It List: Monday

Sunset Rubdown/Fight Bite/Hospital Ships (Granada): So what's going on here? Welcome to the end of band names. Harmless random words haphazardly thrown together. I got it, I got it: Thimble Spectrum. How's that? I know what a Hospital Ship is, but what's a Sunset Rubdown? I hope it's subversive and offensive whatever it is. Anyways, this guy is in Wolf Parade, you probably know that, and this is his side project that doesn't really hide the music degree, which leads to an often interesting listen, until you realize that sometimes the vocals sound like The Killers or some highly affected, tortured, radio-pop singer. Why doesn't anyone ever get upset about shit like that anymore? Hospital Ships is a lot easier to swallow, less melodrama, and charming enough. What happened to Jagjaguwar ? I thought they were the alt-country label for people with PhD's or something. Fight Bite will be readying themselves on the big stage tonight for their three shows at CMJ next month, which is like a more disorganized and even more sprawling South By Southwest, but who cares? It's in New York.

Iron And Wine/The Swell Season (Palladium): I was wondering why this Swell Season band was receiving top billing over Iron And Wine on all of the advertisements for this show, and then I realized it was that duo that includes a member of The Frames, the same duo that won a fucking Oscar.  Yeah, just like Three Six Mafia. Elliott Smith paved the way for indie folk at The Academy Awards, though these two actually starred in the movie they scored. It's easy to understand why this music goes over well with the understated foreign film loving set, and though it's not really something I'd listen to, it's loads better than Iron And Wine, an act that almost resulted in a fistfight between SR and myself. Oh, and you'll pay handsomely to see these A-listers, about thirty five bucks.