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

Just to check in, STM is now your one-stop location for basement punk shows, ersatz bric-a-brac pop, avant-classical esoterica, lo-fi noise squeal, and whatever jazz tendencies become strange enough to fall into my lap. How this happened is that if you venture far enough into the realms of the obscure and inventive, all of these things are the same, or at the very least close friends.

This is nothing new, for me or for the city of New York, but the trend especially crystallized in my mind this week after bills containing the likes of Dan Friel of masterful Brooklyn noise-punks Parts & Labor paired with stellar jazz viola-ist Karen Waltuch. With John Dwyer of lo-fi folk-rockers the Oh Sees in a free-jazz quartet containing three saxophonists (one being Zs’ Sam Hillmer), a Dome Theatre “play”, and some lovely noise manipulations from MV Carbon. Or another bill that ran noise-jazz spaz-outs Talibam! next to the psych spirals of Pete Nolan’s Spectre Folk.

With shows like this happening every week, and bands like the incredible Extra Life collapsing most of those tendencies into single songs, these days I’m even more glad to be in Brooklyn than usual. We don’t need genre delineations here.

So. Sorry if things are seeming even weirder around here these days (shoot me an email if you want out), and if you’re looking for more familiar indie-rock typed recommendations, try ohmyrockness.com. Those bands don’t so much need my help in spreading the word, and if you want familiarity then you don’t really need me anyway. But for everyone left, read on! It’ll be a good week:

Wednesday, 20 February ::

Mary Halvorson, whether playing in various jazz configurations or in her avant-pop project People with drummer Kevin Shea, is an ever-compelling guitarist. For this particular show, she’ll be joined by Phillip Greenlief (of the Lost Trio) on saxophone at a (new?) place called The Stone in the East Village (Avenue C and 2nd St.) Lots of other jazz-related shows coming up at the same spot.

Fiasco is the trio of Jonathan Edelstein on guitar, Julian Bennett Holmes on drums, and Lucian Buscemi on bass. Yes, that is the same Buscemi family you think it is. I mention this to pique your interest, not because their bracing punk rock really needs that extra info to be worth going to see. Not all that many bands in NYC are playing straight-shooting punk rock, it seems like. It’s almost refreshing to hear it. At the Knitting Factory with Titus Andronicus, The Rebel, Sal Feathers, The Birdcage, Hardbop, and Sisters. 8pm doors, $10.

Scary Mansion is local illustrator Leah Hayes crafting fragile indie pop melodies. See her band with Naked Hearts and Forest Fire at Glasslands. 8pm doors, $tba (prediction $7).

Following up A Week of Percussion Week, it’s A Week of Strings at Issue Project Room. To start, a sound installation built around manipulations of a single long, thin wire (fittingly called “Music on a Long Thin Wire”). Originally by Alvin Lucier, 1977, here installed by Ben Manley. 232 3rd Street, 3rd Floor, Gowanus. 8pm (sharpish), $10.

FREE: Blood on the Wall at Other Music. E. 4th and Lafayette. 8pm sharp.

+Be Your Own Pet at Mercury Lounge. 8pm doors, $10.

Thursday, 21 February ::

FREE: Williamsburg’s Zebulon (Metropolitan and Wythe) is a cozy bar notable for its good (if pricey) food menu, lack of cover, impressive jazz bills, and willingness to mix medias with weirdness like Dome Theatre. At 9pm, the experimental theatre troupe will address your concerns about cabbage and the end of the world in a performance of “The Interpreter”, a new play by Dome nucleus Forrest Gillespie. At 10pm a set by Skeletons, and at 11pm Bee’s Nest Group.

A Week of Strings at Issue Project Room: cellist Ha-Yang Kim playing three pieces for amplified cello and electronics, and composer Dan Joseph presenting new work for electronics and hammer dulcimer. 232 3rd Street, 3rd Floor, Gowanus. 8pm (sharpish), $10.

FREE: Bon Iver CD release at Soundfix Records, 110 Bedford, Williamsburg. 8pm (should start on time-ish).

+Daniel Johnston at Highline Ballroom. 7pm doors, $22.
+Big Sleep album release party with Sian Alice Group at Mercury Lounge. 7:30pm doors, $10.
+The Rebel at Monkeytown via BAM Brooklyn NEXT (see Friday’s Marlet Hotel show for a description). Two shows: 8 and 10:30pm, $8 + $10 food/drink minimum.

Friday, 22 February ::

I can’t say enough good about Extra Life. Now solo from exhilarating avant-jazz/noise/classical/rock outfit Zs, guitarist Charlie Looker has expanded that band’s avant-for-rock-shows MO, with increasingly strong songwriting and a voice notable for its clarity, range, and unique Middle-Ages-intoning. Looker’s new and excellent ensemble, for their part, keep pace with a stutter of rhythm shifts and noise spikes to do the most visceral Zs moments proud. My favorite band that has not yet released an album (though the debut Secular Works may be available at the show before wide-release — this is the tour launch, so some copies should be ready to take on the road) and one of my favorite bands period, these days. With Artanker Convoy and Legends at Union Pool, 484 Union Ave by the BQE, Williamsburg. 8pm, typically $10.

It’s another pretty big weekend for the newly christened Market Hotel in Bushwick. The space has got to be bigger than Bowery despite lack of balcony, so it seems that some pretty big shows will be possible to cram in. I have no idea if this will be one of them due to unfamiliarity with the bands, but a little research has me cautiously curious. Headliner the Rebel is a side-project from R.B. Wallers, long time frontman of obscurely-legendary Scottish fake-Americana troublemakers Country Teasers (in fact, his band continues to be basically the Teasers). This is a band built on antagonizing audiences and embodying various prejudices so they can really only be amazing or awful. Amolvacy, on the other hand, seem to be all about some kind of moaning tribal chant that I can only imagine fitting in well at either the local coven meeting or art school. Like I.U.D. with fewer drum sets and less atmosphere. Tipping back towards the actually intriguing we’ve got Mark Morgan going solo. As the frontman of Sightings, this guy assembles some of the more harrowing noise blasts to manage to be labeled “rock”, so I can only imagine what he’ll being doing alone. Pink Reason will be opening up with catchily searing feedback guitar pop, and tape-noise collager G. Lucas Crane will be SPECIAL GUEST OPENING. No, I don’t know what makes one opener a specialer guest than the others, especially when this one lives practically right down the street, but I will say that I can back up Crane’s performance quality further than most of these other acts. But hey, it’s $7 and at a pretty amazing new space, so what do you have to lose really? (Answer: $7 and an evening. Okay. Fine). 957 Broadway at Myrtle, Bushwick. 9:30pm doors (with perhaps unsubstantiated claims that the show will start on time).

FREE: Death Vessel sings eerie folk with one of the more unique voices around (check the MySpace– that’s actually a guy) and puts his range to good use. At Pete’s Candy Store as part of BAM’s Brooklyn NEXT. 9pm.

A Week of Strings at Issue Project Room: multi-media, multi-instrument experimenters Alex Waterman and Kenta Nagai, plus Todd Reynolds, Satoshi Takeishi, and Luke Dubois. 232 3rd Street, 3rd Floor, Gowanus. 8pm (sharpish), $10.

Are Excepter directionless noise-wankery or politi-psych saviours? They seem to draw lots of accusations of both, so why not decide for yourself at Monkeytown? I will offer that you really have to see them live for any hope of getting what all this fuss is about, as their shambling repetition is much easier to appreciate with visual accompaniment. This is a BAM Brooklyn NEXT show, and will concentrate on exploring the manipulation, processing, degradation, and augmentation of the human voice. 58 N 3rd St (btw Wythe & Kent), Williamsburg. Two shows: 7:30pm and 10pm, each $10 + $10 food/drink minimum.

+Black Mountain and Bon Iver at Bowery. 8pm doors, $15.
+Genghis Tron, Steve Moore, The Austerity Program at the Knitting Factory Tap Bar. 8pm doors, $10.
+Blood on the Wall, caUSE co-MOTION!, Eric Copeland (of Black Dice) at Music Hall of Williamsburg. 9pm, $12.

Saturday, 23 February ::

Definitely no shortage of options tonight:

Video Hippos are one of my favorite of the new pack of bands gleefully clamoring out of Baltimore these days, and that’s saying something, as I really love Baltimore. These guys take a somewhat more relaxed approach then some of their compatriots, brisk but with a certain downcast angle via melancholic keys and buried vocal lines. They’re good on record, but better live, when they live up to their name with a full, often tri-screen chopped video rig. Welcome to the Fantaverse! Also, Impose is throwing this one, so even more reason to support your local small-press. With Hard Bop and [Ed: a very special] guest at 45 Bleecker St. Theatre (at, you guessed it, 45 Bleecker St). 8pm doors, $8.

I really love Flying. The Brooklyn quartet-turned-trio may have scaled back the freewheeling clatter and rumble of their borderline-haphazard debut into something more reminiscent of pop music from this planet for the sophomore set, but their charmingly low-key delivery carries on, now placed into a comfortably disquieting nocturnal carnivalscape. This is basically Where the Wild Things Are (scary if not for actual friendliness) in audio, and, really, who doesn’t want to hear that? No one doesn’t want to hear that. (I am really into answering my own rhetorical questions tonight. Bear with me.) Anyway, that fantastic new album is out today (Tuesday), and is getting a proper release party at the Cakeshop. With Soiled Mattress and the Springs, Kurt Weisman, and the Subjects. 152 Ludlow, Lower East Side. 8pm doors, $7.

Here’s the weekend’s other big Market Hotel Show, the one to really test it’s capacity: post-hardcore noise innovators Black Dice. This band is so far beyond their hardcore origins by now (and so deep into tweaked-electronics experimentation) that I’m not sure how reasonable it is to list them as post-hardcore anymore, but somehow there’s still enough residual hardcore attitude to make me write it. Should be a fairly crazy performance. With the Skaters and I.U.D. opening. I don’t know anything about the former, but the latter is Lizzie Bougatsos from Gang Gang Dance and Sadie Laska rattling things and wailing/yelping wordlessly and building arcing clamors of percussion. Where similar acts just seem unfocused and irritating, I.U.D. make it work a little better through sheer atmosphere and texture. But the DJ sets seal the deal: legends Gibby Haynes from Butthole Surfers, and (I can barely believe this) Genesis P-Orridge from Throbbing Gristle. This is the guy who invented industrial music in the late 70s. When else are you ever going to see him anywhere?! 957 Broadway at Myrtle, Bushwick. 9:30pm doors, $10.

Tribecca non-profit arts space the Tank is breaking usual jazz/avant formation for a night of emerging shoegaze revivalists: self-proclaimed Texas starrgazers Ringo Deathstarr, smoother pop arrangements from Dead Leaf Echo, and breathily lo-fi Lush channelers Virgo Loves Cancer [http://www.myspace.com/virgolovescancer]. I’ll warn you, however, that my internal jury is still in deliberation here. On the one hand, these guys all seem a little too contrivedly stuck to the lighter side of again-fashionable genre conventions, and Virgo Loves Cancer, at least, is already courting the MTV set with Dawson’s Creek appearances and the like. And nothing here has either the fury of A Place to Bury Strangers or the floating beauty of Asobi Seksu at either end of the spectrum. On the other hand, I really love anything shoegaze, and I was totally into Autolux just a couple years ago, so who am I to complain about blandification of the genre. Hmmmm.

A Week of Strings at Issue Project Room: The Complete Victrola Sessions, a live audio / film collaboration between violinist Rebecca Cherry, and neuroscientist/composer Dave Soldier, with Elliot Sharp’s All-String SyndaKit (currently consisting of twelve musicians including Jessica Pavone, Reuban Radding, and MV Carbon). 232 3rd Street, 3rd Floor, Gowanus. 8pm (sharpish), $10.

Drone violin legend Tony Conrad plays to film as part of BAM’s Brooklyn NEXT. 58 N 3rd St (btw Wythe & Kent), Williamsburg. Two shows: 7:30pm and 10pm, each $10 + $10 food/drink minimum.

FREE: Death Vessel with Family Lumber and Ivana XL at Soundfix Records. 110 Bedford, Williamsburg. 8pm (starts on time).

+Black Mountain and Bon Iver at Glasslands. 9pm doors, $15.
+Atlas Sound (Bradford Cox of Deerhunter) at Mercury Lounge. 8pm, $8.

Sunday, 24 February ::

Mostly Other People Do the Killing is a jazz quartet led by bassist Moppa Elliot and devoted to deconstructing old Be-Bop conventions without losing the groove. STM favorites like Peter Evans (squealing, textural trumpet) and Kevin Shea (hailstorm drums) lend their notable talents to the mix for a deliciously strange experience. I haven’t seen them live, but I mean, this sort of thing was made to be live, so I expect great things. At the Cornelia St. Cafe, 29 Cornelia by 6th ave and 4th st, West Village. 8:30pm (jazz shows tend to start on time-ish), $8.

FREE: Christy & Emily and Company at Soundfix Records. 110 Bedford, Williamsburg. 6pm (starts on time).

Tuesday, 26 February ::

Issue Project Room’s A Week of Strings finished, A Week of Voice begins with opera composer Robert Ashley’s “Last Futile Stab at Fun” a sung lecture on modernism and post-modernism. 232 3rd Street, 3rd Floor, Gowanus. 8pm (sharpish), $10.

That Which Is Yet to Come:
28 Feb :: Alarm Will Sound: “a/rhythmia” at Carnegie (John Adams, Venetian Snares, Ciconia, etc)
28 Feb :: Showpaper benefit with Team Robespierre, Ninjasonik, and Golden Error at Market Hotel
29 Feb :: Parts & Labor at Death By Audio
29 Feb :: High Places, Lucky Dragons, Soft Circle, and Picture Plane at Market Hotel
29 Feb :: Tall Firs, Talk Normal, Dyansty Electric, and Katie Eastburn, at Newsonic HQ
01 Mar :: Ponytail, Genghis Tron, Aa, Shooting Spires, Chevue, and Double Dagger at Market Hotel.
01 Mar :: Vivian Girls and Meneguar at Dead Herring
03 Mar :: Wham City presents: SHOOT HER! the Jurassic Park play, at Market Hotel.
03 Mar :: Slow/Dynamite, Monolith, Tournament at Goodbye Blue Monday
04 Mar :: FREE: Starship’s Journey (trumpet player Peter Evans and others playing 80s hits!) at Goodbye Blue Monday
05 Mar :: ICETANK! VI: Sonic Meditations, David Schotzko, solo percussion.
05 Mar :: Peter Evans Quartet at Zebulon
06 Mar :: An Albatross, Golden Error, and Fun Machine at Death By Audio.
06 Mar :: Peter Evans, Mary Halvorson, Ned Rothenberg, and Alex Waterman at the Stone
10 Mar :: Child Abuse, Telepathe, and RTX at Glasslands
10 Mar :: Video Hippos at Knitting Factory
10 Mar :: FREE: Black Lips instore at Other Music. Whoa.
11 Mar :: Talibam! at Zebulon
12 Mar :: People at Barbes
12 Mar :: Great Lakes at Glasslands
12 Mar :: UnTapped at the Tank: Skakk Trio, Megan Schubert, The Airband
13 Mar :: Amy Kohn at Cornelia st. Cafe
14 Mar :: Peter Evans, Steve Beresford, and Okkyung Lee at Roulette
15 Mar :: Fiasco at S
15 Mar :: Chinese Stars at Cake Shop
19 Mar :: Mary Halvorson Trio at the Stone (Avenue C and 2nd St., East Village)
21 Mar :: Alarm Will Sound: “1969″ at the Kitchen
21 Mar :: Peter Evans, Steve Beresford, and Okkyung Lee at the Stone
22 Mar :: Alarm Will Sound: “1969″ at the Kitchen
22 Mar :: A Place to Bury Strangers at Music Hall of Williamsburg
22 Mar :: Oneida and Old Time Relijun at Market Hotel
22 Mar :: Spectre Folk at the Knitting Factory Tap Bar
22 Mar :: Talibam! at Nick’s House
23 Mar :: Old Time Relijun and Vivian Girls at the Knitting Factory
24 Mar :: Something Spectre Folk-related?
26 Mar :: Team Robespierre, Crystal Castles, and Health at Mercury
26 Mar :: Services and Golden Error at Death By Audio.
27 Mar :: ICE and John Zorn at Miller Theatre
27 Mar :: F*ck Buttons at Music Hall of Williamsburg
28 Mar :: Extra Life, These Are Powers, and Skeletons at Silent Barn
28 Mar :: Peter Evans and Nate Wooley at the Hell’s Kitchen Festival
28 Mar :: F*ck Buttons at Bowery
29 Mar :: Japanther, the Pharmacy, and Pterodactyl at Market Hotel
29 Mar :: The Pavones at Jalopy
29 Mar :: Excepter at Glasslands
31 Mar :: Health, Telepathe, and High Places at Knitting Factory
02 Apr :: ICETANK! VII: The Music of Nathan Davis
02 Apr :: Scary Mansion at the Canal Room
03 Apr :: Peter Evans and Nate Wooley at the Stone
05 Apr :: Fiasco and Ava Luna at Death By Audio.
06 Apr :: Peter Evans Quartet at Jimmy’s 43 Restaurant (43 E. 7th st)
06 Apr :: Spectre Folk at Cakeshop
08 Apr :: Spectre Folk at the Knitting Factory
09 Apr :: UnTapped at the Tank: itsnotyouitsme, Lisa Bost, James Moore, Eric KM Clark
09 Apr :: ICE plays the music of Igor Stravinsky at the Morgan Library
15 Apr :: Casiotone at the Knitting Factory
16 Apr :: Casiotone at Death By Audio
17 Apr :: Pterodactyl at Cakeshop
17 Apr :: Peter Evans and Nate Wooley, Jessica Pavone, at Monkeytown.
18 Apr :: High Places, Cex, Ecstatic Sunshine, and Zs at Market Hotel
02 May :: Stars of the Lid for the Wordless Music series
08 May :: KTL at the Knitting Factory
14 May :: UnTapped at the Tank: Cornelius Dufallo, Jessica Schmitz, Rusty Limited Company
21 May :: Talibam at Zebulon

Until next week, live without dead time.