It's the weekend in Warsaw, so let's get going. If I weren't already booked -- two nights of the fall play, where Blinq Spawn B tries on his Irish accent -- I'd be thinking about seeing a couple merged acts with promise.
Like Spencer Dickinson tonight at the TLA.
This is a hybrid band, Jon Spencer (minus his Blues Explosion) and hill-country brothers Luther and Cody Dickinson, stepping away from the North Mississippi All-Stars to support an album that was long a rarity -- a 2001, Japan-only production that was released here in August by Yep Rock Records with seven extra tracks. What happens when you mix New York City and Mississippi blues? Nick Cristiano calls it "a slab of primitive, ultra-greasy rock-and-roll tinged with blues and swamp-soul, and more than a little backwoods hoodoo." You can download "That's a Drag" here.
Saturday brings another alternative pairing - guitarist John Scofield joins John Medeski, Billy Martin and Chris Wood for a jazz-funk-groove jam at the Electric Factory. Yes, the name might suggest a law firm now - Medeski, Scofield, Martin and Wood - but a listen to their music at their MySpace page shows the jazz guitarist sounds like he belongs. That page also reminds how this is not a new meeting of chops - the four played together on Scofield's 1998 A Go Go. You can stream four songs from the new CD here. Or acquire some here.
Of course, Steve Wynn's back in town - his fourth appearance this year - playing the World Cafe Live Friday. The former Dream Syndicate front man delivered a solo set this summer in Santa Monica, from which this was culled: "Tell Me When It's Over."
