Locced Down

Questions abound when it comes to Ethel, the funky, forward-looking ensemble that makes its Boston debut tonight at Sanders Theatre. Is it a string quartet? Does it play “classical” music? And most urgent of all, where’d that name come from? Merman? Barrymore? Rosenberg?

“Actually, the name came right out of ‘Shakespeare in Love,’ ” says Ralph Farris, the group’s violist. Cinephiles will recall that in the movie, the Bard is trying unsuccessfully to write a play called “Romeo and Ethel the Pirate’s Daughter.”

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A Cursive Memory, which has a note on its MySpace page that says “Vote for us on TRL!” may be a “Total Request Live” kind of pop-rock band, but that doesn’t mean its not good. It just means that the band is young. ACM members started the group in 8th grade, and that was only about five years ago. Tonight’s show, featuring ACM at the ICC in Allston, should appeal to fans of another TRL-friendly band, Boys Like Girls. 6 p.m. $10. ICC Church, 557
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In an attempt to expose you to Latin dance beyond salsa, El Bembe hosts a night dedicated to Venezuelan moves. Tonight at the Jorge Hernandez Cultural Center, you can check out the “Pan-American Dance Party,” which we assume will include the joropo, which is something like a Venezuelan waltz. The night starts with a lesson. 9 p.m. $15. Jorge Hernandez Cultural Center, 85 West Newton St., Boston. 617-262-3424. iba-etc.org (more…)

Olivers, the backroom club at the Cask ‘n Flagon, isn’t a rock-only venue, though many of its lineups have featured guys and guitars. Tonight, the nightspot gives its stage to the Press Project, a Portsmouth, N.H., hip-hop act that blends rap, jazz, and soul a la the Roots. At tonight’s show, you’ll hear songs from an album called “Get Right.” HelloMahalo, a funky alt-rock act (yes, more guys and guitars), is also on the bill. 8:30. $9. Olivers,
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If it had been unseasonably chilly or overcast in Las Vegas last July, Panic at the Disco fans might not now be thoroughly enjoying or loudly complaining about the sophomore album from the Sin City pop-rock quartet.

Happy, singing clouds; shiny, robust suns; and beguiling female-identified moons - not to mention various winds, stars, and weather vanes - appear so often in the lyrics of “Pretty.Odd” you begin to wonder if the band is obsessed with meteorology.

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CHELSEA - Inside a cramped apartment, amid shelves of books, rows of DVDs, and a living room stuffed with musical gear, a young prince is locked in an epic battle with an evil sorcerer. The stakes? Winning the hand of a beautiful princess. A vintage Rock’em Sock’em Robots toy, its red and blue adversaries poised to strike each other on the kitchen counter nearby, is not nearly as old or animated as the struggle taking place on a far wall.

Beneath
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The summer concert season is starting to heat up, with much-anticipated tour announcements rolling in from some of the planet’s biggest stars.

On the heels of news that her 11th album, “Hard Candy,” debuted at No. 1 on this week’s Billboard charts, Madonna alerted the world that she’ll kick off her “Sticky & Sweet” tour on Aug. 23 in Cardiff, Wales, and stop at Boston’s TD Banknorth Garden Oct. 15. Tickets are $55-$350 and go on sale May 17 at
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The first single from the new Death Cab for Cutie album begins with a long wordless groove. It’s practically prog, this swarm of shimmering keyboards, throbbing bass notes, and wandering guitars, and the sound builds, disarmingly, to a measured and chilling peak. At the 4 1/2-minute mark, when most rock tunes would have already come and gone, Ben Gibbard starts to sing.

“You gotta spend some time with me,” enthuses the stalker - a tenor! - to his prey on “I Will Possess Your Heart,” “and I know that you’ll find love.”

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When Erykah Badu took the stage at the Orpheum Theatre last night she was rocking a shiny bouffant wig and ruffled black crepe dress that looked like a tailor-made human candy wrapper. Her two-hour performance took its lead from her sartorial statement: classic, sleek, sweet, and uniquely funky.

Backed by, and acutely in tune with, her band - a big affair including four singers, a flutist, and a turntablist - she began the night easing into the
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Sometimes an artistic project comes along that seems at once utterly unlikely, yet at the same time completely logical. Unlikely because of the strange sequence of events that it took for it to occur; logical because the connections it explores are ones that were present, if submerged, all along, just waiting to be brought back to life.

One such connection is the one that binds the hill-country blues of north-central Mississippi - a deeply entrenched
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NASHVILLE, Tenn.—Trace Adkins, a former oil roughneck, has written and recorded a song called “Black Gold” that will open an upcoming truTV series of the same name.

The show, which premieres 10 p.m. EDT June 18, follows three drilling crews in their quest for oil in West Texas.

Before he was a country star, Adkins, 46, of Sarepta, La., worked as a roughneck and derrickman on offshore drilling rigs in the Gulf of Mexico.

“Trace knows
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ATLANTA—When he was younger, Ne-Yo watched from afar as his friends hugged their fathers — and he wondered where his dad might be.

“A lot of aggravation was inside me,” the 28-year-old singer-songwriter told The Associated Press. “Dad stuck around for a minute and decided it wasn’t for him. But I credit my mom for being so positive, putting the pen in my hand.

“It’s single women like her who don’t get enough recognition.”

Now Ne-Yo, whose real name is Shaffer C. Smith, is honoring moms like his own.

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NASHVILLE, Tenn.—Eddy Arnold, whose mellow baritone on songs like “Make the World Go Away” made him one of the most successful country singers in history, died Thursday morning, days short of his 90th birthday.

Arnold died at a care facility near Nashville, said Don Cusic, a professor at Belmont University and author of the biography “Eddy Arnold: I’ll Hold You in My Heart.” His wife of 66 years, Sally, had died in March, and in the same month, Arnold fell outside his home, injuring his hip.

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LONDON—Amy Winehouse was arrested Wednesday in connection with a January video that allegedly shows her doing drugs at a party at her north London home.

London’s Metropolitan Police said the Grammy winner was released on so-called police bail following several hours of questioning at a police station in the city.

Winehouse’s spokesman, Chris Goodman, confirmed that his client had been arrested Wednesday and held in police custody to answer police questions.

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May 9 David Hoose’s stellar troupe winds up its Kurt Weill season with the composer’s intriguing, rarely performed second symphony. The singers join the orchestra for the Boston premiere of Charles Fussell’s choral symphony “High Bridge.” Karyl Ryczek, Janna Baty, William Hite, and David Kravitz are the dynamite soloists. 8 p.m. $10-$54. Jordan Hall, 30 Gainsborough St., Boston. 617-868-5885. cantata singers.org (more…)

May 13 Four of neotrad’s best and busiest hold a genre-bashing super-jam: banjo ace Greg Liszt, from Bruce Springsteen’s band; Sam Grisman, bassist for his legendary father, David; Frank Vignola mandolinist Josh Pinkham; and Tony Trischka fiddler Michael Barnett. 8 p.m. $12. Club Passim 47 Palmer, St., Cambridge. 617-492-7679. clubpassim.org© Copyright 2008 Globe Newspaper Company. more
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Steve Winwood is back in the high life again (sorry, we had to) at Berklee. He’s in town to receive an honorary doctorate on Sunday, but tonight he’ll play his hits and material from his new album “Nine Lives.” 7:30 p.m. $35-$70. Berklee Performance Center,136 Massachusetts Ave., Boston. 617-747-2261.berkleebpc.com

F.U.D.G.E. Theatre Company opens a production of “Fuddy Meers,”a David Lindsay-Abaire play about a woman with amnesia and a secret
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Neo-soul singer Erykah Badu is at the Orpheum tonight to support her new album “New Amerykah Part One (4th World War),” a disc that has gone well with critics (our own Sarah Rodman is one of the many who approves of the single “Honey”). Sharing the bill will be acclaimed hip-hop act the Roots. 7:30 p.m. $46-$56. Orpheum Theatre, 1 Hamilton Place, Boston. 617-679-0810. ticketmaster.com© Copyright
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May 10 Led by the tabla superstar, a 10-member ensemble of India’s premier performers, including sitar virtuoso Niladri Kumar, explores the country’s classical and folk rhythms, instruments, and dances. 8 p.m. $28-$45. Sanders Theatre, 45 Quincy St., Cambridge. 617-876-4275. worldmusic.org© Copyright 2008 Globe Newspaper Company. more stories like this

May 9 Possibly the prettiest three-fer: Ethereal musician-muse El Perro del Mar (right) is joined by fellow Swedish chanteuses Lykke Li, adding a Bjorkish techno theme, and Anna Ternheim, who brings hazy ’60s girl-pop to this unmissable Scandinavian tryptich. 18+ 9:30 p.m. $15. Middle East Upstairs, 472 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge. 617-864-3278. mideastclub.com© Copyright 2008 Globe Newspaper
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The Boston Pops kicked off its 123d season last night with a truncated tribute to Massachusetts’ native son Leonard Bernstein, who would have turned 90 this year, and a guest appearance by singer Natalie Cole, whose lengthy set list required that two-thirds of the Bernstein celebration be canceled at the last minute.

It’s a shame, because Bernstein’s suite from the 1954 film “On the Waterfront” was glorious — a perfect aesthetic fit for
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ST. LOUIS—Ward Stare will serve as resident conductor for the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and music director of the symphony’s youth orchestra.

He will join the symphony’s conducting staff in September for an initial two-year term in the newly created position of resident conductor.

His responsibilities will include selecting players and conducting rehearsals and some concerts for the youth orchestra.

The symphony said Stare was selected from a wide pool of candidates from within and outside the U.S.

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INDIO, Calif.—As Portishead finished its meticulously sparse evening performance at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, the typically reticent Beth Gibbons suddenly leapt off the stage and ran a 100-yard dash along the fenced-in crowd, exuberantly shaking their hands.

Percussionist Geoff Barrow and guitarist Adrian Utley soon exited more quietly. Barrow, though, paused in front of a microphone to say, simply, “Thanks for waiting.”

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BALTIMORE—Frank Zappa, who sang about “Plastic People,” has been cast in bronze. Again.

In 1995, a quirky bunch of Lithuanian artists and intellectuals managed to erect a bust of the eccentric rocker in downtown Vilnius, the capital of the former Soviet republic.

Now, they want to place a replica in Zappa’s hometown.

Saulius Paukstys, longtime president of a Zappa fan club, was in Baltimore on Wednesday to pitch the Zappa bust to the city’s public art commission.

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NEWPORT, R.I.—Saxophonist Sonny Rollins will headline this year’s jazz festival in Newport, Rhode Island.

The JVC Jazz Festival Newport will be held August 8 through August 10 at Fort Adams State Park and at the International Tennis Hall of Fame.

More than two dozen acts are scheduled to perform, including pianist-composer Herbie Hancock and trumpeter Chris Botti. Tickets go on sale Thursday morning.

The first Newport Jazz Festival
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Call it “strings gone wild.”

While continuing to uphold the legacy of Beethoven and Brahms, innovative string quartets and trios are doing what jazz and rock bands have done since the early 20th century - improvising, adding a jazz riff here and a pop reference there - even incorporating straight-up rock songs by U2 and Metallica.

On its Grammy-nominated 2007 album, “Whirled Chamber Music,” Quartet San Francisco - a traditional quartet of two
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Let’s play a game of “guess who.” This 31-year-old singer-songwriter has toured with Tracy Chapman and Dar Williams, and has a record coming out in July titled “The Legend of Kung Folk Part 1 (The Killing Bite).” Need more hints? He lives on Martha’s Vineyard and credits Mom, Carly Simon, for his lyric-writing talent and Dad, James Taylor, for his music skills. You’ve got it now, right? It’s Ben Taylor, and he performs tonight at the new Cafe 939
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There isn’t a package in popular music quite as confused as the shrewd country bumpkin, liberated dumb blonde, and gifted theme-park operator named Dolly Parton. Those signature contradictions have fueled the country star’s image and music for four decades, and at 62 - unreal-looking and pristine-sounding - Parton shows no signs of loosening her grip.

“I might look artificial, but where it counts I’m real,” she sang Monday night at the Opera
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Like many sons and daughters of entrepreneurial parents, Alisa Weilerstein has gone into the family business. That business happens to be classical music-making at a distinguished level. Her father, Donald Weilerstein, was the founding first violinist of the Cleveland String Quartet, and her mother is the pianist Vivian Hornik Weilerstein.

Alisa Weilerstein grew up with music as the lifeblood of her family, not unlike her contemporary Jonathan
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SAN FRANCISCO - Rocker Neil Young plans to release his entire music archive on Blu-ray discs, a sign that the discs’ capabilities are building appeal among musicians as well as movie studios.

Blu-ray discs hold much more data than DVDs, are easily updated over the Internet, and offer better picture and sound quality.

Young revealed his plans yesterday at a Sun Microsystems Inc. conference in San Francisco. Santa Clara, Calif.-based Sun makes
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