Stereo Mandrax (FREE w/ RSVP): Peter Stampfel's Atomic Meta-Pagans • Spectre Folk • Joshua Burkett

Peter Stampfel’s Atomic Meta:Pagans, joined on bills with Spectre Folk and Joshua Burkett, traces a line back to Stampfel’s long-standing role in New York’s folk underground and his work with the Holy Modal Rounders.

Stereo Mandrax is a rock/pop group heard in New York City rooms such as Pianos, often on bills that blur the line between club rock and downtown experimental music. Their recent appearances have placed them alongside Council Of Foreign Relations, Excepter, Marcia Bassett and Taralie Peterson, as well as Pink Must Animal, Surrender, Jeff Tobias, and Chris Forsyth’s What is Now.

Peter Stampfel is a New York City–rooted fiddle player and songwriter whose work bridges old-time music and the downtown edge of psychedelic folk. In the early 1960s he co-founded the Holy Modal Rounders, a key group in the city’s folk-revival circles, and he has continued to build projects such as Peter Stampfel’s Atomic Meta-Pagans.

Peter Stampfel’s Atomic Meta-Pagans is a rock/pop group built around Peter Stampfel, a founding member of the Holy Modal Rounders and a longtime figure in New York’s 1960s folk-revival milieu. The project folds old-time fiddle lines into psychedelic-folk structures, keeping the band’s roots audible even when the arrangements drift outward.

Spectre Folk is a New York City–adjacent rock/pop group whose recordings lean toward space rock and neo-psychedelic textures. In the city they have appeared at Pianos, including bills alongside figures from the downtown folk lineage such as Peter Stampfel’s Atomic Meta-Pagans and songwriter Joshua Burkett.

Joshua Burkett is a New York City–based rock/pop performer who appears on bills at Pianos, often in scene-crossing lineups. He has shared stages with Peter Stampfel’s Atomic Meta-Pagans and Spectre Folk, including the Stereo Mandrax showcase that paired rock songcraft with Stampfel’s old-time and psychedelic-folk orbit.