Two reasons to go to Juanita’s on Sunday night: First up is Junius, the progressive art rock band from Boston that Rolling Stone said strikes “a stunning balance of brutality and beauty.” The second reason? Orbs, an experimental rock supergroup consisting of members of Between the Buried and Me, Fear Before the March of Flames and Abigail Williams. Need a third reason? Central Arkansas’ own Underclaire, a minimalist alternative rock act who released their newest album Making Sky at the end of 2009, is also on the bill along with Fort Smith alternative rock band Anything or Everything. Cover for the all-ages is $10 with the music starting at 7:30 p.m.
The list of famous artists from Idaho is relatively short. In fact, really short. And Built to Spill are probably the Gem State’s biggest musical export. But after a summer spent opening for Kings of Leon (no word on what pigeons thought of Built to Spill), Built to Spill is headlining their own shows with their three-axe indie rock attack, including at stop at The Village. General admission tickets are $20 advance and $25 at the door with the doors opening at 7:30 p.m. and the music at 8:30 p.m.. The opening acts are fellow Idaho band Finn Riggins and central Arkansas’ own rockers Underclaire.
Legendary New Orleans roots rock band The Iguanas is getting a little Treme love, with their Super Ball “Is This Love?” tune being featured in the David Simon-penned HBO drama’s “All On a Mardi Gras Day.” In fact, John Goodman’s character even quotes from it (and generally sum up love): “Sad but it’s pretty like New Orleans/I hate to see it come apart at the seams.” Formed in 1989, the act bears witness to New Orleans’ diverse musical happenings, blending blues, R&B, zydeco, Cajun and Chicano into their grooving roots rock sound. The quartet, and two-time Offbeat Magazine Best Country/Folk/Roots Rock Performer, visits Sticky Fingerz. There’s no confirmed opening act at this time, but expect the music at 9 p.m. with cover $10 for the 21-and-up show.
Main Street institution Juanita’s will host a trio of central Arkansas bands with appearances by Afternoon Delight, Siversa and Underclaire. It’s an all-ages show with cover $5 and the music starting at 10 p.m. Russellville’s Afternoon Delight’s name recalls the Starland Vocal Band’s 1976 No. 1 hit, but the quartet kicks out some seriously heavy, blues-soaked hard rock. Underclaire is known for their minimalist alternative rock, and Siversa is a relatively new local alternative rock band that includes former members of After The Tragedy, creating punchy, technically proficient rock. It’ll be the farewell show for Siversa’s drummer Derrick Price as the band unveils a new drummer.
The Peabody Little Rock continues to worship the power and the glory of a Friday night under the stars with their weekly RiverTop Party on the hotel’s back patio overlooking the Arkansas River. This week it’s a twin dose of DJs with DJ Kookieman and DJ Tre’ Day. By day, Telly Noel is a marketing expert, but by night he is DJ Kookieman, drawing upon his more than 10-year career as a radio DJ at hip-hop stations Power 92.3 and the former Hot 96.5. Travis “Tre’ Day” Rowan is a current favorite afternoon DJ on Power 92.3. The 21-and-up party starts at 8 p.m. and lasts until 1 a.m. with admission $5.
Mojo Depot, the Little Rock group consisting of Tyndall Jackson on guitar, Rob Moore on vocals and guitar, Jason Adams on drums and John Wright on bass, is marking 25 years of creating music with an anniversary show at White Water Tavern. Formed as The Loose Change, White Water is one of the first clubs the band ever played before heading to California and releasing a debut album, Phantom Train, and following it up with Crazy to Believe before returning to Little Rock. Expect a dose of original jammy blues rock from the outfit, along with selections from The Rolling Stones, Grateful Dead, The Allman Brothers, Robert Earl Keen and others.
Downtown Music welcomes a trio of central Arkansas heavy rock bands. Russellville’s Dirtyfinger is an oddity: a three-piece heavy metal band. But even with three members, the band kicks out a furious sound on tunes such as the double-bass drum filled “Contamination” and the atmospheric, jabbing rock of “Shadow Government.” Also on the bill are Southern-flavored metal band Sychosys with their workingman’s metal influenced by bands such as Pantera, Black Label Society and Black Sabbath, and Tull’s Livid, a band whose heavy rock borders on heavy metal: throbbing, melodic bass lines intertwined with a pacing drum beat and flashy yet economically employed fills, and stabbing power chords and bluesy but technical solos. The music is at 8 p.m. with a $7 cover.
Cybertribe presents Wicked 3 at The Village with headliners Datsik and Reid Speed. It’ll be Canadian dubstep artist Datsik’s first visit to Little Rock while female DJ Reid Speed will be returning to create her hype-y, dubstep anthems. Joining the out of towners will be local DJs Justin Sane, Sleek, Sleepy Genius, Ewell, Rucker, Digital Love, Blake Taylor, Haze, Paul Grass, P-Malpractice and T-Rea. The music starts at 9 p.m. with the doors opening at 8:30 p.m. General admission tickets are $15 advance and $20 at the door. VIP tickets are $20 advance and $25 at the door.
Here’s The Iguanas in action with their “Boom Boom Boom”:
I once met Cracker’s David Lowery at the bar of a Ruby Tuesday’s in Metrocenter Mall in Jackson, Miss. He signed my CD single copy of “Euro-Trash Girl.” I still have that autograph, and Lowery and Cracker are still creating “Cracker soul” music, a mixture of desert-flavored Americana, country, psychedelia, blues and rock ‘n’ roll. A Camper Van Beethoven alumnus, Lowery is still on vocals and guitar, along with original member Johnny Hickman on guitar and vocals. The band’s latest is the 2009 release Sunrise in the Land of Milk and Honey so expect new tunes along with classics such as “Happy Birthday to Me,” “Teen Angst (What the World Needs Now),” “Low” and hopefully “Euro-Trash Girl” when the band visits Revolution Music Room. Arkansas bluesman Jim Mize is the opening act, with the music starting at 8:30 p.m. Tickets for the all-ages show are $15.
White Water Tavern host a trio of central Arkansas bands with appearances by power trio gulch rockers Dangerous Idiots, minimalist alternative rockers Underclaire, and Sweet Eagle, a hard-charging Little Rock rock ‘n’ roll outfit with Alan Disaster, frontman of defunct punk rock outfit Smoke Up Johnny, on vocals along with Andy Warr of Brother Andy & His Big Damn Mouth. The music starts at 9 p.m., and cover is a donation at the door.
As much as I dig “Euro-Trash Girl,” here’s my favorite Cracker tune — “I Want Everything”:
In the mid-1990s, two-man heavy alternative rock group Local H lit up rock radio with tunes such as “Bound for the Floor” and “Eddie Vedder,” mixing Midwestern meat-and-potatoes, gritty rock with a punk vibe. But the duo’s best tune is “High-Fiving MF,” a chugging, stomping, guitar- and drum-powered indictment of machismo. Local H, consisting of guitarist and vocalist Scott Lucas, and drummer Brian St. Clair, who replaced original drummer Joe Daniels, are still touring, including a stop at Sticky Fingerz. Arizona powerpop rock outfit Kinch is the opener along with central Arkansas minimalist alternative rock act Underclaire with the music starting at 8:30 p.m. Tickets for the 21-and-up show are $10 advance.
Robert Earl Keen at Juanita’s. OK. There are two things to ask yourself about this show. First, how much do you really like Keen, the legendary Texas country music singer/songwriter? No. Really. Enough to spend $100 for a general admission ticket? That’s how much they are. Which leads directly to the second question: Are you willing to spend $100 for a Keen concert that supports the Monty Davenport for land commissioner campaign? Because Keen — the writer and singer who combines folk and rock ‘n’ roll with Texas country — is playing Juanita’s as a benefit for Davenport, who’ll probably say a word or two. Admission age is the same as the voting age, and it starts at 8 p.m.
And here’s Local H with a live rendition of “High-Fiving MF” (F-bombs throughout):
As a younger artist, Duwayne Burnside back both his legendary father R.L. Burnside and the similarly legendary Junior Kimbrough as the pair introduced North Mississippi hill country blues music to the masses. Beyond working with his late father and the late Kimbrough, Duwayne Burnside has fused hill country blues with soul, working with Cedric Burnside as Duwayne Burnside and the Mississippi Mafia, and with the North Mississippi Allstars on their Polaris album. After a few years raising a family in Holly Springs, Miss., Duwayne Burnside is back playing live, including a visit to White Water Tavern.
A trio of Little Rock indie acts set up shop at Juanita’s for a night of music. After a couple of benefit shows and a night spent as the jangling, college-rock side of R.E.M., tight, post-punk rockers The Moving Front return to the stage, joined by Magic Hassle, the loud, indie rock side project of David Slade and Matt Quin from American Princes. Joining them will be Underclaire, a minimalist alternative rock band who released their third album, Making Sky, earlier this year. The 18-and-up show starts at 9 p.m. with a $5 cover.
Sure, their name might sound like a Beavis and Butthead joke, but New Orleans group Goatwhore is actually a black metal band with a ferocious sound consisting of former members of such New Orleans sludge metal greats as Acid Bath, Crowbar and Soilent Green. Goatwhore will unveil their black magic sound of fist-clenching, formidable metal during a visit to Downtown Music. Also on the bill are death metal band Black Blood Division (which includes members of Seattle doom metal band Burning Witch), Conway death metal band Izamal and Little Rock metal band A Darkened Era with their combination punch of death metal rhythms and hardcore riffs. The music starts at 8 p.m. with a $10 cover.
Vino’s hosts a Hope for Haiti Benefit featuring a quintet of Arkansas acts. Included in the show are El Dorado death metal band Once Exiled, Hot Springs progressive rock act Stereo Sound, Hot Springs hardcore metal band Our Friends Fall Silent, Little Rock hardcore metal outfit Rivalry for Ruin and Arkansas hardcore punk band Hi-Five City. The music starts at 8 p.m. with a $10 cover.
Here’s Duwayne Burnside in action with “The Sky Is Crying”:
It’s hard to find a genuine soul band in today’s world, but luckily The Revelations feat. Tre Williams realize soul isn’t created; it’s lived, and hard times is something both Williams and co-singer Rell Gaddis have survived. Williams first appeared on singles by artists such as Petey Pablo and was signed to Nas’ Ill Will Records. But his 2007 debut, The Depths of My Soul, was never released. Gaddis was the first R&B male singer signed to Roc-A-Fella Records, but an album never materialized. A solo project by Williams grew into The Revelations, a band that reignites classic ’60s and ’70s soul sound with a modern touch, blending the gritty, Southern soul of Stax with the dazzling, urban flash of Motown, and tossing in R&B rhythms, and bluesy guitar and organ. The Revelations feat. Tre Williams visit Juanita’s, and tickets for the 10 p.m., 18-and-up show are $12 advance and $15 day of show.
The spicy, Latin-flavored rock of Austin, Texas, outfit Vallejo is no stranger to Little Rock, and the quartet revisits central Arkansas with a show at Sticky Fingerz. The opening act is Badhand, kicking the music off at 9:30 p.m. with a $7 cover for the 21-and-up show. Vallejo — known for their fiery blend of hard rock guitars with Latin percussion, soulful vocals and a sweltering funk sound — released a 12-track collection of tunes titled Acousta, featuring unplugged variations of their tunes “Snake In The Grass,” “Forever (Is A Long Time),” “Into The New,” “Beautiful Life” and more, on Jan. 19.
The third album from central Arkansas minimalist alternative rock act Underclaire is Making Sky, a 12-track album of smart, muscular rock such as the start-stop rush of “Belladonna” and the bass-powered swing of “Las Muertas,” created by the quartet of Mike Mullins on guitar and vocals, Edison DeLeon on guitar, Rob Brackett on bass and Bryan Baker on drums. It’s guitar rock, incorporating minimal lyrics, and avoiding the traditional verse-chorus/verse-chorus song structure, and utilizing the soft/loud dynamic to lend the tunes sonic texture and weight. A month after an initial CD release party, the band will hold another CD release party for Making Sky at White Water Tavern with Hot Springs experimental indie rock act White Glove Test and Little Rock rock band The Dangerous Idiots, a band comprised of Techno-Squid Eats Parliament founding members Aaron Sarlo and Shayne Gray, and Trusty founding member Paul Bowling, also on the bill.
For one night only the world-famous Chippendales return to Little Rock, presenting a show at the Peabody Hotel Ballroom, kicking off at 7:30 p.m. with the doors opening at 6 p.m. A 21-and-up show, tickets are $25 advance and $35 day of show for great seats, $35 advance and $45 day of show for excellent seats, and $45 advance and $55 day of show for limited, front-row seats. Everyone will have a seat though for the act that includes a selection of the world’s hunkiest men and the “world’s most recognized ladies’ entertainment crew.” Matt Joyce will open the show with his Elvis Presley tribute. It’s the perfect night for bachelorette parties or birthday parties for the ladies.
Since first picking up the guitar as a freshman in high school, Nick Flora has concentrated on making music that makes people happy, such as he does with Nick Flora & Film at Eleven on the handclapping indie pop of the title track from his latest album, Great Escape, or the slow, shuffling folk rock of “Summersong.” The Nashville, Tenn., artist is on tour with fellow Music City USA artist The Kicks, with their melodic, harmony-filled rock music influenced by such artists as Pete Yorn and Tom Petty. The two bands visit Revolution Music Room with a bill that includes Arkadelphia band The Running Back with their folk-flavored rock, Little Rock indie act Falcon Scott and experimental Little Rock hip-hop collective Futuro Boots. The 18-and-up show gets going at 8:30 p.m. with tickets $7 for over 21, and $9 for 20 and under.
Here’s a shot of The Revelations feat. Tre Williams with their tune “Heavy Metal Blues”:
