Fireball 6: The ’80s Party on New Year’s Eve at Rev Room with The Venus Mission!
Posted by kstar on December 30, 2011 | Category: coming to rev room | Leave a Comment
Fireball 6, the sixth edition of Revolution Music Room’s wild and crazy New Year’s Eve party, will feature the hugely popular The Venus Mission this year.
Tickets to Fireball 6: The ’80s Party featuring The Venus Mission & Friends are $15 in advance and are available online now here. The party starts at 9 pm and doors open at 8 pm on New Year’s Eve.
The Venus Mission — dubbed “the hottest band between Memphis and the Sun” — features heavenly female singers, stellar musicians and irresistible dance hits, taking fans on a rocket ride through the best party music of the last 40 years.
The group plays everything from R&B to disco to Top 40, with a particular emphasis on the hits of the ’80s. With soaring vocals and spandex-tight moves, The Venus Mission is a blast whether you’re watching, dancing, or singing along. The band also is expected to perform some of its sassy original pop songs, which you can hear on their CD Body Rockin’.
Based in Memphis, The Venus Mission has performed throughout the Mid-South, and has played more than 500 shows since 2002, gaining thousands of fans throughout the region with their fun dance music and upbeat, high-energy stage show.
The Memphis Commercial-Appeal calls them “one of the premier party bands in the Mid-South,” and the Arkansas Times has said The Venus Mission is “the most popular touring act to come regularly to Little Rock.”
For more information about Revolution Music Room or tickets to shows, call 501-823-0090 or visit www.revroom.com.
Tags: 80s party, fireball, the venus mission
Lucero, Amy LaVere: BIG Show at Rev Wednesday Dec. 21!
Posted by kstar on December 21, 2011 | Category: coming to rev room | Leave a Comment
What some might say is Memphis’ soulful-yet-grittier version of the Drive-By Truckers, indie country/punk/rock favorite Lucero, headlines a show at Rev Room tonight (Wednesday, Dec. 21) in what is sure to be a killer night of great rock ‘n’ roll with a large crowd of enthusiastic fans. Special guest Amy LaVere — quite the performer in her own right — opens.
Lucero’s punk rock roots can be heard throughout their alt-country/rock sound, while their Southern roots give them the twang that they have come to be known by. The band, based in Memphis, was founded in 1998 and for the past decade they’ve played 150 to 200 shows a year across the United States and Canada. They have released six full-length albums. Check out a video of one of their 2008 shows here:
The members of Lucero are Roy Berry (drums), John C. Stubblefield (bass), Brian Venable (guitar), and Ben Nichols (guitar and vocals), Rick Steff (piano, organ, accordion), and occasionally Todd Beene (pedal steel).
In late 2008, the band announced they had signed a 4-album deal with Universal Music Group. Their first after that deal, and their latest full-length album, 1372 Overton Park, was released in late 2009 and was the first Lucero album to feature a horns section; it received high marks from critics across the country.
The Onion gave 1372 Overton Park a grade of A-, saying this about the album:
“Back when Lucero played warehouses and released scrappy attic recordings on hand-packaged LPs, the Memphis band felt like an epiphany. Granted, Lucero wasn’t the first group to smash punk zeal into country-rock tradition, but it was the best at the time, and did so on wholly punk- rock terms. Ten years on, the group has released 1372 Overton Park, its major-label debut. Not only is it a sonic leap for Lucero, it’s another epiphany: Having long outgrown the warehouse, leader Ben Nichols and crew have embraced their legendary Memphis forebears by adding a robust horn section (courtesy of Memphis soul legend Jim Spake) and an epic sweep on par with Lucero’s closest cousin, Drive-By Truckers. … With young contenders like The Gaslight Anthem hot on their heels, the members of Lucero have shown that they can still stretch, grow, and move forward — even while keeping a reverent eye on the rearview mirror.”
Frontman Nichols also is known for co-starring in MTV’s “$5 Cover” program, a Craig Brewer-produced quasi-fictionalized series about the Memphis music scene that started in May 2009. A performance of Lucero’s song “San Francisco” at the Young Avenue Deli in Memphis is featured in the trailer for the series.
Opening will be LaVere, an Americana singer, songwriter, upright bass player and actress based in Memphis. She has released three albums on Memphis label Archer Records, and has multiple acting credits in major motion pictures.
In early 2006, LaVere released her debut album This World Is Not My Home to instant national acclaim. She was joined on her album by many accomplished artists, including notorious southern bluesman Jimbo Mathus, formerly of the Squirrel Nut Zippers. The Los Angeles Daily News raved at the time, “Something like this doesn’t come along every day.” LaVere has also begun a nascent acting career that began with her cameo as Rockabilly queen Wanda Jackson in the Johnny Cash bio film “Walk The Line” and continued with featured role in Craig Brewer’s “Black Snake Moan.”
In 2007, LaVere went into the studio with acclaimed producer, bluesman and Arkansas native Jim Dickinson to record her second album, Anchors & Anvils. Dickinson has previously produced albums for Ry Cooder, Aretha Franklin, The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan (in a 40-year relationship that has extended from Blonde on Blonde to Time Out Of Mind), and Dickinson’s sons’ seminal North Mississippi Allstars. The resulting album rose to No. 6 on the Americana Music Charts and earned LaVere a nomination for the Americana Music Association Awards’ Best New Or Emerging Artist.
In addition to her critical recognition, she has toured the United States from coast to coast, receiving rave reviews for her genuine and powerful performances. She played a series of dates with The Swell Season, had a breakout performance at Austin City Limits Festival, and shared the stage at the Americana Music Conference with Lyle Lovett, Todd Snider, and others.
Tickets for Wednesday night’s show are $21 in advance online, available here, or $26 at the door (until it sells out, and it likely will). Show starts at 8:30 and it’s open to ages 18 & up.
Tags: amy lavere, lucero, rev room, the onion
TOUCH the Grateful Dead Show
Posted by chrisking on December 19, 2011 | Category: coming to stickyz | Leave a Comment
Every Monday Stickyz plays host to a bevy of talented local musicians that come together under the name of TOUCH to bring you an evening of live Dead music. Touch is the brainchild of keyboard virtuoso Frisbee (catch him leading the singalongs at piano bars across the midwest) and includes members of the band Mojo Depot – themselves no strangers to the Dead’s gargantuan catalog of jams. Frisbee came up with the idea for a monthly night of Grateful Dead music back in May of 2011. The show has been so popular that it was turned into a weekly event by November. If you have a groovy Grateful Dead loving bone in your body, then shake down to Stickyz on Monday nights for TOUCH. Show time is 830pm, Ages 18 + admitted $5.
Tags: frisbee, grateful dead, mojo depot, stickyz, touch
Fix Your Weakness For Funky Jams on Saturday Dec 10 at Stickyz
Posted by kstar on December 8, 2011 | Category: coming to stickyz | Leave a Comment
The jam is on at Stickyz Rock N’ Roll Chicken Shack this Saturday as Little Rock-based funk-jam-rock band Weakness For Blondes brings their psychedelic blues-based sound to the stage.
Admission is just $5 for the 9 pm show. Ages 18 & up will be admitted.
Weakness For Blondes features dueling guitar improvisation, tight vocal melodies and songs that tell stories of love, travels and the ability of music to move people.
In addition to a deep and multifaceted list of original tunes, WFB also pays homage to its influences with excellent, upbeat covers of artists such as the Grateful Dead, Widespread Panic, The Band and many others.
WFB includes Ahren Herbert-Wilson on bass, Jason Adams on drums, frontman Chris DeClerk on guitar and vocals, Rob Moore on electric guitar, and Marlie Adams on percussion. Sitting in also on Saturday will be Cody Russell of Fayetteville on pedal steel guitar. Russell is a member of alt-country-rock band Charliehorse and has regularly played with such bands as the Sarah Hughes Band, among others.
WFB has shared the stage with many major musical acts, including Allman Brothers’ bassist Oteil Burbridge and his band The Peacemakers; Particle; The Kudzu Kings; The Dirty Dozen Brass Band; Col. Bruce Hampton and the Codetalkers; and The Drew Emmitt Band of Leftover Salmon fame.
If you are a Widespread Panic or Grateful Dead fan or a fan of funk, blues or jamband-style music, don’t miss Weakness For Blondes this Saturday night at Stickyz! It’s gonna be a jammin’ good time!
Tags: ahren herbert-wilson, charliehorse, chris declerk, grateful dead, jason adams, marlie adams, rob moore, stickyz, the band, weakness for blondes, widespread panic
JONATHAN TYLER & NORTHERN LIGHTS Return To Rock Stickyz
Posted by kstar on December 7, 2011 | Category: coming to stickyz, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
If you missed seeing Jonathan Tyler and the Northern Lights at their previous killer shows at Stickyz, you’ve still probably heard their music — on television.
The band’s songs have been featured in a number of hit TV shows and trailers, including “Devil’s Basement” in the trailer for HBO’s “Boardwalk Empire”; “Pardon Me” on NBC’s “Friday Night Lights” and “The Gordon Keith Show”; and perhaps most notably, “Young & Free” was used throughout ESPN’s 2010 college football coverage and throughout 2010 on Fox Sports channel.
Jonathan Tyler and the Northern Lights, based in Dallas, Texas, has garnered national attention and acclaim since 2008, just a year after the band’s formation and discovery at SXSW music festival in Austin. JTNL immediately began being called on to open for such major acts as Erykah Badu, Leon Russell, The Black Crowes and Cross Canadian Ragweed, among others.
The past two years have seen JTNL’s name recognition and fan base grow as the band toured the country alongside the likes of Lynyrd Skynyrd, Kid Rock, O.A.R. and AC/DC. JTNL also stopped to play at festivals such as Austin City Limits Music Festival, Wakarusa, and, of course, SXSW.
The band has received positive reviews from music critics at USA Today, American Songwriter, Chicago Sun Times, Austin American Statesman, and the Orlando Weekly, among many others. Its 2010 album Pardon Me hit No. 8 on Billboard’s Heatseekers chart last year.
USA Today — which named JTNL a “Pick of the Week” in May of last year — writes of the band’s tune “Pardon Me”: “Did you think they’d quit making bands that groove as hard as they rock? You know, like ZZ Top, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Aerosmith? Listen to this riff-heavy blast, the title track from this band’s debut album, and think again.”
Texas Music Monthly describes a typical JTNL show as a “kick-out-the-jams-and-take-no-prisoners set,” and you won’t disagree after you see them take the stage. And it just takes one song, as TMM points out.
JTNL headlines at Stickyz Rock N’ Roll Chicken Shack on Friday, Dec. 9 starting at 9:30 p.m. Tickets are $10 are available in advance here or at the door. The show is open to ages 18 & up, and kicking off the night will be Southern rock band Zach Williams and the Reformation of Jonesboro.
To hear the music of Jonathan Tyler and The Northern Lights and other bands coming soon to Stickyz and its sister venue Revolution Music Room, visit the Love Live Music Internet Radio Station here. It’s free, and who can’t use some new music in their lives!? 
Tags: jonathan tyler & northern lights, stickyz, USA today, zach williams reformation
