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tv show

Say what you will about the flaky, mini-skirted lawyerette, but before Ally McBeal, the number of women who starred in hourlong network shows were few and far between. That's not all: Creator David E. Kelley's anachronistic use of fantasy (the dancing baby, Ally's Pips) changed the sitcom landscape and influenced everything from Scrubs to 30 Rock. Thank the copyright gods that the complete-series DVD release was held off till all the music rights were (just recently) cleared. 'Cause what would a cupid-baby dance to if not "More Than a Feeling"?

—Molly Eichel

On its debut CD, Spirit Moves, Dave Douglas' new Brass Ecstasy project sets out to show the range of what a brass section can be, from Nawlins marches to chamber-jazz polyphony to Stax soul. Douglas takes a special interest in tipping his horn to trumpet-playing predecessors like Fats Navarro, Enrico Rava and Lester Bowie; to inaugurate Ars Nova Workshop's latest Composer Portrait series tonight at Settlement Music School, they'll add Don Cherry to that list.

—Shaun Brady

There are Rain Machine moments that are nearly identical to Kyp Malone's main band, TV on the Radio: the smart riffs, the striking harmonies, the Jeff Buckley-like vocal range. But the mood is darker than we're used to from him, like he thought about things and realized we're all doomed. On the bright side, there's a little banjo and that magnificent beard, both of which you can experience Friday at Johnny Brenda's.

"In the beginning, teeth and ears clashed over which of the two should get the roots. Unfortunately for humankind, the teeth won." The lovably primitive, WTF-inducing drawings that grace the pages of September's The Believer mag, which you'll miss if you don't squint, are from Richard Brouwer's "A Revisionist History of Teeth" series. The Netherlands-based artist's Web site (richardbrouwer.com) explains that his art combines themes of "American heritage, teeth, whales, elephants and space vs. time." We're confused, but we're hooked.