Mark Your Calendars...
Thursday, June 7
In observation of what would have been Prince Rogers Nelson's 60th Birthday, DJ PhatSoul pays a music video tribute to The Purple One. All The Critics Love U: Prince 60th Birthday Dedication at Sky Bar... Their 1998 release, Tracción Acústica (Polygram), received a Latin Grammy nomination for "Best Latin Rock Album." And, made them the first Argentinian band to sign with a major US label. Rockeros Enanitos Verdes (The Little Green Dwarves) are at AVA Amphitheater with Hombres G... DIY country/rockabilly/rock 'n' rollers the Al Foul Trio are playing a late night show at Owls Club... Alan Parsons reflects, "We had so much negative criticism. Like being pretentious for constantly making concept albums." Altering their prog rock formula, in 1982, Eye In The Sky (Arista) peaked at No. 7 on the Billboard charts. Celebrating 25 years since the album's release, Alan Parsons Live Project plays The Fox Theatre... Staying true to roots and dancehall sounds, reggae artist Collie Buddz hits The Rialto Theater. With Nattali Rize...
Friday, June 8
Musician/humanitarian/filmmaker Michael Franti & Spearhead usher the Stay Human Tour into The Rialto Theater. With Victoria Canal and Dustin Thomas... "A groundbreaking experiment in saxophone-fronted progressive metal," is what's in store when Resurrecting ID (Cleveland, Ohio) pull the van into town. With Phoenix prog-rockers NIL at The Flycatcher. Basic Biology will spin and create beats... "How Heavy This Axe": Hard rock/heavy metalists The Sword weigh in at 191 Toole... The rock 'n' roll, heavy blues based soul of Sam Pace & The Gilded Grit (Austin, Texas) "Get the Evil Out" at Monterey Court... Ada Redd Austin and Angel Diamond, two of Tucson's finest vocalists, perform in a fundraiser for the Tucson Juneteenth Festival. Jazz meets Blues at AZ State Schools for the Deaf and Blind... Nine-piece Latin all-stars Santa Pachita set their horn-driven sound free up on the rooftop early evening at The Playground Bar & Lounge... Be part of "The In Crowd" when Jazz legend Ramsey Lewis tickles the ivories at The Fox Theater...
Saturday, June 9
In 1963, they took over the Rolling Stones' residency at the Crawdaddy Club in London. One of the first to use feedback, distortion and fuzz tone, this seminal English rock band has been credited with siring psychedelic music, sowing the seeds of punk, prog-rock and heavy metal. Not to mention launching the careers of Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page. Led by founding member and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Jim McCarty, The Yardbirds turn The Rialto Theater "Over, Under, Sideways, Down..." Local Love: Rockin' Blues Fest is at 191 Toole. Featuring: Street Blues Family, Black Cat Bones, Mofly, Lucifer the Cat and Bob Russell, who celebrates the release of Running Crazy... Rockers! This is a call to arms. Drop D, Color of Chaos and Waysted Youth top the bill at an event christened "Hey Bob, Go F**k Yourself" Birthday Bash at The Rock... Six of the seven songs on their 2014 self-titled release are named after women. And the seventh is titled "Hmm?" Solve the mystery when Los Puchos (garage rock) and ALHHLA (art pop) play Exo Roast Co... Scribes, plume and papyrus? 500 Sonnets: A Marathon for Casa Libre takes place at Hotel Congress. Where 500 sonnets shall be penned and read over five hours to raise legal tender for Casa Libre. Their mission: To cultivate and enrich a vibrant community of writers and artists... Former Dead Kennedy, Jello Biafra says "Fish's music is your basic Fugs-style electric grunge folk. His lyrics feature some of the meanest put-downs of American consumer culture I've heard in years." Cartoonist David Fitzsimmons emcee's Time To Say Goodbye, a multimedia rock opera/record release from Fish Karma and/or The DeRailleurs at Club Congress... Horseplay, a night of deep house and techno, features guest DJs Cat Child and Nic along with residents Eliogold and Justin Silva at La Cocina... Violinist Heather Hardy hosts Taste of Jazz, featuring some of the finest jazz/blues musicians in town, at Monterey Court... Singer-songwriter Leila-Rose Lopez kicks of Summer Jam Session at AZ Hops and Vines in Sonoita... Grazing in the same lush fields as Scottish power poppers Teenage Fanclub, Supercrush dole out heaping ladles full of melody, harmony and a fuckload of jangly guitars. With Big Bite (Seattle punk rockers), Tucson shoegazers Hikikomori and punks Dial Up at Cans Deli...
Sunday, June 10
Fans of old school R&B rejoice. The Isley Brothers and Commodores are set to perform at AVA Amphitheater... After years spent under the tutelage of blues great Jimmy Rogers, this string-bending bluesman has come into his own. Now hailed for his mastery of the Chicago blues sound, The High Cost of Low Living (Alligator Records) captures another place in time. The Nick Moss Band, featuring wailing blues harmonicist Dennis Gruenling, pay it forward at House of Bards... The title of this Indonesian grindcore band's 2016 album, Verba Volant, Scripta Manen (Vitus/Resting Hell Records), translates from Latin into Words Fly, Writing Remains. Heady stuff. Understanding the lyrics through the vocalist's distorted death growl is another matter. AK//47 with Violent Opposition and Earacher at Club Congress...
Monday, June 11
"Southwestern maverick jazz" is how they describe themselves. Workingman's Punx, the latest release from Sex Headaches (Santa Fe, New Mexico) is decidedly lo-fi punk. So, they have a sense of humor. With the "psycho spiritual music" stylings of Cult Tourist (experimental rock/no wave) at The Flycatcher...
Tuesday, June 12
The March Divide is the songwriting project of indie rocker Jared Putnam (San Antonio, Texas), who plays and records the majority of the studio tracks. His latest single, "Get In Line," is hook laden and radio-friendly with a '90s melancholia like cold rain slithering down the pane. "You get a job/To pay your bills/Until there is nothing left of the thrill/And so it goes." At Monterey Court... Oakland, California's The Heartlights latest Oh Dear (Burger Records) is chock full of splendid punky power pop. They're "So Cute (It Hurts)." At Cans Deli with Texas T Trash... This band of gypsies commingle fiddle, mandolin, melodica and vibraphone to arrive at their unique concoction of acoustic folk punk. The Eulogy Project at Club Congress. With imaginative tuba wielding rockers Deschtuco and the indie-folk pop/lo-fi blues of Brian Thomas Parker at Club Congress... Solar Culture is the site for a GLDN Party. Featuring underground rapper Wrekonize, Cash Lansky, Marley B, 1 Ton, Tommy Will and more...
Wednesday, June 13
Inspired by '70s funk rock masters War and Parliament-Funkadelic, this Austin nine-piece collective morphed out of Grammy Award-winning Latin rock/salsa Grupo Fantasma. Their latest, Fear of a Brown Planet, is a horn-laden instrumental tribute to Public Enemy. Reworking tracks from PE's early works: It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back (Def Jam, 1988) and Fear of a Black Planet (Def Jam, 1990), Apocalypse 91... The Enemy Strikes Black (Def Jam, 1991). Brownout run riot at 191 Toole... Washington, D.C., alt/indie rockers StereoRiots are at The Flycatcher. With Sur Block, Defeat the Band and Lowlife... It's a house party! With noise punks Period Bomb, Sally Roundhouse (a capella), Jaime J. Soto (electronic noise/pop) and Rabbit Snare + Watchable Wildlife (collaborative improv) at 268 E. Jacinto St... Polished neo-soul/hip-hop powerhouse Spirit Familia hold a Wednesday night residency at Club Congress...
IN THE FLESH...
Once tagged a "cowpunk goddess," Musician/actor Jean Caffeine jolted through town, on Saturday, May 26, leaving the small but attentive audience at the Saint Charles Tavern stimulated without the jittery edge.
Perhaps best known for her film work in Art Linklater's Slacker (1991) and Waking Life (2001), Caffeine is on the road—one woman, one guitar—in support of Sadie Saturday Nite (Joe Records). Part spoken word, part garage country concept album, she candidly recalls her adventures coming of age during the first wave of punk in San Francisco.
Her salad days were drumming for SF punkers The Urge. She's DJ'ed at NYC's Danceteria on the heels of punk. She's toured England with Pulsallama opening for The Clash. She's released an EP that Alex Chilton produced (for 500 bucks and a lamb chop dinner) while in Clambake. She's fronted Austin-based "y'alternative" band All Nite Truckstop. Jean Caffeine is a rock 'n' roll survivor.
Caffeine was joined by cowpunk legend Al Perry for a few songs, including "Winter of Hate," a song about the Sex Pistols last show at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco in which she revisits her feelings of frustration and loss watching punk rock begin its death rattle. All Nite Truckstop. Jean Caffeine is a rock 'n' roll survivor.
Caffeine was joined by cowpunk legend Al Perry for a few songs, including "Winter of Hate," a song about the Sex Pistols last show at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco in which she revisits her feelings of frustration and loss watching punk rock begin its death rattle.
On "Finella's Finnish Baths"—a bathhouse in the Castro District where she worked as an attendant—Caffeine recounts her search for identity after God couldn't save the Queen, nor The Pistols. "Now I wasn't punk, but definitely not new wave. Never new wave." And her need to "sweat some of that punk out" in the baths after her shift.
Set in waltz time, "Sadie Saturday Nite" may use a protagonist, but this is Jean Caffeine's story. "Sadie Saturday Nite was a mere 17/When she spotted a poster for The Nuns and Crime/She walked up Broadway up to the Mabuhay and asked them if they'd let in a minor." And so the story goes. The dust settled slowly on the patio at Saint Charles Tavern after the final chord rang out.
HOT WAX...
• Proudly hailing from Old Pascua, indie-pop rockers Sur Block just released a new single. Singer Alyssa Sandoval told XOXO... that "Hex" (which is not from the band's self-titled EP available on Spotify and iTunes) is "about letting something go amidst temptation." Sandoval said the band plans on "releasing more singles and eventually an LP."
A simple, recurrent keyboard riff, culled straight from the '80s synth-pop playbook, introduces the melodic framework. Massive sustained bass notes and a dual keyboard attack generate a hypnotic sine wave. Conjoined with the drummer's restrained force, the band successfully lay the underpinning for the spell to be cast. Sandoval's voice moves from a purr to an impassioned wail. It is this outpouring of raw emotion that Sandoval uses—like Charon the ferryman, who transports the souls of the newly deceased across the river Styx—to carry the listener "to the other side."
Directed by Nick Murray, watch "Hex" here: youtu.be/a7CqMZ3GXEs
• Transplanted to the desert Southwest from Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire, international African roots reggae artist General Tchefary recently released three singles: "Black No for Sale," "Help the Syrians" and "Farafina Tchefary." Both groove-filled tracks intermingle French and English lyrics in an impassioned call for freedom that commands attention. "Everywhere I go/They enslave me.../I want to be free/Libérer."
Tchefary expands, "The best thing about making reggae music is its power to change the world. Make it a better place for everyone." Adding something unique to Tucson's diverse talent pool, General Tchefary will spread a message that traverses international borders and all aspects of humanity on Friday, June 22, at Chicago Bar.
Check it out: generaltchefary.com
• This R&B/pop vocalist has been fawned over by The Huffington Post and EDM Magazine. He's recorded in Berlin, New York and L.A., working with various producers crafting his sound, while calling Tucson home.
With the release of his latest single, "I Want It," Seanloui has declared that 2018 will be his year.
The downtempo beat is pure Roland 808-inspired trap. But Seanloui is not a rapper. His emotive vocal style is reminiscent of Musiq Soulchild and Usher. Unafraid to show vulnerability, the lyrics to "I Want It" are about desire, straight up. "Cuz you say that you can't stay.../I want it/Why did you just go?/I need you, I need you."
Before pursuing a solo career, Seanloui played guitar with indie rockers Signals. He also manned the front desk at Hotel Congress, working the overnight shift. "I had no songs at the time," Seanloui says. "But I would stand on the Congress stage and tell myself (and the janitors cleaning up) that I would play a show here one day." That is the impetus for his upcoming performance there. "This show is me finally coming back to the stage I stood and dreamed upon."
Possessing a certain je ne sais quoi, his radio-friendly R&B/pop receives 50K listeners per month on Spotify. Will 2018 prove to be Seanloui's charmed year?
Wooden Tooth Records presents Seanloui on Friday, June 22, at Club Congress. With Jaca Zulu and Taco Sauce.
Stream Seanloui's tracks on Spotify and Apple Music.
Until next week, XOXO...
