Also this issue: A Man Up Father and Lilys frontman Kurt Heasley takes responsibility for the band he keeps rebuilding. -Brian Howard The Couple That Plays Together Megan and Mason Wendell run Canary Publicity all day and make music all night in The Method and Result. -Patrick Rapa Al Green -Paul Burress Mondo Generator -Sam Adams Fog/Dosh/Beans/ The Majesticons -A. D. Amorosi Simply Jeff -Sean O’Neal DAT Politics -Chris Nosal Cobra Verde -Brian Howard

May 22-28, 2003

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Mr. Len

As long as cheeseballs like Justin Timberlake and Jay-Z continue to ride the mainstream, a solid underground will always exist. For years, Bronx-born Mr. Len produced and toured with the notorious alternative hip-hop phenomenon Company Flow. But now the beat-blazing mofo has found a happy home with Matador Records, releasing his first solo album at the end of 2001, titled Pity the Fool. The 16-tracker was chock-full of unique turntablism, dark funk, dubby basslines and raw, gritty street-beats -- which Len likes to refer to as "sonic graffiti" -- and featured a bushel-load of lyrical wizardry from collaborators like Juggaknots, Mr. Live, Mass Influence, Dilated Peoples, Jean Grae, Arsonists and others. The forward-thinking hip-hop guru makes his Philly debut at the only abstract hip-hop monthly that we have in this hip-hop town.

Tue., May 27, 9 p.m.-2 a.m., $7, Current with Mr. Len, Dev79, Slug, CCx and Saint B, Silk City, Fifth and Spring Garden sts., 215-592-8838.

—Sean O’Neal