LIC Notes

Fearless music lovers and Monster Mashers: make sure you have your Halloween costume picked out. The Queens neighborhood music scene has a virtual graveyard full of options for hellraisin' Halloween parties!

We've asked our resident Halloween expert The Dollar Store Demon to give us his two cents worth and he has summoned the hounds of hell to bring you his picks for this weekend.

FRIDAY OCT 29th

*"Did you hear that? Was it the howl of the banshee? Steady your nerves! Hold on tight to your pint glass as you scream for your life as The Jamies, Illimanjaro, The Concentrics plus The Suspicious Packages stir up a bloodbath of heavy rock."

The Shillelagh Tavern
4722 30th Ave
Astoria, NY
9pm

*"Wait! It doesn't end there! If you were lucky enough to survive the rock assault of The Jamies, stagger over to the oh-so-appropriately named HELL GATE SOCIAL where burlesque monster brides will seduce foolish mortals into turning into love slaves for the rockabilly stylings of AM PREACHER!
The Dollar Store Demon also nods with devilish approval at the very reasonable $5 cover.
Not bad for half naked she-devils gyrating to live rock n roll!"

Hell Gate Social
12-21 Astoria Blvd
Astoria, NY
11pm-2am

SATURDAY OCT 30th

*"Ahh! Saturday night! Hallow's Eve is nigh! So many pagan festivals -- a ghoul could lose his way. There is the possibility of drowning to death in the sea of choices, but I am here to keep you on the proper path of darkness. Gather round the cauldron, children..."

*"Rock n Roll as we all know, is the devil's music and one of its undisputed masters is PETER CASE. Peter has signed a dark pact with The Secret Theatre to play just one New York City show on his current US tour -- and it will be here in Queens! This will be your only chance to catch the fiend behind The Nerves and The Plimsouls so don't be ghoulish and miss out! Also on the bill are local heroes LITTLE EMBERS!"

The Secret Theatre
44-02 23rd Street
Long Island City, NY
tix available at: http://www.secrettheatre.com/
doors open 6pm

*"Now you're ready to kick into high gear -- from outside THE LIC BAR you will hear the gypsy fiddles play. Vampires and werewolves crouch down beside the caravan waiting for the drink specials to kick in. A tent covering has been placed over the majestic courtyard of the bar to contain all the mischief and evil lurking within...that can only mean one thing -- BAD BUKA'S HAUNTED MASQUERADE BALL is about to begin! These gypsy rockers are one of the strongest bands on the scene and if you're not convinced of that after this show, you must be a total zombie..."

Cash prizes for best costumes and drink specials, plus more music courtesy of Astoria DJ Group. $10 cover

LIC BAR
45-58 Vernon Blvd
Long Island City, NY 11101
www.licbar.com

*"Did ye know? The popular Long Island City watering hole DOMINIE'S HOEK was born on Halloween?! That's right -- honest to Lucifer -- they will be celebrating their 7th anniversary. Lucky for them -- unlucky for you if you miss this great evening that includes the sinister melodies of HEADFLOSS, QUEENS DENIM ROCKERS, & THE BLACK FIVES! Now is that evil enough for you?!"

Dominie's Hoek
48-17 Vernon Blvd
Long Island City, NY 11101

*"Don't be a Hallo-weiner and miss Astoria Music & Arts' 4th Annual ZOMBIE STOMP SOCIAL! THE BIG DEATH SCENE, DRUNKEN PUMPKIN, THE HEADLOCKS, and THUNDERBANG will transform into creatures of the night engulfed in an ocean of dry ice. Lift your goblets, show off your red masque of death and just get silly."

The Shillelagh Tavern
4722 30th Ave
Astoria, NY
8pm

SUNDAY, OCT 31st

*NIALL CONNOLLY knows a thing or two about Halloween and his SUNDAY SOCIAL at LIC BAR will prove that. Share your songs and ghostly tales as you gaze into the embers of your amber..."

LIC BAR
45-58 Vernon Blvd
Long Island City
5pm

HAPPY HALLOWEEN FROM LICNOTES!

 On Saturday, July 31st, we gathered at the Secret Theatre to celebrate the life and music of Alex Chilton. Chilton, who passed away this March, was an iconoclastic musician and one of the most influential songwriters of his generation. He achieved early success as the lead singer of The Box Tops, with whom he recorded the number 1 hit 1967 single “The Letter” and several other hits as a teenager. Chilton had every reason to expect this level of popular success to continue for the rest of his career. But despite the consistently accomplished songwriting and hook-laden production of his next band Big Star, he never charted again.

But since the ‘60s, Chilton has become an icon for innumerable rock musicians. Steve Wynn, of Dream Syndicate and a headliner of the show at the Secret Theatre, tells a story of making the Greyhound pilgrimage from L.A. to Memphis to meet Chilton. The teenaged Wynn had only the address on the back cover of Chilton’s most recent album, but the evening of his arrival, he found himself at a bar with the man himself. Chilton was glad to have the young man around, as long as he was buying the beer and cigarettes. The way Wynn describes it, Chilton was always loquacious and forthcoming, except when it came to his own music. He couldn’t understand why anyone would be interested in that.

Chilton’s albums with Big Star became more and more popular with a certain set over the years, eventually passing into the pantheon of overlooked masterpieces. Despite himself, perhaps, Chilton played the role of elder statesmen in his later years, a canonical piece of indie rock history. He was to perform a set of Big Star songs at South by Southwest just days before his death, in fact. He was a reckless legacy act, pulling off performances in the way only a seasoned performer dares. In one of the clips of “Nothing Can Hurt Me,” a forthcoming Big Star documentary from Drew DeNicola and Danielle McCarthy that was screened at the event, we see Chilton and Big Star preparing for a 2009 gig at the Brooklyn Masonic Temple. The band hadn’t rehearsed for the show, and Chilton didn’t even show up for sound check, as usual. It’s never been about presenting polished performances for Chilton – because polish is anathema to his music, and because his band has chemistry and charisma and, more than anything else, his songs.

It was appropriate, then, that the band at the Secret Theatre had never played together before the day of the show. The musicians, led by Little Embers’ Anthony Rizzo, come from home genres as diverse as country, psychedelic, and noise rock. The net result of the group, though, was an intimate and well-executed homage to Chilton’s recorded output. The band performed songs from all periods of Chilton’s career, from early Box Tops hits, through selections from all three of Big Star’s albums, to tunes from Chilton’s more experimental solo album Like Flies on Sherbert. And with musicians including Steve Wynn, Jim Sclavunos (of Grinderman and one of Chilton’s later bands), Franklin Bruno (of early-90s cult act Nothing Painted Blue and the Mountain Goats), and younger New York indie rockers including Adam Falcon, Ryan Milligan, Todd Michaelsen, and Alice Texas, the band evoked the essence of Chilton’s spontaneity.

It was a tribute to Chilton’s spirit that they could pull this off without sacrificing the unassimilable risk of his live performances. The most poignant moments of the set were when something slipped up just slightly – when a drum rhythm was slightly askew, or when one of the guitarists lost track of the chord progression for a bar. The audience was so close to the music that we were there with them at these moments of friction, and nothing could quite match the frisson when the music, almost inevitably, pulls back onto the rails. The whole service, from the memorial reading of essays, to the Youtube clips of Alex in his youth and his drifting middle age, brought us where we needed to be to experience this intimacy.

We came to the show with varying degrees of familiarity with Chilton’s work. Some have been fans for decade or had even toured with him. Others were only aware of his work in the vaguest sense, perhaps only even knowing him as the writer of “In the Street,” the theme song of “That ‘70s Show.” And others were given his records at a certain age, as if they were treasured Beatles 7-inches, objects connected to a deep source of meaning in the same sort of way. But regardless of where we were coming from, we all left with a sense of what it would have been like to be in the presence of the man, and a sense of why it mattered to know him.

Drew Jaegle is an LIC resident and musician. He is currently working on a new rock-oriented project with his band, The Icons, and on material with a hip-hop group that is still to be named.

Gordon Gano, Steve Wynn, Gary Lucas, Funkmaster Flex...playing in QUEENS?!?!

Recently a great discussion on our website was sparked when the question of whether a "music scene" really exists in Queens was asked.

Despite what some of the naysayers say and believe, like a plant that bursts and grows out of a piece of cement, there have been a lot of musicians, event producers, promoters and fans working hard to bring music to Queens bars, cafes and parks that were never intended to host and house live music. It's a beautiful and organic thing to observe.

Beautiful enough to attract artists that in the past might have scoffed at the thought of even getting off the train in Queens! "Name" artists too!

We were most surprised and pleased to have GARY LUCAS play the Bohemian Beer Hall this past week! Lucas is famous for his collaborations with Lou Reed, Jeff Buckley (Lucas co-wrote two of the songs, "Grace" and "Mojo Pin", from Jeff Buckley's popular and critically acclaimed album Grace), Captain Beefheart, Nick Cave, and many more!

The Secret Theatre is presenting an ALEX CHILTON TRIBUTE Saturday, July 31st (get tix HERE!). STEVE WYNN of THE DREAM SYNDICATE and JIM SCLAVUNOS of NICK CAVE'S BAD SEEDS, and KEITH STRENG of THE FLESHTONES are just the first names to be announced in a line up that Secret Theatre director Richard Mazda promises will be full of very cool surprise guests.

The band KRAUT are true New York punk pioneers. In fact their very first gig was opening for THE CLASH! And now they are headling THE ASTORIA MUSIC AND ARTS ASTORIA MUSIC NOW FESTIVAL Saturday, July 24th! (more info HERE!)

LIC Bar's big score for the summer is none other than GORDON GANO of The VIOLENT FEMMES! Gano will be performing there with THE RYAN BROTHERS (of THE BOGMEN) Sunday, August 15th at 6pm.

And this just in: a fantastic FREE hip hop show starring legendary rappers EPMD and DJ FUNKMASTER FLEX Thursday, July 15th at 7pm in LIC's Queensbridge Park! (more details HERE!)

It's very interesting that despite the lack of a 100% full time music venue in Queens the people in the scene are starting to see their hard work pay off when artists of this caliber start to venture this way, don't you think? And this is just the first wave...

We're excited to see who's coming along next...!