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Thursday, February 7, 2008
Weekend Picks: Melodramatic pop, Arabic dance, downtempo soul and more
Friday: Alex Cuervo’s birthday party at Beerland. A celebration of the leader of the Hex Dispensers’ birth. Expect the grimiest in local garage rock with Wax Museums, Maaster Gaiden, the Young, Pepperonis at Beerland. —-Joe Gross
Friday: An Arabian Night at the Red Fez. Arabic Bazaar owner Zein Al-Jundi works the wheels at the hottest Middle Eastern dance party in Austin. Expect Arabic club music and pop, belly dancing and more. Show up early to snag a seat, rent a sheesha (hookah) and snack on complimentary Arabic appetizers. 8-11 p.m., Free. —-Deborah Sengupta Stith
Friday: Rossi Mission at Club DeVille. This ‘melodramatic popular song’ band (according to its MySpace page) celebrates the release of its new album. Cool, distant guitar in the post-punk style mixes with whispered vocals and spare power. With Bronze Age and Sad Like Crazy. —- J.G.
Saturday: Misprint Magazine’s second annual Beard and Moustache Competition at Club DeVille. By the time you see this, one hopes that your entry is full and ready for Austin’s ‘Miss America’ of facial hair. With Horse + Donkey. $3. —- J.G.
Saturday: Sonido Boombox 2-year anniversary at Flamingo Cantina. The always relevant, bilingual METV show dedicated to all genres of Latin music celebrates 2 years of local showcases at Flamingo Cantina. Headlining the event is Radio la Chusma from El Paso, described by Sonido as “freaky hot Chicano reggae.” Also on the bill are Montoya, Boca Abajo and El Tule. $5-$7 —-D.S.S.
Saturday: Beta Player, TMC at Plush. A new instrumental downtempo/hip-hop ensemble featuring sublime vocals from the lovely and talented Ms. Yadira Brown opens for the consistently dangerous Table Manners Crew DJs in their regular residency gig at Plush. Free before 11 p.m. —-D.S.S.
Sunday: Black Mountain/The Viet Minh at Emo’s. This is one of those great outside/inside bills. Dead Meadow headlines outdoors, but Black Mountain’s ‘In the Future’ is one of this year’s most buzzed-about psychedelic rock albums. Blood on the Wall opens. Inside, three Austin acts — the Viet Mihn, Ringo Deathstarr and Strange Attractors — provide a different kind of psychedelic guitar frenzy. Separate covers. — J.G.
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The Bravery braved nothing at Emo’s
When The Bravery took the outside stageTuesday at Emo’s, the band easily could have been mistaken for the canceled opening act. Frontman Sam Endicott’s voice seemed as breathless and off key as the laryngitis-ridden singer for Your Vegas, which was unable to perform. Unfortunately, a lack of cough drops was the least of The Bravery’s problems.
Endicott and company are promoting their newest full-length release, “The Sun and the Moon,” which has spent five weeks on Billboard’s top 200 albums chart. During the hourlong performance, the outfit jumped back and forth between a two-album repertoire of songs that differ little sonically and lyrically from one another. With a weak precedent from the beginning of the set, the entire show appeared doomed to mediocrity.
The band did not assert themselves on stage, and their presence was as ignorable as a younger sibling. They looked like they would rather have been somewhere else (perhaps with the sizable entourage of young women whisked through the door between sets by one of the night’s earlier performers).
The band made their initial splash when dance-rock was the thing to do, and their New Wave-esque vocals sound convincing on record. At this show, however, Endicott sounded like a bad imitation of Morrissey without the aid of a studio. A sub-par PA system did not help the band’s case, either. The signature electronic components of The Bravery’s sound were dulled to obscurity in the mix, the synths often barely audible. At times, dance-friendly bass lines outshined the rest of the group.
The bottom line: The Bravery has generated a lot of hype to live up to. On Jan. 29, MTV named them “Artist of the Week.” They had a couple of energetic moments on Tuesday while playing their anthems “Public Service Announcement” and especially “An Honest Mistake.” But unless they make considerable changes, they will not survive among the industry’s elite.
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Full South by Southwest 2008 band list released
South by Southwest has released its full band list. It can be found here.
Here are some highlights of the nearly 1,600 act/ 79 stage festival:
R.E.M. (whose new album “Accelerate” hits stores April 1)
Dolly Parton (whose new album “Backwoods Barbie” should hit stores Feb. 26)
High on Fire
Vampire Weekend (whose self-titled album sold 27,000 copies in its first week)
“Viking metal” band Enslaved
Thurston Moore’s solo band, including the great guitarist Chris Brokaw
Genghis Tron
Shoegazer revival band A Place To Bury Strangers
My Morning Jacket
Hard rock founding fathers Blue Cheer
Garage titans the Bad Trips
Naked Raygun (a reunion show)
Psych rockers Black Mountain
Destroyer (whose new album “Trouble in Dreams” hits stores March 18)
Chevu
The Vines
Carbon/Silicon (ex-Clash/B.A.D. guitarist Mick Jones’ new band)
The Black & White Years (whose recent set at the MIDEM conference was a huge hit)
And, well, about 1,600 more.
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Willie questions Sept. 11 story on Alex Jones show
Willie Nelson did an interview with conspiracy theorist Alex Jones on Feb. 4. When a starstruck A.J. finally stops gushing, Willie lets loose with a few conspiracy theories of his own concerning Sept. 11, 2001.
On the World Trade Center buildings, Nelson said: “I saw one fall and it was just so symmetrical, I said wait a minute I just saw that last week at the casino in Las Vegas and you see these implosions all the time and the next one fell and I said hell there’s another one — and they’re trying to tell me that an airplane did it and I can’t go along with that.”
Too much Willie Weed or too much Alex Jones, who Nelson said he listens to all the time? You decide.
At any rate, comics at the upcoming “Willie Nelson Comedy Central Roast,” which will be taped April 17 in Los Angeles, will have more fodder to go with all the pot jokes. The roast will air in June.
Read more on the conspiracy story here
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