MORE live music. Now that’s a good New Year’s resolution.
Make it happen by heading to clubs, big and small, to hear acts familiar and new. It’s a breeze to find cool tunes in New York, so why not?
Here’s a week’s worth of sounds at downtown clubs to help kick off the year in full rock style.
TOMORROW: Bunsen Honeydew is excited! Never heard of this band, but groove master Beck has. Check out the Web site, bunsenhoneydew.com, which points out that the crazily named band’s album “Didn’t You Used to be Invisible?” was spotted in Beck’s record pile in a photo in an old copy of Vanity Fair. Now that’s street cred.
The New York pop quartet also has the attention of Blur’s Graham Coxen, who signed them to his Transcopic record label. (Coxon described them as “Wagners in little bodies.”) The group says its new album, recorded on a four-track, has a “homey, personal character.” Bunsen Honeydew plays at Knitting Factory (74 Leonard Street at Church [212] 219-3055), along with edgy-pop group Plastic Mastery.
THURSDAY: New York Michael Shelley writes fine pop songs such as “Let’s Fall in Hate,” a country-twanged duet with country singer Laura Cantrell. His particular cocktail of pop reflects his eclectic musical past, which includes his mom’s folk records, early ’70s AM radio, late ’70s FM radio, new wave, ’80s indie rock and ’90s thrift shop. He lands at the Lakeside Lounge (169 Ave. B, [212] 529-8463).
FRIDAY: Williamsburg indie rockers Mink Lungs start with fuzzy rock guitars and add samplers to push lo-fi sounds to hi-fi limits. The quartet, which has a ferocious live rep, swings high and low with its multi-mooded pop-twinged music and will perform at Brownies (169 Ave. A at 10th Street [212] 420-8392), along with Suzuki Bean, Blue Green and Babe the Blue Ox.
SATURDAY: Loudon Wainwright, whose poignant “Last Man on Earth,” his first album in four years, was one of 2001’s finest albums, will appear at the Bottom Line (15 W. Fourth at Mercer Street, [212] 228-6300.
After Wainwright’s mother died in 1997, the veteran performer (who also appeared on “M*A*S*H”) suffered from writer’s block, as the world he knew fell apart. He finally managed to give his feelings acoustic life in songs such as “Missing You” and “Homeless.” Wainwright appears with Maggie and Suzzy Roche. This show’s a real treat.
And so is this one: Jon Langford (of the Mekons, the Waco Brothers, Skull Orchard, the Pine Valley Cosmonauts and the Killer Shrews, to name just a few) and his “big wet sloppy power trio,” as he sez, appears at Maxwell’s (1039 Washington St., Hoboken, [201]798-0406) tonight. Then, on Monday, Langford will unveil his traveling gallery, his own works of art depicting singing cowboys and honky-tonk stars of yesteryear. That’s also at Maxwell’s.
SUNDAY: Now here’s a real habit to get into: Classic Album Night at Arlene Grocery (95 Stanton Street at Ludlow, [212] 358-1633). This week, it’s double Black Sabbath night, as Drop Fear resurrects “Paranoid,” and some another suitable hard-rock band will play a yet-to-be determined Black Sabbath album.
Send e-mail to Playlist at maryh@nypost.com. The column returns to its regular Monday slot next week.
