SOUNDS: Rhett Miller @ Housing Works tonight

Photo: LeannaTown

Texas-native Rhett Miller is the front man and main songwriter of the hard-charging rock ‘n’ roll quartet the Old 97’s, as well as an accomplished solo artist. In addition to his seven records with the band, he has released three highly regarded solo records; 2002’s The Instigator, 2006’s The Believer, and 2009’s self-titled Rhett Miller. Miller continues to balance his solo endeavors with his membership in the Old 97’s. The still-active quartet recently released the critically acclaimed album Blame It On Gravity in 2008 and were also prominently featured in the Jennifer Aniston/Vince Vaugn romantic comedy, The Break Up. Rolling Stone magazine stated that Rhett “is full of gracefully rocking arrangements and ace tunes.” (source)

He performs tonight (12/7) at 7PM with actress/musician Jill Hennessey at Housing Works Bookstore Cafe.

SOUNDS: Lynyrd Skynyrd

Legendary rockers Lynyrd Skynyrd return to New York City for a CD Release Party and Concert at the Beacon Theatre on October 1.

Beyond the tragedy, the history, the raging guitars and the killer songs, ultimately, Lynyrd Skynyrd is about an indomitable will. About survival of spirit; unbowed, uniquely American, stubbornly resolute.

With their first set of new studio material since 2003's Vicious Cycle, the band returns with God & Guns, due out September 29 on Loud & Proud/Roadrunner Records. Recorded in Nashville in 2008-2009, the project was interrupted (but, tellingly, not ended) by the deaths of founding member/keyboardist Billy Powell and longtime bassist Ean Evans earlier this year.

Driven by core members Gary Rossington (guitar), Johnny Van Zant (vocals) and Rickey Medlocke (guitar), along with longtime drummer Michael Cartellone, Lynyrd Skynyrd have recorded an album ("under duress, as usual," according to Van Zant) that very much lives up to the legacy begun some 35 years ago in Jacksonville, Florida, and halted for a decade by the 1977 plane crash that killed three band members, including Ronnie Van Zant and Steve Gaines. Since then, the band tragically lost Allen Collins, Leon Wilkeson and Huey Thomasson, yet they rock on.

With the passing of Powell and Evans, "a lot of people probably expected us to say enough is enough," admits Medlocke. But that would not be the way of this Rock & Roll Hall of Fame powerhouse. With a catalog of over 60 albums and sales beyond 30 million, Lynyrd Skynyrd remains a cultural icon that appeals to all generations, and God & Guns is a fitting addition to the canon. The Skynyrd Nation awaits.(source)

STAGE: Golden Boy of the Blue Ridge

Golden Boy of the Blue Ridge @ 59E59 thru Sunday 5/3:

An adaptation of J.M. Synge's controversial classic The Playboy of the Western World set in the hills of America's Appalachia. This original bluegrass musical is a tale of an unlikely hero, a backwoods romance, and an slapdash murder... a pitch-dark comedy with a kick of moonshine!

“Intelligent harmonic surprises! (Mills’s) wordplay is customarily witty!” Time Out New York

“Joyous! Tuneful! A barrel of fun! Cleverly crafted, sophisticated fare! Millls and Reichel have talent to burn!” Backstage

STAGE: Blanche Survives Katrina in a FEMA Trailer Named Desire

One natural disaster strikes another! Experience the solo show sensation that took the 2008 New York International Fringe Festival by storm. Winner of the Village Voice Audience Award and FringeNYC's Outstanding Solo Show, this outrageous, politically incorrect comedy imagines Tennessee Williams’s tragic heroine has neither aged, nor left New Orleans. She was there when Katrina hit; she was sent to the Superdome; she was evacuated to Shreveport and entangled in the heartless bureaucracy of FEMA. Hers is a refugee story whose politics and pathos you have read, but one you've never experienced through the eyes of the desperately deliberately fragile, alcoholic, codependent, sex-addicted Blanche DuBois — America’s most broken woman™

Blanche Survives Katrina is playing now thru March 15 @ Soho Playhouse

STAGE: Conversation with a Kleagle

Photo credit: Underwood & Underwood/Corbis

Inspired by events in the life of civil rights leader, Walter White, the play takes place during the height of a lynching epidemic in the late 1920's. A black writer, passing for white, travels to the deep South to interview a kleagle (a recruiter for the Ku Klux Klan). When his true racial identity is discovered he escapes, only to find that his rescuer's family paid a dear price, a price that brings the writer back down south to confront the kleagle and the Klan. Playing now thru March 15 @ 13th Street Repertory.

Conversation with a Kleagle by Rudy Gray is one of those rare shows that is important enough and powerful enough to warrant strong support and a large audience… Much of this play’s power comes from its revelation of the true face and danger of racism, often hidden behind carefully crafted personal facades or strategically controlled government positions… This play is an incredibly worthy piece of theatre. (NYTheatre.com, Ross Chappell)

HOME IS WHERE THE ART IS: Ford Court - Auburn, Alabama

The second incarnation of Auburn, Alabama’s home of the legendary house show comes to a close tomorrow night (1/23/09). Here’s how it all went down:

Come to Ford Ct in downtown Auburn for a cultural experience like no other in Auburn

JUNE 9, 2008 – WHY NOT?

Hello all. As a lot of you may have heard we have decided to bring house shows back to Auburn. Sadly over the years house shows have diminished here in the AU. And even more sad is the fact that the w6 House (the last house to have shows in Auburn) got torn down by a greedy evil land developer. What is there now? Absolutely nothing. A big fucking empty lot. But hey, the word is that we're getting a Waffle House downtown!! Anyway, we decided to do something about it. We will continue the tradition of the infamous Ford Court in Auburn. HOUSE SHOWS IN THE BASEMENT Y'ALL!

So please come and show your support for the music and the scene that desperately needs everyone's help. There can't be a scene without YOU!!!!!!!!!!

Help the house music scene in Auburn. Please come out and show your support. The rest of the state is making fun of us and how fucking lame Auburn has become. And I have to agree, it's pretty fucking sad. Thank goodness Rooster's has been doin their thing. So help us make our first show a success.

JUNE 14, 2008 - Our first show!

Featuring Roof Rabbit

We will have a keg and I will be giving away RNR Poster Art.

I am encouraging people to not bring glass.

DO NOT PARK IN FORD COURT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
NO GLASS BOTTLES

NO SMOKING

NO DOGS

NO FIGHTING/DRAMA

There will be a $5 cover.

JUNE 15: House shows are back in Auburn...with a vengeance.

Holy crap y'all!!!!!!!

Our first show was a huge success!

We weren't real sure what the turn out or response was going to be.We had a blast. About 170 people showed up hungry to rock. And this was only our first show. Plus it was during the summer when there aren't as many people in Auburn. We can't wait till the fall when things willreally be jumpin here. We grilled out before the show, gave out popsicles during the show to a crowd drenched in sweat. We danced, rocked, screamed, and then sweated some more.

Roof Rabbit were amazing! Thanks for playing guys!

I want to thank everyone who came and showed their support for the scene.

There were old school Auburnites and a shit ton of new people that I didn't even know cared.

So Thanks to you all!

TOMORROW (1/23/09): LAST SHOW!!!!

4 Bands, Photography Exhibit, Food, Birthday Cake!
Auburn, 36830Cost: $5.00
Black Diamond Heavies / Roof Rabbit / Satan’s Youth Ministers
PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBIT: House Shows in Auburn 1990’s-2008

& for the first time at Ford Ct, PAPA D’S SUPER GRILL!!

SOUNDS: LIVE IN NYC OCT 8 -11

OCTOBER 8 @ 7:30PM - Lambchop: Kurt Wagner solo @ Joe's Pub

Kurt Wagner performs in support of Lambchop's new album OH (ohio), released October 7, 2008 on Merge Records. OH (ohio) was recorded in Lambchop's hometown of Nashville and produced by Mark Nevers and Roger Moutenot. 11 new songs: "Slipped Dissolved and Loosed," "National Talk Like a Pirate Day," and "Popeye." Hear some of OH (ohio) here and here.

OCTOBER 8 @ 9:30PM - Legendary Shack*Shakers & Pine Hill Haints @ Mercury Lounge

Since starting their hell-for-leather, Penta-caustic roadshow Th' Legendary Shack*Shakers have earned quite a name for themselves with their unique brand of American Gothic that is all-at-once irreverent, revisionist, dangerous, and fun. Led by their wildly charismatic rail thin frontman, the blues-harpist J.D. Wilkes, th’ Shack*Shakers are a four-man wrecking crew from the South whose explosive interpretations of the blues, punk, rock and country have made fans, critics and legions of potential converts into true believers. Wilkes' film "Seven Signs" accompanies the tour.

OCTOBER 9 @ 8PM - Dead Confederate @ Mercury Lounge with Catfish Haven

Rolling Stone says: Georgia rockers Dead Confederate made their debut album, Wrecking Ball, in a tiny, dingy Austin studio — the same place where the sound effects for the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre were recorded. "It was a shit-shack," says bassist and songwriter Brantley Senn, 28. "We called it 'the dump.' It was spooky." The eeriness seeped deeply into the quintet's music — a raw, howling take on Southern rock that recalls the darkest moments of Nineties grunge; not surprising, since they are the first band on the new label from Gary Gersh, the A&R exec who signed Nirvana and Sonic Youth. Lead singer Hardy Morris' raspy vocals are a ringer for Kurt Cobain's, while lead guitarist Walker Howle kicks out Dinosaur Jr.-like spiraling riffs. "Our music has always been dark," says Senn. "I don't think I've ever written a song when I wasn't angry or hurt by something." But the band's growing popularity is making it harder for Senn to get into the proper songwriting mind-set. "I'm at the point where I am about to take a minimum-wage job just so I can be unhappy about something so I can write a good song." (also at Union Hall in BK on Oct. 10)

OCTOBER 11 @ 8:30PM - ELEPHANT 6 @ Knitting Factory

Flavorpill says: Mentioning the Elephant 6 collective to music geeks is like bringing up Godard with cinephiles: there's a pretty good chance they're obsessed. The gang of Atlanta psych-folkies spawned distinctive acts like the Olivia Tremor Control, Elf Power, Neutral Milk Hotel, and many more. While the group is less active these days, Music Tapes frontman Julian Koster brings together members of the aforementioned bands for a grand old celebration of all things E6. There's been no mention of the elusive Neutral Milk Hotel mastermind Jeff Mangum showing up, but the holidays are all about miracles, right?