Upcoming Shows: Patti Smith, Company Flow + more!

Tonight!! Thursday, July 14

Patti Smith @ Castle Clinton * Financial District, Manhattan * Free!!
Patti Smith is a poetic lady who helped invent punk rock in the 70's. She's kind of weird. [video] ::details::

Superchunk, OFF!, Lemuria @ House of Vans * Greenpoint, Brooklyn * Free (with RSVP)
Over the last decade, pop punk has got a bad name. But these three bands are not to blame. Quite the opposite in fact. Lemuria, who are opening, are my personal favorites. [lemuria video] ::details & rsvp::

Joan Jett and the Blackhearts @ Seaside Concerts * Coney Island, Brooklyn * Free!!
This is another lady who invented punk. She was young and in L.A. and her band, the Runaways, were one of those bands with a Svengali sorta manager who liked to use teenagers like pop idol puppets. But Joan Jett had a mind of her own from the very beginning and regardless of her status as an icon, she's a true musician at heart. ::details::

Other Shows
Marly Marl @ Music Hall of Williamsburg [info]
Tune-Yards @ River Rocks - Pier 54 (Free!) [info]
Gary War, Pop 1280, K-Holes @ Union Hall ($8) [info]
Yvette, French Miami @ Death By Audio ($7) [info]


Tomorrow!! Friday, July 15

Radio Dept, Asobi Seksu @ South Street Seaport * Financial Distract, Manhattan * Free!!
These are two shoegaze bands with a dash of indie pop and a dash of post rock. Or, for the less nerdy, they make pop songs but have a lot of layer-y guitar and stuff. [radio video] [asobi video] ::details::

Other Shows
My Teenage Stride, Woven Bones, Easter Vomit, Teen Witch @ 285 Kent ($10) [info]
I'm Turning Into, Dinosaur Feathers, Shark? @ Monster Island Basement ($5) [info]
Heaven, Andy Rourke (of the Smiths) DJ Set @ Glasslands ($10)


Saturday, July 16

Company Flow, Juggaknots @ Santos Party House * Chinatown, Manhattan * $20
Company Flow are, without the slightly doubt, the greatest underground rap group of all time. They broke up over a decade ago but apparently, they're playing a show Saturday. It's hardcore East Coast 90's rap with extreme lyrical density. Co Flo's lyrics are smart and brutal and they deliver them with unparalleled polyrhythmic complexity. Put that in your pipe and smoke it! ::details::

Other Shows
4 Knots Festival: Titus Andronicus, Black Angels, Eleanor Friedberger (Fiery Furnaces), Obits + more @ South Street Seaport (free!) [info]
Pygmy Shrews @ Union Pool
Oneida @ Monster Island Basement ($10) [info]
Unstoppable Death Machines @ Saint Vitus Bar (Greenpoint, BK)


Monday, July 18

K-Holes, Hunters, Zulus @ Death By Audio * Williamsburg, Brooklyn * $7
These dark noise rock / punk / postpunk bands are three of the very best in New York. Hunters have one of the best live shows I've ever seen, too. [k-video] [hunters nonvideo] ::details::


Tuesday, July 19

Kool Moe Dee @ Queensbridge * LIC, Queens * Free!!
Kool Moe Dee is one of New York's longest standing, most respected MCs. His show promises to be among the best of the NYC Parks Department's absolutely massive, jaw-dropping (and free!) hip-hop series this summer. ::details::


Wednesday, July 20

Torche @ Music Hall of Williamsburg * Williamsburg, Brooklyn * $15
I don't usually like "stoner metal" but Torche infuse their sludge with enough pop appeal and enough energy to make them absolutely delicious. Don't let the genre put you off - if you can scrape up $15, this show is totally worth it. [video] ::details::

Other Shows
Ema, Talk Normal @ Glasslands ($10)
Fiasco, Web Dating @ Shea Stadium
Conversations With Enemies @ Death By Audio ($7)


The long view...

July
21
Funkmaster Flex, Nore(aga) @ Queensbridge (free!)
Gang Gang Dance @ Rocks Off Cruises
The Vandelles @ Union Hall ($8)

22
Death From Above 1979 @ Williamsburg Waterfront ($43)

23
The Feelies, Real Estate, Times New Viking @ Prospect Park (free!)
Heartless Bastards (acoustic) @ Mercury Lounge (sold out!)

24
Heartless Bastards (acoustic) @ Mercury Lounge
Swirlies, Psychedelic Horseshit @ Beekman Beer Garden (free afternoon show!)
Black Francis (Pixies) @ Le Poisson Rouge
Vaz, Mattress @ Bruar Falls

28
Walt Mink (great 90's indie band that split up over 10 years ago) @ Bell House
Shilpa Ray @ Shea Stadium

29
West Memphis Three Benefit with Dez Cadena @ Southpaw
Black Lips @ Bowery Ballroom


August
2
Sugarhill Gang @ Tappan Park (free!)
Sufjan Stevens @ Prospect Park

6
Cold Cave @ Bowery Ballroom
Crystal Antlers @ Glasslands ($10)
Total Slacker, Darlings, Beets @ Shea Stadium

7
Friendly Fires, Cults @ Central Park (free!)

8
The Kills, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, A Place to Bury Strangers @ Terminal 5

9
The Kills, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, A Place to Bury Strangers @ Terminal 5

12
Sonic Youth, Wild Flag (ex-Sleater-Kinney), Kurt Vile @ Williamsburg Waterfront ($40)
*CANCELED* Streets, El-P @ Terminal 5

21
Rakim, EPMD @ Central Park (free!)
Jeff the Brotherhood (not headlining) @ Le Poisson Rouge ($18)

22
Deerhunter, Eleanor Friedberger (Fiery Furnaces) @ Webster Hall

23
Deerhunter, Eleanor Friedberger (Fiery Furnaces) @ Webster Hall

25
Wavves @ East River Park (free!)


September
8
TV on the Radio @ Williamsburg Waterfront ($48)

23
The Descendents @ Roseland Ballroom

27
Swans @ Music Hall of Williamsburg

30
X @ Irving Plaza


October
1
X @ Irving Plaza

4
The Horrors @ Webster Hall

15
Wild Flag (ex-Sleater-Kinney) @ Bell House

18
Wild Flag (ex-Sleater-Kinney) @ Bowery Ballroom

22
The Damned @ Irving Plaza

29
Jeff Mangum (Neutral Milk Hotel) @ Town Hall (sold out!)

Dust It Off: Company Flow - Funcrusher Plus

Album: Funcrusher Plus
Rawkus Records, 1997

Here at RFR, I don't talk a whole lot about rap, but that doesn't mean I'm not listening to it. And for this Wednesday's "Dust If Off," it seems like it's time to once again step outside the boundaries of rock to review one of the greatest hip-hop albums of all time.

Hailing from our very own New York City, Company Flow represents the hardest line of underground rap. Funcrusher Plus sounds like the music we'll be hearing after the apocalypse - stark, militant and haunted. Unlike many other independent hip-hop artists, Company Flow never went in for electronica, ambiance or indie rock tricks. Their rap is a straightforward, hardcore verbal assault.

Funcrusher is the group's finest achievement and arguably the finest achievement in the history of underground rap. Unlike other 90's hip-hop, it doesn't sound dated, even though it's been more than ten years since its release. This is largely due to the minimalism of the beats, with little other than drums supporting the voice on many tracks.

Funcrusher is a concept album, and while the concept is a bit hard to completely follow, it's undeniably post-apocalyptic - the barren beats imitate futuristic wastelands and the rapping is delivered with an urgency that's unrelentingly ominous. At times, the production borders on avant-garde, without losing its hip-hop cool. For example, "The Fire In Which You Burn" features only a pounding off-beat rhythm and a simple, slowly plucked sitar under the words.

The vocals are dense, with few repeating choruses, so after dozens of listens, you'll still have only caught about half the words. There's a dystopian theme made clear by songs like "Population Control," but this metaphorical setting ties flawlessly in to the album's more concrete subjects - the disturbing cycle of poverty and oppression in inner-city neighborhoods, the corruption of the music industry and the terrifying power huge corporations wield in our lives. I don't usually go in for the political lyrics, but Company Flow makes the politics personal - they aren't talking about ideals as much as trying to survive in a violent and repressive society.

Those put off by gangsta rap's glorification of violence will be relieved by tracks like "Last Good Sleep," a harrowing personal account of the spectre of domestic abuse, and "8 Steps to Perfection," which proclaims "if you murder up in the ghetto, you murder in a temple." It can be slightly preachy, but for the most part, that is counteracted by its absolutely anti-idealistic worldview.

By all counts, this is one of the greatest albums of its time. Its sparseness was a major coup for independent and underground rap, proving you don't need a major label budget to put out something astounding and hardcore. It's a musical triumph as well, pushing rap to its extreme in density and complexity of rhythm - few MCs have ever matched El-P's delivery. Most importantly, the sonic and verbal assault is gripping, with intelligent rage bleeding through on every track.

Radio Flyer's Desert Island List

I've been working really hard over the last few weeks to get caught up on all the notable music of 2008 so I can give you a kick-ass Best of 2008 list (oh, do I love lists!) but I have a lot I still need to get through. So, to speed things along, I cleared everything off my 4GB iPod, and filled it with all the 2008 albums I have. I had 1 GB left over and a few minutes to fill it with all of the "old" music I didn't want to leave home without.

And after I finished, I realized I had essentially created my "desert island" list, the music I would take into exile with me if I were only allowed 1 GB (how 21st century is that?!) for the rest of my life. And I think the list is rather different than what it would have been if I had been consciously creating a "desert island" list for others to read. Here's what made the cut:

- Electrelane - The Power Out, The Greater Times
- Guided by Voices - Bee Thousand, Alien Lanes
- Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures and thirteen miscellaneous songs
- My Bloody Valentine - Loveless, Tremolo
- Neutral Milk Hotel - In The Aeroplane Over the Sea and seven miscellaneous songs
- The Pixies - Come On Pilgrim, Doolittle, and eight songs from Surfer Rosa
- Skip James - four miscellaneous songs
- Slint - three songs from Spiderland
- The Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream and fifteen songs from Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
- Sonic Youth - twenty miscellaneous songs
- Stone Roses - "Don't Stop" and "I Am The Resurrection"
- The Stooges - four miscellaneous songs
- Walt Mink - twenty miscellaneous songs
- Yo La Tengo - thirteen miscellaneous songs

I'm pretty surprised at some of the things on there, like Stone Roses and Yo La Tengo, and I'm also surprised I'm now OK leaving home without the Velvet Underground.

If I had time to weed some of the dud songs out of that list to make more room (or if I actually got 1.2 GB on my desert island), here's what would have been next:

- Big Star - fifteen miscellaneous songs
- Company Flow - six songs from Funcrusher Plus
- Echo & the Bunnymen - "Thorn of Crowns"
- Jawbreaker - nine miscellaneous songs
- Mercury Rev - "Meth of a Rockette's Kick" and "Coney Island Cyclone"
- Minor Threat - three miscellaneous songs
- Mississippi John Hurt - three miscellaneous songs
- Nick Drake - "Road" and "Which Will"
- Ride - "Leave Them All Behind"
- The Velvet Underground - three songs from The Velvet Underground and Nico

Well, there you have it.