Thursday June 11th offers a ton of choices for live music fans at night, and a  fascinating lunchtime event as well.  I will start with the latter. John Cohen, a founder of the old-timey string band The New Lost City Ramblers, an early photographer of Bob Dylan and others, and a producer of unique rural American folk and blues singers, will be speaking from noon to 1 at the Mary Pickford Theater on the 3rd Floor of the Library of Congress’ James Madison Building on Independence Avenue SE between 1st and 2nd Streets.  His presentation is billed “The High Lonesome Sound Revisited: Documenting Traditional Culture in America.”   “The High Lonesome Sound” is Cohen’s 1963 documentary film that offers the songs of Appalachian miners, farmers, and churchgoers. The flick also spotlighted banjo picker Roscoe Holcomb. 

Thursday night’s show choices include:

Mika Miko and the Strange Boys (punk rock and garage rock) at Comet Ping Pong, Connecticut Avenue NW

BLK JKS (Johannesburg, South African black rock w/ dub, mbqanqa, prog, and Hendrix influences) at the Black Cat.

Gil-Scott Heron at Blues Alley (through the 14th)

Dave Brubeck at the Warner

The Avett Brothers at Lisner

Sir Richard Bishop and His Freak of Araby Ensemble (Sun City Girls guitarist goes acoustic) at The Talking Head in Baltimore, 407 E. Saratoga St., Baltimore
410-207-8011 all ages $10

Elvis Costello & country-bluegrass band at Wolf Trap

Closing night of Jewish Music Fest with Israeli-born Miri Ben Ari, the hiphop violinist at 8 pm followed by the closing party, all at the Aaron & Cecile Goldman Theater,
16th Street JCC

DJ Lee Burridge at the Electric Cabaret at the Muse Lounge

Dillinger Escape Plan at the Rock n Roll Hotel

AA Bondy and Holly Miranda at Iota

Plus sold-out shows with Jenny Lewis at the 930 and Taylor Swift at Merriweather Post.

Bob Dylan: "Beyond Here Lies Nothin'"
Leave it to Bob Dylan to make dad-rock feel post-apocalyptic. There’s not that much to the song—just your typical blooze jam with a little bit of accordion dropped in for flavor—but Dylan’s gravelly and cryptic lyrics about emptiness, love, and “boulevards of broken cars” elevate the song beyond the level of Law & Order-outro music. This song’s totally good enough for a montage-scene on the Wire.

Marylin Manson: "We're From America"
Marilyn Manson has been trying to stir controversy with good old Wal-Mart-shopping heartland Americans for so long that even the most devoutly conservative God-mongering ideologues must be bored by his antics by now. “We’re From America” probably won’t do much to get them excited again, despite its aggro industrial-rock riffs and controversy-baiting lyrics. “We don’t like to kill our unborn/We need them to grow up and fight our wars,” wails Manson. Somewhere, Billy Graham is flipping his wrist and saying, “Shit, that guy again? Whatever.”

Mika Miko: "I Got a Lot"
Give Mika Miko some credit for inverting the traditional rock-n-roll career trajectory. The Los Angeles-based punk quintet has just gotten sloppier and more chaotic in the two years that have passed since the band’s debut album, C.Y.S.L.A.B.F., came out. At least that’s the case on “I Got a Lot”, with its barely intelligible vocals and Misfits-via-Erase Errata guitars. Their full-length, We Be Xuxa, comes out in May.

Wolfmother: "Back 'Round"
Bassist Chris Ross and drummer Myles Heskett split from Australian power-trio Wolfmother sometime last year, leaving guitarist Andrew Stockdale the sole remaining original member of the band. But Stockdale wouldn’t let the departure of the entire rhythm section get him down—apparently he just grabbed the next batch of road-worthy longhairs and got back to business as usual. “Back ‘Round”, with its regal guitar-monies and Ozzy-style falsetto vocals, proves that Wolfmother, whatever or whoever that might be, still has some retro-rock mojo left. —Aaron Leitko