TWiN | This Weekend In Nashville | 1/25 – 1/27

Another weekend is rolling around, and it’s time for you to make some plans to blow off the frustrations of your week.  We have quite a lineup of shows this weekend in Nashville, and you should definitely make your choices.  Here are some of our selected shows from this weekend!  Get out and support your local live music scene!

Friday

We just can’t get enough of up and coming Nashville sensation Alanna Royale, and we started talking about this show a couple of weeks ago.   If you haven’t had the pleasure to see her (or really hear her) yet, you should make plans to be at The Basement tonight for the release party of her debut EP Bless Her Heart.   Things get started around 9pm with another of our local faves Daniel Ellsworth & The Great Lakes, Golden Spurs, and Maureen Murphy.  After listening to the sampler of the new EP below, you will know why you better get there early if you expect to get in.

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If you don’t hit the Basement fast enough and can’t get in the door before Alanna Royale’s release show inevitably packs the house full- there’s a fringe option that you may want to check out that’s happening at the East Room (the current home of East Nashville Underground and other similarly underground initiatives). Sideshow Fringe Festival presents the Winter Mini-Fringe this Friday and Saturday night and our own Jessika is behind this little exercise in the avant-garde that offers adventurous audiences the opportunity to take in a variety of arts offering in an inclusive and celebratory environment (read: you will see things you’ve never seen before AND there will be beer). Friday night acts include: First Time Stories from Actors Bridge (fans of Unchained, The Moth, East Side Storystellin’, Pictures of Fireworks, this is your jam), Kevin Thornton (of Thornton and Porch + NPR’s All Things Considered fame) premiers his newest one man show entitled Stairway to Kevin, Music City Burlesque Startlet/Delinquent Debutantes Headmistress Ms. Freya West offers a burlesque review, and national touring act Button Wagon brings you something unlike anything we can properly describe… you’ll just have to check out the preview down a ways in the post in Saturday’s offerings (they’ll be performing both nights). For Friday at the fringe, we offer you a little Thornton and Porch (doing Rhianna meets U2) and a little NSFW number from Music City Burlesque. Tickets are $10 for a single show, $20 to party all night, or $30 for the warriors that wanna get weird all weekend. Advance tix and more info here.

A little fringe preview video featuring Monsters of Folk (new record announced, yes!)…

Thornton and Porch featuring Kevin Thornton…

And Freya and her friends doing a little burlesque tease…

http://vimeo.com/17567200

But if you’re looking to totally downshift and are more into bands that are likened to “the heartland equivalent of Keane and Coldplay” (yikes) in the first line of their press release, you can check out Augustana at Mercy Lounge. Jessika’s going to admit to having been really into their break-out ballad “Boston” half a decade ago because it always makes her think of shopping for last minute Bonnaroo supplies at the Super Walmart and sharing a knowing glance with a couple of hippies stocking their cart with lots of water, plenty of munchies, and an ungodly amount of condoms – solidarity! What does Augustana have to do with that moment? Uhm, it was someone’s ring tone that was from Boston that she knew. Or it was on the radio a lot around that time. Who knows, it was Bonnaroo season, a lot of things run together. The show was originally planned for The High Watt, but after it sold out the smaller room, the show got bumped to Mercy Lounge. You can still snag tickets here. They’re priced at just $15, it’s a special acoustic show because what makes mellow rock the primo-mellow is unplugged, y’all. Opener Lauren Shera looks promising, in that post-Jenny Lewis-kind-of-way. Jessika misses Jenny Lewis. Jessika writes in third person when it’s really late.

Here’s that one song you may remember…

Finally, Philip thinks you should spend your Friday night dancing the hypnotic grooves of electro-pop duo Purity Ring, performing with Youth Magic at The Cannery Ballroom. This one was originally scheduled for Mercy Lounge, but got bumped up the The Cannery and we’re hearing it’s still dangerously close to being sold out. So if you have any desire to check out the group who put out one of our favorite records of 2012, you should jump on snagging tickets ASAP! Purity Ring last played Nashville as the opener for Neon Indian last spring, but tonight marks the band’s first headlining date in town. It’s amazing how quickly the group’s popularity has exploded since releasing their debut record, Shrines, last summer. Purity Ring are known for their adventerous live show, augmenting and experimenting with the boundaries of their sound and pushing their songs beyond the template of their recordings. Electronic band Youth Magic are perfectly matched to set the tone for what’s sure to be an incredible show. Things kick off at 9PM (doors at 8PM) and you can still grab tickets here.

This is just a one-off collaboration between Purity Ring and incredible underground rapper Danny Brown, which serves as a sequel to the Purity Ring song “Belispeak.” It’s not typical-sounding Purity Ring, but it’s too awesome not to tell you about:

Saturday

Yo La Tengo is super hit or miss for me.  Sometimes, I find myself wanting to listen while reading with a glass of nice scotch, sometimes I get antsy because I want it to be more than it is, sometimes I feel like I should be walking through some trendy boutique looking at shit with birds painted on it.  Regardless, you can’t deny their staying power.  YLT just released their 13th full length, Fade, on January 15 of this year.  It reminds me a lot of some of their more stand-out work like the 1997 release I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One (which includes one of my favorite YLT tracks “Autumn Sweater”) or their 2000 release And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out.  If you are familiar with either of those records, then you know you will probably enjoy Fade (streaming right now over at Pitchfork).  You can have a listen to “Autumn Sweater” below, which sounds perfectly fitting for the final scenes of a classic 80s John Hughes film.  Tickets are still available here, and the two full set show gets started at 9pm.  See you there.

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If you couldn’t make it out to the Sideshow Mini-Fringe on Friday (or are back for more awesome) and are looking for something a bit unpredictable… Saturday night’s line-up at the East Room offers: Wild Goose Chase Puppet Theatre with a puppet show equally suitable for the family and the fun-loving adult, a zombie-play reading of a new work by local playwright Kyle Williams, the final performance of Trash Rabbit from Button Wagon (sneak preview below) and a showcase of original work from the Sideshow “freaks” aka your hosts for this whole arty party. The Nashville Scene promises that Sideshow’s gonna offer one hell of a party and you can check out Abby White’s Critic’s Pick for the event on the jump. Tickets here.

Button Wagon doing what they do both nights at the Mini-Fringe

Sunday

Sunday, we think you should mix things up and unwind a bit with edgy bluegrass band The Devil Makes Three at 3rd & Lindsley. On 3rd & Lindsley’s site, they write “If a love child between Reverend Gary Davis and the Ramones blessed this earth she’d be sweating, stomping and singing with the rest of us in the front row at a Devil Makes Three concert.” That’s so perfect, I couldn’t help but quote them. The Devil Makes Three are definitely a bluegrass band, but a bluegrass band dripping with elements of punk, folk, and rockabilly. Their ability to to weave engaging, interesting narrative with energetic and genere-bending songwriting together is sure to entertain even those lukewarm on bluegrass. Though you wouldn’t guess from their sound, the band hails from California. They’ve been racking up a ton of critical acclaim over the past several releases. The show starts at 7PM (6PM doors) and opening acts include Family of the Year and Sturgill Simpson. As is typical of 3rd & Lindsley Sunday nights, the show starts and ends on the earlier side, so don’t show up late! And don’t forget to snag your tickets here.

Here’s a live radio performance of The Devil Makes Three: