Impressive Summer Line-up at The State Room

The State Room has an impressive line-up of music scheduled for the summer months and continuing right into the fall.

Extend your 4th of July holiday weekend into Tuesday by enjoying The New Mastersounds. These four Brits are in the US showing off work from their newest album, Ten Years On.One review by Matt Brockett for jambands.com sums up the band as follows. For the complete review, http://tinyurl.com/2ad4wfx.

Rarely does a band come along with so fitting a name as these four Brits, and they’ve got more chops than a karate tournament. The roots of their sound draws from the greatest ’60s and ’70s funk, soul and beyond, rounded out with a confident new school coolness and originality of vision that you just can’t fake.

They also have plenty of vids on YouTube to get you into the vibe and more information can be found on their website.

Other shows coming up–some have just been added–include:

Red Hot & Blue Record Hop – Wed, July 14

Shannon Whitworth – Fri, July 16: Shannon Whitworth

Thriving Ivory – Sat, July 17: Thriving Ivory

The Band of Heathens – Wed, July 28: Band of Heathens

Dar Williams – Fri, July 30: Dar Williams

Galanis & Cameron Rafati – Sat, July 31: Cameron Rafati

Micky & The Motorcars – Fri, Aug 6: Micky & The Motorcars

Blame Sally – Sat, Aug 7: Blame Sally

Punch Brothers (featuring Chris Thile) – Mon, Aug 9: Punch Brothers

The Watson Twins – Tue Aug 10: The Watson Twins

Alejandro Escovedo – Tue Aug 24: Alejandro Escovedo

Jenny & Johnny – Wed Sept 8: Jenny & Johnny Music

JJ Grey & Mofro – Thur Sept 16: JJ Grey & Mofro

Walter Trout & The Radicals tonight at T

Walter Trout & The Radicals tonight at The State Room. Doors are open. I’m pretty sure the show is going to be as hot as the weather!

Afro Omega – Warmin’ Up

Oh, this is lovely. If you are on your couch watching Battlestar Galactica on DVD (which is what I would be doing if I wasn’t here), get up, get dress and come dance at The State Room. Right now.

Have you listened to Heavyweight Dub Cha

Have you listened to Heavyweight Dub Champion? Make a new station on Pandora.

Heavyweight Dub Champion – Saturday, July 26

Looking forward to listening to this band tomorrow and posting a blog review. If you think you can do a better job (anyone probably can), and will, let me know and I’ll give you tix to the show. Send me a message in thestateroomslc.com comments box ASAP.

Micq

Josh Ritter – Show in Progress

I’m hanging in the ticket office with Adam (The Boss tonight!). I think, really, this is the best seat in the house. No sweaty cowboy shirts, just the music.

I hadn’t really heard of Josh till a week or so ago when I knew he was coming to TSR. I listened to some of his music online in prep for the show and I liked it. But, I have to say he is really good live.  When I went in for a peep a bit ago, he had a big grin on his face and so did everyone else. His vibe is infectious.

He is singing the most beautiful song right now–an acoustic ballad called Rainslicker from his album Hello Starling.  It drifts along, wrapping around you and making you feel like you do just before you fall asleep, but maybe not as drooly. He has definitely played some harder songs, too tonight. A lot of his songs make you want to yell, YAHOO! In a good way. Would it be weird to say he reminds me of Neil Diamond? He has that belting, deep voice and people sing along a lot (i.e., Cracklin’ Rosie). I’ll probably get beat up if anyone reads this before the show ends. He also reminds me of The Mountain Goats–I’m sure he’d like that better.

Anyway. Just another great show at The State Room. And yet another band I would never have known about.

Get down here for Heavyweight Dub Champion next Saturday…and put your dancing shoes on girls, cuz this show will wreck hard.

Micquelle

And, as always, if you have an interest in blogging about TSR shows, let us know in the comments. Someone should be doing this who knows what they are talking about!

Indigenous: After the Fact

I learned two things at the Indigenous show on Saturday night at The State Room: 1) Never judge a band by it’s acoustic album alone; and 2) Don’t leave the show until the amp is plugged in. My holy! These guys blew the place apart after switching to electric after a really nice (but, you know, not electric) set of acoustic songs. Although the acoustic songs show off Mato’s voice a bit better, the electric shows off his passion, talent and gorgeous sweatiness (not a word).

There was some Stevie Ray Vaughn, some Hendrix and some Mato originals. Very rockin’ blues. One of the great things about TSR is that it is small enough that you are totally immersed in the music and when Mato got the vibe going, it spread throughout. Whistles and hollers were constantly in the air for the last 45 mins. Anyway, I hadn’t really listened to anything other than The Acoustic Sessions before the show, so I was pretty blown away. From now on, I won’t blog without two albums worth of research. But, I’m such a hack anyway that I’m sure it won’t help my cred.

If you know what you’re talking about, let me know and I’ll trade you tix for blogging about TSR shows!

Micq

Indigenous – Saturday, June 12

Mato Nanji’s always provided the heartbeat of the band Indigenous – along with the warm dusty voice and the soaring, spirited guitar fireworks that have earned the group from South Dakota’s Nakota Nation a place among roots rock’s elite. But with the emotionally charged and musically visceral Broken Lands, the band’s second album on Vanguard Records, Nanji makes a transformation from sparkplug to visionary.

From indigenousrocks.com.

There’s one word that comes to mind when I listen to Indigenous: Groove. Mato Nanji, lead vocalist and guitarist for the group is indeed a groovy guy; pretty hot, too.

His Native American heritage is woven into the soulful sound of the band’s latest record, The Acoustic Sessions. You can hear the prairies, the wide-open skies and the soaring of hawks in his voice. Sometimes he sounds sad, but there’s always a bit of hope in there somewhere. His voice reminds me, strangley, of Mark Lanegan of Screaming Trees fame (and who has since fallen into Sweet Oblivion ). I say strangely, because the band is nothing like ST, but there’s something rootsy about them that evokes a similar feeling.

The band also has a jazz-soul flavor, but with guitar precision that keeps it all moving in the right direction. The groove is sway-y and dozy. You want to close your eyes and hope someone is getting you another cold beer–maybe the backup singers?.

You probably have to know someone, who knows someone, who knows someone that like Indigenous to find them, but once you do, you’ll be hooked. Listening to them is completely painless no matter what your music tastes. They aren’t one of those bands that you want to like but can’t. You just like them.

I think this band will be really good live and I’ m interested to see the personality that comes across. Is Mato as mellow as his music, or does he have a little of the badlands in him? A little SoDoka to go with his NoDoka? Anyway, I’m sure he is even prettier up close.

I give The Acoustic Sessions a Saturday backyard bbq thumbs up.

I’ll be working in the ticket booth on Saturday, so come on down, say hi, and as they say, get your groove on.

Micquelle

Micquelle is a guest blogger who knows absolutely nothing about music. But likes what she likes and hates everything else.

Joshua James – June 4

Joshua James has been writing and singing songs for only six short years, but the 25-year-old heartland poet has the perspective of a wise, old soul. On his second album, Build Me This, the follow-up to his critically acclaimed The Sun is Always Brighter, produced by industry veteran Shannon Edgar, James expands his musical palette to foreboding doom-laden hard rock.

Get a free song here… http://www.joshuajames.tv/magazine.html

Friday, June 4 – Doors, 8 pm, Show 9 pm – Tix $12 or $15 ATD

Okay, so that’s the official spiel. But, I’m listening to James’ newest album, Build Me This, right now so let me tell you like it is–no spin, no hype.

It’s beautiful.

Outside it’s a kind of rainy, grey day and it’s Friday at the office. So, my thoughts are fairly “doom-laden” anyway. But, this album quite cheered me–or maybe soothed is a better word. Its melodious and lilting. Drifting slowly by, but in an interesting way. James has a musical–though sometimes spitty sounding–voice. The backdrop is even more musical, but it helps to blend his voice into the overall theme of the song. Not like, say, Elliott Smith, who sort of forces you to listen to him and his gritty lyrics. James’ maybe be singing about sorrowful things, but you are so enchanted by the music that you don’t have to be sad. Don’t get me wrong, this album could make you cry for sure. But it doesn’t have to.

More than anything, I was pleasantly surprised. It takes something to separate the men from the boys in the indie world these days and I didn’t expect that James would have that. But, he did. I like him almost as much as Elliott Smith and much more than Jakob Dylan or Bret Dennen (although he has some jewels).

I’m going to listen to his earlier album, The Sun is Always Brighter, for sure. I give it a coffee and a Sunday morning thumbs up.

Guest Blogger: micquelle