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Drag
the River, Coal Palace Kings
Valentine’s,
Friday
Now
that Jeff Tweedy’s gone avant-garde, and Jay Farrar’s gone
. . . well, wherever he’s gone, some of you dyed-in-the-flannel
No Depression fans may be silently pining away for all the
raucousness and regret that was alt-country in its prime.
The good news is that Albany’s own Coal Palace Kings have
remained true to form all along, banging out good-time music
about the hard-luck life (or vice versa), without ever resorting
to artsy bangles. On Friday, CPK share the stage with another
stalwart of the genre, Drag the River. Though formed from
the remnants of punk-revival bands (including the well-loved
ALL), Drag the River channel that passion into a boozy country-blues
that matches rough-edged rock with the rawest melancholy.
Good for what ails ya. (April 11, 9 PM, $5, 432-6572)
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DENI
BONET
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Deni
Bonet, Bryan Thomas
RPI Chapel + Cultural Center,
Friday
Alt-pop
violinist Deni Bonet is a little less rosin, a little more
go-go boot than you’d tend to expect from a violinist. She’s
feisty, has a list a mile long of famous folk whom she’s collaborated
with or arranged for—Robyn Hitchcock, R.E.M. and Sarah McLachlahan
are but a few—and has created quite a buzz with merely one
CD to her name. Well, actually, Bonet has self-released a
couple of EPs, the songs of which are included on her 2001
debut CD Bigger Is Always Better. Hitchcock and Kimberley
Rew (writer of the Katrina and the Waves hit “Walking on Sunshine”)
are featured on the recent release, and Hitchcock also will
be featured on her weekly TV show, Duets With Deni—shown
in New York City. The show claims to be part Sessions at
West 54th and part Wayne’s World—with Bonet and
her guests performing each other’s songs. Tomorrow (Friday)
at the Chapel + Cultural Center on the RPI campus, you can
see for yourself what made Time Out New York exclaim,
“She could become HUGE.” Our very own pop star Bryan Thomas
opens. (April 11, 8 PM, $10, $5 students, 274-7793)
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Make
a Living Tour
Caffe Lena, Friday
When
visual artist Andy Friedman and songwriter Paul Curreri met
in college, they had the same ambition: to become painters.
Now, though the goal has changed, they still share the same
vision—they want to combine visual arts with folk-blues music
in a unique and memorable way. The two have collaborated to
create a distinctive tour in which Friedman is able to display—and
perform—his art (which includes drawings, sketches, and Polaroid
photos) with stories and anecdotes, and Curreri is able to
follow with a set of quick-picking, folky original songs.
Friedman sums it up when he says, “Paul and I are different
kinds of artists tapping into the same vein.” Andy Friedman
and Paul Curreri will present their one-of-a-kind performances
when the Make a Living Tour hits Caffe Lena in Saratoga Springs
tomorrow night. (April 11, 8 PM, $12, $10, 583-0022)
Loudon
Wainwright III, Erin McKeown
the egg, friday
For
a man who made his name singing about roadkill, Loudon Wainwright
III sure boasts a fancy pedigree. The Westchester County-raised
descendant of colonial governor Peter Stuyvesant burst onto
the American folk-rock scene in 1972 with the ubiquitous Top
40 novelty hit “Dead Skunk.” In the ensuing decades (and 22
albums later), Wainwright has earned respect as a solid singer-
songwriter whose oeuvre rests in exquisitely wrought confessional
songs. In his spare time, he acts (including a stint on M*A*S*H*,
and most recently in the Sandra Bullock-in-rehab vehicle,
28 Days). He’s also come to be known as “Rufus’ dad”—that
being hot young pop musician Rufus Wainwright. At the Egg
on Friday, Wainwright will perform lots of songs from his
recent critically acclaimed release, Last Man on Earth.
Singer-songwriter Erin McKeown, who calls herself a cross
between “Django Reinhardt and G. Love,” will open the show.
(April 11, 8 PM, $24, 473-1845)
F-Timmi
CD-release
Saturday, Saratoga Winners
It
seems like only yesterday that the guys in F-Timmi—having
followed up failed high school football careers with a successful
series of expulsions from institutions of higher learning—were
an opening act on the local stage at Edgefest. Now, the hard-rocking
quartet are headlining a big CD-release party for their first
full-length album, The Middle Class. Everyone who comes
to this all-ages show at Valentine’s on Saturday will receive
a free full-length CD—you heard right pal, free—packed
with a lucky 13 songs. This is in addition to a first-class
ear-lashing from the likes of special guests Brand New, Breaking
Pangaea, Armor for Sleep and the headliners. Following this
show, F-Timmi will hit the road for a nationwide tour, so
give the band a proper send-off, will ya? (April 12, 8
PM, $12, 432-6572)
Trachtenburg
Family Slideshow Players
club helsinki, Great Barrington,
Mass., sunday
Remember those out-of-focus slides of that ill-fated trip
to the Grand Canyon when you were 8—the ones Dad still
insists on dragging out at family reunions? Well, they might
just have a little more entertainment value than you think,
at least if the Trachtenburg family gets hold of them. The
Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players—consisting of dad Jason
(keyboards, vocals), mom Tina (vintage slide projector) and
9-year-old Rachel (drums, no less)—set family slides that
they buy at estate sales to music, quirky pop-rock tunes that
actually kick ass. “Mountain Trip to Japan, 1959” is but one
stellar example. Plus, according to the Austin Chronicle,
“You haven’t lived until you hear a 9-year-old-girl drummer
command, ‘I need more vocals in the monitors,’ ” So get to
Club Helsinki on Sunday and live already. (April 13, 8
PM, $12, 528-3394)
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noted |
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RUSTED
ROOT
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Altar
Records (housed where Café Web used to be next to
the Madison Theater) is holding what’s “sure to
be the most earth-shattering event since the last
earth-shattering event,” according to the show’s
promoter, tonight (Thursday): The bill features
local bands Burma (hiphop), K. Sonin (math),
DJ Panzah Zandahz (hiphop), Ted Hyland and
the High-Fiving Electified Booby Tassles (this
may be a joke, we’re not sure) and End of a Year
(with members of Madeline Ferguson and Burning Bridges)
(7 PM, free, 690-2816). . . . Progressive jam-band
fans will be pleased to know that the Disco Biscuits—claimed
by the Voice to be the “best live rock band
in the world”—will make their way to Troy’s Revolution
Hall tomorrow (8 PM, doors, $20, $18 advance, 273-2337).
. . . Soul and blues performer Denise LaSalle
will play the Maureen Stapleton Theatre on the
Hudson Valley Community College Campus tomorrow,
and she’ll bring her 11-piece band with her; the
George Boone Blues Band will open (7:30 PM,
$20, $10 students, 629-4849). . . . The all-time
party-in-the-bar band NRBQ will come back
to Valentine’s for a show tonight (8:30 PM, $15.
432-6572). . . . The Stars of Rock will play
the downstairs stage at Valentine’s tonight, with
SOR spin-off band Scientific Maps—made up
of SOR members Aaron Smith and Jonathan
Pelerine and Day Jobs main dude Rich Baldes—and
Troy-based electro-posters Denim and Diamonds
sharing the bill (10 PM, $5, 432-6572). . . . Soul-singing
star Aretha Franklin will belt it out at
the Palace Theatre tomorrow (Friday), with local
blues legend Ernie Williams opening (8 PM,
$46.50-$66.50, 465-4663). . . . Tex-Mex star Freddy
Fender will hit the Columbia-Greene Community
College stage Friday, with Ice Nine opening
(8 PM, $20, 828-4181). . . . Local rock-pop stars
the Wait will play the Van Dyck stage Friday
(7 and 9:30 PM, $8, 381-1111). . . . Saturday’s
jam-band show is also a biggie, with Rusted Root
playing Northern Lights (7:30 PM doors, $25,
$22 advance, 371-0012). . . . Canadian Afro-Cuban
jazz trailblazer Jane Bonnet with Spirits of
Havana will play the Troy Music Hall on Saturday
(8 PM, $24, $21 advance, 273-0031). |
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Columns
& Opinions
