Restless Leg Syndrome

Guys, March is here already, and as John McCauley sings in the title track from Middle Brother, “My days are numbered but I’m bad at math.” That’s right – counting is out, good music is in, and before you can say “Fat Tuesday,” we’ve rounded up enough worthwhile shows to drag you out of your hibernaculum nearly every day of the month. How’s that for March Madness? Our overjoyed and overwhelmed restless legs are hopping over to Austin for SXSW to see lots of shows, discover new music, worship the sun gods, binge on barbecue and beer, and, if the stars are aligned, get served tequila by Bill Murray. (Rest assured, updates to come.) Considering this, we thought we’d maybe take it easy this month, but this calendar is so good looks like it’s high season for all music all the time. Tut tut now shake ya butt!

3/2 – Smith Westerns @ Great Scott

3/3 – Middle Brother @ Paradise

One fine day somewhere in America, Deer Tick’s John McCauley, Dawes’s Taylor Goldsmith, and Delta Spirit’s Matt Vasquez formed a group called Middle Brother. Middle Brother brings together and amplifies each member’s strengths – Deer Tick’s raw songwriting skills, Dawes’ melodic sensibilities, and Delta Spirit’s warm soulfulness – into a stylistically varied but consistently great album which gets better with every listen. Country-fried folky goodness, ya’ll.

3/3 – Aviary opening – “Sound on Sight”

Read about this in the Phoenix, it’s an editor’s pick for the week! Reception today, but the exhibit will be open all month.

3/4 – Low Anthem @ Old South Church

3/6 – Get Up Kids @ Paradise

If “Overdue” and “Let the Reigns go Loose” figure prominently in my memory montages of being young and vulnerable I’m not alone – the Get Up Kids were one of the most influential bands in the late-90s Midwestern emo movement in the good old days when “emo” meant emotionally honest punk-influenced music instead of angsty teenagers with swoopy hair and fetishes for wrist-slitting imagery and tear-streaked eyeliner.

3/6 – Say Hi @ Middle East Downstairs

3/7 – Oh Land (opening for OMD) @ Paradise

Electro-glitter winter wonderful.

3/8 – Pete Yorn @ House of Blues

Yeah, yeah, yeah, his hair is too shaggy, he’s all over simplified pop rock and old news, something you listened to on the Dawson’s Creek soundtrack in 2001 (No? Just me?), but I refuse to let go of my Musicforthemorningafter memories from before I even knew what a “morning after” felt like. A strange condition, indeed. Plus, on Enjoy Every Sandwich, the stellar Warren Zevon tribute album released after he died, Yorn covers “Splendid Isolation” wonderfully.

3/9 – Rural Alberta Advantage @ Middle East Downstairs

I have these guys on near-constant rotation these days, and for good reason. Before Japandroids realized “The Boys Are Leaving Town” and Arcade Fire were missing The Suburbs, Rural Alberta Advantage tapped into the nostalgia felt by itinerant twentysomethings with Hometowns – a gorgeous album that picks up the aforementioned Get Up Kid emo legacy and updates it with Jeff Magnum-esque vocals, occasional horns, and dislocated heartfluttery synths reminiscent of the Postal Service. Now they’re touring for their follow-up, Departing. Check it.

3/10 – Bright Eyes @ House of Blues

No conversation about Midwestern emo can go for long before hitting on infamous emo posterboy Conor Oberst. Whether you loved him for writing transparent lyrics that spoke to the confusion and pain of growing up or hated him for making grotesque self-pity worn on your sleeve not only acceptable but fashionable, seems like everyone had an opinion on the depressive wunderkind. Eleven years and tons of projects after Fevers and Mirrors, Oberst is finally hanging up the Bright Eyes moniker, so if you’re looking for a cathartic occasion to shed a public tear to “A Perfect Sonnet,” this could be your last chance.

3/11 & 3/12 – Zoe Keating & Walter Sickert and the Army of Broken Toys @ Cafe 939

Zoe Keating: one-woman orchestra/cello extravaganza with a hardworking DIY ethic, collaboration history with the likes of Amanda Palmer, John Vanderslice, and The Secret Life of Bees, and seriously badass dreads. Walter Sickert and the Army of Broken Toys: 15-piece orchestra with baroque sea shanties, neocircus postapocalyptic folk waltzes, and a seriously badass steam-crunk aesthetic. Bored of the same old musical fare? Get at this. (Note: the Friday show is SOLD OUT but Saturday tickets are still available!)

3/11 & 3/12 – The Pogues & Titus Andronicus – House of Blues

3/16 – Mark Kozelek of Sun Kil Moon @ First Church Congregational

3/20 – Blast Forth @ Cambridge YMCA

Whitehaus Family Record presents the fourth annual Blastfest, and it’s loaded with enough DIY New England goodness to melt your heart and melt your face off. The Cambridge installment of the tour features Welcome Home; Peace, Loving; Gracious Calamity; Jimmy Ambulance; Casey Rocheteau; Shai Erlichman; Brian S. Ellis; B. Law; The Needy Visions; Manners; Shira E.; Emma N. Young; Chris North Dream Quartet; Morgan Shaker; Free Pizza; Avi Jacob; and Gobby It’s going to be epic.

3/21 – Simian Mobile Disco @ Paradise

Get your dance on.

3/24 – Sebadoh & Steven Brodsky @ Paradise

3/26 – DeVotchKa @ Paradise

I am told time and again by a certain Russian co-writer that I mispronounce their name, but this Boulder/Denver four piece band plays awesome Eastern world, gypsy-folk music in the vain of Beirut and Andrew Bird’s Bowl of Fire. Perhaps you heard them in the background of Little Miss Sunshine, which featured arguably two of their best songs, “You Love Me” and “How It Ends.” Unusual instruments (sousaphone, theremin) and Nick Urata’s vocal bravado make DeVotchKa unmissable. I saw them live once in Colorado, and between the hometown spirit and the circus-punk, rock ‘n’ roll accordion, I was hooked. They’ve got a new album just out the last day of February, too, which I have yet to check out.

3/26 – Hallelujah the Hills & Parts and Labor @ Great Scott

3/28 – Klaxons @ Paradise

3/29 – Joy Formidable @ Brighton Music Hall

3/30 – Bodega Girls record release party @ Middlesex Lounge

3/30 – The Dears @ Brighton Music Hall

3/30 – JEFF the Brotherhood & Juiceboxxx @ Great Scott

We saw JEFF the Brotherhood at Homegrown, back when the Temple in JP was still kickin’. Revisit those good times here.

3/31 – Viva Viva & Doomstar @ Brighton Music Hall

Annnnd, as always, we encourage you pick up/find online the Boston Counter Cultural Compass and go to any shows/events listed there. They are always a good time, and even if the music isn’t your thing, the hangings out will be. COMMUNITY, PEOPLE!