Area Pscyh/Pop/Rock trio Buffalo Killers and vintage Rock/Soul/Pop master Brian Olive will be featured heavily on a new live album that includes tracks culled from performances at the 2012 Deep Blues Festival in Minnesota. The three-day, sold-out fest featured 26 bands, seven of which (including Olive and Buffalo Killers) record for the Alive NaturalSound imprint, which is releasing the live set. Alive at the Deep Blues Fest is due Nov. 27 on CD, digitally and on "BBQ-sauce red colored vinyl" (the fest was presented by the owner of a BBQ joint near the Twin Cities). Brian Olive has the songs "Traveling" and "Bonelle" on the release; Buffalo Killers open the album with "River Water" and an epic version of "It's a Shame," which is available for free download. Give it a listen below and hit the download button for your very own copy. Buffalo Killers headline the Ballroom at the Taft Theatre on Nov. 16 with Hollis Brown opening. Tickets are just $8 in advance. Click here for tickets and more details.

There isn't a huge stylistic gap between Steve Earle and John Hiatt, so it makes sense that they would make a good tour package (one that hits the Taft Theatre tonight for an 8 p.m. show). They're both moderately successful Americana artists with slavishly loyal fan bases and solid bodies of work over long careers (Hiatt having the earlier ’70s start). To the curious mind, the billing begs the point: What else do Earle and Hiatt have in common?• They both began their careers as staff songwriters and launched performing careers after one of their songs became a hit for someone else (Johnny Lee for Earle, Three Dog Night for Hiatt).• They've both been covered extensively by other artists, Earle by Travis Tritt, Robert Earl Keen and others, and Hiatt by Bonnie Raitt, Rosanne Cash, Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan and many more.• They both signed with Epic Records for their first deal; Earle never recorded for them, while Hiatt did two Epic albums which sold poorly and expedited his release.• Their second contracts were both with MCA; Earle had a pretty decent run with the label, including his 1988 hit Copperhead Road, while Hiatt's was a repeat of his Epic experience.• They've both been nominated for Grammys, but Earle has a commanding lead with 14 nods and three wins, while Hiatt has been nominated twice with no mantle bling to show for it yet.• They've both been married multiple times, but again Earle has the lead with seven marriages; Hiatt has only had three.• Both have successfully dealt with substance issues.• Both are balding; Hiatt has the lead here with more hair, but Earle compensates with a ZZ Toppish beard.• Both will kick your ass in the live setting, so bring an extra ass.Here's a clip for Hiatt's "Damn This Down," off his latest LP, Dirty Jeans and Mudslide Hymns. And here is part of a documentary filmed during Earle's sessions for I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive (also the name of his novel and, yes, both are based on the Hank Williams tune, which he covers on the album as a bonus track. The novel is centered around Williams mysterious "doctor" who traveled with the singer until his death, then disappeared).

Irony is not a concept usually shared by international cultures. Case in point: cats. The Western (internet) world shows its adoration for felines by churning out pointless LOLcat YouTube video after LOLcat YouTube video, gilding this love with a patina of wink-wink jokeyness, as if to say, "Sure, we obsess over and anthropomorphize these cute beasts that don't do very much, but since we're making a gag out of it, it's OK to openly enjoy it. This is how we've earned our pass."Japan's Shonen Knife, on the other hand, has willingly dedicated an entire song to the same animals while keeping a straight face — a move that would definitely earn mockery if they were an American band. The 31-year-old Pop-Punk trio's "I Am a Cat" off 1993's Let's Knife is an autumnal, simple tune where the narrator steps into an astral "timeless zone" and finds a cat's whiskers and ears. After attaching them to herself, she observes, "In a moment, I become a sweet little cat/And I dance on a flying saucer." It's silly and a bit dumb, of course, but the total absence of irony —especially since this comes from an underground Rock outfit — is a true gift. Shonen Knife has long championed frivolous music about frivolous subjects, and the trio’s childlike earnestness yields great charm.With that being said, it's somewhat surprising that Kurt Cobain of all folks supported Shonen; but, hey, even the guy who wrote "Rape Me" needed some relief from pain and aggression, too (see: heroin addiction). Shonen Knife's tour behind its new album, Pop Tune, comes to the Ballroom space inside the Taft Theatre downtown tonight. Showtime is 8:30 p.m.; doors open at 7:30 p.m. Opening the show is red-headed sibling rockers White Mystery (from Chicago) and Cincinnati greats The Harlequins. Tickets are $13.Here's the video for the title track off of Shonen Knife's new LP.

South Carolina’s Trevor Hall doesn’t make the kind of music you might expect to come from a native of the American south. Instead, Hall’s music has a Reggae streak, similar to the kind of tunes he may have heard growing up in the beach community of Hilton Head or later at the arts school he attended in California.If you like Jack Johnson and Colbie Caillat and enjoy grooving to Bob Marley on occasion, Hall’s releases would fit nicely in your CD (or iTunes) collection. His newest album, Everything Everytime Everywhere, highlights everything that’s great about Hall’s music, with 12 tracks of summery, beach-y Pop with undertones of contemporary and classic Reggae.Unlike Caillat and Johnson, Hall focuses on more than just sappy love songs. The love Hall is most willing to write and sing about is love for yourself and the world around you. Hall, who travels to India almost yearly to spend time in an ashram that houses underprivileged children, lives up to Marley’s “One Love” message better that most of his musical contemporaries.  Everything even features snippets of sounds from an Indian street corner and a song introduction by one of the young girls from the ashram.Hall has performed with Matisyahu, Jimmy Cliff and The Wailers, and is currently headlining his own tour. He plays on the Taft Theatre's Ballroom stage tonight with Justin Young and Pete Dressman. Tickets are $17.