Tropicalia
Os Mutantes has finally come to greater Boston. Best known by most Americans for the song they licensed to McDonald's (this video is great because it demonstrates that children would much rather eat fat-soaked garbage food than win athletic competitions), Tropicalia's wackiest band actually has a long history of selling songs to big corporations. (Check out this trippy Shell commercial if you don't believe us.) The members of Mutantes were the pop-culture swilling young and hip Paulistas who, in the late 60s, joined their more serious-minded friends Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso to change the course of Brazilian musical history. Mutantes' candy-colored costumes were made-for-TV and their searing psychedelic riffs were headshop-ready. Goofy, allusive, and sometimes avant-garde, Mutantes were as bizarre a pop culture phenomenon as you could hope to find in a military dictatorship. The band has reunited, minus Rita Lee, released a new album, and toured the U.S. with a stage show that you absolutely do not want to miss. Somerville Theatre, 55 Davis Square, Somerville, 8 p.m. $28.
Mission of Burma Day
It may be Mission of Burma Day in the city of Boston, but the seminal post-punkers will be releasing their new album The Sound the Speed the Light across the river in Cambridge. Provided it doesn't rain, there's no reason to miss this free show. Sponsored by WMBR. East Campus Courtyard, MIT, Cambridge, 2:30 p.m. Free.
Free Museums
To mark the opening of its new exhibition Sampling MIT, the MIT Museum has declared today "Innovation Sunday" and has a spate of free programs, as it opens its doors to everybody. MIT Museum, 265 Mass. Ave., Cambridge, noon to 4 p.m. Free.
Benefits
Art House is the annual art auction to benefit the Brattle Theatre. We're sure that you are like us and like both art and the Brattle, so why don't you combine them by using your money? Brattle Theatre, 40 Brattle St., Cambridge, 7 p.m. $15.
South African Rock
BLK JKS is a band from Johannesburg, but you might not guess it from their music, which has more in common with Japanese psychedelia than it does with Ladysmith Black Mambazo. But, in fact, BLK JKS is the tip of a sprawling South African rock iceberg that could sink even the most stalwart unwary; it's the unassuming plastic top of a paper shredder that uses rock music instead of gears and shreds minds instead of paper. TT the Bear's Place, 10 Brookline St., Cambridge, 8:30 p.m. $10.
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