Monday Happenings

Photo of Detroit7 from the band's Web site.

It's the fifth anniversary of Beat Research, the collaboration between MassArt's DJ Flack and Brandeis's Wayne and Wax that brings the world's best beats to Central Square every Monday. To celebrate, they've invited Filastine, a fusion expert equal to the occasion who fuses Arabic, Balkan, and Brazilian music with dance beats. Enormous Room, 567 Mass. Ave., Cambridge, 9 p.m. Free.

Japanese Rock

If you have spare Valium, consider sharing it with the Hub's garage rock otaku to prevent them from dying from hyperventilation when no fewer than six Japanese punk and garage bands take over Cambridge. It's the Japan Night Tour and it features The Emeralds, Detroit 7, and four other bands. TT the Bear's Place, 10 Brookline St., Cambridge, 8:20 p.m. $12/$14.

Composers

It's composer John Harbison's 70th birthday, and the NEC plans to get inside his mind. The series is How Harbison Makes His Music and it's a chance to understand the methods of a composer at the forefront of contemporary music. Today's lecture is called "Playing the Changes (Variations and Ground Bass)," and it will examine "the sources and methods" of Harbison's writing, with recoded examples.