Glen Phillips
Monday 4.7
Darsombra
High Noon Saloon, 9 pm
The droning, vaguely spiritual ambient excursions of Darsombra, the new musical outlet for Meatjack alum Brian Danilowski, ought to provoke a few flashbacks. Let's hope they're good ones. Mouth of the Architect and Dagger Mouth also appear.
Anton Sword
Annex, 9:30 pm
The Brooklyn sophisticate croons and sighs through carefully constructed, keyboard-assisted art pop that's alternately dreamy and icy. Bryan Scary and the Shredding Tears open.
Tuesday 4.8
Robert Skloot
University Book Store-Hilldale, 7 pm
The UW professor discusses his anthology Theatre of Genocide, which includes plays about mass murder in such troubled spots as Rwanda, Bosnia and Armenia.
Blitzen Trapper
High Noon Saloon, 7 pm
The Portland, Ore., weirdos cut and paste overwrought psychedelic folk-rock, skewed indie and unbound glam like nobody's business. Are they serious? Does it matter? Fleet Foxes open. Sleeper of the week.
Andrew Sullivan
Wisconsin Union Theater, 7:30 pm
The former editor of The New Republic is a conservative, a Roman Catholic and gay to boot. Plus, he writes a popular political blog that often sounds anything but Republican. He'll explain where's he's coming from as part of the UW's Distinguished Lecture Series.
Wednesday 4.9
Juan Felipe Herrera
A Room of One's Own, 6 pm. Also Thursday, April 10, Hemsley Theatre in UW Vilas Hall, 8 pm
Herrera is a poet, playwright, spoken-word artist and professor at University of California-Riverside. He reads 187 Reasons Mexicanos Can't Cross the Border at A Room of One's Own and performs at Hemsley Theatre as part of his UW residency.
J. Davis Trio
High Noon Saloon, 9:30 pm
These Chicago vets keep scoring points with their narcotic blend of laidback live jazz and equally cool rhymes. It's hip hop that pretty much anyone can kick back to. Dumate opens.
Thursday 4.10
Geoffrey Hartman
Chazen Museum of Art, 6 pm
Hartman was a founder of the Judaic Studies program at Yale, along with the first major video archive for Holocaust testimonies. He discusses "Holocaust Testimony in a Genocidal Era."
Spotlight Film & Video
Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, 7 pm
MMoCA's experimental film series features Leslie Thornton's Peggy and Fred in Hell, an important avant-garde work incorporating found footage.
Choir of King's College, Cambridge
Overture Center's Overture Hall, 7:30 pm
The choir's heavenly voices meet Overture Hall's heavenly acoustics, with accompaniment by the Overture Concert Organ.
Anonymous Four with Darol Anger and Scott Nygaard
Wisconsin Union Theater, 8 pm
The female vocal quartet are known for their impressive renditions of medieval sacred music. They're joined by fiddler Anger and bluegrass guitarist Nygaard for a program of American music, including folk songs and spirituals.
Glen Phillips
High Noon Saloon, 8 pm
The former front man of Toad the Wet Sprocket is currently fascinated with things celestial. He even channels Space Oddity-era Bowie on the lush new Secrets of the New Explorers. Jonathan Kingham opens.
