Eating Books & Drinking Songs
This weekend, a chosen few will be singing and dancingand maybe even speaking in tonguesin an attempt to spread the good word, or words. 826NYC, the Dave Eggers-spawned non-profit organization that supports students ages 6-18 with their creative and expository writing skills, is hosting its second annual benefit concert, The Revenge Of The Book Eaters. I was thinking of volunteering for these guys at their Brooklyn offices until I read their mission and realized my inadequacy, having to look up the word expository. It means to explain or describe somethingwhich is what I thought it meant, I swearand thats what Ill try to do now.
Sundays concert features a terse but well-edited selection of indie rock talent, most of whom have popular recent releases to brag about. Britt Daniel, whose Austin-goes-to-Portland outfit Spoon titled their new album the adorably alliterative, if not repetitiously redundant, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, will possibly discuss syntax in between songs, answering once and for all if his bands appellation is noun or verb, utensil or cuddling position. Daniel was added to the benefits bill two weeks ago, affixing an exclamation mark to, and thereby completing, an impressive run-on imperative sentence that was already heavy with singer-songwriters minus their current or previous bands, such as
A.C. Newman, the frontman of The New Pornographers, whose highly anticipated disc Challengers came out this past Tuesday. During his set, Newman will hopefully do a PowerPoint presentation detailing the erotic, if not quite erudite, namesake genre of his poppy Canadian supergroup (and perhaps define the term supergroup once and for all.)
In keeping with the theme, another Canadian from another Canadian supergroup, Broken Social Scene, with a fairly recent record still ringing in our ears, will lend her voice to the cause. Feist, the siren who goes only by her spunky surname, will, according to the press release, read from a book.
Jim James, the freshly shorn leader of My Morning Jacket, is the odd man out with no new album to pimp. Expect the talented James, clad in his evening jacket, to warble his ageless band-on-the-road poetry. Dont expect him to be wielding his Flying V.
The only full band on the bill is Grizzly Bear, the Brooklyn quartet whose experimental soundscapes still fit comfortably within the ever-inclusive indie rock epithet. Papa Bear Edward Droste explains that their set, like most sets at last years Revenge concert, will be short, about 20 minutes. But, Droste says, we are working on making it acoustic and playing a song of ours weve never performed live before.
Asked if Feist, who Grizzly Bear plays with three days later at McCarren Pool, but is not scheduled to sing on Sunday night, will sing with the boys during their set, Droste sounds unsure. While he doesnt think there will be enough time, Droste says we might conjure something up.
Aug. 26, Beacon Theatre, 2124 Bway (at W. 74th St.), 212-496-7070; 7, $35-$50 (VIP $250).