Inaugural CBGB Festival - What to See, What's Free

As mentioned here back in May, the inaugural CBGB Festival takes place this week (July 5th through 8th), and besides having more than 300 bands playing, there's a full-fledge movie festival with some great rock film. Oh, and a music conference, film conference, and a spirits festival (now that's something I haven't heard of at most festivals).

The CBGB Festival includes music galore, including two free concerts.

And in addition to the previously announced free SummerStage concert featuring Guided by Voices, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, and more on Saturday afternoon, there's another huge, multistage free show in Times Square that same day, which will feature food vendors, music shop booths, and other attractions, according to Brooklyn Vegan, in addition to live music.

So who's playing the Times Square concert? BV speculates that Superchunk, the Hold Steady, and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah may be on the bill. [Update: also confirmed for the free CBGB Times Square show are Duff McKagen's Loaded, Upper West, Zulu Wave, and Glint.]

As of now you can buy passes for the non-free events of the music festival for only $79, which is more than reasonable considering all the acts playing (although many showcases are going on simultaneously, and you'll need to get to venues early since it's first come, first serve).
 
See the CBGB Festival music page for details on all the showcase acts and venues, and see the complete music schedule for who's playing where and when. Some of the acts playing on each day:

Thursday, July 5th: Richard Lloyd, Agnostic Front, The Rattlers, Tuff Darts, David Johansen, Glen Matlock, the Sick F*cks, Tommy Ramone, Steve Almaas, The Baseball Project, Craig Finn, FIDLAR, My Pet Dragon

Friday, July 6th: Willie Nile, Redd Kross, Reggie Watts, Elliot & the Ghost, Sick of It All, Cro-Mags, JD Samson & MEN, So So Glos, DJ Jonathan Toubin, PS I Love You, Donovan Frankenreiter, Sick F*cks, Wyldlife

Saturday, July 7th: Guided By Voices, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, The War on Drugs, and Cloud Nothings (all in one FREE show at Central Park SummerStage, starting at 3 p.m.), as well as the other free concert at Time Square. There are also for-pay shows at other venues with sets by D Generation, The Whores, and more.

Sunday, July 8th: Fishbone and Paranoid Social Club

Music Notes: Download New Corin Tucker Song, Muse Goes for Gold, Free Williamsburg Concerts, & More

Here's a roundup of news from around the music world: new songs, free concerts, & various other things.

* Corin Tucker of Sleater-Kinney has a new song out, "Groundhog Day," and you can download it here, (via Consequence of Sound and Pitchfork). It's the lead-off track from the group's forthcoming second album, "Kill My Blues" (cover below) which will come out on Sept. 18th on Kill Rock Stars.

Album cover of the second full-length from the Corin Tucker Band.

* Muse has also released a new song, "Survival," which has been tapped as the official song of the 2012 London Olympics (listen below). You're going to be hearing it everywhere; get used to it now.



* The schedule for free concerts at the Williamsburg waterfront have been released, and there are three solid shows:
July 19th: Pretty Good Friends with Eugene Mirman and special musical guest OK Go
August 18th: Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings with Antibalas
Sept. 7th: Bob Mould (performing Sugar's "Copper Blue" as well as songs from his new album, "Silver Age," as well as tunes from Husker Du, Sugar, and his solo career).

The shows take place at Williamsburg Park at N. 12th St. and Kent Ave. See Free Williamsburg for more information on free and ticketed concerts and links to buying tickets.

* Mumford & Sons announced summer tour dates, and they're coming to Hoboken on August 1st. They'll be playing at Pier A park, and tickets are $55 (but have no additional fees). For that price, I'll wait to see if there's a good opening act on the bill. Tickets go on sale here on Friday the 29th (presale is the 28th).

See here for tickets for all other summer Mumford shows.

Now Streaming: New CDs from Everest, Echo Lake, A Place to Bury Strangers, & More

There aren't a whole lot of new albums streaming online this week, but there are releases by some veteran artists and much-anticipated CDs by newer acts. Among the latter are albums by L.A.'s Everest (chosen by Neil Young to be one of his openers), British band Echo Lake, and New York's own A Place to Bury Strangers, as well as the quirky and captivating California singer-songwriter Jesca Hoop.

(Sadly, the drummer for Echo Lake, Pete Hayes, died last week, which is not only a devastating personal loss for the band but a huge professional setback for a band that was ramping up to tour in support of its debut album.)


A Place to Bury Strangers performing at a recent show in Newcastle.

A few veteran artists are back in the game with new releases, too: Everclear, They Might Be Giants, The Offspring, Blues Traveler, and Joe Jackson, whose new album contain his interpretations of classic Duke Ellington songs.

Also streaming is a star-studded tribute album to guitarist/singer/songwriter Rainer Ptacek, who died in 1997. I'm not familiar with his work, but this collection (which was originally released before he died) has contributions by a great collection of singer-songwriters including Evan Dando, Emmylou Harris, John Wesley Harding, Jimmy Page & Robert Plant, and Chuck Prophet, as well as artists teaming up with Ptacek himself.

Dive in and enjoy!

Spinner.com's Listening Party:
"Wild Peace" by Echo Lake
"Ownerless" by Everest
"The House That Jack Built" by Jesca Hoop
"Invisible Stars" by Everclear
"Worship" by A Place to Bury Strangers
"Days Go By" by The Offspring
"No!" by They Might Be Giants
"The Tarnished Gold" by Beachwood Sparks
"The Duke" by Joe Jackson
"The Inner Flame: A Tribute to Rainer Ptacek" by various artists

AOL Music Listening Party: 
"Suzie Cracks the Whip" by Blues Traveler
"Mindy Smith" by Mindy Smith
"The Science of Making Choices" by Mieka Pauley
"Old Believers" by Cory Chisel and the Wandering Sons

Free Concerts this Weekend: Punk Island, Alabama Shakes, Real Estate, & More

Now that the crazy midsummer heat and humidity (and the thunderstorms) have cleared out, it's time to see some great concerts—and there are plenty to free ones to choose from. Sunday alone has a veritable embarrassment of riches, in terms of free music.

(Of course there are also any number of paid concerts going on, one the most tempting being the Metallica-curated Orion Music & More Festival in Atlantic City. And tickets still seem to be available, according to the website. (If you can't make it to AC, watch the Orion Festival webcast, which will be streaming certain sets. See the link for details.)

And whoops, I forgot: this is also the weekend for the Governor's Ball on Randall's Island, featuring Fiona Apple, Beck, Passion Pit, Modest Mouse, Built to Spill, Explosions in the Sky, and Santigold, among others.

After the video below, a look at some of the top free shows this weekend.


Ridgewood, NJ's Real Estate plays a free show in its hometown Sunday night.

* The Wood Brothers and Bruce Robison & Kelly Willis play the "Summer On the Oval" series at the Stuyvesant Town Oval (252 1st Avenue) at 3 p.m. Saturday. This is a high-powered lineup of roots music, with brothers Chris and Oliver Wood (the former is a founding member of Medeski Martin & Wood) and the husband-and-wife country duo of Robison and Willis. The series is open to residents of Peter Cooper Village and Stuyvesant Town and their guests, though I'm guessing you can hear the music from adjacent streets? (If anybody knows for sure, please leave a comment below.)

* Governor's Island once again becomes a self-contained world of all things punk rock with the return of Punk Island. More than 60 bands will perform starting at 12 Noon and running till midnight. It's all outdoors, all ages, and all free. Here's a partial list of the confirmed acts (see stage schedule here):

Sworn Enemy * Two-Man Advantage * Wombat in Combat * Panzie * Bucket Flush * The Scutches * InCircles * Hostile Times * Fried Chicken & Gasoline * The Nihilistics * Barons of Tang * World War IX * Cultivator * The Will * (A) Truth * Skum City * All New Episode * Praxis

* Alabama Shakes, Diamond Rugs, and Robert Ellis play SummerStage in Central Park at 3 p.m. Alabama Shakes has gained a lot of new fans through its sizzling live performances, and earlier this year finally came out with an album. This show is sure to attract a big crowd, so get to the Park early. And follow SummerStage on Twitter the day of the show to get updates on how the line's moving, etc.

* Real Estate, Toasted Plastic, and Spook Houses play an outdoor show in Real Estate's hometown of Ridgewood, NJ on Sunday night at 7 p.m. The concert takes place at the Kasschau Memorial Shell in Graydon Park (see map), which is near the intersection of North Maple Ave. and Linwood Ave. W. There are NJ Transit buses to Ridgewood from NYC, and Graydon Park isn't too far from the Ridgewood train station (you can get a cab there if you don't feel like walking.) Thanks to MySociaList.com for the heads-up on this gig.

Free Concerts: Madison Square Park and RiverRocks (Pier 84)

Here's information on two very different free-music series going on in NYC this summer, the Mad. Sq. Music series and the RiverRocks concerts at Pier 84.


Bettye LaVette plays Madison Square Park on Aug. 8th.

* Mad. Sq. Music features roots music on the lawn on Wednesday nights (usually), from June 20th to August 8th (oops, I'm writing this too late for the first show).

• June 27th, 6:30 p.m.: Gretchen Parlato and Gregory Porter (jazz vocalists)
• July 4th, 3 p.m.: Noam Pikelny and Friends, The Sweetback Sisters, and Spuyten Duyvil (folk/roots music)
• July 11th, 7 p.m.: Nellie McKay (pop)
• July 18th, 7 p.m.: Jeff "Tain" Watts Quartet (jazz)
• July 25th, 7 p.m.: Regina Carter’s “Reverse Thread” (jazz)
• Aug. 1st, 6:30 p.m.: An evening with Suzzy and Maggie Roche, Sloan Wainwright and Lucy Wainwright Roche (folk)
• Aug. 8th, 7 p.m.: Bettye LaVette (blues)

* RiverRocks, whose concerts skew towards indie artists, is once again limited to a small number of shows (three), but it has a good lineup of popular, in-demand acts. Shows take place Thursday nights at Pier 84 (Hudson River at 44th Street).

• July 12th, 6 p.m.: Dan Deacon and John Maus
• July 26th, 6 p.m.: Oberhofer and The Soft Pack
• Aug. 9th, 6 p.m.: Wild Nothing, Grimes, and DIIV (formerly Dive)

Now Streaming: New CDs from Smashing Pumpkins, Hacienda, Kate Miller-Heidke, & More

The '90s may be long gone, but Smashing Pumpkins are back with a new album, "Oceania," and it's one of the new releases available for online streaming this week. While the band has been gone, it's been influencing a number of younger musicians (which can be heard most clearly in Silversun Pickups). And frontman Billy Corgan has worked on a number of projects, including a previous Pumpkins reunion.

Listen to Smashing Pumpkins' new "Oceania" at Spinner this week.

So how does "Oceania" measure up against classic Pumpkins works of the past? Greg Kot of the Chicago Tribune says in his review that it "adds up to Corgan's best work since the '90s."

What else is streaming this week? Kate Miller-Heidke (famous for "Are You Ready?," a hit that was also used in commercials for the New York Lottery) is back with her new album, "Nightflight." The San Antonio band Hacienda (which opened for The Duke Spirit last Saturday at Highline Ballroom), is streaming its new album, "Shakedown," which they created with help from Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys.

There's "The Tarnished Gold," the first album in more than a decade by the band Beachwood Sparks. And for jazz fans, the prolific Henry Threadgill and his current band Zooid are back with a new release that's streaming this week. (You'll find some background on the album and on Threadgill here from NPR, and from a story they did on him in 2010.)

As always, the Spinner and AOL Music websites offer many more selections than those listed here; visit the links below to browse all the choices.

NPR First Listen:
"The Tarnished Gold" by Beachwood Sparks
"Tomorrow Sunny / The Revelry, Spp" by Henry Threadgill Zooid

Spinner.com's Listening Party:
"Oceania" by Smashing Pumpkins
"Rhythm and Repose" by Glen Hansard
"Carry the Fire" by Delta Rae
"Tightrope Walker" by Maren Parusel
"New Look" by New Look
"Shakedown" by Hacienda

AOL Music Listening Party: 
"Nightflight" by Kate Miller-Heidke
"California" EP by Tamar Kaprelian