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The RITZ Ybor has announced that the 70’s Soul Jam featuring The Stylistics (pictured), Chi-Lites and MC Jimmy “JJ” Walker due to take place this Friday, August 7, has been postponed and will not be rescheduled until sometime in 2010 (no date has been confirmed). Refunds are available at the point of purchase; tickets purchased online will be automatically refunded.

Here a few concert announcements I received this past weekend.

No Clubs Presents sci-fi horror metal makers GWAR with special like-minded guests Job for a Cowboy and The Red Chord Sunday, October 4, at The Ritz in Ybor City. Tickets are $19 in advance/$22 day of show, and go on sale this Saturday, August 8, beginning at 10 a.m. The 25th anniversary tour marks of the band’s “re-awakening on planet Earth” celebrates their most “sonically devouring, instrumentally challenging” album to date, Lust In Space, due out August 18 on Metal Blade Records.

Tastemakers and THX Management have finally revealed part of the lineup for Summer Jam 5 on Saturday, August 29; The Honorary Title, featuring singer-songwriter/frontman Jarrod Gorbel, will headline the show at Crowbar in Ybor City with Cory Branan. Tickets are $10 in advance/$12 dos, and can be purchased by clicking here. Confirmed local acts include The Beauvilles, The Sheaks, Guiltmaker, Shunda K of Yo Majesty, Mogul Street Reserve, How Dare You, Blind Man’s Colour and many others, though there hasn’t been any word about which of the bands will perform at New World Brewery, the other venue hosting Summer Jam 5.

A weekly bulletin on musical guests playing late night TV; set your TIVOs or DVRs if you’ve got an early bedtime.

The Late Show with David Letterman, CBS
Monday, August 3: Levon Helm (original air date July 9)
Tuesday, August 4: Kelly Clarkson (July 13)
Thursday, August 6: St. Vincent (pictured, photo by Annie Clark, June 24)
Friday, August 7: Anthony Hamilton (February 11)

The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien, NBC
Monday, August 3: Gomez
Tuesday, August 4: All-American Rejects
Thursday, August 6: the Jonas Brothers
Friday, August 7: Flo Rida

Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, CBS
Thursday, August 6: Glasvegas
Friday, August 7: Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings

Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, NBC
Monday, August 3: Incubus
Tuesday, August 4: Arctic Monkeys
Friday, August 7: Julian Plenti

Jimmy Kimmel Live, ABC
Tuesday, August 4: the Script
Wednesday, August 5: Miike Snow

Last Call with Carson Daly, NBC
Monday, August 3: Brett Dennen (rerun, April 23)
Tuesday, August 4: White Lies (April 24)
Wednesday, August 5: Lily Allen (May 5)
Thursday, August 6: Ida Maria (June 24)
Friday, August 7: Bobby Ray (May 6)

Saturday Night Live, NBC
Saturday, August 8: Fleet Foxes (rerun, January 17)

For those who missed it, here’s Regina Spektor performing “Laughing With” on Conan last Thursday, from her new album, far.

Kids are freaking great, right? They just keep getting smarter and more clever every generation. Here’s the latest whiz, 5-year-old Wesley, who performs his own unique rendition of Johnny Cash’s “Folsom Prison Blues” at the 2009 Spring Coffee Shop Jam at Columbia City Theater in Seattle. This is not a child being exploited or another chance for fanatical stage parents to put their kid under a spotlight. The clip is from an ongoing event that gives students at Heartwood Guitar Instruction a chance to showcase their abilities. I

I love how he says “twain” instead of “train,” and when he sings, “But I shot a man in Reno / just to watch him die,” it kills me.

A friend of mine sent me a link to this Soul Train clip featuring Kool & the Gang’s “Jungle Boogie.” While the quality of the video isn’t great, the dancing is effing classic. I want to bust moves like this. I do bust moves like this, in my mind.

A quick breakdown of this weekend’s most worthy concerts beginning with Thursday, ’cause that’s when the weekend really starts, right? For a more comprehensive schedule of concerts, check out our Upcoming Events page.

Thursday, July 30
Jeffree Star w/Artist VS Poet/Watch Out! Theres Ghosts/Lets Get It Jeffree Star is conversely ambiguous and flamboyant ­— he could be a woman or a man with his long, bright pink hair, dragtastic make-up and swaths of rock star tattoos. The LA-based self-proclaimed “Queen of the Internet” is a dance music recording artist and Internet phenom who has more than a million MySpace friends and more than 12 million hits on his most played song, “Eyelashes Curlers & Butcher Knives.” Thurs., July 30, 8 p.m., Orpheum, Ybor City, $10, all ages.

Maxwell w/Chrisette Michele Neo-soul singer Maxwell — the Grammy-nominated artist who hits the high notes in his seductive, made-for-making-looove serenades — is currently touring in support of his fourth studio album and first new effort in eight years, BLACKsummers’night. The Brookyn native’s latest features a 10-piece band that brings a lush feel to the album’s supple grooves. Soul support act Chrisette Michele actually won a Grammy for “Best Urban/Alternative Performance” in 2009 for her up-tempo “I Will Survive”-style single, “Be OK.” Thurs., July 30, Ruth Eckerd Hall, Clearwater; last time I looked this show was SOLD OUT, although I’m sure you can find tickets floating around outside.

CKY This foursome took their name from and eventually grew in popularity due to the “Camp Kill Yourself” series of skate and prank videos created by Bam Margera, whose brother Jess is CKY’s drummer. Their music has been featured in all four of the vids and in various other related projects (Jackass, Viva La Bam, Jackass: The Movie) as well in video games like Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3. As you can likely surmise, the music is brawny alt rock with heavy riffs, pleasantly gruff vocals and the odd synth melody. Thurs., July 30, 8 p.m., Jannus Landing, St. Petersburg, $17.

Friday, July 31
Blazed and Confused Tour feat. Snoop Dogg/Slightly Stoopid w/Stephen Marley/Mickey Avalon Snoop Dogg is everyone’s favorite beanpole rapper. Slightly Stoopid does reggae rock with a hip-hop bounce. Both are West Coast tokers who aren’t afraid to tell the world about their smoking habits. Be prepared for a thorough pat down at the door and don’t be surprised if you see a few drug-sniffing dogs. Fri., July 31, 6 p.m., USF Sun Dome, Tampa, $35.50.

Black Moth Super Rainbow The Pittsburgh, Pa.-based experimental rock outfit puts the “psyche” in psychedelic, though frontman Tobacco would rather think of his band’s music as pop. Click here to read this week’s feature on the band. Fri., July 31, (Crowbar, Ybor City) —LP

REH on the Road: Flo Rida After the Rays play the Kansas City Royals, the Trop hosts an after-concert with Flo Rida, the rapper who produced the club-hoppin’ hit “Low” with T-Pain. You know it: “She hit the floor (she hit the floor) / Next thing you know / Shawty got low, low, low, low, low, low, low, low.” Fri., July 31, after the game, Tropicana Field, St. Petersburg; the show is included with admission to the game. Tickets start at $19.

Jim Morey Band w/Sons of Hippies A bill featuring two solid local acts — neo-Ragtime-Creole-jazz makers Jim Morey Band, and Sarasota-based electro-psychedelic alt rock duo-turned-trio Sons of Hippies. Fri., July 31, 9 p.m., The Garage, St. Petersburg, $5.

Not Tonight Josephine CD Release Party w/Stalling Dawn/Drew Street Mary/Ghost of Gloria Although the band is less than a year old, Tampa’s Not Tonight Josephine has already made the pages of *tbt and played at 97X’s Memorial Day Backyard BBQ. This CD release party celebrates the completion of the band’s new EP, This Orphan Heart. The show will be webcast live at synclive.com and a song, “Sunshine,” recorded live for a forthcoming video. Fri., July 31, 7 p.m., State Theatre, St. Petersburg, $5 (all ages).

Saturday, Aug. 01
Atmosphere w/Eyedea & Abilities/Attracted to Gods Minneapolis indie hip-hop duo Atmosphere — made up of rap artist Slug (Sean Daley) and DJ/producer Ant (Anthony Davis) — bring a smart and refreshing change to the bloated bravado found in much of modern hip-hop music. For more, click here. Sat., Aug. 1, 8 p.m., State Theatre, St. Petersburg, $21.

Mumpsy (pictured below) Record Release Party w/Win Win Winter/Mouse Fire Orlando’s garage pop foursome Mumpsy produces music with an early Beatles feel, brimming with tender melodies, and brightened by tambourine and harmonica. The band marks the release of a four-song limited edition 7” vinyl album, Posturing, with a 10-show mini-tour that makes its second stop here. Sat., Aug. 1, 9 p.m., New World Brewery, Ybor City, $7.

Cracker w/Gringo Star Formed by David Lowery after the break-up of his other band, Camper Van Beethoven (which re-united in 2004), alt roots rockin’ foursome Cracker enjoyed a taste of mainstream fame via their 1993 Billboard charting hit, “Low” and its subsequent video featuring Sandra Bernhardt in a boxing ring. The foursome is currently touring in support of their ninth and latest studio album, Sunrise in the Land of Milk and Honey. Sat., Aug. 01, 8 p.m., Skipper’s Smokehouse, Tampa, $15 in advance/$20 dos.

Poco and Pure Prairie League Poco has been making country rock since 1968, when it was formed by Richie Furay, Jim Messina and songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Rusty Young after the demise of Buffalo Springfield. Both Furay and Messina abandoned the project less than five years in, but Young has kept the momentum going all on his own and led an ever-revolving lineup for the past few decades. Poco’s folky, acoustic rock is marked by slide guitar, lap steel, banjo and mandolin, and gentle vocal harmonies. Pure Prairie League, also a country-rock band that was born in the late ‘60s, had its heyday in the mid-‘70s. Sat., Aug. 1, 9 p.m., The Ritz Ybor, Ybor City, $17.50-$52.50.

Sunday, Aug. 02
Torche w/House of Lightning/Averkiou The general metal-loving consensus seems to be that Torche’s second album, 2008’s Meanderthal, is a brilliant slice of melodic and muscular sludge. The Miami-Atlanta trio headlines this all-ages show presented by Two Beards, which regularly brings worthy metal and punk acts to Tampa. Sun., Aug. 2, 8 p.m., Czar, Ybor City, $10 (all ages).

Sunday, Aug. 02 Miggs w/Gareth Asher/Ernie Halter Fronted by lead vocalist/guitarist/songwriter Don Miggs, three-piece rock outfit Miggs — formerly of San Francisco, currently of Tampa — was signed to Jersey indie label Rock Ridge Music for their June 2008 full-length, Unraveled, which includes a selection of radio-ready songs drawn from previous releases that have been given a production makeover. Sun., Aug. 2, 5 p.m., Skipper’s Smokehouse, Tampa, $7 in advance/$10 dos.

Minneapolis indie hip-hop duo Atmosphere — made up of rap artist Slug (Sean Daley) and DJ/producer Ant (Anthony Davis), pictured (photo credit Dan Monick) — bring a smart and refreshing change to the bloated bravado found in much of modern hip-hop music. Slug raps in a personal style that often draws from his own experiences, like the uplifting “Sunshine,” about appreciating the sunny days of life and wanting to bottle them in a plastic jar, “Bust it out whenever someone’s actin hard,” or the funky fun, sample-heavy “C’mon” from the duo’s new (and free) EP, Leak at Will, about being aware of where you’re from but not falling prey to its lawless temptations. But he’ll just as soon offer up a story — “The Waitress” from 2008’s When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold, looks at the antagonistic relationship between a waitress and a homeless man as told from his point-of-view, “I wonder when she’ll realize / That she’s the only reason I visit / The only woman in my world that acknowledges my existence.” Eyedea & Abilities and Attracted to Gods provide support for the duo’s Bay area show. Sat., Aug. 1, 8 p.m., State Theatre, St. Petersburg, $21. (Videos after the jump)

“Trying To Find A Balance” from 2003’s Seven’s Travels

Atmosphere – “Guarantees,” from 2009’s When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold

Pennsylvania experimental rock ensemble Black Moth Super Rainbow (pictured, photo by Jae Rumberto) hit retro and modern notes all at once with their day-glo vibrant electro-dance melodies, fizzadelic folk shambles and made-for-space jams. It’s some of the headiest music you’ll find out there right now, but songwriter/frontman/creative conscience Tobacco (real name Tom Fec) doesn’t consider his music psychedelic at all.

“I think everything I do is pop,” he told me a few weeks ago during a phone interview before the second leg of the band’s two-part tour. “I don’t like psychedelic music and I never set out to do it. It just sort of comes out that way. I might be the only person who thinks this, but Eating Us … it seems like a pop album to me.”

Eating Us, his band’s fourth and latest full-length, is not the sort of name that makes me think pop. The black-and-white album cover, with its smeary sad face superimposed onto the back of a hand, doesn’t make me think of pop music, either. And the limited edition “hairy” version of Eating Us (with synthetic hair in its inner sleeve) is probably as far from pop packaging as you can feasibly get. (VIDEOS AFTER THE JUMP)

Tobacco explains his definition of “pop”: songs that get their point across in two or three minutes, that have catchy vocals and instrumentals, that are influenced by experimental techniques used in pop music of the ’60s and ‘70s. “If everyone could just get over the fact that it’s not what they’re used to hearing…” he muses.

But while Black Moth’s music is sticky, glittery and bright like pop, it’s too off-kilter and sonically adventurous to have true mainstream appeal. And the songs have titles like “Fields Are Breathing” and “Born on a Day the Sun Didn’t Rise,” and blotter paper lyrics (“Iron lemonade, wash my friends away / Neon lemonade, eat my face away”) delivered via whispery-warm vocoderfied vocals set against a swirling symphony of synthesized sound. It’s hard to think anything but hallucinatory thoughts when listening.

Surprisingly, Black Moth has toned down the face-melting mania and glitchy noise of their previous three albums. Eating Us is more wistful, dreamy and laid-back than Black Moth has ever sounded. Tobacco admits he made a concentrated effort to steer clear of his really gritty “coming over the speaker system at a public pool” sound. “I thought it would be better to just focus on making the songs as clear as possible, just to see if they could hold up under a more traditional type of treatment.”

The album was recorded at Tarbox Road Studios and marks the first time Black Moth has ventured into a modern recording studio and made a hi-fi album. “Everything I do is normally at home over years,” says Tobacco, who writes the music solo and brings his finished ideas to the band. Eating Us is also the first Black Moth album to feature live drumming instead of drum machine fills as well as in-studio assistance and tracking by Flaming Lips producer Dave Fridmann.

Bass, drums and a collection of vintage analog synthesizers and keyboards paired with Tobacco’s vocoder-processed vocals help the band achieve their distinctive antique electronica feel. “They are the sound.”

Nothing is sequenced or sampled or pre-recorded in a live setting, and Tobacco admits the band doesn’t really attempt to engage the audience. The visuals projected onto a screen behind the band are created by Tobacco himself and play throughout each performance “to entertain people, and also to distract from the fact that we are sort of just concentrating on what we are doing.”

Black Moth initially evolved from a series of musical projects by Tobacco and his bassist cousin Power Pill Fist (real name Ken Fec). The two played together for several years before teaming up with some other Pittsburgh-area musicians ­— Seven Fields of Aphelion (Maureen Boyle), Father Hummingbird (Seth Ciotti) and IFfernaut (Donna Kyler) — to form Black Moth Super Rainbow in 2003. They put out two albums before getting picked up by Graveface Records in 2005, which were re-released shortly thereafter along with a new EP, Lost, Picking Flowers in the Woods. Black Moth brewed up a fresh electro-rock record with The Octopus Project in 2006, kept the indie buzz going with a successful SXSW debut in 2007, and went on to release a much-lauded candy-coated third full-length, Dandelion Gum, also in 2007, which led to opening slots later that year for Aesop Rock and the Flaming Lips.

Black Moth was mostly quiet in 2008 while Tobacco and Power Pill Fist did the solo thing, though they satiated fans in November with The Drippers EP, a compilation of lost tracks from the Dandelion Gum era among other odds and ends. The fivesome re-converged to record Eating Us in early 2009.

Tobacco has no real plans for any future recordings with Black Moth, and says that after this tour, “I think I just want to do something else for a minute and stop thinking about all this Black Moth stuff.”

Black Moth Super Rainbow w/Serengeti and Polyphonic, Fri., July 31, 9 p.m., Crowbar, Ybor City, $10 (ages 18 & up)

Video, “Born on a Day the Sun Didn’t Rise,” from Eating Us

BMSR

Video, “Sun Lips,” from Dandelion Gum. Out there shit, with rodents.

Black Moth Super Rainbow: Lost, Picking Flowers in the Woods during SXSW 2007 at the Graveface Records Showcase at the Ritz.

Lots of new concert announcements arrived in my email box over the past three days. I’ve paired the new with a few that slipped through the cracks for your concert planning convenience. For a complete breakdown of area shows, visit our Upcoming Concerts page.

Saturday, Aug. 8 Sons of Bill, Skipper’s Smokehouse, Tampa, $7 in advance/$10 dos; ON SALE NOW.

Friday, Aug. 14 Tracy Byrd, Dallas Bull, Tampa, $9.95 in advance, $15 at the door; ON SALE NOW.

Sunday, Aug. 23: White Rabbits w/The Fiery Furnaces, The Social, Orlando, $13 in advance, $15 dos; ON SALE NOW.

Friday, Sept. 04: Soja w/The Movement, State Theatre, St. Petersburg, $15; ON SALE NOW.

Friday, Sept. 04 Lee “Scratch” Perry, The Social, Orlando, $20 in advance, $25 dos; ON SALE NOW.

Wednesday, Sept. 16: Living Colour (pictured above), Jannus Landing, St. Petersburg, $15 in advance, $18 dos; ON SALE NOW.

Friday, Sept. 25: The Queers “Go Pop” Tour w/The Leftovers/TA80, Orpheum, Ybor City, $15; ON SALE NOW.

Saturday, Sept. 26 Victor Wooten, Plaza Theatre, Orlando, $22 in advance, $25 dos; ON SALE NOW.

Wednesday, Sept. 30: The Decemberists “A Short Fazed Hovel” tour w/Laura Veirs & the Hall of Flames, Hard Rock Live, Orlando, ON SALE NOW.

Wednesday, October 14: Teenage Bottlerocket w/Cobra Skulls/Red Scare, Orpheum, Ybor City Doors, $8 in advance/$10 dos; ON SALE NOW.

Friday, October 16: Dear and the Headlights w/Kinch, Orpheum, Ybor City, $10, ON SALE NOW.

Sunday, Oct. 18: DJ Tiësto, The Ritz Ybor, Ybor City, $35; ON SALE NOW.

Friday, Oct. 23 Blues Traveler, House of Blues, Orlando, ticket info not available yet.

Thursday, Oct. 29: Ghostland Observatory (pictured, photo by Daniel Perlaky), Hard Rock Live, Orlando; ticket info not available yet.

Sunday, Nov. 01: Brother Ali, The Social, Orlando, $13 in advance, $15 dos; tickets on sale Saturday, August 1

Tuesday, Nov. 10: Joshua Radin w/The Watson Twins, State Theatre, St. Petersburg, $16 in advance, $18 dos; ON SALE NOW.

Saturday, Nov. 14: The Get Up Kids w/Kevin Devine/Mansions, State Theatre, St. Petersburg, $19.99 in advance/$24 do; ON SALE NOW.

Saturday, Nov. 21: The Revival Tour feat. Chuck Ragan (of Hot Water Music) w/Jim Ward/Frank Turner/John Snodgrass/Chad Price/The Zydepunks, State Theatre, St. Petersburg, $16.