Country, rock hip-hop coming Wednesday
Southern-fried hip-hop rockers Rehab are bringing "The Guillible's Travels 2012 Tour" to The Rock on Wednesday.
And tagging along for the ride is the California country hip-hop duo of Moonshine Bandits.
Doors to the show, also featuring CB Project, Contraband and Foreign Tongues Cult - open at 6:30 p.m.
Rehab - the trio of rapper Danny Boone, vocalist Demun Jones and DJ Chris Crisis - comes here on the heels of releasing "Gullible's Travels," which includes the peppy new single "Waho by the Hoti." The album, according to video blogs by Jones, has a rockier edge than past Rehab efforts. But it still clings to the group's hip-hop ethos, including on the just released single "King of Tweekers," a raw lament about abusing alcohol and meth.
The tatted, linebacker-sized country hip-hop duo of Moonshine Bandits is touring on its 2011 album "Whiskey & Women." The album flirts equally with urban hip-hop and neo-trad country. The pair score country cred with their plethora of odes to drinking and smoking - best summed up in "Fire It Up" featuring Kottonmouth Kings frontman Daddy X and "Whiskey and Cigarettes." Rehab's Danny Boone is featured on the cut "Moonshine On Me." Don't be surprised if Boone joins them on stage for the song.
Tickets for Wednesday's show at the Rock, 136 N. Park Ave., are $15 in advance at www.ticketmaster.com or Bookmans; or at the door. Details: rocktucson.com
Magness brings CD release gig to Tucson
There are few blues singers whose lives lend themselves so richly to the genre than celebrated singer Janiva Magness.
She needs look no further than her troubled past to summon up the emotions of being done wrong, being left abandoned in the cold and searching for a life that somehow passed her by.
Her life reads like the world's most harshly honest blues song - orphaned as a child after her parents both committed suicide, bounced around foster homes, homeless, pregnant as a teen and on her own.
Magness once told the Christian Science Monitor that "it was as if the music chose me. I didn't understand it really in the beginning."
Surely she understands it better now, nearly four decades into a career that has been celebrated with 17 Blues Music Award nominations including the 2012 Contemporary Blues Female Artist of the Year.
The Los Angeles-based Magness, who has played a Tucson show nearly yearly since the turn of this century, will celebrate the release of her latest CD "Stronger For It" with a Rhythm & Roots Suite 147 show at 8 p.m. Saturday. Tickets are $20 in advance through www.rhythmandroots.org or $23 at the door, 2970 N. Swan Road.
George Thorogood returns for Tucson gig
Last year, George Thorogood & The Destroyers paid homage to Chicago's legendary Chess Records with their 15th studio album "2120 South Michigan Ave."
The album - named for the studio's address as well as a Rolling Stones song of the same name - is Thorogood's interpretation of other Chess artists, including songs by Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon and Bo Diddley. He and the band, with their signature rapid-fire blues blasting, also turn in a commendable cover of the Stones' song.
You can hear them perform cuts from the album, released last summer, when they play Desert Diamond Casino's Diamond Entertainment Center on Sunday. The show starts at 7 p.m. and tickets, $20 to $50, are available from www.ticketmaster.com
Deadmeat tour pulls into Rialto Theatre
The heart-throbbing sounds of electro dubstep and dance music will pulsate through the Rialto Theatre tonight when remix-master producer Steve Aoki brings his Deadmeat Tour to Tucson.
Aoki teams up with Datsik, who is on Aoki's label Dim Mak. The show starts at 8 p.m. Tickets are $35 at the Rialto Box Office, 318 E. Congress St.
"Gossip Girl" star heads Congress triple bill
Taylor Momsen is best known for her role as Jenny Humphrey on The CW's "Gossip Girl," but on Friday she wants to introduce her musical side to Tucson.
Momsen, 18, brings her band The Pretty Reckless to Club Congress to head a bill that includes The Parlor Mob and The Hollywood Kills. It's a chance for fans of her acting to become fans of her singing, which the actress/model has been nurturing since she was 5 years old and recorded songs for the movie "How the Grinch Stole Christmas"; she played Cindy Lou Who is the 2000 film.
She and her band have been performing since 2009, including a tour last fall with Evanescence.
Friday's all-ages show starts at 6:30 p.m. at Club Congress, 311 E. Congress St. Tickets are $15 through www.hotelcongress.com/club or at the door.
Just announced
A pair of nationally renowned comics, an all-star rock outfit and a pair of classic rockers are heading to Casino del Sol's AVA.
• Comedian/late-night TV host Craig Ferguson arrives April 19. $30 to $55.
• Comedian/ex-late-night TV host George Lopez takes the stage April 28. $40 to $100.
• Upstart super rock band Chickenfoot - Van Halen exiles Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony, guitar impresario Joe Satriani and Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith - brings its "Different Devil Tour 2012" here May 31. $25 to $45.
• REO Speedwagon and Styx on May 4. No ticket information available.
Also coming soon to the AVA: Comedian Gabriel Iglesias on May 12. Tickets are $35-$75 through tickets.solcasinos.com
Tickets are available at tickets.solcasinos.com
And this just in …
• Rockers Jane's Addiction has added Tucson to the second leg of its "The Theatre of the Escapists" tour. It plays the Tucson Music Hall May 31. Ticket information has not been released yet.
Cathalena E. Burch
