Live Music in New York City in June and July 2013

Daily updates continuing through the month: you might want to bookmark this page and check back periodically to see what’s new. There’s a comprehensive list of places where these shows are happening at NY Music Daily’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.

Eclectic multi-instrumentalist and oldtime acoustic blues powerhouse Blind Boy Paxton has a lot of 7 PM gigs this June at Terra Blues, on 6/9, 6/16, 6/23 and 6/30

6/10, 6/17 and 6/24, 8 PM Tammy Faye Starlite as Nico in Chelsea Mädchen at the Cutting Room, $20 adv tix rec. This sardonic homage to the ultimate femme fatale is a must-see show, TFS manages to be both haunting and savage in the role. She’s got the accent, she’s got the character, she radiates Teutonic iciness and she’s working on the bangs.

The amazing Music with a View festival runs June 17 through 30 at the Flea Theatre, 41 White St. in Tribeca (btw Church/Bwy). Pyrotechnic pianist Kathleen Supove’s fortnight of new music from across the entire spectrum is sort of a fortnight’s worth of a Bang on a Can marathon, but served up in tasty 80-minute portions with lively, moderated banter afterward. The full schedule is here.

On select Mondays and Thursdays, an intimate, growing piano music scene on the Upper West Side featuring iconoclastically insightful, lyrical pianist Nancy Garniez playing J.S., C.P.E. and W.F. Bach and more recent composers who draw on their work, email for info/location. Summer dates include 6/10 at 5 PM, 6/13 at 7, 7/18 at 5, 7/11 at 7, 8/8 at 7, 8/12 at 5, 9/9 at 5, 9/12 at 7

Mondays in June, 7 PM the Grand Street Stompers play hot oldtimey swing and dixieland at Arthur’s Tavern on Grove St. just west of 7th Ave. South

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

Mondays in June pianist Noah Haidu at Cleopatra’s Needle on the upper west, 8 PM. His new album what is killer. For fans of dark lyrical jazz.

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 in June noir cabaret sounds from Charming Disaster with Jeff Morris from Kotorino and Elia Bisker from Sweet Soubrette at Pete’s, 9 PM.

Mondays in June 9 PM the chipotle-smoked Mexican flavor of Mariachi Tapatio De Alvaro Paulino at Rodeo Bar

Mondays at Tea Lounge in Park Slope at 9:15 PM trombonist/composer JC Sanford books big band jazz, an exciting, global mix of some of the edgiest large-ensemble sounds around. If you’re anybody in the world of big band jazz and you make it to New York, you end up playing here: what CBGB was to punk, this unlikely spot promises to be to the jazz world. No cover.

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

Mondays in June (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 May 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.

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

Tuesdays in May noir torch songs with Evanescent feat. Bliss Blood and Al Street at at Pete’s, 10 PM

Tuesdays at around 10 Julia Haltigan and her band play 11th St. Bar. A torchy, charismatic force of nature, equally at home with fiery southwestern gothic rock, oldschool soul and steamy retro jazz ballads, and her band is just as good as she is.

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

Wednesdays in June 8:30 PM guitarist Jonathan Kreisberg (of Dr. Lonnie Smith’s band) leads a trio at the Bar Next Door, $12

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

Wednesdays at 10 it’s Sheriff Bob’s bluegrass jam at Zirzamin, an A-list of NYC talent, always a good time, quality players always welcome.

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

Fridays at 5 PM in June, 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. Although the sound wafts across the balcony, you actually have to be in the bar itself in order to really appreciate what they’re doing.

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 June and July Niall Connolly and band have a pseudo-weekly residency at 9 PM on June 7th, 14th, 28th, and July 5th, 12th and 19th at the small room at the Rockwood. He gets pegged as a singer-songwriter but he’s really a rocker with a smart political sensibility who writes catchy, anthemic, surprisingly eclectic songs in an alternatingly energetic and morose middle period Graham Parker/Elvis Costello vein.

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

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

Saturdays in June dark female-fronted Americana/psychedelic rockers Mesiko plays at either 6 or 7 PM at the Peoples’ Garden, Broadway and Greene Sts. in Bushwick, “potluck” food and eclectic supporting acts. Choice pick: 6/29 brilliant eclectic violist/composer Jessica Pavone plays at 6. Mesiko are also at Small Beast at the Delancey on 6/10

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.

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. 6/2 darkly menacing Canadian gothic chanteuse Lorraine Leckie;  6/9 torchy, pensive, eclectic groove-inspired art-pop songwriter Sandra Lilia Velasquez a.k.a. SLV; 6/16 haunting multi-octave chanteuse/avant garde/art-rock songwriter Carol Lipnik; 6/23 a rare solo performance by a longtime NYC underground scenester TBA; 6/30 Americana songwriter Rick Snyder; and more TBA .

Sundays in June the Dictators’ Andy Shernoff plays Zirzamin. He begins the residency at 8 PM on 6/2 and ends it there on 6/20; in between those dates he plays at 10.

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

Sundays in June with the exception of 6/16 guitarist Peter Mazza plays 8 PM at the Bar Next Door with a very adventurous choice of ensembles for such a “in the tradition” purist.. Choice pick: with baritone sax monster Jacam Manricks on 6/23. Manricks is also there leading a bari/bass/drums trio at 8:30 on 6/25

Sundays in June , 8/11 PM the ferocious, intense Arturo O’Farrill Latin Jazz Orchestra plays Birdland, $30 seats avail. They’re also at Symphony Space on 5/3 and 5/4 at 8, guest artists include gaita (bagpipe player) Cristina Pato, vocalist/saxophonist Antonio Lizana, guitarist Xemo Tebar and the O’Farrill Brothers Band.

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

6/1, 1 PM noir accordion chanteuse Marni Rice, the theatrical Anna Copacabana, intense lyrical art-rocker Ward White, reggae-rock/psychedelic groove cult favorites Faith and Television’s Richard Lloyd plus a butoh performance at the bandshell in Tompkins Square Park

6/1, 2 PM Wael Farouk plays piano works by Rachmaninoff, Scriabin, Mussorgsky, Scott Robbins (world premiere), and Gamal Abdel-Rahim (US premiere) at Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall, absurdly cheap at $20.

6/1, 5 PM diverse, soulful pan-latin jazz chanteuse Claudia Acuna with her band at the Brooklyn Museum, free

6/1, 7 PM an enticing free indie classical twinbill: Ensemble Perpetuo Moto and Ensemble Linea playing Gerard Grisey’s Talea plus works by Raphael Cendo, Philippe Leroux, Brice Pauset and Franck Bedrossian at Baruch Performing Arts Center, 17 Lexington Ave at 23rd St.

6/1, 7 PM haunting Turkish folk bandleader Mustafa Ozarslan and chanteuse Sabahat Akkiraz at Drom, $25 adv tix a must

6/1, 7 PM edgy new string music: violinist Cornelius Dufallo joins forces with fellow violinist Todd Reynolds and clarinetist Kinan Azmeh playing works by Dufallo, Azmeh amd Guy Barash. Followed at 8 by a set by Azmeh and Syrian cellist Kinan Abou-Afach plus live painting by Kevork Mourad, at Roulette.

6/1, 7 PM adventurous jazz guitarist Ryan Ferreira with Daniel Blake and supporting cast TBA, headliners are new quartet formed by trumpet player Brad Henkel with Sean Ali and Pascal Niggenkemper on basses and Carlo Costa on Drums at the Panoply Performance Lab, 104 Meserole St in Bushwick

6/1, 7:30 PM haunting mystical and modern Ukrainian bandura lute sounds with bandura virtuoso Julian Kytasty and Alla Zagaykevich on vocals and electronics at the Ukrainian Museum, 222 E 6th St, (btw 2nd & 3rd Aves), $15/$10 srs/$5 stud.

6/1, 7:30 PM a charming harmony-driven oldtimey doublebill with the Girls (Alison Brie, Cyrina Fiallo, & Julianna Guill) followed by Jones St. Station at le Poisson Rouge, $12 adv tix rec

6/1, 8 PM wickedly lyrical Americana songwriter Marcellus Hall (ex-Railroad Jerk and White Hassle) at Cake Shop, $8

6/1, 8 PM composer Nate Festinger’s dark neoromantic stage play A Concert Drama (with piano, clarinet and string quintet) at West End Presbyterian Church, 165 W 105th St, $15.

6/1, 8 PMJ Andalucian bandleader Javier Ruibal at Alwan for the Arts, $20 adv tix rec.

6/1, 8 PM the Impetus Trio – intense, otherworldly chanteuse Maria Tegzes, powerhouse pianist Geoffrey Burleson and guitarist and Ran Blake collaborator David Knife Fabris – at the Firehouse Space in Bushwick

6/1, 8 PM wickedly oldschool Brazilian-flavored dub reggae with Kiwi at Spike Hill

6/1, 8 PM twisted, satirical, pottymouth cover band the Dan Band at B.B. King’s, $25 adv tix rec.

6/1, 8:30 PM terse tuneful jazz guitarist Mike Baggetta and his Quartet: Jason Rigby (saxophones), Eivind Opsvik (bass), George Schuller (drums) at I-Beam, $10.

6/1, 9 PM Unsteady Freddie’s monthly surf music extravaganza has a predictably good lineup: 9PM the ferocious Tsunami of Sound, 10 PM the aptly named, percussive Bongo Surf, 11 PM the WrayCyclers (a NYC shore supergroup of sorts playing Link Wray covers) and then at midnight the eclectic, cinematic Commercial Interruption

6/1. 9 PM amazing ten-piece country/gypsy/acoustic rock behemoth M Shanghai String Band – whose new album is one of the past year’s best – at the Jalopy, $10.

6/1, 9/1-0:30 PM ex-Lounge Lizards saxophonist Michael Blake leads a tribute to his old bandleader John Lurie with an excellent quintet including Ryan Blotnick , guitar; Landon Knoblock, piano; Michael Bates, bass; Greg Ritchie, drums at Cornelia St. Cafe, $20 includes a drink.

6/1, 9 PM Irish drinking music with Shilelagh Law at Connolly’s.

6/1, 10 PM House of Waters plays psychedelic worldbeat dulcimer music at the small room at the Rockwood

6/1, 10 PM art-rock piano maven Greta Gertler and her trio preview material from her forthcoming musical theatre collaboration with playwright Ally Collier, Willow’s One Night Stand’ at the bar at the Signature Theatre on 42nd St.

6/1, 10 PM wickedly catchy retro 80s janglerockers the Rotaries at Bowery Electric, $8.

6/1, 10 PM Mariachi Flor de Toloache – NYC’s only all-female mariachi group -at Barbes

6/1, 11 PM Single Red Cent– who mix sharp, socially aware punk with a more atonal Gang of Four/Neighborhoods vibe – at Matchless.

6/1, 11ish longtime NYC Americana standout Mick Hargreaves & the King Guys play rockabilly at Rodeo Bar.

6/1, midnight exhilarating retro 60s latin soul revivalists Spanglish Fly – who should have won the WNYC Battle of the Bands contest – at Lucille’s, free.

6/1, midnight Nat Osborn Band – whose New Orleans sounds come across somewhere in between Dr. John and Brother Joscephus – at the big room at the Rockwood.

6/2, 2 PM Di Wu, piano; Andy Simionescu, violin; Matt Haimovitz, cello play Beethoven – Op. 1, No. 2 in G major; Erwin Schulhoff – 5 études de jazz for solo piano; Duo for cello, violin; Brahms – Trio Op. 8, No. 1 in B Major, at Bargemusic, $35/$30 srs/$15 stud.

6/2, 3 PM clarinetist Thomas Piercy and pianist Mika Tanaka reprise the brilliant program of new Japanese and American composers they played last month in Queens at Spectrum, $15

6/2, 5 PM vibraphonist Tom Beckham’s cool Norville Trio with John Merrill – guitar and Sean Cronin – bass pay tribute to the music of 50s vibes cult hero Red Norvo at Smalls.

6/2, 7 PM the Rottenberg Chorale sing contemporary Jewish choral works by David Berger, Charles Davidson, and Bonia Shur plus Israeli and Ladino songs and an African-American spiritual at Merkin Concert Hall, $24.

6/2, 8 PM Texas oldtime country songwriter Anthony DaCosta and the unexpectedly psychedelic Toys & Tiny Instruments at the Cameo Gallery, $8.

6/2, 8:30 PM drummer Carlo Costa’s haunting Minerva quartet followed by trombonist Ben Gerstein leading a quartet with Jacob Sacks on piano at I-Beam, $10

6/2, 9 PM the eclectic high-energy Afrobeat/reggae/soukous sound of the Refugee All-Stars of Sierra Leone at Brooklyn Bowl, $12.

6/2,9ish fiddle-driven bluegrass crew the Melody Allegra Band at Rodeo Bar

6/2, 9:30 PM sharply lyrical, theatrical, intense, hilariously literate acoustic rocker Walter Ego.unplugged at Sidewalk.

6/2, 9:30 PM dark Americana chanteuse Jessie Kilguss & Radio Gold at Pete’s

6/2, 10 PM rustic, original oldtime-style Appalachian/Britfolk songwriter Jan Bell’s at 68 Jay St. Bar.

6/2, 10 PM the Bandulus play roots reggae and ska at Shrine.

6/3, 8 PM  dark British chamber-pop songwriter Mike Marlin at the Highline opening for what’s left of the Stranglers.

6/3, 11:30 PM the wildly electric, bouncy, clarinet-driven NY Gypsy All-Stars at the big room at the Rockwood

6/4, 6 PM Dave Davies -longtime lead guitarist of the Kinks- in the parking lot out back of City Winery, free, early arrival avised if you can.

6/4, 7 PM Clare & the Reasons‘ art-rock multi-instrumentalist Olivier Manchon’s Orchestre de Chambre Miniature at Barbes followed at 9 by ten-piece Balkan brass monsters Slavic Soul Party.

6/4, 7:30 PM a high-voltage doublebill with the Levitt Legacy Tango Project plus Matt Temkin’s Yiddish Jam Band at the Stephen Wise Free Synagaogue, 30 W 68th St (Columbus/Central Park West), $15.

6/4, 7:30 PM the Jazz Composers Orchestra Institute runs through new material by Jennifer Bellor, José Beviá, Courtney Bryan, Ingrid Laubrock, Andy Milne, Richard Sussman, and Sumi Tonooka at the Miller Theatre, free but res. highly suggested to http://acojcoifinal.eventbrite.com/

6/4, 7:30 PM pianist Alice Sara Ott plays Moussorgsky, Mozart and Schubert at le Poisson Rouge, $15 adv tix rec

6/4, 7:30/9:30 PM tenor saxophonist Melissa Aldana & Crash Trio with special guest Aaron Parks on piano at the Jazz Standard, $20

6/4, 8ish Sean Noonan‘s Brewed by Noon (drums/vocals) featuring Malcolm Mooney (founding member of Can) (vocals), Jamaaladeen Tacuma (bass), Aram Bajakian of Lou Reed’s band (guitar), and Alex Marcelo (keyboards) at Bowery Electric, $10.

6/4, 8 PM Gary Louris & the End of America at City Winery, $20 standing room avail. Awfully sad to see a great songwriter from an iconic Americana band (the Jayhawks) having to boast about having shared the stage with losers like the Moldy Peaches. How the mighty have fallen…and are overdue for a comeback.

6/4, 8 PM flutist/impresario Amelia Lukas’ reliably entertaining, cutting-edge Ear Heart Music series continues with Transit, violist Nadia Sirota and keyboardist Missy Mazzoli playing the album release show for electroacoustic composer Daniel Wohl’s new Corps Exquis at Roulette.

6/4, 8:30 PM guitarist Cristian Amigo & Kingdom of Jones play electroacoustic works followed by a string quartet of Jason Kao Hwang – viola, Sarah Bernstein – violin, Thomas Ulrich – cello, Jonas Tauber – contrabass plus percussionist: Satoshi Takeishi at the Intar Theatre, 500 W. 52nd St, 4th Fl, $10 sugg don

6/4-10, 8/10 PM a Sylvie Courvoisier residency at the Stone. The pianist/composer plays with several ensembles and solo, always worth checking out.

6/4, 9 PM smart, literate, oldtime western noir songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Karen Dahlstrom at the Jalopy, no cover, 2 for 1 beers.

6/4, 9 PM twang and surf rock instrumentals with the Bakersfield Breakers at Otto’s. They’re at Rodeo Bar on 6/16 at 10ish

6/4, 9 PM SisterMonk’s intense worldbeat jam funk/punk at Shrine.

6/4, 10 PM eclectic, intense violinist/composer Skye Steele leads one of his projects at the Way Station in Ft. Greene

6/5, 6:30 PM retro jazz guitar god Matt Munisteri and His Syncopated Detonators outdoors on the plaza at the Brooklyn Public Library Central Branch at Grand Army Plaza.

6/5, 7 PM brilliant, pyrotechnic pianist Karine Poghosyan plays a celebration of Aram Kachaturian’s 110th birthday with pieces including his ballet transcriptions from Gayaneh and Spartacus, as well as the tour-de-force Piano Sonata from 1961 at Saint Vartan Armenian Cathedral, 34th St and 2nd Ave.

6/5, 7:30 PM pensive rainswept jazzy acoustic band Avidya & the Kleshas (feat. the intense Xander Naylor on guitar)  at the small room at the Rockwood.

6/5, 8 PM lush, funky avant big band jazz with Peter Gordon’s Love of Life Orchestra playing his brand-new Symphony No. 5 at Roulette, $15/$10 stud/srs

6/5, 8 PM Mexican folk-punk band Radio Jarocho, eclectic chanteuse Susana Baca and southwestern gothic geniuses Calexico at Prospect Park Bandshell, free

6/5, 8:30 PM arguably this generation’s  best art-rock band,  the Universal Thump at the Bell House, $10

6/5, 8:30 PM singer Mary LaRose leads a chamber jazz outfit with Jesse Mills, violin; Felicia Wilson, violin; Nicole Federici, viola; Chris Lightcap, bass and sings her own arrangements of material by Dolphy, Mingus and Ornette at Cornelia St. Cafe, $20 includes a drink.

6/5, 9 PM ferocious female-fronted bassless noiserock band Bugs in the Dark at Muchmore’s (the old Black Betty space in Williamsburg), free.

6/5 Certain General guitarist Phil Gammage’s power trio the Rebel Factory at R Bar, 9 PM

6/5, 9ish indie chamber-folk band Colorform – who combine live painting with their pensively tuneful songs – at Trash

6/5, 9:30 PM latin-inspired bassist and brilliant, socially aware jazz composer Gregg August leads a quartet with Sam Newsome – soprano sax , Luis Perdomo – piano , Donald Edwards – drums at Smalls

6/5, 10ish chamber pop band the Secret History play the album release show for their new one at Glasslands.

6/5, 10 PM Debra and Wayne from psychedelic power trio Devi at Legion Bar,790 Metropolitan Ave at Graham Ave. in Williamsburg.

6/5, 11 PM creepy female-fronted art-song deconstructors/improvisers Dollshot at Pete’s

6/5, 11ish upbeat, tuneful indie keyboard pop with the Secret History playing the album release show for their new one at Glasslands

6/5, 11 PM quirky, edgy female-fronted Japanese-American postpunk rockers the Hard Nips at Cake Shop, $8.

6/6, 7 PM smart, melodic, eclectic new chamber music group the Parkington Sisters at the big room at the Rockwood.

6/6 and 6/11 at 7:30 and 6/8 at 8 Alan Gilbert conducts the NY Phil performing Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 1 plus Dallapiccolla’s 1950 antifascist one-act opera Il Prigoniero at Avery Fisher Hall, $28 tix avail.

6/6, 7:30 PM lively, edgy improvisation: Bush Tetras drummer Dee Pop’s Private World followed by the Sinsonics at Otto’s

6/6, 7:30 PM the Azure Ensemble plays works by contemporary women composers Augusta Read Thomas, Wang Jie, Melinda Wagner, and Anna Weesner at Symphony Space, $10/$5 stud/srs.

6/6-9, 7:30/9:30 PM jazz guitar legend Jim Hall, still going strong, leads a trio at the Jazz Standard, $25.

6/6 7:30 PM pianist Anthony Tobin plays works by Mozart, Chopin & Debussy at WMP Concert Hall, $20

6/6, 8 PM charismatic retro multistylist/accordionist/songwriting genius Rachelle Garniez at Barbes

6/6, 8 PM the DaCapo Chamber Players celebrate the 100th anniversary of Schoenberg’s immortal, creepy Pierrot Lunaire with a performance of the original plus a world premiere Mohammed Fairouz work by the same name at Merkin Concert Hall, $20/$10 stud/srs

6/6, 9 PM the assaultively retro, charismatic noir punkabillly Reid Paley Trio followed by high-voltage, eclectic Halifax gypsy guitar jazz band Gypsophilia at Rock Shop in Gowanus, $10. Gypsophilia are at Drom the following night, 6/7 at 11 PM, same price

6/6, 8ish lavish New Orleans funk/soul band Brother Joscephus & the Love Revival Revolution Orchestra play material from their brand new album at the Gramercy Theatre, $26

6/6, 8 PM the Eddie Palmieri Salsa Orquesta at B.B. King’s, $30 adv tix rec.

6/6, 8 PM the North/South Consonance Ensemble play NY premieres of works by Canadian composers Zosha Di Castri, Daniel Kessner, Mei-Fang Lin, Jonathan Russell at Christ & St Stephen’s Church, 120 W 69th St (bet Bway & Columbus), free

6/6, 8 PM trumpeter Nate Wooley plays his new song cycle Seven Storey Mountain IV with an auspicious cast: Chris Corsano, C. Spencer Yeh, Matt Moran, Chris Dingman, TILT Brass sextet, and others at Issue Project Room, 22 Boerum Pl. in downtown Brooklyn, $10.

6/6, 8:30 PM intriguing jazz quartet Old Time Musketry, who blend oldtimey swing, modern bucolic styles and darker, more challenging improvisational sounds at Caffe Vivaldi

6/6, 8:30 PM a rare show outside their Barbes home turf by haunting/rousing vintage Belgian accordion jazz trio Musette Explosion at Cornelia St. Cafe, $20 includes a drink.

6/6, 9ish the Donner Party Picnic and the Brooklyn What – NYC’s most intense, funny, socially aware rockers at Shea Stadium in Bushwick, $8. The BKW are also at the Knitting Factory on 6/8 at 8 for two bucks more.

6/6, 9ish irreverent oldschool Williamsburg vocal jazz crew the Old Rugged Sauce at Brooklyn Rod & Gun Club. Theyr’e also here on 6/20.

6/6, 9 PM pianist/Fred Hersch protege Nick Sanders with his trio at the Jazz Gallery.

6/6, 11ish badass alt-country siren and Neko Case collaborator Carolyn Mark at Rodeo Bar

6/7, 7 PM pianist Lucian Ban and violist Mat Maneri improvise at the Rubin Museum of Art auditorium, $20.

6/7, 7 PM Colin Jacobsen, violin; Nicholas Cords, viola; Edward Arron, cello play Bach’s Goldberg Variations arranged for string rrio at the Rogers Auditorium at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, $35

6/7, 7:30 PM  the Transfiguration Camerata withthe Transfiguration Choir of Men and Boys and a virtuosic period instrument ensemble perform Bach’s Cantata 147 (“Hertz und Mund und tat und Leben”) and Brandenburg Concerto No.5,at the Church of the Transfiguration on 29th east of 5th Ave.

6/7-16, 7:30 PM plus selected matinee dates: When Trees Move and Women Burn: a world music theatre performance of spring and midsummer night songs from Polesia and the Ukraine played by Alla Zagaykevych & Lemon Bucket Orkestra with Brazda’s intense, haunting Shelley Thomas on vocals at LaMaMa, 74A E 4th St (Bowery/2nd Ave.), $10 tix avail.

6/7-8, 8 PM Chicago’s Sounds of Silent Film Festival makes its NYC debut at Anthology Film Archives. Performers include Alicia Poot Kelley, flute, Christie Miller, clarinet, Alyson Berger, cello, and Hulya Alpakin and Seth Boustead, pianos. Francesco Milioto conducts; NY premiere films include Martin Scorsese’s early and rarely-screened The Big Shave, a commentary on the Vietnam War  in which a clean-cut young man keeps shaving after cutting himself (with music to match) Native New Yorker by Steve Bilich, shot with an old hand-cranked Kodak, The Mermaid by Osamu Tezuka, the “godfather of anime” and others

6/7, 8 PM Kiwi play original dub reggae grooves outdoors at the Grove St. Path station in Jersey City, free.

6/7, 8ish oldschool garage punk with the Oblivians at South St. Seaport, free

6/7, 8 PM tuneful, pensive alt-country duets with Bruce Robison & Kelly Willis at City Winery, $22 standing room avail.

6/7, 8:15 PM pianist Bruce Levingston plays the creepy  Philip Glass’ “Dracula Suite at Rooftop Films’ program of seven equally creepy short films on the roof of New Design High School, 350 Grand St. at Essex

6/7-9, 8:30 PM intense multi-sax improviser Mikko Innanen leads two bands a night at I-Beam, $10. The 6/0 8:30 set with Thomas Heberer on trumpet, John Ehlis on guitar and mando and Max Johnson on bass is especially choice

6/7-8 ,9/10:30 PM lyrical pianist John Escreet plus bass. drums and a string quartet at the Jazz Gallery, $20

6/7, 9/10:30 PM powerhouse tenor saxophonist Jason Rigby leads a quartet driven by the equally powerhouse Billy Hart on drums at Cornelia St. Cafe, $20 includes a drink.

6/7, 9:30 PM high-energy grasscore/Americana jams with Spirit Family Reunion at Brooklyn Bowl, $15

6/7, 10 PM this month’s Hannah vs. the Many and Haley Bowery doublebill is at Arlene’s. Expect ferociously lyrical apocalyptic heartbreaking noir punk, fearlessly drunken neo glamrock, two charismatic frontwomen, drama through the roof and maybe whiskey shots through a high-powered squirt gun, $10.

6/7, 10 PM a high-voltage gypsy-themed night with a rare stripped-down four-piece version of guerrilla klezmer band the  the Lemon Bucket Orkestra followed by Italian gypsy hellraisers Taluna and then the more jazz-inclined Halifax crew Gypsophilia (who have a killer new ep out) at Drom, $10 gen adm. Taluna are also at Shrine on 6/21 for free.

6/7, 10 PM exhilarating retro 60s latin soul revivalists Spanglish Fly – who should have won the WNYC Battle of the Bands contest – at Barbes.

6/7, 10:30 PM slinky soul-jazz grooves with the Jared Gold/Dave Gibson B3 organ band at the Fat Cat

6/8, 7 PM mystical, enchanting Pakistani ghazal singer Kiran Ahluwalia – whose new collaboration with Tinariwen is as amazing as you would think -at Joe’s Pub, $20 adv tix rec

6/8, 7:30 PM Dmitri Slepovitch’s haunting, intense Balkan band Litvakus at the Stephen Wise Free Synagaogue, 30 W 68th St (Columbus/Central Park West), $15.

6/8, 8 PM Pierre de Gaillande plays his wicked, contemporary English translations of Georges Brassens classics followed at 10 by cumbia band Chia’s Dance Party.at Barbes.

6/8 8ish ferocious reverb-driven noir garage rockers Twin Guns at Bowery Electric, $tba

6/8, 8 PM Ethiopian piano virtuoso/composer Girma Yifrashewa plays works by Mozart, Chopin, Debussy and his own compositions at Issue Project Room, 22 Boerum Pl, downtown Brooklyn, $15

6/8, 8 PM high-energy oldtime-style string band the Down Hill Strugglers followed at 10 by Mississippi hill country blues guitar genius Will Scott at 68 Jay St. Bar.

6/8, 8/10 PM indie classical ensemble Sybarite 5 play their imaginative, clever Radiohead covers at Subculture, $25.

6/8, 8:30 PM  John Zorn, Bill Laswell and Milford Graves reprise a trio show at le Poisson Rouge that they played when the club first opened, $30 adv tix a must.

6/8, 9 PM theatrical, darkly funny noir folk band Thee Shambels and suave baritone western swing crooner Sean Kershaw & the New Jack City Ramblers at Red Hook Bait & Tackle, dunno who’s playing first but they’re both good.

6/8 9ish electric and acoustic blues guitar goddess Ann Klein at Branded Saloon in Ft. Greene/Bed-Stuy. She’s also at the Path Cafe on 6/19 at 8.

6/8, 9:30ish ecstatically fun, intense gypsy punk/metal cumbia/rock en Espanol band Escarioka at Mehanata.

6/8, 10ish Big Star-influenced janglerockers the Nu-Sonics at Goodbye Blue Monday.

6/8, 10 PM Sea Wolf – for those who find the idea of Iron & Wine intriguing but need something darker and less samey – at Bowery Ballroom, $15. Avoid the putrid 9 PM opening act, whose claim to notoriety is writing yogurt commercials..

6/8, 11 PM intense gypsy punk band Kagero at the Bitter End, $10. If you’ve been priced out of Gogol Bordello tickets, this band is just as fun.

6/8, 11:30 PM ten-piece psychedelic funk orchestra Turkuaz at the Mercury, $10

6/8, midnight psychedelic funk band Turkuaz at the Mercury, $10 adv tix rec.

6/8, 1 AM (actually wee hours of 6/9) New Madrid play catchy, hook-driven rock en Espanol with a genuinely dark 80s feel at the small room at the Rockwood

6/9, noon the global, eclectic free outdoor Mafrika Festival at Marcus Garvey Park, lineup tba.

6/9, 3 PM Tibetan chanteuse Yungchen Lhamo and Russian pianist Anton Batagov perform selections from their upcoming post-minimalist improvisatory album at the Noguchi Museum, 9-01 33rd Rd. at Vernon Blvd. in Long Island City, free w/museum adm ($10/$5 stud). N/Q to Broadway or F to Queensbridge/21st St..

6/9 ,6 PM retro bluegrass/C&W and soul songwriters: Vincent Cross and band at the small room at the Rockwood.

6/9, 6 PM Crucial Bridge & the Inity Band play roots reggae at the bandshell at Marcus Garvey Park.

6/9, 7/9 PM 7/9 PM pianist Orrin Evans’ wildly popular, ferociously intense Captain Black Big Band at Smoke, free w/$30 prix-fixe menu. They’re also here on 6/24.

6/9, 7 PM indie classical ensemble Windsync followed at 9 by gypsy guitar paradigm-shifter Stephane Wrembel at Barbes

6/9, 7:30 PM pianist Simone Dinnerstein plays Bach’s Goldberg Variations at le Poisson Rouge, $25 adv tix rec.

6/9, 8 PM Travis Sullivan’s Bjorkestra – who do pretty amazing big band covers of Bjork songs – at Highline Ballroom $12 adv tix rec

6/9, 8 PM check out this killer improvisers lineup: Thomas Heberer – trumpet; John Ehlis – guitar & mandolin; Mikko Innanen – saxes; Max Johnson – bass at I- Beam, $10.

6/9, 8:15 PM orginal, surfy, noirish original female-fronted rockabilly trio Catspaw followed at 9 by Certain General guitarist Phil Gammage’s Rebel Factory at Otto’s

6/9, 11 PM bigtime funkjam/band Sister Sparrow & the Dirty Birds at Brooklyn Bowl, $12.

6/10, 7 PM a rare mariachi doublebill at Rodeo Bar: 7 PM the women of Mariachi Flor de Toloache followed by the guys of Mariachi Tapatio de Alvario Paulino.

6/10, 8 PM pyrotechnic virtuoso Colombian harpist Edmar Castaneda followed by noir guitar legend Marc Ribot‘s Los Cubanos Postizos at le Poisson Rouge, $30 adv tix rec

6/10, 8:30 PM exhilarating Polish mountain string music and fiery new Middle Eastern/Mediteranean jazz by Ensemble Elektra at Cornelia St. Cafe, $20 includes a drink.

6/10, 9 PM two generations of noir songcraft bookended around hypnotic psychedelic electric Americana: up-and-coming guitarist/songwriter Roman Wallfisch, Mesiko and Botanica frontman/pianist Paul Wallfisch at Small Beast at the Delancey

6/10 Amanda Palmer solo at El Museum Del Barrio.

6/10 oldschool 60s C&W and brooding southwestern gothic with the Jack Grace Band at at the Ear Inn, midnight. Grace is also at Barbes on 6/21 at 8 PM followed at 10 by the increasingly noir, carnivalesque Brian Carpenter’s Ghost Train Orchestra , then at Brooklyn Rod & Gun Club the following night 6/22 around 9.

6/11, 5:30 PM third-wave surf legends Los Straitjackets in the parking lot out back of City Winery, free.

6/11, 6-9 PM the Museum Mile Festival – 5th Ave. closed off to traffic, free admission at El Museo del Barrio; the Museum of the City of New York; the Jewish Museum; the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum; National Academy Museum & School; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum; Neue Galerie New York; New York/German Cultural Center; and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

6/11, 6 PM lyrical, luminous pianist Katie Reimer plays a solo program of Bach preludes and fugues, Brahms’ Klavierstucke, plus works by Daniel Bernard Roumain and Mohammed Fairouz at Steinway Hall, 109 W 57th St., $10/$5 stud.

6/11, 6:30 PM quirky, fun jazz concert harpist Zeena Parkins followed by Bill Frisell, Marc Ribot ,Nels Cline and Shahzad Ismaily plaing in the round at le Poisson Rouge, $30 adv tix rec. There’s a second set at 9:30 with Matana Roberts replacing Parkins.

6/11, 7 PM brilliant steel guitar player Raphael McGregor leads his eclectic band at Barbes followed at 9 by Balkan brass monsters Slavic Soul Party

6/11, 7:30 PM Crooked Still frontwoman and Dave Douglas collaborator Aoife O’Donovan at the Mercury, $12 adv tix.

6/11, 8 PM noir guitar god Jack Martin’s Bob Dylan Deathwatch followed by theatrical, darkly funny noir folk band Thee Shambels at Pete’s.

6/11-15, 8 /10 PM a weeklong residency by briliant Balkan/klezmer/jkazz trumpeter Frank London leading a series of large and small ensembles at the Stone.

6/11, 8 PM intense klezmer group Litvakus at the Steven Wise Free Synagogue, 30 W 68th St., $15.

6/11, 8:30 PM a rare duo show by mesmerizing jazz chanteuse (and Ran Blake collaborator) Dominique Eade with Bruce Barth on piano at Cornelia St. Cafe, $20 includes a drink. Followed at 10 (separate admission) by trombonist/singer Natalie Cressman and her tuneful, atmospheric third-stream band.

6/11, 8:30 PM dancers twirl and do other things to intriguing improvised music: Jill Sigman’s troupe backed by Miguel Frasconi and Cristian Amigo’s Imaginary People followed by the “kinetic zoom” of Overground Physical Theatre Co. with music by Emilio Garzon, Marios Aristopoulos, Xana Villan-Rueda & others at the Intar Theater, 500 W. 52nd Street, 4th Floor, $10 sugg don.

6/11, 9ish well-loved 90s indie/postpunk trio Versus at the Bell House, $25.

6/11, 9:30 PM Rob Mosher and ensemble play the cd release show for his eclectic, entertaining, sometimes haunting, sometimes boisterous new old west-themed chamber jazz album Polebridge at Subculture

6/11, 10 PM the spectacular, funky, electric NY Gypsy All-Stars at Drom, $10. They’re also here on 6/18.

6/11, 10ish hilarious female-fronted oldschool honkytonk band Trailer Radio at Rodeo Bar.

6/12, 5:30 PM the eclectic Balkan/latin/New Orleans flavored Underground Horns at Willoughby Plaza, corner of WIlloughby and Pearl Streets, downtown, Brooklyn They’re also diong a 4:30  PM show on the plaza at the Brooklyn Public Library main branch at Grand Army Plaza on 6/21

6/12, 7 PM wild mostly remale klezmer jamband Isle of Klezbos at El Sol Brillante Garden, 522 E 12th St btw Ave’s A/B (rain location JCC Manhattan); They’re also on the plaza at the Brooklyn Public Library at Grand Army Plaza at half past noon on 6/28 and then at Spectrum that night at 8.

6/12, 7 PM oldschool 8os hip-hop with Big Daddy Kane at Von King Park in Brooklyn.

6/12, 7:30 PM arguably the big band jazz night of the year with the three massive, musically interconnected orchestras of Asuka Kakitani , Nathan Parker Smith, and JC Sanford at Shapeshifter Lab

6/12, 8 PM all the hip-hop veterans who play free shows in the parks all over town gather for a hard-ticket show at the Highline Ballroom: Grand Puba, Chubb Rock, MOP and Big Daddy Kane, $27.50 adv tix rec.

6/12, 9 PM anthemic post-Oasis Britrock band Et Tu Bruce at Subculure, $12

6/12, 9ish a British dancefloor spin on oldschool American soul grooves with the Heavy at Webster Hall $25.30 adv tix avail. at the Irving Plaza box ofc.

6/12, 9:30ish tongue-in-cheek, period-perfect early 50s style country from Susquehanna Industrial Tool & Die Co. at Rodeo Bar.

6/12-13, 9:30 PM postbop alto sax legend Dave Liebman leads a quintet with Bobby Avey on piano at Smalls.

6/12, 10 PM dark, politically aware, Indian-influenced garage rockers Yankee Bang Bang at Grand Victory in Williamsburg, $8

6/13 Remember last year’s CBGB Festival? You know, when every acoustic singer-songwriter, hip-hop open mic event or sitar player sitting in the window of an East 6th Street restaurant was considered to be part of this big celebration of CBGB that never actually happened? This month’s Northside Festival in Williamsburg is the same kind of deal. Somehow the guy with the cuatro singing Puerto Rican folk songs at your neighborhood rice-and-beans place, the delta blues guys busking in the park and those drag queens lipsynching on Kent Ave. are all mysteriously part of this along with all the tuneless indie bands. Don’t ask why…and don’t waste your time.

6/13-15, 7/9 PM indie-classical ensemble Newspeak play a soundtrack incorporating Rzewski’s intense, assaultive, iconic protest piece Attica;  David T. Little of Newspeak conducts, with Mellissa Hughes as the vocal soloist, at the Invisible Dog space, 51 Bergen St. (between Smith and Court Sts.), Cobble Hill, Brooklyn, $20

6/13, 7 PM golden age hiphop with  Rob Base and Chubb Rock at Von King Park in Brooklyn.

6/13, 7 PM Americana rock chanteuse Karen Hudson plays the album release show for her new one Sonic Bloom – produced by the Del-Lords’ Eric “Roscoe” Ambel – at Rodeo Bar.

6/13, 7:30 PM the Sonos Chamber Orchestra conducted by Erik E. Ochsner with Jenny Lin, Stephanie Ho, Stephen Gosling, Saar Ahuvia on piano , and Jared Soldiviero, Matt Smallcomb, percussion play their new arrangement of Stravinsky’s Rites of Spring at le Poisson Rouge, $15 adv tix rec.

6/13, 7:30 PM the NY Philharmonic plays Stravinsky’s Firebird and Prokofiev’s Second Violin Concerto with violinist Leonidas Kavakos at Avery Fisher Hall, $29 tix avail. The program repeats on 6/14 at 2, 6/15 at 8 and 6/18 at 7:30 .

6/13-18, 7:30/9:30 PM tenor saxophonist Azar Lawrence leads a quintet with Freddie Hendrix – trumpet; Benito Gonzalez – piano; Essiet Essiet – bass and the inimitable Billy Hart – drums at the Jazz Stamdard. $25/$30 on the weekend.

6/13, 8 PM the Squirrel Nut Zippers’ Jimbo Mathus followed by Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band at Subculture, $25.

6/13, 8 PM third stream big band doublebill: trombonist John Yao & His 17-piece Instrument and the ten-piece Robert Sabin & Decimatio following at 10 at Douglass St. Music Collective, 295 Douglass St, Gowanus, $10 sugg don

6/13, 9 PM noisy edgy rockers Gozu and fearlessly funny Williamsburg punk rock vets the Live Ones at the Gutter bowling alley in Williamsburg, $8

6/13, 9 PM JD Duarte’s ferocious, fun, intense country/paisley underground crew the Newton Gang at the Way Station in Ft. Greene.

6/13, 10 PM careening Balkan brass intensity with Veveritse Brass Band at the Jalopy, $10/

6/13, 10 PM Dee Pop’s Private World – the world’s only band who cite both Tuareg trance-rockers Tinariwen and alt-country pioneer Commander Cody as influences but who actually sound more like the NY Dolls – at the Parkside

6/14, 7:30 PM David Fulmer plays Mozart concertos on Mozart’s own violin at the Austraian Cultural Center, 11 E 52nd St., free but res req.

6/14, 7:30 PM a pickup orchestra featuring violinist Jennifer Koh play John Zorn’s Passagen for Solo Violin (2011), Charles Wuorinen’s Spin 5 for Violin and 18 Players and Beethoven’s 7th Symphony at le Poisson Rouge, $20 adv tix rec.

6/14, 8 PM edgy political folk duo the Lords of Liechtenstein plus the equally edgy Carolann Solebello at Two Moon Cafe, 315 4th Ave (between 2nd and 3rd Sts), Sunset Park, Brooklyn.

6/14, 8 PM ageless, edgy, jangly, politically aware Americana rockers the Sloe Guns at Arlene’s

6/14, 8 PM jaunty female-fronted holdtimey swing with the Hot Sardines at Lucille’s, free.

6/14, 8 PM SoCorpo – avant garde vocal innovators Sasha Bogdanowisch and Sabrina Lastman – at the Brecht Forum, 451 West St (at Bank St.), $12

6/14, 8;30 PM dark pensive goth-tinged songwriter Nina Nastasia at Subculture, $12 adv tix rec.

6/14, 8:30 PM Sweet Soubrette –Charming Disaster‘s Elia Bisker’s solo project – followed by the effervescent, theatrical, badass oldtimey Ukuladies at the Jalopy, $10

6/14, 8:30 PM P-Funk keyb legend Bernie Worrell and his band.at Littlefield, $15

6/14, 9 PM alt-country legends Son Volt at Bowery Ballrom, $22.50 adv tix rec. They’re at the Music Hall Williamsburg for $2 off  (advance tix req) on 6/15 at 9.

6/14 darkly dreamy, atmospheric 4AD style rockers Dead Leaf Echo at Trash; 6/21 they’re at Big Snow Buffalo Lodge at 10.

6/14, 10 PM psychedelic latin soul maven Damien Quinones y Su Conjunto – with the full horn section, playing material from their phenomenal 2012 psychedelic latin soul album Gumbo Ma-Jumbo album at the Way Station in Ft. Greene

6/14, 10 PM high-energy Americana with the Butchers & the Bakers at the Gutter bowling alley in Williamsburg .

6/14, 10 PM the self-explanatory Blue Vipers of Brooklyn at Barbes.

6/14, midnight groovalicious latin soul revivalists Spanglish Fly with Erica Ramos on vocals at Nublu

6/15, 5ish what’s left of the Zombies – Rod Argent and Colin Blunstone – at Central Park Summerstage. Avoid the putrid opening act at all costs.

6/15, 7 PM hip-hop brass funksters  PitchBlak Brass Band play the album release show for their new one at Bowery Electric, $8

6/15, 7 PM the comedic, charismatic Erin Hill & Her Psychedelic Harp at Joe’s Pub, $15 .

6/15, 7:30 PM ambient hypnotic violin/guitar/loops duo Itsnotyouitsme followed by indie chamber ensemble Alarm Will Sound playing music of Caleb Burhans at le Poisson Rouge, $20 adv tix rec.

6/15, 8 PM ageless NYC oi punks Blanks 77, the original gypsy punk band World Inferno and then first-wave reggae-punk legends the Subhumans at Bowery Ballroom, $15. The Subhumans are also at the Music Hall of Williamsburg at 10 on 6/16 for the same price.

6/15, 9 PM a rare reunion by legendary LES dance/punk/instrumental trio Moisturizer (baritone sax, bass and drums) followed by brilliant new jazz/jamband trio Anderson Henderson White (Moist Paula Henderson on bari sax, Rev. Vince Anderson on keys and Jim White on drums) followed by funky jamband/Steely Dan reinventors Burnt Sugar at 11 at BPM, 237 Kent Ave. Williamsburg $10

6/15, 9ish first-class third-wave ska triplebill: Los Skarroneros, the Void Union and the Toasters at Grand Victory in Williamsburg, $15.

6/15, 9 PM third-wave garage rock legends the Gories at Brooklyn Bowl ,$12 .

6/15, 9ish LES roots/punk guitar legned Simon Chardiet at Brooklyn Rod & Gun Club

6/15, 9/10:30 PM guitarist Ryan Blotnick’s Saut-E-Sermad withMichael Blake, tenor sax;  Eliot Cardinuax, keyboards;  Eivand Opsvik, bass;  Randy Peterson, drums at Cornelia St. Cafe, $20 incl. a drink.

6/15, 9/10:30 PM sax improv titan Matana Roberts’ Anthem with Ches Smith and Liberty Ellman at the Jazz Gallery, $20 .

6/15, 9:30 PM dark 80s style art-pop songwriter Kristin Hoffmann at Caffe Vivaldi

6/15, 10:15 PM the Fascinators – oldtime guitar genius Lenny Molotov’s new female-fronted vocal jazz outfit – at Sidewalk.

6/15, 10:30 PM country jugband the Flanks at the Jalopy, $10.

6/15, 11 PM Winds of Anatolia with Esat Seho, Ismail Siglam, Fatih Bayram, Frank Mastroianni, Ozcan Atav – Baris Kaya and many more at Drom, free, in support of the protests in Istanbul

6/15, 11 PM killer doublebill at Arlene’s – the ferocious Taiwanese-American art-rock/metal instrumentalists the Hsu-Nami – whose lead instrument is a sizzling Chinese erhu fiddle followed by fearlessly political soul/reggae/latin rockers Outernational ,$10.

6/15, midnight, funkmeisters Groove Collective at Nublu, $15

6/16, 1 PM the Bang on a Can Marathon moves to Pace University’s Schimmel Auditorium on Spruce St. downtown, early arrival a must since it’s a lot smaller than the World Financial Center.

6/16, 2 PM the NY Scandia Symphony plays works by Niels Gade, Svend Schultz, Johan Helmich Roman and Fini Henriquez plus a US premiere by Andrew Akers on Billings Lawn at Ft. Tryon Park, take a left as you enter the park from the south side rather than going straight to the Cloisters, you’ll hear the music on the hillside

6/16, 7:30 PM legendary avant crooner John Kelly sings material by Kurt Weill, Charles Aznavour, the Incredible String Band, Mister Bungle, Jacques Brel, Holcombe Waller and the Shins, $20. He’s also here on 6/30, same time.

6/16 guessing about 4 PM an eclectic bill at Muchmore’s with ferocious female-fronted bassless noiserock band Bugs in the Dark , swirling, ethereal, anthemic Persian-American art-pop/disco/funk band the Yellow Dogs , roots reggae/soul rockers Osekre & the Lucky Bastards and the Brooklyn What – the borough’s most exciting, ferociously tuneful, amusingly insightful anti-gentrification band, with a hot new album out – headlining, $7

6/16, 6 PM tuneful Lynchian vibraphone jazz group Bryan & the Aardvarks– whose show at Subculture last month was amazing – play with special guest Kenny Wollesen on drums at 55 Bar

6/16-23 a Ned Rothenberg residency at the Stone, 8/10 PM – the multi-reed virtuoso leads a series of ensembles.

6/16, 8ish NYC’s best late 90s/early zeros conscious hip-hop crew Dead Prez, still strong, at Von King Park in Brooklyn.

6/16, 8 PM an eclectic, intriguing, improvisational triplebill at Douglass St. Music Collective: percussionist Cory Bracken with Anastasia Clarke and Richard Kamerman followed at 9 by Twins of El Dorado (Kristin Slipp, voice; Joe Moffett, trumpet) and at 10 by Mike Pride, percussion; Pascal Niggenkemper, bass; with Kristin Slipp, voice, $10

6/16, 9 PM intense Eastern European jamband Raya Brass Band pinch-hits for Stephane Wrembel at Barbes.

6/16, 10 PM Random Test play roots reggae at Shrine

6/17, 7 PM snarky/funny/melancholy quirk-rock sister duo the Doubleclicks at the Way Station in Ft. Greene

6/17, 7:30 PM bandoneonist/bandledeader Hector Del Curto and his quintet play the album release show for his new one Eternal Piazzolla with special guest pianist Pablo Ziegler at le Poisson Rouge, $12 adv tix very highly rec.

6/17, 8 PM a killer Americana triplebill: high-energy oldtime-style string band the Down Hill Struggler, hauntingly nuanced chanteuse Jan Bell – who makes the connection between oldtime Americana and British folk again and again – and the Wiyos , who’ve shifted from an oldtimey sound to psychedelic rock without skipping a beat – at the Bell House, $10

6/17, 8 PM Veveritse Brass Band and psychedelic 18-piece all-female accordion group the Main Squeeze Orchestra at Brooklyn Bowl, $7

6/17, 8 PM eclectic new chamber works: original compositions by inimitable cellist Pat Muchmore, US premieres by Italian composers performed by Milan’s mdi ensemble, improvisation-heavy chamber music by Quiet City, an “electrifying set “by Elevator Rose, a two-man political opera by thingNY, and new works by the dynamic Iktus Percussion at Jack, 505 ½ Waverly Ave. in Ft. Greene.

6/17, 8 PM the ISCM Ensemble plays an eclectic bill including a couple of world premieres by Wang Jie and Bruce Fitch plus works by Eve Beglarian, Bruce Adolphe and Leon Kirchner at the Miller Theater, $20 gen adm.

6/17, 9/10:30 PM up-and-coming trombonist Ryan Keberle & Catharsis at the Jazz Gallery, $20.

6/17, 10 PM the quirky/creepy/gorgeous female-fronted Dollshot reinvents art song and plays avant-pop originals inspired by Palm Springs, Lars Von Trier, and Joseph Cornell at Cornelia St. Cafe, $20 incl. a drink.

6/17, midnight the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble – one of the most kick-ass bands in the universe, with a fat tuba groove, soul horns and live hip-hop beats – at Highline Ballroom, $20 adv tix rec.

6/18, 5:30 PM whatever’s left of second-wave ska legends the English Beat in the parking lot out back of City Winery, free

6/18, 5:30 PM cellist Dana Leong and Trio at 220 Vesey St. downtown.

6/18, 7 PM Laurie Anderson in storytelling mode with Gerry Leonard (guitar), Doug Wieselman (horns) and Eyvind Kang (viola), with more guests to be announced at Rockefeller Park.

6/18, 7:30 PM tuneful surfy rock guitar experimentalists Dog Adrift followed by ferocious Hazmat Modine guitarist Michael Gomez’ group and then smart, politically aware, eclectic latin rockers the Gotham Roots Orchestra at the Intar Theatre, 500 W. 52nd St, 4th Fl., $10 sug don

6/18, 7:30/9:30 PM lyrical Cuban  pianist Harold Lopez-Nussa and his drummer brother, Ruy Adrián López- Nussa at the Jazz Standard, $20

6/18 8 PM powerpop/psychedelic rock guitar god Pete Galub and band at Rock Shop .

6/18, 8 PM chanteuse Abby Payne – whose new western-themed album is due out soon at Spike Hill

6/18, 9 PM Vålerenga Symfoniorkester play funny covers of cheeseball pop hits – and some good songs too – with ukulele, tuba and cello at the Way Station in Ft. Greene.

6/18, 10:30 PM Drina Seay – torchy Americana/soul/jazz siren who is to NYC now what Neko Case was to Portland in 1999 – at Rodeo Bar.

6/18, 11 PM edgy lyrical rocker Avi Fox-Rosen – whose album-a-month project streaming at his bandcamp page is amazing – with his band at Pete’s

6/19, 6:30 PM Paul Shapiro’s Ribs and Brisket Revue outdoors on the plaza at the Brooklyn Public Library central branch at Grand Army Plaza.

6/19, 7 PM Laurie Anderson with with Richard Devine (electronics), Doug Wieselman (horns), Eyvind Kang (viola), Jacob Garchik (horns) and Yuka Honda (keyboards), with more guests to be announced at Rockefeller Park

6/19, 7 PM perennially popular prototypical singer-songwriter Suzanne Vega – who’s far edgier than she gets credit for – at Madison Square Park.

6/19, 7 PM gospel with Rev. Hezekiah Walker and choir at Von King Park in Brooklyn.

6/19, 7:30/9:30 PM bassist Ben Wolfe leads a killer quartet with Orrin Evans – piano; Donald Edwards – drums; Stacy Dillard – tenor & soprano saxophones at the Jazz Standard, $20 .

6/19, 7:30 PM pianist Elisha Abas plays music of Chopin, Schumann, Liszt, and Gershwin at le Poisson Rouge, $20 gen adm.

6/19, 8 PM soprano saxophonist Julio Botti plays the album release show for his nuevo tango cd Tango Nostalgias with a phenomenal band featuring pianist Pablo Ziegler at Klavierhaus, 211 W 58th St.

6/19, 8 PM avant guitar night at Spectrum: Terrence McManus solo followed by Dr. Nerve’s Nick Didkovsky with Catherine Sikora, Jessica Lurie and Lucio Menegon aka Rev. Screaming Fingers and then the Dustin Carlson Group, $10 sugg don “no one turned away”

6/19, 8 PM Decoupage with Curtis Hasselbring: trombone; Mary Halvorson: guitar; Matt Moran: vibraphone and Satoshi Takeishi: percussion at Barbes

6/19, 10 PM brooding Americana/indie/slowcore legends Low at the Music Hall of Williamsburg, $25. Avoid the nauseating 9 PM opening act at all costs.

6/19, 10:30ish Jack Grace’s sick, hilarious Van Halen country cover band Van Hayride at Rodeo Bar

6/20, noon, the Zozo Afrobeat Orchestra at Metrotech Park in downtown Brooklyn, F/A/C/R to Jay St.

6/20 half past noon eclectic jamband Metropolitan Klezmer outdoors at St. Mark’s Church, 10th St/2nd Ave.

6/20, 7 PM an intriguing night of eclectic new composer-performers’ compositions from toy pianist Margaret Leng Tan, cellist Marika Hughes, percussionist Damien Bassman, violinist Lynn Bechtold, 7-string bass guitarist Dan Cooper, guitarist Gene Pritsker, oboist Keve Wilson, and cellist Anja Wood. plus works by Milica Paranosic, Robert Aldridge, Svjetlana Bukvich, Herschel Garfein, Ge Gan-Ru, Scott Gendel, and Veronika Krausas at Bohemian National Hall, 321 E 73rd St, $25/$15 stud/srs , reception to follow.

6/20-23, 7:30/9:30 PM ageless piano crooner Freddy Cole and his quartet plus the ideal tenor saxophonist for this gig, Harry Allen, at the Jazz  Standard, $25/$30 on the weekend.

6/20, 8 PM cutting edge new big band jazz with the wildly popular Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society at le Poisson Rouge, $18 adv tix rec.

6/20, 8 PM klezmer legend, Andy Statman ($10 cover) at Barbes

6/20, 9 PM A Love Letter to Fog, a new “live documentary” by the Quavers‘ T. Griffin and Catherine McRae with filmmaker Sam Green premieres with live soundtrack played by indie classical ensemble YMusic, Matt Bauder on baritone saxophone and Brendan Canty on drums, at East River Esplanade, Pier 15, John St. and the river, free.

6/20, 10ish high-energy oldtime Connecticut Americana/roots/bluegrass band Poor Old Shine at Rodeo Bar.

6/20, 10 PM diverse twangy cinematic surf rock with the Tarantinos NYC at Desmond’s.

6/20, 10 PM bassist Shayna Dulberger leads her quartet at Freddy’s.

6/21, 1 PM the Words Beyond Trio and the Lucky Chops Brass Band at the National Jazz Museum in Harlem, 104 E. 126th Street, Suite 2C, 6 train to 125th St.

6/21, 4:30 PM the Underground Horns, whose repertoire spans from New Orleans to the Balkans and many points in between, on the plaza outdoors at the Brooklyn Public Library main branch at Grand Army Plaza, free. They’re at Nublu around midnight the same day for $15 – call it an air conditioning charge.

6/21 the Kandinsky Effect – Warren Walker on saxophone and electronics, Gaël Petrina on bass and electronics and Caleb Dolister on drums –  at Kinfolk Studios
90 Wythe Ave, Williamsburg, free

6/21, 6 PM  Buck Meek and Shine play gypsy jazz and klezmer outdoors at Big Road in Chelsea, 235 W 23rd St.

6/21, 6 PM laconic, thoughtful, tuneful oldschool C&W with Scott Dennis at the American Folk Art Museum.

6/21, 6:30 PM want to sing Faure’s Requiem with Kent Tritle conducting? Download the score and bring it to the fountain at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine for a performance with singers from all over NYC

6/21, 7 PM the final Battle of the Boroughs band competition at the Greene Space, $15 incl. a glass of wine, $30 will get you open wine and beer bar. The first year they had this, the winner was a no-name from Staten Island who fell off the radar fast. But the most recent two winners have been excellent: eclectic Indian trance band Charanams, and the equally eclectic ska/worldbeat group the Brown Rice Family.

6/21, 7 PM eclectic third-stream chamber jazz with the Christian Wallumrod Ensemble at the Rubin Museum of Art auditorioum, $20.

6/21, 7 PM accordionist Melissa Elledge leads an accordion orchestra playing Terry Riley’s In C at West Dalehead Arch near W. 64th and Central Park West

6/21, 7:30 PM desert blues guitar hero Bombino and fiery Malian psychedelic rockers Amadou & Mariam at Prospect Park Bandshell, free.

6/21, 8ish the Big Takeover play ska and reggae outdoors in the back yard at Goodbye Blue Monday. They’re at Shrine on 6/29 at 9.

6/21, 8:30ish 80s-style goth/new wave band Eraas and eventually Suicide’s Martin Rev at Bowery Electric, $15

6/21, 9 PM lo-fi 90s surf legends Man or Astroman at Brooklyn Bowl, $15 – your only chance to catch them on this tour since their Mercury show is sold out.

6/21, 9 PM a free show by wickedly catchy yet intricate twin-keyboard-female-fronted art-rockers Changing Modes upstairs at the Greenpoint Gallery, 390 McGuinness Blvd

6/21, 9 PM til close funky trombonist Reut Regev’s R Time, the David Klukh Klezmer Ensemble, trumpet legend Frank London and the Lucky Chops Brass Band at Drom, free

6/21, 9 PM a ferocious rock en Espanol triplebill with Barbarossa, Helado Negro and M.A.K.U. Soundsystem at Littlefield, $15.

6/21, 9ish gypsy jazz power trio Ameranouche at Red Hook Bait & Tackle

6/21, 9 PM surreal, lo-fi 90s surf/space rockers Man or Astroman at Brooklyn Bowl, $15.

6/21, 10 PM a killer oldtimey doublebill with Daria Grace and the Pre-War Ponies followed by devious intense, literate, charismatic ukelele siren/songwriter Kelli Rae Powell at the Jalopy, $10. Grace is at LIC Bar at 6 on 6/23 and at Barbes at 9 on 6/30.

6/21, 10 PM fiery gypsy punks Kagero at the Way Station in Ft. Greene.

6/21-22, 10:30 alto sax powerhouse Mike DiRubbo leads a quintet with Mike Rodriguez – tumpet ,Brian Charette – Piano , Dwayne Burno – bass , Rudy Royston – drums at Smalls

6/21, midnight noir surf instrumentalists Dark City at Connolly’s.

6/21 midnight acoustic Nashville goths O’Death at the Bell House $12 adv tix tec.

6/22, 7:30/9:30 Ed Cherry on guitar with Pat Bianchi on organ and Chris Beck on drums at tje Bar Next Door, $12

6/22, 8 PM surf night on the Ft. Greene/Bed-Stuy border: Botanica bassist Jason Binnick’s new surf band Quinceaneros, the Tarantinos NYC – who just keep getting better and better and more diverse at 9 and then at 10 explosive Dick Dale-influenced Connecticut band 9th Wave – who might be the best surf band in the world right now.

6/22, 8 PM lush, amusing, innuendo-driven 30s French chanson revivalists les Chauds Lapins followed at 10 by Cumbiagra at Barbes.

6/22, 8:30 PM original eclectic concert harpist Petaluma Vale followed by captivating, innovative cello-and-marimba chamber pop duo Goli at Caffe Vivaldi.

6/22, 8:30 PM oldschool soul from the late 60s with JC Brooks & the Uptown Sound at the Mercury, $10.

6/22, 10 PM eclectic female-fronted funk/ska rockers Cool Papa Bell at Sidewalk

6/22, midnight creepy glamrock/rockabilly legend Tav Falco & Panthern Burns at the Knitting Factory, $15 .

6/23, 2 PM the NY Scandia Symphony plays works for brass by Jorma Panula, Anders Koppel, Britta Bystrom, Junka Linkola, Luis Pasquet and Erkki Melarten on Billings Lawn at Ft. Tryon Park, take a left as you enter the park from the south side rather than going straight to the Cloisters, you’ll hear the music on the hillside.

6/23, 6:30 PM quirky chamber ensemble the Liverpool Shuffle: Joe Refanom, Mike Green, Mike Ponella and Pete Bross play Beatles covers at Bargemusic, $25.

6/23, 7 PM the mysterious Hal A. Burton followed at 8 by witty trumpeter John McNeil’s Hush and then violinist Dana Lyn’s Yeti Camp at Zirzamin

6/23, 7 PM fiery lyrical third-stream soul-jazz chanteuse/pianist Nicole Zuraitis plays the album release show for her new one at the big room at the Rockwood followed by Roosevelt Dime playing their unique mix of oldtimey string band music with a dash of classic 60s soul ($10 cover for them)

6/23, 7:30 PM high-energy Austin acoustic rock and Americana triplebill at the Mercury:
Wild Child, Shakey Graves and the Marmalakes, $10.

6/23, 7:30 PM Susie Ibarra & Roberto Rodriguez followed by Pauline Oliveros on the V-Accordion at the Schimmel Center at Pace University downtown on Spruce St., free tix avail. day of show at 5:30 PM.

6/23, 7:30 PM the JACK Quartet and Joshua Roman, cello play music of Gesualdo, Brian Ferneyhough, Joshua Roman at le Poisson Rouge, $15 adv tix rec.

6/23, 8 PM Tenacious D-inspired joke-rock band Fortress of Attitude followed at 9 by Dr. Demento favorite Glen Raphael at the Way Station in Ft. Greene

6/23, 8:30 PM 70s psychedelic art-rock legends Nektar at B.B. King’s, $32 adv tix rec.

6/24, Yasiin Bey at Central Park Summerstage is CANCELLED.

6/24 rare NYC appearances by Hungarian chanteuse Eszter Biro plus wild, intense nine-piece Hungarian gypsy band Parno Graszt (meaning White Horse in the Romani language). They’re also at Drom on 6/30 at 7:30 PM, $15 adv tix very highly rec.

6/24, 8 PM resonator guitarist Mark Rogers and singer Mary Byrne play subdued smart intense original Americana-flavored acoustic rock at the Way Station in  Ft. Greene

6/24, 9 PM the playful, colorfully psychedelic Erica Seguine/Shannon Baker Jazz Orchestra at Tea Lounge in Park Slope .

6/24, 10 PM the Mariel Vandersteel Trio featuring Maeve Gilchrist and Jordan Tice blend Norwegian and Appalachian sounds at Pete’s following the 9 PM show by creepy noir cabaret guy/girl duo Charming Disaster

6/25, 5:30 PM James Maddock at 220 Vesey St; outdoors; 6/27 at half past noon he’s at One New York Plaza downtown.

6/25, 7 PM eclectic cellist/bandleader Marika Hughesat Barbes followed at 9 by Balkan brass monsters Slavic Soul Party

6/25, 7:30 PM well-loved indie classical orchestra the Knights play works by Boccherini, Glass, Stockhausen and Mozart at the Naumburg Bandshell in Central Park, free, early arrival advised if you want a seat

6/25,7:30 PM  Fan Interference “collects the best from 15 years of the Zisk zine, the so-called “Baseball Magazine For People Who Hate Baseball Magazines.” feat. writers Steve Reynolds, Mike Faloon, Brian Cogan and others” at the Bell House, free.

6/25, 8 PM the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis on the elevated dancefloor at Damrosch Park, $17 at the Lincoln Center box office

6/25-30 the Young Lions of Gysy Jazz Festival at Birdland, sets 8:30/11 PM, special guets include June 25 & 26: Peter Beets/jazz pianist from Holland, 27: David Langlois /washboards, 28:  Anat Cohen /sax&clarinet, 29 & 30: Edmar Castaneda/Jazz harp.

6/25, 8 PM the Delorean Sisters– who play oldtimey versions of 80s cheeseball pop songs – at the Way Station in Ft. Greene.

6/25-30 eclectic, entertaining, quirky concert harpist Zeena Parkins plays a weekling  residency at the Stone, 8/10 PM leading a variety of groups.

6/25, 9 PM noir cabaret/art-rock chanteuse/pianist Hudson K at the Delancey .

6/25, 10 PM the Lucas Pino two-guitar No Net Nonet at Smalls

6/26, 7 PM pyrotechnic clarinetist/saxophonist Anat Cohen leads her quartet at Madison Square Park.

6/26, 8 PM the perennially intense, tuneful godfather of edgy, lyrical, anthemic downtown NYC rock, Willie Nile plays the album release show for his latest one American Ride at the Highline, $25.

6/26, 8 PM a classic tango milonga with Leonardo Suarez Paz’s Cuartetango with Cristian Zárate on the elevated dancefloor at Damrosch Park, $17 at the Lincoln Center box office

6/26, 8 PM well-liked, dynamic powerpop band New Atlantic Youth – with Jesse Katz from the Brooklyn What – at Grand Victory in Williamsburg, $8

6/26, 9 PM the Freaky Baby Daddy Band play roots reggae and Afrobeat at Shrine

6/26, 9:30 PM Argentinian bandoneon powerhouse JP Jofre plays the album release show for his explosive new one at Joe’s Pub, $15 adv tix a must.

6/26, 10ish dark punkish psychedelic rockers Light Heat at Glasslands, $10. 6/27 they’re at the Mercury at 10:30 PM for the same price

6/27 folk noir cult favorites the Handsome Family at the Slipper Room (the strip club at Ludlow and Orchard).

6/27 guitarist Eyal Maoz’ assaultive surf-metal band Pitom at Littlefield

6/27, 7 PM eclectic third-stream jazz chanteuse Youn Sun Nah in a rare duo performance with guitarist Ulf Wakenius at the big room at the Rockwood.

6/27, 7:30 PM Alan Gilbert conducts the NY Philharmonic performing Stravinsky’s The Fairy’s Kiss and Petroushka to accompany a creepy puppet show and dance performance at Avery Fisher Hall, $33 tix avail.

6/27, 7:30 wild minor-key New Orleans/blues/reggae/klezmer jamband Hazmat Modine plus open bar with beer and wine at the Jewish Museum. 5th Ave. at 92nd St., $15/$12 stud/srs

6/27, 7:30 PM ferocious Italian gypsy band Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino at Joe’s Pub, $20.

6/27, 8 PM classic jump blues with Mitch Woods & His Rocket 88s on the elevated dancefloor at Damrosch Park, $17 at the Lincoln Center box office

6/27, 8:30 PM tongue-in-cheek, period-perfect early 50s style country from Susquehanna Industrial Tool & Die Co. at Otto’s

6/27, 8:30 PM bassist Carlo DeRosa leads an excellent quartet with Mark Shim , tenor sax;  Luis Perdomo, piano; Rudy Royston, drums at Cornelia St. Cafe, $20 incl. a drink.

6/27, 8 PM ferocious female-fronted Americana punk rockers Spanking Charlene open for a rare one-off NYC reunion show by high-voltage 80s roots-rock legends the Del-Lords playing the album releaase party for their new one (first in 20 years!), Elvis Club, at Bowery Electric, $15 adv tix rec

6/27-29, 9/10:30 PM Henry Threadgill with a yet-unnamed supporting cast at the Jazz Gallery, $25.

6/27, 9 PM Nass Gnawa – oudist Brahim Fribgane with Hassan Ben Jafar and Said Damir – play funky Moroccan trance music at Union Pool

6/27, 9 PM a rare solo show by Kristin Mueller of the charming, quirky Walking Hellos at Pete’s.

6/27, 9:30 PM Norah Jones’ country band Puss n Boots and then chanteuse Sasha Dobson playing the album release show for her new rock record at the Bell House, $15 adv tix rec

6/27, 9:30 PM bassist Mimi Jones leads a quintet with Nadje Noordhuis – trumpet , Camille Thurman – tenor sax , Helen Sung – piano,, Rodney Green – drums at Smalls

6/27, 9 PM Stratospheerius – the original violin metal band, whose new album reputedly shreds (don’t they always) at Shrine.

6/27, 10 PM psycho mambo band Gato Loco does a special show with all their low-register instruments: baritone guitar, baritone sax, bass, tuba and drums at Barbes

6/27, 10 PM cello-rock band Mappa Mundi at the Way Station in Ft. Greene .

6/27, 10 PM one of the great remaining Chicago blues guitarists, Joe Louis Walker at Terra Blues

6/27, 10:30 PM bluegrass stars the Claire Lynch Band at Hill Country, $15 .

6/27, 11ish moody, hypnotically jangly, female-fronted dreampop rockers Butter the Children at Death by Audio, $7

6/28, 6 PM pianist Anne Goldberg plays Lachenmann, Furrer, Messiaen, Ter Velduis, Baldwin at Cornelia St. Cafe, $8 incl. a drink.

6/28, 7 PM the Elvis Costello-influenced Jedediah Parish at the Way Station in Ft. Greene followed at 8:30 PM by bluegrass band the Kings County Ramblers with Stateh Island skiffle band the Salt Cracker Crazies at 10:30.

6/28, 8 PM oldschool salsa dura with the Spanish Harlem Orchestra on the elevated dancefloor at Damrosch Park, $17 at the Lincoln Center box office

6/28, 8 PM psychedelic funk with the MK Groove Orchestra at Spike Hill

6/28, 8 PM Mark Peskanov, violin; Evan Drachman, cello; Doris Stevenson, piano play Beethoven – Sonata for Violin and Piano in D Major, Op. 12, No. 1; Haydn Divertimento in D Major; Saint Saens – Allegro Appassionato, Op. 43, and The Swan; Arensky – Trio in D minor, Op. 32 at Bargemusic, $35/$30 srs/$15 stud.

6/28, 8 PM eclectic Balkan jazz trumpeter Ben Holmes leads a quartet at Barbes

6/28, 8 PM Japanese traditional music trio the East Winds Ensemble play Symphony Space, $25/$20 stud/srs.

6/28, 8:30 PM sharp, music by Salt Cathedral followed by Sebastián Silva’s new film Crystal Fairy about two American trendoids on vacation in Chile getting what’s coming to them (or so it seems)  On the roof of New Design High School, 350 Grand St. @ Essex. adv tix available here, pre and after party at Fontana’s .

6/28, 9 PM fearlessly intense indie rock songwriter/guitarslinger Jennifer O’Connor followed by Thalia Zedek’s recently reunited, iconic dark 90s indie band Come at Bowery Ballroom, $15.

6/28, 10:30 PM eclectic Afrobeat/funk/hip-hop band Mamarazzi at the big room at the Rockwood.

6/28, 11 PM bass goddess Felice Rossser’s ageless reggae-rock band Faith at Zirzamin.

6/28, 11ish irrepressible, entertaining stoner punk/garage/hardcore band the Hussy at Death by Audio, $7.

6/28 midinght-ish, the Hussy – who’ve moved away from droll stoner hardcore to menacing reverbtoned garage punk stomp – at Death By Audio

6/29, 5 PM Songs for Unusual Creatures at Barbes, brought to you by many of the same people behind Songs for Ice Cream Trucks: “A celebration of the under-appreciated creatures that roam the planet. From the Australian Bilby to the deep-sea Magnapinna Squid, to the Saddleback Caterpillar” followed at 8 by Afrobeat guitar virtuoso Banning Eyre and Timbila and then at 10 by mighty Indian funk band Brooklyn Qawwali Party.

6/29, 6 PM concert harpist Natalie Salzman plays country and blues at Cornelia St. Cafe, $8 incl. a drink

6/29, 7 PM murderous punk jazz band Iconoclast at the Music with a View festival at the Flea Theatre, 41 White St. in Tribeca.

6/29, 9 PM punk rockers Bikini Carwash and ferocious Radio Birdman style chromatic garage punk with the Mess Around at the Gutter bowling alley in Williamsburg.

6/29, 9ish dark retro 80s style female-fronted new wave band the Foxx followed by soaring Americana rocker/bandleader Alana Amram & the Rough Gems at Union Pool

6/29, 9 PM Klezwoods – who use klezmer as a stepping-off point for ska and Balkan music and all kinds of psychedelic, danceable craziness followed by brilliant, sometimes hilarious Tipsy Oxcart, who play acoustic versions of current day Eastern European pop hitsat Nublu, $15.

6/29, 9 PM stark acoustic southern gothic with the Handsome Family at the Knitting Factory, $20.

6/30, 9 PM gothic Americana crooner Tim Eriksen and his band at the Jalopy, $10

6/29, 9 PM whatever’s left of Os Mutantes at Prospect Park Bandshell, free.

6/29, 9/10:30 PM pianist Kris Daviswith maybe her best outfit yet: Mat Maneri, viola; Ingrid Laubrock, saxophone; John Hébert, bass; Tom Rainey, drums at Cornelia St. Cafe, $20 incl. a drink

6/29, 10 PM catchy, quirky anthemic Australian sensations the Cat Empire at the Nokia Theatre, $27.50.

6/30, 2 PM Alex Fiterstein, clarinet; Nicholas Canellakis, cello; Steven Beck, piano play Beethoven – Piano Trio in B-flat Major, Op. 11; Lutoslawski – Grave (Metamorphoses for cello and piano) (1981); Milhaud – Sonatine for clarinet and piano, Op. 100; Ofer Ben-Amots – Cantillations; Brahms -Trio for clarinet, cello and piano in A minor, Op. 114 at Bargemusic, $35/$30 srs/$15 stud.

6/30, 8 PM the original Geto Boys at B.B. King’s. Houston’s greatest hip-hop group, one of the classic units from the golden age, who knows when if ever they’ll hit NYC again. Three first-class, macabre lyiricists: Bushwick Bill, Scarface and Willie D.,  a must see show if rap is your thing, $30 adv tix rec.

6/30, 9 PM cynical, catchy, lyrically-driven Boston powerpop four-piece the Fatal Flaw at Union Hall.

7/1, 7:30 PM Glass Farm Ensemble : Margaret Lancaster, flute; Amy Advocat, clarinet; Bill Trigg, percussion; and Yvonne Troxler, piano – play new works by Michael Jarrell, Paula Matthusen, Frederic Rzewski, Alfred Simmerlin at Symphony Space, $20/$15 stud/srs

7/1, 9ish 80s new wave legends Bow Wow Wow at Grand Victory in Williamsburg, $25. Now in her mid-40s, Annabella Lwin is still reputedly going strong.

7/1, 10 PM Detroit African-American punk legends Death at le Poisson Rouge, $20 adv tix rec.

7/2, 6 PM Felix Hernandez’ Rhythm Review and Joe Bataan at Soundview Park in the Bronx.

7/2, 7:30 PM the Argento Ensemble play new vocal and chamber works by Georg Friedrich Haas plus others by Alban Berg and Anton Webern at the Austrian Cultural Center, 11 E 52nd St., free, res req.

7/2, 8 PM the Garifuna Collective and Danny Michel at Highline Ballroom, $15

7/2, 8 PM Ivoirien roots reggae legend Alpha Blondy at B.B. King’s, $30 adv tix rec.

7/2, 8 PM Cuban percussionist Pedrito Martinez and his blazing salsa jazz group at Rockefeller Park.

7/2, 8 PM Vince Giordano’s Nighthawks on the elevated dancefloor at Damrosch Park, $17 at the Lincoln Center box office

7/2, 9 PM intense klezmer group Litvakus at the Way Station in Ft. Greene.

7/2 9:30 PM rising star baritone saxophonist Brian Landrus plays the album release show for his new one Mirage with a string section at Joe’s Pub

7/3, 6 PM Boston string band Joy Kills Sorrow followed by bluegrass legends the Grascals at Madison Square Park.

7/3, 6 PM the adventurous, witty Broken Reed Saxophone Quartet at Bryant Park

7/3, 9:30 PM vibraphonist Behn Gillece and alto saxophonist Ken Fowser play the album release show for their killer new one Top Shelf at Smalls

7/4, 7:30 PM Ethiopian groove orchestra Fendika at the Lincoln Center Atrium.

7/5, 7:45 PM dark soul/rock/avant garde songwriter Katie Elevitch plays and sings totally acoustic to accompany the yoga class at Sacred Sounds Yoga, 163 Bleecker St, 2nd Fl,

7/5, 10 PM oldschool punk cumbia/vallenato powerhouse Very Be Careful at Barbes.

7/6, 7:30 PM punk Balkan brass madness with the Stumblebum Brass Band at the Mercury, $10

7/6 the Byzan-tones play wild psychedelic Greek surf music at Otto’s.

7/6 half past midnight (actually wee hours of 7/7) subtle, vivid classic tango chanteuse Maria Cangiano at the Blue Note with her band, $10.

7/6, 8 PM La Sonora Carruseles play salsa dura and boogaloo on the elevated dancefloor at Damrosch Park, $17 at the Lincoln Center box office

7/7, 7:30 PM cult hero crooner (and Carol Lipnik collaborator) John Kelly sings “rebel songs” including Clash covers at Joe’s Pub, $20. He’s also here on 7/14.

7/7, 8ish composer/choreographic pianist Eleonor Sandresky collaborates with improv ensemble Murmuration at Spectrum, $15

7/8, 7:30 PM Colombian vocalist Lucia Pulido teams up with Austrian improvisers Franz Hautzinger and Martin Siewert and Afro-Peruvian guitar specialist Eric Kurimski  at the Austrian Cultural Center, 11 E 52nd St., free, res req.

7/9, 5:30 PM the Jayhawks’ and Golden Smog’s Gary Louris’ backing band the End of America followed by the queen of the minor key, Eilen Jewell in the parking lot out back of City Winery, free

7/9 Israeli Middle Eastern dance/jamband Yemen Blues at City Winery, $20 standing room avail.

7/9, 7 PM salsa dura band La Excelencia at Rockefeller Park.

7/9, 7:30 PM the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra play works by Beethoven, Haydn and Tschaikovsky at the Naumburg Bandshell in Central Park, free, early arrival advised if you want a seat.

7/9, 8 PM Ray Gelato with the City Rhythm Orchestra play swing and jump blues on the elevated dancefloor at Damrosch Park, $17 at the Lincoln Center box office

7/9 , 9:30 PM the smart oldtimey Deadly Gentlemen play the album release show for their new one at Joe’s Pub, $12.

7/10, 6 PM the eclectic Balkan/latin/New Orleans flavored Underground Horns at 220 Vesey Street, (betw West Street & the Hudson River)

7/10, 7 PM B.B. King on the water out behind the World Financial Center, free.

7/10 7 PM Brian Charette’s Organ Sextette feat. Brian Charette (organ), Jochen Rueckert (drums), Itai Kriss (flute), Mike DiRubbo (alto sax), Kenny Brooks (tenor sax), Norbert Stachel (bass clarinet) at Smoke

7/10, 7 PM jazz chanteuse Rene Marie and her band at Madison Square Park.

7/10, 8 PM Alan Gilbert conducts the NY Philharmonic playing Dvorak’s Cello Concerto plus Tschaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5 at Prospect Park, early arrival advised if you want to get anywhere the near the orchestra. The program repeats 7/11 at 8 in Queens at Cunningham Park, enter at 193rd St, near 81st Ave or Union Turnpike.

7/10, 8 PM scorching female-fronted powerpop/jamband Devi outdoors at the Grove St. Path train station in Jersey City, free.

7/10, 8 PM Arturo O’Farrill and the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra with special guest Tito Rodriguez, Jr play an explosive mambo homage to Tito Puente, Machito and Tito Rodriguez on the elevated dancefloor at Damrosch Park, $17 at the Lincoln Center box office

7/10, 9 PM popular 90s conscious reggae crooner Luciano at B.B. King’s, $30 adv tix rec.

7/10, 9:30 PM alto saxophonist Daniel Bennett and his group play the album release show for his witty new one Clockhead Goes to Camp at the Metropolitan Room, 34 W 22nd St, $10 + 2 drink min

7/11, noon, dub reggae/drum & bass legends Sly & Robbie at Metrotech Park in downtown Brooklyn

7/11, half past noon NYC’s original punk brass band, Hungry March Band at One New York Plaza downtown.

7/11, 7 PM fiery violinist Carla Kihlstedt and Matthias Bossi’s Rabbit Rabbit at Joe’s Pub, $15 adv tix rec

7/11, 7:30 PM innuendo-driven French chanson revivalists les Chauds Lapins at the Lincoln Center Atrium.

7/11 the Preservation Hall Jazz Band – who put out a mighty bottom-heavy funk sound these days – at the Apollo, time/price TBA

7/11, 8ish Lila Downs at Central Park Summerstage, early arrival advised, this will undoubtedly sell out.

7/11, 8ish dark retro Link Wray-influenced surf/soul rockers Sallie Ford & the Sound Outside at Pier 84 on the river in Chelsea.

7/11, 8 PM veteran Cali-Mex rockers Los Lobos on the water out behind the World Financial Center, free

7/12, 7 PM NYC’s only all-female mariachi band, Mariachi Flor de Toloache at Prospect Park Bandshell, free.

7/12, 7:30 PM adventurous indie string ensemble the Zzyzx Quartet play a program TBA at Symphony Space, $20/$15 stud//military/$10 srs.

7/12 wickedly catchy yet intricate twin-keyboard-female-fronted art-rockers Changing Modes at Fat Baby on Rivington east of Essex, time/price TBA.

7/12, 8 PM the recently regrouped Tipica 73 play classic salsa  dura on the elevated dancefloor at Damrosch Park, $17 at the Lincoln Center box office

7/12, 9ish murderous dark garage reverb junkies Twin Guns and the evocative, 4AD style dreampop Dead Leaf Echo at Cake Shop.

7/13, 1 and 3 PM the Bang on a Can All-Stars “play Steve Reich’s Electric Counterpoint for electric guitar, Michael Gordon’s harrowing Industry for solo cello and electronics, David Lang’s kaleidoscopic Sunray, Julia Wolfe’s edgy and dense Lick from 1994, Thurston Moore’s noise meditation Stroking Piece #1, and Louis Andriessen’s iconic Workers Union for any loud-sounding group of instruments” on Governor’s Island, free ferries leave from the old Staten Island ferrry terminal on the half-hour.

7/13, 3:30 PM SoCorpo – avant garde vocal innovators Sasha Bogdanowisch and Sabrina Lastman – at Spectrum

7/13, 6:30 PM a titanic Balkan brass quadruplebill with Zlatne Uste, Slavic Soul Party, Inspector Gadje and Raya Brass Band outdoors at 220 Vesey St. downtown.

7/13, 8 PM Alan Gilbert leads the NY Philharmonic in a program TBA on the great lawn in Central Park, get there early. They’re also here on 7/15 at 8 playing Dvorak’s Cello Concerto plus Tschaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5, and at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx on 7/16 at 8.

7/13,  8 PM the Harlem Renaissance Orchestra play a tribute to Illinois Jacquet on the elevated dancefloor at Damrosch Park, $17 at the Lincoln Center box office

7/13, 8ish latin soul legends the Ghetto Brothers at Crotona Park in the Bronx.

7/13, 9 PM eclectic Americana/powerpop rockers the Tara Lynne Band at the Way Station in Ft. Greene.

7/13, 9:30ish 9:30ish ecstatically fun, intense gypsy punk/metal cumbia/rock en Espanol band Escarioka and wild Miami rumba ska punks Askultura at Mehanata.

7/14 celebrate Bastille Day on E 60th St

7/14, 3 PM bhangra funk orchestra Red Baraat and Romanian gypsy brass band Fanfare Ciocarlia at Central Park Summerstage. FC are playing Drom afterward at around 11, get there early if you’re going because it will sell out fast.

7/14, 3 PM Burmese traditional vibraphone virtuoso Kyaw Kyaw Naing at the Noguchi Museum, 9-01 33rd Rd. at Vernon Blvd. in Long Island City, free w/museum adm ($10/$5 stud). N/Q to Broadway or F to Queensbridge/21st St.

7/14, 7 PM the Chris Welcome/Shayna Dulberger/John McLennan trio improvise at Downtown Music Gallery.

7/14, 10ish ageless roots reggae crooner Freddie McGregor at B.B. King’s, $25 adv tix rec

7/16, 8 PM the original postpunk band, Wire, still going strong and making good albums, at Bowery Ballroom, $20 adv tix rec.

7/16, 8 PM Mongolian psychedelic folk-rockers Hanggai at Alice Tully Hall, $25 tix avail.

7/17, 9 PM the devious Elisa Flynn presents another entertaining multi-artist night: classic vocal and instrumental duets, taken to the extreme, swapping parts, styles, sexes and so forth. Lineup includes: Adam Levine, Maharajah Sweets, Elisa Flynn & Thee Shambels’ Neville Elder, Sarah Bisman, Mary Byrne & Mark Rogers, the Halsey Hellhounds, the Knuk Tats (Chris Q. Murphy & Stephanie Allen), Triplets, Matt & Rivka Frye, and Alex Mallett at the Way Station in Ft Greene

7/18, noon the latest Malian desert blues guitar sensation, Bombino at Metrotech Park in downtown Brooklyn, free. 7/30, 8 PM he’s at Brooklyn Bowl for $15.

7/18, 7:30 PM haunting female-fronted Canadian-Turkish art-rock/psychedelic band Minor Empire at Drom, $10 adv tix req

7/18, 7:30 PM Douglas Kearney, Kamala Sankaram, Kassa Overall, Lisette Santiago and others perform new works inspired by the poetry of Sekou Sundiata at the Lincoln Center Atrium, free.

7/18, 8 PM John Zorn’s Hildegard von Binghen-inspired Holy Visions – for five a capella female voices – followed by a solo improvisation on the organ by Zorn himself at Alice Tully Hall, $25 adv tix avail.

7/18-20, 8 PM Ensemble musikFabrik plays Karlheinz Stockhausen’s epic operatic theme suite Michaels Reise um die Erde at Avery Fisher Hall, $25 tix

7/18, 9 PM the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion at the Music Hall of Williamsburg, $18 adv tix very highly rec. – they’re as good or better than they were 20 years ago.

7/19, 9 PM dark Waits-ish oldtimey sounds with the Sullied Accolades followed at 10 by fiery gypsy punks Kagero at the Way Station in Ft. Greene.

7/20, 6 PM torchy, sultry literate historically-informed chanteuse/songwriter Robin Aigner & Parlour Game at Barbes.

7/20, 8 PM the Jack Quartet, Alchemy Quartet and Brooklyn Rider play the six John Zorn string quartets at Alice Tully Hall, $25 tix highly rec., this will sell out.

7/20 9 PM droll cinematic third-stream jazz improviseres Mr.Ho’s Orchestrotica in special quartet mode at Something Jazz Club

7/23, 9 PM deliciously twangy, jangly twin-guitar paisley underground/psychedelic Americana rockers Mud Blood & Beer at the Way Station in Ft. Greene

7/24, 6 PM saxophonist Yosvany Terry leads his quintet; percussionist Dafnis Prieto adds an additional member to his in a first-rate Afro-Cuban jazz doublebill at Madison Square Park.

7/24, 6:30 PM Brazilian violinist Braz and his Forro group on the plaza outdoors at the Brooklyn Public Library main branch at Grand Army Plaza.

7/24, 9ish haunting, eclectic Balkan chanteuse Eva Salina at Branded Saloon in Ft. Greene

7/25, 7:30 PM the Kronos Quartet with Mariana Sadovska playing Chernobyl: The Harvest, plus Emily Wells and then My Brightest Diamond at Damrosch Park, early arrival advised.

7/25, 7:30 PM American freedom fighter jazz songs with brilliant belter Brianna Thomas, pianist Sam Reider, and guitarist Justin Poindexter at the Lincoln Center Atrium, free

7/26, 7 PM Banda Magda’s Magda Giannikou plays vintage Greek lanterna music on the plaza at Lincoln Center; out back in Damrosch Park. Giannikou later collaborates with headliners the Kronos Quartet, who also have another invited special guest, Vân-Ánh Vo. Irish traditional act the Gloaming opens that show at 7:30.

7/26, 9ish Brazilian drum madness:  Maracatu New York’s cd release show with the Forró All Stars ft. Liliana Araujo, Rob Curto, Fabiana Masili and Scott Kettner, at Littlefield

7/26-27, 8 PM the king of the surf guitar, Dick Dale at Brooklyn Bowl, $20.

7/26, 8 PM wild, funny grasscore band the Devil Makes Three at Prospect Park Bandshell, free.

7/26, 9 PM “The Zimmymen and the Wimmymen” play Dylan’s Blood on the Tracks at the Way Station in Ft. Greene. Wonder if this will be anywhere near as good as Mary Lee’s Corvette’s versions.

7/27, 7:30 PM wild mostly-female klezmer jamband Isle of Klezbos plus open bar with beer and wine at the Jewish Museum. 5th Ave. at 92nd St., $15/$12 stud/srs

7/28, 6 PM Asphalt Orchestra playing the Pixies’ Surfer Rosa and Jacob Garchik’s “atheist trombone shout choir” the Heavens on the plaza at Lincoln Center, marching to Damrosch Park where they open the show at 7:30. Kronos Quartet follow with new works by gay composers.

7/28, 7 PM eclectic ska/rocksteady/world funk band the Brown Rice Family at Pier One on the upper west

7/28, 8:30 PM hilarious grasscore/gypsy punk band Larry & His Flaskat the Knitting Factory, $10.

7/28, 9:30 PM high-voltage, theatrical gypsy-rock band Vagabond Opera at Joe’s Pub, $15.

7/30, 5:30 PM the world’s oldest band, haunting cello rockers Rasputina –one of the few unafraid to go on record for calling out the Bush regime for engineering the 9/11 attacks – in the parking lot out back of City Winery, free.

7/30, 7:30 PM the Knights play symphonic works by Stravinsky, Bach, Britten and their own composition, Chaconne, at the Naumburg Bandshell in Central Park, free, early arrival advised if you want a seat

7/31, 6 PM state-of-the-art, wildly popular oldtime torchy swing combo Lake Street Dive followed by snart, eclectic acoustic songwriter Erin McKeown at Madison Square Park

7/31, 6:30 PM Moroccan and desert blues sounds with Mamadou Kelly, Imharhan and Aziz Sahmaoui & University of Gnawa at Damrosch Park.

8/2, 7 PM Mardi Gras Indians Big Chief Monk Boudreaux & the Golden Eagles followed by Brazilian and American maracatu projects: Maracatu Nação Estrela Brilhante and Nation Beat.

8/3, 7:30 PM awful segue, great doublebill: cosmopolitan gypsy band Banda Magda and the ageless, pyrotechnic Eddie Palmeiri Salsa Orchestra at Prospect Park Bandshell, free

8/3 wickedly smart, politically aware, tuneful psychedelic new wave band the Larch at Bowery Electric

8/3, 8:30 PM El Gusto play cross-pollinational Algerian and Sephardic music at Damrosch Park.

8/4,  1 PM New York Korean Traditional Marching Band and Ensemble Sinawi on the plaza at Lincoln Center.

8/7, 7 PM Ivan Neville’s Dumpstaphunk at Madison Square Park

8/7, 7:30 PM Ruben Blades at Damrosch Park.

8/8, 6:30 PM the No BS Brass Band on the plaza at Lincoln Center.

8/8, 8 PM Slavic Soul Party followed by live animal film scores by Dan Romer, Benh Zeitlin, & the Wordless Music Orchestra  at Prospect Park Bandshell, free.

8/8. 8:30 PM high-energy oldtime Connecticut Americana/roots/bluegrass band Poor Old Shine at Hill Country, free

8/9, 6:30 PM Hungry March Band and Vau de Vivre Society on the plaza at Lincoln Center.

8/9, 7:30 PM “Edwardian pagan lounge ensemble” Rosin Coven and Amanda Palmer & the Grand Theft Orchestra at Damrosch Park, this will be a madhouse, kids will be camping out, get there early.

8/9, 8:30 PM Shaggy – yeah, him, Mr. Lova Lova – at Prospect Park Bandshell, free

8/9-18 the Bard Summerscape Music Festival spotlights Stravinsky and his world upstate in Annandale: roundtrip shuttle bus available from NYC. Too many shows to list, the entire calendar is here.

8/9, 10 PM powerpop guitar genius Chuck Prophet at the Bell House, $12 adv tix rec.

8/10, 1 and 3 PM indie classical and wild intense minor-key Russian/tango stringband songs: Fireworks Ensemble and Ljova & the Kontraband on Governor’s Island, free ferries leave from the old Staten Island ferrry terminal on the half-hour.

8/10, 7:30 PM Moon Hooch at Prospect Park Bandshell, free

8/10, 8 PM Nick Lowe at Damrosch Park.

8/11, 3 PM pianist Vicky Chow plays a program TBA at at the Noguchi Museum 9-01 33rd Rd. at Vernon Blvd. in Long Island City, free w/museum adm ($10/$5 stud). N/Q to Broadway or F to Queensbridge/21st St

8/11, 5 PM the Como Mamas – whose latest a-cappella gospel album is off the hook – followed by Motown’s Brian & Eddie Holland, Allen Toussaint and then Bobby Rush – at Damrosch Park.

8/15, 7 PM Bachata Heightz at Highbridge Park in Manhattan.

8/16, 11:30 PM reverbb-addicted haunting noir garage rock duo Twin Guns and LES noir glampunk/noiserock legends the Chrome Cranks at the Mercury, $12 adv tix rec., this may sell out

8/21, 7:30 PM the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center plays works by Mozart, Beethoven and Dvorak at the Naumburg Bandshell in Central Park, free, early arrival advised if you want a seat

8/23-24 the Charlie Parker Festival. 8/23, 7 PM the world premiere of “Bird is the Word,” Jimmy Heath’s new Charlie Parker-themed suite played by Heath’s big band at Marcus Garvey Park; 8/24 at 3 has vibraphonist Warren Wolf & the Wolf Gang, trumpeter Christian Scott, drummer Sheila Jordan and octogenarian reedman Lee Konitz leadingtheir quartets at Tompkins Square Park while back at Marcus Garvey Park it’s alto sax powerhouse Jaleel Shaw, drummer Kim Thompson, chanteuse Cécile McLorin Salvant and the perennially intense Kenny Garrett.

9/1, noon-5 PM a free avant garde afternoon on Governors Island with pianists Blair McMillen and Pam Goldberg, Tigue Percussion, crooner Theo Bleckmann and indie chamber ensemble Classical Jam, free ferries leave from the old Staten Island ferrry terminal on the half-hour.

9/12, 6:30 PM the Rosebuds perform Sade’s Love Deluxe at the Mercury, $15.

9/20, 5ish Naomi Shelton & the Gospel Queens, the Budos Band and Charles Bradley with the Menahan Street Band at Williamsburg Park, free, expect to stand in line to get in

11/4 the NY Philharmonic’s Contact series moves downtown to Subculture for a premiere of Essa-Pekka Salonen chamber works introduced by the composer

Vieux Farka Toure Puts Out a New Album of Malian Freedom Songs

Why do tyrants always try to crush the arts? Because music and art are the most effective weapons we have against tyranny. “Pen and paper are the strongest, most powerful things in the world,” Tunisian songwriter and freedom fighter Emel Mathlouthi affirmed last week at her show at the Alliance Francaise; Malian guitar hero Vieux Farka Toure would no doubt agree. Wherever they’ve taken over, the Islamofascists have banned music in his native land; his response is a new album, Mon Pays (My Country). While Toure – the fortyish son of the legendary Ali Farka Toure – is known for his pyrotechnic live shows, his recent studio work has been pensive, subdued and largely acoustic. Concern for his home turf and his people there may be a factor. Toure’s dedication to the cause of peace is nothing new, evidenced by his collaboration last year with Israeli keyboardist/bandleader Idan Raichel, an effort that might well have earned Toure a death sentence in terrorist-controlled regions of Mali.

From an Anglophone point of view, writing about this album without taking into account the lyrics – sung in Toure’s local lingo – only covers half of the picture. But the music on this album stands on its own, as it does throughout Toure’s catalog – and if there’s any artistic community that needs the support of the west, it’s the Malians.

While most people associate Toure with desert blue bands like Tinariwen, his rhythms are more eclectic, and this album is no exception, a mix of swaying, hypnotic songs peppered with upbeat numbers. The jangly, loping opening track is a homage to Malian singer/guitarist Diack So, a contemporary of Toure’s father who drank himself to death. Keening riti fiddle doubles the guitar line, Toure playing the hypnotic, circular tune with a jangly chorus effect over the undulating beat of the calabash. The second track is a slowly swaying, electric call-and-response cover of Safare, written by the elder Toure, building to a fluid but edgy solo showcasing the younger guitarist’s signature hammer-on attack. The pensively catchy third song has resonant guitar that mingles with Sidiki Diabate’s rapidfire, rippling kora over a slinky, insectile scraper groove.

Toure’s voice takes on an especially somber, aching tone on Yer Gando, a warning to watch out for invaders hell-bent on stealing Mali’s treasures, material or otherwise. They pick up the pace with the bubbly, shuffling fifth track, a one-chord jam with some especially tasty high-voltage fills from the guitar. Kele Magni – whose theme is that Mali belongs to the people, not the invaders from the north – follows a catchy, apprehensive descending twin-guitar hook. The eight track is the closest to what westerners typically might call desert blues (a term that its practitioners view with considerable amusement, by the way), while the dirgelike concluding cut is the most rock-oriented. The album also includes two instrumentals that weave a delicate web of acoustic guitar and kora. We can all hope that the Malians stand their ground against the extremists and that there will one day be music everywhere in Mali – legally.

Certain General’s Eye Contact – Their Best Album?

Who would have thought that Certain General would be around in 2013, let alone putting out what might be their best album? That’s not to dimish their early 80s recordings, which earned the first-wave postpunk band fame in Europe and a rabid cult following on their Lower East Side home turf, but they’ve grown immensely in the years that passed. Phil Gammage developed into the  underground guitar genius everybody figured he’d be, frontman and bassist Parker Dulany’s baritone delivery is as nonchalantly ominous as ever and drummer Kevin Tooley drives the surprisingly eclectic mix of songs with beats to match (and also produced the album with oldschool, purist chops). Thirty-three years after Dulany and a then-seventeen-year-old Gammage founded the group, Certain General’s songs still inhabit the gritty, shadowy, post-industrial New York the group cut their teeth in. They’ll be at the Parkside tomorrow, May 30 in the middle of a killer triplebill starting around 8 PM, bookeneded by Jesse Bates’ incessantly amusing garage band Los Dudes and then Certain General’s  long-running labelmates, psychedelic janglepunks Band of Outsiders.

The new album’s title track, Eye Contact, works an 80s art-pop vein, finding the missing link between the Church and late T Rex, with organic production values. The big anthemic hit here is Amen Everyday, with its roaring 4-chord hook and catchy lead guitar line, Tooley driving the thing with plenty of reverb on the snare. Sunshine Army has a bit of a Dolls/Heartbreakers vibe but with more focus and none of the camp, while Live It Down is Lou Reed all the way, Gammage’s off-center, sunbaked solo adding a disconcerting edge.

They stick with the vintage Lou atmosphere for the moody, nocturnal Sign of Love, guest guitarist David Lees’ atmospheric sheets of sound mingling with the organ. Meteorite could be an early 80s Bowie hit, but more down-to-earth, both productionwise and musically, Gammage’s searing multitracks swerving from new wave to funk before the band brings it down. Special Delivery works an ominous reggae groove, followed by The Horse Racee, a bizarrely cosmoplitan, jazz-tinged S&M boudoir ballad. Water Again and Golden Horses – the latter with Julee Cruise providing unexpectedly cheery vocal harmonies – remind a lot of early Echo & the Bunnymen, while Some Day Your War Will End takes a Gang of Four riff and bulks it up with layers of burning guitars. The album winds out with the slowly pulsing, slow-burning Sourpuss, glimmering electric piano mingling with Gammage’s slide guitar lines for extra menace. So few good bands from this era are left: it’s heartwarming to see Certain General still going so strong.

David T. Little’s Soldier Songs Gives Voice to Veterans’ Views of the Horror of War

To what degree is an artist responsible for making music accessible to an audience who might be influenced by it? Is the goal of reaching those who aren’t already converted necessary, worthwhile…or even possible? When Stiv Bators crooned “Video games train the kids for war,” with the Lords of the New Church in 1983, he did it over a catchy synthesizer riff. That song was popular on college radio and in clubs; it even aired on MTV. Did it make a difference? Would anyone have cared if, instead, Bators had been singing “Get money, get money?” Does it make any sense for an artist to fine-tune a message to get it across, or is that a waste of time? Percussionist/composer David T. Little’s most recent album Soldier Songs, recently out from Innova, raises questions like these.

First premiered in 2006 at the nadir of the Bush/Cheney reign of terror by the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, the album is a performance piece that intersperses and sometimes makes pastiches of quotes from several generations of American war veterans among Little’s eclectic, cerebral songs. Musically speaking, the audience this will resonate the most with will probably be fans of proggy mathrock bands like the Mars Volta and System of a Down – a niche crowd, but not an insubstantial one. While the voices of the veterans – hushed, angry, sometimes still shellshocked – are the most resonant here, the songs themselves have a potent, tersely worded punk rock sarcasm. This is the rare album where the lyrics frequently overshadow the music. David Adam Moore’s snarky, operatic baritone adds a stagy, snidely bombastic surrealism and over-the-top flair over the moody menace of the versatile, often explosive punk-classical group Newspeak.

The introduction is a pastiche of quotes, many of them memorable, set against a backdrop of ominous cannonfire drums. A woman revisits her decision to join the military, reminding how many young people make that choice as a way to escape the poverty trap or earn an education. The second track brings on the punk rock sarcasm,  sort of the Dead Kennedys set to swaying, minimialistic art-rock. From there Moore revisits the aforementioned Stiv Bators observation, followed by the creepy chamber rock of the vividly self-explanatory Counting the Days.

Still Life with Tank and Ipod revisits the video game theme with a cruelly surreal proggy metal attack, contrasting with the moody dirge Old Friends with Large Weapons. Hollywood Ending artfully juxtaposes ominous lows with snarkily bubbly highs, a litany of gruesome imagery that picks up with a groove that’s practically disco, underscoring the surrealism of the fact that this is not a movie: people are actually dying here. Another sound collage, Steel Rain, lets the vets explain the terror of being on the wrong side of a bombing attack. After that, the hauntingly minimalist Hunting Emmanuel Goldstein reminds that a police state crackdown on civil liberties after a terrorist attack plays straight into the terrorists’ hands. The album ends with the understandably vitriolic response of a parent whose child was killed in battle, and a long, hypnotic collage which doesn’t hesitate to address the issue that war is inevitably a proxy battle, the have-nots doing the haves’ dirty work. Will this album make any converts? Probably not. But to paraphrase Phil Kline, it’s inspiring and validating for the rest of us. That Little achieved it by letting this surprisingly diverse cast portray the horrors of war enhances both its credibility and power.

What’s Left of the Skatalites Is Still Going Strong

Much as the Skatalites’ latest and possibly final release, Walk With Me, barely qualifies as a Skatalites record – of the original, iconic Jamaican ska inventors, only alto saxophonist Lester “Ska” Sterling, singer Doreen Shaffer and drummer Lloyd Knibb are present on it – this is a kick-ass album, a thousand times better than the overproduced Shanachie sides from the band’s first great reunion back in the 90s. It’s notable for being the great Knibb’s final recording. As one might expect, he’s a bit subdued here, but he still had the one-drop – which he originated – down cold. Knibb’s influence cannot be underestimated. If anybody can be credited with inventing reggae, it was him. From the moment he first hit a ska groove one day during a calypso session with Ernest Ranglin, an entire genre snowballed from there.

What’s refreshing about the album is that the lineup is respectful of the tradition and the Skatalites name, without being reverent. Tenor saxophonist Azemobo Audu, trombonist Andrae Murchison, trumpeter Kevin Batchelor, bassist Val Douglas, guitarist Natty Frenchy, keyboardist Cameron Greenlee and drummer Trevor Thompson – who is listed in the credits, but it’s not clear what tracks he’s on – have a good time throughout an unexpectedly eclectic mix of songs. The opening track, Desert Ska, is basically a two-chord Balkan vamp with brooding trombone and trumpet solos. Lalibela hints at Marley’s Burning and Looting before skanking along on a bright minor riff with jaunty, tight horns and organ, a laid-back tenor solo and jazzy guitar. Hot Flush makes ska out of a vintage 70s soul groove, followed by the brisk, wickedly anthemic The Leader, Sterling’s tensely edgy solo handing off to unexpectedly dreamy trombone.

Shaffer reveals that her voice is still very much intact on the upbeat rocksteady ballad Love Is the Way. The title track blends surf rock and soul influences, while Piece for Peace skanks out a pop tune with some jazzy harmonies. Then the vintage soul vibe returns with Song for My Father and its high-voltage solos around the horn.

Another especially catchy track, Little Teresa spins out of a hard-hitting piano intro and lets Sterling carry the balmy hook. The album winds up with the classic-era roots reggae of King Solomon (sounds like that’s Knibb rumbling behind the kit) and a pretty straight-up dub remix of Lalibela.

A Rare Brooklyn What Side Project Still Available As a Free Download

It’s hard to imagine a  band in New York right now hotter than the Brooklyn What. Their long-awaited third album, Hot Wine is one of the year’s best, and they’ve been playing shows at a furious pace, recently opening for punk legends the Dead Milkmen at Bowery Ballroom (which is up for free download at NYC Taper – OMFG). Fans of the band also know that they share members not only with hard-hitting powerpop band New Atlantic Youth, but that guitarist John-Severin Napolillo also has a side project, John-Severin & the Quiet 1s. Back in 2009, they made a kick-ass ep, Get Quiet, which is still available as a free download at their Bandcamp page. You should grab it while it’s still available.

For what it’s worth, it’s interesting that three of the four tracks bring to mind early Joy Division, at least until the killer choruses kick in. The angst-fueled Prince St. blasts along with Napolillo’s jagged chords shedding sparks over the pummeling bass and drums of his Brooklyn What bandmates Doug Carey and Jesse Katz – the tune is straight-up classic Ramones but the production and the lyrics are completely in the here and now.

Jackie-O Rose opens with a couple of memorably brooding, low-key verses before kicking into a long interlude that sounds an awful lot like Transmission. Riot Queue juxtaposes frenetic, slashing chords on the verse against a classic powerpop chorus: “I might be a bit of a cynic but you don’t even know what you’re fighting for,” Napolillo intones. The last song, Autumn, Come On – a co-write with Yelena Kolova – is the genuine classic here, working its way up from a wickedly catchy, brooding 60s psychedelic folk-rock sway.  “I’ll be basking in the moonlight til the sun comes down,” Napolillo asserts, cynical but undeterred. In addition to being a tremendously good guitarist, Napolillo is a nonchalantly strong singer and lyricist – which comes as no surprise considering the other band he’s in.

A Conspiracy of Beards Reinvents Leonard Cohen at Drom

Is there a sexier band alive than A Conspiracy of Beards? Last night at Drom the thirty-piece all-male San Francisco choir squeezed themselves onto the stage dressed in tasteful earthtoned suits, several members sporting a more individualistic variety of hats. At present, only about a half-dozen of the group’s members actually have beards, although ultimately, the only thing that matters is their voices, which are strong and assured. Originally assembled for a one-off performance to realize a concept envisioned by the late artist Peter Kadyk, they grew into a local phenomenon and have since expanded their fanbase around the world. They dedicate themselves to reinventing the Leonard Cohen catalog as vocal works. Rewarding the crowd who’d come out for them on an unseasonably cold, rainy night, they delivered a richly resonant set heavy on the hits.

Some of their arrangements, like the version of Suzanne with its punchy echo effects and eerie close harmonies, are very sophisticated, and the choir pulled them off, one by one and made it all look effortless. Some of their other covers are closer to punk in spirit, like the broodingly Wagnerian march they made out of Everybody Knows, or their unexpectedly jaunty take on Tower of Song, which was part doo-wop, part sea chantey. So Long Marianne got a lush rendition peppered with suspenseful pauses, quite a change from the skeletal original. By contrast, the churchiest moment of the night – and biggest audience hit – was a slow, hushed take of Hallelujah.

With material like this, there are bound to be transcendent, transporting moments. The high point of many was a chillingly gothic version of Who By Fire. It’s one of Cohen’s best songs, but the original has a dated folk-rock arrangement that undermines the gravity of the lyrics. This group’s version began with the lyrics making the rounds of the voices over a resonant “who” underneath. When they’d finally reached the end, they ran the chorus a final time and ended with a single high harmony rising over the murky ambience: the effect was spine-tingling. The rest of the show could have been anticlimactic after that, but it wasn’t, with a serpentine, waltzing version of Tonight Will Be Fine, a celebratory take of Anthem that played up Cohen’s snarling political content, and Dance Me to the End of Love, done as an energetically seductive tango, conductor Daryl Henline moving to the side, putting his arm around his bandmate and adding another layer of richness to the wash of voices.

A Conspiracy of Beards will be at Cloud City (the former Dead Herring loft) in south Williamsburg tonight, May 25 at 7ish and then on a killer bill at Highline Ballroom on Sundaythe 26th at 1 PM with sultry resonator guitarist/bluesmama Mamie Minch and her band opening. Be aware that the last time they played there, they sold out the club: advance tix are recommended and still available as of tonight.

Linda Draper Reinvents Herself Again

Last night Linda Draper played the release show for her new album Edgewise to an adoring crowd in the West Village, backed by the acerbic Matt Keating (who also produced the album) on lead guitar and piano and Eric Puente on drums. While Draper has made a career out of reinventing herself, two things, tunefulness and smart lyrics, have been consistent in her work, all the way through her transition from early-zeros acoustic rock songwriter, to mid-zeros hypnotic lyrical surrealist, to early teens Americana chanteuse. Her melodies linger in your head long after they’re over; her words will tickle you just as often as they snarl and bite. And her calm, airy voice, always a strength, just gets more and more nuanced and compelling. Throughout it all, she’s never given in to any kind of cliche, never succumbed to the temptation to coast on her looks and sing top 40 schlock even though the opportunity must have raised its ugly head at some point.

As expected, most of the songs were taken from the album. Draper brought to mind Eilen Jewell’s southwestern gothic with the bristling Live Wire, a dark Appalachian folk tune livened with Keating’s glistening noir piano. They kept the rustic menace going with the tensely pulsing Hollow, an entreaty to “get it out of your system before you become cold and numb,” to smash through the darkness and seize the fun lurking just beyond.

A jaunty, upbeat new number hinted at hip-hop with its rapidfire lyrics and bouncy swing. Then they went back to the brooding desert rock ambience with the cynical escape anthem Sleepwalkers: “Even the pureset of angels would crash and burn in a place like this,” Draper sang with an understated somberness. They followed that with the loudest song in the set, the new album’s bittersweetly triumphant title track. Draper usually plays solo acoustic shows: hearing her songs fleshed out this energetically, even roaringly, was a rare treat, especially on the Johnny Cash-influenced Shadow of a Coal Mine.

Bitterness and anger are not the only emotions that inform her music. She can also be very funny, as she was on one of the later numbers, In Good Hands, making the connection between backbiting trendoid one-upsmanship and yuppie conspicuous consumption. The crowd begged for an encore: she gave them a casually snide, animated solo acoustic version of the kiss-off anthem Time Will Tell, from her previous album Bridge and Tunnel. From here Draper is off to the Outer Space in Hamden, Connecticut for a 6 PM doublebill toinght, May 24 with underground folk legend Kath Bloom, then Club Passim in Boston on the 26th at 7 and then a killer doublebill with Randi Russo May 28 at 8 at the Township in Chicago.

Emel Mathlouthi, Heroine of the Arab Spring, Brings Her Transcendent Voice and Revolutionary Songs to New York

Last night Tunisian-born, Paris-based singer and bandleader Emel Mathlouthi treated a sold-out crowd at Florence Gould Hall at the French Institute to a performance whose stripped-down, intimate format did nothing to diminish the volcanic intensity and raw power of her symphonic, revolutionary Middle Eastern art-rock anthems. Singing in Arabic with a couple of extremely successful ventures into English, Mathlouthi played both acoustic and electric guitars with an edgy efficiency, backed by guitarist Karim Attoumane, whose ethereal, majestically atmospheric lines gave the songs heft and bulk, and pianist Emmanuel Trouve, whose elegant chromatics enhanced both the songs’ neoromantic European and moodily levantine passages (in addition to a biting Doors quote, in a nod to the late Ray Manzarek).

Technically speaking, Mathlouthi is an astonishingly powerful, individualistic singer, maintaining an almost otherworldly clarity from the depths to the heights of what could be a four-octave range, whether with a ghostly whisper or a gale-force wail. Few other singers in the world have so much raw power at their disposal. With that kind of voice, Mathlouthi can afford to be straightforward, and she usually is, although the two most exhilarating moments of the concert were when she hit a rapidfire, serpentine Middle Eastern glissando, and when she went to the absolute top of her register during a riveting, angst-fueled rendition of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah that put to shame any other version including the original.

Emotionally, Mathlouthi vents a venomous contempt for and hostility to oppression, but more than anything else, she gives voice to longing. But the longing she evokes isn’t a solipsistic desire for attention or affection: it’s a longing for freedom – and a chance to transcend the hellish experience of the battle for it. She wasted no time in disdainfully explaining that the reason that the audience was seeing only a trio onstage was because that two of her Tunisian bandmates had been denied US visas. But at the end of the show, after a poignant, dynamically bristling version of her folk rock-flavored signature song, Kelmti Horra  (Freedom of Speech, one of the iconic anthems of the Tunisian Revolution and the Arab Spring) she backed away from the mic, retreated toward the piano and then twirled, jaunty and triumphant, knowing that she was about to dance away victorious.

Ornate and intricately intertwining as her songs are, they’re not art for art’s sake. Mathlouthi knows that she and others like her are a dictator’s worst enemy, and she revels in that, if with an understandable bitteness. “The pen and paper are the strongest, most powerful things in the world,” she reaffirmed as the band launched into a broodingly swaying minor-key ballad. Although what she was doing with pen and paper endangered her life in Tunisia to the point of forcing her into exile, ultimately they saved her and others like her. She dedicated the shapeshifting anthem Ethnia Twila (The Long Road), with its middle period Pink Floyd sweep and majesty, to “the brave and courageous people who fight for freedom and dignity.”

As the show went on, Mathlouthi mimicked oud voicings on her guitar via a series of nimble pull-offs, used a series of loop effects to sing Bjork possibly better than Bjork does herself, brought to mind Randi Russo or early PJ Harvey with a hypnotic, insistent, slow-burning anthem and eventually took the intensity to a searing peak with Ma Ikit (Not Found). “I cannot find a melody strong enough to break human hatred,” she intoned before building the song to an imploring, exhausted crescendo. Whether or not the audience understood the lyrics -and many did, and spontaneously clapped along in several places – it was impossible not be drawn into the drama of a battle whose conclusion is ultimately ours to either concede, or to join in with Mathlouthi and reach for victory.

Thanks to the French Institute, here’s some great Youtube footage of the early part of the concert: that Manzarek quote is at 6:35.

Guided By Voices’ Brilliant English Little League: The Other Blogs Got It All Wrong

You can never trust the indie music press: they screw everything up. For the past month, the blogosphere has been abuzz with the ostensibly bad news that Guided By Voices‘ fourth album (!!!!) in the past year, English Little League, is a dud. And that’s dead wrong.

It’s the best of the four, in fact, one of the best albums of the band’s celebrated career, even with the reinvigorated “classic” lineup of guitarists Tobin Sprout and Mitch Mitchell, bassist Greg Demos and drummer Kevin  Fennell. With their two-guitar attack, especially, there was always a hint that they were about to head in more of an art-rock direction, and this is the album where they finally do that. Which makes their ever-more anthemic sound even more intriguing, considering that none of the album’s sixteen songs go on for much more than two and a half minutes, if that. Frontman Robert Pollard is as inscrutable and sometimes frustrating as ever, but he’s still pretty unsurpassed as a surrealist visionary: among the unexpected lyrical gems here are a creepy recurrent theme of “friction in Japan,” a “fishtank with black sails” and a shout out to Zero Mostel, possibly the first ever in a rock song. Behind him, the band plays with fury and drollery and a rich, mentholated, reverb-toned resonance.

They get off on a good foot with the first single, Xeno Pariah, a post-Kinks romp with a tricky tempo and the gorgeous guitar sonics that will linger throughout all the other fully fleshed out songs here (impressively, most of them are). Know Me As Heavy works a solid backbeat drive, like Oasis with a sense of humor in lieu of insufferable attitude. Island (She Talks in Rainbows) rises from a hushed tiptoe to a killer four-chord hook, psychedelic 60s Britpop spun through Pollard’s wryly fractured lens. Trashcan Full of Nails pulses like mid-70s Who as it reaches for a tongue-in-cheek stadium rock swagger, while Send to Celeste (And the Cosmic Athletes) follows a trajectory up from elegant chamber rock, like the Church but with a smirk.

Quiet Game stomps along on a hypnotic riff in a gritty Steve Wynn garage rock way. Noble Insect is a dead ringer for apprehensive late 70s era Wire, except that it has a groove. The most nebulous, traditionally indie thing here is Crybaby 4 Star Hotel, which works because of the lyrics, followed by Flunky Minnows, which looks back to the Beatles and Kinks for a tune but gives the lead line to the bass.

Birds is dreampop as the Church (them again) would have done it if dreampop had existed in 1982. The Sudden Death of Epstein’s Ways is a Brian Epstein reference, given away by the gorgeously ornate Sgt. Pepper tune: what it means isn’t clear. The Fab Four are also referenced on Taciturn Caves, which is like Hey Jude with guitars, while the final track sounds like the Clash done as powerpop. Admittedly, there are a trio of what appear to be solo Pollard sketches featuring a disastrously out-of-tune piano that were unwisely included here. But that’s a small price to pay for tunesmithing this offhandedly brilliant. Count this among the best albums of 2013. To all the Bushwick and Wicker Park blogs who dissed this album: up yours.