Sans Temps Morts is Nate Dorr’s weekly New York City event guide.

Last week I mentioned that the ever-excellent Silent Barn had been slapped with a $7000 overdue electric bill abandoned to them by the previous occupants, and now faces cut-off electricity and their end as a venue. So go there as much as possible, like this Friday through Sunday, and give them all of your money so that DIY music can continue to flourish there well into next year.

Just one non-music-related bonus event this time around:

This sounds almost as good as those Found Magazine film screenings and readings: Mortified, a curated evening of “teen angst artifacts” in various formats — letters, home movies, etc — being presented by the original creators. It’ll be going down this Thursday at the Tank, 279 Church St, Tribecca. 8pm, $12. Online tickets are sold out so get there early for door tickets.

Wednesday, 12 December :: The ai ensemble is a new duo consisting of STM correspondent Isabel Castellvi (cello) and Alejandro Acierto (clarinet). In a series of three dates this week, they’ll be performing programs of contemporary classical compositions, with an emphasis on premiering new pieces by new young composers. Isabel has played with the International Contemporary Ensemble, and is, in fact, how I heard about that quite amazing collective in the first place. Wednesday’s program looks like this:
David Grant - Duo (2007) World Premiere
Scott Scharf- Low (2007) World Premiere
Luciano Berio- Sequenza 9a for solo clarinet (1980)
Kaija Saariaho- Oi Kuu (1990)
Liza Lim- Inguz (1996)
Kirsten Broberg- (…in stillness…) (2007) World Premiere
Timothy McCormack- residvvm (2007) World Premiere
At the Tank, 279 Church St, Tribecca. 7:30pm. Looks like this could be free, and if not, it won’t be more than $5 anyway. The Tank tends to start pretty much right on time, so be forewarned.

Park Slope’s Southpaw (125 5th Avenue) has been having weirdly frequent free shows these days. Not sure what the occasion is, but this time Detroit dance-rockers Electric Six are playing. Okay, yeah, they can be pretty schlocky, but have put out some fun tracks and for free, who could complain? 8pm doors.

Thursday, 13 December :: Hiro Ballroom may not be free on Thursdays anymore, but here’s the Music Hall of Williamsburg perhaps earning its keep by picking up the slack with a FREE danceparty of their own. Santo Gold, the fresh, quickly-rising rapper from Brooklyn whose been playing with the likes of Diplo and Spank Rock lately, is headlining, backed by White Williams and a DJ set from the Rapture. RSVP at going.com/metromix, then show up early ’cause there’s no way this won’t fill up. 66 North Sixth Street, Williamsburg, 8pm doors, and yes, it’s free.

The ai ensemble has their second date of the month (perhaps of their existence), this time at Secret Project Robot at Metropolitan and Kent in Williamsburg. As usual, the cello/clarinet duo will be presenting a program of new contemporary classical compositions. 8pm.

Issue Project Room update: Jozef Van Wissem unfortunately seems to have been taken off the Thursday bill, but KI, a three-piece including members of No Neck Blues Band and Crash Worship is still on, and “post-everything guitar duo” Holy Floors just got added. Still at 232 3rd St., 3rd floor, Gowanus. 8pm, $10.

Oh wait, Hiro is still free too. They were just charging last week. This time it’s Boys Noize DJing and RSVP here.

+Ulrich Schnauss at Europa in Greenpoint, 8pm doors, $10.
+We Are Wolves at the Knitting Factory, 6:30pm doors, $10.

Friday, 14 December :: Moving Theatre at the Whitney, date two: thrilling “new music” purveyors ICE (International Contemporary Ensemble) will be playing selections from Xenakis and Ligeti with visual accompaniment from a program of actors, dancers, and designers. I couldn’t make last week’s edition, so I will definitely be at this one. At the Whitney Museum, Madison Ave and 75th St. 7pm, pay-what-you-can.
Program:
Iannis Xenakis: Rebonds (1987-89)
Gyorgi Ligeti: Ligeti Etudes, selected
Gyorgi Ligeti: Mysteries of the Macabre (trumpet version, 1978/1991)
Iannis Xenakis: Psappha (1975)

[UPDATE: SHOW CANCELLED]Everyone’s favorite print-only DIY show list (yep, printed periodicals still exist), Showpaper, has moved their benefit show to an unnamed venue at North 11th and Berry in Williamsburg. This might actually be where Japanther played this last 4th of July, if I’m remembering right. Frantically fun electro-hardcore Brooklyners Team Robespierre are still headlining, plus High Places, and “special guests”. 915 Wycoff Ave, Ridgewood, L to Halsey. 8pm doors, $ by donation.

Kioku, now on the 4th show of a residency at Issue Project Room is an experimental trio consisting of percussionist Wynn Yamami, audio programmer Christopher Ariza, and saxophonist Ali Sakkal. The result is a sort of electronic-accented free-jazz with a distinctly Asian percussion angle. 232 3rd St., 3rd floor, Gowanus. 8pm, $10.

+Psychic Ills and Matta Llama, with visuals, at Monkeytown.
+Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip at Mercury Lounge.

Saturday, 15 December :: Psych rock at Silent Barn (help ‘em pay the bills), with crystal-healers GHQ, Eskimo King, Workbench & Black Quarter, Time Life, Ducktales, and more. 915 Wycoff Ave, Ridgewood, L to Halsey. 8pm doors, $tba.

The ai ensemble is presenting their third evening this month of new contemporary classical for cello and clarinet, this time at Goodbye Blue Monday. 7pm, always free at GBM. But go support them by buying cheap drinks and celebrate the owner’s recovery from cancer by helping pay his medical bills.

Issue Project Room is holding a book/record release for a project called African Feedback, in which — I swear I’m not making this up — an artist traveled around remote African villages playing recordings of current experimental and avant-garde composition for the people he met and recording the reactions and interpretations. Actually, I bet you could do the same thing in most of America and get similar responses. There will, I suppose, be some kind of field-recording/sound-collage performance of the results, plus a couple other sound/artists opening. 232 3rd St., 3rd floor, Gowanus. 8pm sharp, $10.

Yeasayer, Team Robespierre, and High Places at Mercury Lounge. That pretty much sums it up.

Sunday, 16 December :: Support the Silent Barn! This time, by seeing lo-fi New Hampshire punk rockers Live Fast Die, yet another band with “Golden” in their name that I’ve been hearing good things about, Golden Triangle (is there a Golden Wolves yet, I wonder? Or maybe even a Golden Wolves on Fire?), and psych-soul Brooklyn rockers and TV on the Radio friends Dragons of Zynth with DJs Chris Vice and Alix Brown. 915 Wycoff Ave, Ridgewood, L to Halsey. 8pm doors, $tba.

Wednesday, 19 December :: It’s apparently Ohio noise week at Gowanus’ Issue Project Room, with not one but two performances from Cinncinati-based ambient/avant noise superstar and multi-instrumentalist C. Spencer Yeh. Yeh is the veteran of the seminal Burning Star Core as well as endless collaborations with the likes of Double Leopards and Thurston Moore, and will serve Wednesday as one of several musicians doing sets backing up the words of poet Kenneth Goldsmith. 232 3rd St., 3rd floor, Gowanus. 8pm sharp, $10.

The ai ensemble is presenting their fourth evening this month of new contemporary classical for cello and clarinet, this time at the Hideout, 6:30pm.

+School of Seven Bells at Mercury Lounge.

Thursday, 20 December :: FREE! The excellent Panache booking (recall the huge showcase at CMJ this year, filling all three floors of the Knitting Factory) and Myopenbar.com (recall free drinks all the time) are holding an enticing evening of noise-rock in the Knitting Factory tap bar. Anthemic noise-rock via recurring STM-favorites Parts & Labor, abrasive yet catchily keyboard-filled noise-rock via An Albatross, and okay, no sort of noise-rock at all via the Miami (Brooklyn) bass stylings of Stay High who I’ve just noticed have a pretty decent Effi Briest remix up on their MySpace. All free! 74 Leonard Street, Tribecca. 8pm. Did I mention, it’s free?

Ohio noise II: C. Spencer Yeh is back at Issue Project Room, this time accompanying minimalist music inovator and experimental film-maker Tony Conrad. Also on the bill, a collaboration between Cleveland drone trio Emeralds and No Fun Fest curator Carlos Giffoni, and also-Cleveland-based mininal psych-drone guitarist Sam Goldberg. 232 3rd St., 3rd floor, Gowanus. 8pm, $10.

Friday, 21 December :: Whereas shoegaze bands were originally noted for their horribly static stage shows (with plenty of the eponymous downcast eyes, as well as facing away from the audience and such), Brooklyn’s A Place to Bury Strangers, already purveyors of refreshingly abrasive guitars and industrial rhythms, seem to have decided to combat genre stereotypes head on. Incorporating a surprisingly effective mix of synched video projections and strobe lights, they’ve managed to put together one of the best audio-visual packages in New York. Visceral and thrilling. With the Cloud Room, the Giraffes, and Blacklist, at Bowery Ballroom, 6 Delancy St, LES. 8pm doors, $15.

Issue Project Room is keeping pretty busy these days, this time with the improvisational multi-percussion duo of Billy Martin (drums and percussion) formerly of Medeski, Martin and Wood, and G. Calvin Weston (drums, percussion, trumpet and vocals). IPR is claiming a special guest appearance by Paul Auster, but assuming they mean the acclaimed author, I have absolutely no idea what he’d be contributing. Readings to music? Hard to say, but potentially interesting. 232 3rd St., 3rd floor, Gowanus. 8pm, $10.

The ai ensemble is presenting their fifth evening this month of new contemporary classical music for cello and clarinet, this time at Ossia Fine Arts Space, 8pm.

Saturday, 22 December :: Amy Kohn plays unique, elaborate pop music with the all the avant-accessible showtune charm of fellow Brooklyners Flying. Seriously, this is the sort of talent where the jump from haven’t-heard-her-yet-let’s-go-check-MySpace to oh-my-god-where-can-get-a-copy-of-this took merely one and a half songs. For this performance Kohn will be on piano with a six-piece back-up ensemble and a synched film, The Life of Onions, created specifically for this evening by Black Arrow Productions. This sounds like a HAPPENING. Let’s be there for it. 232 3rd St., 3rd floor, Gowanus. 8pm, $10.

Upcoming (extremely incomplete, but I wanted to remember these):
Saturday, 29 December :: Clockcleaner and Blues Control at Europa.
Monday, 31 December :: OCDJ tba
Friday, 11 January :: Shooting Spires, Extra Life, and People at Death by Audio.

Until next week, live without dead time.

–Nate Dorr