East Nashville’s quarterly underground music festival is getting bigger with each season and the summer lineup has been announced. Beginning August 17th and running through the weekend, East Nashville Underground will feature performances from 18 bands, including The Joy Of Painting, Chancellor Warhol, and Sam Lewis, as well as Oh No No‘s farewell show.

Wristbands are $12 per night or $20 for the weekend and cover your beer tab for the duration of your night/weekend. The festival was recently sponsored by Fat Bottom Brewing, which means you can consume a lot of good beer (and a lot of good music) on a PBR budget.

All other details about the event can be found here. RIP, Oh No No. –Brianne Turner

Photo credit: Sandy Kim

Genre-chameleon Mikky Ekko has taken to Soundcloud to premiere his newest track, "We Must Be Killers." After spending some time off the grid, Ekko released his most-recent track to his fans online, just hours before debuting it for the rest of the world on MTV’s Teen Wolf.

Ekko has announced that he is currently doing some recording, but there is still no word on the possibility or progress of a new album. In the meantime, you can hear his casually haunting track, "We Must Be Killers" here:

Taking advantage of Nashville’s recent break from the unbearable heat, Blood:Water Mission are hitting The Well in Green Hills to celebrate the Ride:Well team as they make their way through the charity’s hometown during their cross-country trip to raise awareness and money for the AIDS/HIV and water crises in Africa.

Featuring music by Matthew Perryman Jones and Derek Webb, the free block party begins at 5 pm and will provide food from the Puckett’s Trolley and Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream. For more information on the event, visit their Facebook page.

Fireworks Over London originated in Memphis when lead singer Daniel Kenney and lead guitarist Travis Passons began playing music together, but the band was fully formed here in Nashville when drummer Peter Teselsky and bassist Lloyd Aur Norman joined the lineup two years ago. Fusing together a multitude of rock styles from all corners of the genre map, the Fireworks Over London collective maintain a sonic familiarity without becoming derivative, creating a sound much bigger than their four-man lineup would imply.

After spending their early years learning the ropes and playing the game, the members of Fireworks Over London decided to refocus their efforts and concentrate primarily on making music. "Our goal is to enjoy what we do. In our early 20s, we were each in different bands, working with well-known producers, trying to shop to labels and live up to others perception of success. It’s an easy trap to fall into and quickly becomes draining. Now we just focus on writing good music and enjoying the process of creating and performing. We try to be as self-reliant as we can and work at our own pace," says Aur Norman.

Sticking to the DIY approach, Fireworks Over London recorded and released their EP, Embers To Ashes, this year, via their independent studio, Villian Place. Following their 2010 full-length release, A Message, the band summarized what to expect from their most-recent release, via Twitter: "New record Embers to Ashes Subject matter: murderers, whores, natural satellites, and whores who murder. What else could you ask for?" — Brianne Turner

Roses by Fireworks Over London

Peter Terry & the City Profits have been together for only a year, but their sound implies the compatibility of a band that has been together for a decade. With a knack for smart lyrics, graceful melodies, and an effective appreciation of how much elegance a cello can add to a PG-13 lyric, every member serves a function that unifies Peter Terry and his City Profits as a band carving out their own musical niche.

Originally from Indiana, the four-piece recorded their debut album, I Am Jackson., in Bloomington and released it independently late last year. Intended originally to be a five-track EP, the album grew from an idea to an 11-track introduction to the music scene and has effectively introduced the band as one of the newest additions the Music City circuit.

While describing his collective as a "young band," Peter Terry admitted plainly, "We don’t know what we need or what we want… but we know what our sound is." From tracks like "Parker," "Elisabeth Shue," and "Piece Of Art," the band show that they are not afraid of versatility. Though unsure of what they need or want, Peter Terry & the City Profits’ commitment to their music is unwavering and bound together by the band’s humble confidence in their talent and an allegiance to showing you just how much rock a cello can add to even the sweetest love song.

Premiered on July 4th, Peter Terry & the City Profits also proved their allegiance to America and facial hair in their new video for "The Lawyer." — Brianne Turner

Three dudes wearing silver masks with sleeveless black hoodies, effeminate by a rad and sexy post screamo, blonde bombshell demon-chick – Nashville’s Five Knives have an erotic aesthetic that fuses industrial power chords, hip hop undertones and a chemical pool of synthetic low fi swagger, upstaging the Yeasayer show downstairs. Many ticket buyers left Yeasayer sluggish midway into their set, filling the outdoor smoking porch to the brim and many eventually ditched, catching the second half of the raging Five Knives set upstairs in the newly renovated High Watt or meandering toward the Johnny Cash cover band Cash’d Out in Mercy. Birthday boy and High Watt manager, Brandon Jazz, struggled at the start of his performance earlier in the night and even dodged a cup of ice or two before Cherub‘s Jason Huber, who was also celebrating a birthday, joined him for a version of “In the Air Tonight” that miraculously brought the crowd in. After waiting around expecting one of the Yeasayer guys to step up to the DJ booth for a set upstairs, most of the crowd had grown tired of the night’s attempts at shock value. The only thing not shocking about everything was Yeasayer, who have barely been able to re-master the energy of the tours following their 2007 SXSW breakout performance. – Dh Wright

Citone Photography

Leaning back in a pair of shaded wooden chairs outside the press tent at the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Manchester, Tenn, guitarist Jake Cinninger and bassist Ryan Stasik of Umphrey’s McGee relax before the band’s late night set that would start around 2 am and last till 6 am. In 2002, to promote their first studio recording, Local Band Does OK, the band signed up to play Bonnaroo. Since then, they have returned off and on again for seven out of the festival’s 11 years. “Festivals are a great way to connect with fans, especially Bonnaroo,” Stasik says. For the first time ever, Umphrey’s will be playing the Ryman Auditorium on September 21.

Umphrey’s have been the band leaders of a festival circuit that have always thrived on eclectic acts uniting to share music and entertainment. When the music industry went digital, bands like Umphrey’s accepted this newfound volatility with a focus to define themselves as a live band. To them, value is in the performance.

With services such as iTunes, Spotify and Grooveshark offering streaming options for free music, Umphrey’s are relying on their live performance to gain audiences over new listeners.“For us, coming to these festivals is a great chance to put yourself in front of an audience that may not have been able to see you otherwise,” Cinninger says.
Using social media applications, the band has begun to interact with fans right up to the moment of a performance. They receive advice about songs, solos and lighting effects from fans, with the most voted on ideas put into the show.

Check out the band’s website for more information about tickets to the Ryman show and get details about how you can contribute to the next Umphrey’s McGee performance. – Dh Wright

Great news to all fans of the Nashville duet: There’s not long left to wait before the release of JEFF the Brotherhood‘s new material, and to tease us a touch more, they’ve just revealed the upcoming album’s cover art. Cool, right? Out on the 17th of July, this most anticipated seventh record, Hypnotic Nights, explores further the psychedelic edge of The Brotherhood’s sound, although rest assured, it is as catchy, alive, and fuzzy as ever before– maybe more summer-adequate even– so y’all can get ready to rock out! Meanwhile, after a series of shows with L.A.’s Best Coast, the band are back on the roads again for a headlining tour, with over 20 dates across the U.S.

Now, to the slightly more impatient ones always waiting for something to leak over the web, here’s something for you (and the hint is right there in the title): Three of the four tracks featured on the Hypnotic Knights EP will figure on the forthcoming album of the same name… and there’s your teaser number two! — Tracy Mamoun

Giving us a rare excuse to tune into Lifetime on a Sunday night, singer-songwriter-producer Andy Davis will be making his television acting debut as (yep) an independent musician on the original network series, Drop Dead Diva, where he will perform a cover of the blue-eyed soul classic, "Unchained Melody."

Well known for his self-shot and cleverly-edited YouTube videos, Davis is no stranger to spending time in front of the camera– but, as an added perk, he will be live tweeting the show as it airs. (Kim Kardashian also guest stars in this particular episode but don’t let that deter you.)

Andy premiered his acoustic rendition of "Unchained Melody" to commemorate the occasion and it might just be lovely enough to make you watch this show. However, if you can’t catch his debut as an actor, Andy Davis will also be performing live at 12th and Porter on June 30th. —Brianne Turner

Known primarily for the creative charm of their music videos and the energy and sweat that emanates from their live shows, Heypenny have teamed up with Love Drunk to combine both of their most outstanding elements in a live performance music video of "You Shine," from their album A Jillion Kicks.

Representing Nashville in Hear Nebraska‘s scavenger hunt for the East Coast’s best bands, the four piece dance, sing, and clap their way through the performance amongst a barrage of Chinese lanterns and exposed electrical wiring, proving that Heypenny can not only play a great show anywhere but that they can also create a charming aesthetic in even the oddest environment.

For more on Heypenny’s involvement with the Hear Nebraska project, visit the blog. — Brianne Turner

Shooter Jennings’ new video for “The Real Me,” off Family Man, features Deli favorites JD and Jessica Wilkes from Nashville/Paducah, KY’s The Dirt Daubers. Watch JD as an emphatic preacher man alongside Jennings. Directed by Blake Judd.

Tonight at the Mercy Lounge, the lineup is stacked high with Tennessee talent, featuring set lists from Eastern Block, The Gills, The Future, and Josh Foster. For some inexplicable reason, this show is free of charge, which makes it very easy to come out and show your support for some of your local talent. The show starts at 9 pm "sharp," which could also mean "9:30… ish" on a venue’s watch, but show up early just in case.