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.