William Fitzsimmons

Most folks don't like to talk about painful personal stuff, such as a failed relationship.

William Fitzsimmons -- who will be performing a Daytrotter show on Thursday, March 19, at RIBCO -- doesn't have much choice.

"I wrote a record on divorce, so I opened the door," he said in an interview this week.

You'd never guess that The Sparrow & the Crow, Fitzsimmons' album from last year that the Boston Herald called a "near masterpiece," is about divorce on first blush. It's unfailingly delicate, intimate, and gentle musically, with folk-y lead piano and acoustic guitar lightly accented with other instruments. And it starts with the words "I still love you" and "I still need you" and what sounds like a reaffirmation of marriage vows. It absolutely does not sound like divorce.

Tim Mahoney

If you watch a lot of MTV, there's an excellent chance you've heard the music of Tim Mahoney, who will be performing at Augustana College on Friday, March 13.

He also has a video airing in Life Time Fitness locations in 18 states. And he has a partnership with Miller Genuine Draft.

That might sound like selling out, but the Minneapolis-based Mahoney said last week that it's simply a matter of survival for an independent musician.

"This is how you stay alive I think these days in the music business," he said. "It's that any-and-all-and-kind-of-outside-of-the-box theory. ... It takes so much more to get it to people."

Dirty Projectors

Editor's note: The Dirty Projectors show scheduled for Sunday, March 8, was canceled the day of the show.

Three years into its existence, the variety of acts that Daytrotter.com has brought to the Quad Cities for concerts defies pigeonholing, but they've tended to fall into two broad categories: the highly idiosyncratic and the on-the-verge. (Remember that founder Sean Moeller brought in Vampire Weekend, Blitzen Trapper, and Fleet Foxes before they were big.)

Blk JksIf you want a sense of how excited the music press is about the up-and-coming South African psychedelic rock band Blk Jks (pronounced "Black Jacks"), you only need to see the art-rock royalty that reviewers name-check.

The stuffy New York Times: "Far closer to TV on the Radio and the Mars Volta than they are to Ladysmith Black Mambazo."

The hipsters at Spin, dubbing Blk Jks a "hot new band" earlier this month: "The electro-funk experimentalism of TV on the Radio with the Afro-pop guitars of Vampire Weekend, and drop in hints of jazz, ethnic African music, and the prog-rock of contemporary acts like the Mars Volta."

If those descriptions pique your interest, Daytrotter.com is bringing Blk Jks to the Quad Cities, and fans of adventurous rock would be foolish to miss the band's performance at RIBCO on Tuesday, March 3. This is a buzz band poised to make seriously good noise.

rude-punch

The closing track on Killin' It, the new release from the Quad Cities reggae-rock trio Rude Punch, is called "Payment," and unfortunately it's overdue. Loose and light, the guitars and drums at the outset seem to be searching for the groove, and when they find it 35 seconds in, they sustain it for another four minutes. Brady Jager's singing is heartfelt and nimble, and background vocals and twin guitars add satisfying accents and interplay, while bassist Robb Laake and drummer Adam Tucker are each given opportunities to fill in the gaps. The lead-guitar and drum breaks suggest a band adept at jamming within a song's structure.

I'm guessing the band's CD-release party on Saturday at the Redstone Room will be a good time, as its music goes down easily and has the benefit of familiarity. If you've heard reggae, you'll have plenty of reference points. Most importantly, the band works it right on stage, and "Payment" shows what they're capable of.

But the album itself suffers from a lack of imagination.

Images by photographer Chris Jones from Wednesday's Motley Crue show at the i wireless Center. Also on the bill were Theory of a Deadman, The Last Vegas, and Hinder. Click on any photo for a larger version.

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deer-tick.jpgIf you listen to the three bands on a Daytrotter.com bill at RIBCO next week, the impression their recordings leave might mislead you.

Headliner Deer Tick released War Elephant in 2007, and it's mostly a shit-kicker. But leader John McCauley said last week: "I'm certainly not a cowboy." And: "I was so sick of being called alt-country."

So he promises that Deer Tick's forthcoming album - due out this summer - will be more of a rock-and-roll affair. One can certainly imagine McCauley rockin' out, but it's hard to imagine him with less twang.

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Magna Carta Records has just released a snarling six-string shredfest specially designed for metalheads in need of a blazing beat-down. Guitars That Ate My Brain is a dozen ax-grinding instrumentals that signify the state of the metal arts with a devil-horns salute. The who's who of squeal merchants include Guns N' Roses' Bumblefoot, Testament's James Murphy, Daath's Eyal Levi and Emil Werstler, Korn's Shane Gibson, and Strapping Young Lad's Devin Townsend.

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The Flight of the Conchords should look over their shoulders, as the comedy-music department gets some stiff competition next week from Saturday Night Live's Andy Samberg and staff writers Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone, calling themselves The Lonely Island. Their new CD, Incredibad on the Universal Republic imprint, features the smash Saturday Night Live hits "Lazy Sunday" and "Jizz in My Pants," plus new songs with guests Jack Black, Julian Casablancas of The Strokes, T-Pain, E-40, and Norah Jones. The cover spoofs the film E.T., and the CD adds a bonus DVD with eight of the group's videos, including the new singles "Just 2 Guys" and "We Like Sportz," and the YouTube sensation "Dick in a Box" with Justin Timberlake.

kaisercartel.jpgThe influences of the Brooklyn-based duo KaiserCartel include punk rock on the "his" side and The Cure and My Bloody Valentine on the "her" side.

But good luck finding much evidence in the sound of the group, which is playing at RIBCO on Thursday in a Daytrotter.com show. The band's music is largely acoustic pop, and Courtney Kaiser's voice has a character like Aimee Mann's but without the flat disillusionment. Whistles and xylophones add sunshine to some tracks, but there's also a magnetic sadness in many.

Kaiser and Benjamin Cartel - both of whom sing and play multiple instruments - insist that the influences can be heard, and their comments reflect a wise understanding of the efficiency and directness of their own songs.

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