Friday, October 30, 2015

Late Night Pick: Ghost and The Zombies

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert gets into the Halloween spirit tonight with two bands, Ghost and The Zombies. And Charlie Rose. Here's one from each band. I think Ghost is going to freak some people out. There will be protests. I love it.




Thursday, October 29, 2015

Weekend Picks: Trongone Band (Dead as Funk), WRIR Monster Mashquerade, Hardywood Zombie Zoo, Fool's Errand

We're back! Did you miss me? Did you even notice I was gone? After a hectic few weeks of moving and work, Handful of Brains is back in the saddle. I can't quit you. And just in time for Halloween!


Spooky weekend festivities kick off with WRIR's Monster Mashquerade at The Camel on Friday night. Doors open at 8, music starts at 9. It's $5 in advance, $10 at the door and that's a donation to WRIR so that's cool. Four bands will entertain you: Heartracer, Spooky Cool, Skirts, and anOva. Here's a dancey little number from Heartracer called "Overboard":




Saturday night at The Camel, Trongone Band will do a set of original music and then a Dead as Funk set with special guests. Doors open at 8, it's $10 in advance, $12 at the door. Special guests include Jonathan Meadows from The Congress, the Grateful Gospel singers who joined Keller Williams at Lockn' and Peach Festival this year, and a horn section. Here's they are as Dead as Funk in Charleston a couple weeks ago:



Hardywood will feature Zombie Zoo - Tricksters of Punk Rock with cover bands of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers (Full Moon Fever), Ramones in Spanglish (Los Ramones), and maybe partying will help (minutemen). The tasting room opens at 2, there will be food trucks there for your delight, and the music starts at 8 and goes until midnight. It's FREE to get in. Here's Tom Petty's "Mary Jane's Last Dance" which features Tom in a morgue with a dead Kim Basinger and just a hint of necrophilia. That seemed appropriate for Halloween:



Gypsy folk punk band Fool's Errand is at Triple Crossing Brewing for Halloween. Show starts at 8 and it's free to get in. Here's Fool's Errand scary video, "What Happened?". What happened, indeed.



That'll do it. Have a fun and scary weekend! I'll leave you with Queens of the Stone Age's "Vampyre of Time and Memory":


Tony Jordan

Monday, October 19, 2015

Late Night Pick: John Fogerty & Richard Thompson


Double bonus on Conan tonight! John Fogerty will be on the show, presumably talking about his new biography, "Fortunate Son". And the musical guest is the great UK guitarist/songwriter Richard Thompson performing a song from his new album, "Still". Here's Richard doing his classic, "1952 Vincent Black Lightning":




Tuesday, October 13, 2015

Late Night Pick: Craig Finn

Craig Finn, lead singer of The Hold Steady, has put his second solo album ("Faith In The Future") out and he'll do a song from it tonight on Late Night with Seth Meyers (12:35 AM, NBC). You can catch Craig in DC at the Rock & Roll Hotel on 11/2. Heres' Craig doing an NPR Tiny Desk Concert three years ago:



Here's Tame Impala on Stephen Colbert last week:

Thursday, October 8, 2015

Weekend Picks: Richmond Folk Festival, NO BS! Brass Band, Steel Panther, Ultra Kings, Dismal Swamp Lords

This weekend? Folk Festival, Folk Festival, Folk Festival, Folk Festival. Go to the Richmond Folk Festival. It's down at Brown's Island/Historic Tredegar all weekend long (6 P - 10 P Friday, Noon - 9:30 P Saturday, Noon - 6 P Sunday). Going to the Folk Festival is like walking around the world as you move from tent to tent. Blues, klezmer, Celtic, Cajun, sacred steel, bluegrass, gospel, Cambodian khmer, hip hop (Grandmaster Flash!), rockabilly, Persian, Ethiopian jazz and more. I'll be working backstage at the Union/U of R Virginia Folklife Stage on Saturday from 11:30 AM to 3 PM and just on that stage, I'll see a Baptist hymn to open the day by Reverend Frank Newsome, bluegrass/gospel from The Church Sisters, Russian folk music from the Washington Balalakia Society Orchestra, and contemporary bluegrass from Ash Breeze. If you like to move, just head down to the Dominion Dance Pavilion at the end of Brown's Island where the stage for Cheers is. I hope to see you there. Blues singer Shemekia Copeland will be playing on Friday and Saturday and here's a little taste of her, filmed just a week ago:



NO BS! Brass Band is at Broadberry Friday night. You can head down there after Folk Fest. It's $12 in advance, $15 at the door. Doors open at 8, show starts at 9. Don't know if there is an opener, but if there isn't, that just means more NO BS! NO BS's new album, "Brass Knuckles" is coming out any day now (just in time for Christmas!), so expect to hear a lot from that. Here's their new epic song, "Ballad of the Eagle Claw":




Steel Panther bring their tongue-in-cheek (maybe?) hair metal to The National Friday night. Tix are $22.50 in advance, $25 at the door. Doors open at 7, show starts at 8 with Eagles of Freedom. Here they are Rockn' at Wacken last summer, opening with the cracking "Pussy Whipped" (language NSFW, but with a title like that, you probably figured that out):





Saturday night, The Ultra Kings (out of my old stomping grounds in the Lehigh Valley, PA!) and Dismal Swamp Lords are at Poe's Pub for a rockabilly/surf/swamp/punk/blues fest and really, what more could you ask? Show starts at 9. There may be a $5 cover charge. Here's The Ultra Kings from earlier this summer:



That's gonna do it this week, Been packing to move next week so not a lot of time. Because of the move (just across town) there will be no Handful of Brains Weekend Picks next week (awwwwwww!).

Have a great weekend! Go to Folk Fest!

I'll leave you with the Jefferson Airplane tribute from Lockn' 2015. Great show! Beautiful and talented singers! Awesome jams! Deep cuts! Jack & Jorma!



Tony Jordan

Wednesday, October 7, 2015

Late Night Pick: Tame Impala

Australian psychedelic group Tame Impala will be on Late Show with Stephen Colbert tonight (11:35 PM, CBS). The band played Radio City Music Hall last night. Here they are five years ago. From their album, "Innerspeaker", this is "Why Won't You Make Up Your Mind?".




Tuesday, October 6, 2015

Late Night Pick: Florence & The Machine

Adult alternative / pop / indie / rock band Florence & The Machine are on Late Show with Stephen Colbert tonight (11:35 PM, CBS).  F&TM's videos for "Queen Of Peace" and "What Kind Of Man" have both been nominated for UK Music Video Awards 2015. Here's "What Kind of Man":



Here's the two songs Andra Day performed on Jimmy Kimmel Live last week:




Thursday, October 1, 2015

Weekend Picks: RVA Field of Dreams Fest, Lucinda Williams, Toro Y Moi, Bully, Diamond Center, Southern Belles, Erin & the Wildfire

Welcome to the weekend of Joaquin! He's already messed up a bunch of festivals with the State Fair, Hogtober and the 2nd St. Festival all getting flat out canceled. Joaquin, you bastard! But let's find some stuff to do indoors this weekend, shall we?

The RVA Field of Dreams Fest was supposed to be out at The Diamond, but they have moved it indoors to the Altria Theater. Doors will open at 6:30. They'll still have the craft beer and the local cuisine and they'll still have a killer lineup of bands playing R&B, soul and blues. Leading off will be a band that started in RVA, The Congress. Hitting in the middle of the order is one my favorites, Black Joe Lewis and his brand of rocking soul blues. And batting cleanup is old-school soul singer Charles Bradley, who is backed by a band of young turks steeped in the music of Stax-Volt and Muscle Shoals. Tix are $100 for VIP, $45 for GA and a souvenir glass with 3 sampling tickets, and $35 for a non-tasting GA ticket. You can buy more sampling tickets or full-glass pours. Let's do one from Black Joe Lewis and one from Charles Bradley.






Southern Belles are at The Camel on Friday night and I believe this is their first show after their triumphant appearance at Lockn'. They put on a great show there and they had a really good crowd show up for being the Sunday opener. Tix are $7 in advance, $10 at the door. Doors open at 8 and music starts at 9 with Stop Light Observations.



There's a good early show to catch at Strange Matter if you want to happy hour with some indie rock. Bully headlines the show. Doors open at 5, it's $10 to get in, Heat & Dead Soft will open. You might dig Bully if you like Weezer, Wild Flag, Screaming Females, Breeders or Pixies. Here's their brand new video which just came out today (10/1). It's for the song "Too Tough":



Saturday at The National, Toro Y Moi will grace us with their presence. The more I hear from them, the more I like. They've got a fun, funky, pop-rock groove with some nice psychedelic flourishes. Tix are $18 in advance, $20 at the door. Astronauts, etc. will open at 8 PM, and doors open at 7. Check out "Lilly" from Toro Y Moi's new album, "What For?":



Charlottesville band Erin & the Wildfire are at The Camel Saturday night. Tix are $7 and you get two openers starting at 9 PM (doors open at 8) with Common Wealth and Big Mama Shakes. Erin & the Wildfire will be playing out at the Festy Experience in Roseland, VA next weekend and hopefully the weather will be kinder than this weekend. Here they are with their original, "Puzzles":



The Diamond Center, formerly based in RVA, now residents of Austin, return to their favorite city on Saturday for a show at Black Iris Music. Diamond Center will be regaling us with the gothic psychedelic garage rock on their new album, "Crystals for the Brass Empire". It's $6 in advance, $10 at the door, doors open at 8, music starts at 9 and BIG NO opens. Get there early if you want to get in because Black Iris is not that big. From their new album, here's Diamond Center's "Wax and Wane":




Sunday night, alt-country goddess Lucinda Williams is at The National. Tix are $25 in advance, $28 at the door, doors open at 6:30, show starts at 7:30 with openers Buick 6. Lucinda won the Americana Music Award for album of the year for her latest album "Down Where the Spirit Meets the Bone". Here she is at KEXP in February:



Have a great weekend! I'll leave you with this one from Bruce, which feels personal right now:



Tony Jordan

Late Night Pick: Andra Day


New retro-soul singer-songwriter Andra Day will be on Jimmy Kimmel Live tonight (ABC, 11:35 PM). You can get a free download of her song "Rearview" from her debut album HERE. And here's her cover of Eminem's "Lose Yourself" done in her style. Check it out.



Here's Jill Scott on Jimmy Kimmel Live last week: