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

Hello and welcome into the weird sci-fi year of 2008, where, presumably, we are all now commuting by monorail or jetpack, and getting our teeth cleaned by robots. Maybe this is an inevitable result of catching up to the referenced “Future” of our childhoods, but seriously, does anyone else feel like each successive year has sounded stranger than the last since we hit roughly 2001 (”A Space Odyssey”). And yet, all we’ve really got to show for it are YouTube and phones that can play mp3s. Furthermore there’s a lot of cultural pressure to be forging ahead into new frontiers of musical expression, but it seems like we’re mostly still fixated on 1982 or so.

Who to turn to? I’d say that modernist / “new music” ensemble Alarm Will Sound, re-emerging for two different shows this spring, should be a pretty good start. The 20-person collective tends to come at the millennium from both sides, working with material from seminal late 20th century composers like Steve Reich and John Adams as well as arranging versions of newer work usually left outside the boundaries of classical music. Specifically, I became aware of them back in 2004 with Acoustica, a virtuosic set of live acoustic translations of the music of Aphex Twin, whose pioneering experimental electronic music had previously seemed incapable of existing without a large number of synthesizers and computers (not to mention meticulous digital editing). Their latest program, a/rhythmia, appearing at Carnegie Hall in late February, will focus on unusual time signature and rhythm technique, with pieces from both — I’m almost certain these two names have never shared a program before — György Ligeti and Venetian Snares planned. Alarm Will Sound will also debut a second new program, 1969, at Chelsea art space and experimental music institution the Kitchen a month later.

But I’m sure you want something to do this week. Yes, yes, here we go:

Wednesday, 09 January :: Continuing our running “new music” theme (the confusingly named avant-garde movement, not just music that is new), as early as tomorrow you can be seeing ICETANK IV, the next in the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE)’s continuing series at Tribeca non-profit the Tank. This time: a solo performance improvisationall jazz trumpet-player Peter Evans, whose new album, I’m told, “is taking the improvisation world by storm.” He’s definitely playing some innovative and surprisingly engaging music, and it’s no surprise that he’s worked with Alarm Will Sound in the past and is part of Brooklyn avant-jazz-pop ensemble Mostly Other People Do the Killing with drummer Kevin Shea (see the People show this Friday). Evans may be doing this one solo, but that should not in any way prevent it from being terribly interesting. 279 Church Street, 8pm, $5.

Thursday, 10 January :: Jeffrey Lewis emerged from the old Sidewalk Cafe Anti-Folk scene along with the Moldy Peaches (see Tuesday’s solo performance by Kimya Dawson) at the turn of the century, and has been consistently putting out warbled, charmingly lo-fi recordings, from psychedelia to near-punk, ever since. Something about his voice and words can make five minutes of a couple strummed chords flit by in an instant. At Joe’s Pub, 425 Lafayette, East Village. 7pm doors, $12.

For your usual avant-needs, here’s Issue Project Room with Shawn Onsgard (solo jazz piano/rhodes) and Maguire x Clearvor x Halvorson (combined meticulous arrangements and improv, I’m told, for drums, electric guitar, and rhodes). Halvorson, by the way, also plays in People (see Friday). 232 3rd Street, 3rd Floor, Gowanus. 8pm (starts on time), $10.

+The 1900’s, Stevie Jackson (of Belle and Sebastian), and Laura Gibson at Park Slope’s Union Hall. 702 Union Street at 5th Ave. 8pm, $12.

Friday, 11 January :: If you go to only one show this week, here’s the one:

People
Extra Life
Shooting Spires
Terrible Eagle

The big news here is that Charlie Looker, long one of the principle songwriters of excellent avant-jazz/noise/classical/rock ensemble Zs, has officially left that band (after an amazing final show at Issue Project Room in December, and recording of an EP coming out this spring) to concentrate on his new project Extra Life. Looker was a driving force in Zs’ unique sound, and though the remaining trio are also highly talented people who will certainly continue to independently impress when they emerge with a new set later this year, I can’t help turning to Extra Life with even greater anticipation now. Last time I saw them, Looker had infused his songs, previously presented solo via hypnotic plucked guitar and vocals seemingly lifted from middle-ages religious ritual, with much of Zs’ jolting power and startling syncopation, and that was way back in early fall.

Shooting Spires, on the other hand, is the gorgeous ersatz noise-pop project of Parts & Labor’s BJ Warshaw, using looper pedals to build up rich melodies live, through layers of tape hiss and static. His new album, out of his own Cardboard Records just keeps growing on me, revealing new layers of details with each listen. People, on the other hand, I have just discovered to be the charmingly strange clatter-pop of omnipresent jazz drummer Kevin Shea and singer/guitarist Mary Halvorson who’s playing in a trio at Issue Project Room on Thursday. Somehow the duo’s songs are simultaneously disarmingly simple and melodic and completely encased in arrhythmic haze and structural oddity. Sounds very promising. At Death By Audio, 49 South 2nd St., Williamsburg. 8pm doors, $tba.

While the Death By Audio show is definitely the one to see, I admittedly couldn’t really complain if you wanted to see, instead, Ecstatic Sunshine expand to a quartet and play lovely, hazily interlocking guitar compositions from the upcoming album on Cardboard. Plus, a relatively rare live appearance by Excepter, whose slow-burning performance-art-like live shows are just not done justice by the recording process (though perhaps this has changed for the upcoming album on Animal Collective’s Paw Tracks imprint), and ambient psych-rockers Religious Knives. At Music Hall of Williamsburg, 66 North Sixth. 11:30pm, $10.

Ambience and, uh, “redistribution of energy distilled from sound and light.” And vibrations permeating the cosmos. Yep. I’ll be the first to admit that the descriptions of this show sound rather silly, but I’m also a sucker for good drone, so it could be good even with all the trappings of new-age babble. The Holy Experiment, Corridors, and Ateleia , at Issue Project Room, 232 3rd Street, 3rd Floor, Gowanus. 8pm (starts on time), $10.

+Heavy Trash (latest Jon Spencer project) at Glasslands, 9pm, $tba.
+Hungry March Band at Luna Lounge, 7pm doors, $8.

Saturday, 12 January :: Brooklyn’s Growing not only make some of the more inventive and finely textured drone around, they also manage to do it entirely live with two guitars and an impressive level of pedal mastery, looping and building up varied, independent sounds that they can continue to shape, together or appart, as they go. With IUD (Lizzie from Gang Gang Dance) and Vorhees, at Death By Audio. 49 South 2nd St., Williamsburg. 8pm doors, $8.

UPDATE: MOVED TO JAN 24, MORE INFO LATER.

FREE: Musical Dylan reinterpretations (a response to Todd Haynes’ recent cinematic Dylan reinterpretations?) from Laura Cantrell, Stevie Jackson (Belle and Sebastian), Marshall Crenshaw, Oakley Hall, Nicole Atkins & Lenny Kaye, Jason Isbell, and The Last Town Chorus, all at World Financial Center, downtown, at 8pm.

+Mirah at Joe’s Pub, 7:30pm, $15.

Sunday, 13 January :: Not a joke, apparently actually happening: Amateur Female Jello Wrestling. At Arlene’s Grocery, 8pm, $tba.

+Mirah at Southpaw, 7:00pm doors, $15.

Monday, 14 January :: Former bassist for early 90s Sub Pop signees Eric’s Trip, current writer of lovely understated accoustic guitar melodies and words, Julie Doiron is passing through town again. At Park Slope’s Union Hall. 702 Union Street at 5th Ave. 7:30pm, $7.

Tuesday, 15 January :: FREE: Hot on the heels off writing all the original music for Juno, former Moldy Peach and anti-folk Jeffrey Lewis compatriot Kimya Dawson will be playing at Soundfix Records, 110 Bedford, Williamsburg. Starts on time at 8pm.

Thursday, 17 January :: Two varieties of improvisational music at Issue Project Room: Totem (noise rock trio) and Blackberg/Hernandez/Evans/Lipton (trombone/violin/bass/drums). 232 3rd Street, 3rd Floor, Gowanus. 8pm (starts on time), $10.

As you can see, I’m rapidly shortening these entries due to time constraints, so I’ll just leave things as they are for this week.

But first, a further glimpse into the Future (mostly consisting of bands I was already looking up for this week):
26 Jan :: The Austerity Program (finally, blazing drum and bass noise-punk from Astoria)
02 Feb :: Angel Deradoorian, Nat Baldwin (x DPs), Karl Blau, mems Raccoo-oo-oon at Silent Barn
06 Feb :: ICETANK! V: Uncaged Toy Piano Roadshow
09 Feb :: People at Death By Audio
10 Feb :: Ecstatic Sunshine, White Williams, Rings at Studio B
11 Feb :: No Age TBA
12 Feb :: Peter Evans, Kevin Shea, etc at Zebulon
15 Feb :: Pissed Jeans, Mi Ami (ex Black Eyes), Food for Animals, President (ex Q and Not U) at Silent Barn
15 Feb :: Susie Ibarra at Issue Project Room.
15 Feb :: Mostly Other People Do the Killing tba
22 Feb :: Extra Life tour sendoff at Union Pool
23 Feb :: Flying at Cakeshop
24 Feb :: Mostly Other People Do the Killing at Cornelia St. Cafe
28 Feb :: Alarm Will Sound: “a/rhythmia” at Carnegie (John Adams, Venetian Snares, Ciconia, etc)
02 Mar :: Ponytail, Genghis Tron, Aa, Shooting Spires at Brooklyn TBA
03 Mar :: Wham City presents: SHOOT HER! the Jurassic Park play, at Silent Barn.
05 Mar :: ICETANK! VI: Low-Matic All-Stars
21 Mar :: Alarm Will Sound: “1969″ at the Kitchen
22 Mar :: Alarm Will Sound: “1969″ at the Kitchen
22 Mar :: A Place to Bury Strangers at Music Hall of Williamsburg
27 Mar :: ICE and John Zorn at Miller Theatre
02 Apr :: ICETANK! VII: The Music of Nathan Davis

Until next week, live without dead time.

–Nate Dorr

Related posts:

1. Sans Temps Morts: Tuesday November 18, 2008
2. Sans Temps Morts: Weekend Listings
3. NYC: Sans Temps Morts
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5. Sans Temps Morts: CMJ Picks Tuesday

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