Kate Nash

22-year-old Kate Nash makes the kind of music you’d expect to hear from a girl her age: fun, upbeat and refreshing girly-pop. Nash’s classically trained piano skills and earnest yet sharp lyrics with powerful vocals are a refreshing breath of air in today’s overproduced synth-pop music scene. Nash may have gotten married (to Ryan Jarman of The Cribs) and settled down since her debut release Made of Bricks, yet she proves on her sophomore release My Best Friend Is You that she’s still the same lovable, tongue-in-cheek songstress brat we first fell in love with. Reading like a high school girl’s diary, tracks such as the single “Do-Wah-Doo” seem to serve as an ironic and undeniably fun, dancey form of revenge towards childhood foes who have done her wrong. Counterparts Lily Allen and Amy Winehouse should take note: Kate Nash is British girl-pop done right. (Appearing with Supercute! at Lincoln Hall on May 3) –text: Jodi Root

Kate Nash, Ladyhawk, Neva Dinova, The Nightwatchman

KATE NASH
Don’t you just love it when the media decides who you should like? The “chosen one” of the moment is British songstress Kate Nash. See her, keyboard and all, as a bumper between “The Hills” and “The Real World” on MTV. Read all about her in Rolling Stone as one of the “artists to watch.” It’s tough to know whether Kate Nash is a press-propagated hype doll or the real deal. But, before we fall off the cliff into condescension and disbelief, dig this: she knows Billy Bragg. Nash is even set to release a single with the working class hero, so her hipster bona fides are intact. And, to top it all off, her rise was originally driven by four songs posted on a simple MySpace page. All in all, it should be safe for the cool kids to like Kate Nash…at least until “Grey’s Anatomy” comes calling. (Appearing at the Vic on May 2) –text: Tim Slowikowski

LADYHAWK
Ladyhawk is one of those strange, classic-rock sounding indie bands that combine the stinging croon of a drunkenly-go-it-alone lead singer (Duffy Driediger) with the haunting force of Southern rock to blend new lyrics with old sounds — creating somewhat of a classic-indie hybrid. Using poignantly evocative lyrics, Driediger elevates the band’s common guitar-driven songs to a genuinely personal level that sets Ladyhawk apart from other new-school old-style rockers like the Black Keys and Black Mountain. At certain points in the Vancouver quartet’s latest album, Shots (Jagjaguwar), Driediger seems to actually morph in and out of a body that at times seems possessed by Neil Young or Crazyhorse. Each Ladyhawk performance is sure to include balls-to-the-wall rock and roll, beer drinking and the sensitive passion of a highly emotional introvert coming out of his shell…with a little help from the liquid courage. (Appearing with The Little Ones and Neva Dinova at Schubas on May 1) –text: James H. Ewert Jr.–photo: Toby Bannister

NEVA DINOVA
Neva Dinova and Bright Eyes are friends, collaborators, Saddle Creek labelmates and fellow Omaha natives. During a recent Bright Eyes Chicago Theatre performance, Conor Oberst treated fans to “Spring Cleaning,” the highlight from their shared EP One Jug Of Wine, Two Vessels, which he admittedly butchered. Oberst is not to blame, however. Few singers can manage to match the drone of Neva Dinova frontman Jake Bellows and make it appealing, and even fewer are able to write such beautiful, dark, yet uplifting lyrics about a pregnant friend: “Seeing her now makes me want to live.” The band is currently touring their third LP, a fresh batch of songs not unlike the preceding work (which is a good thing). The new disc highlight, “Squirrels,” evokes a Bill Callahan/Smog feel, peaks during Bellows’ poetic opening verse, and is held together with a powerful unassuming percussion tastefully laced with an intriguing and shifting sound production. (Appearing with Ladyhawk and The Little Ones at Schubas on May 1) –text: Joseph O’Fallon

THE NIGHTWATCHMAN
If every good man had an alter ego, Tom Morello (a.k.a. The Nightwatchman) — the artist of the people, the defender of human rights, the black Robin Hood of the 21st century music industry — ranks right up there with a cape-wearing super friend. If he weren’t busy enough with Audioslave and Rage Against the Machine fame, Morello rekindled his passion for political activism and commentary rock by first playing small coffeehouses before making musical contributions to Michael Moore films — in which Morello and Moore’s cynical view of an America in which the rich get richer, the middle class is disappearing and the government secretly spies on its citizens are very much in the same vein. Compared to Dylan, Springsteen, and Guthrie, the Nightwatchman project soon spawned an unforeseen debut album in 2007 and the current “Justice ‘08” tour — with a second release planned for later this year. (Appearing with Ben Harper, Perry Farrell and Boots Riley at the Park West on May 1) –text: Jyn Radakovits–photo: Sean Ricigliano