The Suspect: Corey Smith
He began his career playing the country bar circuit in Athens 10 years ago; his sixth and latest release, Keeping Up With the Joneses, produced by Russ-T Cobb (Butch Walker, April Lavigne) is full of radio-ready revelry. As one fan on his website says, “Corey’s music captures college in a nutshell: friends, late nights and lasting memories.”
Can Be Found: The Orange Peel, Friday, March 25.
RIYD (Recommended if You Dig): Zac Brown Band, Hootie and the Blowfish.
You Should Go If: You put the “Vice” in Service Industry; you’ve been using daylight savings time as an all-purpose excuse for two weeks and counting; you’re on a first-name basis with everyone at Sunglass Hut; longer days give you more time to … scan in pictures from high school, tag pictures from high school and keep apprised of the relationship status of everyone in your graduating class.
The Suspect: Jonathan Coulton
A Yale graduate and a former computer programmer, Coulton says he plays “well-crafted geek folk-pop … songs about mad scientists, robot armies and self-loathing giant squids.” He gained most of his fame via the internet with a free podcast called “Thing a Week” for which he wrote, recorded and published a new song every week for a year.
Can Be Found: The Grey Eagle, Friday, March 25.
RIYD: Fountains of Wayne, Flight of the Conchords.
You Should Go If: You think you’re the only guy in town who subscribes to Details, The New Yorker and PC World; Watson losing to that congressman really messed with your worldview; you have to remind people almost daily that it’s a satchel, OK? Indiana Jones carried one; longer days give you more time to … nothing — you have self-diagnosed perfection paralysis.
The Suspect: Omar Rodriguez-Lopez
This musician/songwriter/producer/actor and film director is part of the prog-rock Grammy-winning group The Mars Volta, and an extremely prolific solo artist as well (he released 10 solo albums in two years.) After seeing Rodriguez-Lopez live, MTV’s Iggy blog said “the chemistry was electrifying. If it is a cult, I think I might join.”
Can Be Found: The Orange Peel, Saturday, March 26.
RIYD: Rush, Yes.
You Should Go If: Your standard outfit is “waiter in mourning”; your most vivid childhood memories are of eating cheese fondue and watching The Wall with your parents; you double-majored in philosophy and industrial engineering; longer days give you more time to … insinuate yourself into the Pritchard Park chess scene.
The Suspect: The Cave Singers
This Seattle group formed in 2007 when former members of Pretty Girls Make Graves, Hint Hint and Cobra High united as one. Pitchfork said this about last month’s release “they lend their local folkie scene a welcome dark side, and No Witch is their strongest album yet.”
Can Be Found: The Grey Eagle, Tuesday, March 29.
RIYD: Fleet Foxes, Mumford and Sons.
You Should Go If: You’re the one who got a little too rough in the flash-mob pillow fight; you’ve been preparing your raised bed with unbridled enthusiasm while trying to block out the “killing fields” of past years; longer days give you more time to … pour over the New Testament and look for a Lent loophole.
…Or, if you’d rather support local musicians and see the one of the biggest Asheville music showcases to date, LAMA Fest seems like the place to be at The Grey Eagle on Saturday, March 26th.