Agenda

Icepack

Few phrases will send a club full of jazz devotees scurrying to the bar faster than "I'd like to bring my wife to the stage."
The first thing you learn about Floor is their "bombstring." They're as painstaking about their 1980s fetishism as they are in targeting that sweet spot between soft-focus songcraft and total dancefloor abandon. The riffs are infectious, like something concocted by a mad scientist. You can't fully experience Brooklyn techno-rockers MEN unless you catch them in person. After more than three decades of beefing up countless ensembles with his tree trunk-thick tone, Reid has finally thrust himself onto the marquee. Sage Francis has been an indie-rap figurehead for a decade, but his newest, oddest album puts an unexpected twist on that phrase. The duo marries traces of Barthmus' old songwriting style with drifty, hazy psychedelic ambiences. The works showed off a knack for using highly complex language in the service of very accessible and very expressive pieces. When heartbreak hits, you can crumple to the floor or you can work through it. Guess which path The Shondes chose after their original guitar player left abruptly? It can sometimes be difficult to keep track of saxophonist Tim Berne's numerous bands.

As if presenting Jasper John's seminal Flag (1960-1966) in a single-object exhibition this summer weren't enough to satiate Pop aficionados, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts had to call in the Andy Warhol troops. Six small local theater companies, curated by Theatre Exile's Deborah Block, will present new works-in-progress by area playwrights for our approval and the $1,000 prize.