THURSDAY 3.3
Love.45 : This modern rock quartet has all their I’s dotted and T’s crossed, but don’t try to squeeze a square peg into a round musical hole. The self-titled new recording is tightly produced (by 3 Doors Down guitarist Chris Henderson), catchy, hooky, and ready to be served up on your friendly neighborhood alterna-rock station. With Shinedown and No Address. Tremont Music Hall (Shukla)
FRIDAY 3.4
Buddy Miller : Whether performing with his wife Julie or doing the solo thing (usually accompanied by little more than a snug baseball cap and a couple guitars), Buddy Miller is the rarest of breeds: a good musician (session or otherwise), a good songwriter, and a good guy to boot. His last album, the Grammy-nominated Universal United House of Prayer, continues the Miller oeuvre: super-tight picking : usually on his trusty Wandres guitars : pitch-perfect harmonies, and a sincere, pure-and-clean delivery that’s not so much moonshine as it is warm maple syrup. With Bill Mallonee. Neighborhood Theatre (Davis)
Calabi Yau : The band’s myspace.com page lists their influences as: Pac-Man, Sade, Jesus Lizard, Charles Ives, Arab on Radar, Geraldo Rivera, Karl Stockhausen, Kaiser Soze, Fugazi, The Minutemen, The N.R.A., N.O.W., and GWAR. Despite the tongue-in-cheek response to the typical band webpage questionnaire, that’s not too far off the mark: postmodern culture mixed with avant-garde composition, equal parts good ‘ol American violence, tolerance and beauty. Oh, and shrapnel-spitting guitar and bass work. Maybe the tightest band in town, which is saying something given the complexity of their songs. With Bellafea. All Astronauts, and Silent Press. Milestone (Davis)
SATURDAY 3.5
Charlie Robison : Charlie Robison : This Texas singer/songwriter portrays country music from a distance. Distant from Nashville, that is. And that’s the good thing here, as Robison evolved amongst the adventurous musicians of the always-intriguing Austin scene, and not with paint-by-numbers Nashville pop-country wankers. His newest recording, Good Times, never strays too far from a raucous honky tonk and is a fine example of Robison’s witty banter, to boot. With Paul Thorn Band. Neighborhood Theatre (Shukla)
Motor City Josh (Ford) : A Detroit native who relocated to Atlanta (MARTA City Josh?) and hand-picked a whole new band after his old crew couldn’t : or wouldn’t : make the move with him. Blues Revue calls Ford “a smooth slider with an angry vibrato” who “spikes his melodic guitar ideas with jagged, Buddy Guy inspired phrases.” Well-thought of in the Motor City, it’ll be interesting to see if his chops can translate down south into the rabid following he had in Detroit. Double Door Inn (Schacht)
MONDAY 3.7
Canyoneros/Fellow Project : A mix of Old 97s’ Too Far Too Care-era lyricism and Supersuckers fuck-you country, the Canyoneros may come from just down the road in Rock Hill but they’re miles away from the alt-country pack in having a refreshing authenticity about their songs. The five-piece hearkens back to a day when country-flavored rock hadn’t yet devolved into the vast wasteland of drunken, adopt-a-twang frat boys expecting us to empathize with their inability to get laid. Props, too, for naming the band after a classic Simpsons’ episode./Fellow Project is a Long Island trio that pulls off an impressive distillation of Violent Femmes, Velvet Underground, Pixies and Jethro Tull. Okay, maybe not so much the latter, but they do feature a flutist, an accent you don’t hear too often. With their male-female vocals, multiple time changes and Black Francis-inspired lyrics, their last record, If We Were Mariachis, proved you don’t have to plug in to punk out. With fellow travelers Hansom Banjo and Cattletruck. Milestone (Schacht)
TUESDAY 3.8
Elvis Costello & the Imposters : Costello is a songwriter’s songwriter, able to leap tall buildings with a single bound. Maybe not, but the man can play/write punk, jazz, rock, classical, pop, cabaret, show tunes…hell, just read about him in a story somewhere in this paper and go to the show for evolution’s sake. Grady Cole Center (Shukla)
WEDNESDAY 3.9
Particle / Cyro Baptista : An up-and-comer on the national scene, the quartet Particle gets lumped in with the jam-banders, which belies the influence of Spiritualized, U2, the Talking Heads and all manner of electronica clearly audible on their debut, Launchpad, produced by hot commodity Tom Rothrock (Beck, Moby, Foo Fighters). Still, with a live show that can last five hours and stunts like re-creating Studio 54 for an Irving Plaza gig in New York, along with countless other themed shows, it’s no surprise the hippies are claiming them for their own. (Schacht) / Baptista is a Brazilian musician/composer who, with his eight-piece percussion and dance ensemble Beat the Donkey, creates a cacophonous and percussive experimental vibe that jumps out of Brazil, dives into New Orleans and emerges out of the downtown NYC jazz scene. The track “Rio De Jamaica” is one of many that the cross-cultural musical hopping Baptista and his posse ably accomplish. See our story in this issue. Visulite Theatre (Shukla)
White Lion / Enuff Z’Nuff : “Wait” no more, music fans! When the children cry, get them a babysitter. Speed on over (relying on a little radar love) to check out Mike Tramp and Co., performing all the hits (and a few that will be, to quote Willie Nelson). (Parenthetical Mindless Trivia: rumor has it that the band’s “When The Children Cry” video : you know the low-budget-ass one that shows the band emoting on a merry-go-round : was filmed at a tour stop here in Charlotte way back when, um…(segue)….Enuff Z’Nuff ruled the world! “Fly High Michelle?” Are you kidding me? Why do we get cover bands rockin’ “Cherry Pie” all the goddamn time? Where’s the love and respect for Chip Z’nuff and Donnie Vie? Where did my Vicoprofin go? Where am I? Amos’ Southend (Davis)
This article appears in Mar 2-8, 2005.
