Late Night Pick: Lukas Graham

Pop/soul/rock singer from Denmark, Lukas Graham, is on Conan tonight (11 PM, TBS). You might dig Lukas if you like Jason Mraz, OneRepublic, Fitz & The Tantrums, Train, Ed Sheerhan or Jack Johnson. Here's his big hit, "7 Years":



Here's Sturgill Simpson on last night's Tonight Show:

Late Night Pick: Sturgill Simpson

Most excellent alt-country singer/songwriter Sturgill Simpson is on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon (11:35 PM, NBC). The LA Times recently chose his album "A Sailors Guide to Earth" as one of the best albums of the year (so far) as did a number of other publications. We'll step back four years for this one from Sturgill:



Here's more alt-country, from a couple weeks ago, it's Margo Price and her appearance on The Tonight Show:

Weekend Picks: Avers, Butch Trucks, Frankie Cosmos, Tommy Stinson, Shooter Jennings, Rock & Roll Jubilee

Indie pop artist Frankie Cosmos comes to Strange Matter Thursday night. Doors open at 7, music starts at 8. It's $15 to get in. Warehouse & Big Baby open. The video for her new single, "Sinister", just came out Monday. Here it is:

I think RVA's Avers is about to break out big with the release of their new album, "Omega / Whatever". Their garage psychedelic pop will have you dancing one minute, spacing out the next, rocking your ass off shortly after that and then sometimes altogether. The LP Release Celebration Par-tay is Friday night at The Broadberry. Tix are $10 advance, $12 day of show. Doors open at 8, show starts at 9 with openers Blank Range & Camp Howard. Avers will also be hanging out at Plan 9 Friday from 12:30 to 1:30 for a listening party for the new album, so now you have a lunch date. From the new album, this is "Vampire", filmed all around town. I saw them filming part of this down at Friday Cheers this year. In fact, I'm in the background at 3:48 and 3:52. I believe this is my music video debut. Look out Hollywood, here I come!

Tommy Stinson of The Replacements and Guns N' Roses (1998-2016) will be at Gallery5 Friday night. Tommy's new band is Cowboys In the Campfire featuring Frankie Lee & Chip Roberts. Tommy said of this tour, "We’re gonna be getting into all kinds of musical shenanigans in all sorts of places with as few instruments as necessary. We’ll be playing new songs, old songs, maybe even some make-em’-up-on-the-spot songs." Long Arms will open with a special acoustic set. Tix are $10 advance, $13 at the door. doors open at 7:00, show starts at 8. Here's Tommy on the Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn (remember him?):

The Rock and Roll Jubilee will be playing a fun and unique event on Saturday night at Ashland Theater. How about a rock n' roll show and a movie? I'll let them describe it:

Journey back to 1959 to be a part of the studio audience for a live broadcast on WJKS radio… This best selling theatrical production has been selling out shows in theaters around Virginia and stars Craig Evans, Brad Tucker, George Garrett, Brian Sulser, Jim Wark and BJ Kocen. Featuring vintage equipment and period-style clothing, they play the music of the “Titans of Teen Town” — Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, Ricky Nelson, Roy Orbison and the Everly Brothers.

We are pleased to present a portion of their best selling show in teenagers-from-outer-space conjunction with the 50’s science fiction classic, Teenagers from Outer Space. 

Released in 1959, the film tells the story of a young alien (David Love) who falls for a pretty teenage Earth girl (Dawn Anderson). They then team up to try to stop the plans of his invading cohorts, who intend to use Earth as a food-breeding ground for giant lobsters from their planet. The invaders, who arrive in a flying saucer, carry deadly ray guns that turn Earth-people into skeletons. Oh no!!

We invite you to come in costume – appropriate dress for a 50’s sock hop or as the scariest alien invaders from 1959- win a pair of movie tickets for the best costume!!

The show starts at 7 PM and it's $15 to get in. Here's the band at Ashland Coffee & Tea last November:



Shooter Jennings and his outlaw country will be at Captial Ale House Downtown Tuesday night. Doors open at 7, show starts at 8, tix are $35 - 40, no opener is listed. Here's Shooter in 2011:



Wednesday, Butch Trucks, drummer from the Allman Brother Band, brings his Freight Train Band to Capital Ale House downtown. Doors open at 8, show starts at 9. Tix are $20 advance, $25 day of show. Expect them to play lots of Allman Brothers Band, which is not a bad thing. Here they are doing "In Memory of Elizabeth Reed" last week:



And be sure to tune into WRIR 97.3 FM on your radio or on the internets (wrir.org/listen) on Monday morning from 6 - 8 AM. I'll be hosting the Breakfast Blend show and playing some stuff I hope you'll like. We'll ponder summer and swimming and August.

That'll do it. Hope to see you at Avers and maybe Butch Trucks. I'll leave you with this trippy, new video from Ty Segall:



Have a great weekend!

Tony Jordan

Weekend Picks: Commonwealth of Notions 6, Wild Reeds, Silent Music Revival, Garbage, Joe Walsh, CJ Chenier, Schooley Mountain Band, Taters, Atkinsons

Maker of some of the funniest songs in classic rock and some of the best to play air guitar to also, Joe Walsh hits Innsbrook on Thursday night. Doors open at 5, show starts at 6 with openers JD & the Straight Shot. Tix run $25 - $65. Joe is sober now. He says, "I only got drunk once...for about 30 years". Here's Joe doing "Rocky Mountain Way" at Crossroads Guitar Festival in 2004. By the way, check out the backing band on this one. It's Booker T & the MGs!



If you prefer some primo zydeco, head to The Broadberry Thursday night for CJ Chenier and the Red Hot Louisiana Band. Doors open at 7, show starts at 8 with openers The Hazletones. Tix are $12 advance, $15 at the door. Here's CJ & the band doing the zydeco classic, "Jambalaya (On The Bayou)":

Friday and Saturday night, Commonwealth of Notions Volume 6 takes place and it will benefit WRIR 97.3 FM and feature some great local music. Friday night, it goes down at Gallery5. Here's the info for that and the band lineup:

Friday, July 22nd 

Gallery5 - 200 W. Marshall Street

Doors: 6:30PM

Music: 7:30PM 

Cover: $5

Imaginary Sons - https://imaginarysons.bandcamp.com/

Clair Morgan - http://www.clairmorgan.com/

Nelly Kate - https://nellykate.bandcamp.com/

Antiphons - https://antiphons.bandcamp.com/

The Wimps - https://thewimpsrva.bandcamp.com/releases

The event moves to Strange Matter Saturday night. Here's the lowdown:

Saturday, July 23rd

Strange Matter - 929 West Grace Street, 

Doors: 6:00PM

Music: 7:00PM 

Cover: $7

Naked Pictures - https://nakedpicturesrichmond.bandcamp.com/

Smoke Break - http://badnoterecords.bandcamp.com/releases

The Veins - https://theveinsrva.bandcamp.com/

Dadmobile - https://dadmobilerichmond.bandcamp.com/

Shy, Low - https://shylowmusic.bandcamp.com/

Recluse Raccoon - https://recluseraccoon.bandcamp.com/

Get in the Car - https://getinthecar.bandcamp.com/

K.A. PEDERS - https://myspace.com/myfriendkyle

Head out to one or both nights. Low price, great bands and it benefits the best radio station in RVA. (OK, I volunteer there so I'm a little biased!), But you won't find WRIR's mix of independent news and eclectic music anywhere else on the dial.

Here's a quick taste of Imaginary Sons:

Americana band The Atkinsons are at Isley Brewing Company on Saturday evening. I always want to type Isley Brothers Brewing Company. Just think. Their beers could be Shout Stout, It's Your Thing IPA, Fight The Power Sour Gose, That Lady Lager. Perhaps Isley Brewing could team up with the Isley Brothers? The Atkinsons will play from 6:30 - 9:30 and it's FREE to get in. Sounds like a fine way to start the evening with good beers and good music.

It's Ladies Night at The Camel on Saturday and by that I mean they'll be featuring Women Who Rock with four bands with talented grrrls. And, appropriately, part of the proceeds will be donated to Girls Rock! RVA. It's $6 in advance, $8 day of show. Doors open at 8, show starts at 8:30. The Schooley Mountain Band (blues-rock) headline the show. Other acts on the bill include RVA's own lovely, soulful and talented Sam Reed; Haint Blue (Americana/pop) and The Folly. Here's something from The Schooley Mountain Band:

The Taters are at Tin Pan Saturday night. $10 to get in. Doors open at 6, show starts at 8. The Taters recently announced that they'll be doing a show with The Richmond Symphony on Feb. 24. While they play many originals, they also do some choice covers, including one of my favorite 70's soul tunes, "Kiss and Say Goodbye":



Long Strange Night, the Beatles, blues and Dead cover band, will be at Keagan's Restaurant and Tavern Saturday night. Music will get underway at 9. Looks like it's FREE to get in. Here's the band rocking a nice "Shakedown Street > Another Brick in the Wall" earlier this month:

Hardywood is doing a Christmas in July benefit for Richmond Public Schools. It'll run from noon until 6. They'll be busting out their Christmas beers which, in my opinion, are their best beers. Mmmmm, Christmas Morning Bourbon Gingerbread Stout.... Sorry, me and my taste buds drifted off for a minute. Benjamin Shepard starts the music at 3 with his anti-folk rock. Then, the fabulous harmonies of The Wild Reeds take the stage. They are a great folk-country band out of LA. I just started listening to them and I think I'm falling in love. Here they are in a video made a few weeks ago doing "Love Make A Fool":

Gallery5 will combine a classic silent movie with live music on Sunday evening when they match Buster Keaton's "The Goat" (1921) with The Dharma Bombs in the latest Silent Music Revival. The show starts promptly at 8:30 PM. There is no cover but donations will be appreciated. As an added twist, the band doesn't see the film prior to the event so they will improvise the score. Here's The Dharma Bombs doing "Sunny Always":



Garbage comes to The National Monday night. Tix are $34.50 advance, $38 day of show. Doors open at 7, show starts at 8 with opener Kristin Kontrol. Garbage is out supporting a new album, "Strange Little Birds", that's getting some of their best reviews since their debut album in '95. Here's the first single off that album, "Empty":



That's it. Have a great weekend! I'll leave you with Queens of the Stone Age and "I Sat By the Ocean":



Tony Jordan

Late Night Pick: Margo Price

Tonight on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, alt-country singer/songwriter Margo Price appears as the musical guest (11:35 PM, NBC). Margo's album, "Midwest Farmer's Daughter" was named one of the 25 Best Albums of 2016 (So Far) by Paste Magazine. Here's the first single from that album, "Hurtin' (On the Bottle)":



From a couple weeks ago, here's The Avett  Brothers performing "Satan Pulls the Strings" on The Tonight Show:

Weekend Picks: Wussy, Freakwater, K. Michelle, The Arcs, The Atkinsons, American Babies, The Ar-Kaics, Karen Jonas

R&B singer K. Michelle is at The National Thursday night. Tix are $29.50 in advance, $33 day of show. Doors open at 7, show starts at 8 with opener PJ. Here's the press blurb for K. Michelle.

Her debut album, 2013’s Rebellious Soul [Atlantic Records], flipped the script for R&B and enjoyed staggering success in the process. Arriving at #1 on Billboard’s “Top R&B/Hip Hop Albums” chart and #2 on the Top 200, it made history as it became the highest Top 200 entry for a female R&B singer’s debut since 2001. She also solidified her place amongst music’s elite, garnering a Soul Train Award for “Best New Artist” and an NAACP Image Award for “Outstanding New Artist.”

Alongside shooting the second season of her highly rated VH1 docuseries, “K.Michelle: My Life,” her sophomore album Anybody Wanna Buy A Heart debuted at #2 on the Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop Chart and #6 on the Billboard 200, making it the top debut of 2014 for an R&B artist. Billboard named the album one of 2014’s Best R&B records, while Complex proclaimed, “K. Michelle is leaps and bounds ahead of many of her peers.” The Associated Press, Billboard, and Rolling Stone have all named Anybody Wanna Buy A Heart as one of the best R&B albums of 2014.

 Here's "Love 'Em All":

Roots rockers Tom Hamilton's American Babies are at The Broadberry Thursday. Tix are $10 advance, $12 day of show. Doors open at 7, show starts at 8 with RVA's own The Southern Belles, so get there early. Here's American Babies' video for "Fever Dreams":



If you find yourself hanging around the house at night this weekend, you can check out Disco Biscuits' free live webcast of their sets at their festival, Camp Bisco. You'll find those shows streamed on the UphoricTV channel on YouTube. You do need to subscribe to their channel to see them. Here's the set times:

Thursday July 14: 

10:30pm – Midnight

Friday July 15:

Set One – 7:00pm - 8:15pm

Set Two – 10:30pm – Midnight

 Saturday July 16:

Set One – 4:00pm – 5:15pm

Set Two – 7:30pm – 8:45pm

Set Three – 12:30am – 2:00am

Missing Friday Cheers? Hardywood looks to pick up where Cheers left off with a FREE Friday evening show featuring The Ar-Kaics (60's Troglodyte garage rock), Lady God (Bristling surf guitar, webby bass lines, and sneering dual vocals compose an oddly satisfying vintage rock n’ roll salad they call “Slink.”), Best Behavior out of NYC (Straight up fresh surf-garage), Today Junior from Boston (Indie Rock), and the freshly named Bummers Eve (punk fuzz from Cincinnati to RVA). The music starts at 5:30. Here's The Ar-Kaics at Garageville in Hamburg earlier this year:

A few weeks ago, I saw the lovely and talented Karen Jonas open for Sam Lewis at the Tin Pan. She's a very talented alt-country singer/songwriter out of Fredericksburg. She teams up with Tim Bray who provides some great twangy guitar to accompany Karen.They'll be at Legend Brewing on Friday night from 8:30 - 11:30. Here they are performing at the Takoma Park Folk Festival in 2014:

Americana band The Atkinsons are at Cary Street Cafe on Friday night. It'll be $5 to get in. Things get underway at 9:30 with openers Jessica Salomonsky Pooley and Adam & Amanda Beason. This is The Atkinsons "I Love Everything":



Saturday from 3 - 5 PM, yours truly will do my first radio show in over 20 years when I hit the airwaves to fill in on the Songs from the Big Hair show on WRIR. Appropriately enough, that's an 80's music show so I'll be playing songs from the era when I first started on radio. What comes around, goes around.

Atmospheric indie rockers Wussy are at Strange Matter Saturday night. Doors open at 9 and it's $10 to get in. Sunndrug, Lady God & Various Eggs open. The Noisey web site named their latest album, "Forever Sounds", one of 26 Extremely Dope Overlooked Albums of 2016 (So Far), saying "Chuck Cleaver and Lisa Walker are the best songwriters in America. They have been for over a decade, too." Here's the video for "Dropping Houses":



Tuesday at The National, Dan Auerbach's other band, his psychedelic side project, The Arcs, pull into town. Tix are $28 advance, $33 day of show. Doors open at 7, show starts at 8. No opener is listed. Here's a bit of the press blurb:

[Their album} Yours, Dreamily, continues to receive critical praise. Rolling Stone named the record among their top ten albums of 2015, calling it a “turbulent R&B noir, spiked with psychedelic flourishes… Spectral hip-hop coated in crusty mellotron.” The single “Put A Flower In Your Pocket” also has received excellent reviews, Consequence Of Sound called it “rife with foggy, psychedelic vibes” and Vice’s Noisey says its “dirty, bluesy soulful music with a reverbed, modern twist.” 

Here they are performing "Outta My Mind" in NYC earlier this year:



Over at The Broadberry Tuesday night, alt-country band Freakwater will perform along with Morgan Geer's Drunken Prayer. Doors at 8, show at 9, $12 advance, $15 day of show. You might dig Freakwater if you like Lucinda Williams, The Carter Family, Infamous Stringdusters, Lucinda Williams, Wilco, or Emmylou Harris. Here's their "What the People Want":



That'll do it. I might see you at The Atkinsons, Wussy, The Arcs and/or Freakwater. I'll leave you with some classic Stones because "I want to be your knight in shining armor, riding across the desert on a fine Arab charger". Have a great weekend!



Tony Jordan

Weekend Picks: Bobby Long, Big Mama Shakes, No BS! Brass Band, Life On Mars

The weekend starts on Thursday with Big Mama Shakes at The Broadberry. I've been very impressed with the band, having seen them a couple times last month. They play good, loud, fun classic/blues rock n' roll with a mix of mostly originals and a few choice covers. It's only $7 to get in and it's a big show. Doors open at 8, and the show starts at 8:30 so they can fit in all the openers: Manatree, Basement Club and Bencoolen. Here's Big Mama Shakes on the wonderful local music show, Radio Rubber Room, last month:

Bobby Long is at Ashland Coffee & Tea Friday. Tix are $12 in advance, $15 day of show. Show starts at 8, no opener. I'll let the press blurb speak about Bobby:

British singer-songwriter Bobby Long emerged from London’s club scene with a reputation for creating memorable songs inhabited by hauntingly poetic lyrics. He relocated to New York in 2009 and has since released three CDs inhabited by powerful original material: A Winter Tale (2011)—an homage to his acoustic roots; Wishbone (2013)—a gritty opus that showcases his sorrow-filled voice and stellar guitar playing; and the latest, Ode to Thinking, which applies his varied musical influences to a new collection of compelling songs. The vinyl version called Ode, comprising six tracks from the CD and three previously unreleased tracks, is also now available from Compass Records. Long has also published a volume of poetry—Losing My Brotherhood—with a second collection coming later this year.

 Here's Bobby performing in OKC in May:



No BS! Brass Band is at The Broadberry Friday night. Tix are $10 advance, $15 day of show. Doors open at 8, show starts at 9. Clair Morgan will open the show so get there early. No BS! got their Scottish on at The Vagabond last week. Can't tell if they are wearing kilts or not in this video but it's a great mash-up of music.

Sunday, it's the next show in the monthly summer/fall series Music in the Park at Forest Hill Park. They are doing tribute bands all summer. This time they've got the David Bowie tribute, Life On Mars. Show starts at 6 and it's FREE and family friendly. Here's a couple minutes of the band doing "Heroes" at The Broadberry in February:



That's it! Have a great weekend. I'll see you at the Live On Mars show.

I'll leave you with this one from The Head and the Heart for no particular reason other than it's a good song:



Tony Jordan