Plants and Animals – “Tom Cruz”

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In their debut full-length Parc Avenue, Montreal trio Plants and Animals demonstrated their ability to craft classic psychedelic jams full of rich orchestral sounds. The result was sprawling and theatrical, full of the kind of embellishments that has come to define the band. The band’s upcoming La La Land is reportedly a louder, more electric offering, the result of recording sessions in Montreal and Paris. →

MtyMx All-Ages Festival of Art and Music
Autocinema Las Torres – Monterrey, Mexico
3/20 to 3/22/10

For the past four years, Todd P and countless volunteers have organized an independent festival during SXSW at Ms. Bea’s in Austin, Texas. With over 100 bands featured and a crowd in excess of 2500 people, Ms. Bea’s has consistently provided a free, all-ages alternative to the badges and wristbands of 6th Street. This year, Todd is packing up, joining forces with Monterrey, Mexico-based Independent promoters Yo Garage, and introducing a new post-SXSW tour routing direction: South! →

The Bloggomist: The Local Boy
Film Opinion

Don’t laugh but one of my guilty pleasures used to be old Louis L’Amour western novels.  My father palmed me one while I was doing homework during high school.  ”Read it,” he told me, grinning.  ”It’s just fun.”  The cheesy looking cover and yellowed edges weren’t doing an convincing, but I figured I might as well humor Ba and just tell him I was bored out of my mind if it didn’t work out.  A day later I was asking if he had anymore. →

For every field or industry you aspire to succeed in, networking and communication is key so any opportunity to connect with at least one person who shares the same passions or interests as you is well worth taking. Outpost’s new series, Saturday Visits, gives local and visiting artists an opportunity to talk about their own work and processes with the larger art community. Jared Nielsen will be joining the next open art studio, which will be held on February 20. Can’t make it? No worries, Saturday Visits is offered as a monthly program so if you can’t make it this month, there are more Saturday Visits to come. →

If you haven’t heard, Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings are making a comeback to perform at the legendary Apollo Theater in Harlem on April 30th to celebrate the release of their upcoming album I Learned the Hard Way. Their memorable performance at the Apollo Theater two years ago is a hard one to top, but with Sharon and the band who will be joined by the full ensemble of percussion, strings, vocalists and some special guests who shall remain nameless, this year’s performance is about to take it up to a whole new level. To give you a taste of their new sound, Sharon Jones and Grammy-award winning Canadian singer, Michael Bublé performed →

Kim Rugg “Please Remain Calm”

Two artists, two mind-blowing concepts. Kim Rugg and Josh Azzarella will both have their solo exhibitions of new work, “Please Remain Calm” and “Untitled #100 (Fantasia)” respectively.

Let’s start first with Kim Rugg. Rugg is quite a liberating artist. She uses surgical blades and a meticulous hand to dissect and reassemble newspapers, stamps, comic books, cereal boxes and postage stamps to jumble and disarrange the standards of the conventional. She distorts the neatly alphabetized front page of the LA Times, debunking the producers’ authority and intended →

New York duo Shy Child consists of vocalist Pete Cafarella on keytar and Nate Smith on drums. As former members of the band, El Guapo, the two joined together and over the course of several years have successfully completed 3 LPs and toured through out Europe and the UK. In their new video from the single, “Disconnected,” taken from their forthcoming album Liquid Love, Cafarella and Smith move through sublime moments of pop electro and new wave callings. →

100 ft tall baby chicks, massive strawberries, and flying fish will be part of your trip with Jeff Jordan …

Great art always provokes more questions than answers. His art is a surrealist stab at the ‘how’ and ‘why’ beyond the psychic space that develops around an image, by jolting linear thought processes, and pushing the outer limits of creative evolution. Jeff Jordan’s hybrids and irrational relationships are birthed by his relentless attempt to broaden mental pliability, and expand our desire to inquire. →

Taras Hrabowsky’s “Thing Pit!”

Cartune Xprez
The Cinefamily- Los Angeles, CA
02/28/10

The traveling roadshow of animated videos and multimedia performances known as Cartune Xprez comes to the Cinefamily for an orgy of hypercolored retina-roasting antics. →

LACE’s Annual Winter Benefit
LACE-Los Angeles, CA
02/20/10

This year, LACE has teamed up with Los Angeles-based curator Dino Dinco, who brings his own passions and experience to this annual fundraising event. Inspired by Los Angeles’ history of performance art and LACE’s role as an open platform for artistic expression, Dinco has reached out to a range of artists, both established and emerging, to present an unrestrained evening of contemporary performance. →