Black Country, New Road / Horsegirl / Sharp Pins

Name: Black Country, New Road / Horsegirl / Sharp Pins
Start: 2026-06-24T18:00:00-04:00
End: 2026-06-24T22:00:00-04:00
Location: Manhattan

Music

June 24 @ 6:00 pm - 10:00 pm

Doors Open: 5:00 PM

Central Park

Rumsey Playfield, New York, NY, 10021

All Ages

Free

Black Country, New Road is a sextet of classically trained musicians from Cambridge, England, who’ve created a unique blend of jazz, math rock, and klezmer that turned the Brixton post-rock scene on its head even as live music took an extended pause during the pandemic. After scoring a nomination for the 2021 Mercury Prize with their debut LP For the First Time, the band went through a lineup shakeup just days before the release of their second album Ants From Up There. The band retired the songs from their first two LPs and took brand new music out on tour, with vocal duties inherited by the remaining band members, resulting in the whimsical concert film and album Live at Bush Hall. Their latest release, Forever Howlong, was released in 2025 to critical acclaim. They’re joined by SummerStage alums Horsegirl, a New York-via-Chicago trio that takes musical cues from ’90s alt rockers; their latest LP Phonetics On and On was produced by the eccentric Welsh artist Cate Le Bon. Rounding out the bill is Sharp Pins, the lo-fi power pop solo project from Kai Slater of the post-punk group Lifeguard, who hail from the same youthful Chicago rock scene that produced Horsegirl, formed while they were still in high school.

PRE-SHOW PANEL: WHAT DOES “INDIE” MEAN TODAY? A PANEL DISCUSSION

4PM / The Pergola at Rumsey Playfield

On the occasion of Ronen Givony’s new book, Us v. Them: The Age of Indie Music and a Decade in New York (2004-2014), this panel will discuss the present and future of “indie” music and DIY culture in New York. Bringing together musicians, writers, and industry professionals, it will examine recent trends in music consumption, journalism, and marketing, and ask: what does artistic “independence” look like today?

Taja Cheek is a Brooklyn-born musician and curator. A multi-instrumentalist and songwriter, Cheek frequently records and performs under the name L’Rain. Her latest album, “I Killed Your Dog,” is a kaleidoscopic exploration of heartbreak, released to critical acclaim across the globe. Her sophomore album, “Fatigue,” was The Wire’s #1 album of 2021 and the #2 album of the year in Pitchfork. Cheek has been featured on the covers of magazines including The Wire and Paste. She has toured, collaborated, and shared stages across the world with artists including Animal Collective, Brittany Howard, Big Thief, Sharon Van Etten, Moses Sumney, Immanuel Wilkins, Kevin Beasley, and Deerhunter. In addition to her work as an artist, she was a guest curator for the 2024 Whitney Biennial and is currently the Artistic Director of Performance Space New York in the East Village. Prior to PSNY, Cheek was BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn’s inaugural Artist Curator and was the first on-staff Black curator at MoMA PS1. In 2017, she co-founded a DIY rehearsal and performance space in her neighborhood in Brooklyn that primarily supports experimental work.\

Chris DeVille is the managing editor of Stereogum and the author of the USA Today bestseller SUCH GREAT HEIGHTS: The Complete Cultural History of the Indie Rock Explosion, named one of the best music books of 2025 by Rolling Stone. From 2014-2021, he wrote The Week In Pop, a column exploring mainstream pop from an indie fan’s perspective. As an award-winning freelancer, Chris has written for The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Ringer, and more, and appeared on podcasts including Popcast, Bandsplain, Sound Opinions, and 60 Songs That Explain The ’90s. He lives in the Columbus, Ohio area with his wife and three children.

Ronen Givony is the founder of Wordless Music, an orchestra and concert series that has worked with artists across genres, from Sigur Rós and Mica Levi to Terrence Malick and Paul Thomas Anderson. A curator for music festivals and venues in the United States and abroad, he is the author of two other books: “24 Hour Revenge Therapy (or, The Strange Death of Selling Out)” and “Not for You: Pearl Jam and the Present Tense.” Born and raised in South Florida, he now lives in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn.

Jenn Pelly is a writer in New York and the author of “The Raincoats.” Her music journalism and criticism have appeared in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, NPR, The Guardian, Rolling Stone, Vulture, Oxford American, and Pitchfork, where she is a longtime contributor.

Laetitia Tamko, better known by her stage name Vagabon, is a self-taught multi-instrumentalist, singer-songwriter, and music producer based in New York. Most recently, she released her third album, “Sorry I Haven’t Called,” on Nonesuch Records. The album, co-produced by Tamko and Rostam (Vampire Weekend, Haim, Clairo), found Tamko reinventing herself once again, and features the most playful and adventurous music of her career. She has toured, collaborated, and shared stages with artists including Mitski, Big Thief, Tegan and Sara, Waxahatchee, Courtney Barnett, Arlo Parks, and Angel Olsen.