Friday, March 2: The New Paltz-born reggae band the Big Takeover have been dominating the local club scene for a decade now, with numerous personnel changes over a core anchored by songwriter and singer Nee Nee Rushie and bassist/musical director Rib Kissner. What has been a struggle for this accomplished and successful band has been naming the style they play.

Andrew Bird will forever be associated with hallmarks of the New Serious: gorgeous proficiency on a non-rock instrument (violin); insanely deft mastery of the solipsistic technique of live, off-the-grid looping; High Plains whistling and the prevalence of glockenspiel; tremolo-noir guitars and lyrics that are big-brained, difficult to the point of being functional nonsense for most listeners and almost never about girls. 

An influential if not era-defining bandleader and songwriter, filmmaker, author and novelist, social critic, multimedia performance artist and eternal hipster who stays hip by feeding on the fresh blood of young hipster admirers, Byrne just doesn’t stop expanding.

Feb. 16: The dichotomies of Warmer When It Rains are perfectly illustrated in two contrasting (and stellar) ballads: “Midnight,” an entirely contemporary, hip-hop-inflected bit of production R & B, is all friction; stilted, glitch rhythms; electro-minimalism; and a huge hook. Five tracks later, the finale “So Easy to Love” is an exquisite and utterly naturalistic homage to uptown soul and Motown.

The facts are clear: second season post-Warren Haynes; no Spearhead; lots of indie-rock and pop; no jam, just a mountain bracing for a different clientele from the one who made it big in the first place. It has been underway for a while, however. The screen reads not “Red alert! Identity crisis” but rather, “Transformation complete.” We’ve moved on.

Saturday, Feb. 10: Little Red Wagon is lovely, spirited and reflective. Traditional in instrumentation and in overall sound, and with plenty of rural blues and café folk reference throughout, Little Red Wagon yet delivers a stern warning about doctrinal traditionalism in its lead track.

Friday, Feb. 9: Home is a modern EP, not a nostalgic one. Even as it borrows their voice, its grim sense of the world would have scared the crap out of the Breakfast Club kids.

Friday, Jan. 26: Tiger Piss is the hardworking trio featuring players who are all quite taken with their other projects now: Lara Hope of Ark-Tones fame; Reverend Kev from the heavy-metal-themed bluegrass band Red Nekromancer; and the guitarist and experimental composer Danny Asis. Back in the day, these three blew out windows locally and in frequent do-it-yourself tours around the contiguous 48 with a risqué brand of punk and post-hardcore rock for the people. Someone tried to get the piss out of their name, but it wasn’t long before the rechristened Tigeriss changed it back. They are Tiger Piss, for better or for worse.

Friday and Saturday, Jan. 19 and 20: The Philly soul-into-mainstage megapop hitmaking legacy of Hall & Oates is not just enduring, but growing chic. Rock Academy pays tribute to the most successful duo in rock history at Colony in Woodstock.