As a kid in the late-‘70s, I loved the weekly trip to the grocery store, and my first stop was the magazine rack at the front registers. I’d grab the brand-new issue of TV Guide and absent-mindedly push the cart for my shopping mom as I studied the upcoming week’s highlights.
Who are the musical guests on Saturday Night Live and The Midnight Special and Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert? (Not like I was ever allowed to stay up that late to watch any of those shows.) What hijinks will be happening on my favorite sitcoms? Is there a sci-fi movie on next weekend? (And will I get to see the ending before my mom drags us out the door to Saturday afternoon mass?)
Every September there was a Fall TV Preview issue spotlighting new programs, some hopeful highlights of the upcoming season. So here’s a Clubland equivalent — advance notice of some cool shows on the calendar as the cold weather takes over.
Driven by vocalist/guitarist/songwriter/author Dean Wareham’s dry wit, Luna came on the scene in 1992 with a love of the Velvet Underground, catchy melodies and quotable lyrics (“Soho has the boots / Noho’s got the crack / New England has the foliage / But I’m not goin’ back”). Their latest release is “Postscripts,” a compilation of out-of-print singles. Luna plays Gateway City Arts in Holyoke on Thursday, October 17, at 8 p.m. Opening the show is Versus, a favorite indie rock band of the ‘90s, still powered by the dual vocals and intense energy of guitarist Richard Baluyut and bassist Fontaine Toups. They have a brand-new record out, “Ex Voto,” their first in nine years.
It’s also been nine years since the world last heard from the Pernice Brothers, who just released “Spread the Feeling,” one of their poppiest records ever. (“Throw Me To the Lions,” for just one example, is a tour-de-force of New Order propulsion and sing-along hooks.) They’re not playing too many shows — their “Fall Tour 2019” poster could almost be a comedy bit, since there’s only three dates on it. We’re lucky one of them is at the cozy Parlor Room in Northampton, where Pernice’s lyrics and songcraft can be heard with minimal distraction. The band takes the stage on Saturday, October 19, at 7:30 p.m.
The Bad Plus remains one of my favorite modern groups, a jazz trio who stayed steady through a seismic lineup change at the end of 2017 (with exiting pianist Ethan Iverson replaced by Orrin Evans, a longtime friend of bassist Reid Anderson) and released a strong second debut (“Never Stop II”) with some of their most engaging original songs in ages. Their next album comes out October 25, “Activate Infinity,” and the first single, “Avail,” lets drummer Dave King go wild, skittering and tumbling over a melancholy circular chord progression. The Bad Plus will be at the Iron Horse in Northampton on Wednesday, October 30, 7 p.m.
Also celebrating a new record are The New Pornographers — “In the Morse Code of Brake Lights,” the band’s eighth album of bright brilliant pop. Ever since his early-‘90s days in Zumpano, leader/vocalist/guitarist/songwriter Carl Newman has been an inspired maker of pop songs that sound like you’ve known them forever, yet still contain clever and exciting angles, melodically and lyrically. The new album has plenty of standouts in that vein, like “The Surprise Knock” — if you’ve been a fan since the band’s gloriously bombastic early days, the charging song will thrill with its stomping energy and overlapping hooks. The band plays at MASS MoCA in North Adams on Thursday, November 14, at 8 p.m.
(Sandy) Alex G is an acclaimed indie rocker from Philadelphia — I’ve known at least two generations of college radio DJs who’ve loved his music. (“Kicker” was the song that grabbed me back in 2015, as mesmerizing as the best Pinback tracks.) His latest album is “House of Sugar,” which ends with a live recording of the song “SugarHouse,” an affecting performance that makes you excited to see him and his band in person. He’ll be at Gateway City Arts in Holyoke on Saturday, November 16, at 8 p.m.
In an often clean-scrubbed and predictable world of “Americana,” multi-instrumentalist Sam Amidon interprets traditional songs in a way that embraces the edge that’s usually sanded down, or totally ignored. I’ve seen him alternately woo and befuddle folk festival crowds, giving a heart-wrenchingly plaintive reading of an old-time tune and then leaning hard into ugly dissonance and odd comedy. His latest release, due out November 15, is an EP called “Fatal Flower Garden (A Tribute to Harry Smith)” which contains his versions of four songs from Smith’s legendary and influential Anthology of American Folk Music. Amidon will be at the Parlor Room in Northampton on Saturday, November 30, at 7 p.m.
Ken Maiuri can be reached at clublandcolumn.com.