Calexico, led by John Convertino (left) and Joey Burns, comes to the Buckhead Theatre in January with Yo La Tengo. Tickets go on sale Friday, Oct. 26. Photo: Jairo Zavala

ON SALE OCT. 26
Rumblefish. Nov. 2. Smith’s Olde Bar – Music Room. $8 advance. TA.
Jerry Douglas. 8 p.m. Dec. 6. Variety Playhouse. $25; $22.50 in advance. TM.
WCLK Merry Jazzy Jingles Concert featuring Ronnie Laws & Friends. 8 p.m. Dec. 8. Variety Playhouse. $40; $35 in advance. TM.
Concrete Blonde. 8 p.m. Dec. 19. Variety Playhouse. $27.50 advance; $30 day of show. TM.
Joy, An Irish Christmas with Keith and Kristyn Getty. 7 p.m. Dec. 20. $25-$55. Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre. TM.
Eric Dodd. Dec. 20. Smith’s Olde Bar – Music Room. $10 advance. TA.
The Fighting Jamesons. Dec. 27. Smith’s Olde Bar – Music Room. $10 in advance. TA.
Guster presents A Night Of Acoustic Music featuring The Guster String Players. 8 p.m.  Jan. 10; 8:30 p.m. Jan. 11. Variety Playhouse. $27.50; $25 in advance. …

Continue reading Tickets: Maroon 5, Jason Aldean, Fun., Gino Vannelli »

[I'm on with my rock 'n' roll pal Kaedy Kiely at 97.1 The River every Wednesday at 6:50 and 7:50 a.m. to talk about the latest rock news. Tune in to hear what's up!]

Lady Antebellum is sort of the Jay Leno of country music. They’re wildly popular not because they’re extraordinary, but because they’re inoffensive and easy to embrace as background entertainment.

That’s one reason why “On This Winter’s Night” will likely be one of the biggest sellers of the holiday season (and if you define holiday season by 79 degrees and October, then it has officially begun in Atlanta).

The country-pop trio with well-publicized Georgia ties recorded their first Christmas album during two break sessions on their sold-out summer tour and on it, they stick mostly with traditional picks.

The results range from antiseptic to inspired, their “Christmas Baby (Please Come Home)” a toothless plea (Darlene Love still owns this one), but their recasting of “All I Want is You” into …

Continue reading Tuesday Tunes: Spotlight on Lady Antebellum »

Is the dude in the middle overexposed? Photo: Courtesy Live Nation

Maroon 5 is taking its quest to be “Overexposed” to the next level with a 2013 tour set to hit Philips Arena March 27. Neon Trees and Owl City have been tapped to open all 31 dates for the run, which kicks off Feb. 13 in Ohio.

Tickets for the Atlanta date are on sale at 10 a.m. Oct. 27 and are priced at $79 for general admission in the pit and reserved seating and $29.50-$49.50 for additional reserved seating. Fan club members will have pre-sale access beginning today and Citi card holders starting Tuesday.

Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine will take advantage of his clout on “The Voice” to debut the band’s new single, “Daylight,” on the Nov. 8 edition of the show. It’s the band’s third single – co-produced by Max Martin – from their fourth studio album, “Overexposed.”

For more info, visit www.livenation.com or call 1-800-745-3000.

In other new concert news, “Lights” crooner Ellie …

Continue reading Maroon 5, Ellie Goulding announce tours »

Alejandro Escovedo plays the Variety Playhouse Sunday, Oct. 21. Photo: Todd Wolfson

FRIDAY
Swans
“Swans Are Dead” was the title of the career-capping 1998 live album from this artfully pounding post-punk outfit led by Michael Gira. And that’s the way it seemed until 2010’s “My Father Will Guide Me Up a Rope to the Sky,” which bound the band’s elegant thud to meditations on the spiritual. Gira followed it with the recently released “The Seer,” a double-disc set funded by the limited edition “We Rose From Your Bed With the Sun in Our Head.” These works constitute a remarkable return that, despite the mellowing effects of time, has proved just as polarizing as the rest of the band’s output. Swans will always be dark and foreboding, and you either love it or hate it.
9 p.m. Oct. 19. $22-$25. Terminal West, 887 W. Marietta St. N.W., Atlanta. 404-876-5566.

R. Kelly
No amount of scandal can tarnish Kelly’s ability to fascinate the music-buying masses. It’s …

Continue reading Concerts: R. Kelly, Marilyn Manson, Alejandro Escovedo »

College Park native 2 Chainz, shown here at the BET Hip Hop Awards in September, is back for a headlining show at the Tabernacle in November. Tickets go on sale Friday, Oct. 19. Photo: Getty Images

RESCHEDULED
Emeli Sande. Tickets from previously scheduled date will be honored. 8:30 p.m. Jan. 12. Variety Playhouse. $17.50; $15 in advance. TM.
Renaissance. Tickets from previously scheduled date will be honored. 8 p.m. April 23. Variety Playhouse. $32.50; $30 in advance. TM.

ON SALE NOW
Prom Of The Living Dead. 9 p.m. Oct. 26. Center Stage / Vinyl. $15-$20. TA.
All The Locals, Mike Fiorello. 9 p.m. Oct. 27. Vinyl. $10. TA.
Hit Boy. 9 p.m. Nov. 8. Vinyl. $15; $12 in advance. TA.
Ash, Interstellar. 8:30 p.m. Nov. 13. Vinyl. $15; $12 in advance. TA.
Manchester Orchestra Presents…The Stuffing. With Cage The Elephant, O’Brother, Kevin Devine, Royal Thunder, Hardy Morris and the Outfit, Gobotron, All Get Out, Death on Two Wheels, Harrison Hudson, Ponderosa. 5 p.m. Nov. 21. Center …

Continue reading Tickets: 2 Chainz, Manchester Orchestra, Camper Van Beethoven »

The girls of Von Grey (l-r): Kathyrn, 17; Fiona, 14; Annika, 16; and Petra, 12. Photo: Courtesy

Here’s a typical day for the girls in Von Grey: School work at home from late morning until 3 p.m. Two hours of rehearsal time as a group, then another couple of hours of individual practice. Wednesday and Sundays are five-hour rehearsal days – cut from their former musical workout of seven and a half hours a day, three days a week.

Ambitious, much?

Not only is the quartet of sisters (last name Von Grey) from Johns Creek bright, well-spoken and mature beyond their years, they’re also crazy-talented.

Annika, 16, and Fiona, 14, are the primary singers and songwriters (Annika plays violin, banjo and guitar, Fiona guitar and violin), while sisters Kathryn, 17, and Petra, 12, round out the group on cello and mandolin and keyboards and lap steel guitar, respectively.

Think they’ve mastered enough instruments?

The girls recently convened at an Alpharetta Starbucks to talk about …

Continue reading Atlanta’s Von Grey an ambitious, talented team of siblings »

An idea for an early holiday gift: Cash now to buy concert tickets.

It would also be helpful if you could be in two places at once, since several dates are stacked with musical options.

An abundance of shows will roll through Atlanta the next couple of months, with a few Christmas-themed ones creeping into the post-Thanksgiving window. We’ll tell you more about those later in the year.

But for now, here’s a smattering of what to anticipate for the rest of fall.

October

Unashamed Tour with Lecrae, Trip Lee and Tdot. “Gravity,” the latest album from Atlanta hip-hop Christian artist Lecrae represented a true breakthrough. It debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200, selling 72,000 copies its first week. 7 p.m. Oct. 19. $22 (general admission). The Tabernacle, Atlanta.

Rufus Wainwright gets earnest in London in April. Photo: Getty Images

Rascal Flatts with Little Big Town, Eden’s Edge and Eli Young Band.

The country mega-band with pop leanings is reportedly …

Continue reading A bounty of fall concerts on the docket »

I’ll be out of the office on vacation until Oct. 22. If you have breaking music news, please contact my trusty colleagues Rodney Ho (rho@ajc.com ) or Jennifer Brett (jbrett@ajc.com ). Also, story comments are disabled until I return.

Ciao for now!

Melissa

Since 1988, The Australian Pink Floyd has been recreating the ethereal sounds and complicated musicality of one of England’s most revered bands.

Though it started as a typical cover band – a five-piece of guys obsessed with Pink Floyd – the band has become an international force, and one so respected by Floyd fans that even David Gilmour has given his blessing (the band actually performed at his 50th birthday party)

Jason Sawford, keyboardist for TAPF (also known as The Australian Pink Floyd Show), was one of the originals to sign up, answering an ad in Allan’s Music store in Adelaide, South Australia, looking for a vocalist and keyboardist to join a band that only played Pink Floyd. He fit the latter …

Continue reading The Australian Pink Floyd faithfully pays tribute »

Jens Lekman comes to the Variety Playhouse on Tuesday, Oct. 16, with songs from his new album “I Know What Love Isn’t.” Photo: Kristin Lidell

FRIDAY
Packway Handle Band
Phenomenal vocal harmonies, bluegrass chops and a rock-informed sense of abandon are getting the Packway Handle Band noticed. If you’re a fan of the Avett Brothers or Nickel Creek, you need to check out these guys.
8 p.m. Oct. 12. $12. Earl Smith Strand Theatre, 117 N. Park Square, Marietta. 770-293-0080.

FRIDAY-SATURDAY
A3C Hip Hop Festival
The vast majority of hip-hop musicians are working outside of the mainstream — and outside the big-budget world of the major labels. This annual festival brings an impressive number of the underground’s best artists together, offering a compact look at some of the most innovative practitioners of a genre that too often is defined by a few big-name, mainstream stars. The fest also brings in some of the genre’s groundbreakers, and this year they have Big Boi and …

Continue reading Concerts: Gov’t Mule, A3C Hip-Hop Fest, Ga. Hall of Fame Awards »

Just your average 63-year-old rock star. Photos: Brian Lowe

Ask Gene Simmons how he’s doing and the response is, “deliriously happy.”

Why?

“Because I get to be Gene Simmons for another day,” he replies.

What better opening from one of the proud lions of rock ‘n’ roll?

He’s a showman, a shrewd businessman, a wily TV star. Of course he’s delirious.

Simmons and the rest of KISS –singer Paul Stanley, guitarist Tommy Thayer and drummer Eric Singer – just wrapped a 40-plus-date summer tour with Motley Crue (it played Aaron’s Amphitheatre at Lakewood in July), but don’t even hint at KISS taking a break.

The band released “Monster” on Tuesday, its 24th studio album. And it’s a firecracker. KISS hasn’t sounded this pumped or tight since “Rock and Roll Over,” and songs such as “Freak,” “All for the Love of Rock and Roll” and the Simmons-sung “The Devil is Me” should rattle the roofs of the arenas on the 60 shows they’re planning for …

Continue reading Gene Simmons still rocking and roaring with KISS »