Friday

• Buddy Guy w/ Ann Rabson. The Birchmere. $69.50
• The Shirks, the Ladies, Maybe Baby, Social Problems, Electrocutions, Young and High. The Velvet Lounge. $10. +21
• Jason Aldean w/ David Nail. Merriweather Post Pavilion. $30-$45.
• Altar of Plagues, Castevet, Velnias. Black Cat. $10. All ages.
• Bomba Estereo w/ King Chango, Natalia Cavlier. Rock and Roll Hotel. $20. All ages.
• Shankar Ehsaan Loy, Shafqat Amanat Ali. DAR Constitution Hall. $37-$127.
• Thriving Ivory w/ Ponderosa. IOTA Club & Cafe. $15. +21.
• Watermelon w/ Kenton Dunson, Alex Tebeleff. The Red and The Black. $8. +21
• Carolyn Malachi w/ DJ Heat, Taratibu Youth Association, Pinstriped Rebel. U Street Music Hall. $10-$35. +18
• Washington International Piano Festival. Kennedy Center Millennium Stage. Free.
• National Symphony Orchestra: Distant Worlds. Wolf Trap. $20-$52
• Michael Schenker Group, Lynch Mob w/ Baby Jayne, 15 Minutes, Kat Atomic. Jaxx. $30. +21
• Mudlark, Tall Richard. Bangkok Blues. Call for Price.

Saturday

• Diamond District w/ the Cornel West Theory, Damu the FudgeMunk, DTMD. Black Cat. $12. All ages.
• John Mayer. Jiffy Lube Live. $36-$79.50
• Paramore w/ Tegan and Sara, New Found Glory, Kadawatha. Merriweather Post Pavilion. $21-$36.
• Stella Mira, Blackbells, Fight the Lion, the Wicked Tomorrow. Rock and Roll Hotel. $10. All ages.
• The Shirks, the Ladies, Maybe Baby, Social Problems, Electrocutions, Young and High. The Velvet Lounge. $10. +21
• King Giant w/ Throwdown Syndicate, Above the Silence. 9:30 Club. $10. All ages.
• Pants Velour w/ Cayan, Belikos. DC9. $8. +18
• The U-Liners. IOTA Club & Cafe. $15. +21.
• Asylum Street Spankers. Jammin Java. $17. All ages.
• The Chuck Shaffer Picture Show w/ Conditions, Madrone. Jammin Java. $10. All ages.
• 1964: the Tribute. The Birchmere. $35
• Curbside Manner w/ Cesspool, the Honey Guns, the Weather Vanes. The Red and The Black. $8. +21
• National Symphony Orchestra: The Planets in HD! Wolf Trap. $20-$52
• Living Colour w/ Switched at Birth, One Slack Mind, From the Ashes of My Sins, Hubbub, Amethyst Heart. Jaxx. $28. +21
• One Nation, Clarence Buffalo. Bangkok Blues. Call for Price.

Sunday

• Outlaw Jam- Bad Company, Candlebox, Blue Oyster Cult. Frederick County Fairgrounds. $37.75-$198.75.
• Greta Morgan w/ Tennis System, Matthew Hemmerlein, DJ KnowBox. U Street Music Hall. $20. +18
• Lights. Jammin Java. $20. All ages.
• Brooks & Dunn w/ Gary Allan. Jiffy Lube Live. $25-$69.25
• Power Pirate w/ the Neon Rush, Ivy Rose. DC9. $8. All ages.
• Andrius Mamontovas. Black Cat. $30. All ages.
• WPAS Children of the Gospel Choir. Kennedy Center Millennium Stage. Free
• As Blood Runs Black, Oceano, Arsonists Get All the Girls, The Tony Danza Tap Dance Extravaganza, Thick As Blood, Burning the Masses, Circle of Contempt, Blind Witness, This or the Apocalypse. Jaxx. $14. All ages.

The Shirks photo via Myspace

This is the question Mike Conklin asks at L Magazine:

Right around the mid-80s, or 25 years ago, or the exact amount of time that needs to have passed since a band's debut in order for them to be eligible for induction, when hair-metal came along and ruined everything, it simply became cooler for rock bands to exist below the radar of the mainstream. With the exceptions of a period of a few years in the early 90s, with Pearl Jam and Nirvana, and then again a decade later with the White Stripes and Radiohead, all the best rock bands have been, for lack of a better term, indie rock bands.

Are the Replacements going to be inducted? Sonic Youth? Husker Du? Joy Division? The Go Betweens? Pavement? Guided By Voices? If they're not, it's bullshit: for people who actually still really, truly care about rock and roll, these are the bands that have carried on in the tradition the Hall of Fame has always held dear. But if they are inducted, the Hall of Fame will surely lose the massive cultural appeal it so obviously strives for, considering barely any of those bands have sold as many copies of all their records put together as most current inductees have of even their least successful record.

While a good question on its face, a little historical digging says we can prolong answering this one for a while yet.

Conklin points out that the induction nominees for next year include "LL Cool J, along with ABBA and Donna Summer," none of whom (perhaps excepting ABBA) fit even the broadest definition of Rock and Roll.

Besides the fact that we haven't run out of mainstream rock acts to induct (Black Sabbath and Lynyrd Skynyrd didn't make it in until 2006. Buddy Guy and Leonard Cohen? 2005 and 2008, respectively), the admission of non-rock and rollers is not new: Isaac Hayes and Chet Atkins were inducted in 2002; Curtis Mayfield in 1999; Gladys Knight and the Pips in 1996; Bob Marley in 1994; The Four Tops in 1990. Sam Cooke in 1986.

Per Conklin's observation, many of those bands existed as alternatives to rock and roll. But existing outside the system? That's rock and roll in nature, if not in expression.

Perhaps Jann Wenner could be convinced to go in for "The American Music Hall of Fame"; that would certainly preserve the institution's broad appeal and more accurately reflect its curatorial instincts. But really, it's been inducting whoever and whatever it wanted for as long as its been around. Why sweat it?

At this rate, we won't have to worry about Husker Du for another two decades, at least.

Elvis Presley: live at Madison Square Garden, taken on June 11, 1972.
Photo credit: Copyright George Kalinsky, taken from the exhibition Live From Madison Square Garden: From the Lens of George Kalinsky. Courtesy of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

As approximately 62 of you know, I've been spinning a Friday Soul mix via the old Twitter account. Man is it groovy! I'm even linking to videos. The playlist so far:

1. Otis Redding, "Shake" (live at Monterey Pop, 1967)
2. Raphael Saadiq, "Let's Take a Walk"
3. Laura Nyro, "And When I Die"
4. James Brown, "Super Bad"
5. Buddy Guy, "Feels Like Rain"
6. Mofro, "Ho Cake"
7. James Cotton, Muddy Waters, Johnny Winter, "Got My Mojo Workin'" (hey, we're branching out)
8. The Impressions, "Long Long Winter"
9. Rod Stewart, "(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher"
10. Bettye LaVette, "You Don't Know Me At All"
11. Van Morrison, "I've Been Working"
12. Curtis Mayfield, "People Get Ready" (some live version from, I think, 1974)

Eclectic, see, yet accessible. But it ain't over 'til the fat lady sings! (No Aretha jokes, if ye please.) Just point the browser of your choice in this direction, make like a lemming, and follow along. Suggestions are appreciated. As are witty remarks concerning my inclusion of Rod Stewart...or the fact that a number of these tracks don't necessarily qualify as soul.

Below the jump: the remainder of the mix, updated incrementally.

13. JJ Grey, "The Sun Is Shining Down"
14. Al Green, "Get Back" (yep, that one)
15. The Acoustics, "I'm Gonna Stay In A Hurry"
16. Jackie Wilson & Count Basie, "In the Midnight Hour"
17. Sam Cooke, "Somebody Have Mercy" (live at the Harlem Square Club, 1963)

Photo by niecieden, Creative Commons attribution license