Another Gorgeous, Lushly Orchestrated, Psychedelic Album from My Education

NYMD’s sister blog Lucid Culture called four-guitar Austin postrock instrumentalists My Education “The Dirty Three meets Friends of Dean Martinez meets Brooklyn Rider meets My Bloody Valentine,” which makes sense. Their music takes you away to a different and much better universe, where angst is confronted and then transcended, where pain rises and is then swept away on the wings of what sounds like a million guitars. Lush, ornate, hypnotic and psychedelic to the extreme, their new album A Drink for All My Friends blends Dirty Three pensiveness and FODM desert ambience with elegantly austere touches of Brooklyn Rider strings, then stirs it ferociously with a MBV dreampop swirl.

This album opens on an unexpectedly quiet note, guest Sarah Norris’ vibraphone mingling with James Alexandre’s viola for a hypnotic circularity that brings to mind Missy Mazzoli’s chamber rock band Victoire. Then the guitars enter one by one on the second track, For All My Friends, an army of roaring riffage that finally rises to a titanic wall of frantic tremolo-picking, reaching a Pink Floyd majesty as the bass bubbles over the top of the sonic cauldron and ends unexpectedly raw and jaggedly: what a ride this is!

The practically ten-minute, cinematic Mr. 1986 builds out of a pretty, acoustic chamber-pop theme into an elegaic anthem, both nebulous and forcefully direct, Henna Chou’s terse piano finally taking centertstage and then quickly receding against the guitar orchestra. Built around a distantly menacing, echoey heart monitor motif, Black Box richly blends twinkly Rhodes piano with all the guitars into a slow, crepuscular freeway theme speckled with weird samples of television or radio dialogue,

Robot-Hohlenbewoner rides a funky, more animated motorik groove: if U2 wrote good songs, they would sound like this. The ten-minute Happy Village takes its time to eventually clarify that this particular village isn’t so happy at all: it’s the Velvets as John Cale might have dreamed of orchestrating them circa 1967, plus mid-70s Floyd angst, hynotic Black Angels murk and an unexpected nod to new wave on the way out. The album ends with the arena-rock spoof Homunculus, like Big Lazy’s Starchild but more amusingly crass. My Education are huge in Europe, which is where they are right now, on tour: a band this good deserves just as avid a following on their own side of the pond. Count this among the most lushly enjoyable albums of the year in any style of music.

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Richly Creepy Vintage Afrobeat Grooves from Karthala 72

Karthala 72, right down to their name, evoke the crazed, surreal, most menacing side of the psychedelic funk coming out of Nigeria and Ethiopia in the 70s. Is their recently issued album Diable du Feu (Fire Devil) in fact an obscure treasure from that era? As you probably guessed by now, it’s not: the band is from Brooklyn. But hearing the music, you could easily fool someone who wasn’t hip to the scheme. And Karthala 72’s take on that era is spot-on, right down to the haphazard, seemingly on-the-fly production complete with dirty, distorted bass. What’s coolest about this album is that most of the songs are short: even though most of them are one or two-chord jams, they never go on so long that they get boring. The effect is just the opposite: the listener is left wishing they’d go on for twice as long because the band is thrashing the living hell out of them.

The album opens with the title track, a creepy chromatic horror surf guitar riff rising over circular, blippy bass and boomy percussion. Swirly sax takes it back from chaos to that evil opening riff – and then they’re done in less than three minutes. The raga-funk Marche de la Mort (Death Market) is sort of Within You Without You done as macabre Afrobeat, while the slow, hypnotic Bahari Farasi works call-and-response guitars into a surreal clave groove.

Armour Sombre is a brisk Afrobeat-rock shuffle with clattering percussion that harks back to 80s noiserock bands like Savage Republic (who ironically were influenced by the original stuff from Africa) as much as it does Fela. The same goes for Dans le Coeur Du Feu (In the Heart of the Fire), the A-side of their 2011 Electric Cowbell 7.”

The B-side of that single, Dolores sets surprisingly blithe sax against a brooding one-chord trance vamp. The longest jam here, Triomphe Dieu de la Mer (Sea God’s Victory) pairs echoey East Bay Ray guitar with trippy, echoey, distorted Rhodes piano that builds to a weirdly bluesy jam over an omnipresent percussive groove, rising from a slither to a gallop. They follow that with Trop Fort (Too Strong), which comes together out of a woozy dub-flavored intro with more offcenter chromatic reverb guitar and an even creepier Ethiopiques horn riff.

The brief Le Vieux Chien Marcel (Old Dog Marcel) is the closest approximation of the imitation James Brown coming out of Africa forty years ago, followed by Kishindo Hekalu Wa Roho, which starts out like an amazing Lee “Scratch” Perry dub of an early Black Sabbath track and ends up like Savage Republic. The album closes with the ominous stoner funk of L’Expansion Bantoue (Bantu Takeover).

That’s the nuts and bolts of what Karthala 72 sounds like. Emotionally, this album takes you on a heart-racing, darting tour of the ill-lit back corners of some nameless, dusty third world city of the mind where danger lurks around every turn and the pungent, skunky smell of Durban poison hangs heavy in the air. Creepy dance music doesn’t get any better than this.

11/28 WTF

This was bound to happen. Piles and piles of albums – virtually speaking – to cover, no time. To keep this page fresh, here’s a couple of cool tracks worth hearing.

In case you think Austin’s Balmorhea are one of the endless parade of New Order ripoffs, guess again. Check out the lush, cinematic Days, from their forthcoming album. This band is huge in Europe (big European tour coming up), maybe this is the reason why.

Brooklyn garage punks Triple Hex also have a new album coming up. Here’s Winter. It’s coming – you might as well accept it and just get it.

Sunday Salon #4 – What Tryptophan Overdose?

Every Sunday at 5 PM, New York Music Daily hosts the Sunday Salon at Zirzamin in the old Zinc Bar space at Houston and LaGuardia. The previous week was a hotbed of dark songwriting activity; this one began with a small sampling of the A-list, some of whom will be performing here in the weeks to come. Beyond the inevitability that this music blog would start booking shows, why this format, and why here? Because it’s one of Manhattan’s best-sounding rooms. And since there are upwards of a thousand groups and musicians across all styles who comprise this city’s elite, it’s a daunting task to keep up with each and every one of them individually. From a blogger’s point of view, the salon is a step closer to one-stop shopping, a chance to stay on top of what at least a portion of the most important artists in town are doing.

LJ Murphy, who’s playing here at 7 on Dec 9 with his band the Accomplices, opened the evening with a trio of characteristically vivid, savage, catchy songs including the big crowd-pleaser Barbed Wire Playpen (about a Madoff type who likes to get spanked) and Sleeping Mind, a nonchalantly chilling, soul-infused chronicle of clinical depression. John Hodel did a couple of surreally aphoristic, grimly funny numbers, followed by the Salon’s own Lauraly Grossman, who unearthed a rustic Laura Marling rarity as well as a bluesy, rustic one of her own which she sang a-cappella. Lorraine Leckie, who’s here this coming Sunday at 7, then took over the piano. While it’s amazing how simple yet resonant her dark chamber pop songs are, her upcoming show here is with her careening Canadian gothic rock band the Demons, featuring Hugh Pool on lead guitar.

After the salon, chanteuse Carol Lipnik and pianist Matt Kanelos (who also fronts Americana soul band the Smooth Maria) treated the crowd to a luminous, magical, otherworldly set. Lipnik had brought her famous vocal pedal but used it judiciously for just an extra touch of creepy reverb or echo. Though she can wow a crowd with her four-octave range, she only went up that high a handful of times throughout an eclectic mixof originals and covers that nonethless came across almost as a single piece. Kanelos’ judiciously resounding chords and hypnotic, percussive attack took the trancelike quality of the music several steps up, through Leonard Cohen’s The Gypsy Wife, an utterly minimalist version of Harry Nillsson’s Life Line and then Wilco’s War on War, stripped bare to its inner juxtaposition of hope and dread.

They elegantly elevated an Emily Dickinson poem to New England gothic territory, following with the high point of the evening, two new Lipnik originals, the ethereal Crow’s Nest and the toweringly mysterious Oh, the Tyranny. Kanelos reinvented Nick Drake’s Black-Eyed Dog as a deadly, ravenous beast with his hammering cross-handed counterrythms, then taking the mood back to deep ethereality with two songs of his own, With the Sum and The Brink. The biggest hits with the crowd were a trance-inducing take on Richard Thompson’s gloomy The Great Valerio (where Lipnik did a bit of wirewalking, consciously or unconsciously, to drive the lyrics home). They closed with Neil Young’s There’s a World (which as Lipnik explained could be part of a much bigger picture…or just about smoking pot), freak-folk icon Michael Hurley’s Troubled Waters, and then, persuaded to do an encore, ended the night on a chilling but transcendent note with Kanelos taking over the lead vocals on a minimalist yet lushly haunted version of the Smiths’ There Is a Light That Never Goes Out.

The Sunday Salon happens every week starting at 5 PM at Zirzamin, the lowlit subterranean music parlor in the old Zinc Bar space on Houston and LaGuardia. The public is always welcome to come out and watch, and admission is always free. This coming Sunday’s featured guests at 7 PM are Canadian gothic rockers Lorraine Leckie and Her Demons.

Live Music in New York City in December 2012 and January 2013

Daily updates, and a new calendar for January coming sometime around the new year (might be a little late on this since clubs drag their asses putting up their schedules this time of year). So you might want to bookmark this page and check back periodically to see what’s new. There’s a comprehensive list of venues where these shows are happening at NYMD’s sister blog Lucid Culture.

Showtimes listed here are set times, not the time doors open – if a listing says something like “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 usually has a lot of shows. He’s at Lucille’s on 12/13 and 12/21 at 8 PM and also playing 12/2, 12/14 and 12/30 at 7 at Terra Blues.

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 December a phenomenal doublebill: savage, macabre,cinematic noir jazz band Beninghove’s Hangmen followed at 10 by “psycho mambo” band Gato Loco, who play equally entertaining, only slightly less dark oldschool Cuban-inspired sounds at Zirzamin.

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.

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.

Most Mondays in December (check the Barbes website for updates), 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.

Also Mondays in December Rev. Vince Anderson and his band play Union Pool in Williamsburg, two sets starting around 11:30 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. Vince also makes a rare West Village appearance at 55 Bar on 11/2 at 10.

The second and fourth Tuesday of the month there are free organ concerts featuring a global mix of first-rate talent at Central Synagogue, Lexington Ave. at 55th St., free

Tuesdays in December 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.

Tuesdays 12/4, 12/11 and 12/18 at 9ish violin virtuoso Sarah Alden’s amazing Balkan/bluegrass band at Branded Saloon in Ft. Greene

Tuesdays at around 10 Julia Haltigan and her band play 11th St. Bar. Young as she is, she’s an institution – and a torchy, charismatic force of nature, equally at home in fiery southwestern gothic rock, oldschool soul and steamy retro jazz ballads, and her band is just as good as she is. Why she isn’t as popular as, say, Neko Case, is a mystery.

Tuesdays in January (that’s next year) starting 1/8 through 1/28 electric blues guitar legend Johnny Winter at B.B. King’s

Wednesdays at 1 PM there are free organ concerts at St. Paul’s Chapel downtown, a mix of NYC-area and international talent.

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.

Thursdays and Fridays in December 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 at 5 PM in December, adventurous indie classical string quartet Ethel (Ralph Farris, viola; Dorothy Lawson, cello; Kip Jones, violin; and Tema Watstein, violin) plays the balcony bar at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, free w/museum adm. When they’re not there, they’ll have someone from from their wide circle of like-minded avant ensembles.

Friday evenings at various times (check the site for the weekly schedule) fearless avant cellist/impresario Valerie Kuehne’s Super Coda – a global mix of strange and sometimes amazing sounds, from the way-out to the way-in, drawing on a vast, global talent base – happens at Spectrum, 121 Ludlow St., 2nd floor.

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

Saturdays 12/1, 12/8 and 12/15 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 12/8, 12/15 and 12/22, 4:30 PM Raya Brass Band at Radegat Hall, free. These Balkan brass jammers are phenomenal. Their scorching 2012 album is one of the year’s best, they have the world’s funkiest tuba player, a great trumpeter and clarinetist. If dark Balkan grooves are your thing, this is your band.

Saturdays Jan 5 ,10, 24, 31 a Becca Stevens residency at Shapeshifter Lab, time TBA – nuanced, torchy, rainswept guitar jazz songs from the Bjorkestra frontwoman.

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.

Weekly Sunday organ concerts continue (with holidays excepted) at St. Thomas Church, 53rd/5th Ave. at 5:15 PM, an international parade of A-list organists looking to give the mighty 1913 Skinner organ here a sendoff before it’s replaced.

Every Sunday at 5 PM, New York Music Daily present the Sunday Salon at Zirzamin (in the old Zinc Bar space on Houston at LaGuardia, downstairs).  An A-list of New York songwriters and instrumentalists work up new material and cross-pollinate in a comfortable, musician-friendly space. There’s no cover, and at the end of the salon, there’s a 45-minute set by a rotating cast of topnotch New York and international songwriters and composers. Dark rockers Lorraine Leckie and Her Demons  are on the bill at 7 here on 12/2; noir NYC legend LJ Murphy & the Accomplices on 12/9; powerhouse soul-rocker Katie Elevitch on 12/16; and Americana guitar genius Homeboy Steve Antonakos on 12/23. As always, watch this space for updates.

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 December, 9/11 PM the cutting-edge Arturo O’Farrill Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra – a mighty beast that ranks with the Mingus bands as one of the city’s most fascinating jazz orchestras – at Birdland, $30 seats avail., res. req.

Sundays in December eclectic, trippy Polynesian lounge band Fisherman plays Rodeo Bar at around 9.

12/3, 3 PM the annual Composers Play Composers Marathon with 30 composer-performers at Drom, $15 incl. a drink.

12/3, 7 PM pensive Americana songwriter Donna Susan at Zirzamin. Raised on punk, inspired by country, more honest and haunting than any of the newbies recently relocated to Bushwick, followed at 9 or so by noir monsters Beninghove’s Hangmen and then around 10 by psycho mambo band Gato Loco.

12/3, 7:30 PM a mighty and dark evening of minor-key cross-pollination with La Orquesta Yidish de Nueva York w/ Arturo O’Farrill, Frank London, and Joanne Borts at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, $10.

12/3, 7:30 PM charismatic, theatrical pianist Jenny Q Chai presents “Dissecting Stroppa” – An Analysis of “Innige Cavatina” from Miniature Estrose by Marco Stroppa at Miller Hall, Manhattan School of Music, 120 Claremont Avenue, 1 train to 125th St. and walk back uphill, free.

12/3, 10 PM creepy piano-based art-rock/chamber pop band George Sand followed by excellent, jangly, powerpop/Americana rockers Glass Anchors at Cake Shop, $7

12/3, 8:30/10:30 PM Mexican jazz singer/revivalist Magos Herrera with Mike Moreno on guitar and Hans Glawischnig on bass at the Bar Next Door, $12.

12/3, 9 PM the imaginative, shimmery, sometimes explosive Asuka Kakitani Jazz Orchestra at Tea Lounge in Park Slope

12/3, 10ish dynamic, dramatic mythologically-inspired composer/songwriter Anais Mitchell at Bowery Ballroom.

12/4, 7:30 PM the Calder Quartet plays a program TBA at the Austrian Cultural Forum, 11 E 52nd St., free.

12/4, 7:30 PM Composers Concordance Ensemble feat. composer-violinist Dave Soldier, composer-clarinetist Kinan Azmeh, composer-trumpeter Franz Hackl, composer-hornist John Clark, composer-vocalist-keyboardist-gusle player Milica Paranosic, composer-pianist-keyboardist Patrick Grant, composer-guitarist Gene Pritsker, composer-bass guitarist Dan Cooper, and composer-percussionist Peter Jarvis at Shapeshifter Lab, $10.

12/4, 8 PM badass resonator guitarist/oldtime blues siren Mamie Minch at the Jalopy followed eventually at 10:30 by Apocalypse Five and Dime doing their twisted intense bluegrass/Balkan thing, $12.

12/4, 8 PM the Antara Ensemble plays Carl Nielsen’s Little Suite in a Minor, Op. 1 for String Orchestra; Mozart’s Concerto in D Major for Flute and Orchestra, K. 314 (Harold Jones, flute soloist); Shostakovich’s Concerto No. 1, Op. 35, for Piano, Trumpet and String Orchestra (Irena Portenko, pianist); and William Foster McDaniel’s Duke Ellington Medley for Piano and String Orchestra (William Foster McDaniel, pianist) at St. Peter’s Church, 54th St/Lexington Ave., $25/$20 stud/srs

12/4, 8 PM a female-themed festival of art-song with Carla Kihlstedt in NYFOS’s concert Women at Merkin Concert Hall. Featuring soprano Corinne Winters, mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke, baritone Andrew Garland and pianists Michael Barrett and Steven Blier performing world premieres by Carla Kihlstedt, Mark Adamo, Mohammed Fairouz, and Harold Meltzer, and more at Merkin Concert Hall.

12/4, 8ish a rare duo performance by Americana chanteuse Lee Ann Westover and brilliant bassist Saskia Lane at Spike Hlil, free.

12/4-8, 8:30/11 PM bop-era jazz legend Phil Woods leads a quintet at Birdland, $30 seats avail.

12/4, 11 PM North Carolina band Lindsay Lou & the Flatbellys play tight tuneful original and classic bluegrass at the small room at the Rockwood

12/5, 7 PM latin jazz bass legend Andy Gonzalez leads his band at Hostos Center for the Arts and Culture, 450 Grand Concourse in the Bronx, free.

12/5, 7:30 PM Trio+ – Yosuke Kawasaki, violin, Wolfram Koessel, cello and Vadim Serebryani, piano.with Georgy Valtchev, violin play Haydn, Schumann, Bartok and Korngold at the Bulgarian Consulate, 121 E 62nd St, free.

12/5, 9ish a Jack Martin bday spectacular featuring some incarnation of the Dimestore Dance Duo featuring Martin and Jude Webre playing their gypsy Twin Peaks guitar music plus secret special guests (think dark/goth/Tonic circa 2005) at Zirzamin

12/5, 9 PM dark funky Middle Eastern worldbeat with Khaled and band at Shrine.

12/5, 9 PM New Orleans band Gordon’s Grand Street Stompers at Radegast Hall

12/5, 9:30 PM retro jazz pianist Joe Alterman at Caffe Vivaldi – if pre-1950 sounds are yout thing, this guy’s your man.

12/5 ,10 PM the increasingly chameleonic, perennially impressive chanteuse Sara Serpa debuts her new Crossing Oceans project exploring the often overlooked African and Brazilian influences in the music of her native Portugal with Samuel Blaser, trombone; Dan Blake, tenor sax; André Matos, guitar; Linda Oh, bass at Cornelia St. Cafe, $10 + $10 min.

12/5, 11 PM noir torch song goddess Kelly Hogan at the Mercury, $15.

12/5, 11ish Deer Tick playing Born on Flag Day and More Fuel for the Fire in their entirety for all you Mumford types at Brooklyn Bowl, $15. Also here on 12/12 and 12/19 playing different material, same deal.

12/6, 6 PM the Gregg August Sextet play the cd release show for the eclectic bassist’s reputedly amazing new one Four by Six at Birdland, $30 tix avail. His quartet is also at Shapeshifter Lab for the Brooklyn crew on 12/14 at 9ish.

12/6, 6:30 PM the core of Afrobeat jamband the Brighton Beat – Mark Cocheo on guitar with Mark Zaleski on bass and Saxophone and Brian Adler on drums – rip the roof off the Bar Next Door, free. Followed at 8:30 ($12 cover) by Tyler Blanton on vibrophone with Matt Clohesy on bass and Obed Calvaire on drums. Cocheo and crew are also here on 12/27, same time.

12/6-8, time TBA, Anonymous 4 sing David Lang’s latest choral work Love Fail at the Harvey Theatre at BAM, $20, after-concert talk with the composer follows the 12/7 performance

12/6, 7:30 PM the Cassatt String Quartet play Victor Ullman’s Quartet No. 3, a new work by Gerald Cohen, Playing for Our Lives, a contemporary tribute to the musical life in the Nazi death camp, and Shostakovich’s shattering Quartet No. 8 at Symphony Space, $30/$25 stud.

12/6, 7:30 PM the clever, original, tuneful Broken Reed Saxophone Quartet (feat. brilliant baritone saxophonist Jenny Hill) at Zirzamin

12/6, 8 PM dark, charismatic, deviously witty literate keyboardist/chanteuse Rachelle Garniez followed at 10 by psycho mambo band Gato Loco at Barbes.

12/6, 8 PM an Olga Neuwirth composer portrait at the Miller Theatre feat. International Contemporary Ensemble plus Cory Smythe, piano; Jayce Ogren, conductor, playing two of the daring composer’s spectacular works for chamber ensemble: her acclaimed piano concerto and a U.S. premiere , $25 tix highly rec.

12/6, 8 PM respected Chicago-style blues guitarist Joe Louis Walker at B.B. King’s, $15 adv tix very highly rec.

12/6, 8 PM trombonist Steve Swell and guitarist Omar Tamez pay homage to Tamez’s father Nicandro Tamez, a prolific yet unsung Mexican composer in the avant garde tradition, with Swell premiering his new long-form work Composite #8 with Darius Jones (alto) Jonathan Golove (cello) James Ilgenfritz (bass) at Roulettte, $15/$10 stud/srs.

12/6, 8:30 PM lyrical third-stream jazz pianist Jacob Sacks’ 40Twenty quartet playing the cd release show for their new one at I-Beam, $10.

12/6, 9 PM politically aware psychedelic rockers Musiciens Sans Frontieres at Fontana’s, $7.

12/6, 9 PM oldtime hot swing jazz with Jason Prover & His Sneak Thievery Orchestra at Radegast Hall.

12/6, 9/10;30 PM trombonist Ryan Keberle & Catharsis with Mike Rodriguez – trumpet; Jorge Roeder – bass; Eric Doob – drums at the Jazz Gallery, $15 first set, $10 for the second

12/6, 9 PM Jon Irabagon, saxophones; Mark Helias, bass; Barry Altschul, drums doing balls-to-the-wall improvisations at Cornelia St. Cafe, $10 + $10 min. followed at 9:30 by Irabagon’s jazz-metal project with drummer Mike Pride and guitarist Mick Barr. On 12/7 Irabagon is here at 9 and 10:30 PM with a quintet feat. Ralph Alessi, trumpet; Jacob Sacks, piano; Eivand Opsvik, bass; Tom Rainey, drums, same deal.

12/6, 10 PM the Coup – the greatest and most political of all the west coast hip-hop acts – at Bowery Ballroom, $15 adv tix very highly rec.

12/6, 10ish the Casket Girls – a Black Moth Super Rainbow noir pop spinoff, along the same lines as the Marshmallow Ghosts – followed by a show by their considerably less interesting main project at the Music Hall of Williamsburg, $15 gen adm.

12/6, midnight-ish, drummer Thomas Galliano leads a quartet with Stacy Dillard, tenor sax; Zaccai Curtis, keys; Dezron Douglas, bass at Nublu.

12/7, 5:30 PM high-energy acoustic Mexican folk-punk band Radio Jarocho at the American Folk Art Museum, free

12/7, 7 PM pianist Paul Kim plays Moussorgsky and Stravinsky at Third Street Music School Settlement, free.

12/7, 7 :30 PM Universal Thump pianist/frontwoman Greta Gertler previews some songs from Willow’s One Night Stand- her art-rock musical with playwright Alexandra Collier – with Alice Bierhorst (drums) and Ben Gallina (bass) at a house concert in Park Slope, Brooklyn, email for details

12/7, 7:30 PM pipa virtuoso Wu Man = whose recent adventures in central Asian music have been haunting – at Symphony Space,$30/$25 stud/srs.

12/7, 7:30 PM intense percussionist Alessanda Belloni’s stormy drum/trance suite Honoring the Sea Goddess at the NY Open Center, 22 E. 30th St, $28.

12/7, 8 PM oudist Zafer Tawil and clarinetist Kinan Azmeh’s eclectic multimedia Resonance Project explores views of New York from a perceptive Middle Eastern outsider’s point of view at Alwan for the Arts downtown, $20/$15 stud.

12/7, 8 PM the Chelsea Symphony plays Bach’s Concerto for Two Violins, Hummel’s Trumpet Concerto, and Brahms’ Variations on a Theme of Haydn plus an Aaron Dai premiere at St. Paul’s Church, 315 W 22nd St., $20. Reception and silent auction to benefit the orchestra to follow performance

12/7, 8 PM pianist Lee Feldman, cellist Noah Hoffeld and chanteuse Basya Schechter join forces for a formidable program of Jewish music at St. Paul’s Chapel downtown.

12/7, 8 PM guitarist/violist John King plays world premieres for augmented string quartet, brass band, and soprano and large ensemble with a star-packed avant garde cast featuring the Crucible Quartet and Tilt Brass at Roulettte, $15/$10 stud/srs.

12/7, 8:30 PM smart, multistylistic jazz-pop/bossa nova chanteuse Sinem Saniye followed by intense, dramatic, cleverly lyrical songwriter Elaine Romanelli at Caffe Vivaldi.

12/7, 9 PM bad segue, great bands: microtonal blues with Jane Lee Hooker followed at 10 by the oldschool soul sounds of Preacherman & the Revival at Shrine

12/7, 9 PM artsy female-fronted goth-metal band the Black Statues -sort of the missing link between Siouxsie and Blue Oyster Cult – at the Gutter bowling alley in Willamsburg.

12/7, 9:30 PM dark psychedelic indie rock legend (and Herbie Hancock/Sonic Youth/Dresden Dolls collaborator/producer) Martin Bisi at Littlefield $10.

12/7, 10 PM dark, catchy, intense original acoustic Americana band the Sometime Boys at Branded Saloon in Ft. Greene. They’re at the Parkside for frontwoman Sarah Mucho’s birthday on the 14th at 10.

12/7, 10 PM guitar duos with Nels Cline and Julian Lage at the Stone – wow – $10.

12/7, 11ish minimalist 80s style goth band Eraas at the Cameo Gallery.

12/8, 6 PM west African kora harp virtuoso Yacouba Diabate followed at 8 by the kreyol reggae of Blayer Pointdujour and the Rockers at Shrine.

12/8, 7 PM clarinetist Patricia Billings, french hornist Amr Selim, and pianist Seba Ali play works by Paquito D’Rivera, Gamal Abdel-Rahim, Jeff Scott ,Messiaen, Mussorgsky, Yuan-Chen Li and others at Merkin Hall, free – get there early

12/8, 7:30 PM the Bang on a Can All-Stars play Rimpa Reimagined, a multimedia program including world premieres by Vijay Iyer and Japanese post-minimalist Mamoru Fujieda plus Somei Satoh’s Shu (Spells) for the first time since its world premiere, at the Japan Society, 333 E 47th St., $28.

12/8, 8 PM an ostensibly Sephardic music festival with intense, haunting slinky hypnotic intense dancefloor string band Copal – who are about as Sephardic as the Clash – followed eventually at around 11 by hypnotic desert blues-influenced Sway Machinery at the Knitting Factory, $12 adv tix rec.

12/8, 8 PM a good, intense, dramatic steampunk rock doublebill with Not Waving but Drowning and then Frenchy & the Punk at Spike Hill, $6.

12/8, 8 PM the high-voltage gospel/garage grooves of the Lost Crusaders at Cake Shop, $10

12/8, 8 PM, repeating on 12/9 at 2 PM, also 12/15 at 8 and 12/16 at 2, Miranda Cuckson, violin; Jesse Mills, violin; Melissa Reardon, viola; Raman Ramakrishnan, cello play early Beethoven quartets: Op. 18 No. 1 in F Major, Op. 18 No. 2 in G Major at Bargemusic, $35/$30srs/$15 stud.

12/8, 8:30 PM Texas oldtime country songwriter Anthony DaCosta at the Postcrypt Coffeehouse at Columbia, free.

12/8, 9 PM dark torchy noir songwriter Jessie Kilguss & Radio Gold at Pete’s.

12/8, 9;10:30 PM bassist Ben Alllison leads his group with Steve Cardenas, guitar; Brandon Seabrook , guitar, banjo; Allison Miller, drums at Cornelia St. Cafe, $10 + $10 min.

12/8, 9ish eclectic western swing baritone crooner Sean Kershaw & the New Jack Ramblers at Brooklyn Rod & Gun Club.

12/8, 10ish bizarre segue, good show: trombonist/crooner Dave Smith’s sly, slinky boudoir-soul project Smoota followed by ferocious violin-driven klezmer circus punks Golem at the Cameo Gallery

12/8, 10ish , ferociously literate, witty, psychedelic/new wave rockes the Larch – whose new album Days to the West is one of 2012′s best – at Freddy’s.

12/8, 10 PM torchy, sultry, haunting Middle Eastern-tinged East African chanteuse Alsarah & the Nubatones at Barbes

12/8, 10 PM noir guitar legend Jim Campilongo leads a trio with Jay Foote (bass) Bryn Roberts (keys) Taylor Floreth (drums) at the Stone, $10.

12/8, 10 PM dark fiery eclectic electric blues guitar powerhouse Will Scott at 68 Jay St. Bar.

12/9, 1:30 PM (half past one) members of Venezuela’s Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra followed at 4 PM by Adela Peña, Harumi Rhodes, violin; Ah Ling Neu, viola; Roberta Cooper, cello; Peter Weitzner, double bass, performing compositions by Haydn, Boccherini, Lev “Ljova” Zhurbin and Leroy Anderson. at the Dreck Center at the Brooklyn Public Library at Grand Army Plaza, free, note no children under 6 admitted!

12/9, 3 (three) PM the Brooklyn Women of Song (irrepressible Meg Braun, whose high-intensity blue-eyed soul will give you chills; the worldly, uncategorizable Jean Rohe, and intense genius multi-instrumentalist/chanteuse Carolann Solebello) at the First Acoustics Coffeehouse in downtown Brooklyn, $20.

12/9, 4 PM pianist David Buddin plays the NY premiere of Karlheinz Stockhausen’s Natural Durations 1-12 – hard to believe, but true – at Grace United Methodist Church, 22 7th Ave, Park Slope, Brooklyn, free. One of Stockhausen’s final works: the third “hour” of his ‘Klang’ cycle, derived from a single 24-note set run through a series of permutations.

12/9, 7 PM intense, literate, charismatic noir rocker LJ Murphy with his band – whose forthcoming album is sensational – at Zirzamin.

12/9, 7 PM NYC’s ecstatically hypnotic Javanese bell orchestra Gamelan Dharma Swara at the Fat Cat – maybe the sounds of the poolroom will add an extra percussive dimension…

12/9, 7:15 PM legendary golden age jazz drummer Chico Hamilton – in his 90s and still going strong at Drom, $12 adv tix rec A slightly more elegant take on what Roy Haynes is doing right now.

12/9, 7:30 PM fiery southwestern gothic/paisley underground psychedelic band Girl to Gorilla at Otto’s.

12/9, 8:30 PM Drina Seay – torchy Americana/soul/jazz siren who is to NYC now what Neko Case was to Portland in 1999 – with guitar genius Steve Antonakos at 2A upstairs followed by western swing crooner Sean Kershaw at 10.

12/9, 8:30 PM drummer Jeff Davis leads a quartet with Russ Lossing – piano; Eivind Opsvik – bass; Samuel Blaser – trombone at I-Beam, $10.

12/9, 9 PM dark rustic gypsy/steampunk/Americana band Kotorino at the Jalopy, $10.

12/9, 9ish high-voltage southwestern gothic rockers the Downward Dogs at Bowery Electric, $8

12/9, 9ish raucous, high-energy country blues and hillbilly stuff with Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Bandat the Mercury, $12 adv tix rec.

12/9, midnight-ish moody 80s-influenced female-fronted neosoul/downtempo rockers Teletextile at the Cameo Gallery.

12/10, 7 PM J O’Brien of the late, great Dog Show plays his ferociously literate, vintage R&B/punk influenced songs followed at 9 or so by noir monsters Beninghove’s Hangmen and then around 10 by psycho mambo band Gato Loco.

12/10, 7 PM haunting Andalucian Middle Eastern and Sephardic sounds with the New York Andalus Ensemble at Elebash Recital Hall. 365 5th Ave (corner of 34th St)., free

12/10, 7 PM torchy oldtimey fiddle-driven band Katie Trautz and the New Foundry at the small room at the Rockwood.

12/10, 8 PM Montreal klezmer/Middle Eastern band Shtreiml with Turkish oud virtuoso Ismail Hakki Fencioglu at Pete’s. They’re at Drom the next day, 12/11, same time for $10.

12/10, 8 PM the John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble featuring Kate McGarry and Theo Bleckmann singing tracks from their forthcoming, lushly intriguing forthcoming album, at Roulette, $15/$10 stud/srs.

12/10, 8:30 PM violin/guitar-centric quartet Red Thread play “traverse the terrain of through-composed jazz, improvised chamber music, cinematic prog, and new settings of pieces by defining composers such as Anton Webern” at Cornelia St. Cafe, $10 + $10 min.

12/10, 9 PM the 18-piece Cecilia Coleman Big Band at Tea Lounge in Park Slope

12/11, half past noon acclaimed Italian organist Luca Benedicti at Central Synagogue, 54th/Lex, free

12/11, free beer at 5:30 PM, show at 6, Jennifer Choi, David Fulmer & Stefan Jackiw, violins; Jesse Mills, viola; & Fred Sherry, cello premiere a new Zorn duo work plus his string quartet at the Miller Theatre, free.

12/11 a benefit for guitarist Mark Spencer, who lost his Red Hook studio in the hurricane, show starts at 7 with a brilliant Americana-flavored lineup including Amy Allison, Tammy Faye Starlite, the Del Lords (first US appearance outside of Lakeside Lounge since the 90s) and Laurra Cantrell at Rock Shop, $20

12/11, 7:30/9:30 PM eclectic, funky, compelling jazz violinist Zach Brock leads a quartet with Aaron Goldberg – piano;Matt Penman – bass; Eric Harland – drums at the Jazz Standard, $20.

12/11, 8 PM Balkan/klezmer mandolinist Avi Avital and his trio with special guests at Barbes.

12/11-15, 8:30/11 PM ageless former Charlie Parker drummer Roy Haynes leads his killer band at Birdland, $30 seats avail.

12/11 purist, guitarishly brilliant, jangly country/psychedelic rock band Chris Erikson and the Wayward Puritans – whose debut album is one of the year’s best – at Rodeo Bar, 9ish

12/11, 9/11 PM first-class bassist Christian McBride starts a long stand at the Vanguard with a trio through 12/16 and then his band Inside Straight through 12/23, $30.

12/11, 9ish low-register reedman Josh Sinton’s Ideal Bread with Kirk Knuffke on cornet, Richard Giddens on bass and Tomas Fujiwara on drums at Korzo.

12/11, 10 PM alto saxophonist David Binney leads a quartet with Jacob Sacks – keys;
Eivind Opsvik – bass; Dan Weiss – drums at 55 Bar.

12/11, 11ish smart, eclectic powerpop songwriter Charlene Kaye at the Mercury followed after midnight by the increasingly cheesy synth-disco of Hank and Cupcakes.

12/11, 11 PM twisted dark punk jazz crooner Harvey Eyeballs at Cake Shop, $7.

12/12, 7:30/9:30 PM an acoustic trio show with the Becca Stevens Band – the chanteuse plus Liam Robinson on accordion and piano and Chris Tordini on bass at the Jazz Standard, $20

12/12, 8 PM Billy Hart and George Cables’ postbop supergroup the Cookers and the elegantly lyrical Geri Allen and her trio at the 92YTribeca, simulcast on WBGO’s Checkout, $12 adv tix very highly rec.

12/12, 9ish tongue-in-cheek, period-perfect early 50s style country from Susquehanna Industrial Tool & Die Co. at Rodeo Bar.

12/12, 9 PM psychedelic soul and funk grooves with Jesse Fischer & Soul Cycle at Littlefield, $15.

12/12, 9:30 PM well-like indie/altcountry rocker Richard Buckner at the Mercury, $15.

12/12, 10 PM Rachel Brotman at Union Hall, $8, all proceeds to benefit Occupy Wall Street. Subtle torchy preferable alternative to Snorah Jones is down for the cause! She’s got a great band too.

12/12, 10:30 PM the mysterious Tiki Brothers, who play kick-ass psychedelic instrumental versions of 60s rock hits and reinvent surf rock classics, at Cafe Steinhof in Park Slope

12/13, 1 PM charismatic bassoonist Rebekah Heller at Trinity Church, free. Whether with a chamber ensemble or her Dark and Storm bassoon duo, she’ll make a believer out of anybody who thinks the idea of a charismatic bassoonist is ridiculous.

12/13 and 12/15, 7:30 PM and also 12/14, 11 AM (eleven in the morning), the NY Philharmonic play Sibelius’ sweeping Symphonies Nos. 1 and 3 plus the Schumann Piano Concerto at Avery Fisher Hall, $33 tix avail.

12/13-16, 7:30/90:30 PM Kenny Barron and Dave Holland in a rare duo performance at the Jazz Standard, $30.

12/13 punkgrass and high-energy oldtime acoustic sounds with Rev. Peyton’s Big Damn Band at the Mercury, 8 PM, $13 adv tix rec.

12/13, 9 PM mighty ten-piece Balkan group Veveritse Brass Band – as intense as Slavic Soul Party but without the hip-hop influence, and more improvisational at the Jalopy, $10

12/13, 9 PM psychedelic, lyrical, guitarishly delicious power trio Devi at Zirzamin.

12/13, 9 PM the lush, sweeping, often haunting Karl Berger’s Improvisers Orchestra at the El Taller Space on Broadway at 104th Street; they’re also here on 1/10

12/13, 10 PM House of Waters plays psychedelic worldbeat dulcimer music at the small room at the Rockwood

12/13, 10 PM wry oldtimey band Roosevelt Dime followed by banjo player/Americana songwriter Hilary Hawke& the Flipsides at Spike Hill, free.

12/13, 10 PM Nation Beat drum mastermind Scott Kettner’s Orgy in Rhythm maracatu project at Barbes

12/13, midnight-ish, bad to the bone twin trombone dub outfit Super Hi-Fi at Nublu, free.

12/14, 6 PM 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.

12/14, 7 PM fiery Balkan group Sherita (a Raya Brass Band spinoff) opens for intense, rustic, original oldtime-style Appalachian/Britfolk songwriter Jan Bell’s cd release show at Barbes. Her new album Dream of the Miner’s Child is one of the year’s best.

12/14, 7 PM cellist Valerie Kuehne’s final Super Coda of the year opens explosively with trmpeter Ben Syversen’s noise/Balkan/jazz project Cracked Vessel followed by Apocalypso with Walter Wright – electronics; Shayna Dulberger – bass; Chris Welcome – guitar; Joe Burgio – movement, performing with Kuehne, Michael Hafftka and others at Spectrum, 121 Ludlow, 2nd Fl.

12/14, 7:30 PM Moroccan jazz chanteuse Malika Zarra and brilliant, intense Syrian art-song stylist Gaida, at Drom, $14 adv tix highly rec followed at 11:30 by gypsy rockers Banda Magda, separate admission, $10.

12/14, 7:30 PM violinist Stefan Jackiw, cellist Julia Bruskin and pianist Aaron Wunsch play Dvorák’s Silent Woods and Trio in F Minor, Op. 65? plus Ives’ Trio and Decoration Day at WMP Concert Hall, $20.

12/14, 8 PM smart eclectic female-fronted jazz acts: violinist Mazz Swift’s MazzMuse, cellist Marika Hughes & Bottom Heavy, and drummer Allison Miller & Big Molasses, at Littlefield, $15

12/14, 8 PM avant jazz guitar summit: Brandon Ross’ Pendulum and innovative avant/jazz/third-stream guitarist Joel Harrison ‘s 7 at the 92YTribeca, $20

12/14-15, 8 PM latin jazz piano legend Eddie Palmieri leading both his massive brass-fueled orchestra and his octet at Rose Theatre at Jazz at Lincoln Center, $30 seats avail.

12/14. 8 PM pianist Marina Radiushina plays Schumann – Variations on a Theme by Clara Wieck from Sonata No. 3, Op 14; Brett Dean – Hommage à Janácek; Janacek – Piano Sonata 1.X.1905 in E flat minor; Bach -Toccata in C minor BWV 911; Rachmaninoff – Piano Sonata No. 2, op.36 at Bargemusic, $35/$30 sts./$15 stud.

12/14, 9 PM NYC’s most charismatic, entertaining band, anti-gentrification rockers the Brooklyn What – whose forthcoming second album, Hot Wine, is sounding unbelievably good – at Rock Shop, $10

12/14, 9ish psychedelic funky grooves with acoustic bhangra band Red Baraat and then second-wave Afrobeat icons Antibalas at the Brooklyn Masonic Temple in Ft. Greene, $25 gen adm tix avail. at the Poisson Rouge box ofc.

12/14, 9 PM dark 80s style chanteuse Kristin Hoffmann ‘s cd release show at Caffe Vivaldi, this might actually sell out, res. rec. although it’s free.

12/14 ,9 PM jazzy, imaginative Americana chanteuse Cal Folger Day at Red Hook Bait & Tackle.

12/14, 10 PM at Trash Bar hilarious punk/metal stoner rock parodists Mighty High play a a show to benefit restoration of their Red Hook studio decimated by the hurricane. Funny band, serious situation, they could use some help. Come early at 8 for open bar w/paid admission.

12/14, 10 PM female-fronted garage punk gypsy music with Koshka at the Way Station in Ft. Greene. They’re also here on 1/4, same time.

12/14, 10 PM Kiwi play original dub reggae grooves at Two Boots Brooklyn

12/14, 10 PM psychedelic funk and soul with the MK Groove Orchestra at Spike Hill, $5.

12/14, 10:30 PM the Flail: Dan Blankinship – trumpet , Stephan Moutot – tenor , Brian Marsella – piano , Reid Taylor – bass , Matt Zebroski – drums play melodic, intense original postbop at the Fat Cat.

12/14, 11 PM Dull Edges play murky drony Black Angels style psych/dreampop at Cake Shop, $8.

12/15, 1:30-8 PM for anyone in NJ, a benefit for www.rebuildrecover.org providing immediate assistance to hurricane survivors in need, with Bog Iron Bloom, the Amboys, sultry retro soul band the One and Nines, the Micks, Accidental Seabirds, the ever more eclectic and catchy and reggae-tinged Bern & the Brights, Thomas Wesley Stern and closing out the night, organizers the Porchistas  at Van Vleck House, 21 Van Vleck St, Montclair, NJ, $20 ($10 kids). They will also be accepting additional donations of new clothes, toys, toiletries, and cleaning supplies.

12/15, 6 PM torchy, deviously literate Americana songcharmer Robin Aigner & Parlour Game at Barbes playing elegant chamber-pop and Americana.

12/15, 7:15 PM dark psychedelic acoustic blues/klezmer/reggae/soca jamband Hazmat Modine at Terra Blues.

12/15, 8 PM haunting antique Greek rebetiko and smyrneika with brilliantly surfy guitarists George Sempepos and Homeboy Steve Antonakos (of the Byzan-tones) plus tuba virtuoso Quince Marcum at Espresso 77, 35-57 77th St (just off of 37th Ave), Jackson Heights

12/15, 8 PM trombonist Wycliffe Gordon leads his Quintet at the Miller Theatre at Columbia Univ., $25 adv tix rec.

12/15, 8 PM extraordinary jazz pianist Tarek Yamani leads a trio with bassist Carlo DeRossi and drummer John Davis playing the cd release for their haunting new one Ashur (a mix of the Middle East, jazz and a Bach prelude) at Alwan for the Arts, $20, early arrival highly advised.

12/15, 8 PM Afrobeat guitar virtuoso Banning Eyre and Timbila followed at 10 by the increasingly eclectic acoustic Cumbiagra at Barbes.

12/15, 9 PM dark, deliciously guitarish rock songwriter Jennifer O’Connor at Bowery Ballroom, $25 adv tix rec. Asking $25 for an opening act (the headliners are never-weres from twenty years ago) is an awful lot, but she’s worth it.

12/15, 9 PM smart, broodingly lyrical Irish songwriter Niall Connolly at the small room at the Rockwood followed eventually at 11 by Dave Smith’s sly, slinky boudoir-soul project ,Smoota.

12/15, 9ish punk/rockabilly/surf guitar legend Simon Chardiet (with or without the rest of the Bar Sinistes, possibly) at Brooklyn Rod & Gun Club.

12/15, 9:30 PM powerhouse retro soul belter Nisha Asnani and her band at Caffe Vivaldi.

12/15, 10 PM the Monotone Assassins play an eclectic, darkly lyrical mix of country, Irish and highway rock at Connolly’s.

12/15 10 PM twisted lyrical 90s Britrock-flavored band the Vassals at Cake Shop, $8

12/15, 11 PM hilarious, politically spot-on faux French garage rockers les Sans Culottes at Freddy’s

12/15, midnight psychedelic funk band Turkuaz at the Mercury, $10 adv tix rec

12/16, 6 PM free jazz summit: Peter Apfelbaum on tenor sax plus Brad Shepik on guitar and George Schuller on drums at Downtown Music Gallery, free!

12/16, 7 PM ferociously intense, literate soul/rock siren Katie Elevitch at Zirzamin.

12/16 a totally oldschool/newschool triplebill at Barbes: 7 PM the Delorean Sisters play sarcastically funny acoustic Americana covers of cheesy 80s pop songs followed at 8 by a rare NYC appearance by George Breakfast, formerly of Mumbo Gumbo (one of the original 80s worldbeat bands, starring a teenage Rachelle Garniez) and then gypsy guitar sensation Stephane Wrembel at 9.

12/16, 12/20 and 12/22 cellist Valerie Kuehne leads a twisted song/composition swap at 109 Gallery, 109 Broadway, south Williamsburg. 9 composers TBA – everybody plays each others’ work. Emphasis on the funny, fun, assaultive, the satirically theatrical, the far side of jazz. New elements could be created.

12/16, 7 PM, 8 PM powerpop/psychedelic guitar summit: Pete Galub & the Annuals at Cake Shop.

12/16, 7:30ish Conor Mulroy and his bluegrass band upstairs at 2A.

12/16, 10 PM seasonal surrealism: Xmas songs by Jewish composers delivered with not a little irony by John Brancy, Lauren Worsham, Alex Mansoori, cantor Joshua Breitzer, Josh Jeremiah, Rachael Wilson, Alan Kay and Steven Blier at Henry’s Restaurant, 105th/Broadway, $10. Frank Loesser, Irving Berlin…Dr. Seuss?

12/17. 9 PM darkwave/downtempo pianist/chanteuse Eve Lesov with her band at Drom, $10

12/17, 9 PM a rare NYC appearance by Australia’s Steve Newcomb Jazz Orchestra at Tea Lounge in Park Slope.

12/17, 9ish a first-class improvisers’ trio led by drummer Joe Hertenstein with Pascal Niggenkemper on bass and ferociously precise trumpeter Thomas Heberer at Nublu, $20

12/17, 9:30 PM the sly oldschool 60s C&W and darker Southwestern gothic sounds of the Jack Grace Band at Rodeo Bar

12/17, 11 PM wickedly tuneful, fearless, funny, socially aware all-girl janglerock/folk band Left on Red at the small room at the Rockwood.

12/18, 6ish a killer twinbill with southwestern gothic rocker Tom Shaner at Bowery Electric, free; the more urban but no less Lynchian Jon DeRosa plays later at around 8.

12/18, 7:30 PM luminous piano virtuoso Alexandra Joan’s Kaleidoscope Series offers a revealing Homage to Bach featuring cellist Alice Yoo at WMP Concert Hall, $20

12/18, 8 PM another killer doublebill, this one at the Stone: pipa virtuoso Min Xiao-Fen’s Dim Sum with Satoshi Takeishi followed at 10 by “William Parker’s Winter Music for Mixed Ensemble. Part 1: William Parker (1890 duplex bass, hochiku, bass duduk) Dave Hofstra (bass sax) J.D. Parran (bass sax) Justin Fryer (bass) Keith Park (percussion) Part 2: Kyoko Kitamura (voice) Miya Masoka (koto) William Parker (bolon)Part one: “Nadir For Bruce Baille (2012)”. Part two “Smiles left In The Snow (2012 ) For Ken Jacobs”

12/18, 8 PM Slavic-tinged jazz with the Ben Holmes Quartet at Barbes followed at 9 by Slavic Soul Party

12/18, 8 PM at Roulette: Yarn/Wire performing the world premiere of the complete lush, hypnotic Negotiation of Context cycle byIcelandic composer David Brynjar Franzson.

12/19, 8 PM pioneering indie classical group Ensemble Mis-En plays new works by women composers including Younghi Pagh-Paan, Kaija Saariaho, Yoon-Ji Lee, and Tonia Ko, plus a piano piece by Beat Furrer at the Cell Theatre, 338 W 23rd St. (8/9), free, reception with beer (free) to follow!

12/18, 9ish big fat sounds with Big Sackbut: Joe Fiedler, Ryan Keberle and and Josh Roseman on trombones and Marcus Rojas on tuba at Korzo.

12/18, 9 PM the Dorian Wallace Big Band at Something Jazz Club, $10.

12/18, 9:30 PM dark, historically aware, sharply literate, captivating electric rock chanteuse Elisa Flynn at at the Way Station in Ft. Greene

12/18, 10 PM accordionist/chanteuse Kamala Sankaram’s hot surfy Bollywood project, Bombay Rickey at Pete’s.

12/19, 8 PM the One World Symphony conducted by Sung Jin Hong play Brahms’ Symphony No. 1 followed by a wine reception with jazz by the Robert Page Jazz Trio afterward at Holy Apostles Church, 296 9th Ave at W 28th St, $20, proceeds to benefit the church’s soup kitchen.

12/20, 7:30/9:30 PM bassist Joe Sanders’ Infinity with John Ellis – tenor saxophone; Luis Perdomo – piano; Eric Harland – drums at the Jazz Standard, $20

12/20, 7:30 PM playful indie classical ensemble yMusic and percussionist Greg Saunier premiere a new Jherek Bischoff work at the Lincoln Center Atrium, free, early arrival advised

12/20, 8 PM a rare live show by the Jentsch Group No Net playing guitarist/composer Chris Jentsch’s latest commissioned work-in-progress, a chamber-jazz nonet at Shapeshifter Lab in Gowanus.

12/20, 8 PM klezmer/bluegrass mandolin virtuoso Andy Statman followed at 10 by the hot 20s jazz sounds of the Baby Soda Jazz Band at Barbes.

12/20. 8 PM intriguing, tuneful latin klezmer jazz with Eugene Marlow & the Heritage Ensemble featuring drummer extraordinaire Bobby Sanabria at Bronx Music Heritage Center, 1303 Louis Niñé Blvd, Bronx, 2 or 5 train to Freeman St, free

12/20, 8:30 PM piano trio improvisation doesn’t get any better or more counterintuitively interesting than Pilc Moutin Hoenig at at Cornelia St. Cafe, $15 + $10 min.

12/20, 9ish dark intense minimalist Persian-flavored indie rock duo the Mast at Glasslands, $10.

12/20, 9ish the Wild Rumpus play high-energy grasscore at Rodeo Bar

12/20, 10 PM anthemic, hard-rocking, intensely lyrical rockers Wormburner at the Mercury , $12 adv tix rec.

12/20, 11ish a hellraising horn-driven trippy doublebill with Rubblebucket and twin-trombone deep dub groovemeisters Super Hi-Fi at at the Lab, 428 Fulton St, Brooklyn, $20

12/21, 7 PM poor Phil Kline– he has to do two boombox parades this year. If you want to be part of his more recent boombox symphony, Peregrine, join the parade at BAM and take a walk up through Ft. Greene.

12/21, 7 PM sort of an acoustic Unsilent Night leaving from the south plaza of Union Square at 7 PM- “Percussion Double Music: Inspired by the collaborations of John Cage and Lou Harrison, So Percussion’s Jason Treuting and Josh Quillen will create a new piece for a chorus of pitched copper pipes in the streets. Led by percussionist Amy Garapic, each participant will receive a length of pipe along with simple instructions for how and when to play it, and how to interact with the NYC percussionists who will join the proceedings at spots along the way.”

12/21, 7 PM NY Phil’s CONTACT series features a chamber orchestra playing premieres by Andy Akiho, Andrew Norman and Jude Vaclavik ar the Rogers Auditorium at the Mettopolitan Museum of Art, $20.

12/21, 8 PM Andrea Pancur from Munich and Ilya Shneyveys from Riga in Latvia with special guest accordionist Lorin Sklamberg of the Klezmatics play the cd release show for their mix mix of Bavarian and Yiddish music, which they call Alpen Klezmer, at Barbes.

12/21, 8 PM a bell choir flashmob assembles at Tompkins Square Park and then marches through the East Village: : “Bell by Bell: Artist Tom Peyton distributes fifty color-coded bells to the crowd, one color per note. At the front of the parade, a team of conductors waves corresponding colored flags to lead the group in slowly moving music, written by a variety of composers: when the conductors raise their red and green flags, everyone with red and green bells start ringing, and so on for each color, creating a sonorous, atmospheric soundscape”.

12/21, 9 PM a drunken and cathartic night with two very different yet very similar female-fronted, loud rock acts: the ferociously lyrical, punk/new wave flavored Hannah vs. the Many and the liquor-fueled glamrock-flavored kissoff anthems of Haley Bowery & the Manimals at Rock Shop, $7.

12/21, 9 PM klezmer jazz reedman Matt Darriau‘s Paradox Trio with special guest clarinetist Ismail Lumanovski at Drom, $10 adv tix very highly rec. There will be as much soul as pyrotechnics and there will be lots and lots of that.

12/21, 9 PM a bunch of Jalopy artists get really drunk and sing filthy songs, $10 – Bluff Channahon hosts – Jan Bell, Kristin Andreassen, the Whiskey Spitters, Feral Foster may be involved.

12/21, 9 PM celebrate the non-apocalypse with eclectic, edgy, smartly lyrical, funky rock songwriter Avi Fox-Rosen at the Way Station in Ft. Greene

12/22, 6 PM pyrotechnic electric violin/viola duos with Ana Milosavljevic and John King at Cornelia St. Cafe, $10 + $10 min.

12/22 ,7 PM the Salomé Chamber Orchestra play Bach concertos for solo and ensemble on period instruments from the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s collection at the museum’s Rogers Auditorium, $35.

12/22, 7:30 PM gorgeously lyrical third-stream trios with saxophonist Eric Vloeimans, pianist Florian Weber and clarinetist Kinan Azmeh at Shapeshifter Lab, $10

12/22, 8 PM clever, lushly orchestrated female-fronted art-rockers the Universal Thump at Barbes.

12/22, 9:30 PM SisterMonk’s intense worldbeat jam funk/punk at Caffe Vivaldi

12/22, 11 PM Sazet Band play their wild Macedonian sounds at Drom.

12/21, 11ish ferocious surf instrumentalists the Octomen – who could be as few as three and as many as eight – at Rodeo Bar at Rodeo Bar

12/22, 11ish long-running, reliably fun ska/soul rockers the Slackers at the Bell House, $15 adv tix very highly rec.

12/23, noon ish haunting, nuanced, original Americana/Britfolk siren Jan Bell – whose new album Dream of the Miner’s Child is one of the year’s best –  at Superfine in Dumbo for brunch, free

12/23, 2 PM the Klezmatics play three sets – 2,4, 6 PM, $10 separate adm – at the Jalopy, wow! Tireless kitsch-free klezmer punks after all these years!

12/23, 7 PM haunting Carpathian choir the Hutsuls Singers at Barbes, note there may be a $10 cover

12/23, 7 PM brilliant, eclectic-to-the-extreme guitarist Steve Antonakos plays his own wry Americana-flavored tunes and more at Zirzamin.

12/24, 8:30 PM irrepressibly eclectic pianist Jed Distler improvises on Monk themes at Cornelia St. Cafe, $10 + $10 min

12/24, 11 PM Turkish chanteuse Ahu Gural and band at Drom.

12/25, 1 PM Metropolitan Klezmer– one of the world’s most imaginative, fun, jam-oriented klezmer bands – play a special septet show at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in Battery Park, $15/$12 stud/srs. The hell with the movies – let’s go see this band!

12/26, 9:30ish Nashville gothic band Maynard & the Musties at Rodeo Bar.

12/26, 10 PM cutting-edge, eclectic, witty jazz organist Brian Charette with Vic Juris on guitar and Adam Nussbaum on drums at 55 Bar, $10

12/27, 1 PM the Trinity Baroque Orchestra play Bach’s Brandenburg Concerti 1, 3, 5 at St. Paul’s Chapel downtown, free

12/27, 7:30 PM the effervescent, theatrical, badass oldtimey Ukuladies at Freddy’s

12/27-30 , 7:30/9:30 PM legendary drummer Jimmy Cobb leads an all-star band playing a tribute to Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue with Jeremy Pelt – trumpet; Vincent Herring – alto saxophone; Javon Jackson – tenor saxophone; Larry Willis – piano; Buster Williams – bass at the Jazz Standard, $30.

12/27, 8:30ish fearlessly political latin rockers/metal cumbia band Outernational at Bowery Electric, $10 adv tix very highly rec.

12/27, 8:30 PM bassist Petros Klampanis’ lush, intense chamber jazz project with Gilad Hekselman, guitar; Jean-Michel Pilc, piano; John Hadfield, percussion; Maria Im, violin; Maria Manousaki, violin; Ljova Zhurbin, viola; Julia MacLaine, cello at Cornelia St. Cafe, $10 + $10 min

12/27, 9 PM sn easygoing swing warmup for grasscore madness: Lake Street Dive and the Infamous Stringdusters at Bowery Ballroom, $20.

12/27, 9:30ish upbeat acoustic Americana and bluegrass with PartyFolk at Rodeo Barat Rodeo Bar

12/27, 10 PM stunningly eclectic classical/Middle Eastern/gypsy/worldbeat string band Trio Tritticali at the Stone, $10.

12/28, 1 PM the Trinity Baroque Orchestra play Bach’s Brandenburg Concerti 2, 4, 6 at St. Paul’s Chapel downtown, free

12/28-29, 10:30 PM alto sax powerhouse Mike DiRubbo leads a first-class quintet with Mike Rodriguez – trumpet , Brian Charette – piano , Ugonna Okegwo – bass , Rudy Royston – drums at Smalls.

12/28, 9:30 PM Jalopy all-star crew the Whiskey Spillers make a trip to the Way Station in Ft Greene followed at 11ish by the Butter Bros. (guitarists Jon LaDeau and Taylor Floreth) playing delta blues.

12/29, 8 PM psychedelic funk legeneds Groove Collective at the Knitting Factory, $15 adv tix rec.

12/29, 8 PM indie folk/slowcore pioneers Ida followed at 9 by legendary new wave era supergroup the Golden Palominos with special guest chanteuse Lianne Smith plus Robert Kidney, $15 adv tix rec.

12/29, 9 PM the Big Takeover play roots reggae at Shrine.

12/29, 10:30ish Band of Outsiders at the Ding Dong Lounge, 105th/Columbus, free. Timeless obscure/brilliant 80s psych-punks had a good year, put out a good album, if you miss Television (the band not the appliance), this is the next best thing.

12/30, 3 PM the Clarion Music Society with Steven Fox, conductor plays works by Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Stravinsky, Arvo Pärt at Trinity Church, free

12/30, 9ish well-liked Americana rockers the Felice Bros. at Maxwell’s, $25 adv tix rec. also avail. in Manhattan at Other Music. See them tonight instead of New Year’s Eve at the Mercury which will cost you twice as much.

New Year’s Eve, 7 PM the king of the downtown NYC literate rock anthem, Willie Nile at Joe’s Pub, $25. Be aware that there is separate admission for the popular lesbian entertainer afterward, and that this show won’t probably go more than about an hour.

New Year’s Eve, doors open at 9, merenge and latin jazz with drummer/bandleader Bobby Sanabria & Sexteto Ibiaño, featuring NEA Jazz Master Cándido Camero at the Bronx Music Heritage Center, 1303 Louis Niñé Blvd, El Bronce, 2/5 to Freeman St., $10 for music and snacks, what a deal!

New Year’s Eve, 9ish legendary, politically fueled Irish-American rockers Black 47 at Connolly’s.

New Year’s Eve , 10ish Balkan/klezmer jazz punk big band the Lemonbucket Orchestra at Mehanata, expensive, $40 in advance at the club (box office open Friday and Saturday), but that includes two drinks plus a shot of champagne at midnight.

New Year’s Eve, musically speaking, the most intense show of the night is wildly improvisational Balkan crew Raya Brass Band at Barbes, 11 PMish $15

New Year’s Eve, 11ish the NY Gypsy All-Stars at Drom, $35 adv tix very highly rec., early arrival a must.

New Year’s Eve, indie/Americana legends the Silos at Rodeo Bar, 11ish. If the idea of Rodeo Bar on one of the year’s more notorious amateur nights doesn’t make you cringe, this could actually be fun

1/2, 9 PM eerie microtonal blues with Jane Lee Hooker at the Mercury, $10.

1/3, 7:30 PM deviously eclectic songwriters’ collective Chicks with Dip (minus founder Aimee Van Dyne), play their contributions to their cover cd Joni Mitchell’s Blue: a 40th Anniversary Celebration plus originals inspired by that album at St. John’s Lutheran Church, 81 Christopher St. Performers include Sharon Goldman, Meg Braun, Carolann Solebello, Elisa Peimer and many more.

1/3, 8:30 PM guitarist Mary Halvorson leads a trio with John Hebert, bass; Ches Smith, drums at Cornelia St. Cafe, $10 + $10 min; 1/5, 9/10:30 PM she’s here with a different trio including Michael Formanek, bass; Tomas Fujiwara, drums, same deal.

1/3 10 PM oldtime French chamber pop/cabaret band Les Bandits followed at 11 by the Snow’s chamber pop maven Pierre de Gaillande singing his own spot-on translations of Georges Brassens classics at Barbes

1/4, 7 PM the Sad Bastards – Charlene and Mo from Spanking Charlene singing the saddest acoustic covers they can fine – at Zirzamin.

1/4, 8 PM badass oldschool blues resonator guitarist Mamie Minch followed at 10 by the Jug Addicts at Barbes

1/4, 10 PM hilarious, politically spot-on faux French garage rockers les Sans Culottes at the Mercury followed eventually at around one in the morning by the irrepressibly hilarious, theatrical, X-rated Cudzoo & the Fagettes, $10.

1/4 half past midnight intense, haunting, twin-trombone dub band Super Hi-Fi at the Rockwood

1/5, 1 PM pianist Dan Tepfer jams out Bach’s Goldberg Variations at Trinity Church, free.

1/5, 8 PM Nature Boy Explorer – “with an eclectic mess of instruments, Nature Boy Explorer has more fun with the popular song than you. Centered around guitarist/vocalist Mark Snyder, NBE throws in harpist Becky Brown and accordionist Natasha Smoot for an alternately energetic and emotional blend of rock/pop that puts on no airs” at Barbes followed at 10 by high-velocity Mexican polka band Banda Sinaloense de los Muertos

1/5, 8:30 PM pianist Taka Kigawa performs selections from Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition plus music by compositions and performances by Milica Paranosic, David Taylor, Gene Pritsker, Lynn Bechtold, Dan Cooper, Daniel Palkowski, Edward Laurel, and Joseph Pehrson at an opening for work by visual artists Gorazd Poposki, Kevork Mourad, Ronnie Taylor, Jill Slaymaker, Suzi Matthews, and Kim Prtisker and Sebastian Izya Pritsker, at Gallery MC, 549 West 52nd St. (8th floor), $15 incl. pre-concert reception at 8 PM

1/6, 5 PM subtly intense, smart, eclectic art-rock pianist/songwriter Lee Feldman with his trio at Something Jazz Club.

1/6, 6 PM Zozulka (Ukrainian for cuckoo) featuring Eva Salina Primack, Black
Sea Hotel’s Willa Roberts and the Debutante Hour’s Maria Sonevytsky at Barbes singing haunting, otherworldly Ukrainin songs followed at 9 by gypsy guitar paradigm-shifter Stephane Wrembel at Barbes

1/6, 6 PM Thomas Heberer and Steve Swell jam out some trumpet and trombone duos at Downtown Music Gallery, free.

1/6, 8:30 PM Jamie Saft’s deep dub New Zion keyboard trio at Cornelia St. Cafe, $10 + $10 min.

1/7, 5 PM an open rehearsal of John Plummer’s Missa Sine nomine sung by New York Polyphony at the Church of St. Mary the Virgin, 145 W. 46th St, free

1/7, 7/9 PM vibraphnist Erik Charlston’s lively, explosive JazzBrasil at Dizzy’s Club

1/8, 8 PM brilliant free jazz drummer Barry Altschul’s 70th Birthday Bash and cd release party and reunion of free jazz legends Brahma at Roulette: “the first half of this concert will be the “3dom Factor” with Jon Irabagon- tenor sax and Joe Fonda-bass and the second will be a rare performance by Brahma with Ray Anderson -trombone, and Mark Helias-bass who have not performed together for 30 years!” at Roulette.

1/9–11 & 1/14-15, 8:30 PM, plus 1/13. 4 PM the world premiere of Muynammed Fairouz’ opera Sumeida’s Song, based on a harrowing, classic Arabic epic poem at Here, far west side of 6th Ave. past the park just south of Spring St., $20

1/9, 9:30 PM tongue-in-cheek, period-perfect early 50s style country from Susquehanna Industrial Tool & Die Co. at Rodeo Bar.

1/10, 7:30 PM cellist Scott Kluksdahl and pianist Noreen Polera play a program featuring composers influenced by Nadia Boulanger: Lasser, Berstein, Boulanger, Piazzolla at WMP Concert Hall, $20.

1/10-11, 7:30/9:30 PM, B3 groovemeister Dr. Lonnie Smith with his trio at the Jazz Standard. 1/12-13 he’s with his octet, $25 ($30 on the weekend)

1/11-12/2013 Winter Jazzfest is just around the corner: it’s the time of year when for a couple of days, all the cheesy Bleecker St. venues turn into a mecca for good jazz. Your best bet is the $45 two-day pass, available at the Poisson Rouge box office; $35 single-day passes are also available. An insanely good bunch of bands, from the oldest oldschool to the new: Hazmat Modine, the Cookers, Amir ElSaffar, Catherine Russell, Marc Cary, Brian Carpenter’s Ghost Train Orchestra, the James Carter organ trio, Ibrahim Malouf, Roy Nathanson’s Sotto Voce, Jaimeo Brown’s Transcendence, dozens more, the whole concert calendar is here.

1/11, 7 PM Songs for Unusual Creatures – a playful, tuneful Songs for Ice Cream Trucks eclectic instrumental spinoff – followed at 8 by Buryatian/Mongolian singer Namgar, twin trombone dub monsters Super Hi-Fi at 9:30 and then catchy, politically astute Mexican-American janglerockers Pistolera at 11 at Barbes. Wow.

1/11-13 & 16–18, 7:30 PM Soldier Songs:  an evening-length multimedia event from composer/guitarisr David T. Little that combines elements of theater, opera, rock-infused concert music, and animation drawn from interviews with veterans of five wars at the Schimmel Center at Pace University on Spruce St. downtown, $30 tix avail

1/11, 8 PM last year’s Maqam Fest was arguably the best NYC concert of 2012 and this one promises to be as good. On the bill: haunting, cutting-edge pan-levantine band Salaam, Shashmaqam, playing enturies-old Bukharan court music; New Andalucia, who blend flamenco and Arabic styles; Balkan rockers Eva Salina fronted by charismatic, bewitching singer Eva Salina Primack; Amino Belyamani’s SSAHHA playing microtonal Moroccan grooves; and the all-star Alwan Arab Music Ensemble jamming out classical music of Cairo, Aleppo and Baghdad  at Alwan for the Arts, $30 adv tix highly rec. at the box office downtown at 16 Beaver St, 4th Fl.

1/11, 9 PM dark hypnotic downtempo piano rock grooves with pianist Eve Lesov and her trio at Tea Lounge in Park Slope, free.

1/11, 9 PM haunting Americana chanteuse/bandleader Jan Bell & the Maybelles at Red Hook Bait & Tackle.

1/11, 10 PM amazing Balkan/klexmer/psychedelic brass band Klezwoods at Spike Hill

1/12, 7 PM arguably the best concert of 2013 – and it’s only January, and it’s only $10. Thank the devil the booking agents are in town for the convention. On the bill: twin trombone deep dub band Super Hi-Fi at 7, wild Mexican polka crew Banda Sinaloense de los Muertos at 8, Black Masala (a spinoff of dub reggae band See-I) at 9, the incomparably fun Peruvian psychedelic surfsters Chicha Libre at 10, intense metal cumbia band MAKU Soundsystem at 11 at Drom.

1/12, 8 PM eclectic New Orleans cellist/jazz bandleader Helen Gillet at Barbes followed eventually at 10 by cumbia band Chia’s Dance Party.

1/12, 9 PM wild gypsy/circus punk orchestra Mucca Pazza at Littlefield, $14.

1/12, 9:30 PM weirdest segue of the year: intense, politically aware cello rockers Rasputina and then GZA from the Wu-Tang Clan (with a full band) at Stage 48 in Hell’s Kitchen, $25 gen adm. What the hell, they both have good lyrics.

1/13, 9 PM psychedelic funk with the People’s Champs followed at 10:30 PM by NYC’s only all-female mariachi band, Mariachi Flor de Toloache at Barbes.

1/14, 7 PM Transatlantic Ensemble (clarinetist Mariam Adam and pianist Evelyn Ulex ) team up with Argentine bandoneon player and composer JP Jofre for the cd release show for their new one Crossing America, feat. works by Jofre, Jeff Scott, Paquito D’Rivera, Robert Schumann and Rodian Schtschedrin.at Steinway Hall, 109 W 57th St. free but res req.

1/14, 8 PM oldschool multimedia extravaganza: Trio Kavak and the Claremont Trio play works inspired by art and poetry including Helen Grime’s Three Whistler Miniatures plus pieces by Donald Crockett, Gabriela Lena Frank, Sean Shepherd and Fang Man along with live painting by Kevork Mourad at Roulette

1/14, 9 PM popular, edgy Americana chanteuse Shelby Lynne at City Winery, $30 standing room avail.

1/14 10ish welll-loved humorous Canadian graasscore band the Duhks at Highline Ballroom, $20 adv tix rec.

1/15, 7 PM wild violin/brass Balkan band Sherita at Barbes followed at 9 by the considerably larger and even louder Slavic Soul Party

1/15, 7:30 PM in the wake of the recent loss of composer Simeon ten Holt, six-piano ensemble Grand Band – Vicky Chow, David Friend, Paul Kerekes, Blair McMillen, Lisa Moore, and Isabelle O’Connell – dedicate their entire program at le Poisson Rouge to his epic piece for multiple keyboards, Canto Ostinato, $15 adv tix very highly rec. Everybody should see this titanic group at least once and this is something that was more or less made for them.

1/15, 7:30/9:30 PM Cristina Pato plays Galician bagpipes, piano, flute and sings along with her band: Víctor Prieto, accordion; Edward Pérez – bass; Eric Doob – drums; John Hadfield – percussion  at the Jazz Standard, $20

1/15, 8 PM six-piano ensemble Grand Band (Vicky Chow, David Friend, Paul Kerekes, Blair McMillen, Lisa Moore, and Isabelle O’Connell): performing Simeon ten Holt’s “Canto Ostinato” at le Poisson Rouge, $15 adv tix rec. Their massive sound is something that everybody should experience at least once.

1/15, 8 PM Trio Kavak play premieres and works by Andrew Struck-Marcell and Fang Man followed by the Claremont Trio  performing works by Sean Shepherd, Gabriela Lena Frank, Helen Grime and the NY premiere of Donald Crockett’s Night Scenes (2009) plus live painting by Kevork Mourad at Roulette

1/15, 9 PM dark songwriter/chanteuse Elisa Flynn hosts a very cool evening at the Way Station in Ft. Greene: 15 artists each play a single classic murder ballad and then retell it from a 2013 perspective. On the bill: Sarah Bisman, Mark Rogers & Mary Byrne, Emily Duff, Elisa Flynn, Lys Guillorn, the Halsey Hellhounds, Valerie Kuehne, Maharajah Sweets, Alex Mallet, Chris Q. Murphy, Painless Parker, Danny Tuss, Paul Ryan, Whiskey Ginger, and Spiff Wiegand.

1/17-18, 7:30/9:30 PM drummer extraordinaire Jeff “Tain” Watts leads a quartet with Mark Whitfield – guitar; Manuel Valera – piano; Yunior Terry Cabrera – bass at the Jazz Standard, $25-30. 1/19-20 he’s with his rarely convened big band here, not to be missed.

1/17, 8 PM some of the best bands from this year’s Golden Festival spill over into Littlefield: ten-piece Veveritse Brass Band, psychedelic Balkan rockers Choban Elektrik, Maleshevski Zurli, Inspector Gadje, Zlatni Makedoncinja, no idea of the order of bands but they’re all good,  $10 dirt cheap for this kind of quality

1/17, 8 PM klezmer/bluegrass legend Andy Statman at Barbes, $10

1/18, 7:30 PM Glass Farm Ensemble play music by Willy Burkhard, Cesar Camarero, Cecile Marti, and Enjott Schneider for flute, clarinet, violin, cello, percussion and piano at Symphony Space, $20/$15 stud/srs.

11/18, 8 PM the effervescent, theatrical, badass oldtimey Ukuladies at Barbes followed at 10:30 by the haunting harmoy-driven pan-latin Las Rubias Del Norte – who have more than a bit of chicha in them –

1/18, 8 PM sax adventurer Matana Roberts’ Coin Coin at Roulette.

1/19, 6 PM wind ensemble the Erik Satie Quartet – whose repertoire starts with Erik Satie, his times and beyond – at Barbes followed at 8 by the Alejandro Zuleta Vallenato Group

1/19, 9 PM OMG what an amazing triplebill: Wendy Grifffiths’ dark, edgy, lyrical new wave-influenced rockers Changing Modes followed by intense, majestic, hauntingly anthemic art-rock band Of Earth followed by microtonal blues band Jane Lee Hooker at Spike Hill. These acts have absolutely nothing in common except that they are all brilliant.

1/19, 10 PM pianist Steve Hudson‘s eclectic third-stream jazz Outer Bridge Ensemble at Union Hall, $10.

1/20, 7 PM high-energy oldtime Connecticut Americana/roots/bluegrass band Poor Old Shine at the Rockwood

1/20, 8 PM a global avant jazz cast: Jorrit Dijkstra, Pandelis Karayorgis, Jeb Bishop, Nate McBride , Mary Oliver, and Han Bennink play Steve Lacy works at Roulette.

1/20, 1 AM (presumably this means wee hours of 1/21) wild female noiserock band Out of Order at the Place Bar & Lounge, 269 Norman Ave, Greenpoint

1/21, an ostensibly allstar lineup TBA celebrates MLK Day at Symphony Space, free, watch this space for updates.

1/22, 7 PM gypsy jazz band Taarka at Barbes followed at 9 by Slavic Soul Party

1/23-27, 7:30/9:30 PM the justifiably acclaimed Vijay Iyer on the piano with his trio at the Jazz Standard, $25 ($30 on the weekend). This is a great room to see him in.

1/23-24, 8/10 PM hot gypsy jazz with the Hot Club of Detroit feat. chanteuse Cyrile Aimee at Iridium

1/23, 9 PM chanteuse Shara Worden’s ethereal chamber pop band My Brightest Diamond at Bowery Ballroom, $18 dav tix rec. Worden is also at Merkin Concert Hall with a somewhat different band and a choir on 1/25 at 7 PM for $15.

1/24, 9 PM high-voltage, theatrical gypsy-rock band Vagabond Opera at Drom, $12 adv tix highly rec.

1/26, 7:30 PM “teen alt-classical sensations” Face the Music (who are actually very good) team up with mighty percussion ensemble ICE, performing George Lewis’s Artificial Life 2007 followed by fiery violinist Carla Kihlstedt, who plays with her band Causing a Tiger and then with ICE, with a series of new compositions exploring the world of dreams at Merkin Concert Hall, $25.

1/26, 8 PM Daria Grace’s torchy, delightful oldtime uke swing band the Pre-War Ponies followed at 10 by the increasingly diverse Cumbiagra at Barbes

1/26, 8 PM New York Polyphony sing secret underground Catholic masses by Thomas Tallis and William Byrd for four voices at the Church of St. Mary the Virgin, 145 W. 46th St, $35 adv tix highly rec. at the Miller Theatre box ofc.

1/27, 8 PM Sophie Salonika: “woodwind master and vocalist Jessica Lurie joins with multi-instrumentalist, sound sculpturist and vocalist Katie Down to create a new group with hints of Sephardic melodies intertwined with original tunes. On percussion is Chris Stromquist of Slavic Soul Party fame, and the fabulous Marika Hughes on cello and voice,” at Barbes followed at 9 by gyupsy guitar virtuoso Stephane Wrembel

1/27, 8 PM excellent Americana-flavored melodic jazz with Old Time Musketry doing the cd release show for their brilliant new one at the Firehouse Space, 246 Frost St. in Williamsburg

1/27, 8 PM the improvisational, multistylistic Joshua Shneider Love Speaks Orchestra at Roulette

1/27-30 intense percussionist Alessanda Belloni’s hypnotic Tarantella Spider Dance extravaganza at Theatre for the New City, 155 1st Ave. (9th/10th).

1/29-30, 7:30/9:30 PM Bbassist Ben Williams & Sound Effect with Marcus Strickland – sax; Alex Wintz – guitar; Christian Sands – piano; John Davis – drums at the Jazz Standad, $20

1/29, 8 PM sick Dolly Parton cover band Doll Parts– who mix straight-up rock versions of her schlockiest 80s crap with acoustic covers of her country classics – at the Way Station in Ft. Greene.

1/29, 9:30 PM recently resurrected Pittsburgh no-wave band Stick Against Stone Orchestra at Joe’s Pub, $TBA – did they ever play NYC before during their 80s heyday? Maybe not. Obscure music history could be made tonight; their long-awaited, unreleased album from almost 30 years ago is finally due out and it’s a blast.

1/30, 9ish all-female South Bronx funk-punk legends ESG’s final show ever at Bowery Electric, $25 adv tix rec.

1/31 Hank Williams-influenced Canadian oldschool country/blues chanteuse Lindi Ortega at Joe’s Pub

1/31, 8 PM two contrastingly eclectic artists leading trios with bass and drums: tropically -inclined vibraphonist Tyler Blanton followed by edgy eclectic saxophonist Geoff Vidal at Cornelia St. Cafe, $10 + $10 min

1/31, 11ish noir ska ensemble Tri-State Conspiracyat the downstairs studio space at Webster Hall.

2/2, 4 PM a feast of new classical works at the Music of Now Festival at Symphony Space feat., $20, too many artists/composers to list here, the complete eight-hour lineup is here.

2/4,. 8:30ish a rare free concert by members of the the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, program TBA at the Lincoln Center Atrium

2/6, 7:30 PM Frank London (trumpet) and Lorin Sklamberg (vocals, accordion) of the radical klezmer band, Klezmatics, join jazz pianist Rob Schwimmer doing their own radical reinterpretations of classic Jewish liturgical themes at Symphony Space, $30 adv tix req.

2/6, 7:30 PM uneasy new pastorales with Sarah Kirkland Snider and Orchestra for the Next Century; the composer also plays with Clogs for a a stripped-down trio set at Merkin Concert Hall, $25

2/8, 8 PM the New Amsterdam Symphony Orchestra with pianist Di Wu performs Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 2; conductor Guerguan Tsenov concludes the program with Brahms’ Symphony No. 1 at Symphony Space, $20/$14 stud/srs.

2/13, 7 PM violinist and Salomé Chamber Orchestra co-founder Sean Avram Carpenter and violist David Aaron Carpenter, playing period instruments currently on display for the first time in the museum’s musical instruments section, are the soloists in Astor Piazzolla’s Four Seasons and Vivaldi’s Four Seasons at the Rogers Auditorium at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, $35 adv tix very highly rec., this will sell out.

2/13, 8 PM up-and-coming tenor saxophonist Joel Miller makes his NYC debut with an all-star cast: trumpeter Ingrid Jensen, pianist Gary Versace, bassist Matt Clohesy and drummer Greg Ritchie at Shapeshifter Lab.

2/15, 11ish ferocious, fearless, tuneful and sometimes hilarious punk-Americana band Spanking Charlene at the Ding Dong Lounge, 105th/Columbus uptown.

2/18, 7:30 PM the American Composers Alliance presents new works by Elizabeth Bell, Lawrence Dillon, Phillip Rhodes, Christopher Shultis, Peter Westergaard, and Lewis Nielson at Symphony Space, $10/$5 stud.

2/19, 7:30 PM wild and crazy indie classical ensemble Lunatics at Large play recent works by Richard Brooks, Richard Cameron-Wolfe, Eleanor Cory, Brian Fennelly, Thomas Flaherty, Jan Gilbert, and Louis Karchin at Symphony Space, $10/$5 stud.

2/20, 7:30 PM Deerhoof and Dal Niente play new works by Brazilian composer Marcus Balter at Merkin Concert Hall, $25, adv tix highly rec, this will sell out.

2/21, 7:30 PM a killer klezmer doublebill at the Lincoln Center Atrium: Polish klezmer jazz crew the Shofar Trio—guitarist Raphael Roginski, saxophonist and bass clarinet player Mikolaj Trzaska and drummer Macio Moretti – followed by accordionist  Olga Mieleszczuk’s Polesye Project playing rare, obscure Polish-Jewish tunes.

2/22, 7:30 PM torchy contralto noir chanteuse/David Lynch collaborator Chrysta Bell at le Poisson Rouge, $15 adv tix a must, this will sell out.

2/22, 8 PM Our Defensive Measurements, a new collection of songs by Gelsey Bell. “Songs can be a mechanism for tracing a home – creating space for oneself.” at Roulette.

3/14 the adventurous  Cassatt String Quartet continue their residency at Symphony Space, program TBA.

3/17 bhangra beats, Irish anthems: Delhi 2 Dublin at Webster Hall

3/21, 7:30 PM dark alt-country chanteuse Tift Merritt and classical pianist Simone Dinnerstein play songs from their reputedly amazing forthcoming art-rock album at Merkin Concert Hall, $25 adv tix a must, this will sell out.

Fearless Oldschool Punk Rock from Sweden’s Terrible Feelings

Swedish punk rockers Terrible Feelings’ Blank Heads ep is out officially for the first time in the US, and it’s one of those rare albums that stand up to being played over, and over, and over – which is what you may end up doing when you hear this. They play as if time stopped in 1979 – it’s punk rock informed not by the Warped Tour but by the Avengers, the Clash and the Sex Pistols. A sense of doom and foreboding pervades their music, and it has a genuineness rather than sounding as if they’re just out to ape a style that’s been done to death. Frontwoman Manuela Iwansson rasps when she goes up the scale – singing in pretty good English – over an unexpectedly rich bed of clanging, roaring, screaming guitars and a pummeling rhythm section. The whole thing is streaming at Soundcloud.

The first track, Trash and Burn comes together out of a chaotic verse. This stuff’s a lot more interesting musically than just verse/chorus/verse: there’s pickslides, tremolo-picking and twin riffage from drums and guitar. The ominously minor-key title track brings to mind the Avengers, especially as the rolling beat comes in like a tidal wave and the layers of guitars build to a firestorm. “We’re damaged” is the closing mantra.

The Moon is even more like the Avengers (specifically, the stuff that Steve Jones produced) with its uneasy balance between desire and dread, both musically and lyrically: “I see him walking by frustrated and alone,” Iwansson muses before she realizes how “forlorn and scared he was because he knows that we all die alone.” The final cut, Hollow nicks the riff from Blondie’s One Way or Another on the verse and builds to an anguished crescendo on the chorus. “Everyone I know has become so hollow,” Iwansson rages.

For an only slightly less polished take on these same songs, download their surprisingly tight 2010 demo ep here.

Get Lots of Brighton Beat – It’s All Good

The Brighton Beat are at Spike Hill in Wiliamsburg tonight, Nov 24. Not only are the band’s studio recordings both up as free downloads at their Bandcamp page, but they’ve also got a treasure trove of live recordings at their main site. Smart move: one taste of this will hook you for life if the most psychedelic side of Afrobeat or reggae is your thing. The eleven-piece band’s songs are long, going on for as much as ten minutes at a clip in the studio and longer onstage. Their formula is unhurried yet very tightly focused: introduce the hook and then follow that with slowly unwinding, casually crescendoing solos. Nobody overplays, and much as everybody in the band takes his time getting where he’s going, the point is that they all get there: this stuff doesn’t sound anything like Phish. For that matter, it doesn’t sound much like anybody else either. Washington’s Elikeh come to mind, but the Brighton Beat are much more of a jamband, and on the occasion that they go deep into dub, they’re very good at it.

The latest studio album opens with a trickily rhythmic, hypnotically Ethio-flavored number with elements of vintage ska. Zach Kamins’ echoey Rhodes piano solo switches to organ and then back, Mark Cocheo’s guitar goes growling and then hands off elegantly to Mark Zaleski’s alto sax. The second track, Changing Elevators is more of a straight-up Afrobeat number that vamps and meanders and then suddenly comes together out of a long Jon Bean tenor sax solo with a snarling minor-key phrase. Then the guitar does the same thing. As with several of the songs here, they band gracefully fades it down.

By contrast, Giraffe is a balmy, loping tune driven by Ryan Hinchey’s catchy bassline, raging alto sax contasting with the organ as Kamins wiggles the tremolo. Capture the Flag builds with solos from baritone sax and guitar ove a lush Isaac Hayes-style soul/funk vamp, while the darkest track on this album, The Paradox, pairs off uneasy chromatics from the keys and guitar against the horns’ fiery Ethiopiques. The album ends with twelve minutes of Indian Summer, a hypnotic, trippy dub anchored by very cleverly shifting bass beneath layers and layers of swirly atmospherics, ominous guitar and sax lines.

Be aware that some of the live shows are big files (the Ryles Jazz Club gig from this past August is practically 400 mb); you’ll want to make sure your wifi is screaming and you’ve got enough space on that flash drive.

The Ghetto Brothers’ Legendary Power-Fuerza Is Back in Print

A cult favorite prized for decades by collectors, the Ghetto Brothers’ legendarily obscure 1972 latin rock album Power-Fuerza has finally gotten a proper release forty years after it was initially put out on vinyl by a South Bronx storefront label that soon abandoned the project. It’s a revealing look at the kind of rock that was coming out of the Puerto Rican community in New York in those days, part Beatles homage (to the extent that it sometimes sounds like a Puerto Rican Rutles), part surreal, swinging psychedelia. Fans of the current wave of revivalist latin rock and soul, from Spanglish Fly to Damian Quinones, should check this out. Frontman Benjy Melendez harmonizes with his brothers, bassist Victor and guitarist Robert over a swaying groove propelled by drummer Luis Bristol and timbalero Franky Valentin, lit up by David Silva’s searing lead guitar.

What’s amazing about this album, most of it a rather haphazard live studio recording, is how tight the band is. Which actually comes as no surprise considering that the Melendez brothers had been child stars on their home turf, playing Beatles covers as Los Junior Beatles, even opening for Tito Puente at one point. Much as the Fab Four harmonies and Beatles 65-style jangle are spot-on, it’s Silva’s guitar work that makes this album. He hits most of the songs fast and ferocious, firing off savagely bluesy leads, scorching flurries of chords and rapidfire funk along with the occasional nonchalantly slinky George Harrison-inflected interlude.

The album’s best song is Mastica, Chupa Y Jala, 1972 South Bronx slang for chasing a hit of acid with a puff of weed. Silva’s fuzztone lead contrasting with boomy percussion and an evil Santana-esque bass groove as it opens is choice, and it just gets better from there. They speed it up, then slow it down a little; the title becomes a mantra, followed by a bass-and-drums break and a long, sunbaked guitar solo to a neat trick ending. “Sabor boricua,” right on!!

Another standout track is the nationalist anthem Viva Puerto Rico Libre, with its six-chord Arthur Lee-style vamp, slinky clave groove and hypnotically perrcussive swirl up to a raw, aching Silva solo that unfortunately gets buried in the mix. Girl from the Mountain, by the band’s friend and colleague Felix Tollinchi of the Harvey Averne Barrio Band, strangely evokes the surrealism of late 60s/early 70s Peruvian chicha bands like Los Destellos, with yet another screaming Silva solo on the way out.

The rest of the album draws equally on the Beatles and James Brown, often in the same song. There Is Something in My Heart sets crystalline harmonies to a funk-tinged verse with busy, blippy bass, while You Say You Are My Friend takes a Blues Magoos-style garage rock riff and adds Beatles harmonies and a latin soul beat. I Saw a Tear is basically a soul song, while the two remaining tracks, Ghetto Brothers Power and Got This Happy Feeling (the latter ad-libbed in the studio) work funky vintage JBs-style vamps.

The backstory here is bittersweet. The Ghetto Brothers began as a family gang, albeit one dedicated to peace rather than the violence that plagued their neighborhood. Then as now, gang membership was sometimes a survival mechanism in New York’s more impoverished areas. Much as it’s fraught with knuckleheaded turf battles and senseless antagonism, it can also mean shelter, and security, and community in the face of destitution, eviction, homelessness and harrassment from the police. The Ghetto Brothers earned considerable neighborhood cred by holding a gang summit in an attempt to stop the violence, a gesture more admirable than it was successful.

Good as this band was, the Ghetto Brothers arguably never reached the popularity the Melendez brothers had achieved earlier in life – and by 1975, the original unit was finished, Benjy having moved out of the neighborhood while his brother Victor went on to form Nebulus, a reputedly much heavier acid rock project, with Silva. Sadly, Victor didn’t live to see this album reissued, having died in 1995 after a long battle with addiction. But Benjy and Robert would go on to lead another popular Beatles cover project and continue to play Ghetto Brothers songs in a new version of the band, with Benjy’s son Joshua on bass and Robert’s son Hiram on drums, in their new neighborhood just over the Westchester line in Mount Vernon.

Exhilarating, Eclectic, Gypsy-Fueled Sounds from the Japonize Elephants

The Japonize Elephants have a new record, Melodie Fantastique, just out, and it’s everything you would expect from the well-loved, cinematic circus rock orchestra. As usual, it’s trippy beyond belief, full of sly humor and ferocious playing. Calling them a gypsy band would be somewhat accurate but not completely. There’s also a steampunk streak that runs through frontman/guitarist Sylvain Carton’s songs like a rocket to Mars launched from the 1886 Paris Exposition. In their alternate universe, bluegrass, noir cabaret, gypsy music, klezmer, movie themes and vintage Lebanese sounds all coexist simultaneously in the same song, more or less. There is no other band on the planet who sound remotely like them.

One of the reasons is Jeremy Baron’s banjo, whose fluid frailing anchors the romping, gypsy-flavored tunes and adds a brisk, rustic country edge. Jason Slota plays tersely echoey, sometimes otherworldly lines on his vibraphone alongside the sizzling twin violins of Megan Gould and Dina Maccabee (also of the deliciously eclectic Real Vocal String Quartet). The jazzier passages are carried by the sax and flute of Mitch Marcus and Chris Hiatt. Calling them an orchestra is not overstating the case: there are a lot of people in this band.

A vaudevillian joke and then a nimbly scampering gypsy-rock tune kick off the album. The title track is the most majestically breathtaking of all the songs, a shapeshifting instrumental that’s part noir tango, part levantine overture, part klezmer dance and part bluegrass, and ends in the last place you would expect it to. The Ancient Mariner’s Boat Show follows it, a twisted, menacing bolero, and then a skronky diptych that sounds like the Lounge Lizards covering the Ventures. You want eclectic?

Gould’s intense Middle Eastern violin solo is the high point of the the uneasily cinematic Call the Zagorsky, followed by the surreallistically lovely oldtime country ballad Breusters, which wouldn’t be out of place in the Balthrop Alabama catalog from a few years ago. The Publisher’s Clearing House Special is a gypsy rock update on the Tubes’ What Do You Want from Life, a cautiomary tale for anyone who might want to rent Dollywood for a week

They go back to vaudevillian and sarcastic with the swaying waltz Lord Crin Crin, follow that with a grinning Spike Jones-style interlude and then Whiskey Willie II, a jaunty bluegrass tune about a bum whose life is about to take an unexpected turn (the stories in these songs are frequently too good to give away). La Vida Callejon Rapida makes fun of Mexican ranchera dramatics, while Fiddle Three takes an Irish reel and adds horns and vibraphone as if every Irish band in the world had them. There’s also the faux-lounge theatrics of Swimming Upstairs, the Zappa-tinged, distantly Middle Eastern This Zorlockian Anthem, a LMAO parody of birthday songs, a couple of droll piano miniatures by Marcus and an unexpectedly straight-up cover of Stardust. Is there anything else they possibly could have included here? A baby’s arm holding an apple? This one’s a lock for one of the best albums of the year: serious Top Ten material.

Reaching Altitude: Sunday Salon #3

First time was a washout due to the hurricane; second time was an excellent if intimate gathering despite the lack of subway service. The third week of the new Sunday Salon series at Zirzamin was the best yet, with contributions from both the new and established vanguard of New York songwriters and players. As he did the previous week, cellist Calum Ingram kicked things off, this time with a trio, playing his raw, high-energy blend of blues and funk, this time beginning with an intriguing jazz waltz groove.

John Hodel is not a polished musician but he is unsurpassed as a storyteller. His inimitable sense of humor refuses to quit. The Bukowski of the NY acoustic scene knows his subject matter like the bottom of his glass and he is authentic oldschool New York to the core. This time out he treated the crowd to his classic, surreal, dead-accurate Tuesday Morning in a Bar and the chillingly aphoristic Love Has No Home.

Jon LaDeau, an adept blues guitarist, followed with the distantly ominous Stonewall, a southern gothic travelogue of sorts, along with a couple of other bluesy tunes. The Salon’s very own Lauraly Grossman, a cellist by trade, picked up her gorgeous resonator guitar and revealed that she has a beautiful voice with brassy edges and knows her way around an oldtime swing tune.

Anthony Haden-Guest, who has a new collaboration with Canadian gothic rocker Lorraine Leckie just out, ran through his latest snarkily savage lyric, this one a kiss-off to someone. He dared the sound guy to accompany him on piano, which was either an unfortunate or brilliant idea depending on what your tolerance is for out-of-tune piano and rehashed Ran Blake licks.

Leckie then took the stage for a wickedly deadpan take of her classic Don’t Giggle at the Corpse as well as twisted versions of Getaway Car and one of the Haden-Guest collaborations, Bliss, a spot-on portrait of an old couple who have completely lost it in more ways than one.

Pretty much everybody agreed that the star of this evening was Kelley Swindall. The Americana songstress wowed the crowd with a couple of brutal new murder ballads, the second one long and mysterious with a wicked payoff. Swindall is southern by birth and sings with a charming natural twang but also a persistent unease: you wouldn’t necessarily expect nuance in a murder ballad, but that’s what she gave them. And she knows her blues on the guitar too.

The guest spot afterward was by Viking. Viking’s real name is Victor. He’s from Texas, and he doesn’t have a website (for a laugh and not much more, you can google “Texas viking”). He’s a good guitarist and a good pianist as well. He opened with a twisted number about a guy on a crack or ecstasy binge and the nice people (REALLY nice, actually) who took him in. From there he found the inner Buddy Holly in Roky Erikson’s Starry Eyes, then did a skeletal, full length version of House of the Rising Sun with all the lyrics and drove home how absolutely morbid that song is. He also took a terse and purist stab at R.L. Burnside’s Penitentiary as well as a Hank Williams tune. Viking’s quirky deadpan delivery gave the songs considerable extra menace.

The Sunday Salon happens every week starting at 5 PM at Zirzamin, the lowlit subterranean music parlor in the old Zinc Bar space on Houston and LaGuardia. The public is always welcome to come out and spectate, and admission is always free. This coming Sunday’s featured guests at 7 PM are Coney Island noir chanteuse Carol Lipnik with brilliant pianist Matt Kanelos, performing some of the songs from their haunting Ghosts in the Ocean project.