Funk

Join in the celebration as Mayda releases her sophomore album Tusks in Furs, with help from Maria Isa and Birthday Suits.

The Cedar is now fully air-conditioned for your year-round comfort!

Ticket options and info

• On sale date: noon Fri Aug 5
• Phone: 612-338-2674 ext 2 ($1 fee per ticket)
• In person: From a Cedar volunteer in the front lobby before and after shows (no fee), Depth of Field (no fee), or Electric Fetus (small fee)
• Online: Ticketweb (fees apply) (click on red Buy Tickets button at top of this page)
• All Cedar shows are all ages.
• Students with ID may gain discounted admission for tickets at the door.

The Cedar welcomes back Milwaukee retro-soul stars Kings Go Forth!

The Cedar is now fully air-conditioned for your year-round comfort!

Ticket options and info

• On sale date: noon Fri Jul 22
• Phone: 612-338-2674 ext 2 ($1 fee per ticket)
• In person: From a Cedar volunteer in the front lobby before and after shows (no fee), Depth of Field (no fee), or Electric Fetus (small fee)
• Online: Ticketweb (fees apply) (click on red Buy Tickets button at top of this page)
• All Cedar shows are all ages.
• Students with ID may gain discounted admission for tickets at the door.

Debo Band are the new torchbearers of classic Ethiopian dance music, combining traditional East African polyrhythms and pentatonic scales, classic American soul and funk music, and the instrumentation of Eastern European brass bands.

The Cedar is now fully air-conditioned for your year-round comfort!

Ticket options and info

It’s a rare artist who can take the U.S. music media and SXSW by storm while garnering profound respect as a cultural leader in her homeland. And it’s even rarer when that artist can keep true to her deep desert roots while standing out in front of a contemporary rock quartet. Malian singer Khaira Arby meets the challenge without missing a beat, and has been recognized as "the best Malian musical artist of the past 50 years" (Mali's Tamani d'Or award citation, April 2011) and as “one of Africa’s greatest singers" (New York Times, Mar 2011).

"...an ultra-funky intertwining of infectious grooves with melodic phrases, even when they are at their most experimental. Despite the music’s complexity, it remains uncluttered and spacious...If you are into classic funk like Parliament Funkadelic, the Meters ...you should find Orgone intoxicating. In addition to the funk, R&B and jazz elements, the band exhibits an adventurous rock ‘n’ roll twist...This is one hell of a band." (RELIX magazine)

Tickets go on sale at 12 noon Fri Jan 28 from the Cedar Ticketline (612-338-2674 ext 2), from hard-working Cedar volunteers in the front lobby during shows, from Cedar outlets (Electric Fetus and Depth of Field), and online at Ticketweb.

All Cedar shows are all ages. Students with ID may gain discounted admission for tickets purchased at the door.

On Oct 15, 2010, afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti would have been celebrating his 72nd birthday, if he hadn't died prematurely from an AIDS-related illness on Aug 2, 1997. We are left with an incredible body of recorded work (45 albums are being re-released by Knitting Factory Records), the hit Broadway musical FELA!, and a growing slew of bands who have taken their inspiration from Fela and together keep the afrobeat movement vital. Tonight, celebrate Fela's life and music, and kick up a sweat with Chicago Afrobeat Project, and DJs Paul Harding and Danny Sigelman. NEW: Enter at the door with your ticket to win a Zombie batch set of six Fela CDs (value $60), courtesy of Knitting Factory Records!

Tickets are on sale now from the Cedar Ticketline (612-338-2674 ext 2), from hard-working Cedar volunteers in the front lobby during shows, from Cedar outlets (Electric Fetus, Irish on Grand, Homestead Pickin' Parlor, and Depth of Field), and online at Ticketweb.

All Cedar shows are all ages. Students with ID may gain discounted admission for tickets purchased at the door.

"A few muttered words in Arabic, shrouded in echo. And then it erupts. A day-glo cloudburst of warpspeed Bontempi rhythms and snaking microtonal melodies. Psychedelic invocation to some lascivious simultaneist idol. Urgent glossolalia of electronic thunder and lightning. Amphetamine-powered merengué of dysmorphic frequencies. Notes from between the notes. Beats like the jerry-rigged machine gun fire of exurban guerrila fighters. Cosmopolitan party music from the end times. The death rattle of globalisation, echoing across the scarred plains of bomb-ravaged dreamscapes." (The Quietus)

Syrian mega-pop star and wedding singer Omar Souleyman brings his frenetic dance music to The Cedar!

Tickets go on sale at noon Fri Aug 27 from the Cedar Ticketline (612-338-2674 ext 2), from hard-working Cedar volunteers in the front lobby during shows, from Cedar outlets (Electric Fetus, Irish on Grand, Homestead Pickin' Parlor, and Depth of Field), and online at Ticketweb.

“Los Amigos Invisibles emanate pure groove… walking bass lines, percolating percussion, scratchy guitar and relentless drums of a band that knows no difference between arty fun and sensual fire” - Rolling Stone

 "[Los Amigos Invisibles] bridge language barriers by making their music relentlessly accessible... Non-stop propulsion makes this summer party disc soar like a non stop to Caracas.” - SPIN

Venezuelan (via Brooklyn) Latin Grammy winners Los Amigos Invisibles bring their explosive live show to The Cedar, sure to be a high point in a year that has seen them hit some of the world's biggest stages, including Bonnaroo, Central Park Summerstage, and Lollapalooza.

Sharon Jones, move over. With fiery singer Black Wolf leading the attack, the fine debut from Milwaukee's ten-man Kings Go Forth echoes the high-flying vibe of Superfly-era Curtis Mayfield and other '70s greats, yet feels utterly fresh. On spine-tinglers like "High on Your Love" and "You're the One," the sweet, pleading vocals encompass both ecstasy and desperation, while the blazing beats boast the urgency of ska or punk. (Jon Young, SPIN Magazine, 4 stars)

KIngs Go Forth are a 10-piece Milwaukee soul/funk combo featuring 3 lead vocalists with great harmony vocals. The band signed to Luaka Bop in mid-2009, and their debut album “The Outsiders Are Back” was released on April 20, 2010. The album release was preceded by a 12-inch single of “Don’t Take My Shadow”, containing multiple mixes and edits created by the legendary Tom Moulton, a pioneering remixer of the early disco era.

Grupo Fantasma, the funkiest, finest and hardest working Latin orchestra to come out of the United States in the last decade continue their relentless assault of the road.