Explanation

 By Don Allred

These Music Calendars were in Columbus OH's 614 Magazine, posted here from the most recent to earliest (2009?). Warning: there might be more that I haven't found yet, which may be posted out of chronological order,

MusiCal (January 2013 pitches, February 2013 complete)

 By Don Allred

January pitches:

 Parquet Courts

 Children of the Clintonverse with 90s alt-rock appetites find ways through youth-reforming boot camp to fluid, laid-back melodies over compulsively precise beats, with lyrics shifting from deep brewing to streetwise, straight-ahead views.

01/07 @ Cafe Bourbon St.

Pat Dailey/Reese Dailey Band

Ex-cop, ex-Marine, and eternally migrating snowbird, Singer/songwriter Pat Dailey is the Bard of Put-in-Bay OH; also, a hearty, very musical bratwurst fart in the direction of auto-comparisons to Jimmy Buffet, which are not uncommon. Zestier Buffet fans may indeed go for the gusto of Dailey, who somewhat wryly relishes charting the chartering of fellow romantics, while they all sail over and way under the rainbow. His son Reese Dailey’s own vocals, original songs, and slide guitar lead RSD through focal points shaped in part by Southern Rock, as well and folk and pop.

01/12 @ The LC, 405 Neil Ave., 7 p.m.

Hawthorne Heights/JT Woodruff/Mark Rose

Dayton’s emo-screamo vets continue their indie EP series with Hope, which also seasons the emotional and musical range of resources, incl combination of apparently experience-shaded lyrics and pop’s pleasure principle. HH lead singer JT does a solo set of new material and re-versions; Mark Rose opens with R&B-flavored folk-pop.

01/17 @ The Rumba, 1151 N. High St., 8 p.m.

February complete:

Nick D. and Believers/Matt Munhall Trio/Joey Hebdo/DJ Jon Elliott

Vocalist/keyboard player Nick D., whose Believers include members of Bella Ruse, Them Labs, and The Floorwalkers, unveils tonight-only set designs by Columbus’ Kaity Hoard, framing a new music video and vividly convivial new tunes, including “We Grew Up Wild.” Singer/pianist Matt Munhall’s trio will spin us through elegantly moody originals, judiciously juiced with Dylan, Newman, and perhaps The Beatles. Joey Hebdo, of tasty Prosciutto fame, can be quite the one-man-band.  DJ Jon Elliott (AKA The Floorwalkers’ lead singer) pumps up classic and rare groove soul, funk, r&b, plus several schools of rap.

02/07 @ Ace of Cups, 2619 N. High St., 8 p.m.

Walk The Moon/Pacific Air

Cincy-based Walk The Moon took their name from “Walking on the Moon,” a space-reggae album track by the Police, which became a concert favorite, and an inspiration for WTM’s own performance-enhanced, studio-smart, contemporary art-pop. Artful touches include those of paint, which Walk The Moon like to wear onstage, and share with their audience. San Diego’s equally atmospheric Pacific Air are basically brothers Ryan and Taylor Lawhon’s voices and keyboards. With a guitarist, bassist, and drummer added for shows, Pacific Air’s sky-brushed textures and implied destinations should para-glide by more invitingly than ever.

02/07 @ LC Pavilion, 405 Neil Ave., 7 p.m.

A Short History of Jazz

The Columbus Jazz Orchestra and Columbus Youth Orchestra’s excursions through blues, ragtime, swing, bop and beyond are accompanied by saxophonist Tia Fuller, who’s played with jazz/blues singer Nancy Wilson and Beyonce, plus drummer Lewis Nash, an accomplished accompanist for formidably individualistic improvisers, such as Betty Carter and Branford Marsalis. CJO Artistic Director Byron Stripling, who played first trumpet in the Count Basie Orchestra and also performed with the Dizzy Gillespie Orchestra, places Basie and Gillespie on a flight map with Scott Joplin, Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, and others.

02/07 @ Southern Theater, 21 E. Main St., 7:30 p.m. 02/08-10, 8:00 p.m.

Rascal Flatts/Band Perry/Kristen Kelly

Tonight’s established and rising country stars thrive on pop appeal. Rascal Flatts deliver signature ballads and toe-tappers, via the three-part harmonies of Columbus-raised cousins, lead vocalist Gary Levox and multi-instrumentalist Jay DeMarcus, along with lead guitarist Joe Don Rooney. LeVox’s carefully modulated, mountain-high sound is discreetly compatible with the Appalachian folk-pop of spooky, sparky young siblings (two guys and a galvanizing gal), The Band Perry. Kristen Kelly cheerfully kisses her “Ex-Old Man” (“and my ex-best friend”) goodbye, while dancing with a cheeky, chirpy guitar hook, resembling the springy offspring of OMC’s “How Bizarre.” OMG, y’all!

02/09 @ Nationwide Arena, 200 W. Nationwide Blvd., 7:30 p.m.

Punch Brothers/Anais Mitchell

Featuring ex-Nickel Creek mandolin virtuoso/vocalist Chris Thile, Punch Brothers’ musical medicine show mixes acoustic adaptations of Radiohead with elements of classical, Americana, and distinctively original material. They’re even better live: driving Thile’s wry, passionate, divorce-sourced suite, “The Blind Leaving the Blind,” for instance. Our answer to Mumford & Sons? USA! USA! Equally ambitious singer/songwriter Anais Mitchell, creator of the Broadway musical and concept album Hadestown, deftly guides the struggling, roots-fueled hero of 2012’s acclaimed Young Man In America: "My mother gave a mighty shout/Opened her legs and let me out/ Hungry as a prairie dog/Young man in America."

02/12 @ Southern Theater, 21 E. Main St., 8 P.m.

Umphrey’s McGee/Mike Dillon Band

Both bands on tonight’s bill lead with the variety and agility of their jams, at the heart of which are strong songs, demanding to be heard in fresh ways. Umphrey’s McGee write searching, yet intensely committed relationship updates---challenges channeled into crisp, sometimes dazzling progtronic workouts and expeditions. Vibraphonist/percussionist/vocalist/composer Mike Dillon cites John Coltrane’s free jazz breakthrough “Giant Steps” and Iggy & The Stooges’ proto-punk classic "I Wanna Be Your Dog” as crucial, still shakin' inspirations. Dillon’s current quartet includes Carly Meyers on trombone and (say it loud) Moog Taurus pedals.

02/15 @ LC Pavilion, 405 Neil Ave., 7 p.m.

Sirens

When Kay Parker and Molly Pauken aren’t wailing Sirens---alongside guitarist/bassist/singer Pete Cary and drummer Jeff Peters---they’re studio session mainstays, and frequently on stage with other groups. Especially Ohio country rockers, including McGuffey Lane, The John Schwab Band, and Jonalee White & The Late Nite Drivers. Multi-instrumentalist Pauken, who tours with Nashville sage Rodney Crowell, has Celtic connections with Columbus’s Ladies of Longford; also various jazzy experiences (ditto Parker, who’s sung with the Columbus Jazz Arts Group). This adventurous way of life suffuses their original material, along with folk, funk, blues, and intense self-expression.

02/20 @ Natalie’s Coal Fired Pizza, 5001 N. High St., 9 p.m.

Cash Only

This Johhny Cash tribute benefits Andymanathon’s fund for disadvantaged children. Smoking Guns and Apple Bottom Gang will play “Folsom Prison Blues” and “Ring of Fire” respectively; Third Degree Sideburn gallop through JC’s rockabilly years; Jinxed spotlight Johnny’s duets with June Carter Cash and others. Joshua P. James and the Paper Planes fly from “Egg-Sucking Dog” to Cash’s vision of Nine Inch Nails’ “Hurt,” while Unit 1 unleash “The Beast In Me” and “You Are My Sunshine.”  Also: Outlaw Deluxe, Boondogglers, Brothers, and The Song Bird Band---with over 60 Cash covers in all (no repeats allowed).

02/23 @ Shrunken Head, 251 W. 5th Ave., 6 p.m.

Ra Ra Riot/Pacific Air

Long known for counter-balancing brainy alt-rock with soulful strings, Ra Ra Riot have lost the cello, kept the violin, and nurtured the poptronic valentines of 2013’s Beta Love. The title track is an eerie serenade: “In this city of robot hearts, ours were meant to be...” Be what? Or is it “beat”? That comes to seem enough, as RRR’s catchy sincerity gets reassuring----although “When I Dream” ‘s Caribbean-tinged electro-romance might make cosmic crooner Miguel sweat the competition. As they did for Walk The Moon on the 7th, ambient pop combo Pacific Air opens.

02/28 @ A&R Music Bar, 391 Neil Ave., 7 p.m.

MusiCal (January 2012)

 By Don Allred

Bass Jam! Featuring Freekbass/Jahman Brahman/Skeetones

Livetronica is the watchword tonight, exemplified by keyboard army Skeetones, who promise “Remixes on the fly--no loops or backing tracks.” They confidently moonwalk surreal boulevards with “General Sherman.” Skeetones’ Cincinnati colleagues Freekbass and DJ Tobotius ignite steel-belted radial grooves and sardonic samples; no wonder they’ve played so often with galactic funk guru Bootsy Collins. Former Columbus jam-rock journeymen Jahman Brahman now restlessly reflect their North Carolina mountain greenery home, with sure-footed funk as well. Also currently scheduled: local stalwarts Carma, Magua and Burgler, plus Newark, OH’s own luminescent live painter/dubstep DJ Heady Ruxpin.

1/6 @ Skully’s Music Diner, 1151 N High St., 9 p.m.

Wale

Rapper Wale’s freestyle whirlwind of imagery found improbable poise atop the creative and commercial peaks of his often brilliantly produced breakthrough album, Attention Deficit. The followup is bluntly titled Ambition, and it’s all about growing up and falling apart simultaneously. Some of us have been there, but rarely with Wale’s wealth of defensiveness, self-awareness, and other compulsions. Meanwhile, the elegant, sometimes eerie music is always as patiently seductive as fate. As guest Ne-Yo murmurs, speaking for all of the sounds surrounding Wale, “You got time.” Wale’s earned that much, for sure.

1/7 @ Newport Music Hall, 7 p.m.

Dead Indians/The Lindsay/Outer Spacist

Dead Indians are Ojibwe rappers from Winnipeg. Their 2005 debut album, Indian Affairs, exudes a smoothly chilling serenade of Old Milwaukee, soon followed by, “This is the last beer, I swear,” as the party rolls way on through another smoky night. Newer tracks sample pop radio hooks for sweetly bouncing beatdowns of faces, forces, and farces. Their live exuberance is compatible with the garage-morphing Mormon masks of Outer Spacist, also OS’s Columbus neighbors The Lindsay’s latest set of shiny indie incisors, Deep in the Queue.

1/13 @ Rumba Café, 2507 Summit St., 10 p.m.

Sewing Machine War

The Sewing Machine War is an adventurously focused band from Akron and Warren, Ohio. These wizards and weathermen aim to “invent an experience.” They also mean to tap “veins of history, truth, and turmoil.” So, living history--in songs such as “Jerico,” which is not quite the Biblical spelling, but they’re testing vast walls with good vibrations, not too sweetly. The guitar screams somewhere in a winter dream, though far from a nightmare. Is earthy progtronica a contradiction? It’s also these guys’ rock and roll.

1/15 @ Kobo, 2590 N High St., 9 p.m.

Griffin House

On 2007’s Flying Upside Down, singer/songwriter Griffin House listens and learns from all kinds of relationships in the verses, then steps or wheels out into the choruses. He never forgets the value of a challenge, while musically melding with his heroes from Tom Petty’s Heartbreakers, and declaring, “She’s outta my league/That’s the kinda girl I need.” On 2010’s The Learner, House is at his best when celebrating and kidding his propensity to push romantic and musical luck, especially with “She Loves Girls.” Gee, so does he! He actually tells her that.

1/15 @ The Basement, 391 Neil Ave., 8 p.m.

Rascal Flatts

Rascal Flatts, two thirds of whom are from Columbus, have always been ideally suited for country crossover success. Especially in the way lead singer Gary LeVox guides his high lonesome mountain sound though vulnerable pop appeal. Unpretentiously tuneful, they’ve outlasted many a man band, with a thriving audience of young adults. They maintain their mellowness onstage, but aren’t shy of special effects. Also performing this evening: tabloid headline survivor Sara Evans, boldly wailing all over her comeback trail, and 20-year-old singer/songwriter/ multi-instrumentalist Hunter Hayes.

1/21 @ Nationwide Arena, 200 W Nationwide Blvd., 7:30 p.m.

Machine Head

Machine Head entered thrash metal’s festive fray in 1991, when Seattle’s alternative barbarians were about to sweep all metal from the throne. Yet in subsequent dark ages, Machine Head kept the faith, until straying into big-selling, though somewhat trend-dependent albums. Scorched by such pyrrhic victories, they returned unto the path, via Through the Ashes of Empires and The Blackening. 2011’s Unto the Locust finds them leading all true believers, even an arsonist, into trials by harvests of necessary fire: “Come young and old, suffer unto the locust!” As always, it’s an epic metal family affair.

1/24 @ Newport Music Hall, 1722 N High St., 6 p.m.

Los Campesinos!

Los Campesinos! are a wryly excitable art-pop troupe from Wales, launching pad of Dylan Thomas. Richard Burton, John Cale, Young Marble Giants, and other prestigious individualists. It’s also the UK’s picturesque backside, inspiring/requiring LC! to rattle the more desperate (and contagious) pretensions of their solemn peers, maybe including those in the mirrors: “Can’t tell/Is the singer’s keyboard a crutch/Or a synthesizer?” 2011’s Hello Sadness is a break-up album, but at least they finally found a love worth losing. Sweet! As long as they feel like giving popular culture and themselves a hard enough, energizing time.  

1/25 @ Skully’s Music Diner, 1151 N High St., 9 p.m.

Trio Showcase with Karate Coyote and Dirty Girls

The men and women of Columbus sextet Karate Coyote raise voices and instruments into a complex clarity of melody, harmony, plot twists, and inescapable zingers. New tracks, unreleased but stage-ready, resolve to make even deeper impressions on walls, doors, die-hard habits, face-scraping carpets, and bone-filling rhythms (KC are making a list). Dirty Girls are guys, mostly graduates of Stucco Jones’s pool hall night school, plus former disco-pop-metal boogie knights of Chelsea Automatic. Preview track “Overblown” suggests 12-string guitars as spokes and tires of a scruffy mountain bike, blithely navigating the traffic of chugging bass.

1/27 @ Circus, 1127 N High St., 9 p.m.

Mieka Pauley

Submitted, as Rod Serling does in The Twilight Zone, for your approval: one Mary Dominica Pauley, born in Boston, raised in Ohio and other states, who earned a Harvard degree in biological anthropology, then forswore the Catholic schoolgirl associations of her birth name for the crisper tag of Mieka. Pauley, winner of songwriting competitions and creator of fan-funded albums, is now a seeking siren of scientific passion and enterprising visions. She applies overdrive to the quest for sexual justice, while sweeping headlights across channeled clues, exploded views, and detours.

1/29 @ Rumba Café, 2507 Summit St., 7 p.m.

MusiCal (February 2012)

 By Don Allred

Ease The Medic/Winter Makes Sailors/Bigshot

On their self-titled new album, Ease The Medic’s uphill battles take an escalator, gliding and swaying as bits of emo, punk, smashed ballads and other still-searing memories bombard guitars and cymbals. ETM’s cover of Columbus colleagues Winter Makes Sailors’ voice mail autopsy “Eleven” fits perfectly. Supple new preview tracks from WMS wickedly suggest just how twisted Ohio’s melodic vagabonds can get, while opening insatiable hearts and minds to Brian Wilson’s California sunshine. With his band’s usual bulls-eye bluntness, Justin Perkins states Bigshot’s complete bio: "Loud, moody, broken Clinton-era alt rock." Good times!

02/04@ Kobo Live, 2590 N High St.

9 p.m.

Ladysmith Black Mambazo

 The gentle intensity of gospel-based South African a cappella choir Ladysmith Black Mambazo has pop appeal too: 2011’s Songs from a Zulu Farm even playfully transforms “Old McDonald.” 2012’s Ladysmith Black Mambazo and Friends includes “Diamonds On the Soles of Her Shoes.” co-written and performed again with Paul Simon, whose 1986 “Graceland” featured LBM. The new album also ranges from “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door,” with Dolly Parton, to “Hello My Baby,” with the jaunty harmonies of Zap Mama, plus DJ mixes. Yet live, especially, they don’t require assistance to levitate and dance with us.

02/08 @ The Southern Theater, 21 E Main St.

8 p.m.

Craig Finn

“Dude with the long fingernails, I know he’ll be good to you/I seen him shave up at the library/And sleep behind the caribou.” On his solo debut, Clear Heart Full Eyes, The Hold Steady’s Craig Finn temporarily trades his main band's ornate neo-classic rock chariot for his Austin session group’s alone-together groove, a bracing backroom echo of THS tourmates Drive-By Truckers. Finn’s currently traveling quartet includes the new album’s incisive, evocative, regular-and-steel guitarist, Ricky Ray Jackson. Attentive, sportive bassist Alex Livingstone previously played Columbus with Tim Easton’s Freelan Barons.

02/09 @ The Basement, 405 Neil Ave

7 p.m.

Broken Hearts/Broken Strings

Headliners Earwig are a song-centered power trio, whose fans recently voted for “Dinosaur Song” to top tonight’s four-album spanning set list: ”We were dinosaurs/With little arms/Long tails and big, big scales/You were trying to hold my hand/I dream sweet monster dreams.” With Busk League All-Stars’ Jesse Faller on keyboards, Earwig will also conduct a “Love Note Reading (comedy/art bit).” They host catchy, combustible alt rockers Yellow Light Maybe and The Slang, also Teen Fiction’s one-man electronic dance pop mythology, Cleveland’s irrepressible Mind Fish, Sex Kitten Purrlesque, and other burlesque artists.

02/10 @ Outland Live, 95 Liberty St.

7 p.m.

The DewDroppers Sweetheart Dance

The Columbus-based DewDroppers label their sparkling ballroom wizard’s brew as swang music. Ingredients: ”1920s-to-‘50s, with a contemporary tweak.” This release party’s new songs are included in a comfortably roomy set, presented by Adam Nedrow (AKA Raggedy Dandy) on drums and vibraphone, Counterfeit “Mama” Madison’s keys, guitarist Lonesome Joe Gilliland, and bassist Michael Kohn (now full-time, but too new for a nickname). Party favors and flavors will appear. So will area trio Way Yes, whose own newly released tunes conspire with older, equally fun ones, to lure moody lyrics through tropical-tronic soundscapes and guitar mischief.

02/10 @ 400, 400 W Rich St.

9 p.m.

Bloody Valentine Night: A Darker Side of Love

With the ideal of each band performing only one classic cover, Love Culture have summoned fellow seekers of new allure in shoegaze, and other talismanic traces of true romance. The Receiver’s re-contextualized, stellar prog and The Loyal Divide’s morphing, party-mask electronica will encounter Bloody Knives and Dead Leaf Echo, channeling industrial bass and ethereal harmonies respectively. Dark pop’s Wolf Ram Heart aim “beyond self-imposed structures of bottomless aspirational economy.” Amen! In celebration of love’s deep heart, attendees will receive black flowers (real ones). DJs Scott Niemet, Lydia Beatz and Walleye will re-mix appropriate potions.

02/11 @ Ace Of Cups, 2619 N High St.

7 p.m.

Sharon Van Etten/Shearwater

As the spotlight heats up, singer/songwriter Sharon Van Detten extends her balancing act of thrills, chills and skills, via new Tramp ‘s luminous psych-pop-folk production by The National’s Aaron Desser. Van Etten also savors and shares discreetly juicy details and ever-budding, hard-earned wisdom. With her touring band, now including chamber-rocking singer/multi-instrumentalist Heather Woods Broderick, Van Etten’s live adventures continue. Ditto opening act Shearwater, as the dynamic art rockers sail through the strata of their completed Island Arc trilogy, to the vivid velocity of 2012’s truthfully titled Animal Joy.”

02/14 @ Wexner Center Performance Space, 1871 N High St.

9 p.m.

Mojoflo/Jared Mahone/DJ Drastic

Columbus convenes a bon voyage party for festive septet Mojoflo, who begin their tour in New Orleans, just in time for Mardi Gras. Vocalist Amber Knicole holds forth with tingling-to-scorching orchestrations inspired by James Brown, Motown, hip-hop, and reggae. Compatibly flexible inflections are filtered through Jared Mahone’s crossover demos, currently sparking a Mayer Hawthorne-to-yacht rock feel. Mahone and crew are working on a “crowd-focused” album, with input from fans demanding JM’s trademark live energy. DJ Drastic cuts things up with observant choices, a monster record collection, and 20 years of experience.

02/17 @ Skully’s, 1151 N High St.

9 p.m.

Tim Easton/You’re So Bossy

Columbus-launched, globetrotting singer/songwriter Tim Easton’s nomadic confidence infuses the gritty currents of his tuneful speculations. You may not recognize where “Nobody Plays Piano in Athens, GA” is taking you, but you’ll know when you get there. The instrumentally versatile Easton is accompanied tonight by drummer Sam Brown. The uncommon denominator of Columbus legends Gaunt, New Bomb Turks, and The Sun, Brown also drives power-pop openers You’re So Bossy. YSB tends to include the likes of bassist Phil Park, who was one of the Haynes Boys, as was Easton. The family tree’s still smoking.

02/18 @ The Rumba Cafe, 2507 Summit St

10 p.m.

The Klezmatics

The Klezmatics personalize and extend klezmer's soulfully rowdy, improvisational experience. Their voices, strings, brass, reeds, keyboards, and percussion also roll out the polka, ska, and other dances. 2006’s Grammy-winning Wonder Wheel provides revelatory music for previously unheard Woody Guthrie lyrics. On 2011’s Live at Town Hall, they’re equally powerful in the “kosher gospel” of African American Jewish guest singer Joshua Nelson, and while steadily raising the roof with, “I ain't afraid/Of your Bible/Of your Torah/Of your Quran/I’m afraid of what you do in the name of your God.”

02/23 @ The Lincoln Theatre, 769 E Long St.

8 p.m.

MusiCal (March 2012)

By Don Allred

Bone Thugs N-Harmony featuring Krayzie Bone & Wish Bone/Dizzy/Dilemma

On this tour, Cleveland’s Bone Thugs N Harmony are represented by central BTNH figure Krayzie Bone and trusty sidekick Wish Bone, both of whom have voiced low-key assurances/hopes of reunion, echoed by other quintet members, despite furor following the duo’s departure last spring. Fittingly, this fluctuating flow of family affairs recalls the impulsive balancing act of BTNH’s definitive “Crossroads,” where bursts of rapping and singing blend and ride through tumultuous traffic. Between studio experiments, Krayzie and Wish expertly emphasize BTNH classics onstage. Canadian rappers Dizzy and Dilemma bring youthful energy and experience.

03/04 @ Newport Music Hall, 1722 N High St.

 Doors Open: 7 p.m.

Valient Thorr/Cadaver Dogs

Vailent Thorr’s early metal battle axes chop through sweet Earth’s crazy problems, while drummer Lucian Thorr keeps the pleasure principle swinging. Lead throat Valient Himself is a spiritually/socially struggling Everyman, whose searing sonic seed might well be Motorhead’s “Eat The Rich.” The bent metal boogie of Columbus’ Cadaver Dogs seems spawned by the cathartic sandpaper blast of Motorhead’s “Ace of Spades.” Drummer/howler Lex Vegas channels the dream: “We want to be the perfect balance of lust and aggression, like really good hate sex or the most awesome time you ever got beat up.”

03/04 @ KOBO, 2590 N High St.

8 p.m.

Jazz on the Avenue: A Soulful Night Of Keys

A Soulful Night of Keys showcases three generations of jazz. Lonnie Liston Smith filtered avant-jazz showmanship into potent smoothness, via ‘70s hits such as the much-sampled “Expansions,” showcased tonight. Also expect Gil Scott-Heron’s trenchant “The Bottle,” featuring the voice, flute, and vintage synthesizer of Brian Jackson, collaborator with late, barely pre-hip hop novelist-poet-singer-songwriter GSH. Young Mark Adams, whose colleagues have included soul jazz vibraphonist Roy Ayers, promises a “unique” rendition of Ayers’ “Everybody Loves The Sunshine.”  Veteran guitar, bass and drums further fortify the three keyboard artists’ funky reveries and revelry. 

03/10 @ King Arts Complex, 867 Mt. Vernon Ave.

7 p.m.

Lionel the Jailbird/Glow Merchants/Forest And the Evergreens/Pet Lions

Columbus-based Lionel The Jailbird’s vocalist/violinist Dominique De Biasio steers tough-love-is-the-drug ruminations through overcast folk-rock and bluesy waves of psych-garage undertow, singing “Bon Voyage” like an unusually tuneful pirate. Equally fearlessly, Glow Merchants travel “Basked In Fire” ‘s modal whirlpool  into wailing Mideast/Midwest serenades. Forest And The Evergreens can wail through their own “Spaceghost” like the  Zombies overtaken by the Police, with pole-vaulting cymbals. In recent songs such as “Trinidad,” Chicago’s Pet Lions dig up new/fresh nuances in retro electro-pop.

03/16 @ KOBO, 2590 N High St.

9 p.m.

roeVy/Blatta & Inesha

In Columbus DJ/VJ team roeVy’s perfect world, twin red eye-dots always shine: under a rug lifted by a sexy maid, on a watering can, in the Oval Office, and riding laser beams from the peaked hoods of two figures, working and playing together onstage. Their lavishly layered sound and vision add up to roeVystep, and you probably won’t want to escape (how fortunate). Italian DJs Blatta & Inesha ride and guide techno nouveau’s  espresso express, via "Pet Massage,” “Pigeon Flu,” “Get F*$@ed Up,” “Basso Grasso.” and turntable shout-outs to playmates Mustard Pimp.

03/17 @ Skully's, 1151 N. High St.

9 p.m.

Andrew Bird/Eugene Mirman

“Enjoy yourselves/It’s later than you think,” Andrew Bird characteristically sang along with his colleagues in Squirrel Nut Zippers, while swinging toward the Millennium, or somewhere/nowhere. Bird's new Break It Yourself bounces and curves through basically live-in-the-studio explorations of sardonic vitality and oblique-stroke imagery. AB’s voice, violin, guitar, glockenspiel, great whistling, and live looping will join his intrepid band in an enchanted forest of morphing melodies. Genial spoken-word artist Eugene Mirman’s reputation was prophesied by 60s acid-pop-folk minstrel Donovan: “He’ll be so very kind/As to /Blow your mind.”

03/20 @ Southern Theatre, 21 E Main St.

8 p.m.

Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors/Nathan Angelo

Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors mix country, folk, pop, and rock into songs of compassionate candor. Holcomb’s attentive Americana even evokes the wry testimonials of equally faith-based Canadian bard Bruce Cockburn, when he belts out, “I played the religion card,” and describes how such grandstanding set back his own spirituality. Wife Ellie Bannister Holcomb’s crucial vocal and compositional reinforcements keep the pilgrims pertinent and moving. Singer/songwriter/pianist Nathan Angelo’s rippling emotional range  is also truthfully, fervently fluid: “Pour me a glass of that fine whining about/ Someway, somehow, getting out!”

03/26 @ A&R Music Bar, 391 Neil Ave.

Doors Open: 7 p.m.

Night Beats

The Night Beats are taking (and taking over) strobe-light-illuminated night classes, while learning how not to turn the mid-60s sounds of teen punk rebellion into hairy hidebound high school cool-rules. “She told me somethin’/I can’t explain”: now you’re getting it, wild boy. Danny Lee Blackwell’s voice orbits the rubbery twang bar of his guitar, which twists the shadows of bass and drums, stomping and strutting toward earthy elegance. The Night Beats function at the junction of good, bad, occasionally evil, and just enough ugly to keep it real. 

03/29 @ Ace of Cups, 2619 N High St.

Doors Open: 9 p.m  

The Great Flood/Bill Frisell Quartet

Bill Morrison is a filmmaker increasingly known for working with found reels and live musicians. He participated in cellist/photographer Erik Friedlander’s 2009 Wexner-co-commissioned multimedia show, Block Ice & Tackle. Wexner also co-commissioned The Great Flood,  Morrison’s documentary collaboration with jazz-Americana guitarist Bill Frisell.  Performing the soundtrack onstage, Frisell glides eerily over the steadily converging evidence of 1927’s historic disaster, as HD processing captures nitrate newsreel stock’s random decay, which sometimes dances like jazzy flames around the Mississippi, also strivers and survivors, including those seen talking in a bus station on silent footage. 

03/31 @ Thurber Theatre, Drake Center

1849 Cannon Drive, OSU

8 p.m.

MusiCal (April 2012)

 APRIL

By Don Allred

Lost In The Trees/Poor Moon

 Lost In The Trees have no problem finding an eerie, rhythmically distinctive pathway through inevitable sonic associations with Bon Iver, among other leading chamber rock ensembles. Guitarist Ari Picker’s vocal ventures veer through those of multi-instrumentalist Emma Nadeau and violinist Jenavieve Varaga, while LITT’s cinematic reveries get refreshingly edited by memory. Poor Moon officially converges two Fleet Foxes, Christian Wargo and Casey Wescott, with their long-time off-duty musical associates, Ian and Peter Murray. Illusion, PM’s debut EP, wryly weds idealistically translucent harmonies to frankly sketchy real-life complications.

04/04 @ The Wexner Center, 1871 N. High St.

8 p.m.

Lovedrug/Receiver/Big Sweet

Suave yet excitable veterans Lovedrug sometimes recall the Golden State sweep of Lindsay Buckingham’s vintage vantage points. The telescopically melodic progressive rock of Columbus quartet The Receiver is even more vivid with Winter Makes Sailors’ Sean Gardner added on guitar and keyboards. Lovedrug’s Canton neighbors The Big Sweet are still in high school, but they’ve already released two albums, in between breezing into clubs for another show (keep those IDs handy, lads). They deliver a fresh crop of jangle-pop originals sporting mid-60s style, thus already experiencing psychedelic twinges.

04/07 @ The Rumba, 2507 Summit St.

8 p.m.

Van Hunt

Like Prince, singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist/bandleader Van Hunt knows the price and the rewards of holding out and keeping his mercurial vision in focus, even on seemingly burned bridges, as domineering labels collapse and quirky keepers of the funk-rock flame stay on the road. Live At The Troubadour 2011 churns, marches and flows through electric valentines to his picky muse, and Lady Luck as well. Hunt’s romantic quest keeps even the speedy “Watching You Go Crazy Is Driving Me Insane” sustained, like a hummingbird in spring.

04/09 @The Basement, 391 Neil Ave.

Doors Open: 7 p.m.

Zakir Hussain & Masters of Percussion

Bouncing, sliding and rattling Indian classical and folk rhythms through adapted influences and inflections, Zakir Hussain’s tabla hand drums maintained the ricocheting rigor and vigor of John McLaughlin’s pioneering world music groups, Shakti and Remember Shakti.  Hussain’s also played with Pharoah Sanders, George Harrison, Van Morrison, Mickey Hart, Bela Fleck, Edgar Meyer, and Yo Yo Ma. Equally adept as soloists and accompanists, Hussain’s Masters of Percussion include trans-Asian players of strings and reeds, along with members of Meitei Pung Cholom Performing Troupe, who combine dancing, drumming and martial arts.

04/10 @ The Southern Theatre, 21 E. Main St.

8 p.m. 

Patrick Sweany/Shivering Timbers

Like a good pork chop, singer/songwriter Patrick Sweany’s folk-blues-rock is pleasingly greasy, never cheesy. He picks electric and acoustic guitars, the latter with resonating metal cones. For this solo show, he pledges to continue his practice of “sportsmanlike unpredictability.” Electric-acoustic male-female alt-folk duo Shivering Timbers, plus drummer Brad Thorla, present some new material from their album in progress. It includes: “a few ‘kid’ songs not actually for kids, love songs, a murder ballad, a couple gospel songs, a Neil Diamond cover, and an original with D.H Lawrence's poetry.”

04/14 @ The Rumba, 1151 N. High St.

9 p.m.

Boombox/Alpha Data/The Loyal Divide

DJ/musician Zion Godchaux is the son of Keith and Donna Godchaux, former members of the Grateful Dead and related bands. Godchaux, along with Russ Randolph, distills his jam-rich heritage into the livetronica of Boombox. Laptop programming meets spontaneous mixing and many instruments, with no song-list. Alpha Data keeps his tuneful bass grooves and listeners on their toes, via glitch-hop tweaks. Columbus-born, Chicago-based The Loyal Divide have slimmed their line-up from five to four and tightened up their moon-rocking atmospherics. Live At The Bishop offers the latest taste from TLD’s levitating punchbowl.

04/20 @ The Newport, 1722 N. High St.

Doors Open: 8 p.m.

GWAR/Kylesa/Ghoul/Legacy of Disorder

Majestic malcontents GWAR return, metallic armpits laden with ripe Kylesa, Ghoul and Legacy of Disorder, plus a very special message from lead thing Oderus Urungus:

"GWAR gunk actually helps to hold the Newport together. But get rid of that horrible spiral staircase to the stage! Last time, my armored war suit got ‘corkscrewed,’ and they had to call a pipe cutter! Of course, I could have just flexed my pinky and destroyed the whole joint, but the Newport will always hold a special place in my heart, if I had such a thing!"

04/22 @ The Newport, 1722 N. High St.

Doors Open: 6:30 p.m.

Overkill/Belphegor

Crate-digging collectors sometimes mistake perennial thrash metal pioneers Overkill for the long-gone headbangers of the same name who once recorded for punk-owned label SST. Appropriately so: our surviving Overkill built on the kinetic, frenetic crossover potential which SST’s punk prophets glimpsed. 2012’s The Electric Age soon evokes the historic, histrionic skull-butting of buzzcuts and mullets, while deftly alternating speedy onslaughts with looming interludes. Austria’s diabolically defiant Belphegor, notorious for flaunting knowledge of Goethe, de Sade, and more, in German, English, and Latin lyrics, take a studio break for another assault on the States.

04/23 @ Screamin’ Willies, 1921 Channingway Center Dr

6:30 p.m.

Mr. Gnome/Town Monster

Mr. Gnome’s cute ‘n’ spooky name easily advertises their sound, but also challenges it: will they play it safe? No. Often enough, singer/guitarist Nicole Barille and drummer Sam Meister use such cool, shady charms to conjure new kaleidoscopes, tumultuously tunneling from the mighty indie heritage of their sweet sweatshirt home, Cleveland. The Town Monster still consider Columbus a lily pad worth launching their own animated ambitions, following an epic series of EPs with bold psych-funky propositions, “Forget” and “Burn My Heart.” Invitations to “dance your freak out” are more about exercise than exorcism (maybe).

04/28 @ Skully’s, 1151 N. High St.

9 p.m.

MusiCal (May 2012)

 By Don Allred

Wussy/Fort Shame

Cincinnati’s Chuck Cleaver made serious comedy with Ass Ponys’ trailer child anthem, “Little Bastard.” Now he boldly rolls with the rocking relationship trips of Wussy, co-led by Cleaver’s alluringly dour paramour, Lisa Walker. “Love is stronger than dirt,” they proclaim, somewhat sarcastically, yet even the unwed can get pulled into their booming, radio-ready washing machine. Indelible as a laundry marker, the tough-minded tunes of Sue Harshe once shaped her pioneering Columbus indie band Scrawl. Harshe and lead guitarist/songwriter Todd May currently light up quartz-sharp quartet Fort Shame's dirge-y urges with enough streetlight electricity for intriguingly elusive, gritty glamour.

05/04 @ Ace of Cups, 2619 N. High St., 10 p.m.

Kyle Sowashes/Cabdrivers/Safeties/Harlem Airshaft

Even as a download, Columbus combo The Kyle Sowashes’ new Somebody sports the expansive drive and warmth often claimed as exclusive properties of vintage vinyl.  Fearless leader K. Sowash comments, ”It represents how we are live.” This compatibly caffeinated  release party includes the rare return of TKS touring bassist Brett Helling’s Cabdrivers, performing vivid favorites “Box of Finger Paintings, “Bleeding Archaic,” “Dirty Blanket,” and “Troubled Teen Mantra.” Plus, TKS’s Lonn Schubert summons the scorched sugar blast of his earlier band Harlem Airshaft, whose Cleveland peers Machine Go Boom’s Mikey Machine unveils his Safeties.

05/05 @ Tree Bar, 887 Chambers Rd., 10 p.m.

Kobo Live Second Anniversary

Kobo’s five-night spree of Central Ohio bands starts with a pinata mix, from Alert New London’s power pop trajectories to The Lost Revival’s acoustic set, which distills theatrics into restless hobo drama. Then we’re offered a more consistently mellow evening, although one including Saintseneca’s guaranteed “laconic sing-alongs, speed-strummed mountain dulcimers, and tambourine-filled trash cans.” The rest is solid rock, including Cadaver Dogs’ rabid dedication, She Bears’ ravenous contemplation, fried ice cream slabs from the George Elliot Underground, Ease The Medic’s careening balladry, and stylishly scruffy Bicentennial Bear. 23 groups in all, at current count.

05/08-12 @ Kobo Live, 2590 N High St., 8 p.m.

St Vincent/Shearwater

“Your skin is so fair, it’s not fair,” the wide-eyed, willowy lady sings, over and over, whole swaying over a little bridge of crystalline keyboard arpeggios. Eventually, with perfect timing, she comes to the line, ”You remind me,” and art-rocker Annie Clark, AKA St. Vincent, once again makes her guitar shake up several dimensions simultaneously. The people in her songs are true romantics, zoning out and zooming in--to “that hole in your tee-shirt,” for instance, so be prepared. With equally stage-wise ambition, Shearwater’s current touring line-up emphasizes the brainy appetite of 2012’s Animal Joy. 

 05/08 @  The Newport, 1722 N High St., 7 p.m.

Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey

 Oklahoma’s Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey are sometimes dazzling and always sharp-eyed.  2011’s The Race Riot Suite presents an original 12-part composition based on the 1921 obliteration of Tulsa’s Greenwood District, an unacceptably prosperous community of African-Americans. From the witty ballroom celebration of “Black Wall Street” to ongoing conflicts and resolutions, listeners get an illuminating ride on history’s wheel. In tonight’s performance of The Race Riot Suite, JFJO’s piano, lap steel guitar, upright bass, and drums encounter a horn section, including robustly imaginative tenor saxophonist Mark Southerland and ace OSU musicians.

05/12 @ The Wexner Center, 1871 N. High St., 8 p.m.

Rock On The Range

Armor up, as ROTR 2012 fills the skies with flying squadrons of all kindsa rockers. Columbus pop metal specialists Attack Attack!, sinful Cincy glamsters Foxy Shazam and Woodshock champions Bobaflex will be in a position to figuratively dive-bomb delicious dinosaurs Megadeth, brainiac upstarts Mastodon, and infective insomniac Rob Zombie. Elder statesman-of-the-durty-plates Slash might well point toward navigation through the still-smoking membrane of Cypress Hill, the re-applied mascara of Marilyn Manson, the irrepressible social commentary of Five Finger Death Punch, the siren songs of Lacuna Coil, and the working-girl dominatrix romance of Halestorm.

05/18-20 @  Crew Stadium, One Black & Gold Blvd., Fri., 6 p.m., Sat.-Sun., 11:30 a.m.

AraabMuzik/NastyNasty

“Columbus to ‘natti...If you know like I know/You should lie low, killa/I used to get it in Ohio.” Cam’ron’s “Get It In Ohio” was distinctively produced by AraabMuzik, an equally strong DJ. AM's urban atmospherics swirl through a regenerative core of sampled soul music and the foreboding undertones of anonymous sources, all of which get chopped and channeled via MPC electropercussion, especially live. Why bother with laptop mapping, when you can hit the pads like that? Neo-bass guy NastyNasty also mixes beats and vocal bites on the fly.

05/19 @ Skully’s, 1151 N. High St., 8 p.m.

Primus/Gogol Bordello

How did a San Francisco-based power trio of Rush fans come to cultivate and flaunt their images as high-res, high-IQ, high-tech and just plain high rednecks? What the heck, Primus impresario/pit-crew boss Les Claypool always declares, “I come from a long line of garage mechanics,” and 2011’s Green Naugahyde stays in the spin with notorious off-road classics like “Jerry Was A Racecar Driver.” Meanwhile, the globe-rolling mustache and eloquent rasp of Eugene Hutz keep Gogol Bordello’s Ukrainian/Brooklynian/Brazilian/ gypsy/Jewish/folk/punk roots fragrant, in a gnarly blender of tuneful tumult. 

05/23 @ The LC, 405 Neil Ave., 7 p.m.

Larry Keel & Natural Bridge/Cowboy Hillbilly Hippy Folk

Guitarist Larry Keel’s prize-winning flat-picking cuts across old and new traditions of Americana, while his wfe Jenny plays bass and sings tenor. With Natural Bridge, they keep the barbecue smoking and the barns dancing. Columbus-based Cowboy Hillbilly Hippy Folk's Paul Painter reports, “We are exploring the outer space reaches of what we call Electric Appalachian. We never play things the same way twice, it is all about listening to each other...Good Vibes is where we come from!”

05/31 @ Woodlands Tavern, 1200 W Third Ave., 8 p.m.