The Indie Invasion

Ain’t no party like a Catskills party ’cause a Catskills party has Lips.

The Flaming Lips are curators and headliners for this weekend’s All Tomorrow’s Parties festival, taking place tomorrow (Friday) through Sunday at Kutsher’s Country Club in Monticello. The Lips are gearing up to release their first double album, Embryonic, so their set should be full of new music—and fake blood, and nun puppets, et cetera. That alone, not bad. But: The festival also features Animal Collective, Sufjan Stevens (in his first U.S. performance in more than two years), Suicide (performing their 1977 debut record), the reunited Jesus Lizard (simply destroying shit), and dozens of other indie lights—plus a comedy stage curated by David Cross. Visit atpfestival.com for all ticketing and lodging information.

Many of the acts appearing at ATP are playing one-off shows regionally in the surrounding days, most notably this Friday, when Deerhunter will be a part of EMPAC’s New Nothing series along with legendary Japanese troublemakers Boredoms (pictured), who will bring a stage full of drummers along to recreate their Boadrum performance. They’ll be about 70 drummers shorter than usual, but it should still be plenty noisy. Admission for the 8 PM show is $15; $10 for students, faculty and seniors; and $5 for RPI students. Call 276-3921 to reserve tickets.

Also: New Jersey’s the Feelies are set to play their 1980 Stiff Records debut Crazy Rhythms at ATP on Friday. They’ll follow that up with a show at Bearsville Theater in Woodstock on Saturday. Tickets are $25 for the 9 PM Woodstock show, and are available through the theater’s box office at (845) 679-4406.

And unclassifiable Brooklyn trio Akron/Family, who play ATP on Saturday, make their way to Jason’s Upstairs Bar in Hudson on Monday night. This year’s Set ’Em Wild, Set ’Em Free may be their best work yet. Slaraffenland will open the 8 PM show. Tickets are $13; call the bar at 828-8787 for more info.

Uncharted

Quadricentennial exhibitions are springing up at art venues all around the Capital Region, and the University Art Museum is no exception.

But while many of these anniversary exhibits celebrate 400 years of area history or the varied landscapes of the Hudson River, this one takes a different approach. Uncharted explores exploration itself through images and installations about travel and discovery.

Featuring work in an array of media by Radcliffe Bailey, Olaf Breuning, Anna Conway, Mark Essen, Adam Frelin, Valerie Hegarty, David Herbert, Emre Hüner, Matt Leines (pictured is Untitled 1, 2009) and Cameron Martin, the exhibit presents an imagined world of adventure, brimming with all the possibility and peril of the unknown.

Uncharted looks forward in celebration of the past and, according to curator Janet Riker, shares “the results of beginning any new venture without a map.”

Uncharted opens on Tuesday (Sept. 15) at the University Art Museum (University at Albany, 1400 Washington Ave., Albany) with an artist’s reception from 5 to 7 PM, and runs through Dec. 13. For more info call 442-4035.