A half-dozen cool things in music, from two points of view:
Gigi Berry of Minneapolis:
1 Band of Horses touring with the Black Keys. Their just-announced 2022 tour is the perfect show for reminiscing about the music scene 10 years ago. Unfortunately, they're not coming to the Twin Cities, so we'll just have to enjoy those memories.
2 "We Don't Talk About Bruno." If you haven't seen "Encanto" yet, you need to, because this song from the movie is a massive hit. It's catchy as hell, and you can pretend to be a different family member with each listen. How can you hate it?
3 Kacey Musgraves. Her "Star-Crossed" album is definitely the soundtrack for Aquarius season. Still thinking about her recent show at Xcel Energy Center — it was such a dream. I'm sure that listening to "Justified" and "Breadwinner" can get you through just about anything.
Jon Bream, Star Tribune critic:
1 "Janet Jackson," Lifetime. With the subject having control over this four-hour doc, it leaves many gaps and unanswered questions. We see glimpses of this always guarded megastar's personality and determination. We see her frustrations, hard work and priceless home-movie clips. But we see too little of her creating, whether writing or recording songs. Despite being unsatisfying, this is still a worthwhile and sometimes illuminating look at "the queen of Black girl magic," as Janelle Monae put it.
2 Kamasi Washington, "The Garden Path." Making his late-night TV debut on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon," the saxophonist threw down a musical essay on misinformation — a big-band, horn-framed interstellar funk-jazz fusion with an intense groove and an inspired fast and festive sax solo by the enthralling bandleader.
