It List: Thursday

Super Suckers/Blacklist Royals/The Phuss/Last of the Interceptors (Rubber Gloves): Can someone please kill this terrible band already? Well, I don't mean that I really want them to be killed, but the only reason any of us have ever heard of them is because they picked the perfect time to move to Seattle (1989) and joke their way on to Subpop back when the concept of rock n roll "authenticity" often meant "ability to act like an idiot." It was a stupid concept anyway. Take terrible rockabilly, mix it with pop punk and grunge and there you have it: something that I can't believe anyone needs to hear more of in 2010. Can anyone think of a worse early Sub Pop signing?

Baruch the Scribe/ Robert Gomez/ The Fox and The Bird/Glen Farris (Syc House, 816 W. Sycamore): Denton's Baruch the Scribe is "tasteful." There's nothing shitty about their music. There's nothing "bad" about it, so to speak. They write "real" songs and "know how to play their instruments" and sing well. They sound like they might even have a chance to "succeed" one day. That's pretty cool, good for them. They sometimes sound like the Kinks and the Faces, and sometimes stuff like Joanna Newsom and other garbage I don't care about. However, more than anything else, they sound like they're influenced by the Rushmore soundtrack, or just the idea of the Rushmore soundtrack (see Kinks, Faces above). And I don't even mean the music really, either, but rather the lifestyle and badges of honor that go along with being into stuff like this-- essentially, this is faux bookish, nerd chic, quirky "indie" cool thats trying desperately to establish some kind of emotional experience with the listener but ultimately feels more than a bit empty and calculated, an attempt to be something rather than do something. "Weird" for its own sake, but never truly experimental. Cute and cuddly but "smart" and a little "dark." This stuff sounds like the kind of music that some marketing executive would think is supposed to soundtrack my "quirky" life, and although it could be me that's empty and jaded, the experience of listening to this band sort of feels like watching a rerun on television-- I'm only half paying attention, but I'm still getting annoyed.

80's Night with Yeahdef (Hailey's): Did Yeahdef buy Hailey's or something? Here's to hoping that this works out for all parties involved, and I'd really like to see Yeahdef's setlist from this evening-- not because I think its gonna suck or be super amazing or something, but simply because I'm interested in what kind of 80's music is enjoyed by people who weren't even alive in the 80's. And I don't mean that as some kind of insult either, because although I'm considerably older than most of the people who will be at Hailey's tonight, I'm still not old enough to have "been there," so it really doesn't count. And besides, people who "actually lived it MAN" usually suck.

Billingham's Defense System (Fallout Lounge)