Thursday 7.12
ttGalactic, JJ Grey & Mofro (Gallivan Center)
Friday 7.13
ttFOUNDERS TITLE FOLK & BLUEGRASS FESTIVAL
ttIt’s getting hot in here, so … what? You’re sick of Nelly? I get it. March to a different beat by keeping all of your clothes on and heading up the canyon for three days of banjo/fiddle/mandolin/acoustic guitar action with Intermountain Acoustic Music Association’s 19th annual Founders Title Folk & Bluegrass Festival. Yes, it’s a mouthful. It’s also a welcome earful of cool performances by Blue Highway, Cadillac Sky, The Hot Strings, Vance Gilbert, April Verch, Lab Dogs and other featured artists followed by evening jam sessions. Yeah. Let it all hang out. With a little bit of uh, uh. Snowbird Resort, Highway 210, Little Cottonwood Canyon. Tickets & info: FoundersFestival.org
Also Friday: The Rocket Summer (In the Venue); Chris Cornell, Juliette & The Licks (The Depot'see Music, p. 49); SLUG Localized (Urban Lounge); KBER Salt Lake Soundcheck (Club Vegas); The Numbs (Monk’s); Thunderfist (Bar Deluxe); Bluebird Café Kick-Off: Kim Carnes (Sundance); The Neville Brothers, Sonny Landreth (Red Butte Garden)
Saturday 7.14
ttRASPUTINA
tt“Eighteen-sixteen was the year without a summer,” Melora Creager cries with Björk-meets-Regina Spektor inflection on Rasputina’s twisted, time-warped album Oh Perilous World. The chamber-rock group’s sixth release continues their characteristic obsession with centuries-old traditions combined with Creager’s horrified reaction to history in the making. Cutting and pasting pertinent excerpts from today’s headlines, she editorializes “Something’s wrong; something’s very, very wrong” over anachronistic cellos and drums, electric guitars and digital samples. Disgust with the current administration, directionless wars, nuclear weapons and social ills is nothing new, but Rasputina’s response is like nothing you’ve ever heard in such classic, baroque packaging. Suede, 1612 Ute Blvd., Park City, 9 p.m. Tickets: SmithsTix.com
Also Saturday: Marty Kasteler Benefit: Car Wash & Concert (Mo’s Neighborhood Grill); Doon’n Sick Noisefest (Red Light Books); Lyrics N’ Rhymes (In the Venue); Plan For Damage w/ 23 Bands (Club Vegas); Ted Dancin’, Laserfang (Urban Lounge); Jon McEuen (Ogden Amphitheatre); Founders Title Folk & Bluegrass Festival (Snowbird)
Sunday 7.15
ttBOAT
ttA goth friend of mine recently expressed his disdain for shiny, happy indie rockers, noting that real musicians wear big boots, play big guitars and execute their powerful songs with serious precision. He would not, I assume, dig Boat, a “sloppy pop” band out of Seattle whose loose, whimsical songs sound like a bunch of friends getting drunk and jamming in the garage after watching several episodes of Pancake Mountain. It’s not tight or dramatic, but Boat’s collected works, packaged ever so nicely on Let’s Drag Our Feet are clever and offbeat, particularly the sweet and reassuring “The Ferocious Sounds of Lobsters and Snakes.” If that makes your stomach turn, go listen to some Bauhaus or Throbbing Gristle and pretend this never happened. Monk’s, 19 E. 200 South, 10 p.m. Tickets: 24Tix.com
LYLE LOVETT, K.D. LANG
ttLyle Lovett and K.D. Lang don’t do much to update their bios or press clips. Understated and determined, they make a beeline for the stage and the studio, performing and recording at a steady rate, keeping their private lives largely under wraps. They occupy a rare space near the outer fringe of mainstream popularity, pleasing cult audiences and Starbucks shoppers alike. They also play around with different genres, from straight-up country to symphony classics and Leonard Cohen tributes. They sing, we listen'no thought of Lovett’s brief flirtation with the tabloids and whatshername. Deer Valley, 2250 Deer Valley Drive South, Park City, 7 p.m. Tickets: 435-655-3114
Also Sunday: Founders Title Folk & Bluegrass Festival (Snowbird); The Reign of Kindom (Burt’s Tiki Lounge)
Monday 7.16
ttRUSTED ROOT, BACK DOOR SLAM
ttBack Door Slam have been credited with bringing back the blues, and while I’m not sure the blues ever went away the U.K. troubadours do a fine job taking Robert Cray’s lead. Like Eric Clapton and the Stones, BDS take a truly American musical tradition and make it their own'only BDS are upfront about the appropriation, naming their group after a Cray single. The Isle of Man natives also boast a guitar prodigy who formed the group at 16 before taking over vocal duties when the original vocalist died in a car accident. Strong and talented beyond his years, he’s Davy Knowles is still no B.B. King, but in a few years he’ll no doubt possess enough soul to make us believe he’s been to the crossroads and back. The Depot, 400 W. South Temple, 7:30 p.m. Tickets: DepotSLC.com
EOTO
ttFor some, the words String Cheese Incident conjure images of former Deadheads and Phishheads congregating in large fields of grass or dirt, eating vegan burritos and just l-i-v-i-n. But where String Cheese is a jam band in the conventional sense, its four-lettered offspring (featuring Jason Hahn and Michael Travis) pumps out electronic funk grooves that appeal to a wider range of musical palates. Their improvisational style results in smooth, downtempo dance tracks of live, looped percussion with guitar, keys and bass slipping seamlessly in the background. Star Bar, 268 Main, Park City, 9 p.m. Tickets: 800-888-8499
Tuesday 7.17
ttIncubus (Usana Amphitheatre); Chris Isaack (Red Butte Garden); Nick Black (Monk’s); Lee Scratch Perry (The Depot);
Wednesday 7.18
ttX96 4-Play (Gallivan Center); Ghost Buffalo (Urban Lounge); Sasquatch & The Sickabillies (Burt’s Tiki Lounge)
COMING UP
ttCary Brothers (Burt’s Tiki Lounge, July 19); Gladys Knight (Sandy City Amphitheatre, July 19); Yo La Tengo, Fiery Furnaces (Gallivan Center, July 19); Built to Spill (The Depot, July 21); Mavis Staples, Bettye Lavette (Red Butte Garden, July 22); Moe, Dr. Dog (Gallivan Center, July 26); Kilby Court 8th Anniversary (Kilby Court, July 27); Theo & The Skyscrapers (Bar Deluxe, July 27); St. Vincent, Scout Niblett (In the Venue, July 28); Aqueduct, Smoosh (Kilby Court, July 30); Ryan Adams & The Cardinals (Red Butte Garden, July 31)
