Weather Girl, Soho Theatre review - the apocalypse as surreal black comedy

A Californian weather girl copes with fires inside and outside her head

Can Francesca Moody do it again? Fleabag’s producer has brought Weather Girl to London, after a successful run at last year’s Edinburgh Fringe, mirroring the path taken by Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s creation. But the new show is a much tougher assault on modern mores.

Noah Davis, Barbican review - the ordinary made strangely compelling

A voice from the margins

In 2013 the American artist, Noah Davis used a legacy left him by his father to create a museum of contemporary art in Arlington Heights, an area of Los Angeles populated largely by Blacks and Latinos. But his Underground Museum faced a problem; it didn’t have any art to put on display and none of the institutions approached by Davis would loan him their precious holdings.

Tucker Zimmerman, The Lexington, London review - undersung old-timer airs songwriting excellence

Rare and welcome appearance from superb octagenarian American singer-songwriter

Tucker Zimmerman is singing a number called “Don’t Go Crazy (Go in Peace)”. At 83, he performs sitting down. Surrounded by support band Iji, who act as his pick-up, he approaches the song in a whispery, affable voice. At the start of his set he was assisted to his seat but, knees aside, he’s not frail. He’s just laid back, a Sixties original, strumming gently. “Don’t go crazy,” he sings, “Go with the flow, go in peace.” Although he’s advised us to not think about politics, it’s hard not to.

Mike Kelley: Ghost and Spirit, Tate Modern review - adolescent angst indefinitely extended

★★★ MIKE KELLEY: GHOST AND SPIRIT, TATE MODERN Adolescent angst indefinitely extended

The artist who refused to grow up

Like an angry teenager rejecting everything his parents stand for, American artist Mike Kelley embraced everything most despised by the art world – from popular culture to crafts, and occultism to catholicism – to create what he ironically called “blue collar minimalism”. “An adolescent,” he declared, “is a dysfunctional adult and art is a dysfunctional reality”.

Album: Osees - Sorcs 80

★★★ OSEES - SORCS 80 Prolific LA outfit don't slow down on electronically amped latest

Prolific Los Angeles outfit don't slow down on their electronically amped latest

Aside from their musical output, the fame – or notoriety – of Californian rockers Osees derives from two main factors. First, their consistently changing the spelling of their name on different releases (eg, Thee Oh Sees, OCS, etc). Second, their gushing prolificness of output. They’ve been releasing music for 21 years and Sorcs 80 is their 29th album. That’s going some.

Album: AJ Lee & Blue Summit - City of Glass

★★★ AJ LEE & BLUE SUMMIT - CITY OF GLASS Bluegrass-Americana from California

Tight, light, airy and persuasive bluegrass-Americana from California

In the world of popular music, tangential connections to success are profile-raising. They offer an immediate connection to an artist. It is beholden on me, then, despite not knowing it when I first enjoyed this album, to mention that rising Grammy Award-winning Americana star Molly Tuttle appears. She is guitarist-vocalist Sullivan Tuttle’s sister.

The Marilyn Conspiracy, Park Theatre review - intriguing murder mystery

★★★★ THE MARILYN CONSPIRACY, PARK THEATRE Intriguing murder mystery 

New play about the death of the most famous American woman of the Camelot era

The death of Marilyn Monroe is a wet dream for conspiracy theorists. Like the assassination of JFK in the following year there is plenty of material in the official accounts that doesn’t quite make sense – which opens the door to free-form speculation.

Rain Parade, 229 review - the Paisley Underground perennials prove unafraid of their past

★★★ RAIN PARADE, 229 Haziness, raga-esque guitar and top-notch psychedelia

Haziness, raga-esque guitar and top-notch psychedelia

It kicks off with “No Easy Way Down.” First released on 1984’s mini-LP Explosions in the Glass Palace, it was an instant benchmark by which to measure Rain Parade. Churning, dense and foggy, it made good on what this California outfit were portrayed as: integral to a Sixties-inspired wave of bands defiantly reconfiguring the past for the present. Not all Rain Parade songs were like this, but “No Easy Way Down” was a head-spinner. It still is.