Shane Johnson, who spent several years as part of Greater Cincinnati’s music scene with top-notch Punk/Post Punk bands like NoGood Heroes and Caterpillar Tracks, is now based in Columbia, Mo., but this week he’ll be bringing his fiery current group, New Tongues, back to town. The trio (check out its powerful latest release, the four-song Suite, at newtongues.bandcamp.com) performs Saturday at Northside Tavern (4163 Hamilton Ave., Northside, northsidetav.com) with old pals Ampline and Mad Anthony. DJ Bryan Dilsizian spins between sets during the free show, which begins at 10 p.m.
Mad Anthony is in the midst of its ambitious Mad Anthology project, for which the Cincinnati rockers are releasing a new song every week for a year. Chronicled at madanthology.com and also available at madanthony.bandcamp.com, the trio is 20-songs deep into the project, which has included numerous collaborations; the most recent track, “Hard Times,” features Ohio Knife’s Jason Snell.
The next Mad Anthology song is, fittingly, a collaboration with Johnson. You can hear it this Thursday when it premieres at citybeat.com.
• Another former local musician, Martin Luther & the Kings’ singer/guitarist Hellcat Matt, is returning to town this weekend, and he’s getting the old band back together for a special show. Martin Luther & the Kings, which hasn’t played since Matt moved to Michigan a couple of years ago for college, plays the Northside Yacht Club (4227 Spring Grove Ave., Northside, northsideyachtclub.com) Saturday with guests Radd and Calumet, as well as Columbus, Ohio’s Other People. Showtime is 9 p.m.
The homecoming gig is being recorded for a planned Martin Luther & the Kings’ live album. Visit citybeat.com this week to read more about the band’s return and future plans.
New Band Debuts
The unique, acoustic-based Paper Doll Scissor Fight just released its debut EP, a seven-track, self-titled recording available for free at amazon.com. The EP gets the release-party treatment Thursday at The Listing Loon (4124 Hamilton Ave., Northside) at 8:30 p.m. Great local band Mack West also plays the free show, which is PDSF’s live debut.
Paper Doll Scissor Fight’s EP has a compelling, gypsy-carnival-like feel, with the musicians (guitarist Derek Stinson, bassist Mark Karaponda, drummer Cyndi Stinson and Ben Isaacs on ukulele) creating such a compellingly slanted, full-bodied sound, you often forget it’s an all-acoustic affair. Though the vibe of the music seems to beg for a singer from the Tom Waits’ school of soulful eccentricity (Stinson, indeed, offers some of that boho grit when he steps to the mic occasionally), lead singer Sara Tripp, a newcomer to the local music scene, is a pleasant surprise as PDSF’s frontperson. Tripp’s strong voice is more akin to the classic Folk singers of the ’60s/’70s, which gives PDSF’s sound another alluringly unexpected texture. (Click here for more on the band.)
Free Roots and Country Fests
• Northern Kentucky’s The Good People Festival returns for its third-annual event this Sunday at Baker Hunt Art & Cultural Center (620 Greenup St., Covington, bakerhunt.org). Running from noon until 6 p.m., the free festival features local food and drink options, several local arts and craft vendors and kids’ activities, plus some excellent Folk/Roots/Americana music. The lineup features locals Kim Taylor, Buffalo Wabs & the Price Hill Hustle, Warrick & Lowell and My Brother the Bear, as well as Lexington, Ky.’s Tyler Childers and Dayton, Ohio’s The New Old-Fashioned.
• Country music fans can check out several up-and-coming Nashville, Tenn.-based performers at Washington Park (1230 Elm St., Over-the-Rhine, washingtonpark.org) this Friday and Saturday. The free BootYard Bash kicks of Friday at 7 p.m. with Nashville’s Chris Cavanaugh and LANco, then Saturday beginning at 3 p.m. you can catch a pair of top-tier local artists — Wilder and Noah Smith — who will be followed by Brandon Lay and Dylan Scott.
CONTACT MIKE BREEN: mbreen@citybeat.com
This article appears in Jul 20-27, 2016.
