It List: Monday

First things first, we almost have our comments situation resolved. For the past few days, comment posting has worked just fine once again-- you can post comments and they'll publish right away and all that works. However, all the comment counts on the main page will say "zero" even when comments have been posted, and date and time stamps are still missing too. This will be resolved soon. Now for music on an unusually busy Monday night (check our show calendar for more):

Boo And Boo Too/Ashes/Smile Full Of Ale/Ko49 (Exploding House): Hailing from mid-sized indie rock Mecca Lawrence, Kansas (actually, its more like a Medina probably), Boo and Boo Too have been compared to some lose combination of My Bloody Valentine and Sonic Youth, which is a pretty tenuous comparison for anyone who's ever listened to either of those bands for more than five minutes. Actually, Boo and Boo Too, in addition to having one of the worst band names I've seen in a very long time, seem to borrow more from groups like the Wedding Present, Broken Social Scene, Oxford Collapse and Ride, with sprawling walls of soft guitar generated noise that builds up and breaks down and does all the other stuff its supposed to do if you want to be buzzed about at CMJ, which is apparently what happened to the group when they played the festival this past year. It's pretty solid stuff, if a bit predictable, and the band appears to have all the makings of a Matador mainstream almost-crossover-- so I'd see them now at Exploding House tonight before they are forced to open for TV on the Radio at House of Blues or whatever. On the complete opposite end of the spectrum, After Death Records signees Ashes are one of the harshest groups in Denton, and their churning, nightmarish, black metal influenced violence will provide a powerful contrast to the other groups on this bill. And it's a bit hard to tell what Denton's A Smile Full of Ale are like since I haven't caught them live yet and their Myspace tracks are fairly limited live recordings, but they sound pretty promising to me. Finally, KO49 is a Lubbock based hip hop group with less than convincing MC performances but some very solid electro beats that at times are influenced by Detroit techno.

Princeton/Fight Bite/Orange Coax/Bad Sports (Hailey's): You never know what you're going to get when a band calls themselves "tropical" these days, because that phrase has been used to describe both Ducktails and Vampire Weekend, among many other trendy things that have emerged in the last year. Princeton, meanwhile, seems more influenced by David Byrne's solo work and the crate digging, internationally minded selections from his acclaimed Luka Bop label, especially when applied to the group's lead vocals. This is light, well crafted pop that I'm surprised I haven't heard until today but am tempted to go experience for myself. And if you ever read this website, you know that they'll have some very good opening bands joining them.

Maynard James Keenan Bottle Signing (Whole Foods in Plano): This started at 430, so there are probably a ton of Tools in line already. I bet you can get down there in time if you hustle, however. I've always found this guy's name really annoying.

Cool Out (The Cavern)