If you’re at a loss to put together exactly who or what Cults is, don’t worry, you’re not alone. One year ago, Pitchfork gave their debut single, “Go Outside,” a nine even while scratching its head as to whom exactly they were giving props. After handing the ravening music media a free, three-song EP via their Bandcamp last year and making a big splash at South by Southwest just a couple of weeks ago, the guy-girl duo that make up Cults are a little better known. Brian Oblivion and Madeline Follin are film students in New York who started making music while living together, never expecting their little side project to attract such dizzying attention. To begin with, neither of them has even been in a serious band (unless you count a recording Follin cameoed on with Joey Ramone for Youth Gone Mad at the tender age of 12). Their musical style is basic bright-pop with irrepressible sheen. Sixties keys, playful boy-girl vocals, some xylophone and a little guitar swagger: it’s a blissfully simple recipe that begs the question, if it ain’t broke, why fix it? With a hotly anticipated full-length in the pipeline, it’s pretty certain that these young cineastes-turned-pop-sensations will be anything but broke before long. (David Wicik)
April 7 at Empty Bottle, 1035 North Western, (773)276-3600, 9:30pm. $12.
For “Want” of a Change: A Preview of Rufus Wainwright at Ravinia Park Rufus Wainwright isn’t the first singer-songwriter to reinterpret earlier work through an orchestral lens. And much of Wainwright’s third and fourth albums, “Want One” and “Want Two”—whose twentieth anniversaries are the prompt for this new tour—is fully scored. But when Wainwright hits the Pavilion stage at Ravinia tonight, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra will be behind him.
Brutal Finesse: A Preview of King Crimson at Ravinia There have been few new compositions from King Crimson these past two decades, but the live arrangements of songs from its catalog are often strikingly different than the recorded versions.
Cooling It: A Preview of Colleen Green at Cole’s Bar When Green strums power chords or chiming notes on top of her backing track, you might think you’re at Ramones karaoke night and Madonna is taking her turn.
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