Brooklyn Purim parties

Get your costumes ready! The Jewish holiday of Purim is this weekend, and Brooklyn's throwing a lot of parties.

Pour 'em Party

3rd Ward

195 Morgan Ave., Bushwick

Saturday, February 27

9 pm-4 am

$10 tickets until Friday; $15 at the door

Dust off your costumes, shine your dancing shoes and get ready to guzzle. From the organizers: "When the Jews of ancient Persia avoided extinction, God commanded them to celebrate by getting so drunk they couldn't tell their friends from their enemies. Sounds good to us! Jewish or not, put on a costume and join us!"

The night features Team Facelift, The Shining Twins, Dirty Fences, Cowboy Mark, DJ Drew Heffron, and DJ Kook Jew.

Purim Dance Party

CastleBraid

114 Troutman St., Bushwick

Saturday, February 27

11 pm

Free

During its grand opening weekend of CastleBraid, an artist-focused support system of facilities, classes, and professional services, is holding a Purim-theme dance party, so grab a costume and enjoy two floors of DJs, dancing, drinks and more.

Purimpalouza

Jewish Music Cafe

401 9th St., Park Slope

Saturday, February 27

8:45 pm

$18

Mark the holiday with a traditional megillah reading, following by a performance from Soulfarm.

Purim Live

Chabad North Brooklyn

132 N. Fifth St., Williamsburg

Saturday, February 27

8 pm

$10, $5 if you're in costume

They brought you the Lecha Dodi remix of Akon, then the Shir HaShirim Moroccan beat meditation, now they are onto Israeli party music. Brody & Diwon will be joining the party fresh from their Israel and West Cost tour.

Purim Party

Death By Audio

49 S. Second St., Williamsburg

Monday, March 1

8 pm

$7

Rachel Coleman, aka "Pop Jew," aka the worst cook in America, hosts this bash, featuring the So So Glos, Beachniks, Tough Knuckles, and Sundelles. Costumes encouraged.

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Get lost in this trippy Williamsburg maze

Effi Briest. Photo Brian Tamborello

By Meredith Deliso

Last year, when Sam Hillmer and his wife, visual artist Laura Paris, were looking for a location for their month-long artist installation, “You Are Here,” they kept their sights on locations you would least expect and found a storefront in the heart of Times Square.

“Initially what we wanted to do was keep it on this vibe of being in a place where you would last expect it,” says Hillmer, who wound up using Chashama’s Visual Arts Space 44th between Sixth Avenue and Broadway. “Part of the original concept was trying to get all these people who would just be, ‘What the f--- is this?’ and sort of document that.” (Watch a video of last year's "You Are Here" below.)

This fall, the installation comes to a more natural home – Williamsburg.

“It’s become way more about galvanizing our scene and less about freaking out tourists,” says Hillmer, tenor saxophonist for the Brooklyn-based avant garde jazz group Zs. “It’s appropriate that we move it to Williamsburg.”

From September 10 through October 2, Death by Audio will be home to “You are Here,” aka The Maze, an installation and performance festival.Curated by the Bushwick-based couple, the three-week performance festival will featuring such artists as Zs, Mick Barr, Effi Briest, Calvin Johnson, The Coathangers, Excepter, Extra Life, Katie Eastburn (of Young People), Stars Like Fleas, Ninjasonik, Nine 11 Thesaurus, and many more.

Medium and genre vary and overlapping, and simultaneous performances are frequent. Don’t expect a CMJ-like orderliness; there is no set order, start time or end time, or location of the performances.

“It’s very claustrophobic,” says Hillmer, who books as many as five to seven bands a night for the festival. “It’s definitely way more on the avant noisy weird side of things. That’s how I like it.”

“You are Here” is September 10 to October 2 at Death by Audio (49 South 2nd St.). Doors are at 8 p.m., with performances 9 p.m. to late every night. Admission is $8 at the door.

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Vivian Girls are ready to rock your socks off

Photo by Olly Hearsey

By Meredith Deliso

Sound guys hate the Vivian Girls.

“They hate everything that we love – they hate loud guitars, they hate tons of reverb,” says guitarist Cassie Ramone. “Some sound guys are good, but we’ve met our fair share of sound guys who don’t like these things.”

Because of this, the band, who’s touring with another loud band, Queens-based garage rockers The Beets, this summer, decided to name their month-long tour “Nightmare of Sound.”

“I figured it would be a funny tour name,” says Ramone. “Both bands are going to frustrate sound guys to no end.”

Things won’t be so bad when they kick off the tour, in support of their sophomore album “Everything Goes Wrong,” at Death By Audio August 25. The Williamsburg venue’s a favorite of the band, which formed in Brooklyn a couple years ago while its three members – Ramone, bassist Kickball Katy, and drummer Ali Koehler – were college students.

“About a year ago, we were playing Death By Audio once every three weeks. We played there an insane amount of times,” says Ramone, who’s been hopping around from place to place in Williamsburg before they go on tour, while the rest of the band comes in from New Jersey for their Brooklyn rehearsals. “We haven’t played there in like a year even though that used to be our home base. We’re really excited to be going back there.”

About a year ago, Vivian Girls burst onto the Brooklyn noise scene with their 10-track debut album, a sonic whirlwind of raw pop punk, all coming in at 22 minutes. Niche label In The Red picked up the debut after its initial 500-copy run sold out in 10 days, releasing the debut last fall. They support the trio’s sophomore effort, out September 8.

Coming in at 35 minutes with 13 tracks, the follow-up promises more of the band’s sound, which wears its influences on its sleeve – including The Ramones, as well as ‘60s girl groups and surf pop – but also infuses it with a more modern lo-fi garage rock edge.

“There’s a lot more diversity on the second album,” says Ramone. “The songs are both faster and slower than the ones on the first album. Two songs are over four minutes long, something that was unheard of when we recorded our first album.”

Only just in the beginning stages of working on new material, it’s too soon to tell if their third effort will clock in even longer. Though one thing’s for sure now: they’re be keeping the sound guys on their toes.

The Vivian Girls play Death By Audio (49 South 2nd Street) August 25 at 8 p.m. Also on the bill are The Beets.

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Have synth, will trip: Psychic Ills jam their way through sound

By Meredith Deliso

(Published in the 4.23 issue of 24/Seven)

The synth-heavy sound that defines the Psychic Ills has taken a few years to take shape.

When first formed six years ago, it was just two people, no drums or synth. Slowly they added bodies and instruments until it became Elizabeth Hart on bass, Jimy SeiTang on synth, Brian Tamborello on drums, and Tres Warren on guitar.

“I would say it has evolved quite a bit,” says Hart. “We’ve been together for quite a while. We’re really comfortable, like family. When we play together, it just seems to come pretty organically. We can get on the same vibe.”


After spending 2007 working on other projects (Hart is also the bassist for Effi Briest and is a member of the improvisational dance and music collective Skint; Warren is one half of Messages, the other being visual artist Taketo Shimada; and Tamborello occasionally plays with Mike Wexler), the group spent 2008 worked on their follow-up to their debut, “Dins.” “Mirror Eye” came out earlier this year on Brooklyn’s Social Registry, eight tracks of otherworldly sounds and sonic experiments where you can happily get lost in the drone.

The ambient, rock-lounge hybrid, with its loose form and near non-existence of vocals, was the product of much improvisation.

“We just jam, and if we feel like something’s going somewhere, we’ll expand on it,” says Hart. “So that’s how that one was made.”

Their method leaves it open to further explore things live, and the band has three shows coming up in the next couple of weeks to do just that, starting with the Mercury Lounge on April 26 and Death By Audio in Williamsburg on April 29, both with London DJ Spectrum, as well as (Le) Poisson Rouge on May 8.

“It feels good to play in New York,” says Hart, who lives across the water on the Lower East Side, while Tamborello and SeiTang reside in Greenpoint and Warren in the East Village.

The band is in a constant state of playing, it seems, whether it’s with their frequent live shows, or in the studio. In addition to their latest album, the Psychic Ills also have a mini-LP they just finished with Social Registry that will be coming out in July, as well as a 12” coming out in Australia on the native label Spring Press.

“We already play songs in the set that are going to be on the next, next record,” says Hart.

Hear these tracks for yourself when the Psychic Ills play Mercury Lounge (217 E. Houston St., www.mercuryloungenyc.com, 212-260-4700) on April 26 at 7 p.m. (tickets $10), Death by Audio (49 S. 2nd St., www.myspace.com/deathbyaudioshows) on April 29 at 8 p.m. (tickets TBD), and (Le) Poisson Rouge (www.lepoissonrouge.com, 158 Bleecker St., 212-796-0741) on May 8 at 11;30 p.m. (tickets $12).

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