The Black Keys

I gotta be honest.

The “Most Blogged About Shows” this week seems to be a bit… thin.  That doesn’t mean there aren’t some really good options for you, if you happen to be “hangin’ round these parts” this week.  But if you’re like a lot of the bands we normally feature here… you WON’T be “hangin’ round these parts” this week.  You’ll be down in Austin for SXSW.  Oh, and my usage of “hangin’ round these parts” in a paragraph about Austin, Texas, is purely coincidental.  I assure you.

Anyway, I digress.  I will be here for the week.  And I’ve got some shows that will make you and I both feel A LITTLE better about being in Brooklyn, while everyone else sweats their asses off at “south by.”

Our most blogged about show this week is SOLD OUT (as is GENERALLY the case), and it’s a big one – The Black Keys and Arctic Monkeys at Madison Square Garden.  It’s kind of crazy how HUGE The Black Keys have gotten, but I guess it makes sense; they’re talented and have a pretty “inoffensive” sound.  I gotta be honest.  Again.  I’ve never personally been able to get into either of these bands, but hey, if you got a ticket, enjoy.

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Child Abuse are about to embark on a European tour and played a warm-up show last night at Secret Project Robot. Also on the bill was Oneida’s Kid Millions, performing a set full of free jazz improv congeniality with Jim Sauters. Sandwiched in between, were Normal Love. Rest assured, there’s nothing ‘normal’ about those guys as you can see for yourself via the video(s) below. Sonic bliss all around.

Via City Room:

Call them equal-opportunity disbelievers: American Atheists, a national group that seeks wider acceptance for those who reject religion, has put up bilingual billboards aimed at Orthodox Jewish and Muslim communities in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and Paterson, N.J. The new billboards are the latest step in a campaign that has been going on for the past two years to ask Christians to question their beliefs near Christmas.

One billboard reads, “You know it’s a myth…and you have a choice.” The message is also rendered in Arabic on the Paterson billboard and in Hebrew in Williamsburg. Both billboards were put up on Wednesday, just in time for, among other things, the Jewish holiday of Purim, which begins Wednesday evening.

David Silverman, the president of American Atheists, denied that the billboards were intended to be provocative. “It’s not provocation for Coke to advertise in a Pepsi area; it’s advertising,” he said. “Some people will say that that’s a provocation and offense, and some people say that we are a provocation and offense.”

At least one person, the landlord for a building at 109 South Fifth Street in Williamsburg where the Hebrew billboard was to be placed, seems to have been provoked. Mr. Silverman said the building’s landlord refused to allow the billboard to go up after pressure from the Jewish community.

Propertyshark says the building is owned by Stier 109 LLC. Calls to a Kenneth Stier at that building were not returned.

The atheists had to settle for placing the billboard above the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway near Meeker Avenue — about a mile and a half north of the Hasidic enclave in South Williamsburg. The billboards were meant as a call to nonbelievers who feign religious belief in order to avoid being cast out of their communities, Mr. Silverman said. “These communities are very insular, so the atheists in them often feel very isolated, so they feel that they are alone,” he said. “We want to let them know that they count and that they don’t have to live the life of a lie unless they want to.”

Aputumpu Flyer

Platinum Badge: $1395

Gold Badge: $1150

Interactive Badge: $950

Music Badge: $750

Aputumpu 4 Day Festival Pass… Priceless.

Alright.  Maybe not PRICELESS, but honestly, who has the money to burn on one of the above SXSW badges – and that’s not even accounting for travel and hotel?  Especially when you’ve got an amazing music festival going on in your own backyard, the following weekend, for the LOW COST of $30?  That’s right, THREE – ZERO DOLLARS for FOUR DAYS of music.

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Rumors are that the new album Bloom will be released on May 15.

msnbc

The American Atheists billboard controversy continues today. According to sources, the landlord of the S. 5th Street building where the billboard was scheduled to go up on Monday refused to let the workers on the premises. Now the billboard is planned to go up on the BQE tomorrow. Landloard Kenny Stier is keeping mum.

Things are getting messy though, if not downright anti-Semitic, with AA President David Silverman reportedly telling the press, “The Jews have stopped the billboard” and blaming “powerful neighborhood rabbis” for preventing the sign from going up. Silverman tweeted throughout the ordeal:

twitter

Update: The billboard finally went up mid-day on Wednesday. The New York Times has a photo. Happy Purim!

s / s / s is Sufjan Stevens, Son Lux and Serengeti. “Museum Day” is the first track from their upcoming EP titled Beak & Claw. The track is a six minute auto-tuned, synthed-out jam with Serengeti rhyming over top. The track is described as the “most adventurous” of the four tunes appearing on Beak & Claw. Not sure what that means for the rest of the EP, which comes out March 20 via Anticon.

Beak & Claw tracklist:

Stream “Museum Day” below.

google maps

Open Space Alliance, the nonprofit that organized Williamsburg’s summer concerts in McCarren Park and East River State Park, has put out a call for proposals for this season’s new site. This summer, the concert and event series will move from East River State Park to 50 Kent Avenue, between North 11th and North 12th Streets.

The proposal describes the new location as “an empty industrial site” and asks for entries that include “a comprehensive visual identity, perimeter screening, designated VIP area, shade elements, water features, lighting…[and] recreational opportunities for non-concert days.” A jury will decide which proposal to present to the Parks & Rec department based on cost, construction feasibility, and sustainability. Finalists will be notified on April 8th and the concert season begins on June 1st.