Music Tonight: Minnesota-based sound artist Tim Kaiser is part musician, part inventor and part explorer. In turn, his appearance tonight at the Aisle gallery (on the third floor of 424 Findlay St., in the Brighton arts district) will be part exhibition, part performance, part electronics clinic, as Kaiser comes to town equipped with his unique, homemade instrumentation. He makes the art to make his art, as it were, constructing some 150 various contraptions (take a gander at several here) that help him manipulate the notation, frequencies, circuits, mood and atmospherics of his often ambient, always textural and adventurous music. As Kaiser put it in this interview with Nashville Avant Garde music website Theatre Intangible, his sonic creations are "like folk music during the Civil War. If you wanted a banjo, you built a banjo." The event begins at 8 p.m. Call 513-241-3403 for more info. Below is a clip of Kaiser showing off some of his creations. —-
• One-time aspiring Rockette-turned-AltCountry singer/songwriter Grace Adele and her band (The Grand Band) perform a free show at Northside's The Comet tonight at 11 p.m. Local like-minded singer/songwriter Wonky Tonk opens things up at around 10 p.m. With her performance background in dance and influence from Tin Pan Alley writers, Adele — an Ohio native who moved to Nashville to pursue her non-high-leg-kicking dreams a couple years back — understands there should be more to a live show than just banging out the tuneage. Her press kit even lists her as a "Singer/Songwriter/Entertainer," so expect a lively performance in Northside tonight. Get a sampling of her style in the below live/acoustic video clip.
• G Love & Special Sauce seem to perpetually be on the road, seemingly performing in the Cincinnati area at least once a year since the trio formed back in the mid-’90s. Mr. Love and Co.'s travels aren't even limited to roads — the threesome recently returned from one of those "fans/artists music cruises," which featured Special Sauce and musicians like Slightly Stoopid, Michael Franti, Brett Dennen, Citizen Cope and JJ Grey and Mofro. In a post on his site about the trip, Love hinted that the adventure will lead to some interesting projects in the coming months: "I'm telling you, so many jams and collaborations are going to come out of this in the coming year. Just watch!" In the meantime, you can check out the crew in a land-locked setting tonight when they perform at Covington's Madison Theater. Here's a clip for the title track from G. Love's latest album, Fixin' to Die, which was made with help from new pals The Avett Brothers.
(Leave your suggestions/promote yourself or your favorites by telling everyone about your favorite music event recommendations for the day in the comments below.)
Momentous Happenings in Music History for October 21
On this day in 1958, young Rock star Buddy Holly hit the studio with an orchestra and recorded eventual hits "It Doesn't Matter Anymore" and "True Love Ways." The sessions were initially believed to be Holly's last ever — he famously died in a plane crash the following year (alongside Richie Valens and The Big Bopper) at the age of 22 — but it soon emerged that he had demoed some songs in his apartment just weeks before the tragic accident. The demos (minus the overdubbed backing initially added posthumously) were released in 2009 as part of a rarities drop from Universal Records (two sets — Memorial Collection and Down the Line: Rarities — were issued that year in honor of the 50th anniversary of Holly's death).
Those rare, raw final recordings (which had been available only in unmastered form on bootlegs) were refreshing to die hard Holly fans, because the songs from the 1958 sessions were believed to be indicative of a move towards more mainstream Pop fare — "It Doesn't Matter Anymore" was written by Paul Anka and drenched in sappy orchestration. Below, check out "Doesn't Matter" and "Crying, Waiting, Hoping," from his true final "sessions," which fans view as a sign that the best was yet to come from the young rocker, who died a mere two years into his recording career.
Born This Day: Musical movers and shakers sharing an Oct. 21 birthday include: American music icon Dizzy Gillespie (1917); Blues/Rock guitarist/songwriter Elvin Bishop (1942); Go-Go's guitarist Charlotte Caffey (1953); Post Punk/AltRock pioneer Julian Cope (1957); and legendary session guitarist, producer, arranger, songwriter and anchor of Booker T & the MGs, Steve Cropper (1941).
Cropper — a Rock & Roll Hall of Famer who probably deserves more than one induction — spoke to CityBeat's Steven Rosen earlier this year about his recent tribute to the King Records' group The 5 Royales. Check it out here. Then click "Play" below, raise a glass and toast the 70th birthday of one of the most important guitarists ever to strap on a Strat. Play it, Steve!
And here's a clip from a special on John Lennon's personal jukebox, which was stocked with 45s of many of Cropper's greatest hits.
