From the Mar 25 – Mar 31, 2004 issue

Music

Up & Coming

THURSDAY 3/25


THE CHARMING SNAKES, EUGENE MIRMAN, ANNA OXYGEN, BIG BUSINESS
(Neumo's) See Stranger Suggests, page 19.

THE MEKONS, PAUL BURCH
(Chop Suey) Chugging along quietly like a locomotive speeding through the plains by night, "Lovesick Blues Boy" opens Paul Burch's Fool for Love (Bloodshot) with a caveat: "I'm the kind that your momma warned you about...." But the only reason listeners should be wary of this Nashville denizen's fifth album is its slyly addictive properties. Burch aspires to the simplicity of classic country without aping clichés, sweetening his songs with hints of jazz and soul, yielding results that will resonate with fans of Lambchop (with whom Burch played at one time). On the slow tunes, Burch frames his nimble, reedy voice with curling wisps of pedal steel, but he can rock out, too; the accordion-driven "If You're Gonna Love Me" jumps like a western swing classic, and the rollicking "Life of a Fool" is the best pub rocker Nick Lowe never wrote. KURT B. REIGHLEY

PETTY BOOKA, NOODLES, BLEACH, KOKESHI DOLL
(Sunset) Regardless of what buzz bands attend South by Southwest, Japanese music night is always the conference's must-see show. While it might be scenesteriffic to boast that you saw the Strokes or White Stripes play an industry showcase well before they packed cavernous concert halls, it's easy to track down a garage band: Just follow the trail of grease to the distortion hum. For a challenge, try finding another female Japanese duo that plays ukulele and sings soprano while wearing Hawaiian-print shirts and cowboy hats. Petty Booka's set lists include authentic Hawaiian numbers, blistering bluegrass romps, and charming covers that combine the styles, like their mind-blowing renditions of "The Tide Is High" and "Material Girl." This bill also includes three other all-female Japanese acts, making this the type of internationally-flavored destination night that music fans usually have to travel and slap on a badge to see. ANDREW MILLER

FRIDAY 3/26


THE LIARS, YOUNG PEOPLE, THE GET HUSTLE, NORDIC
(Graceland) See preview, page 29.

JOAN JETT AND THE BLACKHEARTS, THE DIVORCE, HELLFIRE CHOIR
(EMP Sky Church) Joan Jett has always perfectly straddled the line between punk and pop. Today, her set lists are as dependable as a German train schedule, interspersing her Top 40 hits ("I Hate Myself for Loving You," "Crimson and Clover," and, yes, that one) with telling covers geared toward diehard fans, including the Stooges' "I Wanna Be Your Dog," the Replacements' "Androgynous," and "Science Fiction Double Feature," from her Broadway debut, The Rocky Horror Show. (The latter two also surface on her Japanese-only CD Naked, due out next month.) Her sidemen get younger every year, but Jett still rocks with the undiluted energy of the teenager who co-wrote the Runaways' "Cherry Bomb"; somewhere, locked in a closet on Long Island, is a 1982 issue of Creem magazine with a cover photo that is aging in Jett's stead. KURT B. REIGHLEY SATURDAY 3/27


SHAMELESS: DJs RECESS, MISHA, DEREK RISHER, THE PERFECT CYN, GUESTS
(Alibi Room) See Data Breaker, page 49.

THE CHROMATICS, VERONICA LIPGLOSS & THE EVIL EYE, THE BLACK LIPS, TRACTOR SEX FATALITY
(Fun House) See preview, page 29.

ONELINEDRAWING, DECIBULLY, ROY, CARDIA
(Graceland, early) See Underage, page 51.

BLONDE REDHEAD, GUESTS
(Showbox) See Stranger Suggests, page 19.

THE CURSES, CURVADORE, THE BAD DATES
(Lobo) Oh yeah... now THIS is some of what you might call "punk rocks," garage style... in a good way, like, NOT MtV or "five Swedes dressed alike" style, this is more like leather, bristles, studs, and... of course, ACNE! So, like, I promise there ain't gonna be no poses of ANY fucking KIND which seems to say sideways, "Hey dudes, let's return to rock" via some indie rock shill dressed head to toe with a pretense of peppermint who is attempting to pass as one of US. Dig? Um... since I'd reckon none of these bands ain't never LEFT the rock behind in order to somehow "return to rock." Right, this'll be more like the traditional "we gonna drink lots 'n' lots of cheap beer till a few, if not all, of us vomit foamy foam through our noses and then collapse in a pig pile on toppa those we love most"! MIKE NIPPER

SUNDAY 3/28


THE COOPER TEMPLE CLAUSE, CALLA
(Crocodile) See preview, page 36.

AMY BLASCHKE
(Le Pichet) It's hard to reduce Amy Blaschke's recent self-titled LP to the elements that make it such a permanent fixture in my Discman. The songs, particularly "Skating at Night" and "Thoughtlessness Of," are like mouthfuls of snow--hushed and stilled, they seem to melt on contact. Blaschke's voice is pretty, but her singing (like all good singing) is plain, unadorned by tricks or affectation. The words are straightforward ("I don't want it, in fact I hate it"), the playing is tasteful and tasty. In all, it's a fantastic piece of work that translates as well to a lonely room as to a smoky club. SEAN NELSON

THE STARLIGHT MINTS, DRESSY BESSY, ARCHITECTURE IN HELSINKI, DEATHRAY DAVIES
(Neumo's) So there are bands that you like and enjoy and put on every so often while loading your roommates' mailbox with horrible porn, but they're also the ones that are somehow kind of hard to really care about. While Okalahoma's Starlight Mints live in the same swooning indie orchestra lollipop world as the Polyphonic Spree, they have about 37 less members (cowards!) and a more restrained rainbow/rockist chug. Hmmm. And then there's Dressy Bessy's beach-party xylophone boogaloo, which is background-catchy and low on irony, almost precious like everybody's finally realized the Strokes aren't--a harmless '50s spring break of feminine celebration where the lifeguards sound like the Chantels, Shonen Knife, and the Go-Go's, and the sand is made of grains of sugar. Bands like these are fun. Fresh air! But maybe it's come down to blowing the bobby socks off Neumo's to make us really feel it. GUY FAWKES

MONDAY 3/29


THE UNICORNS, BEANS, KISSKISSKISS
(Crocodile) I gotta give it up to Beans. The tireless avant-bard is supporting his spiky, sparkling new EP of originals and remixes, Now Soon Someday, on which you can find "Databreaker" in all its sly, future-funk glory. Oh, wait--this is a different Beans playing tonight, a Canadian post-rock group with a trunkful of Godspeed You! Black Emperor comparisons. My bad. Allmusic.com calls them "a leading force in melodic experimental music," so you should go. DAVE SEGAL See also preview, page 33.

JOHN WILKES BOOZE, XXX AUDIO, THE GLAMOUR PETS, DJ ROYAL BROHAMMS
(Fun House) "Death to the fascist insects/That prey on the lives of the people...." So goes one of many catchy ditties, a Hare Krishna-style sing-along, on The Five Pillars of Soul by John Wilkes Booze. The debut full-length (out momentarily on Kill Rock Stars) from these six Bloomington, IN, pushers of raunchy "Hoosier Soul" consists of tracks culled from five limited-edition CD EPs (now out of print), each of which celebrated the life of a quintessential cultural icon: kidnapped heiress Tania (AKA Patty) Hearst; filmmaker Melvin Van Peebles; free jazz innovator Albert Ayler; elfin glam rocker Marc Bolan; and Yoko Ono. Less bombastic than Jon Spencer and his cronies, yet more coherent than the shambling Brian Jonestown Massacre, JWB have crafted a disc so vibrant and volatile, it sounds like it could disintegrate into smoldering slag, à la Mission Impossible, at any second. KURT B. REIGHLEY

OFFICER MAY, ARGONAUT, NO MEANS YES, VARIA
(Graceland) Woe unto the band that rolls into Seattle thick with the stench of the city's most precious rock deities. Yeah, you've heard this one before, but for real, Officer May might just be as close to Nirvana (Burning Brides notwithstanding) as anyone's gonna get without porking Courtney Love. Just about every hack with a pair of working eardrums, and a hundred or so words to kill in their local alt-weekly, is saying this Boston power trio's debut, Smoking in a Minor (Ace Fu), is the best goddamn Bleach (or Incesticide) rip-off, like, ever. Seattle can roll its eyes all it wants, but close 'em for a minute, and... well, it's pretty fucking close, you have to admit--and not too shabby at that. Chuck in some Big Black and maybe Sonic Youth, and you're there. Which means Officer May's racket is either exactly what you want or exactly what you don't want, depending how high your pedestal is these days. J. BENNETT

DAMIEN RICE, THE FRAMES
(Moore) Like many of you, I first heard Damien Rice's self-produced debut, O, when it was forced upon me by a woman. First, she played it for me on a boom box. I responded favorably to Rice's warm smooth singing, his Kelly brogue, and the gentle, organic instrumentation of his sad love songs, but it's not like the record blew my mind or anything. Not long after, this girl bought me a copy of the CD (and not just the regular pressing either, the deluxe, cloth-bound version) because she "knew how much I appreciated it." Subsequent listens to O, free from the peer pressure of my friend's boom box, have proven it to be a site-specific LP. At times, Rice's romantic agonies sound trite ("love taught me to lie," etc.) and tailored for the female side of the MOR pasture. Other times, however, particularly when I'm reminded of my poignant feelings for this one particular girl, Rice strikes me as the perfect complement to a rainy afternoon. This show will undoubtedly be packed with swooning women and their escorts, at least some of whom are bound to be pining in vain for the certain someones sitting next to them. It's nice work if you can get it, Damien Rice. Well done. SEAN NELSON

NOFX, ALKALINE TRIO, JELLO BIAFRA, AUTHORITY ZERO
(Premier) Whether or not you feel that NOFX holds any relevance today as a pop-punk band, you gotta give Fat Mike and the crew credit for launching their anti-Bush/pro-vote campaign Punk Voter (www.punkvoter.com) in order to stress the importance of voting (and especially the importance of voting against Bush) in 2004. The organization's founder (and NOFX member) Fat Mike has rallied up bands like Foo Fighters, Dag Nasty (who are apparently reuniting for the cause), Mudhoney, Tool, and Bad Religion for national "Rock Against Bush" tours and shows. And along with the concerts and website, there will also be a Rock Against Bush compilation CD released in April (which is promised to cost under 10 bucks) that will help fund the Punk Voter campaign. NOFX touring again? Dag Nasty reuniting? I guess that's the plus side to having a jackass running the country. MEGAN SELING

TUESDAY 3/30


ODDJOBS, BYRDIE, GRAYSKUL
(Chop Suey) See the Truth, page 29.

ARCHITECTURE IN HELSINKI, ANNA OXYGEN, MU MESON
(Crocodile) Thelonious Monk supposedly said that writing about music is like dancing about architecture. In a recently relevant corollary, writing about Architecture in Helsinki is like dancing about Architecture in Helsinki--both are quite challenging. The eight-piece Australian group, setting off on its first-ever American tour, makes lush, multilayered sounds that are difficult to describe in genre terms--phrases such as "enveloping" and "enchanting" come closer than "post-rock" or "slowcore." AIH's melodies are so mesmerizing that concertgoers won't want to move out of fear of breaking the spell. ANDREW MILLER See also Stranger Suggests, page19.

WEDNESDAY 3/31


N.E.R.D., BLACK EYED PEAS
(Moore) See the Truth, page 29.

MÉTAL URBAIN, THE INTELLIGENCE, JOEY CASIO
(Hideaway) See preview, page 35.

THE GET UP KIDS, RECOVER, ROCKY VOTOLATO
(Graceland) Okay, so I haven't completely written off the Get Up Kids, but their brand-new record, Guilt Show, sure does a great job convincing me that they're no longer into the rock and roll so much as they're into writing some songs while sitting around a fire roasting marshmallows or something. But to TGUK's credit, they've always been an impressive live band--really fun energy, great sound--so even if they are less rock these days, you still might have a good time bobbing your head and singing along when they pull classics like "No Love" and "Close to Home" out of the vault (which, hopefully, they will do). What's more, local favorite Rocky Votolato is also on the bill, so even if TGUK fail to please (which, honestly, they probably won't), Votolato is sure to, with his heartfelt, sincere songs, and beautifully raw voice. MEGAN SELING

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