This Week

Jul 28 - 31

While most of us are leisure consumers of music, the remarkable capabilities of sounds and songs extend far beyond the realm of entertainment. Not only can music become embedded with memories and emotions after we associate it with a personal or shared experience, but it can also function as a form of intangible, ephemeral historic preservation, with oral narratives serving as a means of communicating both personal identity and collective cultural heritage over the course of multiple generations. After Edwyn Collins of seminal and highly-influential post-punk band Orange Juice suffered from a near-fatal stroke, his recovery involved accessing and unlocking the story of his past to create a sustainable version of the present. The Possibilities Are Endless, premiering at the Cinefamily on Thursday, traces this lyrical journey as he submerges himself in a landscape of memories through music, language, and love. Like strokes, Alzheimer's affects both short- and long-term memory. Screening at USC on Tuesday, Alive Inside—which won the Audience Award for best U.S. documentary at Sundance this past year—explores music’s (sometimes miraculous) capacity to combat memory loss, restore a deep sense of self to those suffering from it, and heal the mind and soul where prescription medication falls short. Music can, of course, also serve as means of both preaching and protesting. While many mainstream bands keep their lyrics in a sugar-coated safe-zone, Jamie Stewart of Xiu Xiu isn't afraid to take the bull by the horns and confront contentious and controversial issues head-on. Shabazz Palaces may be a little less blatantly political, but the cryptic collective crafts post-modern prog-hip-hop that's not only saturated with mystical and metaphysical subliminal messages, but that also addresses a range of issues through eloquent and cliché-free wordplay. And while Omar Souleyman claims he's uninvolved in politics, the Syrian techno titan's delirious dabke jams, electro-Baladi ballads, and crazed Chaabi tracks tell a tale of their own, especially for the active and attentive listener eager to excavate and explore.

Festival

Chinatown Summer Nights

Central Plaza, Chinatown, July 12, 2014; August 9, 2014