[M. Ward] did not disappoint on Friday. While playing pretty much straight through for almost an hour-and-a-half, he included songs from all of his albums. There was also very little chit-chat, lots of guitar work, and an ever-changing backdrop provided by four windows… The band played some great ones like Poison Cup, Rollercoaster, To Go Home and Never Had Nobody Like You. Also included was one of his guitar solo songs, which is always nice to watch. -[Second Doubles]

M Ward roped in Monsters of Folk collaborator Conor Oberst (who just announced a Carnegie Hall show) during his appearance at Webster Hall on Friday (5/11) to play “Vincent O’Brien”, his second encore of the evening. A video of the two musicians performing that song is below. The show, which featured an appearance from the Lee Ranaldo Band as part of a string of dates that they’re on together, was the kick-off to an East Coast tour and one of two appearances in NYC that day (he also performed at Late Night with David Letterman which aired that night). Pictures and the setlist from Webster Hall as well as a video from Letterman are in this post.

If you missed Letterman, Webster Hall, or the release of A Wasteland Companion then you’re still in luck. Stream the new LP in full at M. Ward’s site, and look for the guitar great to play Brooklyn at Prospect Park on August 7th with Yo La Tengo. Tickets are still available. M Ward also has a streamable performance from WNYC available as well.

More pics and setlist from Webster Hall and those videos are below…

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M. Ward played Letterman and Webster Hall (joined by Conor Oberst) with Lee Ranaldo (pics, video, setlist) is a post from: Guitars for Beginners

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Terry and Gyan Riley have been performing together since the late 90′s and have appeared in concert throughout the USA and Europe. The music has a connection to the improvising traditions of both Jazz and Indian Classical but more importantly depends on a synchronous intuition that has developed between a father and a son. Sometimes they begin with a structure where melodic, harmonic, modal and rhythmic elements are predetermined along with a flow chart of sequential events but one of their favorite forms is starting from a place where neither performer has an overview and they must find their way together. Terry on piano, keyboard and vocals, has been on the worlds stages for over 50 years. Gyan has generated a lot of excitement with his astounding guitar virtuosity and his brilliant compositions. In 2011 they appeared at All Tomorrow’s Parties in Minehead England and at Moogfest in Asheville, North Carolina.

Terry Riley & Gyan Riley (with help from percussionist David Cossin and violinist Tracy Silverman) play a seated show at Le Poisson Rouge Sunday (5/13). Tickets are still available.

Gyan Riley can also be found this month at the Stone, where he curated the second half (May 17 – 31) of venue’s May programming. (Buke & Gase handled the first two weeks.) Riley’s run kicks off Thursday, May 17 with a solo performance by Tracy Silvermann who uses loop pedals to create soundscapes with her six-string violin. The late show that night is BLIXT aka Bill Laswell (bass) Morgen Agren (drums) Raoul Bjorkenheim (guitar).

Other highlights include Ian Williams of Battles on May 19, guitarist Charlie Hunter and drummer Scott Amendola on May 22; pianist Jenny Lin playing works from various Merce Cunningham composers on May 23; Riley and percussionist Dave Cossin performing as Superballs! on May 26; and Bang on a Can/Paul Simon cohort Mark Stewart on May 27.

Full schedule for the Gyan Riley-curated second half of May at The Stone is below.

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Gyan Riley playing w/ Terry @ LPR, curated shows @ the Stone is a post from: Guitars for Beginners

UK producer/musician Chris Clark aka Clark released his new album, Iradelphic, last month via Warp. The album features the immediate standout track, “Secret,” which owes a bit of its immediacy to featured vocalist Martina Topley-Bird, who has also contributed her vocals to Tricky, Massive Attack, and others. But the album benefits from its instrumental work as well. The three part trek, “The Pining,” is a great piece which combines beats and live guitar (played by Clark) in a manner that brings to mind Rounds-era Four Tet.

The album includes other tracks that interwork live instrumentation and electronics, and in between those it works in jazz-piano interludes (“Black Stone”), ambient passages (“Broken Kite Footage”), and another track with Martina Topley-Bird (“Open”). You can stream the tracks, “Secret,” “The Pining pt2,” and “Com Touch,” below.

Clark has a North American mini tour planned for next month which includes shows in Montreal (Mutek), LA, Chicago, and NYC. The NYC show is a live set happening on June 10 at Le Poisson Rouge. Tickets are on sale now.

All dates and streams below…

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The Walkmen @ BAM

BAM’s Bryce and Aaron Dessner-curated Crossing Brooklyn Ferry series/festival had its first night Thursday. It continues tonight/Friday with a lineup headlined by St. Vincent and The Antlers (and Saturday with Beirut and Atlas Sound).

Music kicked off at 5pm with early slots filled by indie-classical acts like yMusic and JACK Quartet. Composer-uke-player Jherek Bischoff started things out inside the Howard Gilman Opera House at 7pm, and his set featured guest spots from David Byrne and Amanda Palmer. Check out the pictures below.

The first band I saw was Twin Shadow, an act that always sounds a lot better to me on record than live (something about George Lewis Jr.’s voice and the intricacies of the production don’t translate exactly on stage). A welcome special guest, the Blackfire Percussion, added drum corp percussion on a few of the songs.

Sharon Van Etten powered through a set that highlighted how much she’s evolved since her early acoustic days. She offered a throwback to her Because I Was In Love debut with a solo version of “I Fold” dedicated to her parents. Aaron Dessner, who produced Tramp, played guitar on a few of the tracks. And Sharon tapped “Serpents” for the triumphant, soaring closer.

Sharon Van Etten @ BAM

The Walkmen navigated a set of new tunes and classics: in addition to putting out their sixth LP, Heaven, in June, this year marks the 10th-anniversary of their debut, Everyone Who Pretended to Like Me Is Gone. Among the songs played were “Angela Surf City,” “In the New Year,” “Blue As Your Blood” and new tracks “Heaven,” “Heartbreaker” and “Southern Heart.” Hamilton, as always, stretched the limits of his voice to good effect, especially on the haunting A Hundred Miles Off track “All Hands and the Cook.” The band closed with an encore of “We’ve Been Had,” which they noted was the first song they wrote as a band.

Between those last two I ventured to the BAM Cafe to see Zs, playing as a duo and sounding completed different than the last time I saw them in July. Guitarist Ben Greenberg describes the change as “The old stuff was like an old Soviet tank driving down Main Street; the new stuff is like a spaceship landing on City Hall.” The shift from angular guitar and skronking saxophone to whatever they do now was pretty evident in the small snippet that I caught. Greenberg’s guitar laid dubby rhythms lines while Sam Hilmer’s sax played melodies and riffs off in the distance. Hopefully they’ll line up more shows soon. (As Hubble, Greenberg makes the NYC debut of that project’s “quadraphonic Hubble Superposition set” tonight.)

After that I caught a few songs by Yellowbirds, hidden up in Cinema 3 and playing to a crowd of about 20 people (including Conrad Doucette). The Jonathan Richman-esque two-piece was a nice surprise to find soaked in the smell of movie-theater popcorn.

(People Get Ready and Heather Broderick played, and a program of short films screened, but I arrived too late to see them. And I only caught a snippet of Callers by skipping the end of Twin Shadow.)

One bummer about the schedule is that, with the exception of the extremely early classical sets, it’s impossible to see more than a few minutes of the smaller bands without skipping the headlining acts. That scheduling, and the vague, unnecessary “Brooklyn” theme, are a bit puzzling, but all in all the fest is a good chance to see bands like the Walkmen and Sharon Van Etten in the gorgeous Howard Gilman Opera House, a space that’s surprisingly intimate and cozy for its size (and having the first few rows of seats removed for the crowd to stand was a nice touch).

More pictures from Thursday below…

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Crossing Brooklyn Ferry night 1 pics & review (The Walkmen, Sharon Van Etten, David Byrne, Amanda Palmer, Zs & more) is a post from: Guitars for Beginners