THURSDAY, APRIL 4
Rock the Park: Poetry N Lotion/Samurai Shotgun/Good Graeff The April edition of THX Management’s monthly outdoor music series provides a diverse and appealing soundtrack to the evening that features the trumpet-and-trombone attack of jazz-metal-electro fusionists Poetry N’ Lotion. Also performing is prog-alt hip hop outfit Samurai Shotgun, a fivesome that combines rocking live instrumentation (drums, bass, guitar) with the turntables tricks of DJ Qeys and Prince Golden’s commanding rhyme style; the result tastes of Wu, Rage and Roots. Finally, Sarasota’s Good Graeff rounds it out with their sunny infectious folk pop and Americana tunes as written by twin sisters Brooke and Brittany Graeff, who sing in sweet-piping harmonies, the former playing acoustic guitar, the latter jumping between cello and ukulele. (Curtis Hixon Park, Tampa)
Aer On their brand new Strangers EP, campus-friendly suburban Boston duo Aer (David von Mering and Carter Schultz) take the acoustic pop, chilled-out alt hip hop and dub-fused reggae of 2012 debut The Bright Side into synth-riddled bass-bumpin’ territory, touching on electro rock and sci-fi funk flavors and even bringing on producers like Ratatat and Pete Rock along with guests Mod Sun and Guy Harrison to keep things fresh. Both trade verses in rapid-fire raps or more chilled-out flows, and sing in smooth R&B-sweet harmonies. (Orpheum, Ybor City)
Budweiser: Made in Tampa Bay Party w/Savoy/Milkman A free (ages 21+) party celebrating the Bay area with food, swag bags, ice cold Buds and live dance jams by two acts: Savoy, a Brooklyn-based livetronica trio that finds DJs Ben Eberdt and Gray Smith building high-energy electro-house club bangers with big pounding rhythms by drummer Mike Kelly; and Milkman, the alias of San Diego producer Gregg Luskin, who started his career as a mash-up artist and went on to building original dance tracks he currently presents via a combination of programming and ‘controllerism’ that allows him to command both the sound and the laser light show mimicking it. RSVP registration required at madeintampaparty.eventbrite.com. (Jannus Live, St. Petersburg)
FRIDAY, APRIL 5
Saskatchewan w/The Young Rapids A fine-class Orlando dream pop acts with a haunting melodic and hazy grooving sound, Saskatchewan, hits New World. Adding a bright note of Afro-tinged, percussive art rock and pop to the evening are The Young Rapids, from DC. (New World Brewery, Ybor City)
Some Like it Hot — The Music of Marilyn Monroe The Palladium’s Second Annual Gala features a program of select music from Marilyn Monroe films as staged by NYC jazz vocalist Rebecca Kilgore with support from the Harry Allen Quartet (sax player Harry Allen, guitarist Nate Najar, bassist Joel Forbes and drummer Kevin Kanner). (Palladium Theater, St. Petersburg)
St. Pete Shuffle Presents New Granada Night w/Red Room Cinema/Rec Center/Mrenc The First Friday evening of shuffleboarding and live music is a showcase of three acts repped by New Granada Records. Rec Center features label leaders Keith and Susie Ulrey (on drums and vocals/keys, respectively) crafting breezy indie folk and melodic alt rock with singer/guitarist Michael Waksman, bassist Brian Roberts and cellist Melissa Grady. Red Room Cinema brings epic post-rock to the lineup as purveyed by a two-piece (guitarist Anthony Maltese and bassist Brian Burleson) while Lakeland’s Mrenc is another twosome (The Dark Romantics’ multi-instrumentalist Eric Collins and drummer/percussionist Dean Lorenz) that has a more beat-driven experimental vibe. (St. Pete Shuffleboard Courts, St. Petersburg)
Mindless Self Indulgence w/Peter Pepper NYC’s freakazoid industrial dance smashers and synthesized punk-hop thrashers Mindless Self Indulgence have embraced a new phase in their tenure, ditching label backing and running a high stakes, $150k Kickstarter.com campaign to fund their fifth album that became the site’s second most successful fan-funded music project with 225k raised (Amanda Palmer is still No. 1 at $1.2 million). How I Learned to Stop Giving a Shit and Love Mindless Self Indulgence — their first in five years — hit fans who donated in mid-March, and includes some rapping and rah-rah choruses along with the usual cheeky-hilarious song titles and subject matter, like "Kill You All in a Hip Hop Rage," "Hey Tomorrow Fuck You and Your Friend Yesterday," and "I Want to Be Black." Copies will be available at concerts on MSI’s current tour, with the official release date on May 14. (The Ritz Ybor, Ybor City)
Kill the Noise w/Style of Eye/Brillz Block rocking electro house, drum n’ bass and dubstep collide in fatty club-bangers as mixed, mashed and blown-out by Kill the Noise, the stage name of New York producer Jake Stanczak. Joining him on the “Black Magic Mystical Wonder Tour” is Swedish dance music DJ/producer Style of Eye (Linus Eklöw), and ass-shaking trap music dropper Brillz, from LA. (Amphitheatre, Ybor City)
Tommy Malone w/Thomas Wynn and the Believers Though smoky-voiced singer, songwriter and axeman Tommy Malone is an active member of New Orleans swampy roots rock staple The Subdudes, he also does the solo thing. His sound is a fluid mix of bayou blues, honky tonk, wahwah psych rock, funky soulful R&B and even a little Latin jazzy lounge as evidenced in 2001's Soul Heavy. This year, Malone signed with New York's MC Records; his first solo record in a dozen years is due out this summer. (Skipper’s Smokehouse, Tampa)
Burnt Books w/Rotting Palms/Egos Expelling a hard-hitting brand of furiously experimental rock they’ve dubbed “avantgardecore” is Burnt Books from South Carolina, verses delivered in scornful outbursts, harsh trains of thought and enraged tonsil-rattling shrieks by frontwoman Zoë Lollis, with distorted riffage, fret technicality and dissonant progressions laid over the dashing or crashing drums. This is an early (6 p.m.), all ages show; $3-$5 donation to the touring band. (The Hold Tight House, Tampa)
SATURDAY, APRIL 6
Tift Merritt and Simone Dinnerstein Classical pianist Simone Dinnerstein and folk-country songstress Tift Merritt put their diverse sonic talents together to produce 2013’s Night, a lovely, airy, delicate album weaving traditional forms with modern folk melodies that includes new tunes written especially for the duo by Brad Mehldau, Philip Lasser and Patty Griffin, and a solo piano work commissioned by Dinnerstein and arranged by Daniel Felsenfeld as inspired by one of her favorite songs, Leonard Cohen’s “Suzanne.” The women perform duets and solo sets featuring works from their respective repertoires during this intimate program. (Jaeb Theater at the Straz Center for Performing Arts, Tampa)
Parallels II: Words and Music An evening of abstractions and experimentations in light, sound and verbiage. While phone book readings and Dadaist word salads sound like some pretty highfalutin shit that’d bore the hell out of me, I do confess to feeling some intrigue about the ‘Pangaea Tectonic Shift Improvising Orchestra,’ conducted by the Venture Compound’s artist/shepherd-in-residence, Jesse Thelonious Vance, and encompassing a big cast of local musicians that include Philip Charos (drums), John Freda (bass, lap steel), Chris Costabile (vibes, electronics), Sarah Capps (French horn) and Krystian Panzeka (bass clarinet). (The Venture Compound, St. Petersburg)
97X Freebie Weebie: Paper Tongues w/Tallhart If you haven’t heard about Freebie Weebie via the copious ads airing on 97X or had the pleasure of attending one of the previous all-ages free concerts hosted by the station, then you probably don’t know about the ticket drops. Because even though there’s no cost to get in, you still need a ticket, which are ‘dropped’ at select Bay area locations for pick-up in the days leading to the Saturday event. Visit 97Xonline.com to find out about a drop near you, then enjoy sets by commanding rap rock outfit Paper Tongues and Tampa’s own emotive alt rock band, Tallhart. (The Ritz Ybor, Ybor City)
Kim Simmonds & Savoy Brown w/Lee Pons Welsh-born Simmonds made his professional debut in 1966 as the 19-year-old guitarist of Savoy Brown, a British psych-blues rock and Skynyrd rolling twang band. Today, after a myriad of personnel changes, Simmonds remains as the only original member, adding keys, harmonica and vocals to his arsenal, and scaling back to a three-piece with bassist Pat DeSalvo and drummer Garnet Grimm. (Skipper’s Smokehouse, Tampa)
SUNDAY, APRIL 7
Rock and Roll Swap Meet w/Damn, Silverback!/The Dead Popes/The Laurel Canyon/Shitcan Dirtbag/Shut Up Lita/Supercruiser/Zanesville A popular St. Pete tradition, the Rock and Roll Swap Meet brings an array of vendors, musicians and music scene folks together to hawk, trade and buy wares (instruments, vinyl, clothes, collectibles and various other goodies), while local bands pound it out in the background. This year’s two-stage bill ranges from the weirdo retrofied surf and futuristic grooves of Damn, Silverback!, to the hard-edged punk, surf-fused garage and dark rockabilly crunch of The Dead Popes. Admission is $5; 2-6 p.m. (Beak’s Old Florida, St. Petersburg)
Coexist Through Music Series: Nick Boutwell/Alex Borst/Joel Tatangelo Band/Paint the Town Red/Will Erickson & the Wreckage/Busted Blues Band Local nonprofit music therapy awareness and fundraising organization Operation Coexist presents the latest in its live music showcases. High-toned singer, songwriter and acoustic guitarist Will Erickson plays a set of his countrified pop rock with his band, The Wreckage, while Busted Blues closes the show with their piano-driven, drums-free blues, which is marked by the soulful masculine-feminine vocals of Josh Walther and Samantha Leigh. (Ruby’s Elixir, St. Petersburg)
WMNF Presents Selwyn Birchwood Band w/Cedric Burnside Project With smoldering slide solos, juke joint jams, Southern-fried grooves and a resonant gritty bellow, Orlando singer/guitarist Selwyn Birchwood has taken the Florida blues scene by storm. Birchwood earned first place at the 2013 International Blues Challenge in February, and he and his band are in the midst of recording a second album. Cedric Burnside Project’s ostensible leader (the grandson of legendary bluesman RL Burnside) sings in a soulful honking drawl and jumps between finger-plucks and strums on acoustic guitar or doles out steady-chugging rhythms while collaborator Trenton Ayers lays out electric guitar and lowend swag in their mix of Mississippi hill country blues, soul, funk and R&B. (Skipper’s Smokehouse, Tampa)
TUESDAY, APRIL 9
El Ten Eleven w/Slow Magic/Nude Pop The next band to fall victim to total gear theft is El Ten Eleven, and three days before their tour was due to start. Among the items lifted were Kristian Dunn’s Carvin double neck guitar, fretless Wal bass, both pedal boards, and virtually the entirety of Tim Fogarty’s entire drum kit. This is obviously a big deal, and after some scrambling, hitting up various resources and cobbling together funds with a new (pay-what-you-can) track posted to Bandcamp, the duo were able to hit the road, only a few days late. In a perfect world, the perps would be seized before the gear was hocked, or at least some of the unique pieces would turn up at a SoCal pawn shop, and they'd return to find it waiting for them. What’s likelier is an on-going situation while the experimental electro-rock duo delivers performances backing 2012’s Transitions, possibly with a more stripped-down set than usual. (Crowbar, Ybor City)
Senses Fail w/Such Gold/Real Friends/Major League Fresh off the heels of releasing fifth studio album Renacer (“to be reborn” in Spanish), Senses Fail hits town on this PureVolume.com-sponsored tour to slay with post-hardcore marked by fatty forceful basslines, crunchy guitars, heavy breakdowns and howling shouts, roars and rah rah choruses broken up by cleaner-toned vocal passages. (State Theatre, St. Petersburg)
Paperhaus/Alexander & The Grapes/Cassolette DC’s Paperhaus build spry indie pop with alt rock drive, fuzz moments and pretty sighing vocal melodies; NPR premiered a track by the four-piece on All Songs Considered, the wistful "Helicopters" off their Lo Hi Lo EP, out May 28. Also performing: hometown guys Alexander & the Grapes, their aesthetic a textured mix of folk-pop, psych rock and light blues; and Cassolette, from Sarasota, their own sound lo-fi garage pop with vocals that vary between saccharine girlish, heart-warming boyish, and darling harmonies from both. (The Venture Compound, St. Petersburg)
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 10
An Evening with Chicago The hugely successful brass-driven AC progressive rock band makes stops in town once or twice a year, bringing a catalog spanning five decades and encompassing 21 top 10 singles we’re all pretty familiar with — “25 or 6 to 4," "Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?" "Saturday in the Park," "If You Leave Me Now," "Hard to Say I'm Sorry," "Hard Habit to Break" and the like. (Ruth Eckerd Hall, Clearwater)
Trioscapes Screaming runs of saxophone treated to the occasional dose of experimental effects, growling and prowling basslines that shred through notes like a King Crimson guitar, and pulsing or syncopated drum fills that aren’t content to remain in any fixed time signature — though the sax and bass don’t necessarily keep things angular, either. This manic collision of sounds is prog-jazz fusion at its best as arranged by Southeastern outfit Trioscapes, featuring musicians Dan Briggs (also of Between the Buried and Me), Walter Fancourt and Matt Lynch; this tour backs 2012 album Separate Realities (Metal Blade Records). (Crowbar, Ybor City)
Smokey Robinson His silky-soulful falsetto is a sweet caress of notes that soar in tender AC soul, pop and R&B odes like his vintage gold hits with The Miracles, “Shop Around” “You’ve Really Got a Hold on Me” and “Tears of a Clown” (co-written by Stevie Wonder) as well as later solo numbers: the mellow breezy “Cruisin’,” the sexy-sighing “Being With You” and the more schmaltzy “Just To See Her.” He’s coming up on six decades of music-making — now don’t you think it’s time to let him serenade you? (Mahaffey Theater, St. Petersburg)
CLICK HERE to see a complete rundown of shows taking place this week and in the coming weeks.
This article appears in Apr 4-10, 2013.