January 2010 Archives

The shows are falling more heavily than the snowflakes. Todd Steed reports via Twitter that Abigail Washburn's small show at the Glowing Body, originally scheduled for Saturday, Jan. 30, has been canceled.

Washburn also played at the Glowing Body last Saturday.

Looks like the Lonesome Coyotes Alive After Five performance at KMA isn't happening. This just in from Coyotes frontman Steve Horton:

"COYOTES are snowed in.  Stan is stuck on a hillside in Anderson County.  Sorry, pack, but we won't be able to swing at the KMA. Stay tuned for rescheduling"

The Drunk Uncles might be Knoxville's hardest-core country band. On their new album, Smashed Hits, they cover Buck Owens ("Tiger by the Tail") and Tom T. Hall ("Me and Jesus") and offer a handful of honky-tonk originals.

The band--Jeff Barbra, Mike McGill, Gordy Gilbertson, Eric Keeble, Brock Henderson, and Aram Takvoryan--has just lined up a show at Barley's Taproom next weekend. They're playing on Friday, Feb. 5.

You can hear some song samples here.

Nashville Top 40 rockers Paramore, led by 21-year-old spitfire Haley Williams, will stop in Knoxville as part of a month-long national tour this spring in support of last year's Brand New Eyes, which reached #2 on the Billboard album charts last fall.

Paramore will play at the Knoxville Coliseum on Monday, April 26, at 7 p.m. Christian pop-punks Relient K and fun will open. Tickets go on sale Friday, Feb. 5.

According to their blog, The Dirty Guv'nahs will be performing live for the Paste Magazine website this afternoon. No details on the time, so keep an eye on the band's Twitter updates.

A few big-time performers with upcoming local shows will take part in the just-announced music/art extravaganza Unsound in New York in early February. In addition to legendary Detroit techno producer Carl Craig (who doesn't have a local show coming up, but has to be mentioned), the festival will feature Canadian ambient composer/sound artist Tim Hecker, who's playing at Big Ears, and New York's droning Mountains and the Swedish duo Tape, both of which are playing at Pilot Light on Friday, Feb. 5.

California power-pop band Sherwood will play at the Square Room on Thursday, March 4, with openers Hot Chelle Rae, Black Gold, and Reece.

 

Tonight's Infected Mushroom show at the Valarium with L.A. DJ Reid Speed has been canceled, presumably due to this weekend's weather forecast. The Valarium website says a new date will be announced and tickets for tonight's show will be honored. 

Nadia Sirota is a violist who specializes in new music; in September she premiered "Future Shock," a new piece by the young composer William Brittelle and a piece for viola and iPhones written by the Brazilian composer Marcos Balter. She's scheduled to perform at Big Ears in March. (Sirota frequently collaborates with Nico Muhly, Bryce Dessner, and Doveman, who are also playing at Big Ears.)

The songs from Sirota's most recent album, First Things First, from 2009, are streaming at her website.

Both Cage the Elephant--a slacker rock band from Bowling Green, Ky., that sounds like Beck fronting the Strokes--and the Asheville-based African pop-influenced jam band Toubab Krewe are coming to the Valarium soon.

Cage the Elephant's playing with As Tall As Lions and Morning Teleportation on Thursday, Feb. 18. Tickets are $15-$20, and it's 18 and up.

Toubab Krewe will play with locals Ga-Na-Si-Ta on the same night at the Cider House, a smaller club adjacent to the Valarium. Tickets for that show are $10-$15, and it's also 18 and up.

Canadian "urban roots" quartet Po' Girl will host a concert and a square dance at the Square Room on Friday, Feb. 19. The jazzy folk group, which features banjo, clarinet, accordion, harmonica, and dobro in addition to a standard guitar/bass/drums set-up, will play with locals the Bearded.





Mp3: Po' Girl, "Shame" from Deer in the Night (2009)

The snow's not even here yet and it's already ruined the weekend. The George Strait/Reba McEntire/Lee Ann Womack show scheduled for Thompson-Boling Arena on Friday, Jan. 29, has been rescheduled for Apr. 2 "due to forecasts of inclement weather of snow and ice," according to Strait's publicist.

Strait has also rescheduled his Saturday show in Charlottesville, Va.

Up-and-coming indie dance-pop stars Cold Cave and Nite Jewel are coming to Pilot Light next weekend. They're playing with the similarly minded local duo Damaged Patients on Saturday, Feb. 6.

Cold Cave's full-length debut, Love Comes Close, was released last year, then reissued by Matador. The three-piece band from Philadelphia is led by Wesley Eisold and includes Caralee McElroy, formerly of Xiu Xiu, and Dominick Fernow of Prurient.





photo by Jayme Thornton

Mp3: Cold Cave, "Laurels of Erotomania" from Love Comes Close (Matador, 2009)

Indie folk harpist Joanna Newsom is one of several Big Ears performers with a new album on the way, just in time for the festival. She's releasing Have One on Me, a triple (!) album and the follow-up to 2006's Ys, on Feb. 23 on Drag City. You can stream the song "'81" at the label's website.

The preliminary Big Ears schedule has been announced, so you can start prioritizing. From AC Entertainment:

BIG EARS 2010 Initial Schedule:

BIJOU THEATRE:
Friday, March 26th:
7:00 pm - Terry Riley Quartet featuring Gyan Riley, Tracy Silverman and Ches
Smith
10:30 pm - The xx + jj + Nosaj Thing
Saturday, March 27th:
1:00 pm -Clogs with very special guests + My Brightest Diamond
7:00 pm - Andrew W.K. performing with the Calder Quartet
10:00 pm - Joanna Newsom + special guests
Sunday, March 28th:
7:00 pm - St. Vincent + special guests

TENNESSEE THEATRE:
Saturday, March 27th:
2:30 pm - Dirty Projectors + Bang on a Can All-Stars
8:00 pm -  Vampire Weekend
12 midnight - Terry Riley's In C, performed by Bang on a Can and special
guests + Terry Riley solo
Sunday, March 28th:
2:00 pm - Brian Eno's Music for Airports, performed by Bang on a Can + the
Books + special guests
9:00 pm - The National + special guests

Steve Wildsmith's reporting that Maryville cock rockers Gun*Slinger have broken up. That's too bad--they were a fun band, and lead guitarist Cole Graham had a pretty good grasp of the sleazy Sunset Strip vibe of the 1980s.

A year or so ago, I wrote: "The quartet embraces the arpeggiated guitar solos, liquored-up swagger, and other excesses of the '80s without shame, and probably better than most tribute bands."



So here's to Gun*Slinger. Wildsmith says the remaining members--besides Graham--are backing country singer Jennetta LeAnn (really? She didn't have much choice about her career path with a name like that) as the Riders.

The Baltimore band Beach House has been getting a lot of attention for its new album, Teen Dream, out this week on Sub Pop. One reason people are talking about it is the bonus DVD, which includes a series of 10 videos, one for each track on the disc. (Another reason people are talking about it is that it's pretty awesome.)

Former Knoxvillian Amy Longcrier pops up in the video for "Silver Soul." (She's the hula hoop dancer on the front left. "Sexy, gregarious trendsetter Amy Longcrier. Known around Knoxville for her amazing Halloween costumes and former member of the lamented Trapper Keeper" is how Travis Gray describes her.)

The Baltimore band Beach House has been getting a lot of attention for its new album, Teen Dream, out this week on Sub Pop. One reason people are talking about it is the bonus DVD, which includes a series of 10 videos, one for each track on the disc. (Another reason people are talking about it is that it's pretty awesome.)

Former Knoxvillian Amy Longcrier pops up in the video for "Silver Soul." (She's the hula hoop dancer on the front left. "Sexy, gregarious trendsetter Amy Longcrier. Known around Knoxville for her amazing Halloween costumes and former member of the lamented Trapper Keeper" is how Travis Gray describes her.)

The Museum of Appalachia is hosting a benefit concert for victims of the Haiti earthquake on Saturday, Jan. 30, at 7 p.m. The Hotshot Freight Train, Carroll Hollow, Liz and Tim, and Just Krossing will play. It's free, but donations will be collected. All proceeds will go to Partners in Health.

Dallas hard rocker Jonathan Tyler and his band the Northern Lights are coming to the Cider House on Feb. 9. The bluesy, tattooed singer/songwriter, who toured with Kid Rock and Lynyrd Skynyrd in 2009, has a new album, Pardon Me, due out on Atlantic imprint F-Stop in April.

Local country rockers Brendon James Wright and the Wrongs will open.

Reports are floating around about No Ears (or maybe Kno Ears), a festival of underground music that will run simultaneously to--and in a sort of protest to--Big Ears on March 26-28. The rumored event is apparently a response to this year's Big Ears lineup, which includes more blog-approved indie rock--Vampire Weekend, Dirty Projectors, and the xx chief among them--and fewer experimental or improvisational acts than the inaugural festival in 2009.

One plan I've heard is for street performances by local artists (and maybe some regional bands) during Big Ears.

The Drive-By Truckers are playing the Bijou Theatre on Feb. 14 with the Sons of Bill and have a new album, The Big To-Do, set to come out in March. The first single, "This Fucking Job," has just been released. You can listen to it below.





Mp3: The Drive-By Truckers, "This Fucking Job"

Count boom-box DJs Javelin among the Big Ears acts who'll be playing new material at the festival. Pitchfork says the duo, made up of cousins George Langford and Tom Van Buskirk, will release No Mas, their first official album and the follow-up to last year's self-released CD-r Jamz N Jemz, on Luaka Bop on April 20. That's a month after Big Ears, but expect to hear much of No Mas when they hit Knoxville.

A consistent theme of this year's Big Ears festival seems to be that a lot of performers will have new albums out or on the way when they play here. As noted earlier today, The National have a new disc scheduled for release in May; Big Ears will kick off a tour in support of it. Joanna Newsom has a new album coming out next month, the Clogs will release The Creature in the Garden of Lady Walton in March, and Vampire Weekend has just released its second album, which topped the Billboard chart last week.

Hard rock performance artist/motivational speaker Andrew W.K. won't have a new album out--if he will, the news hasn't been announced yet--but his third album, Close Calls With Brick Walls (a favorite of MP art director Travis Gray), will finally get a domestic release on Feb. 23. Close Calls was issued in Japan and Korea in 2006 but never made it to US shelves. (He did release 55 Cadillac, an album of solo piano in September.)

The National--the highly regarded indie band featuring Bryce Dessner, who's curating much of the Big Ears festival set for Knoxville March 26-28--have just announced that they're releasing a new album in May on 4AD.

The official date for the as-yet-untitled disc, the follow-up to 2007's Boxer, has not been released. A string of dates to promote the new album will follow Big Ears in April, May, and June.

The combination of age and booze means that most people who ever went to the Mercury Theatre on Market Square in the 1990s have a pretty hazy memory of it. Maybe you can fill in some of the blanks Saturday night at the Mercury Theatre Reunion Show at Preservation Pub, which occupies the space where the club was.

Teenage Love, Immortal Chorus, Adoration, and Fat Bastard are playing. Mercury owner Kevin Niceley is expected to be there, too.

Big Ears band Gang Gang Dance have jumped from the NYC boutique label Social Registry to venerable major indie 4AD, home to fellow Big Ears participants the National and St. Vincent (and former home to Cocteau Twins, Dead Can Dance, and the Pixies).

The band will release its 4AD debut, the follow-up to 2008's Saint Dymphna (and one of MP's picks for the best albums of that year) sometime in 2010.

The Black Lillies say they're heading into the studio to start work on their second album.



The band's first disc, Whiskey Angel, came out last spring.

photo by Jack Parker

I wanted to preview tonight's show by local emo kids Seeing Skies in this week's issue but just ran out of room, so this will have to do: Seeing Skies have been one of my favorite bands of the Square Room's Sound Off competition so far. They're not for everybody--this is some earnest music, and their Get Up Kids/Jimmy Eat World brand of rock is a few years out of step--but they're top-notch musicians and songwriters. For somebody who thinks Jimmy Eat World's "The Middle" is one of the great singles of last decade, this is a fun band.



mp3: Seeing Skies, "The Cure"

Asheville, N.C.'s Steep Canyon Rangers, a five-piece group pitched right in between traditional and pop bluegrass, is playing at the Bijou Theatre on Friday, Feb. 12.





The Rangers were joined by Steve Martin on banjo during an appearance on A Prairie Home Companion in July. Martin performed with the band on several dates of their fall tour, too, and in October on the Late Show with David Letterman.

Tickets are $16.50. 

Sara Lewis of Jag Star will talk about the band's new album, Static Bliss, and plans for a spring tour on Fearless Radio at 6 p.m. today. 

The stop's not listed on the schedule just released on Pitchfork, but the Valarium website has Major Lazer, the dancehall-inspired project featuring producer/DJs Diplo and Switch, on the calendar for March 29. That's in between dates in Atlanta and Carrboro, N.C., so the stop seems likely.





Major Lazer's debut, Guns Don't Kill People--Lazers Do, was released this summer. It includes guest spots from M.I.A. (who just released "Space Odyssey," the single from her third album, due in May), Santigold, Vybz Cartel, and Ward 21.

Video: M.I.A., "Space Oddity"

The Clogs, a chamber/folk/indie-pop group featuring Bryce Dessner of the National that's performing at Big Ears this year, has a new CD coming out just in time for the festival. The Creatures in the Garden of Lady Walton, the Clogs' fifth album, will be released on March 2 on the Brassland label. A digital preview EP, Veil Waltz, will be released on Jan. 26.

The Creatrues features guest performances by Shara Worden of My Brightest Diamond, who's also appearing at Big Ears, Sufjan Stevens, members of the National, and the Osso String Quartet.

mp3: "On the Edge" from The Creatures in the Garden of Lady Walton

New Orleans legend--as performer, songwriter, and producer--Allen Toussaint is coming to the Bijou Theatre on April 14.

The 71-year-old Toussaint, known for his work with the Neville Brothers, the Meters, Dr. John, and Boz Scaggs, has lived in New York since his house was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.

Tickets go on sale on Jan. 22.

Local band Thoroughfare has dropped its singer and its name, picking up ex-Vertigo vocalist Lindsay Stamey and the new title The Few.

The switch happened in late 2009. Cunningham says he and the rest of the band released Beach and were close to hiring a singer from Nashville when Stamey auditioned. "The first night we played with her, we said, 'You're in. That's amazing,'" Cunningham says.

The new band is re-recording four tracks they'd written with Beach--which were for a new record to be released early this year--and have written two new songs with Stamey. The Few will play the Square Room on Feb. 26 and then hit the road.

Big Ears headliners Vampire Weekend debut in the top spot on Billboard's album chart this week with their second album, Contra--which Noah Berlatsky called "a reductio ad absurdum of '00s indie rock" in last week's Metro Pulse.

I hesitated before calling VW "headliners"--Big Ears, scheduled for March 26-28--has been billed so far as a celebration of minimalist composer Terry Riley, who's artist in residence for the weekend--but what else do you call a band that tops the Billboard charts?

Brooklyn singer/songwriter Rebecca Pronsky has a pretty magnificent voice, as this clip from her 2007 album Departures and Arrivals indicates. She played here last year, opening for Carrie Rodriguez at the Square Room. She's coming back to the Square Room on Friday, Feb. 12, for a WDVX Blue Plate Special, and later that day she's playing at the Glowing Body on Central Avenue.

Long-running local indie popsters Senryu recorded four songs for the Daytrotter Sessions--a cool little series based in Illinois, where traveling musicians stop in and make some casual recordings--recently; they've just been posted to the Daytrotter web site.

Daytrotter's Sean Moeller writes:

Stay away from the dream world of Wil Wright if you're wary of your own nightmares. Cause the ones that this man harbors and has over for sleepovers are doozies. They're monsters and they smother you with creeping vines that will pull on you for days. The sinister things that the Knoxville, Tennessee, musician is riddled with when he sleeps are terribly disturbing and they're just as terribly inspirational and entertaining as we're welcomed bedside for his séance - an event of great, spectacularly arbitrary sunstance. We can watch a man possessed, not by Satan, but by everything else. Wright, the lead singer for Senryu, a player in Physics of Meaning with Daniel Hart and a man who has a restraining order against all felines which bars dander-drafting animals from getting any closer than 100 feet from him at all times, has an endless capacity for bringing in the tidal wave of stimulus that we're all bombarded with and finding at least half of it partially sticking to the roofs of his mouth and brain.

Coincidentally, today is Senryu mastermind Wil Wright's 30th birthday.

Senryu has a new album, Inkling, due out on El Deth in March. The first single, "Obsess Much," is scheduled to be released Friday.

Knoxville death metal kings Whitechapel are recording their third album, the follow-up to 2008's This Is Exile, for Metal Blade.

MillionYoung is Mike Diaz, a Florida synthpop guy who's been getting a little attention online for his EP Sunndreamm, a breezy collection of disco-pop that seems perfectly suited for the end of summer. (It was released in October.)

Diaz' latest release, another EP titled Be So True, is just out, and happens to be one of the first releases for Arcade Sound Ltd., a promising new boutique label based in Knoxville run by Ryan Foltz and William Coucher.

Badass Scottish fiddler Alasdair Fraser and cellist Natalie Haas will play at the Grove Theater in Oak Ridge on Feb. 6. Fraser's played the Laurel Theater before; he's a polished (but not corny) Celtic fiddler, closer to rigorous traditionalists like Aly Bain than, say, Celtic Woman.

Local folk legends Sparky and Rhonda Rucker are opening the show.





The pairing of a fiddle ("wee fiddle") and cello ("big fiddle") is an old Scottish tradition dating back to the 18th century. (That's from Allen McBride, who's booking the show. I didn't know that.)

photo by Irene Young

UPDATE: Press release from AC Entertainment has made it official.

Steve Wildsmith at the Daily Times in Maryville reports that Jamey Johnson's coming to the Tennessee Theatre on March 20, according to Johnson's website.






Last year I wrote this about him:

Jamey Johnson's got one of those great barrel-deep country baritones, the kind that sounds like it's been charcoal filtered and aged seven years. He's sung about beer, Waylon Jennings, and cowboys; he's recorded a duet with George Jones, and sometimes he sounds a little like Hank Williams Jr. Of the current crop of young Nashville studs, the Alabama native comes closest to a classic country style, from his debut family values working-man anthem "The Dollar" to the nostalgic ballad "In Color" and the raucous break-up celebration "Mowin' Down the Roses." Then again, he also wrote Trace Adkins' "Honky Tonk Badonkadonk," so Johnson's fidelity to Nashville traditions isn't carved in stone.

Johnson's a rising Nashville star; he's popular outside traditional radio country audiences for his old-fashioned outlaw sound, influenced by Merle Haggard and especially Waylon Jennings. (He's also the guy who was performing at Sundown in the City last summer when the crowd cheered the announcement of Michael Jackson's death, but that's not his fault.)

Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears, whose debut album Tell 'Em What Your Name Is! (Lost Highway) was all over best-of-2009 lists, are bringing their old-school funky R&B to Barley's on Feb. 19.

Alejandro Escovedo, who's playing at the Bijou Theatre tonight, will be on WDVX at 4 p.m. with the station's program director, Tony Lawson. He'll discuss his most recent album, Real Animal, from 2008, and likely perform a few songs. 

Chris Barrett profiled Escovedo the last time he was in town.

Looks like Hudson K's not the only local band asking fans to help pay for a new album. Randall Brown of Quartjar has announced his group's campaign to raise $2,000 for the recording, production, and distribution costs of a disc to be called 42.





There are five levels of donations, from $10--that gets you a copy of the disc when it's released--to $500, which gets you an autographed copy of 42, another of Quartjar's previous disc, Year of the Monkey, credit as a producer in the liner notes, and a concert within 4-5 hours of Knoxville.

Not a lot of detail on this yet, but there's a Mercury Theater reunion planned for Preservation Pub (which now occupies the former Mercury space at 28 Market Square). Former Mercury owner Kevin Niceley is supposed to be back in town for the occasion, and Immortal Chorus and Teenage Love are playing that night.

I only visited the Mercury in its last few years, but I caught some memorable shows--John Paul Keith's post-V-Roys debut with the Nevers, Whiskeytown, 30 Amp Fuse more than once. I don't think anybody who ever walked in that door has an entirely clear memory of the place.

Here's a clip of Cat Power at the Mercury in 1996.

In just a little over a decade, local roots radio station WDVX has already become venerable. That's a pretty good effort for a public radio station that started out in a trailer on a hill out in Anderson County.

You can help them stick around for another decade by buying a ticket to the third annual Hillbilly Ball fund-raiser at the Knoxville Museum of Art on Saturday, Jan. 30. $75 gets you music from the Bearded and the Naughty Knots, dinner from Sweet P's, and a silent auction. The festivities, hosted by The Heartland Series' Bill Landry, starts at 6 p.m.

Christina Horn of Hudson K says the band's long-awaited album, titled Shine, should be finished in time for late winter/early spring release. Horn says they've recorded all the tracks and are just about to start mixing "which could take anywhere from a couple of weeks until late February." (You can pitch in a donation here.)

Hudson K's playing at the Downtown Grill & Brewery on Friday, Jan. 22. Horn's playing piano with Michael Davis of at the February edition of the Square Room's Sound Off competition, and Hudson K's already made it to the finals of the contest in March.




Christina Horn of Hudson K by Tovah Greenwood

The Necks have a way of making any concert sound sacred. The crowd--about half capacity for the Bijou, or just a little less--for Saturday night's concert were as quiet as if they were in church, and the trio's hypnotic improv seemed, as it neared a climax, transcendent. It's profound music.

It's impossible to keep up with everything that's going on when they play. The set-up is simple--piano, bass, and drums--and they start off with an almost elemental straightforwardness, each player contributing a short, repetitive pattern that weaves in and out of the others as it builds in pace and intensity. When they really hit a groove, I sometimes heard sounds I couldn't place; as soon as I figured out where it was coming from, the whole thing changed.





Much of the crowd seemed to be from out of town, which isn't a surprise considering that the Australian band is only playing five dates in the U.S. on this tour--two nights in New York and two nights in Chicago in addition to Knoxville. It was the group's second appearance here after last year's Big Ears. 

There's some discussion of a rumor that the Rolling Stones will headline this year's Bonnaroo over at this audiophile forum.

Bonnarroo 2010 is scheduled for June 10-13.

Jack Neely wrote about the Rolling Stones 1972 Knoxville concert in this week's Secret History column.

Abigail Washburn, the popular and adventurous banjo player and bilingual singer (she performs some songs in Chinese) and leader of the Sparrow Quartet (with Bela Fleck, Ben Sollee, and Casey Driessen), is going to perform some of the songs from her next, as-yet-unreleased, album in about as intimate a setting as you can imagine: At the Glowing Body Yoga Studio on Central Street in the Downtown North neighborhood. She's playing two shows, on Jan. 23 and Jan. 30. Admission is free (!) but donations will be accepted.



How's Knoxville get so lucky? Washburn's one of the first artists signed to AC Entertainment's new artist-management division.

The chaotic local pop collective formerly known as I Need Sleep is now going by the name Bald Eagle Refugees. They're making their debut at Pilot Light on Thursday, Jan. 28, with the Royal Bangs side project Cool Runnings. It's also a benefit for a friend of the band from Austin, Texas, who's been in a coma since she was hit by a car while riding her bike on New Year's Eve; all the proceeds from the show will be donated to her family for medical expenses.

Buzzed-about New York band Cymbals Eat Guitars, whose debut album Why There Are Mountains got some notice back in the spring, has announced a show at Pilot Light on March 10 with Bear in Heaven. The group's ramshackle, raggedy, and catchy indie rock recalls '90s artists like Pavement and Archers of Loaf. (It's not terribly surprising that they started out as a Weezer cover band.) And the Village Voice named them the Best New Brooklyn Band of 2009. 

Sister Hazel's show at the Bijou has been rescheduled from Feb. 25 to March 25. 

Songbook interpreter Michael Feinstein, who was scheduled to appear with the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra in KSO's Pops series in March, has canceled. He's accepted a role in the Broadway production "All About Me," which opens this spring (and also stars Dame Edna).

Feinstein will be replaced by Steve Lippia's Frank Sinatra act.

Songbook interpreter Michael Feinstein, who was scheduled to appear with the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra in KSO's Pops series in March, has canceled. He's accepted a role in the Broadway production "All About Me," which opens this spring (and also stars Dame Edna).

Feinstein will be replaced by Steve Lippia's Frank Sinatra act.

Hot Horse, a new record/music equipment/etc. store in the Old City, is officially open for business. There's a substantial selection of new and used vinyl from Lost and Found Records and ex-Raven Records owner Jay Nations. Most of it's standard old vinyl so far, with just a few collectible or exotic items on the shelves, but more is on the way.





There are also music instruments and gear--a few guitars and amps, strings, some accessories and oddball vintage keyboards--and some vintage clothing and home stuff fromthe recently closed Legacy.

The store's a joint venture among Nations, Lost and Found, Legacy, and Music Room Guitars, and Jason Boardman of Pilot Light, which just happens to be right next door. (So if you break a drumstick on stage you know where to get a replacement.)

Hours seem to be noon to 10 p.m.

Long-running pop/rock band Jag Star has just released a new album, Static Bliss, recorded by local go-to guy Travis Wyrick. Static Bliss is the band's fifth album and first since The Best Impression of Sanity in 2006.

Jag Star's planning a February release show, with a tour to follow.

R&B/funk ensemble Aftah Party walked away with the fourth round of the Square Room's Sound Off competition on Wednesday night. The nine-piece band, featuring local piano giant Donald Brown's sons Keith and Kenneth, laid down some nasty grooves and propelled the biggest crowd in the competition's four-month history into a massive wave of dancing.

Aftah Party finished ahead of Grandpa's Stash, who nailed a version of Radiohead's long and complicated "Paranoid Android," acoustic Americana trio Kelsey's Woods, jam band Ga-Na-Si-Ta, and bluegrass pickers Big Country's Empty Bottle. (The latter band set a record for the longest Sound Off set ever--each group gets time for three songs, and BCEB stretched their three out with some bening instrumental jams. That record was later broken by Ga-Na-Si-Ta.)

A few more acts have been added to the lineup for the Big Ears music festival, including big-time New York indie bands the National and Dirty Projectors. (The National's guitarist, Bryce Dessner, is curating part of the festival, and he was already scheduled to perform solo and with his chamber-pop quartet side project the Clogs.) They'll be joined by Canadian sound artist/ambient composer Tim Hecker, the Australia-born and Iceland-based experimental composer Ben Frost, and the New York new-music ensemble Bang on a Can All-Stars (with cellist Wendy Sutter, who played at last year's Big Ears), who will perform Brian Eno's Music for Airports and part of Terry Riley's In C. (Riley, the grand old man of minimalism, has been named as artist in residence for Big Ears.) Other additions include Czech violinist Iva Bittová, electric violinist Tracy Silverman, and avant-folk duo Buke & Gass.
The National and Dirty Projectors, recent favorites of music critics, bloggers, and other tastemakers, won't do much to quiet criticism that the festival has gone commercial. Dirty Projectors' latest album, Bitte Orca, appeared on critics' best-of-2009 lists at Pitchfork, Time, The New York Times, and, yes, Metro Pulse. (I described it as "shimmering, cerebral, slightly off-kilter pop that draws from contemporary R&B, jazz, chamber music, and African pop without ever sounding anything like any of that, or like much of anything else, either.") The National's 2007 album Boxer received similar mainstream acclaim. The two groups are joining a rock- and pop-intensive roster for the March 26-28 event that already includes Vampire Weekend, the xx, Andrew W.K., Gang Gang Dance, and Joanna Newsom.
Those acts make the lineup so far considerably different from the inaugural Big Ears in 2009, which featured far more jazz and improv performers. Some people are concerned that Big Ears has become an indie-rock festival, and the most prominent rock and pop bands for 2010 could easily appear together at All Tomorrow's Parties or Coachella. But don't forget that Riley's the headliner for the festival, and the addition of Hecker, Frost, and Bang on a Can--plus already-announced appearances by the Calder Quartet and the oddball 802 Tour, with composer Nico Muhly, violist Nadia Sirota, Thomas Bartlett, and Sam Amidon and rumors that a couple of underground metal bands will be announced soon--means there will be plenty of challenging underground music that weekend. 

The Nashville Scene has just posted its annual Country Music Critics' Poll, one of the best year-end polls around and consistently interesting for its catholic approach, which usually includes a balance of mainstream and alt-country and a lot in between.

Miranda Lambert sweeps this year, with the top album and single and a win in the female vocalist of the year category. She's playing at Thompson-Boling Arena on March 5 with Brad Paisely (who also did well in the Scene poll) and Justin Moore.