It List: Wednesday

Bowerbirds/Megafaun/Matthew Gray (Hailey's): Bowerbirds are a North Carolina folk duo who have garnered a considerable amount of attention for their mostly traditional, pastoral Americana folk, and have notably gained the approval of the Mountain Goats' John Darnielle, along with a spot opening for him on tour. The group released their sophomore LP, Upper Air, last month to respectable if not ecstatic critical praise, and the rather muted compliments found throughout many of the albums' most positive and high profile reviews are understandable-- most of their material is similar to what you've probably heard over and over again throughout the past half decade if you've been following trends within this strand of "indie folk" even casually, and although many of their tracks could be called "lovely," which something reviewers really like to say these days, "boring" would be another appropriate adjective for these mostly predictable songs that vaguely deal with the connections between humans and animals and other shit like that while copping the stylings of everyone from Devendra Banhart to Phosphorescent in the process. Even the duo's back story-- isolating themselves in the woods to make music thats honest blah blah-- has become pretty tired by this point. Not that I'm not all in favor of hippiesters leaving the rest of us alone in our villages as they journey to the middle of nowhere to connect with some kind of something, but lets just give it a rest, alright? We know you still managed to get high speed internet access out there.

And speaking of making records in the wilderness, Megafaun are former members of the band DeYarmond Edison, along with Justin Vernon, who is better known today as Bon Iver, the namesake of a project which proves that sometimes, some bro recording folk songs in the woods actually results in something worth listening to. And although Bon Iver is excellent in its own right, Megafaun take a much different approach, utilizing kitchen sing percussion and several part melodies to produce experimental Americana thats actually interesting, as their association with the always fascinating Akron/Family might attest. They are certainly the band most worth watching this evening.

ADD: DECADES with DJ Nodad (Rubber Gloves): Forgot about this one-- Dj Nodad will be spinning records from different decades every hour, working his way from the 60's on up. Projections will be going on as well. FREE for 21 and up.

Dear Human/Tambersauro/The Space Love Gambit (Death House, Denton): Complicated Math Rock guitar parts.... tons of tempo changes... polished instrumentation... emo tendencies... mostly instrumental? No thanks. And bands, please quit calling yourselves "shoegaze" just because you use a lot of distortion on your choruses or some shit, ok? Oh, and Tambersauro-- the world doesn't need a Rollins Band revival. Really. I'm serious. Don't know where Death House is, actually, so maybe someone could share in the comments.