Brown Sabbath, El Presidente, Papadosio, Keller Williams, The Machine, People's Blues of Richmond

Hope you got all the stuff you wanted for Christmas. Now onto the New Year with a few shows to take you there.

Thursday night, it's the hard rockin' blues of People's Blues of Richmond at The Camel. It's $5 to get in, show starts at 10 with openers, The District. This will be drummer Raphael Katchinoff's last show with PBR after 4 years. Nekoro Williams will be taking his place starting in 2013. PBR has over an hour of new material and they'll soon be releasing an EP and an album. So head to the show and say farewell to Raphael and check out some new tunes from the band. Here they are doing Robert Johnson's "Traveling Riverside Blues" at the Jewish Mother in Norfolk in September:



Lots going on Friday night, including blues rock at The Canal Club with Skip Castro Band and The Nighthawks. Doors open at 7, tix are $20 in advance, $23 at the door. Here's Skip Castro Band in another one from the Jewish Mother in July of this year:



Over at Strange Matter on Friday night it's a triple bill with Black Sabbath cover band, Brown Sabbath (midnight) , El Presidente (11 PM) and Iggy Plop and the Spooges (Iggy & The Stooges cover band, 10 PM). Doors open at 9 and it's $5 to get in. It's bassist E.T.'s birthday and he'll be playing with both Brown Sabbath and El Presidente so be sure to wish him a happy one and buy him some libations.

Grateful Dead cover band, King Solomon's Marbles, will be at Cary St. Cafe on Friday night. Show starts at 10 and it's $7 to get in. If you'd like to hear and/or download KSM's full show from 12/4/12, go HERE.

Saturday night at The National, smoke 'em if you got 'em for The Machine: Pink Floyd Experience. They'll be doing two sets and doors open at 7 with the show starting around 8. Tix are $15 in advance, $18 at the door for General Admission and $20 in advance, $23 day of show for Reserved. You can head to The National's Facebook page and get your request in for the all request 1st set. Here they are performing "Welcome to the Machine" in Amsterdam in 2008:



Sunday night at The National, local boy Keller Williams returns to play two sets, one solo and one with More Than a Little. That 1 Guy will open the show. Tix are $18 in advance, $21 at the door. Doors open at 7, show starts at 8. More Than a Little is Keller's new six piece funk band.

New Year's Eve at The National, jamtronica band Papadosio will help you trip into 2013. Tix are $25 in advance, $30 at the door. Doors open at 8, show starts at 9 with openers Dopapod and Futexture. Here's Papadosio doing  "All I Knew" with Mike Rempel from Lotus:

Over at Cary St. Cafe on New Year's Eve, it's funk band Modern Groove Syndicate. Show starts at 9:30, cover is $10 and that includes champagne toast at midnight and party favors.

Here's Paste Magazine's second best video from 2012, the lovably quirky tUnE-YaRdS with "My Country":


Have a Happy New Year and I'll see ya in 2013!

Tony Jordan

Late Night Pick: Cee-Lo Green

Cee-Lo Green will do something from his new Christmas album (hopefully the song with The Muppets) tonight on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon on NBC at 12:35 AM. Cee-Lo has apparently made a New Year's Resolution to lose weight. It helps that he has a sponsorship deal with eDiets.com.

The Late Night Pick will be taking a break until 1/2/13. We will check in with a blog on what's going on the week of Christmas and New Year's Eve.

Late Night Pick: Aimee Mann

The lovely and talented Aimee Mann will be on a repeat of Jimmy Kimmel Live tonight on ABC at midnight. Upon reading the Wikipedia article on Ms. Mann, I found out that she grew up in Bon Air and graduated from Midlothian High School so she's totally Richmond. The video she did for "Labrador" was picked as one of Paste Magazine's Top 25 Videos of the Year and starts director Tom Scharpling who bears an uncanny resemblence to actor Jon Hamm.

Jamey Johnson, The Babies, Southern Belles, Carbon Leaf, Bush League

You all have nothing to do at work this week anyway, so go out and have some beer and listen to a band before you head off on your holiday journeys.

Wednesday night, funky jam band Southern Belles will be at Cary St. Cafe. It's free to get in and the show starts at 10.

Susan Greenbaum will do a solo show Wednesday night at Ashland Coffee & Tea. Show starts at 7 and it's $5 to get in. Here's a little ditty for the holidays from Susan:



New outlaw country hero, Jamey Johnson, comes to The National on Thursday night. Tix are $25 in advance, $28 at the door. Doors open at 6:30, show starts at 7:30 with opener Chris Hennessee. AllMusic called Jamey's latest album, "Living For a Song: A Tribute to Hank Cochran", "a modern honky tonk classic" and named it to their best albums of 2012 list. Here's Jamey with Alison Krauss doing a number from that album, "Make the World Go Away":



Noise pop band from Brooklyn (hipster alert!), The Babies, will be at Strange Matter on Thursday night. The Babies are fronted by Cassie Ramone of the Vivian Girls and Kevin Morby of Woods. Tix are $8 in advance, $10 day of show. Doors open at 8 and openers will be Invisible Hand, Positive No, and Ar-Kaics.

Also on Thursday, yacht rock cover band Three Sheets to the Wind will be at Republic. Show starts at 9:30 and there is no cover. Maybe they'll play this one, Hall & Oates style!



Friday night, homeboys Carbon Leaf, return to town for a show sure to be full of friends, family, and Christmas cheer. They'll be at The National and tix are $18 in advance, $21 at the door. Doors open at 7 and show starts at 8 with American Aquarium. Carbon Leaf will have a new album out in February. It's called "Lord of the Rings of a Tree" which may also be the title of the second Hobbit movie. Here they are performing "What About Everything" a few days ago:

On Friday, you can get your Latino Navidad on with Bio Ritmo at Balliceaux. Show starts at 10:30 and it's $8 to get in. BTW, is that Ikea Monkey in that poster above? Here's the band peforming at The Jewish Mother in VA Beach earlier this year.



Saturday night, check out Bush League at Capital Ale House Downtown. The show will start around 9 and it's $5 to get in. The band will be celebrating the release of their CD, "Can of Gas & a Match". The band was a semi-finalist in the 2012 International Blues Challenge.

Have a very Merry Christmas, everyone!

Tony Jordan

Late Night Pick: Brandi Carlile

Critically acclaimed rockin' singer-songwriter Brandi Carlile will be on Last Call with Carson Daly tonight on NBC at 1:35 AM. If you want more than the one or two songs she'll play on Last Call, check out her five song performance from KEXP, the fabulous Seattle radio station.

Late Night Pick: Desaparecidos, Common

Tonight, you get a two-fer on Last Call with Carson Daly. Once and current Conor Oberst punk band, Desaparecidos, is on the show. They'll be touring the US in February but the closest they come to Richmond is the 9:30 Club in DC on 2/16. Alternative rapper (which means he raps about other things besides himself and how much $ he has) Common will continue to address bigger issues in his work and he's on the show too. Last Call is on NBC at 1:35 AM.

Late Night Pick: Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit

Some nights the late night pick is easy to make and this is one of those nights. Not only do you get the former guitarist/singer from one of my favorite bands, Drive-By Truckers, as the musical guest. That would be Mr. Jason Isbell and his new band, the 400 Unit. You'll also get Samuel L. Jackson. And Carrie Brownstein & Fred Armisen will be on the show talking about the new season of Portlandia, which starts in January. Where is all this? Why it's tonight on Late Show with David Letterman on CBS at 11:35 PM.

Late Night Pick: Dan Deacon

Tonight, check out electronica artist Dan Deacon on Jimmy Kimmel Live. Dan is supporting his much acclaimed album, America. Jimmy is on at midnight on ABC. Tonight, Dan will perform "True Thrush". Dan will also provide the members of the audience with a phone app that will make each person's phone part of the light show. This will be TV history as it will be the first time an interactive, artist-created app is used with a live audience on network TV.

Wanda Jackson, Sandy Benefit Concert, No BS! Brass Band, Band of Horses

Taking the opportunity of a sick day to crank out the weekend band update. Not achy anymore, but still stuffed up. At least my nose is running now and not just compacted in my sinuses. But enough talk about snot, let's discuss what's going on this week.

Rockabilly legend Wanda Jackson is at the Capital Ale House tonight. Tix are $25. Jonny Fritz opens the show around 8, doors open at 7. Wanda has a great new album out ("Unfinished Business") which is produced by Justin Townes Earle and her last album was produced by Jack White, so she still runs in some pretty good company. Here's Wanda with Justin doing "Am I Even a Memory?":



If you are at home tonight or want to set your DVR before heading out, the big 12.12.12 concert to benefit the victims of Hurricane Sandy is tonight starting at 7:30 on about 30 different TV channels. The lineup is not too shabby with The Rolling Stones, The Who, Roger Waters (Eddie Vedder will perform with him), Eric Clapton, Dave Grohl, Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band, Kanye West and Paul McCartney. You can also stream the show at the link up there.

On Friday night, NO BS! Brass Band does their annual Coat & Food Drive at The Camel. The gig starts at 9:30 with openers Elikeh Afropop. It's $7 to get in and each canned good you bring gets you a $1 off down to $3. A coat donation gets you $3 off the cover charge up to one coat per person. Here they are performing what should become the new Richmond anthem, "RVA All Day":

Also Friday, J Roddy Walston & The Business head a great lineup of bands at Strange Matter with Black Girls and Goldrush opening the show. We last saw J Roddy and company opening up for the Drive-By Truckers at The National in October and they put on quite the soul-inflected, hair-tossin', rockin' show. It's $10 in advance, $12 day of show. Doors open at 8, music starts at 9. Here's J Roddy and band acoustic at WNRN studios a couple months ago:



On Friday night at The National, yacht rock cover band Three Sheets to the Wind hosts the "Company Christmas Party" so get drunk, tell the boss off, hit on that sexy co-worker and start the next day full of regret and shame as you try to remember who you made out with in the coat check room. It's $10 in advance, $15 at the door, and there are VIP packages available. Doors open at 8 and the show will start shortly thereafter. Also, there will be a Tacky Christmas Sweater contest so bust out that one that Aunt Martha gave you a few years ago.

Saturday night, indie rockers Band of Horses will be at The National. Tix are $25 in advance, $30 at the door. Doors open at 7, show starts at 8 with opener Jason Lytle (of Grandaddy). They were recently on the wonderful BBC music show "Later with Jools Holland" and here that is:



Tuesday night, DJ Williams Projekt continue their Tuesday nigh residency at Republic with a show starting at 9:30. I do not believe there is a cover charge. Here's a taste of their show from Cafe Diem in July.



Paste Magazine has chosen The Best 25 Music Videos of 2012 so we'll highlight those over the next few weeks. Here is their choice for #1, from M.I.A., "Bad Girls":


Have a great weekend!

Tony Jordan

Late Night Pick: Graham Parker & The Rumour

No, you read that title right. It's a blast from the past, Graham Parker reuniting with The Rumour after more than 30 years. They have a new album out, Three Chords Good, which is getting excellent reviews. And they'll be on Conan tonight on TBS at 11 PM and then repeated at 1 AM. Here they are back in the day (1979) with "Local Girls":

Late Night Pick: Jack White

The ubitquitous Jack White will be on Conan tonight on TBS at 11 PM and then repeated at 1 AM. I beleive Conan and Jack are buds, having played together during Conan's post-Tonight Show hiatus. Jack got nominated for three Grammys this year for Album of the Year and Best Rock Album for his latest album, "Blunderbuss" and then Best Rock Song for "Freedom at 21".

Hamaganza, Ghost of Pop, Battle of the Jams, Black Girls, Barstool Heroes, Former Champions

Lots of local bands this week doing charity shows for the season. You gotta appreciate that. These bands don't make a whole lot of $ for themselves but they still find the time to give back to their community.

The annual Hamaganza event is on Friday and Saturday of this weekend. Tonight they'll be at Hardywood Park Craft Brewery and tomorrow at Lulu's in Shockoe Bottom. Both nights kick off at 8:30 and admission is a $10 donation or a ham (thus the name). Tonight's event will be hosted by Gene Cox from channel 8 news. This event is like a talent show on acid. You never know what you'll see: jugglers, whistlers, bands comedians, poetry but you know it'll be weird.

Friday night at The Canal Club, it's the "Camp Barefoot Music & Arts Festival Battle of the Jams" featuring James Brown tribute band The Big Payback, Silo Effect and People's Blues of Richmond. Doors open at 8 and it's $10 to get in. Here's People's Blues doing "Tighten Up" at the Jewish Mother in Norfolk in September:

Tonight at The Camel, Black Girls will perform with Herro Sugar and Motha' Goose and the Funky Ducks opening. Show starts at 10 PM and it's $6 to get in. This'll be Black Girls last show in Richmond for a while so they can work on getting a new album out.

Saturday, if you want some yummy beer, go to the Holdiay Cheer & Beer Classic out at Meadow Event Park in Doswell. It will be indoors (though the weather is supposed to be pretty nice but who knew?), it's free to get in and you can buy tasting tickets for $1 each. There will be live music, shopping and beers from 25 craft breweries including 15 from VA. It'll run from noon until 7 PM.

Saturday at Gallery 5, it's the Ghost of Pop 8 show. It's only $5 to get in and proceeds go to the organization Home Again who provide shelter and services for homeless folks. Performing will be Goldrush, Andrew Leahy & The Homestead, The Trillions, My Old Ways and Herro Sugar. Show starts at 8.

Outlaw country band Barstool Heroes will be at McCook's Grill in Lakeside on Saturday night at 8. Here's a little taste of the band from a recent show:


Tuesday night at Cary St. Cafe, jam band Former Champions will play. Show starts at 10 and there is no cover. Here's the band playing in Winston-Salem in September:



Have a great weekend!

Tony Jordan

Late Night Pick: Gaslight Anthem

Pop-punkers Gaslight Anthem will be on Conan tonight at 11 PM on TBS and then repeated at 1 AM. Gaslight Anthem hail from New Brunswick NJ and are FOBs (Friends of Bruce) who has appeared with them at a few of their shows. You'll dig them if like Bruce, Wilson Pickett, Social Distortion (whose Mike Watt played a song with Bruce the other night at Bruce's Anaheim gig), Lucero, The Replacements, The Clash, The Pogues, Tom Petty or Tom Waits.

RIP Dave Brubeck, Late Night Pick: Diana Krall

The great jazz pianist, Dave Brubeck, passed away this morning at the age of 91. HERE is the obit in the Chicago Tribune. Most people know his famous piece, "Take Five" so I stole this video from the Tribune article, ""In Your Own Sweet Way":


Keeping the jazz theme going, jazz/trad pop singer/pianist Diana Krall will be on the Late Show with David Letterman tonight at 11:35 PM on CBS. Comedian Albert Brooks will also be on the show. Diana just won Downbeat Magazine's award for Female Vocalist of the Year. She'll probably do a Christmas song tonight but maybe she'll throw in a musical reference to Brubeck.

Late Night Pick: Led Zeppelin

The remaining members of Led Zeppelin will be on Late Show with David Letterman as Dave broadcasts from DC and the band just happens to be in town to pick up their Kennedy Center Honors. If Dave asks Robert Plant if they will be reuniting for a tour, will Robert punch him? Will Zep play a song or just sit on the couch and shill their new DVD? Tune in to find out. Dave is on CBS at 11:35 PM.