City Lights: This Week's Best
Week of May. 2 - 8, 2008
Friday: Telepathe
At first listen, Brooklyn’s Telepathe sounds like two stoned hipsters singing karaoke over a worn-out Kelis demo. At second listen, it still sounds like that—but it’s easier to appreciate. Busy Gangnes and Melissa Livaudais mew like a pair of stray cats over stumbling drum machines and synthesizer bleeps a la Crunk Hits Vol. 3. But there’s something appealing and even catchy in their rambling rhythms, primarily because Telepathe casually strolls into territory that most art-punks find confounding: modern R&B. Of course, a thousand listens aren’t going to make your run-of-the-mill Alicia Keys fan any more likely to jam out to a song such as “Chrome’s on It”—but, if you’re already into the Raincoats’ slanted charms, Telepathe will surely be your bag. Telepathe performs with the Kills at 9 p.m. at the Black Cat, 1811 14th St. NW. $15. (202) 667-7960.
Saturday: The Kids in the Hall
Truth be told, the Kids in the Hall aren’t exactly kids these days. Indeed, Dave Foley, Bruce McCulloch, Kevin McDonald, Mark McKinney, and Scott Thompson are all either in their mid-40s or pushing 50. So, what to expect from this lovable bunch of comedic Canucks during their first major tour in six years: a somber-yet-silly look at growing old or a program of timeless material performed by guys on whom Father Time has had an obvious effect? Well, if their last few performances over the years (including an appearance at Montreal’s 25th annual Just for Laughs comedy festival in 2007) are any indication, you can expect the Kids’ long-lasting approach applied to newer material rather than a rehash of characters and sketches that are, by now, permanently embedded in your head—which may or may not receive a little crushing. The Kids in the Hall perform at 8 p.m. at the Warner Theatre, 13th St. between E & F Sts. NW. $40-$45. (202) 397-7328.
Sunday: Stars of the Lid
How do you fit a choral group into a tour van? Well, you don’t. The ambient duo Stars of the Lid recorded its latest, 2007’s double-disc And Their Refinement of the Decline, with the help of a string section, a horn section, and something called the Saint-Jean-Baptiste au Béguinage Children’s Choir. But don’t expect the Brussels- and Los Angeles-based outfit to bring all of those kiddies on the road. The band’s current tour features a mere string trio, which should be more than enough. Stars of the Lid, after all, traffics not in massive walls of sound but in gentle, Gyargy Ligeti-like swells that can be performed by a couple of dudes with some effects pedals. Of course, this isn’t just any couple of dudes: As a song title like Refinement’s “December Hunting for Vegetarian Fuckface” might suggest, Stars of the Lid is invested in something other than a pleasantly anonymous listening experience. Stars of the Lid performs with Christopher Willits and Hammock at 8:30 p.m. at Iota Club & Cafe, 2832 Wilson Blvd., Arlington. $14. (703) 522-8340.
Monday: Scurvy
The mention of Scurvy brings to mind images of pirates with bleeding gums and limited access to fresh fruit. The New York City–based band that has taken Scurvy as its moniker, however, is imbuing the word with a slightly more pleasant meaning. Scurvy’s music combines that of the ubiquitous jam bands you mistakenly saw all the time in college and the experimental free jazz you later learned to love; the result is steady Latin beats that give way to improvisational freakouts. This interplay between structure and chaos can occasionally be a tough pill to swallow, but it’s certainly better than a fatal deficiency in vitamin C. Scurvy performs with the Cutest Puppy in the World, Chic Nerve, and Janet & Anthony at 9:30 p.m. at the Red and the Black, 1212 H St. NE. $8. (202) 399-3201.
Tuesday: Tony Horwitz
Every schoolchild has a working knowledge of at least two key dates in early American history: 1492, when Columbus sailed the ocean blue, and 1620, when the Pilgrims found a land of plenty. And, OK, if you were really paying attention in high school, you might remember that John Smith & Co. landed at Jamestown in 1607. Even so, that’s 115 years of history more or less glossed over in the popular imagination, and Tony Horwitz—author of Civil War-reenactor immersion tome Confederates in the Attic—sets out to recapture those years in his new A Voyage Long and Strange: Rediscovering the New World. Horwitz, through research and his own travels, retraces the routes plied by B- and C-list explorers such as Hernando De Soto, Jean Ribault, and Pedro Menéndez de Avilés. Horwitz’s journeys might not add any new rhymes to the elementary-school historical lexicon, but they do a nice job filling out the 16th century for the armchair American historian. Horwitz discusses and signs copies of his work at 7 p.m. at Politics and Prose, 5015 Connecticut Ave. NW. Free. (202) 364-1919.
Wednesday: "Spring Thaw"
Christine Gray’s paintings are comprised of the stuff of children’s summer art-camp sculptures: plastic Easter eggs, martini olive swords, yarn, pipe cleaners, and archery arrows. Call it “Still Life: A.C. Moore.” In her Project 4 exhibit “Spring Thaw,” each oil painting has been given the same treatment as a baroque bowl of fruit, but the elaborate dioramas that she bases the paintings on are far more whimsical and surprising. The picture that emerges from these bits of plastic and wire looks environmental, rather than synthetic—Pet Net, a painting of a collection of lucky rabbits’ feet strung from a climbing-wall carabiner echoes the form of a bushel of bananas. Gray is at her best when painting the pure geometry of her tenuous toothpick-and-pipe-cleaner structures, so delicate that they look as though a breeze in the gallery will send them tumbling. The exhibition is on view from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesdays through Fridays and noon to 6 p.m. Saturdays, to Saturday, May 24, at Project 4, 903 U St. NW. Free. (202) 232-4340.
Thursday: "Corpus: Works by Jason Horowitz"
When Jason Horowitz blows up his fleshy photographs to several feet tall, he gives us no choice but to judge the subjects, for most of whom the phrase “Rubenesque” would be a polite term. All five photos are extreme close-ups of different people’s bodies—the outie belly button of Bruce, the four fatty neck rolls of Scott, the penciled-in eyebrows of Gia. With the studio lighting usually reserved for Gisele in a swimsuit catalog, Horowitz makes a halfhearted attempt to change our perceptions of beauty, but he likely knows they aren’t going to budge while Us Weekly is still in print. Instead, he gets us with shock value, especially at seeing the bare, lumpy torso of Michele, whose rolls of fat are the first thing you encounter upon entering the exhibit. What will it take for Americans not to be appalled by the site of a naked body that isn’t tan, trim, and a size zero? Maybe Horowitz is the answer. The exhibition is on view noon to 6 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday, to Saturday, June 21, at Curator’s Office, 1515 14th St. NW, Suite 201. Free. (202) 387-1008.
