Electronic Rock duo Pop Empire has released its debut full-length album, available now for free download via The Recording Label Web site. The "all free!" label is the brainchild of Cameron Cochran, formerly of The Sheds and one half of Pop Empire (along with Henry Wilson). There's also news about WNKU's expanded signal helping spread the local music gospel.  

The Winter Blues Fest — created as a cold-weather sister event to the Cincy Blues Society’s massive summertime Cincy Blues Fest — returns to the Southgate House this Friday and Saturday. The event is the main fund-raiser for the Blues in the Schools program, which sends professional local Blues performers into area schools to educate students on the music’s rich history and encourage young musicians to play Blues. The Blues in the Schools Band, featuring some of those young musicians, will kick off both nights of the Winter Blues Fest at 6 p.m.  

The One More Girl on a Stage fest returns Friday and Saturday to Newport’s York Street Café for the Rivertown Music Club’s last ever event. Local musician Kelly Thomas has used the Rivertown Music Club to promote local music and raise money for a variety of charities for the past seven years.  

My awareness of and subsequent passion for local music began when I was around 12, but a new compilation album could get your favorite little one started even earlier. "Diva Kangaroo" is a 13-track album featuring a variety of area performers playing original children’s songs.  

Margaret Darling, co-founder of Indie/Electro Pop darlings The Seedy Seeds, takes over the Southgate House’s “Artist in Residence” series for January, performing in the venue’s intimate Juney’s Lounge for free every Wednesday this month.  

Friday night, there are musical New Year’s Eve options for practically every taste. (I couldn’t find any Polka or Steampunk bands playing, but they’re probably out there somewhere.) And the party types (from free, small-club Rock shows to huge, swanky and expensive soirees) are as varied as the genres represented. Here are just a few choice ways to greet 2011 with a groovy soundtrack.  

The best thing about the holidays? Quality time with your family. The worst thing about the holidays? Quality time with your family. Everyone has their limits, so if on Christmas night by around 9 p.m. you’re feeling like a stiff drink (or seven) and some quality original Rock & Roll to shake away those annoying ghosts of Christmas past, present and future (such dicks!), head downtown to Mainstay Rock Bar.  

Rock/Reggae band The Ohms (coming off a year that found them releasing a self-titled full-length recorded in Hollywood with Dito Godwin) presents its eighth annual "Jingle Jam" benefit show Friday at Play By Play Café. Then there's Greasemas at the Southgate House, Kevin and the Octaves at the SH Parlour, SS-20 at Down Under and Steve Schmidt Organ Trio at The Comet.  

And so it begins. The next few weeks are loaded with "special" shows by local performers. Many have a holiday theme (that's right, I said "holiday," you intolerant Christmas warrior), but there are also plenty of gigs celebrating things other than the season (that'll end with the following three weeks of non-stop holiday madness). Let's check them out.  

At the Nov. 21 Cincinnati Entertainment Awards ceremony, Elliott Ruther from the Cincinnati USA Music Heritage Foundation announced one of the organization’s latest missions: supporting for the recently formed Who Concert Tragedy Memorial Committee (WCTMC) because the stampede before a 1979 concert by The Who that resulted in 11 fans being crushed to death remains one of the American concert industry’s darkest moments.  

The 2010 Cincinnati Entertainment Awards was another memorable love fest celebrating Cincinnati’s rich musical history and thriving contemporary music scene. The briskly paced show Nov. 21 at Covington’s Madison Theater featured quality performances, updates on in-the-works projects spotlighting the area’s pivotal role in American music’s evolution and the presentation of 19 awards encompassing the full spectrum of Cincinnati music makers.  

In 2008, local independent publisher Aurore Press presented a "reunion" concert at the Southgate House that featured bands (and many fans) who were a part of the scene at famed Punk Rock palace/dump The Jockey Club in Newport. This Saturday at the Southgate, it returns for the third year straight, featuring reunion shows by Sluggo, The Speed Hickeys and other local music vets.  

Saturday night the annual BRINK New Music Showcase returns for its 10th year and spreads its wings. The showcase, a cousin event of the Cincinnati Entertainment Awards, first went down in 2001 as a way to showcase the next generation of great local musicians before the big CEA event honored the current crop. Plus news about new albums from Walk the Moon and Greg "Tex" Schramm.  

Block out next Saturday, Nov. 13, on your day planner for the 10th annual BRINK New Music Showcase, which this year morphs from a one-venue event (at the Southgate House) to a multi-venue extravaganza in Northside. Tied to the annual Cincinnati Entertainment Awards, BRINK is a chance to check out the next wave of new, original bands in the Cincy area.  

This week, Joe Hedges, frontman for July for Kings, will be celebrating the release of his new solo album, Alchemy, with a unique release show. Friday's event is a multimedia extravaganza timed to downtown's "Final Friday" art gallery walk and taking place at the St. Theresa Textile Trove space.