Late Night Pick: Dr. Dog

Tonight on Last Call with Carson Daly, check out indie pop band Dr. Dog.  They'll be at The National on August 23. Click HERE to check out Dr. Dog playing acoustic on the beach at this year's Hangout Fest in Alabama. Last Call is on NBC at 1:35 AM.

Neko Case, New Potato Caboose, Anders Osborne, Mike Doughty, Blitzen Trapper

This is a very busy music weekend so let's jump right in on Friday night at The National with alt-country goddess Neko Case. Tix are $22.50 in advance, $25 at the door. Doors open at 7, show starts at 8 and get in early to see opener Kelly Hogan. Here's Neko with Elvis Costello doing "Prison Girls":

Also Friday night, at Strange Matter, punk pop Ed Schrader's Music Beat will perform. It'll cost you a few bucks to get in and there will be an opener. Doors open at 9, music starts at 10. Ed Schrader's Music Beat is made up of Ed on a floor tom and bassist Devlin Rice. That's it, real minimalist. Here's a short little ditty from them called, "When I'm In a Car":



All weekend long you can check out the FREE webcast from the Forecastle Festival in Louisville KY. The webcast will be on iClips HERE. They haven't posted the schedule for the webcast yet, but the festival itself gets under way at 5:30 on Friday, and 3:00 Saturday and Sunday. Bands at the festival include Wilco, My Morning Jacket, Head and the Heart, Beach House, Lucero, Jeff the Brotherhood, Julia Nunes, Justin Townes Earle, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Dr. Dog, Galactic, Andrew Bird, Girl Talk, Mike Doughty, Kelly Hogan, Cloud Nothings, Charles Bradley, Neko Case, and more.

Also on the interwebs this weekend, is the FREE webcast of the Pitchfork Music Fest on YouTube HERE. That will start at 4:00 Friday, and 2:00 Saturday and Sunday. Again, no schedule posted yet, but bands at that fest include Feist, Dirty Projectors, Japandroids, Danny Brown, Hot Chip, Sleigh Bells, Wild Flag, Cults, Cloud Nothings, Vampire Weekend, Beach House, The Men, Thee Oh Sees and more.

Saturday, it's a tribute band fest at Innsbrook with The Machine (Pink Floyd), Limelight (Rush) and Little Ozzy. Tix are $5 in advance, $10 at the door, children 10 and under free for GA, and $25 in advance and kids 2 and under free in the Gold Circle. Gates open at 5. Here's The Machine doing "Comfortably Numb" last year in RI:



And in case you missed it, here is when Dave Gilmour joined Roger Waters to perform "Comfortably Numb" on Roger's "Wall" tour in London last year:



Wilton House Museum continues their Jammin' on the James series with the Susan Greenbaum Band on Saturday. The show will run from 6 to 8 and it's FREE. Here's Susan solo doing "Everything But You" in Williamsburg earlier this year.

Speaking of jamming, one of the bands from the second wave of jam bands (late 80's - early 90's) will be at The National Saturday night. New Potato Caboose is back together and hittin' the road. Tix are $12.50 in advance, $15 at the door. Doors open at 7, show starts at 8 with opener Octopus. Here's NPC performing "Wooden Music" last year:



If you want the hard blues (or you have the hard blues) on Saturday night, go find People's Blues of Richmond at The Camel. It's $5 to get in, doors open at 9 and Bubonik Funk will open. Here they are performing in Philly a couple weeks ago:



Sunday night, New Orleans blues man via Norway, Anders Osborne, will be at Capital Ale House. Tix are $15 in advance, $18 day of show. Doors open at 7, show starts at 8. Seth Stainbeck will open. Anders doesn't get up to these parts often enough so check him out. Here, Anders performs "Black Tar" acoustic and out in the park:



As an added bonus, here is the Anders Osborne Trio doing Neil Young's "Cortez the Killer":



Tuesday night, Mike Doughty, who used to lead Soul Coughing, will be at Capital Ale House. Tix are $15 in advance, $18 at the door. Doors open at 7, show starts at 8 with "a special guest". Here's Mike performing "Na Na Nothing" at WNRN in Charlottesville, which you can get here in Richmond on 103.1 FM.:

Grateful Dead cover band King Solomon's Marbles will be at Cary St. Cafe Tuesday night. Show starts at 10 and there is no cover.

Finally, Wednesday night, alt-country rock band Blitzen Trapper will be at The National. Tix are $15 in advance, $18 at the door. Doors open at 7, show starts at 8 with Sarah Jaffe. Here's Blitzen Trapper performing "Stranger in a Strange Land":



And if you ever wondered what North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un's girlfriend would sing like, here she is singing a little ditty called "Excellent Horse-Like Lady". I think I woke up with one of those once after really drunk night in college. Thanks to Mike K. for passing this one along. This song will haunt my dreams tonight of working hard in the North Korean factory for the glory of the great dictator.



Have a great weekend!

Tony Jordan

SOJA, Dumpstaphunk, Dream Theater, Crimson Projekt, Late Night Pick: Cloud Nothings

A couple good shows tonight to kick off a busy weekend. More on the full weekend in my blog later tonight.

Pop reggae band SOJA will be at Innsbrook tonight. Tix are all General Admission, $16.50 in advance, $20 at the door and kids 10 and under are free. Gates open at 6 and get in early because the opener is the New Orleans' funk of Ivan Neville's Dumpstaphunk. I had a fantastic night at the Capital Ale House in February seeing them, getting my groove on with friends old and new. Here's SOJA's "Strength to Survive":


And as an added bonus, here's some footage of Dumpstaphunk in February at Capital Ale House:


If you are in more of a prog rock mood, tonight at The National, Dream Theater will play with opener Crimson Projekt (members of King Crimson including Adrian Belew and Tony Levin). Tix are $35 in advance, $38 at the door. Doors open at 7 and show starts at 8. Here's Dream Theater's "Build Me Up, Break Me Down":


Tonight's Late Night Pick is hard, alt-rock band Cloud Nothings on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon on NBC at 12:35 AM.

Late Night Pick: Zac Brown Band

Tonight on Late Show with David Letterman, the Zac Brown Band will perform. I haven't quite figured out the Zac Brown Band yet. They seem to be able to do a lot of country-related music styles (Jimmy Buffett-ish, Country Jam, Country Blues, Pop Country) well, but I have yet to see them do anything that I thought was great. They seem to dip their toe in a lot of pools but never really dive into one. Though they do have a new video animated by Mike Judge (Beavis & Butthead, King of the Hill) and he usually likes pretty decent stuff so maybe tonight they'll show me something. If you want to figure it out for yourself, Letterman is on CBS at 11:35 AM.

Late Night Pick: Tom Waits (again)

Tom Waits continues his late night tv tour with a trip to Late Night with Jimmy Fallon tonight on NBC at 12:35 AM. Tom's website says they'll be doing different songs from last night on Letterman so if you are a fan, you'll want to check him out again tonight.

Late Night Pick: Tom Waits

Tonight on Late Show with David Letterman, the great Tom Waits will perform. Late Show is on CBS at 11:35 AM. Tom will talk with Dave and then give the first live performance of songs from his latest record, "Bad As Me". His son, Casey, will be on drums and guitarist David Hidalgo from Los Lobos will be in the band too.

Late Night Pick: Tenacious D, Best Reviewed Albums of 2012 (so far)

Tonight, the mighty Tenacious D performs on a Late Show with David Letterman repeat. That's on CBS at 11:35 AM. Here the D recently dropped in at RIBS USA to perform a surprise show. Here is "Low Hangin' Fruit" from that show. There are a couple F-bombs in this so if that makes it NSFW, you know what to do. Headphones.


Metacritic reveals the Best Reviewed Albums of 2012 So Far in this article HERE.

Also, a big thanks to everyone that reads Handful of Brains. The blog just passed 50,000 page views!

Andrew Bird, Black Girls, No BS! Brass Band, Susan Greenbaum, Three Sheets to the Wind

Black Girls return to the scene this weekend with a show at The Camel. Doors open at 8:30, show starts at 9:30, and it's $7 to get in. The Hill and Wood (out of Charlottesville) and River Whyless (out of Boone NC) will open.

Yacht rock cover band Three Sheets to the Wind will be at Tobacco Company on Friday night. Show starts at 9:30 and it's free to get in. In the absence of any new videos from Three Sheets, here is some prime Yacht Rock: Firefall doing "Just Remember I Love You":



If you are hanging out at home, Fat Music Radio will be broadcasting live sets (audio only) from the High Sierra Music Fest in Quincy CA. Here is the lineup. All times are PACIFIC TIME so add three hours to get our time.

Friday – July 6, 2012:
Brokedown In Bakersfield: Noon – 1:30pm (GS)
Greensky Bluegrass: 2:00 – 3:30pm (GS)
Toots and the Maytals: 4:15 – 5:45pm (GS)
Galactic: 6:30 – 8:30pm (GS)
Deer Tick: 9:45 – 11:15pm

Saturday – July 7, 2012:
Dead Winter Carpenters: 12:15 – 1:45pm (GS)
Soulive: 2:30 – 4:00pm
Ryan Bingham: 4:45 – 6:15pm (GS)
Devil Makes 3: 7:00 – 8:30pm (GS)
Ben Harper: 9:15 – 11:15pm
Brokedown In Bakersfield: 11:45pm – 1:00am (H.S.M.H)
Railroad Earth: 1:30 – 4:00am (H.S.M.H)

Sunday – July 8 2012:
Split Lip Rayfield: 12:15 – 1:45pm (GS)
Red Baraat: 2:30 – 4:00pm
Grupo Fantasma: 4:45 – 6:15pm
TBA: 7:00 – 8:30pm
Railroad Earth: 9:15 – 11:15pm (GS)

Saturday night, the Susan Greenbaum Band will be at Ashland Coffee & Tea. Show starts at 8 and tix are $10 at the door. Here is Susan doing "This Life":

No BS! Brass Band is doing a special brunch show at 3 PM at The Camel on Sunday. The show will run until 6 PM and it'll be $5 to get in. $3 Bloody Marys and Mimosas! And they'll be recording the show for a special release later this summer. Here's their video for "Dr. Wily":



Wednesday night as part of the Groovin' In the Garden series at Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens, Andrew Bird and Mavis Staples will perform. Gates open at 5:30, music starts around 6 PM with Mavis Staples. General Admission Lawn- $35 in advance, $40 at the gate, General Reserve Seating- $55 in advance, ALL AGES REQUIRE TICKETS FOR THIS EVENT. Andrew Bird is known for his symphonic, alt-pop songs with unique instrumentation including violin and whistling. Yes, whistling. Here he is talking about the whistling on CNN a few weeks ago:



And here is Andrew's video for "Eyeoneye":



Have a great weekend!

Tony Jordan

Late Night Pick: White Denim

Tonight on a repeat of Last Call with Carson Daly, check out Austin TX band, White Denim. But don't expect Austin Americana, these guys play a punk-pop-psychedelic mix that I really like. Hopefully, they'll come back to Richmond this fall. Last Call is on NBC at 1:35 AM.

Late Night Pick: Alabama Shakes

No, this isn't a repost but it is a repeat. All the late night shows are in repeats this week because of Independence Day and this one is a repeat of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon from last Monday. Alabama Shakes will be on along with Charlie Sheen. Alabama Shakes will play "Be Mine". If you don't feel like watching the whole Late Night show, you can just watch the clip on the Shakes' web site. Late Night is on NBC at 12:35 AM. The Shakes are playing the Montreaux Jazz Fest tonight in Switzerland and doing another three weeks in Europe after that. They'll head back to the States to tour in late July  - August, then back to Europe for a few dates in September and then more dates in Europe in November. They are touring HARD behind this album.