Update: Jessica Lea Mayfield (Tonight!) + Judas Priest (7/24!) + Mechanical Boy + Reel Big Fish (7/27!) + Patrick Wolf + More

Yep, yep, yep — in-between the ultra-short-notice posts I’ve been slapping up here lately, there’s been quite a bit of new stuff going on on the site, and I’m damned proud of the current pile, I have to say…

First up, thanks to new-ish Austin-based contributor Chris G., we’ve got a cool preview-type thing for tonight’s Jessica Lea Mayfield show up at Walter’s; Chris checked out Mayfield’s show on Tuesday up in A-town and was kind enough to write it up. Check the actual piece here, and then hit the show this evening (Thurs., July 23rd, to be precise).

From what I’ve heard from the lady, btw, she’s pretty mind-blowing — Mayfield comes off like a less-folky, intensely gloomy Jolie Holland, all jangly, understated guitars and murky/twangy vocals that put to shame most modern “country” artists you can think of. It’s gorgeous and heartbreaking and really-truly genuine. I’m gonna have to find a copy of With Blasphemy So Heartfelt to call my very own, I swear. (And I should note that the pic on her Myspace where she’s playing standing on top of her bass player’s bass makes her even cooler than I’d already decided she was.)

She’s playing with Castanets and M.A. Turner, the former of whom remind me of The Mountain Goats’ John Darnielle if he took to hanging out with Iron and Wine’s Sam Beam and decided downtrodden country-folk was the way to go and the latter of whom is like a warbly, rusty version of Jim Morrison gone solo and recording in Robert Pollard’s bedroom. Take those two comparisons however you want…

Next up: yes, folks, metal gods Judas Priest and Whitesnake will blaze their way through our little-big metropolis tomorrow (Fri., July 24th; the show’s at the Verizon), with the JP crew doing (I’m told) their classic British Steel in its entirety. Holy freaking crap, folks. Seeing these big metalhead reunion tours tends to make me smirk and snicker, but I can’t say a damn thing bad about Judas Priest. Rob Halford & co. saved my sanity one intensely hot summer in my youth, and I’m forever in their debt.

At any rate, “Metal Guy” Scott W. has been pretty psyched about the show and wrote up a little preview of what it’s bound to be like — check it out here. He’s also got a review of the band’s new live album, A Touch of Evil, headed this way, so keep an eye out for that to go up soon…

A few days off into the future, then, there’s the Reel Big Fish show this next Mon., July 27th, and yours truly reviewed the group’s latest slew of cover songs, Fame, Fortune and Fornication, right up here. It’s a fun album, even for a ska band covering a bunch of classic songs, and it works better than I’d expected on several of the tracks (The Eagles’ “The Long Run” comes off like the followup to “The Harder They Come,” I swear to God).

That said, though, the real reason I’m pissed I’ll be out of town this Monday is because holy shit the fucking The English Beat is opening for them. Yes, yes, yes. I know it’s not the same band, but dammit, I don’t care, so long as they play “Mirror in the Bathroom” and “Stand Down Margaret”. (Okay, except that I can’t make it, so I do care, and it hurts me. Argh.)

In terms of non-time-specific stuff, ever-out-and-about writer Dre G. took aim at the recent Mechanical Boy show at Warehouse Live, which works nicely as a companion piece to new blogger Rock Houston‘s inaugural post on the same dang show — check ’em out here and here.

And naturally, we’ve got a bunch more reviews, some of which I’ve already hit in previous posts, like So Many Dynamos, RX Bandits, & Pete Yorn, but some of which are extra-super new, like Patrick Wolf, My Education, & Oh No Forest Fires. Here’s the full list:

Live Reviews/Previews: Jessica Lea Mayfield; Mechanical Boy; Judas Priest.

Reviews: So Many Dynamos; Reel Big Fish; Patrick Wolf; Oh No Forest Fires; My Education; The Able Sea; RX Bandits; Pete Yorn; Arab on Radar (DVD); & Hans Stockenberger.

Featured Bands: Tambersauro; B L A C K I E.

More to come, of course, so keep checking back…