Ukrainian virtuoso Julian Kytasty leads the New York Bandura Ensemble at the Ukrainian Museum, 222 E 6th St. (2nd Ave/Bowery), $15.

6/1, 7:30/9:30 PM Jon Irabagon on saxes with Sean Wayland on Organ and EJ Strickland on Drums at the Bar Next Door

6/1, 8 PM wildly guitar-driven psychedelic female-fronted power trio Devi outdoors at the Grove St. Path train station in Jersey City, free.

6/1, 8 PM an eclectic, amusingoldtime/Americana quadruplebill at the Bell House with Woodpecker, the Gentleman Callers, all-female Dolly Parton cover band Doll Parts and the satirical Menage a Twang, $10.

6/1, 8 PM a good doublebill at the Stone with torchy bossa chanteuse Sasha Dobson solo followed by the unpredictably excellent Trio S: Doug Wieselman on clarinet, Jane Scarpantoni on cello and Kenny Wollesen on drums, $10

6/1, 8 PM 90s NYC underground blues/soul legends King Dice at Kenny’s Castaways.

6/1-2, 8:30/10 PM innovative Finnish sax improviser Mikko Innanen plays with four combos: on 6/1 with Sylvie Courvoisier on piano, then with Ken Filiano on bass and Lou Grassi on drums; on 6/2 with Andrew Cyrille and then a quintet with Steve Swell on trombone at I-Beam, $10 sugg don.

6/1, 9 PM plaintive, powerful, innovative Bosnian accordionist Merima Kljuco joins forces with equally haunting, intense Balkan chanteuse Eva Salina Primack for an evening of Kljuco’s Sevdah Songs cycle, a radical reinvention of centuries-old works at Alwan for the Arts, $20, early arrival highly advised.

6/1, 9 PM Phil Kestra & the Balkan Explosion at Red Hook Bait & Tackle

6/1, 9/10:30 PM intriguing globally-flavored improvisations with Petros Klampanis, bass and compositions; Jean-Michel Pilc, piano; Ari Hoenig, drums; Christos Rafalides, vibraphone at Cornelia St Cafe, $10 + $10 min.

6/1, 9 PM the Two Cent Jazz Band play oldtime swing at Tea Lounge in Park Slope.

6/1, 10 PM well-liked, dynamic powerpop band New Atlantic Youth – with Jesse Katz from the Brooklyn What – at Trash

6/1, 10:30 PM eclectic, soulful B3 organist Jared Gold and trombonist Dave Gibson lead a Quintet at the Fat Cat.

6/1, 11 PM intense, tuneful southwestern gothic rock with the Downward Dogs at the National Underground.

6/1, 11 PM the Pinstripes – one assumes they’re not Red Sox fans – play ska, roots reggae and dub at Two Boots Brooklyn

6/2 organist Christopher Houlihan plays symphonic works by legendary, cutting-edge French composer Louis Vierne to commemorate the 75th anniversary of his death at the Church of the Ascension, 5th Ave. at 10th St. At 3 PM he plays Symphonies 1, 3 and 5; and at 7:30 PM, Symphonies 2, 4 and 6.

6/2, 6ish PM-ish Walter Lure’s ageless punk-powerpop band the Waldos at Tompkins Square Park.

6/2, 7 PM Chicago-style blues guitar monster Bobby Radcliff at Terra Blues.

6/2, 7:30 PM menacing Canadian gothic songwriter Lorraine Leckie and her ferocious, intense band at Otto’s

6/2, 8ish dark Americana/noir/punk chanteuse Raquel Bell followed by eclectic surfy Colombian rockers Il Albanico at Dekalb Market, 138 Willoughby Street at Flatbush Ave, free

6/2, 8 PM the Sima Trio: Sami Merdinian, violin; Ani Kalayjian, cello; Sofya Melikyan, piano with special guests Christine Moore, soprano and Vasko Dukovski, duduk and clarinet play Armenian composers at at Alwan for the Arts, $20.

6/2, 8 PM another good doublebill at the Stone: Nadia Sirota and Clarice Jensen play viola/cello duos followed by guitarist Tony Scherr doing his own stuff solo, $10

6/2 at 8 PM, repeating on 6/3 at 3 PM violinist Mark Peskanov and pianist Nina Kogan play Brahms – Sonatensatz in C minor, WoO 2; Beethoven – Violin Sonata No. 9 in A Major, Op. 47, “Kreutzer”; Schubert – Sonata for Violin and Piano in A Major, D. 574, “Duo” and Sarasate – Carmen Fantasy at Bargemusic, $35/$30 srs./$15stud.

6/2, 8 PM smart Americana jams and tunesmithing: the Strung Out String Band followed at 10 by Megan Palmer at 68 Jay St. Bar.

6/2, 8 PM the reliably adventurous Mivos Quartet and cpmposer collective Wet Ink Ensemble present their first joint concert, featuring works by Sam Pluta, Alex Mincek, and Kate Soper. Mivos play Sam Pluta’s Lyra for amplified string quartet, a meditation on the flickering of stars in the New England night sky, Alex Mincek’s arresting String Quartet No. 3, lift-tilt-filter-split, and Carl Christian Bettendorf’s Il y a l’océan. In addition to the music for quartet, Kate Soper and Joshua Modney will perform Soper’s duo for voice and violin, Cipher, at Issue Project Room, $15

6/2, 8 PM eclectic country, blues and Americana with American String Conspiracy at Freddy’s.

6/2, 8:30 PM art-rocker Pierre de Gaillande and band playing his spot-on English-language versions of Georges Brassens classics at the Jalopy followed by M Shanghai String Band at 10, $10.

6/2, 8:30 PM “a tour of Green-Wood Cemetery led by cemetery historian Jeff Richman. Armed with flashlights and the full moon and accompanied by mystical live accordion music, participants will explore Green-Wood’s catacombs and will visit the final resting places of luminaries including De Witt Clinton, American artist William Holbrook Beard and many others. The tour will also include a visit to Battle Hill where the Battle of Brooklyn was fought in 1776. Participants must bring a flashlight.” 25th Street at 5th Ave, Brooklyn, R train to 25th Street and walk up the hill one block and into the cemetery, $20. Spooky!

6/2, 9 PM Jack Grace’s surreal, funky, late 90s/early zeros jamband Steak is back together and they’re playing at Brooklyn Rod & Gun Club. Come see how hard the Martini Cowboy used to rock: they’re great fun live.

6/2, 9 PM Bad Buka’s “gypsy punk meltdown” at Mehanata, $10.

6/2, 9 PM Unsteady Freddie’s monthly surf rock extravaganza at Otto’s features Connecticut’s terse, purist Clams, Pacifica Roadshow and at 11 powerhouse original reverb rockers Strange But Surf at Otto’s.

6/2, 9 PM a rare acoustic show by Ashen Keilyn’s pensive, brooding jangle/indie band Scout at Full Cup, 388 Van Duzer St. in Staten Island

6/2, 9:45 PM smart, multistylistic jazz-pop/bossa nova chanteuse Sinem Saniye at Caffe Vivaldi

6/2, 10 PM a rare small club show by noir ska ensemble Tri-State Conspiracy at Hank’s.

6/2, 10ish haunting, rustic, gypsy-inflected art-rockers Kotorino at Sycamore Bar, $10.

6/2, 11 PM House of Waters play psychedelic, Middle Eastern-inflected hammered dulcimer worldbeat jams at the big room at the Rockwood

6/3, 3 PM-ish CBGB punk legends the Sic Fucs at Tompkins Square Park

6/3, 3 PM. up-and-coming avant-garde ensemble Face the Music plays Osvaldo Golijov’s Last Round for string ensemble; Steve Martland’s Horses of Instruction, for mixed classical/rock ensemble; Anna Clyne’s short quartet Primula Vulgaris; and Robert Honstein’s Night Mixes, at PS 321, 180 7th Avenue, Park Slope, Brooklyn, $15, all proceeds to benefit the school music program.

6/3, 4:45 PM organist Angela Kraft Cross plays a recital at St. Patrick’s Cathedral

6/3, 7 PM Slavic Soul Party drummer Chris Stromquist’s Raskolnikov brass band with Brandon Seabrook on banjo at Barbes.

6/3, 7 PM satirical 80s cover band the Delorean Sisters acoustic and unanmplified at Sidewalk

6/3, 7:30 PM the Andre Matos Quartet with Jacob Sacks, Dave Ambrosio and Billy Mintz followed by the Frank Carlberg Trio feat. Matt Pavolka and Richie Barshay) at 8:30 and then composer/chanteuse Sara Serpa headlining with her combo: guitarist Andre Matos, pianist Kris Davis, bassist Aryeh Kobrinsky and drummer Dan Dan Weiss at ShapeShifter Lab, 18 Whitwell Pl, Park Slope, Brooklyn.

6/3, 8ish baritone western swing crooner Sean Kershaw at Grand Victory in Williamsburg

6/3, 8:30 PM innovative, hauntingly intense 4-woman Bulgarian a-appella quartet Black Sea Hotel at the big room at the Rockwood, $10.

6/3, 9 PM intense, slashingly Americana songwriter Matt Keating – whose new album may be his best yet – at the small room at the Rockwood

6/3, 9ish Trailer Radio play amusing retro 60s original honkytonk songs at at Rodeo Bar.

6/4 the CCB Reggae All-Stars play the Rocks Off Concert Cruise aboard the Jewel, boarding at 6 at the heliport at 23rd St and the FDR, departing at 7, $30, early arrival advised. They’re also playing one of these on 7/2 as well as one in August and one in September.

6/4, 9ish trippy, twangy Asian psychedelic pop revivalists Dengue Fever at Webster Hall, $30 adv tix rec. at the Mercury Lounge box ofc. open 5-7 PM M-F

6/4, 9ish moody 80s-ish female-fronted neosoul/downtempo band Teletextile at the Cameo Gallery, $10.

6/4, 9 PM an avant evening with cellist Valerie Kuehne plus Lucas Brode, the Jazzfakers and Jason Ajemian at Small Beast upstairs at the Delancey.

6/4, 10 PM torchy eclectic cellist/songwriter Ashia & the Bison Rouge at Union Hall, $8

6/4, midnight-ish noir guitarist par excellence Ben Von Wildenhaus with his Twin Peaks style band at Manhattan Inn in Greenpoint.

6/5, 8 PM a whopper of a veteran LES rock quadruplebill: Lakeside all-stars Los Dudes, legendary and perennially fresh psychedelic punk/dreampop pioneers Band of Outsiders, their friends Certain General and John Cale collaborator/chanteuse Deerfrance with her band at Local 269, free

6/5, 8 PM a killer eclectic songwriter bill with multi-instrumentalist Alice Bierhorst and soaring Britfolk/jazz/janglerock chanteuse Amanda Thorpe at Freddy’s.

6/5, 8 PM legendary reggae crooner Jimmy Cliff at Prospect Park Bandshell. This you won’t get into unless you get there obscenely early, so best to view from outside the arena. And please don’t fall for the beggars asking for the absurd $3 donation – all this is paid for by corporate and taxpayer money many times over.

6/5 8 PM oldtime barrelhouse pianist Drew Nugent & The Midnight Society at Radegast Hall

6/5-9, 8:30/11 PM this era’s premier hot/cool jazzkitten/composer Karrin Allyson at Birdland, $30 tix avail.

6/5, 8:30/10:30 PM soulful B3 grooves: Ed Cherry on guitar with Pat Bianchi on organ and McClenty Hunter on drums at the Bar Next Door, $12.

6/5, 10 PM star violinist Johnny Gandelsman of Brooklyn Rider with percussionist Joseph Gramley at the Stone, $10

6/5-9, 11 PM (quarter to one in the morning on 6/8 and 6/9, or 6/9 and 6/10 if you want to be precise about it) dynamie, imaginative, melodic postbop combo the Flail at Dizzy’s Club, $10 seats avail.

6/6 the Dandy Warhols at the Bell House are sold out

6/6, 6:30 PM the reliably eclectic, edgy Geoff Vidal on saxophone with Sean Conly on bass and Jochen Rueckert on drums at the Bar Next Door, free

6/6, 8 PM noir guitarist Ben von Wildenhaus does a live collaboration with video artists House Plants at Cantina Royale, 58 N. 3rd St at Wythe Ave, Williamsburg, $7.

6/6, 8/10 PM Brad Mehldau and Mark Guiliana do a rare piano/drums duo at the Stone, $25, early arrival highly advised for this intimate show.

6/6, 10 PM roaring, tuneful Link Wray-inspired hotrod and surf instrumentals with the Howlin Thurstons at Fontana’s, $7

6/7, noon, Larry Graham & Graham Central Station at Metrotech Park in downtown Brooklyn, free. Reputedly the pantheonic bassist from Sly Stone’s band is every inch as dangerous as he was 40+ years ago.

6/7, half past noon pianist Arturo O’Farrill leads a slightly smaller than usual latin jazz combo at St. Mark’s Park, 2nd Ave/10th St.

6/7 comedic chanteuse Jessica Delfino presents the NY Funny Songs Fest, something that deserves to exist. Day 1 is at 6 PM at Lolita Bar, 266 Broome St, cover is $8. It continues on 6/10 with two shows at 2 and 4:30 PM at Culturefix for $10.

6/7, 6 PM Face the Music (NYC schools supergroup of up-and-coming new music talent plays Steve Reich’s Double Sextet and Steve Martland’s Horses of Instruction at Washington Square Park.

6/7, 7 PM the reliably fun self-explanatory NY Funk Exchange at Toshi’s Living Room in the Flatiron Hotel, 9 W 26th St, free. They’re also at Groove on 6/19 and 6/20 at 9.

6/7, 7ish a “survivors of Max’s Kansas City” night with what’s left of the Shirts followed eventually by the Sic Fucs at Bowery Electric, $15 adv tix rec.

6/7, 7 PM leaders of the 90s hip-hop school Sean Price of the Boot Camp Clik, Buckshot and Smif n Wessun at Betsy Head Park, 865 Boyland St, Brownsville, Brooklyn, C to Rockaway Ave.

6/7, 7:30 PM American Modern Ensemble plays Robert Paterson’s furtive, noir, cinematic suite Sextet along with travel-inspired pieces by John Adams, Steve Reich, Erik Friedlander and Billy Strayhorn at Merkin Concert Hall, $10

6/7, 7:30 PM percussionist/composer Eli Keszler with Anthony Coleman, organ and celeste; Ashley Paul, saxes and clarinet; Alex Waterman, cello; Spencer Yeh, violin; Catherine Lamb, viola; Geoff Mullen, guitar; and Reuben Son, bassoon play the album release show for Keszler’s ambitious new site-specific piece L-Carrier at Eyebeam Art & Technology Center, 540 W. 21st St. in NYC, between 10th and 11th Aves. and streaming live at www.turbulence.org/works/l-carrier. The installation will remain on display through 6/23. Careful! A spycam is involved in the live performance!

6/7, 8 PM charismatic, intense, inscrutably hilarious purist retro songwriter/accordionist/improviser Rachelle Garniez at Barbes followed at 10 by klezmer/bluegrass alchemist Andy Statman ($10).

6/7, 8 PM a characteristically epic, tuneful JC Sanford doublebill with Triocracy: JC Sanford – trombone, compositions; Andy Laster – alto sax, bari sax, clarinet; Chris Bacas – tenor sax, soprano sax, clarinet and then the JC4 with Sanford plus Mike Baggetta – guitar, pedals; Dave Ambrosio – bass; Russ Meissner – drums at the Firehouse Space, 246 Frost St. at Bushwick Ave., L to Graham Ave. $10

6/7, 8 PM high-energy cowpunks I’ll Be John Brown at Spike Hill.

6/7, 8:30/10:30 an all-star multigenerational jazz guitar summit with Tosh Sheridan, Gene Bertoncini and John Stowell at the Bar Next Door, $12.

6/7, 9 PM the rambunctious oldime Baby Soda Jazz Band at Radegast Hall

6/7, 10 PM Amsterdam gypsy jazz band the Secret Swing Society at the Jalopy, $10.

6/7, 11ish Jean Grae – the greatest female hip-hop artist of all time? Maybe – at Public Assembly, $10.

6/7, midnight, legendary all-female funk-punk band ESG’s reputedly last-ever NYC show at le Poisson Rouge, $20 adv tix rec.

6/8, 6ish dark, intensely lyrical pianist/songwriter Jodi Shaw at the American Folk Art Museum, free.

6/8, 7 PM saxophoist Nick Hempton leads his quartet through an edgy, wickedly tuneful mix of postbop originals at the Fat Cat.

6/8, 7 PM trombonist David White’s Jazz Orchestra at Something Jazz Club, $10

6/8, 8 PM one of the year’s best doublebills: noir Americana songwriter Eilen Jewell followed by third-wave surf legends Los Straitjackets at City Winery, $18 standing room avail.

6/8, 8 PM country blues guitar star Thomasina Winslow at the Good Coffeehouse at the Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture, 53 Prospect Park West, $15 ($6 for kids)

6/8, 8 PM oldtime fiddle duo Brittany Haas (of Crooked Still), and Lauren Rioux (from Republic of Strings) followed at 9:30 PM by grasscore trio the Tillers at the Jalopy, $10

6/8-9, 8 PM eclectic, hypnotic Iranian-American multi-instrumentalist songwriter Fared Shinafury (of Austin freak-folk ensemble Tehranosaurus) at Zirzamin, $35

6/8, 8 PM Yasiin Bey (FKA Mos Def), Leslie Uggams and members of the Brooklyn Philharmonic play works by Bey, Cole Porter, Rogers & Hart, Fats Waller, Harold Arlen, plus Beethoven and the Beethoven Remix Project at Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Plaza, 1368 Fulton St., Brooklyn, free.

6/8, 9 PM a roots reggae doublebill with the psychedelic dub/latin sounds of El Pueblo followed at 10 by Random Test at Shrine

6/8, 9ish the twisted funny retro 60s country stylings of the Jack Grace Band at Rodeo Bar. 6/9 they’re at 68 Jay St. Bar at 8.

6/8, 9 PM edgy satirical punk-pop rockers Witches in Bikinis, with their costumes and choreography and shtick and new songs, followed  eventually at 11 by the similarly edgy, female-fronted, keyboard-driven punk band Ingrid & the Defectors at Local 269

6/8, 9:30 PM two sax-and-drums instrumental funk powerhouse Moon Hooch plays two shows (separate admission) at 9:30 and then 1 AM (actually early morning of 6/9) at the Knitting Factory, $10 adv tix highly advised.

6/8-9, 10 PM saxophonist Ralph Bowen plays the cd release show for his unexpectedly subtle, cool new one Total Eclipse with Freddie Bryant – guitar , Jared Gold – organ , Donald Edwards – drums at Smalls

6/8, 10 PM the Breakers play “50s and 60s surf” at Two Boots Brooklyn

6/8-9, 10 PM Irish drinking music par excellence with Shilelagh Law at Connolly’s

6/8, 10 PM accordionist Rob Curto’s forro group at Barbes.

6/8, midnight, oldschool soul/funk band Empire Beats fronted by sultry chanteuse Camille Atkinson at the small room at the Rockwood.They’re also at the Parkside on 6/26 at 9 and then at Otto’s on 6/29 at midnight.

6/8, half past midnight (actually wee hours of 6/9) psychedelic funk orchestra Turkuaz at Sullivan Hall, $10.

6/9, 3 PM the wildly eclectic, jam-oriented Metropolitan Klezmer at the NYPL 67th St branch, 328 E 67th St (1st/2nd Aves); 6/14 they’re at St. Mark’s Park, 2nd Ave/10th St. at half past noon

6/9, 7:30 PM eclectic East African siren/bandleader Alsarah & the Nubatones followed by Malian/Cuban collaboration Afrocubism at Prospect Park Bandshell.

6/9, 8 PM a benefit for paralyzed producer Scotty Hard at the Brooklyn Bowl with stoner funkster Little Shalimar plus Afrobeat bands Emefe, Antibalas and more, $15 adv tix rec.

6/9, 8 PM a rare small club show by popular tango nuevo/pop star Federico Aubele at the Stone, $10

6/9, 8:30 PM satirical metalish Yiddish Princess and Sephardic rockers Deleon at Union Hall, $8.

6/9, 9 PM vaudevillian gypsy rockers Caravan of Thieves at the 92YTribeca, $12 adv tix rec.

6/9, 9/10:30 PM saxophonists Sam Newsome and Dave Liebman join forces with a quartet at Cornelia St. Cafe, $15 + $10 min

6/9, 9:20 PM psychedelic Middle Eastern/Balkan/Asian jamband Tribecastan at Drom, $20.

6/9, 9:30ish badass oldtime blues singer/resonator guitarist Mamie Minch plus subtly amusing, lyrical Americana rock duo Kill Henry Sugar at Sycamore Bar, $10.

6/9, 9:30 PM oldschool soul from the late 60s with JC Brooks & the Uptown Sound at Maxwell’s, $10

6/9, 10:30 PM smart, lushly orchestrated 70s style art-rock with Igor’s Egg at Sullivan Hall, $10.

6/9, 11:30 PM dark 80s inflected rockers Exit Clov at the big room at the Rockwood.

6/9, midnight, at Arlene’s, a Max’s Kansas City reunion show that actually doesn’t suck! The Vanilla Queen of Soul, Joy Rider followed by Tally Tyrone’s Sovereign Lords with Phoebe Legere, Gina Harlow & the Cutthroats and at 2 AM Band of Outsiders, who just played a killer show at Local 269, $5

6/10, 2 (two) PM cellist Matt Haimovitz and his 8-cello ensemble Uccello play music by Ellington, Mingus, Miles Davis, Gershwin and others at Bargemusic, $35/$30 srs./$15stud.

6/10, 3 PM Bang on a Can All-Stars bassist extraordinaire Robert Black and the Hartt Bass Band – 8 bull fiddles, wow! – playing David Lang’s I Feel Pretty & Bristle; Michael Gordon’s Paint it Black; Evan Ziporyn’s Hval; and Julia Wolfe’s Stronghold at the Noguchi Museum, 9-01 33rd Rd. at Vernon Blvd. in Long Island City, free w/museum adm ($10/$5 stud). N/Q to Broadway or F to Queensbridge/21st St.

6/10, 8ish Talib Kweli at Von King Park, Bed-Stuy, G to Myrtle-Willoughby.

6/10, 8:30 PM drummer Dan Weiss leads an intriguing melodic jazz trio with Jacob Sacks, piano and Thomas Morgan, bass at Cornelia St. Cafe, $10 + $10 min

6/10, 9 PM eclectic country blues powerhouse Blind Boy Paxton at the Jalopy, $10.

6/10, 9ish the NYCity Slickers play their soaring, harmony-driven bluegrass at Rodeo Bar.

6/10, 10 PM terse, intense jazz guitarist Julian Lage at the Stone, $10, early arrival a must, this will sell out even if it’s a solo show.

6/10, 10 PM eclectic honkytonk/Texas zydeco band the Doc Marshalls at the Mercury, $10.

6/11, 7 PM edgy saxophonist/composer Benjamin Drazen leads a quartet at 55 Bar

6/11, 10 PM NYC’s creepiest, most intense noir cinematic band Beninghove’s Hangmen at Spike Hill.

6/11, 11ish irresistibly assaultive noiserockers the Sediment Club at Death by Audio, $7.

6/11, midnight the twisted funny retro 60s country stylings of the Jack Grace Band at at the Ear Inn

6/12, 5:30 PM bassist Gregg August may be best known for his work in JD Allen’s pbands, but he’s also a brilliant, socially aware composer – he leads his quintet on the plaza out back of the World Financial Center

6/12, 6-9 PM it’s the Museum Mile Festival – free admission at a whole slew of museums starting at 103rd St.

6/12, 7 PM alt-country pioneer (and brilliant, eclectic guitarist) Robbie Fulks at Barbes followed at 9 by Slavic Soul Party ($10).

6/12, 7:30 PM hypnotic, intense minimalist avant piano/strings/percussion ensemble Build at Drom, $10

6/12, 8 PM Margaret Leng Tan plays Satie and Satie-inspired composers on toy piano at Roulette, $15.

6/12, 8ish reggae crooner Bushman at Von King Park, Bed-Stuy, G train to Myrtle-Willoughby.

6/12 and also 6/19, 8:30 PM star bassist Omer Avital & Band of the East: Itamar Borochov – trumpet , Greg Tardy – tenor sax , Nadav Remez – guitar , Daniel Friedman – drums at Smalls

6/12, 9ish clever, endlessly entertaining purist powerpop siren Patti Rothberg at Rodeo Bar.

6/12, 9:30 PM tango-influenced big band sounds with the Pedro Giraudo Jazz Orchestra at Joe’s Pub, $15 adv tix rec.

6/12, 10ish charismatic, original Americana songwriter Alex Battles at Sycamore Bar, $10 – might be your last chance to see him in NYC for awhile

6/13, 6:30 PM Lichtman’s Brain Cloud play western swing outdoors on the plaza at the Brooklyn Public Library at Grand Army Plaza, free.

6/13, 7:30 PM reliably eclectic virtuoso pianist/impresario Alexandra Joan’s Kaleidoscope Series concludes this season with a jazz-centric show featuring saxophonist Timothy Hayward, guitarist Peter Mazza and bassist Thomson Kneeland and at WMP Concert Hall, $20.

6/13, 8 PM guitar duo summit: Jim Campilongo and Steve Cardenas at 8, Anthony Wilson and Julian Lage at the Stone, $10.

6/13, 9 PM smart, literate, oldtime western noir songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Karen Dahlstrom at LIC Bar

6/13, 9 PM the reliably boisterous, smartly entertaining oldtimey Two Man Gentlemen Band celebrate their new album of drinking songs at Joe’s Pub, $12 adv tix very highly rec.

6/13 agelessly edgy, funky, politically spot-on filmmaker/bandleader Melvin Van Peebles w/Laxative at Zebulon 9 PM

6/13, 9ish tongue-in-cheek, period-perfect early 50s style country from Susquehanna Industrial Tool & Die Co. at Rodeo Bar.

6/13, 9 PM the Chicken Barn Heroes play bluegrass followed at 11 by eclectic, funky, edgy lyrical rocker Avi Fox-Rosen and band at the Way Station in Ft. Greene

6/13, 9 PM high-energy oldtime swing and blues with Jessy Carolina & the Hot Mess at Radegast Hall.

6/13, 9 PM an Americana doublebill with the Desert Stars’ Carrie Ashley Hill and This Frontier Needs Heroes at Teddy’s, Berry & N 8th., Williamsburg

6/13, 10 PM low-key, absolutely authentic oldschool singer Naomi Shelton and the Gospel Queens at Littlefield, $10.

6/13, 10:30 PM swirling, psychedelic, anthemic Radiohead-influenced rockers My Pet Dragon at the big room at the Rockwood

6/14, noon, pianist Arturo O’Farrill and the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra at Metrotech Park in downtown Brooklyn, free.

6/14, half past noon, sizzling, eclectic, jam-oriented worldbeat/klezmer band Metropolitan Klezmer at St. Mark’s Park, 2nd Ave/10th St.

6/14, 7ish purist jazz guitarist Nick Moran leads a trio at the Garage Restaurant

6/14, 8 PM EPMD – Erick & Parrish still making a least a few dollars – at Von King Park, Bed-Stuy, G to Myrtle-Willoughby

6/14-15, 8 PMish long-running, influential 90s “postrock” band Mogwai at Webster Hall, $35 tix avail. at the Irving Plaza box office.

6/14, 9 PM oldtimey close harmony country band the Weal and Woe, and noir folk band Thee Shambels at Teddy’s, Berry & N 8th., Williamsburg

6/14, 8 PM Kenny Wollesen (drums), Brandon Seabrook (guitar), Eivind Opsvik (bass), Tony Malaby (sax), Jacob Sacks (piano, organ), followed by Seabrook’s banjo project Seabrook Power Plant at 10 at the Stone, $10.

6/14, 8:30 PM Jacob Sacks’ and Jacob Garchik’s often haunting third-stream 4Twenty quartet at I-Beam, $10 sugg don. Followed by drummer Jeff Davis’ quartet with Jason Rigby on tenor

6/14, 9 PM haunting, female-fronted Turkish Balkan band Dolunay followed by ten-piece Balkan powerhouse Veveritse Brass Band at the Jalopy, $10.

6/14, 9 PM ageless Chicago blues guitar icon Matt Guitar Murphy at Lucille’s, 9 PM, $20 adv tix rec.

6/14 cumbia stars Chico Trujillo at SOB’s, 9 PM, $20.

6/14, 9 PM Laura Marling at Prospect Park Bandshell. Recommended with several caveats: the place will be crawling with yuppies and trendoids, and as pleasant and purist as the Britfolk chanteuse is, she’s not worth sitting through two hot, terminally boring hours of Willy Mason and Michael Kiwanuka. Although some of the yuppies’ puppies might start whining, in which case they might leave and there might be room for you. But maybe not.

6/14, 10 PM inscrutable cellist/multi-instrumentalist/siren Serena Jost and her band at Barbes

6/14, 10ish wild, humungous gypsy band Mucca Pazza at Public Assembly, $14.

6/14, 10 PM country blues duo the Dough Rollers at Union Hall, $8

6/14, 11:30 PM psychedelic, horn-driven reggae crew Ilamawana at Sullivan Hall, $10.

6/15, 6 PM smart, tuneful groove jazz crew the Undigables at 55 Bar

6/15, 8 PM oldschool honkytonk and fiery psychedelic paisley underground rock with the Newton Gang, followed by Thee Shambels and then this generation’s finest country voice, Laura Cantrell at the Jalopy, $10 incl. free beer 8-9 PM.

6/15, 8 PM Hannah vs. the Many play sharply literate, angry, individualistic, tuneful female-fronted powerpop and noir cabaret at Arlene’s.

6/15, 8ish Raya Brass Band plus slinky, haunting gypsy crew Luminescent Orchestrii – who’re recording a live album tonight at Rock Shop in Gowanus.

6/15, 8 PM haunting, rustic and eclectic gypsy/klezmer/flamenco sounds with the Ljuba Davis Ladino Ensemble feat. oud genius Avram Pengas at Drom, $10 adv tix rec.

6/15, 8 PM the effervescent, theatrical, badass oldtimey Ukuladies at Barbes followed at 10 by Nation Beat bandleader Scott Kettner’s Orgy in Rhythm maracatu project.

6/15, 8 PM brilliant, unique, soaring Americana-influenced, sometimes psychedelic rock chanteuse Lianne Smith opens for the DB’s at le Poisson Rouge

6/15, 8 PM the oldtimey Freegrass Union and Americana songwriter Rick Snell at Teddy’s, Berry & N 8th., Williamsburg

6/15, 9 PM haunting, atmospheric gothic Americana chanteuse Marissa Nadler at Union Hall, $12. She’s at Joe’s Pub on the 16th an hour earlier and for three bucks more.

6/15, 9 PM reliably charming, politically edgy Hawaiian swing/torch jazz band the Moonlighters at Brooklyn Rod & Gun Club.

6/15, 9/10:30 PM redoubtably tuneful pianist/composer Kris Davis leads a trio with Michael Formanek, bass and Nasheet Waits, drums at Cornelia St. Cafe, $10 + $10 min.

6/15, 9/10:30 PM virtuoso trumpeter Jonathan Finlayson & his two-trumpet quintet Sicilian Defense at the Jazz Gallery, $20

6/15, 9:30 PM popular Americana rockers the Felice Bros. at the Brooklyn Bowl, $20

6/15, 10 PM Royal Khaoz play roots reggae at Shrine.

6/15, 11 PM Steely Dan-ish original funk band Otis – whose latest album Music Elevator is amazing – at the big room at the Rockwood.

6/16, 1-5 PM a street fair on Atlantic Ave. with the Balkan ferocity of Raya Bass Band; brand-new all-female Brazilian percussion orchestra Batala NYC, and the funky New Orleans-flavored Underground Horns, plus the Brooklyn Steppers Marching Band serenading a “ribbon cutting ceremony” for the new “business improvement district” which is usually synonymous with hello Starbucks and Walmart, bye-bye neighborhood.

6/16, 3 (three) PM a daylong Americana show at the Jalopy with blues guitar powerhouse Will Scott, Low & the Lonesome, the Dirt Floor Revue, Nikki Sue & the Bad News, the haunting oldtimey Michaela Anne and band at 7, dark acoustic Nashville gothic crew Frankenpine at 8, the Newton Gang doing the cd release show for their long-awaited new one at 9, the High Irons at 10 and the Grand Prospect at 11. Whew.

6/16, 3 PM string quintet Cyrene – which is quartet Brooklyn Rider plus an extra cello – play a musical interpretation of 12th century Persian poet Nezami’s Layla and Majnun, a sort of percursor to Romeo and Juliet with music by music by Colin Jacobsen, Giovanni Sollima, Henry Purcell, and Vartabed Komitas plus traditional Armenian and Persian melodies at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, $15 (your ticket also includes admission to the museum if you feel like a treat for the eyes before or after).

6/16, 5 PM the core of retro Franco-American chamber pop band les Chauds Lapins: Kurt Hoffman – alto clarinet; Meg Reichardt – banjo ukulele; Karen Waltuch – viola; Mary Wooten – cello; Ray Parker – contrabass plus special guests play a new composition by Hoffman (former chief Ordinaire), “a musical twilight dwindling into dark, with a trio of low strings as the centerpiece, with other instruments coming and going,” at Valentine Gallery, 464 Seneca Ave, Ridgewood, Queens, L train to DeKalb, or M train to Seneca Ave.

6/16, 5 PM oldschool 60s style soul band the One and Nines – whose frontwoman Vera Sousa is a pyrotechnic, intense presence – at the Exchange Place Pier on the river in Jersey City, the allday festival starts at 3:30 for $15

6/16, 6:30 PM eclectic, raw, ecstatic worldbeat triplebill with the Brazilian/C&W Nation Beat, cumbia stars Chico Trujillo and perennially popular Balkan Beat Box at Prospect Park Bandshell, get there on time.

6/16, 7:15 PM SisterMonk’s intense worldbeat jam funk/punk at Caffe Vivaldi.

6/16 literate noir NYC rock legend LJ Murphy with his careening, bluesy band at Otto’s, 7:30 PM

6/16, 8 PM feral, intense neoromantic/avant Argentinian pianist Fernando Otero leads a quartet at le Poisson Rouge, $15 adv tix rec.

6/16, 8ish noir cabaret/new wave rock chanteuse Lucy Foley and band plus worldbeat jamband Plastic Beast at Freddy’s

6/16, 8 PM the Cannabis Cup Reggae Band and politically-fueled French-African reggae legend Tiken Jah Fakoly at the Apollo Theatre, $25 tix still available at the box office, get ’em now.

6/16, 8 PM Caitlin Cannon & the Artillery – who put a dreampop spin on Americana – at Teddy’s, Berry & N 8th., Williamsburg

6/16, 8:30 PM clever, amusing, sometimes satirical Chicago oldtimey/Americana/indie band Dastardly at the Mercury, $10

6/16, 9ish period-perfect female-fronted dark new wave band the Foxx at Death by Audio, $7

6/16, 9:30 PM haunting Turkish worldbeat jazz with the Senem Diyici Mavi Yol 4tet at Drom, $10 adv tix highly rec

6/17 this year’s Bang on a Can Marathon starts at noon at the World Financial Center.

Sundays 6/17 and 6/24, 2 PM the NY Scandia Symphony – dedicated to popularizing brilliant obscurities from the Nordic nations – plays on the lawn below the Heather Gardens at Ft. Tryon Park uptown (use the 193rd St entrance). 6/17 they play the world premieres of Pelle Gudmondsen-Holmgreen’s Overture for Strings and Andrew Ackers’ Northern Lights plus Johan Helmich Roman’s Symphony Concertante; the 6/24 show features the Scandia Brass Quintet playing works by Esko Heikkinen, Vagn Homboe, Hans Abrahamsen and Edvard Grieg.

6/17, 4 PM soaring, intense original Americana with Jan Bell & the Maybelles at LIC Bar, outdoors in the back garden

6/17, 4:45 PM organist Andrew Peters plays a recital at St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

6/17, 6ish the funky, hip-hop influenced Underground Horns at the Dekalb Market, 138 Willoughby St., downtown Brookyn, free

6/17, 7 PM Balkan/klezmer mandolinist Avi Avital at Barbes followed at 9 by gypsy guitar paradigm-shifter Stephane Wrembel.

6/17, 7:30 PM fun lo-fi Wisconsin punks the Hussy at Otto’s

6/17, 9ish hilarious, eclectically satirical cowpunk rockers Uncle Leon & the Alibis at Rodeo Bar.

6/17, 9 PM original psychedelic funk band Mamarazzi at the big room at the Rockwood

6/18, 9 PM wickedly tuneful hip-hop/funk group Hypnotic Brass Ensemble plays a rare gig with their dad, 60s Chicago free jazz legend Kelan Phil Cohran at Highline Ballroom, $15 adv tix rec.

6/18, 9 PM torchy Brazilian band Navivan with special extra percussion from the wild Batucada troupe at Karma, 51 1st Ave., free.

6/18, 10ish haunting noir Americana songwriter/chanteuse Kerry Kennedy upstairs at the Delancey

6/19, 5:30 PM pyrotechnic virtuoso Colombian harpist Edmar Castaneda on the plaza at the World Financial Center. He’s also at One New York Plaza at 6/21 at 5 (five).

6/19, 7:30/9:30 PM bassist/composer Linda Oh leads a quartet with Dayna Stephens – tenor saxophone; Fabian Almazan – piano and Rudy Royston – drums at the Jazz Standard, $20. That rhythm section alone is enticing.

6/19, 7:30 PM the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra plays Grieg’s Holberg Suite plus Romanian folk dances arranged by Bartok along with works by Rossini and Mozart at the Naumburg Bandshell in Central Park, early arrival advised if you want a seat.

6/19, 8:30 PM edgy chamber-pop/jangle/indie band Bern & the Brights at Bowery Electric, $8

6/20, 6:30 PM the Cassatt String Quartet play a program of nocturnes including Night by Ernst Bloch; Cypresses (excerpts) by Antonin Dvorak; Quiet Time (excerpts) by Sebastian Currier; Nocturne from Qt. 2 by Alexander Borodin; Restless Nation (excerpts) by Andy Teirstein; Lullaby by George Gershwin at the Hayden Planetarium, $15

6/20, 6:30 PM bassist Katie Thiroux and her Quartet play swing jazz outdoors on the plaza at the Brooklyn Public Library at Grand Army Plaza, free.

6/20, 7 PM the Philip Glass Ensemble at Rockefeller Park at Chambers St. and the river.

6/20 popular Americana songwriter James Maddock at Madison Square Park, 7 PM.

6/20, 8:30 PM irrepressible, cerebral, tuneful third-stream improvisation with Jean-Michel Pilc, piano; Francois Moutin, bass; Ari Hoenig, drums at Cornelia St. Cafe, $TBA.

6/20, 9 PM catchy, lyrically edgy female-fronted powerpop/new wave band Changing Modes at Trash. One of NYC’s best bands, with a characteristically tuneful, intense new album out.

6/20, 9ish torchy Americana chanteuse Megan Reilly at Rodeo Bar.

6/20, 9:30 PM Americana singer/bandleader Alana Amram & the Rough Gems followed by Nashville gothic siren Emily Jane White at Glasslands, $10, be aware that it will be hot and unairconditioned here.

6/20, 10ish smart, tuneful female-fronted powerpop band Delusions of Grand Street play the ep release show for their new one at Bowery Electric, $8.

6/21 is the ostensibly all-day busk-a-thon Make Music NY. Lately the trend has been that bands reserve space for the day and play at night. The whole schedule is here: check out who’s in your neighborhood or playing on your walk to the train.

6/21, half past noon oudist Jeff Peretz and Abu Gara at St. Mark’s Park, 10th St./2nd Ave.

6/21, 2 PM indie classical outfit Cadillac Moon Ensemble play works by Eric Allen, Ed Rosenberg III, and André Brégégère at Battery Park

6/21, 4 PM furry-suited ragtime band the Xylopholks, Indian classical Carnatic Ensemble and the Prokofiev Sonata for 20 Violins performed live outside Cornelia St. Cafe

6/21, 7 PM latin jazz hall of famer Eddie Palmieri and band at Rockefeller Park.

6/21, 8 PM the Van Allen Belt play noirishly orchestrated Phil Spector/David Lynch girl group pop at Goodbye Blue Monday free; 6/22 they’re at Lit at 9 for $6. They’re also at the Cameo Gallery on 7/9 at 9.

6/21, 8 PM Indian mandolinist Snehasish Mozumder and his worldbeat group at Barbes followed at 10 by 10-piece psycho mambo band Gato Loco.

6/21, 8 PM Empire Beats feat. soul chanteuse Camille Atkinson at the playground on W 46th St btwn 9th & 10th Aves.

6/21, 8 PM Daniel Stampfel (ex-Inevitable Breakups) leads his new powerpop band at Fontana’s

6/21, 8:30 PM Afrobeat funksters Zongo Junction followed eventually by retro soul crooner Eli Paperboy Reed at the Bell House, $12 adv tix rec.

6/21, 8:30 PM hot jump blues and oldtime jazz with the Boilermaker Jazz Band at the Lincoln Center Atrium, free, early arrival advised

6/21, 9 PM the Pearly Snaps a.k.a. fiddler Steph “Pearly” Jenkins and banjoist Rosie “Snap” Newton at the Jalopy, $10.

6/21, 9ish torchy, smart oldtimey band the Dirty Urchins at the Hive, 10 Cook St., Bushwick

6/21, 10ish noir/noiserock legend Steve Wynn and then the ageless garage-rocking Fleshtones at Bowery Electric, $12 adv tix rec.

6/21, 10:45 PM haunting, intense Lebanese-French trumpeter/composer Ibrahim Maalouf with his ensemble at Drom, free w/rsvp to (212) 777-1157.

6/22, 7 PM the Compared to That Big Band playing Middle Eastern-flavored jazz at Something Jazz Club, $10/$10 min.

6/22 ageless third-wave ska/soul band the Slackers play the Rocks Off Concert Cruise aboard the Harbor Lights, boarding at 7 at the heliport at 23rd St and the FDR, departing at 8, $30 adv tix. avail. at the Highline Ballroom box office

6/22, 8 PM art-rocker Pierre de Gaillande and band playing his spot-on English-language versions of Georges Brassens classics at Barbes followed at 10 by ten-piece bhangra funk orchestra Brooklyn Qawwali Party.

6/22, 8 PM avant garde Javanese sounds with Gamelan Son of Lion playing Barbara Benary: The Braid Pieces, Aural Shoehorning; David Demnitz: Either/Or-Or/Either; Philip Corner: Gamelan Adagio; Daniel Goode: Hear the Sound of Random Numbers at Issue Project Room, $15.

6/22 9 PM cutting-edge jazz/Middle Eastern trumpeter Amir ElSaffar and his Two Rivers Ensemble play his richly intense, groundbreaking Inana Suite – vividly and darkly inspired by the Persian goddess of love and warfare – in its entirety at Alwan for the Arts, $20, this will sell out, early arrival advised

6/22, 9 PM eclectic Colombian surf/soundtrack/funk band Il Albanico at BAM Cafe

6/22, 9 PM grasscore/jamband the Infamous Stringdusters at the Brooklyn Bowl, $12.

6/22, 9 PM high-energy oldtimey Americana band Holy Ghost Tent Revival at Union Hall, $10.

6/22, 9 PM jangly Big Star/Neil Young rock with the Nu-Sonics at Local 269

6/22, 9 PM high-energy Mexican folk-punk band Radio Jarocho at the Jalopy, $10.

6/22, 11 PM dark intense minimalist occasionally Middle Eastern-inflected indie rockers the Mast at Littlefield, $10

6/22, 11:30 PM the Mynabirds with their politically fueled female-fronted American/folk rock at the Mercury, $15.

6/23, 4 PM ferocious, smart psychedelic power trio Devi at the Jersey City crafts fair at Parlay Studios on 2nd & Provost, free

6/23, 7 PM Haley Bowery & the Manimals play the cd release show for their sardonic, hard-hitting new retro glamrock album at Webster Hall, $10

6/23, 8 PM Llama plays psychedelic original oldschool salsa at Barbes.

6/23, 8 PM one of the current avant garde’s most original and melodically interesting composers, Annie Gosfield solo on keyboards at the Stone, $10

6/23, 8 PM, repeating on 6/24 at 3 PM Mark Peskanov, violin; Edward Arron, cello and Jeewon Park, piano play Saint Saens – Piano Trio No. 2, in E minor, Op.92; Beethoven – Piano Trio Op. 70 No. 1 in D Major “Ghost”and Ravel – Piano Trio at Bargemusic, $35/$30 srs./$15stud.

6/23, 9 PM eclectic, politically aware, horn-driven ska/latin/gypsy band Karikatura at Mehanata

6/23, 9ish brilliant Americana/rockabilly guitarist Rosie Flores at Rodeo Bar.

6/23, 9 PM the Jalopy’s all-star jugband/country blues/hillbilly crew the Whiskey Spitters at the Jalopy, $10.

6/23, 9:30 PM wild, intense, horn-driven New Orleans soul/funk band Mingo Fishtrap at Sullivan Hall, $22 adv tix rec

6/23, 9:30 PM long-running goth/pop chanteuse Kristin Hoffmann at Caffe Vivaldi.

6/23, 10 PM dark female-fronted 4AD-style dreampop rockers Dead Leaf Echo at Paperbox, 17 Meadow St., Bushwick, across the street from Shea Stadium, $7

6/23, 10 PM moody pensive songwriter summit: Basia Bulat followed by the Bowerbirds at the Music Hall of Williamsburg, $15 adv tix avail. at the Mercury 5-7 PM M-F.

6/24 is Punk Island on Governors Island – this is what Make Music NY ought to be! Free ferries leave on the half-hour from the old Staten Island ferry terminal; be very careful what you bring with you because this is a national park, no alcohol is allowed and security will be draconian. Suggest you shoot for the 11:30 if you’re up at that hour.

6/24, 4 PM contemplative, darkly bluesy, guitarishly eclectic rockers Wallace on Fire at LIC Bar outdoors in the back garden

6/24, 5ish PM the Alabama Shakes at Central Park Summerstage. Isn’t it nice that a band that plays real soul music has blown up bigtime? Of course it is. Is it worth getting here at 3 on the button when the gates open and then suffering through the tedium of Robert Ellis and Diamond Rugs just to see them? No.

6/24 Balkan brass monsters Slavic Soul Party play the album release show for their ecstatic new one The Underground Tapes aboard the Cabana, boarding at 6 at 23rd St. and the FDR (behind the heliport), leaving at 6:30, $18

6/24, 7:30 PM Indonesian choral music with the 24-piece Manado State University Choir directed by André de Quadros at St. Paul’s Chapel downtown (Broadway and Fulton).

6/24 acclaimed film auteur Dan Sallitt’s latest film The Unspeakable Act debuts at BAM at 9:30 PM with director Q&A afterward.

6/24, 11 PM Louisiana “gypsy Afro circus band” Vagabond Swing at the Rockwood; 6/25 they’re at Trash at 11 PM, free

6/25, 8:30 PM pianist Azusa Ueno plays Franck, Liszt and Debussy at Cornelia St. Cafe, $10 cover plus $10 min.

6/25, 9 PM a rare Brooklyn appearance by the eclectic, elegant Asuka Kakitani Jazz Orchestra at Tea Lounge in Park Slope

6/25, 9 PM Swingadelic play their monthly residency at Maxwell’s, free

6/26, 5:30 PM the cutting-edge Portland Cello Project in the parking lot behind City Winery, free

6/26, 7 PM deviously smart, intensely tuneful contemporary klezmer rockers Daniel Kahn & the Painted Bird, the satirical Yiddish Princess and ageless klezmerite titans the Klezmatics at Central Park Summerstage (the calendar simply says Central Park, but the map points to the stage. If that’s wrong, listen for flat fifths!).

6/26, 7 PM stark, plaintive, soaring Bulgarian folk with chanteuse Vlada Tomova’s Balkan Tales at Barbes followed at 9 by Slavic Soul Party ($10 cover).

6/26, 7:15 PM eclectic worldbeat/jazz violinist Luca Ciarla leads a quartet at Drom, $10 adv tix highly rec.

6/26, 8 PM clever, innovative indie classical ensemble Deviant Septet play new works by the group’s members at the Stone, $10.

6/26-7/1, 9/11 PM noir guitar legend Marc Ribot leads a characteristically eclectic trio with Henry Grimes on bass and Chad Taylor on drums at the Vanguard.

6/27 Amanda Palmer at the Music Hall of Williamsburg is sold out

6/27 jazz chanteuse Gretchen Parlato at Madison Square Park, 6:30 PM.

6/27, 7 PM the amazing all-female jam-oriented klezmer/jazz ensemble Isle of Klezbos in the community garden on E 12th St btw Avenues A & B; in case of rain, the show moves to the JCC, 334 Amsterdam Ave @ 76th St.

6/27, 7 PM Lee Feldman & His Problems play his subtly enigmatic, moody piano-based chamber pop at Something Jazz Club

6/27, 7 PM ageless first-wave reggae band Third World at Rockefeller Park.

6/27, 8 PM the debut of pyrotechnic Balkan/classical clarinetist Vasko Dukovski’s exciting new Macedonian worldbeat group Turli Tava with Dan Nadel, flamenco guitar; Daniel Ori, bass; Brahim Fribgane, percussion at Gallery MC, 549 W 52nd St, 8th Fl (10th/11th Ave)., $10 sugg don

6/27, 8 PM Hungarian klezmer band Nigun Feat at 6th St. Synagogue, $15 incl. a drink

6/27, 8 PM eclectic country/rock siren/bandleader Alana Amram & the Rough Gems at Spike Hill.

6/27, 8:30 PM one of this era’s most interesting baritone sax players/composers, Brian Landrus with Nir Felder, guitar; Frank Carlberg, piano; Lonnie Plaxico, bass; Rudy Royston, drums at Cornelia St. Cafe, $10 + $10 min.

6/27, 9 PM dark jangly Americana rockers the Sadies at Brooklyn Bowl, $10.

6/27, 9 PM jazz organ improviser Sean Wayland and combo at Freddy’s;he’s also here on 7/25 at 9.

6/27, 10ish quirky, edgy smart all-female rockers the Walking Hellos at Death by Audio

6/28, half past noon trombonist Art Baron leads a combo St. Mark’s Park, 2nd Ave/10th St. – last time he played here he had Bucky Pizzarelli and the show was off the hook.

6/28, 7 PM psychedelic hammered dulcimer worldbeat instrumentals with House of Waters at 55 Bar

6/28, 7:30 PM the US debut of the ABC&D of Boogie Woogie, a piano-based dance band led by the Stones’ Charlie Watts out back of Lincoln Center, $17 adv tix rec at the box office.

6/28, 7:30 PM funk bass goddess Shelley Nicole’s Blakbushe at Drom, $12 adv tix rec.

6/28, 8 PM frequently haunting oldschool country band Karen & the Sorrows play the album release party for their new one Ocean Born Mary – a ghost story – at Rock Shop, $10. She sounds a little like Amy Allison – and there will also be free cookies!

6/28, 8 PM harpist Zeena Parkins & the Adorables followed by Theresa Wong (cello, voice) and Carla Kihlstedt (violin, voice) playing their antiwar suite The Unlearning at the Stone, $10.

6/28,8 :30 PM tongue-in-cheek, period-perfect early 50s style country from Susquehanna Industrial Tool & Die Co. at Otto’s – these guys always put on a hell of a show.

6/28, 9 PM adventurous improvisational bassist Shayna Dulberger and her Quartet followed by unpredictable jazz/art-rock jamband Inner Ear Brigade at Legion Bar, 790 Metropolitan Ave, Williamsburg, $7

6/28, 10 PM Veveritse Brass Band – as intense as Slavic Soul Party but without the hip-hop influence, and more improvisational – at Barbes.

6/29, 7 PM Jeffrey Shurdut followed by the Lukas Ligeti Quintet: Thomas Bergeron (trumpet), Travis Sullivan (sax), Shoko Nagai (piano), Evan Lipson (bass), Lukas Ligeti (drums). and then Kenny Jaworski at Ange Noir Café, 247 Varet St (between White St & Bogart St), Williamsburg, L to Morgan Ave

6/29, 7 PM it’s the Battle of the Boroughs finals at the Greene Space. This competition isn’t just some dumb exploitative ripoff – they actually get some good bands here. Last year’s winner was Charanams, a smart, original Indian worldbeat group. $15 cover includes a beer or glass of wine; $30 gets you open wine and beer bar plus the show; acts TBA pending the winner of the Manhattan segment.

6/29, 7:30 PM a rare reunion show by obscure legendary CBGB powerpop/new wave band Tongues on Fire at 78 Below on the upper west, free

6/29, 7:30 PM flamenco rock with the Mar Sala Band plus Spanish/Brazilian chanteuse Rebeca Vallejo at Drom, $10 adv tix rec.

6/29, 8 PM a rare NYC appearance by Colombian gaita revivalists Los Gaiteros de San Jacinto at Barbes followed at 10 by the funky, psychedelic People’s Champs.

6/29, 8 PM the eclectic, potently socially aware Afrobeat/reggae Refugee All-Stars of Sierra Leone at Highline Ballroom, $25 adv tix highly rec.

6/29, 8 PM trippy swirling ambient guitar/violin loops with itsnotyouitsme at the Stone, $10

6/29, 9 PM fiery Balkan bass/accordion duo Cinder Conk at the Jalopy, $10. They’re at Mehanata at 9 0n the 30th.

6/29, 9 PM wickedly lyrical Americana songwriter Marcellus Hall (ex-Railroad Jerk and White Hassle) at Brooklyn Rod & Gun Club

6/29, 9ish twangy bluegrass/C&W rockers Demolition String Band – who’ve never sounded better – at Rodeo Bar.

6/29, 10:30ish Amanda Palmer – you know who she is, right – at Littlefield, $12, early arrival advised

6/29, 11:30 PM dark, moody gypsy/steampunk/Americana art-rockers Kotorino at Joe’s Pub.

6/29, half past midnight (actually wee hours of 6/30), the Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey plays selections from their acclaimed Race Riot Suite at the Blue Note, $15.

6/30, 4 PM ferocious all-female noiserock trio Out of Order – whose new album, produced by powerpopmeister John Sharples, is off the hook – at the East River Park bandshell; at 9 that night they’ll be at Big Sky Works in Williamsburg, 29 Wythe Ave (off N 14th Street) with timelessly amusing faux-French garage rockers Les Sans Culottes afterward at 10, $10

6/30, 7:30 PM sharp, satirical, catchy, sardonically funny powerpop Beatlesque/Costelloesque songwriter Walter Ego at Otto’s

6/30 quirky music night with Ethan Lipton & His Orchestra at 8 followed at 10 by the self-explanatory Toys & Tiny Instruments at Barbes.

6/30 garage punk and then stoner punk-metal ferocity: the Mess Around and Mighty High at Rock Shop, 9ish

6/30, 9 PM deviously innuendo-driven, charmingly retro French chanson revivalists les Chauds Lapins at the Jalopy, $10.

6/30, 9ish longtime NYC Americana standout Mick Hargreaves & the King Guys play rockabilly at Rodeo Bar.

6/30,11 PM Spanking Charlene bring their ferocious, entertaining female-fronted Americana punk to a rare uptown show at Ding Dong Lounge (Columbus Ave betw 105/106), $5, C train to 96th St.

7/1, 1 PM the perennially relevant, satirical Reverend Billy & the Church of Stop Shopping Gospel Choir – whose mighty sound will move you to action against eco-destroyers and corporate criminals – at Highline Ballroom.

7/1, 7 PM fearless resonator guitar powerhouse/torchy oldtime bluesmama Mamie Minch at Barbes followed at 9 by another killer guitarist, Stephane Wrembel.

7/1, 8 PM John Clark (french horn) and Michael Rabinowitz (bassoon) plus Trio Amalgamate (Gene Pritsker, Dan Cooper & Gernot Bernroider) and guitarist Greg Baker play original compositions and new jazz arrangements of classical works at Shapeshifter Lab, 18 Whitwell Pl., Park Slope, R to Union St, $10

7/1, 8:30 PM pianist Dave Restivo leads a trio with Lauren Fall, bass and Owen Howard, drums at Cornelia St. Cafe $10 + $10min, followed at 10 by “Canadian Club” i.e. Tony Malaby, tenor sax; Kris Davis, piano; Nick Fraser, drums.

7/1, 9 PM soul rockers Mighty Fine plus the oldtimey Rev. Peyton’s Big Damn Band or whatever they call themselves at the Brooklyn Bowl, $10.

7/1, sets 9/11 PM, trumpeter Tim Hagans leads his quartet through scorchingly melodic postbop compositions from his latest album The Moon Is Waiting at Birdland, $30 seats avail.

7/1, 9 PM pensive, thoughtful indie acoustic band Colorform– whose live show features live painting in addition to the songs followed by NYC’s only all-female mariachi band, Flor de Toloache at Arlene’s.

7/1, 9ish soaring guy/girl harmony-driven bluegrass with the NYCity Slickers at Rodeo Bar.

7/2, 10 PM NYC’s #1 creepy noir punk jazz monsters, Beninghove’s Hangmen at Shrine

7/3, 5:30 PM mighty, funky, horn-driven 25-piece New Orleans band Brother Joscephus & the Love Revival Revolution Orchestra in the parking lot behind City Winery, free

7/3, 7:30 PM Pakistani crooner/guitarist Arieb Azar at the Schimmel Auditorium at Pace University on Spruce St; free tix available 2 per person starting at 5 PM day of show.

7/3, 8:30/10:30 PM sax powerhouse Jon Irabagon with Gary Versace on organ and EJ Strickland on drums at the Bar Next Door, $12

7/3, 10 PM a rare live show by esteemed Americana/soul chanteuse Dina Regine at 68 Jay St Bar

7/4 harmony-driven oldtimey honkytonk hellraisers the Sweetback Sisters followed by the oldtimey high-energy sounds of Spuyten Duyvil at Madison Square Park, 4 PM.

7/4, 9 PM Khaled’s funky Middle Eastern-flavored worldbeat instrumentals at Shrine

7/5, 7:30 PM dark female-fronted new wave/punk band Ingrid & the Defectors followed eventually by punk-era powerpop legend Bebe Buell and her band at Highline Ballroom, $15.

7/5, 8 PM intense, inscrutable, charismatic multi-keyboardist songwriter chanteuse Rachelle Garniez at Barbes followed at 10 by Kamala Sankaram’s surfy Bombay Rickey Bollywood band

7/5, 9 PM Tracy Island – the catchy, smart, literate new wave/psychedelic rock project from Ian and Liza of the WonderWheels and the Larch – at Freddy’s.

7/5, 9 PM anthemic, socially aware, lushly intense art-rockers My Pet Dragon at Littlefield, $10.

7/5, 9 PM oldschool country band the Gentlemen Callers at Arlene’s

7/5, 11 PM revitalized psychedelic twin-guitar CBGB legends Band of Outsiders at the Delancey.

7/6 the queen of Coney Island phantasmagoria, Carol Lipnik & Spookarama – with the amazing Dred Scott on piano – at Barbes, 8 PM

7/7, sets at 1 and 3 PM, PM eclectic, clever Russian/Gypsy/tango/cinematic soundtrack string band Ljova and the Kontraband at Fort Jay on Governors Island, free

7/7, 3 PM, in order to get into Central Park Summerstage to see Guided by Voices when they hit the stage around 5, you’ll have to stand through a whole set by at least one of the world’s suckiest bands. You might want to show up at 5 instead and take this one in from outside the arena.

7/7, 7:30 PM intense, virtuoso oudist and violinist Simon Shaheen and group kick off what will probably be a transcendent doublebill with politically fearless Algerian siren Souad Massi at Prospect Park Bandshell.

7/7, 8 PM oldschool conscious hip hop lyricist Chubb Rock at Crotona Park in Queens.

7/7, 8 PM legendary synth band Tangerine Dream – who claim to have invented techno – at the Nokia Theatre, $35 tix avail.

7/7, 9 PM haunting western noir songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Karen Dahlstrom at 68 Jay St. Bar.

7/7, 9 PM East Village Pharmacy and their psychedelic reggae/dub grooves followed by Unlimited Force playing more roots reggae at Shrine

7/7, 10 PM Bad Buka and their gypsy punk meltdown at Mehanata

7/7, 11 PM high-energy virtuoso barrelhouse blues with the 4th St. Nite Owls at Freddy’s.

7/8, 3 PM pioneering, protean, recently reconfigured indie classical string quartet Ethel at at the Noguchi Museum, 9-01 33rd Rd. at Vernon Blvd. in Long Island City, free w/museum adm ($10/$5 stud). N/Q to Broadway or F to Queensbridge/21st St.

7/8, 6 PM smart, tuneful, counterintuitive Persian jazz/dub instrumentals with Sohrab’s SoSaLa featuring Brian Prunka on oud and Damon Banks on bass at Downtown Music Gallery.

7/8, 7 PM the Famous Accordion Orchestra followed at 9 by Stephane Wrembel. What? You don’t know them?

7/8, 8 PM the Haymarket Squares play punkgrass at Shrine

7/9, 6:30 PM pianist/crooner Peter Mintun sings popular songs about New York from across the decades (emphasis on Broadway and Tin Pan Alley, heavy on the cheese) at the Museum of the City of New York, $15.

7/9, 8:30 PM jazzy, improvisational, exhilarating all-female klezmer powerhouse Isle of Klezbos plays Cornelia St. Cafe, $10 + $10 min., 7/12, 1 PM they’re outdoors at 6th Ave. and Canal St., free

7/9, 9 PM the Erica Seguine/Shannon Baker Jazz Orchestra play elegantly shapeshifting original compositions with a quirky sense of humor (and a Bach tango), a pleasant change from your usual big band fare, at Tea Lounge in Park Slope.

7/9, 9 PM two-bass punk/indie band Sister Anne at Arlene’s, free; they’re also here on the 16th, same time.

7/10, 6:30 PM up-and-coming saxophonist Lucas Pino leads a trio at the Bar Next Door, free.

7/10, 7 PM the self-explanatory, beguiling, atmospheric Erin Hill & Her Psychedelic Harp at Arlene’s

7/10, 7 PM perennially popular salsa chanteuse La India at Rockefeller Park.

7/10, 7:30 PM jazz guitar virtuoso and archivist par excellence Matt Munisteri leads his band playing tracks from his new album Still Runnin’ Round in The Wilderness – The Lost Music of Willard Robison Vol I at Joe’s Pub

7/10, 7:30 PM well-loved indie classical orchestra the Knights play Schumann’s Cello Concerto in A minor, Op 129, Debussy’s Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, Thomas Ades’ Three Studies from Couperin and Colin Jacobsen’s arrangement of the classic Persian theme Ascending Bird at the Naumburg Bandshell in Central Park, early arrival advised if you want a seat

7/11, half past noon purist Britfolk songwriter Ian Link at 1 Liberty Plaza downtown

7/11, 6 PM electric blues stars from the 60s: John Mayall followed eventually at around 8 by Buddy Guy on the water out back of the World Financial Center, free.

7/11, 6:30 PM the Wiyos – whose psychedelic Wizard of Oz-inspired new album is killer – outdoors on the plaza at the Brooklyn Public Library at Grand Army Plaza. Raindate: 7/12.

7/11 edgy eclectic nouveau-cabaret chanteuse Nellie McKay at Madison Square Park, 7 PM.

7/11, 7:15 PM Persian-American chanteuse Mamak Khadem sings her new arrangements of Sohrab Sepehri poetry at Drom with her worldbeat ensemble, $20

7/11, 7:30 PM Missy Mazzoli and her moody, swirling, lushly artsy rock band Victoire at the Schimmel Auditorium at Pace University on Spruce St; free tix available 2 per person starting at 5 PM day of show.

7/11, 9ish high-energy acoustic vintage Americana with PartyFolk at Rodeo Bar

7/12, noon, newschool blues powerhouse Shemekia Copeland at Metrotech Park in downtown Brooklyn, free. She’s either opening for or playing with what’s left of NRBQ – stay tuned.

7/12, 7 PM oldschool/newschool soul spectacular: Charles Bradley & the Extraordinaires and then Neko Case on the water out back of the World Financial Center, free.

7/12, 7 PM George Clinton & P-Funk at Rockefeller Park – 71 and still at it!

7/12, 7 PM powerhouse cello metal group Stratospheerius at Shrine.

7/12, 8 PM a rare US appearance by French klezmer band Nigun followed at 10 by another more local klezmer legend, Andy Statman ($10 cover) at Barbes

7/12, 10:30 PM dark psychedelic Ethiopian funk grooves with the Funk Ark at Sullivan Hall, $10.

7/13, better get to the lawn at Central Park by 7 PM (use the W 72nd St. entrance) to see the NY Phil playing Tschaikovsky’s 4th Symphony plus Respighi’s Fountains of Rome and Pines of Rome at 8.

7/13, 7 PM trippy intense Persian jazz with SoSaLa featuring saxophonist Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi. followed at 8 by Louie Belogenis + Lukas Ligeti at Ange Noir Café, 247 Varet St (between White St & Bogart St), Williamsburg, L to Morgan Ave.

7/13, 8 PM Uruguayan composer/performers: the haunting Ernesto Diaz and Yisela Sosa at Barbes followed at 10ish by the incomparable, psychedelic, dubwise Chicha Libre, whose new album Canibalismo is one of the year’s best

7/13, 9 PM original Ethiopian-flavored funk with Debo Band at the Bell House, $15.

7/13, 9 PM, 3/4 of oldtime close harmony hillbilly group the Weal and the Woe followed at 10 by the high-powered barrelhouse blues of the 4th St. Nite Owls at the Jalopy, $10

7/13, 11 PM the funky Deathrow Tull (gotta love that name) open for P-Funk keyboard legend Bernie Worrell at the Mercury, $10 adv tix onsale 6/1

7/14 Argentinian ska-punk rockers Los Auténticos Decadentes at 5ish at Central Park Summerstage.

7/14, 7 PM Her & Kings County at Highline Ballroom, $12 adv tix rec. First discovered this twangy, excellently tuneful country-rock band at a show at Hank’s one cold night back in the zeros. Frontwoman Monique Staffile was genuine and down-to-earth, and still is, and the band has gone on to be a big touring act.

7/14, 7:30/9:30 PM tuneful, edgy jazz saxophonist Tom Tallitsch leads a trio at at the Bar Next Door, free.

7/14, 8 PM Pierre de Gaillande’s Bad Reputation plays witty English translations of Georges Brassens classics followed at 10 by the self-explanatory Cumbiagra at Barbes

7/14, 8/11 PM Debbie Davies – one of the world’s most exhilarating blues guitarists – at Lucille’s, $10 adv tix rec.

7/14, 8 PM edgy politically-fueled hip-hop with Jedi Mind Tricks and La Coka Nostra at the Gramercy Theatre, $26.50 adv tix avail. at the Irving Plaza box ofc.

7/15, 4:45 PM organist William H. Atwood plays a recital at St. Patrick’s Cathedral

7/15, 7:30 PM well-respected avant garde ensemble Alarm Will Sound play a program of new music TBA at the Schimmel Auditorium at Pace University on Spruce St; free tix available 2 per person starting at 5 PM day of show.

7/16, 7 PM fiery psychedelic female-fronted power trio Devi at Bowery Electric

7/17-21, 8:30/11 PM tunefully cutting-edge pianist Jason Moran +3 at Birdland, $30 tix avail.

7/17, 9 PM jazzy surf/instrumental band Dog Adrift at Shrine

7/18, 6:30 PM the Gregorio Uribe Big Band outdoors on the plaza at the Brooklyn Public Library at Grand Army Plaza.

7/18 powerhouse, socially aware jazz drummer/bandleader Jeff “Tain” Watts and his Quartet at Madison Square Park, 7 PM.

7/18 newschool roots reggae crew Passafire play the Rocks Off Concert Cruise aboard the Half Moon, boarding at 7 at the heliport at 23rd St and the FDR, departing at 8, $20 adv tix rec. at the Highline Ballroom box ofc.

7/18, 8 PM Big Daddy Kane raps to the neighborhood on his old turf in Queensbridge Park.

7/18, 9ish rustic oldtime upbeat swing/country blues bandleader Woody Pines at Rodeo Bar.

7/19, 6:30 high-powered, eclectic tenor saxophonist Geoff Vidal leads a trio at the Bar Next Door, free

7/19, 7 PM Tracy Island (Ian and Liza from wickedly tuneful psychedelic new wave band the Larch) followed by redoubtable literate janglerocker Paula Carino  (whose most recent album ranked #1 of the year at this blog) with her band at Local 269

7/19, 7:30 PM the world’s #1 hip-hop influenced ten-piece Balkan brass band, Slavic Soul Party plus open wine/beer bar plus free kosher ice cream at the Jewish Museum, $15/$12 stud/srs.

7/19, 9ish LES surf/rockabilly/soul guitar legend Simon & the Bar Sinisters at Rodeo Bar.

7/20, 6ish songwriters from the north Atlantic: the torchy British Cordelia Stephens followed by smart, rustic Irishman Niall Connolly at the American Folk Art Museum, free

7/20, 7 PM torchy oldtime swing with Lavay Smith & Her Red Hot Skillet Lickers plus suave blues guitarist Duke Robillard and band at B.B. King’s, $25 adv tix rec.

7/20, 7:15 PM intense Middle Eastern metal/jazz jams with Hypercolor feat. Eyal Maoz (guitar), James Ilgenfritz (bass), Lukas Ligeti (drums) at Ange Noir Café, 247 Varet St (between White St & Bogart St), Williamsburg, L to Morgan Ave.

7/20, 8 PM Num’s Nu Afrika play roots reggae at Shrine

7/20, 9ish dark garage rockers the Detroit Cobras at Maxwell’s

7/21, 7:30 PM Arturo O’Farrill & the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra and trumpeter Arturo Sandoval at Prospect Park Bandshell

7/21, 8 PM king of the surf guitar, Dick Dale, still setting picks on fire, at the Brooklyn Bowl, $15.

7/21, 11ish ageless, charmingly jangly lo-fi Japanese rocker women Shonen Knife at the Bell House, $12

7/22, 2 (two) PM Brooklyn Rider’sJohnny Gandelsman, violin; Christina Courtin, viola and Alex Greenbaum, cello play Haydn – String Trio in G Major, Op. 53, No.1; Beethoven – String Trio in G Major, Op 9, No 1; Schubert – String Trio in B-flat Major, D. 581 and Dohnanyi- Serenade in C Major, Op 10 at Bargemusic, $35/$30 srs./$15stud

7/22, 7 PM dark, moody nuevo-soul band Shenandoah & the Night at Pier One on the upper west.

7/22, 8 PM haunting, intense pan-Middle Eastern trio Niyaz at Drom, $20 adv tix rec.

7/22 Fisherman play Polynesian-flavored “exotica” at Rodeo Bar, 9ish.

7/23, 9 PM Cumbia Machin play chicha at Shrine – look out Chicha Libre, there’s another psychedelic cumbia band in town!

7/23 ferocious surf instrumentalists the Octomen – who could be as few as three and as many as eight – at Rodeo Bar 9ish

7/23 smart, multilingual Malian hip-hop/reggae/acoustic band SMOD at SOB’s, 9 PM, $18 adv tix rec.

7/24, 5:30 PM charming, sly, innuendo-driven French chanson revivalists les Chauds Lapins on the plaza out back of the World Financial Center.

7/24, 6:30 PM versatile and insightful pianist Katie Reimer backs soprano Jo Ellen Miller and baritone John Maynard in a diverse program starting with the Romantic period and moving forward with art songs by Hugo Wolf, Brahms, Schoenberg, Alban Berg, Zemlinsky and Pfitzner at Liederkranz, 6 E 87th St., $20.

7/24, 7 PM the Cambodian Space Project play psychedelic Asian rock at Barbes followed at 9 by Balkan brass behemoth Slavic Soul Party (whose new album is characteristically off the hook).

7/24, 9 PM torchy, jaunty, irresistibly fun oldtimey band Mornin Old Sport play the Jalopy, $10

7/25, 6:30 PM jazz guitar genius Matt Munisteri leads his band outdoors on the plaza at the Brooklyn Public Library at Grand Army Plaza.

7/25 jazz violinist Regina Carter’s Reverse Thread at Madison Square Park, 7 PM.

7/26, 8 PM clever, lushly orchestrated art-rockers the Universal Thumpat Barbes followed at 11 by the dark, spare, gypsy-tinged Kotorino.

7/26, 8 PM intense Turkish/klezmer/gypsy rockers Raquy & the Cavemen’s farewell NYC show at Drom, free w/rsvp to (212) 777-1157.

7/27, 6ish Liz Tormes at the American Folk Art Museum. A couple of years ago she put out a phenomenal gothic Americana rock record; here’s a chance to see how dark and intense she can get in an acoustic setting

7/27, 8 PM eclectic, shapeshifting saxophonist Ilhan Ersahin’s Wonderland feat. Turkish star Husnu Senlendirici at Drom, $15 adv tix highly rec.

7/27, 9 PM Impostor Syndrome play dark female-fronted powerpop at Arlene’s

7/27, 9 PM dark garage rock with King Khan & the Shrines at Bowery Ballroom, $15.

7/27, 10 PM dark 4AD-style dreampop rockers Dead Leaf Echo at Big Snow Buffalo Lodge in Bushwick, $7; they’re also doing a rare acoustic show at Pete’s on 8/2.

7/27, 10 PM psychedelic funk with the People’s Champs at Barbes

7/28, 6:30 PM Istanbulive a.k.a. “Turkish Woodstock IV” feat. an amazingly eclectic all-Turkish bill with the Secret Trio (an exciting new gypsy/jazz summit withAra Dinkjian, Ismail Lumanovski and Tamer Pinarbasi), trippy saxophonist Ilhan Ersahin’s Wonderland feat. Turkish sax legend Husnu Senlendirici, and then the long-overdue US debut of a folk and protest music legend, chanteuse Selda Bagcan at Damrosch Park, early arrival a must, these events are perennially popular.

7/28, 7:30/9:30 PM eclectic jazz saxophonist Patrick Cornelius leads a trio at the Bar Next Door, $12.

7/28 8 PM atmospheric loop-friendly art-rockers the Quavers followed at 10 by the haunting pan-latin Las Rubias Del Norte – who have more than a bit of chicha in them – at Barbes

7/29, 6 PM Israeli jazz/metal guitarist Yoshie Fruchter at Downtown Music Gallery – bring earplugs

7/29, 7 PM Joe Hurley’s annual, high-spirited night of Irish rock, first Hurley playing with the Gents to open and then Joe Hurley’s All-Star Irish Rock Revue co-hosted by sharp, literate crooner Ed Rogers, plus downtown NY legend Willie Nile, members of the Mekons, Cracker, Alice Cooper Group, Bob Dylan’s band, Blue Oyster Cult and others, early arrival advised.

7/29, 8 PM one of the most interesting, smartly politically aware roots reggae bands around, Taj Weekes & Adowa at Springfield Park in Queens.

7/31, 5:30 PM Cape Verdean chanteuse Maria de Barros on the plaza out back of the World Financial Center.

7/31, 5:30 PM NYC country/hillbilly/gospel stars Ollabelle in the parking lot behind City Winery, free

7/31, 8 PM underrated 90s hip-hop lyrical genius Keith Murray at Tappen Park in Staten Island

8/1, 8 PM fearless, powerhouse Malian soul/desert blues chanteuse Khaira Arby followed by Israeli Middle Eastern dance-funk orchestra Yemen Blues at Damrosch Park,early arrival advised.

8/2, noon, Afrobeat hip-hop bandleader Blitz the Ambassador at Metrotech Park in downtown Brooklyn, free.

8/4, sets 1 and 3 PM, the Jack Quartet play works by Guillaume de Machaut, Charles Ives, Brian Baumbush, Ken Thomson, Payton MacDonald and David Crowell on Colonels Row on Governors Island, free

8/4 well-loved Malian bandleaders/crooner-and-chanteuse duo Amadou & Mariam at Central Park Summerstage, 5ish, early arrival advised.

8/4, 6:30 PM oldtime and bluegrass night with Spirit Family Reunion, Cahalen Morrison & Eli West and Del McCoury and band at Prospect Park Bandshell

8/6, 8 PM salsa jazz with the Pedrito Martinez Group followed by desert blues guitarist Sidi Toure at Marcus Garvey Park uptown.

8/7, 7:30 PM violinist Lara St. John and friends celebrate the 25th anniversary of Astor Piazzolla’s 1987 Central Park concert at the Naumburg Bandshell, early arrival advised if you want a seat

8/8, 7 PM retro soul sensation Bettye LaVette at Madison Square Park.

Bard Summerscape Festival starts August 10. Yeah, it’s out of town, but this year’s program is pretty amazing, an examination of the world of Camille Saint-Saens and his turbulent artistic world.  Transportation from NYC for ticketholders is available via a $30 shuttle from Lincoln Center or a free shuttle from the Poughkeepsie Metro North commuter train station.

8/10, 10 PM Ianbassa play roots reggae at Shrine

8/11, 3 PM banjoist/folksinger Abigail Washburn at Central Park Summerstage. Buckwheat Zydeco headlines afterward.

8/11, 8:30 PM Lyle Lovett at Prospect Park Bandshell- you might have to listen from outside the arena for this one unless there’s a lot of rain beforehand.

8/12, 3 PM eclectic steel pan virtuoso/cinematic composer Andy Akiho and ensemble at the Noguchi Museum, 9-01 33rd Rd. at Vernon Blvd. in Long Island City, free w/museum adm ($10/$5 stud). N/Q to Broadway or F to Queensbridge/21st St.

8/12, 5:30 PM Afrobeat band Toubab Crewe in the parking lot behind City Winery, free

8/15-16,7:30ish a mini bachata nueva festival at Highbridge Park uptown. On the 15th it’s Henry Santos from Aventura; the 16th has K Rose and 24 Horas.

8/17, 10 PM Royal Khaoz play roots reggae at Shrine

8/19, 3 PM get to Central Park Summerstage when the gates open if you want to see roots reggae harmony legends the Mighty Diamonds and Israeli Vibration. What’s left of Inner Circle play afterward (one can only imagine what the late Jacob Miller would have thought of the Fox network using a song by his old band as the theme for the most racist show on tv).

8/24, 7 PM the theme of this year’s Charlie Parker Festival at Marcus Garvey Park is Bird with Strings, a supposedly all-star lineup recreating pieces of that classic record. Then on the 25th, same place, same time it’s Jamire Williams’ Erimaj project, Derrick Hodge, singer Rene Marie and the presumably immortal Roy Haynes.

8/26, 6ish this year’s bill at the Charlie Parker Festival at Tompkins Square Park is uncharacteristically weak – although it’s nice to see chanteuse/organist Ernestine Anderson get the headline spot she’s deserved for a long time.

9/3, sets at 1 and 3 PM pyrotechnic, unpredictable avant violinist Todd Reynolds with Jordan Tice on guitar, Jonny Rodgers on glass harmonica andspecial guests play new arrangements of American folk music on Colonels Row on Governors Island, free

9/7 (yeah, it’s a long way off) is Brazilian World Music Day, check their blog for NYC happenings.

9/9, 3 PM indie classical guitarist Gyan Riley (Terry’s kid) at the Noguchi Museum, 9-01 33rd Rd. at Vernon Blvd. in Long Island City, free w/museum adm ($10/$5 stud). N/Q to Broadway or F to Queensbridge/21st St.

9/22 Romanian gypsy brass orchestra Fanfare Ciocarlia at the Schimmel Center at Pace University downtown on Spruce St.

10/28, 7:30 PM at Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall the Tokyo String Quartet joined by the Jasper Quartet for a farewell show featuring Webern: Five Movements for String Quartet; Mozart: String Quintet No. 3 in C Major, K. 515; Mendelssohn: Octet in E-flat major, Op. 20, $15 adv tix highly rec.

Eli Kezsler’s Inescapable Assaultiveness

The question is not whether anyone would want to subject themselves to Eli Keszler’s new double cd Catching Net; it’s why Keszler would create it in the first place. Much of it is calculatedly ugly, some of it downright unlistenable. But for adventurous listeners willing to embrace the dark side, it’s irresistible. Like Lou Reed’s Metal Machine Music, the first disc will clear a room in minutes if not seconds. But while that album was simply a series of random feedback loops, Keszler’s compositions are carefully crafted and follow a discernable trajectory, a very creepy one. They’re mood music for an apocalyptic industrial wasteland somewhere in New Jersey – imagine a blast furnace from outside, spewing smoke over a toxic marshland overpopulated with opossums (more on them a bit later). The sonics are industrial and mechanical but not cold: a grim, relentless purposefulness pervades these soundscapes. A close listen reveals a harmonic language, reaching for but evading any kind of resolution. It’s a foreboding and sometimes repulsive language, but it’s an original one, and can be compelling for those with the courage to jump in and wrestle with it.

Keszler’s early background was founded in punk rock drumming, and that angst-driven intensity fuels the compositions here, although the tempos are glacial. The album contains four versions of Cold Pin, a large-scale installation piece premiered at the massive Cyclorama dome at the Boston Center for the Arts last year. Its central motifs are created by piano wires ranging up to 25 feet long, struck by motor-driven tone arms to produce stygian, oscillating, bell-like funereal tones. Those tonalities evoke the sound of a 78 RPM record being played at 33, but without the telltale slo-mo attack and decay. A bare-bones more-or-less acoustic version, its murky rumble like an underwater demolition or diesel truck engine turning over at halfspeed, is the centerpiece of the second cd. The first contains three versions of that piece: what’s remarkable is how different they are. They’re best experienced as a whole – although some listeners will find the keening drone of a bowed crotale about five minutes into the first segment to be so high in the mix that it’s audibly painful.

It begins with contrasting low/high drones eventually punctuated by those piano-wire tones. While there’s a live ensemble at work here: Keszler on drums, percussion and guitar, Ashley Paul on alto sax and bass harp, Geoff Mullen on guitar, Greg Kelley on trumpet, Reuben Son on bassoon and Benny Nelson on cello, there’s definitely some heavy processing going on. From there, a faster, scrambling percussive rhythm is introduced: it sounds like a particularly determined opossum making its way through a dumpster filled with tin cans. The tonalities eventually darken and descend to the point where they resemble distant gunfire or fireworks. It’s unclear if the entire track or loop is live or processed (the cover of the promo cd shows Keszler seated at a mixing board). The final track is a horror film for the ears, a literally explosive payoff for all the suspense that’s been building.

The second cd also includes the title track, a droning, sirening, vortex of an electroacoustic piece for string quartet and piano, and Collecting Basin, a more grand-scale, lower-register take on the Cold Pin concept, another installation piece incorporating a water tower and piano wires up to 250 feet long. For a taste of how this guy works, his latest mega-installation, L-Carrier will premiere this coming June 7 at 7:30 PM at Eyebeam, 540 W 21st St. (10th/11th Aves.) with an ensemble including Keszler and many of the musicians on the cd plus Anthony Coleman on organ and celeste, Alex Waterman on cello, Spencer Yeh on violin and Catherine Lamb on viola. It promises to be an assaultively interesting evening: you may want to bring earplugs.

Fun Oldtime Pre-Rock Sounds from Woody Pines

It’s been pretty harrowing and intense around here lately, so today it’s time for fun. How about some upbeat, oldtime Americana swing? That’s what Woody Pines does. He got his start in Oregon (with a name like that, figures, huh?) around the turn of the century with the popular jugband the Kitchen Syncopators. Since then he’s led his own band; he’s got a new ep, You Gotta Roll which seems like something fresh for the merch table when he’s on the road (which seems to be pretty much all the time – that’s the new paradigm in music these days). And he’ll probably move a bunch of them: it’s a good party mix.

Like Susquehanna Industrial Tool & Die Co., Woody Pines mines the late 40s/early 50s pre-rock era when all the country guys were getting into jazz. His not so secret weapon is eclectic lead guitarist Lyon Graulty, who also turns in a nifty clarinet solo on the jaunty proto-rockabilly tune Long Gone Lost John. Zack Pozebanchuck’s standup bass and Mike Gray’s simple, straight-up drumming keep a steady swing beat. The songs are a diverse mix of styles: Dock Boggs’ Red Rockin Chair gets a lickety-split but brooding remake with eerie chromatic harp and a deliciously murky dobro solo. Leadbelly’s Ham & Eggs plays up the absolutely surreal, bizarre lyric; Hank Williams’ Can’t Keep You Off My Mind gets a casually swaying treatment with just a little swampiness. They wrap things up with a briskly fingerpicked take of the country blues Treat You Right. Pines’ vocals are unaffected and laid-back – he makes his way through this stuff without sounding like a caricature, which isn’t easy to pull off. The whole thing is streaming at Bandcamp; if retro is your thing, he’s worth getting to know.

Making a Goth Out of Nick Drake

One of the strangest albums that’s appeared on the radar here this year is Requiem for a Pink Moon, by singer/lutenist  Joel Frederiksen with his chamber music group Ensemble Phoenix Munich. It’s out this month on the increasingly unpredictable Harmonia Mundi label, who made a name for themselves in the classical world before striking out into fields as diverse as desert blues and…this. They’re marketing it as “an Elizabethan tribute to Nick Drake.” Trying to cast Drake as medieval troubadour is a bit of a stretch – his introverted, enigmatic, elegaic ballads aren’t exactly singalongs. But unleashing those songs’ inner goth is an idea that’s so spot-on it’s a wonder nobody thought of it before. They don’t cover a lot of ground, topic-wise: drugs and death are his usual themes, and on the Drake covers here, the group conveys both surprisingly effectively. There is a hypnotic and narcotic aspect to both the stoically downcast playing and Frederiksen’s resonant, ominously modulated bass voice. Which may not appeal to diehard fans, being the exact opposite of Drake’s soft, wispy, Donovan-esque delivery. But imagine Leonard Cohen covering Pink Moon: he probably couldn’t play it, but could he ever sing it! That’s where this album is going.

The concept of substituting Frederiksen’s lute and Axel Wolf’s theorbo for Drake’s notoriously challenging solo guitar arrangements is an intriguing one, and it works in the context of the album. It also takes the energy level down several notches, since dividing the melody between two fretboards eliminates the need for a whirlwind of finger-lacerating guitar work. The mood is further enhanced by Domen Marincic’s stately, brooding viola da gamba in places. Perhaps because Drake relied so much on his upper register, tenor Timothy Leigh Evans sings harmonies and takes the lead vocal on a handful of songs, most memorably on an apprehensive Northern Sky. Frederiksen’s chorister delivery brings the lyrics to the forefront, which is particularly welcome since the gnomic Drake can sometimes be hard to understand unless you listen closely. To enhance the period ambience (steampunk weirdness?), the Drake songs are interspersed between old English folk songs, some of which the group will segue into or out of. Sometimes the effect is just plain bizarre, like following the druggy ambiguity of Hanging on a Star with a resolute version of the hymn Never Weather-Beaten Sail. But it can also be powerfully evocative, as when they sandwich the totally gothic Requiem Aeternam and its latin plainchant between the guardedly optimistic Road and an utterly somber take of Pink Moon. And segueing from a brief reprise of Horn – done as a lively dance – into a latin requiem is downright creepy. Either way, anyone intrigued enough to get their hands on this will have a good time figuring out their own playlists.

Place to Be gets reinvented as acoustic gothic rock, the lutes doing a good job with Drake’s guitar hammer-ons, ending with Frederiksen and the group singing the first and last verses contrapuntally against each other. It’s out of place bookended by the rather generic folk song His Golden Locks, but then they follow that with an absolutely forlorn version of Wand’ring in This Place complete with churchy harmonies between Frederiksen and the viola da gamba. Their arrangement of Time Stands Still makes a dirge out of a love song; the version of Time Has Told Me takes a country waltz, adds an unexpectedly Brazilian tinge and then goths it out. Ending the album by bookending From the Morning with a bare-bones version of the John Dowland polyphonic classic Come, Heavy Sleep and a then second requiem might seem a little obvious, but it packs a punch.

Did Drake know any of the songs here that aren’t his? Probably not. From early on, he followed his own muse, more or less oblivious to the booming British folk revival of his college years. Would he have liked this album? It makes more sense to contemplate whether he would have cared at all. Drake looked inward, fixated by the demons that eventually consumed him. That this album conveys that as well as it does testifies to the depth of understanding the musicians bring to these songs. What’s next: Joy Division for harp, continuo and soprano?

The Sometime Boys Strike Again

The Sometime Boys started out as an infrequent acoustic side project from guitarist Kurt Leege and singer Sarah Mucho of art-rockers System Noise. When their main band went on hiatus, the Sometime Boys became their main focus: a year or so later, they’re suddenly one of New York’s best bands. Their debut album, Any Day Now was one of 2011’s best, and their gentle but intense and unselfconsciously beautiful new one Ice and Blood is a strong contender for best of 2012. It’s a mix of brisk bluegrass vamps, soulful acoustic funk, spiky blues, gospel, straight-up rock and a couple of classic covers that they completely reinvent. This time out the core of Leege and Mucho is abetted by Pete O’Connell on bass, Rebecca Weiner Tompkins on violin, Jay Cowitt on drums and Erik James on piano, accordion and keyboards. While the instrumentation tends to be rustic and the melodies steeped in traditional Americana, their sound is unique and eclectic to the extreme, with elements of 70s jamrock and funk intermingled with swing jazz, ragtime and oldtime country music.

The album begins with Winter Solstice and ends with its summery counterpart. The first holds out hope on the year’s darkest day, Mucho musing about “what fun we missed when leaves were left unturned” against jaunty ragtime piano and insistent violin. The second is a crescendoing, optimistic showcase for Mucho at her most soaring and spine-tingling, packed with neat polyrhythms, a slinky bass groove and a warmly Jerry Garcia-esque guitar solo that slowly and hypnotically winds out. They take Eden, an older song by Noxes Pond, the predecessor band to System Noise and jazz it up with dreamy Rhodes piano, Mucho at her most nuanced. “”I have no need for miracles, just ice and blood and all that’s real, I’ll heal myself,” she asserts with a quiet intensity. She sings of an icy clarity, but her voice is the furthest thing from icy: a star in the cabaret world, where she’s won multiple MAC awards (the cabaret equivalent of a Grammy), she’s one of New York’s most gripping vocalists in any style of music. She blends a raw torchiness with a commanding jazz sophistication on a syncopated piano swing version of Brother Can You Spare a Dime, bringing the anthem alive for a new generation of the down-and-out. By contrast, she transforms the Beatles’ Mother Nature’s Son into a wary gospel number over Cowitt’s perfect Ringo evocation.

Unsurprisingly, the best songs here are originals. The absolutely gorgeous organ-driven anthem Drop by Drop might be the single best song of the year so far: it’s a sad, elegaic country waltz that builds to an angst-fueled grandeur. Slowly, its forlorn narrator comes to grips with the fact that the person “who’s supposed to love me most” is turning into a ghost before her eyes, underscored by Leege’s tersely biting, bittersweet acoustic guitar.  The Good People of Brooklyn, with its ragtime piano and stark violin, pensively yet ecstatically pays tribute to Mucho’s adopted “city of trees,” an unselfconsciously heartwarming message of hope for the 99% struggling through “another day, another turning of the screw.” Igloo, a broodingly atmospheric mix of fingerpicked guitar and accordion, builds a haunting ambience that could be the apocalypse, or just a portrait of clinical depression, where someone can “Curl under this blanket/It’s peaceful in our early graves.” There are also a couple of duets, one a folk-pop tune, the other an acoustic goth rock song, and also a bouncily shuffling pop song that sounds like Rumours-era Fleetwood Mac. The whole album is streaming at Soundcloud; the Sometime Boys play the album release show for this one on May 31 at 9 PM at the Parkside.

Mark Steiner and Susan Mitchell Haunt the Delancey

Every now and then, the more-or-less weekly Small Beast gathering upstairs at the Delancey will bring back an artist or two who made this the night for intelligent rock in New York back in 2008-09. A couple of weeks ago it was David J, Little Annie and the night’s founder, Paul Wallfisch of Botanica; this week it was Mark Steiner and His Problems. Steiner had a long and memorable run as the leader of Piker Ryan and then Kundera here in New York in the late 90s and early zeros. Now based in Norway, he and his only Problem this time out, longtime collaborator and violin sorceress Susan Mitchell played one of the most haunting rock shows this town has seen in a long time. And he did it with virtually all new material: he’s never played or sung better.

Steiner’s signature sound is a reverb guitar-fueled menace. In a stripped-down context like this, he builds tension by muting the strings and then letting the chords explode in a shower of overtone-drenched clang and twang. Inscrutable and methodical, Mitchell provided a sepulchral, otherworldly contrast with her custom-made five-string hybrid violin/viola, raising the sonics to the level of epic grandeur with apprehensive microtonal swirls, funereal Balkan tones and haunting, sustained atmospherics: there’s no other string player out there who achieves such high intensity so effortlessly. One of the night’s more memorable tunes was a swampy, syncopated rock song that evoked the Gun Club, Steiner’s enveloping baritone giving it a luridly seductive edge. Another more anthemic song reminded of an early song by the Church, tense syncopation giving way to a richly interwoven, roaring series of variations on an open guitar chord. Steiner switched chords counterintuitively throughout the set, but Mitchell kept up. The best of the new songs matched an ominous Syd Barrett-inflected verse to a roaring, anthemic, surf-tinged Radio Birdman chorus that picked up with a percussive ferocity at the end. They closed with a couple of covers: one a sly, tongue-in-cheek faux pop song by an Australian band, basically a litany of drugs that get harder as the song goes on, and then a macabre tango-flavored number [by Gowanus Somebody? didn’t recognize the name of the artist] that Mitchell ended with a ghostly slide down the fingerboard. Several of these songs are scheduled to be recorded, an auspicious development as it’s been awhile since Steiner put out an album.

Intriguing Vintage Sounds from Mary Lorson & the Soubrettes

Pianist/chanteuse Mary Lorson has a new album, Burn Baby Burn, with her band the Soubrettes. It’s an unassumingly charming, deceptively upbeat, pensively lyrical blend of oldtime-flavored Americana, sultry torch songs and jaunty purist pop. Lorson first rose to prominence back in the 90s as the frontwoman of Madder Rose, whose raw, moody blend of trip-hop and downtempo with rock instrumentation made them a cooler alternative to bands like Tortoise. She was a decent singer in that band, and later in Saint Low; she’s an extraordinary one now. Her voice is clear, unadorned, usually gentle and matter-of-fact, a quietly powerful vehicle for her allusively brooding songs, which reveal themselves slowly, with repeated listening: don’t go into this expecting to be able to make sense of it the first time through. On this album Lorson plays piano and guitar alongside banjoist/guitarist Leah Houghtaling and bassist Amelia Sauter, with contributions from Michael Stark on piano, Joe Novelli on lapsteel and AJ Strauss on horn on a couple of tracks.

The opening track, Busboy, sets the stage for what’s to come, Stark’s hypnotically pointillistic piano mingling with the banjo for a bell-like backdrop that mutes the grimly surreal, apocalyptic lyrics, delivered by Lorson with a deadpan coyness. That contrast between starry melody and bitter resignation recurs a little later on with Only One Number Two and its offhand Satie allusions. The album’s second track, Mancub, puts an oldtimey spin on an indie rock tune, with a blithe “bump bump badump bump” chorus over Kathy Ziegler’s swirling organ and a lyric about a guy who may not realize just how bizarre his life was on his way up. The lush, soul-infused ballad Lately wouldn’t be out of place in the Aimee Mann songbook; Houghtaling does a memorable job mimicking a violin’s pizzicato with her muted touch on the banjo.

The rustic, swirly nocturne River, with its lush blend of acoustic guitar, banjo, bass and organ downplays Lorson’s downcast vibe, while the catchy, matter-of-fact pop tune Bubble of Pretend evokes Greta Gertler in an especially theatrical moment. The hypnotic title track, its resonant lapsteel contrasting with boomy bass, creates a bucolically atmospheric milieu that reminds of Hem. By contrast, the upbeat country song Crystal Ball nicks a Jenifer Jackson lick: “Are you looking at me, I’m the only one in here,” Lorson asks enigmatically.

These Police, a ballad contrasting upper-register piano with Lorson’s finely nuanced, torchily wounded vocals, looks at the consequences of exhausting yourself to please others who probably couldn’t care less. The inscrutably seductive, pulsing, cabaret-flavored Let ‘Em Eat Little Debbie Cakes asserts that “Marie Antoinette never made that crack about the poor and their petits fours for breakfast.” The album winds up with its only cover song, I Don’t Care, brassy tune punctuated by big ghostly flurries of guitar, brass and backing vocals. This was the signature song for Eva Tanguay, proto-flapper feminist, vaudeville star and contemporary of Sophie Tucker and Mae West. But rather than channeling the lyrics’ impunity, Lorson delivers it wistfully, as if she really does care and has taken a beating for that. It’s an apt way to close this thoughtful and thought-provoking album.

A Grand Finale for the Greenwich Village Orchestra

On Sunday the Greenwich Village Orchestra wrapped up its season with an emotionally-charged doublebill of Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 9 and Tschaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5. Conductor Yaniv Segal made a fond return to the podium here (he was previously assistant conductor, before founding the Chelsea Symphony across town), leading the ensemble with a precise and aptly puckish touch through the Shostakovich. It’s the most overtly western and the funniest of Shostakovich’s symphonies, ostensibly a celebration of Allied victory in World War II but in reality a vindictively campy satire of nationalist fervor and pageantry. The swirling, opening rondo rips off Haydn wholesale (although Shostakovich got a pass from the censors for that since the composer is a fellow Slav); by the time it returns a last time around in the concluding movement, it’s clear that the celebration is a sham and that the participants are just going through the motions beneath the stern eyes of the gestapo. But the orchestra didn’t just go through the motions: Segal resisted the urge to go over the top, settling for a brisk martial pulse that underscored the angst and sheer physicality of the whirlwind dance motifs. Stalin gets nothing more than a simple, cartoonish “uh oh, here comes the boss” riff early on. Solos by first-chair clarinetist Gary Dranch and bassoonist Daniel Liao had a crystalline, plaintive clarity, vividly projected Shostakovich’s wounded alienation: the brooding second movement is the one place the composer lets down his hair, and this made a potent contrast with, and setup for, the sarcastic hijinks to follow, where any hope of resolution or a real explosion of triumph is dashed within seconds. No wonder this symphony got Shostakovich in so much trouble: its transparency leaves no question that the composer felt the war was a pyrrhic victory. It wouldn’t be until after Stalin’s death that he felt safe enough to write another one.

The GVO’s Barbara Yahr then took over the baton for the Tschaikovsky, a potent illustration of a struggle that looks inward rather than outward. She and the orchestra wasted no time in digging in hard, giving its mournful opening theme a muscular gravitas that took on epic intensity as the first movement vaccillated between hope and unabated ache. That made the still rapture of the second movement all the more resonant, and when they came to the waltzing third movement, she held them in check even as the angst of the initial movement returned. So when they cut loose with the unbridled optimism of the endless, Beethovenesque series of codas that eventually wind their way out, there was no question that the enemy had been vanquished. The roaring blaze left a buzz in the audience even after several curtain calls: it was a message of hope that would linger long into the evening.