British rocker Graham Parker comes to Oakley's 20th Century Theater tonight for a "duo" show with keyboardist Bob Andrews, an original member of Parker's ’70s backing band, The Rumour. (Click here to read Gregory Gaston's show preview for CityBeat.) Opening the concert at 8 p.m. is Brigitte DeMeyer, an up-and-coming independent Country/Roots singer/songwriter. Tickets for tonight's show are $25 at the door. Here is DeMeyer performing "One Wish," and a classic from Parker.




• Indie Rock meets R&B/Soul and Pop tonight at MOTR Pub in Over-the-Rhine as Wisconsin's excellent Surgeons in Heat comes to town for a free show with always solid local Indie Pop troupe Darlene. Showtime is 10 p.m. Here are the Surgeons rocking out the track "Wanna Get Up." Click here to listen to the band's self-titled LP.



• DC-based Indie rockers U.S. Royalty come back to Cincinnati tonight, this time for a free show at Mayday in Northside. The show starts around 10 p.m. Visit the band's website for a free download of its track "Sleepy Eyes" and check out the video promo for the band's new album below.


 
Click here for all of tonight's live music events.

One of Cincinnati's all-time greatest bands, The Afghan Whigs, have announced numerous overseas dates on its forthcoming reunion tour, but the only U.S. show announced was the Sept. 22 concert headlining the Greg Dulli co-curated "I'll Be Your Mirror" event in Asbury Park, NJ. Today, another American show was announced with the release of the 2012 Lollapalooza lineup (the event takes place in Chicago's Grant Park, Aug. 3-5). The Whigs were up pretty high on the poster for the event, but the top-billed acts announced are soon-to-be Rock & Roll Hall of Famers the Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Black Keys, Black Sabbath and Jack White. (Check the full lineup here and the announcement video below.) Lolla tickets are on-sale here.

That sets up a loose timeframe for more U.S. dates for the Whigs — Aug. 3-Sept. 22 (minus about three days in August when they'll be back overseas). We've been hearing about a few offers to the band for shows in Cincinnati from a pair of larger festivals, but so far nothing official has been ironed out (at least to the point that an appearance could be announced). Stay tuned. The band now has about 20 dates booked worldwide.

Dave Wakeling brings the current version of his legendary Ska-to-Pop band The English Beat to Oakley tonight to perform at the 20th Century Theater with special guests, Cincinnati's own Ska heroes The Pinstripes (who played with The Beat in Michigan last night as well). I wrote extensively about an interview I did with Wakeling a few years back when The Beat opened for 311 at Riverbend, one of the Top 5 highlights in my career as a music writer (my 13-year-old self is still in disbelief that my … much older self got to hang with one of our heroes). Read all about my fanboy dreams coming true here.

Tonight's show starts at 8 p.m. and tickets are $25.

Here's a playlist of some of The English Beat's finer moments (and a track from Wakeling's post-Beat band General Public, songs from which he also performs with his current band).

On this day in 1956, innovative guitar builder Leo Fender was awarded the patent for a "Tremolo Device for Stringed Instruments," commonly known as the "whammy bar." The device was misnamed — it's more accurately a vibrato bar (tremolo is a "wavering effect in a musical tone, produced by rapid reiteration of a note, by rapid repeated variation in the pitch of a note," according to the dictionary) — but that didn't stop musicians from using it in a variety of ways to create new sounds and techniques. The bar was introduced with Fender's Stratocaster, which was invented a couple of years earlier.

The Greater Cincinnati area has given the world two "twang bar kings" (or maybe "twang bar Picassos" is more appropriate) —pals and bandmates in The Bears, Adrian Belew and Rob Fetters.



Click on for Born This Day featuring Q-Tip, Brian Setzer, Chris Carrabba and Martin Denny.

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The first ever edition of The Heights Music Festival kicks off this evening in five Clifton Heights venues at 7 p.m. (While it's the first fest under that name, the bi-annual event has been going for the past seven years.) Once again, the lineup is a great mix of genres and a strong representation of some of the city's best new and established acts. Click here or here for a full schedule. (It was recently revealed that The Pinstripes have been added as special guests Saturday night at 11 p.m. at Rohs Street Cafe.)

Tomorrow afternoon, the event launches its first "Day Fest," with several acts performing at the venues in the afternoon, allowing those unable to get into the bars due to age a chance to enjoy all the fun (events at Rohs Street Cafe and Roxx Electrocafe are open to all ages, all the time). Music starts at 3 p.m.

Online sales for Friday and Saturday (as well as two-day passes) have ended, but you can still grab Day Fest-only tickets online here. Head to the fest tonight if you didn't get advanced tickets and you can purchase one-day, all-venue passes for $8 (or $12 for both days). Day Fest passes are just $5 in advance or at the fest.

Here's a sweet, massive video playlist compiled by the Heights Fest organizers featuring most of the participating artists.

And here's some more audio goodness from several of the bands, via The Heights Radio on Soundcloud.

Two of Cincinnati's most tuneful, melodically-rich bands perform tonight for the Cincinnati Zoo's weekly, monthlong Tunes & Blooms music series. Poptastic groups The Seedy Seeds and The Newbees perform at the 6 p.m. concert. Admission to the Zoo is free after 5 p.m. (parking is $8 in a Zoo lot).

The series runs until the end of April. The rest of Tunes & Blooms will feature The Comet Bluegrass All Stars and Magnolia Mountain (April 12), Shiny and the Spoon and The Tillers (April 19) and The Turkeys and Jake Speed and the Freddies (April 26).

The Seedy Seeds were supposed to perform atop a float for this afternoon's Opening Day parade, but now will not because, according to a post on their Facebook, "there was some nonsense, some paperwork, and a few exploding toilets, but in summation, somebody or something has absconded with our mount. The float is now assumed to be roaming wild in the Forbidden Forest." On the plus side, you can still see the Seedys today for free … and you won't have to run alongside a float through the streets of Over-the-Rhine and Downtown to do so.

It'll be your last chance to catch The Seedy Seeds in town for a while. The group sets off on an extensive tour with The Winter Sounds tomorrow. The tour opens in Bloomington, Ind., and will take the trio throughout the Midwest, down South and up and down the East Coast. As of right now, the next Seedy Seeds local show is July 15 at the Bunbury Music Festival.

The photo above comes courtesy of the Let's Get Serious online audio series, a creation of former Cincinnati musician/artist/filmmaker Kendall Bruns (who's currently living in Chicago). Check out his extensive interview with the group here.

Here's the group's superb video for "I Am the Conductor" to get you in the mood for tonight's free gig.