It List: Monday

Annihilation Time/ANS/Unit 21/Teenage Cool Kids/Power Trip/Dark Forces (Rubber Gloves): Sometimes I really hate press releases and press kits. For example, the description of Annihilation Time on Rubber Gloves' website, presumably provided by some kind of PR or booking agency, reads like the liner notes to a White Zombie greatest hits album or something:

"Quite simply the most powerful band in the world at the moment. Forget about the once-great dinosaur bands still roaming the earth (Metallica, Blue Oyster Cult, Winger): their time has past. This planet's future lays in the hands of the mighty Annihilation Time, who day by day, are slowly creeping their raunchy rock and roll across every inch of this dying heap of shit we call a world..."

See what I mean? I know it's supposed to be funny and sarcastic and maybe I'm just too sensitive since I read press releases like that almost every day, but still. Just can it already, will ya? Anyway, Annihilation Time actually ARE pretty sweet, despite the lame press release-- they sound a whole fucking lot like Black Flag and a variety of other filthy, SoCal first wave hardcore bands, but what the groups lacks in originality they make up for in style and energy, and the doses of rude guitar solos and chunky, riff heavy swagger really make them sound quite imposing. This is sleaze punk for assholes who listen to metal, and it's way better than 99% of the currently touring "old school punk rock n roll real music No BS party time real bro music" garbage that people are constantly trying to shove down your throat these days. Recommended, especially with the solid local supporting line up that comes along with it. And if you haven't already, be sure to check out Denton's ANS... pretty brutal.

Holy Diver/MV & EE and The Golden Road/True Widow (the Lounge): We'll have more on Dallas shoegazers True Widow here soon, but for now we'll tell you that they're probably the local highlight of this show. Oh wait, Holy Diver is a Dio tribute band. Nevermind. True Widow is definitely the local highlight. Ecstatic Peace's MV&EE is kinda what you might expect from Thurston Moore's label, which is a little surprising-- stoned out slacky blues influenced neo-psychedelic jams featuring doped up singers who sort of sound like they've listened to Sonic Youth every day for the past ten years. But whatever, you could do a lot worse in this arena of music, that's for sure. Better than Awesome Color, I promise.

Cool Out (The Cavern)

Paul Slavens (Dan's Silverleaf)