Actually, this sounds pretty cool:

From September 8th through the 30th, Brooklyn artists Laura Chipley, Nathan Kensinger, and Sarah Nelson Wright are organizing the Newtown Creek Armada in a “boat pond” in the creek for the public to enjoy weekly from 1-4 p.m. According to Kensinger, there will be nine boats total in the Aramada, each one made from materials found in the creek (scrap metal, floating trash, plants).
At the event, visitors will be invited to control the artist-made remote controlled boats around the basin as each boat records its journey with waterproof cameras and mics to give a better glimpse of what lies beneath the Superfund site’s surface.
Meanwhile, “portholes” located at the project site on the nature walk will give landlovers a chance to dive into the toxic waters without getting wet. Each will show video of the boats journeys past oil slicks, sewage overflows, and “returning nature.” That includes trips to parts of the creek that the public can’t normally access, like the Dutch Kills, Maspeth Creek and English Kills.

Opening Ceremony will be Saturday, Sept. 8 at 1pm at the Newtown Creek Nature Walk in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. More information at http://newtowncreekarmada.org.

The Yard, a new-ish work space on Nassau, starts off their class series tomorrow with “How to Not Suck Hiring at your Startup.” It’s very General Assembly of them.

More classes here, including the “Caddyshack to Zombieland: On The Meta-Caricaturization of Bill Murray” class.

Azealia Banks

NOTE – We’ve added St. Vincent, Three 6 Mafia, Questlove and more to the list below!

This Thursday is Fashion’s Night Out and My Social List is happy to partner with Freewilliamsburg to bring you our list of the best live performances.

6PM:  Chairlift at Prada (Soho)

6PM:  La Sera, Icona Pop (DJ ) at Helmut Lang (Soho)

6PM:  Haim at Topshop (Soho)

6PM:  Ladyhawke (DJ), Mick Rock (DJ) at Allsaints (Soho)

6PM:  We Were Promised Jetpacks, The Lonely Forest at Rockefeller Center (Midtown)

6PM:  Solange Knowles (DJ) set at DVF (Meatpacking)

6PM:  Oh Land (DJ) at DVF (Soho)

6PM:  Revered Run, DJ Ruckus at Piperlime (Soho)

6PM:  Maxwell at Jean-Michel Cazabat (West Village)

6PM:  Vanessa Carlton at Sak’s Fifth Avenue (Midtown)

6PM:  Questlove at The Hoodie Shop (Lower East Side)

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TEEN (c/o James Ryang)

Get tickets here. Listen to their new record below. More information at Glasslands.

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Calyer

We’re pretty excited because the new chef is a Northern Spy alum, Nathan Foot:

Please join us Friday August 31st as we bid farewell to our beloved Chef Gabriel Moya. We wish him the best of luck as he heads west to the Windy City. We are also proud to announce that Chef Nathan Foot will begin service with us on September 5th. New and exciting things are underway at Calyer, come by and see us. Calyer comes from the team behind Anella, St. Vitus and Jimmy’s Diner in Brooklyn. If Anella and St. Vitus had an offspring, Calyer would be its wayward child. The restaurant sits on the south end of Franklin St., at the crossroads of Williamsburg and Greenpoint.

More information here.

NPR is streaming it here.

The word “dynamic” gets tossed around a lot when listeners talk about music — as a way of acknowledging diversity, unpredictability and, often, a keen ability to execute the transition from tense quiet to pummeling release. For the deliberately paced likes of Sigur Ros and Mogwai, on past a zillion quiet-loud-quiet rock bands whose inspirations lead back through the Pixies and beyond, dynamism is a core ingredient and a central strength.

The xx is not a dynamic band. Particularly on the new Coexist, out Sept. 11, the Mercury Prize winners’ songs play like introductions to longer pieces that will eventually explode into bludgeoning catharsis — and yet instead merely whisper, shimmer and seethe some more. Unlike Low, whose slow-moving music varies in volume rather than pace, The xx simply lets its songs billow out softly and quietly, with only achingly pretty guitar lines to lessen the tension. At times, the follow-up to The xx’s more fleshed-out debut feels experimental in its minimalism; in “Reunion,” the distant, vaguely otherworldly pinging of a steel drum jumps out as if it were a Neil Peart solo. Even in Coexist’s most percussion-intensive moments (“Swept Away,” “Sunset”), the beat often sounds as if it’s drifting in from space.

Still, Coexist’s chilly quiet shouldn’t be mistaken for aloofness. The London band invests these 11 songs with real, bruised emotion, whether Romy Madley Croft is exposing her lovesick nerves in “Angels” or she and Oliver Sim are exuding wounded regret in “Sunset.” In “Missing” — not to be confused with the classic song by The xx’s more dance-minded spiritual ancestors in Everything but the Girl — Sim brings his ache to the front of the mix, singing, “My heart is beating in a different way” as Croft’s voice swirls behind him.

In the months and years to come, Coexist’s songs are bound to be reworked, chopped to bits and remixed around ever more insistent dance beats. So now is a perfect chance to soak them up in their purest form: delicately crafted so that every softly ringing note, and every aching second of dead air, hits like a cymbal crash.

Thom Yorke

Labor Day.  A day of rest.  A day to honor the working class.  A day to nurse your Monday morning hangover.  A day to watch bad horror films on Netflix. Have you guys seen “Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead” yet?

Fuck that.  Labor Day is a day of freedom.  Why waste it on delivery and laptop movies, when you can go to a free “Day Off” party with some unreal hip-hop acts?  The folks at Fool’s Gold are responsible for today’s debauchery at City Winery, highlighted by performances by French Montana, Danny Brown, Brothers Macklovitch (A-Trak and Dave L), Just Blaze, Flatbush Zombies, Party Supplies and much, much more.  I’m guessing there’s bound to be some cameos as well.  It’s a hip-hop show with plenty of local acts, after all.  Oh, and this one is our MOST BLOGGED ABOUT show this week, so there’s that too.

This week’s EDITOR’S PICK is unique in that it’s a DJ set. I don’t like to christen a DJ set the “can’t miss” show of the week, but when Thom friggin’ Yorke is involved, all rules go out the window.  MoMA PSOne’s “Warm Up” series draws to a close on Saturday with a DJ set from Atoms For Peace, Thom’s side project with Flea and Radiohead producer, Nigel Godrich.  I’m not sure if Flea or Nigel will be on hand, but I can assure you Thom will, given his penchant for throwing down DJ sets once every blue moon.  Even if you take Thom Yorke out of the equation, you’re still left with the perfect swan song for 2012′s warm up series, with performances from Holy Other, whose quizzical album is one of this year’s best, and Maria Minerva, whose upcoming LP may soon boast similar bragging rights.  Rustie and Justin Strauss are also on the bill.

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