JON LANGFORD & THE SEXY, GUESTS
(Lock & Keel) See Drunk by Noon, page 69.
ANNA OXYGEN, THE CATCH, DJ PACO, DJ FUCKING IN THE STREETS
(Chop Suey) Anna Oxygen's take on the '80s retro trend was a breath of fresh air in a time when the trend, still fashionable, had already become stale. Thanks to the faultless ears of Cold Crush Records co-owner Derek Fudesco, who also plays in Pretty Girls Makes Graves, Oxygen's album, All Your Faded Things, was heard and instantly admired. The Catch are the new Seattle It Girls, if you know what I'm saying. And if you haven't yet seen them live, please do, so you can see singer Carly Nicklaus' natural charisma, reminiscent of that displayed by Visqueen's Rachel Flotard, but in a different, yet equally stunning, style. KATHLEEN WILSON
BETTY X, RABID DOGS, THE INSURGENCE
(Crocodile) The Insurgence have only been playing shows for four months but already there has been a bit of buzz about 'em. Since they started playing their song "Down Below" on the Internet radio station Mohawk Radio (www.mohawkradio.com), new fans have been leaving messages like "Luvin' that song 'Down Below' from Insurgence. PLAY IT MORE PLEASE!!" and "I love that stuff from the Insurgence... shit sounds bad-ass!!" on the site's message board. The kids seem to like it. "Down Below" also spent many weeks on the top of Epitaph's Demo-lition (which is a section of Epitaph's website dedicated to hosting free MP3s so music fans can listen to the songs and rate them on a scale of one to five). The Insurgence take kinda snotty lead vocals, pair them with sing-alongable backing vocals, and then do that whole early Rancid-esque punk rock and roll thing. MEGAN SELING
THE DT'S, THE MIDNIGHT EVILS, HONKY KO
(Sunset) Sporting their JUST released debut, Hard Fixed, the DT's are doing their best to mate rock and soul, the 1970s... evidently notwithstanding, and calling it Hard Soul. Honestly, they're a good package, that frontlady can SING, and their set list, the covers, aren't obscure, so it's nice to dig them songs in a fresh context, HOWEVER, just covering soul songs does not a soul band make. Hard or not, they give little consideration to sophistication needed for makin' SOUL, uh, like soul rarely includes overdriven guitar... so don't call 'em "soul," call 'em a rock band with good taste 'cause in that regard, they SMOKE! MIKE NIPPER
FRIDAY 4/16
AKIMBO, BIG BUSINESS, DOOMSDAY 1999, LAHAR
(Old Fire House) See Underage, page 79.
PLAN B MINI ORCHESTRA, IQU, THE DALMATIONS, SCAPE, NKO, SIENTIFIC AMERICAN, PARSKID
(COCA) See Some Candy Talking, page 96.
THE SWORDS PROJECT, DOLOREAN, MANTA RAY
(Sunset) Manta Ray is a band from Spain whose latest album, Estratexa, is light and airy, yet angry in tone, all at the same time (fast drums and fuzz!). Most of the liner notes are in their native tongue (the lyrics, however, are mostly sung in English), but there is a translated message that reiterates that the song "Rosa Parks" is dedicated "to her and to all the people who of today that still suffer discrimination because of the color of their skin." There's also another translated bit informing listeners that in track 5, "Añada", the sample (taken from the Asturian band Muyeres) is the sound of milk being made into butter, meant to calm children and put them to sleep. KATHLEEN WILSON See also preview, page 62.
CHAMPION, THE PHYSICAL CHALLENGE, INTERNAL AFFAIRS, LIGHTS OUT, MURDOCK
(Vera Project) Local hardcore band Champion has been pretty quiet lately, or so it has seemed, and after taking my concerns to NWhardcore.com founder and all around nice guy Jamund Ferguson, he assured me that the band is busy as ever finishing up their debut full-length, and preparing for European and U.S. tours (I knew he'd know what's up). And while I could tell you all about it, pretending I know what I'm talking about, I'll just give you the facts straight from Jamund's mouth, because he's cooler and smarter than me. "Champion just got back from Boston where they recorded their full-length and it's going to come out on Bridge Nine mid-July. They're going to tour Europe at the end of the month, they'll return late May, and will be going on a U.S. tour sometime after that. Their record was recorded by Kurt Ballou from Converge and it will destroy everything." So there you have it, you know all there is to know too. But why wait until mid-July for Champion to destroy everything when you can see them destroy the Vera Project tonight. Mosh, mosh, mosh. MEGAN SELING
SATURDAY 4/17
MURS OF LIVING LEGENDS, THE PERCEPTIONISTS, S.A. SMASH, GUESTS
(Neumo's) See preview, page 58.
HARKONEN, PLAYING ENEMY, WORMWOOD, THE ASSAILANT, SAY 10 HAIL MARYS
(Old Fire House) See Underage, page 79.
FANTïMAS, MELT BANANA, END
(Showbox) What more can I say about Melt Banana that I haven't already? I'm crazy for them, and I've probably bored you with the story about going AWOL only a couple hours after having a spinal tap--against strict orders to stay flat on my back or else risk all kinds of maladies--just to go to a Melt Banana show. The following days I paid for it in pain, but like I said, I love the Japanese band (the new Caucasian drummer is not a good addition) so damn much I don't care how it hurts. KATHLEEN WILSON See also preview, page 57.
THE PURRS, YELTSIN
(Dubliner) I love the name of the Purrs' EP: No Particular Bar, No Particular Town. It's sweet, slow, building, reverb-heavy, and maybe sounds like a higher-pitched Jim Reid, had he held down the angst on Darklands. Jima (one name) sings, and the record is pretty enough to make me want to check the band out live. I love a band that can stretch an ordinary word--like Jima does with "flow"--to three syllables, especially because flow becomes FLAWWHAHA. KATHLEEN WILSON
NAPALM BEACH, VALIS, DITCHLIQUOR
(Sunset) Now there is some old-timer, backintheday shit going on here tonight on this bill, including Napalm Beach and Valis. Napalm Beach, a band that has been together in Portland since god knows when (somewhere around 1980), released their first record, Liquid Love, on the Flying Hearts label in 1988. Some say that in those extremely early '80s, and along with the Wipers, Napalm Beach was the grunge band that started it all. Fire Air & Water followed in 1990 on the same label, with Chris Newman still doing the singing and songwriting. Curiosities followed in 1993 on the Tim/Kerr label and much of the catalog has been rereleased on CD since 2000. Now Valis, as you may or may not be aware, is a loud, mind-bending metal band lead by former Screaming Trees bassist Van Conner. Also in the band (much to the delight of anyone who was a Screaming Trees fan and saw them perform live) is Van's brother Patrick, and drummer Dan Peters (Fastbacks, Love Battery, and of course Mudhoney) was replaced by former Kitty Kitty drummer Sean Hollister. Now Adrian Makis has replaced former Tad member Kurt Danielson on bass. A split EP with Kitty Kitty came out in 1998 on Man's Ruin, and in 2002, after Valis added keyboard player Wes Weresch, they signed with Swedish label Luna and released Vast Active Intelligence System after Danielson had left the band. Kick ass. KATHLEEN WILSON
SUNDAY 4/18
TRACY + THE PLASTICS, THE KING COBRA, ANNA OXYGEN
(Consolidated Works) See preview, page 55.
MONDAY 4/19
Good morning, sunshine.
TUESDAY 4/20
THE BAD THINGS, MILKMAIDENS CRAWL
(Re-bar) See Drunk by Noon, page 71.
BLEEDING THROUGH, DEATH BY STEREO, HIMSA, AIDEN
(Graceland) If you're one of those understandable wackos who gets off on going "grrr" at the bloom of spring, tonight's your antisocial metalcore ticket, with a keys-in-a-fistful of bands that like to shout and cross their arms in publicity photos a lot. Bleeding Through headline the "Mutilation Tour." The typical throttling drumbeats, guitar-school ephedra-riffs, and frontperson gut-screams rattle underneath an erratically misplaced high-pitch of sad New Order keyboards. Or is it the other way around? They're going to be in Ozzfest this year, and on the cover of the This Is Love, This Is Murderous LP there's a rotting meat-heart with a black-handled kitchen knife jabbed inside. Raaggggghh! Yeah. I'm interested because Death by Stereo's probably named after Corey Haim's line in The Lost Boys. GUY FAWKES
THE TWILIGHT SINGERS, GUESTS
(Neumo's) So, it took a California earthquake to re-ignite the creative juices of the Twilight Singers' frontman, Greg Dulli. Well, if that's what it takes, so be it. Following the release of the Singers' first full-length (the blatantly titled Twilight), Cincinnati's favorite son found himself the proprietor of an L.A. watering hole with little to say musically. But when the earth moved in 2002, so did Dulli, and the latest outing with his ever-rotating collaborative is blessed with the urgency of a postquake rebuild. In the same manner as its predecessor, the Twilight Singers' new disc, Blackberry Belle, is speckled with guest performers ranging from That Dog's Petra Haden to Screaming Trees' Mark Lanegan. But no matter how many accessories Dulli arranges around himself, Blackberry Belle is still Dulli doing what he does best: making sinister, after-hours art from a life of sex, self-destruction, and chauvinism. For further affirmation, go to the show and pray he sings the line, "This world is wicked/I fit right in." BRIAN J. BARR
WEDNESDAY 4/21
JAZZY JEFF, DJ SCENE, B-MELLO
(Chop Suey) See the Truth, page 69.
HARVEY DANGER, NADA SURF
(Crocodile) See Stranger Suggests, page 43.
AN ALBATROSS, RAKING BOMBS, THE FALL OF TROY, SEX WITH GIRLS IS RAD
(Hideaway) Rarely can one glean much from an eight-and-a-half-minute CD, but such is the case with the latest from An Albatross, We Are the Lazer Viking (Ace Fu). The Dwarves did it to the then-stale Ramones style in the early '90s, bashing out fully formed tunes in under a minute, whole satisfying records under 15 minutes. This Philadelphia band utilizes that brief blasting concept to reinvigorate the yucky prog funk freakouts that have always been a dork bore in the hands of Primus, System of a Down, et al. An Albatross trash-compact all the fingered bass, syncopated rhythms, screeching vocals, and Farfisa organ circus acrobatics, thus leaving no time to recognize the embarrassing medieval festival-going heart of this genre. Plus they somehow find room to pack in guitar army gunshots, boogie shuffle, and rabble-rousing sloganeering. The eye-pop energy puts them in line with contemporary frazzled futurists like the Locust or Lost Sounds. God knows how this will play out live in front of your mug, but it ought to suck the Clearasil right out the pores. As one of their song titles goes, "Get Faster, Cry for Happy!" ERIC DAVIDSON
