It List: Monday 8/20/07

Halflings/The Cathode Terror Secretion/Werewolf Jerusalem/Concrete Violin/Ferveur Noir (House of Tinnitus): Christ all mighty. Sometimes when House of Tinnitus has "noise" shows, they include softer, more ambient performances that many people probably wouldn't consider "noise" in the first place. Tonight does not appear to be one of those nights: The Cathode Terror Secretion could possibly be the hardest and most frightening band I've ever heard-- no, not frightening as in big scary Danzig with his skulls or big smart Slayer with their holocaust lyrics, but frightening as in "Jesus, I must be going insane if I'm listening to this music and thinking about going to this show." But that's exactly what I did last night, and I have a good idea of where I want to go tonight. Add the smart, friendly and intoxicated H.O.T. crowd, and you have the makings for an interesting evening to say the least.

Birthday Suits/The XO/Maaster Gaiden (Pastime Tavern): Birthday Suits are a guitar and drums duo that sound rather powerful, although the few songs I've heard from them have been a bit conventional in structure and something less than memorable... however, they also sound like a band that wouldn't be able to reveal anything about themselves via a Myspace page, so the typically choice taste of Pararde of Flesh pushes me towards checking them out. The female fronted XO of Ft. Worth kind of remind me of the Muffs or some other mid 90s "punk" disaster mixed with the much more tolerable spazz of groups like the Thermals... again, I'm not a pop punk guy, but if you happen to be, you'll probably appreciate this group for doing what they do in a competent fashion. Maaster Gaiden seem to draw from a different pop punk lineage that starts with the Buzzcocks and goes right through to the Descendants, and fortunately for all of us, they maintain the spastic energy and instinctual pop spirits of those bands without spiraling too far down into the awful mall punk mess that they spawned.

Almost forgot: Hell of a fun dance show at 1919 Hemphill tonight: Totally Michael/Prizzy Prizzy Please/Best Fwends/The Rental Cars. Best Fwends have been getting attention all over the place lately, some good, some bad, but I'm sure they're glad about all of it. I happen to think they're pretty damn good myself.

Cool Out (Cavern)

Bad Azz Jazz (Amsterdam)