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. Metal/Parody Steel Panther – Wednesday, July 26 Underbelly | Downtown Jacksonville Comedic glam band Steel Panther brings its hair-metal schtick to Underbelly on Wednesday. More Pop/Rock Goo Goo Dolls & O.A.R. – Thursday, …
Best Concerts in Jacksonville | Jul. 17-23
Yellowcard, Young the Giant, Michael Franti & Spearhead 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. Rock Buckcherry – Tuesday, July 18 Underbelly | Downtown Jacksonville Hard-rock outfit Buckcherry, who had a handful of alt-rock-radio hits in the ‘90s, including “Lit Up,” play Underbelly on Tuesday. More Indie/Folk/Punk Emily …
Bobby Kid Singer and Guitarist Anna Lester Shares the Highs and Lows of Writing her Song “Seeds”
Welcome to Jacksonville Music Experience’s Songwriting School, where we talk to local songwriters about how they wrote one specific song. Jacksonville-based songwriter Anna Lester has been recording and performing music since 2017 under the name Bobby Kid, an indie rock band she started with her husband, drummer Brian Lester. In March, Bobby Kid released their second album, Babyface. This long-awaited …
On “Agradecido,” Emerging Duval Indie-Pop Artist Huan Pens a Sincere Song in Spanish
Huan, the Jacksonville-based purveyor of dreamy indie-pop has released his latest single, “Agradecido,” an open thank-you note to his mother, and his first single in Spanish. “This is my love letter to her while leaving a digital footprint at the same time,” Huan said about the song in an email. “Her name and voice deserve to live forever. I didn’t …
Playlist | Best New Music of July
Featuring a few dozen new tunes from local, regional, national and international artists, our Fresh Squeeze playlist includes the best new music emanating from Northeast Florida and beyond. Handpicked by our team of contributors, there are no rules or genre restrictions; just songs we thought were worth a share. Our latest Fresh Squeeze includes new music from wholly original acts Blonde …
For the Jacksonville Music Scene, Little Alley Shows Offer Intimacy and Discovery
Proprietor Emily Moody is already a key figure in local music history, in her own right–not as a performer, but as a facilitator. “Jacksonville has a long history of great music,“ she says. ”It has always been a mission of mine to highlight and celebrate music created right in our city.” She’s done just that, for almost every notable local …
Duane Betts Finds Serenity and Soul in His ‘Wild & Precious Life’
When Duane Betts and his band Palmetto Motel hit the stage at Downtown Jacksonville’s Intuition Ale Works on Sunday, July 16, they’ll be performing mere miles from where the Allman Brothers Band formed more than fifty years ago. As the son of founding ABB member Dickey Betts, the now-45-year-old Duane was born within a direct lineage of that elder band’s …
The Best Concerts in Jacksonville | July 3-9
Little Alley Shows, Matchbox 20, Bear Grillz 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. Hip Hop/R&B Che Forreign – Wednesday, July 5 Little Alley Shows | Downtown Jacksonville The latest installment in a series of pop-up concerts curated by Downtown vintage boutique Wolf & Cub, Jax singer …
North Florida Bands: Sing Out Loud is Accepting Applications for 2023 Festival
Local musicians looking for a chance to perform in front of a live audience (compared to a dead or undead audience) are in luck. The seventh-annual Sing Out Loud Festival is accepting applications from Northeast Florida musicians to perform during the festival, held each year at various venues in and around St. Augustine. The festival is accepting applications from solo …
On new single “Respectfully,” Jacksonville Singer-Songwriter Ebonique Moves with Purpose
Ebonique has returned, in dominance mode no less, with a new single called “Respectfully.” Over nimble guitar work and a hissing drum machine, the Jacksonville-based R&B and soul singer-songwriter states what she notices about how others intentionally gravitate to her for clout. In doing so, she clearly lays down the guidelines of what her purpose is. The confidence and competence …
The Best Concerts in Jacksonville | June 26-July 2
The Smile, Peter Frampton, Rain Dogs Celebrates 10 years, Heat Fest 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. Jazz Blue Jay Jazz Jam – Tuesday, June 27 Blue Jay Listening Room | Jacksonville Beach Every Tuesday, fun-sized Jax Beach venue Blue Jay Listening Room hosts a rotating cast of standout players …
Best Live Music in Jax | Jun. 19-25
Tedeschi Trucks Band, Jagged Edge, Mold!, Little Alley Shows 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. Metal Weeping – Tuesday, June 19 Rain Dogs | Five Points New Jersey death-metal group Weeping visits Jacksonville, playing Rain Dogs on Tuesday. More Neo-Soul/R&B SouLo Lyon – Thursday, June 21 Little Alley …
American-Roots Maestro Dom Flemons Follows the Roots of the Blues Through Northeast Florida
The rising tide of Black representation in (Mainstream) American roots music has resulted, to no inconsiderable extent, from the efforts of Dominique “Dom” Flemons and his colleagues in the Carolina Chocolate Drops, an exceptional band founded in Durham, North Carolina back in 2005. Flemons’ departure from the group in 2013 initiated what appears to have been the group’s final dissolution …
Rachel Angel, Daddy, Folk Is People to Headline this Year’s Queer Country Disco in Jacksonville
Queer Country Disco — the annual event celebrating the music of queer Americana and country artists — is back for another rodeo. Featuring performances by Asheville-by-way-of-Miami alt-country star Rachel Angel, Duval electro-pop artist Daddy and Jax Americana band Folk is People (with more acts to be announced soon), QCD 2023 will be held Saturday, August 12 at WJCT Studios. Founded …
Sound & Vision | Visual Artist Edison William Leads Us from the Unreal to the Real and Back Again
Sound & Vision is a semi-regular feature that examines how music influences Northeast Florida artists. Accompanying playlists for each Sound & Vision feature can be found on JME’s spotify channel. The future is ultimately resolute, carved into an unknowable stone. Regardless of our actions, desires, fears, or even the advent of providence and fate, if we are lucky to see it the …
Jacksonville Hip-Hop Artist Aalana Stands Tall on New Track, “Beretta”
Duval emcee Aalana is back with a new single, “Beretta,” the uber-talented young rapper’s first release since 2022’s “Okay Cool.” There’s little debate as to whether Aalana possesses star power. And on “Beretta,” she flosses her position with hitting phrases, touching on the importance of friendship and connection, wavering on whether either has inherent value in navigating life’s highs – …
Jax Indie-Band Teal Peel Packs an Ocean’s Worth of Character Into New Song “Sandy”
Can’t stand the sight of seagulls They freak you out and they’re kinda annoying as hell So says Jax musician Taylor Paul Neal on the latest Teal Peel single, “Sandy.” Fans of Pavement and Mercury Rev are bound to appreciate the cheeky lyricism of the local indie rock outfit’s new songs. I mean, who among us here in Northeast Florida …
Best Concerts this Week in Jacksonville | June 12-18
My Morning Jacket, flipturn, Dom Flemons, L.O.V.E. Fest, Jazz Discovery Series, Jared Mattson 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. Jazz Taylor Roberts – Monday, June 12 Blue Jay Listening Room | Jacksonville Beach Jacksonville jazz guitarist Taylor Roberts begins his monthly residency at Blue Jay Listening Room in Jax Beach on Monday, playing …
Journeyman Jacksonville Jazz Guitarist Taylor Roberts Brings It On Home With Latest Release
How does one honor any creative tradition without losing one’s identity and wind up stifled in the conventions and style of that very same heritage? Jazz is simultaneously based on an expectation from the audience that one knows the tune and an expectation from the players assembled on the bandstand that one knows how to forget the tune altogether, let …
Slow, Steady and Loud Wins the Race: Appalachian Death Trap Capture Prog-Metal Heroics with Latest Single
If there is a volatile lottery of success, providence, fortune, etc. in contemporary music, metal is the surely the remotest ball rolling in the hopper. The term “metal” has remained malleable for decades, and the polarities of the genre are so extreme that they easily—if not invitingly—encompass everything from the early-‘80s UK denim-and-leather of Saxon to the current gore-bath of …
Mattson 2 Guitarist Jared Mattson Sets out on His Own, Touring his Debut Solo Record with a Stop in Jacksonville
Jared Mattson — guitarist and bassist for the formidable San Diego surf-jazz duo Mattson 2 — has announced his first, solo North American tour, with a stop in Jacksonville. Following the release of his critically adored debut, Peanut (out now on Chaz Bundick, AKA Toro Y Moi‘s Company Records), Mattson is hitting the road. The 20-date Peanut Release Tour will …
Best Live Music in Jacksonville this Week | June 5-11
Logic, Subhumans, Conrad Tao, Rebelution 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. Southern Rock Them Dirty Roses – Tuesday, June 6 Jack Rabbits | San Marco Alabama-bred Southern-rock torchbearers Them Dirty Roses performs at Jack Rabbits with support from Jax’s own keepers of the Southern-rock …
Indie-Rock Stars Flipturn Return to Jax with Two-Night Stand at Intuition
With the momentum of roughly two years of touring behind them — including a completely-sold-out 19-date run in February — Jax-based indie rock band Flipturn has announced a homecoming show. Two shows, in fact, at the Bier Hall inside Intuition Ale Works in Downtown Jacksonville on June 16 and 17. Mixing mature pop melodies with earnest lyrics and raw energy, …
On “Foreign Rain,” Jax Goth-Rockers Glass Chapel Channel ’80s Synth-Pop
The new single from Duval goth-rockers Glass Chapel is ‘80s dourness to the max. Band member Jake Phillips acknowledges that “Foreign Rain” is “inspired by Gary Numan and Cold Cave.” And from the icy keyboard tones, disaffected vocals drenched in reverb, not to mention a definite Peter Hook-infused bass-guitar outro, the tune surely paints within the parameters of dark wave …
Jazz Returns to the Jacksonville Symphony
The Jacksonville Symphony has long specialized in offering their music in contexts designed to appeal to people who aren’t necessarily hardcore classical fans, and that has proven key to their success in an era that has been challenging, at best, for the symphony business overall. They’ve dabbled extensively in jazz in the past, but June’s Jazz at the Jacksonville Symphony …
Best Concerts in Jacksonville | May 29 – June 4
Sierra Ferrell, Kane Brown, Jazz at the Symphony 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 Sierra Ferrell – Friday, June 2 PV Concert Hall | Ponte Vedra West Virginia-native, the eclectic singer-songwriter Sierra Ferrell plays the PV Concert Hall on Friday. Watch | Tickets | Map Pop-Country …
On “Howlin’,” Jacksonville’s Halfway Hounds Unleash a Primal Yowl
The calamitous hindrances of musicians owning their own recording studios remain unheeded, even though the barbarous words are carved on the massive headstones that populate the graveyard of CD-ROM boxed sets and DAT tapes. On the flip, the freewheeling merits of that same boon/curse gave us the Halfway Hounds. The product of not one, but two, accomplished musicians who are …
JME Staff Picks | 2023 Jacksonville Jazz Festival
The Jacksonville Jazz Festival will return to the city’s Downtown on Memorial Day weekend, kicking off with the storied Jacksonville Jazz Piano Competition at the Florida Theatre on Thursday, May 25 and continuing with three days and nights of performances on two stages in the heart of the Urban Core. The buzz on this year’s fest is that it might …
Longtime Duval Musician Britt Traynham Authors and Illustrates New Book, ‘Portraits In Jazz’
Over the course of a career that’s now well into its fourth decade, the work of Britt Traynham has always been defined by a dogged diversity, and a relentless work ethic that has now taken him around the world, several times over. He currently lives in Hawaii with his wife and longtime collaborator, Lady Daisey, a veteran singer-songwriter and graphic …
On “Hazy,” Gainesville Garage Rockers bed bug guru Share a Dreamy Pummel of Fuzz
Any song with fuzz bass guitar is invariably better than a song without fuzz bass. Let’s get that cosmic truth front and center. The new single from Gainesville-by-way-of-Jax garage rockers bed bug guru features some guttural fuzz bass—heard prominently in the song’s apparent bridge—yet “Hazy” offers up more than just sadistic 30Hz frequency. A dreamy pummel of lock-and-hammer electric guitars, …
Japanese Band, Experimental Psychedelic Rockers Acid Mothers Temple, to Play for Free at the Jessie
One of the globe’s most prolific purveyors of experimental rock, Japan’s Acid Mothers Temple is currently on tour, with more than 12 US dates remaining, including a stop in Downtown Jacksonville, where they’ll play a free show on the loading docks of the Jessie Ball duPont nonprofit center on Friday, May 26. Led by Makoto Kawabata, AMT — with its …
On “Backseat,” Jacksonville Singer-Songwriter Sun Child Untangles their Radiant Charms
Somewhere between the prescriptive freedom-with-an-asterisk atmosphere of indie and the predictable wash-and-wear weather of Adult Album Alternative exists the music of Sun Child. Led by beaches native Brooke Garwood (Girl Pluto), the debut EP Everything features six cuts that lean predominately on acoustic guitar and piano arrangements with a production that is polished to a mellow, decorous sheen. “Backseat” is …
In Support of New Album, ABB Scion Duane Betts to Play Jacksonville in July
Local music fans get to experience a performance by Southern rock royalty when Duane Betts performs at Intuition Ale Works on Sunday, July 16. While Betts may tire of his legendary rock heritage, as the son of founding Allman Brothers Band guitarist Dickey Betts, the younger guitarist-vocalist is a bona fide torchbearer of that rock-music lineage. The fact that the …
Best Live Music in Jax This Week | May 15-21
The Psychedelic Furs, Winona Forever, Songwriter's Night, '90s nostalgia 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. New Wave The Psychedelic Furs – Tuesday, May 16 Florida Theatre | Downtown Jacksonville Iconic British new wave band The Psychedelic Furs plays the Florida Theatre on Tuesday. Watch | Tickets | Map …
Comedy-Rock Gods Tenacious D Bring Spicy Meatball Tour to St. Augustine
Jack Black and Kyle Gass, the comedy-rock duo dubbed Tenacious D, will take the St. Augustine Amphitheatre stage this weekend, bringing the opening leg of their Spicy Meatball Tour to an end. Though Black has been especially busy lately — he voices the villainous Bowser in box-office smash “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” contributed the viral hit “Peaches” to its …
Watch Jacksonville Artists’ Tiny Desk Contest Submissions
The Tiny Desk Contest is back for 2023, with a new panel of judges and another opportunity for unsigned artists to earn an invite to perform on the revered, improvised stage in front of Bob Boilen’s desk at NPR Music HQ. Tens of thousands of musicians submitted their videos before the March 13 deadline — including nearly two-dozen artists from …