THE BLACK LIPS
At 10 p.m. Wednesday, March 21
The Jinx, 127 W. Congress St. $10
Hey, forget about St. Patrick’s Day – the real mayhem starts whenever Atlanta’s four horsemen of the untamed punk apocalypse come to town. These guys have been a ramshackle party band since the mid 1990s, which is when they were simultaneously thrown out of high school for being “subversive,” and although their early shows were notorious for such fun stuff as public urination, stage vomiting and nudity (ah, punk), they’ve become more focused, if not more refined (heaven forbid). The band’s latest album is Arabia Mountain, produced by Mark Ronson of Amy Winehouse fame. “There comes a time in every rock ‘n’ roll band's career when they have to decide whether to get out of the garage or stay mired in the grease,” read the Pitchfork review. “Black Lips seem to want it both ways.”
I love this quote from singer/bassist Jared Swilley: “The first time I heard the Kinks’ ‘You Really Got Me,’ I thought it was more punk than a lot of stuff that’s supposed to be. That was a defining moment. I don’t want to be condescending, but a lot of contemporary rock is safe. It seems to be made by kids wearing bicycle helmets and who don’t jump in the pool unless a lifeguard’s around. Music ought to be dangerous so you’re parents want to burn the records. I had to hide records from my parents.”
And Brookyln's tres cool XRay Eyeballs - here just a week or so ago as part of the Savannah Stopover - opens this show.
LES RACQUET
At 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday, March 23 and 24
Live Wire Music Hall, 307 W. River St.
The name, with a nod and a wink, is pronounced “less racket.” I wish Patrick Carroll, Kenneth Murphy and Daniel Malone had been among the many young Brooklyn bands in town during the recent Savannah Stopover – their clever and catchy power-trio rock ‘n’ roll, with a lot of improve and jamming, is capped nicely with three-part vocal harmonies. Coulda done with more of that.
And there’s a YouTube video of these guys doing a cover of Dave Brubeck’s jazz classic “Take Five,” with no piano or sax (it’s just guitar, bass and drums).
Last month, Carroll – he’s the guitarist – blogged this at lesracquet.com: “We posted up at Live Wire Music Hall for three days straight. Felt like home after we befriended the whole family; a very supportive group of musicians and music enthusiasts. There were so many links and connections to different bands around town and touring bands frequenting Savannah, it was like one big game of 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon …
"After three nights at Live Wire and two out on Tybee Island, we three were completely and utterly exhausted. Alas, it was time to move on. We pulled our sore bodies off the couch and left town. As we drove across the river I realized that I was sad to go, I didn’t want to leave. It was the first time I’d felt that way about a city since we started this tour. Seriously, Savannah? We’ll be back.”
CHECK IT OUT
“Like the Beastie Boys on some very expensive drugs,” said Athens’ Flagpole about the Memphis “crunk” twosome Lord T & Eloise, whose distorted bass-beat and hypno-rap flapdoodle is couched in the costumes (and wigs) of French aristocracy, hair curlers and cans of shiny golf-leaf spray paint. The “intergalactic time travelers sent to earth to save rap music” are at Loco’s Friday (March 23) …. The always-enchanting garage rock band Tiger! Tiger! returns to the Jinx this Saturday for a gig with the Midway Charmers. Pygmy Records recently released a brand-new seven-inch from singer/guitarist Buffi Aguero's hard-rocking band of mischievous miscreants. And there's a new Tiger! Tiger! full-length coming out in less than a week on Chicken Ranch Records ...
