Kickoff parties on Saturday, March 3: Kingston-based artist/activist G. Riley Johndonnell has made it his personal mission to bring a little more yellow into this drab and dreary world. He founded a not-for-profit, UMEWE.org (as in you/me/we), dedicated to happy yellow subversion of the dominant social order of doom and gloom. In fact, he has made it the focus of an entire artistic and philosophical movement, frequently pressing the claim that Optimism is as valid an aesthetic as Modernism or Cubism. 

Friday, March 2: An uncharacteristically quiet performance by the epic, era-defining New Jersey punk band, who will be celebrating the release of their new record, Productive Cough, which comes out on Merge Records that day.

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.

Friday, March 2: Deejay Dave Leonard’s annual Pisces Party is now, remarkably, in its 22nd year. Non-Pisces are not only allowed but encouraged to attend what is typically one of the great dance parties of the year.

Saturday, March 3: They’ll be celebrating their newest CD Naked and playing staples from across their storied career.

The band will perform at Ulster Performing Arts Center May 6.

Sunday, Feb. 25: For the opening of its 50th season, the Ulster Chamber Music Series brings us a program of Mendelssohn, Shostakovich and Beethoven.

Friday, Feb. 23: This 13-piece funk orchestra includes a five-piece horn section, and delivers their versions of music by Tower of Power, James Brown, the Ohio Players, Kool and the Gang, Earth, Wind and Fire, Stevie Wonder, the Average White Band, Sly & the Family Stone, Chaka Kahn, Montel Jordan and Prince.

Saturday, Feb. 24: He’s called “an operatic singer whose range shatters the conventional boundaries of classical singing” by The New York Times.