Taking on music one pimp-slap at a time.
Friday, Feb. 3 – James McMurtry
Whoever wins the Florida Republican primary, mere days before Texas country-folk singer James McMurtry jingles and jangles his way into town, chances are excellent that he’ll have something to say about that person. Probably all of them. The artist (and son of Larry McMurtry, author of Lonesome Dove,...
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Friday, Jan. 27 – The Bright Light Social Hour
It’s hard to take the Bright Light Social Hour entirely seriously, if only because it’s not entirely clear whether or not they do. There’s a sort of wink-and-a-nod detachment to their music, as if they’re letting you know that, as good as they are, they’re not...
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Friday, Jan. 27 – Reptar
The underground electronic music world has recently witnessed a smattering of young artists crib their aliases from ’80s kids’ TV shows, like DuckTales, Thundercats and Reading Rainbow. Perhaps Reptar are leading the way for folks to form rock acts named after ’90s cartoon characters. In a manner not unlike their...
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Saturday, Jan. 21 –
the Features
Pull the Features away from the stage and you have four unassuming, docile fellows. Their Twitter and Facebook pages include humdrum tour updates and congenial retweets from fans; a cursory YouTube search finds that they make for especially soft-spoken and low-key interviewees. But if you hand this Nashville gang...
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Thursday, Jan. 19 – Starfucker
In a fire-starting New York Magazine piece late last year, pop-music critic Nitsuh Abebe, after claiming that today’s “indie” music is actually just modern adult contemporary, pointed to a promising sign for this generation’s authenticity: the increase in non-radio-friendly band names – “mission statements that tasteful professionalism and the approval of...
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Sunday, Jan. 15 – Southern Fried Sunday Six-Year Anniversary with Ben Prestage, Alabama Man Whore, Holy Ghost Tent Revival (above), the Orange Blossom Trails, Hymn For Her
With a very public venue change this year (from Copper Rocket Pub to Will’s Pub), block parties and ramped-up scene activism from organizer Jessica Pawli, it’s been a...
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Saturday, Jan. 14 – K.G. Omulo
Look who’s emerged from hiding as a big deal! Omulo, the multi-culti singer of local Caribbean-funk act KG & the Band, was a pleasantly surprising arrival to the Orlando scene years ago, back when the idea of African-rooted samba in Central Florida was still met with more head scratching...
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Friday, Jan. 13 – Christabel and the Jons
Assuming this crisp weather we’re experiencing at the time of this writing holds up another week, now might be the perfect time to see this fast-rising Tennessee four-piece. Lead singer Christa DeCicco’s torchy lilts provide an atmosphere of coziness so homespun that it puts She & Him’s...
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You really know the classic Van Halen lineup is back to firing on all cylinders when they’re being pilloried by people who just don’t get it.
Back in the late ’70s and early ’80s, the house critics at esteemed scholarly journals like People lambasted the group as lame inheritors to the throne that had been...
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Thursday, Jan. 12 – Akron/Family
Putting a pin in what exactly Akron/Family is feels a lot like trying to keep the attention of a 9-year-old off his Ritalin. Just when you think you’ve got the band pegged as a sun-baked, hazy take on West Coast Americana, the good vibes drop out and are replaced by...
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