Those who were contemplating heading to Indio, Calif., this summer purely to catch British experimental music kingpins Radiohead at Coachella can save a little cash and drive to Riverbend instead. This morning, the local outdoor shed announced that Radiohead will perform June 5 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets run $30 (for lawn seats) to $69.50 (plus fees) and go on sale this Saturday at 10 a.m. through ticketmaster.com, riverbend.com and all Ticketmaster box-office locations. Get your tickets early. The band is currently on a run of U.S. arena dates that have completely sold out.

It's another Friday full of quality options for those wishing to experience music in a live setting tonight. If Jazz is your thang, the Blue Wisp is your Friday night spot, as Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey performs at the downtown club's new space at the corner of Race and Seventh streets. JFJO — which has a wide-ranging fan base of Jam band fanatics and Jazz lovers — is doing a smattering of tour dates in support of its intriguing conceptual album, Race Riot Suite, written and arranged by the group's lap steel guitarist Chris Combs. The project is described as "a long-form conceptual piece that tells the devastating story of the 1921 Tulsa race riot, a real estate-driven ethnocide occurring under the guise of citizen-dispensed justice. The oil-elite, civic government and local press colluded to take advantage of a racially tense climate in Jim Crow-era Oklahoma, resulting in the death of hundreds of black Tulsans and the destruction of an entire city district."

It's hard not to make a connection to other "race riots" throughout America, including those here in Cincinnati (and it's fitting that the group will be performing selections from the project on Race St.). The album has been JFJO's most acclaimed piece of work yet, drawing praise everywhere from the L.A. Times to NPR to Huffington Post.

JFJO has started releasing solo piano and remixed versions of material taken from the Race Riot album weekly. Click here for more info and/or check out the video preview below.

Tonight's Blue Wisp show starts at 9 p.m. and tickets are $15 (while they last).



• If Bluegrass is more your speed, the Madison Theater has two of the best of the new wave of ’Grass heroes — Yonder Mountain String Band and The Infamous Stringdusters — tonight at 8:30 p.m. Tickets for the all ages show are $22.50.

What would the world be like if plastic Pop groups were replaced with members who are actually innovative and able to play instruments, like the members of YMSB? Our Deirdre Kaye has a theory (click here).

Wanna warm up before the show? Perhaps cool down afterwards? Stanley's Pub has you covered, hosting Cincy's young Bluegrass rascals the Rumpke Mountain Boys for fans who want to hang out pre-game and post-game.

Here's a YMSB montage set to a live track recorded just weeks ago in Arkansas:

Read More

Folk/Rock/Pop singer/songwriter Catie Curtis performs tonight at the Clifton Cultural Arts Center on Clifton Avenue at 7:30 p.m. Working out of Boston, the Maine native was discovered while performing a New York's Bottom Line club and scored a deal with EMI/Guardian Records, which re-released her album Truth from Lies in the mid-’90s (after a few self-released efforts). With exposure through TV show placements and, most importantly, a dedication to touring that has put her in front of the audiences of fans like Mary Chapin Carpenter, Dar Williams and Patty Griffin, Curtis' own dedicated fan base has continued to grow. (She may have friends in high places, too, after getting invited to play at The White House in 2010 and 2011.) The most recent effort by Curtis was last year's Stretch Limousine on Fire, put out by Compass Records and featuring guests vocals from Lisa Loeb and her pal Carpenter (who has appeared on other albums with Curtis). Stretch Limousine was (mostly) warmly received by both critics and fans.

Curtis writes on her website that she just got back from a family trip to Guatemala. She is married to partner Liz Marshall, with whom she is raising two daughters. Curtis has been a fighter for marriage equality, even becoming ordained so that she could officiate weddings. (She'll even sing a couple of songs! If you're interested in Curtis' services, send a note to Celebrations@CatieCurtis.com.)

Tickets are $15 for Curtis' show tonight in Clifton. Here's Curtis and her wife's video made for the "It Gets Better" grassroots online campaign, followed by Curtis doing a Death Cab for Cutie cover.

• Regional Jam Band road dogs Ultraviolet Hippopotamus perform tonight at The Mad Frog in Corryville with guests Arpetrio. Here's what CityBeat's Brian Baker had to say about the independent band's latest release: "Square Pegs Round Holes weaves together a diverse assortment of sonic elements, showing influence from Southern Jam masters like Widespread Panic and Northern provocateurs like Phish, with flecks of Starcastle and early Kansas Prog Pop, Bruce Hornsby’s Dead-tinged Jazz/Pop, sweeping Fusion in the Jan Hammer/Jeff Beck mold and Electronica that nods in the direction of Sound Tribe Sector 9. UVHippo’s brilliance is in using sounds and styles as reference points without resorting to mere influence peddling and name-dropping."

Read more here and check out an interview with and live performance from the band below.



 

The Bunbury Music Festival in Cincinnati falls on the same weekend as two other big regional music fests, one 100 miles to our south and the other about 300 miles northwest of the Queen City. Like Bunbury, the Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago and the 10th annual Forecastle fest are happening July 13-15.

In theory, the proximity (geographically and time-wise) should lead to some crossover, as artists from one event might run their tour route to the other cities to score some of those big festival performance fees. (MidPoint's 2011 fest in Cincy, for example, shared some acts with the somewhat nearby Pygmalion Music Festival in Urbana-Champaign, Ill.) But so far that hasn't happened with Bunbury, which seems to be focusing on more mainstream "Alternative" artists, as opposed to Pitchfork's more esoteric lineup and Forecastle's endearing mishmash of styles.

Louisville's Forecastle previously announced that hometown heroes My Morning Jacket would be curating the event and performing. This morning organizers announced that joining them will be Dubstep superstar Bassnectar and Dad Rock champs Wilco, plus Andrew Bird, Girl Talk, Atmosphere, Neko Case, Sleigh Bells, A-Trak, Dean Wareham (playing Galaxie 500 songs), Galactic, Clutch, Flying Lotus, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Mike Doughty, Real Estate, Deer Tick, Charles Bradley, JEFF the Brotherhood and Cincinnati's Walk the Moon, among others. Click here for ticket info and the the full lineup so far.

Meanwhile, here is who Pitchfork announced yesterday for this year's event in Chicago's Union Park: Vampire Weekend, Feist, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Hot Chip, AraabMUZIK, A$AP Rocky, The Field, Liturgy, Kendrick Lamar, Grimes, Cloud Nothings, Tim Hecker and Willis Earl Beal. Thirty more artists will be announced later.

Pitchfork tickets go on sale next Friday, March 9, at noon via the Pitchfork fest's site here.

So if you could go to any of the three festivals, based on the info available so far (and not counting travel costs and lodging arrangements) which one would you attend — Cincinnati's, Louisville's or Chicago's?

Though it feels like it was only yesterday that we cleaned up the final beer cup from MidPoint Music Festival's wildly successful 10th anniversary event last September, submissions to perform at MPMF.12 open tomorrow. This year's MidPoint is set to return to various venues in the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood Sept. 27-29. The early submission deadline is March 31; submission fees go up after that and will be accepted until the drop-dead deadline date, May 11.

To submit, artists will need to prepare their SonicBids press kit, with an updated bio, photos, press clips and at least three songs. Click here to find out more about the submission process.

After last year's success — 185 acts across 18 stages performing for 23,000 music lovers — competition for slots is expected to be higher than ever. Be sure to get yourself in the mix early.

To keep tabs on all things MidPoint, keep checking CityBeat's music blog, visit the main fest site and follow MPMF.12 on Facebook and Twitter.

The Afghan Whigs first show in America in 13 years takes place Sept. 22 in Asbury Park, NJ, heading up a killer lineup at the I'll Be Your Mirror fest, presented by All Tomorrow's Parties. The fest is being curated by ATP and the Whigs' frontman Greg Dulli, whose first selections for the other acts on the bill was released last week. Dulli's picks: comedian Louis C.K., The Roots, Jose Gonzalez, Mark Lanegan, The Dirty Three, The Antlers, The Dirtbombs, Sharon Van Etten, Emeralds, Vetiver, Quinton and Miss Pussy Cat, Charles Bradley, Reigning Sound, a DJ set from The Roots' ?uestlove and Scrawl, the Whigs' Columbus-based pals (might Scrawl singer Marcy Mays reprise her vocal turn on the Whigs' classic, "My Curse"?). The show will also feature bands like Autolux, Hot Snakes and The Make-Up, part of the lineup chosen by ATP.

Greg Dulli gave Spin an interview and a little insight into the band's decision to get back together. In the interview, Dulli jokes about doing a set of all new songs at the reunion shows ("Oh, we're playing all new material," he says. "No old songs, just new stuff we’ve come up with. Wouldn’t that be amazing?") and says he finally got the bug to reunite after hanging out with bassist John Curley (who still lives in Cincy) and guitarist Rick McCullom (who is in Minneapolis). He also said when they first got together to rehearse, right before Thanksgiving last year, "the hair on the back of my neck stood up."

Read the full Spin interview here.

The article says Dulli was "cagey" about revealing whether or not the band would do any other shows in the U.S. (the band is doing four dates in Europe beginning with the May 27 I'll Be Your Mirror festival in London). But in another just-published interview — with the great music site The Quietus — Dulli said the band will probably do "at least" another 20 shows in addition to the five announced. (Fingers-crossed, Cincinnatians!)

Check out The Quietus interview here. 

The Afghan Whigs' also have a spiffy new website with lots of archival videos, a cool "This Date in Whigs History"-type feed and a lot of other info on the band. Visit the site here.

UPDATE: This morning, the Whigs site announced that the band has added six more shows to their reunion itinerary — all in Europe. But that means still 14 or so more to go, right?

Local electronics-tinged Rock & Roll duo-turned-trio Pop Empire closes out its every-Tuesday residency at The Comet tonight with another free, 10 p.m. show. The band has been publicly evolving and busy as bees, adding a live drummer (which, as you'll see in the clips below, gives the band's sound a whole new dimension), working on a new album, running the free digital record label called The Recording Label and masterminding a cool new video project with internationally-acclaimed photographer Michael Wilson.

The video project is a series of music clips featuring bands performing live, filmed in one continuous shot, without edits. Pop Empire filmed several songs for the project at the historic Emery Theatre (on the border of Over-the-Rhine and Downtown). Check out clips for "True Believer" and "The Chills" below (and click here to check out the rest).



Pop Empire's music can also be heard in a new ad for Harley-Davidson. Check out the commercial featuring PE's "Some Fun" below.

Read More

Cincinnati-spawned Indie/Dance/Pop quartet Walk the Moon's tour with Young the Giant brought them home Friday night as the band performed an incredibly tight and impressive opening set at Covington's Madison Theater. The early sell-out status of the show was largely due to the headliners, who have been playing to packed houses for a while now as the buzz about them continues to get louder. But it was clear that Walk the Moon had a large contingency of fans in the house that responded wildly to the set, something that's likely true at more and more shows the band plays across the U.S. as word of the band continues to spread online like wildfire.

The show was part of several dates with YTG sponsored by the Woodie Awards, an mtvU awards show that had signage throughout the club. (MTV seems to have 50 award shows now, but Wikipedia says the Woodies honor "the music voted best by college students.") Walk the Moon is nominated for a "Breaking Woodie," given to newer acts. The Woodie Awards take place in Austin, Texas, during South By Southwest, capping off the 2012 Woodie Awards Festival (which WTM is set to play).

Voting in Walk the Moon's category is open all the way until the trophy is handed out on March 15. The festival and ceremony will stream live online here.

Wanna help Walk the Moon get a Woodie? They have some tough competition (Lana Del Rey and tUnE-yArDs included), so help out your hometown boys done good and click here to vote (even if you're not in college).

Below are a couple more recently posted video clips from the band. I think "Tightrope" is the next single, judging by the postings (a live acoustic performance at The Mockbee, where filming of the band's viral "Anna Sun" video took place, as well as a version taped for Carson Daly's show in L.A., live at the Wiltern Theater).

Read More

It's a slow night if you're looking for some touring acts to check out — in other words, typical Monday — but there are still a handful of local artists performing tonight. If you're a musician, there are some open jams (Blues jam with Sonny Moorman at Anderson Bar & Grill and Jazz jam with the Sandy Suskind Quartet at the Blue Wisp) and open mics (with host Pete DeNuzio at Knotty Pine and Bob Cushing's acoustic open mic at Shady O'Grady's).

If you'd rather just watch and listen, great local Rock trio Sparrow Bellows plays the last night of its every-Monday "House Band" residency at Over-the-Rhine's MOTR Pub. The group — which features ace musicians Sammy Wulfeck (Goose, ex-Stapletons), Brian Kitzmiller (Black Owls, Trojan Rabbit) and guitar wiz Ric Hickey (solo, Telegram Sam, Speed Hickeys) — announced on its Facebook page this morning that its 9 p.m. MOTR performance tonight will be its "last multi-set show for a long time to come," so Bellows superfans take note. The show is a freebie, as always at MOTR.

Click on for Sparrow Bellows' track "Thousand Recurring Signs" to get you in the mood.

Read More

Last weekend, I made a last minute decision to travel to Pittsburgh and finally check out the Andy Warhol Museum (amazing — it was definitely the first time I've ever read every detail and tried to see every piece on display at a museum). I grabbed the new CD by Cincinnati's excellent Indie Pop powerhouse The Minor Leagues to listen to on the drive and it occurred to me that the band would actually be playing in Pittsburgh the same night I was there, by sheer happy coincidence.  

I love to see bands from the Cincinnati area performing out of town. When Heartless Bastards played Lollapalooza in Chicago a few years back (and were still a Cincinnati band), I got such a thrill watching unsuspecting listeners respond to hearing Erika Wennerstrom's big, luxurious voice for the first time. It was priceless — lots of double takes and even a few slack-jawed stares as people tried to figure out how that voice could come booming out of someone so petite in stature.  

The Minor Leagues were in Pittsburgh to play Howler's Coyote Cafe, a somewhat indistinct but comfy bar in the city's East End on one of what appeared to be many similar entertainment strips in the city. The Minor Leagues were sandwiched between two local bands; the first sounded like Kings of Leon playing Funk from where I was sitting, in the neighboring room that contained the bar.

I watched anonymously as the five members of the Cincinnati band fluttered around the club getting prepared to play (talking to the headliners about time restraints, trying to get everyone to the stage, etc.). While not the finest sound system on the planet, the band proceeded to play a tight 40-minute set that exploded like a piñata that shot the group's trademark sing-a-longs, Rock & Roll energy and hyper-catchy melodies into the crowd. There weren't a ton of people in the room — rotating between maybe 25 and 40 throughout the set — and some of the folks were so hammered by around 11 p.m., they were falling-down drunk. One yinzer (a new word I learned!) just dropped, crashing into a table and shattering a few pint glasses, leading to a bit of distraction as a couple of employees attempted to clear the floor of glass while The Minor Leagues played on.

Well, it is Pittsburgh … meaning it's like Cincinnati or anywhere. There's always THAT guy.

But more than a few patrons sat and listened attentively and I caught a few cracking grins as they watched and listened, charmed by the group's upbeat sound and playful performance. The members of the band did a little bantering, which was equally playful. Singer Hilly Kenkel did the bulk of between-song chatting, with co-singer Ben Walpole chiming in often to thank the crowd and remind everyone there was merch and a mailing list. Kenkel's first effort to connect with the audience had me happy I wasn't sporting my full Bengals super-fan get-up, but her playful teasing about the supposed football rivalry between our two cities was quickly diffused when she made sure to admit the Steelers were the better team. That's when I almost started throwing pint glasses. (Kidding.)

The band had just played in Brooklyn the night before and it made me chuckle because I had just read an article about how Pittsburgh was becoming one of the bigger "hipster" towns in America, making it appear as if the Leagues were  doing a weekend tour of ONLY trendy, hip cities on their weekend jaunt. Kenkel told a really funny story about listening to radio reports from Whitney Houston's funeral when leaving New York and how they all lost it when a woman wondered why people hated on Whit because she had a drug problem. "We ALL have drug problems!" she said. That one landed better than the faux sports rivalry one.

Read More