The Offspring performs at Uptown Amphitheatre tonight and we just know you’re flying inside. Come out to Halo (formerly known as the Garden and Gun Club) for a special pre-show party, presented by none other than Creative Loafing. Oh, and in case your worried about cash, you need not be. The party — which starts at 5:30 p.m. — includes free food from The Nook and drink specials. Halo is located at 820 Hamilton St. (in the NC Music Factory).
T-Model Ford As you might expect from a T-Model, this one’s kind of aged (somewhere between 75 and 80) and takes a while to start, but once all the pistons start firing, you’re in for a rollicking (if rickety) ride you’ll not soon forget. The Mississippi Native and Fat Possum Records “find” (like he’d not been seen before?) has all the backstory that “blooze” biographers look for (worked on a mule farm, drank a shit-ton, spent time in jail on a murder rap), but the real draw here is his unorthodox-yet-fraught-with-power picking, which is at least on par with Junior Kimbrough, if not as searingly, screamingly honest (or ominous, perhaps). Highly recommended. With Andy the Doorbum, Gravelroad. Snug Harbor
Loser Life If people aren’t sufficiently sick of seeing the whole Bastard Baby musical analogy yet, allow me to say that Loser Life could be the John Doe spawn of the Riverdales and Minor Threat, if, say, the Riverdales had also slept around with Black Flag circa My War, and maybe some random, mustached college kid with an armload of Suicidal Tendencies sides and the original vinyl of Zen Arcade. Fun shit, regardless. With Lowbrow, Meth Mountain. Lunchbox Records (Timothy C. Davis)
Benji Hughes Kid Crooner does a two-night stand at a venue that affords him serious home-court advantage. What that means live, as any who’ve seen him in Snug’s snug confines know, is a loosey-goosey Hughes free to wander off the script (and stage) because his crack East coast band – ex-Muscadine mate Stacy Leazar on bass, time-keeper extraordinaire David Kim, keyboards whiz kid Jon Phillips and guitar hero Peter Gray – is good enough to reel him back in. If you haven’t heard Hughes’ summer-iffic A Love Extreme yet – what the hell are you waiting for? With the Poontanglers on the 3rd, and the Troublewalkers on the 4th. Snug Harbor (John Schacht)
311 The rap rockers are returning on the band’s annual summer Unity Tour. This time around, they’re bringing along Ziggy Marley. While one hopes that an onstage collaboration would be done with some of the tour partners, I haven’t witnessed it the last two years. The band plays a variety of hits from their albums over a long set, but they’re sure to break out tunes from their new album, Uplifter, too. I can guarantee the new single, “Hey You,” will be in there somewhere. Now, if I could only guarantee that they would still end their show with “Fuck the Bullshit”… It’s just not the same without it. Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre (Jeff Hahne)
Sugar Glyder Sugar Glyder is proof that UNCC can produce more than architects and business majors. Following in the footsteps of other UNCC alum, The Sammies, Sugar Glyder seem poised to become one of the next big things in music. Surely it won’t be long before we hear them in the background while one of our favorite TV characters has a revelation, dances around in their underwear, or well, something. You’ll hear some tunes off the band’s new CD, too, since this is the release party. With Terminal Reynaldo and Atriumantra. Tremont Music Hall (Sam Webster)
Matt & Kim Not a lot of subtlety here, as this Brooklyn duo pairs ’80s synth-pop rhythms with a pop-punk ethos and a high-octane (and high-fructose, given their fondness for food fights) live show to create danceable mayhem. Matt Johnson’s bubbly melodies and the hyper-kinetic beats of (adorable) drummer Kim Schifino create a simple framework for songs about … well, it doesn’t matter what they’re about, does it? The idea here is fun and from that standpoint M&K fulfill the mission statement. With MSTRKRFT and A-Trak. The Forum
Pattern Is Movement Most bands take their new compositions straight into the studio or onto the road merely for fine tuning; this Philly duo works inside-out on tour, discovering their songs’ true nature on stage and then taking them into the body shop for detailing (local producer Scott Solter at their service, again). This fits the aptly named act to a tee, as PIM is all about puzzle-making – seemingly disparate sections put together to create its own logical framework. At one time a quintet, the pieces now consist mostly of banks of different keyboards, polyrhythmic percussion patterns, and vocals that would make good musical accompaniment to an Ionesco play. With Yardwork and Fluffy Lumbers. Milestone
Trevor Exter. Cellist and singer Exter concocts funky ditties. He plays the cello, well, more like picks, pulls, slaps and bends it like a guitar and what ensues is everything but classical. A session man who has played with varied artists spanning genres, Exter’s music straddles the outer boundaries of twang, pop and rock. It’s darn good when he’s on and occasionally hokey when not. With Ben Henry and Erika Blatnik. Milestone
Stephen Warwick & the Secondhand Stories. Warwick is one of the city’s most underrated songwriters, but that’s likely to change now that – if the rumors are true – the debut is done. There is, as someone somewhere wrote, something here for nearly everyone, from “singer-songwriter fans and indie aficionados” to “lap-top folkers and Americana geeks.” If you prefer your footholds have actual names, imagine Elliot Smith in a better mood with some Stephen Merritt, Mark Linkous, Jeff Mangnum, Dylan and Skip James coursing through him, and you’re in the diverse neighborhood. With another unsung local act, the Mike Strauss Band. The Evening Muse
The Catch Fire Rising from the unraveling of the short-lived combo The Young Sons, The Catch Fire features veteran N.C. music scenesters. The quartet does a mondo melodic take on power pop stitched with spiky guitar riffs, happy bass and drums and harmony-soaked vocals. There’s a quaint vibe to the tunes that channel the last three decades of pop while tipping the hat to the ’60s. With the Empties. Snug Harbor
Taking Back Sunday. Taking Back Sunday may not be newbies to the scene, but it has been a while since singer Adam Lazzara and company have rocked out in the front man’s home state. With Lazzara’s new marriage and yet another line-up change, we may be in store for a different, more mature TBS. Though, not even a wife, a few years and some new tunes could keep that microphone from swinging. Sass does not die with age, and that is something TBS will always possess. With Anberlin, Envy on the Coast. Amos’ Southend (Sam Webster)
Sugarland They may be a duo instead of the trio they started out as, but let’s face it, as long as Jennifer Nettles is singing, that’s all that matters. Nettles won me over back in her solo days when she was more of a soulful, bluesy rocker. I’m not much of a country fan, but she’s got the pipes to win over lots of people, and she’s as friendly as can be, too, not losing any of her grounded personality to fame. People keep wondering when she’ll go solo, but she already has – look up the Jennifer Nettles Band. Opening for Keith Urban at “The Cable Box.” Time Warner Cable Arena (Jeff Hahne)
The Radiators Veteran N’awlins kurbmasters The Radiators never quite developed into the swampy, horn-inflected Little Feat/Allman Brothers hybrid some wags wagered back in the late ’80s and early ’90s, but who’s counting? (As Randy “The Ram” Robinson grunts in The Wrestler, “Everything was fine until that Cobain pussy came along!”) Simply put, they’re longtime pros, and whether you find that professionalism merely workmanlike or wowsers is up to you. Regardless, they’re a burn-it-like-Sherman live act, known for playing marathon shows with plenty of pacing besides. Visulite Theatre (Timothy C. Davis)
Villanova Bobby Dredd holds it down on slap bass for Villanova, a musical position that, in a funk band, is the NFL equivalent of the quarterback of a New England Patriots-style run-and-gun offense: You’re counted on for a lot, and one missed assignment can ruin the whole thing. The music does veer into that Rage Against the Incubus territory occasionally, but there’s hope: namely, passable radio-ready funk that doesn’t abandon the musicianship in search of a hit. Wild Wing Cafe Epicentre (Davis)
Jeff Bujak. Piano popster Bujak is a one-man band tickling the ivories and tapping the keys while a steady drum machine backbeat holds up the semi jazzy, quasi-dance lounge compositions. The Syracuse, N.Y.-based Bujak, lovingly known as the Buj, is hauling his stacks of keyboards around the circuit pumping his new recording Alive Like the Spine. Double Door Inn
