This week's hot concerts

Blackstock Music Festival

Friday and Saturday  7 p.m. and 11 a.m., respectively, Festival grounds, Heritage Rd., Blackstock, SC, $125 weekend, $85 Saturday only, $150 RV pass, $290 VIP, www.blackstockmusicfestival.com

Sandwiched between Charlotte and Columbia, this jam and roots-friendly festival features Galactic, Papadosio, Mason Jennings, Leftover Salmon, Gwen Sebastian, Will Hoge, Hiss Golden Messenger, Boombox, Toubab Krewe, Electric Soul Pandemic, Dopapod, the Mantras, and locals like Sunny Ledfurd, New Familiars, Case Federal, and Simplified.

Another Lost Year

Friday  8 p.m., Amos’, 1423 S. Tryon St., $8, www.amossouthend.com

Between a recent Midwest tour, summer rock festivals and reportedly working on the follow-up to its breakthrough debut (which enjoyed play on Sirius/XM and placements on reality television series and sports-related programs), the Charlotte post-grunge hard rockers land home.

EyeHateGod

Friday  8:30 p.m., Chop Shop, 399 E. 35^th St., $20-$25, www.chopshopnoda.com

Following tumultuous years that included jail, beating drug addition, and the 2013 death of drummer Joey LaCaze, the New Orleans metal outfit returned this week with its first album of new material in 15 years. The well-reviewed self-titled album is awash in sludgy riffs, fraught vocals, noisy distortion, and a methodical bluesy underbelly.

Foreigner/Styx/Don Felder

Saturday  7 p.m., PNC Music Pavilion, 707 Pavilion Blvd., $25-$89.70, www.livenation.com

The classic rock radio vets return for the Soundtrack To Summer tour, but what’s different this year is the hour-long set from the Eagles’ famously ousted lead guitarist Don Felder who penned the music for “Hotel California” as well as a tell-all book. Its writing inspired his second solo album.

Scars on 45

Saturday  7 p.m., Aloft Charlotte Ballantyne, 13139 Ballantyne Corporate Place, Free, 704-247-2222.

Having nearly doubled funds for a new album via a Pledge Music campaign, the British alternative rock quintet responsible for minor hits “Give Me Something” and “Hearts on Fire” (buoyed by spots on “Grey’s Anatomy” and “CSI: New York”) returns for an intimate set.

Legends of Old School Hip-Hop

Saturday  8 p.m., Ovens Auditorium, 2700 E. Independence Blvd., $52.78-$231.66, www.ticketmaster.com

Major players in late `80s/early `90s hip-hop Chubb Rock, Slick Rick, Big Daddy Kane, go-to collaborator the Lady of Rage (who worked with Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, and Rock), and Whodini’s bionic DJ Grandmaster Dee join comedian D. Ellis for a look back at what many consider the golden age of rap.

Everyly Brothers Tribute

Saturday  8:30 p.m., Neighborhood Theatre, 511 E. 36^th St., $10, www.neighborhoodtheatre.com

These successful Levine Children’s Hospital fundraisers featuring local musicians paying tribute to classic artist are becoming more frequent. Artists like Reeve Coobs, Sam the Lion, Ancient Cities and the Sammies cover the Everlys this time out followed by an all-star jam.

Patty Griffin

Monday  8 p.m., Neighborhood Theatre, 511 E. 36^th St., $27-$32, www.neighborhoodtheatre.com

The Grammy winning Americana musician and Band of Joy bandmate, as well as Robert Plant’s leading lady, has two recent albums to celebrate on the road. Her first all original album since 2007, “American Kid,” was inspired by her father's passing and her "lost" album “Silver Bell” was finally released 13 years after being shelved by her label.

Black Star Riders

Thursday  8 p.m., Amos’, 1423 S. Tryon St., $25-$30, www.amossouthend.com

The band led by Thin Lizzy guitarist Scott Gorham grew out of Lizzy reunion shows, but the band wasn’t comfortable recording new material under the name considering legendary leader Phil Lynott died in 1986. BSR remains true to TL’s twin guitar sound and Lynott’s Irish roots with Northern Ireland native Ricky Warwick channeling Lynott on vocals.

Charlotte musicians abound with national releases

The month of May began with the release of Charlotte folk-rock band Matrimony’s Columbia Records' full-length debut "Montibello Memories." The group celebrates its release locally Friday at Neighborhood Theatre. But Matrimony isn't the only Charlotte act currently releasing material on a national level. 

Last week nationally buzzed about Charlotte cult rapper Deniro Farrar released his "Rebirth" EP (pictured) via Vice Records, which is home to eclectic acts like Black Lips, Action Bronson, and the Raveonettes. The EP has been well received by outlets like XXL and Spin and praised for its grittiness and realism. 

Yesterday Charlotte black metal/crust punk band Young and in the Way (YAITW) released its debut for Deathwish Inc.The album, “When Life Comes to Death,” was previewed via advance stream at Pitchfork.com along with albums by Crowbar and the Dum Dum Girls spin-off Haunted Hearts. That kind of consideration - national press and placement alongside better known artists - confirms that more and more Charlotte bands are making headway on a wider scale.

There’s also a lot going on release-wise this summer. For starters Charlotte-based progressive metal quintet Wretched releases “Cannibal” - its fourth album for Victory Records - June 10.

It Looks Sad will release its quite excellent “Radical” as a 7 inch single on Carolina indie label Tiny Engines in August. The track has already got a plug from Pitchfork. 

While the Carolinas are rich in musical history and have exported numerous artists to the world stage, it's nice to see more Charlotte acts getting recognized. Yes we're home to several Grammy winning R&B and gospel artists and have a thriving roots music community, but it's nice to see underground, independent hip-hop and rock artists and major label hopefuls recognized on a larger scale too. 

You can check out many of these artists at the provided links. 

God Save the QC Fest announces lineup, moves to summer

NoDa's God Save the Queen City Festival is back for a fourth year. This year's show, which takes place August 9, features - as in past years - a lineup of rising indie and local artists. This year's acts include several Nashville-based artists. Rock duo Jeff the Brotherhood headlines with folk-country singer-songwriter Jonny Fritz (who "Rolling Stone" dubbed "One to Watch" in 2013), Americana outfit Apache Relay, rock trio Natural Child, psychedelic garage rockers Clear Plastic Masks and the twangy, fittingly named Promised Land Sound all hail from the Nashville area. Coincidentally last year's lineup was steeped in the deep South.

Black Mountain's longtime buzz band Floating Action represents the NC mountains with several hometown artists filling out the bill. Charlotte's Temperance League, Ancient Cities, the Loudermilks, and Benji Hughes return this year along with Late Bloomer, Sinners and Saints, Elonzo, AM/FMs, Batsheet, and Toleman Randall.

Tickets are $15 in advance and $20 at the door.

If you haven't heard of many of the artists, put a little trust in the booking. The 2013 festival - one of my favorite lineups of the year - gave St. Paul and the Broken Bones its Charlotte premier. Now the Alabama group is buzzed about all over the country and drawing droves to Chop Shop to headline its own shows.

Last year also featured the incredible Lee Bains III & the Glory Fires, who have since signed with Sub Pop who releases its new album Tuesday. Their set was like an exorcism, comparable to early Avetts, and made my Top 10 of the year. While I know Apache Relay and Jeff the Brotherhood as well as the bulk of locals artists are great live acts, I have a lot of faith that the other artists on the bill I don't know yet will deliver as well.

For more information and information on how to purchase tickets check out GSTCQ's Facebook page here.

This week's hot concerts

Cracker

Friday  6 p.m., Fountain Plaza at NC Music Factory, 1000 NC Music Factory Blvd., $5, www.ncmusicfactory.com

A week before releasing a new album with his other band Camper Van Beethoven, David Lowery and Cracker co-founder Johnny Hickman return to ring in the weekend at the weekly concert series where the 20-year-old alt-rock stalwarts will undoubtedly revisit hits like “Low” and “Teen Angst (What the World Needs Now).” 

Infamous Stringdusters

Friday  8 p.m., Visulite, 1615 Elizabeth Ave., $15, www.visulite.com

The award winning, environmentally conscious bluegrass group embarks on its “I Get Away” Tour following the release of its new album, “Let It Go” -  a thoughtful, laid back and pastoral look at everyday life, apathy, empathy, and the current state of the world.

Joyfest

Saturday  4 p.m., Carowinds Paladium, 14523 Carowinds Blvd., $52.14-$70.09, www.ticketmaster.com
“The View’s” Sherri Shepherd and fellow comedian and returning emcee Bone Hampton join gospel stars, singers, rappers, and speakers Kirk Franklin, Tamela Mann, Lecrae, Humble Tip, and Dr. Larry Reid and the Breakthrough singers at this annual Spring festival.

Whitewater Center Memorial Day Celebration

Sunday  4 p.m., US National Whitewater Center, 5000 Whitewater Center Pkwy, Free, www.usnwc.org

The Meters’ (Funky and otherwise) bassist George Porter, Jr., who has held the low end for artists as renowned and disparate as Robert Palmer and Tori Amos, headlines the holiday festivities with his band the Runnin’ Pardners as well as Robert Walters’ 20^th Congress and Earphunk.

Justin Hayward

Sunday  8 p.m., Neighborhood Theatre, 511 E. 36^th St., $55-$75, www.neighborhoodtheatre.com

As the Moody Blues’ nears its 50^th anniversary in 2016 the fabled British’ group’s frontman strips Moodies songs down to a trio for his solo “Spirit of the Western Sky” Tour, which features material from his latest solo album as well as sparser versions of those hits.

Danity Kane

Wednesday  8 p.m., The Fillmore, 1000 NC Music Factory Blvd., $37.50, www.livenation.com

The girl group assembled by P. Diddy in 2005 on MTV’s “Making the Band” turned its reunion run into a farewell tour for member Aundrea Fimbres, who announced on opening night last week in San Francisco that she’s pregnant, engaged, and leaving the group following the tour when it will continue as a trio.

Manchester Orchestra

Thursday  8 p.m., The Fillmore, 1000 NC Music Factory Blvd., $24.50-$37.50, www livenation.com

The Atlanta rock outfit turns up the distortion on its new album, “Cope,” which rides on hard-hitting guitar anthems and Andy Hull’s Southern vocals and personal lyrics. With dynamic, angsty Pennsylvania alt-rockers Balance and Composure and excellent songwriter and sometime M.O. collaborator Kevin Devine & the Goddamn Band.

The Black Cadillacs

Thursday  8 p.m., Evening Muse, 3227 N. Davidson St., $8-$10, www.eveningmuse.com

This Knoxville outfit rests somewhere between the Black Crowes and the Black Keys - noisy guitars and ample soul delivered with gnarly Southern garage style that’s knee deep in blues but every inch rock n’ roll.

Avetts' live set kicks off new season of "Front and Center"

Set your DVRs Avett fans. The Concord group kicks off Season 3 of  Public Television's live music series "Front and Center" on UNC-TV at 2. am. Sunday, May 25. That's Saturday night/early Sunday morning following "Austin City Limits" and "Music City Roots."

The episode was filmed at New York City's McKittrick Hotel. Scott Avett calls the performance "The most intimate set we've played in NYC in recent memory." You can watch a clip of the band playing "Down With the Shine" from this week's episode.

Other artists featured on "Front and Center" this season include jazz musician Jon Batiste, British singer-songwriter James Blunt, indie-rock combo Grouplove, Grammy Lifetime Achievement winner Ginger Baker (Blind Faith, Cream), mysterious funk/R&B outfit Here Come the Mummies, and pop legend Cyndi Lauper celebrating the 30th anniversary of her breakthrough debut "She's So Unusual" among others.

For more information check out http://www.frontandcenter.com/.

Breaking up with a band

There was a time when my husband and I would drive hours to see Canadian indie-rock duo Tegan and Sara. We traveled to Carrboro’s Cat’s Cradle in November 2007 to see a killer (by feminist, post riot grrrl standards, at least) bill featuring female hip-hop trio Northern State and the Quin sisters. It was a great show. We were fans. My husband owned 2002’s "If It Was You" when we started dating. I bought 2004’s “So Jealous” at a record store in Santa Barbara on our honeymoon. We remained devout fans through 2009’s "Sainthood" with nary a complaint.

Yet we never even discussed finally catching them locally when they came through the Fillmore in December 2013 and we aren’t going to Monday’s show there either. I guess we've broken up with Tegan and Sara.

It wasn’t sudden. First came the video for the hit single "Closer," which finds the sisters basically karaoke-ing at a teen house party. The blatant pop angle of the song bothered me a tad - the production is more polished and way less guitar-rock than anything they’d done before, but I think it was the sincerity with which they belted into microphones that bugged me the most. If the video had been tongue-in-cheek or if they looked like they were having fun, then I might have bought it.

I listened to the new album "Heartthrob" when it came out as well, but it didn’t resonate with me the way "The Con" or "Sainthood" had. I even held on long enough to watch the stream of the band’s performance at 2013’s Coachella Festival. Even my five-year-old could tell it was off. In comparison my husband and I enjoyed their 2005 set quite a bit amid a few technical issues.

It’s weird breaking up with a band. And I’m not saying it’s necessarily the band’s fault. It’s like a relationship. Sometimes you just lose interest, stop buying their new albums, and phase a band out of your life. Not that you don’t still go back and listen to the old records you loved or remember them fondly. Other times a band does something so off-putting - be it in their public behavior, live, or on record - that you just don’t want to listen to them anymore. I’m so glad I got to see Kings of Leon on the "Aha Shake Heartbreak" tour at Neighborhood Theatre, for instance. I was a fan of subsequent records, but gradually with the last two albums they lost me. Pigeon poop and cancelling an entire tour right before the Charlotte show didn’t help, but I still tried to embrace those later albums. I just don’t love them like I did earlier ones.

Other times I think you just tire of an artist. I was a devoted Ani DiFranco fan in the mid `90s traveling to Raleigh and Asheville any time she came through. But at some point I grew less interested - I think it was her jazzier phase. I continued to buy her records, but I no longer traveled to shows. But like love affairs you can’t shake, sometimes the romance does come back around again. When I caught DiFranco at Neighborhood Theatre in 2009 and 2010, I was completely blown away as was my friend Erin whose fandom of the feminist folkie had also lulled. It helped that DiFranco, who’d once played less intimate shows at Grady Cole Center and Ovens Auditorium, returned to clubs and that we’d done this great interview where she’d talked about the importance of raising feminist boys (I was due to have my first boy at the time). That show reminded me of everything I'd loved about her in the first place.

So I’m not saying I’ll never want to see Tegan and Sara again (who knows?), but setlists from recent shows list a whopping nine tracks from "Heartthrob." That should please new fans, but for now I’ll stick with the old indie-rock T&S.

Great first impressions - Nostalghia at New Music Revolution

Occasionally a band makes such an impression that you always remember the first time you heard them. I remember listening to Jane’s Addiction’s "Nothing’s Shocking" in the dark on the living room carpet on Christmas night the year my parents divorced. I’d put it on my Christmas list based on "Rolling Stone’s" four star review (I was an odd 13-year-old).

The first time I heard new rock trio Nostalghia's song "Sunshiny Milk" I was driving home from the Y. As delicate classical strings swelled to the primal industrial attack of the chorus, I got chills. This doesn't happen. Or at least I don't remember the last time it did. Almost simultaneously scenes from my current favorite TV show BBCA's "Orphan Black" popped into my head. What a perfect pairing these two post-punk entities would make, I thought. 

Nostalghia did it to me again Thursday night opening WEND 106.5 The End's fourth New Music Revolution showcase at The Fillmore. The trio of Roy Gnan on drums/samples/keys, cellist Adele Stein, and singer Ciscandra Nostalghia opened with "Sunshiny Milk" and as soon as the chorus kicked in goosebumps sprang up on my arms. 

It doesn't hurt that Ciscandra Nostalghia is a dominating presence. She wore a white satin slip dress, dark makeup with mascara running, and hair reaching well past her waist. She's no girl next door. There's an exotic quality to her look (her Last FM page mentions a Persian mother and Russian/Irish father who spoke French and that she was raised in California and Iran) and her vocals, which swell from whispers to operatic wails to screams, are often sung with an indeterminable accent. 

There is so much about Nostalghia (the band) that reminds me of some of my favorite female artists of all time. Her pronunciation and quirkiness recalls Bjork. The operatic vocals and the goth imagery reminds me of my beloved Siouxsie and the Banshees as well as Kate Bush; the cello of cello-rock trio Rasputina; and the industrial element of `90s Brit band Curve. But all of those elements weave together to create something new and unique in its own right, which is exactly what it needs to be to wake people up. 

The crowd at The Fillmore was rapt. They seemed stunned as Nostalghia screeched during the seemingly gentle "Cool for Chaos." That track alone was inspiring. I realized that this is one of the records I'll be listening to while writing my next two books during grad school. And I think that really says a lot about Nostalghia too - it's inspirational. Art begats art, even if said art is not what intellectuals deem high art. A brilliant rock band, a BBCA TV show, and my as-yet-unpublished vampire and horror novels - not high art, but I'm so excited these other things exist to inspire me. I feel like music is on an upswing, but hearing something truly different is what music geeks really crave.

Or you can just consider what the guy behind me uttered to his girlfriend as Nostalghia left the stage: "It was weird, but it was cool." 

Well said, dude.