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Ugly Radio Rebellion, Brandon Nelson McCoy
Screen Shot 2012-06-19 at 3.44.46 PM
Charm City Devils

UGLY RADIO REBELLION

At 10 p.m. Saturday, June 23

Wormhole Bar, 2307 Bull St.

If you take a moment to do the math, Ugly Radio Rebellion performs about 20 shows per year. We know this because 2012 marks the band's 10th anniversary, and this Wormhole date is a milestone: Show #200.

It's something of a boutique band - URR plays, exclusively, the music of the late rock/jazz/eccentrico composer Frank Zappa. "There's two main types of people we see at Zappa shows," URR founder and Berklee-trained guitarist Scott Schroen told us a while back. "One is the long-time, hardcore Zappa fan that grew up on it. It changed their lives.

"And the other side is the serious musician types who come to the show and scrutinize everything we do. And then walk away with their tail between their legs!"

Schroen, a native of Alpharetta, Ga. started the band (originally called Uncle Meat) in Detroit in 2002, with a simple but clear classified ad: "Musicians Wanted to Play Frank Zappa Music." The current incarnation of the band includes bassist Andrew Walley and drummer Daniel Paschall (another Georgian, from Lawrenceville).

There aren't a whole lot of Zappa tribute bands out there, and certainly no others have the vast and disciplined repertoire of Ugly Radio Rebellion. "We keep 52 songs in rotation, and we mix it up for each tour," Schroen said. "Myself, I know maybe 500 Zappa tunes, and I transcribed most of them."

BRANDON NELSON MCCOY

At 8 p.m. Friday, June 22

The Sentient Bean, 13 E. Park Ave.

He's cut off the unruly hair, but that mountain-main beard remains. And the intense, dark-eyed stare behind all those visceral Townes Van Zandt tunes.

This is singer/songwriter McCoy's first Savannah show since July 25, 2011 - following that he relocated to Athens, where he's since become a vital part of the thriving Americana scene, as a solo performer and as one-quarter of the Monkeygrass Jug Band.

McCoy's on a week-long holiday in town, and here's hit pitch, y'all: "I've been missing all of my Savannah friends and folk and can't wait to hang out with all of you. Dunno if I'll play solo or have some accompaniment but, either way, it'll be a great f--kin' time."

He'll be back to play Live Wire Music Hall July 6, with the band.

CHECK IT OUT

It's a guitarists' night at Live Wire Thursday (June 21), with Johan Harvey and the Royal Noise, and Philadelphia's amazing Dirk Quinn Band ... On a similar note, the brilliant bluegrass guitarist Jim Hurst has a date at Randy Wood's place on the 23rd ... At the Tybee Rock House June 22: Baltimore's hard-rocking Charm City Devils, named by their bud. Nikki Sixx of Motley Crue. The band has a new album, Sins, which features a surprisingly hard-hitting cover of "Man of Constant Sorrow" .....

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'Homeland' slipping this season
Showtime with Sasha
homeland
Claire Danes still plays an obsessive CIA agent entangled with an American war hero is not really who he seems to be. - photo by Studio photo

Sasha McBrayer is taking a break from her reviews on video for Thanksgiving.

Based upon the Israeli series “Prisoners of War,” Showtime’s American spy thriller “Homeland” is in its third season and has the green light for a 12-episode fourth season, set to premiere in 2014.
“Homeland” has become a highly honored series. It won the 2012 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series and took home both the 2011 and 2012 Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series — Drama. Both of the show’s stars, Claire Danes and Damian Lewis, won Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actress and Actor.
Does season three live up to the high standard set by the award winning drama?
First, here is some background on the show. The word interesting doesn’t seem to do justice for “Homeland’s” first season. Danes plays Carrie, an obsessively driven, caring, capable and intuitive CIA case-worker with a secret. She suffers from bipolar disorder and has kept her condition under wraps until Nicholas Brody (Lewis) hits her radar.
Brody started the series as an American military hero. After being a prisoner of al-Qaeda for eight years, Brody was rescued and returned to his family. However, Carrie and the audience quickly began to suspect that Brody had a secret of his own: He seemed to be working for the enemy, either willingly or thanks to torture.
Only Carrie seemed sharp enough to prevent Brody from playing his part in a massive attack on U.S. soil, but her trustworthiness was questioned when her mental illness came to light. (Never mind that Carrie started to develop romantic feelings for Brody!)
Along the way, two other more minor characters really grabbed me. Brody’s teenage daughter, Dana, amazingly well-acted by Morgan Saylor, and CIA assassin Peter Quinn, played by Rupert Friend, couldn’t get enough screen time, if you ask me. Of course, Mandy Patinkin could do no wrong as Carrie’s mentor, Saul.
In the third season, Carrie appears to have been chosen to be the CIA’s public scapegoat. The CIA, along with Saul, abandon Carrie to a psychiatric hospital.
She stays there just long enough for the viewer to get annoyed, and then a twist (that you may see coming) reveals that Carrie and Saul were in cahoots the entire time, setting up the next leg of the season in which Carrie is, for lack of a better term, undercover.
So how does season three fare in the grand scheme of things? Honestly, the first few episodes are a little bit of a letdown. I’ll keep watching, though.

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