What's Happening Now: Wednesday, April 9

Great break for Bad Veins: Local duo Bad Veins has received a $10,000 unrestricted grant as winners of the Target Music Maker Award in connection with the Tribeca Film Festival. They'll accept the money at this year's festival in New York City (April 23-May 4) and play a high-profile showcase May 2 at Webster Hall in Manhattan along with The Hold Steady, The Virgins and Republic Tigers.

Sebastien Schultz told me the Bad Veins didn't apply for the award program and had no idea they were even being considered until informed they'd won. Grammy-nominated music supervisor Alexandra Patsavas, who recently launched her music label Chop Shop Records, curated Tribeca's "Breaking the Band" program and led the selection process for the new cash award, which is given to an unsigned musician or band.

"With the generous support of Target, Bad Veins might record, mix, tour and certainly explore new opportunities," Patsavas says in a Tribeca press release.

Schultz said the band certainly will put the money to good use, as he and Ben Davis were just starting to figure out how to pay for a new recording session and maybe an upgrade in musical equipment. For more on Bad Veins, check out CityBeat's cover story from March 12.

Get to the Point: Cursive plays an intimate show tonight at Below Zero Lounge in Over-the-Rhine as the official kickoff to CityBeat's management of the MidPoint Music Festival. Between 5-7 p.m., CityBeat Marketing and Promotions Manager Dan McCabe will announce details of the 2008 MidPoint event — from its lead sponsors to its expansion out of the OTR/Downtown club footprint to its tweak of the only-unsigned-acts booking concept. Free admission, free BBQ from Pit to Plate and happy hour specials from Bud Select.

The live music portion of the evening starts at 7:00, with Capgun Coup opening for Cursive. $14 at the door. See Brian Baker's preview of Cursive here.

Two other shows tonight: Widespread Panic plays U.S. Bank Arena with support from Galactic (see our interview with WP's Jimmy Herring here) and punk pioneers Mick Jones of The Clash and Tony James play the 20th Century Theater as their new band Carbon/Silicon (see our interview with them here). Jones and James make a free in-store appearance at Shake It Records at 6 p.m.

  — John Fox