WEDNESDAY
NYC
* "NY Export: Opus Jazz" (dirs. Henry Joost and Jody Lee Lipes, 2010) + "The Family Jams" (dir. Kevin Barker, 2010) screenings @ reRun Theatre / 147 Front St, DUMBO (F to York St, AC to High St), 7p/$7 (w/ directors in attendance!). Even the seasoned live-music goer like myself has to step back sometimes and rethink. Such is the case w/ Devendra Banhart, Vetiver and (particularly) Joanna Newsom, subjects of Barker's freak-folk documentary "The Family Jams". I was like: this is too weird, too hippie-fied for me. But I was utterly charmed by the doc and, after catching a few Newsom shows, a full-out convert. They're doing something very special, here. Plus "Opus Jazz", an adaptation of Jerome Robbins' "ballet in sneakers" plus a SXSW Audience Award winner.
* "Ong-Bak" (dir. Prachya Pinkaew, 2003) screening @ BAM / 30 Lafayette Ave, Ft Greene (23/45 to Nevins St, AC to Lafayette), 9:30p. THE film that made young may Thai artist Tony Jaa an action legend. A caffeinated detective heist from country-fried NE Thailand to neon-drenched Bangkok, w/ illegal boxing matches, the mob and lots and lots of cocaine. And despite Jaa's dabbling with directing and monasticism and relative lack of screen-time (but check that golden cameo as a "supermarket fighter" in "The Bodyguard"), he'll be forever revered for this Thai action classic.
* "Do the Right Thing" (dir. Spike Lee, 1989) screening @ MoMA / 11 W 53rd St (E/M to 53rd/5th Ave, 6 to 51st St), 7p. Lee's controversial classic unblinkingly epitomizes racial tension in Brooklyn's Bed-Stuy neighborhood (and the greater area), between young Black residents and older Italian locals. Feat. an all-star ensemble cast, incl. early roles for Rosie Perez (as Lee's girlfriend!) and Martin Lawrence, plus the nonpareil Samule L. Jackson as DJ Señor Love Daddy! Take a chill, cool out, and check it out.
AUSTIN
* Cao Fei "Shadow Life" @ Arthouse / 700 Congress. Cao last showed this enchanting three-narrative video work at Lombard-Freid, her NY gallery in May. The almost "Blade Runner"-slick futuristic urbanism permeating her recent works — particularly "RMB City" and its relation to her "Second Life" foundation — is stripped away, though via her adaptation of traditional shadow puppetry she maintains her unmistakably contemporary take on China today.
+ Koki Tanaka "Buckets and Balls". I'm stoked for the LA-based artist's debut here, and particularly his oddly absorbing, slightly nerve-wracking method-based video containing the titular two elements (plus the odd chair, ladder etc).
* Totimoshi (LA) + Pygmy Shrews (NYC) @ Scoot Inn / 1308 E 4th St, 9p/$8. Longtime Cali trio Totimoshi thread angular punk and throaty metal into their propulsive alt-rock arrangements. The Shrews complement w/ full-throttle garage rock, all the better to leave you sweaty and aching for a stage-dive.
TOKYO
* highered-girl @ O-Nest / 6F 2-3 Maruyama-cho, Shibuya-ku (JR Yamanote Line etc to Shibuya Station, Hachiko Exit), 6:30p/2300 yen. I love boy-girl punk…whether they're a couple (anyone remember Mommy & Daddy?) or not (The Kills), if they rock hard, that's all that matters. Case in point w/ highered-girl, via guitar-maimer Shizuya and drummer Hitomi, whose shouty coed vocals are like bourbon in a flesh wound. w/ neonrocks and height
THURSDAY
NYC
* Lorna Williams "brown baby" @ DODGEgallery / 15 Rivington St. Williams' NY debut is an autobiographical affair, as she imbues her assembled sculptures and collages with materials from her childhood and daily life.
+ "This is Then". Nicole Cherubini, Darren Blackstone Foote, Gudmundur Thoroddsen and Johannes Vanderbeek create works that embody relics and the past in varying extents. I'm already a big fan of Foote's carved and oddly organic sculpture (he represented the gallery at VOLTA NY 2010) and am particularly intrigued by Cherubini's use of ceramics.
* "L'Avventura" (dir. Michelangelo Antonioni, 1960) screening @ MoMA / 11 W 53rd St (E/M to 53rd/5th Ave, 6 to 51st St), 4p. The first installment of Antonioni's loose quartet of petite bourgeoise isolation, set on an enchanting deserted island and centered around the sudden disappearance of one of the young women. Seduction and betrayal follow, as Antonioni's discreet lens lovingly focuses on breakdowns of trust and communication. Plus, the first appearance of his frequent muse Monica Vitti!
* "Modern Love is Automatic" (dir. Zach Clark, 2009) + "Vacation!" (dir. Zach Clark, 2010) screenings screenings @ reRun Theatre / 147 Front St, DUMBO (F to York St, AC to High St), 7p/$7. A double-header of subversion from the indie director, promoting discomfiting dark comedy and deadpan arousal over blatant sexiness. The former involves a bored nurse by day and dominatrix by night; the latter four college girls on an existential beach bash.
AUSTIN
* "Wild Beasts" @ Champion Contemporary / 800 Brazos St. Paintings: BOOM. Five contemporary artists of the painterly persuasion, incl. four NY-area champs — Ryan Schneider, Daniel Heidkamp, Joshua Abelow and Ezra Johnson (contributing animations) — plus Atlanta's Shara Hughes, inject challenging color combinations and pointed observational renderings into our understandings of what's hot art now.
TOKYO
* Koji Tanada "springing up boy" @ Mizuma Art Gallery / 2F 3-13 Ichigayatamachi, Shinjuku-ku (Yurakucho/Nanboku Lines to Ichigaya Station). Six new creepy-ass sculptures carved from blocks of camphor wood and painted.
* Kaori Kurosaki "Something to See" @ INAX Gallery / 2F 3-6-18 Kyobashi, Chuo-ku (JR Yamanote Line to Yurakucho Station). Massive oil pastel landscapes embedded with smaller rectangular landscapes for trompe-l'oeil effect. This is her debut solo show.
* Oh my God, you've gone @ Koiwa BushBash / 7-28-11 Minami-koiwa, Edogawa-ku (JR Yamanote Line to Koiwa Station), 7p/1300 yen. OMGYG, this young, Sonic Youth-ish trio w/ an incredibly cool name, have quickly become a LIST favorite, so lucky for us they play lots of live shows. w/ Karuki and bahAMaba
FRIDAY
NYC
* "The Red Desert" (dir. Michelangelo Antonioni, 1964) screenings @ BAM / 30 Lafayette Ave, Ft Greene (23/45 to Nevins St, AC to Lafayette). For me "The Red Desert" epitomizes Antonioni's oeuvre. It's his first full-color film — refurbished in a lovely new print — and the tense silences, the subtle camerawork, the screeching soundtrack and the ever-ephemeral Monica Vitti (that hair!) all apex here. Set in the northern Italian industrial hell Ravenna, which might as well be a near-future dystopia as it barely resembles ANYTHING of other Italian Modernists' settings during this time. Highly recommended! THRU 9/11
* "Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame" (dir. Tsui Hark, 2011) @ Angelika NY / 18 W Houston St (BDFM to Broadway/Lafayette). The legendary director's return to form, straight off its debut at the NYAFF this past July. Think "Sherlock Holmes" with Hong Kong-style action, pulpy entertainment just how you love it.
* "Love Exposure" (dir. Sion Sono, 2008) @ Cinema Village / 22 E 12th St (NR/L/456 to Union Square). Sono's magnum opus on Catholic guilt, religious cults, upstart photography and sexual deviance! Yes it's four hours long, but the palimpsest-like plot unfolds in a flurry of sharp editing and well-timed titillation and violence. Note the first appearance of the film's title, slamming in after riding a wave of Maurice Ravel's "Bolero": this occurs a cool hour into the film. It'll feel like an instant.
* "Aliens" (dir. Ridley Scott, 1986) midnight screening @ IFC Center / 323 Sixth Ave (ACE/BDFM to W 4th St), midnight. Scott's first xenomorph film set the tone: Sigourney Weaver as Ripley, badass alien, bonkers space jockey set, nasty chestburster etc. Cool. 57 film-years later, we've got Ripley returning to the alien's hostile planet, with a little girl in tow, swimming aliens on the loose and a pissed off Queen. It's gonna be a brawl. ALSO SAT-SUN
* "Rashomon" (dir. Akira Kurosawa, 1950) screening @ MoMA / 11 W 53rd St (E/M to 53rd/5th Ave, 6 to 51st St), 7p. One of this epic director's most famous films and the watermark for a memorable detective story: a multiple-POV scenario set in 12th-C Kyoto, and feat. Machiko Kyo (the conflicted noblewoman) and Toshiro Mifune (the wildin' thug) at perhaps their most iconic roles.
* Bonnie Jones + Maria Chavez @ The Stone / 16 Ave C (F to 2nd Ave), 8p/$10. An electroacoustic duet, w/ Jones utilizing mics and electronics whilst Chavez works her signature treated turntables.
* Xray Eyeballs @ Death By Audio / 49 S 2nd St, Williamsburg (L to Bedford, JM to Marcy), 8p/$7. I can only hope that angular-toned Brooklyn art-punks Xray Eyeballs' new 7" "Sundae" (just over two minutes of jangly perfection) means they'll be headed down south for some shows. w/ San Fran noisy garage-rockers Royal Baths
AUSTIN
* "Point Blank" (dir. Fred Cavayé, 2011) @ Violet Crown Cinema / 434 W 2nd St. Gruff and good guy Samuel gets framed for murder, his (pregnant) wife (Elena Anaya, hello!!!!) kidnapped, and he's got to play the mob against the police to get her back safely. Bears absolutely no relation to the '98 DTV film sharing its name and starring Mickey Rourke.
* "Apollo 18" (dir. Gonzalo López-Gallego, 2011) @ Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar / 1120 S Lamar. Gotta admit this is a unique entry to the growing "found footage" genre: shown almost entirely from the POV of American astronauts on a manned mission to the Moon that, according to my go-to Wikipedia, never happened… only there's a legacy of myth that THREE other Apollo missions continued to specific coordinates of the Moon's dark side after the official Apollo 17. This is the first, and supposedly we'll see why they returned — and why no one's been back since.
* "Scott Pilgrim vs. The World" (dir. Edgar Wright, 2010) late show @ Alamo Drafthouse Ritz / 320 E 6th St, 11:45p. An arcade-style rom-com riot like "Scott Pilgrim" deserves to be seen on the silver screen. Where you can lap up the glittery Wii-styled fight-scenes b/w Michael Cera and scream-queen Mary Elizabeth Winstead's League of Evil Exes (plus the adorable awkwardness b/w Scott and cutie Knives Chau). ALSO SAT
* Hard Proof + Los Skarnales @ Mohawk / 912 Red River, 8p. Austin's long-running Afrobeat collective Hard Proof plus Houston's ska-punk stalwarts Los Skarnales! I've been into Los Skarnales since high school, man! Let the horns lead the way to this party.
* Scorpion Child @ Hole in the Wall; / 2538 Guadalupe St, 10p/$5. Early '70s southern psych-rock from Austin heavies Scorpion Child, like their wall-melting scorcher "Fuga de Petroleo". w/ The Red 100's
TOKYO
* Masumi Nakaoka "Towards Gentle Ovals" @ Art Front Gallery / Hillside Terrace A, 29-18 Sarugakucho, Shibuya-ku (JR Lines etc to Shibuya). The young Kyoto-born artist creates dreamy landscapes from planes of diluted acrylic paint and crushed cashews, melding the disparate media with a careful process-driven style.
* CHARLTON @ Shimokitazawa Shelter / B1F 2-6-10 Kitazawa, Setagaya-ku (Keio Inokashira Line to Shimo-kitazawa Station), 6:30p/2300 yen. If you told me this coed electro-pop trio CHARLTON hailed from Bushwick, Brooklyn (as opposed to Tokyo), I'd totally believe you. Check that crunchy pulse and barked lyrics powering track "Insider" (off their demo) and see what I mean. w/ the sweaty pop-punk trio the 8flag, Tokyo via Hokkaido
SATURDAY
NYC
* "The Three Colors Trilogy" (dir. Krzysztof Kieslowski, 1993-4) screenings @ Walter Reade Theatre / Lincoln Center at 65th St (1 to 66th St), beginning at noon. Film Society of Lincoln Center hosts a mini-fest of famous trilogies (notably absent: "RoboCop"), and my top pick is the celebrated Polish director Kieslowski's final trilogy, based off the colors of the French flag and, loosely, on the three political ideals of the French Republic. And I suggest you see 'em back-to-back, 4.5 hours of awesomeness, each w/ potent women as leads: Juliette Binoche in melancholic "Blue", Julie Delpy in black comedy "White" and Irene Jacob in the moving "Red", Kieslowski's final film.
* Weekend + Talk Normal + Grooms @ Glasslands / 289 Kent Ave, Williamburg (L to Bedford, JM to Marcy), 8:30p/$12. A lovely agreement b/w the West Coast (Weekend) and the East (locals Talk Normal), via 1) noise and 2) rhythm. The former sear those eardrums w/ hypnotic shoegaze whilst the latter blast out the best contemporary of No Wave I've heard yet. Throw in sludgy-lovely Grooms and you've got a party.
AUSTIN
* Paul Moncus & William Hundley "Spread" @ Big Medium / 5305 Bolm Rd #12. A collaborative installation between mixed media wizard Hundley (maybe you caught his inventive photocollage at the "Identity Crisis" group show at Grayduck Gallery?) and Austin-based Moncus' freeform style.
TOKYO
* Eum Haeran + Daichi Tsuji @ Unseal Contemporary / 1-3-18 Nihombashi-horidomecho, Chuo-ku (Ginza/Hanzoemon Lines to Mitsukoshimae Station, Hibiya Line to Kodenmacho Station). Eum approaches uncertain memories via disparate objects strewn like mementos throughout her dreamlike canvases. Tsuji fragments fantastical renderings of youth and nature in combination.
* Yuichi Yokoyama @ Nanzuka Underground / Shirokane Art Complex 2F, 3-1-15 Shirokane, Minato-ku (Namboku/Mita subway lines to Shirokane-Takanawa Station). An exhibition of Yokoyama's paintings created during his open studio residency at Nanzuka Agenda Shibuya this past autumn and winter, plus older illustrations from a serial manga "Color Engineering".
* Tokuro Sakamoto "Intersection" @ Gallery MOMO Ryogoku / 1F 1-7-15 Kamezawa, Sumida-ku (Toei Oedo/JR Sobu Line to Ryogoku Station). The Yamanashi-born artist uses spare acrylic paint on hemp in his compositions of familiar, tranquil landscapes.
* "A3DII Ayumi Hamasaki Rock 'n Roll Circus Tour FINAL 7days Special" (from her Yoyogi Stadium concert in October 2010) @ Shinjuku WALD9 / 3-1-26 Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku (JR etc to Shinjuku Station, South Exit). Define pop idol. In a landscape like Japan where "pop" and "idol" can mean many different things, the presence of a figure who 1) sings very well (and writes her own lyrics) 2) appears in slick PVs, CMs, films, fashion branding (bonus if she's got her own line of merchandise) and 3) puts out dozens of #1 singles a year, each of which earns millions of yen and devoted followers… that figure embodies the notion of a megastar, and that undoubtedly is Ayu. I have incredibly been "into" her since early on, i.e. her second LP "LOVEppears" (way back in '99, though I'd heard about her the year before via some random English language pop mag), thoroughly entranced by early singles "Poker Face" (always the original, in my opinion), "Monochrome" and "Love: Destiny". As stuff happens and we mature, I lost the thread for awhile and only just realize she got married, this past January, to a model from her PV "Virgin Road"! That has little to do w/ the subject of this incredible live film, 3D live footage from last year's blockbuster arena tour, which is the closest many of us will come to seeing Ayu "live".
* 「監督失格」/"Director Disqualification" (dir. Katsuyuki Hirano, 2011) @ TOHO Cinemas Roppongi / Roppongi Hills Complex 6-10-2 Roppongi, MInato-ku (Toei Oedo/Hibiya Lines to Roppongi Station). Hirano's an AV filmmaking king, making his mark in the early '90s and eventually directing the biker romance trilogy "Encyclopedia of a Drifter". It was, I believe, during one of these bike trips that he fell in with Yumika Hayashi, a prolific younger AV starlet. Hayashi's sudden death at age 35 left Hirano and the whole industry reeling, and her legacy produced documentaries like Tetsuaki Matsue's "Annyong Yukima" (which premiered stateside at the 2010 NYAFF!) — and now it's Hirano's turn. He crafted this film around interviews with Hayashi's mother, friends, with archival footage of the star and his own grief and guilt in dealing with the loss of his former lover.
* 「君の好きなうた」/"Your Song" (dir. Kenji Shibayama, 2011) @ Eurospace / 3F 1-5 Maruyama-cho, Shibuya-ku (JR etc to Shibuya Station, Hachiko Exit). The young director's debut feature follows the growing friendship and tentative romance between a young Tokyo guy and a girl ending her own wedding engagement and moving back to Kobe. It's a sweet-looking film with a necessarily strong soundtrack, built around Tokyo indie-rock quartet seagulloop, folk chanteuse TAMAR and Chiharu Tamaki.
* TADZIO + HALBACH @ Womb / 2-16 Maruyama-cho, Shibuya-ku (JR Lines etc to Shibuya Station, Hachiko Exit), 5p/3500 yen. Skronk-rock awesomeness in this stacked "Bomba Womb Live" lineup, headlined by atonal punk duo TADZIO and ensemble HALBACH. w/ Okinawan duo 385 (lit. "Sanhachigo"), LOVEBUYLOVE and more
* AISHA @ Microcosmos / 2F Dogenzaka, Shibuya-ku (JR Lines etc to Shibuya Station, Hachiko Exit), 11p/2500 yen ("ladies free"). The venue's "Ice Breaker: Bottoms Up" hip-hop party just got way funkier via young blood cutie AISHA — she's got her dad to thank for a solid old-school R&B backbone, plus the looks and vox to get the room grooving. w/ duo CREAM (Minami & Staxx T)
* Lines @ Shibuya Cyclone / 12-16 Udagawacho, Shibuya-ku (JR Line etc to Shibuya Station, Hachiko exit), 6:30/2000 yen. Big fan of this punchy post-rock quartet Lines — they temper poppy arrangements and synth lines with shards of guitar noise.
* Department-H @ Kinema Club / 1-1-14 Negishi, Taito-ku (JR Yamanote to Uguisudani Station), midnight/5000 yen (3000 yen w/ dress-code). I love the name of this station, which translates to "Valley of Japanese Bush Warblers" — these little spring harbingers — plus its vicinity to a bunch of love hotels. That it's hosting a pretty major all-night fetish party, replete w/ booth dancers, shibari masters, the Madeline Agency, uh anime cosplay and more elaborate stuff, well that adds a new spin on it, doesn't it?
SUNDAY
NYC
* Hedgehog (China!) @ Bruar Falls / 245 Grand St, Williamsburg (L to Bedford, G to Metropolitan), 8p/$6. Hold the phone: this punkish Beijing trio Hedgehog just dropped back in town, nearly a cool year (by my calculations) after wowing Brooklynites at 2010 CMJ. Do NOT underestimate them — particularly petite drummer Atom — in their keen ability to rock your face off. w/ Sleepies
* Weekend + Talk Normal @ Mercury Lounge / 217 E Houston (F to 2nd Ave), 7:30p/$12. See my SAT entry for effusive props to Weekend and Talk Normal. Grooms don't join 'em here, but the early-ish show is still total quality, and totally sonically rippin'.
AUSTIN
* "I'm Gonna Git You Sucka" (dir. Keenen Ivory Wayans, 1988) screening @ Alamo Drafthouse Ritz / 320 E 6th St, 7p. Wayans' directorial debut is a potent blaxploitation spoof, feat. ineffable actors from the genre (Isaac Hayes! Jim Brown! Bernie Casey!) plus a young Chris Rock in this caper against an illegal gold chain trade. I'll forever dig him for his later "'hood film" parody "Don't Be a Menace…", but he had to start somewhere.
TOKYO
* Boris w/ MONO @ Shibuya O-east / 2F 2-14-8 Dogenzaka, Shibuya-ku (JR etc to Shibuya Station, Hachiko Exit), 4p/4000 yen. Whose fallacy was it to place premiere decibel-shattering drone-rockers Boris (alongside the heavily ethereal MONO) on the second floor, as they're liable to literally bring the house down under layers and layers of guitar noise and pummeling rhythm? In this "leave them all behind" showcase, it really doesn't matter. They're gonna be loud, and we'll love them all the more for it. w/ envy (which is how I feel since I cannot make the show!…)
* Limited Express (has gone?) @ Three / B1 5-18-1 Daizawa, Setagaya-ku (Keio Inokashira Line to Shimokitazawa Station), 6:30p/2500 yen. I love Limited Express (has gone?) — they're the closest I've experienced to a Tzadik-ready Japanese Siouxie and the Banshees, if that makes any sense. w/ CONVEX LEVEL
MONDAY
AUSTIN
* "Kidnapped" (dir. Miguel Angel Vivas, 2010) screening @ Alamo Drafthouse Ritz / 320 E 6th St. Proceed w/ caution. Vivas portrays a chilling, brutal break-in on an upper-class Spanish family using just 12 lengthy, reeling takes over about 90 punishing minutes of film. I suggest you not take ANYTHING for granted until the screen cuts to black. Then you can breathe again.
* "Autoerotic" (dirs. Adam Wingard and Joe Swanberg, 2011) screening @ Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar / 1120 S. Lamar, 10p. Sex and horniness are funny things, and these two directors (Fantastic Fest 2010 alum Wingard, late of "A Horrible Way to Die", and indie everyman Swanberg) take us through four vignettes and the more awkward and obsessive angles of gettin' it on. ALSO TUE
TOKYO
* "Kill Your TV 2011" showcase @ Fever / 1-1-14 Hanegi, Setagaya-ku (Odakyu Inokashira Line to Shindaita or Shimokitazawa Stations), 6:30p/FREE. Going out in Tokyo is expensive, if you haven't realized that by now. That this awesomely titled live showcase is free, plus stocked w/ dope bands w/in a great venue, makes it extra-special. My adoration for skronky noise-rock cuties TADZIO should be apparent to any devoted LIST reader, and inclusion of GEKITETSU (lit. "firing chamber", like for a handgun) means the boys will be rocking hard, too. w/ Kaisoku Tokyo (lit. "high-speed/express Tokyo"), four former art-school speed-rockers
TUESDAY
NYC
* BRAIDS @ Mercury Lounge / 217 E Houston (F to 2nd Ave), 7p/$12. I like the slightly dissonant tension brooding in this Montreal post-rock group, emanating as much from an oddly strummed guitar-line as from Raphaelle Standell-Preston's enigmatic vocals. She takes the stage twice tonight, earlier on as one-half the dreamier duo Blue Hawaii. w/ Painted Palms
AUSTIN
* "Deranged" (dirs. Alan Ormsby & Jeff Gillen, 1974) screening @ Alamo Drafthouse Ritz / 320 E 6th St, 9:30p. This is a sick-ass film! But imagine how I saw it, as a grindhouse-worthy double-feature on Netflix, alongside Bob Clark's "Motel Hell". That's three solid hours of hillbilly cannibalistic mania right there. But this "Geinsploitation" feature, sporting early Tom Savini gore and historically accurate perversity, really leaves you feeling disgusting by the end. See it on the big screen!
* "Days of Being Wild" (dir. Wong Kar-wai, 1990) screening @ Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar / 1120 S Lamar. A veritable Who's Who of now-classic Hong Kong talent (feat. Leslie Cheung, Maggie Cheung, Carina Lau, Andy Lau — and Tony Leung Chiu Wai in cameo), plus Wong's first collab w/ dreamy cinematography Christopher Doyle. And while hist best films would follow, beginning w/ "Chungking Express" in '94, Wong was already making his art-house (and still very sexy) mark on Hong Kong cinema.
CURRENT SHOWS
NYC
* Cy Twombly "Sculpture" @ MoMA / 11 W 53rd St (E/M to 5th Ave/53rd, 6 to 51st St). This past March, the museum procured two of postwar iconoclast Cy Twombly's classic "freestyle" paintings and seven sculptures spanning his career. That MoMA then mounted an installation of these acquisitions barely a month before Twombly's death this July is an incredible coincidence, plus an auspicious opportunity to view this lesser-known body of work up close. His mural-sized lyrical abstracts, filled with fluidic "graffiti" or exuberant peony bursts, contrast strongly with these muted assemblages, comprised of found materials and scrap wood. Yet these humble objects, intimately scaled and cloaked in white paint, have been an integral facet of Twombly's oeuvre since the mid-50s. Viewing them in concert with his larger, louder paintings provides a fuller understanding of this modern master.
* Francis Alÿs "A Story of Deception" @ MoMA PS1 / 22-25 Jackson Ave, Long Island City (E/M to Court Square/23rd St, 7 to 45th Rd/Courthouse Sq). I found that PS1's open-ended layout, with "The Modern Procession" unofficial centerpiece, worked far better in my Alÿs-going experience, as opposed to the MoMA portion that closed a few weeks ago. That two-channel video itself, at just 12 minutes long, is a quickie in Alÿs terms, plus its clear start and conclusion and overall narrative — the parade carrying MoMA collection replicas (Picassos "Demoiselles D'Avignon, Giacometti's "Standing Woman", Duchamp's "Readymade") and the real Kiki Smith from 53rd St to Long Island City — make it far more accessible than Alÿs' broader oeuvre. Let the Peruvian fanfare guide you to it — it's one place where I particularly liked the sound carry-over. No videos here rival "The Modern Procession", though "Guards" (2004-5) provides a few unnerving minutes, if you're keen on that. Royal guards clomp about deserted London streets, like straight out of "28 Weeks Later" but much cleaner, their clipped movements linking in succession as they meet their peers. More paintings scattered about, like "Le juice errant" (2011), a fully-conceived version of the character bowing to the weight of buildings strapped to their back (seen in drawings at MoMA) and "Untitled (from Deja Vu)" 2011, a "diptych" on separate walls, a woman carrying a scythe vs a man carrying a hammer. The former appeared on the NYTimes Weekend Arts section, blown up to larger-than-lifesize scale (Alÿs' paintings, this one included, are all like 8x10" or smaller). One brilliantly confusing duplication too, of "Untitled (La Malinche)" (2010), two carved wood figures breaking out of a plastic bag. This work appears twice in the show, in opposite galleries, and its twin is a cheekily disorienting sendoff to the Conceptualist's retrospective.
AUSTIN
* "Candy Cornbread" @ Grayduck Gallery / 608 W Monroe Dr. The rub here, in this group exhibition of six local artists, is the collaboration with East Austin screenprinting lab Red Bluff Studios, co-run by two of the participating guys, Jaime Cervantes and Satch Grimley. They executed a bunch of snappy, visually pleasing screenprints with the advising of the show's more "traditional" artists — painters Jeffrey Swanson and Mike Parsons, for example — displaying them in concert w/ their respective mediums. I tried to focus solely on "traditional" my first rotation, eschewing prints in an effort to see what the artists are "really like". Grimley was probably the most contrasted and delightfully surprising: he uses logos and litter from around his East Austin neighborhood in these collaged, resin-y reliefs. His screenprints came off like sloganeering (Ronald MacDonald in violet leaping in front of massive MMs and AHs), whereas his abstract collage works felt way more textural and complex. Swanson seemed to have a lot of fun, displaying whimsically animalike figurative paintings on wood panels, mixing color washes and hard ink lines and placing them around the wood's natural grain to vivid effect.
* Summer Show 2011 @ Lora Reynolds Gallery / 360 Neches #50. This deceptively simply titled group show belies the explosive creativity contained w/in. In fact, Reynolds' array of talent — Cordy Ryman's brutally physical relief works; Noriko Ambe's meticulous cut-paper; Tony Feher's delightfully subversive (and glittery!) assemblage; Ewan Gibbs bracing pencil renderings (Armory Show 2009 artist) — reminds me of my favorite "outside-the-white-box" Chelsea galleries. Don't miss this one.
CLOSING SOON
NYC
* "One, Another" @ The FLAG Art Foundation / 545 W 25th St, 9th Fl. Stephanie Roach curated this mixed disciplines show that delves into narcissism, sexuality and identity, feat. Diana Al-Hadid, Robert Gober, Swoon, Louise Bourgeois and more.
+ Roni Horn "Double Mobius", 10th Fl. A selection from Horn's sculpture (a relative rarity, especially in the gold medium), photography and works on paper, complementing the downstairs group exhibition. (ENDS WED)
TOKYO
* "Collections" @ Span Art Gallery / 2-2-18 1F Ginza, Chuo-ku. (Yurakucho Line to Ginza-Itchome Station). A selection of the gallery's roster and trends to come in the next season of exhibitions. Feat. Eikoh Hosoe, Suehiro Maruo, Hiroshi Nakamura, Toshio Saeki and more. (ENDS SAT)
AUSTIN
* "About Face: Portraiture as Subject" @ Blanton Museum of Art / UT Austin campus, MLK at Congress. With a few exceptions, the museum drew from its own collection to focus on the timeless portrait composition, from true old-school masters (a tiny but thrilling Rembrandt etching and a Diego Rivera lithograph) to snazzier modern entries (Andy Warhol, by definition, Chuck Close, also by definition) and contemporary examples (Kehinde Wiley in particular, and Jim Torok, ahead of his exhibition at Lora Reynolds Gallery). Though the collection misses Mickalene Thomas, IMO a leading artist in today's formal sit-down figure painting, it's a beautiful gathering nonetheless and inspiring to those drained on neo-assemblage and too-busy art.
TOKYO
* Mika Ninagawa @ BLD Gallery / 2-4-9 Ginza, Chuo-ku (JR Yurakucho Station, Marunouchi Line to Ginza Station). The unpublished results of a globetrotting collaboration between actor Osamu Mukai and the photographer, based on over 10 years worth of images from her "mook" photo-book series in NEO. (ENDS SUN)
AUSTIN
* "The Austin Series: Part Three" @ Gallery Black Lagoon / 4301A Guadalupe St. This was just what I needed for further immersion in the local art scene: a group show of over a dozen multidisciplinary Austin artists. Feat. manipulated photography by Suzanne Koett (her "Sabbat" series), paintings by Debbie Carroll and Valérie M. Horne, mixed media works by Akaimi Davis Green and Danny Phillips, and a helluva lot more. (ENDS MON)
TOKYO
* Tomomi Kazumoto + Nekonoko "Nekomo!" @ Niji Gallery / 2-2-10 Kichijoji-honcho, Musashino-shi (JR Line to Kichijoji Station). A collaborative exhibition b/w Kazumoto and the artist nicknamed "Kitten", featuring cute but slightly twisted drawings and characters. (ENDS TUES)
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Friday, August 26, 2011
Strange Films I've Seen: GRAVE ENCOUNTERS
The film is told in a series of found footage edits, based off a SyFy-ish paranormal detective crew titling their feature "Grave Encounters". They run the gamut of acting styles, from charismatic and cocky host Lance (Sean Rogerson, giving it his all to be the most asshole-ish bro, even-steven with Micah from Paranormal Activity) to cute and hysterical "occult expert" Sasha (Ashleigh Gryzko), comic-relief nerd and tech guy Matt (Juan Riedinger) and effusively opinionated cameraman T.C. (Merwin Mondesir, tying with Gryzko for most believable characters). The plan is to hole up in supposedly haunted Collingwood overnight, chained in by space-case caretaker Sandivol, and record (or manufacture, as Lance shows early on, bribing a gardener to lie about a ghost sighting) whatever ghostly stuff goes down. Sandivol will open the doors the following morning, and they're free to go, edit their tapes and cut another ratings-hungry episode.
Off they go, through the main door marked DEATH AWAITS in greenish spraypaint (no subtleties here). Matt sets up a total of 10 static-cams in supposed "hot-spots" for spooky activity — the 3fl bathroom, actually a spacious room of toppled sinks and fixtures, containing a bloodstained bathtub in which a patient committed suicide; the 4fl where a window apparently opens by itself — while Lance starts spouting pomposities. Like "full spectral apparition", and the difference between "residual and intelligent haunting". Something else about "ectoplasm". We meet Houston Gray (Mackenzie Gray, effortlessly devouring screen-time), looking like a younger Peter Murphy and claiming to be a psychic (though he's definitely an egoist actor, in the film anyway), donning sunglasses indoors and speaking reverentially into thin air. He and Lance get a serious kick out of this.
The team grows antsy waiting for Matt and head out looking for him, but when T.C. is pushed (by source unseen) down a flight of stairs, they give up the search and decide to get out ASAP. T.C. and Lance use a hospital bed to ram down the chained lobby door, revealing…another anonymous hallway. I found this very effective. It has a slight echo to Mark Danielewksi's debut novel House of Leaves (another strong first-timer, note!), in that a house is inexplicably larger on the inside than outside, and features a mysterious doorway revealing labyrinthine hallways and utter darkness. In that House of Leaves vein, the Collingwood Hospital deletes the presence of time (their rescue by Sandivol comes and goes, then it's 1 p.m. and still nighttime outside; their food rots though they'd been in there less than 24 hours; the static-cam timers go bonkers). Disembodied groans and growls permeate the repeating hallways. A roof access sign leads up a staircase to a blank wall. Though this is meant to be a freakout horror film, so requisite scary characters make their presences known (what Lance referred to as "full spectral apparitions" earlier on). Some are quite effective, like the creepy girl in the corner (who in my opinion fits much more seamlessly into the film than the trailer might imply), others (like disembodied hands coming out the walls and ceiling) are cheap thrills. A guy being thrown down the hallway (caught entirely on static-cam, to realistic effect) left me tenser than a gabbling, blank-eyed spectre. Team members disappear into the gloom, even as Matt reappears, inexplicably wearing a hospital gown and clenching his knees to his chest. His words of advice to the team: "Of course there's a way out. We can leave as soon as we're better."
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
fee's LIST (through 8/30)
WEDNESDAY
NYC
* Carlito Carvalhosa "Sum of Days" @ MoMA / 11 W 53rd St (E/M to 53rd/5th Ave, 6 to 51st St). What is it with Brazilian artists and sumptuous, transporting installations? Both Ernesto Neto and Rivane Neuenschwander come to mind — and look, I'm not cocky enough to think it's "only" Brazilians who do this — and now Carlito Carvalhosa. In his debut U.S. exhibition, he coats the Marron Atrium in a floor-to-ceiling labyrinth of diaphanous material and whispered sounds, audio recordings from the previous day's ambient noise.
* David Yow "GLASS GAS MASK" @ Fuse Gallery / 93 2nd Ave. Indeed this is The Jesus Lizard maniac frontman's debut solo gallery exhibition in our fair city. The art itself — digital and hand-drawn renderings with collage elements — is typically Lynch-ian dark and intriguingly figurative. Hell, I suggest you attend the opening (starts at 7p) just to see Yow stage-dive into the crowd. Please I hope he does this.
* Peelander-Z presents "P-pop Party" @ Death By Audio / 49 S 2nd St, Williamsburg (L to Bedford, JM to Marcy), 8p/$7. They may not have an "official" set tonight, but Japanese art-punks Peelander-Z have curated a helluva party. Feat. "sister" group PeeWonder-Z, Luke and the Cocktails (Luke from Anamanaguchi w/ Peelander-Red & Green) and gypsy cabaret performer Goto Izumi. Plus Peter (Anamanaguchi's frontman) is DJing. I spy a collaboration?
AUSTIN
* Summer Show 2011 @ Lora Reynolds Gallery / 360 Neches #50. This deceptively simply titled group show belies the explosive creativity contained w/in. In fact, Reynolds' array of talent — Cordy Ryman's brutally physical relief works; Noriko Ambe's meticulous cut-paper; Tony Feher's delightfully subversive (and glittery!) assemblage; Ewan Gibbs bracing pencil renderings (Armory Show 2009 artist) — reminds me of my favorite "outside-the-white-box" Chelsea galleries. Don't miss this one.
TOKYO
* Petit Blackcherry @ Module / B2 34-6 Udagawa-cho, Shibuya-ku (JR Lines etc to Shibuya Station), 7p/1500 yen. I'm big into (watching) pole-dancing. Anyone who knows me personally knows this. In an effort to expand beyond the awesomeness that is burlesque/pole-dancing troupe Tokyo Dolores, I've discovered Roppongi-mawari regular Ruka, leading two performances at this tech-house night, along w/ girls Ukichi, Rainy, Mippo (Miss Poledance Japan 2011 finalist!) and more.
THURSDAY
NYC
* Oberhofer + EXITMUSIC @ Mercury Lounge / 217 E Houston St (F to 2nd Ave), 10p/FREE. Queue up early for this "late" yet "totally free" Spotify show. Nigh-ubiquitous Japanese riot-grrrl darlings The Suzan open, followed by Manchester-channeling charmers EXITMUSIC (check Aleksa Palladino's vox throughout "The Sea") — and Brooklyn's charismatic youngsters Oberhofer will rock your Purcells off.
* Alex Bleeker and the Freaks @ Cake Shop, 152 Ludlow St (F/JMZ to Essex/Delancey), 8p/$8. Summer ain't over but the month's nearly done, so let Bleeker and his mates regale you in their folksy backyard barbecue-style jams. w/ Woodsman
* The Beets @ Death By Audio / 49 S 2nd St, Williamsburg (L to Bedford, JM to Marcy), 8p/$7. By this point, The Beets — Jackson Heights' finest garage-rock band — are more local indie's rule than exception. w/ Crinkles
AUSTIN
* "Starship Troopers" (dir. Paul Verhoeven, 1997) ACTION PACK Edition @ Alamo Drafthouse Ritz / 320 E 6th St, 7p. I totally mean to make one of these "Action Pack" showcases, which augment bonkers '80s and '90s action films w/ live pyrotechnics and audience cap guns. And honestly, I always dug "Starship Troopers" for its blatant boneheadedness, its farcical take on hoo-rah vs. "bugs", plus the unironic coed infantry.
* Heavy Cream (TN) @ Mohawk / 912 Red River St, 9p/$7. Though my favorite mostly-girl Nashville punks Heavy Cream have transitioned through some lineup changes (specifically dropping cutie drummer Melissa), but these girls and dude still rock a party right. They support local rockers The Hi-Tones. w/ The Ugly Beats
TOKYO
* "Collections" @ Span Art Gallery / 2-2-18 1F Ginza, Chuo-ku. (Yurakucho Line to Ginza-Itchome Station). A selection of the gallery's roster and trends to come in the next season of exhibitions. Feat. Eikoh Hosoe, Suehiro Maruo, Hiroshi Nakamura, Toshio Saeki and more.
* Tomomi Kazumoto + Nekonoko "Nekomo!" @ Niji Gallery / 2-2-10 Kichijoji-honcho, Musashino-shi (JR Line to Kichijoji Station). A collaborative exhibition b/w Kazumoto and the artist nicknamed "Kitten", featuring cute but slightly twisted drawings and characters.
* "モールス"/"Let Me In" (dir. Matt Reeves, 2010) @ TOHO Cinemas Roppongi / Roppongi Hills Complex 6-10-2 Roppongi, MInato-ku (Toei Oedo/Hibiya Lines to Roppongi Station). I honestly prefer the English language take on John Ajvide Lindqvist's vampire-child novel over Tomas Alfredson's 2008 Swedish film — I love them both (see my take on "Let the Right One In" under SAT/NYC) but the chemistry b/w Kodi Smit-McPhee and the lovely Chloë Moretz here, coupled w/ the overall dread, just works for me. (N.B. interesting Japanese rethinking of the title, means "Morse") ALSO FRI
* FOUR GET ME A NOTS @ Shimokitazawa Shelter / B1F 2-6-10 Kitazawa, Setagaya-ku (Keio Inokashira Line to Shimo-kitazawa Station), 7p/2800 yen. If only most indie bands had as much intensity in their entire bodies as Chiba trio FOUR GET ME A NOTS have in the cutie guitarist/co-vocalist Chie's pinkie finger. She and the boys play punchy hook-driven punk interspersed w/ clear English lyrics. This is "Heroine" EP release party, so rock on!
FRIDAY
NYC
* "Sideways" (dir. Alexander Payne, 2004) screening @ MoMA / 11 W 53rd St (E/M to 53rd/5th Ave, 6 to 51st St), 4p. Despite my ambivalence toward wine (oh I'll drink it, but it's rarely my first choice), I'd kind of like to go along w/ mopey Miles (Paul Giamatti, in perhaps his most memorable role) and lecherous Jack (Thomas Haden Church, let me forever dispel Flint "Sandman" Marko from my memory) on their Santa Ynez Valley wine tour.
* Amen Dunes (LP release party) @ Saint Vitus / 1120 Manhattan Ave, Greenpoint (G to Greenpoint, 7 to Vernon Blvd/Jackson Ave), 8p/$8. So what that Damon "Amen Dunes" McMahon's sophomore LP "Through Donkey Jaw" drops near the tail-end of summer? Despite its slow metamorphosis, the end result is a wintery, nocturnal affair, with tracks like "Lower Mind" and "Good Bad Dreams" hanging in the misty air like ice crystals. Luckily, Saint Vitus' dark denizens provides excellent accompaniment to Amen Dunes' intimate affair.
AUSTIN
* "Candy Cornbread" @ Grayduck Gallery / 608 W Monroe Dr. Six Austin artists take on pop, lowbrow and assemblage, plus Red Bluff Studios collaborated in a series of handmade prints related to the participating artists. Feat. Jason Archer, Jaime Cervantes, Satch Grimley, Mike Parsons, Matthew Rodriguez and Jeffrey Swanson.
* "The Austin Series: Part Three" @ Gallery Black Lagoon / 4301A Guadalupe St. This is just what I need for full immersion in the local art scene: a group show of over a dozen multidisciplinary artists. Feat. manipulated photography by Suzanne Koett (her "Sabbat" series), paintings by Debbie Carroll and Valérie M. Horne, mixed media works by Akaimi Davis Green and Danny Phillips, and a helluva lot more.
* Handsome Furs @ Mohawk / 912 Red River St, 8p/$13. "Sound Kapital", the new LP from this messily energetic husband-wife electro-punk duo (he, Dan Boeckner of Wolf Parade, shreds whilst she, Alexei Perry, sings and triggers keyboard squelches), hits straight for the jugular. It's rougher, noisier, funkier than anything in their past catalogue of jittery pop frenzies, alive w/ '80s charisma w/o getting all nostalgic. Prepare to sweat. w/ Lean Hounds
* YellowFever (tour kickoff) @ Beerland / 711 Red River, 9p. Austin's stripped-down indie dynamos YellowFever bring the heat once again before hitting the trail. w/ Boyfriend
* Rayon Beach @ Scoot Inn / 1308 E 4th St, 9p/$5. There's a lot of wacked-out psychedelia coming from the Hill Country (see: Butthole Surfers), and Rayon Beach make good w/ blistering punk exotica and tongue-in-cheek humor. w/ Followed by Static
TOKYO
* Miki Kubota "人の山" @ hpgrp Tokyo / B1F 5-1-15 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku (Chiyoda/Hanzomon/Ginza Lines to Omotesando Station). My translation: "Mountain People": Kubota creates wildly interesting sculpture using furniture as her base, sanding, polishing and cutting it to mimic greatly magnified dermis or crumpled paper.
* nisennenmondai @ O-Nest / 6F 2-3 Maruyama-cho, Shibuya-ku (Yamanote Line etc to Shibuya Station), 6p/2500 yen. These ultra-fierce prog-rockers' decimation of O-Nest is now captured on album, via their new LP "nisennenmondai LIVE!!!" — relive the krautrock pulse of "fan", the baklava layerings of guitar loops and ride cymbals on "mirrorball", the bass and jazz drum fills of "ikkyokume"…then see 'em again, here. w/ LAGITAGIDA
* tacobonds @ Shinjuku Motion / 5F 2-45-2 Kabukicho, Shinjuku-ku (JR etc to Shinjuku Station, East Exit), 6p/2300 yen. Jittery off-kilter Tokyo post-punk trio have kept it real and refreshing since '03 w/ deft tempo changes and coed vocalists. Their new LP "NO FICTION" is pretty dope. w/ Tape-Recorders and Owari-Kara
SATURDAY
NYC
* "The Host" (dir. Bong Joon-ho 2006) screening @ BAM / 30 Lafayette Ave, Ft Greene (23/45 to Nevins St, AC to Lafayette), 2/7p. Bong's international hit remains, in my opinion, the pinnacle of "smart" monster movies. B/c as scary as the beastie is, it's merely part of Bong's heartfelt family drama.
* "Let the Right One In" (dir. Tomas Alfredson, 2008) screening @ BAM / 30 Lafayette Ave, Ft Greene (23/45 to Nevins St, AC to Lafayette), 4:30/9:30p. Among the best of vampire films, but evermore effective b/c the blood-yearning kid's an ongoing metaphor for preteen growing pains. See this alongside Bong Joon-ho's "The Host" and witness two filmmakers thinking outside genre's formulaic box.
* "Throne of Blood" (dir. Akira Kurosawa, 1957) screening @ IFC Center / 323 Sixth Ave (ACE/BDFM to W 4th St), 11a. Kurosawa's reimagining William Shakespeare's regicide classic "Macbeth" in feudal Japan is the rare instance when the English film title is just as wicked as the original Japanese (lit. "Spiderweb Castle"). The big finale, with embattled "king" Washizu (Toshiro Mifune) against a hail of arrows is truly bracing. ALSO SUN
* Warm Up: Tanlines + NguzuNguzu (LA) @ MoMA PS1 / 22-25 Jackson Ave, Long Island City (E/M to 23rd St/Court, 7 to Courthouse Sq), 2p/FREE. The penultimate Warm Up in a series of awesomeness this season highlights glitchy tropical-house trends. I'm stoked for what Tanlines unveil, but inclusion of LA bass-lovers NguzuNguzu (I mean, have you HEARD their "Moments in Love" mixture?) ups the intensity 1000%. w/ fractured house heroes Teengirl Fantasy + Brooklyn's Physical Therapy
* Love Inks (Austin) @ Glasslands / 289 Kent Ave, Williamburg (L to Bedford, JM to Marcy), 9p/$12. LIST devotees recall my love for Austin TX's Love Inks and their debut "ESP". Their hypnotizing pop morsels are particularly suited to cozy Glasslands. w/ Male Bonding
TOKYO
* Ai Shinohara "My Progress" @ Gallery Momo / 2F 6-2-6 Roppongi, Minato-ku (Hibiya/Toei Oedo Lines to Roppongi Station). I love this gallery and I really dig young Kagoshima-born Shinohara. This exhibition feat. about 20 of her early watercolors and ink compositions — think Frank Frazetta filtered through a manga veil — plus some newer works. Recommended!
* "Piranha 3D" (dir. Alexandre Aja, 2010) midnight screening @ TOHO Cinemas Roppongi / Roppongi Hills Complex 6-10-2 Roppongi, MInato-ku (Toei Oedo/Hibiya Lines to Roppongi Station). While I saw this gloriously gory flick in the height of NYC's summer last year, I'd totally see it again on the big screen a full year later in the height of Tokyo's summer! Tokyo, are you ready for Jessica Szohr in 3D??
* Acid Mothers Temple & the Cosmic Inferno @ Goodman / Basement 55 Kanda-Sakumagashi, Chiyoda-ku (JR Lines to Akihabara Station), 6p/3000yen. AMT's heaviest, Deep Purple-swathed iteration unites for drummer/vocalist/goddess Pikachu's farewell performance! Plus frequent collaborator Kasumi Hiraoka regales with pole-dancing, and a special liquidbiupil light show! The best of psychedelic summer.
SUNDAY
NYC
* "The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie" (dir. Luis Buñuel, 1971) screening @ MoMA / 11 W 53rd St (E/M to 53rd/5th Ave, 6 to 51st St), 5p. If I had to pick one film from the Spanish surrealist's oeuvre that perfectly skewers the bourgeois class, it'd have to be '62's "The Exterminating Angel" — I mean, they're "trapped" in a room after a dinner party, for goodness sake! But this one, filmed a decade later, is nearly as good for all its pure illogicalness. Here we have a group of richies attempting to dine together, despite ongoing bizarro interruptions.
AUSTIN
* MURAL (Norway/Australia) @ Salvage Vanguard Theater / 2803 Manor Rd, 8p/$8-$15. Church of the Friendly Ghost brings the multinational trio (Norwegians Kim Myhr on guitar and Ingar Zach on percussion, plus Australian Jim Denley on winds) back to the Theater, celebrating "MURAL Live at the Rothko Chapel" — a truly monolithic recording of improvised soundscapes. w/ guest percussionists Chris Cogburn and Nick Hennies and clarinetist Jon Doyle.
TOKYO
* Issei Suda "Zapping" @ Nagune / 1-1 Kabuki-cho, Shinjuku-ku (JR etc to Shinjuku Station, East Exit then head for Golden Gai). Two notable things going on here: 1) Suda is an incredible street photographer and academic, who once worked under director Shuji Terayama in the theatrical group Tenjo Sajiki in the '60s. 2) this exhibition of his reconfigured photography is in fact installed in a Golden Gai bar. Think about that.
* "Natsu no Shinjuku" @ Marble / B1F 2-45-2 Kabukicho, Shinjuku-ku (JR etc to Shinjuku Station, East Exit), 5:30p/2300 yen. As in "Shinjuku's Summer", and this showcase, presented by Natural Hi-Tech Records, is massive. Check it: Tokyo sextet about tees meld interwoven layers of sonics via their two drummers, two bassists and two guitarists. Plus LIST favorites Metro-Ongen, minimals, Gusha-Ningen (Crazy Humans?) and many more.
* N.E.T. presents "XXX" @ Heaven's Door / B1 1-33-19 Sangenjaya, Setagaya-ku (Tokyu Den-en-toshi Line to Sangenjaya Station), 3p/2500 yen. Insanity!!! Imagine paying the equivalent of $30USD to see a dozen female-fronted (or female-only) grunge, punk and thrash bands for an entire afternoon and night. I'm stoked Osaka hardcore trio Red Bacteria Vacuum are playing, since I've seen 'em in the States before, plus Tokyo punks The Harpys and Sonic Youth-ish trio (if you imagine SY on speed) Oh my God, you've gone — who take it for coolest band name on this week's LIST. w/ N.E.T., Cannibal Rabbit, uh…Zombie Lolita. Heaven, right?
MONDAY
NYC
* Love Inks (Austin) @ Mercury Lounge / 217 E Houston (F to 2nd Ave), 9:30p/$10. A second change to catch Austin indie-pop darlings Love Inks, touring w/ Male Bonding, before they're Canana-bound (and then Europe!). See my SAT entry for more Love Inks love.
AUSTIN
* Sarah Buckius "trapped inside pixels" @ Arthouse / 700 Congress. In her debut Texas installation, the Ann Arbor-based video/performance artist presents her 2008 looping digital animation "trapped inside pixels", where she executes synchronous maneuvers w/in a field of ice cube-shaped "pixels". Part of the venue's SCREEN Projects series (so you can watch Buckius fluttering about from the street).
TOKYO
* Yokohama Triennial 2011 @ Yokohama Museum of Art / 3-4-1 Minatomirai, Nishi-ku, Yokohama-shi (Minatomirai Line to Mimatomrai Station, JR/Tokyu Toyoko or Yokohama Lines to Sakuragicho Station). Peter Coffin "Music for Plants", a music event w/in the artist's work "Untitled (Greenhouse)", which is decked in synths, mixers and amps amid the real foliage, feat. the psych-folk of Tenniscoats! At 5:30p.
* JEWEL BOX vol 2. @ Fever / 1-1-14 Hanegi, Setagaya-ku (Odakyu Inokashira Line to Shindaita or Shimokitazawa Stations), 6:30p/2300 yen. Maybe it's the keyboard accents and Natsuko's jazz-singer vox that make the awesomely named young Shinjuku trio 軍艦オクトパス (Submarine Octopus) stand out from their indie brethren…but whatever it is, it totally works. Tokyo alt-rock quartet Indigo la End inject some REM-style stream-of-consciousness against shimmery riffs and melodic choruses. w/ TRAUMEREI
TUESDAY
NYC
* Bruce Conner "Falling Leaves: An Anonymous Memorial" @ Paula Cooper Gallery / 521 W 21st St. An exhibition of drawings by the late artist created in response to 9/11, plus his 2006 collage film "His Eye is on the Sparrow".
* Angel Deradoorian @ Death By Audio / 49 S 2nd St, Williamsburg (L to Bedford, JM to Marcy), 8p/$10. As creative as weird-pop unit Dirty Projectors are, I've dug multi-instrumentalist Deradoorian's solo stuff way more. Her voice is as uncanny as her soundscapes hazy, think blunted jazz (use track "Weed Jam" for starters). DBA doesn't usually pour on the bliss like this, so take advantage! w/ Advance Base (aka Casiotone for the Painfully Alone)
AUSTIN
* "The Exterminator" (dir. James Glickenhaus, 1980) screening @ Alamo Drafthouse Ritz / 320 E 6th St, 10:45p. What's more dangerous than The Terminator? If you guessed Vietnam vet Eastland, aka The Exterminator, you are correct! B/c this is the Big Apple circa 1980, and no mobsters, punks or Ghetto Ghouls are safe from his handmade vigilante justice! It even spawned a sequel (though w/ Mark "Posse" Buntzman in the director's chair).
* Mister Heavenly @ Mohawk / 912 Red River St, 7:30p/$13. Mister Heavenly an indie supergroup comprised of Man Man's exuberant frontman Ryan "Honus Honus" Kattner, Nicholas Thornburn of Islands and Modest Mouse's drummer Joe Plummer. Their modular "doom-wop" has received a bunch of buzz not only b/c these guys are trip together but also b/c Michael Cera toured with 'em last year as bassist. Cannot guarantee "Scott Pilgrim" will join 'em tonight, but their creative interplay promises a bash.
TOKYO
* Salon RubBar @ Module / B1F/B2F 34-6 Udagawa-cho, Shibuya-ku (JR lines etc to Shibuya Station), 6p/1000 yen. Think of a fashion show where all the models are wearing rubber and latex, and you get to touch the outfits. A specific dress-code isn't vital for entrance to this fetish party, but second-skin-wear is totally encouraged.
CLOSING SOON
* "Magic for Beginners" @ PPOW / 535 W 22nd St, 3rd Fl. Jamie Sterns and Joseph Whitt curated this grope show centered around the unstructured side of Modernism, feat. Bas Jan Ader, Olaf Breuning, Jennifer Cohen, Scott Hug, Kevin Lips, Niall McClelland, Jesse McLean, Kristie Muller, Rbt. Sps., and Brent Stewart.
* "Soft Machines" @ The Pace Gallery / 545 W 22nd St. The title makes me think of Claes Oldenberg, he of literal soft-construct sculpture. But this actually alludes to William S. Burroughs' titular 1961 novel, in how control mechanisms (from narcotics to TV to religion) affect our psychological and physical disposition. Heavy stuff for a summer group show!
* "25 Years/25 Artists" @ Julie Saul Gallery / 535 W 22nd St. The gallery celebrates 25 years as a public exhibition space, with as many artists represented, each featured in one year of the show: from Tseng Kwong Chi and Maira Kalman to Julie Evans and Rineke Dijkstra.
* Judith Schaechter + Bernardi Roig "The Devil Can Cite Scripture" @ Claire Oliver / 513 W 26th St. This duo mounted "Glasstress" at this year's Venice Biennale (plus Roig's own "TRA - Edge of Becoming"). Roig's installations remind me a bit of contemporary George Segal, ash-colored men hoisting fluorescent lights. Schaechter's nonpareil stained-glass works deliver a degree of grandeur and drama to Roig's monochrome. (ENDS FRI)
TOKYO
* "New Artists" @ Galerie Sho Contemporary / B1F 3-2-9 Nihonbashi, Chuo-ku (Ginza/Tozai Lines to Nihonbashi Station). Four emerging artists from Japan and abroad, feat. Naondo Masuda (who showed at 2009 101Tokyo Contemporary Art Fair), Saeko Shimojo (recipient of the 2011 Marunouchi "Art Award Tokyo"), Arisa Ota and Lee Dongi.
* Susan Philipsz "Did I Dream You Dreamed About Me" @ Mizuma Action / 2F 1-3-9 Kamimeguro, Meguro-ku (Tokyu Toyoko Line to Nakameguro Station). An enchanting little show in summer's twilight. Mizuma restates sonic pioneer Philipsz's two-speaker installation (which they unveiled at the main Ichigaya-tamachi space in 2007) for juuuust a quickie. Don't miss it. (ENDS SAT)
NYC
* Richard Serra "Drawing" @ Metropolitan Museum of Art / 1000 Fifth Ave (456 to 86th St). Bravo to the Met for letting Serra do his thing and mount a truly memorable survey show. Despite the obvious lack of his telltale monolithic sculpture, a trek through this labyrinthine series of rooms permeating with the smell of paintstick and artificially foreshortened by the blackened works' respective scales actually FEELS like walking into and out of a Serra torqued ellipse. That the show begins with a bang, like you're shoved from the back into one of his impenetrable, textured drawings (nearly everything beyond the start is paintstick, lots and lots and lots of paintstick, heavily applied to various papers and linens), w/ only a single introductory text as your guide. Order to rooms? Give me a break. You're in Serra's domain. Though if you require a bit of order, then proceed gently to the right and let the conduits of plutonian rectangles speed you along. "Untitled (14-part roller drawing)" (1973) is an odd duck in the first section, 14 inky smudges like police fingerprinting scaled up to poster-size. Just a bit further in begins what I call the 'portals' experience. We're deposited against "Pacific Judson Murphy" (1978), a blackly black wall corner comprised of two sheets of Belgian linen, covered in paintstick. Beyond the powerful quartet "Forged Drawing" (1977/2008), four geometric forged steels (not unlike his Cor-Ten sculpture) lovingly slathered with paintstick on their faces, is Serra's cunningly titled "Institutionalized Abstract Art" (1978/2011), a wormhole-like circle pitched high on the ceiling. It leads into "Blank" (1978), two larger-than-lifesize paintstick on linen squares like doorways on either side of a narrowed room — which brings us to the deafeningly huge "Taraval Beach" (1977/2011), a floor-to-ceiling swath of Belgian linen, absolutely soaked in twilit paintstick. The vertigo this one induces reminded me strongly of Mark Danielewski's "House of Leaves", a novel-w/in-a-novel (w/in-a-novel) about a house that's bigger on the inside than the outside. Serra is really playing w/ scale here, actually and our perceptive sense of it. The old familiar Met feels quite alien. Onward through a room steeped in paintstick odor, w/ diptych works like "The United States Government Destroys Art" (1989), and another heavy room of paintstick on laminated Japanese paper, acting both as Color-Field and Hardedge but endlessly more textural. His paintstick application is almost impasto-like. Another room of vicious circles, haunting meteoric arrays like "out-of-round IX" (1999) and recent paintstick-on-linen works mimicking the weathered sides of his sculpture. The site-specific "Union" (2011) takes "Blank" from way back there and extends it into two massive wall-filling rectangles of streaked, compressed paintstick, almost like soot. The room of films (incl "Hand Catching Lead", 1968, a physical must-see) and Serra's personal sketchbooks — including super-minimalist roughs of architecture and works like the ill-fated "Tilted Arc", produce such an open effect from the previous journey that we might have been deposited down in the Great Hall, not in some smallish, generic gallery space. It's an exhibition that doesn't quite leave you once you reemerge in the 19th-C wings, still feeling the effects of having really experienced Serra.
* "THE END" @ Christopher Henry Gallery / 127 Elizabeth St, 2nd Fl. Jason LeBlond curated the kind of four-artist group show I can get behind. Why? Check Kevin Baker's lush abstracts, accentuated w/ enamel paint and executed over Kentucky-proud oilcloths. Even better: Gabriel J. Shuldiner's corroded "Post-Apocalyptic Black" paintings, each like a custom black hole of nihilism. Plus visceral ephemera from Jordan Eagles (i.e. cows' blood, combined w/ copper and preserved in Plexiglas and resin) and Wonderpuss Octopus' assaultive packaged goods.
TOKYO
* "French Window" @ Mori Art Museum / Roppongi Hills Mori Tower (53F), 6-10-1 Roppongi, Minato-ku (Hibiya/Oedo Lines to Roppongi Station). The museum's big spring-summer group show follows the ADIAF's (Association for the International Diffusion of French Art) prestigious art award, the Marcel Duchamp Prize, with a decade's worth of winners, finalists and the great Dadaist. Use this as a primer to the cream of the contemporary French scene. The title stems from Duchamp's "Fresh Widow" (1920/1964), a purposeful near-rhyme double entendre, repeated by Mathieu Mercier's 2007 "Untitled", a transparent copy of Duchamp's window, facing out onto Roppongi Hill's moneyed expanses. Nicolas Moulin's "Novomond" C-prints and "Askiatower" are sparse, otherworldly landscapes, brutally urban in their absence of wildlife. Saadane Afif's "The Skull" installation mirrors the viewer back at themselves, infinite times, via a great floor-spill of polished stainless steel balls and lights. I particularly loved Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster's transportive film installation "Exotourisme", a fragmented sci-fi film and Joshua Light-style acid trip rolled into one, w/ an Eno-esque soundtrack. A number of works were not displayed due to the devastating March 11 earthquake in northern Japan, but swapping out some of Céleste Boursier-Mougenot's works for her looping "virus" projection and her video documentation of "from here to ear" instilled some wonderful dynamics. The inclusion of Valérie Belin's uncanny "Modeles" aluminum-mounted prints shifts the gaze back at us via her subjects' unwavering intensities.
+ Yukihiro Taguchi. The young Berlin-based artist's "performative installations" series — MAM Project 014 — is beyond dope. In short, he stop-animates a whole bunch of 2x4's (in "Moment", shot all over Berlin) or an entire room (de)-installation, like "Performative Hills", a slow-crawling plank wave throughout Roppongi Hills and into the museum itself. Seeing these videos and their makings-of w/in Taguchi's own crowded and evidently "in-progress" gallery truly animates his fluctuating performances against the static museum environment.
* Mikiya Takimoto "Land Space" @ MA2 Gallery / 3-3-8 Ebisu, Shibuya-ku (Yamanote Line to Ebisu Station). The exhibition focuses on Takimoto's photographs of space shuttles, begun in 2009 during trips to Florida, which also incorporate detail shots of jet engines and natural rock formations that resemble one another.
* Kohei Nawa "Synthesis" @ Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo / 4-1-1 Miyoshi, Koto-ku (Hanzomon/Oedo Lines to Kiyosumi-Shirakawa Station). Nawa creates very pretty sculptures with shiny, translucent materials like massive plastic beads, prisms and silicone oil — and no matter the deep meanings behind it, that he's investigating the concept of the "Cell" as a metaphor for thoughts/senses in an info-laden society, his works tend to be very beautiful and very easy to like. Unless your concept of beautiful art is total minimalism and abstraction, you'll probably like Nawa's style, even if you don't fully go in w/ the intentions behind them. The sculptures are arranged sparingly, allowing their bubble-covered dermis (like "PixCell-Elk#2, shown at Japan Society's "Bye Bye Kitty!!!" exhibition) or frozen-liquid sheen (his glue-based series, like the fascinating "Air Cell-A_36mmp") to magnify and bound off the galleries' lighting and external space. (ENDS SUN)
NYC
* Carlito Carvalhosa "Sum of Days" @ MoMA / 11 W 53rd St (E/M to 53rd/5th Ave, 6 to 51st St). What is it with Brazilian artists and sumptuous, transporting installations? Both Ernesto Neto and Rivane Neuenschwander come to mind — and look, I'm not cocky enough to think it's "only" Brazilians who do this — and now Carlito Carvalhosa. In his debut U.S. exhibition, he coats the Marron Atrium in a floor-to-ceiling labyrinth of diaphanous material and whispered sounds, audio recordings from the previous day's ambient noise.
* David Yow "GLASS GAS MASK" @ Fuse Gallery / 93 2nd Ave. Indeed this is The Jesus Lizard maniac frontman's debut solo gallery exhibition in our fair city. The art itself — digital and hand-drawn renderings with collage elements — is typically Lynch-ian dark and intriguingly figurative. Hell, I suggest you attend the opening (starts at 7p) just to see Yow stage-dive into the crowd. Please I hope he does this.
* Peelander-Z presents "P-pop Party" @ Death By Audio / 49 S 2nd St, Williamsburg (L to Bedford, JM to Marcy), 8p/$7. They may not have an "official" set tonight, but Japanese art-punks Peelander-Z have curated a helluva party. Feat. "sister" group PeeWonder-Z, Luke and the Cocktails (Luke from Anamanaguchi w/ Peelander-Red & Green) and gypsy cabaret performer Goto Izumi. Plus Peter (Anamanaguchi's frontman) is DJing. I spy a collaboration?
AUSTIN
* Summer Show 2011 @ Lora Reynolds Gallery / 360 Neches #50. This deceptively simply titled group show belies the explosive creativity contained w/in. In fact, Reynolds' array of talent — Cordy Ryman's brutally physical relief works; Noriko Ambe's meticulous cut-paper; Tony Feher's delightfully subversive (and glittery!) assemblage; Ewan Gibbs bracing pencil renderings (Armory Show 2009 artist) — reminds me of my favorite "outside-the-white-box" Chelsea galleries. Don't miss this one.
TOKYO
* Petit Blackcherry @ Module / B2 34-6 Udagawa-cho, Shibuya-ku (JR Lines etc to Shibuya Station), 7p/1500 yen. I'm big into (watching) pole-dancing. Anyone who knows me personally knows this. In an effort to expand beyond the awesomeness that is burlesque/pole-dancing troupe Tokyo Dolores, I've discovered Roppongi-mawari regular Ruka, leading two performances at this tech-house night, along w/ girls Ukichi, Rainy, Mippo (Miss Poledance Japan 2011 finalist!) and more.
THURSDAY
NYC
* Oberhofer + EXITMUSIC @ Mercury Lounge / 217 E Houston St (F to 2nd Ave), 10p/FREE. Queue up early for this "late" yet "totally free" Spotify show. Nigh-ubiquitous Japanese riot-grrrl darlings The Suzan open, followed by Manchester-channeling charmers EXITMUSIC (check Aleksa Palladino's vox throughout "The Sea") — and Brooklyn's charismatic youngsters Oberhofer will rock your Purcells off.
* Alex Bleeker and the Freaks @ Cake Shop, 152 Ludlow St (F/JMZ to Essex/Delancey), 8p/$8. Summer ain't over but the month's nearly done, so let Bleeker and his mates regale you in their folksy backyard barbecue-style jams. w/ Woodsman
* The Beets @ Death By Audio / 49 S 2nd St, Williamsburg (L to Bedford, JM to Marcy), 8p/$7. By this point, The Beets — Jackson Heights' finest garage-rock band — are more local indie's rule than exception. w/ Crinkles
AUSTIN
* "Starship Troopers" (dir. Paul Verhoeven, 1997) ACTION PACK Edition @ Alamo Drafthouse Ritz / 320 E 6th St, 7p. I totally mean to make one of these "Action Pack" showcases, which augment bonkers '80s and '90s action films w/ live pyrotechnics and audience cap guns. And honestly, I always dug "Starship Troopers" for its blatant boneheadedness, its farcical take on hoo-rah vs. "bugs", plus the unironic coed infantry.
* Heavy Cream (TN) @ Mohawk / 912 Red River St, 9p/$7. Though my favorite mostly-girl Nashville punks Heavy Cream have transitioned through some lineup changes (specifically dropping cutie drummer Melissa), but these girls and dude still rock a party right. They support local rockers The Hi-Tones. w/ The Ugly Beats
TOKYO
* "Collections" @ Span Art Gallery / 2-2-18 1F Ginza, Chuo-ku. (Yurakucho Line to Ginza-Itchome Station). A selection of the gallery's roster and trends to come in the next season of exhibitions. Feat. Eikoh Hosoe, Suehiro Maruo, Hiroshi Nakamura, Toshio Saeki and more.
* Tomomi Kazumoto + Nekonoko "Nekomo!" @ Niji Gallery / 2-2-10 Kichijoji-honcho, Musashino-shi (JR Line to Kichijoji Station). A collaborative exhibition b/w Kazumoto and the artist nicknamed "Kitten", featuring cute but slightly twisted drawings and characters.
* "モールス"/"Let Me In" (dir. Matt Reeves, 2010) @ TOHO Cinemas Roppongi / Roppongi Hills Complex 6-10-2 Roppongi, MInato-ku (Toei Oedo/Hibiya Lines to Roppongi Station). I honestly prefer the English language take on John Ajvide Lindqvist's vampire-child novel over Tomas Alfredson's 2008 Swedish film — I love them both (see my take on "Let the Right One In" under SAT/NYC) but the chemistry b/w Kodi Smit-McPhee and the lovely Chloë Moretz here, coupled w/ the overall dread, just works for me. (N.B. interesting Japanese rethinking of the title, means "Morse") ALSO FRI
* FOUR GET ME A NOTS @ Shimokitazawa Shelter / B1F 2-6-10 Kitazawa, Setagaya-ku (Keio Inokashira Line to Shimo-kitazawa Station), 7p/2800 yen. If only most indie bands had as much intensity in their entire bodies as Chiba trio FOUR GET ME A NOTS have in the cutie guitarist/co-vocalist Chie's pinkie finger. She and the boys play punchy hook-driven punk interspersed w/ clear English lyrics. This is "Heroine" EP release party, so rock on!
FRIDAY
NYC
* "Sideways" (dir. Alexander Payne, 2004) screening @ MoMA / 11 W 53rd St (E/M to 53rd/5th Ave, 6 to 51st St), 4p. Despite my ambivalence toward wine (oh I'll drink it, but it's rarely my first choice), I'd kind of like to go along w/ mopey Miles (Paul Giamatti, in perhaps his most memorable role) and lecherous Jack (Thomas Haden Church, let me forever dispel Flint "Sandman" Marko from my memory) on their Santa Ynez Valley wine tour.
* Amen Dunes (LP release party) @ Saint Vitus / 1120 Manhattan Ave, Greenpoint (G to Greenpoint, 7 to Vernon Blvd/Jackson Ave), 8p/$8. So what that Damon "Amen Dunes" McMahon's sophomore LP "Through Donkey Jaw" drops near the tail-end of summer? Despite its slow metamorphosis, the end result is a wintery, nocturnal affair, with tracks like "Lower Mind" and "Good Bad Dreams" hanging in the misty air like ice crystals. Luckily, Saint Vitus' dark denizens provides excellent accompaniment to Amen Dunes' intimate affair.
AUSTIN
* "Candy Cornbread" @ Grayduck Gallery / 608 W Monroe Dr. Six Austin artists take on pop, lowbrow and assemblage, plus Red Bluff Studios collaborated in a series of handmade prints related to the participating artists. Feat. Jason Archer, Jaime Cervantes, Satch Grimley, Mike Parsons, Matthew Rodriguez and Jeffrey Swanson.
* "The Austin Series: Part Three" @ Gallery Black Lagoon / 4301A Guadalupe St. This is just what I need for full immersion in the local art scene: a group show of over a dozen multidisciplinary artists. Feat. manipulated photography by Suzanne Koett (her "Sabbat" series), paintings by Debbie Carroll and Valérie M. Horne, mixed media works by Akaimi Davis Green and Danny Phillips, and a helluva lot more.
* Handsome Furs @ Mohawk / 912 Red River St, 8p/$13. "Sound Kapital", the new LP from this messily energetic husband-wife electro-punk duo (he, Dan Boeckner of Wolf Parade, shreds whilst she, Alexei Perry, sings and triggers keyboard squelches), hits straight for the jugular. It's rougher, noisier, funkier than anything in their past catalogue of jittery pop frenzies, alive w/ '80s charisma w/o getting all nostalgic. Prepare to sweat. w/ Lean Hounds
* YellowFever (tour kickoff) @ Beerland / 711 Red River, 9p. Austin's stripped-down indie dynamos YellowFever bring the heat once again before hitting the trail. w/ Boyfriend
* Rayon Beach @ Scoot Inn / 1308 E 4th St, 9p/$5. There's a lot of wacked-out psychedelia coming from the Hill Country (see: Butthole Surfers), and Rayon Beach make good w/ blistering punk exotica and tongue-in-cheek humor. w/ Followed by Static
TOKYO
* Miki Kubota "人の山" @ hpgrp Tokyo / B1F 5-1-15 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku (Chiyoda/Hanzomon/Ginza Lines to Omotesando Station). My translation: "Mountain People": Kubota creates wildly interesting sculpture using furniture as her base, sanding, polishing and cutting it to mimic greatly magnified dermis or crumpled paper.
* nisennenmondai @ O-Nest / 6F 2-3 Maruyama-cho, Shibuya-ku (Yamanote Line etc to Shibuya Station), 6p/2500 yen. These ultra-fierce prog-rockers' decimation of O-Nest is now captured on album, via their new LP "nisennenmondai LIVE!!!" — relive the krautrock pulse of "fan", the baklava layerings of guitar loops and ride cymbals on "mirrorball", the bass and jazz drum fills of "ikkyokume"…then see 'em again, here. w/ LAGITAGIDA
* tacobonds @ Shinjuku Motion / 5F 2-45-2 Kabukicho, Shinjuku-ku (JR etc to Shinjuku Station, East Exit), 6p/2300 yen. Jittery off-kilter Tokyo post-punk trio have kept it real and refreshing since '03 w/ deft tempo changes and coed vocalists. Their new LP "NO FICTION" is pretty dope. w/ Tape-Recorders and Owari-Kara
SATURDAY
NYC
* "The Host" (dir. Bong Joon-ho 2006) screening @ BAM / 30 Lafayette Ave, Ft Greene (23/45 to Nevins St, AC to Lafayette), 2/7p. Bong's international hit remains, in my opinion, the pinnacle of "smart" monster movies. B/c as scary as the beastie is, it's merely part of Bong's heartfelt family drama.
* "Let the Right One In" (dir. Tomas Alfredson, 2008) screening @ BAM / 30 Lafayette Ave, Ft Greene (23/45 to Nevins St, AC to Lafayette), 4:30/9:30p. Among the best of vampire films, but evermore effective b/c the blood-yearning kid's an ongoing metaphor for preteen growing pains. See this alongside Bong Joon-ho's "The Host" and witness two filmmakers thinking outside genre's formulaic box.
* "Throne of Blood" (dir. Akira Kurosawa, 1957) screening @ IFC Center / 323 Sixth Ave (ACE/BDFM to W 4th St), 11a. Kurosawa's reimagining William Shakespeare's regicide classic "Macbeth" in feudal Japan is the rare instance when the English film title is just as wicked as the original Japanese (lit. "Spiderweb Castle"). The big finale, with embattled "king" Washizu (Toshiro Mifune) against a hail of arrows is truly bracing. ALSO SUN
* Warm Up: Tanlines + NguzuNguzu (LA) @ MoMA PS1 / 22-25 Jackson Ave, Long Island City (E/M to 23rd St/Court, 7 to Courthouse Sq), 2p/FREE. The penultimate Warm Up in a series of awesomeness this season highlights glitchy tropical-house trends. I'm stoked for what Tanlines unveil, but inclusion of LA bass-lovers NguzuNguzu (I mean, have you HEARD their "Moments in Love" mixture?) ups the intensity 1000%. w/ fractured house heroes Teengirl Fantasy + Brooklyn's Physical Therapy
* Love Inks (Austin) @ Glasslands / 289 Kent Ave, Williamburg (L to Bedford, JM to Marcy), 9p/$12. LIST devotees recall my love for Austin TX's Love Inks and their debut "ESP". Their hypnotizing pop morsels are particularly suited to cozy Glasslands. w/ Male Bonding
TOKYO
* Ai Shinohara "My Progress" @ Gallery Momo / 2F 6-2-6 Roppongi, Minato-ku (Hibiya/Toei Oedo Lines to Roppongi Station). I love this gallery and I really dig young Kagoshima-born Shinohara. This exhibition feat. about 20 of her early watercolors and ink compositions — think Frank Frazetta filtered through a manga veil — plus some newer works. Recommended!
* "Piranha 3D" (dir. Alexandre Aja, 2010) midnight screening @ TOHO Cinemas Roppongi / Roppongi Hills Complex 6-10-2 Roppongi, MInato-ku (Toei Oedo/Hibiya Lines to Roppongi Station). While I saw this gloriously gory flick in the height of NYC's summer last year, I'd totally see it again on the big screen a full year later in the height of Tokyo's summer! Tokyo, are you ready for Jessica Szohr in 3D??
* Acid Mothers Temple & the Cosmic Inferno @ Goodman / Basement 55 Kanda-Sakumagashi, Chiyoda-ku (JR Lines to Akihabara Station), 6p/3000yen. AMT's heaviest, Deep Purple-swathed iteration unites for drummer/vocalist/goddess Pikachu's farewell performance! Plus frequent collaborator Kasumi Hiraoka regales with pole-dancing, and a special liquidbiupil light show! The best of psychedelic summer.
SUNDAY
NYC
* "The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie" (dir. Luis Buñuel, 1971) screening @ MoMA / 11 W 53rd St (E/M to 53rd/5th Ave, 6 to 51st St), 5p. If I had to pick one film from the Spanish surrealist's oeuvre that perfectly skewers the bourgeois class, it'd have to be '62's "The Exterminating Angel" — I mean, they're "trapped" in a room after a dinner party, for goodness sake! But this one, filmed a decade later, is nearly as good for all its pure illogicalness. Here we have a group of richies attempting to dine together, despite ongoing bizarro interruptions.
AUSTIN
* MURAL (Norway/Australia) @ Salvage Vanguard Theater / 2803 Manor Rd, 8p/$8-$15. Church of the Friendly Ghost brings the multinational trio (Norwegians Kim Myhr on guitar and Ingar Zach on percussion, plus Australian Jim Denley on winds) back to the Theater, celebrating "MURAL Live at the Rothko Chapel" — a truly monolithic recording of improvised soundscapes. w/ guest percussionists Chris Cogburn and Nick Hennies and clarinetist Jon Doyle.
TOKYO
* Issei Suda "Zapping" @ Nagune / 1-1 Kabuki-cho, Shinjuku-ku (JR etc to Shinjuku Station, East Exit then head for Golden Gai). Two notable things going on here: 1) Suda is an incredible street photographer and academic, who once worked under director Shuji Terayama in the theatrical group Tenjo Sajiki in the '60s. 2) this exhibition of his reconfigured photography is in fact installed in a Golden Gai bar. Think about that.
* "Natsu no Shinjuku" @ Marble / B1F 2-45-2 Kabukicho, Shinjuku-ku (JR etc to Shinjuku Station, East Exit), 5:30p/2300 yen. As in "Shinjuku's Summer", and this showcase, presented by Natural Hi-Tech Records, is massive. Check it: Tokyo sextet about tees meld interwoven layers of sonics via their two drummers, two bassists and two guitarists. Plus LIST favorites Metro-Ongen, minimals, Gusha-Ningen (Crazy Humans?) and many more.
* N.E.T. presents "XXX" @ Heaven's Door / B1 1-33-19 Sangenjaya, Setagaya-ku (Tokyu Den-en-toshi Line to Sangenjaya Station), 3p/2500 yen. Insanity!!! Imagine paying the equivalent of $30USD to see a dozen female-fronted (or female-only) grunge, punk and thrash bands for an entire afternoon and night. I'm stoked Osaka hardcore trio Red Bacteria Vacuum are playing, since I've seen 'em in the States before, plus Tokyo punks The Harpys and Sonic Youth-ish trio (if you imagine SY on speed) Oh my God, you've gone — who take it for coolest band name on this week's LIST. w/ N.E.T., Cannibal Rabbit, uh…Zombie Lolita. Heaven, right?
MONDAY
NYC
* Love Inks (Austin) @ Mercury Lounge / 217 E Houston (F to 2nd Ave), 9:30p/$10. A second change to catch Austin indie-pop darlings Love Inks, touring w/ Male Bonding, before they're Canana-bound (and then Europe!). See my SAT entry for more Love Inks love.
AUSTIN
* Sarah Buckius "trapped inside pixels" @ Arthouse / 700 Congress. In her debut Texas installation, the Ann Arbor-based video/performance artist presents her 2008 looping digital animation "trapped inside pixels", where she executes synchronous maneuvers w/in a field of ice cube-shaped "pixels". Part of the venue's SCREEN Projects series (so you can watch Buckius fluttering about from the street).
TOKYO
* Yokohama Triennial 2011 @ Yokohama Museum of Art / 3-4-1 Minatomirai, Nishi-ku, Yokohama-shi (Minatomirai Line to Mimatomrai Station, JR/Tokyu Toyoko or Yokohama Lines to Sakuragicho Station). Peter Coffin "Music for Plants", a music event w/in the artist's work "Untitled (Greenhouse)", which is decked in synths, mixers and amps amid the real foliage, feat. the psych-folk of Tenniscoats! At 5:30p.
* JEWEL BOX vol 2. @ Fever / 1-1-14 Hanegi, Setagaya-ku (Odakyu Inokashira Line to Shindaita or Shimokitazawa Stations), 6:30p/2300 yen. Maybe it's the keyboard accents and Natsuko's jazz-singer vox that make the awesomely named young Shinjuku trio 軍艦オクトパス (Submarine Octopus) stand out from their indie brethren…but whatever it is, it totally works. Tokyo alt-rock quartet Indigo la End inject some REM-style stream-of-consciousness against shimmery riffs and melodic choruses. w/ TRAUMEREI
TUESDAY
NYC
* Bruce Conner "Falling Leaves: An Anonymous Memorial" @ Paula Cooper Gallery / 521 W 21st St. An exhibition of drawings by the late artist created in response to 9/11, plus his 2006 collage film "His Eye is on the Sparrow".
* Angel Deradoorian @ Death By Audio / 49 S 2nd St, Williamsburg (L to Bedford, JM to Marcy), 8p/$10. As creative as weird-pop unit Dirty Projectors are, I've dug multi-instrumentalist Deradoorian's solo stuff way more. Her voice is as uncanny as her soundscapes hazy, think blunted jazz (use track "Weed Jam" for starters). DBA doesn't usually pour on the bliss like this, so take advantage! w/ Advance Base (aka Casiotone for the Painfully Alone)
AUSTIN
* "The Exterminator" (dir. James Glickenhaus, 1980) screening @ Alamo Drafthouse Ritz / 320 E 6th St, 10:45p. What's more dangerous than The Terminator? If you guessed Vietnam vet Eastland, aka The Exterminator, you are correct! B/c this is the Big Apple circa 1980, and no mobsters, punks or Ghetto Ghouls are safe from his handmade vigilante justice! It even spawned a sequel (though w/ Mark "Posse" Buntzman in the director's chair).
* Mister Heavenly @ Mohawk / 912 Red River St, 7:30p/$13. Mister Heavenly an indie supergroup comprised of Man Man's exuberant frontman Ryan "Honus Honus" Kattner, Nicholas Thornburn of Islands and Modest Mouse's drummer Joe Plummer. Their modular "doom-wop" has received a bunch of buzz not only b/c these guys are trip together but also b/c Michael Cera toured with 'em last year as bassist. Cannot guarantee "Scott Pilgrim" will join 'em tonight, but their creative interplay promises a bash.
TOKYO
* Salon RubBar @ Module / B1F/B2F 34-6 Udagawa-cho, Shibuya-ku (JR lines etc to Shibuya Station), 6p/1000 yen. Think of a fashion show where all the models are wearing rubber and latex, and you get to touch the outfits. A specific dress-code isn't vital for entrance to this fetish party, but second-skin-wear is totally encouraged.
CLOSING SOON
* "Magic for Beginners" @ PPOW / 535 W 22nd St, 3rd Fl. Jamie Sterns and Joseph Whitt curated this grope show centered around the unstructured side of Modernism, feat. Bas Jan Ader, Olaf Breuning, Jennifer Cohen, Scott Hug, Kevin Lips, Niall McClelland, Jesse McLean, Kristie Muller, Rbt. Sps., and Brent Stewart.
* "Soft Machines" @ The Pace Gallery / 545 W 22nd St. The title makes me think of Claes Oldenberg, he of literal soft-construct sculpture. But this actually alludes to William S. Burroughs' titular 1961 novel, in how control mechanisms (from narcotics to TV to religion) affect our psychological and physical disposition. Heavy stuff for a summer group show!
* "25 Years/25 Artists" @ Julie Saul Gallery / 535 W 22nd St. The gallery celebrates 25 years as a public exhibition space, with as many artists represented, each featured in one year of the show: from Tseng Kwong Chi and Maira Kalman to Julie Evans and Rineke Dijkstra.
* Judith Schaechter + Bernardi Roig "The Devil Can Cite Scripture" @ Claire Oliver / 513 W 26th St. This duo mounted "Glasstress" at this year's Venice Biennale (plus Roig's own "TRA - Edge of Becoming"). Roig's installations remind me a bit of contemporary George Segal, ash-colored men hoisting fluorescent lights. Schaechter's nonpareil stained-glass works deliver a degree of grandeur and drama to Roig's monochrome. (ENDS FRI)
TOKYO
* "New Artists" @ Galerie Sho Contemporary / B1F 3-2-9 Nihonbashi, Chuo-ku (Ginza/Tozai Lines to Nihonbashi Station). Four emerging artists from Japan and abroad, feat. Naondo Masuda (who showed at 2009 101Tokyo Contemporary Art Fair), Saeko Shimojo (recipient of the 2011 Marunouchi "Art Award Tokyo"), Arisa Ota and Lee Dongi.
* Susan Philipsz "Did I Dream You Dreamed About Me" @ Mizuma Action / 2F 1-3-9 Kamimeguro, Meguro-ku (Tokyu Toyoko Line to Nakameguro Station). An enchanting little show in summer's twilight. Mizuma restates sonic pioneer Philipsz's two-speaker installation (which they unveiled at the main Ichigaya-tamachi space in 2007) for juuuust a quickie. Don't miss it. (ENDS SAT)
NYC
* Richard Serra "Drawing" @ Metropolitan Museum of Art / 1000 Fifth Ave (456 to 86th St). Bravo to the Met for letting Serra do his thing and mount a truly memorable survey show. Despite the obvious lack of his telltale monolithic sculpture, a trek through this labyrinthine series of rooms permeating with the smell of paintstick and artificially foreshortened by the blackened works' respective scales actually FEELS like walking into and out of a Serra torqued ellipse. That the show begins with a bang, like you're shoved from the back into one of his impenetrable, textured drawings (nearly everything beyond the start is paintstick, lots and lots and lots of paintstick, heavily applied to various papers and linens), w/ only a single introductory text as your guide. Order to rooms? Give me a break. You're in Serra's domain. Though if you require a bit of order, then proceed gently to the right and let the conduits of plutonian rectangles speed you along. "Untitled (14-part roller drawing)" (1973) is an odd duck in the first section, 14 inky smudges like police fingerprinting scaled up to poster-size. Just a bit further in begins what I call the 'portals' experience. We're deposited against "Pacific Judson Murphy" (1978), a blackly black wall corner comprised of two sheets of Belgian linen, covered in paintstick. Beyond the powerful quartet "Forged Drawing" (1977/2008), four geometric forged steels (not unlike his Cor-Ten sculpture) lovingly slathered with paintstick on their faces, is Serra's cunningly titled "Institutionalized Abstract Art" (1978/2011), a wormhole-like circle pitched high on the ceiling. It leads into "Blank" (1978), two larger-than-lifesize paintstick on linen squares like doorways on either side of a narrowed room — which brings us to the deafeningly huge "Taraval Beach" (1977/2011), a floor-to-ceiling swath of Belgian linen, absolutely soaked in twilit paintstick. The vertigo this one induces reminded me strongly of Mark Danielewski's "House of Leaves", a novel-w/in-a-novel (w/in-a-novel) about a house that's bigger on the inside than the outside. Serra is really playing w/ scale here, actually and our perceptive sense of it. The old familiar Met feels quite alien. Onward through a room steeped in paintstick odor, w/ diptych works like "The United States Government Destroys Art" (1989), and another heavy room of paintstick on laminated Japanese paper, acting both as Color-Field and Hardedge but endlessly more textural. His paintstick application is almost impasto-like. Another room of vicious circles, haunting meteoric arrays like "out-of-round IX" (1999) and recent paintstick-on-linen works mimicking the weathered sides of his sculpture. The site-specific "Union" (2011) takes "Blank" from way back there and extends it into two massive wall-filling rectangles of streaked, compressed paintstick, almost like soot. The room of films (incl "Hand Catching Lead", 1968, a physical must-see) and Serra's personal sketchbooks — including super-minimalist roughs of architecture and works like the ill-fated "Tilted Arc", produce such an open effect from the previous journey that we might have been deposited down in the Great Hall, not in some smallish, generic gallery space. It's an exhibition that doesn't quite leave you once you reemerge in the 19th-C wings, still feeling the effects of having really experienced Serra.
* "THE END" @ Christopher Henry Gallery / 127 Elizabeth St, 2nd Fl. Jason LeBlond curated the kind of four-artist group show I can get behind. Why? Check Kevin Baker's lush abstracts, accentuated w/ enamel paint and executed over Kentucky-proud oilcloths. Even better: Gabriel J. Shuldiner's corroded "Post-Apocalyptic Black" paintings, each like a custom black hole of nihilism. Plus visceral ephemera from Jordan Eagles (i.e. cows' blood, combined w/ copper and preserved in Plexiglas and resin) and Wonderpuss Octopus' assaultive packaged goods.
TOKYO
* "French Window" @ Mori Art Museum / Roppongi Hills Mori Tower (53F), 6-10-1 Roppongi, Minato-ku (Hibiya/Oedo Lines to Roppongi Station). The museum's big spring-summer group show follows the ADIAF's (Association for the International Diffusion of French Art) prestigious art award, the Marcel Duchamp Prize, with a decade's worth of winners, finalists and the great Dadaist. Use this as a primer to the cream of the contemporary French scene. The title stems from Duchamp's "Fresh Widow" (1920/1964), a purposeful near-rhyme double entendre, repeated by Mathieu Mercier's 2007 "Untitled", a transparent copy of Duchamp's window, facing out onto Roppongi Hill's moneyed expanses. Nicolas Moulin's "Novomond" C-prints and "Askiatower" are sparse, otherworldly landscapes, brutally urban in their absence of wildlife. Saadane Afif's "The Skull" installation mirrors the viewer back at themselves, infinite times, via a great floor-spill of polished stainless steel balls and lights. I particularly loved Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster's transportive film installation "Exotourisme", a fragmented sci-fi film and Joshua Light-style acid trip rolled into one, w/ an Eno-esque soundtrack. A number of works were not displayed due to the devastating March 11 earthquake in northern Japan, but swapping out some of Céleste Boursier-Mougenot's works for her looping "virus" projection and her video documentation of "from here to ear" instilled some wonderful dynamics. The inclusion of Valérie Belin's uncanny "Modeles" aluminum-mounted prints shifts the gaze back at us via her subjects' unwavering intensities.
+ Yukihiro Taguchi. The young Berlin-based artist's "performative installations" series — MAM Project 014 — is beyond dope. In short, he stop-animates a whole bunch of 2x4's (in "Moment", shot all over Berlin) or an entire room (de)-installation, like "Performative Hills", a slow-crawling plank wave throughout Roppongi Hills and into the museum itself. Seeing these videos and their makings-of w/in Taguchi's own crowded and evidently "in-progress" gallery truly animates his fluctuating performances against the static museum environment.
* Mikiya Takimoto "Land Space" @ MA2 Gallery / 3-3-8 Ebisu, Shibuya-ku (Yamanote Line to Ebisu Station). The exhibition focuses on Takimoto's photographs of space shuttles, begun in 2009 during trips to Florida, which also incorporate detail shots of jet engines and natural rock formations that resemble one another.
* Kohei Nawa "Synthesis" @ Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo / 4-1-1 Miyoshi, Koto-ku (Hanzomon/Oedo Lines to Kiyosumi-Shirakawa Station). Nawa creates very pretty sculptures with shiny, translucent materials like massive plastic beads, prisms and silicone oil — and no matter the deep meanings behind it, that he's investigating the concept of the "Cell" as a metaphor for thoughts/senses in an info-laden society, his works tend to be very beautiful and very easy to like. Unless your concept of beautiful art is total minimalism and abstraction, you'll probably like Nawa's style, even if you don't fully go in w/ the intentions behind them. The sculptures are arranged sparingly, allowing their bubble-covered dermis (like "PixCell-Elk#2, shown at Japan Society's "Bye Bye Kitty!!!" exhibition) or frozen-liquid sheen (his glue-based series, like the fascinating "Air Cell-A_36mmp") to magnify and bound off the galleries' lighting and external space. (ENDS SUN)
Monday, August 22, 2011
Strange Films I've Seen: DREAM HOME
The film begins around midnight of October 2007 (dates are important, as much of the story's "modus", besides the full-out assault and murder, is told in flashbacks) in the security room of the Victoria No. 1. A security guard is nodding off and wakes up with a start when a nylon tie-strap is zipped around his throat. What follows is a lengthy, exhausting, grisly death, as he thrashes about, his leather shoes scuttling the marble floor, his fingers unable to get beneath the nylon band's grip. He grapples for a tool kit overhead (the camera shoots this from above, showing the dark-clothed perpetrator — Josie Ho — just out of view, watching him struggle), produces an X-Acto blade, and them proceeds to saw at the nylon tie, and eventually his own throat, severing his jugular or some major artery that pistons blackening blood out as he finally drops dead. The duration of his death and Pang's unwavering camera sets the tone: this ain't your regular slasher film. If Ho's ensuing violence followed this murder in realtime order, we'd have like an hour-long film of unyielding, improbably bloodshed. Lots and lots of killin' with seemingly no reason. Hence the director's many flashbacks, to Ho's daily life as the bank-teller drone Sheung (advising clients into debt, a deed she is notably averse to), meeting up with her married boyfriend at love hotels for a little respite while she saves up for this big new apartment.
Oh yeah, the beginning of Dream Home states this is based on a true story.
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
fee's LIST (through 8/23)
WEDNESDAY
NYC
* Chelsea Wolfe @ Saint Vitus / 1120 Manhattan Ave, Greenpoint (G to Greenpoint, 7 to Vernon Blvd/Jackson Ave), 8p/$8. Cali's doom-folk goddess Chelsea Wolfe stages her much-overdue NYC debut tonight, ahead of her 2nd LP "Apokalypsis" (on Pendu Sound), and it's totally appropriate she does it at my favorite black-walled and -ceiliinged and -floored metal bar. w/ Cult of Youth
AUSTIN
* " Cold Fish - UNCUT" (dir. Sion Sono, 2010) screening @ Alamo Drafthouse S. Lamar / 1120 S. Lamar, 10p. Sono's bloodied barrage of domestic violence, deception and dismemberment around a tropical fish store will leave you gutted (pun intentional!). Luckily the Drafthouse serves alcohol, which you might need to propel yourself into the 2nd half, a propulsive ride towards a brutal — perhaps even cathartic — finale. All said, this is a phenomenal work and super-rare to see it uncut off the festival circuit. It'll give you nightmares, but it's worth it. ALSO THU
* "The Outfit" (dir. John Flynn, 1973) screening @ Alamo Drafthouse Ritz / 320 E 6th St, 10p. So you're the mob and you just royally screwed yourself by dissing Golden Age Robert Duvall (i.e. you murder his brother). Now he's out for revenge, and he's gonna rob you while he's at it.
TOKYO
* Yokohama Triennial 2011 @ Yokohama Museum of Art / 3-4-1 Minatomirai, Nishi-ku, Yokohama-shi (Minatomirai Line to Mimatomrai Station, JR/Tokyu Toyoko or Yokohama Lines to Sakuragicho Station). Peter Coffin "Music for Plants", a music event w/in the artist's work "Untitled (Greenhouse)", which is decked in synths, mixers and amps amid the real foliage, feat. the unfettered noise of Jim O'Rourke! At 5:30p.
* Merzbow + TADZIO @ Mameromantic / B2 Daikanyama, Shibuya-ku (Tokyu Toyoko Line to Daikanyama Station), 6:30p/3000 yen. I want to attend this noise-fest BAD. Pairing skronk-punk cuties TADZIO (their debut LP rocks!) w/ legend Masami "Merzbow" Akita is atonal music to my ears. w/ a duet by Masaaki Kikuchi (electronics) and Tatsuya Yoshida (drums)
THURSDAY
NYC
* "THE END" @ Christopher Henry Gallery / 127 Elizabeth St, 2nd Fl. Jason LeBlond curated the kind of four-artist group show I can get behind. Why? Check Kevin Baker's lush abstracts, accentuated w/ enamel paint and executed over Kentucky-proud oilcloths. Even better: Gabriel J. Shuldiner's corroded "Post-Apocalyptic Black" paintings, each like a custom black hole of nihilism. Plus visceral ephemera from Jordan Eagles (i.e. cows' blood, combined w/ copper and preserved in Plexiglas and resin) and Wonderpuss Octopus' assaultive packaged goods.
* Charlene Kaye @ Rockwood Music Hall / 184 Allen St (F to 2nd Ave), 6p/FREE. Prepare for enchantment, in this solo piano soiree by local singer-songwriter Kaye.
AUSTIN
* "Pale Flower" (dir. Masahiro Shinoda, 1964) + "Double Suicide" (dir. Masahiro Shinoda, 1969) screenings @ Paramount Theatre / 713 Congress Ave, Austin, 7/9p. I was lucky enough to catch this Japanese New Wave filmmaker's pivotal work "Shinjuu-ten Amijima" (known stateside as "Double Suicide", but originally translates as the poetically badass "Amijima Effaced to Heaven by a Lovers' Suicide") at Japan Society's New Wave mini-fest. This is an excellent chance to catch Shinoda's deft blending of ritualistic old-school Japan w/ marginal down-and-out characters of then-contemporary society. ALSO FRI 7/9:10p
* "Starship Troopers" (dir. Paul Verhoeven, 1997) ACTION PACK Edition @ Alamo Drafthouse Ritz / 320 E 6th St, 7p. I totally mean to make one of these "Action Pack" showcases, which augment bonkers '80s and '90s action films w/ live pyrotechnics and audience cap guns. And honestly, I always dug "Starship Troopers" for its blatant boneheadedness, its farcical take on hoo-rah vs. "bugs", plus the unironic coed infantry.
TOKYO
* TADZIO @ O-Nest / 6F 2-3 Maruyama-cho, Shibuya-ku (Yamanote Line etc to Shibuya Station), 7p/2500 yen. A double-shot of grrrl noise-punk TADZIO? Sign me up! w/ the perpetual jazz-deconstructionists nhhmbase
FRIDAY
NYC
* "Grave Encounters" (dirs. The Vicious Brothers, 2011) midnight screening @ Village East Cinema / 181 2nd St (L to 3rd Ave). This debut full-length from two filmmakers younger than me looks scary as hell. Insanely scary, if you will, as it's set in a derelict mental hospital and composed found-footage style. ALSO SAT
* "Fright Night 3D" in wide release (dir. Craig Gillespie, 2011). Yeah, all right, if you'd asked my take on this remake of Tom Holland's CLASSIC '80s HORROR FILM like two months ago, I'd been pretty damn skeptical. As in: why revamp greatness? But… what I've seen thus far (Colin Farrell as a very un-pretty-boy monster as lead villain Dandridge, '90s alt-queen Lisa Loeb as Evil Ed's mom, Imogen Poots — aka Tammy from "28 Weeks Later"! — as the girlfriend, and an overall authentically scary vibe) has me stoked, so there you go.
* "A Horrible Way to Die" (dir. Adam Wingard, 2010) @ reRun Theatre / 147 Front St, DUMBO (F to York St, AC to High St), 7/10p w/ writer/producer Simon Barrett! This new chiller from genre dynamo Wingard, which had its U.S. debut at Fantastic Fest last year, is a particularly twisted take on the serial killer film, w/ the escaped con rampaging to find his recovering ex-girlfriend. But one of those twists (perhaps less apparent to you non-cinephiles) is Joe Swanberg as the ex's new squeeze, playing an entirely serious role for this usual mumblecore deviant. Also SAT-SUN, 1p; MON-TUES 7/10p
* Hausu (dir. Nobuhiko Obayashi, 1977) midnight screening @ IFC Center / 323 Sixth Ave (ACE/BDFM to W 4th St). No teen girl ghost story will ever match the Technicolor mayhem of HOUSE. If the high-school-aged beauties trekking off a painted landscape to old auntie's house don't send you for a loop, the creative savageries (and eye-wateringly intense in-camera effects) that await them totally will. Like Dario Argento through the mind of a preteen girl, super-cute yet incredibly disturbing. This film is LIST-approved for dopeness. ALSO SAT
* Black Pus @ Death By Audio / 49 S 2nd St, Williamsburg (L to Bedford, JM to Marcy), 8p/$8. Deposit masked man-maelstrom drummer Brian Chippendale (Black Pus/Lightning Bolt) w/in DBA's checkerboard environs, ideally on the floor, and you get TOTAL MIND OBLITERATION. His furious rhythms and barked vocalizations will rip paint from the walls. And as Chippendale steers you in varying forms of stagediving and moshing, you will lap it up like sunlight and love it. w/ Cosmonauts and Zulus
* Yellow Ostrich + Caged Animals @ Glasslands / 289 Kent Ave, Williamburg (L to Bedford, JM to Marcy), 8:30p/$10. Word of advice: show up early for Brooklyn's fractured dreampop outfit Caged Animals. Their new 7" "Girls on Medication" could change your life (or at least haunt your dreams). Headlining duo Yellow Ostrich put the freak(y) in freak-folk. w/ Exitmusic
AUSTIN
* "3D Sex and Zen: Extreme Ecstasy" (dir. Christopher Sun Lap Key, 2011) @ Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar / 1120 S Lamar Blvd, 7p. Hong Kong's first 3D erotic drama, which whupped "Avatar"'s ass in the box office and features a fair number of Japanese AV idols (incl. Saori Hara, whom the expert viewer may recall from "Horny House of Horror"). Sounds like essential viewing to me!
* Suzanna Choffel + Quiet Company @ Antones / 213 W 5th St, 9p/$10. Ahead of local piano-accented indie rockers Quiet Company's CD release show next month is this tiny coupling w/ smoky singer-songwriter Suzanna Choffel. w/ Courrier
* Lola-Cola + The French Inhales @ Beerland / 711 Red River, 9p. Bubblegum glitter punk, so claims Lola-Cola's Facebook page! Penny Cola fronts this sweaty dynamo of grimy guitars and shouty grrrl vox, a smart match for The French Inhales' sophisticated coed noise-rock. w/ Bike Problems
* The Scarlett Effect + The Beat Dolls @ Hole in the Wall / 2538 Guadalupe St, 10p/$5. That The Beat Dolls blend upbeat third-wave ska (their frontwoman Angie Munsey hails from a Dallas punk/ska background) with propulsive garage rock is like they formed just for me. They play my favorite dive w/ McAllen's The Scarlett Effect, four heart-breakers w/ a penchant for bluesy riff rock. w/ Ledaswan
TOKYO
* The Vickers + Fruits Explosion @ Shibuya Cyclone / B2 13-16 Udagawa-cho, Shibuya-ku (JR Lines etc to Shibuya Station), 6:30p/2600 yen. Slinky hook-driven rock 'n' roll, that's what I'm talking about! Fruits Explosion (styled as "Fruit Sex Plosion", if that gives you any indication) have charismatic howler Lee as frontman over a skronk-rock core. Check newish single "Love is Stronger Than the Truth", ahead of their big kickoff tour. Tokyo mainstays The Vickers unleash blast-beat punk tunes w/ machine-gun intensity. w/ The JFK
* FREEDOMMUNE ZERO Festival @ Higashi-Ogishima East Park, Kawasaki City (take a free shuttle bus from Kawasaki Station East Exit, via the JR Kawasaki Line), 3p-6a!, FREE w/ RSVP. DOMMUNE (Shibuya's streaming studio that could; think Austin City Limits but for audiences of 50 at a time) unveils a stunning outdoor concert of techno, noise and even pop, spread over 40 acts and five stages. Hell, I'd go for the noise alone, which boasts Merzbow, Keiji Haino, Hijokaidan, Otomo Yoshihide, and Whitehouse/Cut Hands, but Detroit techno god Jeff Mills, tropic-percussive legion OOIOO and avant-chanteuse Salyu x Salyu keep things popping.
SATURDAY
NYC
* "Iconoclast: Boyd Rice" (dir. Larry Wessel, 2010) screening @ Anthology Film Archives / 32 Second Ave (F to 2nd Ave), 7p. The American underground iconoclast Rice, aka noisician NON, the author, Satanist, UNPOP co-founder and undoubtedly many other pursuits I've failed to mention, is the subject of this four-hour "epic view". Wessel crafts the tale through Rice's own words, but the turbo-collaged subject matter (Charles Manson to Marilyn Manson, knives, industrial music, Bob Larson) must approach what it's like to actually spend a few hours w/in this guy's head. ALSO SUN 7p
* "Under the Sand" (dir. François Ozon, 2000) screening @ MoMA / 11 W 53rd St (E/M to 53rd/5th Ave, 6 to 51st St), 7:30p. Bit like a French take on Michelangelo Antonioni's Modernist classic "L'Avventura", or more realistically a taut investigation on loss and disillusionment, when university lecturer Marie's (Charlotte Rampling) husband vanishes off a SW French beach while she sunbathes. ALSO SUN 2p
* Warm Up: Juan Maclean + Blood Orange @ MoMA PS1 / 22-25 Jackson Ave, Long Island City (E/M to 23rd St/Court, 7 to Courthouse Sq), 2p/FREE. Warm Up is on fire this season! I mean…what's better than some grit from Montreal DJ Grimes and some gloss from Houston TX's Solange Knowles, followed by Dev "Lightspeed Champion" Hynes' synth-funk outfit Blood Orange AND NY nouveau-disco mainstays Juan Maclean? If Nancy Whang adds her house vox to the mix = perfection.
AUSTIN
* "The Soft Skin" (dir. François Truffaut, 1964) + "Vivre sa vie" (dir. Jean-Luc Godard, 1962) screenings @ Paramount Theatre / 713 Congress Ave, Austin, 4:30/6:50p. How does one pick two Nouvelle Vague classics to run as a double feature? I'd have a hell of a time and probably go w/ two JLG flicks, but I like the Paramount's thinking here. We've got a mid-60's beauty from Truffaut, a classic love triangle français, which isn't as well known as his one-two "Jules et Jim" and "The 400 Blows"; plus JLG's 12-episode early feature on muse Anna Karina, basically playing herself (except for the prostitution thing). ALSO SUN 4/6:20p
* Jean Grae (NYC) w/ DJ Mr. Len @ Scoot Inn / 1308 E 4th St, 9p/$15. So NYC got a Company Flow reunion, and rightfully so too considering these heavies represent the best of E. Coast underground hip-hop. Austin gets a slice of the action, via a queen of NY's indie scene, the indomitable Jean Grae, who brings polysyllabic fury to Co-Flow DJ Mr. Len's sick-ass beats. Gonna be a hot night.
* Natural Child (Nashville) + Liquor Store @ Spiderhouse Ballroom / 2906 Fruth, 10p/$5. I loved Natural Child's relentless southern-fried rock whenever they'd sweep through Brooklyn, and to see them in Austin (alongside touring partners and absolutely bonkers Jersey punks Liquor Store) just sounds like a riot. w/ OBN III's
TOKYO
* Yokohama Triennial 2011 talk @ Yokohama Museum of Art / 3-4-1 Minatomirai, Nishi-ku, Yokohama-shi (Minatomirai Line to Mimatomrai Station, JR/Tokyu Toyoko or Yokohama Lines to Sakuragicho Station), 7-9p. Yoshihide Otomo, the legendary experimental musician and one-third the founders behind Project FUKUSHIMA! leads a discussion on the vitality of creative expression in NE Japan and beyond.
* "Nightmare", Torture Garden Japan 2011 Autumn Ball Pre-Party @ Akasaka Erebos / 3-11-14 Akasaka, Minato-ku (Tokyo Metro Chiyoda Line to Akasaka Station), 10p/3500 yen (or 2500 yen following dress-code). Perfect way to warm those bodies up to latex and leather, before the big bash next month. It pains me (pun?) that I cannot attend this, but for those of you in the know, it's a must-do event! w/ DJ Me:Ca, the cutest and fiercest official Torture Garden Japan DJ, plus a host of kinky performances.
MONDAY
NYC
* "The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant" (dir. Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1973) @ IFC Center / 323 Sixth Ave (ACE/BDFM to W 4th St). This potent portrayal of acute attraction and regret, with an all-female cast (incl. recurring muse Margit Carstensen as the lead and chanson Hanna Schygulla the object of her obsession), was adapted by Fassbinder from his titular play.
TUESDAY
AUSTIN
* Alberto Mena "While I Sleep" @ B. Hollyman Gallery / 1202-A W Sixth St. The NY-based artist meditates on dreams and that blurry line b/w wakefulness and slumber. His debut solo exhibition in Austin features photographic prints w/ varying degrees of manipulation.
* "She's All That" (dir. Robert Iscove, 1999) screening @ Alamo Drafthouse Ritz / 320 E 6th St. Austin's "Cute Night" is totally "all that". And despite my rancor toward Freddie Prinze, Jr., his boyish look as all-star senior Zach (color-blocked sweaters, hangdog grin) makes up for it. Even better: the double-awesomeness of Jodi Lyn O'Keefe as A-list girlfriend and an "unknown" Rachael Leigh Cook as the socially awkward art student (but really a total hottie!). The ultimate: a choreographed dance scene to Fatboy Slim's "The Rockafeller Skank", w/ USHER as DJ!
* "Don't Panic" (dir. Rubén Galindo Jr., 1988) screening @ Alamo Drafthouse Ritz / 320 E 6th St, 9:45p. Take the best of '80s slasher films, throw in some "A Nightmare on Elm Street" conjuring hoodoo, then put the resulting knife-toting, teen-killin' demon Virgil against an adult male wearing child pajamas and voila! Possibly the only thing cooler than that previous sentence is "Don't Panic"'s decade-appropriate New Jack Swing theme song.
* Dntel @ Emo's / 603 Red River, 9p/$12. So Jimmy "Dntel" Tamborello is one glitch maven who made a successful splash in the mainstream, via indie-pop duo The Postal Service. w/ The One AM Radio
TOKYO
* Susan Philipsz "Did I Dream You Dreamed About Me" @ Mizuma Action / 2F 1-3-9 Kamimeguro, Meguro-ku (Tokyu Toyoko Line to Nakameguro Station). An enchanting little show in summer's twilight. Mizuma restates sonic pioneer Philipsz's two-speaker installation (which they unveiled at the main Ichigaya-tamachi space in 2007) for juuuust a quickie, i.e. it closes SAT. Don't miss it.
CLOSING SOON
NYC
* "Cabin Fever" @ Mixed Greens / 531 W 26th St. A summer group show named after — but not necessarily extracting from — my favorite Eli Roth film (yes, on the record here, I dug "Cabin Fever" WAY more than "Hostel"). There is some B-horror tenseness here, via Josh Peters, Megan Crump and Mike Calway-Fagan, but the overall exhibition is steeped in a more generalized terror, like Jonathan Ehrenberg's looping two-channel video and Ilene Sunshine's wall-mounted sculpture. (ENDS FRI)
TOKYO
* Kosai Hori "Origin — naked place" @ Mizuma Art Gallery / 2F 3-13 Ichigayatamachi, Shinjuku-ku (Yurakucho/Nanboku Lines to Ichigaya Station). Hori's gestural mark-making makes us more aware of the works' borders and constraints. This exhibition includes some four years of his mineral pigment and oil paintings.
* Shingo Francis "Veils" @ Galerie Paris / 1F, 14 Nihon Odori, Naka-ku Yokohama-shi (Minatomirai Line to Nihon Odori Station — access from Shibuya Station). This is a bit of a haul out to Yokohama but totes worth it. Reason: Francis's incredible minimalist painting installations, resonant w/ some deep cosmic energy. I was lucky enough to meet the man during a residency/exhibition in NYC. (ENDS SAT)
AUSTIN
* "Identity Crisis", curated by Hector Hernandez @ Grayduck Gallery / 608 W Monroe Dr. Altering oneself and its impact, both personal and outward, in society — whether that means a more explicit gesture (the mask) or a more subtle costume. Hernandez, painter/printmaker Carlos Donjuan and multimedia artist William Hundley (winner of the Juror's Award at Texas' 2007 Biennial) contribute. I dug this quite a bit. Donjuan's collages on birch panels bore Rene Magritte references, like the "veiled" women and perched birds in "I'm a Lady" and the prisms on "Where to", and I particularly liked Hernandez's own series "Mrs. Nitroglycerin", varyingly spare mixed media compositions or C-prints of a modelesque woman wielding a "Technicolor Ax".
TOKYO
* Daisuke Nagaoka @ hpgrp Tokyo / B1F 5-1-15 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku (Chiyoda/Hanzomon/Ginza Lines to Omotesando Station). Nagaoka animates his elaborate pencil and pen drawings into layered, erased and reconfigured scenarios — think a William Kentridge style physicality. (ENDS SUN)
NYC
* Chelsea Wolfe @ Saint Vitus / 1120 Manhattan Ave, Greenpoint (G to Greenpoint, 7 to Vernon Blvd/Jackson Ave), 8p/$8. Cali's doom-folk goddess Chelsea Wolfe stages her much-overdue NYC debut tonight, ahead of her 2nd LP "Apokalypsis" (on Pendu Sound), and it's totally appropriate she does it at my favorite black-walled and -ceiliinged and -floored metal bar. w/ Cult of Youth
AUSTIN
* " Cold Fish - UNCUT" (dir. Sion Sono, 2010) screening @ Alamo Drafthouse S. Lamar / 1120 S. Lamar, 10p. Sono's bloodied barrage of domestic violence, deception and dismemberment around a tropical fish store will leave you gutted (pun intentional!). Luckily the Drafthouse serves alcohol, which you might need to propel yourself into the 2nd half, a propulsive ride towards a brutal — perhaps even cathartic — finale. All said, this is a phenomenal work and super-rare to see it uncut off the festival circuit. It'll give you nightmares, but it's worth it. ALSO THU
* "The Outfit" (dir. John Flynn, 1973) screening @ Alamo Drafthouse Ritz / 320 E 6th St, 10p. So you're the mob and you just royally screwed yourself by dissing Golden Age Robert Duvall (i.e. you murder his brother). Now he's out for revenge, and he's gonna rob you while he's at it.
TOKYO
* Yokohama Triennial 2011 @ Yokohama Museum of Art / 3-4-1 Minatomirai, Nishi-ku, Yokohama-shi (Minatomirai Line to Mimatomrai Station, JR/Tokyu Toyoko or Yokohama Lines to Sakuragicho Station). Peter Coffin "Music for Plants", a music event w/in the artist's work "Untitled (Greenhouse)", which is decked in synths, mixers and amps amid the real foliage, feat. the unfettered noise of Jim O'Rourke! At 5:30p.
* Merzbow + TADZIO @ Mameromantic / B2 Daikanyama, Shibuya-ku (Tokyu Toyoko Line to Daikanyama Station), 6:30p/3000 yen. I want to attend this noise-fest BAD. Pairing skronk-punk cuties TADZIO (their debut LP rocks!) w/ legend Masami "Merzbow" Akita is atonal music to my ears. w/ a duet by Masaaki Kikuchi (electronics) and Tatsuya Yoshida (drums)
THURSDAY
NYC
* "THE END" @ Christopher Henry Gallery / 127 Elizabeth St, 2nd Fl. Jason LeBlond curated the kind of four-artist group show I can get behind. Why? Check Kevin Baker's lush abstracts, accentuated w/ enamel paint and executed over Kentucky-proud oilcloths. Even better: Gabriel J. Shuldiner's corroded "Post-Apocalyptic Black" paintings, each like a custom black hole of nihilism. Plus visceral ephemera from Jordan Eagles (i.e. cows' blood, combined w/ copper and preserved in Plexiglas and resin) and Wonderpuss Octopus' assaultive packaged goods.
* Charlene Kaye @ Rockwood Music Hall / 184 Allen St (F to 2nd Ave), 6p/FREE. Prepare for enchantment, in this solo piano soiree by local singer-songwriter Kaye.
AUSTIN
* "Pale Flower" (dir. Masahiro Shinoda, 1964) + "Double Suicide" (dir. Masahiro Shinoda, 1969) screenings @ Paramount Theatre / 713 Congress Ave, Austin, 7/9p. I was lucky enough to catch this Japanese New Wave filmmaker's pivotal work "Shinjuu-ten Amijima" (known stateside as "Double Suicide", but originally translates as the poetically badass "Amijima Effaced to Heaven by a Lovers' Suicide") at Japan Society's New Wave mini-fest. This is an excellent chance to catch Shinoda's deft blending of ritualistic old-school Japan w/ marginal down-and-out characters of then-contemporary society. ALSO FRI 7/9:10p
* "Starship Troopers" (dir. Paul Verhoeven, 1997) ACTION PACK Edition @ Alamo Drafthouse Ritz / 320 E 6th St, 7p. I totally mean to make one of these "Action Pack" showcases, which augment bonkers '80s and '90s action films w/ live pyrotechnics and audience cap guns. And honestly, I always dug "Starship Troopers" for its blatant boneheadedness, its farcical take on hoo-rah vs. "bugs", plus the unironic coed infantry.
TOKYO
* TADZIO @ O-Nest / 6F 2-3 Maruyama-cho, Shibuya-ku (Yamanote Line etc to Shibuya Station), 7p/2500 yen. A double-shot of grrrl noise-punk TADZIO? Sign me up! w/ the perpetual jazz-deconstructionists nhhmbase
FRIDAY
NYC
* "Grave Encounters" (dirs. The Vicious Brothers, 2011) midnight screening @ Village East Cinema / 181 2nd St (L to 3rd Ave). This debut full-length from two filmmakers younger than me looks scary as hell. Insanely scary, if you will, as it's set in a derelict mental hospital and composed found-footage style. ALSO SAT
* "Fright Night 3D" in wide release (dir. Craig Gillespie, 2011). Yeah, all right, if you'd asked my take on this remake of Tom Holland's CLASSIC '80s HORROR FILM like two months ago, I'd been pretty damn skeptical. As in: why revamp greatness? But… what I've seen thus far (Colin Farrell as a very un-pretty-boy monster as lead villain Dandridge, '90s alt-queen Lisa Loeb as Evil Ed's mom, Imogen Poots — aka Tammy from "28 Weeks Later"! — as the girlfriend, and an overall authentically scary vibe) has me stoked, so there you go.
* "A Horrible Way to Die" (dir. Adam Wingard, 2010) @ reRun Theatre / 147 Front St, DUMBO (F to York St, AC to High St), 7/10p w/ writer/producer Simon Barrett! This new chiller from genre dynamo Wingard, which had its U.S. debut at Fantastic Fest last year, is a particularly twisted take on the serial killer film, w/ the escaped con rampaging to find his recovering ex-girlfriend. But one of those twists (perhaps less apparent to you non-cinephiles) is Joe Swanberg as the ex's new squeeze, playing an entirely serious role for this usual mumblecore deviant. Also SAT-SUN, 1p; MON-TUES 7/10p
* Hausu (dir. Nobuhiko Obayashi, 1977) midnight screening @ IFC Center / 323 Sixth Ave (ACE/BDFM to W 4th St). No teen girl ghost story will ever match the Technicolor mayhem of HOUSE. If the high-school-aged beauties trekking off a painted landscape to old auntie's house don't send you for a loop, the creative savageries (and eye-wateringly intense in-camera effects) that await them totally will. Like Dario Argento through the mind of a preteen girl, super-cute yet incredibly disturbing. This film is LIST-approved for dopeness. ALSO SAT
* Black Pus @ Death By Audio / 49 S 2nd St, Williamsburg (L to Bedford, JM to Marcy), 8p/$8. Deposit masked man-maelstrom drummer Brian Chippendale (Black Pus/Lightning Bolt) w/in DBA's checkerboard environs, ideally on the floor, and you get TOTAL MIND OBLITERATION. His furious rhythms and barked vocalizations will rip paint from the walls. And as Chippendale steers you in varying forms of stagediving and moshing, you will lap it up like sunlight and love it. w/ Cosmonauts and Zulus
* Yellow Ostrich + Caged Animals @ Glasslands / 289 Kent Ave, Williamburg (L to Bedford, JM to Marcy), 8:30p/$10. Word of advice: show up early for Brooklyn's fractured dreampop outfit Caged Animals. Their new 7" "Girls on Medication" could change your life (or at least haunt your dreams). Headlining duo Yellow Ostrich put the freak(y) in freak-folk. w/ Exitmusic
AUSTIN
* "3D Sex and Zen: Extreme Ecstasy" (dir. Christopher Sun Lap Key, 2011) @ Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar / 1120 S Lamar Blvd, 7p. Hong Kong's first 3D erotic drama, which whupped "Avatar"'s ass in the box office and features a fair number of Japanese AV idols (incl. Saori Hara, whom the expert viewer may recall from "Horny House of Horror"). Sounds like essential viewing to me!
* Suzanna Choffel + Quiet Company @ Antones / 213 W 5th St, 9p/$10. Ahead of local piano-accented indie rockers Quiet Company's CD release show next month is this tiny coupling w/ smoky singer-songwriter Suzanna Choffel. w/ Courrier
* Lola-Cola + The French Inhales @ Beerland / 711 Red River, 9p. Bubblegum glitter punk, so claims Lola-Cola's Facebook page! Penny Cola fronts this sweaty dynamo of grimy guitars and shouty grrrl vox, a smart match for The French Inhales' sophisticated coed noise-rock. w/ Bike Problems
* The Scarlett Effect + The Beat Dolls @ Hole in the Wall / 2538 Guadalupe St, 10p/$5. That The Beat Dolls blend upbeat third-wave ska (their frontwoman Angie Munsey hails from a Dallas punk/ska background) with propulsive garage rock is like they formed just for me. They play my favorite dive w/ McAllen's The Scarlett Effect, four heart-breakers w/ a penchant for bluesy riff rock. w/ Ledaswan
TOKYO
* The Vickers + Fruits Explosion @ Shibuya Cyclone / B2 13-16 Udagawa-cho, Shibuya-ku (JR Lines etc to Shibuya Station), 6:30p/2600 yen. Slinky hook-driven rock 'n' roll, that's what I'm talking about! Fruits Explosion (styled as "Fruit Sex Plosion", if that gives you any indication) have charismatic howler Lee as frontman over a skronk-rock core. Check newish single "Love is Stronger Than the Truth", ahead of their big kickoff tour. Tokyo mainstays The Vickers unleash blast-beat punk tunes w/ machine-gun intensity. w/ The JFK
* FREEDOMMUNE ZERO Festival @ Higashi-Ogishima East Park, Kawasaki City (take a free shuttle bus from Kawasaki Station East Exit, via the JR Kawasaki Line), 3p-6a!, FREE w/ RSVP. DOMMUNE (Shibuya's streaming studio that could; think Austin City Limits but for audiences of 50 at a time) unveils a stunning outdoor concert of techno, noise and even pop, spread over 40 acts and five stages. Hell, I'd go for the noise alone, which boasts Merzbow, Keiji Haino, Hijokaidan, Otomo Yoshihide, and Whitehouse/Cut Hands, but Detroit techno god Jeff Mills, tropic-percussive legion OOIOO and avant-chanteuse Salyu x Salyu keep things popping.
SATURDAY
NYC
* "Iconoclast: Boyd Rice" (dir. Larry Wessel, 2010) screening @ Anthology Film Archives / 32 Second Ave (F to 2nd Ave), 7p. The American underground iconoclast Rice, aka noisician NON, the author, Satanist, UNPOP co-founder and undoubtedly many other pursuits I've failed to mention, is the subject of this four-hour "epic view". Wessel crafts the tale through Rice's own words, but the turbo-collaged subject matter (Charles Manson to Marilyn Manson, knives, industrial music, Bob Larson) must approach what it's like to actually spend a few hours w/in this guy's head. ALSO SUN 7p
* "Under the Sand" (dir. François Ozon, 2000) screening @ MoMA / 11 W 53rd St (E/M to 53rd/5th Ave, 6 to 51st St), 7:30p. Bit like a French take on Michelangelo Antonioni's Modernist classic "L'Avventura", or more realistically a taut investigation on loss and disillusionment, when university lecturer Marie's (Charlotte Rampling) husband vanishes off a SW French beach while she sunbathes. ALSO SUN 2p
* Warm Up: Juan Maclean + Blood Orange @ MoMA PS1 / 22-25 Jackson Ave, Long Island City (E/M to 23rd St/Court, 7 to Courthouse Sq), 2p/FREE. Warm Up is on fire this season! I mean…what's better than some grit from Montreal DJ Grimes and some gloss from Houston TX's Solange Knowles, followed by Dev "Lightspeed Champion" Hynes' synth-funk outfit Blood Orange AND NY nouveau-disco mainstays Juan Maclean? If Nancy Whang adds her house vox to the mix = perfection.
AUSTIN
* "The Soft Skin" (dir. François Truffaut, 1964) + "Vivre sa vie" (dir. Jean-Luc Godard, 1962) screenings @ Paramount Theatre / 713 Congress Ave, Austin, 4:30/6:50p. How does one pick two Nouvelle Vague classics to run as a double feature? I'd have a hell of a time and probably go w/ two JLG flicks, but I like the Paramount's thinking here. We've got a mid-60's beauty from Truffaut, a classic love triangle français, which isn't as well known as his one-two "Jules et Jim" and "The 400 Blows"; plus JLG's 12-episode early feature on muse Anna Karina, basically playing herself (except for the prostitution thing). ALSO SUN 4/6:20p
* Jean Grae (NYC) w/ DJ Mr. Len @ Scoot Inn / 1308 E 4th St, 9p/$15. So NYC got a Company Flow reunion, and rightfully so too considering these heavies represent the best of E. Coast underground hip-hop. Austin gets a slice of the action, via a queen of NY's indie scene, the indomitable Jean Grae, who brings polysyllabic fury to Co-Flow DJ Mr. Len's sick-ass beats. Gonna be a hot night.
* Natural Child (Nashville) + Liquor Store @ Spiderhouse Ballroom / 2906 Fruth, 10p/$5. I loved Natural Child's relentless southern-fried rock whenever they'd sweep through Brooklyn, and to see them in Austin (alongside touring partners and absolutely bonkers Jersey punks Liquor Store) just sounds like a riot. w/ OBN III's
TOKYO
* Yokohama Triennial 2011 talk @ Yokohama Museum of Art / 3-4-1 Minatomirai, Nishi-ku, Yokohama-shi (Minatomirai Line to Mimatomrai Station, JR/Tokyu Toyoko or Yokohama Lines to Sakuragicho Station), 7-9p. Yoshihide Otomo, the legendary experimental musician and one-third the founders behind Project FUKUSHIMA! leads a discussion on the vitality of creative expression in NE Japan and beyond.
* "Nightmare", Torture Garden Japan 2011 Autumn Ball Pre-Party @ Akasaka Erebos / 3-11-14 Akasaka, Minato-ku (Tokyo Metro Chiyoda Line to Akasaka Station), 10p/3500 yen (or 2500 yen following dress-code). Perfect way to warm those bodies up to latex and leather, before the big bash next month. It pains me (pun?) that I cannot attend this, but for those of you in the know, it's a must-do event! w/ DJ Me:Ca, the cutest and fiercest official Torture Garden Japan DJ, plus a host of kinky performances.
MONDAY
NYC
* "The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant" (dir. Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1973) @ IFC Center / 323 Sixth Ave (ACE/BDFM to W 4th St). This potent portrayal of acute attraction and regret, with an all-female cast (incl. recurring muse Margit Carstensen as the lead and chanson Hanna Schygulla the object of her obsession), was adapted by Fassbinder from his titular play.
TUESDAY
AUSTIN
* Alberto Mena "While I Sleep" @ B. Hollyman Gallery / 1202-A W Sixth St. The NY-based artist meditates on dreams and that blurry line b/w wakefulness and slumber. His debut solo exhibition in Austin features photographic prints w/ varying degrees of manipulation.
* "She's All That" (dir. Robert Iscove, 1999) screening @ Alamo Drafthouse Ritz / 320 E 6th St. Austin's "Cute Night" is totally "all that". And despite my rancor toward Freddie Prinze, Jr., his boyish look as all-star senior Zach (color-blocked sweaters, hangdog grin) makes up for it. Even better: the double-awesomeness of Jodi Lyn O'Keefe as A-list girlfriend and an "unknown" Rachael Leigh Cook as the socially awkward art student (but really a total hottie!). The ultimate: a choreographed dance scene to Fatboy Slim's "The Rockafeller Skank", w/ USHER as DJ!
* "Don't Panic" (dir. Rubén Galindo Jr., 1988) screening @ Alamo Drafthouse Ritz / 320 E 6th St, 9:45p. Take the best of '80s slasher films, throw in some "A Nightmare on Elm Street" conjuring hoodoo, then put the resulting knife-toting, teen-killin' demon Virgil against an adult male wearing child pajamas and voila! Possibly the only thing cooler than that previous sentence is "Don't Panic"'s decade-appropriate New Jack Swing theme song.
* Dntel @ Emo's / 603 Red River, 9p/$12. So Jimmy "Dntel" Tamborello is one glitch maven who made a successful splash in the mainstream, via indie-pop duo The Postal Service. w/ The One AM Radio
TOKYO
* Susan Philipsz "Did I Dream You Dreamed About Me" @ Mizuma Action / 2F 1-3-9 Kamimeguro, Meguro-ku (Tokyu Toyoko Line to Nakameguro Station). An enchanting little show in summer's twilight. Mizuma restates sonic pioneer Philipsz's two-speaker installation (which they unveiled at the main Ichigaya-tamachi space in 2007) for juuuust a quickie, i.e. it closes SAT. Don't miss it.
CLOSING SOON
NYC
* "Cabin Fever" @ Mixed Greens / 531 W 26th St. A summer group show named after — but not necessarily extracting from — my favorite Eli Roth film (yes, on the record here, I dug "Cabin Fever" WAY more than "Hostel"). There is some B-horror tenseness here, via Josh Peters, Megan Crump and Mike Calway-Fagan, but the overall exhibition is steeped in a more generalized terror, like Jonathan Ehrenberg's looping two-channel video and Ilene Sunshine's wall-mounted sculpture. (ENDS FRI)
TOKYO
* Kosai Hori "Origin — naked place" @ Mizuma Art Gallery / 2F 3-13 Ichigayatamachi, Shinjuku-ku (Yurakucho/Nanboku Lines to Ichigaya Station). Hori's gestural mark-making makes us more aware of the works' borders and constraints. This exhibition includes some four years of his mineral pigment and oil paintings.
* Shingo Francis "Veils" @ Galerie Paris / 1F, 14 Nihon Odori, Naka-ku Yokohama-shi (Minatomirai Line to Nihon Odori Station — access from Shibuya Station). This is a bit of a haul out to Yokohama but totes worth it. Reason: Francis's incredible minimalist painting installations, resonant w/ some deep cosmic energy. I was lucky enough to meet the man during a residency/exhibition in NYC. (ENDS SAT)
AUSTIN
* "Identity Crisis", curated by Hector Hernandez @ Grayduck Gallery / 608 W Monroe Dr. Altering oneself and its impact, both personal and outward, in society — whether that means a more explicit gesture (the mask) or a more subtle costume. Hernandez, painter/printmaker Carlos Donjuan and multimedia artist William Hundley (winner of the Juror's Award at Texas' 2007 Biennial) contribute. I dug this quite a bit. Donjuan's collages on birch panels bore Rene Magritte references, like the "veiled" women and perched birds in "I'm a Lady" and the prisms on "Where to", and I particularly liked Hernandez's own series "Mrs. Nitroglycerin", varyingly spare mixed media compositions or C-prints of a modelesque woman wielding a "Technicolor Ax".
TOKYO
* Daisuke Nagaoka @ hpgrp Tokyo / B1F 5-1-15 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku (Chiyoda/Hanzomon/Ginza Lines to Omotesando Station). Nagaoka animates his elaborate pencil and pen drawings into layered, erased and reconfigured scenarios — think a William Kentridge style physicality. (ENDS SUN)
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