Philly music this week moves to holiday mode with Mariah Carey. Plus, Black Friday Record Store Day recs

This week Philly music moves into holiday music mode with Mariah Carey’s annual Christmas tour and features a Trinidadian soca band, a Philly duo’s tribute to a Brazilian music icon, two nights of hip-hop soul in South Philly, and another opportunity to see Philly’s incomparable Sun Ra Arkestra and their wondrous 100-year-old bandleader.

The Trinidadian band is Kes, the high-energy ensemble led by singer Kees Dieffenthaller that plays the Fillmore on Friday. They mix soca — short for “soul of calypso” — with reggae, R&B, pop, and hip hop.

The band, whose new album, Man With No Door, leans into an Afrobeat influence, was a standout at Sting and Shaggy’s One Fine Day festival at the Mann Center in 2023, where its members were welcomed enthusiastically as ambassadors of Caribbean culture.

Scranton-born pop-punk band the Menzingers is coming back to Philadelphia, just as they begged the love of their life to do in the 2019 song “Anna,” which rhymes with “the place ain’t the same without ya.” The Greg Barnett- and Tom May-fronted group marks the 10th anniversary of its 2014 album, Rented World, at the Theatre of Living Arts on Friday, then circles back for shows at Ardmore Music Hall on Dec. 30 and 31.

Electronic dance musician Marc Rebillet built his audience on YouTube during the pandemic, with the often shirtless artist’s rowdy showmanship whipping club kids into a frenzy while they were stuck in their own homes. Now Rebillet (also known as Loop Daddy) is a globe-trotting DJ-producer IRL and plays Union Transfer on Friday and Saturday.

It’s a big weekend for big bands. Grammy-nominated Philly jazz pianist Orrin Evans brings his Captain Black Big Band to the Perelman Theater at the Kimmel Center on Friday. Philly Steely Dan tribute band Countdown to Ecstasy is at World Cafe Live on Friday. And the amazing Marshall Allen, who still lives in the Sun Ra house on Morton Street in Germantown, brings the Sun Ra Arkestra to City Winery Philadelphia on Saturday.

Black Friday is Record Store Day Black Friday, with Philly indie music stores participating in the holiday shopping season version of the vinyl-celebrating event.

Among the limited-edition releases available on Friday by Philly-connected artists are Sun Ra’s Lights on a Satellite: Live at the Left Bank 1978 (a live recording that has now been revisited with a new Sun Ra Arkestra recording, also called Lights on a Satellite); Slaughter Beach, Dog’s Live at the Cabin; and Todd Rundgren’s Utopia. There are also RSD exclusives by Billie Eilish, Olivia Rodrigo, and Noah Kahan, as well as the Beatles, Joni Mitchell, U2, and the Rolling Stones.

While you’re at the record store, here are some gift-of-music recommendations of releases that are new this month: Michael Kiwanuka’s Small Changes; Dwight Yoakam’s Brighter Days; Kim Deal’s Nobody Loves You More; Tyler, the Creator’s Chromakopia; Low Cut Connie’s Connie Live; The Coward Brothers' self-titled album; Father John Misty’s Mahashmashana; and Willie Nelson’s Last Leaf on the Tree. Sorry, Kendrick Lamar’s GNX, which he surprise dropped last Friday, will not be available physically until March.

While we’re talking about shopping: Taylor Swift’s self-published The Official Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour Book comes out Friday. You‘ll have to shop at Target for that, though. And there’s a second Swift book also coming out Friday offering insight as well as fandom: Rob Sheffield’s Heartbreak Is the National Anthem: How Taylor Swift Re-Invented Pop Music.

Back to live music: Minas, the Philly band led by Orlando and Patricia Haddad is playing in its quintet configuration on Saturday at World Cafe Live. It’s a tribute to Sergio Mendes, the bossa nova bandleader of Brasil ‘66 who died earlier this year.

Philly power-pop band the Bret Tobias Set — whose titular front man is the former leader of Philly rock band the Bigger Lovers — has a stellar EP out called Butter Valley Malcontent, which features Tobias on vocals on four songs and Krista Umile on one. They celebrate at Johnny Brenda’s Saturday with Mandy Valentine and All the Living and the Dead.

Florida rapper and crooner Rod Wave brings his trap-soul sound to the Wells Fargo Center for two shows, on Saturday and Sunday. It’s the last arena-sized hip-hop tour of the year, with not one but five opening acts: Moneybagg Yo, Toosii, Lil Poppa, Dess Dior, and Eelmatic. Also, on Sunday, Rhett Miller of Old 97’s plays City Winery, with former World Cafe radio host turned singer-songwriter Talia Schlanger as opening act.

And finally, Mariah Carey brings her “Christmas Time” tour to the Wells Fargo on Tuesday. She’s celebrating the 30th anniversary of her modern holiday classic “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” which was knocked off the top of the iTunes holiday music chart by Jason Kelce and Stevie Nicks’ “Maybe This Christmas” earlier this month. It’s back at number one now.

Carey’s show is mostly made up of sugar plum fairies and holiday songs, and is unabashedly old-school in its mistletoe and holly approach. But the show, which features Carey’s 13-year-old twins, Monroe and Moroccan Cannon, also includes a medley of non-holiday hits like “Emotions” and “Hero.”

Besides Carey, Christmas shows are coming in venues throughout the area over the next month. On Friday, guitarist Gary Hoey plays the Sellersville Theater, transforming himself for the occasion into Gary Ho Ho Hoey.

And country singer Brett Eldredge brings his “Glow: Welcome to the Family Tour” to the Met Philly on Sunday. That’s the North Broad Street opera house’s last music show for a while, as it transforms itself into a comedy club with Kevin Hart beginning a five-night “Acting My Age” run on Dec. 4 and Jim Gaffigan doing four “Barely Alive” shows starting Dec. 12.