Show Worthy 5/18 - 5/24

Monday, May 18
Night Moves, Eli Keszler, Kate Village, Dr. Oriental at Charlie's Kitchen ($5, 9:00, 21+)
You should know Eli 'cause I talk about him a lot. He does live stuff with Ashley Paul and he's one half of the ridiculously great Red Horse (whose new full length just came out). Kate Village is the guitarist from The Major Stars and Heathen Shame. Dr. Oriental is the Mike from Life Partners. Night Moves is a cover band that plays classic rock stuff, mostly Bob Seger, Steely Dan, The Band, etc. This is a very unique show. Lots of solo stuff that you probably won't ever see happen in the same room again.



Nmperign & Jason Lescalleet at Brainwaves '08
Wednesday, May 20
Nmperign, Tyler Wilcox & Paul Neidhardt at Outpost 186 ($donation, 8:00, all ages?)
Nmperign is Bhob Rainey and Greg Kelley. I loved Kelley's solo release, Self-Hate Index, and I got to see those two guys play together along with Jason Lescalleet at Brainwaves '08 and it was brilliant. Wilcox & Neidhardt seem to be two like-minded musicians who will collectively blow your mind, especially with a description for Wilcox reading "finding inspiration in the wind through cedars and lombardy poplars, rivers, melting glaciers." Um, yeah. Go to this show.



Mick Barr at PA's Lounge via
Thursday, May 21
Wolves In The Throne Room, A Storm Of Light, Krallice, Phantom Glue at Great Scott ($12, 9:00, 18+)
Wolves In The Throne Room is black metal for people who don't like black metal. And people who do like black metal. So it's a win/win situation. They're fucking amazing. A Storm Of Light are quite awesome as well, as I discovered when they put out a split with Nadja that I reviewed on diskant. Krallice is guitar shredder extraordinaire Mick Barr's (Orthrelm, Ocrilim, etc) new metal band. That alone should require you to go to this.



Mind Wheel at Oxfam Cafe
Friday, May 22
Mind Wheel, Selbyville, Graham, Dead Electrician at The Armory ($?, 8:00, all ages?)
I saw Mind Wheel open for Mountains at Oxfam Cafe and they were astounding. Selbyville looks to share at least one common member with Mind Wheel so that must mean good things. The rest of these guys are all local experimental awesomeness. This show gets the AGB Stamp Of Approval.



Neptune at The Middle East Upstairs
Saturday, May 23
Growing, Neptune, World Map, Long Knives at Church ($9, 8:00, 21+)
Growing puts on a super hypnotic drone noise show that you won't experience anywhere else. I've seen them multiple times and it gets better each time. Neptune is opening and if you live in Boston and haven't seen Neptune yet, wtf is wrong with you? Do it already. This is World Map's first show ever. Their Myspace doesn't even have any songs on it so your guess is as good as mine. Not sure about Long Knives, if that's even their real name...




Sunday, May 24
WizRock Iz Dead: A WizHop Blowout with Swish & Flick, Dumbledore, Big Whompy, MC Kreacher, DJFF, MC Remus & The Lupins, Griz-ed & Fiz-orge at The Middle East Upstairs ($10, 1:00 PM, all ages)
Harry & The Potters are putting on another one of their Wizard Rock shows except this time, as I'm sure you can tell, it's not rock, it's hip-hop. I'm pretty sure this is a once in a lifetime thing and I can pretty much guarantee it'll be fun as hell even if you're not a Harry Potter fan (like me). And it's a day show, so you'll still have time to do your regular Sunday night things like watch Adult Swim (or be a lame-o and go to bed early to get a good nights rest for Monday).

Mountains, Mind Wheel at Oxfam Cafe

Mountains
Mind Wheel
Mind Wheel


Second night within the week I went to Oxfam Cafe for a superb show. Last week when I saw Parts & Labor there, I had very little problems with the sound system. I mean, it wasn't perfect but as long as it was loud (and it was) there was little I had to complain about. Not so with Mountains. With music as delicate and subtle as theirs, every crackle and quiver from the speakers brought me right back to the cafe. And the cafe is not where I was when I was listening to Mountains. Nope. I was actually being carried through a stream that was flowing upwards towards to sky. However, it wasn't because the current's so powerful, it's due to a lack of gravity. It was beautiful and transcendent. I'm fairly certain that's something everyone should experience sometime in their life. And now you don't have to find an upward flowing stream, you just have to go see Mountains live.

The band that played before Mountains was Mind Wheel from Portland, Maine and they were exceptional. At times they sounded like a Fuck Buttons/Mountains blend, sometimes they had a naturey Americana sound, but whatever they happened to be doing, it was absolutely wonderful. Felt like I was hovering through this, cruising around at ungodly speeds. They're in the process of booking a show at PA's Lounge, so keep an eye out for that. You don't want to miss these guys when they come back to Boston.

So, yeah. It only seems fitting that the creators of one of the best records of the year would put on one of the best live shows, too. Mountains = awesome. Live Mountains > awesome.

Show Worthy 4/13-4/19

Another great week for shows. Tons of stuff going on. But you know what? I'd say the same thing even if it was just Mountains playing. What? You didn't know? The makers of Best Drone Album Of The Year (the review of which got deleted by Blogger, fuck you guys) are playing at the Oxfam Cafe on Wednesday. Yeah, that pretty much makes everything else going on this week irrelevant.



King Darves
Monday, April 13
2673, King Darves, Jay Sullivan, Benjamin Nelson at The Piano Factory ($5-$10 donation, 8:00, all ages)
This is part of the Coup D’etat music series put on by Semata Productions which automatically means it's going to be great. I only know of Jay Sullivan, who does that awesome turntable drone stuff and is part of Ouest with Howard Stelzer and Brendan Murray. But when some of the other bands are described as "Phil Niblock and Johnathan Coleclough crying together in a bar" or "a voice more glorious than Calvin Johnson and Michael Gira combined" then you know this is the real fucking deal.



Mountains
Wednesday, April 15
Mountains, Mind Wheel at Oxfam Cafe (freeeee, 8:00, all ages)
If you haven't yet heard Choral by Mountains, then do yourself a favor and go to Thrill Jockey's website to buy the CD (you waited too long to buy the limited edition double vinyl. It's sold out suckas). It's one of the best records I've ever heard ever. This show is free. It is all ages. You need to go.




Thursday, April 16
Anal Cunt, The Groinoids, Panzerbastard, Psycho, Fast Death at Church ($12, 7:00, 21+)
I'm only recommending this because Anal Cunt is fucking ridiculously awesome. I have no idea about the rest of the bands. But I mean it doesn't even matter. It's fucking Anal Cunt.



Loud Objects via blackmetalbanjos
Friday, April 17
Ensemble Robot & Loud Objects as part of The Beeline Festival at The Broad Institute ($15, 8:00, all ages)
I'm not totally sure what this is. Here's what the website says. It's the "world premiere of Concert Aria for Obbligato Violin and Robots by computer music pioneer Paul Lansky. Plus Evan Ziporyn's Belle Labs and completely new works by Ensemble Robot and Loud Objects composers for robots and live soldering." Here is what I do know. Loud Objects involves Tristan Perich, the man who made the amazingly genius 1-Bit Music. And there's something to do with robots and soldering. That's all I really need to know. I'm fucking sold. But if $15 is a little too rich for your blood, there's always the Big Bear show at The Middle East Upstairs with Pants Yell that same night for $8. And that could be the best $8 you spend all week.




Sunday, April 19
Count Rockula, Cassette at Middlesex Lounge ($5, 8:30, 21+)
This is a night of firsts. It's the very first event presented by one of the best blogs in Boston, Enough Cowbell. It's also the first night that both Rockula and Cassette will officially be playing Boston. So go have fun, dance your ass off ('cause Monday's Patriots Day!) and revel in the fact that the $5 is being donated to Cycle Kids, a local non-profit helping kids get their hands on bikes.