Philadelphia band Circa Survive visits The Village to unleash their version of experimental music riding on the back of indie rock riffs. The band also has a new 12-track album titled Blue Sky Noise arriving April 20. Joining the band will be Pennsylvania folk rock trio Good Old War and Maryland analog synth-powered band The Christmas Lights. The show will kick off at 7:30 p.m. with the doors opening at 6:30 p.m. General admission tickets are $15 advance and $18 at the door.
88-Keys was the Long Island hip hop producer sporting the black-rimmed glasses manning the knobs on tunes and albums by acts such as Mos Def, Musiq and J-Live, but in the last year and a half, 88-Keys has stepped out from behind the board to showcase his MC and rap skills. And it’s 88-Keys who is the ringleader of The Crowd Control Tour — “four artists band together to save your city” — that includes Kidz in the Hall, Donnis and Izza Kizza. The Polo-sporting 88-Keys and tourmates will visit Revolution Music Room with the music kicking off at 8 p.m. with a $10 cover for the 18-and-up show.
Here’s a shot of Circa Survive with the video to their tune “Act Appalled”:
With The Black Crowes’ next scheduled gig at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, band guitarist Luther Dickinson is rejoining brother Cody Dickinson and Chris Chew, and returning to the fold for a few dates with the North Mississippi Allstars, including a show at Revolution Music Room. The opening act will be the modern, blues-heavy Southern rock side project of Cody Dickinson and Chew, Hill Country Revue, kicking off the music at 8 p.m. Tickets are $20 for the 18-and-up gig. Expect a full serving of North Mississippi hill country blues sliced and diced with Southern rock for a night of gritty, funky, hard-charging music.
Downtown Music is celebrating its eighth anniversary, birthday, milestone, etc. Call it what you will, the night promises to shake windows up and down Capitol Avenue with a lineup of heavy rock and metal from Rwake, Vore, Hull and Snake Sustaine. The music starts at 8 p.m. with a $6 cover.
Pomegranates and Jookabox are both slowly snaking their way to South by Southwest in Austin, Texas, including a Friday night gig in Athens, Ga., before swinging northwest for a Saturday night in Little Rock. To celebrate the long, long, long drive Jookabox — Indianapolis native David “Moose” Adamson’s rather eclectic yet synthesized musical collection of hymnals, punk, deep house and hip hop — and Pomegranates — a Cincinnati art pop group with happy-go-lucky rhythms — are holding court at Juanita’s. The all-ages show begins at 9 p.m. with a $7 cover. The two touring bands will be joined by local indie rocking favorites Big Boots and Whale Fire. The pairing of the two Arkansas bands promises “special guests, band intermingling, raucous original songs as well as some oddball covers sprinkled in the mix, and a healthy dose of Arkansas moxie,” according to Big Boots, aka Trevor Ware, Mason Mauldin and Michael Motley.
Former Mulehead guitarist and guitarist for Kyoto Boom’s post-punk rock, Dave Raymond has spent the last four years writing and recording Familiar Sting, his debut album on Max Recordings, and an album filled with real-life experiences and rocking tunes with help from a band that includes Geoff Curran on drums, Burt Taggart on guitar and Josh Bentley on bass. Dave Raymond and Present Company will hold a record release show at White Water Tavern for Familiar Sting.
Here’s the North Mississippi Allstars live, doing the late-night talk show thing with “Shake”:
The snow is gone and the postponed The O.D. Part 2 is back on, this time at Sticky Fingerz. Expect a night of real rap as the best in local hip hop is showcased, with sets from EarFear (607 and Bobby), Big Drew, Cat Daddy, Mista Mayhemm, Rah HoWard, Epiphany, Shea Marie and Mike Streezy. Beyond the self-described “dope artists on deck,” DJ Greyhound will be on the turntables. The event kicks off at 9 p.m. with a $10 cover for the 21-and-up show. Dress accordingly.
Juanita’s becomes the center of the female folk singer/songwriter universe — Arkansas edition — when Paige Allbritton, Amanda Rook and Cindy Woolf visit. Allbritton is a 23-year-old Little Rock artist whose strummed tunes such as “Hurt On Purpose” reveal an old soul. (She also covers Paula Abdul’s “Straight Up.”); Rook is a local acoustic rocker; and Woolf is an Ozark folk rocker born in Arkansas but living now in southwest Missouri. An Afterthought regular, Woolf now mixes in pop choruses and twangy country when singing in her angelic voice about love, traveling and trains. The 18-and-up night of music starts at 9 p.m. with a $7 cover.
The Randy Rogers Band disappeared from the touring circuit in late November and early December, visiting Nashville, Tenn., to record another album of Texas-stamped and approved country rock. But since the first of the year, the five piece has been back on the road, whittling down their usual slate of 200 plus shows a year, including their first visit of the year to the Revolution Music Room. Expect a rowdy good time filled with electric guitars, fiddle and yee-haws. The music will start at 9 p.m. with a to-be-announced opening act kicking off the night. Tickets are $15 for the 21-and-up show.
Illinois indie rockers The Forecast’s latest, self-titled album is out, and the quartet is on the road to support the album’s collection of robust, muscular rhythms crossed with pop hooks and tunes about love with lyrics such as “I’m stealing your kisses back from you.” The Forecast visits Vino’s, headlining a show that includes local support from acoustic rock group Townsend and northwest Arkansas rock band A Good Fight, and Murfreesboro, Tenn., pop punkers Since Forever and indie rockers The Narrative, a Brooklyn trio on their way to South by Southwest. The music will kick off at 8 p.m. with a $10 cover.
Central Arkansas blues outfit Unseen Eye has completed their debut album, Too Bad, for Kijam Records and are holding a CD release party at Cornerstone Pub. Presented by the Arkansas River Blues Society presents, the music starts at 8 p.m. with a $5 cover for the 21-and-up event.
Here’s a terribly shaky, crowd-shot version of the Randy Rogers Band’s tune “Interstate,” a new song that will appear on their summer release Burning the Day:
Less than a month after John Sinclair visited White Water Tavern along with North Mississippi hill country blues master R.L. Burnside’s son Duwayne Burnside, R.L. Burnside’s grandson Cedric Burnside returns to the dive with his brother by another mother in tow, as the juke joint duo of Cedric Burnside and Lightnin’ Malcolm play. The pair combine the rhythmic shake of country blues with the electrified boogie of hill blues, shaking it on down with hypnotic, hip-shaking North Mississippi hill country blues fueled by polyrhythmic beats by Burnside on the drums (and vocals), and raw, droning guitar with Malcolm grinding on the fretboard. Expect a 9 p.m. start time with a $10 cover.
The filmmakers responsible for the production of the local zombie film Voodoo Cowboys The Film are holding a benefit show titled Bad Mojo Showdown at Juanita’s, simply promising a “a bazaar night for a bizarre tomorrow.” Included in the night is music from five Arkansas bands: Fayetteville’s Vessels of Wrath, who sprinkle their heavy metal with techno, world music, opera and industrial, and Little Rock acts Iron Tongue, whose grunge-y heavy metal is in the vein of Soundgarden and Black Sabbath, and Ace Spade and the Whores of Babylon, a trio fronted by Ace Spade known for their blood-splattered horrorbilly. The night starts at 9 p.m. with cover $7. Also on the bill are The See and Hector Faceplant.
Metalcore act Attack Attack! is planning on releasing their sophomore release Shazam! on Rise Records in May, an album guaranteed to showcase their aggressive mixture of howling hardcore rhythms and electronica. Currently, the band is in the midst of their Artery Across The Nation Tour, including a stop at The Village, along with Denver electro/screamo duo Breathe Carolina, Michigan hardcore act I See Stars, and English metalcore bands Asking Alexandria and Bury Tomorrow. The doors open at 6 p.m. with the music starting at 7 p.m. with general admission tickets $13 advance and $15 at the door.
Here’s Cedric Burnside and Lightnin’ Malcolm in action with “Goin’ Down South” by Mr. R.L. Burnside himself:
Following a national tour where they supported post-hardcore act Scary Kids Scaring Kids on the Arizona band’s farewell tour, Long Island alternative rockers The Sleeping are headlining their own shows, including a stop at Vino’s. The quintet, known for their roaring, post-hardcore flavored tunes such as “Don’t Hold Back” and “Bomb the World,” will be joined at Vino’s by Christian hardcore metal acts The Gun Show of Ohio and Die To Yourself of Oklahoma City, who are touring themselves, and Arkadelphia alternative rock band Little Monsters. The music starts at 8 p.m. with a $7 cover.
Here’s The Sleeping with their tune “Loud and Clear”:
Since 2002’s Knife Play, Oakland, Calif.-based singer/songwriter Jamie Stewart’s art rock outfit Xiu Xiu has delivered some of the indie world’s most challenging music: uneasy, intense experimental tunes skipping across a kaleidoscope of musical genres. The band’s seventh album Dear God, I Hate Myself, was released in late February on Kill Rock Stars, and is a 12-track recording of complex music, and the band’s first since the departure of multi-instrumentalist Caralee McElory. Xiu Xiu visits Sticky Fingerz with Noveller (the avant-garde solo project of Brooklyn-based sound artist and filmmaker Sarah Lipstate) and San Antonio rock band Girl in a Coma. The music starts at 9 p.m. with a $10 cover for the 21-and-up show.
Here’s Xiu Xiu with the video to their tune “I Do What I Want, When I Want”:
Just a month after appearing in Little Rock as an opening act for Little Rock’s own Living Sacrifice, Bay Area, Calif., hardcore metal quintet Lionheart — known for their “hard music, real lyrics” — returns for a headlining gig at Vino’s. The bill also includes Little Rock’s This City Screams with their hardcore music featuring synths and Camden hardcore metal outfit Judging the Silence with the music starting at 7 p.m. with a $10 cover.
Here’s the damage Lionheart brings with their tune “This Is Who I Am”:
Before they hit the high seas in late April with a jolly band of modern-day rock pirates in Kid Rock, Uncle Kracker and others as part of the Chillin’ the Most Cruise, Dallas-based blues rock outfit Jonathan Tyler & the Northern Lights have a few headlining club dates of their own, including a visit to Sticky Fingerz. The opening acts are Nashville, Tenn., via Tulsa, hard rock stompers The Effects and Little Rock rock outfit Luster, kicking off the music at 9 p.m. Cover is $8 for the 21-and-up show. Called a “a package of rock & roll thunder,” Tyler and his Lights, influenced by the blues-laced rock ‘n’ roll of The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Stevie Ray Vaughan and AC/DC, are preparing to release their Atlantic Records debut, Pardon Me, in April.
One week short of the one-year anniversary of the last time he played Little Rock, T-Model Ford, a real-life Mississippi hill-country bluesman, revisits White Water Tavern. No word on a cover, but expect the hip-shaking music around 9:30 p.m. with Arkansas bluesman Jim Mize. Nearing 90 (give or take a year or two), the Mississippi-born Ford continues to play, backed by a group of Seattle musicians known as GravelRoad, having played 20 shows in Europe from September to October 2009. Known for his rhythmic, raw guitar playing and rough-South vocals, Ford’s newest album is the Jan. 12 release The Ladies Man, the musician’s first all-acoustic album, recorded live in a Wichita, Kan., studio in the summer of 2008.
Big Smith, the Springfield, Mo., band composed of five cousins and one, fiddle-playing non-cousin, have released their first studio album of original material since 2000’s Big Rock, titled Roots, Shoots and Wings, a 16-track collection of the band’s modern take on hillbilly music. To celebrate — and play — the new music, Big Smith is on the road, including a stop at Revolution Music Room. The show starts at 8:30 p.m. with Little Rock’s Mockingbird, a self-described “hillbilly party band” with some big names in it who kick out the jams with a serious dose of psychedelic-laced roots music. Big Smith is simply an Ozark-Mountains powered, musical hootenanny of explosive bluegrass music mingled with country, rock ‘n’ roll and folk.
A little event Vino’s is calling Pop Fest features Little Rock pop punk rock act Thrill of a Dog Fight, For the Day, Bring Victory, Embrace the Crash and infectious pop punk group Box Wine. The music starts at 7 p.m. with a $10 cover. Box Wine has just finished recording their new EP in Missouri with Malcolm Springer, who has worked with Matchbox 20 and Collective Soul.
Kyle Glass is one half of the duo Tenacious D, a comedic rock band that features actor and musician Jack Black as the other half. But as Klip Calhoun, Glass plays lead acoustic guitar in the five member Trainwreck, a band whose music is Southern rock in nature but includes progressive rock and boogie influences in its mixture to create what is described as “wreck and roll.” Trainwreck’s current tour brings them to The Village. The doors open at 7:30 p.m. with the music at 8:30 p.m. General admission tickets are $10 advance and $13 at the door.
The King of Country, George Strait, and country music’s No. 1 female artist of all time, Reba McEntire, bring their hit-singing tour to Verizon Arena, with opener Lee Ann Womack. Upper-level tickets were still available earlier this week. Tickets are on sale at the Verizon Arena Box Office for $81.25 and $91.25, or through all Ticketmaster outlets, charge by phone at (800) 745-3000 or online at ticketmaster.com for $93.45 and $104.75. Doors open at 6 p.m. with Womack kicking the music off at 7 p.m. followed by Reba and then Strait.
Just because I’m a fan of George Strait (his early stuff), here’s “Amarillo By Morning”:
A little over a year since his last visit to Sticky Fingerz, former Beanland, Kudzu Kings and Widespread Panic guitarist George McConnell returns to the River Market club to play his swirling blend of rock ‘n’ roll-, jazz-, country- and blues-inspired music, including an homage to Steve Cropper with “Mr. Cropper” and the searing country blues rock of “Jaguar.” The opening act is Fayetteville’s Charliehorse, an outfit which throws out Ozark-flavored Americana music with a rockabilly kick, starting out the music at 9 p.m. Cover for the 21-and-up show is $7. McConnell’s new focus is releasing, via digital download, rock ‘n’ roll singles recorded in his Oxford, Miss., studio and titled the Virtual 45 Series.
Beastie Boys’ resident DJ Mix Master Mike will finish his current tour with four straight nights of chopping and spinning in London, but before jumping across the pond, Mr. Michael Schwartz is visiting The Village. Doors open at 8:30 p.m. with general admission tickets $20 advance and $25 at the door. Called one of the greatest DJs of all time by USA Today, Mix Master Mike has been multicoloring the Beastie Boys’ mixture of hip-hop, punk, garage rock and funk with turntable tweaks and scratches since the trio’s multiplatinum album Hello Nasty in 1997. But the turntable sorcerer has also left his crazy scratching on albums and EPs as a solo artist, and worked with musicians such as Ozzy Osbourne.
Expect to be asked to drink, and then drink some more, plus enjoy some kick-ass rockabilly music as Billy D and the First-Time Offenders play Cornerstone Pub. The music starts at 9 p.m. with a $5 cover.
Before the outdoors Edgefest VI arrives May 8 at the Arkansas State Fairgrounds with a lineup including Godsmack and Rob Zombie. 100.3 The Edge is presenting a couple of Edgefest veterans indoors at Verizon Arena with Canadian alternative rock band Three Days Grace and Pennsylvania alternative rock band Breaking Benjamin. Three Days Grace, known for their hook-filled songs such as the polished “I Hate Everything About You,” and Breaking Benjamin, who reached the masses with their crossover smash “The Diary of Jane,” will be joined by Flyleaf, a Temple, Texas-based rock band best known for the single “I’m So Sick.” Doors open at 6 p.m. with the music starting at 7 p.m. Tickets are $39.75.
The Arkansas Community Arts Cooperative is holding an opening of Kat Wilson’s Habitat: A Photographic Experience by Kat Wilson from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the ACAC building on Rodney Parham Road. It’s the first time the entire series has been on display, and a film by Wilson will also be screened with musical accompaniment by Zach Holland. Video poems by Walt Whitman-award winning poet, Tony Tost, will also be displayed. Hors d’oeuvre, beer and wine will be available; donations are encouraged. The works will be on display until March 28.
Here’s George McConnell in action with his “Kill the Man”:
Raised on bluegrass gods such as Bill Monroe and Flatt & Scruggs, but not afraid to cover Death Can For Cutie’s “I Will Follow You Into the Dark,” Cadillac Sky’s musical explosion of rock ‘n’ roll, bluegrass, pop and blues caught the attention of The Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach which led to a five-day recording session at Akron Analog where the five piece recorded their third full-length album. Before the album is released in the spring though, the quintet is out on the road, including a visit to Juanita’s, with the opening acts Nashville, Tenn.’s The Apache Relay with their bluegrass-flavored rock ‘n’ roll songs and Conway folk rockers This Holy House. The music starts at 9 p.m., and tickets are $10 advance and $12 day of for the 18-and-up show.
In the past few months, when he’s not been busy crooning out the classics with his backing band the Mercers, Cody Belew has been working on his Americana-flavored solo album Paradise. Influenced by artists such as Patty Griffin, Ray LaMontagne, Gillian Welch and A.A. Bondy, Paradise was recorded by Jason Tedford at Wolfman Recording Studios and co-written with musician Michael Wallace. Now finished, Belew will hold a record release party at White Water Tavern.
The fresh-faced, pop-rocking Texas sextet known as Forever the Sickest Kids return to The Village for a night of their sing-along anthems powered by powerpop guitar riffs and energetic choruses. Joining the band will be Little Rock’s own School Boy Humor with their punchy powerpop tunes and EKG, a newish Little Rock band formed from members of Asteios and Alert All Arms who kick out an energetic blend of pop, rock and rap self-described as “pop crunk.” The doors open at 7 p.m. with the music starting at 8 p.m. General admission tickets are $15 advance and $18 at the door.
Harp & Lyre praise the Lord through raging guitars on tunes such as “Insight to Failure” but add melodic keyboards and electronica flourishes to pummeling beats such as on “Grizzly Adams Did Have a Beard.” Armed with brutal praise anthems and interesting song titles, the Oklahoma City band revisits Vino’s, headlining a bill that includes Michigan hardcore band All’s Quiet and Texas hardcore group Fit For a King along with local support from Little Rock hardcore group Legend Has It. The music starts at 8 p.m. with a $7 cover.
Here’s Cadillac Sky with their cover of DCFC’s “I Will Follow You Into the Dark”:
