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LOCAL RELEASES

Although Orlando roots rocker Mike Dunn has remained deeply involved in the music scene with activities like his burgeoning annual Folk Yeah music festival, he hasn’t actually released any new music since 2015 album Hard Luck Soft Rock. So newer faces to the scene more accustomed to seeing him as an impresario — and rising photographer — would be forgiven if they didn’t know the full extent of Dunn as a musician.

With only two LPs and an EP over the course of a 15-year career, Dunn has never been prolific. But the amount of instant classics that his brief catalog packs is astonishing. Never one to miss the big hook, Dunn’s heartland rock has always shot straight for the heart on eagle-winged anthems that soar with a kind of golden American timelessness that’s somewhere between Mellencamp and the Replacements.

Now, after seven years of a recording lull, Mike Dunn is finally back with his band — CJ Mask (guitars), Josh Butler (drums), Brendan Allen May (bass) and Andy Simonds (keys) — on a new single. “You Belong to the Darkness” is a slightly different angle for Dunn.

Instead of swinging for the fences, it’s more of a straight, head-down drive of 1980s FM rock with midnight moods. It’s a little darker than his usual all-American affability, but Dunn’s evergreen melodicism is still behind the wheel.

The new single is the first of a batch of about eight songs that Dunn has completed and will roll out every couple of months or so as singles and videos merging his music with the visual artwork he’s been immersed in of late.

“You Belong to the Darkness” releases everywhere on Friday, April 29, ahead of his appearance at the Stagecoach Festival on Nikki Lane’s Horseshoe Stage this Sunday, May 1.

BY BAO LE-HUU

MIKE DUNN | PHOTO BY SHANE VALENTINE, COURTESY OF THE ARTIST

Mike Dunn’s heartland songs have always shot straight for the heart, soaring with a kind of golden American timelessness that’s somewhere between Mellencamp and the Replacements

CONCERT PICKS THIS WEEK

If you go out, be safe, be cool.

Godspeed You! Black Emperor: Area post-rock fans have been suspended in agony over this one for a while now. For one, these legends never come here. Then, once an Orlando date was announced, the pandemic pushed it way out on the calendar. Now, COVID willing, it’s finally happening. Guaranteed, it’ll be a sonic odyssey. (7 p.m. Thursday, April 28, The Beacham, $29.50-$45)

Fanarchy Fest Two: Is there a genre more unreliable than pop-punk? Methinks not. In this wide, crowded and uneven domain, the term can denote anything from Tacocat to fucking Good Charlotte. And, tragically, the good ones are in the deep minority. Luckily, this showcase leans on the broad genre’s better side with a big seven-band lineup from the I-4 Corridor that includes Wet Nurse, Vicious Dreams, the Palmettes, RushmoreFL, Critical Hits, Atomic Treehouse and Petty Thefts. The You Had Options podcast will also be streaming live from the mini-festival. (7 p.m. Friday, April 29, Will’s Pub, $8)

Circuit Church showcase/Mata_

album release party: Orlando’s Circuit Church isn’t just a label, but an active scenemaker. And their outdoor live showcases in the Milk District have become a regular and safe magnet for the city’s most experimental electronic heads. This special edition celebrates the album release for Orlando deep dance maestro Mata_, whose six-track State of Flow drops the day of the show. Filling out the all-local bill will be the introspective IDM of Blueshades and Void Machine, the musical guise of the mind behind DIY modular electronics builder Void Modular. There are few better peeks into the current state of affairs in the city’s electronic underground than this live series. (7 p.m. Saturday, April 30, The Nook parking lot, free)

Battles, The Pauses, Flagman: NYC’s Battles are another band that’s not just notable but also seldom comes through Orlando. Since their brilliant emergence onto the scene in the late 2000s, they were immediately decorated as leaders on the vanguard of acts overtly trying to liberate rock music from its traditional ways. Since then, they’ve carried that torch like few can with an avant-garde vision of rock that’s dynamic and playful. Live, they are a dazzling display of concept, invention and technique. (7:30 p.m. Monday, May 2, Will’s Pub, $20-$23)