Category Archives: Music

King Khan & BBQ’s Invisible Girl

The King Khan & BBQ Show, wacky motherfuckers that they are, don’t announce new albums via press release, the way sane people do. Instead, the dynamic garage rock duo jump on their MySpace page and post an alternately informative and annoying “KKBBQ Infomercial” featuring tons of song clips and goofy voices. (Whoever does the Snaggletooth impression should really consider never doing a Snaggletooth impression again.)

So here’s the pertinent information: The new album will be called Invisible Girl. It’s out on November 3. The infomercial promises “12 songs loaded with kicks”, and someone describes it as “a love story of hate.”

And just apparently the Almighty Defenders/King Khan & BBQ Show tour will kick off in late October.

Concert Review: Trevor Hall


Artist: Trevor Hall
Location: Harpers Ferry, Allston, MA
Date: July 29, 2009

Trevor Hall and his band mates put on a simply fantastic show! Hall reminded me of Bob Marley with his peaceful demeanor and dreadlocks. He and his boys impressed the crowd with amazing musicianship and an undeniable love for their craft as well as for their fans. Which isn’t hard to see, because I was surrounded by die hard fans for the performance. Unfortunately, I am not a “die hard,” but I am a fan and very much enjoy the invigorating and contagious music of Trevor Hall. I only knew a few songs, but in spite of this handicap, I managed to vibrantly dance, cheer, and sing along to all of the songs. It was impossible not to! Which, I must say, often when I see bands I am not as familiar with as other fans I can’t get “into it” and dance or sing along. So kudos to Trevor and the gang. On top of singing heartfelt numbers, such as, “Lime Tree,” “Unity, ” “Venomous,” and “Sunny Day,” amongst other classics, Trevor demonstrated his unquestionable ability to communicate with his audience: making direct eye contact with fans, replacing Boston instead of Heaven the lyrics of one of his tunes, reciting his personal, passionate, poem, hopping into the crowd and pogoing with us. I hugged him (and his guitar), not as intensely as some of the femmes lol, greeting us with bananas and oranges (I ate my banana there!), quite different from my last HF show in which we were greeted with Jay Reatard’s Corona directly from his saliva!. Once again, I make the Bob Marley comparison, because Hall took the time to mention the awful conflict of war and religion in the world and how young kids are starving in India, and the band set up a table for fans to make donations to help them out. With a guest rapper and a three song, powerful encore, I can say with certainty that it was a great night.

Chris

CD Review: Mirror Explodes

Band: The Warlocks
Label: Tee Pee
Release: 2009

1. “Red Camera” – 9.2
2. “The Midnight Sun” – 9.4
3. “Slowly Disappearing” – 9.1
4. “There is a Formula to Your Despair” – 9.7
5. “Standing Between the Lovers of Hell” – 9.6
6. “You Make Me Wait” – 8.8
7. “Frequency Meltdown” – 9.4
8.  “Static Eyes” – 9.5

Grade: 9.3

The Warlocks play at Great Scott on August 12 with The Morning After Girls.

Pixies, Upcoming Concert Calendar

From Rolling Stone:
Last month, the Pixies confirmed an 12-date U.K. and European tour to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Doolittle, at which they’ll perform the 1989 LP in its entirety. Now Frank Black, Kim Deal, Joey Santiago and David Lovering have confirmed they’ll be bringing the same show Stateside in November. This morning the band announced a nine-city, 14-date Doolittle birthday run that kicks off November 4th at Los Angeles’ Palladium, includes two nights in Oakland, two in Seattle, two in Chicago and three New York dates (full list after the jump). Tickets go on sale starting August 1st. As in Europe, the shows will feature all of Doolittle’s 15 tracks and related B sides, a list that includes “Weird at My School,” “Dancing the Manta Ray” and “Bailey’s Walk.” The album itself includes Pixies classics “Debaser,” “Gouge Away,” “Monkey Gone to Heaven,” “Wave of Mutilation” and “Here Comes Your Man.” A press release indicates the band is dreaming up “Doolittle-related surprises” for the shows.

Awesome! This ends an amazing three month stretch of great shows. Let me give you a brief overview of some of my personal choices for shows coming up:

On August 3, the Arctic Monkeys are coming to the Paradise. The show is sold out, but I’m still really really hoping that I will be able to buy slightly reasonable tickets. The neo-psychedelia of the Warlocks will be coming to the Great Scott on August 12. They will be backed by the impressionable slow-core  Morning After Girls. On September 5, the Pains of Being Pure at Heart, whose self-titled album was awarded a 9.6 by KLYAM, will hit the Middle East Downstairs. The Walkmen, always one of my favorite bands, will also be at the Middle East not just for one night, but for two on September 18 and 19. Normally, I wouldn’t go to two straight shows, but this is one hell of an exception. Wavves, the surf-rock group that canceled their European tour because of singer Nathan Williams’ drug bug-out, has actually produced from amazing material in the past couple of years. As long as Williams is fine, I’m sure the show should go just fine. It’s on September 27 at Great Scott. Alternative hip-hop band Why? will be at the Middle East Downstairs a week later on October 2. The next night at the same venue is another two-nights-in-a-row…this one coming from ear-damaging Dinosaur Jr. (Note: even I, a fan of noisy concerts and a lover of standing front row, will probably be at the back.)