Actually, if what I’m about to do has the same effect as what happened when I found The Hold Steady, my friends are going to hate J Roddy Walston and The Business in about a month.

You see, they’re not gonna hate J Roddy because they’re not a massively awesome rock and roll band, rather, they’re going to hate J Roddy Walston and The Business because the new record is all that I’m going to listen to and play for a long, long time once I get it this coming Tuesday, July 27. (It’s streaming on Spinner right now)

But that’s what we do, isn’t it? Don’t we scream it from the rooftops and evangelize on streetcorners and blog and tweet and facebook and hire skywriters to tell everyone about this awesome new band.

I thought that The Hold Steady ruined music for me. Simply because they set the bar SO FUCKING HIGH that most other new bands that I have heard since simply haven’t done much for me. That is, until J Roddy came along. We ran a short “Indie At The Abbey” series a couple of years ago that our friend Joe at Instrumental Analysis put together. J Roddy was on the wishlist for that but a date never materialized. That was when I got my first taste of the Rod. However, it wasn’t until over two years later seeing the boys open for The Hold Steady at The Recher Theater in Towson that I got the first addictive injection of this band.

It’s just straight up, down and dirty, high and mighty, wet and sloppy, fat and happy, dark and dirty, foot stompin, fist pumpin, head banging, beer swillin rock and roll music.

Oh, and Rod plays the piano – but it’s not really piano rock. Though the “dinka-dinka-dinka-dink-dink” of Used To Did is simply as catchy as any jingle I’ve ever heard and it’s a natural show-closer (and usually is).

Look, I can go on and on about this band. And I likely will over the coming months. But their new record comes out on Tuesday. It’s on Vagrant. They’re playing the Khyber in Philly on Tuesday night, Baltimore at the Ottobar on the 31st is the hometown CD Release show. And from there? Sky’s the limit.

I’ve found the new kings of bar rock – and they are J Roddy Walston and The Business.

There’s not much happening in Harrisburg this weekend. (Or wherever you may be).

But you’ve got an itch to see a band.

Any band. As long as it’s within about ninety miles and something you dig.

Short of going to every venue in your memories website to check a calendar, there haven’t been many options for a central listing of shows you’d want to see.

Jambase.com is decent…but, like the name says, leans more towards jam bands.

LiveNation.com, obviously, has thousands of shows listed…but they’re all, um, LiveNation’s shows.

And then came Songkick.com which has suddenly made my life incredibly easier.

Here’s how it works: simply create a username and password, enter your home city and email address (for login and hand-selected notification updates) and then download a tiny piece of software which installs itself and then scans your iTunes, Winamp or Windows Media player library.

And here’s where it get’s wicked cool- Songkick syncs your personal calendar with your music library! It finds shows and shows them to you…based on the music you already HAVE.

Don’t care about when or where Nickelback is playing next? (And I hope you don’t…) As long as you don’t have any in your library, Songkick won’t show you where they’re playing.

It’s relatively new; founded in 2007 by three amigos Michele You, Pete Smith and Ian Hogarth; it now boasts over one million shows and festivals.

Think of it as Facebook for live shows. But instead of people you knew in High School blasting updates about their kids at the beach, it’s updates of when Phish, Widespread Panic, The Allman Brothers, Old Crow Medicine Show and The Hold Steady are going to be playing near you.

Pretty cool, eh?

But wait…(and, just so we’re clear…I’m NOT getting paid to write this)- with a profile, you can use this service like you would Facebook. Adding friends, private messages and personalized photos.

Something that makes seeing great shows easier? High five to the guys behind Songkick. I’ve found a new favorite Website.