Thursday's Top of the Park: October Babies, the Ragbirds, "Fantastic Mr. Fox"
Here's an introduction to the acts appearing Thursday, July 8 at Top of the Park — the Ann Arbor Summer Festival's free, outdoor component, held outside the Rackham Building, on East Washington Street at Ingalls Mall.
The KidZone Tent is open from 6:30-8 p.m.
The evening's headline attractions:
October Babies Rackham Stage, 6:30 p.m.
The October Babies have a bright and energetic spirit that excites their American audiences, even though their lyrics are mainly in Japanese. Their songs are a hybrid of many genres (funk, jazz, R&B, reggae/ska/dub, techno, Latin, drum & bass, rock, surf-punk, hip-hop, down-tempo, orchestra pop, and blues, to name a few), and have won several major Japanese Internet competitions.Listen to October Babies "Can I Be Born Again" (MP3).Performing since: April 2005 (as a duo), Oct 2007 (as a band) Home base: Ypsilanti-Ann Arbor and Tokyo Style of music: Upbeat global soul Members: Toko Shiiki, Erik Santos, Ben Lorenz, Dale King, Mike Ouellette Pre-show ritual: Hug. Favorite road food: Onigiri (in Japan), sandwich and fries (in USA) Desert island disc: Beatles "Help!" or "Beatles For Sale" Best thing about Ann Arbor: Intercultural diversity, and the old places.
October Babies performing "Fleeting Love" live on CTN earlier this year:
The Ragbirds Rackham Stage, 8 p.m.
The Ragbirds perform an engaging mix of world music influenced pop, folk-rock, reggae, with African, Middle Eastern, and Indian rhythms stirred with a Celtic fiddlers bow with soaring and lush vocal harmonies.Listen to The Ragbirds "Good" (MP3).Performing since: 2005 Home base: Ann Arbor Style of music: Folk/rock with world music influence. We call it “Infectious Global Groove.” Members: Erin Zindle, Randall Moore, T.J. Zindle, Max Lockwood Pre-show ritual: Drinking Yerba Mate Favorite road food: Sushi Desert island disc: Paul Simon's "Graceland" Best thing about Ann Arbor: Earthen Jar
The Ragbirds performing last month at the Wayfarer Roots & Bluegrass Festival in Detroit:
Movie: "Fantastic Mr. Fox" (2009, PG, 87 minutes) Ingalls Mall, 10 p.m.
A-List voice actors, including George Clooney as Mr. Fox, lend their voices to this animated film bringing to life the story of angry farmers, tired of sharing their chickens with a sly fox, and trying to get rid of their opponent and his family.
Watch the "Fantastic Mr. Fox" trailer:
On Thursdays, the Ann Arbor Film Festival is presenting shorts before the feature movie. Tonight: "Magic Cube and Ping Pong," 5 minutes — an animated film that weaves together elements of Eastern and Western culture into both a love story and an artist's statement on modern Chinese society. "White Out," 3 minutes — a visual paean to the magic of snow, by artist Jeff Scher with music by Shay Lynch.