Screen-to-stage adaptations are more common now — there are five currently running on Broadway — than they were in 1995. That’s when Victor/Victoria, a reworking of the 1982 film, had its premiere on the Great White Way. The stage musical retained its star, Julie Andrews, along with its mostly tepid score by Henry Mancini and Leslie Bricusse (composer Frank Wildhorn contributed a few more bland songs after Mancini’s death in 1994). And it was mostly agreed upon by the critics ..read more

FRIDAY

Kristy Kruger/The Treelines/Dim Locator/Siren Sea (City Tavern)

Tang Lung/(MC)2/Veedon Fleece/Daniel Bachman & Ryley Walker/Shiny Around The Edges (Simone Lounge): Though this is a well-rounded bill, make sure you don’t miss the duo of Chicago’s Ryley Walker & Daniel Bachman. Walker has previously played improvisational guitar with two of Texas’ most notable improv exports, Mike Forbes and Andrew Young.

I’m told by a former DFW blogger now residing in Chicago (who called himself the “J.D. Salinger of blogging” after going into semi-retirement) that the work that the new duo produces is more along the lines John Fahey, in his more cohesive moments. Sounds promising.

Vulgar Fashion/Able Youth/Cygnus/Kiwi Sisters/R9 (Hailey’s): Both Rubber Gloves and Simone Lounge have quite the stacked bills, with this offering acts that are more beat-heavy rather than open-ended. It’s probably best to try to catch as much of both shows, and I’m sure a good number of you will do just that.

SATURDAY

Night Game Cult/Darktown Strutters (Pastime Tavern): For plenty of fascinating reasons why you should attend this show, click here.

Track Meet (The Crown and Harp): Tonight’s guest is Realness (aka Ben Aqua), who hails from Austin and performed previously as a costumed solo metal act as well as the “nu disco synth pop” outfit MVSCLZ. Aqua is so renowned as a visual artist that his reputation for non-music work threatens to overshadow his dance party activities. As they say in the streets, that sounds like one of those “good problems.” Aqua is always generous with the mixes, and you can download more than several by going here if you’re so inclined.

Old Warhorse/Dust Congress/Dim Locator (Dan’s Silver Leaf): I can’t tell you how refreshing it is to see so many new bands release 7-inch records again, as opposed to full-lengths as was the norm 10 years ago. Summarizing a first date is so much easier than poring over every tattered emotion from a one-year period.

Where was I? Oh, this is the 7-inch release show for Old Warhorse, and I look forward not only to hearing it, but also enjoying the fact that it won’t take an entire lunch hour to do so.

Cardo’s Vegetable Festival (Cardo’s Farm Project located at 178 Seaborn in Ponder): If you’ve ever hoped that you could just go ahead and camp out when attending a local show, this unique fundraiser is the event for you. Cardo’s is a community-minded organic farm located just outside of Denton, and I’ve heard excellent reports about the various activities that the organizers have conducted.

The usual farm-work will be vastly improved by the ample amounts of music, food and drink provided. Special note to vegans: take precautions, because they do slaughter chickens here on occasion. Just a heads-up.

The music starts at 7 pm and features Burnt Sienna Trio, Glen Farris, and Dust Congress. More information, as well as another way to donate if don’t attend, can be found here, on the farm’s Kickstarter page.

Madison King/Here, In Arms/RTB2/David Ramirez/Greg Schroeder (City Tavern): Apparently there’s some sort of debate about whether Madison King’s picture belongs on the mural in Deep Ellum? Wow, let’s take a step back here, everyone. Of course it does. Why wouldn’t it? This is Deep Ellum we’re talking about here; not Faubourg Tremé or Graceland.

Before anyone gets offended, let me put this another way: Sometimes the best way of demonstrating the significance of a place is through what you’re doing now and even what you’re doing next; it can’t always be about yesterday. Otherwise it can turn into a self-focused memorial, and nobody, not even the musicians that came before, would want that.

This is Madison King’s release show for her first release, Darlin, Here’s to You. Best of luck to King on the new album, as well as the possibility that she’ll have to defend her painting to a guy with a Slowpoke tattoo at some point.

The Caution Children/We Were Skeletons/Prawn/For Hours and Ours/Innards/Two Knights (1919 Hemphill): The ever-honest booking person at 1919 took it upon himself to share this info with me regarding the show: “A possibly great show with bands that have terrible terrible terrible names.” I appreciate the tip.

Benefit for Denton Stray Prevention (Rubber Gloves Rehearsal Studios): The competition over your good-cause dollars is intense in Denton County this weekend. Featuring Modern History Duet, Slackbeat, DJ Nodad, and more. From the event info:

Yet ANOTHER benefit to raise money for preventing strays that are either ending up on the streets reproducing litter after litter or dying in the city shelters. This is our second fundraising event in just over a month, so you KNOW we are desperate for donations! (no one in their right mind would choose to constantly organize these)… Also for sale will be baked goods and miniature afghans for your special furry friends… $6, plus cash for buying some awesome baked goods and a treat for your pet! Baked donations will be accepted, just please let me know if you’re bringing anything ahead of time so I can plan accordingly…

SUNDAY

Lost Generation (Arcade Bar): Featured acts include the nicely diverse pairing of The Tidbits and Adam Pickrell.

Portland, Oregon’s Kyle Cheatham recently brought his Night Game Cult project to the back to the Denton stage for his first-ever homecoming show. The musician was warmly received, bringing his outlandish sense of bizarre theatrics and unforgettable songs to a crowd that remembers a slightly different Denton.

The sometimes controversial Cheatham also has the distinction of having played in revered acts such as Pointy Shoe Factory and The Ditch Kids, but it was in The Night Game Cult that I really noticed his unique visual and musical abilities. The live shows were sometimes carried out in complete darkness with body-painted backup dancers, with the singer himself emoting his synth anthems under a layer of makeup. Needless to say this wasn’t always understood by local audiences at the time.

But as it so often happens in the world of music, Cheatham’s performances seem less strange in 2011 than they did five years ago. It’s much more common to see performers that use minimal accompaniment or backing tracks now doing so at popular festivals. Hindsight has made it much more clear what a local innovator Cheatham was and it’s good to see him back in The Metroplex getting recognition. You have a second chance to catch the singer at a followup performance in Dallas on Saturday when he’ll be appearing at Pastime Tavern with Oak Cliff’s Darktown Strutters.

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We have the skinny on all of this week’s releases. Just head to our movies section.

About midway through Cowboys and Aliens, cattle rancher baron Woodrow Dolarhyde (Harrison Ford) leans down and tells the young boy who has come along on their alien hunt a story about how he cut a man’s throat with the knife he is about to gift him. It is the kind of violent, virile, megalomaniac toughness that passes for no nonsense courage in pre-adolescent adventure stories. And it contains just about the only nugget of truth Cowboys and Aliens is able to contain: when you find yourself in a pickle, stab at your enemies vitals.

That Cowboys and Aliens spends little time worrying about anything but the run-and-chase is its virtue. This is a recycled action flick based on a graphic novel that tries to find its appeal by passing itself off as a cheap imitation of movies we have long loved. If Super 8 was this summer’s homage to the kind of sentimental San Fernando Valley Americana that defined a kind of sacrosanct style of movie making from the 1980s, Cowboys and Aliens is the flip side of that coin, reminiscent of the 1980s boy adventures that fueled a complacent post-suburban American Weltanschauung that reduces history to a black and white battle between good and evil.

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We deserve better. Our children deserve better.

Yes, the abundance of kids at the preview screening of The Smurfs seemed to be laughing loud and often. But we wouldn’t trust children to do their own grocery shopping or design their own school curriculum. Why then should we trust their taste in movies?

In what should be considered the golden age for quality family entertainment (which might also rightly be called the Age of Pixar), 90 minutes of lame slapstick, canned sappy sentiment, and “hip” pop culture references just shouldn’t be considered good enough. Families deserve better.

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Mary Walker/Dharma/Blackstone Rangers/Pocket Change (Rubber Gloves Rehearsal Studios): Either I’m insane or this lineup has changed more than any other show I’ve listed in years. But I’ll give it this much: No matter who has dropped off the bill, it has still stayed worth your while. Nice to know there are enough area weirdos to fill in whenever one bails — and I mean that in the kindest way. Tonight’s performers bring everything from performance art themes (Pocket Change) to a singer-songwriter’s melodious fragility (Mary Walker) to one of the area’s best one-person shows since The Night Game Cult (Dharma).

Big Bang (Beauty Bar): Though this night is often packed anyway, this could still very well be one of the busiest Big Bangs that Sober has brought to The Beauty Bar yet, with the DJ himself having just impressed quite a few people at The Granada last weekend.

Tonight’s event will have New York’s Eli Escobar along as an actual special guest, and the Amanda Blank-collaborating DJ will showcase his mix of Classic House, Classic Rock, early Hip Hop, and 80′s underground styles.

For more things to do, go here.

Image: Via

Like any pop hit, there’s a familiar structure to the band documentary: precocious teenage geniuses meet and gel for a few precious, acclaimed years before it all falls apart under the weight of their singular personalities. As told in actor Michael Rapaport’s directorial debut, Beats Rhymes and Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest, the storyline is no different for the seminal hip hop group A Tribe Called Quest. The trio – and sometimes foursome – met in Jamaica, Queens in 1985 and helped usher in what is called the “Golden Age of Hip Hop.” Then, after a handful monumental albums (and a couple of just plain decent recordings), personalities caused friction and the band fell apart.

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The central tension of the film Sarah’s Key, based on the novel by Tatiana De Rosnay, is a harrowing image. During World War II, French officials collaborating with the Nazis arrive at the home of a Jewish family. Sarah (Mélusine Mayance), a precocious and loyal little girl, believes she is thinking fast and making a brave decision when she denies that her little brother is home. Instead, she locks him in a secret closet in the apartment and pockets the key. Little does she know, the family is about to hauled off to a weeks-long incarceration, first in horrendous conditions at a local sports arena and then in a containment camp in the French countryside. Sarah’s mother and father are eventually hauled off to a death camp in Germany, while Sarah tries to escape and get back to her brother who, as far as we know, is still locked in the tiny closet in their Parisian apartment.

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