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06.09.10

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THE INFAMOUS STRINGDUSTERS AND FAMILY HOGWASH
The Infamous Stringdusters

Music Calendar

June 9 - 16, 2010


Wednesday | 6/9

THE GLITCH MOB

With a harder, higher blend of sounds than traditional dubstep, Los Angeles electronica trio the Glitch Mob is sometimes filed under the "brostep" category alongside acts like Rusko, Datsik and Bassnectar. There's a smarter, headier vibe to the Mob, however, and using deconstructed beat snippets and midrange bass assaults, the group blurs the line between geekster headphone fodder and dance-floor-friendly party jams. Also notable on the night's bill is one of the South Bay's most up-and-coming practitioners of live beat making and experimental hip-hop, San Jose laptop manipulator Free the Robots, who will be dropping his signature jazz-laced breakbeats pre-Glitch. Catalyst; $16 adv/$19 door; 8pm. (Curtis Cartier)


Thursday | 6/10

JOHN JORGENSON QUINTET

Countless jazz players have patterned their playing and lives after Gypsy-jazz god Django Reinhardt. John Jorgenson is another would-be heir to the throne, though he hasn't given in to slavish devotion. On Jorgenson's latest, One Stolen Night, Reinhardt's fingerprints are found in the playing and composition, but Jorgenson plays with enough creativity and conviction to demonstrate that he's his own man. In the end he pays the legend the best kind of tribute: a respectful contemporary celebration of what makes the Gypsy jazz pioneer's work so enduring. Kuumbwa; $23 adv/$26 door; 7 and 9pm. (Paul M. Davis)

THE SUBHUMANS

Some musicians have fans that draw their logos on notebooks and iron patches on their jackets. Dick Lucas and the rest of U.K. anarcho-punk quartet the Subhumans have fans that carve logos into their arms with protractors and spray paint it in public restroom stalls. Yet when a band has been delivering the same amplifier-melting critique of society for 30 years with little in the way of commercial success or financial stability, fanatical devotion seems the least its fans could offer. Still touring off the release of the 2007 LP Internal Riot, the Subhumans are one of the last connections to the royal British punk bloodline that produced the Sex Pistols and Crass. Catalyst; $12; 7:30pm. (CC)


Friday | 6/11

KAYE BOHLER

Having just unleashed Like a Flower, her first collection of new music in six years, Bay Area performer Kaye Bohler hits the road to perform a hard-won set of songs about grit and triumph. On the album, Bohler is flanked by some of the best blues players the West Coast has to offer, including Tommy Castro, Danny Caron, Garth Webber and Robben Ford, but the real attraction remains the singer/songwriter herself. Bohler's brassy spin on soul, blues and R&B is a seemingly endless resource, and allows her to take on both originals and standards with equal portions of confidence and ease. Don Quixote's; $10; 8pm. (PMD)  

THE INFAMOUS STRINGDUSTERS AND FAMILY HOGWASH

A double-header of high-octane bluegrass, this dual bill features two of the genre's most exhilarating young acts going head-to-head. Colorado's Infamous Stringdusters specialize in progressive bluegrass that is just traditional enough to please the purists but isn't hidebound by genre orthodoxy. Their dizzying feats of acoustic alchemy are furious yet nuanced, creating an incredibly rich tapestry of sound. Local outfit Family Hogwash is all about filling the dance floor with its bold and uplifting approach to string-band music, wrapping real musical virtuosity in a good-times flurry of fingerpicking. Moe's Alley; $10 adv/$12 door; 9pm. (PMD)


Saturday | 6/12

AUSTIN LOUNGE LIZARDS

They call themselves "the most laughable band in show business," and through 30 years of bizarre, funny and satirical music, they have done their best to live up to that title. When they started playing in 1980 (in Austin bars, as the name suggests), the Lounge Lizards were a relatively traditional mix of country, folk and bluegrass. While they would remain rooted in these genres, they soon branched out into oddball territory, becoming far more eclectic, strange and literate, not to mention politically conscious. Five-part vocal harmonies along with guitar, banjo, mandolin and fiddle provide the backdrop for the Lizards' caustic humor and social satire on songs like "Too Big to Fail," "Jesus Loves Me (But He Can't Stand You)" and "The Drugs I Need." Kuumbwa; $25 adv/$29 door; 7:30pm. (Sean Conwell)


Monday | 6/14

JOSHUA REDMAN & James FARM

When Joshua Redman's career began in the early '90s, he generated excitement right off the bat with his energetic yet restrained bop-based saxophone playing. Pat Metheny, Christian McBride, Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock and Yo Yo Ma are just a handful of the musical luminaries he has performed with as a sideman. As a bandleader, his work shows the influence of great tenor saxophone players of the past like Sonny Rollins and John Coltraine, but with an experimental element. That element is present in Redman's newly formed quintet, James Farm, which delivers traditional jazz with splashes of electronic, rock, folk and classical music, and which features Aaron Parks on piano, Matt Penman on bass and Eric Harland on drums. Kuumbwa; 7pm show $28 adv/$31 door; 9pm show $23 adv/$26 door. (Sean Conwell)


Tuesday | 6/15

BERT JANSCH AND PEGI YOUNG

When he plugged into London's folk club circuit in the 1960s, Bert Jansch was a traveling bard from Scotland with a resonant voice and an arresting way with the acoustic guitar. Provocative lyrics aside, his guitar skills sent ripples through the music scene, and he became an acoustic legend of his time. A cited hero of the likes of Jimmy Page and Neil Young, Jansch's overall influence on music then and now is incalculable. Tonight's show also features Pegi Young, the singer/songwriter married to Neil Young (whose original touring band plays with her tonight). Her second album, Foul Deeds, which drops this month, is roadhouse folk that explores the complicated relationship between long-term love and independence. Don Quixote's; $23 adv/ $25 door, 7:30pm. (Maria Grusauskas)


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