Focus on Nature XII
The Focus on Nature exhibits at the New York State Museum have become biannual must-see events. The 12th edition of this juried exhibit opens this weekend, and features work by 72 artists from 14 countries. The work is of the absolute highest quality, and depicts “biological, geological and archeological subjects using a wide range of [...]
Rakim
Where would hip-hop be today without Eric B. and Rakim’s 1987 masterpiece Paid in Full? Would James Brown samples have become so prevalent without “I Know You Got Soul”? Would holographic gangstas be headlining Coachella? Without letting our East Coast bias show too much, we’d be remiss not to mention that Rakim, a prime influence [...]
Riverdance
Is Riverdance really almost 20 years old? It seems like only yesterday when the crowd-pleasing, savvy combination of traditional Irish step dancing, Celtic music and fog-and-light-effects showmanship combined to take the world by storm. But, yes indeedy, it was 1994 when Riverdance made its splashy debut at the Eurovision song contest in Dublin. The subsequent [...]
Fun.
The name Fun. might not sound familiar, but surely you’ve heard “Toniiiiighttt, we are yoouunnng . . .” on the television (in an Apple commercial, the ultimate platform for new artist exposure), on the radio, or in your own head, since it’s an earworm of a song and it’s being played everywhere. Yep, that’s Fun., [...]
Also Noted
With this year’s Camp Bisco shaping up to be a banger, Disco Biscuits side project Conspirator will stoke local appetites with a set tonight (Thursday) at Northern Lights (8:45 PM, $17, 371-0012). . . . Maybe the only thing cooler than vintage arcade games are musicians who perform in the style of vintage arcade games. [...]
Daughtry
Despite the pending lawsuits from former bandmates who say he lifted songs from their Christian rock band for his self-titled pop monster, Chris Daughtry has managed to take his Southern rock band to the top of the charts in five short years. The American Idol-ized love child of Creed and Nickelback lack the heavy religious [...]
Borromeo String Quartet
Renaissance Musical Arts concert series brings the Borromeo String Quartet back to the Picotte Recital Hall this weekend for an afternoon of much-loved chamber works. The Boston Globe has put them at the very top of the chamber-music heap: “Each of the great string quartets has redefined what the possibilities of the medium are; through [...]
Ikebe Shakedown
Brooklyn-based Ikebe Shakedown pay homage to disco, soul, boogaloo and Afro-funk with their groovy sound and heavy horns. The seven-piece band “re-creates the kind of vibrant vintage funk that sends crate-digging DJs into spasms of joy,” says TimeOut New York. Their self-titled debut from Ubiquity Records combines the influences of artists like Curtis Mayfield and [...]
Mike Birbiglia
Comedian Mike Birbiglia looks like a guy in a beer commercial. A white, demographically attractive, happy-go-lucky American everyman without a care in the world. This is one reason why his elaborate, meandering comic stories work so well. When he explains that he’s developed, say, a habit of sleepwalking and jumping out of hotel windows, it’s [...]
The Feelies
Reunion shows for garage rockers the Feelies had been rare treasure for indie geeks over this last decade until the band had to go ahead and actually record some new music last year, thus diminishing the value of our exclusionary rock cred. When the band toured through MASS MoCA last fall on the heels of [...]