It List: Monday 3/19/07

Its 24 hours later, and the SXSW hangover is still kicking me in the ass just a little bit. And its honestly not an alcohol hangover either, its just the feeling of being extremely tired of day parties, after parties, driving around looking for parties, and basically being a waste of space for several days. However, we were able to catch some great music down in Austin without spending a whole hell of a lot of money (more on that later), so things are pretty good at WSJR headquarters despite not being able to cover some of this past weekend's North Texas events like we wanted to. Here is some stuff for tonight, much of it involving metal:

PUNK BUNNY/Christian Teenage Runaway/Heartrapers (Hailey's-Denton): Hmm. Punk Bunny's cartoonish, queer, Calvin Johnson meets electroclash meets new rave music is gimmicky to say the least and entirely thrown together and cheap at its worst, but I'm guessing there won't be too many people in the audience at Haileys tonight that aren't laughing and having at least a little fun watching them. There are some solid spots of cheese synth dance in their songs as well, and homeboy pictured above gets bonus points for being named Luigi and looking like a jerk. And with two solid local acts opening the show, you could do a lot worse this evening.

Giant Squid/Grayceon/The Hard Lessons (Doublewide): Working with producers like Bill Anderson (who has produced records for Mr. Bungle, High On Fire and the Melvins) is certainly a smart move for a theatrical/proggy metal band like Giant Squid, but it doesn't really change the fact that at the end of the day, they kind of just sound like System of a Down with better influences. Ok, maybe thats not entirely true, but the thin line between quality and doucheness is a pretty thin one in metal, and these guys are just on the good side of that line. I'm sure its a better live experience anyway, and their keyboard parts kind of make the whole thing worth trying, at least for a night. Grayceon is a truly strange rock band to say the least, and one that has surely spent a few nights getting stoned and laughing their asses off at silly Mr. Bungle songs, which is something you have to do at least once if you want to be my friend. I'm going to go ahead and say yes to them. I'd show up a bit late and miss the Encino Man soundtrack music of The Hard Lessons, but thats just me. And you.

Death to False Metal: Stoner Rock Edition (Rubber Gloves): Get stoned, get to Rubber Gloves, get a drink, get into some stoner rock. Get it?