Art of Candy Land    04.22.2008  

04.22.08ToyShow
For all you art appreciators out there with blazing Peter Pan complexes, check out the World of Imagination Custom Toy Show at APW Gallery opening in SoHo, New York on Friday.

With over 40 toy junkies-cum-fine artists from around the world exhibiting — many with names that would just as well suit a Tokyo graffiti artist — it’s going to be quite a trip รก la Candy Land, albeit one probably populated with more gumdrop monsters as regular gumdrops.

Unfortunately, you probably can’t play with the art, but if you’re down to meet the minds behind the work, they’ll be around for the reception on Friday from 7-9pm.

Babylon, NYC    04.22.2008  

04.22.08BabylonCircus
There’s nothing quite like the sounds of patois coming out of a Lyons-based ska/reggae/punk rock band. I’ve got to hand it to Babylon Circus, though, they’re latest album, Dances of Resistance (April 29th), manages to pull off the unlikely combination with ease, charm and infectious, head-neck-and-shoulder swaying rhythm.

It’s been awhile since ska even approached mainstream cool, but like a few other ska-inflected groups — New York Ska Exchange and Golgol Bordello, for example — Babylon Circus has endured by more than just catchy tunes. There’s an easy mix of the political and the dance-able in their culture-crossing music and a good show in their hilarious and mad stage performances. Well, maybe NYSE isn’t quite like that, but Golgol and Babylon are.

Catch them out on tour for Dances of Resistance in the U.S. this spring and this summer back in France. Stopping in New York tomorrow for a show, check out the rest of the dates here.