Our weekly Go concert recommendations are updated every Monday morning and are always available on jaxmusic.org. For a comprehensive list of this week’s concerts, go to our live music calendar page. Reggae The Original Wailers feat. Al Anderson – Wednesday, September 20 Underbelly | Downtown Jacksonville Formed by guitarists Junior Marvin and Al Anderson – who backed up Bob Marley – the Original Wailers …
Bold City Circuit Brings Intimate Concert Experiences to Jacksonville Residents’ Places of Residence
On a recent Sunday, renowned Atlanta-based singer-songwriter Deidre McCalla settled in for a Bold City Circuit performance. Born and raised in New York City, McCalla cut her teeth in the highly competitive busking scene around Macdougal Street, which later produced legends like Suzanne Vega, Patti Smith and Tracy Chapman, among many others. McCalla’s album Don’t Doubt It (Olivia Records, 1985), …
All Songs Considered | The best releases out on Sept. 15
Our picks for the best albums out this week refuse to be one thing — they shape-shift and warp any rules around genre and conventions, with hairpin turns and sometimes strange sonic shifts that, despite upending expectations, are seamless and often breathtaking. We start with Corinne Bailey Rae‘s Black Rainbows, an album inspired by the English singer’s visit to Chicago’s …
“The Long Journey Home” is a New Kind of Blues for Buffalo Nichols
A cut from his second full-length release, The Fatalist, “The Long Journey Home” finds contemporary alt-blues-agitator Buffalo Nichols continuing his excursions into deconstructing and rebuilding folk forms. Driven by banjo and a minimal Roland TR-808 beat—a machine that is 50 years old, and one which Nichols considers to be a now-folk instrument—the proverbial trouble in mind that he explores is …
Do the Reissue Creators Have a Master Plan for Forthcoming Pharoah Sanders Box Set?
On September 15, label Luaka Bop is issuing a deluxe 2LP box set of the 1977 album Pharoah by Pharoah Sanders. Originally released by the India Navigations label, the new collection includes the album’s original three tracks as well as two unreleased live versions of the song “Harvest Time,” a 24-page booklet containing rarely seen photographs, essays and an interview …
Live Session | Watch Frankie and the Witch Fingers Melt Faces on the JME Soundstage
Nearly a decade of constant touring is paying dividends for the L.A.-based psychedelic-rock outfit Frankie and the Witch Fingers. The group cranks out energetic, riff-heavy earworms befitting of a band that has shown incredible stamina. And their seventh-studio record, Data Doom (out now via Greenway Records) is poised to make the band’s extraneous nom de plume (there are no Frankies …
Big Thief Are Back Again With the Beautiful “Born For Loving You”
Big Thief got bigger than ever in 2022, raking in acclaim (not to mention a Grammy nomination) with their sprawling double album Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You, and rather than resting on those laurels, the indie-folk four-piece returned Wednesday with “Born For Loving You,” their second new tune of the year. Like this summer’s “Vampire Empire” and …
Steep Canyon Rangers Bring Their Deep Take on Bluegrass to the Florida Theatre
The Steep Canyon Rangers will return to the Florida Theatre on Saturday, November 4. Over the course of two decades, the group has collaborated with banjo-playing comedy legend Steve Martin, singer-songwriter Edie Brickell and a whole host of others on their way to be being heralded as one of the finest bluegrass outfits working today. And while the Rangers have …
Indigo de Souza | Tiny Desk Concert
It’s not exactly typical for artists at the Tiny Desk to share their future burial plans, but that’s exactly what Indigo de Souza does halfway through her performance. “I wrote this song about my love for nature,” the singer-songwriter says, introducing the track “Not My Body.” “I think that when I die … what I want is to be composted …
Free Jazz Quartet Mendoza Hoff Revels Lures Listeners Into the Music Abyss
There is always room for one more supergroup and we surely have one in Mendoza Hoff Revels. Granted, if you can handle the Scoville burn, the flavor of this particular power-quartet is heavy on the free-jazz-rock seasoning. Taken from their forthcoming album Echolocation, the five-minute slice of “Diablada” assures us that Mendoza Hoff Revels really like the whole-tone scale and …
Erika Wennerstrom of the Heartless Bastards on the Letting Go and Going Within
How does one rock and roll the ineffable? Starting in 2003, Erika Wennerstrom has been the founder and forge of the Heartless Bastards. While the band was formed in Cincinnati, Ohio, since 2007 Wennerstrom has called Austin, Texas home. Since their inception, and despite some lineup changes, Heartless Bastards have garnered a devoted audience and critical raves due to their …
Best Concerts in Jacksonville | September 11-17
Lil Baby, Tank and the Bangas, Heartless Bastards and more
Our weekly Go concert recommendations are updated every Monday morning and are always available on jaxmusic.org. For a comprehensive list of this week’s concerts, go to our live music calendar page. Rock 3 Doors Down – Wednesday, September 13 Daily’s Place | Downtown Jacksonville Nineties rock-radio faves 3 Doors Down performs at Daily’s Place with support from grunge-era standouts Candlebox on Wednesday. More Various …
All Songs Considered | The best releases out on Sept. 8
On her new (and wildly anticipated album) GUTS, Olivia Rodrigo dives deep into comical wordplay, deadpan lyricism and a whole lot of guitar noise. We kick this week’s show off with a listen, talk about the ways Rodrigo deftly walks the line between intimate beauty and gut-punch rock — with a bonkers amount of hooks — and all the ways …
Head East with Forthcoming Bob Dylan Box Set That Reframes the Rock Bard’s Live Seventies Release
In 1978, Bob Dylan was in an untenable position. Rock fans still looked to the de facto troubadour to guide youth culture toward the next step to the ‘60s promised land. After all, Elvis Presley had recently died in August 1977. And John Lennon was content to stay at home, apparently baking bread. Disco was still spinning the vapid hits …
Bruce Springsteen cancels a slate of concerts, citing peptic ulcer disease
Bruce Springsteen has canceled plans to play a slate of arena concerts this month, saying the move was recommended by his medical team due to “symptoms of peptic ulcer disease.” The musician pledged to make up the dates. Springsteen and The E Street Band had been set to perform at the JMA Wireless Dome in Syracuse, N.Y., Thursday night before …
Chlöe | Tiny Desk Concert
Chlöe Bailey and her band were scheduled to fly in the day before this show. But with thousands of flights delayed or canceled at the start of the Fourth of July holiday weekend, one member couldn’t make it into town. Because the arrangements were designed for two background vocalists, it didn’t make sense to have just one and the team …
The Rolling Stones Announce ‘Hackney Diamonds,’ Their First Album in 18 Years
The Rolling Stones are releasing their 24th album, the rock ‘n’ roll band’s first in 18 years. In a live conversation Wednesday with late-night host Jimmy Fallon, the British group — comprised of lead vocalist Mick Jagger, guitarist Ronnie Wood, writer and guitarist Keith Richards and drummer Steve Jordan – announced Hackney Diamonds will come out Oct. 20. Wood said …
Anne Akiko Meyers | Tiny Desk Concert
When violinist Anne Akiko Meyers walked into NPR headquarters, I half expected her to be flanked by bodyguards. After all, she was carrying a very rare instrument. Her Guarneri del Gesù “Vieuxtemps” violin, built in 1741, is worth at least $16 million. Instead, Meyers arrived only with a pair of publicists and the perceptive pianist Max Levinson. She seemed nonchalant …
On ‘Rabbit Rabbit,’ Speedy Ortiz Returns with the Kind of Rock Record We (and They) Need Right Now
Ten years after Major Arcana, the breakthrough record that made indie-rock darlings out of Sadie Dupuis’ Speedy Ortiz, the band is back with a new record: Rabbit Rabbit. The group’s return has been much-anticipated. The smattering singles released prior to the September 1 drop date earned praise from The New York Times and Pitchfork among others, foreshadowing the kind of …
The Gear That Gave Jax’s Ducats the Grungy Sound They Needed to Record Their Latest Single, “Painless”
“Our songs are pretty pop/melody driven,” says Trent Holton, leader of the Jacksonville-based lo-fi garage act Ducats. “But we like to make noise and sound ugly sometimes in practice. We just drone and wail. The essence of music-making, for me, is represented in those loose moments: creation, destruction, spontaneity, grit, grime, happy, sad, pure energy.” That playful, throw-spaghetti-at-the-wall approach shines …
St. Augustine Aggro-Rockers Terror Management Band Deliver a Fearless and Furious Debut
Formed in 2018, Terror Management Band are arguably a supergroup of sorts from St. Augustine. Consisting of guitarist-vocalist Mike Taylor (Palatka, Halo Perfecto, Flaws), guitarist Alan Mills (Burl, Greenness) bassist-vocalist Jeremy Rogers (Minimum Rage, Dredger, Telepathic Lines) and drummer-vocalist Kevin Kelly (Liquid Limbs), TMB are the latest roster child of Bakery Outlet Records, a label based in the Oldest City …
Best Concerts in Jacksonville | Sept. 4-10
904 Soul Showcase, Johnnyswim, Kind Hearted Strangers and more
Our weekly Go concert recommendations are updated every Monday morning and are always available on jaxmusic.org. For the comprehensive list of this week’s concerts, go to our live music calendar page. Singer/Songwriter Johnnyswim – Wednesday, September 6 PV Concert Hall | Ponte Vedra Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter duo Johnnyswim, which features Jacksonville-bred multi-instrumentalist and producer Jonathan Berlin on guitar, perform at the PV Concert Hall …
Five Jimmy Buffett Ballads you Shouldn’t Ignore
Like so many Florida kids, I came of age to a steady calypso-influenced soundtrack of “Boat Drinks” and “Changes In Latitudes, Changes In Attitudes.” I was heartbroken to wake up on Saturday morning to the news that, after having battled skin cancer for the past four years, Jimmy Buffett has died. He was 76. Growing up here in Jacksonville, I …
Unearthed Danger Mouse and Jemini Collab is Firmly Grounded in Soul-Hop Grooves
Originally recorded in 2004, Born Again was created by Danger Mouse and Jemini the Gifted One, following the release of Ghetto Pop Life, their 2003 studio collaboration. Ghetto Pop Life was a critical and fan hit. Danger Mouse and Jemini toured in support of the album and ultimately recorded the tracks now released as Born Again. Their momentum was squashed …
All Songs Considered | The best releases out on Sept. 1
Speedy Ortiz‘s music may sound jagged around the edges, but it comes bundled with glimmers of sunny pop, clever lyrics and smartly deployed lap steel. The band’s new fourth album, Rabbit Rabbit, finds singer-songwriter Sadie Dupuis wrangling with abuse and trauma, learning to let go of anger and writing about the activism that’s fueled her life and career. (She’s a …
New Box Set Collects Early Triumphs of Bon Iver and Megafaun Members
This essay originally appeared in NPR Music’s weekly newsletter. Subscribe to the newsletter here. There’s a scene in an old episode of The Simpsons wherein Lisa laments that no one listens to kids. Grandpa Simpson, embroiled in a B plot of his own, chimes in that no one listens to old people, either — at which point Homer pops by …
Christian McBride’s New Jawn | Tiny Desk Concert
The start is chaotic for sure, but that’s the intent. Two minutes of craziness is an accurate description of the intro and outro of “Head Bedlam.” “A sonic description of us looking at Twitter particularly during the pandemic,” leader Christian McBride explains after the first tune of his Tiny Desk set, “when you put your phone down, that’s when the …
Speedy Ortiz | Tiny Desk Concert
Ten years ago, sometime after Speedy Ortiz transformed itself from a Sadie Dupuis solo project into a functioning rock band, its jagged and clever early singles caught the attention of NPR Music’s Lars Gotrich. So we reached out to inquire about a Tiny Desk concert, only to learn that the timing wasn’t quite right: The group didn’t have any days …
Ebonique, Broadway Louie and Kearsten Monielle Headline 904 Soul Showcase at Sing Out Loud
Jacksonville artists Ebonique, Broadway Louie and Kearsten Monielle, along with DJ Larry Love, will perform as part of the Sing Out Loud festival’s 904 Soul showcase on Saturday, September 9 at Dog Rose Brewing in St. Augustine’s historic district. The showcase was put together by Mr. Al Pete, the Jacksonville hip-hop artist, DJ, media mogul and contributor to the Jacksonville …
Noname’s ‘Sundial’ Pursues a Hip-Hop Revolution
Hip-hop has been effectively deradicalized by middle age, botched love and commercialism, to the extent that so-called “conscious rap” often sounds like a grift to feed a void in the market — the hungry ghost of authenticity. Plenty of the music is no longer a visceral and spirit-driven creative endeavor. It might be realer to just make indifferent music in …
Double Space is the Place | New Compilation Celebrates the Intergalactic Verse of Sun Ra
When tracking the enigmatic creative life of Sun Ra, it truly depends on which orbit you traverse. Over the course of his 79 years on this planet, Sun Ra worked with blues artist Wynonie Harris and big band Fletcher Henderson, later to and rub shoulders with esoteric-roots rockers NRBQ and guitar-throttlers Sonic Youth. Sun Ra released more than 100 albums …
Best Concerts in Jacksonville | Aug. 28 – Sept. 3
Taco & Tequila Festival, Jemere Morgan, Slightly Stoopid and more
Our weekly Go concert recommendations are updated every Monday morning and are always available on jaxmusic.org. For the comprehensive list of this week’s concerts, go to our live music calendar page. Reggae Jemere Morgan – Wednesday, August 30 Jack Rabbits | San Marco Grandson of reggae legend Denroy Morgan and son of Morgan Heritage member Gramps Morgan, Jemere Morgan brings his fusion of contemporary …
We Now Have Three Sonically-Distinctive Singles from Mitski’s New Record, ‘The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We’
It’s been a little over a year-and-a-half since Mitski’s Laurel Hell took over the Billboard Albums Chart in the kind of indie coup d’état not seen since Frank Ocean’s Blonde. Mainstream breakthrough notwithstanding, the experimentalist singer-songwriter-turned-pop-megastar continues to push forward, announcing a new record, The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We (out September 15th via Dead Oceans), from which the …
All Songs Considered | The best releases out on Aug. 25
Nigerian singer Burna Boy is one of the biggest pop stars in the world, as well as a global superstar by any metric. His seventh album has a title that promises the victory lap for which he’s long-overdue: It’s called I Told Them… The record continues to expand Burna Boy’s Afro-fusion palette, as he draws inspiration from ’90s hip-hop and …
L’Rain Previews New Album ‘I Killed Your Dog’ With the Playful “Pet Rock”
L’Rain — aka Brooklyn-based experimental singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, composer and curator Taja Cheek — has announced her third album, the confrontationally titled I Killed Your Dog (Oct. 13, Mexican Summer). Our second preview of the “anti-break-up” record after June’s standalone single (and, it turns out, I Killed Your Dog’s closer) “New Year’s UnResolution” is the technicolor “Pet Rock,” out now alongside …
Daptone Records Drops a Heady Reggae Collab Between Sugar Minott and Victor Axelrod
For lovers of reggae music, Sugar Minott was a veritable force of nature. When he died at age 54 in 2010, he left behind an impressive body of work. While still in his teens in the late ‘60s, Minott cofounded the African Brothers, a band savvy at blending R&B and soul with a strong Rastafari vibe. In the subsequent decades …