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How to Rob a Bank
Thursday 18
Ikea, girls with dragon tattoos, crazy-delicious little meatballs, black-metal music. These are Sweden’s main exports, according to the Swedish Trade Council, which, y’know, I totally called. From Sweden, black-metal trio Watain will challenge your good sense and sense of good when it casts its e-vil sonic pall over Ruby Room. They’re on a world tour in support of their fourth headbanger, Lawless Darkness, released this summer by metal mainstay Season of Mist. Check your computer speakers here: myspace.com/watainofficial. Can’t not tell you that a band called Goatwhore is also on the bill.... From the absolute opposite end of the rock-roll spectrum, psychedelic jam band New Riders of the Purple Sage will be serving up your RDA of granola rock. They came up in the SanFran ’60s when Garcia, Hart, and Lesh rotated through the band and they had a hit with “Panama Red.” Got it? Excellent. Moving along... Soda Bar sets up Sac-town’s Sister Crayon, an electro-pop/trip-hop quartet that sounds like MGMT with a feminine touch. Well, more of a feminine touch. Seattleites Truckasaurus will play Quarters first.... Jungle Fever hits Tin Can Ale House with infectious punk-pop along with labelmates Maybe Baby and the Baja Bugs. Dorian got all “Blurty” with Jungle Fever this week, if you want to find out what the old Wild Weekenders have been up to.... Oh boy, poloi, if cultcha’s what you crave, the Calder Quartet from the Juilliard School will illuminate the Loft at UCSD. The L.A.-based string players rock some Bartók, yo.
Friday 19
Hutch Harris is a good punk-rock name, don’t you think? His trio the Thermals will warm Casbah Friday night behind their fifth KRS disc Personal Life. Popular press says they shot their wad with 2006’s The Body, the Blood, the Machine — one of my favorites of the decade, if only for the fact that it finally got my little skaterats off the American Idiot tip — but I think Hutch Harris is too good a punk-rock name to just fade away. Go, Thermals! With party punx and fellow Portlanders White Fang, this’d be the gig to get to.... Them Missouri boys with the impossibly verbose name Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin are touring in support of this year’s well-received Polyvinyl platter Let It Sway. Consensus is the quartet has found their niche — they’re an indie boy band, with more hooks than a Missourah tackle box. They’ll be at the Loft at UCSD.... Ex-Adolescent Frank Agnew’s on the ax for L.A. punk perennials 45 Grave, which will dig in at the Shakedown with River Bottom Nightmare. Social Spit will start the pit.... Josey’s son Kyle Eastwood appears at Anthology. Apparently, Mr. Eastwood the younger is an accomplished composer and jazz bassist who likes to funk things up. Yeah, but can he take out seven guys with a six-shooter? I didn’t think so. Pop-rock quartet The 88 will play the late show at the Little It’ly supper club. Their song “Coming Home” is the earworm that’s infected anyone who’s seen a TV commercial this year.... And Sconnie folkie Willy Porter will teach you How to Rob a Bank when he checks in at the AMSD Concerts showplace in Normal Heights.
Saturday 20
Dust off the Schwinn and pump up the skids, kids, it’s Bike the Boulevard day. Starts at Live Wire at noon, then just follow the crowd. Soda Bar’s got an info poster on their site (sodabarmusic.com/calendar.php) and the avant-rock stock this weekend, featuring jazz-rock cross-polinators Zs and Arrington De Dionyso (Old Time Relijun)...hard-rock throwbacks the Dragons and Lord Howler hit Eleven...and it’ll be garage groups the Old In Out and Space Nature at Til Two.... Mary Timony of Helium and Janet Weiss and Carrie Brownstein of Sleater-Kinney have stitched up Wild Flag, an all-girl indie-rock group that sounds like “an avalanche taking out a dolphin.” Huh. Anyhow, Wild Flag waves at Casbah with Grass Widow and Eux Autres.... The Tin Can sets out a smorgasbord of sounds from the garage-pop of New Mexico and Grand Tarantula to the post-punk musings of Mrs. Magician and skategazer Scruffles. Dig this kid: myspace.com/thescrufflesmusic.... Alt-country singer-songer Tift Merrit is touring in support of her fourth proper, Billboard heatseeker See You on the Moon. Merrit will be at Anthology Saturday night with Elizabeth & the Catapult under a KPRI banner.... If you’re feeling ambitious and need a dose of Hollywood glam from a full-throttle glam-metal band, Faster Pussycat’s celebrating 25 years at Ramona Mainstage.
Sunday 21
Honk if you love Dick! Belly Up will host a Country Dick Montana celebration, featuring tons of his loved ones — country skrunks all. Click this for the list: bellyup.com/show/detail/32770. Hard to believe, but November 8 was 15 years. If you need a primer, they’re going to screen Beat Farmers flick Pay Up, Cheaters first, at 6:45.... Udderwise: up thataway at the Ché Café, electronic experimentalists Religious Girls kneel down to play with Chelsea Wolfe...and downtown, Casbah’s got a Holy moly! Sunday nighter, featuring very alt-pop Liverpudlians Clinic, SanFran psych-pop band the Fresh and Onlys (you picked up their excellent Play It Strange yet?), and local faves Lights On and the Loons. (Psst, go get a ticket, like, now.)
Monday 22
Looks as if the Loons can just leave their stuff at the club. They’ll be back for Casbah’s weekly Anti-Monday meeting, opening for Canada band the Sadies, which is out to tout this year’s crit hit Darker Circles. The A.V. Club gave it an A- for its Byrdsian dueling guitars, “one filling the room with reckless reverb, the other delicately plucked.” Yea, man.... Across town, Detroit’s hard-rockin’-yet-tastefully-melodic Satin Peaches drop into Soda Bar behind this year’s Arsenic EP. Pick a Peach: myspace.com/thesatinpeaches.
Tuesday 23
Belly Up books about the hottest ticket a Tuesday’s ever seen, as Black Mountain will beat its Wilderness Heart — the Jagjaguwar act’s best yet, and that’s saying something — behind super-psychedelic Austinites Black Angels. I know, right? C u there.... Else: Atlanta three-piece the Queers headline a hella pop-punk showcase at Casbah with Kepi Ghoulie, Bombpops!, and the Riptides...and you’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll have beers, as outsider performer David Nkrumah Liebe Unger Hart (Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!) does whatever the hell it is he does at Tin Can Ale House.
Wednesday 24
I’m already 83 words over, and you probably need a night in, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t tell you that local power trio Bloodflowers are in bloom at Bar Pink...and the witchy, glitchy Raw Moans will kick off their maiden tour at the Tin Can with tropical-pop hits Heavy Hawaii.
— Barnaby Monk
Here's something you might be interested in.
How to Rob a Bank
How to Rob a Bank
Thursday 18
Ikea, girls with dragon tattoos, crazy-delicious little meatballs, black-metal music. These are Sweden’s main exports, according to the Swedish Trade Council, which, y’know, I totally called. From Sweden, black-metal trio Watain will challenge your good sense and sense of good when it casts its e-vil sonic pall over Ruby Room. They’re on a world tour in support of their fourth headbanger, Lawless Darkness, released this summer by metal mainstay Season of Mist. Check your computer speakers here: myspace.com/watainofficial. Can’t not tell you that a band called Goatwhore is also on the bill.... From the absolute opposite end of the rock-roll spectrum, psychedelic jam band New Riders of the Purple Sage will be serving up your RDA of granola rock. They came up in the SanFran ’60s when Garcia, Hart, and Lesh rotated through the band and they had a hit with “Panama Red.” Got it? Excellent. Moving along... Soda Bar sets up Sac-town’s Sister Crayon, an electro-pop/trip-hop quartet that sounds like MGMT with a feminine touch. Well, more of a feminine touch. Seattleites Truckasaurus will play Quarters first.... Jungle Fever hits Tin Can Ale House with infectious punk-pop along with labelmates Maybe Baby and the Baja Bugs. Dorian got all “Blurty” with Jungle Fever this week, if you want to find out what the old Wild Weekenders have been up to.... Oh boy, poloi, if cultcha’s what you crave, the Calder Quartet from the Juilliard School will illuminate the Loft at UCSD. The L.A.-based string players rock some Bartók, yo.
Friday 19
Hutch Harris is a good punk-rock name, don’t you think? His trio the Thermals will warm Casbah Friday night behind their fifth KRS disc Personal Life. Popular press says they shot their wad with 2006’s The Body, the Blood, the Machine — one of my favorites of the decade, if only for the fact that it finally got my little skaterats off the American Idiot tip — but I think Hutch Harris is too good a punk-rock name to just fade away. Go, Thermals! With party punx and fellow Portlanders White Fang, this’d be the gig to get to.... Them Missouri boys with the impossibly verbose name Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin are touring in support of this year’s well-received Polyvinyl platter Let It Sway. Consensus is the quartet has found their niche — they’re an indie boy band, with more hooks than a Missourah tackle box. They’ll be at the Loft at UCSD.... Ex-Adolescent Frank Agnew’s on the ax for L.A. punk perennials 45 Grave, which will dig in at the Shakedown with River Bottom Nightmare. Social Spit will start the pit.... Josey’s son Kyle Eastwood appears at Anthology. Apparently, Mr. Eastwood the younger is an accomplished composer and jazz bassist who likes to funk things up. Yeah, but can he take out seven guys with a six-shooter? I didn’t think so. Pop-rock quartet The 88 will play the late show at the Little It’ly supper club. Their song “Coming Home” is the earworm that’s infected anyone who’s seen a TV commercial this year.... And Sconnie folkie Willy Porter will teach you How to Rob a Bank when he checks in at the AMSD Concerts showplace in Normal Heights.
Saturday 20
Dust off the Schwinn and pump up the skids, kids, it’s Bike the Boulevard day. Starts at Live Wire at noon, then just follow the crowd. Soda Bar’s got an info poster on their site (sodabarmusic.com/calendar.php) and the avant-rock stock this weekend, featuring jazz-rock cross-polinators Zs and Arrington De Dionyso (Old Time Relijun)...hard-rock throwbacks the Dragons and Lord Howler hit Eleven...and it’ll be garage groups the Old In Out and Space Nature at Til Two.... Mary Timony of Helium and Janet Weiss and Carrie Brownstein of Sleater-Kinney have stitched up Wild Flag, an all-girl indie-rock group that sounds like “an avalanche taking out a dolphin.” Huh. Anyhow, Wild Flag waves at Casbah with Grass Widow and Eux Autres.... The Tin Can sets out a smorgasbord of sounds from the garage-pop of New Mexico and Grand Tarantula to the post-punk musings of Mrs. Magician and skategazer Scruffles. Dig this kid: myspace.com/thescrufflesmusic.... Alt-country singer-songer Tift Merrit is touring in support of her fourth proper, Billboard heatseeker See You on the Moon. Merrit will be at Anthology Saturday night with Elizabeth & the Catapult under a KPRI banner.... If you’re feeling ambitious and need a dose of Hollywood glam from a full-throttle glam-metal band, Faster Pussycat’s celebrating 25 years at Ramona Mainstage.
Sunday 21
Honk if you love Dick! Belly Up will host a Country Dick Montana celebration, featuring tons of his loved ones — country skrunks all. Click this for the list: bellyup.com/show/detail/32770. Hard to believe, but November 8 was 15 years. If you need a primer, they’re going to screen Beat Farmers flick Pay Up, Cheaters first, at 6:45.... Udderwise: up thataway at the Ché Café, electronic experimentalists Religious Girls kneel down to play with Chelsea Wolfe...and downtown, Casbah’s got a Holy moly! Sunday nighter, featuring very alt-pop Liverpudlians Clinic, SanFran psych-pop band the Fresh and Onlys (you picked up their excellent Play It Strange yet?), and local faves Lights On and the Loons. (Psst, go get a ticket, like, now.)
Monday 22
Looks as if the Loons can just leave their stuff at the club. They’ll be back for Casbah’s weekly Anti-Monday meeting, opening for Canada band the Sadies, which is out to tout this year’s crit hit Darker Circles. The A.V. Club gave it an A- for its Byrdsian dueling guitars, “one filling the room with reckless reverb, the other delicately plucked.” Yea, man.... Across town, Detroit’s hard-rockin’-yet-tastefully-melodic Satin Peaches drop into Soda Bar behind this year’s Arsenic EP. Pick a Peach: myspace.com/thesatinpeaches.
Tuesday 23
Belly Up books about the hottest ticket a Tuesday’s ever seen, as Black Mountain will beat its Wilderness Heart — the Jagjaguwar act’s best yet, and that’s saying something — behind super-psychedelic Austinites Black Angels. I know, right? C u there.... Else: Atlanta three-piece the Queers headline a hella pop-punk showcase at Casbah with Kepi Ghoulie, Bombpops!, and the Riptides...and you’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll have beers, as outsider performer David Nkrumah Liebe Unger Hart (Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!) does whatever the hell it is he does at Tin Can Ale House.
Wednesday 24
I’m already 83 words over, and you probably need a night in, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t tell you that local power trio Bloodflowers are in bloom at Bar Pink...and the witchy, glitchy Raw Moans will kick off their maiden tour at the Tin Can with tropical-pop hits Heavy Hawaii.
— Barnaby Monk