It's Friday — you made it through the week alive. Celebrate properly with some live music. A breakdown of what's happening this Fri., July 24, below, along with a peek at what's to come this weekend...Band & the Beat with The Good Graces Raleigh, N.C. singer-songwriter Tracy Shedd diverges from her usual acoustic guitar-driven slowcore sounds and sets her dulcet intones against dreamy, down-tempo synthesizer grooves in Band & The Beat, her new project with musician husband James Tritten. They hit town for an in-store with Atlanta’s female-fronted indie folk-pop outfit The Good Graces, which features former local John McNicholas (Spiller) on guitar. Microgroove stages the performance in collaboration with Fort Lowell Records, and offers free beer, a free 7-inch single and free admission, too – but donations to the artists (and some pocket change for vinyl) are encouraged. All ages; 7 p.m. (Microgroove, Tampa)
Noisemakers Teacher Jam Instructors from St. Pete school of rock, Noisemakers, who are also music-makers in their own right perform their own original material in this evening showcase. (Hideaway Café& Recording Studio, St. Petersburg)
The Smashing Pumpkins | Marilyn Manson Billy Corgan has long led The Smashing Pumpkins pretty much on his own, transforming the band’s sonic trajectory a bit from alt rock to art something. The departure of sole remaining original member Jim Chamberlain in 2009 spurred Corgan’s Teargarden by Kaleidyscope album cycle, a 44-song concept loosely inspired by the Tarot; the lukewarm critical reception to the most recent album in the series, 2014’s Monuments to an Elegy, apparently has Corgan re-assessing the direction. His Pumpkins team up for a big ol’ amphitheater tour with the gothic emperor of heavy industrial sounds, Marilyn Manson. Ninth LP The Pale Emperor finds him adopting sparser, blues and hard rock influences, and he’ listed Muddy Waters, The Rolling Stones, and The Doors as inspiration. His album, unlike Corgan’s, has been received rather well. Hopefully that hasn’t created any undue tension on this tour. (MidFlorida Credit Union Amphitheatre, Tampa)
Black Titanwith Into the Cellar Rising from the muck of Mobile, Ala. comes stoner-sludge metal band Black Titan, “making music heavier than a fat chick with a mouth full of pork rinds” according to their bandcamp page; sole four-song EP is marked by thick growling guitars, rough snarling vocals, and deliberate trudging rhythms that pick up speed to racing tempos before slowing back down to a fuming crawl. Tampa-hewn Into the Cellar has a self-titled full-length out that has a more muscular, guitar-fuzzed, fast-chugging stoner appeal ala Queens of the Stone Age or DFA 1979. Righteous. (The Bends, St. Petersburg)
Unknown Hinson with Rocket 88, Larry T. Mitchell Band Writing tunes like “I Make Faces when I Make Love,”“Rock 'n Roll Is Straight from Hell” and “Put Out or Get Out” with tongue firmly planted in cheek and adopting a sort of evil, vampiric Presley/Cash alter ego, Stuart Daniel Baker, aka Unknown Hinson, has been spewing his country twangy psychobilly sounds for more than two decades. He rarely breaks character when he’s in public, has inspired the likes of Hank III, can wail a mean guitar solo and occasionally breaks into his own trademark riff on Hendrix odes like “Voodoo Child” and “Little Wing.” (Skipper's Smokehouse, Tampa)
Have Gun, Will Travel Album Release Party Bradenton’s Have Gun, Will Travel has been drumming up a mighty buzz with fifth and latest studio full-length Science from an Easy Chair, a conceptual work inspired entirely on the endurance-testing Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition (1914-17) by British explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton, and recorded with Tampa’s own Shawn Kyle at his Warm Alive studio space right outside downtown Tampa. Diffuser.fm premiered a new music video for the urgent stomping “True Believers,” which is a salute to the perseverance of Shakleton’s crew, but according to Burke in his interview with the indie music site, “the song itself is very personal and relevant to the band.” This night marks the album’s official launch party, with support from NYC roots rock outfit Hollis Brown and Garret Klahn, formerly of Texas is the Reason, currently doing the solo singer-songwriter folk-groove rock thing. (Crowbar, Ybor City)
The Babys with Nova Rex Two of The Babys’ 1970s-era singles, "Isn't It Time" and "Every Time I Think of You" made it onto the Billboard Top 40, but you don’t hear either song getting much airplay these days. Still, the British power pop outfit spawned John Waite (who was a member of the group through their most fruitful rein) and still have some holdover fans in the U.S. Currently, drummer Tony Brock and guitarist Wally Stocker remain, joined by vocalist/bassist John Bisaha and guitarist Joey Sykes, they released the first new Babys record in three decades, I'll Have Some of That!, last year. (Largo Cultural Center, Largo)
Rob Thomas Two words: Matchbox Twenty. Now you know who Rob Thomas is? Don’t pretend you haven’t emerged from an auto-pilot moment to find yourself humming along to the hook of “Smooth,” or maybe you’re even singing, but regardless, if the muddle of feelings that arrive directly afterwards include self-disgust, horror, shame and nausea, colored with a hint of nostalgia, might want to stay home for this one. If you dig his brand of emotive AC pop rock, and feel no sense of embarrassment about loving “3AM,”“Bent,”“Push” and the like, Thomas’ll likely play all of these, along with other M20 hits and his own original material. (Ruth Eckerd Hall, Clearwater)
Teen Agers with Awkward Age, You Vandel, Edmonton A Friday night four-pack of Florida punk talent as led by Teen Agers, which hails from Orlando and features former and current members of You Blew it!, How Dare You, Protagonist, and Go Rydell. (New World Brewery, Ybor City)
ALSO TONIGHT
Hairdresser on Fire Ella’s Americana Folk Art Café, Tampa
20 Shades CD Release Show w/Rockstarr Bentley/Decepcion/Virgin Dirt Local 662, St. Petersburg
The Applebutter Express Ale and the Witch, St. Petersburg
Greg Billings Band Jannus Live, St. Petersburg
Coo Coo Ca Choo Palladium Theater, St. Petersburg
Peewee LongWay State Theatre, St. Petersburg
Freddy Montes y su son Ceviche, St. Petersburg
COMING UP THIS WEEKEND
Post-Rays Concert Series: Kacey Musgraves Sat., July 25, Tropicana Field, St. Petersburg
Ska Revival Tour w/The A-OKs/Be Like Max/Victims of Circumstance/Sketchie Sat., July 25, Tropicana Field, St. Petersburg, Local 662, St. Petersburg
Slipknot w/Lamb Of God/Bullet For My Valentine/Motionless In White Sat., July 25, MidFlorida Credit Union Amphitheatre, Tampa
Babyface Sat., July 25, Mahaffey Theater, St. Petersburg
The Revivalists w/Bobby Lee Rodgers Sat., July 25, State Theatre, St. Petersburg
The Bricks & SPoT Ybor 5 Year Anniversary Party w/Look Mexico/Wolf-Face/The Sh-Booms/The Tim Version/The Welzeins/Sons of Beaches/DJs Blenda, CUB, Queys Sat., July 25, The Bricks Ybor, Ybor City
Ken Walters’ 18th Annual Celebrate Sinatra Sat., July 25, The Ritz Ybor, Ybor City
Serious Soul w/ÖONA DAHL/Brian Busto Sat., July 25, Hyde Park Café, Tampa
Antsy McClain Sat., July 25, Hideaway Café& Recording Studio, St. Petersburg
Sarasota Slim Sat., July 25, Ale and the Witch, St. Petersburg
Mike Davis CD Release Party w/Les Sabler/No Money Down/Steve Arvey Band Sat., July 25, Skipper’s Smokehouse, Tampa
V Recordings Takeover w/Random Movement/Dave Owen/CHRONIC/Jaybee/Thee Joker/Hoodie Monks Sat., July 25, Fubar, St. Petersburg
Ignite the Night w/Rook Da Ruckus/Infynite Traxx/Rad Budsky/Mr. Porter/more Sat., July 25, Pegasus Lounge, Tampa
SPECTRUM feat. Children of Orion/The Real Clash/WD Han/LILITH Sat., July 25, The Bends, St. Petersburg
Unmotivated w/The Duppies Sat., July 25, Ringside Café, St. Petersburg
Savi Fernandez Sat., July 25, Dunedin Brewery, Dunedin
Seven Factor/Together In Exile/Didges Christ Super Drum/Sml8/Khhryst Sat., July 25, Brass Mug, Tampa
Shreya Ghoshal Sat., July 25, USF Sun Dome, Tampa
Slightly Stoopid w/Dirty Heads/Stick Figure Sun., July 25, Vinoy Waterfront Park, St. Petersburg
2015 Suncoast Blues Society Challenge Sun., July 25, Hideaway Café& Recording Studio, St. Petersburg
E.N. Young Sun., July 25, State Theatre, St. Petersburg
Sealion w/Pleasures Sun., July 25, New World Brewery, Ybor City
Ol’ Dirty Sundays w/Cosmo Baker Sun., July 26, Crowbar, Ybor City
Acme Jazz Garage Sun., July 26, Ella’s Americana Folk Art Café, Tampa
Iron Mike Norton Sun., July 26, Skipper’s Smokehouse, Tampa