THURSDAY, AUGUST 11
Off With Their Heads w/Dead To Me/The Riot Before "I've been watching myself turning from bad to worse / I've been locked up in the basement putting bad habits first," frontman/songwriter Ryan Young sings hoarsely on "Drive," the lead-off track from Off With Their Heads' 2010 album and Epitaph Records debut, In Desolation. The rest of the album reads as a candid confessional of shit Young's been thinking about or dealing with over the past few years and carries the sort of raw surliness you'd expect from a quality punk rock LP. (Orpheum, Ybor City)
FRIDAY, AUGUST 12
The Movement The alt-reggae rock of Philly-based four-piece The Movement is marked by watery-dub guitar, bouncy-swaying beats, airy keys and verses delivered in sing-song rhymes with a faux-islander accent. (State Theatre, St. Petersburg)
Last Good Tooth w/Red Rock-Its Last Good Tooth singer-songwriter Penn Sultan has deep drawling vocals set against music that belongs on a winding Appalachia road — rootsy foot-stomping rhythms, picked guitar, strains of fiddle and occasional whimsical textures (glock, whistling). His lyrics have anti-folk appeal, and subject matter on the band's 2011 The Meeting Was a Success EP ranges from The Princess Bride-inspired "Inigo Montoya," to a loose and dark narrative about 9/11, "2001 Massacre," to the ongoing troubles of the wretched protagonist in "Skydiving Accident." (New World Brewery, Ybor City)
JP Soars & The Red Hots w/Standback Band An evening of fiery blues headed up by singer/axeman JP Soars and his rhythmic backing band of Chris Peet (drums) and Don Gottlieb (bass). Soars is known for his slide guitar skills and for busting out his homemade two-string cigar-box guitar when the mood strikes. (Skipper's Smokehouse, Tampa)
Signals From Satellites / The Broken Inn You can always count on a good and solid darkly melodic post-prog rock show by Tampa indie trio Signals from Satellites. I haven't seen young Orlando outfit The Broken Inn, but they come armed with a similar sonic aesthetic, though they have a bit more sunshine to their songwriting. (Ella's Americana Folk Art Café, Tampa)
El Ten Eleven w/The Globes/Florida Night Heat Both of El Ten Eleven's stops in town last year earned rave reviews from CL. About their April show, Deborah Ramos wrote that the band lived up to her friend's assurance they were "one of the most phenomenal live acts you'll ever see," while Evan Tokarz, who saw them in September and arrived with next-to-no expectations, offered, "They were as musically poignant at playing dark and seedy electronica with two people as The Faint are with five." The instrumental post-electro rock duo features musicians Kristian Dunn and Tim Fogarty, who obviously make a lot of noise for just two people and do so by looping and layering their instrumentals into a fleshy wall of sound. Dunn alternates between a guitar/bass doubleneck and a fretless bass, sometimes playing the guitar and bass simultaneously, sometimes using a bow to draw out the sounds, and manipulates a huge array of pedals; Fogarty lays down the beats on machine and organic drums as well as doling out synthesizer effects. (Crowbar, Ybor City)
Shawn Colvin w/Lorna Bracewell She's released nine studio albums to date, including the platinum-selling A Few Small Repairs and its overplayed slyly morbid hit, "Sunny Came Home," and has taken home three Grammys (two for the aforementioned track). Her last release was 2009's Shawn Colvin Live, a 15-song collection recorded during a three-night stand in San Francisco in 2008. (Capitol Theatre, Clearwater)
Tigers Jaw w/O'Pioneers!!!/Three Man Cannon/Kite Tigers Jaw, from Scranton, Penn., purveys hard-edged mildly twangy indie pop-rock with strong boy-girl harmonies, and are currently on the road promoting their recent split with Ohio's The Sidekicks, as well as their new LP, Two Worlds. O'Pioneers offer up raucous grungy punkish rock featuring the loud gravelly howls of frontman Eric Soloman. (Orpheum, Ybor City)
SATURDAY, AUGUST 13
Anarbor / Valencia w/Condition This co-headlining "Anarbor and Valencia Do America" tour features Arizona's lively fun power rock outfit Anarbor, co-led by vocalist/bassist Slade Echeverria and guitarist Mike Kitlas, and responsible for pop-catchy hooks, strong dual guitar interplay, and songwriting that ranges from the funny bounce of "Big Shot" (from a Hopeless Records comp), to the ominous forward drive of "Contagious (from their 2010 debut full-length, The Words You Don't Swallow). Pop punk Valencia (I Surrender Records) are on their third LP, Dancing with a Ghost, which earned high marks from AbsolutePunk.net. (Crowbar, Ybor City)
Wet Nurse w/The Tim Version/Raguckas The Wet Nurse EP is the first release by the Orlando outfit of the same name, the six tracks raucous punchy garage pop with art-imitates-life lyrics like "Face down, face down, face down in the tub" (from "Wasted") and "No one's around to give me a cigarette lighter, no one's around to help me start this fire" ("Cigarette Lighter") delivered in the dual snotty femme vocals of frontwomen/twin sisters Nina and Susana Chaplin (on guitar and bass respectively). The trio's sound is rounded out by the fast-pounding backbeat of Vanessa Brewster. (New World Brewery, Ybor City)
Blue Dice Nine-piece R&B, jazz and funk band Blue Dice is a local staple with a Tower of Power/Chicago sort of brassy appeal. Typical live shows features various covers scattered amidst their three-album repertoire of originals. (Skipper's Smokehouse, Tampa)
Neon Hitch There's something nauseatingly appealing about free-wheeling British pop-tronic songstress Neon Hitch — and yes, that's her real name, as given at birth by her bohemian parents. Her life story reads like a juicy Behind the Music episode; a child tours Europe with her family in a caravan of circus performers, grows into a capable trapeze artist and fire swinger by the time she's a teen, leaves home to travel and perform in India at 16, settles in London a few years later to focus on music, finds herself homeless for a time until she bumps into old school chum Amy Winehouse at a party, who puts her up, and is eventually discovered and signed by a NYC talent agency that lands her two sweet gigs — a publishing deal with EMI and a record deal with Warner Bros. She's currently in the studio with Benny Blanco (the pop producer behind bubblegum hits like Katy Perry's "California Gurls"), and has already released a bumpin' made-for-the-dancefloor single, "Bad Dog." Her stop at G-Bar is part of a month-long gay club U.S. tour. (G Bar, Ybor City)
The August Name w/Glendale Lights/Trace Of Day/The Real/Goodnight Neverland St. Petersburg quintet The August Name is fresh off self-releasing a new six-song eponymous EP of driving post-hardcore and melodic alt rock. Their sound is marked by the wailing vocals of frontman Ryan McGibbeny, who delivers lines like "You have reached so far into this false sense of security" with seamless earnestness. Twisted emo-rockers Glendale Lights, from Tampa, support along with several other local acts in the same sonic vein. (The Local 662, St. Petersburg)
Bleeding Money w/Doll Parts/The Scurvy Local outfit Elysium broke up last fall shortly after winning a Reader's Choice award in CL for Best Local Punk Act. Three of the four remaining members (Tom Shelton, Mikey DUIs and Spencer Anemik) formed a new punk rock group with guitarist Greg Hartley, and according to Shelton in a recent email, Hartley "is helping to push the three of us to experiment with new sounds and more challenging songs." (Beer Goggles, Largo)
Stan Hunter Quartet Among the Bay area's quiet but distinctive pool of semi-retired jazz greats is septuagenarian Stan Hunter, a composer and master of keys whose specialty is Hammond B3 organ. He's honed his skills over more than five decades of playing and recording with the likes of John Coltrane, Sonny Fortune (check out 1965's Trip On The Strip) and Jimmy Paxton. He performs with his quartet for this Side Door "Swinging Jazz" program. (Palladium Theater, St. Petersburg)
Benefit for John Nichol w/Green Sunshine/Reina Collins/Funky Seeds/Applebutter Express/Skull n' Bone Band/Legacy/The Human Condition/more Enjoy a full day of tunes — 10 bands for $10 — and help out local musician John Nichol, who plays trumpet and keys in Green Sunshine, and recently underwent colitis surgery that was followed by a lengthy hospital stay. He'll be out of work indefinitely while he recovers, so this show supports his forced downtime. (The Blueberry Patch, St. Petersburg)
SUNDAY, AUGUST 14
KES the Band A Trinidadian quartet formed in 2005 by the Dieffenthaller brothers — Kees (soulful lead vocals), Hans (drums) and Jon (guitar) — with bassist friend Riad Boochoon. KES takes the vibrant soca music of their island home and incorporates elements of rock, R&B and dancehall into their groove-laden dance-inducing sound. (The Ritz Ybor, Ybor City)
Hamell On Trial Brooklyn-based one man folk-punk band Ed Hamell aka Hamell on Trial cites Burroughs, Iggy and the Stooges and Bill Hicks among his influences. It makes a lot of sense when you hear his music — wildly energetic strumming on acoustic guitar, a darkly wry socially aware world view, and live shows that are one part performance, one part musical comedy. Whatever he's doing, it's creative, whether he's offering up anecdotes about his life on the road and his observations about American culture as in his award-winning 2007 theater piece, The Terrorism of Everyday Life, or writing and posting a new song every day for a year, choosing his 100 favorites, and releasing them in batches. (Skipper's Smokehouse, Tampa)
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 17
Greeley Estates w/Life On Repeat/The Plot In You/Everyone Dies In Utah/Miracle At St. Anna Arizona metalcore/screamo outfit Greeley Estates hits a mere two weeks after the release of their fifth full-length, The Death of Greeley Estates (Tragic Hero Records). (Orpheum, Ybor City)
JEREMIH A recent signee of Def Jam recordings who brings a bump-and-grind mix of hip-hop and R&B to Clearwater. Jeremih's eponymous first LP debuted at No. 6 on the Billboard 200 and while his 2010 sophomore release, All About You, only ascended to No. 27, his song with 50 Cent, "Down On Me" has reached 2x platinum status. (The Venue, Clearwater)
For a complete listing of this week's concerts as well as concerts coming up in the next few months, visit our Music Events Listings.
This article appears in Aug 11-17, 2011.