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Honey
Tongue, Nysm
Valentine’s,
Thursday
Jen
Ayers, lead singer of the Seattle pop-rock foursome Honey
Tongue, has been compared to everyone from Janis Joplin to
Fiona Apple to Garbage’s Shirley Manson. Ayers’ voice has
landed her gigs singing the national anthem at sold-out NBA
games, and she has also been a two-time Lilith Fair Talent
Search Finalist. Ayers and guitarist Graham McNeill already
had opened for acts such as Tom Petty, Dave Matthews Band
and Vertical Herizon before they joined drummer Darnton Lewis
and bassist Sam Larson to create Honey Tongue in 2000. The
band just recently finished recording four new songs at Seattle’s
Studio X with noted producer Brett Eliason, who has worked
with Pearl Jam, Mad Season and Neil Young. A full-length release
is due out this summer. Honey Tongue will appear with Nysm
downstairs at Valentine’s tonight (Thursday). (May 9, 9
PM, $5, 432-6572)
Kim
Richey
The
Larkin Lounge, Saturday
Kim
Richey has been making a buzz in country-music circles as
of late. While she spent much of last year touring with Trisha
Yearwood, Shawn Colvin and Jonatha Brooke, Richey managed
to squeeze in some time to record a new album. Richey’s fourth
release, due out later this year, is her first for the Lost
Highway label—her labelmates include Lucinda Williams, Ryan
Adams and Willie Nelson—and she’s traveling near and far in
support of it. Richey moved to Nashville early in her career,
and through the release of her three albums, she’s begun to
gain critical attention. Along with the songs she’s written
for her own records, Richey has co-written a couple of whoppers:
“Nobody Wins,” for Radney Foster, and “Believe Me Baby (I
Lied),” for Yearwood, for which Richey received a Grammy nomination.
Richey will play two shows at the Larkin Lounge on Saturday.
(May 11, 8 and 10:30 PM, $10, 463-5225)
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Catherine
McGrann
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They
Might Be Giants
Massachusetts
Museum of Contemporary Art, North Adams, Mass., Saturday
Those
of you who have been keeping tabs on They Might Be Giants
may have gotten the impression that the Johns (Flansburgh
and Linnell) had abandoned the live circuit for two-dimensional
pursuits: They provided Malcolm in the Middle with
its theme song, “Boss of Me,” they gave the opening credits
of Austin Powers a musical accompaniment, as they did
for The Daily Show, they’ve composed for the Nightline
Primetime: Brave New World series, and they wrote a song
for National Public Radio’s This American Life (titled,
cheekily enough, “I’m Sick of This American Life”)—and that’s
the short version of the list. But, for those of you eager
to get a taste of the band in a live setting, which the Salt
Lake Tribune described as “borderline mayhem in the best
possible sense,” we’ve got good news: Supporting their first
full-lengther in five years, Mink Car, They Might Be
Giants are on the road again. The “geek-rock godfathers” will
play MASS MoCA’s Hunter Center on Saturday. So, do,
do let’s start. (May 11, 8 PM, $22.50, $17.50 students,
413-662-2111)
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Caitlin
Cary
Iron
Horse Music Hall, Northampton, Mass., Sunday
Though
former bandmate Ryan Adams’ sudden solo celebrity has all
but obscured the memory of the “other ones” in Whiskeytown,
Caitlin Cary has boldly soldiered on. In fact, the guests
on her own solo full-length debut, While You Weren’t Looking,
indicate that the former Emmylou to Adams’ Gram has significant
cred all her own. The disc was produced by onetime dB Chris
Stamey (with help from Whiskeytowners Mike Daly and Skillet
Gilmore), and features contributions by Let’s Active’s Mitch
Easter, Jen Gunderman of the Jayhawks, Jon Wurster from Superchunk
and, yes, the It-Boy himself, Ryan Adams (who co-wrote three
of the songs). With such collaborators, it’s clear that Cary
hasn’t strayed too far from the country-rock-meets-jangle-pop
approach of her old outfit, and that’s just fine by the critics:
The Los Angeles Daily News called her album “soulful,
spirited and elegant,” and the genre’s touchstone publication,
No Depression, upped the ante, declaring it “the best
recording yet to surface from the remnants of Whiskeytown.”
Who knows, now maybe Elton John will invite her over. (May
12, 7 PM, $8, 800-THE-TICK)
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Mike
Watt and the Secondmen, the Stars of Rock
Valentine’s,
Tuesday
Of
all the heralds of spring, perhaps none is as reliable as
the man in the van jamming econo with the thud stick—you know,
the cat from Pedro with the boom broom. All right, we’ll spell
it out for you: It’s spring, so bass player and indie-rock
legend Mike Watt is touring again. Yeah, sure, there are lots
of bands who swing through the area more or less every year,
but how many summers in a row do you wanna spend $45 for “Sweet
Baby James” and a picnic? Every time Watt comes through, it’s
something new—new support players, new material. The guy’s
tireless (how’d you like to try 60 gigs in 61 days?). On his
current Our Oars Become Wings tour, Watt will play songs from
his upcoming album, The Secondman’s Middle Stand, which
deals with his recent struggle with a life-threatening illness.
The album “loosely parallels Dante’s The Divine Comedy,”
and the tour’s title derives from Ulysses’ comment to Dante
that a material object—“like a bass or an oar,” Watt notes—can
propel one to loftier, metaphysical heights. As Watt himself
says, “Quite the mindblow.” Opening for Watt will be the Stars
of Rock. (May 14, 8 PM, $10, 432-6572)
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Dead
Kennedys
Saratoga
Winners, Wednesday
You make the call: Is it live or is it Dead Kennedys? On Wednesday,
guitarist East Bay Ray, bassist Kluas Flouride—original members
of Dead Kennedys—and D.H. Peligro, the band’s second drummer,
will play Saratoga Winners with singer Brandon Cruz, as Dead
Kennedys. Cruz, cool-guy name notwithstanding, is not a Fox-network
series star, but nor is he Jello Biafra, the band’s original
and iconoclastic front man—he’s just some guy who’s gotten
hold of lyrics to D.K. songs such as “Holiday in Cambodia”
and “Too Drunk to Fuck.” And there’s the rub. See, there’s
a whole mess of lawsuits and bitter feelings about just what—or
whom—deserves the name (and the royalties attached to the
name) Dead Kennedys. Now, that being said, Jello’s busy these
days touring his scathing, hilarious anti-consumer-culture
spoken-word work, so if you want to hear “MTV—Get Off the
Air,” “Nazi Punks Fuck Off,” or “California Über Alles” performed
in a club, it’s gonna be by a guy named Brandon. Also on the
bill, the Generators, Murderers Row and River City Rebels.
(May 15, 8 PM, $15, 783-1010)
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also
noted
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Spookie
Daly Pride
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Five-piece
Boston-based groove-funk band Spookie Daly Pride will
play on the upstairs stage of Valentine’s tonight (Thursday),
with Runna Muck opening (8 PM, $6, 432-6572). . . .
The Adrian Cohen Quartet welcome neo-Dixieland jazz
band Made in the Shade to their Thursday-night Larkin
gig (9 PM, $3, 463-5225). . . . New York City born
rootsy, bluesy artist Maria Muldaur will play Great
Barrington’s Club Helsinki tonight; and tomorrow (Friday)
at the club, Texan Jimmy LaFave will perform (Thu:
9 PM, $25, $20 advance; Fri: $15; 413-528-6308). . . . Valentine’s
will host a Center for the Disabled benefit tomorrow, featuring
the Wait, Crawdad, Dan Wos Project, Second Hand Smoke (upstairs),
and the Girl, Small Appliances, Simon Screams, Paddy Kilrain
(downstairs) (8:45 PM, $10, 432-6572). . . . Cow-punksters
the Coal Palace Kings will celebrate their third release,
Upstate, on Saturday at Valentine’s [See Listen
Here, page 30]. Continuing on the roots-rock theme, Roundbale
Conspiracy, the College Farm and P.J. Loughran
will play the downstairs stage at Valentine’s Saturday (9
PM, $5, 432-6572). . . . Local rockabilly greats Johnny
Rabb and the Jailhouse Rockers will be at the Ale House
Saturday (10 PM, $4, 272-9740).
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Columns
& Opinions
