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St. Valentine's Day massacre
Mirah and Lovers around New England, plus Chingy and more
BY CARLY CARIOLI
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Somewhere, Cupid is smiling: was it his idea to team Mirah, the finest indie-pop singer-songwriter from the City of Brotherly Love, with New England’s Lovers for a Valentine’s-week mini-tour? It’s a match made in Heaven: Mirah Zeitlyn and Lovers’ Cubby Berk both wear their queer hearts on their sleeves in creek-dipped indie-folk songs wrapped in ribbons of brass and strings. And their most recent discs — Mirah’s C’Mon Miracle (K Records) and Lovers’ The Gutter and the Garden (Orange Twin) — are every bit as magical as anything Conor Oberst put out last month. They team up for gigs at the Roger Williams American Legion Hall (401-621-7567) in Providence on Saturday, the New Art Cinema (508-487-4269) in Provincetown on Sunday, and the Yellow School Center for the Arts (978-499-7731) in Byfield, Massachusetts, on Monday, Valentine’s Day. Of the three singer-songwriters in the cult-favorite Texas group the Flatlanders, Jimmie Dale Gilmore is the one whose songs come closest to pure-bred honky-tonk, though he’s at home in everything from rockabilly to twisted desert-psych garage rock to introspective folk. Re-energized by last summer’s acclaimed Flatlanders reunion, he’s striking out with solo gigs at Johnny D’s (617-776-2004) in Somerville next Thursday, February 17; the Center for Cultural Exchange (207-761-1545) in Portland on February 18; and the Iron Horse (413-584-0610) in Northampton on February 19. Unless you’ve got friends in the capital taping it for you, opportunities to catch the Washington cable-access kids’ show Pancake Mountain are few and far between. Which is a shame, since it’s the only place you’ll see Fugazi’s Ian MacKaye praising the alphabet in a ditty called "Vowel Movement," or Fiery Furnaces singing about moose. For a preview, visit www.pancakemountain.com, or catch a screening at AS220 (401-831-9327) in Providence on Saturday. Elsewhere, St. Louis powerballer Chingy plays the Palladium (800-477-6849) in Worcester on Sunday. Antony and the Johnsons (see "Drama Queen," above) play the Iron Horse on Friday, the Museum of Fine Arts (617-369-3306) in Boston on Saturday, and Higher Ground (802-654-8888) in Burlington, Vermont, on Sunday. The female-fronted, Bush-bashing, weapons-grade thrash outfit Otep are at Club 125 (978-521-0099) in Bradford next Thursday, February 17. And boy-pop pin-up Aaron Carter plays Toad’s Place (203-624-TOAD) in New Haven on February 17 and Lupo’s at the Strand (401-331-LUPO) in Providence on February 20.
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