Photo by Marco Torres

Jeezy at Arena Theatre, August 2010

Jeezy
Arena Theatre, May 17

A self-proclaimed hustler on the mike, the Atlanta rapper known as Young Jeezy has grown up quite a bit since his 2001 debut album dropped under the name Lil J. Rising through the ranks via his several independently released Dirty South mixtapes, he's now sittin' pretty under the umbrella of industry giant Def Jam, working alongside 2 Chainz, Lil Wayne, and Ne-Yo, and even earning a Best Rap Performance Grammy nod for 2012's "I Do."

Jeezy has stayed true to that Southern hip-hop sound, though, and still reps his membership status in the United Streets Dopeboyz of America while using producers like The Renegades and Warren G on more recent mixtapes. ANGELICA LEICHT

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Maybe it all comes down to being in the right place at the right time. Maybe luck has something to do with it. Or maybe it's crafting a vintage-era sound with odes of talent that landed Hacienda a lottery ticket to musical gold.

It's no secret that The Black Keys likes to take on extra projects, and singer/guitarist Dan Auerbach is known for plucking bands right off the streets -- just ask Jessica Lea Mayfield, Radio Moscow or the Buffalo Killers.

As luck would have it, a night at Emo's in Austin would forever change the lives of Hacienda brothers Rene (guitar), Abraham (keys) and Jaime (drums) Villanueva, who have become Auerbach's biggest lovefest to date.

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Photo by Paul Elledge

Smashing Pumpkins 2013 (L-R): Nicole Fiorentino, Billy Corgan, Matt Byrne, Jeff Schroeder

Free Radicals
Avant Garden, May 13

Free Radicals is both Nick Cooper's revolving-door ensemble that at any given moment could be playing free jazz or Latin funk, and also Cooper's ongoing testimonial to how much he digs being a member of the Houston music community. He has so much experience at this point that he has very much become a one-man hub of that community.

Last year Cooper brought that same kind of musical civic pride to the Radicals' first album in several years, The Freedom Fence, and then in July watched it win a well-deserved Houston Press Music Award for Local Album of the Year; just while we're thinking about it, don't forget to nominate your favorites in this year's HPMAs right over here.

Free Rads' weekly jam, wherever it may be, is a true local-music institution. These days it happens to be at AvantGarden, a local-music institution of its own, and follows David Dove's They, Who Sound showcase -- still another. CHRIS GRAY

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Will Downing
Bayou Music Center, May 10

Known for his rich baritone vocals and an unabashed devotion to romantic ballads, Will Downing may be the quintessential ladies man, so keep a close eye on your woman as he croons a blend of contemporary jazz and R&B that would make even Luther blush.

With a catalog of smooth tunes that stretches way back to the 1980s, the Brooklyn-based Downing has been steadily hovering on the cusp of mainstream acclaim, dropping sophisticated soul albums and gracing us with some pretty decent covers, including a wicked version of John Coltrane's "A Love Supreme." With Gerald Albright. ANGELICA LEICHT

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Photo by Thomas Petillo

Tom Keifer plays his first non-Cinderella show ever in Houston this Friday, tomorrow, at Concert Pub North on F.M. 1960. Mostly he'll play songs from his first-ever solo album, The Way Life Goes, but he'll let it get loud too, playing Cinderella songs and even a segment of what he calls "storyteller stuff."

Cinderella shows are so high-energy, it could be amazing to see him possibly sitting, possibly with an acoustic guitar, discussing the meanings or the origins of his songs.

When Cinderella's activity slowed in the mid-'90s, Keifer moved to Nashville, intending to pursue a songwriting career and record a solo record. You'll remember that at the time, '80s bands tended to get all lumped together and although Cinderella had little in common with the worst of the overblown "hair bands," their career seemed to be at a low ebb.

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Photo by Seven Fields of Aphelion

Imagine my surprise when, last fall, at a late-night gig after Fun Fun Fun Fest in Austin, I discovered that the falsetto-voiced singer of a new favorite band, Black Moth Super Rainbow, was a male, not a female.

To be fair, Thomas Fec (who also goes by the moniker "Tobacco"), the band's brainchild, sings through a vocoder, which means half the time he doesn't even sound human. This gives BMSR a weirdly lo-fi psychedelic space vibe, which you'll be able to experience for yourself at Fitzgerald's May 29.

BMSR is touring in support of the band's fifth EP, Cobra Juicy, an album that almost wasn't made. A few years ago, Fec was approached to do a remix of a female singer's album. He won't name the singer, only to say he'd never heard of her before.

"I didn't want to make music at the time," he says. "I wanted to take a few years off."

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Courtesy photo

"Hey, Look at me, I'm a big old hippie, and I take mushrooms and used to be in the Fleet Foxes, blah, blah, blah." - Father John Misty

Josh Tillman has always been a man some might describe as a malcontent, but he wasn't always so damn dangerous. He first busted onto the scene in 2005 with a slew of hand-recorded demos sliding easily into the role of most-tortured folksinger, but he gained national recognition with a stint as drummer for Fleet Foxes.

Last year saw another reinvention of the reverend when Tillman shed his birth-given moniker to reemerge as Father John Misty, philosophizing badass.

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Photo by Torey Mundkowsky

The Killers' Brandon Flowers at then-Verizon Wireless Theater in 2009

UPDATE (Monday, 5:20 p.m.): Due to a flat-out mistake, we thought the Collie Buddz show at House of Blues was May 6. It was actually Sunday, May 5. Rocks Off regrets the error.

Collie Buddz
House of Blues (Bronze Peacock Room), May 6

Just when the week is getting started, here comes the "Light It Up" tour to slow it down to a mellow Caribbean groove; you know what that means. Headlining over Cris Cab and New Kingston, Bermuda-raised Collie Buddz already has a solid Houston connection. One of the first things this "singjay" did upon his 2007 arrival was appear on a remix of Beyonce's "Ring the Alarm" and another cameo on Lil Flip's I Need Mine album.

The pungent aroma of Soca, dancehall and hip-hop on his self-titled album that year made Buddz one of the brightest young names in reggae, where he has remained through a succession of singles, EPs and cameos such as SOJA's "She Still Loves Me" and Snoop Lion's "Smoke the Weed." Another album is due soon, and he may be previewing it on this tour. Come to think of it, Rocks Off just so happens to have three pairs of CB tickets to give away for the first people (who can attend) to email music at houstonpress dot com by 2 p.m. today. CHRIS GRAY

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Photos courtesy of Big Hassle Media

Mikel Jollett understands what it's like to have a no-good, very bad week.

As the front man for L.A.'s The Airborne Toxic Event, he's known for his serious-man's lyrics and moody, oft-brooding subject matter. The heaviness of his lyrics have roots in reality, though.

In his former life, Jollett was a writer and novelist, taking the leap into musical mastermind only after a series of life fuck-yous hit him one after the other. From learning of his mom's cancer diagnosis to facing his own health crisis in the same week -- a diagnosis of an immune disorder that sparked a struggle with alopecia and vitiligo, coupled with the demise of a relationship -- Jollett found himself facing one struggle after another, and feeling totally alone during the process.

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Photo by Autumn DeWilde

The Airborne Toxic Event
House of Blues, April 29

What happens when you layer dynamic, symphonic arrangements, painfully guttural vocals, and a wicked viola player? You wind up with The Airborne Toxic Event, the L.A.-bred indie-rock band known for its rich, lyrically moody folk-rock. Driven by novelist-turned-front man Mikel Jollett's prose, Airborne touches on the serious side of life with nods to empty relationships, world turmoil, and everything in between.

Think of them as a solemn man's rock band, and ATE's music as a cathartic purge of the deep emotions that spring from facing life's adversity. ANGELICA LEICHT

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