Singer/songwriter Griffin House comes back to Cincinnati tonight for an 8 p.m. show at the 20th Century Theatre in Oakley with local guests, the Folk Pop duo Ellery. The Springfield, Ohio, native (currently living in/working out of Nashville) has long received critical acclaim for his albums and his numbers commercially go up with each new release. He's coming to town as part of his spring/summer tour, just two days before his 32nd birthday. House turned down a golf scholarship to attend Ohio University and instead went to Miami University in Oxford, where he first taught himself to play guitar and write songs.
Here's the video for House's Tom Petty-esque song about the Nashville floods, the Gulf oil spill and war, "Head for the Hills." The song was recent spotlighted in a Huffington Post story titled "When Art and Activism Spill Over in Nashville," in which House discusses what led him to write the song and make the video.
• Indie Rock band Cursive — from Omaha and recording artists on Saddle Creek Records, home to Bright Eyes — pull into Bangarang's of Covington tonight for a 7 p.m. show. Opening up are Conduits and Cymbals Eat Guitars. Tickets are $16.
Here's a track, "Wowowow," from Cursive latest album, February's I Am Gemini. Read more here and click here for a free download of the song (and another, "The Sun and Moon").
• Columbus born/Chicago based Avant/Indie foursome Loyal Divide play a free, 10 p.m. show at MOTR Pub tonight in Over-the-Rhine. Way Yes opens. Check out this groovy video for "Vision Vision."
• Other solid bets: The Comet has Buffalo Killers and Alabama-based labelmates Lee Bains III and the Glory Fires (10 p.m.) for free; Ugly Radio Rebellion pays tribute to Zappa at Stanley's Pub at 9:30 p.m. ($5); area band Sohio plays the All Night Party's first Third Thursday concert, bringing local original music to Mt. Adams' AliveOne bar (free; 9 p.m.); and two of Cincy's finest Folk acts — The Tillers and Shiny and the Spoon — play the Cincinnati Zoo's free Tunes & Blooms show tonight, starting at 6 p.m.
