the hum / By Bob Doran

Scientist v. Evil Vampires

The Broken Heartsare breaking up. “It’s very sad,” says Julia Cupp,the band’s lead singer. “I’m leaving for Portland at the end of summer,Zak [McLongstreet,guitarist/accordionist] is going traveling at the beginning of summer. We’re going on tour at the end of May with The Ian Fays,starting in S.F. and ending in Vegas, but we’re just doing one more local show.” That’s Saturday (Arts Alive! night) at the Pearl Lounge. Thelittlestillnotbigenoughopens.

Something exotic? San Francisco’s Gamelan Sekar Jaya plays traditional and not-so traditional Balinese gamelan music Saturday at HSU’s Fulkerson Recital Hall. (Costumed dancers too.)

Or how aboutRaquay and The Cavemen, progressive Middle Eastern bellydance-style band from Brooklyn, led by red hot dumbek player Raquy Danziger, playing Tuesday, May 6, at Six Rivers,a show presented by. (I’m guessing there’ll be costumed dancers at this one too.)

Also on Tuesday, Andrew McKnight, a “songpoet” from Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley sings heartfelt, topical songpoems from his latest, Something Worth Standing For, at the Westhaven Center for the Arts.

Cool/esoteric show of the week: a four-way bill Tuesday at the Pearl featuring two Arcata alt. bands, Brother Mitya(aka John Thomas) The Beat Nun(Maddy Shernock and friends),plus two touring duos, I Heart Lungand ellul.I Heart Lung is guitarist Chris Schlarband drummer Tom Steckproducing music they refer to as “refined chaos,” leaning toward drone with jazzy guitar, subtle percussion, “improvisation and predestination,” as they put it. IHL is about to release a drone opera, Interoceans, on Asthmatic Kitty Records, with guest spots by Nels Cline and pedal steel wiz Dave Easley among others, but this tour is just the two of them. That and labelmates ellul, with two Joels: Joel St. Julienand Joel Brown Tarmanboth playing guitar (Brown Tarman also plays keys). They both sing (in harmony sometimes) and manipulate all sounds via electronics devices as they “attempt to traffic meaning into a needle-eye spiral using the ever-evolving relationship between acoustic and electronic modalities with the human voice.” A worthy goal. Incidentally, Brother Mitya The Beat Nunan all-ages show at Mosgo’s Saturday, which is a good thing for those too young to hang out in bars.

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