Red Anthem at Hyperlink Café
With the loss of natural habitats such as Nanci Raygun for the musical animal to roam, bands like Red Anthem have evolved to survive. For starters, the band has grown a fifth member, a keyboardist, and sprouted nine new songs to add to the repertoire of densely layered melodies and bass-powered indie rock. Red Anthem has also settled into the Hyperlink Café for a monthly show, the last Wednesday of the month, when it will be importing bands from other habitats such as Charlottesville and New York. The first show is Oct. 25 at 10 p.m. $3-$5. 254-1942.
Ruthie and the Wranglers at Shenanigans
What they wrangle, it seems, is musical styles, sweeping across the fields of Americana and scooping up old-fashioned country of the Loretta Lynn variety, rolling surf rock, maybe even polka. It’s tied together sweetly by Ruthie’s voice, alternately heartbroken and flirtatious, straightforward and sarcastic. Ruthie brings her good Americana values to Shenanigans Saturday, Oct. 28, at 8:30 p.m. 264-5010.
Standards and Practices at Commercial Taphouse
Scott Burton, like the music he makes, is nonstop. He’s been performing improvisational jazz with the large-scale Patchwork Collective and as one-half of the genre-friendly Standards and Practices, which belts out math rock, jazz, swing music and, just in time for the holidays, songs from scary movies like “Rosemary’s Baby.” They play with the River City String Quartet, led by David Chamberlain and his versatile laptop, Sunday, Oct. 29, 9 p.m.-midnight. Free. 359-6544.
Old Crow Medicine Show at Canal Club
It’s tough business dragging bluegrass into the future, and many of the banjo-banging revivalists set their sights on fusing the yore with the now. O.C.M.S. is one of these, and a popular one, given the amount of friends on their MySpace page (a place bluegrass never thought it was heading, probably). Now the quintet is making the rounds with its second album, “Big Iron World,” another step into the future of jug bands. The band plays Friday, Oct. 27, at 9 p.m. $20-$22. 643-2582. S