Feb 24
DaraAmericana, Psychedelic, Southern Rock, Thrash
so here’s the story – I came to love one song (“Good Bye Mary Lou”), a punkish bluegrass song, by this no-name band called Angels of Light and propagated it through all mixes therewith – I had a vague notion of Akron/Family but didn’t know they’d been the backing band for Angels of Light until I read their show bio – the show bio also mentioned Michael Gira as the lead singer of Angels of Light which got Rockboy excited because he knew him as the lead singer of the Swans – anyway, we went to this show because of a string of distant associations – I was mostly pleased and the anti-anything-remotely-psychedelic Rockboy was not – they are in essence a jam band, tapping such a wide variety of sounds that I characterize them officially as a schizophrenic band – they literally have no distinguishing characteristic which, even if I am a girl who loves variety, may not be a good thing for a band looking to make a name for themselves – they began with a song that made me love them: a more psychedelic Songs: Ohia (melancholy folk) – suddenly it was thrash which firstly is a signature move of this generation (to intersperse loveliness with hardness) and secondly seemed an misguided attempt to prove they’re not soft or that they’re hip to all aspects of our culture – but in sum, it didn’t sound good and it didn’t sound organic – they then proceeded into the other tagsound of this generation of music, Afro pop, which they did very well, reminding me of Paul Simon – in the end, I believe that they will return, if they want to endure, to the sounds that are their strength: very pretty and sophisticated pop – if it matters, they dress like 70s road hippies with t-shirts and bandanas which seemed to me a lame attempt to suggest campfire jams
Sep 09
DaraAmericana, Bluegrass, Country, Jazz, Swing
the more that I understand the sound of Texas swing, the more I appreciate this band – they elaborate on the sound and play intelligently and creatively – always based in country but sometimes leaning more toward the bluegrass then toward a solid swing song and then a waltz and then almost jazzy – they’re very good musicians and make the song their own while maintaining its integrity – Jeremy, the lead singer’s, voice might not be remarkable but what is remarkable is his deft management of the band and dedication to the music he loves
Jul 23
DaraAmericana, Rockabilly
the lead singer of this band annoys me to the point that I can’t fairly judge their music, she is so unjustifiably full of herself and blatantly self-aware on the stage, we were semi-positive that we were giving this band a second chance and they got the same rating they got the first time: unsatisfying rockabilly poseurs, perhaps because they’re from Seattle and don’t have the Texas roots as a foundation
Jun 13
DaraAmericana, Blues, Folk
a lot of prep work went into this show: discussion, watching of the biography, etc. and it made it all the more exciting to see the actual 77-year-old man walking down the little aisle – the charm that won him 5 (plus?) wives is still apparent – he just opens his mouth and amusing folksy tales pour out, that’s his “ramblin’” part – the names of celebrity pals were dropped left and right (Kris Kristofferson, Woody Guthrie, etc.) – he’s a good guitarist, trained by Woody Guthrie and acting as mentor to Bob Dylan eventually, as informed by the movie – he doesn’t write too many of his songs and talked about the person who wrote each song before playing it – style ranged from bluesy to Guthrie-esque to Townes-esque folk-country – overly-delighted fawning middle-aged crowd that is typical to the Cactus Café – the downside was that Jack was struck with allergies or a cold and his voice kept getting scruffy to the point that he eventually cut his second set short – his first set wasn’t even that long –RamblinBoy reported that he actually played more songs than what he did in Marfa the weekend before possibly because he didn’t have enough of a voice to chat too much – we got to talk to him on the way out after waiting out a very old hippie who actually had a twig sticking out of his hair
Nov 26
DaraAmericana, Country
totally captivating, three winsome (very) young girls who rock like boys – one or two of them actually went to a girl rock camp, there was a pretty little long-haired blonde who keeps her wild-side feminine, there was a sexy official-bad-girl in tights / mini skirt / raccoon hat / LA Guns t-shirt, there was an underage cute one in a curly bob who is probably the secret baddest of them all, oh and there was a guy playing drums but nobody paid attention to him, they met in Tennessee and do raucous sitting-on-your-porch country numbers that they wrote themselves
Nov 26
DaraAmericana, Rock and Roll
in same indie-psych-rock vein as The Parson Red Heads but not as pleasing – I attribute it to the pop-rock quality of the singer’s voice
Oct 03
DaraAmericana, Country, Texas Blues
80s Texas country cool lead singer (suit, gum-chomping, Elvis sneer, and sunglasses indoors) ended every song with a gimmicky Elvis-like thank you – there’s no doubt that they’re good at what they do but also true that 1000s have already done what they do – wide range of country, rock and pop – distinctly heard the influence of Roy Orbison, The Traveling Wilburys and Tom Petty (but this would be as deep as I delve into country)
Sep 19
DaraAlt-Country, Americana, Folk
really disappointing, bill themselves as NY-style experimental country but it’s more like average-Joe alt-country with a lot of pretension, some five guys sitting in a row without instruments but with sunglasses provided the vocals, lots of jangle, low-key and uncomplicated, vocals were especially low quality
Sep 13
AndrewAmericana, Singer/Songwriter
Andrew Mitchell hit the stage at Kennedy’s Midtown bar with his guitar, opening with a more than respectable version of R.E.M.’s (Don’t Go Back to) Rockville. His 45-minute set also included the Styx cover Come Sail Away and Woody Guthrie’s Pretty Boy Floyd, a throwback to 1939. Considering he was playing to only a handful of people, he still gamely put on a noteworthy show.
May 31
DaraAmericana, Garage Rock, Rockabilly
it is unfair to blame my mild disappointment in them on them because I had built them up unreasonably in my head and created a sound for them that didn’t really exist, I had filled in all of the fuzz from the first time I saw them with really bad sound with this fantastic original sound, so they didn’t have on their old ranchero clothes and they are not bizarre creening country but pretty straightforward 60s garage rock, they are very rounded and irresistibly danceable, there is some country in there and maybe old-school rockabilly, the voice remains though and is the key to their originality, very good band
May 02
DaraAmericana, Goth, Rock and Roll
very disappointingly the sound went kaput with them and they’re supposed to be one of the best local bands right now, the vocals weren’t turned up enough, wearing old fashioned ranchero wear, from what I could hear they were very appealing, slow shuffling country-infused rock with creening off kilter vocals and flat chords, reminded me of a more Americana Gun Club, innocent darkness
Mar 06
DaraAmericana
they’re good musicians: members from WT Special Heather Rae and the Moonshine Boys but why be a cover band if you know how to write songs?, they cover swing and honky tonk from the early 20th century
Mar 05
DaraAmericana, Jazz, Texas Blues
Burton on pedal steel and singing – young hipster too self conscious to seem comfortable singing old Texas swing songs, rest of the band is a conglomerate of people from other bands in the Austin swing scene
Feb 28
DaraAmericana, Country, Rock and Roll
had bad memories of this band and they were reconfirmed, he was a dead ringer for Townes looks-wise but was just an average country singer, quiet voice and unremarkable music
Oct 26
DaraAmericana, Hard Rock, Punk
dark country with a punk undertone, very reminiscent of The Gun Club which is an excellent excellent thing, Stevie Tombstone is an aging skinny Nick Cave lookalike and his wife is a young blonde hottie who plays bass, they made me want to go hang out on their porch after the show, they don’t play very often and the young crowd did not understand how lucky they were
Sep 16
DaraAmericana, Jazz
solid Texas swing, rockabilly kid in a pale blue shirt does the classic vocalizing and keyboard, brought up a woman to vocalize as well, pleasant family atmosphere on a Sunday afternoon kind of music
Aug 18
DaraAmericana, Outlaw Country
i.e., me vs. Rockboy and Rockboy won; The Hackles: played Mean Eyed Cat, Rock Island Line and Folsom Prison Blues… all Johnny Cash and I was mad at their neglect of Tom but they ended up being the best band that I saw, upright bass, energetic; Kevin Sekhani: lead singer from the Box Spring Hogs (the Tom Wait cover band) took the mic and was really horrible, he apparently can’t lose the gravel voice, plus the sound suddenly went haywire and the violinist was piercing our ears while the vocals were muted (though loud enough to hear the horror of the voice), gravel voice stomped angrily off the stage saying It could have been worse, later saw him kiss a screaming wench of a drug whore and then shake his head and chuckle at his own depravity – a young dumpy girl took the stage and sang Stop Draggin’ My Heart by Stevie Nicks and Tom Petty, she did a much better job; Reid Wilson and His So-Called Friends: three Boulder, Colorado sorts clustered around one mic with banjo and such singing to each other, sound continued to be so bad that they were completely inaudible, ended with a whispery Ring of Fire; Grub Dog and the Modestos: sound and attitudes got fixed though the keyboards could have been toned down in this band, did Cash’ Boy Called Sue and some other song; Fearsome McPete: Unrockgirl’s man drums for this band, their name is apparently in flux, met the bassist and his pregnant wife, bassist seemed embarrassed at his lame friend’s puppy dog slavering and antics to catch Unrockgirl’s attention
Jul 13
DaraAmericana, Jazz
three guys and one thumping on an upright bass, pleasing, reminded me of The Weary Boys and South Austin Jug Band, old men in young bodies in the end
Mar 30
DaraAmericana, Bluegrass
The woman is bizarrely ON – either on drugs or no separation between stage self and reality. She plays the sultry Southern bad girl. I did enjoy her voice, as well as the looks of her man or at least her co-vocalist. His voice, though, was average. Rockboy thought they were ‘vanilla,’ but I think they had a nice repertoire of oldish country stuff. They were recording this show. Jane Bond was a local show, but she is fairly established in the city.
Mar 15
DaraAlt-Country, Americana
Winsome middle-aged rural Texas girl with all the spunk of her youth — very cute and knows it. Great full throaty voice. Played guitar and used a foot-pedal on a suitcase as the drum set. Creepy guitar partner with yellow hair and a red coat. Lonesome country and then rollicking country. Ended with a Cash Zeppelin medley.
Aug 11
DaraAmericana, Jazz
honky tonk – we tried to define it apart from country and came up with twangy guitar, pedal steel guitar, Hawaiian guitar sounds (I say), and traditional uptight singing, I don’t much like the style but it strikes much nostalgia in Rockboy
May 06
DaraAmericana, Texas Blues
had Erik Hokannen playing with him and it was delicious – dueling fiddle and guitar, Erik is crazy and wonderful, swing country eh but pleasure to watch their pleasure
Oct 25
DaraAmericana
thought Rockboy might love them what with the Cash but they weren’t so Cash, laidback bad-boy country, I enjoyed them maybe more than Rockboy, and of course this one we were on time for
Aug 27
DaraAmericana, Punk
all for Rockboy, $20, not worth that though it was a good show, John Doe and Exene from the 80s punk band X, they brought the country to X apparently and this is a two-album offshoot band that is more country than punk, cow-punk, both were great performers, used to be married
May 17
DaraAmericana, Country
nice voice, Jimmie Del Gilmore was there and I told Rockboy again how much I like the look of him—good-soul type—Rockboy said he’s studied Eastern religion, Gilmore’s son was there too
Apr 24
DaraAmericana, Psychedelic
Lubbock Calling—a benefit for my neighbor Jesse who come-to-find-out is really a musician and is nearly famous (Jesse “Guitar” Taylor)—Crazy Neighbor used to wax rapturous about him but Crazy Neighbor was crazy—there was this car accident in front of our houses last night and Jesse’s woman and I were outside and she told me about Jesse’s benefit—the whole development was very exciting for me—he has played with a succession of musicians from The Flatlanders to the Sextons to Reckless Kelly and is sick with liver problems — oh and the scene was just crazy—old men with long hair and longer yellow teeth—kind of a crazy psychedelic cowboy scene—so west texas too but then old Austin—but the beauty was in how long these transplanted Lubbockians have known each other
Feb 07
DaraAmericana, Country
wanted to not like them but it was great for that night, frumpy hip-void lead had a golden deep country voice, guy guitarists from New Orleans, played country classics and originals
Jul 20
DaraAmericana, Folk, Singer/Songwriter
Susan wrote Wide Open Spaces for the Dixie Chicks, young-looking middle-aged long-haired gruff blonde, liked Shelly King who left early the best, obnoxious boy accompanying and dominating—standard sensistive singer/songwriter fluff, discovered that MandolinWoman calls s/s “folk,” discovered that I love Americana/country/whatever to the extent that it is driving music, I like the peoples’ chords too, thus there was Tom Petty, I am aware this is despicable
Jun 08
DaraAmericana
shameful repetition, new insights from MandolinWoman’s expertise: all old country covers, Redd is as respected as purported—MandolinWoman says partly because a super one who has actually endured
Feb 05
DaraAmericana
a solo guy on banjo, fiddle, a strange mini piano, had the sweet pleading croon of old-timers, OverachieverTeacher’s roommate/bartender classified him as Americana, r/b and I did not click or rather r/b did not click with me
Dec 21
DaraAmericana
young beauty with a quick fiddling hand but a contrived voice, old pro in love with her, famous in UK which made sense
Sep 21
DaraAmericana, College Rock, Soft Rock
really like his voice three times over—heard him on radio before concert and esp liked the voice and was pleased to hear going to be at festival—liked it at the festival even while thinking he was Bob Schneider entire time—heard him this morning on the radio and loved the song and the voice and was thinking it was Grateful Dead or Onus B Johnson—but it was him…all three times, show was a little Buffett-like silly and party-style, very very funny on stage though, will buy him
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