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Tonight: Jenny Lewis

Celebrated singer-songwriter Jenny Lewis is making a stop in Buffalo tonight. Gracing the stage at Babeville (Asbury Hall), she’ll be bringing along two decades worth of influential music. Initially starting out as a member of indie rock favorites Rilo Kiley, Lewis has gone on to have an acclaimed solo career. In addition, she has appeared on projects by artists ranging from The Postal Service to Ryan Adams, as well as both acting and writing music for several films. Her most recent solo record, The Voyager, was released in 2014. Opening up the show is NYC-based artist Cut Worms, the project of Chicagoan Max Clarke. Their debut LP was released this year via Jagjaguwar. Tickets are $30 at the door with doors opening at 7pm, music at 8pm.

A Very Murray Christmas

The A Very Murray Christmas special on Netflix is one of the greatest pop culture artifacts ever produced, and potentially the apex of human civilization. Crafted by international icon/spirit animal Bill Murray, Mitch Glazer and director Sofia Coppola for streaming whenever you like, it is an instantly classic one offmedia masterpiece that transcends film, television, and reality itself. Featuring preposterously bravura performances  from a multitude of talents that are soulfully beautiful, yet ironic without a trace of irony, it’s ridiculously heartfelt and brilliant. There, I said it. And the musical numbers supervised by Paul Shaffer are sublime from start to finish: the very first number “Christmastime Blues” featuring Bill with Paul at the piano in his suite at the Carlisle Hotel before Bill’s ill-fated live TV holiday special instantly recalls Nick the Lounge Singer while setting the slightly melancholic mood; a duet in matching Andy Williams sweaters of Bill and[...]

Jenny Lewis – The Voyager

“The voyager is in every boy and girl, / if you want to get to heaven / get out of this world.” On July 29th, Jenny Lewis released her first solo effort, The Voyager, since the sensual alt-country album Acid Tongue of 2008. I expect a lot from Jenny Lewis. I expected sci-fi to blast us off and let us escape, I expected sex to ground us, I expected sliding guitars to remind us of where we come from. Yet, squarely in the middle of the album, she croons, “Forgive me my candor.” The Voyager probes, sent on their mission in 1977, are the furthest that human-made objects have ever been from planet Earth. They famously contain a disc, a Golden Record each, an audio-visual capsule of life on our planet. These records are at once extraordinary and accessible: they contain greetings, mathematics, measurements, silhouettes, and songs. Yet, in order for their beauty to be unpacked,[...]

Jenny Lewis at Toronto Urban Roots Festival (7/6/14)

You may have seen some photos of Jenny Lewis mugging in a rainbow-cream pantsuit airbrushed with clouds and stars lately. Now that I’ve seen her showboat in it on stage in some cerulean sci-fi shades, I’m pretty much convinced that she is ready to bust out of her mortal corporeal form and just become the total goddess she knows she is, space-Barbie style. Furthermore, I’m even more excited for her new record to come out on July 29th, titled The Voyager. Jenny is an indie star and it’s fabulous to see her embrace all of the selves she has ever been for us on stage: her setlist for TURF (Toronto Urban Roots Fest) yesterday even included two anthems from Rilo Kiley’s More Adventurous and The Execution of All Things. She also revisited quite a few Under the Blacklight classics, such as “Close Call” and “Silver Lining.” Under the Blacklight, the[...]