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Having spent most of the past week taking in the Umbrella Music Festival, I’m looking forward to some quiet nights at home this week. Of course, that means I’ll be missing out on much of the action around town, which never stops. I mean, today is a Monday and there’s no mail delivery because it’s Veteran’s Day, but shows never stop. Colin Meloy, the precious leader of the precocious Decemberists, plays with the excellent Eleanor Friedberger tonight at Park West; Robbie Fulks has resumed his invaluable Monday night residency at the Hideout; and Velcro Lewis celebrates the release of its new album over the Empty Bottle. On Tuesday night raga-pop sitarist Anoushka Shankar kicks off a three-night run at City Winery, reconstituted new wave also-rans China Crisis give it another go at Mayne Stage, and visiting French jazz monsieurs Aymeric Avice and Benjamin Sanz collaborate with some terrific locals at the Whistler. On Wednesday the sensitive British dubstep crossover star James Blake plays the Riviera, Brazilian Tropicalia vets Os Mutantes return to town for a show at Lincoln Hall, and a new version of the old French jazz vocal ensemble the Swingle Singers scat away at FitzGerald’s. After the jump you can read about four more recommendations from this week’s Soundboard.
Wed 11/13: Pelican at the Bottom LoungeKevin Warwick worried that the departure of Pelican guitarist and founding member Laurent Schroeder-Lebec might result in the group trying to replicate its old sound on its new album Forever Becoming (Southern Lord) its first in four years. Those fears proved unfounded. “It’s immediate, cohesive, and unflinchingly heavy in that multifaceted Pelican kind of way, sliding from ambient to thick to proggy to thundering. In their 13 years together, the band has always maintained its identity as a band—a collective entity creating a sound that everybody helps shape, with no one person more crucial than the next. This is underlined by the absence of vocals, especially given that many of the songs have verses and choruses that sound tailor-made for them.”
