Late Night Pick of the Night: Megadeth

It's Halloween so you gotta do some metal right?  Megadeth is back with their new album, Th1rt3en, which just happens to be their thirteenth album and is also really annoying to try and type.  They'll be on Jimmy Kimmel Live tonight at midnight on ABC.  Pee-Wee Herman aka Paul Reubens will be on too.  Bonus!

Late Night Pick of the Night: Duran Duran

Duran Duran will be on the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson tonight at 12:35 AM on CBS.  Never been a huge Duran Duran fan.  I liked "Rio" when it came out but then they blew up mega-huge and I dismissed them as a boy band, correctly or not.  I have listened back at the post-"Rio" 80's work and they wrote some pretty good pop music for a time there.  You also have to respect them for still being in the game at this point and releasing some good new music rather then just trotting themselves out as a retro hits band. 

Late Night Pick of the Night: GWAR

Gotta go with hometown boys (aliens? monsters?) GWAR on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon tonight at 12:35 AM on NBC.  Just in time for Halloween.

“We are overjoyed that Jimmy had the good sense to invite us back”, declared GWAR front-thing Oderus Urungus (whose tweets are hilarious — follow him @therealoderus) “as we had planned to return anyway. Now Fallon can do the show with his head still attached to his body.”

Chromeo, Mayer Hawthorne, Crystal Castles, Papadosio

We begin the weekend with 80's music enthusiasts Chromeo at The National on Thursday night.  They are not a cover band but instead play original music on 80's era instruments.  You can read an interview they did with Style Weekly HERE.  Tix are $30.  Doors open at 7, show starts at 8 with openers Breakbot and Mayer Hawthorne.  Be sure to get there early to see neo-soul artist Mayer Hawthorne.  Mayer's latest album "How Do You Do" recently debuted at #1 on iTunes R&B/Soul Chart.  Since I like them both, let's do a video from both Chromeo & Mayer.

Here's Chromeo gettin' all the girls in the room pregnant in their video "When The Night Falls":

 And here's Mayer Hawthorne performing "The Walk" on Tuesday night on Letterman:

On Friday night, Crystal Castles will be at The National.  Tix are $25 in advance, $30 day of show.  Doors open at 8, show starts at 9 with "A Special Guest".  We'll file Crystal Castles in the electronic pop category. You may dig them if you like ELO, Kraftwerk, New Order, Pet Shop Boys, Orchestral Manoeuvres In the Dark, or Daft Punk.  Here's their video for the song "Celestica":



Also Friday night, surf guitar legend Dick Dale will be at Capital Ale House Downtown.  Doors open at 8 and there is no opener listed so get there early.  Tix are $25 in advance, $30 day of show.  Dick Dale is probably best known for his song "Misirlou" which opened up the movie "Pulp Fiction".  Here is a happening little video of Dick Dale & The Del Tones playing the song in the 1963 film "A Swingin Affair":



Saturday night, jam band Papadosio is at The National.  Tix are $15 in advance, $18 at the door.  Doors open at 8, show starts at 9 with opener The Werks.  Here's Papadosio performing "Method Of Control" at Camp Barefoot 5 in WV in August.



Ska & reggae band 808 will be at Conch Republic Rocketts at Rocketts Landing on Saturday night.  This is a Halloween party so be sure to dress up because there will be prizes.  808 starts at 8:30 (shouldn't they start at 8:08?).

On Sunday night, Crooked Fingers will be at The Camel.  Tix are $11 in advance & $13 at the door.  Doors open at 8 and the show starts at 8:30 with openers Strand of Oak and Clint Maul.  Crooked Fingers is the solo project for Archers of Load frontman Eric Bachmann.  You might dig him if you like Springsteen, Leonard Cohen, Nick Drake, Neil Diamond, Bob Dylan, Tom Waits or Paul Westerberg.  Here's the video for their latest called "New Drink for the Old Drunk":



Just back from a tour of TX, New Orleans and Athens GA is heavy psychedelic band The Diamond Center.  They will be at The Cellar Door on Sunday night with Teru Teru & Imperial China.  Show starts at 10 PM and its either free or there will be a minimal cover.  You can check out a video from the band HERE when they played Cous Cous in January but I can't seem to embed it.

It's not often you see bluegrass humor, let alone funny bluegrass humor featuring Noam Pikelny of Punch Brothers, Steve Martin, Ed Helms (The Office, Daily Show) and some other musicians you might recognize.
You have to go to the Funny or Die site to see it.  HERE is the link.

Finally, the first pick in the new Grateful Dead Dave's Picks series will be the show from The Mosque (now the Landmark) in Richmond on the hallowed Spring '77 tour, 5/25/77 to be exact.  Not sure when exactly it's coming out and if you can buy it seperately or you have to join this Dave's Picks subscription thing but you can check out http://dead.net for more details.

Have a Happy Halloween everyone!

Tony Jordan

Panic at the Disco @ National, Late Night Pick of the Night: Chris Young

At the National tonight,you've got punk-poppers Panic at the Disco.  Tix are $27.  Doors open at 6:30 and the show starts at 7:30 with openers Foxy Shazam & Patrick Stump (singer/guitarist for Fall Out Boy).  Here's the video for Panic at the Disco's latest song, Mercenary, which is on the Batman: Arkham City video game soundtrack:


Tonight's Late Night Pick on the Night is country singer Chris Young on the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, partly because Chris Young's latest album had recieved pretty good reviews and partly because I haven't watched Craig Ferguson for a while and he amuses me. Craig Ferguson is on at 12:35 AM on CBS.

Late Night Pick of the Night: Mayer Hawthorne

Check out neo-soul dude Mayer Hawthorne on Letterman tonight.  It's sweeps month so Eddie Murphy will be on too, hopefully not singing.  Eddie needs to make another comeback after he blew the good will from the "Dreamgirls" Oscar nomination with another string of crappy movies.  Letterman is on at 11:35 PM on CBS.

Late Night Pick of the Night: Primus, Bridge Concert Replay

I usually base my Late Night Pick of the Night on the musical guest only, but the lineup on Jimmy Kimmel tonight is hard to pass up.  Musical guest is Primus and you also get Zach Galifianakis (god, that's hard to spell) and Mike Judge talking about the return of Beavis & Butthead.  Jimmy Kimmel is on ABC at midnight.

Also, if you missed the Bridge Concert webcast on Saturday featuring Norah Jones, Neil Young, Beck, Dave Matthews, Arcade Fire, Carlos Santana, Mumford & Sons and Devendra Banhart, the replay is still being streamed on YouTube HERE.  Once you get there click "Live".  A word of warning.  You can't fast forward on the stream.  Because of that, and mistakes yesterday by my son and then by me, I have now watched the first 2 hours three times but haven't seen the rest.  So I'm being very careful right now not to upset the stream.  If you want to check out the show, do so today because I don't know how much longer they plan on keeping it up there. 

Late Night Pick of the Night: Glen Campbell

Glen Campbell, recently diagnosed with Alzheimer's and supporting what may be his final album, Ghost on the Canvas, will be on a repeat of Jimmy Kimmel Live tonight on ABC at midnight.  I've been digging the title track of the album, which was written by Paul Westerberg (Replacements). 

Late Night Pick of the Night: MUTEMATH

Alternative rock band (does that term mean anything anymore?) MUTEMATH will be on Jimmy Kimmel Live on ABC tonight at midnight promoting their well received new album "Odd Soul".  Here's their cool video for their new song "Blood Pressure":

Late Night Pick of the Night: Wilco, Thurston Moore & Kim Gordon breakup, Free Downloads

Wilco has yet another amazing album out and on tonight's repeat of Late Show with David Letterman, they promote that album, "The Whole Love" by playing a song from it.  Check it out at 11:35 PM on CBS.

Thurston Moore & Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth have ended their marriage after 27 years.  The bad news is that this may be the end of Sonic Youth.  The good news is that Kim Gordon is now available and I'm always hot for chick with guitars.  HERE's the story.

Finally there is a new website that offers free legal downloads from indie labels to help promote their albums.  It's called The New Record.

Minus The Bear, New Found Glory, Conspirator, Beirut

Doing this a little early this week because my wife is going out of town for a conference and I know I won't have time to do it on my usual Thursday night or I'll be too exhausted from watching the kids to want to do it.

The music week kicks off on Thursday night with math rock band Minus The Bear at The National.  Tix are $20 in advance and $23 day of show.  Doors open at 7 and the show starts at 8 with opener The Velvet Teen.  This is the 10th Anniversary tour for Minus the Bear and they will play their 2002 debut album "Highly Refined Pirates" in its entirety.  Here's the band's video for "Pachuca Sunrise":


If you are in the mood for something a bit more retro and yacht rockin' that night, check out Three Sheets to the Wind at The Republic.  The show is FREE and the show will start at 9:30.  Three Sheets will be celebrating the music of Orleans that night.  It should sound something like this including the awesome facial hair:


Friday night will be Pop Punk night at The National with a five band bill featuring New Found Glory / Set Your Goals / The Wonder Years / Man Overboard / This Time Next Year.  They'll be opening the doors at 6 and starting at 6:30 so they can fit all those bands in.  Tix are $18 in advance and $21 day of show.  New Found Glory will be live on the HDNet channel on Sunday night at 9:30 PM so if you don't make it to the show or just want to relive it, you can check it out there.  Here's a little preview of the show at the National.  It looks like their is much camaradarie on the tour and lots of equipment too.  And it's apparently awesome.


At the Canal Club on Friday night there will be whole buncha jamtronica with the Shockoball w/ Conspirator featuring members of The Disco Biscuits w/The Former Champions & Ghost Payne.  Doors open at 9 and tix are $20 in advance and $25 at the door.  Here's a long tasty run from Conspirator from Fort Lauderdale earlier this month:


On Saturday at 8 PM and Sunday at 5 PM Eastern Time there will be a webcast of Neil Young's annual all acoustic Bridge School Benefit Concert which supports the work of the Bridge School helping people with severe speech and physical impairments to communicate using technology.  Besides being a great cause, it's always a great concert.  I was lucky enough to see the show on Halloween in '99 and the bill included Neil (of course), The Who, Green Day, Brian Wilson, Lucinda Williams, Pearl Jam, Emmylou Harris, Sheryl Crow and Smashing Pumpkins.  Needless to say, it was an amazing show.  This year's show will have Neil, Arcade Fire, Dave Matthews, Foo Fighters, Eddie Vedder, Los Invisibles featuring Carlos Santana, Beck, Mumford & Sons, Tony Bennett, Norah Jones and Devendra Banhart.  You'll find the webcast HERE.  Here's some highlights from the show I saw in '99.  If you look reeeeeeaaaaalllllly closely, you may see me up on the lawn.  Or not.


Next Tuesday at The National, Beirut will be performing.  Tix are $22.50 in advance, $25 at the door.  Doors open at 7, show starts at 8 with opener Basia Bulat.  It's apparently an all "B" show.  If you want to check out an entire Beirut show, you can go HERE (sorry, can't embed it).  If you just want to check out their latest video for "Santa Fe", well just look below.  It's your typical guy loses girlfriend & dog, guy gets girlfriend & dog back, guy loses girlfriend & dog, guy gets something tale:


Have a great weekend!

Tony Jordan

Late Night Pick of the Night: Fleet Foxes

Harmony heavy folk rockers Fleet Foxes will be on a repeat of the Late Show with David Letterman tonight at 11:35 PM on CBS.  Here's Fleet Foxes doing "Helplessness Blues" live in August:

Late Night Pick of the Night: Kylesa

Psychedelic metal band Kylesa will be on a repeat of Last Call with Carson Daly tonight.  That airs at 1:35 AM on NBC and you can also catch repeats on Fuse TV.

If you are in Charlottesville this Friday evening, you can check out Kylesa at Cartoon Network's Adult Swim Block Party.  That's a FREE event.

Late Night Pick of the Night: Beirut

Tonight watch indie world pop band Beirut on the Late Show with David Letterman at 11:35 PM on CBS.  The sometimes gross, always entertaining, Artie Lange will be on too.  Beirut will be at The National on October 25.

Folk Fest, Warren Haynes, G Love, Fantoberfest, Lonely Teardrops

This is, of course, Richmond Folk Festival weekend, Richmond's grandest event.  Where else can you walk around Richmond on a Saturday afternoon and travel around the world musically, from Mexico/Texas (Los Tres Reyes) to the Pacific Coast of the US (Git-Hoan Dancer, Tsimshian dance & song) to Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia (Mary Jane Lamond & Wendy McIsaac) to New Orleans (Steve Riley & The Mamou Playboys) to China (Qi Shu Fang Peking Opera).  There's also a whole stage set aside for the kids, mandolin & turkey call contests, lots of food and adult beverages.  Check out the web site for all the info.

There have been a couple good articles that can point out highlights from you.  One from Chris Bopst in the Richmond Times-Dispatch HERE and one from Style Weekly HERE.  But you can just go and walk around with an open mind and an open ear and you'll hear great music and be entertained and maybe learn a little something too.  Yes, there will be a lot of people and you will do some walking but its a small price to pay for having some of the world's great musicians come to your backyard.  The Folk Fest runs from 7 PM to 10:30 PM on Friday, noon until 10:45 PM on Saturday and noon to 6:15 PM on Sunday.  And if you want to stop by and say hello I'll be working as a volunteer backstage (well, side stage) at the MWV Stage from 11:30 AM to 3 PM on Saturday. 

Warren Haynes has played with the jam band granddaddies (Allman Brothers, various offshoots of the Grateful Dead) and on his own (Gov't Mule).  He'll be in town on Friday night at The National with his Warren Haynes Band, which is more old school soul/R&B than Gov't Mule.  Tix are $28, doors open at 7, show starts at 8 and there is no opener, just two full sets of the WHB.  Warren never gets tired and will jam with anyone.  I wouldn't be surprised to see him show up at the Folk Fest on Saturday trying to jam with the Tibetan Monks.  Here's the Warren Haynes Band at his annual Xmas Jam last year doing "Rivers Gonna Rise":


On Saturday G Love & Special Sauce bring their brand of bluesy pop soul to The National.  Tix are $20 in advance, $25 at the door.  Doors open at 8, show starts at 9 with opener The Apache Relay.  Here's his latest, "Just Fine":

Also Saturday, Fantoberfest will be held on the 700 Block of Allison between Broad & Grace right next to The Republic. This is a benefit for Connor's Heroes that will feature music by Less Than Jake, No BS! Brass Band, Long Arms, Kings Of Belmont, The Big Payback, People's Blues Of Richmond, plus DJ sets by Audio Ammo.  There will also be beers from local and regional breweries Starr Hill, Legend, Devil's Backbone, Hardywood Park, Southern Tier, and more.  Tix are $12 in advance, and $15 at the gate and it'll run from noon to 9 PM.  Here's Less Than Jake's "The Rest of My Life":

Finish out a fine weekend of music Sunday night with Lonely Teardrops and Midway Charmers playing "garage rock extraodinaire" at Bandito's.  The show starts at 9:30 and it's FREE to get in.  Here's Lonely Teardrops performing at Cary St. Cafe in February of this year:


That'll do it for this weekend and dammit, isn't that enough?!?  What more do you people want?!?  See you at the Folk Fest!

Tony Jordan

Late Night Pick of the Night: Justin Townes Earle

Son of Steve, alt-country singer-songwriter (just like his daddy but different) Justin Townes Earle will be on Last Call with Carson Daly tonight at 1:35 AM on NBC.  They also repeat the show on Fuse TV at various times over the next day or two. 

Here's JTE's video for "Slippin' & Slidin'" from the album "Harlem River Blues".  The album was nominated by the Americana Music Association for Album of the Year.

Late Night Pick of the Night: Chavez

Indie rockers Chavez will be on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon tonight.  Late Night is on at 12:35 AM on NBC.  Chavez had a big indie buzz in the mid-90's then ceased to exist other than the occasional live performance.  They've been gone so long they don't even have a web site as they broke up before the interwebs broke big.  Not sure if they are releasing a new album or just doing some gigs.  We'll find out tonight.

Late Night Pick of the Night: Jane's Addiction

Jane's Addiction is back with a new album, "The Great Escape Artist", coming out on October 18 and they'll be on Jimmy Kimmel tonight at midnight on ABC.  I thought Jane's last album, "Strays", was pretty good.  Hopefully, they'll come around here on their tour because they rank in my top 10 concerts of all time.  They apparently did quite well on the first show of the tour: http://soundcheck.ocregister.com/2011/10/04/janes-addiction-fully-reinvigorated-at-ford-opener/67703/

The Waybacks, Indigo Girls, Mates of State, No BS! Brass Band

The weekend kicks off early with some fine music to benefit the VCU Massey Cancer Center for Pediatric Cancer Research.  The Waybacks and special guest Jim Lauderdale will be playing at Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens on Thursday night.  Gates open at 5:30, show starts at 7.  Tickets are $15 in advance, $20 at the door and children 12 & under are free.  The Waybacks are bluegrass based but I wouldn't exactly call them bluegrass.  They like to call it "acoustic mayhem".  You judge for yourself.  Here they are performing "I'm Calling" and "Russell County Gorge" in SC earlier this year.  If you go to the show, I hope to see you there.

Also on Thursday night, the No BS! Brass Band will be at Balliceaux.  That show will start at 10 PM and it's FREE.

Saturday night the Indigo Girls will be at The National.  Tix are $20 in advance, $25 at the door.  Doors open at 7, show starts at 8 with opener Roxie Watson.  Here is the video for "Making Promises" from their latest album "Beauty Queen Sister" which came out on September 27. 


Mates of State will be at Canal Club on Monday night.  Tix are $15.  Doors open at 7 and the openers are Other Lives, Yawn & Marionette.  Mates of State are a married couple who play indie pop (but then again don't most married couples) at least when they aren't climbing mountains, staring quizzically at things and defeating lions with their awesome kung fu skills (watch the video).  You might dig them if you like Spoon, Ben Folds, Modest Mouse, Death Cab for Cutie, or Throwing Muses.  Here's the video for their latest song "Palomino":


If you like food and wine, and who doesn't, the 8th annual Carytown Food & Wine Festival will take place in Carytown (duh) on Sunday from noon until 6 PM.  Tix are $15 in advance, $20 at the gate.  The ticket includes a souvenir glass and wine tasting.  Kids under 12 are free.

Have a great weekend!  GO PHILLIES!

Tony Jordan

Late Night Pick of the Night; Portishead

Tonight on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, Portishead makes a return as they begin their first North American tour in over a decade.  Late Night with Jimmy Fallon is on NBC at 12:35 AM.

Late Night Pick of the Night: Lykke Li

Tonight on Last Call with Carson Daly check out Swedish indie pop artist Lykke Li.  The show airs tonight at 1:35 AM on NBC and then there are repeats on Fuse TV.

Here's the video for her song "Jerome (The Lost Session)":

Late Night Pick of the Night: Radiohead

Radiohead continue showing up on just about every show that tapes in NYC with an appearance tonight on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon at 12:35 AM on NBC.