CD by Harmonia. Water/Gronland. According to tales of rock lore, Brian Eno once proclaimed Harmonia to be the most important band in rock music. That’s an impressive endorsement, especially considering that Eno is widely recognized as part of the brain trust behind the careers of some of rock’s biggest names: David Bowie, Talking Heads and […]
Music
Coverage of the music scene in Humboldt County with upcoming shows from locals and out-of-town acts, reviews, interviews and more.
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Bound for the Promised Land: Harriet Tubman
CD by Marcus Shelby Jazz Orchestra. Forthcoming from Noir Records. History is only as memorable as the current stories we tell about the world. The preference to remember past events in a charitable or patriotic light transforms ideas, events and people who are then filtered through the current discourse to explain their relevance. Marcus Shelby’s […]
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Looking for Nothing
It’s not hard to imagine Iowan folksinger Greg Brown climbing out of a dusty, battered pick-up truck parked down some lonesome road, pulling an equally battered guitar and canvas bag full of fishing tackle from the back and ambling down an overgrown path looking for a hole where they’re biting. That’s the picture he paints […]
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Amazing Grace
DVD, directed by Michael Apted. 20th Century Fox. Perhaps the most pernicious doctrine of colonialism is the idea that enslavement is in the desire of the oppressed, and that the overthrow of slavery came from the gracious realizations of those in power. Articulated in the toxic notion of the "white man’s burden," as phrased by […]
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Falling Off The Lavender Bridge
CD by Lightspeed Champion. Domino Recording. It is a surprise to initially hear Lightspeed Champion’s debut, Falling Off The Lavender Bridge, especially for those who may be familiar with the UK singer/songwriter (whose real name is Devonte Hynes) from his former band, The Test Icicles, whose jagged thrash punk was near-chaotic. Then again, this recording […]
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Dreamers
Joseph Shabalala, leader and founder of Ladysmith Black Mambazo, has told the story of his dream many times. He told it to me years ago when the group was on one of many world tours. The dream came in 1964. "In my dreams I heard children singing sweet harmony," he said. "These children were singing […]
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Incredible Flight
In September of 2007 a one-pound Bar-tailed Godwit, designated E7, completed the longest non-stop flight ever recorded for a bird. This is her story. E7 hatched in the tundra of western Alaska. She dined on insects and then, after fledging, on marine life near the mouth of the Yukon River, storing an immense amount of […]
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Corky’s Debt to his Father
Album by Mayo Thompson. Drag City. Mayo Thompson’s Corky’s Debt to his Fatherwas first released in 1970, though it was so out of step with other albums of its time its age hardly shows today. The folks at Drag City (who are hell bent on chronicling the seemingly endless navigations of Thompson’s four-decade musical career) […]
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Tim Catlin
Live performance Feb. 2 at the San Francisco Arts Institute Tim Catlin’s CD Radio Ghosts, released last year, doesn’t make for good driving music. Unless the listener is Roman Polanski or David Lynch sizing it up as soundtrack material, this is music best reserved for the live experience. Devoid of any ascertainable melodies, Catlin’s work […]
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In the Future
CD by Black Mountain. Jagjaguwar Records. Three years ago Black Mountain’s eponymous debut crashed onto the indie scene and immediately captivated both press and fans. Their quick success secured them an opening spot for Coldplay and landed them on the soundtrack for Spider-Man 3. For any band rising to such a level from virtual obscurity, […]
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Swan Lake
Ballet performance by Saint-Petersburg State Academic Theatre Feb. 17 at the Arkley Center for the Performing Arts Those of you who went to the Arkley Center for the Performing Arts on Feb. 17 to see Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s classic ballet, Swan Lake, might have failed to notice that while you were watching the graceful drama unfold […]
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Universal
His name is Tilmann Otto, but he’s best known as Gentleman , the No. 1 reggae performer in Germany. He was born and raised in Cologne, the cultural center of the Rhineland — not exactly a place that comes to mind in connection with reggae. "There’s a big scene there," says Gentleman, who is in […]