review

Book by Oliver Sacks. Published by Knopf. Music, this weird and wonderful do-re-mi, welling up from the same ineffable place as our most basic expressions of instinct and desire — where does this stuff come from? Neurologist Oliver Sacks (Awakenings, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat) doesn’t know, but he offers some […]

By various artists. Rhino Records. Kimya Dawson is kind of a deal-breaker. Whether she’s the personification of four-track, scruffy-round-the-edges authenticity or a mediocre singer plying a shoddy affectation is largely a matter of taste. But even though Ellen Page (who plays Juno) suggested to director Jason Reitman thatJuno’s title character would be into Dawson’s work […]

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 […]

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 […]

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) […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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, […]

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 […]

CD by Nudity. Discourage Records. Chances are that if you’ve been grooving to the likes of Acid Mothers Temple, Earthless and Wooden Shjips, or taking advantage of the recent slew of psych/space rock reissues, then Nudity is more of what you’re looking for. The influences are easy to spot, and as the band will tell […]

CD by Garth Vader. January 2008 saw the release of Mr. Garth "Culti"-Vader’s second album Unpredictable Individual. Rebellious and independent, the album is the evolved expression of a talented hip hop artist firmly centered in the place he lives. Garth represents California, specifically Humboldt, and of course the roughneck weed-growing culture, in more than 20 […]