Weekly Agenda: It takes two
As always, the fall calendar is ripe with good stuff, including some new collaborations (Janelle Monáe and Of Montreal!) and scads of reunions (The Vaselines aside, it's feeling very '90s up in here: Pavement, Guided By Voices, Semisonic, The Hang Ups). The theme for the season seems to be “bringing people together,” so let’s take a look at some of the week’s most fruitful team-ups.
Although indie dream girl Jenny Lewis is breaking lots of hearts by once again touring with a beau (you know she dated Pinsky from Rilo Kiley, right?), she and Johnathan Rice sound like a good match. In addition to a cute name, Jenny And Johnny (Sunday, Cedar Cultural Center) have a few years of collaboration under their belts and a shared love of wry storytelling in songs.
The hip-hop world has tons of great duos, but it’s high time someone praised Ludacris (Sunday, First Avenue) and… whoever's song he happens to be appearing on. That may sound like a backhanded compliment, but Luda has a surprisingly consistent track record when it comes to cameo verses, unlike some rappers who’ll seemingly hop onto any track and mumble garbage as long as there’s money involved. (Fallen on hard times, Snoop?) He’s playing a solo show here, but fortunately the man can still wring fun from the well-worn genre of booty-poppin’ anthems.
Some filmmakers just know how to get the best out of their prized actors. For example, 30 seconds of screen time in one of Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man movies is still better then everything else Bruce Campbell has done in recent years. These days, Campbell plays Campbell, which is really just his character from the Evil Dead trilogy with worse dialogue. Experience the Campbell/Raimi magic with Army Of Darkness (Friday-Saturday, Uptown Theatre), which shows the actor at his cocky, arrogant best. And to think, Ash was such a nice, normal guy when he and his friends first arrived at the cabin.
