Is Dave Grohl simply the happiest man in modern rock? Every time you see the guy, he’s smiling, giggling or out-and-out guffawing, apparently unruffled by just about everything.
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One final reminder for everyone who might have forgotten: Don’t miss OC legends Social Distortion, blasting into the Warfield Theatre Feb. 3-4, backing its rip-snorting new “Hard Times and Nursery Rhymes” set, which just hit shelves. And main man Mike Ness is slim, trim, in his finest form in years, both vocally and physically. How did he do it?
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Hitting town this Thursday, at the Palace of Fine Arts — is classy East Coast folk-popper Suzanne Vega, who’s on a bit of a roll these days.This month, she, Duncan Sheik and director Kay Matschullat have been in residence at Troy, N.Y.’s Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center, fleshing out her new play, “Carson McCullers Talk About Love.”
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Dianna Agron is not just a pretty face. Sure, the Russian-descended beauty stars as the cheerleader Quinn Fabray on Fox’s award-winning show “Glee.” But she’s also a local native who attended Burlingame High School, a screenwriter and a former dance instructor.
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When Charlotte Kemp Muhl was a little girl growing up in Georgia, her classmates had a couple of pet names for her, and she shudders just recalling them. “They used to call me Duck Lips,” she says, “and also Rabbit Feet, because I have really big feet. And the problem with me is that — on top of having big feet — I’m just kind of dirty and more like a boy.”
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Guitarist extraordinaire Kaki King started in the toughest of all markets — she busked for change in New York City subways, long before she ever commanded a stage with her intricate style. So this year she’s decided to return to her roots, so to speak, with an acoustic solo tour that hits Ashkenaz in Berkeley on March 5. And to face the crowd alone, armed with just one six-string — onstage or underground — you’ve gotta be good. But King has proven herself worthy of such a trial by fire.
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It’s interesting to note that bluegrass bastion Alison Krauss has, to date, won a career total of 26 impressive Grammys — more than any other female artist. Her recent collaboration with Robert Plant, “Raising Sand,” in itself earned a whopping six.
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Neko Case may be a Grammy-nominated punk/alt-country/rockabilly kitten. But she’s also turning into quite the philanthropist. In an unusual online raffle she’s dubbed the “Mercury Cougar-Rama Muscle Car-’Splosion,” the Anti-signed singer will be giving away her beloved 1967 Mercury Cougar, recently displayed prominently on the cover of her “Middle Cyclone” album.
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Periodically, we’ll feed you Next Big Thing bulletins. This week’s installment: Anna Calvi, a sinister, Weimar-Republic-spooky chanteuse who gets into the gravelly grit of a song like a female Nick Cave. No wonder Cave himself has already professed himself a fan, inviting her to open his recent European tour with Grinderman.
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It is no secret that Los Angeles tunesmith Bleu — born William James McAuley III — is a sucker for a great pop song. During his four-album solo career, he has launched sugary side projects such as the Major Labels with Mike Viola, the ELO-inspired LEO with Andy Sturmer, and LoudLion, his new tribute to producer Mutt Lange (a joint venture with Rooney’s Taylor Locke, for whom he is opening in The City on Sunday). And Bleu has been co-writing material with Disney hit-makers Selena Gomez and the Jonas Brothers.
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This year’s lineup for Coachella was just announced, and it’s positively sprawling.
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The last time they blasted through S.F., Rhett Miller’s tangy twangsmiths Old 97s played a strange gig indeed, appearing free at Justin Herman Plaza on behalf of the Texas Tourism Board. “It was just to promote visiting the state, even moving there,” says the singer, still baffled over the offer. “But the board asked us if we would be the face of this series, ambassadors of the state. Which was fine by me. In fact, I got so excited that I wrote a song that’s on our new record called ‘A State Of Texas.’”
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Just when everyone was probably wondering “Say! What in the heck are our local heroes Green Day up to?” the titanic, Broadway-immortalized power trio is back with an unexpected surprise. On March 22, they’ll unleash “Awesome As F---,” a brand-new live album-DVD, culled from their recent 2009-10 tour backing the Grammy-winning “21St Century Breakdown.” The DVD alone is worth the price of admission — it was shot entirely in rabid-fan Tokyo.
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Gravelly growler Tom Waits is always full of surprises.
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Sometimes you can overlook great songwriting, even when it’s right under your nose. Such could be the case with Ireland’s deft little trio The Script, which has quietly come up with unsuspecting humalongs like “Breakeven” from its eponymous debut. The song crept into the public consciousness until it had been downloaded over two million times. And raspy-throated bandleader Danny O’Donoghue is a likable enough lad on record and video, a winning Everyman who’s quite happy to coast beneath the stadium-rock radar.
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