Nashville for Free

If you haven’t heard the Westbound Rangers yet then you must not get out to a lot of the free and cheap music shows in Nashville. I mean, these guys get around. From Musicians Corner to Music City Roots to their own shows, these guys have performed their special brand of bluegrass all over Nashville.

But here’s your chance to redeem yourself if you haven’t seen them and relive the awesomeness if you have. Tonight at 7pm Westbound Rangers are playing a free show at 3rd and Lindsley to celebrate their fourth birthday (happy birthday!). Yup, totally free. That means you get to see some fantastic traditional bluegrass played by some talented young dudes around a single mic.

This isn’t your great-grandfather’s bluegrass, but he’d probably really enjoy it. It’s all about musicianship and the songs for the Westbound Rangers, and you have to give them props for that.

-Emily Harris

Is there anything more glorious than waking up to a stack of fresh, warm pancakes? As it turns out, there is. Free pancakes from IHOP, and tomorrow is the day that warm, fluffy, sugary dream comes true.

Tomorrow, Feb. 28th, IHOP is celebrating National Pancake Day, a holiday that I’m pretty positive they made up for marketing purposes, but I don’t care. On that day only IHOP will give you a free short stack of pancakes when you ask for them. Absolutely free. All they ask is that you consider leaving a little donation for Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals and other designated local charities. Since 2006 IHOP has raised over $8 million on National Pancake Day and today they’re hoping to raise $2.7 million. They’ll be serving up the pancakes for free until 10pm, sorry night owls and college students pulling all-nighters.

So go forth, my friends, and feast on free pancakes! Perhaps donate a little bit of money to charity, and be mindful of the serving staff, for they may deserve a tip.

-Emily

Monday

8 off 8th at the Mercy Lounge – 9pm, 21+
This week’s 8 off 8th will feature performances by Brandon Jazz and His Armed Forces, By Lightning!, Colorfeels, The Hollywood Kills, Laura Reed ft. Shannon Sanders, Quichenight, Sam & Tre, and Toy.

Kenny Vaughan and Friends at 12 South Taproom – 9:30pm
Kenny has played with such artists as Lucinda Williams, Rodney Crowell and others and is currently a full-time member of Marty Stuart’s band. He was also named instrumentalist of the year by the Americana Music Association in 2006.

Author Event with Taylor Polites at Parnassus Books – 6pm
Taylor Polites will be at Parnassus Books reading from his debut novel, THE REBEL WIFE. O Magazine in their February 2012 issue picks The Rebel Wife as one of “Ten Titles to Pick Up Now.” They say, “This engrossing novel about a resilient heroine in the post-Civil War South has all the drama of the era and none of the clichés.”

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Tomorrow Regions is presenting a free day at the Frist Center. Yay!

You get to see all kinds of art for free. There are two exhibits up right now: American Art from The Phillips Collection and Fairy Tales, Monsters, and Genetic Imagination. 

American Art from The Phillips Collection features just a sampling of the museum’s excellent collection, including works by George Inness, Winslow Homer, Edward Hicks, Edward Hopper, Maurice Prendergast, John Sloan, Arthur Dove (his painting Morning Sun is pictured), Georgia O’Keeffe, John Marin, Stuart Davis, Milton Avery, Jacob Lawrence, Adolph Gottlieb, Philip Guston, Richard Diebenkorn, Robert Motherwell, and many others.

Fairy Tales, Monsters, and Genetic Imagination is a complete 180 from The Phillips Collection. Its contains “works by contemporary artists who invent humanlike, animal, or hybrid creatures to symbolize life’s mysteries, desires, and fears.” Think Aesop’s Fables meets genetic experimentation. Weird. Your kids will either love it or get nightmares from it.

The Frist Center is free all day, 10am-5:30pm, but I suggest getting there at 10am. Not just to beat the crowds, but to check out the Artist’s Panel: Fables for our Times event that will feature four artists who are being showcased in Fairy Tales, Monsters, and Genetic Imagination.

-Emily

Has anyone else noticed that ukuleles have become incredibly popular over the past few years? I bet you have. Who hasn’t seen at least one YouTube video of a cute, goofy girl covering a pop song (probably a Hall & Oates song) on the ukulele?

It’s not just hipster girls playing the uke either. Apparently this ukulele resurgence is taking place across different nations, cultures, ages, and musical tastes. People all over the world are turning to this adorable four-stringed instrument to express themselves?

The Mighty Uke is a documentary about this very subject. It’s playing tonight at Vanderbilt’s Sarratt Cinema at 7:30pm. But that’s not all! Right after the screening (the film is 76 minutes, FYI) Nashville’s very own ukulele band, The Ukedelics, will play a 30 minute set.

Uke on!

-Emily

Truth be told, furniture is expensive. Do you want a decent futon or sofa bed? That’s probably going to cost you some serious money. That is, unless you know how to get furniture for free.

Mike Essex, the author of Free Stuff Everyday (and apparently a man after my own heart) created a neat little infographic that shows you a few different ways to get free furniture. It’s kind of big, so you can find it behind the cut.

Just make sure that you check for fleas and bed bugs in that furniture…

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AEG Live/The Messina Group has been particularly kind to us as of late. Just last week they hooked us up with a pair of OAR tickets to give to you all, and now they’ve given us a pair of tickets to see Puscifer next Tuesday, the 28th!

Puscifer is primarily Maynard James Keenan, probably most well-known for his work in Tool and A Perfect Circle. According to Wikipedia (because it’s always a lot of fun to see what the masses think of things) they fall into the ambient, comedy rock, experimental, post-industrial, trip hop genre of music. I honestly cannot imagine that in my head.

To enter the contest leave a comment on this blog post telling me your favorite color. I’ll randomly pick a winner Thursday evening. Please leave your full name as your username so I know who to put on the list. Or I guess just promise to check your damn email and get back to me on that if you win.

As usual, if you REALLY want to win the tickets you can increase your chances significantly by posting a picture to our Facebook wall. A picture of what, you ask? A picture of you holding up the Puscifer demon logo or the Puscifer demo logo thing photoshopped in a picture where it’s attacking your head. Get creative. Everyone who submits a picture gets entered into the hat five more times, but if you make me laugh it might end up being 6 or 7 extra times.

Good luck!

-Emily

Photos from 8 Off 8th at Mercy Lounge (February 13th, 2012) by Kate Cauthen, featuring Night Beds, Sol Cat, Henry Wagons, Buffalo Clover, The Electric Crushes, Delta Saints, The Greater Good, and Little Bandits.

Missed last week’s performances? Check out 8 Off 8th tonight to see Andrea Davidson, Skyler, Ashley Lee, Ryan Kinder, Holly Winter, The Co, Schools, and Tesla Rossa.

View the gallery after the jump!

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Monday

8 off 8th at the Mercy Lounge, -8pm, 21+
Tonight’s 8 off 8th will feature performances by Andrea Davidson, Skyler, Ashley Lee, Ryan Kinder, Holly Winter, The Co, Schools, and Tesla Rossa.

Kenny Vaughan and Friends at 12 South Taproom – 9:30pm
Kenny has played with such artists as Lucinda Williams, Rodney Crowell and others and is currently a full-time member of Marty Stuart’s band. He was also named instrumentalist of the year by the Americana Music Association in 2006.

Elio and the Hank Sinatras at Two Old Hippies – 5pm
Kind of a jazzy Texas swing sound.

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If you didn’t already know that The Great Escape is one of the best places in Nashville to get inexpensive CDs, DVDs, vinyl records, comic books, and more, then I feel terrible for all the money you haven’t saved. But I’m here to enlighten you to the cheap side, so I’m going to do my job and let you know that this Saturday, the 18th, The Great Escape is having a HUGE blowout sale where many of their CDs will be priced at a hard-to-beat ONE DOLLAR.

Details are slim, but expect to be doing some digging at The Great Escape’s Charlotte location this weekend. According to their email they’ll have thousands and thousands of CDs for sale, including brand new stuff that just never made it onto the racks, warehouse stuff, and CDs that are normally priced up to $8.99. I’d suggest getting there early, because you know what they say – the early bird gets all of those advanced copies of Merge and Beggars releases that he or she has always been meaning to buy but just hasn’t. Also, come back during the day, because they’ll keep restocking throughout the day.

The store opens at 10am and the sale lasts all day.

Happy digging!

-Emily