Late Night Pick: Tegan and Sara

Sister duo Tegan and Sara (who recently played The National) are on Jimmy Kimmel Live tonight on ABC at 11:35 PM. Tegan and Sara's latest album "Heartthrob" has a decidedly more pop sheen than their previous records but so far it appears to be paying off as they are getting some of the best reviews of their career but will it alienate long-time fans of their folkier sound? Time will tell. Here's an interview they did with Andy Samberg of SNL fame, discussing what makes a heartthrob. Watch out for one bad word that is NSFW.

DJ Vadim, Susan Greenbaum, Late Night Pick: Antibalas

British by way of Russia trip-hopper DJ Vadim will be at The Camel tonight. It's $10 to get in tonight. Doors open at 9, show starts at 10 with opener Marley Carroll and Hyrdophonics spinning before Marley and in between Marley & Vadim's sets.This is the first show of DJ Vadim's US tour. Here's the video for the second single from DJ Vadim's latest album, "Don't Be Scared", entitled "I'm Feelin' U":


Over at Ashland Coffee & Tea, Susan Greenbaum will play solo. Show starts at 7 and it's $5 to get in. Susan recently took second place at the Mid-Atlantic Song Contest and also won a BMI award for her song, "On My Way":


Tonight on Jimmy Kimmel Live (now at 11:35 on ABC), Brooklyn Afro-pop funk group, Antibalas, will get you movin'.

Late Night Pick: Metric

New wave influenced band Metric is on a new Last Call with Carson Daly tonight at 1:35 AM on NBC. Metric will be playing the Coachella Festival this year out in Indio CA. If you haven't seen the full lineup for Coachella, HERE it is. The first weekend of two already sold out. Headliners this year are Red Hot Chili Peppers, Stone Roses, Blur and Phoenix. Hopefully, they'll do a webcast again this year.

Late Night Pick: Los Straitjackets

Mexican wrestling mask wearing, surf rock revivalists Los Straitjackets will be on Conan tonight on TBS at 11 PM, then repeated at 1 AM. The band will be backed up the horn section from Conan's Basic Cable Band tonight when they play "Jet Set" from their latest album of the same name.

Late Night Pick: The Stepkids

Check out neo-soul band The Stepkids tonight on a repeat of Last Call with Carson Daly on NBC at 1:35 AM. The Stepkids have backed up Alicia Keys, 50 Cent, and Lauryn Hill among others and they step out on their own now and then, as they did on their debut, self-titled album last year.

Late Night Pick: Michael Kiwanuka

British soul singer/songwriter Michael Kiwanuka will be Late Night with Jimmy Fallon tonight on NBC at 12:35 AM. Here he is peforming "I'm Getting Ready" backstage at Bonnaroo:

Umphrey's McGee, The xx, Tegan & Sara, Cat Power, Brown Sabbath

The weather may be getting colder, but the concert scene is heating up! OK, that's pretty cheesy, but it's true. The national acts are finally hitting the road again and stopping in Richmond.

Things start with indie folk pop duo, and twin sisters, Tegan and Sara at The National on Friday night. Tickets are $30 in advance, $35 at the door. There is no opening act so get there on time. Doors open at 7, show starts at 8. Their new album "Hearthrob" comes out on January 28, but you can hear it tomorrow when it streams on the Rolling Stone site starting at 9 AM. I'm sure you'll hear a number of new songs from that album at the show. Here's the first single from the album, "Closer":



Over at the Camel on Friday night, local jam band Former Champions will play with Arpetrio opening. Doors open at 9, show starts at 10 and it's $7 to get in. You can download a free live album from Former Champions HERE. Here's a little sampler and their tour dates this month which shows they are branching out from the nest:



Friday night at Cary St. Cafe, King Solomon's Marbles will play some good ol' Grateful Dead. Show will start at 10 PM and it's $7 to get in. You can listen to their show at Cary St. Cafe on 12/28 on the Internet Archive HERE.

Saturday night, prog rock/jam band Umphrey's McGee will be at The National. Tix are $22.50 in advance, $25 at the door. Doors open at 7, show starts at 8 with opener The Mantras. If you're going to this one, let me know because I'll be there too. They just posted on Facebook that they anticipate this show will sell out in advance so get your tickets ASAP. This is their 15th anniversary tour. They burst on the scene at some of the early Bonnaroos after forming at Notre Dame and have carved themselves out a nice niche in the jam band world. Here they are doing the rocking "1348" at the Tabernacle in Atlanta GA on 12/29:



If you are more in a headbanging mood on Saturday night, head down to Republic to see Black Sabbath tribute band, Brown Sabbath. The show starts at 10:30 with opener Pike Possum and it's FREE to get in!

Monday night, Cat Power (aka Chan Marshall) will be at The National. Tix are $25 in advance, $30 at the door. Doors open at 7, show starts at 8 with opener "a special guest". Cat is up for a Brit Award for Best International Female. Her music has been compared to Liz Phair, Sonic Youth, Elliott Smith, PJ Harvey, Beth Orton, Feist, Throwing Muses, Aimee Mann, Ani DiFranco, and Fiona Apple. Here is one from her latest album, "Sun". It's called "Cherokee". I'm not sure what the video means but I think it's telling us that it's good to have Native American friends when alien zombies attack.



Tuesday night, English indie pop group, the xx, will come to The National. Tix are $20 in advance, $25 at the door. Doors open at 7, show starts at 8 with Austra opening. The xx have a similar sound to Hot Chip, Peter Bjorn and John, and Portishead and cite bands like The Cure, Belle & Sebastian, Interpol, the Pixies and Romeo Void as influences. Here they perform "Sunset" live on Seattle's KEXP:


#6 on the Paste Magazine 25 Best Music Videos of 2012 is the Arctic Monkeys' "R U Mine?". Steve Jones of the Sex Pistols (now on radio) does the intro. He gives it a thumbs up. Lone Ranger chicks are hot.



Have a great weekend! See you at the Umphrey's McGee show.

Tony Jordan

Bob Weir/Dave Schools webcast, Late Night Pick: The Features

Tonight on the TRI Studios site at 8:30 ET, Bob Weir (Grateful Dead, Furthur, Ratdog) will perform on a webcast with bassist Dave Schools of Widespread Panic. Dave hails from Richmond and was last seen in these parts playing with another Grateful Dead member, Mickey Hart, at the Mickey Hart Band's excellent show in September at The National.

The Late Night Pick tonight is neo-psychedelic rock band, The Features, on Last Call with Carson Daly at 1:35 AM on NBC.

Late Night Pick: Atlas Genius, Citizen Cope, WolfGang

A repeat of a full show of music on Last Call with Carson Daly at 1:35 AM on NBC tonight. Check out indie electronica band Atlas Genius (similar to Foster the People, White Rabbits, Franz Ferdinand), mellow, bluesy indie rocker Citizen Cope (similar to Everlast, G. Love, Jack Johnson, Ben Harper, Dispatch, John Mayer) and Wolfgang. Atlas Genius' debut album, "When It Was Now" is being released on February 19. Citizen Cope will be at The Jefferson Theater in Charlottesville on January 30.

Late Night Pick: Jake Bugg

Tonigh,t check out Jake Bugg on Conan at 11 PM on TBS and then repeated at 1 AM. Though just 18 years old, Jake's self-titled debut album got rave reviews. He's been influenced by The Beatles, Dylan, Hendrix, Oasis, White Stripes, and Jens Lekman. He's been nominated for Best British Breakthrough Artist at the Brit Awards and he'll be down at the SXSW Festival along with 90% of all English speaking musicians in the free world.

Marshall Crenshaw, Horsehead, The Atkinsons, No BS! Brass Band, Goldrush

Another good week for local music so go out and find yourself a new favorite local band.

No BS! Brass Band will be at Balliceaux on Thursday night. Show starts at 10 PM and it's $3 to get in. No BS! has a number of new releases coming out including a new album ("RVA All Day"), a live DVD ("Live at Montrose Studios"), and an EP ("Fight Song - A Tribute to Charles Mingus"). Here they are doing a Rush cover in Roanoke. Sorry that they talk so much in Roanoke.



Also on Thursday, yacht rock tribute band, Three Sheets to the Wind, will be at Republic. Show starts at 9:30 and it's free to get in. Here they are doin' "I Keep Forgettin'/Regulate". Some language is NSFW.

Starting on Wednesday night (1/16), Furthur, the band featuring Bob Weir and Phil Lesh of the Grateful Dead, will be webcasting an entire weekend of shows from Bob's small venue, the Sweetwater Music Hall in Marin County, CA. On Weds. (11 PM ET), Thursday (12:30 AM ET so technically Friday morning), and Saturday night (10:30 PM ET), the show is on the Sweetwater site. On Friday night the show is on the Yahoo Music site starting at 10:30 ET.

Saturday night, an Americana triple bill at The Camel with Horsehead, Allen Thompson and The Atkinsons. The show will start at 8 and it's $7 to get in. Horsehead's album, "Sympathetic Vibrations", is in Amazon's top 20 New Releases for Roots Rock. Here's Horsehead playing "Spinning Your Wheels" at Gallery 5 in November:


Goldrush will be at The Camel on Sunday night. The show starts at 8 and it's FREE to get in. Scolaro will open. Here's Goldrush playing "You Won't See Me Crying" at the Ghost of Pop show last month.


On Tuesday night, Marshall Crenshaw will be Ashland Coffee & Tea. Marshall will be performing with The Bottle Rockets, who are a pretty good band in their own right. Besides still playing and making new music (he just came out with his first album in 6 years, "Jaggedland"), Marshall also does a radio show on the great indie radio station, WFUV. The show will start at 8, tix are $28 in advance, $33 at the door. Here's a blast from the past, with Marshall playing Buddy Holly's "Crying, Waiting, Hoping" from the MTV New Year's Eve party in 1986:

And just for kicks, here's Marshall, Brian Setzer, Dave Edmunds, Carl Perkins, and, yes, that's Joe Piscopo on drums (he was big in 1986) from the same show. Joe is now doing an old school variety show and helping out with a lot of charities so good on ya, mate!

Finally, here's the next video on Paste Magazine's 25 Best Videos of 2012. This is the Ben Folds Five "Do It Anyway" and if you were growing up in the early 80's and had HBO, you will recognize the Fraggles from Fraggle Rock. "Dance your cares away!" Rob Corddry also makes a guest appearance.

Have a great weekend!

Tony Jordan

Late Night Pick: Jessie Ware, 10 Most Annoying Concert Behaviors

Tonight, check out up-and-coming lush pop (alt R&B?) singer Jessie Ware on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon at 12:35 AM on NBC. She's been nominated for "Best Breakthrough" and "Best Female" at the Brit awards as she hails from Great Britain and they quite like her there.

Also, check out this article in Rolling Stone on the "10 Most Annoying Concert Behaviors". These lists pop up every so often and it's always the same stuff. Not sure if its the same annoying people or if we just get a new batch of annoying people as kids hit concert-going age. I most agree with #9 and #10. As I'm always trying to find videos for the weekend blog, I have seen countless crappy iPhone videos, which look like they were filmed through a slit in the wall, are shaky, and sound like crap. Please stop, people. And I've expounded on sitting people who yell at standing or dancing people to sit down. Unless its an acoustic or exceedingly mellow show, people go to concerts to dance and feel the experience like you can't at home. If you want to sit on your ass while the band is rocking out, wait for the concert video or stay home and watch the crappy iPhone videos from the show on YouTube the next day.

Late Night Pick: Prince

I've been a huge Prince fan since the "1999" album (yes, I know I just dated myself severely) to the extent that I own just about everything he put out on Warner Brothers, albums and 12" singles. I still get his new albums when he puts them out and there are always at least a few great tracks on them. Tonight, Tavis Smiley will be doing a highlights show of his past interviews with Prince. This should be interesting because Prince doesn't, and never has, done too many intereviews so any peek into the mad genius that is Prince is welcome. Tavis Smiley is on channel 57 here in Richmond at 3 AM (set those DVRs, people). For those of you elsewhere, check your local PBS listings. Here's the latest from Prince, "Rock & Roll Love Affair". Watch it quick before the Prince YouTube police yank it.

Late Night Pick: Roger Waters

Roger Waters of Pink Floyd will be on The Daily Show tonight on Comedy Central at 11 PM and then repeated several times over the next 24 hours. Not sure if he'll be announcing more US "The Wall" concert dates. He will be touring with "The Wall" this summer in Europe. If you missed the 12-12-12 Benefit for Sandy victims concert, here's Eddie Vedder joining Roger for "Comfortably Numb":

Late Night Pick: Jon Spencer Blues Explosion

Hard blues rock band Jon Spencer Blues Explosion will fire it up tonight on the Late Show with David Letterman on CBS at 11:35 PM. Here's JSBE's weirdly, psychedelic new video for "Bag of Bones":

Bio Ritmo, Bush League, Southern Belles, NO BS! Brass Band

This is a good weekend to find your new favorite local band. We start on Friday night at Lulu's  with Latin music from Bio Ritmo. The show will start at 9, first set starts at 10, second set starts at 11:30. It's $8 to get in and this is a benefit for VACLAA (Virginia Center for Latin American Art) which is celebrating their first anniversary. Here's Bio Ritmo playing at Balliceaux on 12/21/12:



Also on Friday night, NO BS! Brass Band will be at The Camel. Show starts at 9:30 and it's $7 to get in. Here's NO BS doing "Meat Wagon" on 12/14/12:


Saturday night, it's a full-on blues show at The Canal Club with The Bush League. Doors will open at 5:30 and The UnXpected, Mike Lucci Band & Andrew Alli and The Last Night's Blues Band will open. The Bush League recently hit #21 on Amazon's Blues Rock category with their new album, "Can of Gas and a Match". Here they are in 2011 at the Jewish Mother in VA Beach:



Wednesday night at Cary St. Cafe, The Southern Belles will get you dancin' with their funky, jam rock. Show starts at 10 and there is no cover. They play a nice mix of originals and covers. Here they are doing The Band's "Across The Great Divide" at The Camel on 9/29/12:


Here's Paste Magazine's fourth best video of 2012 which feature Jack White being kidnapped by a bunch of bad ass kids in "Sixteen Saltines". There's nothing like getting some cool tattoos when you are 10. And watch out for that blue kid. He's a bad mother....

Have a great weekend!

Tony Jordan

Late Night Pick: John Cale

Not only do you get one of the most influential underground rock musicians ever, John Cale (Velvet Underground, solo work, produced The Stooges, Patti Smith, Modern Lovers and Squeeze) on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon tonight at 12:35 AM on NBC. You'll also get the entire cast of "30 Rock" as they start the final run of the series.

Late Night Pick: Ray Wylie Hubbard

Blues, American, Texas singer-songwriter Ray Wylie Hubbard will be on Late Show with David Letterman tonight on CBS at 11:35 PM. His latest album, "The Drifter's Hymnal" popped up on a few Best of 2012 lists. I will always love him for "Snake Farm" (check out "Choctaw Bingo" too!).

Late Night Pick: Gary Clark Jr.

Tonight on Conan (TBS 11 PM and 1 AM) check out up-and-coming blues guitarist, Gary Clark Jr. You can watch three tracks with Gary on YouTube from the DO512 Lounge in Austin TX. Here's a near 16 minute version of "When My Train Pulls In" from that session. He's also been invited to join Clapton and other great guitarists at Clapton's annual Crossroads shows, this year taking place at Madison Square Garden.

Late Night Pick: Estelle

Tonight, check out R&B singer Estelle on a repeat of Last Call with Carson Daly on NBC at 1:35 AM. We'll find out what she's up to now (or at least in September when the show originally aired). I did really like her collaboration with Kanye West a few years ago, "American Boy".

Late Night Pick: Chairlift

Synth-pop band Chairlift will be on a repeat of Last Call with Carson Daly at 1:35 AM on NBC. Chairlift's song "I Belong In Your Arms" was picked as one of the top 100 songs of 2012 by NPR. Perhaps that's the one they'll play tonight.

Southern Belles, Robbin Thompson, Best Albums of 2012

It's a slow weekend but be sure to check out the groovy, classic rock sound of the Southern Belles at The Camel on Friday night. The show starts at 9 and it's $7 to get in. This is the first of Southern Belles monthly Friday residency shows at The Camel. Silo Effect will open the show. Here's the Belles doing "Careful of Mine" at The Camel in September. The video isn't great but you can get a nice taste of their sound:



On Saturday night, ex-bandmate of Bruce Springsteen and writer of "Sweet Virginia Breeze", Robbin Thompson and his band will be at The National. Tix are $25 for reserved, $20 for GA in advance and $25 for GA at the door. Doors open at 7, show starts at 8. Get there on time because this is billed as "An Evening With The Robbin Thompson Band" which usually means no opener. Here's Robbin solo doing "Brite Eyes" at Ashland Coffee & Tea in November:

Metacritic collected all the data from all the magazine and blog year-end lists and came up with the Best Albums of 2012 as chosen by the critics. At the top was R&B singer Frank Ocean's "Channel Orange". Also, making the top 25 were albums I liked from Fiona Apple, Tame Impala, Dr. John, Miguel, Leonard Cohen, Ty Segall Band, Japandroids, Bob Dylan, and Jack White. The lowest scoring album of the year came from the despicable Chris Brown. Couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

We'll close out with Paste Magazine's third best video from 2012, a song from the artist Grimes, whose album "Visions" came in third on Metacritic's 2012 Favorite Releases from Metacritic Users, this is the wispy, electro-pop "Oblivion". I'm not that impressed with the video but the song is pretty catchy.


Have a great weekend!

Tony Jordan

Late Night Pick: Father John Misty, RIP Patti Page

Happy New Year! Hope you have recovered from your hangovers by now. Let's get right back into things, well, not right back, since we are highlighting a repeat tonight. Americana artist Father John Misty will be on a Conan repeat tonight on TBS at 11 PM and the repeat will be repeated at 1 AM. The always sexy, always foul-mouthed, always funny Sarah Silverman is on the show too. I beleive this is the famous (or infamous) vagina episode. The whole time I watched "Wreck-It Ralph", I kept waiting for the little girl (Sarah does the voice) to start spouting obscenities. Perhaps there will be outtakes on the Blu-Ray. Or not.

Here's a recent video of Father John doing some karoke on the recent music festival/party boat trip SS Cochella singing R. Kelly's " I Believe I Can Fly". And the dude nails it. Talk about unlikely pairings. BTW, some NSFW language toward the end.


Patti Page of "Tennessee Waltz" fame, passed away at the age of 85 on New Year's Day. She was the best-selling female artist of the 50's and had shows on all the three of the big TV networks of the day (ABC, CBS, NBC in case you were born after 1990). Here she is with her signature song: