TUES 4/27: Film, Music, Talk, Rock

I might make sports references for the rest of the week, so I'll feel more comfortable if I go to the Boston Sports Blogapalooza on Sunday.

Nice work, Bruins! I wonder if there has ever been a headline like "My Shweet Satan"?

What a weird Sox game last night. I'm glad they won, but I'd like to see them hold the lead for a couple innings! Let's hope their slow start distracts the bandwagoners...

--------------------------------------------------------------

TUES 4/27

6pm
"Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench": Boston Premiere(?)
at Rabb Lecture Hall, Boston Public Library, 700 Boylston St, Boston (Copley Sq)
FREE

It would be nice if contemporary musicals took cues from movies like "Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench" (and "Once"), that you don't have to overdo it like it's a stage production. Give the audience a realistic modern romance with the heart of an old-fashioned musical, and you should have a winner. If you set it around Boston and cast a hot trumpeter in the role of... a hot trumpeter, and you've got all of my thumbs up.

This JazzWeek offering could've been a joint screening with IFFBoston. I'm not complaining that a new indie film that takes place around town is free tonight.

TUES 4/27

6pm to 8pm
NOVA Nights: Science Cafe
at Middlesex Lounge, 315 Mass Ave, Cambridge (Central Sq)
FREE

As part of the Cambridge Science Festival, NOVA's Cafe Sci is hosting two consecutive nights of their typically casual bar forums where the speakers consciously avoid using technical terms so the average listener can follow along and feel comfortable asking questions.

Last year, scienceNOW had a segment on taste and the preference of certain flavors. Prof. Don Katz (Brandeis) is doing research on that connection between the tongue and brain, so you might leave the bar with a better understanding on why you don't like tequila.

TUES 4/27

7pm, 9:30pm
Independent Film Festival of Boston
at Institute for Contemporary Art, 100 Northern Ave, Boston (South Boston/Seaport)
$9 online / $10 door

The final two films (that aren't sold out) are screening at the museum. "Marwencol" (7pm) is about an artist who was beaten so badly on the streets on NYC that he could no longer hold a brush properly to paint, so he found a creative out let by building a backyard village inhabited by dolls. The other film's subject is evident by the title, "Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child" (9:30pm). It's filled with previously unreleased footage by the director who was a friend of Basquiat.

TUES 4/27

7pm
Bryan Charles, "Pavement's Wowee Zowee": Reading
at Brookline Booksmith, 279 Harvard St, Brookline (Coolidge Corner)
FREE

Is there an album that you adore? That you know inside out? That you've read everything you can find about it? That you can go on and on about how awesome it is? The "33 1/3" book series is the sort of thing that you'd want to read or write.

The latest edition explores Pavement's third album that may have been the band's crossroad musically and professionally.

TUES 4/27

Pray For Polanski (11:15pm), Hello Ninja (10:15pm), Iceberg Young + Teamusket (9:30pm), Johnny Stranger (8:45pm), Purple Myrtle (8pm)
at Church, 69 Kilmarnock St, Boston (Fenway)
FREE / 21+

There's not much to complain about a free music show. There are two gems (imho) to be heard if you stick around. Pray For Polanski gives indie-rock a rockabilly twist in a delightful way, and Hello Ninja has a relatively straightforward rockin' core and injects plenty of fresh, snappy pop-itude.

Iceberg Young and Tea Musket must be the FNice Records guys or friends of theirs, because there's only web videos for jokey guitar and DJ experience. I enjoy Purple Myrtle better on recordings since their bluesy noir-rock would benefit from at least a bass to throb along.

TUES 4/27

9:30pm
Magic Magic, Mon Khmer, Clatter Clatter
at Middle East - Upstairs, 472 Mass Ave, Cambridge (Central Sq)
$10 / 18+

Magic Magic might be more popular in England than in Boston, but it's not too late get into their poppish, retro/psych indie-rock that might remind you of The Flaming Lips, etc. I also dig the two-drummer lineup.

I'm not sure about Magic Magic, but the other two bands have some roots at Berklee and serve as two more examples that music school doesn't suck the creativity out of your songs. Clatter Clatter has an easygoing indie-pop vibe. Mon Khmer has a strangely detached sound where you can hear it's a conscious choice to make indie-rock that feels wrapped in gauze and the uptempo numbers even sound slightly dreamy.

If only the band name was "Khmer Khmer", there would've been wonderful symmetry in this lineup...

TUES 4/27

10:30pm
Shepherdess, Milo Jones
at Plough & Stars, 912 Mass. Ave, Cambridge (Central Sq)
FREE

Either one of these acts would be enough free music on a Tuesday night. Whether you're digging the edgy indie-rock of Shepherdess or the deep, rough troubadour stylings of Milo Jones.