When The Darkness exploded onto the British music scene back in the early 2000s, I could never decide with any certainty whether or not the 4-piece glam rockers were serious about the music they made, or just out there having a laugh.

The constant radio play of the 2003 single “I Believe In A Thing Called Love”, featured the piercing operatic falsetto vocals of front-man Justin Hawkins, and was a drastic departure from all other music getting played at the time. Add the spectacle of Hawkins gleefully parading around in skin-tight 80’s hair-metal outfits; it’s not surprising I missed the fact that beyond all the distractions, The Darkness was actually a damn good rock band. Sadly, the limelight was short-lived as Hawkins struggled with substance abuse and ultimately decided to leave the band in 2006.

Last year, I attended a screening of The Miners’ Hymns during the Tribeca Film Festival.  I was drawn to Bill Morrison’s silent film because Iceland’s Jóhann Jóhannsson composed the original score. The music suited the film well—I wrote “Morrison’s curation is aided by Jóhannsson’s dignified composition to majestically illuminate a more universal message”—but did not render as resounding an impact as normally occurring in Jóhannsson’s separate work. The sound was guided by the narrative and constrained by the movie theater’s speakers.

This year, Jóhannsson was making one of his infrequent and brief trips to the United States to perform The Miners’ Hymns (aided by the Wordless Music Orchestra) as part of the New Sounds Live: Silent Films/Live Music series at the Winter Garden Atrium. Aside from a performance in Durham (the former mining community in the UK featured prominently in the film), this was only the second time a live score was set alongside the film. And to no surprise, the live music was more riveting in the cavernous atrium—no cinema screening could parallel this experience.

Bhi Bhiman (pronounced Bee Bee-man) took the stage at the newly renovated Joe’s Pub just after 7 pm as part of a showcase with two other artists, The Parkington Sisters and David Wax Museum, in conjunction with the Association of Performing Arts (APAP) Conference going on in New York City. While a twenty minute limit gave him only time for four songs, Bhiman took full advantage of the time introducing the songs for the audience and connecting them to his forthcoming release Bhiman. A previous album, The Cookbook, the singer/songwriter’s debut a few years back, dealt with political themes, like colonialism, which continue to inform his new work.

Bhiman opened with “Kimchee Line” a satirical working-man’s (forced labor seems more likely) song that is sometimes silly (the lyrics include the line “its cucumber time” with variations on the vegetable). He followed up with “Equal in my Tea” his take on a love song and “one of the first songs” he ever wrote. Unsurprisingly, it also ended up including some social commentary, moving away from a story about meeting a woman who became “his future wife” and “who gave his daughter life” to being drafted into the Army and about a “limey wanker” who spoke of the fall of an empire.

In his early 60s now, Charles Bradley should have made it big years ago. But it wasn’t until a Daptones label man found him performing James Brown tributes as “Black Velvet” in New York in the past ten years that he got his break. In the studio, Bradley connected with Thomas Brenneck, now his lead guitarist, who encouraged him to create his own songs. Soon enough songs gushed forth to form the 2011 album No Time for Dreaming, which has received quite a bit of acclaim, including from PopMatters. In fact, if it wasn’t for my colleague Eddie Ciminelli’s aside of Bradley in his review of ACL in September, this artist may not have flown across my path until I saw it on some of the now published year-end “best of” lists.

Arriving at the Bowery Ballroom before 10 pm, I found that the show was delayed till about 10:30 but even then it didn’t start for a bit more. But the wait was worth it. Bradley’s backing band took to the stage for two instrumental jams before the man himself took the stage in a black bedazzled jacket. Immediately, the Bowery audience began to groove finding themselves enthralled in the spiritual embrace of soul music (though the balcony was quieter).

It should be noted that we at PopMatters are fans of Olivia Wilde. On November 16, 2011, Wilde was recruited to unveil the Swarovski Star that would be placed atop this year’s Christmas Tree in New York City’s Rockefeller Center. Her diminutive figure was dwarfed by the 550 pound ornament behind her as she presented it to the waiting media.

Although the ornament was attached to a crane, it wasn’t lifted atop the tree on this overcast afternoon. The tree was surrounded by scaffolding as a considerable amount of decorating was still underway before it lights up on November 30th (Cee-lo Green and Faith Hill are just a couple of the musicians performing during the event). Yet power was fed to the star and it shimmered and pulsed behind Wilde (and it reminded me of a crystal from a Final Fantasy.