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The Magic Beans

FREE SHOW FREE SHOW FREE SHOW. Seriously, you have to pay attention to those. A night of free music is never a bad thing. The Magic Beans are a traveling band from Nederland, Colo., combining americana, funk, rock, and electronica into a one sound. Their diverse instrumentation blends acoustic roots music with modern technology and electronic dance music has earned them the descriptions of space funk, ameritronica, and groove grass. Check out the sweet outfit of musicians: Scott Hachey on guitar and vocals; Josh Appelbaum on bass guitar and vocals; Casey Russell on keyboards, synth, talkbox, acoustic guitar, banjo/mando, and vocals; Will Trask on percussion and timbales; and Hunter Welles on five-string baritone electric mandolin and acoustic mandolin. They’ve shared the stage with Railroad Earth, Great American Taxi, Elephant Revival, Split Lip Rayfield, and Juno What, to name a few.
Thursday, April 24, at The Bottleneck, 737 New Hampshire St., 9 p.m., FREE.

KU Common Music: Party at the Pavilion

FREE SHOW AND FREE FOOD. I can’t hit that theme hard enough this week (can you tell I’m on a fixed budget?). Local musicians MAW and Drakkar Sauna will play their own originals and Dust Bowl tunes as a final celebration of the 2013-14 Kansas University Common Book, “The Worst Hard Time.” Free hot dogs, popcorn, soda and water, you guys.

MAW is an old-timey bluegrass band of all women who, on their debut album called “Advice for the Young and Foolish,” sang about about drug abuse, adultery, murder, hoboing, opium-smoking, Sterno-drinking, sticking their fingers in babies’ eyes, and other undesirable things. Sounds entertaining, you should most definitely check this out.

Vaudevillian folk duo of Jeff Stolz and Wallace Cochran make up Drakkar Sauna. Represented by Third Man Records — label founded by Jack White that represents The White Stripes, Willie Nelson, The Shins and Jack Johnson, to name a few–they have released five full-length records.
Friday, April 25, at Potter Lake, 5 p.m., FREE.

Farmers’ Ball Finals

Last week’s preliminary round was a fierce match between all eight acts including Alien Jones, Narkalark, Oils, Paper Buffalo, Pink Royal, Psychic Heat, Slight Right and Westerners. Only four advanced to this week’s finals based on audience votes at the end of the night. The last four contenders are Oils, Paper Buffalo, Psychic Heat, and Westerners, and they will compete for a chance at $2,000 as first prize and $1,000 for the second prize winner. If you’ve got a favorite, and I know you do, make sure you get to the Bottleneck for the very beginning of the night and stay until the very end. Get a good listen (these are all great bands, you guys) and stick around to show some love through your vote. It’s not enough just to cheer for them during their set. This could give some of these up-and-comers an opportunity to record for our listening pleasure, and really get the wide exposure they deserve. Support local music.
Saturday, April 26, at The Bottleneck, 737 New Hampshire St., 9 p.m., $3 w/ KU ID, $5.

letlive./Architects

If you’ve got any interest in either of these headlining bands, you should definitely make an effort to go to this show, as there are four bands in this night’s lineup. letlive. and Architects as the main feature, they will be joined by Glass Cloud and I The Mighty. What a bargain ( I really didn’t intend on this theme).

letlive. is a post-hardcore band from Los Angeles consisting of lead vocalist Jason Aalon Alexander Butler, guitarists Jean Nascimento and Jeff Sahyoun, bassist Ryan Jay Johnson and drummer Loniel Robinson. The band is currently exploring a project called “Renditions” where the members work with other artists in new methods of collaboration, letting them take a section of a song off their latest album and revise it in a reimagined way. The latest is “The Dope Beat” with the Wonder Years’ Dan ‘Soupy’ Campbell.

Architects is a metalcore band from Brighton, England that consists of lead vocalist Sam Carter, drummer Dan Searle and his twin brother, guitarist and keyboardist Tom Searle and Alex Dean on bass guitar. Early this month, Architects released a 27-minute documentary on the making of their new album, “Lost Forever // Lost Together,” which was released in March. Constantly evolving their sound, this sixth album is more extreme and ambient than previous efforts, but they’ve yet to lose their “speak our minds” mentality. Fun fact: they’re all vegan.
Saturday, April 26, at Granada, 1020 Massachusetts St., 7 p.m., $13-15.

Mobb Deep

Earlier this month, the Queensborough duo of Mobb Deep released its first full-length in eight years called “The Infamous Mobb Deep.” It’s technically 19 years after their “The Infamous” album, so I think we can all agree it’s about time Prodigy and Havoc got back in the hip hop game with this continuation. A two-disc album, the duo uses social conscious lyrics to criticize the rap game, showing their unstoppable nature in an industry that they’ve said before is about “survival of the fittest” and they’ve never been afraid of a challenge. They briefly disbanded in 2012 announcing an indefinite hiatus via Twitter, but have seem to set their differences aside to celebrate their 20th anniversary on tour. Guests on the project include Nas, Busta Rhymes, Bun B, French Montana, and more.
Tuesday, April 29, at Granada, 1020 Massachusetts St., 9 p.m., $20.