Zola Jesus
Guggenheim Museum
Thursday, May 10

Better than: Dancing about architecture.

One had to assume that Nika Roza Danilova would make it into a museum sooner or later. A classically trained opera singer, she released her first album under the moniker Zola Jesus while studying French philosophy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her songs pair soaring, direct vocals with drum machines and ominous vibes. 2011's Conatus is mysterious while offering a direct line to a powerful emotional core. And at the Guggenheim last night, she showed up wearing a boa made out of swirling lights, glowing around her neck.

Zola Jesus was here as the third and final act in "Divine Ricochet," a series of live music meant to accompany the abstract expressionist sculpture of John Chamberlain. Made out of American cars in the '50s and '60s, Chamberlain's sculptures are metallic clashes, violent re-arrangements of things regularly taken for granted, so it made sense that for performance, Zola Jesus would combine a variety of sounds. "Gimmick" isn't quite the right word, but shows at nontraditional venues, like the Guggenheim, have a tendency to bring out the experimental side in everyone, which is probably what made her want to collaborate with industrial composer J.G Thirlwell and the Mivos Quartet.

More >>

In Waste Of Paint, our writer/artist team of Jamie Peck and Debbie Allen will review goings-on about town in words and images.

This weekend we found ourselves in the rare situation that all the shows we wanted to see were in "the city": one at the Lower East Side's anachronistically good Cake Shop, the other at hulking mega-club Webster Hall. Maybe it's time to remove that "give Manhattan back to the Indians" pin from my messenger bag.

More >>

Winter has been weird this year here in New York. The snow has been light, or oddly timed (Halloween is for witch hats, not snow bonnets); many weeks have had one day where it's 20 degrees and one where it's 60; there might be record-breaking winters elsewhere, but the idea that that could happen here in NYC this year seems as far away as, well, Romania.

You don't know what you have till it's gone, right? By way of mourning our dearly departed fourth season, winter, Sound of the City reached out to Zola Jesus, who's something of a winter expert. Not only does her latest album, Conatus, feature synth chords that glisten like icicles in the sun, a voice that wails like a cold wind, and some January-bleak lyrical sentiments ("The sun gives you nothing on these days when you need it most"); it turns out that Zola Jesus (née Nika Roza Danilova) grew up on a sprawling patch of Wisconsin wilderness, and has dug herself out of her share of snowdrifts. These are, therefore, her 10 Most Depressing Things About Winter. But, like love, isn't the depressing part also the fun part?

More >>

Ben Lozovsky

CMJ, Day Two: Zola Jesus, Xanopticon

Better than: Not not seeing her.

The view from the audience at last night's Zola Jesus show was as follows: Two keyboardists, a violinist, and a drum-kit, presumably with a drummer behind it. They were shrouded in a dark, blue-ish glow that radiated outward from the single spotlight center-stage. The singer herself was invisible to anyone past the first three rows of the jam-packed (Le) Poisson Rouge, although her voice is another story.

More >>

You don't have to go home, Tyler, but you can't stay here. All photos by Rebecca Smeyne.

Another SXSW is in the books, granting great relief to those of us who were just subjected to five straight days of partying-related Twitter updates, and great sorrow to those who became accustomed to the 80 degree weather and not getting snowed on in freezing cold New York City. But all things must come to an end, even for Odd Future's Tyler, the Creator, who had to go home to his mom's house like all the rest of Austin's expatriate population come Monday morning. Our recap of the actual festival is to follow; in the meantime, intrepid photographer Rebecca Smeyne was there and brought back photos. Many involve people breaking things in convention centers (or maybe that's just Das Racist?). Either way, her selected photos are below (you can see the rest in full at our at our slideshow):

More >>

Glasser (top) and Zola Jesus, drowning out the crashing of pins. Pics by Puja.

Zola Jesus/Deradoorian/Glasser
Brooklyn Bowl
Friday, October 22

CMJ needs to abolish this whole badge thing. The festival has admirably justified its existence, but we still can't understand the math behind it: Expensive as that badge is, there's a real chance of being rejected at the door of a major show whether you've got that neon-green lanyard around their neck or not. And who actually sat through those panels, anyways? Not us! (Sorry, guys.) We went rogue instead, spending the near-entirety of our CMJ weekend at Pitchfork's #Offline festival. Kanye was there Saturday night, of course, but thanks to Zola Jesus in particular, the night before was nearly as memorable.

More >>