Boston's King of Boogie-Woogie With his long hair and white beard, Preacher Jack may look like a wild-eyed holy man descended from a lonely mountaintop. He's actually a living piece of boogie-woogie/rockabilly history who grew up and resides on the North Shore. Pounding the keys for fifty years, he may not keep a weekly residence at Frank's Steak House anymore, but Preacher Jack comes down to Cambridge & Boston every couple weeks to spread......

Music Annie Clark went to Berklee, paid her indie-cred dues in Sufjan Stevens' touring band and the Polyphonic Spree, and named her solo project St. Vincent after a church where which she fell in love and the hospital where Dylan Thomas died. Her songs are chamber pop clad in synthesizers and charm. Middle East Downstairs, 8 pm, 18+, $12. Carnal Carnival Walter Sickert & the Army of Broken Toys know how to throw a......

http://www.myspace.com/unionsquareroundtable" target="_blank">Union Square Round Table Friday, February 29 PA's Lounge, 345 Somerville Ave, Somerville (Union Sq) 9:00 p.m., $8 for 21+ / $11 for 18+ It's the bonus day of the year, so Bonus! is tonight's theme of the (now) bimonthly multi-media performance night that's usually two hour-long segments. How the theme will manifest itself is a surpise until the performance, but frequent musical guest Yoni Gordon usually tries to tie in at least......

Music Atlas Sound, featuring Bradford Cox going solo during Deerhunter's hiatus, hits the Middle East tonight, riding a wave of praise for his new project. Cox's hometown weekly, Atlanta's Creative Loafing, raves, "Let the Blind contains Cox's most haunting and sad songs to date. It throbs with delirious depression, and is bursting with powerful, barely contained emotions." For those of you who can handle strong emotions in the bleak winter, Cox is your fella.......

Dancing Hipsters Probably most famous for dating producing transatlantic hipster heartthrob MIA, Diplo made his name DJing. He's a dance music polymath who introduced the world to Brazilian Funk Carioca and Baltimore Club while inspiring a legion of white guys in skinny jeans to invest in Serato Scratch Live. He spins in Allston tonight. Great Scott, 1222 Comm. Ave, Allston. 9:00 pm. $15. Music --Darkbuster's Hometown Throwup continues with Hub City Stompers, The Allstonians,......

Art Somerville's Nave Gallery has brought us thoughtful installations before, but their new "Ghost Town" sounds positively compelling. Artists imagine our earth in a process of transformation, with cities growing and shrinking, populations moving, people interacting with nature, and everything cycling both naturally and unnaturally toward growth, decay, and chaos. Might sound like a bunch of hippie nonsense, but we think it makes for some appealing art. "Ghost Town" runs through March 21 at......

Darkbuster's 3rd Annual Hometown Throwup Darkbuster with 20 bands over 8 shows at Harpers Ferry Tonight, 2/17, through Sunday, 2/24 9:00 p.m., $10.00 (18+) Last Show: 2:00 p.m., (All Ages) $50 All-show pass available Yes, the title is a parody on The Bosstones' annual show that they recently revived, but Darkbuster is giving playful homage to their friends. They even played one night of the Hometown Throwdown in December. Darkbuster started their own multi-show tradition......

Opera Boston Underground "Quickies" Tonight, doors at 7:00 p.m. (Bostonist suggests getting in line early), show at 7:30 p.m. Lizard Lounge (1667 Mass. Ave., Cambridge) $8 cover, 21+ Opera Boston Underground is the casual, subterranean branch of Opera Boston (whose smart, cute Semele we enjoyed earlier this month) and tonight they return to the Lizard Lounge for a handful of semi-staged mini-operas, with three libretti (and one score) by the late Gian Carlo Menotti. A......

Awkward Lectures Cory Arcangel's best known artwork Super Mario Clouds turns the world's first scrolling video game into a digital environment of placid repetition. It percolated on the internet and spilled into the Whitney's Biennial, making Arcangel a digital art superstar. But his true calling may have been as a lecturer. Whether the topic is hacking old electronics or copyright; his willful ignorance of art history or his place in it, Arcangel always entertains.......

In the Mood For Love (花样年华) Tonight at 7:30 7:00 (oops) Harvard Film Archive (Carpenter Center, 24 Quincy Street, Cambridge) Free admission! For anyone looking to launch a pre-Valentine's Day attack, Bostonist recommends tonight's free screening of Wong Kar-Wai's In The Mood For Love. This is a cheap date that says, I am sensitive (but not in an Eat, Pray, Love way). I am stylish (but not in a leggings-and-Uggs way). I can put up......

Console yourselves, people. Go out tonight. Puppetry! The Bread and Puppet Theater launches a run of several projects at the Cyclorama, including The Divine Reality Comedy, the "family-friendly" The Divine Reality Comedy Circus, and a "cheap art" show. And, yes, there will be bread--rye brad with garlic aioli, to be precise. Boston Center for the Arts Cyclorama, 539 Tremont St., South End. Runs through February 10. Movies The Coolidge Corner Theater is celebrating the......

It's unfortunate that yesterday's Herald gave huge play to a superficial analysis of Detroit's casinos and their similarity to Governor Deval Patrick's gambling vision. Bostonist was tough on the piece, which made up for its lack of evidence with a few anecdotes and general confusion. Meanwhile, today's dispatch from the Motor City by Dave Wedge is substantial and nuanced---and buried alive under a host of Patriots stories that the Herald willed into existence. Wedge......

The Axe in the Attic Human Rights Watch International Film Fest Wednesday, January 16 at 7:30 p.m. Remis Auditorium, MFA Tickets: $10 MFA members, seniors & students; $12 others. Tonight, The Axe in the Attic opens the four-day Human Rights Watch International Film Fest at the MFA. This film follows two New Englanders on a post-Katrina road trip to New Orleans, depicting their interactions with evacuees and confronting difficult realizations about the many shortcomings of......

Thanks to an influx of new readers, Bostonist grew this year, and we'd like to launch a few new regular columns. Here's the specifics: 1. Food Writer: One column every Tuesday. Bostonist's New Year's Resolution is to write more about food. As you can see, we are partial to recipes and restaurant reviews. 2. Drink Writer: This city loves its booze. Bartender interviews, reviews of new drinks, reviews of your favorite bars--we'd love to......

Unlike the Top 10 Most Commented stories, the top 10 favorites represented a selection of all the fun, the playful, and just plain odd that this city has to offer. You loved sex scandals at the local schools, Vendetta Gunn, and the local productions On Broadway and "BU Tonight." But we were really surprised at how much you loved … Barbie. Yeah, Barbie. 10. Arlington School System Turns Into Peyton Place 9. Boston Blotter: Penis......

4. Feel It Calling in the Air Tonight. A Phil Collins fan in the South End was really feeling the music. He could feel it, "calling in the air," so to speak, and he played it loud. Even worse, his neighbors told the BPD that it was "like this every night." He was arrested because he wasn't going to turn down that Phil Collins without a fight. Even though weirder crimes exist in this countdown,......

Already feeling the pressure of holiday family time? Leave the house. Run away. Tonight's events will help add some spice to your Santa. Music --Holiday stress? Family freaking out on you? Swap "Jingle Bells" for "Raw Power" with The Scrooges--a band that dresses in Santa suits and covers the Stooges. They'll be at Great Scott tonight at 9:00. 1222 Commonwealth Ave, Allston. Theater --The New Repertory Theater is showing David Sedaris' Santaland Diaries, which......

Hope you sports fans were able to relax yesterday. The disappointing non-slaughter of the Jets is in the rear view mirror, the Dolphins game isn't quite as exciting since the stupid Ravens ended Miami's bid for a winless season, everything is sewn up in the AFC, and the Monday Night game wasn't that exciting. Plus, the Celtics and Bruins were off. But we've got some big games coming up in the next 48 hours, so......

COLOR Friday, December 7th Milky Way Lounge 403 Centre Street Jamaica Plain, MA 9pm / 21+ / $5 MySpace w/ resident Joseph Colbourne special guest: David Shaw A recently added night to Boston's blossoming dance party scene, COLOR - hosted by Ben Sisto - takes on a handful of meanings. Open to all, the genres spun cover a vibrant variety. The idea behind it, too, is to join art and music, bringing in guests......

Benefits for Jeanne Sheehy December 6--Tonight!: B.O.D., Willie T & Dr. X, Doug McDonald Band, Roger Fisk, Country Doctors, Wide Iris, The Delusions, The Outlets. Show starts at 8:45 pm. December 21: Jonny Pape, Auto Interiors, Joyce & Chick of Scarce, Downbeat 5, AdFrank, The Pills, The Shods. Show starts at 9:05 pm. December 28: Jules Verdone, The Douglas Fir, Baker, Francine, The Gravel Pit. Show starts at 9:10 pm. December 29: Keys to the......

HEARTHROB Tuesday, December 4th Middlesex Lounge 315 Massachusetts Ave. Cambridge, MA 9pm / 21+ / FREE w/ special guests: Peppermint Twinz (Christopher Wade + Initiales A.A.) It's surprising that a dance night like Hearthrob could be so successful considering it has hardly more than a MySpace page and does little to no promotion. The reigning master of such success is still word-of-mouth, and that is something that the three New England-based DJs have built......

The BPD is busy, and they don't need to be dealing with some trifling pranksters, especially ones who can hear it calling in the air tonight and who ask them to hold on. Police received complaints about a man blasting music in the South End last Thursday. Usually, party music is the culprit, but the man had been possessed by the spirit of soft-rock icon Phil Collins. And his neighbors were hating it: On arrival,......

Christopher Guest - actor, director, writer, musician, and Grammy-winning composer - stood solemn in his academic regalia on Friday night as a packed Berklee Performance Center crowd gave him a standing ovation. Looking every part the dignified scholar, Berklee's newest Honorary Doctorate of Music recipient nodded to the crowd. Then he raised his hand, made devil's horns, and got down to business. Guest told a story of a young boy, one who grew up in......

Tim Blane Gregory Douglass Paradise Lounge Tonight, 9 p.m. doors, 18+, $10 MySpace Boston singer-songwriter Tim Blane isn't just the kind of musician who goes out of his way to talk about his music, he's the kind who will take a phone call when he's enjoying a day off in Florida - on his birthday. He won't mention this to a caller until the interview is already underway and laughs when the secret is revealed.......

COLLISIONtwelve (12) Art Opening Tonight Friday, November 30th MIT Stata Center Balcony Gallery 32 Vassar Street, 3rd Floor Cambridge, MA 6p - 9p / FREE / All Ages COLLISIONcollective is a group of artists from MIT and the surrounding Boston area that explore new technologies through the filters of art. Founded in 2002, their intentions have been to showcase art that incorporates technology, but has since expanded into some of the most innovative and......

Tourfilter DJ Night River Gods (125 River St., Central Square) Thursday, November 29, 9 p.m. -1 a.m. Free! If you're not already a member, you should definitely join Tourfilter.com. It's a music fan's dream: a comprehensive site that lets you track your favorite bands and get e-mail updates when they're coming to town--or, in the case of local bands, playing near you. The site's also a great way to get to know new bands, since......

Or at least they need some sensitivity training. Via Universal Hub, we hear Harper's Ferry has some real racist assholes on its staff. There's one guy who was begging to be fired after insulting black hip-hop performer Bus Driver last week. Bus Driver promptly refused to perform, and the other act, Daedalus, followed suit. Etan at Basstown spoke with Regan Farquhar (aka Bus Driver) and his DJ. They say the sound guy at Harper's Ferry......

Ukulele Noir Nave Gallery, Clarendon Hill Presbyterian Church, 155 Powderhouse Blvd, Somerville Saturday, November 17, 2007 8-10 pm, $10 Bostonist never thought we'd hear the words "ukulele" and "noir" used together, but now it's happened. And it sounds pretty rad. Tonight's installment of Ukulele Noir, an assortment of skilled ukulele players, will feature Craig Robertson, Melvern Taylor and the Fabulous Meltones, Uncle Shoe, and the East Boston Make Out Club Band. All will strum tiny......

Sia Willoughby Paradise Rock Club Tonight, 8 p.m., $16.50 (18+) Ticket information Sia Myspace | Willoughby Myspace If Sia's voice sounds familiar on her forthcoming EP, "Some People Have Real Problems," you can thank or blame Zach Braff, depending on your point of view (Bostonist, for the record, thanks profusely). Slow down the bright and catchy pop beats of "Buttons" and you'll recognize the breathy voice that provided the vocals to Zero 7's "In the......

Juliette and the Licks Scissors for Lefty, Suffrajett Middle East Downstairs Tonight, 8 p.m., $15 (18+) MySpace She's a J. Lewis making a name for herself in music after an acting career, the frontwoman of an otherwise all-male band, someone known for keeping audiences guessing about how she's going to look, what she's going to wear, what she's going to do. But whereas Rilo Kiley's Jenny Lewis takes the demure route (as much as one......