|
Ulu,
Schoolbus Yellow
Valentine’s,
Friday
Yes,
Ulu are a jam band. But now that we’ve said it, we’ll let
the friendly folks at the Chicago Reader correct any
misconceptions sparked by that first sentence: This outfit,
they say, “revitalizes the idea of a modern jam band—a term
so frequently misapplied that it has become an insult—by actually
knowing how to jam and better yet how to say something . .
.” So, don’t think of this quartet—keyboardist, drummer, bassist
and tenor saxophonist-flutist—as a jam band so much as a funk-and-jazz
influenced live monster touted by the likes of MTV
and The Village Voice every bit as enthusiastically
as by Relix. There’s a reason, after all, that two
of the band’s three albums are live. Schoolbus Yellow will
open. (Dec. 20, 9 PM, $10, 432-6572)
Janie
Superstar, Mabel, Crabapple
the
Fuze Box, Friday
If
nothing else, Janie Superstar are ambitious and eager to please:
The New York City-based band say they aim to provide the “most
energy-filled power pop rock on the planet.” You’ve gotta
like a band with lofty goals. In their attempt to wow the
kids and to provide a “crowd-interactive experience” at their
live gigs, the boys spruce up the set with clever introductory
music excerpted from some of your favorite TV programs of
yore—like Fraggle Rock and The Love Boat—and
include song clips between their originals, which are guitar-based
pop à la Sponge. Albany’s own Mabel and Crabapple will share
the bill. (Dec. 20, 10 PM, 432-4472)
Mountain
Snow and Mistletoe
Troy
Savings Bank Music Hall, Saturday-Sunday
Christopher
Shaw and Bridget Ball, a married singer-songwriter team, are
folk artists known for their Adirondack Mountain-inspired
music. Back in 1991, the pair recorded a Christmas album motivated
by a living-room Christmas-carol jam session; they named it
Mountain Snow and Mistletoe, and each year around the
holidays the two present a tour of the same name. The album
was so popular that, as Shaw and Ball awaited the birth of
their first child, they recorded a sequel, Mountain Snow
and MistleTWO, in 1994. Special guests will join Shaw
and Ball to celebrate the season at the Troy Savings Bank
Music Hall on Saturday and Sunday. (Dec. 21, 8 PM; Dec.
22, 2 PM; $17; 273-0038)
 |
|
JANE
SIBERRY
|
Jane
Siberry, Dawn Landes
Iron
Horse Music Hall, Northampton, Mass., Sunday
The weather outside may in - deed be frightful, but Jane Siberry
promises to make things delightful with her current Wild Tropical
Nights Tour. The quirky Canuck claimed her niche in mid-1980s,
conquering first Canada and then the States with her wry sense
of humor and idiosyncratic songs. The best-known of these
were collected on the 2-CD set Love Is Everything:Anthology,
released by Rhino last April. While she hasn’t released an
album of new material in a couple of years—though a new disc
is promised for 2003, the muse willing—Siberry keeps up her
quirky rep on the Web site www.janesiberry.com. Among the
various bits of info and assorted photos, there’s a section
called “Fridge notes,” where she not only solicits advice
from fans, but dishes out her own. Jane on cleaning: “Clockwise
circles activate masculine energy. Window-wise feminine. Depends
what you need to do.” You go, girl. Dawn Landes, a solo artist
described by the All-Music Guide as “bridging the worlds
of indie rock, alt-country and folk,” opens. (Dec. 22,
7 PM, $19.50, 1-800-THE-TICK)
| also
noted |
| Great
Day for Up will play their CD-release party
at Valentine’s tonight (Thursday), with Black
Inc., Catch Fire and Indiana opening
(8 PM, $10, 432-6572). . . . Jazz singer-pianist
Rick DellaRatta, a onetime Capital Region
resident now based in New York City, will play tonight
at the Van Dyck with his quartet, featuring percussionist
Ray Mantilla, drummer Victor Jones
and bassist Harvie S. (7 and 9:30 PM, $24,
381-1111). . . . Murphy’s Law and Blood
for Blood coheadline at Saratoga Winners tomorrow
(Friday), with the Virus, Murderer’s Row and
Two Dollars Short opening (8 PM, $14, $12
advance, 783-1010). . . . Nancy Timpanaro-Hogan
and Jeffrey Halstead will perform their
holiday show, A Cabaret Christmas, at the Saratoga
Music Hall on Friday (8:15 PM, $22, 664-5244). .
. . This week’s show to benefit Miss Mary’s Art
Space is billed as the Anti-War Holiday Party, and
if you can only catch one antiwar holiday
party this season, make it this one, which will
be held at 752 Myrtle Ave., Albany. Providing the
music for this blowout will be Kitty Little,
1991, the Kiss Ups and E.C.F.U.
Bring a wrapped gift for the grab bag and you’ll
leave with a different one (sounds kinda like one
of them key parties of the ’70s . . . 7 PM, $5).
. . . Levon Helm, who drummed and sang with
the Band, will play Great Barrington’s Club Helsinki
on Saturday (9 PM, $25, 413-528-3394). . . . SpineCar
and Attic of Love will play new Glenville
club the G-Spot on Saturday (9 PM, 399-1299). .
. . Ellis Paul, a 12-time Boston Music Award
winner who has had songs in the last two Farrelly
Brothers movies (Me, Myself & Irene,
Shallow Hal), will play Caffe Lena on Saturday;
he’s touring behind his most recent release, The
Speed of Trees, which features a song, set to
music by Paul, that was penned by one of his musical
heroes, Woody Guthrie (6 and 9 PM, $15, $12 advance,
583-0022). . . . The Eighth Step presents a solstice
celebration show on Saturday at the College of Saint
Rose’s St. Jo seph’s Hall with folk quartet Kim
& Reggie Harris and Magpie, Abenaki storyteller
Joe Bruchac and African drummer Ade Knowles
(8 PM, $17, 434-1703). |
|
|
Columns
& Opinions
