Florida’s Copeland started off life as a Radiohead clone, but rather quickly grew into something a bit less challenging but no less affecting, taking the same intricacy but making it a bit more commercial.  Whereas Coldplay took The Bends and popularized it, Copeland did the same for the OK Computer era.  And now Copeland’s era is coming to a close, and to close it out Copeland are on a farewell tour to celebrate/give you closure.
Copeland – Thursday @ Emos, Austin

L.A.’s Steel Panther takes the Sum 41′s “Pain For Pleasure” joke to the nth degree, taking something that was rather unintentionally funny at the time (ie. late ’80s pop glam metal) and making it that much more ridiculous.  Kinda like Spinal Tap without the subtlety.  I know lots of folks think this is awesome, but the music leaves me dry.  The shows look like fun though, and you never know who’s gonna show up and sing a song with Steel Panther.
Steel Panther – Thursday @ House of Blues, Houston

College Station’s Almost Handsome is closest thing to an unpretentious classic new millennium indie rock band that we have around here.  I recently reviewed their album for the March issue of 979Represent and while I didn’t care much for the recording itself the songs are great and I’ve been assured that live this band is much more rock than the record would have you believe.
Almost Handsome – Thursday @ Schotzi’s, College Station

When North Carolina’s Southern Culture On the Skids first emerged on the college rock scene in the early ’90s it was a much-needed poke at redneck culture.  20 years later and we’ve been through Jeff Foxworthy and Larry The Cable Guy as national cultural figures.  SCOTS deserve a place at that table.
Southern Culture On the Skids – Friday & Saturday @ Continental Club, Houston; Tuesday & Wednesday @ Continental Club, Austin

CircleBirds.  Yeah.
CircleBirds – Friday @ Revolution Cafe & Bar, Bryan

Can you imagine an American festival packed to the gills with hundreds of thousands of people digging the fuck out of VNV Nation?  It happens all the time in Europe, where electro-dance is still embraced, regardless of its gothiness (reference Cruxshadows).  In America, it’s tiny clubs for them.  Good for you though so you can get up close and see what’s going on.
VNV Nation – Saturday @ Elysium, Austin; Sunday @ Wired Live, Houston

I am still somewhat filled with a secret self-loathing inside that I once owned a G. Love & Special Sauce LP (on vinyl no less).  Ah, the things I used to do, I ain’t gonna do them no more.
G. Love & Special Sauce – Saturday @ Antones, Austin

Alicia Keys is a rarity among modern soul neophytes.  She’s actually a pop star at the same time as she is a protector of roots soul.  Talent, beauty & popularity.  It shouldn’t be fair, but girl’s got the goods.
Alicia Keys – Saturday @ Toyota Center, Houston

Saturday night has become the Night of the Dueling Dance Parties in downtown Bryan, with The Stafford hosting Pixel Explosion 2.0 with Spazz, Vegenaut, DJ John Em, Bart Black, Luna, Gondra and Ostrich Death Dance, while Revolution Cafe & Bar plays host to High Voltage Sounds.  Bring plenty of water to balance out all that Vitamin K…

The Wedding Present have been such a great jangly, indie rock band for so long it’s pathetic that it should be a crime that Americans do not know this band.  That is easy to rectify, my friends.
The Wedding Present – Monday @ Emos, Austin

Imagine James Brown reborn as an Indian CIS student frontng Otis Day & The Knights reconfigured as a bunch of Swedes (instead of American black dudes) with the hottest but ugliest cheerleader you’ve ever seen.  Imagine this and you’re almost at King Khan & The Shrines.  If i ever start my own fraternity a la Old School these dudes are definitely playing rush week.
King Khan & The Shrines – Monday @ Emos, Austin

Our good friend Metal Cindy is awesome.  Not only does she promote awesome shows around here with Hostile Land Productions but she’s also, well, pretty awesome on her own.  Cindy’s having a birthday party at Revolution and all her best buds from The Ex-Optimists, Red Meadow and Magic Girl are gonna bro down to celebrate.
Cindy’s Birthday Bash – Tuesday @ Revolution Cafe & Bar, Bryan

Everything old becomes new again sometime.  the Big Pink makes mid’80s gothwave sound new and fresh again.
The Big Pink – Wednesday @ Wired Live, Houston w/A Place To Bury Strangers opening.

Y’all know how chillwave was the next big thing as hyped by Pitchfork last year to emerge as the national indie music pastime?  Sure you do.  Do you remember what the one before that was?  Shitwave.  Yeah.  Shitwave.  While Beach House, Toro y Moi and others are still riding the chillwave, it was Ohio’s Psychedelic Horseshit who was predicted to ride the shitwave to 4-track noisiness taking over the land.  It didn’t quite work out that way, but PH isn’t paying any attention to that.  They continue to suck outloud with or without the bloggers’ attention.
Psychedelic Horseshit – Wednesday @ Notsuoh, Houston

Anybody that wails on a Realistic/Moog MG-1 as their main axe is jake with me, and the bro dog from Motion City Soundtrack has been rocking that shit for nearly ten years now.  Kinda broke through in the early Oughts but couldn’t really separate themselves from the pack of garage chic rockers MCS is still rocking it bringing the Anglo influence to modern alt-rock.  MCS plays Emo’s in Austin Thursday night.

It is no secret the impact the last two Low albums have had on me, both with my electronica and rock projects.  I’ve often wondered though how those songs would sound rocked out instead of spare and minimalist.  So did Low principle Alan Sparhawk so he started Retribution Gospel Choir on the side, and it quickly became legendary for its stomping Crazy Horse-esque take on alt-grunge.  Last month they released their second album imaginatively entitled 2 and are out on the road in support.  RGC plays Stubbs in Austin Thursday night, a show I dearly wish I could attend.  Alas…

Sensitive dude acoustic guitar singer-songwriters are pretty much out of fashion these days, but there were a few from the big boom of such dudes from 1996 – 2005 that I still hold a candle for.  One of those in Howie Day who fell into a fairly big radio hit in 2004 with “Collide” and then disappeared.  Sad, because dude could write a song and had a lot of the Jeff Buckley ghostliness.  Howie is still touring the way he started out, driving himself from place to place and selling shit out the trunk of his car.  Howie pulls into Antones in Austin Thursday night.

It’s been 20 years since we first heard from Glen Philips with his band Toad The Wet Sprocket, who scored a handful of hits in the early ’90s largely on the shoulders of making R.E.M.’s literate jangle pop radio-friendly.  These days Glen’s doing it solo, and you can catch him and his guitar at McGonigals Mucky Duck in houston Thursday night and Saxon Pub in Austin Friday night.

There was once a time that alternative soul didn’t mean Jill Scott, Maxwell or Erykah Badu.  It meant a handful of L.A. bands who blended ’70s funk/R&B, hip-hop, ska and the intensity of punk rock into a very successful amalgam.  I’m talking about Thelonious Monster, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Follow For Now and Fishbone who are probably the only one of those bands still scaling that wall every night like it’s 1987.  Fishbone will play live for you at Emos in Austin Friday night and Warehouse Live in Houston Sunday night with first wave ska punks The English Beat opening.  There.  You can pretend you’re Ferris Bueller AND Lloyd Dobler at the same show!

It’s easy to forget how revolutionary the laidback and easy rhyme flow Snoop Dogg slid quietly into the hip-hop lexicon way back in 1992 when he was still too young to vote, but let’s face it.  Snoop is easily one of the top 5 most distinctive MC’s in hip-hop’s history.  These days he may be a larger than life reality TV commodity and huckster but when he’s on the M-I-C ain’t nobody funky Snoop D-O-double G.  Snoop’s in concert Friday night at House of Blues in Houston.

The Spirit of Aggieland has heard the cries of help from Haiti and several students have organized Aggie Haiti Relief Concert in response, featuring performances from folks who cover pretty much all the corners of modern popular music as well as live magic and slam poetry.  Those donating their time are The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, The Tastydactyls, CircleBirds, Flawless Escape, Clairmont, The Legion, The Accessories and many others others.  The show starts at 5:30pm Friday night at Rudder Auditorium on the College Station campus.

It doesn’t seem like two or three B/CS metal bands can play a show.  The metal dudes can’t get onstage unless there are nearly a dozen bands on the bill.  Don’t Mess With Texas Metal Battle of the Bands is as good an excuse as any to put together yet another one of these shows.  At least the winner of this contest will advance to Austin for a similar show and the chance to win $5000.  Those competing are Illysium, Behold the Great Throne, Dark After Day, Convicted of Treason, Primal, Culture In Ruin, and bonnieBLUE.  This show is Friday night at The Stafford in downtown Bryan.

Damn! it’s a good week for hip-hop legends around these parts.  Boogie Down Productions co-founder and serious lyrical badass KRS One will be on the mic Saturday night at Scoot Inn in Austin.

OK, here’s a strange one.  How does a Grammy award-winning guitarist who’s blazed a white-hot trail of jazz fusion with Chick Core & Return To Forever, featured in a guitar trio with John McLaughlin and Paco Delucia, and played on more jazz samba albums than you can count wind up playing a Saturday night at a coffee house in the Woodlands?  Well, that’s exactly what Al di Meola is doing, playing for the cappucino set at Dosey Doe Coffee Company in The Woodlands Saturday night.

The good folks here at 979Represent have to pay the bills somehow, and rather than beg for your dough public broadcasting style we figured we’d put on a bitchen show to help raise money to keep us online and in print.  So…we present Twomanstravaganza at Revolution Cafe & Bar in downtown Bryan.  All bands consist of two members each.  Houston gonzo punk rockers Female Demand, Austin piano poppers Real Book Fake Book, College Station electro-stoner metal doods The Tron Sack and the insane operatic DJ madness of Austin’s Butcher Bear and Charlie.  This is probably one of the biggest, most awesome shows you are liable to see in B/CS this year so don’t miss this one.

In the mid ’90s singer-songwriter Mike Doughty fronted Soul Coughing, one of the strangest alt-rock bands of all time.  These guys fused so many different disparate styles together in a meta-mash of hip music a few years ahead of Beck and so many others who made a career out of mixing folk, drum-and-bass, hip-hop, grunge and collegiate intelligence.  Mike’s on his own these days, but he’s still got that charm solo.  See for yourself at the Cactus Cafe in Austin Tuesday night.

Merle Haggard is a certifiable music legend.  He is not liable to be around that much longer.  If you have even a passing interest in country music then you owe it to yourself to experience it live from one of the last remaining masters.  Merle with another living legend Kris Kristofferson plays Verizon Wireless Theater in Houston Tuesday night.

Alright, we know that bitch is crazy, but Mariah Carey is a serious singer and has racked up more number one singles than Mikey Roe’s got fresh uppercuts.  And while she has the tendency for oversinging (that’s an understatement, cuz) she can still bring that shit 20 years past her debut.  Whitney can’t even front on that.  Mariah Carey plays Verizon Wireless Theater in Houston Wednesday night.

DJ Cody Marx Bailey is spinning some French house and other hip records at The Stafford in Bryan Thursday night.

Third Eye Blind.  How is it these douchebags are still together!  God, what is next? Matchbox 20? Hootie? PLEASE LET IT END, FOR THE LOVE OF MIKE!! FOR PETE’s SAKE!! Third Eye Blind play Stubbs in Austin Thursday night and Verizon Wireless Theatre in Houston Friday night.

Fu Manchu were one of those bands that helped to bridge the gonzo fucked-up noise rock of The Melvins and Jesus Lizard and the proto-stoner metal of Kyuss.  The Fu is still with us, and make a stope at The Meridian in Houston Thursday night and Red 7 in Austin Friday night.

Make fun of it as you will, but these dudes could really fucking play.  Listen to “Soldiers Under Command” and tell me those dudes weren’t legit.  Sure, Stryper were that anomaly of a Christ-loving heavy metal band but Oz Foxx had the goods, yo and these dudes could lay it out, even if they threw out Gideon Bibles like Rik Nielsen threw out guitar picks.  Stryper are still trying to save your soul, and make an appearance at House of Blues in Houston Thursday night.

Austin’s Haunting Oboe Music are one of the more original bands we’ve seen around here for some time, making intricate yet powerful indie rock.  Catch them for free at noon Friday at Sbisa lawn on Texas A&M’s campus Friday then check them out later that night at Revolution Cafe & Bar in Bryan with locals The Ex-Optimists and psycho electro-math-punks Transmography opening.

Get some groovy dude funky rock with Soulever Lift at Fitzwillys on Northgate Friday night.

College Station’s The Circlebirds play The Stafford in downtown Bryan Friday night.

Remember when indie rock could be humorous?  After all, it was founded in the dark, dirty halls of college rock radio.  These days you gotta do it ironic, but in the ’80s punk rock was deadly funny.  Dead Milkmen?  Dead Kennedys?  Violent Femmes?  And, of course, Mojo Nixon.  Mojo & The Toadliquors make stops at both Continental Clubs, Friday night in Austin and Saturday night in Houston, both nights with old school Southern indie rockers Dash Rip Rock opening.

It is impossible to grow up outside of an urban core and not be indoctrinated early into that not-so-secret society of AC/DC.  At pretty much every kind of party, be it frat dudes, society chicks, rednecks, punk rockers, metalheads, indie beardos when they wuz all growing up…someone had Back In Black or Highway To Hell on the tape deck.  It could be worse.  AC/DC’s been consistently pumping hot meat-and-taters blooz-based hard rock with a punk minimalism for almost forty years now.  Heck, even I’ve seen them live and was thoroughly entertained.  AC/DC’s playing Erwin Center in Austin Friday night and Toyota Center in Houston Sunday night.

Russian Circles are yet another instrumental post-rock band, but unlike a lot of their brethren do not show away from metal, especially that of the stoner variety.  These guys can be fancy with their interplay and drop that shit on the one too.  Russian Circles plays Rudyards in Houston Friday night and then Saturday in Austin at Fun Fun Fun Fest (more on that later).

Yeah.  The Used play House of Blues in Houston Friday night and La Zona Rosa in Austin Saturday night.

God.  The lineup assembled for this year’s Fun Fun Fun Fest at Waterloo Park in Austin is pure sickness.  Jesus Lizard, Face to Face, 7 Seconds, Melt Banana, Russian Circles, Les Savy Fav, DEATH, No Age, Shonen Knife, Danzig, Of Montreal, Crystal Castles, Mission of Burma (holy shit!)…plus a bunch of other cool bands.  It costs more than it used to (I paid $10 to see The Sword, Boris and Om a couple of years ago) but this is definitely a lot of awesome shit gathered in one place at one time.  You can find the schedule at http://www.funfunfunfest.com/events

The Smiths-ian Voxtrot bounce that pop at The Mohawk in Austin Saturday night with The Octopus Project opening. 

The word on the street was that And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead was abandoning the experimental, piano-based sound they had cultivated with 2006′s So Divided and I was bummed because as much as I love their earlier more metal albums I also liked where they were going.  So with this year’s album they decided to combine the styles.  And as you can see, it’s pretty awesome.  Trail of Dead plays The Mohawk in Austin Sunday night. 

At first I thought Shonen Knife was a joke.  It’s like three Japanese ladies doing a real kitschy version of The Ramones…but 20 years later they’re still at it and it doesn’t really seem like a joke anymore, just good fun punk rock.  Shonen Knife plays Mangos in Houston Monday night.

Melt Banana is definitely an inheritor of the acid-drenched noise rock mantle from Jesus Lizard and the Butthole Surfers.  Melt Banana plays Walters in Houston Monday night.

Rob Zombie has turned being Ministry-lite (which I guess is Cabaret Voltaire-lite) into an entire career complete with movie directing, production companies, etc.  Oh yeah, and the music.  Cartoonish and fun.  Rob plays Austin Music Hall Tuesday night and Verizon Wireless Theatre in Houston Wednesday night.

And if you can’t get Rob then you get his little brother in Powerman 5000 at Scout Bar in Clear Lake Tuesday night. 

Andrew Bird will play at Paramount Theatre in Austin Thursday night. Eh, I like Sufjan Stevens better.

Jamaican-born dub reggae and remix artist Mad Professor will man the decks at the Flamingo Cantina in Austin Thursday night.

And in that same vein DJ Spooky spins the rekkids at the Mohawk in Austin Friday night.

Y’know, I was never really a hardcore kid. Probably because I was afraid I’d get beat up at hardcore shows for not having a shaved head, bad tattoos or combat boots. So I missed a lot of the music, which is completely to my detriment. If I were really broken up about it I could get my post-1986 hardcore lesson in one 90 minute dose Friday night at Red 7 in Austin with Agnostic Front. But since I’m busy that night maybe one of you can go and take notes?

Get your gentle on Friday night at Revolution Cafe & Bar in Bryan with Houston indie rockers Tambersauro with our own The Circlebirds and Warbler opening.

Speedealer make punishing rock and were formerly possessed of one of rock’s best band names until the douchebags in REO Speedwagon made them remove the “REO” in front of their name, effectively killing the joke. Catch Speedealer at Emo’s in Austin Saturday night.

I don’t really know much about the details of this but…there will be a live fashion show presented at The Stafford in Bryan Saturday night, hosted by Kelley Carrie & Alyx Pryce with music by DJ’s Noggin and Dagnabbit.

Easily the best show of the week in town or out belongs to Monday night at Revolution Cafe & Bar in Bryan, courtesy of the lads from Transmography and Nomenclature. Art, synths, laptops, drums, rock attitude and gonzo-punk approach galour.

Hank III, the cowpunk with the famous pedigree, will park the bong at The Meridian in Houston Tuesday and Emo’s in Austin Wednesday.

And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead will debut songs from their brand spakin’ new album (which I’ve been assured brings the rock and leaves more of the prog behind…though hopefully not too much of the prog) at a free in-store peformance at Waterloo Records in Austin Tuesday afternoon.