It’s incredible how much music you can make just using some drums and electronics. In a blend of the primal and the technological, four distinct performers brought their unique blends of genre-defying music to the William Keeton House last Saturday night, courtesy of Fanclub Collective. These four musicians, DJ Dog Dick, Ed Schrader, Adventure (the three of whom are in the midst of their own tour) and Cale Parks, doing a one-off solo show, brought the goods to a crowd eager for any opportunity to dance. The performers delivered, making for a night filled with blips and bleeps and quick-footed dance moves.

Tucked away in a side street off the Ithaca Commons is the new Wildfire Lounge. The exposed brick walls and industrial piping that greet you after you walk up the steps to the bar seem out of place in a décor marked by mini-chandeliers and couches with oversized pillows. This was the perfect venue to see Why the Wires and A Sunny Day in Glasgow, who played the Lounge last Sunday night. Both bands took traditional genres of music and added their own style and flavor to it, although one group had more success than the other.

Throughout my childhood, I spent an undeterminable amount of time driving from here to there in my father’s forest green Ford Explorer. It was during this time that my musical preferences first began to take shape, as my dad had a static selection of albums that I was forced to listen to time and time again. Of course, there was the classic assortment of adult favorites: the Talking Head’s Stop Making Sense, Elvis Costello’s My Aim is True and Paul Simon’s Graceland. Besides these, my dad’s music taste seemed to deviate from the norm (read: The Phantom of the Opera). Finally, there was his brief foray into the country world with Lyle Lovett’s 1989 album Live in Texas.

“We love to be in places like colleges where people love music,” Maroon 5 lead singer Adam Levine told the sold-out crowd in Barton on Sunday night. “That’s how we started our whole career.”

The concert marked the group’s fourth stop on their Back to School Tour of college campuses with opener Fitz and the Tantrums.

With their 1930s musical Babes in Arms, composers Rodgers and Hart were certainly aiming to put on a show in the longstanding image of American culture, evoking an innocence and naivety that brings to mind the small town feel of Americana. However, it is doubtful whether they had the danceable, feedback-drenched tunes that reverberated through the wooden walls of Cornell’s Big Red Barn in mind. Instead, the three bands that performed Monday night, Blissed Out, Ho-Ag and Health, boasted the noise and sophistication that is telling of a new America, one that is loud and proud, and in your face.

On Friday night in a small upstairs room at Appel Commons, Immortal Technique walked on stage with slow, pensive confidence and a T-shirt featuring his own name. He took his place behind the podium and began to speak for the next hour and a half, expounding his views on politics, race and life’s general purpose, followed by a brief performance.

Current politics exasperate the autumn gloom. Although the economy is emerging from the largest contraction since World War II, we are still stuck in Iraq, and the impasse in Afghanistan seems to be getting even more complicated.

With Halloween fast approaching, one may want to exercise greater prudence with academics in order to ensure that the debauchery of everyone’s favorite holiday does not destroy them on all counts. Those thinking in line with this maxim were doubly rewarded on Friday night, with the rare opportunity to see talented musicians play during a study break at Willard Straight Hall. They were even granted the dusky orange glow of the clock tower, which graced us with a rare change in color. Johnny Lingo was the occasion, and his speedy rhythm proved it to be one worth attending.

St. Vincent took the Castaways stage by storm last Thursday night, infecting the crowd with her overwhelming enthusiasm and lovable charm. A newcomer to Ithaca, St. Vincent became acquainted with Finger Lakes region while her fans were also experiencing something fresh: an introduction into the singer’s captivating musical world.

Califone came to Cornell Cinema Friday night with a new kind of ghost story. The Chicago-area band, headed by Tim Rutili, has been enjoying critical acclaim since their self-titled release in 1998. Their music combines folk, rock and pop with a distinctively experimental edge that can suck you in with the different angles and approaches to sound and song. For this performance, however, Califone was equally concerned with both their instruments and the screen behind them. Rutili wrote and directed the just-finished All My Friends Are Funeral Singers, a film following fortuneteller Zell (Angela Bettis) and her housemates, a collection of ghosts who date, play music and play charades together while waiting for passage into the next realm.