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Mike Huguenor on January 12, 2022
This Saturday, Community School of Art and Music honor MLK’s birthday with a free online event: Bay Area jazz bassist Marcus Shelby performing selections from his 2011 album Soul of the Movement: Meditations on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The album interweaves originals like “Memphis (I Am a Man)” with spirituals like “There is a Balm in Gilead” and compositions like Charles Mingus’s “Fables of Faubus,” about Governor Faubus’s attempt to keep Little Rock Central High School segregated in 1957. In between selections, Shelby speaks about the importance of music in civil rights movements. Continue reading »
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Grace Stetson on January 12, 2022
“People think the Earth is flat again,” Chris Porter begins one bit, before quickly losing his patience. “Have you ever seen a lunar eclipse? Has it ever just been a line across the moon?” This weekend, the Kansas-born comedian, best known as a finalist on season 4 of NBC’s Last Comic Standing, comes to the Improv for five shows. Since his stint on NBC, he’s appeared on Comedy Central Presents and released two specials on Amazon—Ugly and Angry and Man From Kansas—and has toured the country’s comedy club circuit. Now’s the chance to see what Porter’s been cooking up during the pandemic. Continue reading »
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Elliott Sky Case on January 12, 2022
Nothing warms the soul quite like the blistering riffs of heavy metal, and Uproar Brewing Co. promises to live up to its name when it ushers in the weekend with a full roster of rockers. Experimental metal outfit Gürschach (pronounced grr-shock) have been shredding across the Bay since 2015, and celebrate the release of their new album, Hypnotic Disasters, this Friday. East Bay Thrash band Frolic and SF’s In Spades open the evening, and psych-tinged weirdos White Fuzzy Bloodbath will get every headbanger in the room psyched for the headlining set of this all-ages show. Continue reading »
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Alec Adams on January 12, 2022
This writer is utterly devastated to realize that early 2010s music has now come around for its time in the nostalgia spotlight. The once forward-thinking jams of MGMT, STRFKR, Foster the People and alt-J now bring listeners back to a simpler time, when one could dance with friends and do crazy things like “leave the house without getting sick.” The glistening synths, bright guitars, slinky rhythms and carefree lyricism of the time are now a tonic to the low morale that has become our norm—but an electric torch burns on at The Ritz this Thursday. Continue reading »
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Alec Adams on January 12, 2022
Jack Harlow isn’t afraid to ask bold questions of his listeners, such as in his song “WHATS POPPIN,” which dares to ask—what is popping? The answer of course is “Jack Harlow’s career,” as the man has been on a meteoric rise to the top of the rap game since his 2020 debut That’s What They All Say. Based on streaming numbers alone, it is statistically difficult to not be exposed to Harlow’s tasteful beat choices and trance inducing flow. He’s collaborated with everyone at the summit of today’s pop music, but his signature style needs no accompaniment when he brings the party to San Jose. Continue reading »
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Jay Edgar on January 12, 2022
The early ’70s was such a pivotal moment in the fine arts, with both the radicalism of 1968 and emerging technologies creating tectonic changes in what was considered, and who created, visual arts. Mixed-media artist Bruce Nauman captured the moment well by utilizing the pop art medium of silkscreening to capture the human body in new, playful and humorous ways in his collection “Studies for Holograms.” By framing his own face in ways to deliberately obscure, Nauman sought to recast the artist’s own body as a pliable material for abstract art. Continue reading »
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Mike Huguenor on January 5, 2022
The first time Demone Carter hung with Sultan Banks was at a high school backyard battle rap. By the time Banks walked in, Carter was already waist-deep in a slow-moving rap battle that had long since become a war of attrition. Continue reading »
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Mighty Mike McGee on January 5, 2022
There is a certain revelatory beauty in every open mic, in watching a rookie attempt their first public performance or a musician introducing you to their newest jam. In our area code, there is also a wealth of talent. Continue reading »
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Elliott Sky Case on January 5, 2022
It’s a mouthful to say and an eyeful to see: GAYLAPALOOZA is here! The 12th annual benefit serving the Billy DeFrank LGBTQ+ Community Center—hosted by queen Elsa Touché—presents a rainbow of entertainment for those seeking further revelry to ring in 2022. The Rainbow Women’s Chorus, Opera San José and the Gay & Lesbian Freedom Band all make appearances, as well as the incomparable opera-singer-drag-queen Dusty Pörn fronting a string quartet. Higher-priced ticket tiers include raffle entry (ooh, prizes!), and of course it’s not too late to Auld Lang Syne a big check in support of queer community resources in the South Bay. Continue reading »
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Alec Adams on January 5, 2022
San Jose’s own JC Smith is quite possibly the definition of old school cool. Wielding his gorgeous Gibson 335, Smith has played classic-sounding soul blues all across the world, most recently releasing a live album with the South America All Stars. Smith may think globally, but he also acts locally; he hosts T-Bone Taxi under the name Johnnie Cozmik for the outstanding heritage station KKUP and is a pillar of the Silicon Valley Blues Society. Smith is a terrific stage personality, and the audience at Poor House Bistro Saturday will find him irresistible. Continue reading »
