Music Picks 

BO DIDDLEY

Ellas McDaniel (that’s 50-year rock & roll legend Bo Diddley to you) may or may not have helped invent rap in 1959 with “Say Man,” but he’s sure as hell not down with hip-hop on the ’04. “I’m fightin’ this rap crap—I don’t like what it’s doin’ to our kids, our youngsters,” Diddley once said in a radio interview. “These guys could clean this mess up. I don’t like the talkin’ under women’s clothes.” Not sure what that means, but he’s entitled to it: The man with the box guitar who penned such American rock classics as “I’m a Man,” “Who Do You Love?” and “Roadrunner” celebrated his 75th birthday earlier this week. SATURDAY, Jan. 3 @ Harry O’s, 427 Main, Park City, 9:30 p.m. Info: 435-647-9494.

MARCUS EATON & THE LOBBY

No “actual music journalism,” just working desperately to find you people something to go out and listen to this week. Last time they were through Salt Lake City, Boise’s Marcus Eaton & The Lobby got pissy over being pigeonholed here as a Dave Matthews Band clone, forgetting the old tenet of “the name was spelled right” and the fact that anyone doing that groovy acoustic funk-rock-world-beat thing sounds like DMB. A spin of The Day the World Awoke (MarcusEaton.com), however, proves Eaton’s guitar chops smoke Dave’s, and the tunes are on a slightly poppier trajectory—but that’s without any “deep, heartfelt research.” TUESDAY, Jan. 6 @ Halo, 60 E. 800 South, 9:30 p.m. Info: 363-4522.

JYEMO & THE EXTENDED FAMILY

A Utah Kind Foundation benefit show for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance and Save Our Canyons and the kick-off for the Boulder jam-band’s winter tour, put your Birkenstocks together for Jyemo & The Extended Family, earth children! Singer-instrumentalist Jonny Jyemo’s seven-headed groove machine fuses rock, reggae, funk and African rhythms into something they’ve dubbed “rootsadelic” and/or “new conscious dance,” as well as “Peter Tosh meets Steely Dan.” Admission is a $5-$10 sliding scale. WEDNESDAY, Jan. 7 @ The Urban Lounge, 241 S. 500 East, 9:30 p.m. Info: 746-0558 (with Purdymouth). Also: THURSDAY, Jan. 8 @ Plan B, 268 Main, Park City, 9:30 p.m. Info: 435-615-7588.

GLOBAL FUNK COUNCIL

For just over two years, San Diego’s Global Funk Council have taken the dodgy art of “jam” to frighteningly funky-jazzy new heights of intense musicianship that you can actually dance to—all in a few hundred shows and one album, Keep On Pushin’ (GlobalFunk Council.com). “I’ve spent a lot of years playing professionally, trying to be a better musician,” keyboardist Anthony Smith, formerly of Carlos Washington & Giant People, told the Vail Daily. “I didn’t feel there was necessarily a scene where good musicians were recognized for being good musicians.” WEDNESDAY, Jan. 7 @ Brewski’s, 244 25th Street, Ogden, 9:30 p.m. Info: 801-394-1713. Also: THURSDAY, Jan. 8 @ Harry O’s, 427 Main, Park City, 9:30 p.m. Info: 435-647-9494.

COMING UP

Low Flying Owls (Kilby Court, Jan. 8). SXSW Preliminaries (various clubs, Jan. 10). Guy Clark (Egyptian Theater, Jan. 10). Bacon Brothers (Eccles Center, Jan. 10). The Toasters, Guttermouth (Albee Square, Jan. 14). Sundance Music Café (Plan B, Jan. 16-24). Slamdance: NYC Rock & Roll Kick-Off (Brewvies, Jan. 16). Blackalicious (Suede, Jan. 16). Cypress Hill (Suede, Jan. 17). SXSW Finals (Port O’ Call, Jan. 18). Ima Robot (Liquid Joe’s, Jan. 20). Maceo Parker (Port O’ Call, Jan. 20). Clumsy Lovers (Bricks, Jan. 20). The Crystal Method (Suede, Jan. 20). The Chieftains (Kingsbury Hall, Jan. 23). Hamell on Trial (Halo, Jan. 24). The Samples (Suede, Jan. 28). Hank Williams III (Liquid Joe’s, Jan. 31).