Whether it’s a friend’s birthday, a bachelor party or just wanting to have a dudes’ night, Birmingham has a ton of ways to party with the guys. Here are a handful of ideas to help you make the most out of your guy’s night out.
Continue reading “Your guide to a guy’s night out in Birmingham”Vandoliers – American Alternative Country from Dallas TX
An alt-country band with punk roots, Vandoliers put a rough-edged spin on Texas music. It’s twang and tattoos, grit and guitars, honky-tonk and horns, Tejano and Telecasters. It’s Vandoliers.
Sylvia Rose Novak – Folk Rock / Americana from Birmingham AL
“A TINY WOMAN WITH A HUGE PRESENCE.”
Sylvia Rose Novak has been called “a musician in a class all her own”. Whether she’s fronting her band as her own bass player, producing her own albums, or improvising five-part fiddle arrangements, it’s hard to deny that Novak is not your average songwriter.
Alfred Banks is a Hip Hop / Rap artist from New Orleans LA
UnderDogCentral creator & emergent New Orleans rapper Alfred Banks has garnered acclaim from some of rap’s most esteemed publications. In addition to being named one of Complex’s 10 upcoming New Orleans MCs, Banks has been featured prominently on The Fader, HipHopDx, Okayplayer & on DJBooth’s list of Top Indie rappers from Louisiana. Having played at Voodoo Festival, Buku Festival, A3C Festival, and Austin’s SXSW, Banks has also made headway in Europe, Performing at the Reeperbahn Festival in Germany & starring in a Volkswagen ad campaign featuring his song “HomeComing”.In late 2016, BBC Russia interviewed Banks, extending his reach well beyond Europe. Most Recently, Alfred’s Song “UnderDogCentral” can be heard in the Netflix Movie “Burning Sands”, which was Executively Produced by Common.
Banks released his LP, The Beautiful. The Beautiful, Inspired by his brother’s struggle with mental illness and his eventual suicide, serves as his most successful to date with a Debut at #12 on iTunes’ “Rap/HipHop” Charts, #3 on Bandcamp’s “Rap” Charts & #79 on BillBoard’s “HeatSeeker” Charts. The album features a conceptual approach dealing with schizophrenia and the complexity of identity. The National Alliance of Mental Illness (NAMI) & UnMaskNola both took notice of Banks’s music and its focus on mental-health awareness, and partnered with him on promotional efforts for The Beautiful.
Touring has become the bread & butter for Banks, having opened multiple tours for Established artists including Tank & The Bangas, Bounce Rapper Big Freedia, NerdCore Artist MegaRan, Former XXL Magazine Freshman Mickey Factz. & Several Headlining Tours of his own. More Major press came Alfred’s way by being named one of the Top 10 Finalist in Vans’ “Share the Stage” Competition. With that, came features on The Fader, Consequence of Sound & Placements on the Soundclound/Spotify Playlists curated by Vans. All of these accomplishments culminated in Alfred winning the “Best Rap/Hiphop” Artist” Award at the 2018 OffBeat Magazine “Best of the Beat” Awards show in his hometown of New Orleans. With all of this happening, it seems the future looks bright for Alfred. The UnderDog is becoming the Top Dog.
Things slowed a bit over the holidays, but 2018’s Birmingham concert calendar will open with a bang on January 11 when St. Paul & the Broken Bones headline a sold out Concert for Children’s at Iron City. The weekend will remain packed with performances across the Magic City.
New franchises, basketball as you don’t get to see every day, Russian ballet, and lots of classes! Find out what’s going on in Birmingham in the second January event guide.
Continue reading “Birmingham’s weekly event guide: January 11-17”
The Magic City must sleep over the holidays, right? Nope. In fact, there may be more excuses to get away from your family this week than ever before. There’s tons to love about Alabama-made music this week; you’ll have several opportunities to support great original local music. And they’ll have a particularly hard time shutting the lights off at The Nick over the long holiday weekend.
As Thanksgiving approaches, it means homecoming. It’s homecoming for several of Birmingham’s own bands, and it’s homecoming for many that grew up in Birmingham and moved away. The former group will have opportunities to perform special shows at home and the latter will be looking for things to do on Wednesday night before stuffing themselves with turkey.
Both will be covered.
It’s also an incredible week for fans of singer-songwriters and Americana. It will be impossible for those fans to see it all on Saturday. Choose carefully.
There’s plenty of great live music to see in the Magic City this week. Get out to a rock show!
The next week in the Magic City is a lot of fun. There’s much to do that doesn’t happen very often; celebrations of local venues and artists that make Birmingham special. And most of these events are staggered so with the help of an Uber, you’ll have a jam-packed weekend. Better still? Many of the best shows to catch over the next week are free.
Continue reading “Who’s coming to town? October 26-November 1”
There’s much music to see in Birmingham this week, and much of it homegrown. As of now, there isn’t a sellout listed among these selections, so find the one that speaks to you and support your local venues, clubs and theaters.
[Photo: Sheer Mag]
This week is a big one at Birmingham music venues. Continue reading “Who’s coming to town? October 12-18, 2017.”
I found way too much to go out and experience this week! So I’ll use this opening paragraph to plug a short film in Sidewalk that I couldn’t write a whole article on (because it had next to no connections with Birmingham, not because it didn’t deserve a whole article): Pavels Gummenikovs’ “Just Go” feels like Baby Driver minus the Hollywood corporatization. Trust me, watch it! I should also probably mention the mayoral election happening today (not Wednesday!), make sure you vote there if you’re eligible.
This upcoming week promises lectures, movies, alcohol, and festivals! As always, there are more events on our dedicated event calendar, and any band name links should be assumed to involve auto-playing music, so be careful if you’re reading at work! Continue reading “Birmingham Top Things to do: July 26th through August 1st”
