Music | Performance Space New York

(3-D) Dinosaur Death Band

Williamsburg’s favorite noise-rock band Japanther (Ian Vanek and Matt Reily) unveils a new comedic rock-opera of unpredictable scale, repercussions, and decibel levels. Using a high-energy multi-media format – their tool kit integrates live music, dance, an interactive set, video projections plus an animatronic robot dinosaur – the band and their collaborators create a full-immersion theatrical concert experience that sports a a sharp political edge and an equally edgy heart.

What starts as a post-modern funeral becomes an uplifting and entertaining ceremony. The set, designed by conceptual artist Dan Graham, becomes a canvas for simultaneous stimuli: a large optical glass wall not unlike his “pavilions” is situated next to a circular band stage, a la the Rolling Stones on Ed Sullivan, where Japanther works their musical magic. While Sonya Robbins and Layla Childs dance up a storm, an animatronic dinosaur narrator, designed and built by industrial artist Doyle, inhabited by the text and voice of peace-punk Penny Rimbaud (spoken word artist and the co-founder of anarchist punk band Crass) lies on his deathbed recanting his belief systems. Darkly humorous intersticial commercials advertise the sunny plight of the American Indian and advocate arresting those who feed the homeless. By daring the audience to laugh at sad truths, Japanther opens up a door to hope and makes it cool again.

A PERFORMA Commission, produced by PERFORMA in cooperation with P.S.122 for PERFORMA07.

Approximate running time: 45 minutes

About Japanther: Japanther was formed in 2001 by Ian Vanek (drums, cassettes, vocals), Matt Reily (bass, Casio SK-1, vocals). They have recorded with Plan It X Records, Tapes Records, and the Menlo Park label. The band appears in the indie documentary film B.I.K.E, which premiered at the 2006 Slamdance Film Festival; they created and performed Don’t Trust Anyone Under 30; they teamed with Dan Graham, Rodney Graham, Laurent P. Berger, and Tony Oursler to create an abstract video installation for the 2006 Whitney Biennial.

Listen to an interview about New York’s underground clubs with Japanther’s Ian Vanek on WNYC’s Sound Check.

November 15-19 2007

The Fall and Rise of the Rising Fallen

“One of downtown’s most intelligent, anarchic new additions”
– David Cote, Best of 2006, Time Out New York

The multi-award winning theatre troupe and creators of The Sewers, Banana Bag & Bodice concoct their own alter ego in the form of a concept punk band by the name of The Rising Fallen.

With their guitar steel and drum-tense electro-dense lyrics, The Fall and Rise of the Rising Fallen catalogs these mythological legendary failures and tells tall tales of fateful, prodigious gigs on Scandinavian oil rigs where they unwittingly begat their own brand of rousing idolatry.

Banana Bag & Bodice is: Peter Blomquist, Mallory Catlett, Jennifer Wright Cook, Jason Craig, G Lucas Crane, Miranda
Hardy, Rod Hipskind, Peter Ksander, Jessica Jelliffe, Casey Opstad, Morgan von Prelle Pecelli, Heather Peroni, Jamie McElhinney, Morgan Murphey.

Tune in now at myspace.com/therisingfallenmusic and bananabagandbodice.org
Listen to “Pilot” by The Rising Fallen

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Note that –

Approximate Running Time: 1 hour

PLAYING AS PART OF
COIL FESTIVAL 08
SHOWTIMES: Jan 10th at 6.30pm, Jan 11th at 9:40pm, Jan 12th at 3.30pm, Jan14th at 9.30pm and Jan 15th at 9.30pm
Extended Run: Jan 17, Jan 18, Jan 19 at 8:30 p.m.
Tickets from $20, $15 (students/seniors), $10 (members)

PS122 Premiere
April 26 – May 12, 2007

Finn

Take a peek at a short clip from this new music-theatre work based on ancient Celtic mythology, the legend of Finn McCool, and a young boy’s quest to become a warrior. Live performers, digital characters and animated settings create an expansive fantasy world. Mabou Mines Co-artistic Director Sharon Fogarty teams with Irish writer Jocelyn Clarke, Czech digital/motion capture artists Misha Zabranska and Misha Votruba, Scottish composer Phil Cunningham and set designer Kris Stone.
Running time: 15 minutes (In the Mabou Mines studio)

COIL 2007 Special Performance:
Friday January 19th at 4:00 p.m.
Free, first come first serve

One Ring Zero

One Ring Zero presents songs from their hit album As Smart As They Are, featuring lyrics written by 17 of North America’s bestselling and prize-winning authors including Jonathan Lethem, Margaret Atwood, Paul Auster, and Dave Eggers. This unforgettable night’s entertainment includes readings by authors Amy Sohn, Ned Vizzini, Mike Daisey and Clay McLeod Chapman and a special preview screening of As Smart As They Are: The Author Project, a documentary of these unusual and ongoing collaborations, directed by Joe Pacheco.

Monday August 7, 2006 at 8 p.m.

Special screening party and concert by NYC’s favorite literary rock-stars.

$20, $10 P.S. 122 Members
Tickets: (212) 279-4200 or online:
spiegelworld.com or at Spiegeltent Box Office, open 12-8 Daily

Hell

Hell Hell

A lurid new opera by poet Eileen Myles and composer Michael Webster, HELL employs frank and lyrical language and an exalted baroque style to tear away the veils obscuring corporate silence and global disaster. Inspired by Dante’s Inferno and post 9/11 events, HELL takes up an elegiac and musical cudgel on behalf of free speech and sings out against the endless waging of war.

Schedule:
Friday, March 31 – 8 PM
Saturday, April 1 – 2 PM
Saturday, April 1 – 8 PM
Sunday, April 2 – 5 PM
(followed by a talkback with artists)
Wednesday, April 5 – 8 PM
Thursday, April 6 – 8 PM
Friday, April 7 – 8 PM
Saturday, April 8 – 2 PM
Saturday, April 8 – 8 PM
Sunday, April 9 – 5 PM

March 31 – April 9, 2006
Opens Friday, March 31
See full schedule below
$20($10 Members)