Just in time for Halloween, the John Paul Jones Arena and 106.1 The Corner have teamed up to bring you one of rock’s scariest creatures for cheap. Corner programming director Brad Savage announced on the air this morning that starting at 10am and running through the weekend, tickets for Nine Inch Nails‘ show at the JPJ on Wednesday, November 5 are available for $10.61.
May the jig be with him.Late last month, 31-year-old musician and contractor Zach Snider headed to Texas for an event at which he might have heard screams of “drill, baby, drill” and might even meet someone named Carl the Carpenter. But despite the timing just days before the election, this event was no political rally: it’s the Irwin Ultimate Tradesman Challenge, a contest with a million-dollar-plus prize that Snider nearly won last year.
“He beat the time of the eventual winner last year,” says Irwin spokesperson Adam Colborne. “But his jig wouldn’t properly fit in the holes he drilled.”
Wha?
“When $1.26 million is on the line,” Colborne explains, “it can be pretty nerve-racking.”
Indeed, Snider— who plays in the band Straight Punch to the Crotch— admitted he was out for revenge as he went to the competition, which was held Sunday at the Texas Motor Speedway during the Dickies 500. While was wielding a bass guitar the night before departure at a local Straight Punch gig, the weekend in Texas was (more)
As in, named after the funeral home next to their practice space. Ooooh, creepy!
buy tickets onlineSongs for children
buy tickets onlineFolk-rock singer-songwriter
Melissa Ferrick - Never Give Up
Melissa Ferrick - Hypocrite
Old School Freight Train guitarist Jesse Harper opens.
buy tickets onlineAlright, which indie label is hotter right now, Polyvinyl or Barsuk? Whoa there, kids, we’re not trying to start any new holy wars here — the point is that Kansas-based husband-and-wife indie rock duo Mates Of State have had ‘em both.
Mates Of State - My Only Offer
buy tickets onlineBlues duo with harmonica and guitar
buy tickets onlineKeep your fingers crossed and maybe Devon Sproule will play the awesome Scooby Doo song she nicked from Jeff Romano a few months back. Either way, thanks to her special Halloween show for kids, you can now get your little ones hooked on your favorite local songwriter earlier than ever. If you don’t, they’ll get into Hilary Duff and High School Musical and then you’ll have no choice but to let them burn out on their own. Rut roh!
Devon Sproule - Keep Your Silver Shined
Devon Sproule - 1340 Chesapeake St.
Devon Sproule - Let’s Go Out
Browning Porter opens this one too.
buy tickets online
It hasn’t been too long since local songwriter Keith Morris last did his Candyapolis Revue, a reworking of his debut album for kids, but this one is going to be different — swap the big fuzzy bunnies for spooky stories and you’ve got yourself a Halloween engagement for kids and kids-at-heart alike.
uploads/2008/08/keith-morris_candy-apples.mp3′>Keith Morris - Candy Apples
Browning Porter opens.
buy tickets onlineSoulful singer-songwriter Amos Lee rose up under the watchful eye of Norah Jones and her bassist.
buy tickets onlineEarly last year, local hip hop duo Beetnix dropped an epic unplugged set at Gravity Lounge with 14 musicians playing acoustic arrangements of their songs worked up by local rock and roll smartypants Andy Waldeck. It was spectacular.
So this time, they’ve added a second show and are performing back-to-back acoustic and electric shows — one with seats and thirteen supporting musicians, and the other with seats and six dudes with cranked amplifiers. Get your tickets early, because if there’s any justice in the world, this will sell out with a vengeance.
buy tickets onlineFor the past few months, Sons Of Bill guitarist Sam Wilson has been coming into his own as a soloist with weekly gigs at Enoteca, and here, he celebrates the release of his first solo album, which he says owes debts of influence to Chopin, Merle Haggard, and Radiohead. (We’re still working the trigonometry on that one and will have to get back to you.)
But he didn’t actually go it alone — the album features longtime collaborators like drummer Brian Caputo and guitarist Brian Chenault, monster pianist Wells Hanley, and Old School Freight Train bassist Darrell Muller, who Wilson reveals laid down his parts in a matter of hours.
That seat-of-pants approach will come into play again for this show, too: Wilson will be out on the west coast working on the new SOB album right up until the last minute — produced by the guy behind Tom Petty, Whiskeytown, and Wilco, no less — so he’ll be flying in the night before the show and won’t get another chance to rehearse with the band.
“I kind of like it being spontaneous,” he says, “It sounds better when the songs aren’t too rehearsed.” Most of the musicians involved are seasoned improvisers, and many have done rounds in the Miller’s jazz bands, so even though the material ranges from quiet ambient acoustic pieces to rip-roaring rock guitar solos, it’ll probably turn out alright.
Sam Wilson - A Melody Instead
Sam Wilson - In The Morning
Sam Wilson - Once In Your Life
Sam Wilson - Green Gates
Peyton Tochterman and Matty Metcalfe open.
Peyton Tochterman - Mamma’s Genes
Matty Metcalfe - Big Chief
Matty Metcalfe - Chez Seychelles
Matty Metcalfe - Happy Two-Step
Hip hop fusion. The Handsome Guns open.
The Blackout Project - Future Celebrity
The Blackout Project - What We’ve Become
The Blackout Project - Sew The Seams
Garage rock. Har har.
Joe Pollock opens with guitars and loops.
Joe Pollock - Woodlawn Street
Joe Pollock - Someone Said It Sounded Like Traveling
Joe Pollock - Older Brother And An Ice Cream Cone
Counterintuitively, The Falsies play absurd rock that gets less absurd every time you listen to it. Drummer/poultry Lance Brenner promises a new tune called “Straight Up (In Ya)” and others that weren’t on their recent CD, and he also calls Richmond openers Hot Lava “kindred spirits;” that’s a high calling, and also kind of terrifying.
The Falsies - Are You Sexually Available
Hot Lava - Apple+Option+Fire
Show up early — the first 25 folks through the door will get a limited edition “Sing Along” program with lyrics, photos and artwork.
buy tickets onlineCars Can Be Blue: shaggy two-piece girl-guy drums-guitar garage-rock mayhem. Also featuring Barling and Collins, the Rock N Roll Cannibals, and Star F*cking Hipsters (oh, come on, you know you’re going to get worse language than that from B.C. anyway).
Barling and Collins - (That’s Right) I’m Looking At Your Girlfriend
Chicago’s Pelican plays epic instrumentals, and this will be awesome. Opening: jazzy avant metal from Kayo Dot, psychedelic rock from Cave In frontman Steve Brodsky, and local punk rock staples Worn In Red.
buy tickets online
By day, the Ix Building is a fantastically clever bit of experimental architecture, but as the Charlottesville Derby Dames correctly point out, at night it might just be “Charlottesville’s creepiest building.” That’s up for debate (Obama campaign office, anyone?) but we still couldn’t come up with a better place for the annual performance of the local supergroup Mass Sabbath.
They’re billed as the “world’s largest Black Sabbath tribute group,” and you can expect members of Horsefang, Corsair, Valkyrie, The Nice Jenkins, and Pantherburn. Horsefang guitarist Nicholas Liivak promises two hours of scary-ass tunes from the first five albums.
Obvious: costumes recommended. Not so obvious: masks provided.
Rocking out with the growling metalheads in ThisMeansYou is like drinking from a firehose; Uncle Charlie couldn’t handle it ThisMeansYou - River
ThisMeansYou - Order 66
ThisMeansYou - Demon’s Cry
Also featuring The Crueligans (in full makeup and with limited edition T-shirts on hand) and Dirty White Devils.
buy tickets online
Young metal bands from Charlottesville and Luray.
buy tickets onlineWe were going to write something more insightful about Afroman and his Songs About Mary Jane, but then… well, you know. Hey, want some Doritos?
buy tickets onlineFun fact: formerly-local Atlanta rockers Sun Domingo collectively weigh 505 pounds. Related fact, kind of ridiculous but not nearly as fun: They are a trio. Who knew funkiness was so dense?
Local rock and reggae trio Social Viscosity opens.
Deep in the bowels of Old Cabell Hall there’s a little lab full of cutting-edge multimedia equipment on which faculty composers, grad students, and a few confused undergrads tinker to produce mind-bending avant-garde audio artwork. TechnoSonics is the annual flagship show where they share the fruits of the preceding year; last year they moved the party off-campus in order to get Charlottesville at large more involved and ended up with a great turnout.
This year’s theme is Play — professor Matthew Burtner’s piece revolves around squeaky toys, for example, and another is played entirely by robots. Highly recommended; most towns don’t get anything anywhere near as outlandish as this, and even for us it only happens once a year.
Once a year, the UVA Lawn is full of little kids in costumes instead of college students in birthday suits, but UVA professor Michelle Kisliuk’s popular ensemble will make this year way cooler than usual.
CUSO’s “Music of Redemption” concert includes works by Wagner, Mahler, and Strauss, featuring both French Horn player David Jolley and the recurring foolish notion that love makes everything alright. Hate to break it to you, guys, but actually it’s alcohol that does that.
CUSO’s “Music of Redemption” concert includes works by Wagner, Mahler, and Strauss, featuring both French Horn player David Jolley and the recurring foolish notion that love makes everything alright. Hate to break it to you, guys, but actually it’s alcohol that does that.
The violinist and pianist perform tricky-ass sonatas by Schubert, Beethoven, and Prokofiev.
Six-string youngster Eli Cook pretends to be an 80-year-old Mississippi bluesman, but it has nothing to do with Halloween.
Songwriter Jan Smith plays warm, folky compositions with multi-instrumentalist hubby Jeff Vogelgesang on mandolin and guitar.
Jan Smith - James River
Jan Smith - Your Mamma Don’t Care
The next time someone tells you they’re playing the world’s smallest violin out of sympathy for you, pay attention — they’ll probably be playing Barber’s Adagio For Strings, which was voted the world’s saddest classical work in a poll conducted by the BBC’s Today show. We’re not sure we agree (the Jonas Brothers make us way more depressed) but either way you’ll hear it here, most likely on somewhat larger violins.
Mary McCaslin’s Beatles covers started winning her fans in the 70’s, and she’s been playing folk-pop for all sorts of audiences ever since. Also featuring opening sets from Blue O’Connell and local teacher-turned-songwriter Mary Gordon Hall.
Mary McCaslin - Lights Of Spartanburg
Mary McCaslin - Acres Of Houses
New Orleans franken-organist Quintron plays swamp-techno with homebrew drum machines and a Hammond and Rhodes he has welded together. Also featuring Truman Sparks, Charlottesville’s best/only indie prog band, and local rock quartet Class Substitute.
Class Substitute - Bleed [demo]
buy tickets onlineOriginal country-pop currently tearing up the charts in the Czech Republic (seriously)
Meade Skelton - My Loudon County Home
Check out this ‘ween blowout from local rockers The Kings Of Belmont, who used to be a Ween cover band. Also featuring songwriter Travis Elliott and country-rock Nice Jenkins spinoff Gunchux. Ever seen a jack-o-lantern with a rocked face?
The Kings Of Belmont - The Jerk Store [demo]
The Kings Of Belmont - Git R Done
The Kings Of Belmont - South Bound
The Kings Of Belmont - Beg For More
The Kings Of Belmont - Sway
The Kings Of Belmont - Talking To Myself
Gunchux actually sent us their entire new EP. That’s way sweeter than anything else we’re going to run across this weekend.
Gunchux - Suburban Landscape
Gunchux - The Tour
Gunchux - Williamstown
Gunchux - You Crushed My Heart
Gunchux - Walk Up 21st St.
The popular local songwriter plays an acoustic set.
Andy Waldeck - Those Days Are Gone
Andy Waldeck - Ordinary Men
Andy Waldeck - Diggin Me
Andy Waldeck - Healing
Since this is Rapunzel’s Halloween party, maybe dreaming isabelle will take a cue from Gnarls Barkley and pretend to be something other than a pop-rock band
Dreaming Isabelle - Mine
Dreaming Isabelle - Not Missing You
Dreaming Isabelle - That I Am
Worrell performed a mix of new and old Monday night at LiveArts at the release concert for The Honey Guide.Recently-defrosted classic Charlottesville singer-songwriter Shannon Worrell’s new album only came out a couple days ago, but it’s already turning heads at the largest music retailer in the country:
The Honey Guide is one of this week’s featured picks in the iTunes Music Store’s folk section.
This is actually a coveted slot; Apple has been known to pressure record labels for exclusive iTunes-only releases in exchange for placement in the store, for example— but Worrell says this one was just a no-strings-attached gift from the pod gods.
“I was fairly shocked,” she says. “Somebody placed it based on the artwork or listened to it. The label didn’t do any marketing.”
But iTunes isn’t the only place to get it — Worrell says they sent it to the usual suspects in online distribution— Nimbit, CDBaby, Microsoft Zune, eMusic, and a few others. Our bet? Buy it from Amie Street, where breaking independent music comes at an astonishingly steep discount until it gets really popular.
Worrell says it’ll be hard to gauge the effects of the placement because she only gets bi-annual reports from the label, but depending on how this iTunes thing plays out, you cheapskates might be outta luck pretty soon.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjX6ErmKY14
Elton John as seen from upper deck.Holden Caulfield, the protagonist in The Catcher in the Rye, reserved some of his strongest opprobrium for a pianist who added extra flourishes. But when the piano man is Elton John and the songs are America’s soundtrack, sometimes less isn’t more.
The haunting “Levon,” the song about about a boy-man born a pauper to a pawn, got an interesting bit of reverb about halfway through, as John R&Bed the end of it Friday night at John Paul Jones Arena. And consider what he did to “Rocket Man.”
Seen upon its 1972 release as a mere response to David Bowie’s haunting “Space Oddity,” John’s song about a Mars traveller was originally four minutes, forty-one seconds of quiet loneliness counterposed against synthesized, overdubbed harmonies.
But inside Virginia’s biggest concert venue, “Rocket Man” grew into something closer to a rock opera. As colorful, almost Yellow Submarine, images danced behind him, the 61-year-old pianist showed (more)
If you still haven’t bought tickets for Jay-Z’s show at the John Paul Jones Arena on Saturday, and you’ve registered to vote, you’re in luck. A limited supply of tickets to the big gig go on sale tomorrow 10am to 10pm for $19.50 apiece– if you present your voter registration card. You can make your purchase at Plan 9 Records in Albemarle Square, at the Visitor’s Center on the Downtown Mall, or at either Crossroads Music & Movies store in Waynesboro or Staunton. The cheapest seats available through the box office cost $49.75.
Local hip hop. Also featuring DJ Young Rye and Carmine
Visually, MySpace-fiend gender-bender Jeffree Star recalls a Mechanical Animals-era Marilyn Manson thanks to identical hair and adrogynous everything else. Musically, he’s more electronic (for its own sake, rather than electronic-because-metal-is-boring), largely a result of working through his earlier exploits alongside Peaches’ drummer. This is one of the strangest corners of modern internet celebrity: equal parts Chris Crocker, David Bowie, Warped Tour, and Lawnmower Man.
Also featuring electro-pop-punk openers Brokencyde, Kill Paradise, and Red Car Wire
Jeffree Star - Heart Surgery Isn’t That Bad…
Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds announced yesterday that they would put on a free concert at Virginia Commonwealth University’s Alltel Pavilion on Sunday, October 26 in support of Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-IL) presidential bid, and one of the only places to claim tickets is right here in Charlottesville. Starting at 10am tomorrow, you can pick them up at the Obama campaign office on Wertland Street, near the Corner.
Pop-rock singer and pop-rock band
Local funk and R&B act. Also featuring Hate The Bomb.
buy tickets onlineLocal songwriters Joia Wood, Stratton Salidis, and Mariana Bell band together for a benefit aimed at preserving McIntire Park, and your $5 entry fee goes right into the legal coffers.
Mariana Bell - Book
Joia Wood - To Do [featuring Trees On Fire]
Award-winning young bluegrass quartet.
Indie rockers from Palmyra. Teenage guitar duo Two Kings opens.
Two Kings - Pieces
Two Kings - In Your Heart
Two Kings - Janey Omph
U.K. rockers and ATO Records artist Radiohead finally revealed today that they sold 3 million copies of its album In Rainbows since its official release on January 1. That’s not counting the millions of times the album was legally downloaded through the band’s website since the band made it available for a purchase price of each individual’s choosing (including $0). ATO Records, founded by Dave Matthews and his manager Coran Capshaw in Charlottesville, became the American distributor for Radiohead in November, a month after the band began its “pay what you will” experiment.
The first cut of the Beetnix‘ “Citizen Kane” music video shot August 29 on the Downtown Mall is now available online. Warning: heinously large download.
Tad Abbey and Jeff Sweatman, deejays from 106.1 The Corner, implore listeners to come to the Downtown Mall last time back in May.The strolling public gets its first chance to grab a free copy of the latest 106.1 Corner New Music Sampler tomorrow (Wednesday, October 15) outside the Hook office on the Downtown Mall. The fourth such mix disc from the “different is good” radio station, the CD includes non-mainstream musical stylings by The Kooks, Dido, Amos Lee, and 14 other artists.
Co-sponsored by the Hook and Freestyle sports shop, the disc includes several songs now in rotation on the Corner.
The giveaway takes place tomorrow between 1 and 2pm on the Second Street auto crossing in front of the Regal Cinema.
Italian guitarist with a deep love of American country music.
buy tickets online
These two local folk singers have played together for ages but didn’t bother to release a record until 2007.
Tom and Emily - Icons Of Faith
It’s about bloody time for a new Jenkins record, doncha think? Let’s see, our review of The World Famous Hallelujah Cotton Candy Rent Party ran in May 2006, and there are nine songs on the brand-spankin’ new Elephant Twisters, which works out to about three months per song.
Drummer Adam Brock says the delays were all part of the refinement process. “The first one was sort of a hodgepodge,” he says. “”It was really sort of all over the place.” What he means, specifically, is that the 25-song debut now seems a little jumbled to him. (Our response isn’t printable, but it ends in “Sherlock.”) So for Elephant Twisters, they set out to make something considerably more solid and coherent. That’s not an easy task for a band with four songwriters, but Brock says that aiming for broad tonal consistencies helped bring together songs that might not have played nice with one another otherwise.
Well, that, and also cutting the fat. Plenty of material was dropped for one reason or another, including three that were otherwise recorded and ready to go. The rest have been live staples so long that Brock says he’s already looking ahead. “We got a little tired of it because it took us a long time,” he says. “It doesn’t really feel like a release, because we’ve been playing these songs for so long.” But there’s life left in those outtakes yet: we’re hoping they’ll let us post ‘em here, and of course they’re all still fair game for the face-rocking live shows, where they’ll have to hold their own against the rest of the Jenkins catalog.
Hey, speaking of which…
Here’s the new hotness:
The Nice Jenkins - Cowboy
Older (but still hotness):
The Nice Jenkins - Outside Of York
The Nice Jenkins - Sweet and Filthy
Birdlips opens with sensitive folk-rock, and Marshall Costan’s Awesome Few brings Richmond jams. DJ Steve Richmond will be spinning before the show and between sets, and has every intention of turning the whole thing into a dance party by the end of the night.
Birdlips - Tire Chains
Birdlips - Some Kind Of Death
The Kinsey Sicks call themselves a “Dragapella Beautyshop Quartet.” In case you hadn’t guessed, there’s typically a bit of humor in their performances. The current show is called “WAKE THE F*CK UP AMERICA,” but sadly enough, we can’t tell if that’s one of the jokey parts.
buy tickets onlineAmericana singer-songwriter from the Midwest with echoes of Waits and Dylan and bits of gospel and New Orleans peppered throughout.
Cory Chisel and the Wandering Sons - See It My Way
buy tickets onlineGoergia roots and blues multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Randall Bramblett has a long history which has him tied in with Gregg Allman and Steve Winwood in the 70’s up through Gov’t Mule and Widespread Panic in the 00’s.
buy tickets onlineCaroline Herring plays folk music rooted in various parts of the deep South, and Arum Rae plays blues with Berklee pedigree. Precocious local teenage songwriter Carleigh Nesbit opens.
Caroline Herring - Paper Gown
Carleigh Nesbit - Three Steps Out The Door
Carleigh Nesbit - River Run Dry
Carleigh Nesbit - Turn On The Heat
Carleigh Nesbit - Your City Skies
Carleigh Nesbit - Three Steps Out The Door [live, with Carl Anderson]
Closing event for the annual poetry and songwriting contest hosted by the Music Resource Center and the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression. This year’s judges once again include poet Rita Dove and ATO Records bigwig Bruce Flohr.
buy tickets onlineRootsy blues singer and Greenwich Village native Maria Muldaur is best known for her 1973 pop hit “Midnight At The Oasis,” but over the years she has also tried her hand at everything from country to jazz and gospel. These days, the only common thread is social commentary: her latest album was issue oriented and titled (wait for it) Yes We Can!
buy tickets online
Local rock band. Also featuring Forensics and Virginia Beach’s Black Ranchero, Johnny Utah
buy tickets onlineProg rock and stoner metal meet psychedelics. Is there any other way to do it?
buy tickets onlineMetal and Southern rock from Rezinn, plus Strafe and Shill For The Man.
buy tickets onlineRock and metal from NOVA and Baltimore
buy tickets onlineJazzy funk from Baltimore and local electronic guitar jams.
Basshound - Til I Hit The Ground
Basshound - Ranura Bastarda [live]
Mean banjo and fiddle player James Leva and his Purgatory Mountain band saw away on some old-time and bluegrass tunes.
Blues and traditional roots music
buy tickets onlineIt’s not every day that you get to see an instrument played by the guy who built it, but here Lovingston luthier John Hamlett takes a rare break from crafting bridges and filing frets to actually make some noise. Andy Thacker doesn’t make his instruments as far as we know, but he plays as though his understanding of his mandolin is just as complete.
buy tickets online
Multi-instrumentalist Matty Metcalfe plays New Orleans tunes aimed at the kiddies.
Matty Metcalfe - Big Chief
Matty Metcalfe - Chez Seychelles
Matty Metcalfe - Happy Two-Step
Old-time and bluegrass
buy tickets onlineFlory Jagoda and her apprentice Susan Gaeta sing the folk music of the Sephardi Jews who fled Spain during the Inquisition.
buy tickets onlineThe Carolina Chocolate Drops are a remarkable all-black old-time string band and one of last remaining links to the comparable folk acts of the 1920’s and 1930’s, so their mission is as much historical as it is musical. The last time they came to town, it made for a blowout at Gravity Lounge, so this time they’re gunning for the Paramount instead at nearly three times the price. Faster Than Walking opens.
There’s also a $12 workshop at 2pm where musically-minded youngsters can bring their own instruments for a little instruction.
buy tickets onlineBilly Bragg was the poster boy for socially conscious folk rock in the U.K. in the ’80s, but his influence has persisted thanks in no small part to his collaboration with Wilco back when they were still finding their sea legs during the Summerteeth era.
Openers the Watson Twins, two lanky sisters from Kentucky, know what it’s like to have a collaboration take the spotlight, too: they rose to prominence under the wing of Rilo Kiley frontwoman Jenny Lewis in 2006 for Rabbit Fur Coat. Lewis has since moved on to her first true solo album, and the Twins released their first proper LP back in June, complete with a reworked version of the Cure classic “Just Like Heaven.”
buy tickets onlineAlmost as much a staple as the legendary Christmas parties, the Rapunzel’s annual songwriting contest has local noobs and their acoustic guitars competing for cash and prizes (definite), fame and fortune (potentially), and bragging rights (definite again). This year’s judges include Anne Williams of WNRN’s “Acoustic Sunrise” program, guitarist Rick Olivarez, and local songwriter Joia Wood.
Americana band and an acoustic songwriter
Local metal bands ThisMeansYou and Property are definitely the heaviest acts Uncle Charlie’s has seen yet. Almost as intimidating: the pork barbecue.
ThisMeansYou - River
ThisMeansYou - Order 66
ThisMeansYou - Demon’s Cry
These two local folk singers have played together for ages but didn’t bother to release a record until 2007.
Tom and Emily - Icons Of Faith
Well whaddaya know, it’s the most tolerable Idol winner ever! But then you add in the star of that atrocious WB sitcom and we’re right back at square one. Oh well.
buy tickets online
Fundraiser featuring a blues guitarist, an Americana band, and dinner.
The Buzzard Hollow Boys - Mission To Moscow
Richmond rockers and sometimes local faves Ki:Theory play driving rock with lots of electronics. Here, they perform for the UVA Ski Team after the screening of a new skiing documentary which features a few of their tunes.
Noisy garage punk trio Awesome Color has the Thurston Moore seal of approval, which puts you a step ahead when you’re doing noisy anything these days, and they rock with a fire that recalls the finest days of Detroit. Busy little local bee Adam Smith opens.
Adam Smith and the Invisible Hand - There’s Room In My Will
buy tickets onlineJust when you thought occasionally cheeseball crooner Neil Diamond couldn’t be redeemed — his turn in Saving Silverman matched Tom Jones’ in Mars Attacks! pound-for-pound in its absurd self-mockery — he came bouncing back with a totally redefined career thanks to nearly-infallible producer Rick Rubin with Home Before Dark, his first-ever chart-topping album.
buy tickets onlineAnni Rossi is the viola’s answer to Joanna Newsom. Also featuring Los Angeles folk singer Emily Lacy.
Man oh man. Where do we even start with this? Jay is the closest thing hip-hop has had to a reigning champion since Biggie’s death in 1997. Transcending his humble beginnings in the grimy housing projects of Brooklyn, Jigga became one of the smartest businessmen in hip hop as well as its best-selling artist ever. His 2003 album was supposed to be his last, presumably so he’d have more time to play label mogul, buy sports teams, and embarrass champagne companies, but the retirement didn’t stick: he came roaring back in ‘05 with a concept album based on the Denzel Washington crime drama American Gangster. His live performances also came back with a bang: earlier this year, he became the first rapper ever to headline at the traditionally guitar-centric Glastonbury Festival in England, prompting yet another whiny outburst from Oasis’ Noel Gallagher, and ultimately leading to (what else?) a Roca-fied cover of “Wonderwall.”
T.I. ain’t no slouch either, even if he has yet to prove his longevity the way Jay has, but honestly we’ll just be happy if he makes it to the stage without getting arrested again.
buy tickets online
