Like an agitated monkey, I’m about to fling some poop at you.

But you should be used to it by now – I do it every few weeks! If you can navigate around the verbal shite, you’ll find some cool concerts to check out.

Shows on tap for tonight:

• Henhouse Prowlers and Moonshine Drive at the Liberty Theater in Lawrenceburg
• William Elliott Whitmore and Dave Hause at the Woodward, with Micah Schnabel opening
• The Screaming Orphans at Ludlow Garage
• Comedian Sebastian Maniscalco is at the Coliseum

Saturday shows:

• Sylmar does two sets at MOTR
• Buffalo Nichols plays the Liberty Theater
• Southgate hosts the Newport Music Roots Festival (doors 3 p.m.) – details below
• Woodward Theater has “Play for L.A.” – a benefit for fire-impacted musicians. The lineup includes Rae Fisher, The Montvales, Jess Lamb, Siri Imani and more.
• Mike Detmer and Adam Gilliam play the Lost Bridge Beverage Co. in North Bend
• Christine Harvilla Duo with Colleen Clark plus Sami Riggs at the Boone County Courthouse
• Annie’s hosts Grateful River III (a benefit for Down Syndrome) – details below

On Sunday, Ben Levin Blues Band is doing the Rabbit Hash Music Behind the Stove Series at 2 p.m., and the band Lawrence plays Bogart’s in the evening.

Woodward has An Evening with Yo La Tengo on Tuesday. I’ll be at that gig, along with several other list members. Because Georgia, James and Ira are badasses!

Shannon McNally plays Southgate on Wednesday.

Thursday gigs:

• Shadowgrass in Southgate’s main room, and Jake Blocker in the Revival Room
• “Sons of Cream” (Kofi Baker, Malcolm Bruce and Rob Johnson) play Ludlow Garage. (Maybe they should call themselves “Half & Half”?)
• Liberty Theater has a Comedy Night featuring Adam Minnick

Concerts next Friday, March 28:

• The Blind Boys of Alabama with Shemekia Copeland at Taft Theatre
• Chicago Farmer & the Fieldnotes at Southgate
• The Outlaws at Ludlow Garage
• Cody Ikerd & the Sidewinders Album release show w/Joe Clark at Liberty Theater
• Little Miami Brewing’s event center has “Night Moves: The Ultimate Bob Seger Experience”
• Blue Note in Harrison hosts The Prince Experience (pancakes not included)

The slate on Saturday, March 29:

• Liberty Theater has a Rebel Whiskey tasting (4 FREE tasting!) from 5-7, followed by the Lowdown Brass Band
• Blackhawk at Ludlow Garage
• Lily Rose at Bogart’s
• Bumpin’ Uglies at Madison Theater
• Willi Carlisle at Southgate in the Revival Room
• Annie’s has the all-female Led Zeppelin tribute band Zepparella
• Blue Note features “Midnight Blue” (Foreigner Tribute) with One Way to Rock (Sammy Hagar tribute)

Shows on Sunday, March 30:

• The Star Devils play Rabbit Hash in the afternoon
• Sarah Shook & the Disarmers are at Liberty Theater (I plan to go to that show)
• JD Simo and Luther Dickinson (of North Mississippi Allstars) at Southgate

Ricky Nye will be tickling the ivories as only Ricky can on Monday, March 31 at Memorial Hall, and Taft has The Faint with Plack Blague.

Shows on April Fools’ Day:

• The Surfrajettes with Black Widow at Madison Theater
• Al Stewart & Livingston Taylor at Memorial Hall
• The Righteous Brothers “Loving Feeling Farewell Tour” makes a stop at Taft. (If you’ve lost that loving feeling, see your urologist!)

Wednesday, April 2 is another WEENsday at The Columbia in the East End (4311 Eastern Ave.) and this month’s featured WEEN album is Chocolate and Cheese… so they’ll have some chocolate-covered cheese to share.

I plan to attend that event. You should too – The Columbia is a very cool space (with a vintage jukebox in the basement), and WEENsdays are free and you can BYOB!

Tunes & Blooms kicks off at the Cincinnati Zoo on Thursday, April 3. Moonshine Drive and Pickin’ Pear will be on the T&B stages. The full April lineup is here. That same evening, right down the street, you can catch The Seven Wonders (yes, yet another Fleetwood Mac tribute band) at Ludlow Garage.

The Liberty Theater in Lawrenceburg has a Record Fair April 4-5.

Shows on Friday 4/4 include Judah & the Lion* at Bogart’s and Eaglemania “The World’s Greatest Eagles Tribute”** at Ludlow Garage.

On Saturday, April 5:

• The Young Dubliners play Ludlow Garage
• John Waite is at the Taft
• Queensrÿche plays Belterra Casino in Florence, Indiana
• Patterson Hood is at the Whirling Tiger in Louisville, with Lydia Loveless as the opener

Sunday, April 6, Ludlow Garage has The Phil Collins Experience (warning: contains no Phil Collins).

We love it live!

MJ Lenderman and Wild Pink at the Green Lantern Bar in Lexington KY was off-the-charts amazing (set list is here). A Top 5 all-time show for me, thanks to list member Frank B.

This GQ profile of MJ is nice too. Money quote:

“Once music and work and money all become the same thing, it gets hard to do it casually. But that was the reason I was able to do anything meaningful in the first place,” he admits. “You can see that through my whole life, just being able to go to a friend’s house and make something and not worry about what it is.”

Now hear this!

The new album from The Tubs is top-notch. Richard Thompson meets Hüsker Dü.

Speaking of Richard Thompson, Bandcamp has a great feature about his influence on younger artists. Sayeth Mary Timony:

“His tone is always amazing, but here’s the thing—most importantly—his songwriting is great. He’s kind of the total package, in that he does both songwriting and playing guitar very well.”

Neil Young to The Cure: Why can’t I be you?

Neil is following Robert Smith’s lead on ticket prices. Could Neil wearing guyliner be next?

Ohio All The Time

New songs from Mommy and Sun Kil Moon reference the Buckeye State.

Of course it’s not Sun Kil Moon’s first Ohio rodeo:

The Best Video Ever

Today is the greatest… actually, 30 years ago was better

Fake Album Cover of the Week

This one (which came our way courtesy of Cereal Killers frontman Howard Cohen) has been doctored, but it should have been real:

Here’s the original album cover:

Speaking o’ our friends Cereal Killers, their drummer Chris Glen recently had surgery for prostate cancer. Here’s an update and his PSA P.S.A.

Album Cover(s) of the Week(s)

Yet another PSA P.S.A.

The Clarion Trio was waaay ahead of the curve on “throuples.”