A nice, fatty-stacked Friday of live music. Check out what’s happening on this 16th day of January below…
King Tuff with EX-Hex, Jensen Serf Company Ty Segall-approved CMJ-charter King Tuff (the pseudonym of Vermont rocker Kyle Thomas) mines the sounds of ‘70s-era garage, glam, neo-psychedelia and power pop, adding an air of modern indie sneer and confident cock-strutting appeal; he’s touring behind his third LP and Sub Pop debut, Black Moon Spell. The first full-length from Ex Hex, Rips (Merge Records) landed on several 2014 year-ending Best of lists – including Pitchfork’s – and has fueled the already-growing interest in the rather new all-grrl punk-garage trio fronted by Mary B. Timony (of Helium and Wild Flag fame). We’ve crowned this bill as the week’s hippest; a must see. (Crowbar, Ybor City)
Four Year Strong with Comeback Kid Hailing from Worchester, Mass., Four Year Strong brews up feel-good –core music (a collision of pop punk and melodic hardcore also known as easy-core, popcore and in some circles, happycore) with heartening multi-voice choruses and ‘90s pop culture references. Support from Canadian hardcore punk outfit Comeback Kid, which is touring behind 2014 fifth full-length Die Knowing. (Orpheum, Ybor City)
Music and a Meal: Juniper CD Release Party Celtic alt folk duo Juniper (fiddler Frances Pisacane and guitarist/singer Jasmine Hart) presents their fourth album, Light Rain, at this latest Sacred Lands dinnertime program. (Sacred Lands, St. Petersburg)
Of Mice & Men Vocalist Austin Carlisle has said Of Mice & Men’s forthcoming third album is more nu-metal oriented than past efforts, mentioning Linkin Park, Limp Bizkit and Slipknot as influencing Restoring Force’s more structured songwriting style while likening its lyrical and melodic aspects to a fusion of Meshuggah and Nickelback. Whether he intended to name-drop such shyte bands or just wanted some more mainstream ears on his tunes remains to be seen. We’re hoping for the latter. (State Theatre, St. Petersburg)
Borgore with Ookay, Jauz Israeli producer/DJ Borgore (real name: Asaf Yoseph Borger) has been kicking out EDM jams since bursting onto the scene with his first self-released mixtape in 2009, though his rep for adding grimy, metal-flecked sonic textures, drum patterns and effects to his mix of electro house, dubstep, DnB and trap (dubbed “gorestep”) didn’t really take off until he dropped 2012 dancefloor banger “Decisions,” which featured guest vocals by Miley Cyrus; his debut full-length, #NEWGOREORDER, was released last summer. (Amphitheatre, Ybor City)
Pennywise with A Wilhelm Scream, Anti-Flag Zoli Téglás was supposed to be the permanent replacement for vocalist Jim Lindberg when he joined Pennywise in 2010. But Téglás played with the esteemed Cali punk band for all of two years before injuring his back during a European tour and begging Lindberg to return. Pennywise’s 2014 11th studio album, Yesterdays, found Lindberg back in the fold; it also included previously unrecorded material by late bassist Jason Thirsk, whose last appearance was on 1995’s About Time. (The Cuban Club, Ybor City)
Voices of the Wetlands All-Stars This funky, high-spirited Louisiana supergroup is made up of activist musicians who raise awareness about the erosion of the Gulf Coast wetlands, and was spawned from a volunteer-based cultural preservation and wetlands restoration organization with the same mission started by swampy Creole blues guitar star Tab Banoit in 2004, prior to Hurricane Katrina, though VOW became even more important in its aftermath. On this date, Benoit is joined by fiddle-slinger Waylon Thibodeaux, harmonica player/accordionist Jumpin Johnny Sansone, drummer Johnny Vidacovich, percussionist/vocalist Cyril Neville, and on vocals, chants and occasional percs, Big Chief Monk Boudreaux of the Golden Eagle tribe of Mardi Gras Indians. (Skipper’s Smokehouse, Tampa)
ALSO HAPPENING TONIGHT
Talk to Mark Orchestra Presents Springsteen in Full: Nebraska & Born to Run Palladium Theater, St. Petersburg
Don McLean Capitol Theatre, Clearwater
Christie Lenee w/Mare Wakefield Hideaway Café & Recording Studio, St. Petersburg
Treehouse Dunedin Brewery, Dunedin
Wolf-Face/You Vandal/The United Divided/Early Forms Fubar, St. Petersburg
The Appleseed Collective Ale and the Witch, St. Petersburg
This article appears in Jan 15-21, 2015.
