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Joe
Beats and Blak
The
Stone Crow, Thursday
Rhode Island-based hip-hop producer Joe Beats comes
to town for a show this evening at Albany nightspot the Stone
Crow, where he’ll perform with MC Blak Lungz. Beats is best
known for his stint in the Non Prophets, his collaboration
for several years with underground-but-now-almost-kinda-mainstream
lyricist Sage Francis; that act’s 2004 debut, Hope,
earned a nomination for the Shortlist Music Prize. Now he’s
teamed with Florida-based rapper Blak Lungz (of One Drop)
for a new project; they’ll take some time away from working
on their debut album for tonight’s show. Dezmatic, Oddy Gato
and DJ Tone bring the backup beats and rhymes. (9 PM, $6,
689-0177, 492 Yates St., Albany, 689-0177)
Stephen
Malkmus and the Jicks, John Vanderslice
MASS
MoCA, Friday
Here’s one where we did a collective “Really?” when we saw
the announcement. But there it is: Malkmus—the guy behind
freakin’ Pavement, not to mention a few excellent releases
with new backing band the Jicks—is coming to North Adams on
Friday. His new album, Real Emotional Trash, finds
him again balancing his love for witty wordplay and guitar
heroics, fractured bubblegum pop and debased prog-rock. The
current Jicks lineup includes former Sleater-Kinney drummer
Janet Weiss and onetime Elliott Smith bassist Joanna Bolme.
Along for this sweater-vesty good Friday night is John Vanderslice;
his Emerald City (2007, Barsuk) was another fine reminder
of both why we want to move to Portland, Ore., and why we
probably shouldn’t. (April 4, 8 PM, $25, 87 Marshall St.,
N. Adams, Mass., 413-662-2111)
Shawn
Mullins
WAMC
Performing Arts Studio, Friday
You probably best know Shawn Mullins from his 1998 hit “Lullaby,”
but dude’s got a dozen albums to his name, all since the early
1990s. Dang! That said, his current tour will focus on his
latest for the Vanguard label, titled honeydew. The
label says the album is another character-driven tour-de-force
for Mullins: “honeydew teems with humanity: railroad
workers, traveling salesman, homeless troubadours, and several
generations of family members, living and dead. It is a richly
interwoven work, the most panoramic album of Mullins’ career
as well as the most intensely personal.” See what Mullins
is made of at the Linda Friday night. (April 4, 8 PM, $22,
339 Central Ave., Albany, 465-5233 ext. 4)
The
Red Jumpsuit Apparatus
Valentine’s,
friday
It’s odd for a band that have dominated Fuse and MTV, and
been the soundtrack for countless teen movies and reality
shows, to not stop in New York City on a tour. But, while
the unfortunately named Red Jumpsuit Apparatus are bringing
the unfortunately named Unplugged and Unaffected tour to several
spots along the East Coast, they’re skipping the music mecca
in favor of . . . Albany? RJA, as they’re known to their BFFs
(biggest fans forever), are most commonly known for songs
“Face Down” and “False Pretense,” the kind of jams that make
you cringe as you scream along and rock your head. This tour,
however, is an “intimate evening of music” (unplugged, remember)
so: less shouting. (April 4, 8 PM, $11, 17 New Scotland
Ave., Albany, 432-6572)
VHS
or Beta
Jack
Rabbit Slims, Sunday
Ah, VHS vs. Betamax. We sure re member that format war fondly.
(For you young’uns, it was a lot like Blu-ray vs. HD-DVD.)
The band named after the conflict aren’t as exciting as the
debate itself (or perhaps we were a touch too enthusiastic
about the latter), but they avoid such battles by steering
clear of classification: The band’s sound started as a hybrid
of punk and French house (they’re from Kentucky, by the way),
went through an industrial phase, then morphed into the new-wave
fun-rock it is today. Their current CD, Bring On the Comets,
is a tad more radio-friendly than previous efforts, very pop-infused
and smiley, and we have a feeling this will work out well
for the band. (April 6, 7 PM, $7, 895 Broadway, Albany,
434-4540)
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| Kimya
Dawson |
Free
School Benefit with Kimya Dawson
Grand
Street Community Artspace, Wednesday
If
you’re one of the four bajillion people who flocked to see
Juno, and especially if you bought the film’s hit soundtrack
album, you’re familiar with Kimya Dawson. She’s a minor legend
for her participation in the New York anti-folk scene in the
1990s, as well as her work with Adam Green in the Moldy Peaches;
her fragile, fractured folk was one of the film’s main musical
devices. Dawson is being cool enough to lend her time to benefit
the Albany Free School; proceeds from the show will support
a new art-and-music initiative there. Dawson will appear on
Wednesday with tourmates Angelo Spencer and L’Orchidee D’Hawai.
(April 9, 7 PM, $20, St. Anthony’s Church, Grand Street
and Madison Avenue, Albany, grandarts.org)
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| Also
Noted |
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| Republic
Tigers |
When
it rains, it pours: An atypically busy live-music
week gets going tonight (Thursday) when Portland’s
Rustic Overtones continue their reunion run
at Revolution Hall; 28N will open (7 PM,
$18, 274-0553). . . . Freddie’s dead, but Gary
Mullen is wearing his moustache: The British
singer and his band, the Works, bring One
Night of Queen, their tribute to the gods of theatrical
rock, to Proctors tonight (8 PM, $20-$39, 346-6204).
. . . Female- fronted, Brooklyn-based alterna-rockers
In-Flight Radio play Savannah’s tomorrow (Friday)
night (9 PM, $5, 426-9647). . . . Dress nicely—er,
look sharp—when Joe Jackson plays the Calvin
Theatre in Northampton, Mass. on Saturday; Mutlu
will open (8 PM, $29-50-$49.50, 413-584-1444).
. . . Just around the corner at Northampton’s
Pearl Street on Saturday, have a progtacular time
with Minus the Bear and Portugal the
Man (8:30 PM, $18, 413-584-7771). . . . Catch
two music legends together on one stage when John
Sebastian and David Grisman do their acoustic-duets
thing at Troy Savings Bank Music Hall Sunday
night (7 PM, $32, 273-0038). . . . Ditto at the
egg Sunday, where Tony Rice and Peter
Rowan share the stage (7 PM, $24, 473-1845).
. . . “A Prairie Home Companion” faves the Wailin’
Jennys play a show for the Eighth Step Sunday
at Proctors GE Theatre (7:30 PM, $25, 434-1703).
. . . Jazz vocalist Jeanne O’Connor will
mix standards with more unconventional selections
this Sunday at Caffe Lena (7 PM, $14, 583-0022).
. . . Boogie down with Widespread Panic Sunday
at the Palace Theatre (7 PM, $35, 465-4663). .
. . Sax legend David “Fathead” Newman sits
in with the Empire Jazz Orchestra this
Tuesday at Schenectady County Community College’s
Carl B. Taylor Auditorium (8 PM, $15, $6 students,
381-1232). . . . And! The Republic Tigers,
riding the wave of big-time buzz from last month’s
South by Southwest festival in Texas, open for
Michigan popsters Tally Hall at Jack Rabbit
Slims on Tuesday (6:30 PM, $7, 434-4540).
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