Apr 14 - JASON REEVES / Rumba / $6 adv / ages 18+ / 8pm

Apr 22 - TITUS ANDRONICUS with SPIDER BAGS
The Summit / $8 adv / ages 18+ / 8pm

Apr 23 - THE MARY ONETTES
The Summit / $7 adv / $9 door / ages 18+ / 8pm

Apr 23 - PAST LIVES / Cafe Bourbon Street / $5 adv / $7 door / 8pm

May 7 - LIONS RAMPANT / Cafe Bourbon St. / $5 adv / ages 18+ / 8pm

May 10 - HARLEM / Summit / $6 adv / ages 18+ / 8pm

May 19 - THE CLASSIC CRIME, MADINA LAKE, IVORYLINE
Skully’s / $9.99 adv / all ages / 6:30pm

* Tickets for David Bazan & Headlights at The Summit on March 28, 2010 will not be honored at any other venue. Tickets will be refunded at point of purchase.

Mar 29 - MIDDLE DISTANCE RUNNER with FLOATING ACTION
The Summit / $5 adv / ages 18+ / 8pm

Mar 30 - GRINGO STAR / Circus / $7 door / ages 18+ / 9pm

Mar 30 - THE SMITH WESTERNS with MALE BONDING
Cafe Bourbon St. / $5 adv / $7 door / ages 18+ / 9pm

Apr 1 - FANFARLO / Outland / $5 adv / all ages / 7pm

Apr 2 - CITY CENTER / Cafe Bourbon St. / $5 / ages 18+ / 8pm

Apr 5 - HIGH PLACES, SHIN TOWER MUSIC
The Summit / $6 adv / $8 door / ages 18+ / 8pm

Apr 11 - SURFER BLOOD with TURBO FRUITS, TIN ARMOR
The Summit / $8 adv / $10 door / ages 18+ / 9pm

Apr 13 - TERROR PIGEON DANCE REVOLT with THE SHAKES
Cafe Bourbon St. / $5 adv / $7 door / ages 18+ / 9pm

Mar 21 - THE BIG PINK / Outland / $5 adv / all ages / 8pm

Mar 21 - AFTER MIDNIGHT PROJECT, CHASING CHARIOTS
Skully’s / $10 adv / 8pm

Mar 21 - SHERWOOD, SEABIRD, REECE, THE FORTIES
Skully’s / $10 adv / $12 door / all ages / 5:30pm

Mar 22 - AFTER MIDNIGHT PROJECT, CHASING CHARIOTS, BABY BEAR, SHINING AS STARS / Skully’s / $9.99 adv / all ages / 7pm

Mar 24 - SHILPA RAY & HER HAPPY HOOKERS, MILES BENJAMIN ANTHONY ROBINSON, SUCKERS / Summit / $8 adv / ages 18+ / 8pm

Mar 25 - JENNIFER KNAPP & DEREK WEBB
The Summit / $20 adv / ages 18+ / 7:30pm

Mar 28 - JAVELIN / Summit / $5 adv / ages 18+ / 8pm

Cafe Bourbon Street

2216 Summit St.
(614) 268-9377

$5
Ages 18+ - Under 21 pay $2 surcharge at the door

Arlo and the Otter
http://www.myspace.com/arloandtheotter

Arlo, traveling alone, cold and depressed, lost in the wilderness of thought, was walking down a lonely road in San Juan. He passed by hopeless souls and neon signs when he realized that life was not worth living. As he laid down outside a rundown housing project, ready to make his final resting place, a cough, a cough so raspy and unique it made our tragic hero turn his head curiously. A man, not knowing of Arlo’s existence or troubled past, scratched his beard with a sigh of frustration. For this man had his own skeletons, not too different than Arlo’s. Arlo said with his soft voice, “Heyyy, brotherrr. What your name stranger?” The man, slightly startled, stared at Arlo, surveying his looks and his eyes as though he was determining whether or not to reply. “They call me the Otter. Don’t got no change though, best keep on moving down the road, folks do better begging up yonder.” “I’m not asking for change mister… I’m looking for a friend.” Arlo replied. The man they call the Otter coughed again and surveyed Arlo once more. He decided that Arlo’s response was genuine and sat down next to his new acquaintance. And from that point on, Arlo and the Otter became the greatest of friends. They decided to form a duet and then talked more to find out that both actually had musical training. Opium played a role.

Saintseneca
http://www.myspace.com/saintseneca

Necessity is the mother invention, sometimes in the weirdest way.

For Saintseneca, quiet hours and tiny spaces transformed an adolescent indie band into a folky four-piece that now stomps, shouts and strums with the best in the city.

“We had a cheesy electric band in high school, and we wanted to continue something in college,” said Luke Smith, who came from a small Appalachian town to Ohio State with bandmates Zac Little and Steve Jacobs. “It was tough for us to find a place to practice where we could make a lot of noise.”

Thus the addition of a plastic trash can for percussion and crack violinist Grace Chang, who has helped hone a soft, charming acoustic sound. It exploded in September on a fantastic four-song vinyl EP released with the help of San Francisco indie imprint Paper Brigade.

Literate acoustic acts like The Decemberists come to mind, but Saintseneca takes traditional American folk in even more intriguing directions.

“Something we focus on when we are writing music is filling up that space,” said Little, one of three members who rotate among guitar, banjo, dulcimer and other instruments. “Our music can be really sparse, but we try to get a full sound. If everyone’s playing an instrument, what can you do but stomp?”

Simultaneously traditional and dynamic, the sound has won the band a loyal following along several recent DIY tours and within the city’s thriving house-show scene.

“At some bars, it can be kind of weird or not as personal,” Smith said of opting for smaller, residential venues. “Playing for 30 or 40 in a basement can be really cool.”

Chang, who grew up reading sheet music and playing in school orchestras, agreed.

“For me personally, I enjoy the house show because you feel like you made friends with the people who hosted you,” she explained. “Since it’s so small and intimate, people are able to pick up on things more.”

The band has recorded five new songs and plans to release them this year, aided by the elbow-grease ethic working just fine so far. A tour through the Midwest and East Coast is slated for spring, and a longer road stint is scheduled during summer break. - John Ross, Columbus Alive

Uzi & Ari
http://www.myspace.com/benshepard

Uzi and Ari is an American indie rock band based in Salt Lake City, Utah that has received favorable comparisons to artists such as Thom Yorke, Mogwai, The Postal Service, and The Album Leaf. Founded by Ben Shepard in 2003, Uzi and Ari has seen many changes in its lineup. The current members of the group include Ben Shepard (vocals, guitar, organ), Andrew Glassett (drums), Catherine Worsham (bass, backing vocals), Garrett Martin (guitar, keyboard), and Ryan Moore (violin, guitar, french horn). Following a month long 2006 tour of the United States, Uzi and Ari was picked up by the European label Own Records, and left on a successful six-week European tour in the Spring of 2007. - Wikipedia

The Summit

2210 Summit St.
(614) 268-9377

$7
Ages 18+ - under 21 pay $2 surcharge at door

Chinese Stars
http://www.thechinesestars.com/

Shortly after experimental rock avatars Arab on Radar disbanded in late 2002, vocalist/guitarist Eric Paul set about forming his next project, the Chinese Stars. Paul recruited Arab on Radar drummer Craig Kureck, former Six Finger Satellite bassist Rick Ivan Pelletier, and guitarist Paul Viera to complete the unit. While the Chinese Stars were slightly more conventional than Arab on Radar’s provocative chaos, the band was noisy and weird enough to find a home on Skin Graft, which was also home to Paul and Kureck’s previous band. The group released its debut EP, Turbo Mattress (which was shaped like a Chinese throwing star), in 2003. - ©2010 Rovi, All Music Guide

Fang Island
http://fangisland.com/

“A triumphant, heavily riffed, primarily instrumental epic, whiplashing through six minutes of smiling prog jams, and as many tempos as passages, before settling into one last minute of uplifting chants.” - Stereogum

“Life-affirming prog guitar anthems.” - Seattle Stranger

Fang Island describes its sound as “everyone high-fiving everyone.” And, the Brooklyn quintet’s anthemic and soaring songs make it quite possibly one of few bands befitting such description.

Its finger-tapping guitar lines, chanted vocals, triumphant harmonies and overall perky songs hearken to the sort of “Total Music” of the Fucking Champs, Jay Reatard, Ponytail, Kraftwerk, Marnie Stern, Thin Lizzy, et al. But, perhaps more so, its songs are like the music in your head at that moment when everything feels just right: that first kiss, that high score on the video game, buying your first small nation in cash… you know, good stuff.

Fang Island began, oddly enough, as an art school project while the band members were attending the prodigious Rhode Island School of Design (also the foundation for Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Les Savvy Fav, Six Finger Satellite and some band called the Talking Heads.) According to guitarist Jason Bartell, the goal was to “make music for people who like music.” That is, music without irony that harnesses its uplifting qualities. Just like a classic rock song or classical symphony can stir us emotionally, Fang Island exists to unlock that spirit.

Fang Island is guitarist Jason Bartell, bassist Philip Curcuru, guitarist Chris Georges, guitarist Nicholas Andrew Sadler, and drummer Marc St. Sauveur. They all share collective group vocal harmonies and the occasional hand claps. While Sadler is also known for his role in the debauched rock band Daughters, it is only his fretboard skill that translates between the two groups.

Self Titled begins appropriately with the sound of erupting fireworks on “Dreams of Dreams” leading into a cascading chorus of ringing guitar notes before the group vocal harmonies chime in with the mantra, “they all are within my reach, they are free.” The second song, “Careful Crossers” launches in beneath the vocals with a chorus of gleaming guitar harmonies smeared over the marching, syncopated rhythm section. Elsewhere, tracks like “Sideswiper” hearken to the metal-laced positivity of Andrew WK. “Daisy” sounds like a unique collaboration between the Fucking Champs and Jay Reatard. Throughout the album, it’s like listening to the cool version of classic rock — the type of anthemic pop — without the cheesiness — that you wished Journey and Boston could’ve made.

The Summit

2210 Summit St.
(614) 268-9377

$10 adv / $12 door
Ages 18+ - under 21 pay $2 surcharge at door

We Were Promised Jetpacks
http://www.myspace.com/wewerepromisedjetpacks

Half bracing post-punk and half tuneful indie-pop, Glasgow’s We Were Promised Jetpacks features vocalist/guitarist Adam Thompson, guitarist Michael Palmer, bassist Sean Smith, and drummer Darren Lackie. The group formed while the foursome was still attending an Edinburgh high school, where they won a battle of the bands contest with their very first gig. After graduation, We Were Promised Jetpacks relocated to Glasgow, and their sound matured as well, moving from simple song structures and clean guitars to a more ambitious, anthemic approach. They were also inspired by fellow Glaswegians the Twilight Sad and Frightened Rabbit, and these influences could be heard on the three-song demo the band recorded, which received airplay on BBC, XFM, and Q Radio in the U.K., and KEXP in the States. In 2008, We Were Promised Jetpacks toured as Frightened Rabbit’s opening act; that year, they were signed by Fat Cat Records (also home to both Frightened Rabbit and the Twilight Sad). In 2009, the band released two singles, Quiet Little Voices and”Roll Up Your Sleeves,” before their full-length These Four Walls arrived that summer. - ©1992-2008 All Media Guide, LLC

Lonely Forest
http://www.myspace.com/thelonelyforest

Formed in the waterfront town of Anacortes, WA, the Lonely Forest center on the talents of vocalist/pianist John Van Deusen. The group came together as a quartet in 2005, when frontman Van Deusen chose to bolster his piano-driven compositions with help from guitarist Tony Ruland, drummer Braydn Krueger, and bassist Eric Sturgeon. The group’s spacy sound attracted the ear of Seattle’s Jack Endino (who, in 1989, produced Nirvana’s Bleach), and the Lonely Forest subsequently entered Endino’s studio in 2006 to cut the Regicide EP. Ruland left the band soon after the EP’s release, but the remaining bandmates opted not to replace him, choosing instead to let Van Deusen’s piano assume a larger role in the group’s sound. Retreating to their drummer’s garage, the Lonely Forest rehearsed and recorded Nuclear Winter, an indie rock concept album revolving around the themes of apocalypse and space travel. Although the album’s release was largely limited to the Pacific Northwest, it received much support from KEXP and other local outlets. - ©1992-2008 All Media Guide, LLC

Bear Hands
http://www.bearhandsband.com/

As label mates of MGMT and a band known to bring similar dance groves to the packed venues around the East Coast, Bear Hands has been getting a ton of buzz in the New York music scene. They’ve been around for about five years and still not that much love from Los Angeles.

Fortunately, I was lucky enough to catch the trio’s first performance in the LA area at local favorite Spaceland before they would rock the Troubadour the next evening. It was apreview of things to come.

When the four piece came on stage there was a bit of anticipation in the crowd. I took a peek at the setlist which started with “Slow.”A fitting title because the song indeed achieved its namesake. It was a little something to set the mood, something to prepare the masses (which was mostly filled with punkers for the next group) and something to get the crowd moving – to get the crowd moving in a slow sultry way, the only way to move with the swaying synths.

Everything about Bear Hands just screamed sexy. “Get a Grip” highlighted funky vocals displayed by Dylan Rau to the drug-like wails of Ted Feldman which created a dreamy daze. Not everyone was into the sexiness and some mumbling about them being too mellow for those naysayers. “Can’t Stick Em” brought the house down. It may have started out with faint guitars but it turned into a kick drum tyraid complete with over-driven bass. Rau went from singing to shouting “Go Home” at the top of his lungs.

Perhaps those initial naysayers should have just gone home but they all obviously wanted more once the set ended. A band that successfully takes you in and out of lush haze with vivid shoegaze mixed in is the perfect mix for any indie dance party. Check some of the photos out from the show below! - Carl Pocket, Beat Crave

Outland on Liberty

95 Liberty Street

$10 adv / $12 door
Ages 18+ - under 21 pay $2 surcharge at door

Hockey
http://hockeyband.com/

Merging the studied cool of the new wave revivalist movement with the sleek textures and commanding rhythm of electronic pop, Hockey burst out of the Portland, OR music scene in 2009 to become cult favorites in the United Kingdom on the strength of a handful of live appearances and a self-produced demo EP. Vocalist and guitarist Ben Grubin and bassist Jeremy Reynolds formed Hockey in 2007 while they were both students at Southern California’s Johnston Center for Integrative Studies, a free-form college affiliated with the University of Redlands. The Johnston Center allows students to establish their own curriculum, and Grubin and Reynolds used the opportunity to focus their attentions on music. They began writing songs and playing out as Hockey accompanied only by a drum machine, and a demo recorded by this early incarnation of the band attracted the attention of A&R executives at Sony Music. Hockey were signed to a record deal, but communication between Grubin and Reynolds and Sony soon broke down, and attempts to cut an album with producer Jerry Harrison (ex-Talking Heads) came to a halt when Sony dropped the band. Grubin and Reynolds left California for a creative environment where they could start over, and after a spell in Spokane, WA, they found it in Portland, OR. Hockey expanded to a four-piece with the addition of percussionist Anthony Stassi and guitarist Brian White during the band’s stay in Spokane, and they started playing clubs and college parties as soon as they hit Portland. Home-recorded versions of the songs “Learn to Lose” and “Work” found their way to Zane Lowe, a disc jockey at BBC Radio 1, and airplay generated a demand for the group in the U.K.. After being invited to play the London club Water Rats, and a showcase hosted by the influential music magazine New Musical Express, Hockey were once again being courted by the major labels, and they signed with Virgin for the U.K. and Europe and Capitol for the United States. Hockey’s album Mind Chaos, featuring revised versions of the songs from their demo, was released in fall 2009. - ©1992-2008 All Media Guide, LLC

The Constellations
http://theconstellationsmusic.com/

Dubbed an Atlanta supergroup by locals, The Constellations officially formed when vocalist Elijah Jones teamed up with Grammy-winning producer Ben H. Allen (Animal Collective, Gnarls Barkley) and others to create Southern Gothic. Jones, formerly the frontman of Atlanta bands Gates of Berlin and Vin Corejo, and Allen tossed ideas around for two years before finally recording. Now the band and its ever-changing line-up of Atlanta musicians is playing sold out shows in Atlanta’s most popular venues, from the Earl, Star Bar, Lenny’s, the Drunken Unicorn, and even Athens’ the 40 Watt.

Recorded at Maze Studios, Southern Gothic (2008) is a meandering tour of the underbelly of Atlanta, lead by Jones’ gruff delivery and parabolic lyrics. Lush production invokes the muscular rhythms of ‘70s Fela Kuti, the propelling pop sensibility of the Gorillaz and the vocals of a modern-day Tom Waits. Cee Lo of Gnarls Barkley and newly signed SRC artist Asher Roth are featured on the album, with a revision of Tom Waits’ “Step Right Up” as a centerpiece. Also on the album are Atlanta musicians Brand Hagen (Trances Arc) and Julian Dorio (The Whigs).

The Constellations live show consists of a five-man band backing Jones’ trademark vocals and persona: James Arnold, Ryan Davis, Jamie Gordon, Wes Hoffman (Second Shift), and Chandler Rentz (Snowden, Ocha la Rocha). A crowd-pleasing, all-girl “Clap Squad” covers back-up vocals and completes the spectacle. The band plays locally monthly and will begin touring nationally this summer.

The Postelles
http://thepostelles.com/

Playing propulsive pop tunes with a streetwise energy and attitude that’s pure rock & roll, the Postelles are a four-piece band born and bred in New York City. Singer and guitarist Daniel Balk, lead guitarist David Dargahi, bassist John Speyer, and drummer Billy Cadden all met while they were attending the same high school in the Big Apple; they shared similar interests in music and played in a handful of garage bands, eventually putting the band together during their early college years (and at a time when most still couldn’t legally order a beer). In 2007, the Postelles began playing out, and they soon gained a valuable ally in Albert Hammond, Jr., guitarist with the Strokes. Hammond liked the Postelles’ music enough to help produce a six-song EP for the band; the EP earned enthusiastic reviews and some British radio play, with BBC 1 disc jockey Zane Lowe spinning their tunes and praising the band on air. The buzz helped the Postelles set up a tour of Europe which included shows in London and Paris, and back home in the States the band was booked into two major summer festivals, Bonnaroo and Lollapalooza. In early 2009, the Postelles went back into the studio with Hammond to begin work on their debut album. - ©1992-2008 All Media Guide, LLC

The Summit

2210 Summit St.
(614) 268-9377

$5
Ages 18+ - under 21 pays $2 surcharge at door

One For The Team
http://www.myspace.com/onefortheteam

Indie pop band One for the Team were founded by Minneapolis music scenester/songwriter Ian Anderson (not to be confused with the frontman of Jethro Tull) in an effort to use material that was unfit for his other band, Aneuretical. The group began as a strictly studio side project with drummer Elliot Manthey and bass player John Krueger, but soon blossomed into a full-time unit after the success of the group’s self-released 2006 album, Good Boys Don’t Make Noise. A flurry of lineup changes followed, with the band eventually settling on Anderson, Manthey, Grace Fiddler, and Jacob Huelster as its core. One for the Team toured heavily in support of their 2008 sophomore effort, Build It Up, sharing the stage with contemporaries like Dressy Bessy, French Kicks, and Frightened Rabbit before heading back into the studio for 2009’s eight-song EP Build a Garden. - ©1992-2008 All Media Guide, LLC

This Is My Suitcase
http://thisismysuitcase.com/

This Is My Suitcase is the unruly music performed by five even-unrulier friends.

This Is My Suitcase was born in the innocent times of 2005, carved from the atrophied spots on Joseph Anthony Camerlengo’s heart. The induction of This Is My Suitcase to the scary world outside of Joseph’s bedroom walls would soon be the band’s first full length album: Missent to Thailand (2006), a unique thirteen song proclamation that love exists and is. With little-to-no “critical” acclaim, Missent to Thailand was, in it’s own untraditional way, a hit, especially considering it exclusively recorded with a computer microphone! Now with a notable amount of public support, This Is My Suitcase grew and grew into an entire five piece punk orchestra, currently featuring: Nicholas Manos (bad karma’s response to U2’s The Edge), Jeremy Skeen (the potential ghost of the late Mitch Mitchell), Joseph Fitzgerald (Satan’s answer to Sting), and Mary Lynn Gloeckle (our own personal Schroeder). Over the last four years of trying times and some concurrent failing times, This Is My Suitcase has self-released an insurmountable amount of freakish pop music over the internet, free of any charge to it’s lucky listener, including: The C EP (2006), The C.R.E. ep (2007), and countless other original songs, cover songs (from The Beach Boys to Michael Jackson), and limited-releaser tour theme songs to coincide with each of their tours.

By January 1st of 2008, a fat-ruled notebook had been filled red cover-to-red cover with production, recording, mixing, and vocal notes for the next This Is My Suitcase full length album. Six months later, the raucous band overtook Mike Green’s (The Matches, Paramore) Los Angeles studio during the graveyard shift (usually eleven pm to then am), working themselves in and out of a comatose state for two weeks of recording drums and shattering glass. As quickly as they came, the band soon found themselves back in Columbus, Ohio, chauffeuring a laptop and broken microphone from random location to random location, recording woodwinds, strings, horns, saws, and tinkerings on their record, literally every single day. This was still only the beginning, as the self-recording of The Keys To Cat Heaven would stretch on for eight more long months, unbeknownst to anyone at this point. From July of 2008 until August of 2009, This Is My Suitcase masterminded a fifteen-song disasterpiece unlike any other. Any time wasted or spent on this album was well worth it, any of the five band members will tell you with absolute certainty in their otherwise uncertain voices. The band’s latest full length album, The Keys To Cat Heaven (2009), is their best collection to date.

If you are fed up with paying full price for albums that lack french horn featurettes and string quartets; if your record collection feels void of cat and ghost content, lyrically-speaking; if your album art collection feels incomplete without a cat ghost, literally-speaking; if you immediately need your body to build an immunity to a virulent swarm of dancing falsettos and flutes; if you have been digging for records that will highlight that you are both playful and witty; if you want an album that you can stream at an appropriate volume from your apartment window to prove to passer-bys that you are intelligent and ironic; if you have been looking for a solid album to rattle the tiles from your roof while you bang your head; if you wish that Sesame Street sing-alongs sounded more like old Flaming Lips albums; if you wish that new Flaming Lips albums sounded more like vintage Sesame street records, we have the album for you: The Keys To Cat Heaven.

Super Desserts
http://www.myspace.com/superdesserts

Opening act, Columbus, OH-based Super Desserts crowded onto the Hideout stage - which could barely fit all 12 members (I think I counted) - tuba player, banjo, five string players - including a cellist, saxophone, guitar and several singers who also played bells, ukeleles, shakers and tambourines, while the entire orchestra sang along to their peppy songs. Exhibiting a clean cut appearance and sweet and innocent sound that harkened back to the days of the New Christy Minstrels these cute lads and lasses are a breath of fresh air. Songs were short and sweet and addictive and featured delicious harmonies including the beat-driven “Ibiza,” “Gotta Lotta Sun” “Faster Tea” “Jump Out of the Way” (check out the great video of this song on You Tube), “Funeral” and “I Only Love You Because You Can Play Guitar” and especially the clever and catchy “Yr Heart” which featured singer Eve Searls. Made me feel so young again I had to pick up a vinyl copy of their album Banjo Forever (with great retro silk screen cover art) so I can learn the words to sing along next time they come to town. - Brad Walseth, ConcertLiveWire.com

Rumba Cafe

2507 Summit Street
(614) 268-1841

$7 adv / $9 door
Ages 18+ - under 21 pays $2 surcharge at door

Horse Feathers
http://www.myspace.com/horsefeathersmusic

The Portland, OR, folk duo Horse Feathers consist of singer/songwriter Justin Ringle (acoustic guitar, vocals, percussion) and multi-instrumentalist Peter Broderick (violin, banjo, mandolin, cello, viola, piano, saw, percussion, vocals). Ringle grew up in Idaho and played in several short-lived indie rock bands during his teenage years, but moved to Portland in 2004, where he met Broderick, who was already a member of the more established Portland band Norfolk & Western. They spent much of 2005 writing songs and honing their live performances at various Portland open-mike nights. Influenced by both the stark folk music of Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska and the post-classical work of Scandinavian composer Max Richter, the duo entered the studio in February 2006 to record its debut album, Words Are Dead, 11 chamber-folk tracks featuring Ringle’s high, reedy vocals and enigmatic lyrics and Broderick’s baroque filigree. Words Are Dead was released on Lucky Madison Records in September 2006. The band inked a deal with the Kill Rock Stars label the following year, releasing House with No Home in 2008. - ©1992-2008 All Media Guide, LLC

Saintseneca
http://www.myspace.com/saintseneca

Necessity is the mother invention, sometimes in the weirdest way.

For Saintseneca, quiet hours and tiny spaces transformed an adolescent indie band into a folky four-piece that now stomps, shouts and strums with the best in the city.

“We had a cheesy electric band in high school, and we wanted to continue something in college,” said Luke Smith, who came from a small Appalachian town to Ohio State with bandmates Zac Little and Steve Jacobs. “It was tough for us to find a place to practice where we could make a lot of noise.”

Thus the addition of a plastic trash can for percussion and crack violinist Grace Chang, who has helped hone a soft, charming acoustic sound. It exploded in September on a fantastic four-song vinyl EP released with the help of San Francisco indie imprint Paper Brigade.

Literate acoustic acts like The Decemberists come to mind, but Saintseneca takes traditional American folk in even more intriguing directions.

“Something we focus on when we are writing music is filling up that space,” said Little, one of three members who rotate among guitar, banjo, dulcimer and other instruments. “Our music can be really sparse, but we try to get a full sound. If everyone’s playing an instrument, what can you do but stomp?”

Simultaneously traditional and dynamic, the sound has won the band a loyal following along several recent DIY tours and within the city’s thriving house-show scene.

“At some bars, it can be kind of weird or not as personal,” Smith said of opting for smaller, residential venues. “Playing for 30 or 40 in a basement can be really cool.”

Chang, who grew up reading sheet music and playing in school orchestras, agreed.

“For me personally, I enjoy the house show because you feel like you made friends with the people who hosted you,” she explained. “Since it’s so small and intimate, people are able to pick up on things more.”

The band has recorded five new songs and plans to release them this year, aided by the elbow-grease ethic working just fine so far. A tour through the Midwest and East Coast is slated for spring, and a longer road stint is scheduled during summer break. - John Ross, Columbus Alive

Old Hundred
http://www.myspace.com/oldhundred

Circus

1227 N. High Street
(614) 421-2998

$10 adv / $12 door
Ages 18+ - under 21 pay $2 Surcharge at the door

Vetiver
http://www.myspace.com/vetiverse

Vetiver are commonly lumped into the nascent “freak folk” movement alongside the likes of Joanna Newsom and Six Organs of Admittance, thanks to leader Andy Cabic’s friendship with scene founder Devendra Banhart. (Besides Banhart’s musical contributions to Vetiver’s first two albums, Cabic co-wrote Banhart’s breakout song “At the Hop,” from 2004’s Rejoicing in the Hands; on the same album, Banhart paid tribute to his friend’s band in the song “When the Sun Shone on Vetiver.”) However, the band’s roots go deeper than Syd Barrett and Linda Perhacs, encompassing the U.K. shoegazer scene and the mid-’90s D.I.Y. indie rock scene. Cabic was part of the latter, forming the Raymond Brake in his native Greensboro, North Carolina in the early ’90s. The Raymond Brake’s noisy, Sonic Youth-influenced take on indie rock was a natural fit with both the Chapel Hill art-punk scene and the influential Washington D.C. indie Simple Machines, which released the band’s debut album Piles of Dirty Winters in 1995. After a handful of EPs and one more album, 1996’s Never Work Ever, the Raymond Brake broke up and Cabic migrated westward, eventually settling in San Francisco. While studying at the San Francisco Art Institute, Cabic met fellow student Banhart and instantly established a close working relationship with the bearded sprite. While playing live gigs with Banhart, Newsom and others, Cabic started writing songs for his new project Vetiver, named for an Asian relative of lemongrass that’s used in perfume making. Adding Banhart on guitar and backing vocals, Jim Gaylord on violin, and Alissa Anderson on cello behind Cabic’s vocals, banjo, and acoustic guitar, Vetiver released its first, self-titled, album on the DiCristina label in 2004. (The album, produced by Thom Monahan of the Pernice Brothers, also included guest spots by Newsom, Mazzy Star’s Hope Sandoval, and former My Bloody Valentine drummer Colm O’Ciosoig.) Vetiver was followed in 2005 by a stopgap odds and sods collection called Between that included two live tracks, plus a new version of a song from Vetiver and a cover of Fleetwood Mac’s “Save Me a Place.” For Vetiver’s second full-length album, 2006’s To Find Me Gone, Cabic finally added a drummer, Otto Hauser, and bassist Kevin Barker to the core trio of himself, Banhart, and Anderson. After the album was released, Cabic introduced a stable, full-time recording and touring lineup of himself, Anderson, Hauser, new guitarist Sanders Trippe, and new bassist Brent Dunne. In 2008 the band released A Thing of the Past, a collection of covers of songs by artists like Michael Hurley, Ronnie Lane and Townes Van Zandt who have influenced Cabic along the way. The band’s next album, 2009’s Tight Knit,was released by new label Sub Pop. - ©1992-2009 All Media Guide, LLC

Moon High
http://myspace.com/moonhighmusic

These Ohioans make utterly transcendent Indie Folk that shimmers with organic grace. The five-piece should be the next favorite band of everyone entranced by the current Indie Folk revolution. Moon High’s self-titled album (recently released in a gorgeously-packaged, handmade second edition, complete with Moonflower seeds) has attracted a lot of attention, largely by word of mouth. The band has been the toast of several music blogs, the modern day equivalent of Alan Freed taking a shine to your record promotion man’s free and loose cash flow. Expect big things. - City Beat

Vug and the Stallions
http://www.myspace.com/vugdemonstrates

At some point over the past few years, those who spend their nights watching rock ‘n’ roll bands in Columbus probably crossed paths with TV Eye.

Unstable but inspired, the teenage trio spun shoegaze-infected psych rock by way of the Byrds and the Jesus and Mary Chain.

Just as they were finding their feet - their ComFest set this year was the sharpest I’ve seen them - singer-guitarist Vug Arakas decided to break up the band and try something new.

Enter Vug and the Stallions. Older, wiser and backed by a rotating cast that often includes members of the Main Street Gospel, Arakas rocks under his own name now.

It’s a smart decision aesthetically; “Vug” is a much more memorable moniker than the borrowed Stooges song title that adorned his old band. More importantly, the switch seems to be panning out for Arakas artistically, too.

That much was clear last Thursday, when the Stallions opened the night at Rumba Cafe. With his brother on drums, the Main Street Gospel’s Tito on bass and MSG’s Barry Dean on lead guitar, Arakas led the group through a set that cashed in on much of the vast potential he’s been showing off all these years.

The quartet covered a lot of ground in just six songs, shifting from slow-burning psych jams to twangy barroom laments to snappy retro pop. A rickety mansion’s worth of ghosts haunted this music, from Crazy Horse to Deer Tick to the Lemonheads, but none were spooky enough to sway Vug’s steady hand.

Barking out rough and tumble tales from behind flopping locks of hair, Arakas was an arresting figure at stage right. Across the floorboards, Dean employed the meat-and-potatoes guitar mastery he’s perfected with the Main Street Gospel, an ingredient just as crucial to this band as his main meal ticket.

Dean’s leads cut through each tune like a laser light show, sometimes blurring with Arakas’ fret work into an eight-miles-high haze.

All this beauty seemed to flow out of their fingers effortlessly. The entire enterprise felt loose and natural - like your neighbors jamming in their basement, only awesome.

Arakas is heading to Akron in January to lay down the first Stallions record. He’d be smart to bring Dean along and capture some of that collaborative magic in the studio. But even without his trusty steeds, the young talent seems set to create something special up there. - Chris DeVille, Columbus Alive