the 941

The Genitorturers
w/ Jackal & Hyde/Sex Slaves/Team Cybergeist, Fri., Nov. 6, 9 p.m., The Ritz Ybor, Ybor City, $15 general, $25 VIP

The siren wails of ascending notes, the speedy electro hammering of programmed drums and a fat and sinister guitar riff open Blackheart Revolution. And then the bestial growl of Genitorturers frontwoman/namesake Gen aggro blasts onto the track and demands your undivided attention: “Well no one cares about the rock star illusion / No one cares because the mystery is gone / Well, I know it’s time for evolution / Now I’m a savior and I’ve got a solution / I’ve whipped the masses and my legion’s grown strong / So I’m here to lead the revolution now.”

“It gets you, it grabs you,” Gen says about “Revolution,” the first song on her band’s fifth and latest studio release, which was co-produced by Genitorturers bassist David “Evil D” Vincent (Morbid Angel) and Scott Humphrey (Motley Crue, Rob Zombie, Ozzy Osbourne). “That’s definitely one of my favorites because it was a challenge trying to figure out how I was going to approach the vocals — the song needed to have a lot of attitude and it needed to be seething and powerful. David actually tracked a lot of the vocals on the record, and man, he just kept pushing me. He’d say, ‘Nope, not good enough. Nope, not good enough. Do it again.’ To the point where he got me so pissed off 
 there’s a scream on there that’s very heartfelt.”

Gen is a versatile singer — she can hit high notes, turn on the sweet croon, the sexy snarl, the commanding roar, the ferocious howl, the playful purr. Her vocals are set against big, ballsy industrial rock and electro-metal. The result is brutally seductive mayhem.

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Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band
w/Nervous Turkey/Poetry n’ Lotion, 9 p.m. Fri., Oct. 9, Crowbar, Ybor City, $10.

He’s a hefty backwoodsman type with dark, merry eyes, a thick black beard, workingman’s suspenders and a booming Hoosier-country drawl that howls to the heavens or digs deep into the earth.

Josh “The Reverend” Peyton is the driving force behind Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band, a family trio featuring vocalist/fingerstyle guitarist Peyton, his washboard-playing wife, Breezy, and his younger brother/drummer Jayme. Peyton’s music is rough-hewn country blues with a punk rock stomp and a folk heart. He writes about what he knows — the people, the places, the problems, the potatoes — and says exactly what he means.

“I find that when I’m the most honest and the most truthful, it seems like people respond the best to it,” Peyton told me in a recent interview from his Indiana home. “And for me, it makes it that much easier to play the songs, when I don’t hold anything back.”

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WMNF 30th Birthday Party: The Big 3-0
Sat., Sept. 12, 6 p.m.-12:30 a.m., The Ritz Theater, Ybor City, $20 in advance, wmnf.org.

Community radio has enjoyed a short but storied history in America, beginning on the West Coast in 1946 with the launch of KPFA at Berkeley by journalist/pacifist Lewis Hill and a group of like-minded individuals dedicated to fostering “a lasting understanding between nations and between individuals of all nations, races, creeds and colors.” Community radio really blossomed in the 1960s during our country’s cultural revolution, when the appeal of breaking down prevailing traditions and boundaries became more widespread. Listener-supported stations were free from the corporate sponsors that exercised control over commercial stations, their minuscule budgets both a burden and benefit — virtually no money to work with, but a staff of community volunteers who actively participated as disc jockeys and producers, and brought color and variety back to radio with a diverse range of programming. By the 1970s, community stations had carved out a place amidst the corporate radio structure and were broadcasting in almost every state.

WMNF, the Bay area’s own beloved community radio station, first went on air in 1979 and celebrates 30 years of broadcasting on Saturday with its annual birthday party. This year’s event features 12 bands on three stages. Here’s the complete breakdown.

MAIN STAGE

Have Gun, Will Travel (6:30-7:30) A local fave and 2008 Best of the Bay Readers’ Poll winner, this five-piece Americana outfit incorporates acoustic guitar and bass, viola, lap steel, banjo and harmonica into easy-going rhythms that dissolve into spirited overdrive with an Old West appeal in both the sound and subject matter. HGWT is currently working on their follow-up to last year’s NPR-plugged Casting Shadows Tall as Trees. (more…)

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Peter Bjorn and John
w/Depeche Mode, Fri., Sept. 4, Ford Amphitheatre, Tampa, $43.50-$83.50.

The stickiest whistling of the 21st century was conceived in Sweden, nurtured in the collective musical subconscious of three Stockholm musicians, shaped by their distinct creative personalities and love of New Wave, alt rock and ’60s pop, and born several years later in a catchy, charming pop ditty, “Young Folks.”

By that time, Swedish trio Peter Bjorn and John — singer/guitarist Peter MorĂ©n, singer/bassist/keyboardist Bjorn Yttling and singer/drummer/percussionist John Eriksson — had enjoyed some minor fame, but still worked day jobs to support themselves. “Young Folks” was the first single off their third album, 2006’s Writer’s Block, and by mid-2007, the song seemed to be everywhere — sampled by Kanye West, covered by Pete Yorn, used in TV shows ranging from Grey’s Anatomy to Gossip Girl and in ads by Budweiser, Napster, American Eagle Outfitters and AT&T, among others.

“It changed everything,” de facto leader Peter MorĂ©n tells me from a hotel in Utah a few weeks ago in the midst of his band’s current gig opening for Depeche Mode.

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Florida isn’t a pass-through state. Artists tend to skip our peninsula in favor of easier routes across the South.

Fortunately, the Tampa Bay area has plenty of reasons for bands to make a detour: several colleges’ worth of students, a prime location in the middle of the state and a generous measure of great venues. This fall’s visitors range from big-name talent to random rock-and-rollers to electro experimenters; here are the season’s top trends and don’t-miss concerts.

I love the ’80s. Used to be you could hit an ’80s dance party nearly every night of the week in Ybor. New Wave, Dark Wave, glam and hair metal, synthpop, pop punk — pretty much any music from that era does well here, and we tend to get some high-caliber performers in addition to the wankers. Influential electro alt rockers Depeche Mode bring the final leg of their U.S. tour to Florida in support of their 12th and latest album, Sounds of the Universe. Frontman Dave Gahan should be in tip-top shape and fully recovered from the tumor removal that forced the band to postpone more than a dozen shows in May and June. (Fri., Sept. 4, Ford Amphitheatre, Tampa). British dance music twosome Pet Shop Boys have sold something like 100 million records worldwide, but will always be remembered in the states for their 1984 hit, “West End Girls.” (Thurs., Sept. 10, Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center). The Queers’ “Go Pop” Tour brings the old school surf-rockin’ pop-punkin’ threesome to a tiny CBGB-style venue for some sweaty good times (Fri., Sept. 25, Orpheum, Ybor City). And a double-bill of British alt rock features Pretty in Pink soundtrack songsters Psychedelic Furs, recently reunited after more than 15 years apart, and the Happy Mondays (Mon., Sept. 28, The Ritz Ybor, Ybor City).

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Saturday Night Rebel Rockers Traveling Circus & Medicine Show

w/Michael Franti & Spearhead, Counting Crows and Augustana, Mon., Aug. 17, 7 p.m., Ruth Eckerd Hall, Clearwater, $39.50-$102.50.

Michael Franti believes music is the world’s greatest unifier. The 15-year frontman of Spearhead is so dedicated to it and so unwilling to disappoint his fans that he’ll continue to perform even if he’s experiencing debilitating pain.

But you can only play through the pain for so long — especially when said pain turns out to be a burst appendix.

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Gogol Bordello
w/Deleon, 7:30 p.m. Mon., July 27, The Ritz Ybor, Ybor City, $20 in advance/$22 day of show (all ages).

Google “gypsy punk” and most of the dozen or so results relate back to Gogol Bordello. While Gogol’s Ukraine-born visionary/composer Eugene HĂŒtz isn’t interested in taking credit for spearheading a whole new movement in American music, his band’s influence is undeniable.

Gogol grew out of NYC’s underground music scene, just as much a melting pot as the city itself. HĂŒtz immersed himself in it and assembled a motley crew of talented, multi-ethnic musicians to create his gypsy punk orchestra and make his vision of infusing East-European culture into Western music a reality. Since 1999, they have released four LPs; the most recent, 2007’s critically acclaimed Super Taranta!, fully launched Gogol into the international spotlight.

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Dignan w/ Look Mexico/XOXO/Alexander and the Grapes

9 p.m. Fri., July 17, Crowbar, Ybor City, $6 in advance/$8 day of show

You’d imagine Dignan’s music is conceived somewhere cold and snowy grey and stunning in its starkness, a place for thinking meaningful thoughts and contemplating life’s everlasting mysteries.

Not a Texas town located a mere five miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border and boasting a significant Hispanic community.

“There’s not much of that in the music,” bassist and Dignan co-founder Devin Garcia tells me via phone a few weeks ago while the band was enjoying some down time in Cincinnati before a show later that night. “A lot of times, people are almost surprised about that.”

The atmospheric chamber pop has a distinctive psyche-folk feel in the same vein as Grizzly Bear. The multi-layered vocals are delivered in gentle and mellifluous intones or passionate cries, and are backed by wordless chorales and tasteful washes of sound with small textural details added for affect — glock chimes, guitar reverb, tambourine jingles, hand-claps, accordion notes, whistling.

Dignan is named after the charming ne’er-do-well in Wes Anderson’s first film, Bottle Rocket, and had its start when high school-aged Andy Pena met Garcia in church and became fast friends while tooling around in the church’s music room, where they spent many a late night experimenting with various instruments and taking full advantage of the empty performance space. Soon enough, Pena was playing guitar, Garcia electric bass and the duo were recruiting other young musicians to join them. Eventually, they settled into the current lineup with keyboardist and harmonizing vocalist Heidi Plueger, drummer Trey Perez, and David Palomo, who sings and plays accordion, glock and keys.

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Ed. note: This post comes from our friends at Tampa Calling.

A weekly bulletin on musical guests playing the five-nights-a-week late night talk shows (and SNL); set your TIVOs or DVRs.

The Late Show with David Letterman, CBS
Tuesday, March 31: Marianne Faithfull (pictured)
Wednesday, April 1: Ray LaMontagne
Thursday, April 2: The Fray
Friday, April 3: Diana Krall

The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, NBC
Tuesday, March 31: Fall Out Boy
Wednesday, April 1: Unwigged and Unplugged featuring Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer
Thursday, April 2: Taylor Swift
Friday, April 3: Miley Cyrus

Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, CBS
Wednesday, April 1: Heidi Newfield

Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, NBC
Tuesday, March 31: Gomez
Thursday, April 2: Dr. Dog
Friday, April 3: Cold War Kids

To read more, follow me.

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Ed. note: This post comes from our friends at Tampa Calling.

A regular weekly bulletin on musical guests playing the five-nights-a-week late night talk shows (and SNL); set your TIVOs or DVRs.

The Late Show with David Letterman, CBS
Wednesday, March 11: Razorlight
Thursday, March 12: The Broadway cast of West Side Story
Friday, March 13: Cursive

The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, NBC
Tuesday, March 10: Keyshia Cole
Wednesday, March 11: Raul Malo
Thursday, March 12: Heather Headley
Friday, March 13: Randy Travis

Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, CBS
Thursday, March 12: Sara Bareilles (pictured)

Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, NBC
Tuesday, March 10: Pussycat Dolls
Wednesday, March 11: The Virgins
Thursday, March 12: Glen Hansard
Friday, March 13: Trace Adkins

Last Call with Carson Daly, NBC
Tuesday, March 10: Robin Thicke
Wednesday, March 11: M83
Thursday, March 12: Delta Spirit
Friday, March 13:TBA (more…)

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