Recession. Weather. Politics. Habs. Chris Brown… Yeah, me too. Let’s get out of here and go see some great music.
Ex-Kill The Lights guitarist (and occasional Hour shutterbug) Joseph Yarmush has a fairly new bag, and by all accounts it’s filled with up with good. The new outfit is called Zeroes, features members of Mothers Fathers and Young Galaxy, and they just finished touring with Land Of Talk, which may have something to do with the fact that Yarmush plays bass for them.
Zeroes have a new six-song EP that they’re releasing on Friday, Feb. 20, at Lambi. I’ve only had it for a minute, so I’m going to just spit out that it’s sort of crunchy sludgy Animal Collective sans nicknames, but since that phrase is already annoying, can we just call it really good for now and come back to boxing it up later?
Of special note for this night is that they’ve got some openers that are much better than merely being a buffer allowing you to have another couple drinks at home during their set: Little Scream, who nearly stole the show out from under The Dears recently (and who barely have a web presence, which further endears them to me), and Special Noise, the Halifax ex-pats who’ve brought their dance/noise/? sound with them from the East Coast, presumably along with a lot of cheap lobster to use as payola.
Folk, folk, folk! Music, music, music! That’s right, fresh from a gig at Scotland’s notorious den of iniquity – the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall – the power quartet Strung return to our frozen soil to raise the Sala Rossa’s roof on Feb. 20. Featuring Doug "The Dobro Devil" Cox, Tony "The Axeman" McManus, April "Black Fiddle Widow" Verch and Cody "the Kid" Walters, come get stung by the Strung.
How quiet and comfortable Divan Orange is going to handle the collective aural onslaught of Red Mass, plus T-Towners The Creeping Nobodies and Slim Twig, and locals (I believe) Grand Trine all in one shot on Feb. 21 is beyond me. Apparently promoters believe that people need to leave their houses from time to time. Thankfully the music will be good enough that you won’t have to rewarm your small-talk muscles. If you have other fibers that need twitching, head up that same night to Zoobizarre to catch the latest instalment of Boomboxx, with musical host Khiasma, special guest Uproot Andy and a (DJ) appearance from the nut jobs from Radio Radio.
Sometimes (like now) called the distant American cousin of Plants And Animals, Portland, Oregon’s Blitzen Trapper come to Sala Rossa on Sunday, Feb. 22. If you’ve gone to all of the above – a contract you entered into by reading this column in its entirety – then this might be the perfect way to kick back with the end of your weekend. With folkie Adele Diane.
