Holy Water Buffalo, Brass Bed and Uintahs @ Neurolux; A Seasonal Disguise @ the Red Room (9/4/12)

The UT band Holy Water Buffalo has been through these parts a few times before, but I'd never gotten the chance to see them.  That in itself would've given me a reason to check out this most recent Radio Boise Tuesday.  It helped too that the bill featured Brass Bed, a Louisiana band whom I'd also never seen, and Uintahs, a local band whom I've grown quite fond of.  And of course, "Holy Water Buffalo" is one funny name.

Some work at home had tied me up, so I got down to the Neurolux a little late.  Thankfully, I managed to catch most of Unitahs's opening set.  Attendance was pretty sparse (only about 20 people), but at least the crowd gave the music an appropriately warm reception.

I'd very much enjoyed Uintahs's set at the Red Room a couple of weeks back, and this one was even better.  Marcus Youngberg's rapturous, aching howl sounded in fine form.  His and Perry Bentley's guitars sparkled, swirled and cascaded while Patricio Torres's chugging bass and Malcolm Youngberg's rumbling drums pushed the music relentlessly onward.  This was their first gig at the Neurolux, Marcus Youngberg told the crowd.  "I hope they let us come back."  I doubt that they'll need to worry about that.

Up next was Brass Bed.  Their dreamy yet clanging guitars, streamlined bass and muscular drums sounded just a little similar to Uintahs, but their evident classic rock influences gave them plenty of distinction.  They sounded like the Beatles one minute (pop melodies, boyish vocals, dancey beat) and Black Sabbath the next (screeching solos and sludgy, stomping outros).  "This is our first time in Idaho," their lead singer said at one point.  The way his face lit up when the audience responded with a big round of applause could suggest that it won't be the last.

Holy Water Buffalo played last.  Their long hair and tall, skinny frames screamed 70's classic rock, and their music matched their look--I heard some Stones, some Skynyrd, some Zeppelin, some Sabbath.  Luckily, they had the chops to pull it all off.  Crooned vocals joined with twangy, elemental riffs, bluesy solos, soulful keyboard parts, rubbery basslines and dynamite drumming.  Their strong groove and catchy melodies proved irresistible to the crowd, who cheered so loud that you'd have thought that there were two or three times as many people there.  "You guys are the shoot!" the lead singer told them.  "We're on the radio, gotta be careful."

After Holy Water Buffalo finished, I headed over to the Red Room.  Wes Malvini had been excited about booking a band from Oakland called Silian Rail for this week's Atypical Tuesday, which made me eager to see/hear what they're about.

Unfortunately, I didn't get the chance: both Silian Rail and the Dirty Moogs had canceled.  This left A Seasonal Disguise with the task of playing an extended set.  From what I caught of it, however, the local group handled the challenge just fine.  Z.V. House delivered stunning solos throughout, and his bandmates sounded even stronger and more confident than they did when I saw them back in May (especially drummer Annie Berical).  Consequently, their original material rocked harder and sounded lovelier than ever, their brooding take on "When the Levee Breaks" could look Led Zeppelin's right in the eye and their "Cortez the Killer" cover was an act of flat-out shamanism.  On that last song, House invited a member of the meager audience to sing when he couldn't recall the words.  That left him free to demonstrate just how eloquent his guitar can be.

You can find info on all of these groups on Facebook and elsewhere online.  Special thanks to Eric Gilbert and Radio Boise.

Noah Jensen, Sleepy Seahorse, Younger Shoulder and Richard Album and the Lifestyles @ the Red Room (8/21/12)

As I was planning out my schedule for August, I realized that I hadn't actually seen an entire Atypical Tuesday show in a while.  This last Tuesday seemed like a perfect time to work one in, since it gave me the chance to see Sleepy Seahorse again and a couple of out-of-town acts for the first time.

I counted about twelve people when a friend and I arrived at the Red Room.  A few more wandered in as the night progressed but not many.  So it goes.  Hopefully, all the people who could've been here were at least over at Neurolux's Radio Boise Tuesday gig.

Nampa musician Noah Jensen started off the night.  He admitted at one point that he was nervous, and it showed--had a couple of false starts here and there.  Overall, however, his serene tunes, steady tempos and pleasant tenor went over fine.  If he can tough it out through a few more gigs--and the little bite in his lyrics suggests that he can--he could become a pretty solid act.

After Noah Jensen came Joey Corsentino a.k.a. Sleeply Seahorse, whose synth/bass/drum tracks gave his performance some extra kick (not always intentionally--the sound system kinda freaked out at one point).  In any case, his fresh folk-pop melodies, his high, earnest tenor and his mature, insightful lyrics more than lived up to my fond memories of his opening set for Spondee and the Very Most.  When you can cover Tears for Fears' "Shout" and make it sound like stone cold truth, you're my kind of singer-songwriter.

Next up was the Seattle group Younger Shoulder.  High, fragile vocals rested safe and secure atop jangly guitar, sinuous basslines, winsome keyboard parts and yeomanly drums.  They formed such a strong groove that my only real complaint was that their songs felt too short.  But then again, listening to so much James Brown may have just spoiled me.

For the night's final set, Chicago-based musician Richard Album handed the bass off to the keyboard player and took the mic, leaving Younger Shoulder to serve as the Lifestyles.  His yelping, charmingly punky vocals reminded me a little of Richard Hell.  His unpolished enthusiasm seemed to seep into his bandmates, who cranked it up a couple of notches but still kept it tuneful.  It's too bad more people weren't here to see Album run through the bar and roll around onstage, but so that goes.

You can find info on these acts on Facebook and elsewhere online.

Murder By Death and Ha Ha Tonka @ Neurolux; Storie Grubb and the Holy Wars and Duckmandu @ the Red Room (8/14/12)

I'd planned to check out The Last Bison and A Seasonal Disguise at Neurolux this past Monday, but I got too caught up working on my backlog of posts and--gasp!--a genuine, bona fide paying freelance writing gig!  I'm both scared and excited about that last one.  Just gotta jump off the cliff and see if I can fly, I guess.

Anyway, I'd managed to put that work aside long enough to head down to this most recent Radio Boise Tuesday.  I'd seen Murder By Death once before a few years back at the Knitting Factory.  I forget whom they opened for, but I remembered being quite impressed with this Indiana-based band.  This show gave me the opportunity to put my memories to the test.

As I'd anticipated, there was a solid turnout for this show.  I counted over forty people when I got down to Neurolux, and at least another twenty people showed up after only twenty minutes had passed.  I chatted with a friend and a very charming MFA graduate at the bar until the show began.  I really hope I didn't bore them too much talking about this blog and poetry and such.

First up at Neurolux was the Missouri band Ha Ha Tonka.  The touches of blues, country and folk in their music basically added extra flavoring to what amounted to some darn good indie-rock.  Brian Roberts's friendly drawl found support in Lennon Bones's unflashily proficient drumming, Lucas Long's throbbing basslines and Brett Anderson's piercing guitar and rockin' electric mandolin.  Their groove sounded pretty uptight compared to that of, say, Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, but in indie-rock, a certain uptightness tends to go with the territory.

Murder By Death played next.  As I listened to them, it occurred to me that a few bands I've heard recently go for a similar kind of genre mash-up (blues plus country plus rockabilly plus funk plus folk plus who knows what else) that this group does.  This prompted the question: how exactly does Murder By Death do it better than most of these others?  Part of it may have had to do with Adam Turla's stolid baritone purr, which doesn't sound quite like any other voice I've heard.  More than likely, part of it had to do with Sarah Balliet's cello, which serves as the emotional and spiritual center of the group as surely as Clarence Clemons's sax did for the E Street Band.  In the end, however, it may have just come down to better songwriting: stronger hooks, stronger tunes, definitely stronger lyrics (a highlight of their set was a new song about going to a wake for someone you hate and having such a good time with his friends that you wonder if maybe you're the bigger asshole).  Of course, Scott Brackett's thoughtful accordion/trumpet/keyboard contributions, Matt Armstrong's juggernaut-like basslines and Dagan Thogerson's swinging, muscular drumming didn't hurt either.

After Murder By Death finished, I headed over to the Red Room, hoping to catch at least a little of their Atypical Tuesday show.  I was in luck: I got there in time to catch the excellent set by local group Storie Grubb and the Holy Wars.  They may have decided to let go of electric guitarist Shane Brown, but Storie Grubb's deft work with his amplified acoustic and distortion pedal filled in that sonic gap.  Luna Michelle's bass playing sounded more confident than ever, and the high-octane drumming gave the music some extra punch.  And best of all, I could actually hear the accordion (sounded lovely)!

Duckmandu a.k.a. California musician Aaron Seeman closed out the night.  His gleeful solo accordion covers of "Thus Spoke Zarathustra," "Anarchy in the UK," "Sweet Georgia Brown," David Bowie, the Dead Kennedys, Tom Lehrer, Black Flag, Waylon Jennings, Mozart and a couple of polska (old Swedish folk) tunes brought a big ol' grin to my face.  He regretfully informed the crowd that, although he typically burns his duck hat at the end of his set-capping "Highway to Hell" cover, he wouldn't this night due to too much flammable-looking stuff around the stage.  He did, however, pull out a duck hand puppet to quack out "Old Macdonald" and "London Bridge is Falling Down."  Good absurd fun--exactly what you'd expect of Evil Wine.

You can find info on these groups on Facebook and elsewhere online.  Special thanks to Eric Gilbert and Radio Boise.

Dear Rabbit, With Child and Bonefish Sam @ the Red Room (7/3/12)

I had no illusions: THE show of this evening was gonna be Radio Boise's Youth Lagoon concert at the Reef.  Not only was the most popular group from Boise (aside from Built to Spill, maybe) headlining, they would be supported by Mozam, whose recent set at the Flying M impressed me greatly, and Teens, a local punk group who's been generating one hell of a buzz around town (their Treefort set was reportedly the stuff of legend).  In spite of all this, I opted to check out the Red Room's Atypical Tuesday because 1) aside from Grandma Kelsey, its bill was comprised entirely of acts I hadn't seen or written about before, 2) I worried that no one else would show up, and 3) ... Well, let me just put it this way: if you love Youth Lagoon, God bless you--clearly, you hear something that I can't.

Happily, my concerns about poor attendance for the Red Room's show proved unfounded.  Not only that, the crowd seemed genuinely receptive to the music as well.  Unfortunately, circumstances prevented me from arriving in time to catch Grandma Kelsey's set.  I'm sure that I'll write about her another time.

First up this night was Dear Rabbit a.k.a. Colorado-based musician Rence Liam, whose cabaret/gypsy-folk-infused music, broad singing and guilefully guileless stage act was one part Tom Waits and one part Jonathan Richman.  He worked hard to make it look like he didn't know what he was doing: he swigged beer (if that's what it was) periodically and dropped banter like "I don't have a title for this song yet.  I don't sing it often, so I probably forgot it."  However, his funny, well-crafted songs, his skillful looping and his ability to play the trumpet and the accordion at the same time gave the lie to that.

Next up was With Child a.k.a. Nampa-based musician Elijah Jensen.  If Dear Rabbit drew upon Jonathan Richman's chutzpah, With Child's serenely urgent, endearingly straightforward tunes drew upon his disarming melodiousness.  Jensen's steady picking and strumming kept the songs moving along nicely, and the moments when his singing didn't quite hit the right notes only added to the brief set's general feeling of unguarded lyricism.

Local experimental musician Bonefish Sam closed out the night's show with the help of Elijah Jensen on guitar and synth and The Very Most's Jeremy Jensen on bass.  I heard quite a bit in this tuneful, spacey, polyrhytmic, politely funky music--some African music and early 70's Miles Davis fusion here, some dub and trip-hop there.  Bonefish Sam squeezed all manner of wonderful noises out of his electronics set-up.  Jeremy Jensen's warm, liquid bass runs showed that, should The Very Most ever break up (God forbid), he could maybe pick up a gig subbing for Fernando Saunders in Lou Reed's band.  Elijah Jensen's clean electric guitar fills and synth parts gave the music some extra bite.  I only wish that I could've picked up a CD or something.  It might've made a fine companion piece to In A Silent Way and Bitches Brew.

You can find info about all these groups on Facebook and elsewhere online.  For info on upcoming Atypical Tuesdays and more, you can look up The Evil Wine Show on Facebook or go to www.evilwine.com.

Last King Outlaw, Lakefriends, Like A Rocket and James Plane Wreck @ the Red Room (6/19/12)

Oy.  Is this what they mean by saturating the market?  In addition to this Atypical Tuesday at the Red Room, there was the Radio Boise Tuesday at Neurolux and a Vagabond Promotions bill at the Shredder.  I suppose that all of these show-going options speaks well of the health of the live music scene nowadays.

I opted to check out the Red Room show for two reasons: 1) I was curious to see how Like A Rocket would go over with the Atypical Tuesday crowd; and 2) I'd never seen the three other bands on the bill.  This show was somewhat sparsely attended (an atypical Tuesday indeed), possibly due to the other shows mentioned above.  The crowd certainly wasn't bad, though, or unreceptive to this night's music.

First up was Last King Outlaw, a reggae trio based here in Boise.  I suppose that it's kinda redundant to commend a reggae group for its groove.  Still, it must be written that the slinky, sinuous skank of Melissa Thomas's bass and David Weatherby's drums greatly pleased the ears of this Barrett brothers fan.  Leader James Thomas's bluesy guitar danced like a butterfly and stung like a swarm of multicolored bees.  His singing wisely eschewed aping Toots Hibbert or Bob Marley and came across instead as just a man speaking to the people.  Ditto his lyrics, which featured plenty of Jah-worship and Babylon-dissing but avoided caricature.


Next up was the Caldwell group Lakefriends, which featured Fountains/Deaf Kid's Matt Stone on guitar and Art Fad/Cat Massacre/Deaf Kid's Jacob Milburn on drums.  Maybe listening to Last King Outlaw spoiled me, but this band's mix of bright, tuneful guitar riffs, simple basslines and hyperactive drumming sounded a little stiff and awkward.  The different elements never quite seemed to mesh together.  However, that could simply mean that they need some more time to blend.  As it stood, the different parts were appealing enough without altogether forming a whole.


Like A Rocket followed Lakefriends.  They delivered their standard solid set, and the two handfuls of people who saw it applauded warmly.  Z.V. House's bass sounded as fluid and propulsive as ever.  Max Klymenko was at the top of his game throughout.  Speedy Gray got off some fiery solos and coaxed Jacob Milburn into coming up on stage and doing the monkey with him.

I really hope that Mr. Milburn doesn't kill me for posting this picture.

After Like A Rocket came James Plane Wreck, a local, four-man outfit.  Their rowdy, punky take on roots rock brought the night's music to a smashing finish.  They backed up their smart lyrics and country-ish melodies with a brawny rhythm section (that's one helluva drummer they've got) and grinding, hacking, slashing guitar riffs.  Their singer's voice more than made up in personality what it may have lacked in range.  There's not a whole lot of info online on these dudes right now, but any Drive-By Truckers fans in the Boise area are advised to keep their eyes out for them.

You can find info about most of these groups on Facebook or elsewhere online.  I couldn't find anything about Lakefriends, but you folks at home can dig up some stuff on one of the dozens of bands that its members are also in.  For info on upcoming Atypical Tuesdays and more, go to www.evilwine.com.

Cerberus Rex and Red Fang @ Neurolux; Stargaze Unlimited and Hedtriip @ the Red Room (6/12/12)

I wrote in my post for last Tuesday about my dilemma over whether to check out the show at Neurolux or the show at the Red Room.  This most recent Tuesday, my dilemma was somewhat alleviated when the start time for this week's Atypical Tuesday got moved back to 9:30-9:45.  This enabled me to see Radio Boise's show at the Lux and then catch at least part of the music at the Red Room.

I was fortunate enough to get to Neurolux before it got crowded.  I staked out a booth with good lighting, silenced my cell phone (just to stay in practice) and watched the people pour in.

I'll bet that Neurolux and Radio Boise made money hand over fist from all the PBR and Olympia that got consumed over the course of this evening.

Local stoner rock band Cerberus Rex opened the night.  Their name, their steady-as-a-tank tempo, their punishing riffs and their howling, shrieking solos all but begged for comparison to Dinosaur Jr.  I'll take Josh Galloway's stand-and-deliver bellow over J Mascis' arrogant passivity any day of the week, however, and Cerberus Rex's dense, swirling dual guitar interplay was all their own.  Galloway's stone-simple, wall-rattling basslines served as the eye of the hurricane of Pat Perkins and Z.V. House's volcanic guitars and Jake Hite's fifty-caliber drumming.  I'm definitely gonna be on the lookout for this band from now on (and I'll make sure to bring my earplugs too).

After Cerberus Rex came Portland-based hard rock band Red Fang.  Their droning, ominous, unstoppable riffs and primal rhythms signified as metal, but their wasn't an ounce of golden god to these guys.  In spirit, their down-and-dirty lyrics, their shouted/growled vocals, their raw guitar solos and their emphasis on groove and songcraft over vulgar displays of virtuosity was much less Iron Maiden and much more Motorhead (with maybe some Melvins thrown in for good measure).  As a guy who's always preferred Motorhead to Iron Maiden, I found this music entirely worthy of the raucous applause, horn-throwing and crowd-surfing that it received from the crowd.  Four horns up for John Sherman's on-target, indefatigable drumming.

After Red Fang wrapped up, I staggered out of Neurolux and headed over to the Red Room with a few friends.  By the time that we got there, local singer/songwriter Ben Kirby's Sun Blood Stories and Twin Falls group Bad Carb had already played.  That was unfortunate, but I'm sure that I'll see and write about those two soon (very soon, in Bad Carb's case--more on that later).

We walked in just in time to catch the set by Caldwell instrumental trio Stargaze Unlimited.  They've played quite a few gigs since they opened for Red Hands Black Feet back in April, and they've apparently been busy recording their first album as well.  All of this hard work seems to have tightened up their groove but good.  Richard Metzger's drumming sounded twice as dexterous and confident, the bright lyricism of Kurtis Beckwith's guitar lines had deepened and intensified and Travis Gamble's solemn bass held everything together even more firmly.  Man, I love being proven right.

Twin Falls-based, dog-faced, one-man act Hedtriip closed out this Atypical Tuesday.  His rousing, hypnotic guitar and his intricate, melodious, body-friendly programmed beats and riffs got the crowd swaying and dancing.  A fine ending to the night.  Look out for this guy when the Twin Falls Invasion hits the Red Room on June 30th.

You can find info about all of these groups on Facebook and elsewhere online.  Special thanks to Eric Gilbert and Radio Boise.  Special thanks also to Keesha Renna for the use of her phone's much less crappy camera.

Whale, Cat Massacre, Le Fin Absolute du Monde and Red Hands Black Feet @ the Red Room (6/5/12)

I faced a dilemma this last Tuesday.  Would I go see one of my favorite local bands play the Red Room's Atypical Tuesday or would I check out the first of Radio Boise's series of Tuesday shows at Neurolux?  The fact that Radio Boise's show was comprised entirely of local hip-hop acts made this decision even more difficult (I've wanted to check out some of those groups for a while now).  In the end, I opted for the Red Room show partly because I try to see every Red Hands Black Feet show that I can and partly because the bill included a San Francisco group that Wes Malvini was extremely excited about.

I do plan to check out some of the upcoming Radio Boise shows, however, and I strongly encourage others in the Boise area to do the same.  They have some absolutely fantastic shows lined up in the next two months (including two of my top four Treefort acts), and 20% of all drink sales will go into their worthy coffers.

First up at the Red Room was Whale, a local four-man hard rock band.  This was their second show ever (they played their first only a couple of weeks ago), and I highly doubt that it'll be their last.  A Whale song would sound right at home on classic rock radio between "Gimme Three Steps" and "Tumblin' Dice."  Jesse Wiedmeir's bass and Wade Ronsse's drums laid down a rock-solid, hard-driving groove, lead singer Tyler Brodt drawled and shouted the lyrics very nicely and both he and lead guitarist Alex Wargo delivered some impressively terse and elegant solos.  Their songwriting tended to rely on standard classic rock tropes (woman troubles, headin' on down the road, etc), but their arrangements give me hope that they'll soon teach those old dogs some new tricks.  Another very promising young group.

After Whale came Cat Massacre, a cute little hardcore group based in Boise.  With frontman Colby Meade spouting lines like "For those of you who like anal sex, this song is for you," I probably would've figured out that their noise was an end in itself even if Art Fad's Jacob Milburn weren't playing bass.  The random moments where guitarist Dominic Munoz showed off his prodigious chops only further emphasized that this was all a joke.  Not as witty as Microbabies or Art Fad but still fun.

Following Cat Massacre was Le Fin Absolute du Monde, a San Francisco-based art-rock duo.  I checked out their Facebook page before the show, and I'll confess that it made me both curious and wary.  A group that can cite both Megadeth and Sade (the singer, not the Marquis) as influences?  I dunno.  But hey, what the heck, I'll try almost anything once...

While the Sade influence came through in Chicky Myles detached, chanteuse-y vocals, the Megadeth influence manifested itself in Jason Myles' ripping guitar and strutting, headbanging stage act.  Meanwhile, their stomping beats and ominous soundscapes called to mind a few other artists that their FB page cited: NIN, Portishead, Massive Attack.  Taken as a whole, their ambient/metal hybrid wasn't bad at all, although I wished that they'd turned up the guitar just a little bit more.

Red Hands Black Feet closed out the night with a much looser and more sluggish set than is their norm.  I think that I heard more sour notes in this night's set than I did in their last three performances put together.  I should hasten to add, however, that it wasn't an out-and-out disaster.  Jessica Johnson was definitely on her game, and everybody managed to pull together for the big climaxes.  In the end, I just shrugged and said, "Hey, even great bands have their off nights."

You can find info about these groups on Facebook and elsewhere online.  Red Hands Black Feet will open for Pickwick, who was number 9 on my Treefort Top 10, at Neurolux on June 22nd.  I am fully confident that that night's set will meet their usual ass-whomping standard.

The Bare Bones, The Finer Points of Sadism, The Sneezz and Junior Rocket Scientist @ the Red Room (5/22/12)

Tuesday had some ups and downs for me.  Up: I set up HCTD's new Facebook page, and I crossed the 1,500 pageview mark (once again, thanks for reading!).  Down: I found out that my uncle may have colon cancer in addition to the possibly malignant tumor that the doctors found on his hip.  This means that he may need to undergo chemotherapy before they can cut the tumor out.  I was happy to get out of the house for a while and go down to the Red Room; if I stayed inside, I'd have probably just stewed over that until I drove myself crazy.

While I waited for this week's Atypical Tuesday show to start, I sat at the bar and watched Wings of Desire on the TV.  For those of you who haven't seen it, the movie's about an angel who goes around watching over humans and bringing them as much comfort and guidance as he can.  The angel longs to become human, to embrace mortal life and all of the suffering and joy that go with it.  I won't say that it brought me comfort (my uncle could use a lot more comfort than me right now, and I doubt that any movie's gonna help much with that), but it did kinda put things in perspective.

(By the way, if my synopsis sounds familiar, that's because Hollywood remade Wings of Desire as the film City of Angels with Nicholas Cage and Meg Ryan.  If you haven't seen the original, I recommend doing so.  It's not nearly as melodramatic, and you don't need to see Dennis Franz's ass.)

The Bare Bones, a young local power trio, kicked off the night's music.  And when I say young, I mean young--I found out later that two-thirds of the band can't legally drink yet.  Don't underestimate these guys because of their age, though: they've got more chops now than some musicians twice their age do.  Nathan Norton's fluid bass and Aaron Bossart's roiling drums infused their tuneful, psychedelic/metallic hard rock with a jazzy litheness.  Chris Brock squeezed all kinds of wondrous sounds out of his guitar and sang with a sly confidence that belied his voice's boyish register.  A guy I spoke with said that this band will be absolutely fantastic when they get older.  I agree, but from what I saw and heard, they're already there.

After the Bare Bones came The Finer Points of Sadism, an experimental electronica duo whose dissonant samples and textures, disorienting polyrhythms and ominous, grisly lyrics owed a clear debt to Throbbing Gristle.  If you have any idea who Throbbing Gristle is, you should know whether or not this group is for you.  Me, I found TFPOS's waves of noise entrancing and cleansing.  It undoubtedly helped that Jacobb and Ashley Sackett packed them with stuff that aficionados of the finer points of songcraft appreciate: covert hooks, beats, riffs, even tunes.  On one song, they called to mind a sprung-rhythm Bauhaus or maybe Second Edition/Metal Box-era Public Image Ltd.  That I might have liked their improvisations even more says something very good about this experimental group.

Local one-man act The Sneezz followed The Finer Points of Sadism.  If D. Boon from the Minutemen had switched to bass, decided to dress like a Keebler elf onstage and started hanging out with Devo, you might have gotten something like this.  Absurdist, satirical lyrics met with robotically funky beats, propulsive basslines and screechy, scratchy samples to form a smart, catchy, hilarious melange of 80's New Wave and indie music.  I heard a little Talking Heads here, a little Red Hot Chili Peppers and Violent Femmes there.  The dominant influence, however, was Devo, and that became unmistakable well before the set-capping "Whip It" cover.

Local four-man indie rock band Junior Rocket Scientist played last.  Their playing sounded a little stiff and awkward at some points--drummer Mark Molitor threatened to get ahead of his bandmates now and again--but overall, their post-punk, Sonic Youth-goes-pop/disco sound provided a fine ending to the live music for the night.  Droning, chiming guitar parts combined with Peter Hook-y basslines, catchy synth and electric violin riffs, hyperkinetic drumming and enthusiastically guileless vocals.  When they all joined hands, it was good stuff.

You can find info about these groups on Facebook and elsewhere online (except The Sneezz--couldn't seem to find anything about him).  For info on upcoming Atypical Tuesdays, go to www.evilwine.com.

Dragons, Mostecelo and Camp @ the Red Room (5/8/12)

This was a good day.  I had a job interview/ test in the afternoon, at the end of which I felt 90-95% certain that I would soon have a job that 1) would put my B.A. in English to use, 2) would pay me enough to get by comfortably, 3) would involve doing work in which I could actually find value, and 4) would leave me with enough time to keep this blog going.  What better way to celebrate than to head downtown and check out some new music?

Since it took place during finals week, this Atypical Tuesday didn't draw quite as large a crowd as the last one did.  It certainly wasn't bad, though, and it included some familiar faces from the Boise hipster set--Wes Malvini of Evil Wine (granted, he was tending bar, but still...), Eric Gilbert, Josh Gross, etc.  I was glad of this by the time that I left the Red Room: the music that I heard this night deserved a good audience.

First up was Dragons, a supercharged power trio from Arizona.  They laid dreamy melodies, introspective lyrics and gentle, boyish vocals atop high-powered surf guitar, surging bass and mind-blowingly fast and precise drumming.  It sounded like what you might hear inside Brian Wilson's head if he were tripping on acid, jacked up on speed and staying up all night listening to the Ramones.  This marked their first time playing in Boise.  I hope that I'll get to see them around here again.  They could join forces with Holograms and become the freakiest surf-rock group ever.

After Dragons came Mostecelo, a.k.a. local musician Rebeca Suarez.  On paper, this lady might sound like something that'd make rock-and-rollers run screaming for the hills.  A folkish singer/songwriter armed with only an amplified Spanish guitar, a keyboard and a kick-drum who sings stuff about chimney-sweeps and Jude the Obscure?  Excuse me while I listen to Black Flag until my ears bleed.  Take it from me, though, headbangers: it'd be your loss if you missed out on her.  Suarez didn't need much more than guitar and keyboard to support her clean, firm voice.  Her spare melodies and sardonic, empathetic, winningly plainspoken lyrics made me think a little of Joni Mitchell's Blue and Leonard Cohen's Songs of Love and Hate.  Even that Jude the Obscure song was pretty damn good.  My favorite of her songs, though, was "Go," a skewed, ironic depiction of brutalities in Bosnia worthy of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill.

Next up after Mostecelo was Camp, a four-man rock band from Twin Falls.  I don't know what the hell is going on out there, but that city has been cranking out some hard-rocking stuff lately.  This band framed strong melodies and atmospheric, filtered vocals with shimmering, piercing guitar, solemn keyboards, a hard-driving rhythm section and a trippy projection show.  They sounded so powerful and together that I was just flabbergasted.  I imagine that this won't be the last that we'll hear of Camp's muscular psychedelic/shoegaze rock.

I promised a friend that I'd meet her for a beer after Camp, so unfortunately, I missed the night-closing set by Hillfolk Noir, a local group whose hobo folkie shtick and arty, self-conscious take on old-timey roots music probably owe more than a little to Tom Waits and the Coen brothers.  Don't take my leaving as a sign of my disapproval--I'm sure that I'll see them again another time.

You can find info about all of these groups on Facebook and elsewhere online.  For details about upcoming Atypical Tuesdays and more, you can go to www.evilwine.com.  And if she doesn't have it already, somebody please get Rebeca Suarez a copy of Lost In the Stars: The Music of Kurt Weill.  She was born to cover "Ballad of the Soldier's Wife" or "What Keeps Mankind Alive?".