for subcategories)
Locals PC Worship are a natural for the next Sacred Bones piece of hot vinyl, as their sound is definitely that gross basement mush-punk scruff-scrunge that's somewhere between Reatard and blackened chillwave; think Gary War or Zola Jesus (if you think about this stuff at all). Minneapolis's Velvet Davenport is a little more Captured Tracks, which is to say catchier and cuddlier but just as... More >>
Taylor Swift and her ensuing parade of debutante songbirds aren't the only dollar sign that narcotic Nashville is mainlining. There's another youth movement afoot in Hat City, and it's tailored to dudes who spit, punch, pray, and wear Brett Favre's Wranglers. Or at least that's the narrative setup. Dude fans of a dude like Eric Church also drink dude drinks, hence the black licorice kick to... More >>
I can almost hear it now: The pianist's bop-inflected gambits feeding bouncy motifs to the saxophonist's fabulous flutters. These kind of duets have a way of highlighting aspects of an artist's personality that don't usually surface, and in such an intimate situation, the quandaries of design and texture are paramount. Kuhn and Coltrane are both clever dudes, and this one-night exchange should... More >>
One of the more stunning configurations to come from the ever-burbling Brooklyn noise scene is the Hex Breaker Quintet, a quartet comprised of the trumpet duo Grasshopper and mystic synth-forgers Telecult Powers. An easy comparison is to the chopped-up jams of late '60s Miles Davis, but the four push further into abstraction, a distant sweetness, like the vintage sci-fi animation that... More >>
After putting out three consecutive albums on three different majors, this mushmouthed roots-jam guy is self-releasing his new one, The RainWater LP, on which he is joined by A-list neo-soul keyboardist James Poyser and several members of Washington, D.C.'s fertile go-go scene. But don't underestimate the newly Brooklyn-based singer's fanbase: This show is the first of five this week around... More >>
If love is getting you down, spend V-Day dancing with other depressed American Apparel–wearing individuals at Feeling Gloomy: Down With Dating. More >>
There's still time to get laid by V-Day (or a couple of days before, depending on how advanced your social skills are). Valentine's Day Pajama Party Meatup. More >>
Mindful electronica travels from the outermost limits—well, Detroit and Western Europe—for the most enticing night of the Unsound Festival, the first American installment of the ambitious Polish program. Out in Williamsburg (where it is de rigueur to be a minimalist art kid), a heady array of international house DJs will share the decks from 10 p.m. 'til sunrise at ecstatic monthly... More >>
Tonight, Citizen Cope starts his third night of five (!) nights across New York—two at Music Hall of Williamsburg, three at Bowery Ballroom—bringing his chilled-out boho strummer-funk to his exceptionally chilled-out fans. Spending a few years as the missing link between Beck and John Mayer, Cope is still managing to give the beach-going acoustic guitar troubadour its moody hip-hop... More >>
Pole is a Kraut-dub legend thanks to his own productions and his ~scape label, but the schizophrenic funk he's helped inspire might overshadow him tonight. "Bad Girls," on Fabric's new Elevator Music, shows just what Untold, arguably the most game-changing recent dubstep producer, is capable of in hooking the ghosts of r&b to a wobbly bass. The Netherlands' 2562 stretched dupstep into a... More >>
The Austin Symphony hitched themselves to the right star in 2005 when they appointed violinist Jessica Mathaes to be concertmaster; her virtuosic turn on Khachaturian concertos in 2007 elevated the group to a new international acclaim, and she released a solo CD, Suites and Sweets, two years later. In the group's 99-year career, she is both the youngest person and the first female to ever hold... More >>
Put that heartache to good use (by having a laugh about it) at the Rejection Show Valentine's Day Heartbreak Haven. More >>
For a more traditional and romantic excursion, BAM offers a three-course dinner and a movie (It Happened One Night)! More >>
Publishers may believe that the demise of their industry could have something to do with the proliferation of Internet verbiage, but Greenlight Bookstore, Fort Greene's newest house of the printed word, views print and the Net as media that go hand-in-hand. Tonight's Blogger/Author Pairing matches Amanda ReCupido of the feminist blog Undomestic Goddess (undomesticgoddess.com) with the novelist... More >>
Proving Dorothy Parker's adage wrong, bespectacled singer-songwriter Laura Veirs has earned her fair share of attention. January's July Flame texturizes Veirs's traditional bucolic hurt, shorn from pedal steel guitar and the backing vocals of My Morning Jacket's Jim James. Sure, equating the promise of summer with requited love is nothing new, but it's a first from a musician from Portland.... More >>
When French film star Charlotte Gainsbourg was 15, she famously had her first nude scene in the 1986 film Charlotte for Ever. But don't worry, it wasn't at all creepy—in fact, her dad was there. The film, written and directed by Père Gainsbourg after his 1980 divorce from Charlotte's mother, the model Jane Birkin, tells the story of a screenwriter (played by Serge) who turns to... More >>
Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band's Between My Head and the Sky was easily the best record of 2009 made by someone who was recording in 1969. With a solid 40 years of awesomeness behind her (sorry, haters, no Beatle can claim that), Ono has stayed relevant and fun, not only because she skates on the avant-fringes but also because she clearly pays attention to her surroundings. For starters, her band... More >>
