THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 20
Caveman w/Roadkill Ghost Choir The past few years have been good to Caveman. The Brooklyn indie rock quintet was signed to reputable indie label Fat Possum (Spiritualized, Yuck, Futurebirds) in 2012, saw a national re-release of their compelling debut CoCo Beware, and dropped an eponymous sophomore follow-up last year to positive buzz. Caveman maintains the drifting, hauntingly lovely, sound-washy aesthetic of their last album with a few up-tempo exceptions (like first single “In the City”), added darkwave influence, and a heavier reliance on synthesizers. Support from Orlando-area folk rock favorites Roadkill Ghost Choir, which joined Caveman in Athens a few days back and continues supporting them through the end of February. (Orpheum, Ybor City)
Trisha Yearwood Though she’s been more focused on her Emmy-winning Food Network show Trisha's Southern Kitchen than on music of late, the country music songstress is still among the most well-known ballad belters of her genre with hits like “She’s In Love with the Boy” and “How Do I Live.” (Ruth Eckerd Hall, Clearwater)
The Sky Captains of Industry w/Broken Things/Kevin K Band St. Pete vinyl shop Planet Retro continues with the objective of bringing live music to its new digs in the Grand Central District with a bill headed up by The Sky Captains of Industry, an indie quartet from Brooklyn crafting a self-styled ‘Sci-Fidelity’ sound that draws on acoustic, experimental and space rock aesthetics most definitely influenced by early Bowie. Admission is free but make sure to bring a few dollars to donate to Sky Captains’ gas fund. (Planet Retro, St. Petersburg)
Josh Rogan w/Rebekah Pulley & the Reluctant Prophets/Mallory Moyer Not to be confused with the aromatic lamb dish from India (Rogan Josh) or the New Jersey-bred comedian (Joe Rogan), Josh Rogan is a Virginia folk rocker with gruff resonant vocals reminiscent of John Fogerty and a bluesy twangy sound he spreads across the country by way of his home-cum-touring vehicle, a ’62 airstream, as joined by wife Eliza and doggie Harley. (Local 662, St. Petersburg)
Edwin McCain w/Emily Kopp I get Edwin McCain mixed up with Gavin DeGraw. I think it’s the number of syllables in their names, the blue-eyed soul quality of their vocals, and the adult contemporary/pop rock realms they both inhabit. McCain is the elder and more experienced of the two; he’s issued a dozen or so albums since his 1991 indie debut and even has an AC-to-Hot 100 crossover hit, the sentimental ballad, “I’ll Be.” (Capitol Theatre, Clearwater)
Bronze Radio Return / Red Wanting Blue A double bill of roots rock featuring Connecticut outfit Bronze Radio Return, which serves up heartening tunes with plenty of clapping and stomping moments (you might’ve heard top-selling 2011 single "Shake Shake Shake" in a car commercial or possibly on American Idol), while Red Wanting Blue has a stronger brewed-in-the-heartland sound and greater AC friendly appeal. (Crowbar, Ybor City)
The Expendables w/Stick Figure/Seedless High-spirited reggae-rock four-piece The Expendables are signed to Slightly Stoopid’s label, hail from Santa Cruz (the town where I was originally born), and are celebrating 17 years together in 2014. (Jannus Live, St. Petersburg)
Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings w/Valerie June Click HERE for more information. (State Theatre, St. Petersburg)
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 21
Southern Culture On The Skids w/The Woolly Bushmen Dig This: Ditch Diggin' V.2 — the 20th anniversary expanded, re-recorded and tweaked edition of Southern Culture on the Skids’ 1994 LP, Ditch Diggin’ — was apparently inspired by the septic tank running around the band’s Kudzu Ranch recording studio and the measures they had to take to fix it (digging ditches). This tour supports the re-release. (Skipper's Smokehouse, Tampa)
The Temptations & The Four Tops A co-bill by two seminal Motown-rooted (jazz, blues, soul funk and R&B) vocal groups that came up between the 1950s and ‘70s and have seen changing lineups as the decades passed and elder members retired or passed away to be replaced with more youthful ones. Baritone Otis Williams is the only hold out from the initial 1960 lineup while The Four Tops’ Abdul "Duke" Fakir remains the sole survivor of the original Four Tops. (Ruth Eckerd Hall, Clearwater)
Dave Mason’s Traffic Jam The co-founding guitarist of seminal prog-psych rock outfit Traffic, Dave Mason, hits Clearwater with a new project that finds him performing hits and deep cuts from 1967’s Mr. Fantasy and 1968’s Traffic, his former band’s first two albums, along with select other Traffic cuts and select materal from Mason’s solo catalog. “Feelin’ Alright” was on Traffic’s self-titled second and the song so famously covered by Joe Cocker will likely make an appearance on this night. (Capitol Theatre, Clearwater)
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 22
Dark Star Orchestra The jam scene’s favorite Grateful Dead tribute act recreates select setlists from the Dead’s catalog every night, song for song, and makes a game of it by not revealing which concert they’re covering until the show’s end. (Jannus Live, St. Petersburg)
Pink It Up 5!: Ska Bands & Fans Against Breast Cancer w/Johnny Cakes and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypso/UNRB/Victims of Circumstance/Broseph Skalin/Jeremy Gloff & Sandra Lolo The fifth annual benefit for local breast cancer charities brings together some of the Bay area’s most beloved ska bands, from the more island-grooving sounds of Johnny Cakes, to the ukulele-driven sounds of brassy high-powered UNRB. Jeremy Gloff hosts and performs with Sandra Lolo, artists Wade Slater and Pedro Jermaine display artworks, and Augusta & Josie’s Kia Mignone serves tasty dessert confections at the event, with all proceeds from the event donated to the Morton Plant Mease Foundation’s Mammography Voucher Program (MVP) and Cancer Patient Support Services (CaPSS). (Market on 7th, Ybor City)
New Madrid An Athens, Ga. quartet that delivers howling propulsive rock n’ roll with big crunchy guitars and vocals reminiscent of the haunting calling style that Jim James helped make so profuse in modern Southern-rooted music. “Manners,” the first single off forthcoming LP Sunswimmer, saw its debut on Pitchfork.com. (The Hub, downtown Tampa)
Shpongle w/Desert Dwellers If the name isn’t hint enough that Shpongle makes trippy ass music, then you probably haven’t seen the UK electronic duo’s twisted hallucinogenic band logo — a vibrantly-hued mask with four sets of eyes, wild twisted hair waving around its face like a sun and a crescent moon pushing through the top of its head. Shpongle’s mix of live instrumentation and electronics draws on down-tempo, psychedelic trance and world music aesthetics to get to a psybient sound summed up with flowery verbosity in their bio. Here’s a sample: “a strange hybrid of electronic manipulation and shamanic midgets with frozen digits squeezing the envelope and crawling through the doors of perception.” Eat the blue pill for this one. (State Theatre, St. Petersburg)
Toubab Krewe w/The Hip Abduction The jam scene’s ever-popular West African-influenced, North Carolina-bred instrumental rock outfit Toubab Krewe returns to town, and is joined by the local scene’s ever popular jazz-funk-Afro-influenced ensemble, The Hip Abduction. (Crowbar, Ybor City)
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 23
Juicy J The Three 6 Mafia rapper has been spitting rhymes all over the place leading up to and following the release of third studio album and US Rap charts topper Stay Trippy in 2013. Platinum certified first single “Bandz a Make Her Dance" kicked off this Juicy J proliferation, guest spots on relentlessly catchy charters like Katy Perry’s “Dark Horse,” Mike WiLL’s “23” (with Miley Cyrus and Wiz Khalifa), and Maejor Ali’s “Lolly” (featuring Justin Bieber) cemented his Top 40 radio play status. I have a feeling his Ybor club appearance is going to be crazy crowded. (Amphitheatre, Ybor City)
Jucifer w/Secrets She Kept/Servants of the Mist/Cosm Husband and wife duo Jucifer will be rattling the paint off walls all the way down to Sarasota when they play the Orpheum in Ybor. Serving up the sludge at a volume that defies the laws of physics, guitarist Gazelle Amber Valentine and her drummer husband Edgar Livengood loudly defy the general assumption that more band members equals more sound. Their music is an exercise in contrasts with Gazelle’s soft and sweet vocals offset by the 10-ton hammer of a guitar tone that I’m sure has probably blown the circuits of more than a few Navy submarine sonars. (Orpheum, Ybor City) —Shawn Ohtani
Save the Tampa Pitcher Show Fundraiser I saw Pulp Fiction for the second time at Tampa Pitcher Show with a group of friends, smoking cigarettes while our chaperones ordered beers and pretended not to notice, looking hard and trying to come off as cool as the characters living (and dying) on the screen before us. I haven’t been to the Carrollwood theater/restaurant and bar in many years, but I can get behind supporting a 30-year institution as it attempts to move into the 21st century and raise funds for its digital conversion efforts, or run the risk of having to close its doors. Admission is $8 and includes three raffle tickets and live entertainment by local cover bands Quivering Rhythm Hounds, The Lint Rollers, 2 Undercover and The Lonesome Hobos. (Tampa Pitcher Show, Tampa)
Oliver Mtukudzi & Black Spirits w/Amandala Tunesmith Affectionately called “Tuku” by his followers, Oliver Mtukudzi is a revered Zimbabwe musician whose socially conscious songwriting offers commentary on the human experience — women’s rights, childhood and aging, AIDS, hope, community and the ties that bind — while his bright lively percussive-textured Afro-pop has earned its own privileged designation in his Southern Africa home: “Tuku Music.” (Skipper’s Smokehouse, Tampa)
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 24
An Evening with Snarky Puppy Whenever I get an email about a band issuing an album on Ropeadope Records, I always stop and take a listen. The indie label was founded to distribute a DJ Logic album Columbia refused to release, and it’s since issued recordings by Antibalas, Mike Gordon, Charlie Hunter, and scores of others. Snarky Puppy is a newer rising star in its roster, a quasi-collective from Brooklyn crafting an instrumental fusion of jazz, funk and prog rock, though their recent Grammy win for the track "Somethin’" (off 2013’s CD/DVD release Family Dinner) was for Best R&B Performance and featured vocals by Lalah Hathaway. (Crowbar, Ybor City)
Animals As Leaders w/After The Burial/NAVENE-K/Chon Animals As Leaders is a highly technical instrumental prog-metal trio from DC led by guitar shredder Tosin Abasi; the previously Prosthetic-repped band is due to release third full-length The Joy of Motion via Sumerian Records in March. (Orpheum, Ybor City)
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25
Austin Mahone It is impossible to watch 17-year-old Austin Mahone without considering the blaringly obvious comparisons to a certain pop superstar. I applaud the A&R person who felt the need to rep a clone of Justin Bieber circa 2009 — not because they've given the music world anything valuable; but because they were successful. Mahone’s floppy brown hair and choreography elicited Bieber-caliber screams during his set at 93.3FLZ Jingle Ball. That performance paired with a recent Valentine’s Day chat appearance on MTV.com means the likelihood for tween pandemonium at this weeknight Jannus show is high. (Jannus Live, St. Petersburg) —Melanie Wiesen & Leilani Polk
Julio Iglesias The AC Latin pop crooner and padre to Enrique has recorded something like 50 albums in his more than four-decade career, and he’s done ridiculously well, at least internationally, ranked among the top 30 highest-grossing artists of all time with 120 million records sold since his first release in 1968. (Ruth Eckerd Hall, Clearwater)
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 26
The Black Angels w/Roky Erikson & the Hounds of Baskerville/Golden Animals A band that was crucial in helping create the Austin Psych Fest, The Black Angels, drop doses of fuzzed-out garage rock with heavy scuzzy guitar, ominous organ tones, and walls of noisy sound evocative of their namesake band, Velvet Underground. The fuzz of stellar fourth album Indigo Meadow is broken up by groovier psychedelic odes and darker pulsing numbers with zipping analog synths and urgent driving rhythms, vocals alternately crooning, droning or sing-song echoing acid-specked lines like "I'd rather die than spend another night with you." The Black Angels also take influence from 13th Floor Elevators; you probably know their song from High Fidelity, “You’re Gonna Miss Me,” and that elder cult band's hero leader Roky Erickson joins them for this tour. An intriguing lineup indeed. (State Theatre, St. Petersburg)
Iron & Wine The performance moniker for South Carolina-bred Austin-based singer-songwriter Sam Beam, whose mountain man looks belies the lovely tender quality of his vocals and heart-tugging poignancy of his music, folk at its foundation but drawing on elements of jazz, blues and pop in 2013 latest, Ghost on Ghost. CLICK HERE to read the full interview with Beam. (Ferguson Hall at Straz Center for Performing Arts, Tampa)
Big Gigantic w/Caked Up Big Gigantic has built up a rather impressive following with zero radio presence, little critical acclaim, and only one full-length release up until this year’s just-released second, The Night Is Young. The twosome — jazz-trained saxophonist/producer Dominic Lalli on keys, sax and laptop with drummer Jeremy Salken — have done this purely through relentless touring, appearances on numerous festival bills, a widespread web following (2012 debut Nocturnal was downloaded 750k times to date and even free, that’s a helluva a lot), and a sound that mixes hip-hop, house music, funk and dubstep to make the jam scene kids get down. (The Ritz Ybor, Ybor City)
Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes I’ve heard Southside Johnny described as a lower-rent, bluer collar version of Bruce Springsteen. Likely because he’s a friend and contemporary of The Boss whose career started in the same mid-'70s Asbury Park music scene, and Bruce wrote co-wrote some songs on Johnny’s first three albums. The latter has more raspy-soulful vocals and a deeper R&B influence to his barroom rock n’ roll swagger. (Capitol Theatre, Clearwater)
CLICK HERE to see a complete rundown of shows taking place this week and in the coming weeks.