Weekend Picks: WRIR Monster Mashquerade, Anthony Hamilton, Milk Carton Kids, Trongone Band, Imaginary Sons, The Taters, Bush League, The Atkinsons, Life On Mars, Fear of Music

Boo! It's Halloween weekend, which now seems to mean lots of tribute bands and lots of band putting on "musical costumes" and playing a bunch of songs from another band. There's some original stuff happening too and we'll get to all of it, so let's begin. Enter if you dare!

If you're looking for something for happy hour on Friday, head to The Camel for Blues & Brews with The Bush League. It don't cost nothin' to get in and it goes from 5 - 8. You know, happy three hours. This will be Wynton's (the drummer ) birthday so be sure to buy him a drink and/or say Happy Birthday. Here's the band at Big Bugg's Island Blues Bash.



Over at Modlin Center for the Arts. folk duo The Milk Carton Kids take the stage. Tix range from $14 - $28, but for most of us will be $28. Show starts at 7:30 with special guest Vance Gilbert. The Milk Carton Kids "offer up a signature blend of flat-picking and tight harmony that earned them a 2015 Grammy® nomination in the Best American Roots Performance category and a 2013 nomination for Best Folk Album" (from the press blurb). The band was recently part of the Lampedusa Tour For Refugees to raise money to support educational programs for refugees around the world. They were joined by Robert Plant, Emmylou Harris, Steve Earle, Patty Griffin, Buddy Miller and others. Not bad company to be in. Here they are at the show in Boulder performing Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here". Fantastic harmonies.

Psychedelic rockers Imaginary Sons are throwing a Halloween party at The Camel Friday night. The band says "This month's Halloween party show will be to raise public awareness about the mutant gator infestation and the threat of impending gatorization of our neighborhoods and families." Truly the greatest threat to our times. Tix are $6 advance, $8 day of show. My Darling Fury, Secret Nudist Friends, and Doctor Collins open. Here's Imaginary Sons in Blacksburg in 2015:



Talking Head tribute band Fear of Music are at Broadberry Friday. Doors at 8, show starts at 9, no opener is listed. There will be costume prizes so bring them on. Here's Talking Heads' "Road to Nowhere":

RVA Americana band The Atkinsons are at 7 Hills Seafood & Brewing Company Saturday evening (7 - 10 PM don't pay attention to the time on the poster, 7-10, really). Here's the band doing "Lyin' and Honesty" at The Tin Pan in February.

Speaking of the Tin Pan, The Taters  throw their Halloween Party there Saturday night starting at 8. There will be lots of fun songs from their Halloween album, "Don't Scream", and you can, of course, wear your costume. Here's "Haunted House" from their 2013 Halloween show:

WRIR's Monster Mashquerade at The Camel not only has three kick ass bands and a rockin' DJ, but your donation helps fuel RVA's independent radio station, WRIR. You get in with a $5-10 donation to WRIR. Wear your costumes as there will be prized for Best Mask and Best Costume. The doors open at 8:30. And as for music. You get Dazeases (who will also premiere her new music video), the sci-fi rock of League of Space Pirates and Pete Curry (electro/sega/synthwave/darkwave/punk/soul/surf/lo-fi/pop). WRIR DJ Jamie Lay will be spinning in between sets. Here's a clip from when Dazeases stopped by the studios of ODU. You can listen to the whole thing, which includes interview and studio tracks, or skip to the live performance at 14:18:

At The Broadberry Saturday, The Trongone Band put on their musical costume and present RVA Woman: A Tribute to The Doors. There will be prizes for best costume. They'll do an original set (and you might hear some new songs from the album they are working on) and then a set of Doors music. Hope they play this one.



Smooth soul man Anthony Hamilton is at the Altria Theater Sunday with Lalah Hathaway and Eric Benet opening. The show starts at 7:30 and tix range from $27 - $87. Here's Anthony's latest video, Ever Seen Heaven:

On Halloween proper (Monday night) David Bowie tribute band Life on Mars will be at The Camel and the powerful, soulful and beautiful Sam Reed and her band will be Cosmic Blues and cover Janis Joplin. Tix are $8 advance, $10 day of show. Doors open at 8, show starts at 9. Here's Life on Mars doing a great version of a song from Bowie's last album, "Lazarus":



That'll do it. Have a great weekend! I'll leave you with this one from Bruce Springsteen.



Tony Jordan

Late Night TV Pick: Mitski

Indie/alternative/pop/rock singer Mitski is on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert tonight at 11:35 PM (CBS). Mitski recently won Best Songwriter in the Village Voice Best of 2016. From her 2014 album, "Bury Me At Makeout Creek", here's "Townie":



From a couple weeks ago, here's Foals on Last Call with Carson Daly:

Weekend Picks: English Beat, The Mavericks, Pennywise, Lydell Williams, Mark Roebuck, Bush League, Big Payback

Head back to the 80's to start your weekend with one of the most danceable bands of that time, ska band English Beat. They are at The National Thursday night. Tix are $19.50 advance, $23 day of show. Doors open at 7, show starts at 8 with 808 featuring members of Fighting Gravity. The opener is going to do an entire set of Fighting Gravity songs for those of you who were fans of that RVA band from back in the day. Don't expect just the oldies from English Beat. They've been making new music and will have an album coming out in the spring. I'll play my favorite song from them here, "Save It For Later". Pete Townshend of The Who used to play this song on his solo gigs and would often introduce it by saying, "I bet you wonder what this song is about" or something to that effect. I met Pete at a meet and greet after his solo show in 1993 and I asked him what it was about. He told me one of the band members told him it was about getting a blow job and not wanting to come. So I got to talk with Pete Townshend for a minute and we talked about bj songs by English Beat. Still not sure if that was a missed opportunity. But now you'll never hear this song the same way again.



The Big Payback: A Tribute to James Brown are having a 10th anniversary party and you're invited. It goes down at The Broadberry on Friday night. Tix are $10 advance, $12 at the door. Doors open at 8, show starts at 9 with openers Dead 27's who will be celebrating the release of their new album. Hope Big Payback plays this one. I don't think I've seen them do it before.



Blues band The Bush League is at Sonny's Bar and Grill in Lakeside Friday night. Starts at 8:30 and I think it's FREE to get in. The Bush League will be part of the International Blues Challenge in January on Beale Street in Memphis. Good luck, guys! Here they are at 7 Hills Brewing Co a few weeks ago ripping into Funkadelic's "Maggot Brain":



Americana country rock Tex-Mex rockabilly band The Mavericks are at The National Saturday. Tix are $43 and $38 for reserved in the balcony and $33 for GA on the floor. Doors open at 7, show starts at 8 and no opener is listed. They've got a new live album out, "All Night Live Vol. 1". Perhaps they'll be recording Vol. 2 Saturday night. This is gonna be one fun Saturday night party. And as crazy as it seems, they may even do a Pink Floyd cover. But here's an original. This is "Dance The Night Away" from 1998:

RVA soul singer Lydell Williams will be live in concert Saturday at TASTE at Infuzion. Tix are $20. Doors open at 6:30, show starts at 7:30 with special guest Deli Rowe. Lydell's new single is "Groove Your Body" and here he is on CBS6 performing the song:

There's a CD Release Party at Sound of Music Studios Saturday night for folk/Americana artist Mark Roebuck. Hazleton & Mike Koehler open the show which starts at 8. It's $10 to get in and it's BYOB. Mark and his band will be playing "Gratitude" and a bunch of other tunes from the new album "The World All Within". From that new album, here's "One More Fall":

So-Cal Punk band Pennywise rocks The National Sunday night. Tix are $23 advance, $26 day of show. Doors open at 6:30, show starts at 7:30 with openers Strung Out, Unwritten Law, and Runaway Kids. Pennywise will play their classic 1995 album, "About Time" in it's entirety along with other Pennywise favorites. From "About Time", here's "Same Old Story":

That'll do it. I'll see you somewhere this weekend. I'll leave you with Rick James frolicking in a hot tub while wearing a speedo.



Have a great weekend! Hopefully as good as Rick.

Tony Jordan

Weekend Picks: Richard Thompson, Eric Krasno Band, Shemekia Copeland, Rickie Lee Jones, Merchandise, Balance & Composure, DJ Williams Projekt, Taters

The weekend begins on Thursday night at Modlin Center with the incomparable Richard Thompson. The English singer-songwriter was a founding member of seminal folk-rock group Fairport Convention, made one of the best albums of the 80's with this then-almost-ex-wife, "Shoot Out The Lights", and then has had a consistently excellent solo career. He doesn't come to Richmond too often so don't miss your chance to see him. He recently opened for Bonnie Raitt on her tour and sat in with Neil Finn (Crowded House, Finn Brothers). The show starts at 7:30 and tix range from $10 to $50 depending upon your demographic, though will be $50 for most of us. Here's Richard performing "Beatnik Walking" last month:

Emo/indie rockers Balance & Composure are at The Broadberry Thursday night. Tix are $17 advance, $19 day of show. Doors open at 7, show starts at 8 with openers Foxing and Mercury Girls. This show is the first night of their fall tour to promote their new album, "Light We Made". Rock Sound said of the album, "Eschewing their hard-edged, rockier side, the Pennsylvania five-piece have cultivated 40-plus minutes of intense but dreamy atmosphere". From that album, here's "Afterparty":

Merchandise will be playing at Gallery5 Friday night with Public Memory and Flasher. Doors open at 7, show starts at 8. $10 advance. Here's the press blurb on Merchandise:

Merchandise is a band fighting against the easy categorization reserved for abbreviated biographies. The project is equal parts punk misanthropy, maudlin balladeering, fine art, low humor, classical study, psychedelic spacecasing, mad science and pop genius.

Formed as a trio in Tampa, Florida in 2008, the band has undergone ceaseless revision and reinvention. After putting out numerous records and tapes on independent punk labels and touring the underground, the band truly hit its stride with the release of their second LP Children of Desire in April 2012. In addition to a very warm reception from fans, the record received praise from the likes of Pitchfork, NME, Spin, and numerous other critics and journals.

2013 saw the band releasing Totale Nite on Iowa City’s Night People label and touring extensively throughout America and Europe. Their new album, "A Corpse..." came out on 9/23/16.

 From their new album, here's "End of the Week":



The Taters are at Max's Positive Vibe Cafe Friday evening from 7:30 to 9:30 PM. Expect to hear some songs from their Halloween album, "Don't Scream! (Songs to Keep You Up At Night)". Though this one wasn't from that album, it could have been. This is "Wolfman Told Me Tonight":



Beatles, blues, Grateful Dead cover (and a few originals) band Long Strange Night plays at Keagan's Saturday night. Show starts at 9 and I don't think it costs a thing to get in. Here's a little taste of the band doing the GD's "They Love Each Other":



Speaking of the Grateful Dead, guitarist/singer Bob Weir has got a free webcast for you from The Capital Theater on Sunday at 8 PM. You can find that on nugs.tv. His new album, "Blue Mountain", has been getting excellent reviews. He got help on the album from members of The National and Josh Ritter. Bob will be with a band on Sunday night but here he is solo a few weeks ago at Amoeba Records in Hollywood:



Blues singer extraordinaire Shemekia Copeland will be at The Tin Pan Sunday night. Some of you may have seen her at last year's Richmond Folk Festival and she put on a terrific show. Doors open at 5, show at 7, tix are $40 advance, $45 at the door. Shemekia has a new album out called "Outskirts of Love". Guests include ZZ Top’s Billy F Gibbons (guitar on a smoldering version of “Jesus Just Left Chicago”), Robert Randolph & the Family Band, Alvin Youngblood Hart and Will Kimbrough. Not a bad group of friends. Here she is at the New Bedford Whaling Blues Festival in August:



DJ Williams returns from LA, tanned and rested, and pulls the Projekt back together for a night on Sunday night at The Broadberry, Doors at 8, show at 9, $12 advance, $15 at the door. There will be a whole bunch of peeps dropping in from many RVA bands and it should be quite the fun night. One of the last times the Projekt played together was on a slightly bigger stage. Here they are opening the festivities at Lockn' on Saturday, 8/27. Well, here's the link. Embedding is disabled for this one. https://youtu.be/Wk9LntXr05A

Tuesday night, it's a jam band dream show at The Broadberry. Eric Krasno Band and Marco Benevento will perform, seperately and (I'm sure) together. Doors open at 7, show starts at 8, $20 advance, $25 day of show. Eric Krasno Band just got done playing 2 nights with The Grateful Dead's Phil Lesh as Phil's Terrapin Crossroads club in San Rafael CA. Eric also jammed with Tedeschi-Trucks Band earlier this month. He is becoming one of the go-to guitarists in the jam band world, a guy who everyone wants to play with. Speaking of Derek Trucks, here's the trippy video from the track "Curse Lifter" from Eric Krasno's new album, "Blood From a Stone" with Derek sitting in:

Rickie Lee Jones is at Capital Ale House Downtown Tuesday night. Doors open at 7, show starts at 8, tix are $55 advance, $65 day of show. There is no opener listed. Here's the press blurb for Rickie:

Two-time Grammy winner Rickie Lee Jones exploded onto the pop scene in 1978 and has made a career of fearlessly experimenting with her sound and persona over 15 critically acclaimed albums. A cultural phenomenon, Rolling Stone magazine put her on its cover twice in two years, and Saturday Night Live gave her an unprecedented three songs for her second appearance. Rickie is both a character in the songs and the songwriter singing, defying convention with her sometimes brazen sexuality and the mixed bag of jazz, rock and what has come to be known as 'confessional' songwriter performances. 

Her latest album The Other Side of Desire was written, recorded and rooted in the city of New Orleans, where Jones lives on the opposite side of the street made famous by Tennessee Williams. Produced by John Porter (of Roxy Music) and Mark Howard, this is the first new music Jones has written in over a decade.

"This work is inspired by many years of sitting with all the events of my life until I had something to paint with," says Rickie. "I came to New Orleans to write and to live a different way than what I have known in on the west coast…. Here is another record then, made of my imagination, and whatever else that has no words, using the clay of this place and the shapes of my eyes to form some kind of picture of my life, or my heart, that I alone can understand, and hopefully that others can enjoy."

 From her latest album, this is "Jimmy Choos":



That'll do it! Have a great weekend. I'll see you at Richard Thompson.

I'll leave you with this one from Death Cab for Cutie. This is part of the 30 Days, 30 Songs project in which 30 songs will be released over the next 30 days by 30 different artists for a Trump-free America.



Tony Jordan

Late Night TV Pick: Foals

Alt/indie/pop/rock band Foals are on Last Call with Carson Daly tonight (1:35 AM, NBC). You'll be able to catch Foals on PBS' Austin City Limits later this year, as they recorded a show for them last week. Here's "Inhaler" from Foals' 2012 album, "What Went Down".

Weekend Picks: Richmond Folk Festival, Lucy Dacus, Tea Leaf Green, Jackass Flats, Life on Mars

I'm afraid this blog will not be up to my usual standards. I am not feeling well tonight and need to get some rest for the big weekend ahead. Why is it a big weekend?

Folk Fest! Folk Fest! Folk Fest! It's the Richmond Folk Fest this weekend. It's your chance to see music from all around the world for FREE! It goes down in the Brown's Island/Tredegar Iron Works area Friday (6:30 PM - 10 PM), Saturday (noon to 10 PM) and Sunday (noon to 6 PM). This will be held rain or shine so bring your rain gear Friday and Saturday. Most of the stages are under tents so you'll only need to be out in the rain going from stage to stage or if you go to the Altria Stage. If you come down Friday, stop by and say hello to me as I'll be helping out backstage at the WestRock Foundation Stage. Saturday, I'll be hanging out at the Dominion Dance Pavilion from 6:15 to 10 for Gary U.S. Bonds (will Springsteen show up? Probably not, but we can dream.), L'Orchestra Afrisa International and Maceo Parker. Sunday, I'm just going to roam around and see what I can find. Other recommended acts from me are Beausoliel Trio (Cajun) and Gena Delafose and French Rockin' Boogie (zydeco) because I loves me some New Orleans music. And check out Style Weekly for some of the world music finds. And don't be afraid to follow your ears and see something you never would have thought of seeing. Some of the best acts I've found over the years have been surprises I stumbled upon. I'll leave you with video of Maceo Parker who pretty much invented funk saxophone playing. He was an integral part of James Brown's band from 1964 - 75. Then, he joined Parliament and their many off shoots from '76 - '85. And he played with this guy too. Here he is with Prince:



Now, we are going to dole out the rest of the weekend's shows fast and furious so I can get to bed.

RVA girl made good, Lucy Dacus, returns home for a show at The National Friday night. Tix are $13 advance, $16 day of show. Doors open at 7, show starts at 8 with openers My Darling Fury and Spooky Cool. Here's Lucy's "I Don't Wanna Be Funny Anymore":

David Bowie tribute band, Life on Mars, is at The Broadberry Friday night. Tix are $10 advance, $12 day of show. Doors open at 8, show starts at 9. Prabir will open the show. Here's Life on Mars in March at Strangeways performing one of my favorites, "Stay":

Saturday night at The Broadberry, it's a benefit for Carter Anderson, who you may have seen "dancing to the music, putting stages together, or in the streets picking up litter and doing recycling activities with his Save the Trash recycling bus all over RVA." He's also been homeless. You can read his full story on the event page.  Bluegrass band Jackass Flats and Moroccan band Jouwala Collective are throwing Carter a party to raise money to help him get a home. A suggested donation of $10 - $20 gets you in the door. Doors are at 8, show starts at 9. Here's Jackass Flats a few years ago:



Monday night, jam band Tea Leaf Green is at The Broadberry. Tix are $10 advance, $12 day of show. Doors open at 8, show starts at 9 with Atlas Road Crew. Here's Tea Leaf Green at Wakarusa Festival in 2010:



That'll do it. See you at Folk Fest! I'll leave you with the beautiful and talented Rhiannon Giddens on Austin City Limits:



Have a great weekend!

Tony Jordan

Late Night TV Pick: Bob Mould

Alt-rock hero Bob Mould is on Last Call with Carson Daly tonight (NBC, 1:35 AM). Bob recently played the Hollywood Bowl, so I'm hoping the live footage on Last Call is from that show. Here's Bob leading one of his former bands, Sugar.