Sat. Aug. 27

We live in a world where hardcore pornography is a mouseclick away. (Literally.) Everything sexual has been amped up past the point of no return and there's some pretty scary studies about what kids learn about sex these days because of porn sites. There's also the New Burlesque movement, which really took shape in the middle of the last decade and has established itself in Boston and elsewhere. It's sexy, sassy and swaggering, sure, but it brings the titillation level down to a PG-13 or R level, and it doesn't make you feel like a member of the raincoat brigade (oldsters will remember those guys, the XXX-movie patrons when movie theaters showed smut, pre-VCR).
   Boston Babydolls are this city's reigning troupes and we checked in with its impressario Mr. Scratch about what's happening at the Regent Theater in Arlington Sunday Aug. 27.
  "MADAME BURLESQUE (REDUX): An Evening of Tributes" is a two-hour show, Scratch e-mailed us, that "is a version of the show we've been touring with this summer.  Because we expected to be done with the tour by August, one of the regular performers (Evie Sphinx) is out of town for the show on August 27.  We've replaced her acts with some fabulous new stuff, so anyone who saw the show when we were in Central Square at the beginning of July is getting 16-2/3% new material.

Fri. Aug. 26

They come to Cambridge from Portsmouth, NH and they are 22-women strong. They are Lady Luck Burlesque and on Friday, August 26th, they will grace the stage at the Middle East Downstairs, with Lenny Lashley - you know him from Darkbuster - and his Gang of One. Solo country-punk rock meets old/new school burlesque, shakes hands, and holds a party. Lady Luck Burlesque, led by the troupe’s founder and Executive Director, Jessica Bettcher (aka Lady Suzie Harland) says their troupe incorporates belly dance, tap dance, modern dance. They’re known for breaking some of the basic rules of burlesque and have embraced their own personal take on what burlesque is, combining classic and neo-burlesque, and adding their own little twist. Choreographers Gina DellaPasqua – “Lady Lilikoi,” Rebecca Waitt – “Violet Royale,” and “Lady Suzie Harland” have worked to bring together the art of tease and couple it with trained talent. Lady Luck will share the stage with their house band, Matt Langley, Mary Dellea, Zack Taylor, Nevin Brown, and Chris Elliott complement the acts beautifully, bringing their own charm and pizzazz to everything from classics such as Nina Simone’s “Feelin’ Good” to more recent hits by Grace Potter and Diana Krall.

Sun. Aug. 28

A double-bill for rockers who like their music emotional, intimate and somewhat off the beaten path - a little weary and world-beaten on one hand - that would be Richard Buckner - and hypnotic and entrancing on the other - that would be David Kilgour (in photo). Though all of those things come together, too, in both musicians' music. The Texas-born Buckner and New Zealand's Kilgour are co-headlining at the Brighton Music Hall Sunday Aug. 28.
   Buckner is, nominally, a country artist but a far cry from, well, let's say the guy who's headlining Gilette Stadium Saturday, Kenny Chesney. He's more cut from the Townes Van Zandt mode or maybe Mark Eitzel. His music is bittersweet, layered, sometimes laconic, sometimes ghostly, but with a coiled intensity. Guitars buzz and sting. Electronics pop up. He's been known to cover the best sad song ever written (outside of Roy Orbison at least), Joy Division's "Love Will Tear Us Apart." Yep, Buckner lives in the land of the bleak and the beautiful.

Sun. Aug. 21

I saw Bob Dylan earlier this year and also last year. The man is ever-on the road and on Sunday Aug. 21 plays the House of Blues. Volume 9 of his bootleg series just came out, 47 demos of songs done between 1961 and 1964. Of course, this will certainly play no part in Dylan’s song selection. I’m not sure exactly what does play a part. But here’s my take of the Wang Center show in 2009 as reported in the Boston Herald …

The problem with being Bob Dylan is … being Bob Dylan. Not necessarily for Bob. Judging from his 100-minute concert at the Citi Wang Theatre Dylan seems pretty comfortable with himself. He’s 68 and he’s Bar Band Bob, not Jukebox Bob. He is the anti-Paul McCartney. "Crowd pleasing" is not a term with which he’s familiar these days.

It's us that might have a problem. You can’t not consider his history, the classic songs and generational anthems, the killer tours and live albums.

So, you see Dylan now and you bring along his legend and legacy.

Thurs. Aug. 18

This spring, Alan Williams’ gentle chamber-pop group Birdsong At Morning did something audacious. The Stow-based trio released a four-CD debut, a deluxe box set called “Annals of My Glass House.”
   “Just as we were starting to do the project,” Williams said, “the record companies collapsed and the buzz was all about single-song downloads. No one wants an album and no one deals with packages and there’s no place to sell them.”
    “All the reasons that it appears to be patently insane to do what we’ve done were the reasons we did it,” continued Williams, from Cincinnati where he was participating in the International Association of Popular Music Studies. “Part of my nature is to say if everyone is turning to the right, that’s when I want to go left.”
      Birdsong at Morning – which plays Club Passim Thursday Aug. 18 – makes music that music is gentle and mellifluous, a slow drift down a lazy river. “The album creates its own little world people can immerse themselves in if they so choose,” Williams said. “I don’t believe everyone is accessing culture in sound bites. With ‘Lord of the Rings’ and ‘Harry Potter,’ there’s certainly a lot of pop cultural immersion going on.”