Joe's Pub Announces Indie/Pop/Rock Offerings for March-May 2014

At Joe's Pub at The Public has announced its upcoming indie/pop/rock offerings for March-May 2014. Check out full details below!

PT WALKLEY
Tuesday, March 25 at 7:30 PM
$14

PT Walkley's record release party at Joe's Pub will feature the entire ensemble from the his latest album Shoulders and promises to pack a wallop. PopMatters said, ¡°Walkley's songs emerge as fully-formed catchy pop nuggets with hooks galore. Power pop-rock and classic R&B combine in the songs from Shoulders, releasing February 18th. Shoulders plays very much as a song cycle, one based around an emotional year in which Walkley¡¯s son was born and his best friend passed away. This is classic stuff, easy to love from the first few notes¡¦honestly, you had me the second those Stax-esque horns first appeared.¡± Proceeds from this evening will benefit New York's oldest preschool, Little Missionary's Day Nursery, and the school's plans for expansion.

UBU SINGS UBU
Tuesday, March 25 at 9:30 PM
$20

Ubu Sings Ubu is a tribute band playing the obscenely classic songs of cult band Pere Ubu, as sung by the classically obscene character of Pere Ubu from Ubu Roi. The band includes Tony Torn (Ubu/Vocals), Julie Atlas Muz (Ma Ubu), Vera Beren (Queen of Poland/Keys/Theremin), Emmitt Joe George (Captain Edge, Bass, Backing Vocals), Matt Butterfield (Bougrelas, Guitar, backing vocals), Patrick "Paddymyke" Conlon (King Of Poland, Drums) and Dan Safer (Co-Director/Bear). Stew is slated to sit in as special guest.

COMPANY FREAK
Wednesday, March 26 at 9:30 PM
$20

International dance music super band Company Freak is masterminded by recognized producer-DJ-journalist Jason King. Their deep-pocket, sophisticated dance pop is a throwback to 1970s and 80s orchestral disco, soul and funk when groups like Chic, Change, Kool and the Gang, Boney M, Kid Creole and the Coconuts, and Midnight Star ruled the airwaves. Company Freak is above all else a concept: a revolving, multi-generational affiliation of awe-inspiring vocalists and musicians, anchored by King's original dance tracks, recorded in international cities like New York, Istanbul, Addis Ababa and Paris. Engineered and mixed by Eric Broucek and Alex Nizich (LCD Soundsystem, Hercules and Love Affair), Company Freak¡¯s effervescent debut LP, Le Disco Social, features fiery vocalists Shayna Steele (Rihanna, NBC¡¯s Smash), Matia Washington (Clark Sisters, John Legend), Melissa Musique (Jessie J., Florence and the Machine) and King himself. Storied session musicians from bands like D-Train and Chic, plus a return-to-form from R&B and theater legend Vivian Reed are featured as well.

MATES OF STATE
Saturday, March 29 at 7:30 & 9:30 PM
$25

The first thing you notice about Mates of State¡¯s latest album Mountaintops (2011) is the energy and force of it - you won¡¯t be able to sit still. Go slightly deeper and you find the song-craft. Kori Gardner and Jason Hammel¡¯s voices effortlessly harmonize and volley back and forth, through movements of a song - going from upbeat to pastoral so fluidly, from melancholy to buoyantly hopeful. Carving their place in the indie pop rock world since the late 90s, the husband-and-wife duo play complex pop songs but with the sound of a full band. Their instruments join their voices to move as one piece, inseparable. Through the years, Mates of State¡¯s textures have become more intricate and deep as their instrumentation has grown from keyboards and drums to include guitars and horns.

JESUS ON THE MAINLINE / NATALIE CRESSMAN
Sunday, March 30 at 9:30 PM
$12

A 15-piece rag-tag group of New York's finest young musicians, Jesus On The Mainline has played to sold out crowds since their inception in mid-2012. Led by GRAMMY-nominated musician Andrew Neesley, their music is reminiscent of The Black Keys, Mumford and Sons and The Black Crowes, with a dash of Joe Cocker and Janis Joplin for good measure. They are known for their epic soul cover of Nirvana's "Lithium" and the striking original songs of Neesley and Tim Emmerick.

Natalie Cressman's versatility and enthusiasm for music has propelled her musical career, putting her on stage at Carnegie Hall, the House of Blues, and the Apollo. An accomplished improviser, Cressman has performed with Nicholas Payton, Wycliffe Gordon, Peter Apfelbaum¡¯s NY Hieroglyphics Ensemble, and toured with Trey Anastasio for two years. At the same time, she attended the Manhattan School of Music and performed all over NYC with her own band. Her album Unfolding captures her rapidly blossoming sensibility, a sound shaped by her love of Cuban, Brazilian and West African music, indie rock, funk and the post-bop continuum.

SUSANNA
Monday, March 31 at 7:30 PM
$18

Susanna is the Norwegian singer and founder of the former duo Susanna and the Magical Orchestra, founded in 2000 with keyboard player Morten Qvenild. Susanna has been active for more than a decade, with nine albums in her various iterations - Susanna and the Magical Orchestra, Susanna, Susanna Wallumr©ªd. The Oslo-based artist has recently been taking great steps towards greater independence and autonomy, while increasing the range of her considerable talents as a songwriter, vocal interpreter and producer. Susanna is known for both her own songwriting, with songs such as ¡°Believer¡± and her highly personal interpretations of other people¡¯s songs. She is an intensely arresting performer; holding audiences captive with her hypnotizing vocal timbre and the powerful, all-consuming sound of her band, her concerts are truly magical.

BEN WATT W/ BERNARD BUTLER
Tuesday, April 1 at 9:30 PM
SOLD OUT

After 20 years in Everything But The Girl, and 10 years as a respected DJ and record label boss of Buzzin' Fly, Ben Watt stopped everything to complete two long-planned creative solo projects. The first is his second book, Romany and Tom (Bloomsbury, UK, February 2014; North America, June 2014), a dazzling portrait of his parents. The second is Hendra, his first solo album in over 30 years, released on his new imprint, Unmade Road on April 29th. It is, in Watt's words, ¡°simply a folk-rock record in an electronic age.¡±

The songs for Hendra came unexpectedly. Watt¡¯s sister passed suddenly as he was finishing Romany and Tom. He took to his basement nightly, retuning his guitars to unfamiliar tunings as a way of restarting and began singing. This resulted in 10 songs - unsentimental, impressionistic - about close family and strangers, resilience and hope. Recorded in London and Berlin, the music is a meeting of worlds: languid folk, distorted rock and fizzing electronics; in part a result of the album's two central collaborators, ex-Suede guitarist, Bernard Butler, and Berlin-based producer Ewan Pearson.

THE LOSERS LOUNGE: LINDA RONSTADT vs. CARLY SIMON
Thursday, April 3 at 7:00 PM
Friday, April 4 at 7:00 & 9:30 PM
Saturday, April 5 at 1:00, 6:00 & 9:00 PM
$25

The Losers Lounge is back at Joe's Pub with another run of powerhouse shows dedicated to legendary musicians and artists. This installment showcases a showdown of sorts between Linda Ronstadt and Carly Simon. And of course, they will have all of the incredible songs, great performances, irreverent antics and special guests that you can only find at The Losers Lounge.

HAMILTON LEITHAUSER
Tuesday & Wednesday, April 15 & 16 at 7:30 & 9:30 PM
$25

Hamilton Leithauser announces his debut solo album Black Hours via Ribbon Music on May 6th (North American release) and May 5th (World release) - inaugurating a new chapter in an already remarkable career from The Walkmen front man. The album brings Leithauser full circle and then some, from lonely midwinter piano-and-vocals sessions, to a loud, live Rock n Roll group and back again. Featuring Leithauser with a slew of talented collaborators including Rostam Batmanglij (Vampire Weekend), Paul Maroon (The Walkmen), Morgan Henderson (Fleet Foxes) and Richard Swift (The Shins/solo), the album showcases Leithauser at his most passionate, personal and free.

SPOTTISWOODE & HIS ENEMIES
Thursday, April 17 at 7:00 PM
$15

For the past 15 years, Spottiswoode & His Enemies have become a New York institution. Drawing comparisons to everyone from Leonard Cohen, Tom Waits and The National to Ray Davies and Nick Cave, the band has been profiled on NPR¡¯s Weekend Edition, World Cafe and Soundcheck and toured worldwide from SXSW to Lille, France to Lincoln Center. Referred to as a ¡°genius¡± and a ¡°downtown ringleader¡± by The New Yorker, Spottiswoode is the son of an American singer and an English clergyman. English Dream, Spottiswoode & His Enemies¡¯ sixth studio recording, is a haunting new departure for the New York septet. Spottiswoode & His Enemies features John Young (bass), Tim Vaill (drums), Candace DeBartolo (saxophone), Kevin Cordt (trumpet), Riley McMahon (guitar, mandolin, glockenspiel), and Tony Lauria (piano, accordion, keyboards).

JONAH SMITH
Friday, April 18 at 9:30 PM
$12

Award-winning songwriter Jonah Smith was a staple on the New York music scene since his debut record in 2001. In 2012, Smith wrote, produced and released two albums, one of which was nominated for Rock Album of the year by the IMA's. At the end of 2012, he moved to Los Angeles to where he continues to record and perform. This show is a homecoming for Smith who will reunite with his longtime band as well as a CD release show for a new acoustic EP produced by Andy Stack and Jonah Smith and recorded in Andy's kitchen in Long Island City. Smith is known to lead one of the tightest bands in New York with musicians that can play over four hours of his material on command. The band will be joined by a few special guests for this performance.

HORSE FEATHERS
Saturday, April 19 at 9:30 PM
$15

Horse Feathers features Justin Ringle¡¯s unique vocals wrapped with sparkling guitars, dancing fiddles, and smoky banjo woven through the foundation of the lower strings. New elements are everywhere: horn, woodwind and brass appear and fade, and drums drive the beat in places, providing new texture and heft. The lyrics traverse familiar themes from natural disaster to the deeply personal, each through Ringle¡¯s uniquely American linguistic lens. The latest album Cynics New Year does not fail to deliver something beautiful and new. It navigates a thoughtful, thought-provoking expedition from the wide sky and rolling ocean to the most private corners of the human heart.

Joining Ringle is Nathan Crockett and a cadre of Northwest musicians: Dustin Dybvig, Victor Nash, Justin Power, Catherine Odell, Jedadiah Bernards, Cory Goldman, Jenn Rawling, Adam Thompson, Scott Magee, Brandon Johnson and sound engineer Skyler Norwood.

NOVA SOCIAL
Wednesday, April 23 at 9:30PM
$12

NYC group Nova Social has been active in the city¡¯s pop underground for over a decade. New York Magazine called them ¡°dark, witty and highly danceable synth poppers.¡± In addition to singer/multi-instrumentalist David Nagler and guitarist/programmer Thom Soriano, the band features vocalist Xavier (Scissor Sisters, Bright Light Bright Light), pianist Dan Lipton (Sting, Burt Bacharach), a string trio comprised of Tom Chiu, Dana Lyn, and Clara Kennedy, and a rhythm section of Pier Paolo Pappalardo and Konrad Meissner. In 2014, Nova Social will be putting out a new record, The Patience & Pleasure EP, as well as finally releasing the band's "lost album" Sports Motel.

HAUSCHKA
Friday, April 25 at 9:30 PM
$20

Volker Bertelmann, the man behind Hauschka, is a Dusseldorf-based pianist and composer from Kreuztal Nordrheinwestfalen, Germany. The story behind Hauschka is not necessarily what you would expect. Although Bertelmann is one of the most recognizable 21st Century proponents of what is known as prepared piano - sound altered by the insertion of alien objects between or upon its strings, hammers and dampers - he was barely aware of the champions of such a practice when he first began his experiments. Even John Cage was a largely unfamiliar name that fateful day when he sat in the studio of his friend Adam Fuest and, frustrated by the sounds he was making, starting placing random objects into the piano.

LILY & MADELEINE
Wednesday, April 30 at 9:30 PM
$15

Lily & Madeleine is a pair of teenaged sisters who, at a pivotal moment in their lives, wrote an album called The Weight of the Globe. Madeleine¡¯s off to college, Lily¡¯s sure to follow soon after, and both sisters find themselves pulled in two directions-between a love for the hometown they¡¯ll be leaving behind and their burgeoning wanderlust. When the sisters began writing together just over a year ago, nobody expected their first song, ¡°In the Middle,¡± to rack up a quarter of a million YouTube views. The Internet is obsessed with what¡¯s new and what¡¯s next and so it would have to seem a little incongruous for social networks and content aggregators to embrace gimmick-free, black-and-white footage of an unplugged duo crooning a bittersweet and understated melody.

EMERSON HART
Saturday, May 10 at 9:30PM
$18

Emerson Hart, front man for the multi-platinum band Tonic, comes back to time and again on his new album, his first solo release in over six years. Beauty in Disrepair, due out in April 2014, touches on loss, but also the beauty of rebirth, newfound love, family and starting a clean slate. Beauty in Disrepair marks a remarkably polished and honest follow-up to his 2007 solo debut Cigarettes & Gasoline, a critically-acclaimed album that spawned two Top 20 singles.

WALTER MARTIN
Friday, May 16 at 7:30 PM
$18

Walter Martin, of The Walkmen, found out his wife was pregnant with their first child just as the New York band was finishing their 2012 album Heaven. With fatherhood on the horizon, Martin felt it was time for a challenge. He had co-written songs for the band since they had formed in 2000, but now he just wanted to write something for himself. Standing in his kitchen the summer of 2012, surrounded by his young family and listening to their collection of 1950s rock 'n' roll records, he realized what that meant exactly. We¡¯re All Young Together is a sweet, funny, rough-around-the-edges ¡°family record,¡± as he likens it, that is intended to entertain the little ones, while getting a laugh out of their parents. Inspired by early rock ¡n¡¯ roll, it is filled with the kind of innocent yet mischievous music that has long struck a chord with Martin. ¡°I'm calling it ¡family music¡¯ because I want families to enjoy it together,¡± explains Martin. ¡°But to me it's just rock 'n' roll done the old-fashioned way.¡±

RICKIE LEE JONES
Friday, May 23 at 9:30 PM
$60

Two-time Grammy winner Rickie Lee Jones exploded onto the pop scene in 1978 and has made a career of fearlessly experimenting with her sound and persona. A cultural phenomenon, Rolling Stone put her on its cover twice in two years, and Saturday Night Live gave her an unprecedented three songs for her second appearance. Rickie is both a character in the songs and the songwriter singing, defying convention with her sometimes brazen sexuality and the mixed bag of jazz, rock and what has come to be known as 'confessional' songwriter performances. Her second album Pirates is one of the seminal, most heralded recordings of pop music, with each song a cinematic journey through her breakdown and rise. Jones¡¯ live performances have reached a pinnacle of honesty and excellence. Her latest album The Devil You Know is produced by Ben Harper and reimagines the music of Jagger / Richards, Neil Young and more, and is planning to release an album of new music in 2014.