'Tis the season to shake off the cold and retreat under the comfort of hot chocolate, lots of blankets, and a good book. An armload of cool new selections are worth snuggling up with, aiming to feed your head and pop-culture addictions.
With a flick of the wrist and a sweeping downbeat, guest conductor Catherine Comet led the Quad City Symphony Orchestra into the first strains of its concert on Saturday, December 4. The musicians, under the graceful yet commanding baton of Comet, performed Georges Bizet’s Symphony in C and Aaron Copland’s Symphony No.
He toured minor-league baseball parks with Bob Dylan earlier this year. His latest album puts Tom Waits material next to Toby Keith’s, and includes duets with the popular jazz crooner Norah Jones and the ever-respected alt-country goddess Lucinda Williams.
The culture war is rising like my heating bill. Macy's and other Federated department stores have banned "Merry Christmas" from their customer greetings this season, so as not to offend. All references to Christmas are being stripped from public spaces, replaced with candy canes (sugar!), snowmen, and foil-wrapped presents (buy now!).
Bob Dorr has fronted the Blue Band for 23 years, and he promises that he'll keep it going through a major milestone: a quarter century. "Our immediate goal is to make it to 25 years, and that's less than 18 months away," Dorr said.
• For a number of years now the CMH Records imprint has churned out a bizarre array of tribute CDs under the "A Bluegrass Tribute to" banner, serving up a down-home finger-pickin' twist on artists including Metallica, the Dave Matthews Band, and Cat Stevens.
After a mere two rehearsals last weekend, the Quad City Symphony Orchestra (QCSO) treated roughly 7,000 audience members to a smart, polished Holiday Pops concert Saturday at The Mark. Joining the QCSO’s 82 musicians were 109 singers from the Davenport First Presbyterian Church Sanctuary Choir, a 97-voice children’s chorus, 22 members of the Figure Skating Club of the Quad Cities, and jazz quintet The Hot Club of San Francisco – a rather grand total of 315 performers.
Anybody expecting a big expansion for the Future Appletree record label is likely to be disappointed. The bands obviously hope to make a big splash, but the label itself is trying to keep things intimate. "It started as a thing among friends, and with the exception of A Is Jump, it's pretty much stayed that way," said Pat Stolley, one of the label's founders and a member of The Marlboro Chorus.
• Stubbs the Zombie, an upcoming new video game, takes players back to the good ol' zombie-killing days of the late 1950s, collecting modern acts time-traveling as well, covering early pop-rock classics for the modern age on the accompanying soundtrack.
• A terrific new charity CD is due next week, benefiting refugee assistance in Sudan's humanitarian crisis. Entitled Genocide in Sudan, the Waxploitation Records release features contributions from an amazing array of socially conscious artists, including Tom Morello's Nightwatchmen, Tweaker with Will Oldham, Danger Mouse with Murs, and DJ Spooky with Lee "Scratch" Perry.

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