MusiCal (December 2010)

 DECEMBER 2010

By Don Allred

Meg & Dia

On Meg & Dia Frampton’s 2006 debut album. Something Real, barely post-teen sincerity and flair rattled candle-lit attics of literary inspirations. 2009’s Here, Here, and Here spiraled though their own diligently detailed adventures.  2010’s  It’s Always Stormy In Tillamook finds these now daringly concise siblings sweeping shades of the Beatles, Motown, surfboard disco and 90s/00s bubbles toward sweetly settled-down life. Sighting it provides shiny new talking points of energetically definite departure.

12/01 @ The Basement, 391 Neil Ave.

Doors Open: 7 p.m

New Basics Brass Band

Now celebrating their 16th year, Columbus octet New Basics Brass Band oscillate funky inspirations, especially New Orleans’ Meters, Dr. John, and Allen Toussaint (also a recent Southern Theatre sojourner) Tonight’s Mardi Gras yuletide rolls through "Santa Claus is Coming to Town," "Little Drummer Boy," and "Let It Snow.” while NBBB’s original  "I Wish You Missed Me Like I Miss You” encounters Chocolate Milk’s "Actions Speak Louder Than Words." Perhaps the latter answers the former?

12/04 @ Kobo, 2590 N. High St.

10 p.m.

Beetkeepers/Scrawl/Black Swans/Planktones!

Pioneering indie Columbus combos reconvene and reunite tonight. Agile folk-rock trio Beetkeepers unearth candid chronicles  like “True Ways,”, “Since He’s Been Gone,”  unrecorded originals, plus blues and country chestnuts. Scrawl’s  ballads of the vintage and restless are as serious as your life, though more tunefully edited. Black Swans provide wiry, juicy post-Americana. Planktones! astutely choose slamming glam gems: expect BOC’s “ME 262”, Mud’s “Tiger Feet”, and Mott The Hoople’s “Born Late ‘58.”

1

2/04 @ The Rumba Cafe, 2507 Summit St.

10 p.m.

Smooth Jazz Christmas 2010

The thirteenth Smooth Jazz Christmas tour isn’t necessarily all about smoothness, jazz or even Christmas, strictly speaking.. Saxophonists Dave Koz and Candy Dulfer, singer-guitarist Jonathan Butler, plus  keyboard player Brian Culbertson, have contributed to each others’ more vivacious tracks.They find common ground in an atmospheric garden variety of vibes, styles, textures and tempos, thoughtfully applied to holiday favorites and  the artists’ year-’round hits. Expect holly, mistletoe, and tropical blossoms.

12/05 @ The Palace Theatre, 34 W. Broad St.

7 p.m.

Over The Rhine

Over The Rhine began as a quartet, named for their Cincinnati neighborhood of historical architecture and equally well-documented desperation, further complicated by re-development. Co-founding vocalist Karen Bergquist and multi-instrumentalist Linford Detweiler moved to a Civil War-era farmhouse, observantly cultivating their music’s rough-edged spiritual quest and community-minded sense of isolation. On OTR’s  new The Long Surrender, Bergquist leads insights, clues and flexibly rootsy frameworks though blessedly breathable blue haze, re-charged by planetary bass.

12/07 @ The Lincoln Theatre, 769 E. Broad St.

8 p.m.

The Spruce Campbells

Columbus’ Spruce Campbells recently began their psych-pop recording career by promenading  under starry guitar arpeggios, ready to sail the moon away. “When you feel yourself turning to stone/Wear sunscreen”, the guys advise their careful, yet basically unstoppable new chanteuse Chelsea Moore. Fuel’s costly, but the SC’s instrumentals savor rowdy cinematic dimensions. Meanwhile, “Frost Giant” beams back bracingly, shining to remind us, “You always said I was worth a try.” Amen!

12/10 @ Skully’s Music Diner, 1151 N. High St.

10 p.m.

Tillis Family Christmas

Herald angels of this year’s Tillis Family Christmas promise that it ranges “from silly to sacred.”  Verily, at 78, country jukebox patriarch Mel Tillis has struck gold with his first comedy album, You’re Not Gonna Believe This. Tillis’ comic timing benefits from adjustments to his stuttering speech, as does his seamless singing. Daughter Pam Tillis also delivers soulful classics and ever-timely hits, such as “What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?”

12/11 @ Clark State Performing Arts Center, 300 S. Fountain Ave., Springfield

8 p.m.

PROJECT Trio

PROJECT Trio apply ears sharpened by Cleveland Institute classical training, national tours and Brooklyn residence to whatever music suits their flute, cello and bass. Along with original works, they’ll  bring  Charles Mingus’s eerie, sardonic, kinda swinging response to civil rights obstructionists,”Fables of Faubus,” with Dave Brubeck’s wily “Blue Rondo a la Turk, and Jethro Tull’s arena rock vision of J. S. Bach’s “Bourree.” Also: Duke Ellington’s “Caravan”, plus Django Reinhardt’s “Douce Ambiance.”

12/12 @ Bar of Modern Art, 583 E. Broad St.

2 p.m.

Richard Barone

Richard Barone entered the ‘60s musical kaleidoscope as a 7-year old radio host. Producing an album of Tiny Tim’s dizzy and deeply knowledgeable pop stylization further inspired teen Barone’s new wave adventures with the Bongos. 2010’s The Glow finds him expressively collaborating with early soft rock composer Paul Williams, contemporary songstress Jill (”I Kissed A Girl”) Sobule, and especially David Bowie/Queen producer Tony Visconti. Singer-guitarist Barone’s current solo shows also provide good company

12/16 @ The Rumba Cafe, 2507 Summit St.

10 p.m.

Irish Christmas in America

International tours and lots of homework weren’t enough for three members of speculative Celtic specialists Teada, who founded the Irish Christmas in America troupe five years ago. Dances, repartee, startling stories, inside information, deft narration, photographic evidence, intriguing ballads, and vibrant carols travel together. It’s all traditional, as are the instruments, including the accordion, fiddle, harp, concertina, bouzouki, guitar, pipes, whistles, the bodhran frame drum and strong young voices.

12/19 @ The Lincoln Theatre, 769 E. Long St.

4 p.m.

Andy Shaw Band

Andy Shaw Band regularly test their resplendently stinging guitars, incisive rhythm section and soulfully lucid vocals with the inviting, somewhat tricky grooves of reggae. Schooled by  tensile Bob Marley covers, their originals also deal with time’s re-shuffle of familiar elements, like the sideways psych-blues snow flurries of “Summer’s Coming.” They’ll be playing songs from the new Own Resolve and recent Ways of the World, so prepare yourself to listen while you dance.

12/31 @ Ruby Tuesday. 1978 Summit St.

10 p.m.