Agenda

Shopping Spree

Few can claim the cross-genre appeal of punk rock plucker Dave Alvin, erstwhile centerpiece of the Blasters. At 80, drummer Edgar Bateman has all the makings of a local legend except for the requisite accolades.
Future of the Left sound like a band that I want to see play in person. Sure, I imagine that, as is often the case, what I hear will resemble their records — but louder. Released in March, Montreal duo Handsome Furs' second LP, Face Control (SubPop) is a plague of gritty, sweaty dance-rock. Athens, Ga., duo Jucifer is best known for blasting out massive, sludgy rock 'n' roll in front of a colossal wall of amps. Just last week I was talking to a friend about one of my faves, Univox — Philly's answer to the question: What would it sound like if The Kinks covered Wire's Pink Flag? — and where they had been hiding.

"A Cause for Art," a fundraising exhibition featuring 31 juried artists and benefiting the Alonzo Davis Fellowship Fund, which supports residencies of Latino and African-American artists. Philadelphia's Scott Greer stars as bewitched blockhead Bottom, who, along with two pairs of lovers, becomes the unwitting plaything of mischievous fairies. Lee Marvin is an absolute badass, so he's the perfect fit for mono-monikered killing machine Walker in John Boorman's '60s noir Point Blank. When actors meet for the first time on the opening night, one can only expect the show to go horribly, horribly wrong — which is just what the folks at the Philadelphia Dramatists Center want. In local lady Jennifer Weiner's latest novel, Best Friends Forever (Atria, $26.99), it's not Facebook or a 10-year reunion that brings protagonist duo Addie and Val back together after years of angst — it's the fact that one of them has done a very bad thing.