Music Tonight: If you'd like to chase away the holiday blues with some thumping bass and block-rockin' beats (hey, everyone has their own form of catharsis), The Mad Frog in Corrvyille hosts "Bass-Mas," a night of original Electronic and Dance music. Heavy on Dubstep and Drum ’n Bass stylings, the show features several local artists, as well as internationally-known performers like Detroit's Sinistarr (who has released music through respected labels like Metalheadz and Hospital), Chicago-bred Danny the Wildchild and Indy's Dave Owen. Admission is $15 at the door. Get in the mood with the below clip of Sinistarr's "Black Diamonds."—-
• Indiana-based Jazz singer Heather Ramsey and pianist Monika Herzig (both also educators) perform at the Blue Wisp Jazz Club tonight as part of their regional tour promoting the collaborative holiday release, Peace Like a River, which features several Christmas classics and an original or two, performed in the vein of Diana Krall or Eva Cassidy. A great stress reliever for those suffering from holiday anxiety (like me), the music is light, soothing, passionate and torchy with a great classic sound. Click here to sample the new album. Then, head to the Wisp at 8 p.m. for the show. Tickets are $12. Below, enjoy the Peace Like a River track, "Merry Christmas Darling."
• Walnut Hills hotspot The Greenwich shows its holiday spirit on Thursday at 8 p.m. with “Jazz at Christmas,” a night of live Jazz performed by the excellent Mike Wade and the Ambassadors. The show will also feature guest William Menefield, the former “wiz kid” piano master who recently earned a music Ph.D. at the University of Texas. The $10 admission fee gets you a free dinner.
Momentous Happenings in Music History for December 22
On this day in 2002, the world lost one of its modern music icons when Joe Strummer of The Clash died suddenly of heart failure after taking his dog for a walk in his Broomfield, England, neighborhood. He was only 50. It's as shocking and painful to think about the loss of such a soulful spirit and brilliant communicator today as it was nine years ago. We miss you, Joe — if there's a heaven, we're sure you've organized some sort of angel union to fight against God's bureaucrats. Or maybe you've opened a simple little pub on some remote cloud somewhere.
Born This Day: Musical movers and shakers sharing a Dec. 22 birthday include: Bee Gees twins Robin and Maurice Gibb (1949); Cheap Trick guitarist Rick Nielsen (1950); co-founder of honky-tonkin' retro Country band BR5-49, Chuck Mead (1960); and controversial 2 Live Crew leader (and anti-PMRC crusader) Luther "Luke" Campbell (1960).
Uncle Luke is no stranger to making weird news headlines, but this one is weird in a whole new way. A couple of days ago it was announced that the short film Life and Freaky Times of Uncle Luke had been chosen to screen at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. Given Luke's history with the adult entertainment industry, I assumed it was another porn flick and began to wonder what was happening with Sundance — were they adding XXX to the programming?
Alas, the film is actually an unusual experimental piece — which may actually weirder than the prospect of Sundance welcoming pornography to the fest. Read more from the L.A. Times blog about the film here and check out the (obviously NSFW) trailer below.
"Life and Freaky Times of Uncle Luke" Trailer from MayerLeyva on Vimeo.
