Upcoming Shows - iS Venue

A new band led by local pianist Joseph Mills, and the uncannily Parachutey band led by Sparky’s frontman Will Anderson’s younger brother John. Local teenager Nicole Alexandra opens.

Salsa

Singer Blake Christiana’s Brooklyn-based band Yarn weaves together alt-country and Yankee bluegrass, and on the last record rounded up an all-star cast including Casey Dreissen of the Sparrow Quartet, Caitlin Cary of Whiskeytown, and banjo virtuoso Tony Trischka.

Yarn - Bad Bad Man
Yarn - Don’t Break My Heart
Yarn - I’m Down
Yarn - Ain’t That A Sin
Yarn - Empty Pockets

Guitar and harp player Ali Marcus started her musical career in Charlottesville and then moved to Seattle, much like another certain someone. She hasn’t totally left us behind, though: The Great Migration, her brand new sixth album (and her fourth in as many years), includes a song called “Virginia Road” which she says was written in and about Charlottesville.

Ali Marcus - Bare Feet Clean
Ali Marcus - Hangin’ On A Wire
Ali Marcus - Sad Day For Romance
Ali Marcus - The Other Side

Also featuring local acoustic folk champs The Honey Dewdrops.

The Honey Dewdrops - Nowhere To Stand
The Honey Dewdrops - Fly Away Free

Live electronica trio with impromptu sampler tweaking and even honest-to-god instruments; “part IDM and part improv,” according to Time Out Chicago. The Bandaloop Doctors open.

Richmond guitarist. Local rappers The Illville Crew open.

Last year, amid swirling rumors of a genuine-as-can-be-given-that-Bonham-is-dead Zeppelin reunion tour, word started to spread that the classic rock gods had been booked for Coran Capshaw’s seventh annual Bonnaroo music festival in Tennessee. Close, but no cigar — it was the wrong Zeppelin! Instead, it was these four loud ladies who took to the stage, proving once and for all that Robert Plant’s falsetto is totally freaky.

Nashville indie rock quartet. Show up early, though, because the openers are far more interesting: Notoriously hard-hitting Southern garage rock band The Dexateens, buddies of Drive By Trucker Patterson Hood, perform the day after their new album Singlewide comes out, and the three ladies in Those Darlins will drag their poor male drummer along for a sloppy Tennessee country-punk hayride which Pitchfork likened to “Vivian Girls’ hillbilly cousins.”

The Dexateens - Down Low
The Dexateens - Caption

Local blues genius

Corey Harris - Heathen Rage
Corey Harris - Sista Rose [live]
Corey Harris - A Blues

The DOWNbeat Project opens.

The DOWNbeat Project - Simple Life [live]
The DOWNbeat Project - Heaven

Peruvian-born Harlem-raised rapper Immortal Technique works outside the box in several respects — his lyrics are just as likely to tackle politics as they are hood violence and drugs, for one thing. Even more impressive, however, is the fact that the influential Revolutionary albums and last year’s The 3rd World were all released independently, but the latter still sold well enough for him to find room upon its release to donate funds to help with the construction of a school in Afghanistan.

The Hard Truth Soldiers Tour spearheaded by San Francisco rapper Paris pairs him with Dead Prez, the underground rap duo whose 2000 album Let’s Get Free rather famously aspired to be “bigger than hip hop.”

That’s what they’re all shooting for here, though; conscious-rap crossover superstar Talib Kweli will be sitting out for this stop on the tour, but other socially active Public Enemy-adoring performers will include Kam, T-Kash, Nyoil, Uno the Prophet, Sellassie, Planet Asia, and legendary producer Pete Rock.

Nashville buzz-band quartet The Deep Vibration plays Americana-inclined rock that bridges the forty years separating The Band from Ryan Adams.

The Deep Vibration - Tennessee Rose
The Deep Vibration - Oklahoma City Woman Blues
The Deep Vibration - Thanks To You
The Deep Vibration - Ten Cents Red

Chapel Hill indie pop-rock quartet Roman Candle and local Americana-rockers Pantherburn kick things off.

Pantherburn - The Octopus
Pantherburn - Mister Baby [demo]

Rolling Stone rock critic guru David Fricke just recently lauded the “range-war guitar fire and Southern-gothic turmoil” of the new Bloodkin record Baby, They Told Us We Would Rise Again, but the most compelling vote of confidence in the band’s 20-year career probably comes from Widespread Panic, who has been covering their tunes since 1994.

Bloodkin - The Viper
Bloodkin - Easter Eggs

Former Bloodkin member Bentley Rhodes opens with his new band Earl Knox.

Earl Knox - Pretty Little Thief

Also featuring Justin Jones and the Driving Rain.

Justin Jones and the Driving Rain - Seminole Town
Justin Jones and the Driving Rain - Long Way Down
Justin Jones - All Our Noise [live]

The Easy Star All Stars are the reggae band best known for the reinventions which turned Pink Floyd into Dub Side Of The Moon and Radiohead into Radiodread. Both are just as absurd as they sound, but the latter still famously earned them some onstage props from Thom himself; now, they have a new tribute project: The Beatles. Easy Star’s Lonely Hearts Dub Band was released April 14 and features special guest vocalists like Black Uhuru singer Michael Rose and fellow reggae WTF Matisyahu; this show will feature tunes from all three albums.

Longtime Easy Star collaborative partner Kristy Rock’s band Trumystic opens.