Sleigh Bells

Noise pop is not an oxymoron, and Sleigh Bells are proof. Derek Miller used to be a hardcore guitarist and Alexis Krauss used to be a fourth-grade teacher. He plays loud and she sings pretty. Together, the Brooklyn duo will make you hurt, but ultimately it’s for your own good.

As the story goes, Spike Jonze played the band’s demo for M.I.A., who promptly rode her bike to the band’s apartment and got them into the studio the next week. Treats was the result, and Sleigh Bells have gone from blog favorite to block-rocking next-big-thing in less than a year. Their Albany show comes on a night off from touring with LCD Soundsystem.

Bring your earplugs, because this one’s going to be loud. Around the World and Back and Metroland Best Band Name winner Ghoul Poon open.

Sleigh Bells will play Valentine’s (17 New Scotland Ave., Albany) tonight (Thursday, Sept. 30) at 7 PM. Tickets are $12. Call 432-6572 for more info.

2010 Artists of the Mohawk-Hudson Region

Founded in 1936, the annual Artists of the Mohawk-Hudson Region is one of the oldest juried exhibitions in the country. The folks at the Hyde Collection have joined forces with the Albany Institute of History and Art and the University Art Museum to host the exhibition, and this 75th show marks the first time it comes to the Hyde.

More than 340 contemporary artists working within a 100-mile radius along the Mohawk-Hudson corridor submitted work; 86 were invited to hang their work in the select show, juried this year by Charles Desmarais, deputy director for art at the Brooklyn Museum.

We’d show you an image from one of the winners, but the results are too top-secret for print, so you’ll just have to go see for yourself.

2010 Artists of the Mohawk Hudson-Region opens at the Hyde Collection (161 Warren St., Glens Falls) on Saturday (Oct. 2) with an opening reception and awards ceremony from 6 to 8 PM. The show runs through the new year. Admission to the reception is $15, free for Hyde members. For more info, call 792-1761.

Filament

It’s an experimental art geek’s wet dream: a three-day festival of new commissioned work in multichannel audio, theater, dance, video, performance and . . . carpentry?

Actually, yeah. The centerpiece for EMPAC’s Filament festival is a good old-fashioned barn raising. Artists MTAA will construct a barn on the RPI campus with help from the community and an online voting system that will allow for collective decision making, not unlike the process used in reality TV com petitions.

But that’s just the beginning. Hans Tutschku and Volmar Klien will perform electroacoustic compositions through a 44-speaker multitrack sound system. BalletLab will premiere Miracle, a fevered exploration of religious imagery, communal living and cult behavior. Yanira Castro will occupy the lobby of the venue with Wilderness, a site-adaptive dance performance. Early Morning Opera will perform ABACUS, a large-scale multimedia presentation in corporating ideas from Buckminster Fuller, TED lectures and megachurches (pictured). And throughout the venue, Michael J. Schumacher’s sound installations will fill any downtime.

Additionally, the 2009-2010 DANCE MOViES commisioned films will premiere, as well as a lineup of “live shorts.”

Filament opens tomorrow (Friday, Oct. 1) and runs through Sunday (Oct. 3) at EMPAC (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy). A festival pass costs $35, and individual tickets range from $5 to $15. All installations, talks and the Saturday night party are free. For tickets and more info, call 276-3921.