Sync Weekly

Posts Tagged ‘Clear Channel Metroplex’

Wednesday’s Music

Tuesday, February 9th, 2010

Chris Young.

Giving you the music a day early:

OK, country musician Chris Young was introduced to fame mainly because he won the country version of American Idol, Nashville Star. But the man’s a rising country star because when he sings “But watching your baby-blue eyes/Dancing in the candlelight glow/All I can think about/Is getting you home” (from the No. 1 country hit “Gettin’ You Home (The Black Dress Song)”) he melts every little country girl’s heart. With the second single from Young’s sophomore album, the title track “The Man I Want to Be,” racing up the charts, Young appears to be one of a handful of country reality music stars with staying power, joining Carrie Underwood. A special acoustic appearance by Young will headline an event titled Homegrown Country Show at Clear Channel Metroplex to benefit the children at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, including Little Rock country singer/songwriter Ryan Couron, Sherwood country musician David Byrnes and Beebe Southern rock-flavored country act Luke Williams Band. Tickets are $10 advance and $15 at the door with the music starting at 7 p.m.

Media outlets from online heavyweights Stereogum and Pitchfork to alternative weeklies such as Dallas Observer to mainstream magazines such as Entertainment Weekly have called the emo synthpop of Adam Young’s musical project Owl City a rip-off of Death Cab for Cutie frontman Ben Gibbard’s electronica pop side project The Postal Service. And what exactly does Young mean with lyrics such as “It’s hard to say that I’d rather stay awake when I’m asleep” from the No. 1 hit “Fireflies”? You know what? Who cares? Young’s music makes a certain segment of the population happy. So many people happy that Owl City’s Revolution Music Room visit with fellow synthpop artist Lights and Russellville sparkling indie rock act Deas Vail has been sold out for weeks. (But you can catch the shimmering music of Deas Vail on the Vans Warped Tour in August.) So Owl City’s music is derivative. Gibbard’s no longer an indie idol; Death Cab for Cutie wrote a freaking tune for freaking Twilight! P.S. If you do have tickets, the show starts at 7 p.m.

Here’s Chris Young singing about that black dress:

Saturday’s Music

Friday, February 5th, 2010

Living Sacrifice.

Giving you the music a day early:

The groundbreaking Little Rock Christian metal group Living Sacrifice is back, having reformed in 2008 with original members Bruce Fitzhugh and Lance Garvin, and Rocky Gray and Arthur Green (members since 2000’s The Hammering Process). The group’s newest collection of thrashy and powerful Christian metal anthems, The Infinite Order, came out the last week of January, and the group has hit the road to support the new record. Titled The Abominable Snow Tour, the outfit will play Juanita’s on a bill that also includes Christian hardcore metal War of Ages, hardcore metal act Shai Hulud, hardcore metal quintet Lionheart and Christian hardcore metal band The Great Commission. The music starts at 9 p.m. with tickets $13 advance and $15 day of show for the all-ages concert.

Culpepper Mountain is a mountain summit in Van Buren County that rises to a height of 1,040 feet. Culpepper Mountain Band is a group of four friends from Clinton who create country rock influenced by Merle Haggard, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Red Dirt country acts such as Cross Canadian Ragweed and country outlaws such as Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings. Known for a roof-raising live show, Culpepper Mountain Band is recording a live album at Sticky Fingerz with central Arkansas act Matt Stell & The Crashers kicking off the night at 9 p.m. with their collection of Americana, country and Southern rock tunes. Cover is $5.

Exene Cervenka moved to Los Angeles in August 1976 and in 1977 formed X, the punk rock band whose 1980 debut Los Angeles (produced by Doors keyboard player Ray Manzarek) was declared album of the year by The Los Angeles Times and is No. 286 on Rolling Stone’s list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. While X is still around, Cervenka is also a member of Los Angeles-based The Knitters (first formed in 1982 as a country/rockabilly side project of X) and tours as a solo act. And it’s as her folk rock (with a slice of punk attitude) solo act that Exene Cervenka visits White Water Tavern on a bill that includes the Dexter Romweber Duo, the punkish rockabilly brother/sister duo that includes former North Carolina rockabilly act Flat Duo Jets member Dexter Romweber (a chief influence of Jack White). Local act Magic Hassle (an American Princes side project of David Slade and Matt Quin) is also on the bill. Music is at 9 p.m. with a $10 cover.

To mark reggae master Bob Marley’s 65th birthday, Revolution Music Room is throwing a Bob Marley Birthday Bash with music from reggae act Fire & Brimstone and headliner Butterfly featuring Irie Soul with their combination of reggae and dancehall, and traces of R&B and funk. Special guests include Changus B and Dexter Peters of Little Rock reggae/R&B band First Impressions and Devon Evans, a percussionist on the Bob Marley & the Wailers posthumous collection Confrontation. The show starts at 8 p.m. with a $10 cover for the 21-and-up event.

It’s a week and a day before Valentine’s Day, and Jester’s Entertainment and the local Clear Channel radio stations are gearing up for the holiday by presenting Lovefest at the Clear Channel Metroplex. The 4 p.m. to midnight event is hosted by the Doctor of Love, Michael “Doc” Davis, and features headliners The Meanies with their ’80s hard rock/heavy metal covers and local heavy rock act Eden Crow kicking off the music. Besides the music, expect a celebrity auction (with high bidders winning dates with local celebrities), a lingerie contest ($1,000 prize for the sexiest lingerie), a lingerie show and vendors. Tickets are $10 for the 18-and-up event.

The Grammy-nominated Christian alternative rock act Red (their latest album Innocence & Instinct was nominated for Best Rock Or Rap Gospel Album at the 52nd annual Grammy Awards) visits the Statehouse Convention Center on their Nothing and Everything Tour. Known for their mainstream rock tunes “Breathe Into Me,” “Already Over” and “Death of Me,” Red will visit downtown Little Rock with Tulsa, Okla., Christian rock act Pillar, Fayetteville Christian punk act The Wedding and Ohio/Nashville, Tenn., Christian alternative rock act Me In Motion. Doors open at 6 p.m. with the music starting at 7 p.m. Tickets are $15 advance and $20 day of show.

Here’s a slice of Living Sacrifice with their tune “Reborn Empowered”: