​A benefit for the storied New York DJ Jonathan Toubin, who's still recuperating from the freak accident in which he was hit by a taxi while asleep in a Portland hotel room earlier this month, will take place on January 12 at Music Hall of Williamsburg. Among those on the quite-stuffed bill: Chain & The Gang (the new project from Nation of Ulysses/Make-Up frontman and frequent New York Night Train DJ Ian Svenonius, who's also spinning at Zebulon this Saturday with the covers benefiting Toubin); Eleanor Friedberger; Shilpa Ray; and a DJ set by Dirtbombs leader Mick Collins, as well as a raffle to raise more funds to help offset costs stemming from the accident. Tickets go on sale tomorrow at noon for $20, and should tickets be available at the door they'll cost $25. The full lineup is below.

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​As you have presumably by now heard, New York Night Train host and DJ Jonathan Toubin was injured last week when a car crashed into his Portland hotel room. On Friday, Brooklyn Bowl will host a benefit concert for Toubin with performanes by Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Jon Spencer's Heavy Trash, Tunde Adibempe's Stabbing Eastwood, Royal Baths, and Reverend Vince Anderson. DJs will include Gibby Haynes of Butthole Surfers, Billy Miller of Norton Records, and Bear in Heaven. The show starts at 10:30, and tickets are on sale now. They're selling for a minimum of $25—though if you so choose, you can donate up to $100, every penny of which will go to the hospitalized DJ.

It's also worth noting that on Saturday, Glasslands Gallery will be hosting its own benefit, starting at 8:30 and featuring Xray Eyeballs, The Stalkers, K-Holes, and an acoustic Frankie and the Outs set. Full release about Friday's show below.

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via Rubulad's Kickstarter

​The announcement of this month's Rubulad bash, which takes place this Saturday near the Gowanus Canal, comes with the note "please forward wildly." There are plenty of good reasons for this, the least of which is that it will be awesome; the forthcoming installment of the 18-years-running DIY art party will have a Light Circus Extraordinaire, G. Scopitronic's Non-Stop Film Fest, and an array of dance rooms, live acts, and food.

But not long ago, a typical Rubulad invite warned recipients against posting the information to "any public lists"; even glimpsing the party's often dangerously packed dance environs, let alone knowing its name, was a word-of-mouth treat. That, though, was when the art-party collective had a home, one located a few BQE exits north from this Saturday's Santa-themed extravaganza.

For the past six years, Rubulad has occupied an unassuming two-story building in the Williamsburg/Bed-Stuy hinterland nestled between iron shops, glitzy Bar Mitzvah palaces, and the BQE. But that time is nearing an end. Rubulad's Kickstarter campaign to relocate ends on Thursday, and it's currently raised $21,375—somewhat far from its ambitious fundraising goal of $35,000.

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TV On The Radio's Kyp Malone at Occupy Wall Street Monday

​Radiohead, everybody knows, didn't play a free show for the Occupy Wall Street protesters last Friday. But there's been a stream of high-profile musicians showing up in Zuccotti Park to offer their support.

This afternoon, Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul and Mary set up on a makeshift bandstand and played a set with some friends, serenading the occupiers with "Puff, the Magic Dragon," "If I Had a Hammer," and "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?"

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The temporarily-on-hiatus venue Silent Barn has just passed the $30,000 mark in their Kickstarter campaign to rebuild the Ridgewood venue after it was burglarized and ransacked earlier this month. Those people looking to donate funds while away from their computers can now engage in some philanthropy as well: Tonight the band Bomb The Music Industry (that's them covering "El Scorcho" at Silent Barn above) has decided to pitch in for the cause, turning the record-release show for their new album Vacation, which is scheduled for tonight at 285 Kent, into a benefit for the venue.

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​"I've been inspired by Japan for many years and have a true love, appreciation and respect for the Japanese people and their culture," said early American-adopter and purveyor of Japan's Harajuku girl style, Gwen Stefani. "The disaster in Japan is beyond heartbreaking and I want to do anything I can do to help." Stefani has already donated $1 million to Save the Children's Japanese relief efforts, and sometime this week she'll be selling Harajuku Lovers t-shirts of her own design for the same cause. Stefani is, as you may've noticed, isn't the only artist who is attempting to rally for relief efforts. A guide to some of the best.

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David Byrne and Yo La Tengo care. All photos by Jesse Jarnow.

​Yo La Tengo
Maxwell's
Wednesday, March 23

Better than: Sitting home alone fretting about cataclysmic awfulness.

It's been 26 years since Yo La Tengo played every Wednesday at Maxwell's, and a last-minute benefit for Peace Winds Japan had the trio sounding very much like a neighborhood band again. Not that they don't normally anyway, but the familial mellowness was so palpable that it was easy to forget their other life as heavy cultural touchstones. Maybe it was because they left the vintage Acetone and Farfisa at home. But even the appearance of David Byrne in pinstriped overalls (and a bright white wristwatch) singing a new ballad about Imelda Marcos didn't read as too far out of the ordinary. Every neighborhood needs an eccentric.

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Yo La Tengo at Maxwell's in December. Photo by Liz Clayton.

​We'd heard rumors of this last week, and yesterday, the band made it official--Hoboken humanitarians and all around good humans Yo La Tengo will be playing a hastily organized benefit for Japan this Wednesday at Maxwell's. Tickets are $50 (buy them here starting at 10 a.m.), but every cent, including the fees, goes to Peace Winds Japan. From the group's announcement:

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"My hugest goal was to get a Retweet from Questlove, because he has all these followers and he's so great. And he totally gave me one! I was like, 'This is a Twitter victory!'"

Act now and all this (well, the car at least) could be yours

​The cover of Neko Case's 2009 album, Middle Cyclone, featured the redheaded indie-folk singer barefoot and brandishing a sword on the hood of her 1967 Mercury Cougar, ready to head into battle. "I thought, 'If I were a 10-year-old boy in 1982, what would my fantasy album cover be?'" Case says of the image she conceived with photographer Jason Creps while living in Tucson, Arizona. "I would have a sword, because [fantasy film] The Beastmaster was big then, and I would be standing on the hood of a muscle car. I thought, 'It's either gonna be really great, or it's gonna flop.'" In the end, she got a Grammy nomination for Best Recording Package.

On Friday, Case is raffling off her Cougar, which she bought about eight years ago in Denver and named Angie Dickinson shortly thereafter. She's calling the giveaway the Mercury Cougar-Rama Muscle Car-'Splosion, and the proceeds will benefit 826 National, a charity that assists children ages 6 to 18 with their writing skills and publishes books of their stories. Author Dave Eggers cofounded the organization's Valencia flagship chapter near San Francisco, and serves on the board of directors for its New York chapter.

Case, who is currently working on a new album and will be doing separate tours with both power-pop crew the New Pornographers and her own solo group later this year, hopes the car will help 826 reach its $45,000 target for the drawing. To ramp up to the grand-prize car giveaway, she and other generous donors have contributed items ranging from a guitar signed by Elton John, Elvis Costello, and others to a giant collection of Sub Pop LPs. Today, they're offering up a 1966 Gretsch "Silver Duke" guitar that she's gigged with and gotten signed by artists like Michael Stipe, Britt Daniel, Black Thought, and others. And, as if giving away her car weren't enough, she and 826 are including a bevy of other items that will also be given away Friday: a drumhead signed by the New Pornographers, a Chipotle dinner for 10, CD prize packs, and more. All of this generosity, she says, is helping soften the blow of letting go of one of her favorite rides.

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​The Netherlands-based DJ, producer, and "moombahton" guru known as Munchi is a recent obsession in some corners of SOTC -- hear lots of examples of his adventurous, omnivorous style here -- which makes news of his recent medical trauma all the more disturbing. Per NYC's own DJ Ayres comes news that Munchi recently "had a seizure caused by an intracerebral hemorrhage" while on tour in Hawaii, subsequently spending nine hours in a coma and 11 days in the hospital. Now Ayres, alongside cohorts Dave Nada and Tittsworth, have started a fundraising drive in Munchi's honor, aiming to get the poor guy a ticket back to Rotterdam (already done, it looks like), paying for the meds he's needed so far, and so forth. The widget is below; the "hospital bills" estimate is probably way off, sadly, so do what you can.

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