Brooklyn

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Come clean

Jeru the Damaja doesn't hate pop after all
Jeru the Damaja vocalized underground agony before RZA declared that R&B stands for "rap and bullshit," before Dead Prez blasted "monotonous material," and way before Immortal Technique announced that he would soil a Def Jam development deal.
By CHRIS FARAONE | May 18, 2009

Hope city

Under the Bridge
Filmmaker looks at life Under the Bridge
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | May 21, 2009

Au Revoir Simone | Still Night, Still Light

Our Secret Record Co. (2009)
On the surface, Brooklyn trio Au Revoir Simone are a publicist's dream.
By MICHAEL BRODEUR | May 18, 2009

Manufactured landscapes

Highlights from a banner year in wordless music
Depending on our mood, most of us seek out albums that coddle our hopes, fears, and concerns; failing that, we want escapism, foreign environments that either take us where we want to be or startle us with the thrill of the new.
By CHRISTOPHER GRAY + ANDREW FREDERICK | May 13, 2009

Something for everyone

Hands and Knees' vintage-to-Fraggle rock
In the last three years Hands and Knees have been signed to the Beatings' Midriff Records and racked up ample gold stars from critics; late last month they also dropped their splendid sophomore record, Et tu, Fluffy?
By BARRY THOMPSON | May 12, 2009

Write. Record. Gig. Repeat.

The Propellers stay the course on The Propellers: 2
The Warren-based Propellers are yet another notable band putting in work for the Warren-based label 75OrLess Rec-ords, and their sophomore release, The Propellers: 2 , offers a gradual growth from their self-titled debut.
By CHRIS CONTI | May 13, 2009

Tanya Morgan | Brooklynati

Interdependent (2009)
Von Pea, Donwill, and Ilyas must have a master plan.
By CHRIS FARAONE | May 06, 2009

Ring master

Toback's Tyson tames two egos
At its best, Tyson becomes its subject's psychotherapist, allowing him to disgorge with no judgment and little restraint his memories, fantasies, impulses, and fears.
By PETER KEOUGH | April 28, 2009

Sugar-coated pop, anyone?

Jonas Dream's merry melodies
With lines such as "chock-full of sunny melodies and intimate, introspective lyrics with bright, polished production," I clearly didn't stumble onto the next Jesus Lizard here.
By CHRIS CONTI | April 28, 2009

Slideshow: Portland Museum of Art 2009 Biennial

The 2009 Portland Museum of Art Biennial, April 8 to June 7, 2009
For it’s 2009 Biennial, the Portland Museum of Art whittled down 970 applicants to just 17 Maine (or at least Maine-affiliated) artists.
By PHOENIX STAFF | April 24, 2009

Why we live here

Tell us your story at thePhoenix.com/Portland
By now, we've all heard what the people at Forbes magazine have to say about why Portland is at the top of its annual "America's Most Livable Cities" list. We apparently scored a lot of points on a "leisure index."
By PORTLAND PHOENIX STAFF | April 22, 2009

Taking the B-boys to School

The Other MIT Crew
You may have noticed, hip-hop dance has gone legit — or at least slightly commercial.
By LISA SPINELLI | April 22, 2009

Classing up the joint

World/Inferno Friendship Society at Paradise Rock Club, April 11, 2009
A substantial portion of the Paradise's clientele Friday evening wouldn't have looked out of place at a fancy dinner party. Thanks to the World/Inferno Friendship Society, punk rock and snazzy fashion sense are no longer mutually exclusive.
By BARRY THOMPSON | April 21, 2009

Clik tracks

Buckshot and Black Moon get live
Hide your naughty daughters and aspiring MC sons: Brooklyn’s Duck Down is that kingly retrofitted, incomparably propped hip-hop label that all of the boys and all of the girls are begging to fuck with.
By CHRIS FARAONE | April 13, 2009

Magic man

Theo Martins kills 'em with kindness
If the first quarter of '09 is an indicator of things to come for Theo Martins the Providence-based lyricist had better buckle up for what should be the biggest year in his budding hip-hop career.
By CHRIS CONTI | April 15, 2009

Review: The Betrayal

From Laos to Brooklyn, following a family's tragedy
As the subject, narrator, and director, with Ellen Kuras, of his own story, Thavisouk Phrasavath has created a film of meandering, almost accidental poignancy.
By JASON O'BRYAN | April 07, 2009

Black Dice | Repo

Paw Tracks (2009)
Spearheaded by Brooklyn trio Black Dice and their peers, American noise rock is less like the pure noise of Merzbow and more like a renewal of dark, grinding industrial rhythms.
By MICHAEL PATRICK BRADY | April 06, 2009

Group efforts

Fly and the Tiptons
In November 2008, cutting firewood at his home in Brooklyn, Mark Turner, 42, arguably the most influential tenor-saxophonist of his generation, lost control of the power saw he was using.
By JON GARELICK | April 07, 2009

Video vérité

'Acting Out' at the ICA, plus Eileen Quinlan
Javier Téllez's 2007 black-and-white film "Letter on the Blind, For the Use of Those Who See" starts with a catchy premise: he gathered six blind New Yorkers at an empty public pool in Brooklyn to act out the fable of the blind men and the elephant.
By GREG COOK | April 01, 2009

Lows, highs, and middles

A mixed bag at the RISD Museum
Yousuf Karsh is one of the giants of portrait photography.
By GREG COOK | March 24, 2009

Mixed book bag

Reads to thaw out with
It looks like a good season run-up to beach reads, with new fiction from Denis Johnson and Aleksandar Hemon, biographies of Gabriel García Márquez and Cornelius Vanderbilt, and John Updike's final collection of poetry.
By BARBARA HOFFERT | March 16, 2009

Shiny happy people

Matt & Kim let the good times roll
In the event of thermonuclear war, only two things will survive: cockroaches, and the smiles on the faces of Matt Johnson and Kim Schifino.
By MICHAEL ALAN GOLDBERG | March 16, 2009

Solo contender

A.C. Newman adjusts to the limelight on Get Guilty
When Carl Newman walks down a New York City sidewalk and seizes some sudden flicker of inspiration by humming bits of melody into his Blackberry.
By ZETH LUNDY | March 10, 2009

How weird is Stephon Marbury?

Brace yourselves for the Starbury show, starring Stephon Marbury — perhaps the strangest pro athlete ever to suit up in a Celtics uniform.
In 1994's The Last Shot: City Streets, Basketball Dreams , author Darcy Frey offers potent evidence that the matchlessly bizarre Celtic Stephon Marbury dates back at least to early adolescence.
By ADAM REILLY | March 10, 2009

The whiff of art

Heide Hatry, Misaki Kawai, Andrew Mowbray, and William Pope.L
The stench came from the rotting corpse — well, it appeared to be a corpse — of a woman who'd been laid out on a metal table like an exhumed murder victim awaiting a coroner's examination.
By GREG COOK | March 03, 2009

Present perfect

Mickey Factz is here to catch your asses up.
For some hip-hop heads, artists like Mickey Factz represent everything that reeks in rap. Between his bypassing the rugged underground, blowing up on-line, and occasionally kicking Kanye-esque arrogance, he's an easy target for so-called purists.
By CHRIS FARAONE | March 02, 2009

Crowning glory

Boston Ballet's Jewels at the Wang Theatre.
In 1967, George Balanchine created Jewels for New York City Ballet, and in short order this evening-length triptych — Emeralds , Rubies , and Diamonds — became the crown jewel of 20th-century dance.
By JEFFREY GANTZ | March 04, 2009

[DINING] Sous Chef Smackdown

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