What do you do when you’ve been in the business for years and are no longer satisfied by the traditional tricks of the trade? Invent your own. Robert Schneider, lead singer of the indie-rock band Apples In Stereo, is known for breaking new recording ground, but on the band’s latest release and fifth official full-length album, New Magnetic Wonder (Simian/Yep Roc/Redeye) he actually invented a new musical scale. Dubbed “the Non-Pythagorean Scale,” Schneider uses it as a blueprint for the Apples’ most elaborate album to date, an ambitious LP released on the newly formed Simian Records label (owned by actor Elijah Wood) and co-distributed by Yep Roc Records. The album features so many “link tracks” that they had trouble keeping ProTools functioning properly and actually experienced a computer crash or two during the 12-month recording process. Unrelenting enthusiasm and a constant stream of ideas kept them afloat during the production, and this new album represents the band at their most spirited and accomplished. They will be playing with Casper & the Cookies. Doors open at 7pm.

The mandolin holds a gaudy place in the bluegrass lineup, to be sure, and Chris Thile certainly made the best of the spotlight with Nickel Creek, the Grammy-winning phenomenon out of Carlsbad, California that began—like so many string bands—as a family affair, musically uniting the Thile and the Watkins clans way back in 1989. Eventually the combo caught the attention of Allison Kraus, who produced Nickel Creek’s major label debut in 2000. Thile’s father retired from the band shortly thereafter, leaving Chris and the Watkins siblings, Sara and Sean, at the core. Grammies and gold records and world tours followed, until last summer, tuckered out, the band announced a hiatus. Thus we have Chris Thile on tour fronting his new five-piece, the How to Grow a Band, with whom he recorded How to Grow a Woman from the Ground. At turns fiery and nuanced, Thile’s playing is molded by and perfect for the “newgrass” style in which both his former and current bands are fluent. Thile is a player to be reckoned with already, and in two weeks he turns 26. See him now, so you can say “I remember when…” With Sometymes Why.

Spawned from the roots of traditional Irish music, the world-renowned band Altan will be coming to Rockwell Hall as part of the Performing Arts Center’s 2006-2007 Great Performers Series. With the recent release of their tenth studio album Local Ground (Narada), the band is embarking on its first United States tour in two years. The band’s traditional music hails from the Irish city of Donegal, which is known for its fiddle music, and combines that with well-known Northern Irish flute tunes to produce a truly unique sound. That sound has won the band national recognition for both their studio albums as well as their live performances. The success of Altan’s 20-year musical career can be attributed to the passion and the respect they have for traditions and the history of Irish music and song, while bringing it into a contemporary light. This is one act you do not want to miss.

A network of artists, musicians and dancers have collaborated on this traveling concert of live music and original choreography. The network weaves its way from New York City to Buffalo and involves students and faculty from UB’s Department of Theatre and Dance, SUNY Brockport’s Department of Dance and the Syracuse Society for New Music. The various choreographers whose work is presented are Melanie Aceto, Bill Evans (founder of the Bill Evans Dance Co. and the Evans Rhythm Tap Ensemble), Darwin Prioleau, Jenny Showalter and Krista Tucker. The music for the score was all written within the past eight years. It’s what’s called “classical new music,” fusing elements of funk, rock, pop and electronica. Composers Mark Olivieri and Marc Mellits call Western New York home, their colleagues Dan Coleman and Dan Felsenfeld are based in New York City and the fifth composer, Brian Bevelender, is from Ohio. The musicians—on cello, piano, saxophone and violin—come courtesy of the Society for New Music. The show in Buffalo marks the third performance of Vision of Sound, having traveled from Brockport through Syracuse and now to Buffalo. The collaboration between composer, choreographer, musicians and dancers provides a multi-faceted sensory experience, one that is quite well-suited to its venue at the intimate Lippes Concert Hall.