By admin 
“Rip this thing out of my head/clip my wings I do my best/Gotta get this off my chest/This never would’ve happened if I stayed in my lane, stayed the same way,” ruminates Courtney Barnett on “Stay in Your Lane,” bellowing over the top of a boiling-over bass line and a pleading refrain of “please be patient.”
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So goes the opening salvo of Barnett’s gripping career reset of a record, “Creature of Habit,” where the Australian-born singer seems intent neither on tearing anything down nor trotting out anything radically new.
Rather, she is bent on pulling apart the inner machinery of her deeply stirring brand of jangling and lyrically meandering indie rock, laying it all out and reassembling it such that it illuminates the calamity, chaos and hope of change in life and music. The result feels like her most refined work to date, with her ramshackle lyrical delivery and titillatingly echoing guitar lovingly intertwined and embarking in earnest on the next phase of the journey — at times an introspective evening stroll, at others a jaunty three-legged race that has no use for a finish line.
Brain-twisting avant-garde jazz folk rock artist Zoh Amba joins Barnett at Channel 24 (8 p.m. Monday, Aug. 24. $55.60. channel24sac.com).
Local artists, message Aaron Davis on Instagram if you have upcoming shows, @adavis_threetosee.
We’re suckers for anything involving bands, parks and beer … Day on the Divide gives us all of it, with venerable regional troupes Island of Black & White, Golden Cadillacs, Big Wave Machine and Howlin’ Alan Band performing at Garden Valley Park (11:30 a.m. Sunday, Aug. 2, 4901 Garden Valley Road, Garden Valley. $20. gdrd.org).
Are the bright lights of the L.A. skyline fading on June Swoon’s newest EP, “Big Truck?” From the brush covered hilltops on which Sacramento product Juli Lydell’s previous records perched, one could still absorb many a light particle streaming skyward from the basin, but tunes on this tidy collection like “Denver” and “Someone Else’s Dream” are tumbling east towards the high desert, teeming with dust storms of desolate, wailing alt-country and spacious psych. Her next full-length remains in the works as her “Feral Tour” rolls into Sacramento, flanked by a pair of alluring indie artists in Julian Never and High Bias (7:30 p.m. Sunday, Aug 2, 3520 Stockton Blvd. $15.45. colonialpresents.com). For the Foothills folks and traveling Swooners, they’re headed up to Nevada City the following night to join up with folk pop gem Davia at Sans Backup Plan Records (7:30 p.m. Monday, Aug. 3, 748 Zion St. $10-$20. instagram.com).
For those not residing in or around their native San Diego, a gig from the borderline mythical Beat Farmers is a preciously rare occurrence — but this year, Sacramento is the beneficiary of a Northern California run accompanying their annual reunion bacchanalia last month in Solana Beach. We say “mythical,” as rare is the band that can overcome one of its founders dying on stage, as was the fate of Daniel McLain, better known as showman “Country Dick Montana,” who went to the stars in 1995 at the age of 40 while performing “The Girl I Almost Married.” Various iterations of the group, helmed by its surviving members, have persevered ever since, keeping alive the group’s raucous mishmash of powdered burned cow punk, rockabilly caked roots rock and the kind of devious, devil-horned twang you’ll need to whack with a shovel a few times to make sure its dead, lest it wreak rabid havoc upon your campsite kegger (7:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 6, at the Sofia. $40. bstreettheatre.org).
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Our apologies to the Yuba County crew that we missed mentioning the first two iterations of the Next Up Music Festival — this upstart multi-genre fest is back for its third year, and second in Yuba City after debuting in Marysville in 2024. They’ve got a packed lineup of more than 18 local and regional acts on two stages — from “pop-punk to metal to hip-hop and even a little bit of country,” according to affable head honcho Mikey Pennington in an Instagram vid. The lineup is topped by reggae-tinged garage groove rockers the B Foundation, lumbering Deftones/Thrice inspired rockers Blind Eyes and Pennington’s scorching emo-pulsed rock act Common Grounds, with 7 Headspace, Emo Nite 530, Ezera, Gas Station Chicken, Kadeen, Lil’ Tiger, Malachi Rose and several others all performing (noon Saturday, Aug 22, 787 Plumas St., Yuba City. $15 adults/$5 kids. All ages. instagram.com/nextup530).
We’ve got a couple of standout local hip-hop bills rolling into the Starlet Room this month. First up is the dazzlingly paced, pulsating duo The New Era. This pairing of emcees Butane Baby and Brandon Mack has been churning out a stream of frenetic no-brakes tracks since 2022 — with their 2025 self-titled record sporting one cheekily named for Sac’s favorite personal injury lawyer, and a few gritty drop-tempo grooves like “Count for Me.” They’re joined by Rated R, James Droptop, and Joe Lakota (7:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 6. $19.15. harlows.com). Later in the month comes a headlining slot from jagged edged underground (deep, deep underground) duo Suite A, the pairing of rapper/songwriters Flighty and Townes — a subterranean excavation into the dark recesses of the city and the soul, endlessly seeking to exhume the struggles into the light. They form an eclectic and stylistically diverse three-act bill with the seemingly omnipresent Jakhari Smith and Mother Venom (8 p.m. Friday, Aug. 14. $19.15. harlows.com).
While it certainly affords time to make new friends or refresh the beverages, we can probably agree that the time between set changes on a multi-band bill can be a slog. Have we ever thought, “man I wish they would just, like, have a pro wrestling match or something going on to pass the time!” Sacramento’s Ugly Dojo Wrestling is once again hosting a slate of bouts at the Press Club in midtown Sacramento, slapping a ring right in the middle of the floor, where a platoon of gladiators will battle for the belt in between sets from feisty local rock fixtures Sacto Storytellers, Dog Party and Bastards of Young. Whether you’re cheering for the face or the heel, you’ll wanna score tickets early; they usually go fast for these maniacal wrestling/music hybrids (6:45 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 29. $22. pressclubsac.com).
A helping of nostalgia for those of us who came of age in the “late 1900s.” This year is the ninth edition of the always lively Don’t You Forget About Me tribute to the totally bodacious music of the ’80s. This annual throwdown features 11 bands, each one assigned a sequential year from the 1980s and tasked with offering their takes on songs released in that year. Working through the decade (not necessarily in this order) are local standouts and familiar faces to the series in Leaping Blennies, Natalie Cortez Band, Sgt York, Larisa Bryski, Wisteria, Poly Holiday, Lucky Shots, Indoor Husband, California Stars, Joe Gibbs & CTX and the Brangs. The whole shindig is a benefit for Girls Rock Sacramento. These usually sell out, don’t waffle on tix (5 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 22 at Harlow’s. All ages. $31.65. www.harlows.com).
For those of us who grew up drinking hose water in the very late 1900s, Band of Coyotes once again hosts 90s Nite at the Torch Club — in their own words, snapping back to “a time of flannels, baggy jeans, cut-off tees, and when our parents were proud of us.” Nine rowdy locals joining the Coyotes with free rein to meander about this totally gnarliest of decades are Bro Brocean, Swan Ronson, Ruining Everything, Moxie Barker, the E-Regulars, Lewd Jaw, Accidents at Sundown, Bad Barnacles and Abstract Creatures. Tickets available at all Bass outlets or Suncoast Music retailers — or, just at the door (8 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 22. $15. torchclub.net; instagram.com).
Peeking ahead to September, we just got word of a solo, perhaps, date at the Crest Theatre from magnetic indie rock fixture Stephen Malkmus — a relatively rare and preciously intimate Sacramento appearance from the iconic Pavement/the Jicks frontman (8 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 5. $48-$71. cresttheater.com).
Absent from our 2026 music festival bingo card was a revival (of sorts) of the defunct El Dorado County fave Hangtown Music Festival, Lazarus’ing this year as the Hangtime Music Festival. With the venerable Joe Craven serving as emcee, jam circuit titans Leftover Salmon and Elephant Revival lock arms with folk-punk-roots heroes Devil Makes Three atop the lineup, with Sam Grisman Project, Hot Buttered Rum, Dead Winter Carpenters, Poor Man’s Whiskey cosplaying down the yellow brick road for their “Dark Side of the Moonshine” Pink Floyd homage, and several others (and “more to come”) performing over three days (Oct. 16-18, El Dorado County Fairgrounds. hangtimemusic.com).
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