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There'll be a lot of action at FloydFest in late July -- so much that festival organizers are exporting a series of shows to Martin's Downtown Bar & Grill, in Roanoke.

The Emerging Artists Series is new for FloydFest -- even though it has presented plenty of up-and-comers over the years. Martin's will host a parcel of the acts over three days. The full list is here -- scroll two-thirds of the way down that page to get there.

We'll let you know whether other Roanoke clubs will host shows as we get that information. Meanwhile, check out the schedule at Martin's ... UPDATE: Martin's is it. But onetime Radford resident Stephanie Rooker, who is on the FloydFest bill, will be performing that weekend at 202 Market. By the way, she's real good.

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Check it here: http://blogs.roanoke.com/botetourtview/2008/05/six_smoking_guitar_bands_brought_down_the_house_at.html

Reggae month features Passafire, The Seed, Shayar and Krooshal Force, Scholar's Word and the Greg Ward Project. Irie.

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You remember the late, (sort of) lamented TimesCast? Daine Vineyard made it what it was, with great graphics, ridiculously funny ideas and a generally good natured vibe that made him easy to work with. Daine was down for the goof, and in his time here, we got plenty of that in the can.

He shot them, he edited them, he made them rock, and then he went to the bar and got drunk.

Daine is also a bass player, and that took him away from us. He moved to Austin a while back, to get into the music scene. So, he just posted a myspace bulletin, saying he has a gig with Lions of Tsavo -- http://www.myspace.com/lionsoftsavo. The band plays the thrash-ist metal that Daine loves so well. If that's your thing, and you're on myspace, add the band and check it out.

Keep it metal, Daine. Still mad at you for leaving me!

I'm working on a story about open mic nights, so last night I stopped at 202 Market. Jeff Hofmann, aka the hardest working bass player in Roanoke, was there, playing up his usual fine grooveness. Afterward, he played me some tracks from the sessions he's recently done with My Radio, the pop-rock band he's in with singer/keyboardist JP Powell, guitarist Brett Lemon and drummer Hunter Johnson.

The tracks include a new version of the band's "Turn Up The Radio," which was already a hit in my book. It rocks a bit harder this time out, with some good backing vocals added. Other tunes I heard tell me that this is going to be a good CD, with plenty of 80s and 90s influences in there -- mostly the good kind! So maybe my wish from a previous blog entry will come true -- that a Roanoke-based band will hit it big.

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From new channels editor Dwayne Yancey:

> We have a new number one music video in MusicCast land. For six weeks, The Seed ruled the top spot with "No More." Well, no more. This past week, the Pickin Buds from Rocky Mount moved into the top spot on our list of most-played local music videos with "Demijohn."

> The Seed didn't fall far, though. The jamsters still own three spots in the Top 5. And the Roanoke Allstars continued to hang in there, as well. Falling out of the Top 5 this week: The Wading Girl.

> If you think your band's video should be in the Top 5, well, post it to our site, and maybe it will be. We base this list on who gets the most plays each week, so keep clicking. Details are below.

> Here’s the week Top 5, based on number of plays on this MusicCast this past week:

1. Demijohn," by the Pickin Buds
2. "No More," by The Seed"
3. "Can You Understand?," by The Seed
4. "OxyContin Rock," by the Roanoke Allstars
5. "A New Season," by The Seed

The big show is at month's end, when blues guitar icon Hubert Sumlin (Howlin' Wolf) comes to town with the Nighthawks. But the month also includes Tommy Womack (ex-Government Cheese), Monte Montgomery and Stephanie's Id. All worth seeing.

Remember, this is the raw feed. So call the joint to make sure shows are still on: 343-6644.

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College sportswriter extraordinaire and rock music fan Doug Doughty e'd me a link to the Worst Songs by Good Bands site.

The Replacements are in the top 10 -- which leaves the shot glass either half-empty or half-full: Should I be glad that knowledgeable scribes consider them a "good band" or should I be ticked off about the "bad song" they picked? (It's a song I really like, too!)

I do love this quote about U2's "Discotheque" (a worthy choice for this list):
"If you told the Bono of 'Sunday Bloody Sunday' he'd one day be mewling about danceterias, he'd have tossed his Guinness in your face."

Too much to do today. So here's an idea: You ask us a question. Or questions. And we'll try to answer them.

One of my co-workers e-mailed to say she and her husband were looking forward to the June 2 Plant-Krauss concert at the Roanoke Civic Center -- that is, until she got a look at the ticket prices.

Tickets are going for $49 to $70.

"I hope you won't take Roanokers to task when this probably great show gets a tiny turnout," my co-worker wrote. "This is outrageous."

Roanoke has seen its share of $50-plus shows the past seven or eight years. Cher, Elton John and Rod Stewart have all commanded top dollar. But will music fans part with three and a half sawbucks to see a Rock and Roll Hall of Famer (who's doing some Zeppelin on this tour, I've heard) and a bluegrass ingenue? We'll know in three weeks.