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A pinch of Sage
Sage Francis tours New England, plus MC Lars and more
BY CARLY CARIOLI
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Providence’s Sage Francis wrecks decks with distaff battle rhymes, paranoid introspection, and literary elusiveness, like Eminem with six degrees and a head full of Fugazi’s DIY politics. After a couple of cult-making releases on the avant-friendly label Anticon and the underground-tastemaking imprint Lex, he’s got Danger Mouse (among others) making beats and an indie-rocker singing a hook on his Epitaph debut, A Healthy Distrust. "The Devil is the fucking white man, rhyming," Sage growls at the end of the interstellar turntable battle "Sun Vs. Moon." Might be, but we hope wigga brought a windbreaker or something, because with bonnie prince Will Oldham rocking the palace on the disc’s first single, "Sea Lion," we’re pretty sure Hell’s frozen over. Sage is at Higher Ground (888-512-SHOW) in Burlington, Vermont, on Monday; at the Middle East (617-864-EAST) in Cambridge for a CD-release party on Tuesday; and at Toad’s Place (203-624-TOAD) in New Haven next Thursday, February 10. Still, it’s not as if Francis/Oldham were without precedent. Last summer, you probably downloaded emo-kid-turned-lap-top-rapper (and avowed Atom and His Package fan) MC Lars’s "iGeneration," a clever micro-hit that samples the crunchy chorus from "American Hearts" by Boston (now LA) emo geeks Piebald. But that was only the second-best emo hook on Lars’s Laptop EP. If you want to hear #1, check out the new Kurt St. Thomas–directed video for Lars’s arch music-biz satire "Signing Emo," which features a cameo by Hearts That Hate — a fictitious band whose bio claims they’re from Providence and who might be the Spinal Tap of screamo. MC Lars is opening the Bowling for Soup/American Hi-Fi tour, which hits Higher Ground on Wednesday; the Maine Center for the Arts (207-581-1110) in Orono next Thursday, February 10; and Lupo’s at the Strand (401-331-LUPO) in Providence on February 11. Dalek spent 2004 as usual pushing the envelope on avant-garde hip-hop: issuing an album on Mike Patton’s Ipecac imprint, remixing Handel’s Messiah, and teaming with krautrock legends Faust. They’re at Flywheel (413-527-9800) in Easthampton on Wednesday and at the Middle East on February 13. In other news: Boston’s own Dresden Dolls are finally headed to Dresden — March 3, get your plane tickets — and they’re warming up by playing a bunch of dates with Regina Spektor, the Strokes’ favorite Russian cabaret pianist, opening. The Dolls are at Toad’s Place tonight (February 3), at Lupo’s on Saturday, and at the Space (207-828-5600) in Portland on Sunday.
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