WEDNESDAY
NYC
* POWHIDA @ Marlborough Chelsea / 545 W 25th St. Pretty cool: usually Marlborough, like most Chelsea galleries that shun the summer "European holiday", gathers a big-ass group show, which is sometimes dope, sometimes very much NOT dope. This time, though, they gave Bushwick referentialist and "art world vigilante" William Powhida the run of the place. Dear LIST readers: if you find yourself in NYC — and you care even a tiny bit about scenester cultural stuff — you sure as hell better be at this opening, or at least see the show. I foresee performances, sponsored parties, paintings that Powhida may or may not have created, though they will resemble him, because in the end this is POWHIDA's show, the shining beacon in a miasma of counterculture.
* SummerScreen presents "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" (dir. John Hughes, 1986) @ McCarren Park Ballfields / 780 Lorimer St, Greenpoint (L to Bedford, G to Nassau), 6:30p/FREE. Confession: I got into this film way late, and specifically due to Yello's track "Oh Yeah", which Richie Hawtin sampled into his classic Detroit Techno banger "Minus Orange". But you probably know this classic coming-of-age high school comedy already. Jennifer Grey's in it, too. Plus trip-pop darlings Twin Sister are playing.
* Charlene Kaye @ Rockwood Music Hall / 196 Allen St (F to 2nd Ave), 10p/FREE. NY's ineffable chanteuse Charlene Kaye has been playing up a storm of late, but she's taking a breather after this showcase to record her new album — so if you miss her tonight, in a special trio set w/ bandmates Megan Cox (keys/violin) and Dave Scalia (drums), you might not see her again until…October?? Fingers crossed for sooner.
AUSTIN
* "Future Present: Five Artists, Five Weeks" feat. Shana Moulton @ Arthouse / 700 Congress, Austin. As the title suggests, each artist gets one week to display their video work in the 2F space. This is the fifth and concluding installment of the series, and in my opinion the most awesomest, as it's Brooklyn video performance/installation artist Shana Moulton and her entire hallucinogenic, agoraphobic opus "Whispering Pines". She enacted part 10, a full-out opera, with NY's downtown aesthete king Nick Hallett, at the New Museum on the Bowery. Her inclusion in Arthouse is essential.
TOKYO
* Ayako Takeuchi "Visible Signs" @ Takashimaya Shinjuku Gallery / 10F, 5-24-2 Sendagaya, Shibuya-ku (Marunouchi/Fukutoshin/Shinjuku subway lines to Shinjuku-sanchome Station). Lovely wood-carved sculptures of river otters, which incidentally are on the verge of extinction in Japan.
* Eamon Kelly "Knights" @ Vacant / 3-20-13 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku (JR Yamanote Line to Harajuku Station). This makes me all nostalgic for the Big Apple. Kelly is a NY-based hipster and photographer who shoots gloriously dodgy scenes from nightlife's underbelly, like Le Bain, The Bowery (hotel), fashion shows from Chloe Sevigny for Opening Ceremony and Cali's Coachella Music Festival. Through SUN
THURSDAY
NYC
* "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.
* The Suzan @ Pianos / 158 Ludlow St (F/JMZ to Essex/Delancey), 8p/$8. These Japanese cuties have charmed Big Apple's indie scene w/ their cocktail of electro-tinged doo-wop and tropicali rock 'n roll.
AUSTIN
* Liturgy (Brooklyn) @ Red 7 / 611 E 7th St, 9p/$10. Can you hang? Brooklyn's baddest-ass metalheads Liturgy eschew black metal's theatrics for searing double-edged guitars and machine-gunning drums. You just might have an epiphany, if you're at this show. w/ Bat Castle
FRIDAY
NYC
* "The Future" (dir. Miranda July, 2011) @ IFC Center / 323 Sixth Ave (ACE/BDFM to W 4th St), w/ July at FRI-SAT 6:10/8:20 screenings! I've been a July fan since her "Girls on Dates" split EP w/ Olympia WA lo-fi freak-jazz trio IQU back in '99. This is her second feature-length film, based in part on a performance she staged at The Kitchen in 2007.
* "The Devil's Double" (dir. Lee Tamahori, 2011) @ AMC Loews Lincoln Square / 1998 Broadway (1 to 66th St). This rollercoaster into violent glitz is based on Latif Yahia's real-life account of being a body-double for Uday Hussein, son of Saddam. Dominic Cooper plays BOTH roles…and the lovely Ludivine Sagnier stars as the a"cute" side of this dangerous triangle. Plus, the trailer features prominently Depeche Mode's "Personal Jesus", which just rocks.
AUSTIN
* "Cowboys and Aliens" (dir. Jon Favreau, 2011) in wide release. Big and loud and (possibly, though not assuredly) stupid, w/ Harrison Ford as a grizzled ol' Colonel, Daniel Craig as a tall, dark stranger w/ an alien phaser shackled to his wrist, and Olivia Wilde nude. Versus aliens. Did I miss anything?
* "Attack the Block" (dir. Joe Cornish, 2011) in wide release. Man, I'm stoked for this. British sci-fi horror w/ a sick comedic undercurrent, pitting alien invaders vs. the 'hood! Cornish's first feature-length film (by the producers of "Shaun of the Dead") took the audience award at this year's SXSW, plus loads other accolades.
* Stephen Pruitt "Encryption" @ Salvage Vanguard Theatre / 2803 Manor Rd, 8p/$12. Pruitt — who has collaborated with the Rude Mechanics, Forklift, amid others — stages his first solo performance in five years, exploring the peripheries of the sensory-overloaded chunks of our existences. UFOs factor into this show, which began as a live radio performance at the 2009 Fronterafest Short Fringe, as "TBA". ALSO SAT
* Iron & Wine @ Paramount Theatre / 713 Congress Ave, Austin, 8p/$30-55. Bearded bard Samuel Beam is a wonderful spellbinder, up there onstage with just an acoustic guitar and few other accouterments. Though the crooning he channels sometimes seems like it originated from an earlier musical era, it still feels entirely his own. I rather dig that he now lives in Dripping Springs, which seems entirely appropriate to tonight's serenade.
* The Strange Attractors @ Spider House Ballroom / 2906 Fruth St, 10p/$5. Dreamy space-rock, elevated with mind-scorching psychedelia and cooing vocals and grounded with a booming rhythm section. Meet my new favorite Austin band, The Strange Attractors! w/ Kingdom of Suicide Lovers and Lola-Cola
TOKYO
* Art Fair Tokyo 2011 @ Tokyo International Forum / 3-5-1 Marunouchi, Chiyoda-ku (JR Yamanote Line to Yurakucho Station), all day/1500 yen. I had hoped to attend Japan's largest art fair (from antiques and traditional nihonga to bleeding-edge contemporary art) back in cherry-blossom April, when it's been held since 2007. The devastating Tohoku earthquake and tsunami on March 11 changed everything, and now the fair lands in late July. It's still huge, but it has taken a necessarily reflective nature after the earthquake, and there is much to see and do, incl:
- Talk Series "Dialogues in Art: Gambling on art after the quake", 6:30-8:30p, 1000 yen (RSVP: event@artfairtokyo.com). A panel considering the power of art and architecture for a new era and its forced limitations and adaptations in a changed landscape. Feat. Taro Shinoda (Tokyo-based sculptor and installation artist), Haruaki Tanaka (co-lab architect) and Tetsuya Ozaki (Kyoto University visiting professor and editor/publisher of REALTOKYO/REALKYOTO).
Fair lasts through SUNDAY
* "Outside the Garden" @ Art Front Gallery / Hillside Terrace A, 29-18 Sarugakucho, Shibuya-ku (JR Lines etc to Shibuya). I love this gallery: it's near the neighborhood where I stay whenever I am in Tokyo. So earlier this month they mounted a show "Inside the Garden"; now they spin that off into explorations of space and perception. Megumi Sato, Yuri Kabata and Makoto Abe participate, each modifying their usual oeuvre and experimenting.
* DJ Krush @ Liquidroom / 3-16-6 Higashi, Shibuya-ku (JR Yamanote Line etc to Ebisu station), 10p/3800 yen. Japan's acid-jazz hip-hop legend drops a SEVEN HOUR set for the ages, honoring his 20 years running the game. With a cadre of super-special secret guests complementing the maestro behind the decks.
SATURDAY
NYC
* "Report from Japan" exhibition and presentation @ graphite. / 38 Marcy Ave, Williamsburg (L to Lorimer, G to Metropolitan), 7-9p. Over four months ago, northeastern Japan was decimated by an earthquake and tsunami. Tens of thousands lost their lives, millions more their homes, the eastern power grid was ravaged…and all the way in Tokyo, they're still feeling aftershocks. Three NY-based artists born in Japan, the photographers Go Nakamura and Canna Sasa, plus video artist Hiroaki Sasa, returned to the disaster-stricken region to follow survivors, relief efforts and, despite all odds, the community's resilience. The exhibition continues through Sunday.
* Unveiled Arts showcase w/ The So So Glos @ Knitting Factory / 361 Metropolitan Ave, Williamsburg (L to Bedford, G to Metropolitan), 7:30p/$10 (FREE w/ UA registration). Local indie champs the So So Glos lead a night of sweaty exuberance and bodyrocking bands, incl. stalwarts Nova Social and prog-punks Old Monk.
AUSTIN
* The Sour Notes @ Hole in the Wall / 2538 Guadalupe, 8p/$5. Seeing Austin indie powerhouses in this nostalgia-riddled dive, for me, is akin to seeing The Pains of Being Pure at Heart play NYC's Ludlow go-to Cake Shop. Which really happened, and rocked hard. Anyway, Jared Boulanger and team bring their energetic rock to a solid ATX lineup, incl Little Lo and Tactics.
* Mayer Hawthorne (MI) @ Scoot Inn / 1308 E 4th St, 9p/$15. This bespectacled Ann Arbor crooner knows how to charm, with his throwback R&B and sweat-inducing deck skills. w/ some blue-eyed funk from Austin's Soul Track Mind
TOKYO
* Talk Series "Dialogues in Art: Thoughts on the disaster area, and the potential of art" @ Tokyo International Forum / 3-5-1 Marunouchi, Chiyoda-ku (JR Yamanote Line to Yurakucho Station), 6-8p, 1000 yen (RSVP: event@artfairtokyo.com). A panel on art's role in supporting NE Japan's affected area and the movements that have originated in this four-month period. Feat. Ichiro Endo ("future" artist involved in reconstruction work), Masato Nakamura (director of 3331 Arts Chiyoda and associate professor at University of the Arts, Tokyo), Yoshiaki Kaihatsu (globe-trotting sculptor and all-around badass), Shigeo Goto (professor at Kyoto University of Art & Design and editor) and Yasuhiko Arakawa (representative for Artists' Action for Japan).
* Sushi Typhoon Matsuri @ Ginza Cine-Pathos / 4-8-7 Ginza, Chuo-ku (Tokyo Metro Ginza/Marunouchi/Hibiya Lines to Ginza Station), begins at 12:40p/1500 yen. The awesomely comedic, jaw-droppingly action-packed and totally splatterific Sushi Typhoon films have been decimating festival circuits and hypnotizing new lots of fans, but these are films from and of Japanese soil and it is a good thing that they screen at home, in style, in a four-film blockbuster blowout!!! Consider these the Four Directors of the Apocalypse, only better looking and infinitely more entertaining. Let's break it down for this week (thru AUG 5):
- "Helldriver" (dir. Yoshihiro Nishimura, 2010), screening at 12:40p. Like zombies? Like modelesque girls wielding chainsaw-swords slaying zombies? This epic of gory excess, set in a Japan half-conquered by alien gas-infected undead, could only originate in the mind of splatter king Nishimura-san. To cure the populace a la "28 Days Later", our heroine must go after the zombie queen, played by none other than Eihi Shiina. Good luck with that!
- "Alien vs Ninja" (dir. Seiji Chiba, 2010), screening at 3p. Or 'how it all began', the Sushi Typhoon world introduction occurred at NYAFF 2010…and I was there, front and center! This early title set the label's tone: a nonstop buffet of gore, eye-watering live action and a comedic twist, via rubber-suited aliens and the whole premise of aliens duking it out w/ ninja in an endless forest.
- "Yakuza Weapon" (dirs. Tak Sakaguchi & Yudai Yamaguchi, 2011), screening at 5:20p. Where to begin: it's adapted from an ultraviolent manga; it also stars action-icon Tak as a cannon-armed antihero insulting thugs in growled Osaka-ese whilst tearing up the screen in four-minute-long tracking shots; and Cay Izumi plays a naked human weapon.
- "Deadball" (dir. Yudai Yamaguchi, 2011), screening at 7:40p. The one of four I've not seen yet, but considering its director created the zombie baseball classic "Battlefield Baseball" and its lead is action-icon Tak Sakaguchi, I think we've got something particularly special here.
* Metro-Ongen @ BOXX / 2-1-1 Jinnan, Shibuya-ku (JR Chuo Line to Harajuku Station), 5p/FREE. I'm big on Tokyo's essential "vivid pop band" Metro-Ongen. Just think of your sunniest live-music nostalgia, and that's kind of what they sound like. w/ MeguMild
* Plastic Girl in Closet @ High / 4-30-1 Koenji-minami, Suginami-ku (JR Yamanote Line to Koenji Station), 5:30p/2500 yen. In my ongoing search for shoegaze-y bands, it was inevitable that I'd stumble upon these Iwate Pref. guitar-manglers, who dose dreamy feedback with syrupy vocals all over their brand-spanking new 2nd LP "Cocoro". Their nationwide tour brings them to Tokyo, w/ Love Love Straw opening.
SUNDAY
NYC
* Sweet Bulbs + Dinowalrus @ Shea Stadium / 20 Meadow St, E. Williamsburg (L to Grand), 9p. Your local indie sampler platter. Love fuzzy noise-pop? Check Sweet Bulbs! Love psychedelic percussive rock? Check Dinowalrus! Like too many guitars onstage, but it's OK b/c they rock out? Check Liquor Store! w/ So So Glos DJ set.
AUSTIN
* "The Heroic Trio" (dir. Johnny To, 1993) screening @ Alamo Drafthouse Ritz / 320 E 6th St, Austin, 10p. A triple-dose of badassness, starring three of Hong Kong's top women of action: Michelle Yeoh, Maggie Cheung AND Anita Mui — and yet it's totally unappreciated. Maybe it didn't figure well into their respective careers, but a plot where a housewife is actually a masked, knife-throwing crimefighter named "Wonder Woman" (Mui) tracks down a bad guy named "Evil Master" sounds kinda dope.
* Joanna Newsom @ Paramount Theatre / 713 Congress Ave, Austin, 8p/$30-33. You wouldn't pin me for a Joanna Newsom nut, particularly if you know me. And true, I was hesitant to get into her: that utterly unique, raspy singing voice and the fact she plays "psych folk" didn't add to my interest. But seeing her live, strumming polyrythmic cascades from her harp whilst singing, is an absolutely singular experience. Hence while I stress the awesomeness of tonight's performance.
* Inches to Pixels + The Copper Gamins (Zinacantepec) @ Mohawk / 9˙12 Red River, 9p/$6. Pflugerville grit-rockers Inches to Pixels remind me a bit of Enon (post-punk hooks, squiggly keyboards, surf guitar). Mexican blues duo The Copper Gamins add unfettered swagger. w/ The Sugar Queens
* Kendra Steiner Editions 5th Anniversary Concert @ Salvage Vanguard Theatre / 2803 Manor Rd, 7p/$5 (admission incl free poetry chapbook or music CDR). An auspicious gathering of members from Austin's new music community, incl Rick Reed & Brent Fariss (electroacoustic plus bass), Vanessa Rossetto (violin) and Venison Whirled (noise a la Lisa Cameron!), w/ a special appearance by S. Carolina's percussionist/composer Greg Stuart.
MONDAY
TOKYO
* Atari Teenage Riot DJ set @ Tower Records Shibuya / Jinnan 1-22-14 Shibuya-ku (JR lines etc to Shibuya Station), 8p. 1-2-3-4!!! Berlin's digital hardcore gods Atari Teenage Riot play a DJ set in the epicenter of the busiest 'hood of the busiest city in the world. Sounds absolutely MAYJAH to me!
TUESDAY
NYC
* "Riki-Oh" (dir. Nam Nai-choi, 1991) screening @ BAM / 30 Lafayette Ave, Ft Greene (23/45 to Nevins St, AC to Lafayette), 6:50/9:15p. Right on, BAM! The lavishly ultraviolet dystopian near-future (OK, so it's set in 2001) on the big-screen! Guts as strangulation device! Fists so strong they make other fists explode upon contact! So much fake blood that you'll need to take three showers just to wash the sensation off.
AUSTIN
* "Fright Night" (dir. Tom Holland, 1985) screening @ Alamo Drafthouse Ritz / 320 E 6th St, Austin, 7p. Maybe you've heard they're remaking mid-'80s iconic scarefest "Fright Night", pumping it full of 3D and a "Twilight"-attractive cast (and, uh, Christopher Mintz-Plasse). That's all well and good (and yes I'm stoked about it), but what's 1000 times better is the original, shape-changing vampire puppets, green goo FX and all. PLUS! What amps this screening to eleven is the inclusion of writer/director Holland and writer Alvaro Rodriguez for a Q&A! MAYJAH!
* "Nightmare on Elm Street 3: The Dream Warriors" (dir. Chuck Russell, 1987) screening @ Alamo Drafthouse Ritz / 320 E 6th St, 10p. IMO the best way to follow up a classic mid-'80s scarefest like "Fright Night" is w/ ANOTHER classic, i.e. part three (and the most 'punk rock') of "A Nightmare on Elm Street". From the switchblade-wielding New Waver hooligans to that super-iconic theatrical poster to badass Freddy himself.
* "The Shining" (dir. Stanley Kubrick, 1980) + "The Haunting" (dir. Robert Wise, 1963) screenings @ Paramount Theatre / 713 Congress Ave, Austin, 7/9:40p. Don't go into that house! The Paramount outdoes itself on double-header awesomeness w/ this duet of classic haunted houses.
CLOSING SOON
NYC
* Willem de Kooning "The Figure: Movement and Gesture" @ The Pace Gallery / 32 E 57th St. A wonderful satiation before the Abstract Expressonist's overdue retrospective at the MoMA — or a big teaser, if you're that hungry for him. The Pace does a museum-worthy mini survey of their own, focusing on de Kooning's knack for combining figure and landscape in flowing, sinewy strokes. This is especially evident in his multiple "Montauk" paintings from the '70s, though his woman in graphite and paint is omnipresent.
* Li Songsong @ The Pace Gallery / 534 W 25th St. This is the debut U.S. solo exhibition of the Beijing-based artist, whose style is heavily impastoed and abstracted large-scale paintings recalling photographs and film stills. Though I dare you to make out even half the subject matter, buried as they are under like cake-frosting layers of somber paint. That said, Li works deftly b/w figurative compositions (like "Couple", half-hidden in a blocky test-pattern of black and gray rectangles) and graphic renderings, like "Escape", obviously taken from an airplane disaster training booklet.
* Eva Struble "Landsmen" @ Lombard-Freid Projects / 518 W 19th St. Struble focuses on the Brooklyn Navy Yard and its status of picturesque ruin and pre-transformation in a series of new brilliantly colored paintings.
* Phoebe Washburn "Temperatures in a Lab of Superior Specialness" @ Mary Boone Gallery / 745 5th Ave. The gallery collaborated with Zach Feuer in mounting this exhibition of Washburn's new sculptures, repurposed from wood, golf balls, painted stones and furniture.
* David Zink Yi "Pneuma" @ Hauser & Wirth / 32 E 69th St. An incredible and appropriately dubbed 'magical' exhibition by the Berlin-based artist, his debut solo show in NYC. The cross-media grouping includes the massive sculptural "Untitled (Architeuthis)", a giant squid from folklore, the recreated 2004 two-channel video installation "Alrededor del dosel (Around the Canopy)" and the titular 16mm film work, feat. Cuban trumpeter Yuliesky Gonzalez Guerra in a single take. (ends FRI)
NYC
* Dan Witz + Brett Amory @ Jonathan LeVine Gallery / 529 W 20th St, 9th Fl. A double-header of toughness, drawing from Brooklyn-based Witz's 10-year hyperrealistic series on mosh pits and Cali artist Amory's discomfiting paintings of lone commuters against urban cityscapes.
AUSTIN
* Joshua Saunders "Objectification" @ Big Medium / 5305 Bolm Rd #12. It sounds deceptively simple: this Austin artist utilizes a high-contrast scanner to extract everyday objects (rolls of colored string, a ripped $20 bill, a packet of Adderall) — yet the resulting effects, said images and others trapped against solid black backdrops, are disarmingly abstract, despite their familiarity.
TOKYO
* Sayako Ichikawa + Kumiko Negami @ Unseal Contemporary / 1-3-18 Nihombashi-horidomecho, Chuo-ku (Ginza/Hanzoemon Lines to Mitsukoshimae Station, Hibiya Line to Kodenmacho Station). Ichikawa works in patchwork embroidery, tying in roughly figurative elements, while Negami creates a sculptural menagerie straight out of Guillermo del Toro's world. (ends SAT)
NYC
* Francis Alÿs "A Story of Deception" @ MoMA / 11 W 53rd St (E/M to 5th Ave, 6 to 51st St). The Belgian-born Conceptualist, who's been based in Mexico City for decades now, is currently enjoying a two-armed mid-career retrospective at both museums across the Queensboro Bridge. In my memory this hasn't happened since Olafur Eliasson, and while I loved Eliasson's dual-borough exhibition I believe it works even better with Alÿs. Or at least Alÿs' "Modern Procession" (2002), a Public Art Fund-sponsored production that documents MoMA's temporary relocation to the Long Island City former schoolhouse during its 2002-4 expansion, is the centerpiece of PS1's excerpt, so there's something relevant and self-referencing in that. I encourage you to do sorta like that parade and take the E from the MoMA to PS1, catching both shows in an afternoon. PS1's exhibition continues through SEPT 12.
MoMA's portion is a big time-waster, at least on a first visit, because Alÿs' style is time-based videos (both in their respective durations and how long it took for him to complete them, usually a span of two years or more), which distract you to the point of transfixing, and scattered ephemera tangentially related to said videos and always riddled with text and explanations. You may well find yourself reading these, dwelling on them — you may well tire quickly and speed through later examples. Sound is an issue here, bleeding through the space from one video installation to another, and I doubt this is purposeful, though it lends a slight disorientation to the exhibition. His big video "When Faith Moves Mountains (Cuando la fe mauve montages)" (2002) contains two projections of that, plus a third video including interviews with some of the 500 volunteers (one pricelessly opines "I don't believe in art just for the sake of art"), the young people marching up a Lima, Peru dune in formation, shoveling away to move the mountain 10 cm. Thus goes Alÿs' saying "Máximo esfuerzo Minimo resultado", or "maximum effort, minimum results" — and don't take it from me, that emblem recurs in this narrow corridor lined with work-tables, transparencies (person walking with buildings strapped to their shoulders), paintings (a car fire), prints, newspaper articles (a lynching in Guatemala), and lots of text. All the while, tolling bells from a video in the opening of the exhibition permeate through, adding an unsettling immediacy to the people shoveling away. Alÿs' little paintings remind me more of another Belgian Surrealist, Rene Magritte, and we get a whole room of 'em in "Le Temps du sommeil" (an ongoing series since 1996), some 111 tile-sized paintings on wood, each a precious moment of weirdness, like windows into some foresty dreamscape. But since the audio element from the opening gallery doesn't carry all the way back here, MoMA installed "Song for Lupita (Mañana)" (1998), a looping filmstrip animation of a woman pouring water from one glass to another, an accompanying turntable's soundtrack melodiously humming "mañana, mañana" — doing without doing, as Alÿs might put it. This odd little piece sums up my Alÿs experience: his aversion to completing stuff, his penchant for drawing things out for years, revising and reconsidering in ever-mutating layers of change. Might as well check out "Tornado" (2000-10) and watch the artist fling himself into a tornado — it's very, VERY loud, and quite frightening, as the dirt around him almost liquifies, whirling around the terrific winds. It's good for a few minutes' viewing. The adjacent video "Politics of Rehearsal" (2005-7) comes with headphones, and it's up to you if you're like me and blow 30 minutes on this grand tease of a striptease. Alÿs filmed it in the LES's Slipper Room, following the perpetual restarts between a pianist (Alexander Rovag), a soprano (Viktoria Kurbatskaya) and a young stripper (Bella Yao) for the night's performance. A voiceover compares the stripper's slo-mo disrobing as a metaphor for Latin America and modernity, always approaching that goal but never quite there. She removes her underwear at least twice. "Rehearsal I" (1999-2001) is funnier and quicker, using the recording of a brass band's practice session to dictate the movements of a car up a sandy hill on the US/Mexico border (they play, the car starts; they screw up, the car stops; they start chattering, the car goes in reverse), plus loads more of requisite transparencies and little paintings. (ends MON)
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
fee's LIST (through 7/26)
WEDNESDAY
NYC
* SummerScreen presents "Ghost World" (dir. Terry Zwigoff, 2001) @ McCarren Park Ballfields / 780 Lorimer St, Greenpoint (L to Bedford, G to Nassau), 6:30p/FREE. w/ Widowspeak. Classic unnerving contemporary cinema, adapted from Daniel Clowes' dark take on nowheresville pop Americana. Props to an unhinged Steve Buscemi and double-props to a young Scarlett Johansson. And ideal as it'd be to have a bluesman accompanying the film, Brooklyn's darkly dissonant outfit Widowspeak should provide some lovely twilight music.
* Heliotropes + Strange Rivals @ Don Pedro / 90 Manhattan Ave, Williamsburg (L to Montrose, JM to Lorimer), 8:30p. One solid night. Pairing LIST favorites Heliotropes (whose continually maturing take on doom-pop is both riff-heavy and ethereally gorgeous) with Strange Rivals' psych-imbued twang is pure golden.
AUSTIN
* "Future Present: Five Artists, Five Weeks" feat. Frankie Martin @ Arthouse / 700 Congress, Austin. As the title suggests, each artist gets one week to display their video work in the 2F space. We're up to week four now, unveiling Martin's series "Trapped in the Web", her existential satire on Youtube series "lonelygirl15".
* Summer Show 2011 @ Lora Reynolds Gallery / 360 Neches #50. The gallery mounts a mixed media group show feat. cut-paper works by Noriko Ambe, layered paper collage by Francesca Gabbiani, Roy McMakin's conceptual C-prints, plus works by Tom Molloy, Jim Torok, Cory Ryman and more.
* "Phase 7" (dir. Nicolas Goldbart, 2011) screening @ Barton Creek AMC / 2901 S. Capitol of Texas Hwy, 10p. Though it involves an apartment block quarantine, this Argentinian nail-biter is much less "Quarantine" (or it's gruesome original "[rec]" for that matter), and more like "Time of the Wolf", a vaguely apocalyptic, even believable survival thriller set in realtime. Part of AMC Independent and Bloody-Disgusting's monthly "Night Terrors" series. ALSO FRI midnight
* The Wooden Birds @ The Mohawk / 912 Red River, 9p/$12. Andrew Kenny and the lovely Wooden Birds return to the Hill Country after a stint of East Coast shows, beguiling us some more with their electrifying acoustic energy. w/ Gold Beach
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.
* Tomiyuki Kaneko "Yokai Substantiations" @ Mizuma Action / 2F 1-3-9 Kamimeguro, Meguro-ku (Tokyu Toyoko Line to Nakameguro Station). The young Saitama-born artist infuses his renderings with traditional Japanese folklore, as he visually confronts the demons of history and contemporary society.
THURSDAY
NYC
* Cass McCombs + Lower Dens @ Music Hall of Williamsburg / 66 N 6th St, Williamsburg (L to Bedford), 8p/$15. Cali's outsider punk poet and Baltimore's hazy shoegaze renegades, together at last!
* Charlene Kaye @ Fat Baby / 112 Rivington St (F/JMZ to Essex/Delancey), 8p. I've never got on well with this venue, but I send you forth in confidence thanks to a triumvirate of songwriterly talent, helmed by Charlene Kaye's gossamer rock and feat. Maryanna Sokol (check debut LP "Landfill") and Alexa Wilkinson.
TOKYO
* Yoshio Suzuki @ Hidari Zingaro / 3F 5-52-15 Nakano, Nakano-ku (JR Chuo Line to Nakano Station). Part two of art journalist and BRUTUS deputy editor Suzuki's photo series "Fukuhen", documenting his international travels via a compact camera.
* Keiji Haino @ Fever / 1-1-14 Hanegi, Setagaya-ku (Odakyu Inokashira Line to Shindaita or Shimokitazawa Stations), 7p/3300 yen. A celebration of "Far East" electric psychedelia, which Haino-san epitomizes no matter what instrument — a snarling guitar, a creepy hurdy-gurdy, his own dissonant, howling voice — is at the ready. w/ LSD March
FRIDAY
NYC
* "The Holy Mountain" (dir. Alejandro Jodorowsky, 1973) screening @ IFC Center / 323 Sixth Ave (ACE/BDFM to W 4th St), TKtime. Pure cinematic psychedelia, to the tune of a mute Christ figure and his limbless dwarf sidekick navigating a bustling marketplace and confabbing with prostitute-nuns clad in translucent habits. And that's before our hero ascends a tower, meets an alchemist (the director) and goes off on a hallucinogenic quest. ALSO SAT
* Anamanaguchi @ Music Hall of Williamsburg / 66 N 6th St, Williamsburg (L to Bedford), 8p/$12. IMO, these Brooklyn chiptune punks define the genre, nuking NES and pairing with buzzsaw guitars and live drumming, 8-bit dreamscapes projected behind 'em. w/ MATH the Band
* Buck 65 + Beans @ Bowery Ballroom / 6 Delancey St (F/JMZ to Essex/Delancey), 8p/$15. Whoa, this is a grown-ass man right here, at least in terms of "backpack" or indie hip-hop, sprinkled with folk-poetry and even a little Canadian country. Including NY freak-beat MC Beans just made the party that much more next-level.
* Charlene Kaye solo acoustic set @ American Folk Art Museum / 2 Lincoln Square (1 to 66th St), 6p/FREE. On the dawn of this institution's move into new digs uptown, ineffable singer-songwriter Charlene Kaye takes us back to someplace sunnier and gentler. (NB: her new music video "Human" gave me goosebumps) w/ Maryanna Sokol (and if you missed her on THU, don't make that mistake this time)
AUSTIN
* "Captain America: The First Avenger" (dir. Joe Johnston, 2011) screenings in wide release. Look, don't be so surprised, now. So part of my move to Austin has made me into an even bigger film fanboy (i.e. I've got tix to the 1st 3D screening, late THU), and those of you who know me KNOW I'm no "rah rah" Stars & Stripes fanatic. And, personally, I was never into "Captain America", the Marvel comic. Yet, something about a skinny-ass (computer-manipulated) Chris Evans morphing into a rippling (normal) Chris Evans, kicking Nazi ass and squaring off against Hugo Weaving/Red Skull just sounds RIGHT.
* Stephen Pruitt "Encryption" @ Salvage Vanguard Theatre / 2803 Manor Rd, 8p/$12. Pruitt — who has collaborated with the Rude Mechanics, Forklift, amid others — stages his first solo performance in five years, exploring the peripheries of the sensory-overloaded chunks of our existences. UFOs factor into this show, which began as a live radio performance at the 2009 Fronterafest Short Fringe, as "TBA". ALSO SAT
* Black Widow Burlesque presents the USA Show @ ND@501 Studios / 501 I-35 at 5th St, 9:30p/$10. Austin's acclaimed burlesque troupe unfurls a USO-style blowout, replete w/ classic cabaret and nouveau dazzlement and feat. Duke City Gypsy, Ginger Snaps, RaRa Roxette, Betty Blue, Lilly LaFleur and Sailor Cherry. Hoo-rah!
TOKYO
* Nobuyoshi Araki "Higan" @ Rat Hole Gallery / B1F 5-5-3 Minami-aoyama, Minato-ku (Chiyoda/Ginza/Hanzomon Lines to Omotesando Station, JR Yamanote Line to Harajuku Station). Approx 400 b&w prints taken during Tokyo's excruciating 2010 summer months, out the back window of cars — the timing and Araki's searching telescopic lens happened to coincide with his treatment for prostate cancer.
* Mika Ninagawa @ BLD Gallery / 2-4-9 Ginza, Chuo Ward Tokyo (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.
* 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.
* "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.
* Recoride @ Club Seata / 1-20-3 Kichijoji Honcho, Musashino-shi (JR Chuo/Sobu Line to Kichijoji Station), 11p/2500 yen. Gekkan Probowler's all-night showcase vol. 3 is one way to escape Tokyo's stifling summer heat, i.e. by sweating indoors to a dozen live techno-punk acts! Personal favorites Recoride don't hit the stage until like 3a, but Mayumi Yamazaki, CutiePai and CANDLES (plus a clutch of DJs) keep the action flowing 'til daybreak.
SATURDAY
NYC
* Lawrence Weiner + Kathryn Bigelow short-film showcase @ MoMA / 11 W 53rd St (E/M to 53rd St/5th Ave, 6 to 51st St), 7:30p. An incredible series of collaborations b/w Bigelow (the engaging director) and Weiner (the key Conceptualist), feat. "Affected and/or Effected" and "Done To" (both 1974, w/ Bigelow in front of the camera), "Green as Well as Blue as Well as Red" (1975-6, w/ commentary by Bigelow & Weiner) and "Altered to Suit" (1979, filmed by Weiner and edited by Bigelow).
* Warm Up: Gang Gang Dance (DJ set) @ MoMA PS1 / 22-25 Jackson Ave, Long Island City (E/M to 23rd St/Court, 7 to Courthouse Sq), 2p/FREE. Warm Up shows by nature encourage sweating, 1/2 due to the summer heat and another 1/2 due to the jeep-beats, son!!! Today's is particularly dope, what w/ inclusion of Syd tha Kyd, aka Ms. Odd Future, and Montreal's remix alchemist Lunice. And though local experimenters Gang Gang Dance are "just" doing a DJ set, we really never know what they'll come up with. A good thing.
* Dream Diary + Telenovelas @ Bruar Falls / 245 Grand St, Williamsburg (L to Bedford, G to Lorimer), 8p/$6. The Bleach Blonde Record Label launch/showcase includes Telenovelas, some of my favorite local shoegaze-y darlings, plus debut shows for Youth Castles and Blemishes (whose extra-fuzzy tape "Keep It Quiet" is Bleach Blonde's 1st release). Slumberland Records cardigan-stylers Dream Diary headline one dreamy night.
* Real Estate + The Feelies @ Prospect Park Bandshell / Prospect Park West & 9th St, Park Slope (), 7p/FREE. New Jersey now and then share the stage this evening. The quintessential post-punks The Feelies hail from Haledon and only recently reunited after like a 15-year hiatus from recording. Ridgewood surf lads Real Estate keep honing their summertime anthems to new levels of awesomeness. w/ Times New Viking
TOKYO
* Sushi Typhoon Matsuri @ Ginza Cine-Pathos / 4-8-7 Ginza, Chuo-ku (Tokyo Metro Ginza/Marunouchi/Hibiya Lines to Ginza Station), begins at 12:40p/1500 yen. The awesomely comedic, jaw-droppingly action-packed and totally splatterific Sushi Typhoon films have been decimating festival circuits and hypnotizing new lots of fans, but these are films from and of Japanese soil and it is a good thing that they screen at home, in style, in a four-film blockbuster blowout!!! Consider these the Four Directors of the Apocalypse, only better looking and infinitely more entertaining. The festival begins here, at Ginza's three-screen Cine-Pathos theatre, and extends to epidemic proportions in Osaka, Fukuoka, Aichi, Hokkaido and finally Kyoto — but Tokyo gets nearly a full month of the mayhem. Let's break it down for this week (thru JUL 29):
- "Alien vs Ninja" (dir. Seiji Chiba, 2010), screening at 12:40p. Or 'how it all began', the Sushi Typhoon world introduction occurred at NYAFF 2010…and I was there, front and center! This early title set the label's tone: a nonstop buffet of gore, eye-watering live action and a comedic twist, via rubber-suited aliens and the whole premise of aliens duking it out w/ ninja in an endless forest.
- "Yakuza Weapon" (dirs. Tak Sakaguchi & Yudai Yamaguchi, 2011), screening at 3p. Where to begin: it's adapted from an ultraviolent manga; it also stars action-icon Tak as a cannon-armed antihero insulting thugs in growled Osaka-ese whilst tearing up the screen in four-minute-long tracking shots; and Cay Izumi plays a naked human weapon.
- "Deadball" (dir. Yudai Yamaguchi, 2011), screening at 5:20p. The one of four I've not seen yet, but considering its director created the zombie baseball classic "Battlefield Baseball" and its lead is action-icon Tak Sakaguchi, I think we've got something particularly special here.
- "Helldriver" (dir. Yoshihiro Nishimura, 2010), screening at 7:40p. Like zombies? Like modelesque girls wielding chainsaw-swords slaying zombies? This epic of gory excess, set in a Japan half-conquered by alien gas-infected undead, could only originate in the mind of splatter king Nishimura-san. To cure the populace a la "28 Days Later", our heroine must go after the zombie queen, played by none other than Eihi Shiina. Good luck with that!
* Metro-Ongen + Lines @ JAM / B1 2-3-23 Kabukicho, Shinjuku-ku (JR lines etc to Shinjuku Station), 6p/2500 yen. I am majorly into indie-rockers Lines (feat. Sachiko Sakaeda) and now Koenji's '80s-imbued quartet Metro-Ongen (think Japanese Televison). w/ Sorrys!
SUNDAY
TOKYO
* Azarashi + UM @ Kagurazaka Explosion / B1F #112 Yaraicho, Shinjuku-ku (Tokyo Metro Toei Line to Yurakucho Station), 4p/3500 yen. Kaisan Records hosts an enormous Red Cross fundraising event benefiting NE Japan…via theatrical, dissonant visual key!!!! My favorites Azarashi cut deep in their new LP "Flesh & Blood" (which dropped on JUL 20), while UM (vocalist Re;Kai and multi-instrumentalist Fujimiya, plus a full band) channel Dead Can Dance, traditional gagaku and noise music in their multilinear performances. Plus Kao ga nai! (uh…"Faceless!"), post-punks Kalavinka and more from the darkside.
MONDAY
TOKYO
* Lines @ Shimokitazawa Shelter / B1F 2-6-10 Kitazawa, Setagaya-ku (Keio Inokashira Line to Shimo-kitazawa Station), 6:30p/2500 yen. Nice! Good vibes indie rock courtesy Tokyo's Lines (check "Zetsumetsu" from their LP) and Bomi.
TUESDAY
NYC
* "Three" (dir. Tom Tykwer, 2010) @ Museum of the Moving Image / 36-01 35th Ave, Astoria (E/M/R to Steinway St), 7p. Perhaps the most hot-blooded, idealist threesome film you'll ever see, particularly due to the couples' respective long-committed relationships.
* Jessica 6 + Xylos @ Mercury Lounge / 217 E Houston (F to 2nd Ave), 7p/$10. Yes this is an early one, but 100% worth it. Particularly for you 9-6ers who think you can't go out on weeknights. Speed over here (do NOT miss local synth-pop ensemble Xylos) and get your groove thang on. Frankly, I cannot stop listening to "X-Ray", off Xylos' debut LP, and if you're an avid LIST-reader you KNOW Nomi Ruiz & her Jessica 6 outfit bring the nu-disco hi-NRG. Sweat and enjoy.
AUSTIN
* "Revenge From Planet Ape" (dir. Amando de Ossorio, 1971) screening @ Alamo Drafthouse Ritz / 320 E 6th St, 10p. This unearthed classic is actually part of the Spanish director's acclaimed "Blind Dead/Templar Knights" quadrilogy (original title translates to "Tombs of the Blind Dead"). Only thing is, in its stateside release the distributors tried to tie it into the "Planet of the Apes" project, so the revenant Knights became "mummified simian warriors", replete w/ a slipshod English-language explanatory intro. So you'll have to trust me that this ape-less film, set entirely on planet Earth, is actually really awesome, and terrifically violent.
* Ghost Wolves @ Momo's / 618 W 6th St, 8p/$7. Carley & Jonathan, aka Ghost Wolves, bring their juke-joint jams and stripped-down powerhouse blues rock to ol' Momo's. Don't underestimate 'em. w/ The Coveters
TOKYO
* "My Theatre" @ Span Art Gallery / 2-2-18 1F Ginza, Chuo-ku. (Yurakucho Line to Ginza-Itchome Station). Deeply personal, disquieting and celebratory works in this group show, feat. Yuko Fukase, Akiko Idichi, Misaki Kihara, Satomi Kuwahara, Hiroshi Osaka, Minae Takada and Mitsuya Watanabe.
* Guitar Wolf vs. Firestarter @ Shimo-kitazawa Shelter / B1F 2-6-10 Kitazawa, Setagaya-ku (Keio Inokashira Line to Shimo-kitazawa Station), 7p/3500 yen. Nagasaki's original punks Guitar Wolf square off against Firestarter in this "Back to the Shelter" mosh-hungry showcase.
CLOSING SOON
NYC
* Richard Tuttle "What's the Wind" @ The Pace Gallery / 510 W 25th St. In my understanding of Richard Tuttle's oeuvre, this lot of "space frame" free-standing sculptures feels very un-Tuttle to me, though it apparently synthesizes decades of his work. Take "System 4, Hummingbird", for me the most Tuttle-esque due to the stretched fabric hanging in the middle of the work like a kidney-shaped kite amid a laundry list of media (painted Styrofoam, aluminum wire, birch plywood, monofilament). Or "System 3, Measurement" in the back gallery, some grouping of misshapen balloons covered in rice paper and suspended over a loose grid of white-coated steel. Their overall vivid fragility is VERY Tuttle, however.
* "Free Soil" @ Canada / 55 Chrystie St. The gallery's bunker-like atmosphere converts into a site for unearthing fossils from some previous civilization. The results are unnerving: Robin Peck's carved, vaguely alien devices, sitting squatly on the concrete floor; Anya Kielar's bleached cloth-and-string implements mimicking human skeletons; Lily Ludlow's vaguely figurative abstract works on paper, wrenching physicality into a layered series of curves; and of course Huma Bhabha's elegantly grotesque contribution: a mannequin bust placed backwards on a secondhand wooden chair, covered in a hooded windbreaker like the crude fractured skeleton of a centaur. (ENDS FRI)
NYC
* SummerScreen presents "Ghost World" (dir. Terry Zwigoff, 2001) @ McCarren Park Ballfields / 780 Lorimer St, Greenpoint (L to Bedford, G to Nassau), 6:30p/FREE. w/ Widowspeak. Classic unnerving contemporary cinema, adapted from Daniel Clowes' dark take on nowheresville pop Americana. Props to an unhinged Steve Buscemi and double-props to a young Scarlett Johansson. And ideal as it'd be to have a bluesman accompanying the film, Brooklyn's darkly dissonant outfit Widowspeak should provide some lovely twilight music.
* Heliotropes + Strange Rivals @ Don Pedro / 90 Manhattan Ave, Williamsburg (L to Montrose, JM to Lorimer), 8:30p. One solid night. Pairing LIST favorites Heliotropes (whose continually maturing take on doom-pop is both riff-heavy and ethereally gorgeous) with Strange Rivals' psych-imbued twang is pure golden.
AUSTIN
* "Future Present: Five Artists, Five Weeks" feat. Frankie Martin @ Arthouse / 700 Congress, Austin. As the title suggests, each artist gets one week to display their video work in the 2F space. We're up to week four now, unveiling Martin's series "Trapped in the Web", her existential satire on Youtube series "lonelygirl15".
* Summer Show 2011 @ Lora Reynolds Gallery / 360 Neches #50. The gallery mounts a mixed media group show feat. cut-paper works by Noriko Ambe, layered paper collage by Francesca Gabbiani, Roy McMakin's conceptual C-prints, plus works by Tom Molloy, Jim Torok, Cory Ryman and more.
* "Phase 7" (dir. Nicolas Goldbart, 2011) screening @ Barton Creek AMC / 2901 S. Capitol of Texas Hwy, 10p. Though it involves an apartment block quarantine, this Argentinian nail-biter is much less "Quarantine" (or it's gruesome original "[rec]" for that matter), and more like "Time of the Wolf", a vaguely apocalyptic, even believable survival thriller set in realtime. Part of AMC Independent and Bloody-Disgusting's monthly "Night Terrors" series. ALSO FRI midnight
* The Wooden Birds @ The Mohawk / 912 Red River, 9p/$12. Andrew Kenny and the lovely Wooden Birds return to the Hill Country after a stint of East Coast shows, beguiling us some more with their electrifying acoustic energy. w/ Gold Beach
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.
* Tomiyuki Kaneko "Yokai Substantiations" @ Mizuma Action / 2F 1-3-9 Kamimeguro, Meguro-ku (Tokyu Toyoko Line to Nakameguro Station). The young Saitama-born artist infuses his renderings with traditional Japanese folklore, as he visually confronts the demons of history and contemporary society.
THURSDAY
NYC
* Cass McCombs + Lower Dens @ Music Hall of Williamsburg / 66 N 6th St, Williamsburg (L to Bedford), 8p/$15. Cali's outsider punk poet and Baltimore's hazy shoegaze renegades, together at last!
* Charlene Kaye @ Fat Baby / 112 Rivington St (F/JMZ to Essex/Delancey), 8p. I've never got on well with this venue, but I send you forth in confidence thanks to a triumvirate of songwriterly talent, helmed by Charlene Kaye's gossamer rock and feat. Maryanna Sokol (check debut LP "Landfill") and Alexa Wilkinson.
TOKYO
* Yoshio Suzuki @ Hidari Zingaro / 3F 5-52-15 Nakano, Nakano-ku (JR Chuo Line to Nakano Station). Part two of art journalist and BRUTUS deputy editor Suzuki's photo series "Fukuhen", documenting his international travels via a compact camera.
* Keiji Haino @ Fever / 1-1-14 Hanegi, Setagaya-ku (Odakyu Inokashira Line to Shindaita or Shimokitazawa Stations), 7p/3300 yen. A celebration of "Far East" electric psychedelia, which Haino-san epitomizes no matter what instrument — a snarling guitar, a creepy hurdy-gurdy, his own dissonant, howling voice — is at the ready. w/ LSD March
FRIDAY
NYC
* "The Holy Mountain" (dir. Alejandro Jodorowsky, 1973) screening @ IFC Center / 323 Sixth Ave (ACE/BDFM to W 4th St), TKtime. Pure cinematic psychedelia, to the tune of a mute Christ figure and his limbless dwarf sidekick navigating a bustling marketplace and confabbing with prostitute-nuns clad in translucent habits. And that's before our hero ascends a tower, meets an alchemist (the director) and goes off on a hallucinogenic quest. ALSO SAT
* Anamanaguchi @ Music Hall of Williamsburg / 66 N 6th St, Williamsburg (L to Bedford), 8p/$12. IMO, these Brooklyn chiptune punks define the genre, nuking NES and pairing with buzzsaw guitars and live drumming, 8-bit dreamscapes projected behind 'em. w/ MATH the Band
* Buck 65 + Beans @ Bowery Ballroom / 6 Delancey St (F/JMZ to Essex/Delancey), 8p/$15. Whoa, this is a grown-ass man right here, at least in terms of "backpack" or indie hip-hop, sprinkled with folk-poetry and even a little Canadian country. Including NY freak-beat MC Beans just made the party that much more next-level.
* Charlene Kaye solo acoustic set @ American Folk Art Museum / 2 Lincoln Square (1 to 66th St), 6p/FREE. On the dawn of this institution's move into new digs uptown, ineffable singer-songwriter Charlene Kaye takes us back to someplace sunnier and gentler. (NB: her new music video "Human" gave me goosebumps) w/ Maryanna Sokol (and if you missed her on THU, don't make that mistake this time)
AUSTIN
* "Captain America: The First Avenger" (dir. Joe Johnston, 2011) screenings in wide release. Look, don't be so surprised, now. So part of my move to Austin has made me into an even bigger film fanboy (i.e. I've got tix to the 1st 3D screening, late THU), and those of you who know me KNOW I'm no "rah rah" Stars & Stripes fanatic. And, personally, I was never into "Captain America", the Marvel comic. Yet, something about a skinny-ass (computer-manipulated) Chris Evans morphing into a rippling (normal) Chris Evans, kicking Nazi ass and squaring off against Hugo Weaving/Red Skull just sounds RIGHT.
* Stephen Pruitt "Encryption" @ Salvage Vanguard Theatre / 2803 Manor Rd, 8p/$12. Pruitt — who has collaborated with the Rude Mechanics, Forklift, amid others — stages his first solo performance in five years, exploring the peripheries of the sensory-overloaded chunks of our existences. UFOs factor into this show, which began as a live radio performance at the 2009 Fronterafest Short Fringe, as "TBA". ALSO SAT
* Black Widow Burlesque presents the USA Show @ ND@501 Studios / 501 I-35 at 5th St, 9:30p/$10. Austin's acclaimed burlesque troupe unfurls a USO-style blowout, replete w/ classic cabaret and nouveau dazzlement and feat. Duke City Gypsy, Ginger Snaps, RaRa Roxette, Betty Blue, Lilly LaFleur and Sailor Cherry. Hoo-rah!
TOKYO
* Nobuyoshi Araki "Higan" @ Rat Hole Gallery / B1F 5-5-3 Minami-aoyama, Minato-ku (Chiyoda/Ginza/Hanzomon Lines to Omotesando Station, JR Yamanote Line to Harajuku Station). Approx 400 b&w prints taken during Tokyo's excruciating 2010 summer months, out the back window of cars — the timing and Araki's searching telescopic lens happened to coincide with his treatment for prostate cancer.
* Mika Ninagawa @ BLD Gallery / 2-4-9 Ginza, Chuo Ward Tokyo (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.
* 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.
* "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.
* Recoride @ Club Seata / 1-20-3 Kichijoji Honcho, Musashino-shi (JR Chuo/Sobu Line to Kichijoji Station), 11p/2500 yen. Gekkan Probowler's all-night showcase vol. 3 is one way to escape Tokyo's stifling summer heat, i.e. by sweating indoors to a dozen live techno-punk acts! Personal favorites Recoride don't hit the stage until like 3a, but Mayumi Yamazaki, CutiePai and CANDLES (plus a clutch of DJs) keep the action flowing 'til daybreak.
SATURDAY
NYC
* Lawrence Weiner + Kathryn Bigelow short-film showcase @ MoMA / 11 W 53rd St (E/M to 53rd St/5th Ave, 6 to 51st St), 7:30p. An incredible series of collaborations b/w Bigelow (the engaging director) and Weiner (the key Conceptualist), feat. "Affected and/or Effected" and "Done To" (both 1974, w/ Bigelow in front of the camera), "Green as Well as Blue as Well as Red" (1975-6, w/ commentary by Bigelow & Weiner) and "Altered to Suit" (1979, filmed by Weiner and edited by Bigelow).
* Warm Up: Gang Gang Dance (DJ set) @ MoMA PS1 / 22-25 Jackson Ave, Long Island City (E/M to 23rd St/Court, 7 to Courthouse Sq), 2p/FREE. Warm Up shows by nature encourage sweating, 1/2 due to the summer heat and another 1/2 due to the jeep-beats, son!!! Today's is particularly dope, what w/ inclusion of Syd tha Kyd, aka Ms. Odd Future, and Montreal's remix alchemist Lunice. And though local experimenters Gang Gang Dance are "just" doing a DJ set, we really never know what they'll come up with. A good thing.
* Dream Diary + Telenovelas @ Bruar Falls / 245 Grand St, Williamsburg (L to Bedford, G to Lorimer), 8p/$6. The Bleach Blonde Record Label launch/showcase includes Telenovelas, some of my favorite local shoegaze-y darlings, plus debut shows for Youth Castles and Blemishes (whose extra-fuzzy tape "Keep It Quiet" is Bleach Blonde's 1st release). Slumberland Records cardigan-stylers Dream Diary headline one dreamy night.
* Real Estate + The Feelies @ Prospect Park Bandshell / Prospect Park West & 9th St, Park Slope (), 7p/FREE. New Jersey now and then share the stage this evening. The quintessential post-punks The Feelies hail from Haledon and only recently reunited after like a 15-year hiatus from recording. Ridgewood surf lads Real Estate keep honing their summertime anthems to new levels of awesomeness. w/ Times New Viking
TOKYO
* Sushi Typhoon Matsuri @ Ginza Cine-Pathos / 4-8-7 Ginza, Chuo-ku (Tokyo Metro Ginza/Marunouchi/Hibiya Lines to Ginza Station), begins at 12:40p/1500 yen. The awesomely comedic, jaw-droppingly action-packed and totally splatterific Sushi Typhoon films have been decimating festival circuits and hypnotizing new lots of fans, but these are films from and of Japanese soil and it is a good thing that they screen at home, in style, in a four-film blockbuster blowout!!! Consider these the Four Directors of the Apocalypse, only better looking and infinitely more entertaining. The festival begins here, at Ginza's three-screen Cine-Pathos theatre, and extends to epidemic proportions in Osaka, Fukuoka, Aichi, Hokkaido and finally Kyoto — but Tokyo gets nearly a full month of the mayhem. Let's break it down for this week (thru JUL 29):
- "Alien vs Ninja" (dir. Seiji Chiba, 2010), screening at 12:40p. Or 'how it all began', the Sushi Typhoon world introduction occurred at NYAFF 2010…and I was there, front and center! This early title set the label's tone: a nonstop buffet of gore, eye-watering live action and a comedic twist, via rubber-suited aliens and the whole premise of aliens duking it out w/ ninja in an endless forest.
- "Yakuza Weapon" (dirs. Tak Sakaguchi & Yudai Yamaguchi, 2011), screening at 3p. Where to begin: it's adapted from an ultraviolent manga; it also stars action-icon Tak as a cannon-armed antihero insulting thugs in growled Osaka-ese whilst tearing up the screen in four-minute-long tracking shots; and Cay Izumi plays a naked human weapon.
- "Deadball" (dir. Yudai Yamaguchi, 2011), screening at 5:20p. The one of four I've not seen yet, but considering its director created the zombie baseball classic "Battlefield Baseball" and its lead is action-icon Tak Sakaguchi, I think we've got something particularly special here.
- "Helldriver" (dir. Yoshihiro Nishimura, 2010), screening at 7:40p. Like zombies? Like modelesque girls wielding chainsaw-swords slaying zombies? This epic of gory excess, set in a Japan half-conquered by alien gas-infected undead, could only originate in the mind of splatter king Nishimura-san. To cure the populace a la "28 Days Later", our heroine must go after the zombie queen, played by none other than Eihi Shiina. Good luck with that!
* Metro-Ongen + Lines @ JAM / B1 2-3-23 Kabukicho, Shinjuku-ku (JR lines etc to Shinjuku Station), 6p/2500 yen. I am majorly into indie-rockers Lines (feat. Sachiko Sakaeda) and now Koenji's '80s-imbued quartet Metro-Ongen (think Japanese Televison). w/ Sorrys!
SUNDAY
TOKYO
* Azarashi + UM @ Kagurazaka Explosion / B1F #112 Yaraicho, Shinjuku-ku (Tokyo Metro Toei Line to Yurakucho Station), 4p/3500 yen. Kaisan Records hosts an enormous Red Cross fundraising event benefiting NE Japan…via theatrical, dissonant visual key!!!! My favorites Azarashi cut deep in their new LP "Flesh & Blood" (which dropped on JUL 20), while UM (vocalist Re;Kai and multi-instrumentalist Fujimiya, plus a full band) channel Dead Can Dance, traditional gagaku and noise music in their multilinear performances. Plus Kao ga nai! (uh…"Faceless!"), post-punks Kalavinka and more from the darkside.
MONDAY
TOKYO
* Lines @ Shimokitazawa Shelter / B1F 2-6-10 Kitazawa, Setagaya-ku (Keio Inokashira Line to Shimo-kitazawa Station), 6:30p/2500 yen. Nice! Good vibes indie rock courtesy Tokyo's Lines (check "Zetsumetsu" from their LP) and Bomi.
TUESDAY
NYC
* "Three" (dir. Tom Tykwer, 2010) @ Museum of the Moving Image / 36-01 35th Ave, Astoria (E/M/R to Steinway St), 7p. Perhaps the most hot-blooded, idealist threesome film you'll ever see, particularly due to the couples' respective long-committed relationships.
* Jessica 6 + Xylos @ Mercury Lounge / 217 E Houston (F to 2nd Ave), 7p/$10. Yes this is an early one, but 100% worth it. Particularly for you 9-6ers who think you can't go out on weeknights. Speed over here (do NOT miss local synth-pop ensemble Xylos) and get your groove thang on. Frankly, I cannot stop listening to "X-Ray", off Xylos' debut LP, and if you're an avid LIST-reader you KNOW Nomi Ruiz & her Jessica 6 outfit bring the nu-disco hi-NRG. Sweat and enjoy.
AUSTIN
* "Revenge From Planet Ape" (dir. Amando de Ossorio, 1971) screening @ Alamo Drafthouse Ritz / 320 E 6th St, 10p. This unearthed classic is actually part of the Spanish director's acclaimed "Blind Dead/Templar Knights" quadrilogy (original title translates to "Tombs of the Blind Dead"). Only thing is, in its stateside release the distributors tried to tie it into the "Planet of the Apes" project, so the revenant Knights became "mummified simian warriors", replete w/ a slipshod English-language explanatory intro. So you'll have to trust me that this ape-less film, set entirely on planet Earth, is actually really awesome, and terrifically violent.
* Ghost Wolves @ Momo's / 618 W 6th St, 8p/$7. Carley & Jonathan, aka Ghost Wolves, bring their juke-joint jams and stripped-down powerhouse blues rock to ol' Momo's. Don't underestimate 'em. w/ The Coveters
TOKYO
* "My Theatre" @ Span Art Gallery / 2-2-18 1F Ginza, Chuo-ku. (Yurakucho Line to Ginza-Itchome Station). Deeply personal, disquieting and celebratory works in this group show, feat. Yuko Fukase, Akiko Idichi, Misaki Kihara, Satomi Kuwahara, Hiroshi Osaka, Minae Takada and Mitsuya Watanabe.
* Guitar Wolf vs. Firestarter @ Shimo-kitazawa Shelter / B1F 2-6-10 Kitazawa, Setagaya-ku (Keio Inokashira Line to Shimo-kitazawa Station), 7p/3500 yen. Nagasaki's original punks Guitar Wolf square off against Firestarter in this "Back to the Shelter" mosh-hungry showcase.
CLOSING SOON
NYC
* Richard Tuttle "What's the Wind" @ The Pace Gallery / 510 W 25th St. In my understanding of Richard Tuttle's oeuvre, this lot of "space frame" free-standing sculptures feels very un-Tuttle to me, though it apparently synthesizes decades of his work. Take "System 4, Hummingbird", for me the most Tuttle-esque due to the stretched fabric hanging in the middle of the work like a kidney-shaped kite amid a laundry list of media (painted Styrofoam, aluminum wire, birch plywood, monofilament). Or "System 3, Measurement" in the back gallery, some grouping of misshapen balloons covered in rice paper and suspended over a loose grid of white-coated steel. Their overall vivid fragility is VERY Tuttle, however.
* "Free Soil" @ Canada / 55 Chrystie St. The gallery's bunker-like atmosphere converts into a site for unearthing fossils from some previous civilization. The results are unnerving: Robin Peck's carved, vaguely alien devices, sitting squatly on the concrete floor; Anya Kielar's bleached cloth-and-string implements mimicking human skeletons; Lily Ludlow's vaguely figurative abstract works on paper, wrenching physicality into a layered series of curves; and of course Huma Bhabha's elegantly grotesque contribution: a mannequin bust placed backwards on a secondhand wooden chair, covered in a hooded windbreaker like the crude fractured skeleton of a centaur. (ENDS FRI)
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
fee's LIST (through 7/19)
WEDNESDAY
NYC
* "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.
* NYAFF: "City of Violence" (dir. Ryoo Seung-wan, 2006) screening @ Walter Reade Theatre / Lincoln Center @ 65th St (1 to 66th St), 3:30p. My first brush w/ Ryoo, one of Korea's eminent young directors/action choreographers AND stars, was at this very festival four years ago, in the heart-wrenching crime-family drama "City of Violence". It still reigns as one of my favorites, matching exhaustingly brutal fight sequences with tear-inducing emotion.
* NYAFF: "The Unjust" (dir. Ryoo Seung-wan, 2010) screening @ Walter Reade Theatre / Lincoln Center @ 65th St (1 to 66th St), 9p. In Ryoo's "return to form" (though incidentally I loved his "Austin Powers"-ish "Dachimawa Lee"), everybody's bad, or corrupted, or generally unlikeable. It's garnered strong reviews, and I trust Ryoo, so brace for crime-riddled mayhem and dive in. Plus, Ryoo attends the screening, which is epically dope.
* Sweet Bulbs @ Death By Audio / 49 S 2nd St, Williamsburg (L to Bedford, JM to Marcy), 8p. Local fuzz-rock darlings Sweet Bulbs are the bees knees, controlled sonic maelstroms. w/ Monitors and American Sun
* James Blake (UK) + Teengirl Fantasy @ Webster Hall / 125 E 11th St (NR/L/456 to Union Square), 7:30p/$25. So I took my sweet time acclimatizing to the runaway success story that is James Blake. But I'm there now, and he's an incredibly accomplished, sonically striking young musician. Matched w/ Teengirl Fantasy and you've got a mind-altering trip in the works.
AUSTIN
* "Future Present: Five Artists, Five Weeks" feat. Brian Bress @ Arthouse / 700 Congress, Austin. As the title suggests, each artist gets one week to display their video work in the 2F space. This third installment delivers Bress' "Status Report", feat. the artist playing six different roles.
* "Riot on Sunset Strip" (dir. Arthur Dreifus, 1967) screening @ Alamo Drafthouse Ritz / 320 E 6th St, 9:45p. You thought YOU had it bad growing up? Check out this 90 min. long parental advisory warning aimed at their grass-smoking, hotpants-wearing teens. Feat. a grizzled police captain named "Aldo Ray" and his daughter Mimsy, who has an acid-addled dance sequence that is both the film's turning point, key scene, climax, epiphany and undoubtedly plenty of other terms I've forgotten.
* Ghost Wolves @ Beerland / 711 Red River St, 9p/FREE (w/ RSVP to therumbleaustin.eventbrite.com). I can't over juke-joint duo Ghost Wolves…particularly frontwoman/guitarist Carley Wolf's voice, an emotive rasp that sinks deep in and refuses to let go.Think of her as one part Hill Country raconteur, one part trip-hop chanteuse. w/ The Asteroid Shop, as part of the venue's monthly Rumble matchup
TOKYO
* Eiko Ishibashi + Jim O'Rourke @ Liquidroom / 3-16-6 Higashi, Shibuya-ku (JR Yamanote Line etc to Ebisu station), 7p/4000 yen. This is by no means a first-time collab by multi-instrumentalist Ishibashi (she sings, drums and is versed in winds and piano) and Tokyo-based bassist/producer O'Rourke. She contributed to his "All Kinds of People - Love Burt Bacharach" and he played on her new LP "Carapace". This "Magic of Music vol 2" array, feat. Sudoh Toshiaki, Tatsuhisa Yamamoto and Atsuko Hatano, should be particularly inspiring.
* Shooting Spires (aka BJ Warshaw/Parts & Labor) + Takashi Ueno, Kasumi Hiraoka + more @ Super Deluxe / B1F 3-1-25 Nishi-Azabu, Minato-ku (Hibya/Oedo Line to Roppongi Station), 7:30p/2300 yen. New Shambala Day vol 8 is jam-packed with dopeness, incl. 12-string guitarist and Moog manipulator Ueno (of Tenniscoats), film and pole-dancing by Hiraoka (of My Brassiere Film), junk electronics from BING (aka Toshio Kajiwara) and a solo set by Brooklyn NY's own BJ Warshaw, the bearded guy in noise-rockers Parts & Labor.
THURSDAY
NYC
* "Silver Bullet" @ Priska C. Juschka Fine Art / 547 W 27th St. As we dip further into summer, you've undoubtedly noticed many NYC galleries (even some restaurants) taking a European holiday. Not Juschka: this compelling international gallery mounts a group show organized by artist Danielle Tegeder and focused on objects that literally recall the title (silver and shiny stuff) and figurative (the mythical "silver bullet"). Feat. Arne Arnejorg, Richard Coleman, Pierre Denis Moreau, Jesse Heyes, Nadai Lovinescu, Vo Nyuyan Thu, Kati Schenk and Tegeder.
* "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.
* "The Inglorious Bastards" (dir. Enzo G. Castellari, 1978) + "The Psychic" (dir. Lucio Fulci, 1977) double-feature @ reRun Theatre / 147 Front St, DUMBO (F to York, AC to High St), 7p. The Severin insanity continues! War film-wise, you don't get much bad-asser than Castellari's "The Inglorious Bastards", both inspiration and impetus to Quentin Tarentino. And Fulci's "The Psychic" is a personal favorite, a chiller straight out of Poe's world (think "The Cask of Amontillado"), with Evelyn Stewart as the titular figure.
AUSTIN
* The French Inhales @ Emo's / 602 Red River, 9p/$6. If you can "French inhale" off your cig, you'll look pretty cool. If you check out this pretty dope local garage-rock band (joined by the spare, bassy Hatchet Wound and creatively named Ovary Action), you'd be THAT MUCH COOLER.
TOKYO
* Yoshio Suzuki @ Hidari Zingaro / 3F 5-52-15 Nakano, Nakano-ku (JR Chuo Line to Nakano Station). Part one of art journalist and BRUTUS deputy editor Suzuki's photo series "Fukuhen", documenting his international travels via a compact camera.
* LastDayBikini presents "Analogic Insert" @ Bar Bonobo / 2-23-4 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku (Fukutoshin Line to Kitasando Station, JR Yamanote Line to Harajuku Station), 9p/1000yen. Welcome to "Maniac Thursdays" — at least that's how I'm translating it, w/ your hosts LastDayBikini (aka tag-team Kayo and GJ). I first "experienced" LDB's freak-beat set at Superdeluxe last April before a noise concert and I was hooked. I want them to DJ my birthday party, if I'm in Tokyo next time that happens...
FRIDAY
NYC
* Romare Bearden "The Soul of Blackness: A Centennial Tribute" @ Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture / 515 Malcolm X Boulevard (23 to 135th St). In celebration of this seminal New York artist, the Center draws from its collection of Bearden's unique interpretations of the African-American experience, including his 50th anniversary collage tribute to the Center and the tapestry "Spring Festival".
* Japan Cuts: "Three Points" (dir. Masashi Yamamoto, 2011) screening @ Japan Society / 333 E 47th St (E/M to 53rd/Lexington, 6 to 51st St), 8:30p. The title comes from three takes on Japan's working-class underbelly, from Kyoto to Okinawa to Tokyo. But look: this also stars mega AV idol Sora Aoi, she of "Tsumugi" and "Illegal Tits Violation 14" (I'm not making that up), and if her horror film "Big Tits Zombie" wasn't "highbrow" enough for you, consider this Sora-chan's move to the mainstream. Dir. Yamamoto AND Sora Aoi attend the post-screening Q&A and afterparty (major!).
* Lawrence Weiner + Kathryn Bigelow short-film showcase @ MoMA / 11 W 53rd St (E/M to 53rd St/5th Ave, 6 to 51st St), 4:30p. An incredible series of collaborations b/w Bigelow (the engaging director) and Weiner (the key Conceptualist), feat. "Affected and/or Effected" and "Done To" (both 1974, w/ Bigelow in front of the camera), "Green as Well as Blue as Well as Red" (1975-6, w/ commentary by Bigelow & Weiner) and "Altered to Suit" (1979, filmed by Weiner and edited by Bigelow). ALSO TUE 4p
* "Labyrinth" (dir. Jim Henson, 1986) midnight screening @ Sunshine Cinema / 143 E Houston St (F to 2nd Ave). What, I ask you, is better than watching a hot vampiric David Bowie and a teenaged Jennifer Connelly in a surreal fantasy film, the one that taught me the term "oubliette", at midnight ALSO SAT
* Asobi Seksu + The Radio Dept @ South Street Seaport, Pier 17 (23/34/JMZ to Fulton St), 7p/FREE. Sweet sweet shoegaze and atmospheric dream-pop outdoors. LIST faves Asobi Seksu will leave you spellbound, and that's before Sweden's dream-pop icons The Radio Dept take the stage.
* Rayon Beach (Austin) @ Bruar Falls / 245 Grand St, Williamsburg (L to Bedford, G to Lorimer), 8p/$6. Psych-tinged garage-rock deep in the heart of Texas. This is the early leg of Rayon Beach's big summer tour. w/ John Wesley Coleman, another Hill Country badass of the songwriterly persuasion
* Noveller @ Shea Stadium / 20 Meadow St, E. Williamsburg (L to Grand), 8p. I've been a Noveller enthusiast since before I realized its one-woman juggernaut Sarah Lipstate was also an accomplished experimental filmmaker and alumni from my university (UT Austin for the win) — I knew her as the axe-slayer Brooklyn's eminent noise-rockers Parts & Labor (whose bearded bassist BJ plays a special show in Nishi-Azabu, Tokyo on WED), and caught her opening for them as Noveller, conjuring these stunning soundscapes w/ just her guitar and effects pedals. Her latest LP "Glacial Glow" takes me back to that night at Union Pool when I first discovered how awesome she is. w/ Garrincha & the Stolen Elk
* The Wooden Birds (Austin) @ The Rock Shop / 249 4th Ave, Park Slope (D/NR to Union St), 8p/$12. This pretty awesome Park Slope venue continues its one-year anniversary w/ a treat: Austin TX's dynamic acoustic indie rockers The Wooden Birds, in town a few days for their delightful 2nd LP "Two Matchsticks". Show the South some Big Apple love. w/ Mascott
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.
* Stephen Pruitt "Encryption" @ Salvage Vanguard Theatre / 2803 Manor Rd, 8p/$12. Pruitt — who has collaborated with the Rude Mechanics, Forklift, amid others — stages his first solo performance in five years, exploring the peripheries of the sensory-overloaded chunks of our existences. UFOs factor into this show, which began as a live radio performance at the 2009 Fronterafest Short Fringe, as "TBA". ALSO SAT
* The Sour Notes @ Cactus Cafe / 2247 Guadalupe St, 8:30p/$5. Austin powerhouse collective The Sour Notes (whose membership boasts ineffable singer/songwriter Elaine Greer) complete their summer tour with an intimate show at UT Austin's Cactus Cafe. w/ Waldo & the Naturals
TOKYO
* Recoride vs. Sexy Synthesizer @ Shibuya Cyclone / B2 13-16 Udagawa-cho, Shibuya-ku (JR Lines etc to Shibuya Station), 7p/2300 yen. Which electroclash band shall prevail in this "summer storm disco dance"? Recoride, boasting a pounding new EP and a pink-haired, Crystal Castles-like frontwoman Tatta? Or the 8-bit punk duo Sexy Synthesizer? I mean…they even made a T-shirt commemorating the event, which should epitomize a BASH.
* Angree Yung Robotz (aka Verbal/m-flo, Mademoiselle Yulia, Trippple Nippples) @ Club Asia / 1-8 Maruyama-cho, Shibuya-ku (JR lines etc to Shibuya), 11p/3500 yen. An auspicious pairing of supernova proportions. Let's break it down: Verbal is a founding member of (IMO) Japan's premiere hip-hop blend m-flo. Mademoiselle Yulia is one of the hottest DJs in Tokyo's electro scene, plus this blue-haired fashionista scribes for NYLON Japan. And Trippple Nippples are that saccharine-drenched electroclash/performance duo. Yulia's debut LP is on the way (produced by Verbal), and I am beyond stoked.
SATURDAY
NYC
* Japan Cuts: "A Liar and a Broken Girl" (dir. Natsuki Seta, 2010) screening @ Japan Society / 333 E 47th St (E/M to 53rd/Lexington, 6 to 51st St), 7:15p. "Post-traumatic stress disorder made cute", says Maggie Lee of The Hollywood Reporter. Sure, easy enough when a child kidnapper is a cutiepie and her Dior Homme-ish childhood friend stabs young women. Really? Darker than your wildest imagination. + Seta Q&A
* Company Flow + Juggaknots @ Santos Party House / 96 Lafayette St (NR/JMZ/6 to Canal St), 8p/$20. NY, I love you, but you're bringing me down. I leave the Big Apple and then two of underground hip-hop's legendary acts, the incomparable Co Flow (El-P, Bigg Juss & DJ Mr. Len, reunited!) and the super-solid Juggaknots (Breeze Brewin', Queen Herawin and Buddy Slim), take the stage of a decently intimate venue! Takes me back to '96, where mind you I was a youth stuck in Houston TX, but you get what I mean.
AUSTIN
* Kill the Client + Baring Teeth @ Headhunters / 720 Red River St, 9p/$5o. Dallas metal!!! Kill the Client split an LP w/ that other famous Dallas grindcore band Agoraphobic Nosebleed, plus they're on super-heavy Relapse Records. Baring Teeth inject like Atari glitch sounds into their ferocious sonic froth, plus they've got a new LP "Atrophy" that just dropped. w/ Lions of Tsavo
* Iceage @ Emo's / 602 Red River, 9p/$8. Insanity. Copenhagen's fiercest punks are like these 17-year-olds Iceage, but they mauled NYC in a series of shows so don't underestimate 'em! They share the stage w/ some stateside hard-rockers, Austin's own Women in Prison & The Creamers.
TOKYO
* 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.
* Sachiho Ikeda @ Gallery MOMO Roppongi / 2F 6-2-6 Roppongi, Minato-ku (Hibiya/Oedo Lines to Roppongi Station). I love this gallery and I dig this young artist, who grew up in St. Petersburg before returning to Tokyo to attend Musashino Art University. This is Ikeda's 2nd solo exhibition at the gallery, acid-colored gardens and shrines that mix Nihonga technique with a vivid contemporary twist.
* "In the Waitingroom" @ Waitingroom / 3F 2-8-11 Ebisu-nishi, Shibuya-ku (JR Yamanote Line to Ebisu Station). This pretty neat indie Ebisu space fills up w/ like three dozen artists, from Yohei Watanabe and Makiko Nawa to Mayumi Oku and mumbreeze (a collab b/w mumbleboy and Kao). Waitingroom extends its hours to Sunday in celebration of this salon event.
* Motoyuki Daifu @ Otomeshi / 2F 3-57-7 Koenji-Minami, Suginami-ku (Marunouchi Line to Higashi-Koenji Station), opening 4-7p. The Yamagata-style pub hosts a homecoming exhibition of young photographer Daifu-kun, entitled something like "The family's pubis hidden in pretty panties" or aka the "Daifuman summer festival". I really dig his photography, invasive yet intimate documentation of his family's crowded Tokyo flat.
* Koji Onaka "Tokyo Candy Box", slideshow & lecture w/ Kotaro Iizawa @ Emon Photo Gallery / B1 5-11-12 Minami-Azabu, Minato-ku (Hibiya Line to Hiroo Station), 5p/1000 yen - RSVP: emon_photogallery@emoninc.com. Iizawa, the celebrated author, photography critic and historian, joins the artist in a discussion of Onaka's documentation of Tokyo's architecture boom.
* Nisennenmondai + Sachiko M + Hisato Yamamoto @ UFO Club / B1F 1-11-6 Koenji-Minami, Suginami-ku (Marunouchi Line to Higashi-Koenji Station), 6:30p/2800 yen. MAYJAH, particularly for lovers of the avant-garde. Nisennenmondai (literally "Y2K") are like Tokyo's Battles, i.e. three math-rocking groove-purveyors (and drummer Sayaka Himeno is AT LEAST as fierce as John Stanier). Sachiko M's drone project used to be tied w/ Merzbow. Yamamoto's a brutal punk rock guitarist. They're joined by Phew, who's sung alongside Otomo Yoshihide, Bill Laswell, Ryuichi Sakamoto and her own punk band Aunt Sally.
SUNDAY
NYC
* Japan Cuts: "A Night in Nude: Salvation" (dir. Takashi Ishii, 2010) screening @ Japan Society / 333 E 47th St (E/M to 53rd/Lexington, 6 to 51st St), 9p. Did you catch Ishii's 1993 film "A Night in Nude"? — or even heard of it? It's OK, this grim, neon-lit thriller returns Naoto Tatenaka (about the gruffest MF in Japanese cinema today) to the lead, a guy who'll do anything for the right price.
* "I Saw the Devil" (dir. Kim Ji-woon, 2010) @ Museum of the Moving Image / 36-01 35th Ave, Astoria (E/M/R to Steinway St), 7p. You are not ready for this. Ahead of its proper screen-run at IFC Center in two weeks is a dark sphere of depraved, gruesome energy, a revenge tale so sickening that it pushes the envelope way further than you'd ever dare. That said, I loved it. If you've seen Park Chan-wook's "Oldboy" and wondered what happened to that rugged slice of man-muscle named Choi Min-sik, well he's back as the evilest sociopath since Hannibal Lecter.
* Xray Eyeballs + Frankie Rose @ Beekman Beer Garden / South Street Seaport Pier 17 (23/34/JMZ to Fulton St), 3p. Alix Brown and Carly Rabalais of Xray Eyeballs (who share members w/ Golden Triangle) play extra-catchy psych-tinged garage-rock. Frankie Rose conjures images of '60s doo-wop in her multi-part harmonies. Yet pairing these two consummately Brooklyn groups together sounds like summer in the city to me.
AUSTIN
* Transcosmic Geometry @ Salvage Vanguard Theatre / 2803 Manor Rd, 7p/$6-15 sliding scale. Church of the Friendly Ghost affiliate artist Paul Baker updates his circa-March program w/ some 20 videos, incl works by Sergio Martinez ("Pink",, via cellular automata synth), Eric Archer ("0D 03 0D 02", CRT + electronics), and Yoshi Sodeoka's video "Everything Falling Apart" for Nice Nice. Baker ends the mind-bending program w/ a live analog video mixer performance, feeding off the audience's beguiled statuses.
TOKYO
* Caucus @ 20000Volt / 1-7 Koenji Minami, Suginami-ku (Tokyo Metro Marunouchi Line to Higashi-koenji Station), 6p/2000 yen. I fell in love w/ indie-pop darlings Caucus when they played this year's NYC Popfest. Their latest dreamy single "Wandering Ones" just debuted on the stateside label Cloudberry, and this is their proper local release party. w/ Groundcover + SiNE
* Enban Summer Festival @ O-Nest / 6F 2-3 Maruyama-cho, Shibuya-ku (Yamanote Line etc to Shibuya Station), 4p/2500 yen. Acid Mothers Tenniscoats (aka psych lords Acid Mothers Temple + indie darlings Tenniscoats) helm this afternoon/evening fest. I suggest you show up early for Yasawan and Mayonaka Music — but save some of your cerebrum for Nisennenmondai's three-prong math-rock assault: it's beautiful.
MONDAY
TOKYO
* Eiko + Pikachu + Tatsuhisa Yamamoto @ Superdeluxe / 3-1-25 Nishi-Azabu, Minato Ward Tokyo, 7p/2800 yen. A super-fierce three-drummer combo! Who's the best, Eiko Ishibashi (well-versed in like a dozen instruments and plays Liquidroom Ebisu w/ Jim O'Rourke on WED), Pikachu (the vocalist/drummer of original Osaka noise-girls Afrirampo) or Tatsuhisa Yamamoto (the acoustic improvisor and frequent tag-teamer w/ Ishibashi, as SSW)?
TUESDAY
NYC
* "La Carte d'Apres Nature", curated by Thomas Demand @ Matthew Marks Gallery / 522 W 22nd St. If you're a Rene Magritte freak like myself, you'll recognize the exhibition title from a journal published by the Belgian surrealist. Demand takes that as the jump-off (plus adding three Magritte paintings into the mix, two from Houston's Menil Collection) for a labyrinthine exhibition on representation. Luigi Ghirri's vintage color photographs, films by Tacita Dean and Rodney Graham, a birdsongs recording by Henrik Hakansson (created for this show) and other works contribute to this very special experience.
* The Return of the Living Dead" (dir. Dan O'Bannon, 1985) screenings @ BAM / 30 Lafayette St, Ft Greene (23/45 to Nevins St, AC to Lafayette), 6:50/9:15p. This is my 2nd favorite "Living Dead" film (the 1st is definitely part three, which might sound weird if you've never seen Brian Yuzna's pitch-perfect zombie romance classic, w/ the lovely Melinda Clarke as a pierced and sadomasochistic stunner — trust me), half for the absurdly ace soundtrack (The Cramps! SSQ! The Flesh Eaters!) and half for the awesome cast of coed punks vs. a graveyard full of the undead.
AUSTIN
* "TerrorVision" (dir. Ted Nicolaou, 1986) screening @ Alamo Drafthouse Ritz / 320 E 6th St, 9:50p. Trivia: Nicolaou was a sound recordist on "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre" after he graduated from UT Austin's film program. His VAN was the hippie-mobile in the film! Kick-ass, no? This film…think of Jabba the Hutt with a "Gremlins"-like face, beamed to earth from some guy's satellite dish. See why TV kills?
TOKYO
* Hair Stylistics + Tori Kudo @ Superdeluxe / 3-1-25 Nishi-Azabu, Minato Ward Tokyo, 7:30p/2500 yen. Absolutely essential duo for you avant-guardians. Kudo-san is a naivist composer and musician, perhaps best known for his alter-ego Maher Shalal Hash Baz. Hair Stylistics is a ferocious noisician (and the famous Violent Onsen Geisha) and writer, but a quite nice chap in person. w/ freak-beat DJ unit LastDayBikini
CLOSING SOON
NYC
* Picasso and Marie-Thérese "L'amour fou" @ Gagosian Gallery / 522 W 21st St. The 3rd chapter (2nd, stateside) of Gagosian's wonderful exploration into Pablo Picasso is terribly romantic. It fell well after Valentines Day but coincided with springtime in NYC, which is pretty romantic if you ask me. The exhibition itself is exemplary, furthering the gallery's tradition over the past several years of pushing the envelope on what constitutes a "gallery show". Soft lighting, painted temporary walls everywhere, even Met-esque murals and source material set the mood. The works themselves — dozens of paintings, plus a handful of bronzes and works on paper — are stunning, many from private collections (meaning this writer and probably YOU have never seen 'em before) but also some high-profile loans (like straight off the Met's Picasso exhibition), and encompass 13 years of the artist's life with his blond darling. (ENDS FRI)
AUSTIN
* Susan Collis "So It Goes" @ Lora Reynolds Gallery / 360 Nueces St, Austin. The beyond discreet workings of this British artist (the 2010 Armory Show representative) include more of what I expect from her laborious, subtle oeuvre: screws embedded w/ precious gems, mother of pearl paint splatters — plus some seductive surprises. She fills a picture frame with thousands of 0.9 mm pencil leads for "Anything really", a crosshatched forest of dark gray, and she covers lovingly crumpled paper wads in "On second thoughts" w/ an impossible pattern of hand-drawn linework. Pencil leads recur in "I miss you" and "I missed you", painstakingly arranged squares on thick reams of paper.
+ Tom Molloy "Woman". The Irish artist works in graphite drawings that neatly complement Collis' show in the main room. What he's done is take Johannes Vermeer paintings as reference ("Young Woman with a Jug", "The Milkmaid" etc), recreated them in deft pencil compositions…only w/ the women removed from the frame. Did she leave after 'Vermeer' completed the work, has she not arrived yet? In a sense, we see these spaces as the Dutch painter saw them. (ENDS SAT)
AUSTIN
* Claire Falkenberg "Bloom" + Wura-Natasha Ogunji "not a ghost" @ Champion / 800 Brazos St. Brooklyn-based Falkenberg collages jagged layers of photography a bit Edward Hopper-style, before burying much of it under an ethereal swamp-cloud of oil paint. Ogunji's film was shot earlier this year around Lagos and Abuja, Nigeria.
TOKYO
* Kohei Yoshiyuki "The Park" @ BLD Gallery / 2-4-9 Ginza, Chuo-ku. (JR Yurakucho Station, Marunouchi Line to Ginza Station). I was pleased to catch the iconic photographer's 1970s series at Yossi Milo Gallery in NYC back in 2007. This is double voyeurism: Yoshiyuki capturing spectators watching clandestine trysts in Tokyo parks — triple if you count yourself the viewer.
* Ron English "Popaganda in Japan" @ Public Image 3D / 1F 2-32-2 Ikejiri, Setagaya-ku (Tokyu Den-en-toshi Line to Ikejiri-Ohashi Station). Welcome to English's world, Tokyo. This is the subversive American artist's culture-jamming debut in Japan, filling the gallery w/ designer characters and collaborative works w/ Jason Freeny, Kim Songhe and Touma. (ENDS MON)
NYC
* "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.
* NYAFF: "City of Violence" (dir. Ryoo Seung-wan, 2006) screening @ Walter Reade Theatre / Lincoln Center @ 65th St (1 to 66th St), 3:30p. My first brush w/ Ryoo, one of Korea's eminent young directors/action choreographers AND stars, was at this very festival four years ago, in the heart-wrenching crime-family drama "City of Violence". It still reigns as one of my favorites, matching exhaustingly brutal fight sequences with tear-inducing emotion.
* NYAFF: "The Unjust" (dir. Ryoo Seung-wan, 2010) screening @ Walter Reade Theatre / Lincoln Center @ 65th St (1 to 66th St), 9p. In Ryoo's "return to form" (though incidentally I loved his "Austin Powers"-ish "Dachimawa Lee"), everybody's bad, or corrupted, or generally unlikeable. It's garnered strong reviews, and I trust Ryoo, so brace for crime-riddled mayhem and dive in. Plus, Ryoo attends the screening, which is epically dope.
* Sweet Bulbs @ Death By Audio / 49 S 2nd St, Williamsburg (L to Bedford, JM to Marcy), 8p. Local fuzz-rock darlings Sweet Bulbs are the bees knees, controlled sonic maelstroms. w/ Monitors and American Sun
* James Blake (UK) + Teengirl Fantasy @ Webster Hall / 125 E 11th St (NR/L/456 to Union Square), 7:30p/$25. So I took my sweet time acclimatizing to the runaway success story that is James Blake. But I'm there now, and he's an incredibly accomplished, sonically striking young musician. Matched w/ Teengirl Fantasy and you've got a mind-altering trip in the works.
AUSTIN
* "Future Present: Five Artists, Five Weeks" feat. Brian Bress @ Arthouse / 700 Congress, Austin. As the title suggests, each artist gets one week to display their video work in the 2F space. This third installment delivers Bress' "Status Report", feat. the artist playing six different roles.
* "Riot on Sunset Strip" (dir. Arthur Dreifus, 1967) screening @ Alamo Drafthouse Ritz / 320 E 6th St, 9:45p. You thought YOU had it bad growing up? Check out this 90 min. long parental advisory warning aimed at their grass-smoking, hotpants-wearing teens. Feat. a grizzled police captain named "Aldo Ray" and his daughter Mimsy, who has an acid-addled dance sequence that is both the film's turning point, key scene, climax, epiphany and undoubtedly plenty of other terms I've forgotten.
* Ghost Wolves @ Beerland / 711 Red River St, 9p/FREE (w/ RSVP to therumbleaustin.eventbrite.com). I can't over juke-joint duo Ghost Wolves…particularly frontwoman/guitarist Carley Wolf's voice, an emotive rasp that sinks deep in and refuses to let go.Think of her as one part Hill Country raconteur, one part trip-hop chanteuse. w/ The Asteroid Shop, as part of the venue's monthly Rumble matchup
TOKYO
* Eiko Ishibashi + Jim O'Rourke @ Liquidroom / 3-16-6 Higashi, Shibuya-ku (JR Yamanote Line etc to Ebisu station), 7p/4000 yen. This is by no means a first-time collab by multi-instrumentalist Ishibashi (she sings, drums and is versed in winds and piano) and Tokyo-based bassist/producer O'Rourke. She contributed to his "All Kinds of People - Love Burt Bacharach" and he played on her new LP "Carapace". This "Magic of Music vol 2" array, feat. Sudoh Toshiaki, Tatsuhisa Yamamoto and Atsuko Hatano, should be particularly inspiring.
* Shooting Spires (aka BJ Warshaw/Parts & Labor) + Takashi Ueno, Kasumi Hiraoka + more @ Super Deluxe / B1F 3-1-25 Nishi-Azabu, Minato-ku (Hibya/Oedo Line to Roppongi Station), 7:30p/2300 yen. New Shambala Day vol 8 is jam-packed with dopeness, incl. 12-string guitarist and Moog manipulator Ueno (of Tenniscoats), film and pole-dancing by Hiraoka (of My Brassiere Film), junk electronics from BING (aka Toshio Kajiwara) and a solo set by Brooklyn NY's own BJ Warshaw, the bearded guy in noise-rockers Parts & Labor.
THURSDAY
NYC
* "Silver Bullet" @ Priska C. Juschka Fine Art / 547 W 27th St. As we dip further into summer, you've undoubtedly noticed many NYC galleries (even some restaurants) taking a European holiday. Not Juschka: this compelling international gallery mounts a group show organized by artist Danielle Tegeder and focused on objects that literally recall the title (silver and shiny stuff) and figurative (the mythical "silver bullet"). Feat. Arne Arnejorg, Richard Coleman, Pierre Denis Moreau, Jesse Heyes, Nadai Lovinescu, Vo Nyuyan Thu, Kati Schenk and Tegeder.
* "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.
* "The Inglorious Bastards" (dir. Enzo G. Castellari, 1978) + "The Psychic" (dir. Lucio Fulci, 1977) double-feature @ reRun Theatre / 147 Front St, DUMBO (F to York, AC to High St), 7p. The Severin insanity continues! War film-wise, you don't get much bad-asser than Castellari's "The Inglorious Bastards", both inspiration and impetus to Quentin Tarentino. And Fulci's "The Psychic" is a personal favorite, a chiller straight out of Poe's world (think "The Cask of Amontillado"), with Evelyn Stewart as the titular figure.
AUSTIN
* The French Inhales @ Emo's / 602 Red River, 9p/$6. If you can "French inhale" off your cig, you'll look pretty cool. If you check out this pretty dope local garage-rock band (joined by the spare, bassy Hatchet Wound and creatively named Ovary Action), you'd be THAT MUCH COOLER.
TOKYO
* Yoshio Suzuki @ Hidari Zingaro / 3F 5-52-15 Nakano, Nakano-ku (JR Chuo Line to Nakano Station). Part one of art journalist and BRUTUS deputy editor Suzuki's photo series "Fukuhen", documenting his international travels via a compact camera.
* LastDayBikini presents "Analogic Insert" @ Bar Bonobo / 2-23-4 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku (Fukutoshin Line to Kitasando Station, JR Yamanote Line to Harajuku Station), 9p/1000yen. Welcome to "Maniac Thursdays" — at least that's how I'm translating it, w/ your hosts LastDayBikini (aka tag-team Kayo and GJ). I first "experienced" LDB's freak-beat set at Superdeluxe last April before a noise concert and I was hooked. I want them to DJ my birthday party, if I'm in Tokyo next time that happens...
FRIDAY
NYC
* Romare Bearden "The Soul of Blackness: A Centennial Tribute" @ Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture / 515 Malcolm X Boulevard (23 to 135th St). In celebration of this seminal New York artist, the Center draws from its collection of Bearden's unique interpretations of the African-American experience, including his 50th anniversary collage tribute to the Center and the tapestry "Spring Festival".
* Japan Cuts: "Three Points" (dir. Masashi Yamamoto, 2011) screening @ Japan Society / 333 E 47th St (E/M to 53rd/Lexington, 6 to 51st St), 8:30p. The title comes from three takes on Japan's working-class underbelly, from Kyoto to Okinawa to Tokyo. But look: this also stars mega AV idol Sora Aoi, she of "Tsumugi" and "Illegal Tits Violation 14" (I'm not making that up), and if her horror film "Big Tits Zombie" wasn't "highbrow" enough for you, consider this Sora-chan's move to the mainstream. Dir. Yamamoto AND Sora Aoi attend the post-screening Q&A and afterparty (major!).
* Lawrence Weiner + Kathryn Bigelow short-film showcase @ MoMA / 11 W 53rd St (E/M to 53rd St/5th Ave, 6 to 51st St), 4:30p. An incredible series of collaborations b/w Bigelow (the engaging director) and Weiner (the key Conceptualist), feat. "Affected and/or Effected" and "Done To" (both 1974, w/ Bigelow in front of the camera), "Green as Well as Blue as Well as Red" (1975-6, w/ commentary by Bigelow & Weiner) and "Altered to Suit" (1979, filmed by Weiner and edited by Bigelow). ALSO TUE 4p
* "Labyrinth" (dir. Jim Henson, 1986) midnight screening @ Sunshine Cinema / 143 E Houston St (F to 2nd Ave). What, I ask you, is better than watching a hot vampiric David Bowie and a teenaged Jennifer Connelly in a surreal fantasy film, the one that taught me the term "oubliette", at midnight ALSO SAT
* Asobi Seksu + The Radio Dept @ South Street Seaport, Pier 17 (23/34/JMZ to Fulton St), 7p/FREE. Sweet sweet shoegaze and atmospheric dream-pop outdoors. LIST faves Asobi Seksu will leave you spellbound, and that's before Sweden's dream-pop icons The Radio Dept take the stage.
* Rayon Beach (Austin) @ Bruar Falls / 245 Grand St, Williamsburg (L to Bedford, G to Lorimer), 8p/$6. Psych-tinged garage-rock deep in the heart of Texas. This is the early leg of Rayon Beach's big summer tour. w/ John Wesley Coleman, another Hill Country badass of the songwriterly persuasion
* Noveller @ Shea Stadium / 20 Meadow St, E. Williamsburg (L to Grand), 8p. I've been a Noveller enthusiast since before I realized its one-woman juggernaut Sarah Lipstate was also an accomplished experimental filmmaker and alumni from my university (UT Austin for the win) — I knew her as the axe-slayer Brooklyn's eminent noise-rockers Parts & Labor (whose bearded bassist BJ plays a special show in Nishi-Azabu, Tokyo on WED), and caught her opening for them as Noveller, conjuring these stunning soundscapes w/ just her guitar and effects pedals. Her latest LP "Glacial Glow" takes me back to that night at Union Pool when I first discovered how awesome she is. w/ Garrincha & the Stolen Elk
* The Wooden Birds (Austin) @ The Rock Shop / 249 4th Ave, Park Slope (D/NR to Union St), 8p/$12. This pretty awesome Park Slope venue continues its one-year anniversary w/ a treat: Austin TX's dynamic acoustic indie rockers The Wooden Birds, in town a few days for their delightful 2nd LP "Two Matchsticks". Show the South some Big Apple love. w/ Mascott
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.
* Stephen Pruitt "Encryption" @ Salvage Vanguard Theatre / 2803 Manor Rd, 8p/$12. Pruitt — who has collaborated with the Rude Mechanics, Forklift, amid others — stages his first solo performance in five years, exploring the peripheries of the sensory-overloaded chunks of our existences. UFOs factor into this show, which began as a live radio performance at the 2009 Fronterafest Short Fringe, as "TBA". ALSO SAT
* The Sour Notes @ Cactus Cafe / 2247 Guadalupe St, 8:30p/$5. Austin powerhouse collective The Sour Notes (whose membership boasts ineffable singer/songwriter Elaine Greer) complete their summer tour with an intimate show at UT Austin's Cactus Cafe. w/ Waldo & the Naturals
TOKYO
* Recoride vs. Sexy Synthesizer @ Shibuya Cyclone / B2 13-16 Udagawa-cho, Shibuya-ku (JR Lines etc to Shibuya Station), 7p/2300 yen. Which electroclash band shall prevail in this "summer storm disco dance"? Recoride, boasting a pounding new EP and a pink-haired, Crystal Castles-like frontwoman Tatta? Or the 8-bit punk duo Sexy Synthesizer? I mean…they even made a T-shirt commemorating the event, which should epitomize a BASH.
* Angree Yung Robotz (aka Verbal/m-flo, Mademoiselle Yulia, Trippple Nippples) @ Club Asia / 1-8 Maruyama-cho, Shibuya-ku (JR lines etc to Shibuya), 11p/3500 yen. An auspicious pairing of supernova proportions. Let's break it down: Verbal is a founding member of (IMO) Japan's premiere hip-hop blend m-flo. Mademoiselle Yulia is one of the hottest DJs in Tokyo's electro scene, plus this blue-haired fashionista scribes for NYLON Japan. And Trippple Nippples are that saccharine-drenched electroclash/performance duo. Yulia's debut LP is on the way (produced by Verbal), and I am beyond stoked.
SATURDAY
NYC
* Japan Cuts: "A Liar and a Broken Girl" (dir. Natsuki Seta, 2010) screening @ Japan Society / 333 E 47th St (E/M to 53rd/Lexington, 6 to 51st St), 7:15p. "Post-traumatic stress disorder made cute", says Maggie Lee of The Hollywood Reporter. Sure, easy enough when a child kidnapper is a cutiepie and her Dior Homme-ish childhood friend stabs young women. Really? Darker than your wildest imagination. + Seta Q&A
* Company Flow + Juggaknots @ Santos Party House / 96 Lafayette St (NR/JMZ/6 to Canal St), 8p/$20. NY, I love you, but you're bringing me down. I leave the Big Apple and then two of underground hip-hop's legendary acts, the incomparable Co Flow (El-P, Bigg Juss & DJ Mr. Len, reunited!) and the super-solid Juggaknots (Breeze Brewin', Queen Herawin and Buddy Slim), take the stage of a decently intimate venue! Takes me back to '96, where mind you I was a youth stuck in Houston TX, but you get what I mean.
AUSTIN
* Kill the Client + Baring Teeth @ Headhunters / 720 Red River St, 9p/$5o. Dallas metal!!! Kill the Client split an LP w/ that other famous Dallas grindcore band Agoraphobic Nosebleed, plus they're on super-heavy Relapse Records. Baring Teeth inject like Atari glitch sounds into their ferocious sonic froth, plus they've got a new LP "Atrophy" that just dropped. w/ Lions of Tsavo
* Iceage @ Emo's / 602 Red River, 9p/$8. Insanity. Copenhagen's fiercest punks are like these 17-year-olds Iceage, but they mauled NYC in a series of shows so don't underestimate 'em! They share the stage w/ some stateside hard-rockers, Austin's own Women in Prison & The Creamers.
TOKYO
* 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.
* Sachiho Ikeda @ Gallery MOMO Roppongi / 2F 6-2-6 Roppongi, Minato-ku (Hibiya/Oedo Lines to Roppongi Station). I love this gallery and I dig this young artist, who grew up in St. Petersburg before returning to Tokyo to attend Musashino Art University. This is Ikeda's 2nd solo exhibition at the gallery, acid-colored gardens and shrines that mix Nihonga technique with a vivid contemporary twist.
* "In the Waitingroom" @ Waitingroom / 3F 2-8-11 Ebisu-nishi, Shibuya-ku (JR Yamanote Line to Ebisu Station). This pretty neat indie Ebisu space fills up w/ like three dozen artists, from Yohei Watanabe and Makiko Nawa to Mayumi Oku and mumbreeze (a collab b/w mumbleboy and Kao). Waitingroom extends its hours to Sunday in celebration of this salon event.
* Motoyuki Daifu @ Otomeshi / 2F 3-57-7 Koenji-Minami, Suginami-ku (Marunouchi Line to Higashi-Koenji Station), opening 4-7p. The Yamagata-style pub hosts a homecoming exhibition of young photographer Daifu-kun, entitled something like "The family's pubis hidden in pretty panties" or aka the "Daifuman summer festival". I really dig his photography, invasive yet intimate documentation of his family's crowded Tokyo flat.
* Koji Onaka "Tokyo Candy Box", slideshow & lecture w/ Kotaro Iizawa @ Emon Photo Gallery / B1 5-11-12 Minami-Azabu, Minato-ku (Hibiya Line to Hiroo Station), 5p/1000 yen - RSVP: emon_photogallery@emoninc.com. Iizawa, the celebrated author, photography critic and historian, joins the artist in a discussion of Onaka's documentation of Tokyo's architecture boom.
* Nisennenmondai + Sachiko M + Hisato Yamamoto @ UFO Club / B1F 1-11-6 Koenji-Minami, Suginami-ku (Marunouchi Line to Higashi-Koenji Station), 6:30p/2800 yen. MAYJAH, particularly for lovers of the avant-garde. Nisennenmondai (literally "Y2K") are like Tokyo's Battles, i.e. three math-rocking groove-purveyors (and drummer Sayaka Himeno is AT LEAST as fierce as John Stanier). Sachiko M's drone project used to be tied w/ Merzbow. Yamamoto's a brutal punk rock guitarist. They're joined by Phew, who's sung alongside Otomo Yoshihide, Bill Laswell, Ryuichi Sakamoto and her own punk band Aunt Sally.
SUNDAY
NYC
* Japan Cuts: "A Night in Nude: Salvation" (dir. Takashi Ishii, 2010) screening @ Japan Society / 333 E 47th St (E/M to 53rd/Lexington, 6 to 51st St), 9p. Did you catch Ishii's 1993 film "A Night in Nude"? — or even heard of it? It's OK, this grim, neon-lit thriller returns Naoto Tatenaka (about the gruffest MF in Japanese cinema today) to the lead, a guy who'll do anything for the right price.
* "I Saw the Devil" (dir. Kim Ji-woon, 2010) @ Museum of the Moving Image / 36-01 35th Ave, Astoria (E/M/R to Steinway St), 7p. You are not ready for this. Ahead of its proper screen-run at IFC Center in two weeks is a dark sphere of depraved, gruesome energy, a revenge tale so sickening that it pushes the envelope way further than you'd ever dare. That said, I loved it. If you've seen Park Chan-wook's "Oldboy" and wondered what happened to that rugged slice of man-muscle named Choi Min-sik, well he's back as the evilest sociopath since Hannibal Lecter.
* Xray Eyeballs + Frankie Rose @ Beekman Beer Garden / South Street Seaport Pier 17 (23/34/JMZ to Fulton St), 3p. Alix Brown and Carly Rabalais of Xray Eyeballs (who share members w/ Golden Triangle) play extra-catchy psych-tinged garage-rock. Frankie Rose conjures images of '60s doo-wop in her multi-part harmonies. Yet pairing these two consummately Brooklyn groups together sounds like summer in the city to me.
AUSTIN
* Transcosmic Geometry @ Salvage Vanguard Theatre / 2803 Manor Rd, 7p/$6-15 sliding scale. Church of the Friendly Ghost affiliate artist Paul Baker updates his circa-March program w/ some 20 videos, incl works by Sergio Martinez ("Pink",, via cellular automata synth), Eric Archer ("0D 03 0D 02", CRT + electronics), and Yoshi Sodeoka's video "Everything Falling Apart" for Nice Nice. Baker ends the mind-bending program w/ a live analog video mixer performance, feeding off the audience's beguiled statuses.
TOKYO
* Caucus @ 20000Volt / 1-7 Koenji Minami, Suginami-ku (Tokyo Metro Marunouchi Line to Higashi-koenji Station), 6p/2000 yen. I fell in love w/ indie-pop darlings Caucus when they played this year's NYC Popfest. Their latest dreamy single "Wandering Ones" just debuted on the stateside label Cloudberry, and this is their proper local release party. w/ Groundcover + SiNE
* Enban Summer Festival @ O-Nest / 6F 2-3 Maruyama-cho, Shibuya-ku (Yamanote Line etc to Shibuya Station), 4p/2500 yen. Acid Mothers Tenniscoats (aka psych lords Acid Mothers Temple + indie darlings Tenniscoats) helm this afternoon/evening fest. I suggest you show up early for Yasawan and Mayonaka Music — but save some of your cerebrum for Nisennenmondai's three-prong math-rock assault: it's beautiful.
MONDAY
TOKYO
* Eiko + Pikachu + Tatsuhisa Yamamoto @ Superdeluxe / 3-1-25 Nishi-Azabu, Minato Ward Tokyo, 7p/2800 yen. A super-fierce three-drummer combo! Who's the best, Eiko Ishibashi (well-versed in like a dozen instruments and plays Liquidroom Ebisu w/ Jim O'Rourke on WED), Pikachu (the vocalist/drummer of original Osaka noise-girls Afrirampo) or Tatsuhisa Yamamoto (the acoustic improvisor and frequent tag-teamer w/ Ishibashi, as SSW)?
TUESDAY
NYC
* "La Carte d'Apres Nature", curated by Thomas Demand @ Matthew Marks Gallery / 522 W 22nd St. If you're a Rene Magritte freak like myself, you'll recognize the exhibition title from a journal published by the Belgian surrealist. Demand takes that as the jump-off (plus adding three Magritte paintings into the mix, two from Houston's Menil Collection) for a labyrinthine exhibition on representation. Luigi Ghirri's vintage color photographs, films by Tacita Dean and Rodney Graham, a birdsongs recording by Henrik Hakansson (created for this show) and other works contribute to this very special experience.
* The Return of the Living Dead" (dir. Dan O'Bannon, 1985) screenings @ BAM / 30 Lafayette St, Ft Greene (23/45 to Nevins St, AC to Lafayette), 6:50/9:15p. This is my 2nd favorite "Living Dead" film (the 1st is definitely part three, which might sound weird if you've never seen Brian Yuzna's pitch-perfect zombie romance classic, w/ the lovely Melinda Clarke as a pierced and sadomasochistic stunner — trust me), half for the absurdly ace soundtrack (The Cramps! SSQ! The Flesh Eaters!) and half for the awesome cast of coed punks vs. a graveyard full of the undead.
AUSTIN
* "TerrorVision" (dir. Ted Nicolaou, 1986) screening @ Alamo Drafthouse Ritz / 320 E 6th St, 9:50p. Trivia: Nicolaou was a sound recordist on "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre" after he graduated from UT Austin's film program. His VAN was the hippie-mobile in the film! Kick-ass, no? This film…think of Jabba the Hutt with a "Gremlins"-like face, beamed to earth from some guy's satellite dish. See why TV kills?
TOKYO
* Hair Stylistics + Tori Kudo @ Superdeluxe / 3-1-25 Nishi-Azabu, Minato Ward Tokyo, 7:30p/2500 yen. Absolutely essential duo for you avant-guardians. Kudo-san is a naivist composer and musician, perhaps best known for his alter-ego Maher Shalal Hash Baz. Hair Stylistics is a ferocious noisician (and the famous Violent Onsen Geisha) and writer, but a quite nice chap in person. w/ freak-beat DJ unit LastDayBikini
CLOSING SOON
NYC
* Picasso and Marie-Thérese "L'amour fou" @ Gagosian Gallery / 522 W 21st St. The 3rd chapter (2nd, stateside) of Gagosian's wonderful exploration into Pablo Picasso is terribly romantic. It fell well after Valentines Day but coincided with springtime in NYC, which is pretty romantic if you ask me. The exhibition itself is exemplary, furthering the gallery's tradition over the past several years of pushing the envelope on what constitutes a "gallery show". Soft lighting, painted temporary walls everywhere, even Met-esque murals and source material set the mood. The works themselves — dozens of paintings, plus a handful of bronzes and works on paper — are stunning, many from private collections (meaning this writer and probably YOU have never seen 'em before) but also some high-profile loans (like straight off the Met's Picasso exhibition), and encompass 13 years of the artist's life with his blond darling. (ENDS FRI)
AUSTIN
* Susan Collis "So It Goes" @ Lora Reynolds Gallery / 360 Nueces St, Austin. The beyond discreet workings of this British artist (the 2010 Armory Show representative) include more of what I expect from her laborious, subtle oeuvre: screws embedded w/ precious gems, mother of pearl paint splatters — plus some seductive surprises. She fills a picture frame with thousands of 0.9 mm pencil leads for "Anything really", a crosshatched forest of dark gray, and she covers lovingly crumpled paper wads in "On second thoughts" w/ an impossible pattern of hand-drawn linework. Pencil leads recur in "I miss you" and "I missed you", painstakingly arranged squares on thick reams of paper.
+ Tom Molloy "Woman". The Irish artist works in graphite drawings that neatly complement Collis' show in the main room. What he's done is take Johannes Vermeer paintings as reference ("Young Woman with a Jug", "The Milkmaid" etc), recreated them in deft pencil compositions…only w/ the women removed from the frame. Did she leave after 'Vermeer' completed the work, has she not arrived yet? In a sense, we see these spaces as the Dutch painter saw them. (ENDS SAT)
AUSTIN
* Claire Falkenberg "Bloom" + Wura-Natasha Ogunji "not a ghost" @ Champion / 800 Brazos St. Brooklyn-based Falkenberg collages jagged layers of photography a bit Edward Hopper-style, before burying much of it under an ethereal swamp-cloud of oil paint. Ogunji's film was shot earlier this year around Lagos and Abuja, Nigeria.
TOKYO
* Kohei Yoshiyuki "The Park" @ BLD Gallery / 2-4-9 Ginza, Chuo-ku. (JR Yurakucho Station, Marunouchi Line to Ginza Station). I was pleased to catch the iconic photographer's 1970s series at Yossi Milo Gallery in NYC back in 2007. This is double voyeurism: Yoshiyuki capturing spectators watching clandestine trysts in Tokyo parks — triple if you count yourself the viewer.
* Ron English "Popaganda in Japan" @ Public Image 3D / 1F 2-32-2 Ikejiri, Setagaya-ku (Tokyu Den-en-toshi Line to Ikejiri-Ohashi Station). Welcome to English's world, Tokyo. This is the subversive American artist's culture-jamming debut in Japan, filling the gallery w/ designer characters and collaborative works w/ Jason Freeny, Kim Songhe and Touma. (ENDS MON)
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
fee's LIST (through 7/12)
WEDNESDAY
NYC
* "On Shuffle" @ Lehmann Maupin / 540 W 26th St. Cult/underground artists who incorporate and reference music in their multidisciplinary works. Feat. Billy Childish, Kim Gordon (of Sonic Youth!), Kalup Linzy, Ryan McNamara, Tony Oursler, Dave Muller, Dario Robleto and Stephen Vitiello.
* NYAFF: "Bedevilled" (dir. Jang Cheol-Su, 2010) @ Walter Reade Theatre / Lincoln Center @ 65th St (1 to 66th St), 8:45p. The big audience winner at last year's Fantastic Fest (plus multiple awards everywhere for its star Seo Young-Hee) is like a Korean "Deliverance", a backwaters island of misogyny and scythe-wielding revenge. It'll leave you exhausted. ALSO SUN, 7p
* The Sour Notes (Austin) + Telenovelas @ Cake Shop / 152 Ludlow (F/JMZ to Essex/Delancey), 8p/$8. Lovely! Austin five-piece The Sour Notes are mini-touring for their upbeat LP "Last Looks" and NYC, you'd do well to catch 'em. Plus, Telenovelas play some of the best contemporary shoegaze I've heard.
* SBTRKT @ Glasslands / 290 Kent Ave, Williamsburg (L to Bedford, JM to Marcy), 8p/$10. This mysterious masked UK producer is a trip: his spare, retro-tech album is a series of ass-shaking bangers, w/ intriguing female vocals (and a Drake track!) throughout. You're not afraid to shake that thang, are you?
AUSTIN
* "Future Present: Five Artists, Five Weeks" feat. Jennifer Sullivan @ Arthouse / 700 Congress. As the title suggests, each artist gets one week to display their video work in the 2F space. In this segment, Sullivan screens her 2006 video "One-Week Walden", where she spent a week in a pop-up camper parked in her father's backyard. The 10-minute result is pretty engrossing (Youtube).
* "Blank City" (dir. Celine Danhier, 2010) screening @ Alamo Drafthouse Ritz / 320 E 6th St, 7p. THE documentary on No Wave cinema, that wickedly iconoclastic movement in downtown NYC during the late '70s and early '80s, an absolute Who's Who of game-changers and transgressors like Jim Jarmusch and John Waters — plus the film is fittingly imbued w/ music and art of the time, incl. Debbie Harry, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Lydia Lunch and Fab 5 Freddy. Makes me nostalgic for the Big Apple all over again. ALSO SUN, 10:30p
TOKYO
* Tacobonds + Mass of the Fermenting Dregs @ 20000Volt / 1-7 Koenji Minami, Suginami-ku (Tokyo Metro Marunouchi Line to Higashi-koenji Station), 6p/2500 yen. This could become my new favorite indie venue in Tokyo. Tonight: math-rocker-ish Tacobonds and the awesomely named bass/vo & drum post-rock duo Mass of the Fermenting Dregs!!! w/ Outatbero
* Akron/Family @ WWW / Basement 13-17 Udagawa-cho, Shibuya-ku (Yamanote Line etc to Shibuya Station), 6p/5300 yen. End of days freak-folk, like a love-in b/w the Dead and Funkadelic…can Tokyo handle this??
THURSDAY
NYC
* "The House Without the Door" @ David Zwirner Gallery / 519-533 W 19th St. An exceedingly intriguing summer group show inspired by Emily Dickinson's poem "Doom is the House without the Door", focused on domesticity and interiority and their themes in art. Feat. stirring works by Mona Hatoum, Robert Gober, Louise Bourgeois, Rachel Whiteread, Isa Genzken, Francis Alÿs and more — plus it's my pick for NY's must-see summer show.
* Christopher Wilmarth @ Betty Cuningham Gallery / 541 W 25th St. A startling array of the late genius' etched glass and steel moquettes and drawings. Despite his brief career, few artists conjure such emotional resonance in cold materials and minimalism as Wilmarth (think Eva Hesse, but more contemporary).
* 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.
* NYAFF: "The Man From Nowhere" (dir. Lee Jeong-Beom, 2010) @ Walter Reade Theatre / Lincoln Center @ 65th St (1 to 66th St), 6:15p. Exhaustively violent, crime-riddled revenge thriller, in the bruised knuckles universe that produced Park Chan-wook's "Oldboy" (rather than Ryu Seung-won's hyper-agile taekwondo realm), Man From Nowhere works so well and grips you amid the grueling, rampant fight sequences w/ its pulsing emotional heart. Plus the organ-trafficking thread'll leave you gripping the edge of your seat 'til the harrowing conclusion.
Japan Cuts 2011 begins today, running through JUL 22 and boasting nearly three dozen films and premieres in its fifth consecutive year. Just like w/ NYAFF (running through JUL 14), I'll pick my favorites listed below, tagging them with a "Japan Cuts" slug. Check the site for full schedule and ticket info:
* "The Children" (dir. Max Kalmanowicz, 1980) + "Don't Go to Sleep" (dir. Richard Lang, 1982) double feature @ 92Y Tribeca / 200 Hudson St (12/ACE to Canal St), 8p/$10. Let's say you need a break from NYAFF/Japan Cuts for whatever silly reason. This double-header of murderous children, guest curated by Kevin Maher, is the only excuse I can think of as justification! The former is like "Return of the Living Dead" only with nuclear powers and preteens, while the latter feat. an acrobatic pizza-cutter sequence that'll scare you away from full pies for a good long while.
* Noveller + Love Like Deloreans @ Coco 66 / 66 Greenpoint Ave, Greenpoint (G to Greenpoint), 8p. Brooklyn's axe-slayer Sarah Lipstate crafts sublime soundscapes as Noveller, a nice balance w/ the synthy light-show sonics of Love Like Deloreans.
AUSTIN
* The Glitch Mob @ La Zona Rosa / 612 W 4th St, 8p/$20. LA synthpop trio The Glitch Mob deliver beat-driven, sweat-inducing bangers, tempered with just enough cinematic drama to keep you on your toes. w/ Com Truise (NJ, enjoying his debut LP "Galactic Melt")
TOKYO
* I.S.O. @ Asahi Art Square / Super Dry Hall, 4F 1-23-1 Azumabashi, Sumida-ku (Tokyo Metro Ginza Line/Toei Subway to Asakusa Station), 7p/FREE. This fiercest free-improv trio is also known as Otomo Yoshihide (about the loudest free-jazz MFer ever), Sachiko M (used to play with Merzbow!) and Yoshimitsu Ichiraku (the accomplish drummer and electronic beatmaker). Beyond the live show, Otomo-san and Junichi Konuma, poet, translator music culture critic at Waseda University.
FRIDAY
NYC
* Japan Cuts: "Battle Royale" (dir. Kinji Fukasaku, 2000) screening @ Japan Society / 333 E 47th St (E/M to 53rd/Lexington, 6 to 51st St), 9:15p. So maybe you've seen Fukasaku-san's controversial manga-adaptation that never received stateside distribution (despite the fact it was never officially banned in the U.S.), but I highly doubt you've seen it on the big screen. Here in full, blood-soaked glory, a bunch of future Japanese heartthrobs and starlets (Tatsuya Fujiwara of "Death Note" series, Chiaki Kuriyama of "Kill Bill", Aki Maeda of "Linda Linda Linda", Masanobu Ando of "Sukiyaki Western Django") kill one another in creative ways on a deserted island, while original badass Takeshi Kitano watches and eats cookies. They don't make 'em like this anymore!
* "The Sleeping Beauty" (dir. Catherine Breillat, 2011) @ IFC Center / 323 Sixth Ave (ACE/BDFM to W 4th St). Breillat blended "Bluebeard"'s mythology with today, amping up the sexuality and fear for fullest impact. Expect more of that, Grimm-style, in "The Sleeping Beauty", w/o the Disney happy ending.
* "What?" (dir. Roman Polanski, 1972) + "The Stunt Man" (dir. Richard Rush, 1980) double-feature @ reRun Theatre / 147 Front St, DUMBO (F to York, AC to High St), 7p. Yikes, particularly on the rare Polanski film, his "ribald adventures of an innocent girl" (i.e. "an amoral, depraved disaster", say critics!), which kicks off the theatre's "Cheerfully Perverse: Five Years of Severin Films", the LA-based company responsible for re-releasing an eclectic trove of violent/perverse near-classics! "What?" is paired w/ the cult action/comedy/drama "The Stunt Man", w/ Peter O'Toole playing the ridiculously excessive director.
* The Wake + Weekend @ South Street Seaport, Pier 17 (23/34/JMZ to Fulton St), 7p/FREE. WOW. Glasgow's pivotal post-punks The Wake playing a free summer show… with Cali's gauzy and extra-noisy shoegazers Weekend.
* Pure X (Austin) + Run DMT @ 285 Kent Ave, Williamsburg (L to Bedford, JM to Marcy), 8p. The hottest DIY venue in Brooklyn (like: literally, still no AC?) teams Austin's scorching Pure X (debut LP "Pleasure" out now!) w/ local hallucinatory collective Run DMT. All the better to alter your mind.
* Fungi Girls (TX) w/ The Beets @ Death By Audio / 49 S 2nd St, Williamsburg (L to Bedford, JM to Marcy), 8p/$7. Teaming Texas trio Fungi Girls (in the midst of their huge "Some Easy Magic" summer tour) w/ some of indie NY's best makes for a golden night. Think Jackson Heights' premiere garage-rock band The Beets and the extra-psychedelic X-Ray Eyeballs.
AUSTIN
* "The Ward" (dir. John Carpenter, 2011) @ Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar / 1120 S Lamar Blvd. You bet I still believe in the grandmaster of horror, who returns to the director's chair w/ a classic nail-biter: a vengeful ghost and a mazelike mental institution!
TOKYO
* Koji Onaka "Tokyo Candy Box" @ Emon Photo Gallery / B1 5-11-12 Minami-Azabu, Minato-ku (Hibiya Line to Hiroo Station). Onaka's photography documents Tokyo's incredible urban upheaval, where buildings sprang up practically overnight — hence the cheeky exhibition title.
* "Power to Japan" charity festival @ Shinjuku Loft / B2 1-12-9 Kabukicho, Shinjuku-ku (JR Lines etc to Shinjuku Station), 6p/3000 yen. A massive fundraiser for the reconstruction of Japan's Tohoku region after March 11's devastating earthquake and tsunami, with like 18 awesome bands! Incl. Here, MUNIMUNI, Sachiko Sakaeda (of Lines), Fruits Explosion and many others.
* Merpeoples + Lines @ Red Shoes / B1 6-7-14 Minami-Aoyama, Minato-ku (Tokyo Metro Hibiya/Toei Oedo Lines to Roppongi Station), 8p/1000 yen. Album release party for all-girl garage-rock quartet Merpeoples, with added sunniness from Sachiko Sakaeda and her band Lines (who also participate in "Power to Japan" at Shinjuku Loft).
SATURDAY
NYC
* Kal Spelletich "Where's My Jetpack" @ Jack Hanley Gallery / 136 Watts St. The San Fran-based artist received his MFA from UT Austin and went on to found SEEMEN, a collective of "extreme machines and robotics" builders. Which totally figures into his steampunk-ish motorized jetpacks and related source ephemera in this exhibition.
* Japan Cuts: "Gantz" + "Gantz: Perfect Answer" (dir. Shinsuke Sato, 2010-11) screening @ Japan Society / 333 E 47th St (E/M to 53rd/Lexington, 6 to 51st St), 12:30p. Seems there's a back-to-back blockbuster at practically EVERY Japan Cuts: "20th Century Boys" I & II in 2009, "Death Note" I & II before that. Last year showcased a bunch of '90s films, so this year we get to overload on visual cocaine, aka the sci-fi manga-adapted "Gantz", feat. more bloodshed and leather-garbed PYTs than one can possibly handle.
* Japan Cuts: Ninja Kids!!!" (dir. Takashi Miike, 2011) screening @ Japan Society / 333 E 47th St (E/M to 53rd/Lexington, 6 to 51st St), 6p. If you thought Miike's "Yatterman" was surreal, just wait when a school of ninja children fill the screen, hurling shuriken and fighting gangster hairdressers. See why those three exclamation marks are necessary?
* Japan Cuts: "Yakuza Weapon" (dir. Tak Sakaguchi & Yudai Yamaguchi, 2010) screening @ Japan Society / 333 E 47th St (E/M to 53rd/Lexington, 6 to 51st St), 8:15p. This loose sequel to 2000's surprisingly dope "Versus" eschews creative dialogue for epically awesome action sequences, choreographed by co-director/lead actor Sakaguchi, incl. a like 10-minute tracking shot of our hero killing rooms and rooms of dangerous baddies with his M61 Vulcan cannon-arm. Plus, Cay Izumi stars as a (cough) naked human weapon. + Q&A w/ Sakaguchi & Yamaguchi!
* Warm Up: Four Tet + SBTRKT @ MoMA PS1 / 22-25 Jackson Ave, Long Island City (E/M to 23rd St/Court, 7 to Courthouse Sq), 2p/FREE. Sound collagist and beat-miner Kieran Hebden (aka the tirelessly innovative Four Tet) headlines a sweet summer showcase, which also feat. fellow Brit SBTRKT (if you missed him WED) and local Falty DL (off Planet Mu).
* Grooms (album release party) w/ Pterodactyl @ Death By Audio / 49 S 2nd St, Williamsburg (L to Bedford, JM to Marcy), 8p/$7. Local sludge-scuzzers Grooms celebrate their "Prom" release w/ frenetic post-punk yowlers Pterodactyl. Like you're not sweating enough as it is.
* Diamondsnake + The Suzan @ The Rock Shop / 249 Fourth Ave, Park Slope (D/NR to Union St), 8p/$10. This pretty dope patio-outfitted, two-level venue celebrates its first anniversary w/ a rather awesome pairing. I speak of hard-rocking supergroup Diamondsnake (yes, that's Moby on the axe and Tomato on the kit) and Japan's nigh-ubiquitous tropic-pop quartet The Suzan.
AUSTIN
* Joshua Saunders "Objectification" @ Big Medium / 5305 Bolm Rd #12. It sounds deceptively simple: this Austin artist utilizes a high-contrast scanner to extract everyday objects (rolls of colored string, a ripped $20 bill, a packet of Adderall) — yet the resulting effects, said images and others trapped against solid black backdrops, are disarmingly abstract, despite their familiarity.
* The Blow (NYC) w/ Love Inks @ Emo’s / 603 Red River St, 9p/$14. The superlative Brooklyn anti-pop performance artist Mikhaela Yvonne Maricich (aka The Blow) brings her karaoke-style show to Austin. My love for quartet Love Inks (their debut ESP epitomizes no-frills awesomeness) should be known by now, and I'm stoked to see 'em locally.
* White Denim @ Antones / 213 W 5th St, 9p/$12. A quick primer of why Austin rocks, via 101X's "Homegrown Live" indie showcase. The critically acclaimed prog-minded White Denim just dropped a smashing new LP "D" and they headline the show, which also feat. TV Torso, Watch Out For Rockets, and Not in the Face.
* Puro Instinct (Cali) + John Maus (UK) @ Mohawk / 912 Red River St, 9p/$10. It's like reliving the '80s! Check neo-New Wave vs. neo-New Romanticism, Cali youngsters Puro Instinct and one-man show John Maus. Think of it as "Regression" night at Elysium, only a day early.
TOKYO
* Japan Shoegazer Festival 2011 @ High / 4-30-1 Koenji-Minami, Suginami-ku (JR Chuo Line to Koenji Station), noon/2500 yen. Lovers of mile-long guitars and crooned vox under walls of feedback, you are SO in luck. Like a dozen Japanese shoegaze bands, incl. Sugardrop, Lemon's Chair (Osaka), Aureole, Shouju Skip and Speaker Gain Teardrop (Hiroshima) play this all-day fest. I'm mad jealous!
* Aloe + Shinjuku Underground Fetish Show @ Bar9259 / 1-1-2 Okubo, Shinjuku-ku (JR Lines to Shinjuku Station, Oedo Line to Higashi-shinjuku Station), 11p/15000 yen (women free). This very serious fetish club hosts a weekly Thursday fetish show, but Saturday's blowout is even more massive. Tokyo Dolores' Aloe is one of the guest pole dancers in a night of hardcore techno (DJs Hajime Kinoko and Alex Einz) and cyber debauchery.
SUNDAY
NYC
* Japan Cuts: "Heaven's Story" (dir. Takahisa Zeze, 2010) screening @ Japan Society / 333 E 47th St (E/M to 53rd/Lexington, 6 to 51st St), 2:45p. OK, think of Luc Besson's "Léon", only w/ the young girl, maturing quickly after her entire family is killed by a psychopath, has to take on the bad guys herself b/c the older guy swearing vengeance never gets around to it. Stretch that out to nearly five hours.
* Japan Cuts: "Milocrorze: A Love Story" (dir. Yoshimasa Ishibashi, 2010) screening @ Japan Society / 333 E 47th St (E/M to 53rd/Lexington, 6 to 51st St), 8p. This lovelorn psychedelic sensory overload opened NYAFF. It returns to Japan Cuts to sizzle your minds out your skull, and if the "Matrix"-style fight scenes don't make you blink, the dance numbers most definitely will. Like an entire genre film festival in 90 minutes. + Q&A w/ Ishibashi!
* "13 Assassins (dir. Takashi Miike, 2010) screening @ Museum of the Moving Image / 36-01 35th Ave, Astoria (E/M/R to Steinway St), 3p. You give a jidaigeki to Miike-san, he's gonna make magic. Hence this ragtag band of samurai (led by Koji Yakusho!) turning an abandoned village into one elaborate pre-Edo "Saw" deathtrap for a vicious young lord and his hundreds of soldiers. The final, nearly hour-long fight scene is too badass for words.
* Nightmare & the Cat @ Glasslands / 290 Kent Ave, Williamsburg (L to Bedford, JM to Marcy), 7:30p/$10. When you come from an '80s synth-rock pedigree as sons of Dave Stewart (Eurythmics) and Siobhan Fahey (Bananarama), you just might be musically inclined. Which, if you're brothers Django and Samuel (plus multi-instrumentalist Claire Acey), you TOTALLY ARE.
AUSTIN
* Teruko Nimura "Spaces Between" @ testsite / 502 W 33rd St. This mixed-media artist, who splits her time as arts education administrator at Austin's Dougherty Arts Center, fills the gallery w/ symbols of collective memory, i.e. painstakingly handcrafted paper cranes and other objects.
TOKYO
* Ryan Gander "'Meaning…Surrounds Me Now" @ 1223 Gendaikaiga / B1 5-19-4 Hiroo, Shibuya-ku (Hibiya Line to Hiroo Station). The London-based Conceptualist takes on Color-Field painting, in a series drawing from Gander's inclusion in this year's Venice Biennale, plus a new work commenting on the packaging of paintings in Japanese culture.
* "Charity Comedy Pole Dance Night" @ Club Axxcis / 2-24-3 Kabukicho, Shinjuku-ku (JR Lines to Shinjuku Station), 5p/3000 yen. Yukari Makino, the incumbent Miss Pole Dance Japan champion (from this past March) leads a pole-dance face-off, feat. Aloe (Tokyo Dolores), Ukichi (Love Poison), Ayumi (Virgin Pink), Kaori and Satsuki (of APD) — in all, five hours of pole-dancing, w/ proceeds go towards aiding Northern Japan's Tohoku region, which is totally awesome.
MONDAY
NYC
* NYAFF: "The Blade" (dir. Tsui Hark, 1995) @ Walter Reade Theatre / Lincoln Center @ 65th St (1 to 66th St), 6p. Quite possibly THE pivotal '90s martial arts classic, heavy on bone-crushing action sequences & plenty o' killin' and light on lovey-dovey nonsense! w/ the legendary director in attendance!
* NYAFF: "Detective Dee: The Mystery of the Phantom Flame" (dir. Tsui Hark, 2010) @ Walter Reade Theatre / Lincoln Center @ 65th St (1 to 66th St), 9p. The legendary director's return to form. Think "Sherlock Holmes" with Hong Kong-style action, feat. Andy Lau in the titular role. w/ Hark in attendance!
* "Alien" (dir. Ridley Scott, 1979) screenings @ BAM / 30 Lafayette St, Ft Greene (23/45 to Nevins St, AC to Lafayette), 6:50/9:30p. No other extraterrestrial antagonist film holds a candle to "Alien", series-defining original, wonderfully imagined from H.R. Giger's biomechanics artwork and starring Sigourney Weaver fighting the baddie on a claustrophobic spaceship. Choose your iconic scene: the chestburster during dinner, the "Space Jockey" on a crashed craft, Ripley vs. Xenomorph at the airlock…
TUESDAY
NYC
* NYAFF: "Versus" (dir. Ryuhei Kitamura, 2000) @ Walter Reade Theatre / Lincoln Center @ 65th St (1 to 66th St), 5p. Where it all began, so to speak, for action star/choreographer Tak Sakaguchi, as the ultimate ass-kicker in an endless forest vs. bands of zombies and Yakuza thugs! w/ Sakaguchi & writer Yudai Yamaguchi in attendance!
* NYAFF: "Yakuza Weapon" (dir. Tak Sakaguchi & Yudai Yamaguchi, 2010) @ Walter Reade Theatre / Lincoln Center @ 65th St (1 to 66th St), 7:45p. In case you missed this Sushi Typhoon newbie at Japan Cuts: this loose sequel to 2000's surprisingly dope "Versus" eschews creative dialogue for epically awesome action sequences, choreographed by co-director/lead actor Sakaguchi, incl. a like 10-minute tracking shot of our hero killing rooms and rooms of dangerous baddies with his M61 Vulcan cannon-arm. Plus, Cay Izumi stars as a (cough) naked human weapon. + Q&A w/ Sakaguchi, Yamaguchi, and Sushi Typhoon producer Yoshinori Chiba!
* NYAFF: "Horny House of Horror" (dir. Jun Tsugita, 2010) @ Walter Reade Theatre / Lincoln Center @ 65th St (1 to 66th St), 10:15p. You…kinda should know what you're getting yourself into, attending a film titled "Horny House of Horror". You want sexy? We got Saori Hara (hello!) and crew leading a murderous massage parlor. You want gore? It's a murderous massage parlor! Penises cut in twain are just the beginning! Splatter king Yoshihiro Nishimura will see to that. You want hilarity? Asami's Viking-esque charges and the wiggling ass-wall must be seen to be believed. Can't you tell I love this film?
* "The Baby" (dir. Ted Post, 1973) + "The Sinful Dwarf" (dir. Vidal Raski, 1974) double-feature @ reRun Theatre / 147 Front St, DUMBO (F to York, AC to High St), 7p. I can't believe Raski's icky Euro-cult film "The Sinful Dwarf" (now fully restored in its 35mm glory!) is coming to the big screen. That it plays against one of the sickest Hollywood films ever just makes this essential viewing...but only if you've OD'ed on NYAFF, that is.
* Cold Cave @ Knitting Factory / 361 Metropolitan Ave (L to Bedford, G to Lorimer), 8p/$15. Those tough-ass, Goth-drenched synth-pop boys just got a lot darker, thanks to a snarling newish LP. Cult of Youth complement their set w/ the heaviest, vertiginous indie folk you've ever heard. w/ Zambri
AUSTIN
* "Prison" (dir. Renny Harlin, 1988) screening @ Alamo Drafthouse Ritz / 320 E 6th St, 9:50p. I had in mind Oliver Hirschbiegel's "Das Experiment" going into this film, but "Prison" is way grittier, way VHS-ier…plus the unleasher of unmitigated violence is an electrically-charged spectre, one of TWO roles played by a very young Viggo Mortensen. That sentence alone is capable of conjuring cerebral whiplash, so just think what an entire film of stuff like that can do.
CLOSING SOON
NYC
* John Chamberlain "New Sculpture" @ Gagosian / 555 W 24th St. Casual art-goers may well be totally thrown off by the dual — duel? — Chamberlain exhibits in W. Chelsea, the sort of career retrospective swan song at Pace and this one, proclaiming "new sculpture" (crushed auto works from 2009 through seemingly weeks before the show opened). That's a lot of Chamberlain! And not counting Gagosian's Britannia space, hosting the second wing of Chamberlain's new works, after the blue-chip gallery added him to their roster of luminary postwar and contemporary big-names. Here's an easy way to tell a new Chamberlain from an old one: the name. Mind you, he's incredibly adept at naming his sculpture, but "Gangster of Love" and "Infected Eucharist" are oldies, like from the '80s oldies. "TASTYLINGUS" and "TAMBOURINEFRAPPE" — those are new! The all-caps and shoved together words are a clue. That's if you're not even looking at the works, which do signal a rift b/w the older Chamberlains and the brand-new monumental sculptures. His array at Gagosian bears an overall aggressive vibe, crushed and contused muscle cars twisted into even meaner shapes. Some are exceedingly shiny too, one consisting totally of chromed bumpers like the ribs of some Decepticon, but there's a good bit of rough-and-tumble, rusted and used steel still figuring into Chamberlain's modus. The ultimate for me goes back to the polished, a brand-new "Cloverfield"-sized monolith called "C'ESTZESTY" that's less like the other Chamberlains in the room, yet still retains the artist's irreverent sense of humor. (ENDS FRI)
TOKYO
* Satoru Aoyama "Artists Must Earnestly Make Six Roses in Their Lives" @ Mizuma Art Gallery / 2F 3-13 Ichigayatamachi, Shinjuku-ku (Yurakucho/Nanboku Lines to Ichigaya Station). Aoyama's always been concerned with wonderfully hand-crafted stuff, but he eschews spectacle (i.e. his "Glitter" series) for symbolism in six embroidered roses — like Gary Hume with a sewing kit.
* Yujiro Miyazaki "Blue, Green, and Mt. Fuji" @ Mizuma Action / 2F 1-3-9 Kamimeguro, Meguro-ku (Tokyu Toyoko Line to Nakameguro Station). Fantastical wall paintings of lush worlds and cyclical life, referencing traditional Japanese imagery, Eden and contemporary society.
* Yuriko Yamayoshi, Takuji Kikuchi, Satomi Hirota "Fantasies and Dolls" @ Span Art Gallery / 2-2-18 1F Ginza, Chuo-ku. (Yurakucho Line to Ginza-Itchome Station). My first brush w/ Yamayoshi's creepy doll sculpture was a dual show at Shibuya's Bunkamura Gallery last year alongside Trevor Brown's vivid "Alice"-themed paintings. Hirota complements Yamayoshi's style with her jointed figures in diorama-like settings, while Kikuchi prepares ornate and weathered relief sculpture with forlorn human elements.
* Ayumu Taniguchi @ Galerie Tokyo Humanité / B1F 2-8-18 Kyobashi, Chuo-ku (Ginza Line to Kyobashi Station). This young graduate from Tama Art University's braided wire sculpture reminds me a bit of León Ferrari, though Taniguchi's come off even more organic. (ENDS SAT)
AUSTIN
* Jack Strange "Within Seconds" @ Arthouse / 700 Congress, Austin. A bonkers multimedia exhibition worthy of the British artist's quirky family name. Though there's no "Hulk" leaping eternally in the desert (a la Strange's show at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery in NYC), we've got "Tom" (2007) a single-channel loop of Mr. Cruise endlessly running through a marathon of film clips that'll leave sweat on your brow and frankly is worth the price of admission alone, if Arthouse charged admission. He takes on a laptop in this exhibition, too, in "Lecture of Life Inside a Human Cell", w/ a clay ball audience atop the keyboard, watching a loop on cellular reproduction.
TOKYO
* Chihiro Kabata "Closed with Eyes Open" @ Art Front Gallery / 29-18 Sarugakucho, Shibuya-ku (Tokyu Toyoko Line to Daikanyama Station). Kabata-san wowed me beyond all means at this year's MOT Annual at Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, w/ her huge-ass ballpoint pen "renderings" on inkjet paper — basically she saturated the paper's surface w/ ink to create these shiny, undulating blue-black voids. Very intense, but it's all done by her hand, not brushing out the ink or whatnot. This exhibition contains both her large-scale work, multi-panel installations, and smaller drawings — which due to their ink treatments do not lose their concentrated energy.
* Howard W "Facing Shibuya" @ Place M / 3F 1-2-11 Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku (JR Lines etc to Shinjuku Station). If you've ever tackled "The Scramble", that panoply of crosswalks outside Shibuya Station and the massive Starbucks, you've experienced the epicenter of Tokyo's youth culture…along w/ like thousands of other pedestrians. The American-born, Tokyo-based photographer turns his lens on the crowds, drawing out unique faces w/ their own intriguing backstories. (ENDS SUN)
NYC
* "German Expressionism: The Graphic Impulse" @ MoMA / 11 W 53rd St (E/M to 5th Ave, 6 to 51st St). I'd meant to attend this epic survey of German printmaking, a joyous and quickly brutal journey through WWI and its grim aftermath, on the first day of members' previews, i.e. before the NYTimes' Roberta Smith's column. I'd missed that chance, read her article, and knew going in that the grueling juggernaut also known as Otto Dix's "The War" (1924), some 50 desiccated etchings, aquatints and drypoints rivaling current-day torture porn in their shocking (yet all too real) imagery, was awaiting me against a blood-red wall like midway into the show. Now don't YOU worry that I just revealed the big plot-twist, as it's not like that at all. Enjoy the lyrical buildup and we'll get through the rocky stages together. The exhibition begins with a two-pronged flourish, devoting two galleries to Die Brücke and Der Blaue Reiter. To one-up the experience, the museum's included E.L. Kirchner's woodcut manifesto from Die Brücke (1906), which 'til now I'd only seen in catalogue images. Kirchner's woodcut "Dancer with Raised Skirt" (1909) and Brücke member Erich Heckel's "Girl with a Doll" (1910), actually Fränzi, a recurring figure in their renderings, exude a bliss that gets caught in your throat. If only they could have seen the war that would come crashing down several years later. Amid Franz Marc's vividly colored woodcuts of horses and other fauna is his co-illustrated "Der Blaue Reiter" book (1912-14) w/ Vasily Kandinsky. Another 'whoa' moment for me. Plus Kandinsky's outstanding "Klänge" (1913) a 'musical album' of some 56 woodcuts — the exhibition contains loads of these type of series, it's fantastic. Let's keep it moving! In the Austrian portion of the show comes some more sexiness, courtesy Egon Schiele (a selection from his 1914-18 portfolio, including some of the last works of his brief lifetime, like the 1918 lithograph "Girl") and Oskar Kokoschka, whose "Die Träumenden Knaben" (1908) illustrated book and haunting poster for "Murderer Hope of Women" (1909), apparently the 1st Expressionist play, tussle for emotive responses. Printmaking is in full swing by this point, evinced by copies of Der Strurm (Kirchner, Marc, Kokoschka) and Die Aktion (Conrad Felixmüller and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff), plus Emil Nolde's prolific, varying mediums (lithographs here, woodcut there, intaglio elsewhere), like his energetic "Dancer" (1913 lithograph). It and Kirchner's sumptuous "Street, Berlin" (1913, a rare painting in the lot, from Kirchner's own exhibition here back in autumn 2008) do nothing to prepare us for what follows, i.e the war and Dix's "War". I'd caught "War" in the Neue Galerie's survey on Dix, but its darkened lair kept many of Dix's first-hand atrocities obscured. Not at MoMA! In this well-lit room nothing goes hidden, the skulls crawling with vermin, the shattered bodies in ditches, the dead horses, the strife and peril everywhere. The postwar period doesn't ease tension, either, considering Heinz Fuchs' agitprop graphic design posters, like "Workers. Famine. Death is Approaching. Strike Destroys. Work Nourishes. Do your Duty. Work." (1919), a Tyrannosaur-sized Death glowering over a street in disarray, the words burnt into the sky. Nor with Max Beckmann's "Hell" (1919) eleven transfer lithographs detailing social disintegration and violence in postwar Berlin. His later series "Trip to Berlin" (1922) and Dix's "Nine Nightlife Woodcuts" (1922-4) reveal the changed landscape, populated with boozers, the sex-seeking and -addled, and alley cats. (ENDS MON)
NYC
* "On Shuffle" @ Lehmann Maupin / 540 W 26th St. Cult/underground artists who incorporate and reference music in their multidisciplinary works. Feat. Billy Childish, Kim Gordon (of Sonic Youth!), Kalup Linzy, Ryan McNamara, Tony Oursler, Dave Muller, Dario Robleto and Stephen Vitiello.
* NYAFF: "Bedevilled" (dir. Jang Cheol-Su, 2010) @ Walter Reade Theatre / Lincoln Center @ 65th St (1 to 66th St), 8:45p. The big audience winner at last year's Fantastic Fest (plus multiple awards everywhere for its star Seo Young-Hee) is like a Korean "Deliverance", a backwaters island of misogyny and scythe-wielding revenge. It'll leave you exhausted. ALSO SUN, 7p
* The Sour Notes (Austin) + Telenovelas @ Cake Shop / 152 Ludlow (F/JMZ to Essex/Delancey), 8p/$8. Lovely! Austin five-piece The Sour Notes are mini-touring for their upbeat LP "Last Looks" and NYC, you'd do well to catch 'em. Plus, Telenovelas play some of the best contemporary shoegaze I've heard.
* SBTRKT @ Glasslands / 290 Kent Ave, Williamsburg (L to Bedford, JM to Marcy), 8p/$10. This mysterious masked UK producer is a trip: his spare, retro-tech album is a series of ass-shaking bangers, w/ intriguing female vocals (and a Drake track!) throughout. You're not afraid to shake that thang, are you?
AUSTIN
* "Future Present: Five Artists, Five Weeks" feat. Jennifer Sullivan @ Arthouse / 700 Congress. As the title suggests, each artist gets one week to display their video work in the 2F space. In this segment, Sullivan screens her 2006 video "One-Week Walden", where she spent a week in a pop-up camper parked in her father's backyard. The 10-minute result is pretty engrossing (Youtube).
* "Blank City" (dir. Celine Danhier, 2010) screening @ Alamo Drafthouse Ritz / 320 E 6th St, 7p. THE documentary on No Wave cinema, that wickedly iconoclastic movement in downtown NYC during the late '70s and early '80s, an absolute Who's Who of game-changers and transgressors like Jim Jarmusch and John Waters — plus the film is fittingly imbued w/ music and art of the time, incl. Debbie Harry, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Lydia Lunch and Fab 5 Freddy. Makes me nostalgic for the Big Apple all over again. ALSO SUN, 10:30p
TOKYO
* Tacobonds + Mass of the Fermenting Dregs @ 20000Volt / 1-7 Koenji Minami, Suginami-ku (Tokyo Metro Marunouchi Line to Higashi-koenji Station), 6p/2500 yen. This could become my new favorite indie venue in Tokyo. Tonight: math-rocker-ish Tacobonds and the awesomely named bass/vo & drum post-rock duo Mass of the Fermenting Dregs!!! w/ Outatbero
* Akron/Family @ WWW / Basement 13-17 Udagawa-cho, Shibuya-ku (Yamanote Line etc to Shibuya Station), 6p/5300 yen. End of days freak-folk, like a love-in b/w the Dead and Funkadelic…can Tokyo handle this??
THURSDAY
NYC
* "The House Without the Door" @ David Zwirner Gallery / 519-533 W 19th St. An exceedingly intriguing summer group show inspired by Emily Dickinson's poem "Doom is the House without the Door", focused on domesticity and interiority and their themes in art. Feat. stirring works by Mona Hatoum, Robert Gober, Louise Bourgeois, Rachel Whiteread, Isa Genzken, Francis Alÿs and more — plus it's my pick for NY's must-see summer show.
* Christopher Wilmarth @ Betty Cuningham Gallery / 541 W 25th St. A startling array of the late genius' etched glass and steel moquettes and drawings. Despite his brief career, few artists conjure such emotional resonance in cold materials and minimalism as Wilmarth (think Eva Hesse, but more contemporary).
* 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.
* NYAFF: "The Man From Nowhere" (dir. Lee Jeong-Beom, 2010) @ Walter Reade Theatre / Lincoln Center @ 65th St (1 to 66th St), 6:15p. Exhaustively violent, crime-riddled revenge thriller, in the bruised knuckles universe that produced Park Chan-wook's "Oldboy" (rather than Ryu Seung-won's hyper-agile taekwondo realm), Man From Nowhere works so well and grips you amid the grueling, rampant fight sequences w/ its pulsing emotional heart. Plus the organ-trafficking thread'll leave you gripping the edge of your seat 'til the harrowing conclusion.
Japan Cuts 2011 begins today, running through JUL 22 and boasting nearly three dozen films and premieres in its fifth consecutive year. Just like w/ NYAFF (running through JUL 14), I'll pick my favorites listed below, tagging them with a "Japan Cuts" slug. Check the site for full schedule and ticket info:
* "The Children" (dir. Max Kalmanowicz, 1980) + "Don't Go to Sleep" (dir. Richard Lang, 1982) double feature @ 92Y Tribeca / 200 Hudson St (12/ACE to Canal St), 8p/$10. Let's say you need a break from NYAFF/Japan Cuts for whatever silly reason. This double-header of murderous children, guest curated by Kevin Maher, is the only excuse I can think of as justification! The former is like "Return of the Living Dead" only with nuclear powers and preteens, while the latter feat. an acrobatic pizza-cutter sequence that'll scare you away from full pies for a good long while.
* Noveller + Love Like Deloreans @ Coco 66 / 66 Greenpoint Ave, Greenpoint (G to Greenpoint), 8p. Brooklyn's axe-slayer Sarah Lipstate crafts sublime soundscapes as Noveller, a nice balance w/ the synthy light-show sonics of Love Like Deloreans.
AUSTIN
* The Glitch Mob @ La Zona Rosa / 612 W 4th St, 8p/$20. LA synthpop trio The Glitch Mob deliver beat-driven, sweat-inducing bangers, tempered with just enough cinematic drama to keep you on your toes. w/ Com Truise (NJ, enjoying his debut LP "Galactic Melt")
TOKYO
* I.S.O. @ Asahi Art Square / Super Dry Hall, 4F 1-23-1 Azumabashi, Sumida-ku (Tokyo Metro Ginza Line/Toei Subway to Asakusa Station), 7p/FREE. This fiercest free-improv trio is also known as Otomo Yoshihide (about the loudest free-jazz MFer ever), Sachiko M (used to play with Merzbow!) and Yoshimitsu Ichiraku (the accomplish drummer and electronic beatmaker). Beyond the live show, Otomo-san and Junichi Konuma, poet, translator music culture critic at Waseda University.
FRIDAY
NYC
* Japan Cuts: "Battle Royale" (dir. Kinji Fukasaku, 2000) screening @ Japan Society / 333 E 47th St (E/M to 53rd/Lexington, 6 to 51st St), 9:15p. So maybe you've seen Fukasaku-san's controversial manga-adaptation that never received stateside distribution (despite the fact it was never officially banned in the U.S.), but I highly doubt you've seen it on the big screen. Here in full, blood-soaked glory, a bunch of future Japanese heartthrobs and starlets (Tatsuya Fujiwara of "Death Note" series, Chiaki Kuriyama of "Kill Bill", Aki Maeda of "Linda Linda Linda", Masanobu Ando of "Sukiyaki Western Django") kill one another in creative ways on a deserted island, while original badass Takeshi Kitano watches and eats cookies. They don't make 'em like this anymore!
* "The Sleeping Beauty" (dir. Catherine Breillat, 2011) @ IFC Center / 323 Sixth Ave (ACE/BDFM to W 4th St). Breillat blended "Bluebeard"'s mythology with today, amping up the sexuality and fear for fullest impact. Expect more of that, Grimm-style, in "The Sleeping Beauty", w/o the Disney happy ending.
* "What?" (dir. Roman Polanski, 1972) + "The Stunt Man" (dir. Richard Rush, 1980) double-feature @ reRun Theatre / 147 Front St, DUMBO (F to York, AC to High St), 7p. Yikes, particularly on the rare Polanski film, his "ribald adventures of an innocent girl" (i.e. "an amoral, depraved disaster", say critics!), which kicks off the theatre's "Cheerfully Perverse: Five Years of Severin Films", the LA-based company responsible for re-releasing an eclectic trove of violent/perverse near-classics! "What?" is paired w/ the cult action/comedy/drama "The Stunt Man", w/ Peter O'Toole playing the ridiculously excessive director.
* The Wake + Weekend @ South Street Seaport, Pier 17 (23/34/JMZ to Fulton St), 7p/FREE. WOW. Glasgow's pivotal post-punks The Wake playing a free summer show… with Cali's gauzy and extra-noisy shoegazers Weekend.
* Pure X (Austin) + Run DMT @ 285 Kent Ave, Williamsburg (L to Bedford, JM to Marcy), 8p. The hottest DIY venue in Brooklyn (like: literally, still no AC?) teams Austin's scorching Pure X (debut LP "Pleasure" out now!) w/ local hallucinatory collective Run DMT. All the better to alter your mind.
* Fungi Girls (TX) w/ The Beets @ Death By Audio / 49 S 2nd St, Williamsburg (L to Bedford, JM to Marcy), 8p/$7. Teaming Texas trio Fungi Girls (in the midst of their huge "Some Easy Magic" summer tour) w/ some of indie NY's best makes for a golden night. Think Jackson Heights' premiere garage-rock band The Beets and the extra-psychedelic X-Ray Eyeballs.
AUSTIN
* "The Ward" (dir. John Carpenter, 2011) @ Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar / 1120 S Lamar Blvd. You bet I still believe in the grandmaster of horror, who returns to the director's chair w/ a classic nail-biter: a vengeful ghost and a mazelike mental institution!
TOKYO
* Koji Onaka "Tokyo Candy Box" @ Emon Photo Gallery / B1 5-11-12 Minami-Azabu, Minato-ku (Hibiya Line to Hiroo Station). Onaka's photography documents Tokyo's incredible urban upheaval, where buildings sprang up practically overnight — hence the cheeky exhibition title.
* "Power to Japan" charity festival @ Shinjuku Loft / B2 1-12-9 Kabukicho, Shinjuku-ku (JR Lines etc to Shinjuku Station), 6p/3000 yen. A massive fundraiser for the reconstruction of Japan's Tohoku region after March 11's devastating earthquake and tsunami, with like 18 awesome bands! Incl. Here, MUNIMUNI, Sachiko Sakaeda (of Lines), Fruits Explosion and many others.
* Merpeoples + Lines @ Red Shoes / B1 6-7-14 Minami-Aoyama, Minato-ku (Tokyo Metro Hibiya/Toei Oedo Lines to Roppongi Station), 8p/1000 yen. Album release party for all-girl garage-rock quartet Merpeoples, with added sunniness from Sachiko Sakaeda and her band Lines (who also participate in "Power to Japan" at Shinjuku Loft).
SATURDAY
NYC
* Kal Spelletich "Where's My Jetpack" @ Jack Hanley Gallery / 136 Watts St. The San Fran-based artist received his MFA from UT Austin and went on to found SEEMEN, a collective of "extreme machines and robotics" builders. Which totally figures into his steampunk-ish motorized jetpacks and related source ephemera in this exhibition.
* Japan Cuts: "Gantz" + "Gantz: Perfect Answer" (dir. Shinsuke Sato, 2010-11) screening @ Japan Society / 333 E 47th St (E/M to 53rd/Lexington, 6 to 51st St), 12:30p. Seems there's a back-to-back blockbuster at practically EVERY Japan Cuts: "20th Century Boys" I & II in 2009, "Death Note" I & II before that. Last year showcased a bunch of '90s films, so this year we get to overload on visual cocaine, aka the sci-fi manga-adapted "Gantz", feat. more bloodshed and leather-garbed PYTs than one can possibly handle.
* Japan Cuts: Ninja Kids!!!" (dir. Takashi Miike, 2011) screening @ Japan Society / 333 E 47th St (E/M to 53rd/Lexington, 6 to 51st St), 6p. If you thought Miike's "Yatterman" was surreal, just wait when a school of ninja children fill the screen, hurling shuriken and fighting gangster hairdressers. See why those three exclamation marks are necessary?
* Japan Cuts: "Yakuza Weapon" (dir. Tak Sakaguchi & Yudai Yamaguchi, 2010) screening @ Japan Society / 333 E 47th St (E/M to 53rd/Lexington, 6 to 51st St), 8:15p. This loose sequel to 2000's surprisingly dope "Versus" eschews creative dialogue for epically awesome action sequences, choreographed by co-director/lead actor Sakaguchi, incl. a like 10-minute tracking shot of our hero killing rooms and rooms of dangerous baddies with his M61 Vulcan cannon-arm. Plus, Cay Izumi stars as a (cough) naked human weapon. + Q&A w/ Sakaguchi & Yamaguchi!
* Warm Up: Four Tet + SBTRKT @ MoMA PS1 / 22-25 Jackson Ave, Long Island City (E/M to 23rd St/Court, 7 to Courthouse Sq), 2p/FREE. Sound collagist and beat-miner Kieran Hebden (aka the tirelessly innovative Four Tet) headlines a sweet summer showcase, which also feat. fellow Brit SBTRKT (if you missed him WED) and local Falty DL (off Planet Mu).
* Grooms (album release party) w/ Pterodactyl @ Death By Audio / 49 S 2nd St, Williamsburg (L to Bedford, JM to Marcy), 8p/$7. Local sludge-scuzzers Grooms celebrate their "Prom" release w/ frenetic post-punk yowlers Pterodactyl. Like you're not sweating enough as it is.
* Diamondsnake + The Suzan @ The Rock Shop / 249 Fourth Ave, Park Slope (D/NR to Union St), 8p/$10. This pretty dope patio-outfitted, two-level venue celebrates its first anniversary w/ a rather awesome pairing. I speak of hard-rocking supergroup Diamondsnake (yes, that's Moby on the axe and Tomato on the kit) and Japan's nigh-ubiquitous tropic-pop quartet The Suzan.
AUSTIN
* Joshua Saunders "Objectification" @ Big Medium / 5305 Bolm Rd #12. It sounds deceptively simple: this Austin artist utilizes a high-contrast scanner to extract everyday objects (rolls of colored string, a ripped $20 bill, a packet of Adderall) — yet the resulting effects, said images and others trapped against solid black backdrops, are disarmingly abstract, despite their familiarity.
* The Blow (NYC) w/ Love Inks @ Emo’s / 603 Red River St, 9p/$14. The superlative Brooklyn anti-pop performance artist Mikhaela Yvonne Maricich (aka The Blow) brings her karaoke-style show to Austin. My love for quartet Love Inks (their debut ESP epitomizes no-frills awesomeness) should be known by now, and I'm stoked to see 'em locally.
* White Denim @ Antones / 213 W 5th St, 9p/$12. A quick primer of why Austin rocks, via 101X's "Homegrown Live" indie showcase. The critically acclaimed prog-minded White Denim just dropped a smashing new LP "D" and they headline the show, which also feat. TV Torso, Watch Out For Rockets, and Not in the Face.
* Puro Instinct (Cali) + John Maus (UK) @ Mohawk / 912 Red River St, 9p/$10. It's like reliving the '80s! Check neo-New Wave vs. neo-New Romanticism, Cali youngsters Puro Instinct and one-man show John Maus. Think of it as "Regression" night at Elysium, only a day early.
TOKYO
* Japan Shoegazer Festival 2011 @ High / 4-30-1 Koenji-Minami, Suginami-ku (JR Chuo Line to Koenji Station), noon/2500 yen. Lovers of mile-long guitars and crooned vox under walls of feedback, you are SO in luck. Like a dozen Japanese shoegaze bands, incl. Sugardrop, Lemon's Chair (Osaka), Aureole, Shouju Skip and Speaker Gain Teardrop (Hiroshima) play this all-day fest. I'm mad jealous!
* Aloe + Shinjuku Underground Fetish Show @ Bar9259 / 1-1-2 Okubo, Shinjuku-ku (JR Lines to Shinjuku Station, Oedo Line to Higashi-shinjuku Station), 11p/15000 yen (women free). This very serious fetish club hosts a weekly Thursday fetish show, but Saturday's blowout is even more massive. Tokyo Dolores' Aloe is one of the guest pole dancers in a night of hardcore techno (DJs Hajime Kinoko and Alex Einz) and cyber debauchery.
SUNDAY
NYC
* Japan Cuts: "Heaven's Story" (dir. Takahisa Zeze, 2010) screening @ Japan Society / 333 E 47th St (E/M to 53rd/Lexington, 6 to 51st St), 2:45p. OK, think of Luc Besson's "Léon", only w/ the young girl, maturing quickly after her entire family is killed by a psychopath, has to take on the bad guys herself b/c the older guy swearing vengeance never gets around to it. Stretch that out to nearly five hours.
* Japan Cuts: "Milocrorze: A Love Story" (dir. Yoshimasa Ishibashi, 2010) screening @ Japan Society / 333 E 47th St (E/M to 53rd/Lexington, 6 to 51st St), 8p. This lovelorn psychedelic sensory overload opened NYAFF. It returns to Japan Cuts to sizzle your minds out your skull, and if the "Matrix"-style fight scenes don't make you blink, the dance numbers most definitely will. Like an entire genre film festival in 90 minutes. + Q&A w/ Ishibashi!
* "13 Assassins (dir. Takashi Miike, 2010) screening @ Museum of the Moving Image / 36-01 35th Ave, Astoria (E/M/R to Steinway St), 3p. You give a jidaigeki to Miike-san, he's gonna make magic. Hence this ragtag band of samurai (led by Koji Yakusho!) turning an abandoned village into one elaborate pre-Edo "Saw" deathtrap for a vicious young lord and his hundreds of soldiers. The final, nearly hour-long fight scene is too badass for words.
* Nightmare & the Cat @ Glasslands / 290 Kent Ave, Williamsburg (L to Bedford, JM to Marcy), 7:30p/$10. When you come from an '80s synth-rock pedigree as sons of Dave Stewart (Eurythmics) and Siobhan Fahey (Bananarama), you just might be musically inclined. Which, if you're brothers Django and Samuel (plus multi-instrumentalist Claire Acey), you TOTALLY ARE.
AUSTIN
* Teruko Nimura "Spaces Between" @ testsite / 502 W 33rd St. This mixed-media artist, who splits her time as arts education administrator at Austin's Dougherty Arts Center, fills the gallery w/ symbols of collective memory, i.e. painstakingly handcrafted paper cranes and other objects.
TOKYO
* Ryan Gander "'Meaning…Surrounds Me Now" @ 1223 Gendaikaiga / B1 5-19-4 Hiroo, Shibuya-ku (Hibiya Line to Hiroo Station). The London-based Conceptualist takes on Color-Field painting, in a series drawing from Gander's inclusion in this year's Venice Biennale, plus a new work commenting on the packaging of paintings in Japanese culture.
* "Charity Comedy Pole Dance Night" @ Club Axxcis / 2-24-3 Kabukicho, Shinjuku-ku (JR Lines to Shinjuku Station), 5p/3000 yen. Yukari Makino, the incumbent Miss Pole Dance Japan champion (from this past March) leads a pole-dance face-off, feat. Aloe (Tokyo Dolores), Ukichi (Love Poison), Ayumi (Virgin Pink), Kaori and Satsuki (of APD) — in all, five hours of pole-dancing, w/ proceeds go towards aiding Northern Japan's Tohoku region, which is totally awesome.
MONDAY
NYC
* NYAFF: "The Blade" (dir. Tsui Hark, 1995) @ Walter Reade Theatre / Lincoln Center @ 65th St (1 to 66th St), 6p. Quite possibly THE pivotal '90s martial arts classic, heavy on bone-crushing action sequences & plenty o' killin' and light on lovey-dovey nonsense! w/ the legendary director in attendance!
* NYAFF: "Detective Dee: The Mystery of the Phantom Flame" (dir. Tsui Hark, 2010) @ Walter Reade Theatre / Lincoln Center @ 65th St (1 to 66th St), 9p. The legendary director's return to form. Think "Sherlock Holmes" with Hong Kong-style action, feat. Andy Lau in the titular role. w/ Hark in attendance!
* "Alien" (dir. Ridley Scott, 1979) screenings @ BAM / 30 Lafayette St, Ft Greene (23/45 to Nevins St, AC to Lafayette), 6:50/9:30p. No other extraterrestrial antagonist film holds a candle to "Alien", series-defining original, wonderfully imagined from H.R. Giger's biomechanics artwork and starring Sigourney Weaver fighting the baddie on a claustrophobic spaceship. Choose your iconic scene: the chestburster during dinner, the "Space Jockey" on a crashed craft, Ripley vs. Xenomorph at the airlock…
TUESDAY
NYC
* NYAFF: "Versus" (dir. Ryuhei Kitamura, 2000) @ Walter Reade Theatre / Lincoln Center @ 65th St (1 to 66th St), 5p. Where it all began, so to speak, for action star/choreographer Tak Sakaguchi, as the ultimate ass-kicker in an endless forest vs. bands of zombies and Yakuza thugs! w/ Sakaguchi & writer Yudai Yamaguchi in attendance!
* NYAFF: "Yakuza Weapon" (dir. Tak Sakaguchi & Yudai Yamaguchi, 2010) @ Walter Reade Theatre / Lincoln Center @ 65th St (1 to 66th St), 7:45p. In case you missed this Sushi Typhoon newbie at Japan Cuts: this loose sequel to 2000's surprisingly dope "Versus" eschews creative dialogue for epically awesome action sequences, choreographed by co-director/lead actor Sakaguchi, incl. a like 10-minute tracking shot of our hero killing rooms and rooms of dangerous baddies with his M61 Vulcan cannon-arm. Plus, Cay Izumi stars as a (cough) naked human weapon. + Q&A w/ Sakaguchi, Yamaguchi, and Sushi Typhoon producer Yoshinori Chiba!
* NYAFF: "Horny House of Horror" (dir. Jun Tsugita, 2010) @ Walter Reade Theatre / Lincoln Center @ 65th St (1 to 66th St), 10:15p. You…kinda should know what you're getting yourself into, attending a film titled "Horny House of Horror". You want sexy? We got Saori Hara (hello!) and crew leading a murderous massage parlor. You want gore? It's a murderous massage parlor! Penises cut in twain are just the beginning! Splatter king Yoshihiro Nishimura will see to that. You want hilarity? Asami's Viking-esque charges and the wiggling ass-wall must be seen to be believed. Can't you tell I love this film?
* "The Baby" (dir. Ted Post, 1973) + "The Sinful Dwarf" (dir. Vidal Raski, 1974) double-feature @ reRun Theatre / 147 Front St, DUMBO (F to York, AC to High St), 7p. I can't believe Raski's icky Euro-cult film "The Sinful Dwarf" (now fully restored in its 35mm glory!) is coming to the big screen. That it plays against one of the sickest Hollywood films ever just makes this essential viewing...but only if you've OD'ed on NYAFF, that is.
* Cold Cave @ Knitting Factory / 361 Metropolitan Ave (L to Bedford, G to Lorimer), 8p/$15. Those tough-ass, Goth-drenched synth-pop boys just got a lot darker, thanks to a snarling newish LP. Cult of Youth complement their set w/ the heaviest, vertiginous indie folk you've ever heard. w/ Zambri
AUSTIN
* "Prison" (dir. Renny Harlin, 1988) screening @ Alamo Drafthouse Ritz / 320 E 6th St, 9:50p. I had in mind Oliver Hirschbiegel's "Das Experiment" going into this film, but "Prison" is way grittier, way VHS-ier…plus the unleasher of unmitigated violence is an electrically-charged spectre, one of TWO roles played by a very young Viggo Mortensen. That sentence alone is capable of conjuring cerebral whiplash, so just think what an entire film of stuff like that can do.
CLOSING SOON
NYC
* John Chamberlain "New Sculpture" @ Gagosian / 555 W 24th St. Casual art-goers may well be totally thrown off by the dual — duel? — Chamberlain exhibits in W. Chelsea, the sort of career retrospective swan song at Pace and this one, proclaiming "new sculpture" (crushed auto works from 2009 through seemingly weeks before the show opened). That's a lot of Chamberlain! And not counting Gagosian's Britannia space, hosting the second wing of Chamberlain's new works, after the blue-chip gallery added him to their roster of luminary postwar and contemporary big-names. Here's an easy way to tell a new Chamberlain from an old one: the name. Mind you, he's incredibly adept at naming his sculpture, but "Gangster of Love" and "Infected Eucharist" are oldies, like from the '80s oldies. "TASTYLINGUS" and "TAMBOURINEFRAPPE" — those are new! The all-caps and shoved together words are a clue. That's if you're not even looking at the works, which do signal a rift b/w the older Chamberlains and the brand-new monumental sculptures. His array at Gagosian bears an overall aggressive vibe, crushed and contused muscle cars twisted into even meaner shapes. Some are exceedingly shiny too, one consisting totally of chromed bumpers like the ribs of some Decepticon, but there's a good bit of rough-and-tumble, rusted and used steel still figuring into Chamberlain's modus. The ultimate for me goes back to the polished, a brand-new "Cloverfield"-sized monolith called "C'ESTZESTY" that's less like the other Chamberlains in the room, yet still retains the artist's irreverent sense of humor. (ENDS FRI)
TOKYO
* Satoru Aoyama "Artists Must Earnestly Make Six Roses in Their Lives" @ Mizuma Art Gallery / 2F 3-13 Ichigayatamachi, Shinjuku-ku (Yurakucho/Nanboku Lines to Ichigaya Station). Aoyama's always been concerned with wonderfully hand-crafted stuff, but he eschews spectacle (i.e. his "Glitter" series) for symbolism in six embroidered roses — like Gary Hume with a sewing kit.
* Yujiro Miyazaki "Blue, Green, and Mt. Fuji" @ Mizuma Action / 2F 1-3-9 Kamimeguro, Meguro-ku (Tokyu Toyoko Line to Nakameguro Station). Fantastical wall paintings of lush worlds and cyclical life, referencing traditional Japanese imagery, Eden and contemporary society.
* Yuriko Yamayoshi, Takuji Kikuchi, Satomi Hirota "Fantasies and Dolls" @ Span Art Gallery / 2-2-18 1F Ginza, Chuo-ku. (Yurakucho Line to Ginza-Itchome Station). My first brush w/ Yamayoshi's creepy doll sculpture was a dual show at Shibuya's Bunkamura Gallery last year alongside Trevor Brown's vivid "Alice"-themed paintings. Hirota complements Yamayoshi's style with her jointed figures in diorama-like settings, while Kikuchi prepares ornate and weathered relief sculpture with forlorn human elements.
* Ayumu Taniguchi @ Galerie Tokyo Humanité / B1F 2-8-18 Kyobashi, Chuo-ku (Ginza Line to Kyobashi Station). This young graduate from Tama Art University's braided wire sculpture reminds me a bit of León Ferrari, though Taniguchi's come off even more organic. (ENDS SAT)
AUSTIN
* Jack Strange "Within Seconds" @ Arthouse / 700 Congress, Austin. A bonkers multimedia exhibition worthy of the British artist's quirky family name. Though there's no "Hulk" leaping eternally in the desert (a la Strange's show at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery in NYC), we've got "Tom" (2007) a single-channel loop of Mr. Cruise endlessly running through a marathon of film clips that'll leave sweat on your brow and frankly is worth the price of admission alone, if Arthouse charged admission. He takes on a laptop in this exhibition, too, in "Lecture of Life Inside a Human Cell", w/ a clay ball audience atop the keyboard, watching a loop on cellular reproduction.
TOKYO
* Chihiro Kabata "Closed with Eyes Open" @ Art Front Gallery / 29-18 Sarugakucho, Shibuya-ku (Tokyu Toyoko Line to Daikanyama Station). Kabata-san wowed me beyond all means at this year's MOT Annual at Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, w/ her huge-ass ballpoint pen "renderings" on inkjet paper — basically she saturated the paper's surface w/ ink to create these shiny, undulating blue-black voids. Very intense, but it's all done by her hand, not brushing out the ink or whatnot. This exhibition contains both her large-scale work, multi-panel installations, and smaller drawings — which due to their ink treatments do not lose their concentrated energy.
* Howard W "Facing Shibuya" @ Place M / 3F 1-2-11 Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku (JR Lines etc to Shinjuku Station). If you've ever tackled "The Scramble", that panoply of crosswalks outside Shibuya Station and the massive Starbucks, you've experienced the epicenter of Tokyo's youth culture…along w/ like thousands of other pedestrians. The American-born, Tokyo-based photographer turns his lens on the crowds, drawing out unique faces w/ their own intriguing backstories. (ENDS SUN)
NYC
* "German Expressionism: The Graphic Impulse" @ MoMA / 11 W 53rd St (E/M to 5th Ave, 6 to 51st St). I'd meant to attend this epic survey of German printmaking, a joyous and quickly brutal journey through WWI and its grim aftermath, on the first day of members' previews, i.e. before the NYTimes' Roberta Smith's column. I'd missed that chance, read her article, and knew going in that the grueling juggernaut also known as Otto Dix's "The War" (1924), some 50 desiccated etchings, aquatints and drypoints rivaling current-day torture porn in their shocking (yet all too real) imagery, was awaiting me against a blood-red wall like midway into the show. Now don't YOU worry that I just revealed the big plot-twist, as it's not like that at all. Enjoy the lyrical buildup and we'll get through the rocky stages together. The exhibition begins with a two-pronged flourish, devoting two galleries to Die Brücke and Der Blaue Reiter. To one-up the experience, the museum's included E.L. Kirchner's woodcut manifesto from Die Brücke (1906), which 'til now I'd only seen in catalogue images. Kirchner's woodcut "Dancer with Raised Skirt" (1909) and Brücke member Erich Heckel's "Girl with a Doll" (1910), actually Fränzi, a recurring figure in their renderings, exude a bliss that gets caught in your throat. If only they could have seen the war that would come crashing down several years later. Amid Franz Marc's vividly colored woodcuts of horses and other fauna is his co-illustrated "Der Blaue Reiter" book (1912-14) w/ Vasily Kandinsky. Another 'whoa' moment for me. Plus Kandinsky's outstanding "Klänge" (1913) a 'musical album' of some 56 woodcuts — the exhibition contains loads of these type of series, it's fantastic. Let's keep it moving! In the Austrian portion of the show comes some more sexiness, courtesy Egon Schiele (a selection from his 1914-18 portfolio, including some of the last works of his brief lifetime, like the 1918 lithograph "Girl") and Oskar Kokoschka, whose "Die Träumenden Knaben" (1908) illustrated book and haunting poster for "Murderer Hope of Women" (1909), apparently the 1st Expressionist play, tussle for emotive responses. Printmaking is in full swing by this point, evinced by copies of Der Strurm (Kirchner, Marc, Kokoschka) and Die Aktion (Conrad Felixmüller and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff), plus Emil Nolde's prolific, varying mediums (lithographs here, woodcut there, intaglio elsewhere), like his energetic "Dancer" (1913 lithograph). It and Kirchner's sumptuous "Street, Berlin" (1913, a rare painting in the lot, from Kirchner's own exhibition here back in autumn 2008) do nothing to prepare us for what follows, i.e the war and Dix's "War". I'd caught "War" in the Neue Galerie's survey on Dix, but its darkened lair kept many of Dix's first-hand atrocities obscured. Not at MoMA! In this well-lit room nothing goes hidden, the skulls crawling with vermin, the shattered bodies in ditches, the dead horses, the strife and peril everywhere. The postwar period doesn't ease tension, either, considering Heinz Fuchs' agitprop graphic design posters, like "Workers. Famine. Death is Approaching. Strike Destroys. Work Nourishes. Do your Duty. Work." (1919), a Tyrannosaur-sized Death glowering over a street in disarray, the words burnt into the sky. Nor with Max Beckmann's "Hell" (1919) eleven transfer lithographs detailing social disintegration and violence in postwar Berlin. His later series "Trip to Berlin" (1922) and Dix's "Nine Nightlife Woodcuts" (1922-4) reveal the changed landscape, populated with boozers, the sex-seeking and -addled, and alley cats. (ENDS MON)
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