Body Worlds & The Story of The Heart

58 Hour Marathon; Friday, Saturday & Sunday Oct 2-4

For the last several months, Buffalo has been buzzing about Body Worlds, the exhibition that travels the world displaying cadavers preserved by the groundbreaking technique of permanent preservation called plastination. Invented by the exhibit’s mastermind, anatomist Gunther von Hagens, post-mortem decay is staved off for good, which allows the bodies to be examined more carefully for longer periods of time. Though the exhibit has had many different manifestations (The Brain—Our Three Pound Gem, The Mirror of Time), the one to grace the halls of the Buffalo Science Museum is The Story of The Heart. The exhibit has shied away from displaying the bodies in a strictly scientific way, instead positioning them performing activities—stretching, bending—in order to show how the muscles work and stress to carry weight. This is also in order to ease patrons away from the cold, lifeless atmosphere of rigid studies, and more into the idea that these bodies are just what we look like, skin deep. Attracting over 27 million people worldwide, Body Worlds is the world’s most popular traveling exhibit. As if it hadn’t broken enough records, it will go for one more: For the first time in its history, the Buffalo Museum of Science will be open for a 58 hour marathon this weekend, to close out the exhibit before they pack it up and move on. The Science Museum will have welcomed over 150,000 visitors before the end run of Body Worlds…the Story of the Heart, and many of those will be there for this last hurrah, so buy tickets in advance if possible. The Museum will be open continuously from Friday (Oct. 2) at 9am to Sunday (Oct. 4) at 7pm.

—ann marie awad

Buffalo Museum of Science / 1020 Humboldt Pkwy. Friday 9am — Sunday 7pm / 896-5200 / sciencebuff.org

Friday, October 2nd

Matt & Kim

There’s not much that’s cuter than a Brooklynite indie pop duo…except that the breed does seem to be proliferating like kittens. And, just like with kittens in the springtime, there can be too much of a good thing. You can’t take the whole litter home with you, so how do you decide which ones to keep? Are some cuter than the others? In the case of Matt & Kim, the answer is yes: They are cuter. The video for their single “Lessons Learned” is already a classic, winning the MTV breakthrough video award for this year (it features the couple stripping their way through Manhattan, arriving naked in Times Square, in February, with keyboardist Matt Johson getting beaten by the cops and drummer/vocalist Kim Schifino being mowed down by a speeding truck). Another single, “Daylight,” is featured in a Bacardi commercial depicting a guy sipping through parties in every era—fitting in its perfect, timeless pop. This duo’s retro-techno, jump-around dance music encourages crowd-surfing and audience over-enthusiasm. Matt & Kim play at Soundlab on Friday (Oct. 2). It’s really cute, it’s really fun, it’s really popular, and, unfortunately, it is SOLD OUT.

—k. o’day

Soundlab / 110 Pearl St. / 9pm / $12 / bigorbitgallery.org/soundlab

Friday, October 2nd

Floozie CD Release Party

The Niagara Falls-based rock-and-roll quartet Floozie is releasing their first full-length recording, See You Later, this Friday (Oct. 2) at Croc Bar on Chippewa. The band has been working hard trying to get this CD released, and starting now they get really busy, so get ready to hear even more buzz about them in the coming weeks. Floozie will be the featured artist on IndieSolo (www.indiesolo.com) tonight (Thursday, Oct. 1), a national web site that promotes what they call “the world’s BEST indie bands, one band a day.” They’ll also headline at Ellicottville’s OktoberFest next weekend (Oct. 10), at what is arguably the biggest beer bash of the year.

Croc Bar, 88 W. Chippewa St. / 10pm / $3 / Ages 21+ / 853-2762 / crocodilebar.com

Friday, October 2nd

Laura Hubert

Part sultry jazz singer, part blues rocker, part country/pop singer, Toronto vocalist Laura Hubert has got the pipes to tackle almost anything. She’ll visit Buffalo on Friday (Oct.2), at Allen St. Hardware, courtesy of owner Mark Goldman who discovered her for himself in a little club in Toronto a couple years ago. He’s brought her to play here a few times now, along with her accompanist, piano player Peter Hill, who helps her reinterpret old classics from Bessie Smith to Dinah Washington.

Allen Street Hardware Cafe, 245 Allen St. / 10pm / FREE / 882-8843 / allenstreethardware.com

Saturday, October 3rd

Woven Hand

16 Horsepower were a critically acclaimed band of the 1990s, invoking the swamp punk blues of the Gun Club and the dark imagery of Nick Cave. Sadly, 16 Horsepower often got lumped in with alt-country bands which, in reality, was never where they wanted to be. In 2001, with the band on hiatus, principle songwriter David Eugene Edwards formed Woven Hand as a side project. After 16 Horsepower’s demise, Woven Hand became a full-time vehicle for Edwards’ writing. The band, whose name is a term for two hands joined in prayer, is a dark and foreboding one. With slow rhythms infused by country, folk, and goth music, Woven Hand projects the dark imagery of regret and salvation. Religious themes reveal themselves throughout the songs, bringing to mind the lyrical work of both Cave and Will Oldham. It can be grim and difficult, yet always beautiful…not for the faint hearted but rewarding nontheless. Edwards/Woven Hand perform at Mohawk Place on Saturday (Oct. 3). White Hills (an NYC-based space rock group) and the Thermidors (who are releasing their new CD that night) will be opening.

—eric boucher

Soundlab / 110 Pearl St. 9pm / FREE

Sunday, October 4th

Charlie Louvin

Steeped in gospel tradition, Charlie and Ira Loudermilk, a.k.a. the Louvin Brothers, sang close harmonies that stood out on the secular country charts with early successes like “Cash on the Barrelhead” and the achingly beautiful ballad “When I Stop Dreaming.” In the early 1950s, as the Cold War and the threat of global nuclear destruction raged in the minds of Americans, they carried their Baptist sensibilities into the mainstream by posing the musical question: “Are you ready for the great atomic power, will you rise and meet your savior in the air?” In 1960, they produced the iconic Satan is Real album, which featured some of the most intense country gospel music ever recorded—not to mention one of the most memorable album covers in the history of the LP. Along with their songs of love, longing, and salvation, they also gave us Southern gothic tales like “Knoxville Girl,” the quintessential murder ballad. Tragically, Ira—whose battles with alcohol were a perpetual hardship to the duo—was killed by a drunk driver in 1965. The Louvins music became an inspiration for Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris, and in recent years, Charlie has been rediscovered by yet another generation of country music hipsters seeking out genuine links to the music’s past—which is why he’s out on the road again, basking in the spotlight at the age of 82. —buck quigley

Sportsmen’s Tavern / 326 Amherst St. / 8pm / $35 / 874-7734

Monday, October 5th

The Legendary Shack Shakers

A band so bad-ass they actually are legendary despite being less than 10 years old, th’ (the, those) Shack Shakers never fail to impress, inspiring the kind of critical hyperbole bands dream about. Jello Biafra called founder and lead singer Col. J.D. Wilkes the “last great Rock and Roll frontman” and News of the World says they are “the maddest, baddest, most outrageous band in America…a rockabilly version of the Sex Pistols.” This is one of the top live shows to see, anywhere, and its coming to shake up Mohawk Place on Monday (Oct. 5).

Mohawk Place, 47 E. Mohawk St. / 8pm. / 855-3931 / mohawkplace.com

Wednesday, October 7th

Excusamwa!

If DEVO actually devolved, and turned into the mongoloids they sang about, and then those mongoloids formed a band, that band would be called Exusamwa. For those wondering how to pronounce that, feel your frustration rise when told it’s simply the phonetic way of spelling the French phrase for excuse me, “excusez-moi.” That’s right, the answer was just staring you in the face the whole time. Now look at the picture of a bunch of grown adults dressed in full body tan suits with funny pink hats and fashionable shoes, and imagine music that is exactly as weird as that image. Most of it really is a warped DEVO—rhythm obsessed, damaged pop helmed by a completely undistinguishable voice—and when the group takes its bizarre approach to a slower, folk oriented style, there’s still an unsettling strangeness spiked in the lilting prettiness. So if you’re feeling tired of the rock cliché of a bunch of guys trying really hard to be cool, and want to see a band that will make you question your grasp on sanity, this one’s for you. They’ll play at Soundlab on Wednesday (Oct. 7), with local oddities Lulldozer 2 and the Price/Trump Duo.

—geoff anstey

Soundlab, 110 Pearl St. / 9pm / FREE