COALMINE CANARIES FROM BROOKLYNWhenever I listen to
TV ON THE RADIO, I get the feeling that society is going to crack apart — there’s something vaguely apocalyptic about the Brooklyn rock ensemble’s ravishing music. On 2006’s
Return to Cookie Mountain, it was a mix of melancholy and remorse. On the terrific new
Dear Science (Interscope), it’s a certain ominousness that comes from the Afropop allusions, electro-textures, and lusty Prince falsetto trilled by singer Tunde Adebimpe. Rolling Stone recently said that the disc “reprograms old-school rock thrills for the ear-bud nation,” and it’s correct. This is a feast of sounds: violins mixed with synth buzz mixed with salon piano epics. There’s a glorious sprawl that plays out here; this isn’t an iTunes “two track only” deal — you need to hear the whole thing. Wonder what it will turn into when they perform it at Lupo’s, 79 Washington Street, Providence? Opening are THE DIRTBOMBS, the psych-dub-garage pounders who love themselves some bottom. The band uses two bassists and two drummers to thrust the guitar and vocals of Mick Collins (of Gories fame) into your head. Fuzzy riffs, pulsing beats — the stuff on
We Have You Surrounded . . . (In the Red) will have the crowd agitated before TVOTR comes on. Get to the Heartbreak Hotel by 7 pm | $30 + $22 | 401.331.5876
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DON’T CRY FOR HERThose lucky enough to have seen
LUCRECIA MARTEL’s 2001 film La ciénaga (“The Swamp”), a dense, dank study of two disintegrating families struggling in a benighted provincial town, have acclaimed her and her New Argentine Cinema as harbingers of a powerful new wave. The film screens this evening at the Harvard Film Archive, and the director will be on hand to discuss it. She’ll also attend presentations of her 2004 film La niña santa (“The Holy Girl”) on Sunday and her new La mujer sin cabeza (“The Headless Woman”) on Monday. All three screenings are at 7 pm at the Carpenter Center, 24 Quincy St, Cambridge | 617.495.7400 or hcl.harvard.edu/hfa.
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VOWELL MOVEMENTTo some, New York Times best-selling author and This American Life rock star
SARAH VOWELL is the sweet, sardonic goddess of oddball historical trivia and mixtape appreciation; to others, she’s an insufferably smug pixie with a voice that mauls the ears like a cat piano. But cranks and groupies alike might want to take heed, because her latest book, The Wordy Shipmates (Riverhead), hits awfully close to home with its ruminations on the Puritan ethos and its echoes throughout American culture. Tonight, she’ll be overturning Plymouth Rock to examine the Dead White Men writhing underneath, at the First Unitarian Church, 3 Church St, Cambridge | 7 pm | $5 | 617.661.1515 or
http://harvard.com.
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KONKED OUT
Name something you’ve been doing for 10 years straight and we’ll bet as many Brubakers it’s nowhere near as much fun as what the
KONKS have been doing the past decade: trampling earbones, rattling ribcages, driving up beer sales, and beating the ever-loving shit out of their crappy equipment to bring you the most glorious take on howling post-apocalyptic garage rock you’ve ever heard. Is it sophisticated? God, no, but what do you expect from a 10-year-old? Join them for a righteous birthday bash at the Abbey, along with the
IMAGINARY ICONS, the
TAMPOFFS, and
FIVE DOLLAR PRIESTS (featuring members of Speedball Baby, Pussy Galore, and Heroine Sheiks) | 3 Beacon St, Somerville | 9 pm | $10 |
www.abbeylounge.com.
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THE VOICE
REBECCA PARRIS has long been Boston’s First Lady of Jazz. The influential singer and teacher knocks ’em dead at the Regattabar with help from pianist Brad Hatfield, bassist Peter Kontrimas, and drummer Jim Lattini | Charles Hotel, 1 Bennett St, Cambridge | 7:30 + 10 pm | $20 | 617.395.7757 or
www.regattabarjazz.com.
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COP A FEELIESeventeen years have passed since revered Jersey nerd punks the
FEELIES last toured (which amounts to something like eight Cretaceous periods in music-industry years). But following a startling summer reunion and two NYC-area gigs in July, the band who spawned R.E.M. will be sloshing their crazy rhythms all over the Roxy, 279 Tremont St, Boston | 7:30 pm | $26 | 800.595.4849 or
www.tix.com.
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ELEPHANT NEVER FORGETS
We tend to be iffy on any E6 outfit that’s not Neutral Milk Hotel, but the
ELEPHANT 6 HOLIDAY SURPRISE is one show we can’t bear to miss. Not that we think there’s a chance in hell that Jeff Mangum will show up . . . but, well, it’s sort of like that nightmare about cutting school on the day that Zeppelin play a surprise assembly. Plus, this line-up guarantees electric-zither wizard
BRIAN DEWAN, and that fulfills our weekly recommended weirdness requirement. All the premature holiday jubilation goes down at Church, 69 Kilmarnock St, Boston | 9 pm | $10 | 617.236.7600 or
www.churchofboston.com.
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LORDING ITThe era of the multi-episode fantasy epic may have reached its peak when the last installment of Peter Jackson’s adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Return of the King, came out in 2003. That and the first two parts, The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) and The Two Towers (2002), will screen in order (at 11:30 am and 3:15 and 7:15 pm) today in a mammoth 10-hour marathon as part of the “
THE COMPLEAT LORD OF THE RINGS,” which runs Friday through Monday at the Brattle Theatre. Among the questions you may ponder while watching: is Frodo (Elijah Wood) gay? Is the film an allegory for the War on Terror? Who makes the cuter Elf: Cate Blanchett, Liv Tyler, or Orlando Bloom? And why isn’t Jackson directing The Hobbit? The Brattle Theatre is at 40 Brattle St, Cambridge | 617.876.6837 or
www.brattlefilm.org.
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SPEED DEMONSCali skate punk heroes
NOFX have never been known for their brains, but as far as “loud, fast, rules” goes, they don’t have any problems getting the job done. After a quarter-century in action, they still routinely pummel a stage. See how their current assault feels when they get to Lupo’s, 79 Washington Street, Providence. Dillinger Four, the Flatliners, and Shira Girls share the bill at 8 pm | $20 | 401.331.5876
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IRON CURTAIN CALLLike cold borscht or bathtub potato vodka, the
RED ELVISES are an acquired taste — and if you’re not into Soviet Blockabilly surf tunes performed by balalaika-jamming Presley worshippers, you’re probably not going to dig anything they play. But that would make you criminally boring. First propelled to cult fame by the 1998 post-apocalyptic low-budget epic Six-String Samurai, these comrades don’t make it out to the East Coast too often, so catch them at T.T. the Bear’s Place, 10 Brookline St, Cambridge | 9:15 pm | $15 | 617.492. BEAR or
www.ticketweb.com.
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SNARL AND SWAGGERTHE BLACK CROWES have been with us for almost two decades, and their newish
Warpaint (Silver Arrows) suggests that they’re still happy with the bedrock blooze and boogie that is their signature sound. Singer Chris Robinson is proud of that snarl he’s perfected, and why not? It has all the authority needed to update the sound of his ’70s forebears: the Stones and the Faces. A venue like Lupo’s, 79 Washington Street, Providence, is a perfect little place for these guys to rip it up at 9 pm | $50 + $40 | 401.331.5876 | lupos.com
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MANORWOMANIf you think Sarah Palin pushes the boundaries of what it means to be male or female, wait till you meet
OCÉAN LEROY. The Berlin-based transgendered performance artist has the astounding ability to change from a man to woman and back again faster than the Alaska governor can dodge a substantive question. Presented by Cinemental Presents, Leroy performs on stage and screens his/her film Risk, Stretch or Die (2007) tonight at 9 pm and then screens the film again tomorrow at 10:45 pm. There’ll be a Q&A (has Katie Couric been invited?) both nights at the Brattle Theatre, 40 Brattle St, Cambridge | $10 | 617.876.6837 or
www.brattlefilm.org.
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FACE OF THE BASSAVERY SHARPE has been McCoy Tyner’s main man with the bass since 1984. The fleet-fingered big-fiddle man brings his own trio to the Regattabar with pianist Onaje Alan Gumbs and drummer Winard Harper | Charles Hotel, 1 Bennett, St, Cambridge | 7:30 pm | $14 | 617.395.7757 or
www.regattabarjazz.com.
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REMINISCE ABOUT YOU
ATMOSPHERE has long had a handful of smart tunes. The Minneapolis rap outfit dodged the stereotypical, and though they stumbled a few times while finding their voice, they busted some unexpectedly individu-alistic moves. The latest is the reminiscence rhyme that’s floating around YouTube from their recent Jimmy Kimmel appearance, a blend of two new tunes, “You” and “Yesterday.” On the latter, MC Sean Daley talks to his dead father, explaining how much he misses everything from his friendship to his criticism. It has plenty of charms, and the album that it comes from,
When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold (Rhymesayers), is making a bigger dent than any of their previous affairs. Long story short: it’s their time. They’ll hit Lupo’s, 79 Washington Street, Providence, with Abstract Rude, Blueprint, and DJ Rare Groove at 9 pm | $25 + $20 | 9 pm | 401.331.5876
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MASS DEBATINGAs much fun as it is to try scoring a blackout on your politico buzzword bingo card and screaming at your TV, you’ll probably get more mileage out of the debates if you’re in the company of the Super Friends of political commentary. To mark the last presidential debate of 2008, join the Guardian’s
MICHAEL TOMASKY, former Croatian ambassador
PETER W. GALBRAITH, New Yorker staff writer
MARK DANNER, and Pulitzer-winning Vietnam historian
FRANCES FITZGERALD at the Brattle Theatre, 40 Brattle St, Cambridge | 7 pm | $10 | 617.661.1515 or
http://harvard.com.
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A GOOD BEATING
Locals
BEAT CIRCUS have gone through several incarnations since coming together as free-jazz vaudevillians in 2002, but the strain of weird old Americana has held fast. Earlier this year, they released Dreamland (Cuneiform) — a narrative song cycle based on the long-gone theme park at Coney Island. Now Beat Circus main man Brian Carpenter is working on Boy from Black Mountain, which digs into his Southern roots with a strong twist of gothic. With a couple of string players doubling as singers, a rockabilly rhythm section, and Carpenter now singing and playing harmonica in place of his old slide trumpet, this always fascinating band explore their next chapter at the Middle East upstairs with
WOVENHAND (featuring 16 Horsepower’s David Eugene Edwards) and Brooklyn’s
SILVER SUMMIT | 472 Mass Ave, Cambridge | 9 pm | $12 | 617.864.EAST or
www.mideastclub.com.
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REVEL YELLEOne listen to “Ce Jeu,” the infectiously peppy single off foxy French electro-popper
YELLE’s 2007 album Pop Up, will have you convinced she’s been freebasing Hi-C Ecto Cooler crystals and neon puff paint in order to re-create that ’80s teeny-bop sound. The forecast calls for cascades of shimmery synthpop bliss at the Roxy, 279 Tremont St, Boston | 8 pm | $20 | 617.931.2000 or
www.ticketmaster.com.
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YOUTH MOVEMENTFor Saint-Saëns’s Piano Concerto No. 2,
BENJAMIN ZANDER and the
BOSTON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA will have an unusually young soloist, Boston 13-year-old
GEORGE LI. Bookending the attractive program will be Bartók’s Dance Suite and Dvorák’s Symphony No. 9 (From the New World). Three performances: Sanders Theatre, 45 Quincy St, Cambridge: October 15 @ 7:30 pm; October 19 @ 3 pm | Jordan Hall, 30 Gainsborough St, Boston: October 18 @ 8 pm | $15-$70 | 617.236.0999 or
www.bostonphil.org.
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BOYS TO MENThere’s nothing wrong with being a one-hit-wonder. Hold your head high,
HANSON: you came up with a beautiful nugget the first time out. But the “MMMBop” kids are all grown up these days, and they’d like their teen pop ditty to be just one aspect of their career. The sunny stuff on their latest disc proves them to be classicists, with echoes of Hall & Oates and Todd Rundgren wafting through the very chewy cho-ruses. Those who listen to
The Walk (Cooking Vinyl) just might be surprised. Dave Barnes opens at Lupo’s, 79 Washington Street, Providence, at 7 pm | $35 + $30 | 401.331.5876
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MOUTH OF THE SOUTHYou couldn’t keep Martha Mitchell down. Ditto for Annette Miller, who created the role of Nixon attorney general John Mitchell’s whistle-blowing wife in Jody Rothe’s
MARTHA MITCHELL CALLING at Shakespeare & Company in 2006, took it on the road to Miami and upstate New York, and now appears in Nora Theatre Company’s Boston-area premiere. Nixon himself credited Mitchell, who stood by her man but too often with her mouth open, with fanning Watergate into the fire that cooked his ass. You could do worse than to take her phone call, at the Central Square Theater, 450 Mass Ave, Cambridge | October 16–November 9 | $32; $22 seniors, students | 866.811.4111 or
www.centralsquaretheater.org.
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MAJOR KEYSThe brilliant Dominican jazz pianist
MICHEL CAMILO begins a three-day stand at the Regattabar with a trio, and you might as well make your reservations now | Charles Hotel, 1 Bennett St, Cambridge | 7:30 pm: $30; 10 pm: $26 | 617.395.7757 or
www.regattabarjazz.com.
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POLLINI!The hits keep coming from
JAMES LEVINE and the
BSO: this weekend it’s Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6 (the Pathétique), Leon Kirchner’s
BSO commission The Forbidden, and Schumann’s Piano Concerto, with some dude named
MAURIZIO POLLINI (a/k/a the world’s most distinguished classical pianist, and he doesn’t come to Boston often enough). And yes, that’s the most unusual order in which the pieces will be presented. Look for Jimmy to explain why at Symphony Hall, 301 Mass Ave, Boston | October 16 @ 8 pm; October 17 @ 1:30 pm; October 18 @ 8 pm | $29-$105 | 617.266.1200 or
www.bso.org.
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BOSTON BALLET II
Having caught its breath from that “Night of Stars” (see “Friday”), the company starts its 2008–2009 season proper with James Kudelka’s witty Art Deco
CINDERELLA, which it first performed in 2005. Don’t think this is just for the kids — Prokofiev’s dark score is a nightmare that the ballet barely wakes from in time. Get your tickets before the clock strikes 12 — it’s at the Wang Theatre, 270 Tremont St, Boston | October 16-26 | $25-$115 | 866.348.9738 or
www.bostonballet.org.
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