Usually we like to post these interviews, like, before the band actually plays their show, but this time we just couldn't get it done. Dead Meadow has been a bit hard to reach for the past couple of days as they have traveled through the wastelands of Arizona, New Mexico and West Texas, but we were fortunate enough to get a hold of them as they arrived in Denton before their Hailey's show with Chief Death Rage and Spindrift. We talked with drummer Stephen McCarty about the band's music and their place in the ongoing saga known as "psychedelic rock." Here are the results: Do you guys have a new record coming out some time soon?

Yeah, in early September. Its all in the can and sounding good.

Did you approach the new record with any kind of substantially different philosophy or intent than you had on the previous albums?

Yeah. We did the basic tracks ourselves in a house, and everything was done by us other than some vocals, and we also recorded some stuff at Sunset Sound which was amazing. I think it sounds a lot clearer than some of our other stuff.

You guys all started off in different D.C. hardcore bands, right?

Yeah, but Steve and Jason have been playing together in bands for a long time. The band they had before Dead Meadow was called the Impossible Five, and they weren't really hardcore. I don't know how to describe it, but I know it wasn't hardcore.

And your first record was on (Fugazi bassist Joe Lally's label) Tolotta, right?

Yeah, the first two Dead Meadow records were put out on that label.

I guess D.C. is obviously most well known for its hardcore scene. Were there any other psyche rock bands in D.C. when you started?

No, but thats kind of what made us start in the first place. Joe didn't want to hear hardcore music either, which is what got him interested in us because we didn't sound like them at all.

Obviously your music doesn't sound anything like hardcore, but do you think that punk or hardcore has influenced your take on psychedelic music even though it has nothing to do with your sound? Like I know that I started off listening to hardcore and began to embrace psychedelic music later on in life, and I feel like I constantly see things through that lens of punk.

I think what it influences more is the process of actually being in a band. Like instead of waiting for a major label or manager to take interest in you, you just do it yourself, which is a very punk rock thing. And we still play tons of shows that are put on in a more punk rock spirit, like independent promoters booking shows in unusual places. It all kind of grew out of that spirit of independence.

Yeah, and you can almost detect a harder edge in Dead Meadow, or an awareness of punk in the way you guys sound and record and present yourselves. Do you think thats true?

Well, probably the darker side of our sound is influenced by other heavy bands like Sleep, and also shoegaze and things like that, but not really DC stuff at all.

D.C. isn't really known for its psychedelic rock, and a lot of people would probably guess that you guys are from the west coast. How do you think D.C. influened your sound, or did it not have an influence at all?

Well, only in like a negative way. Like we're working against something as opposed to working with something. But thats good, and its especially good when you're first starting out. Its good to feel like you're rebelling against something. But now we're at the point where these isn't any reason to be in D.C. any more, so we've all moved out.

Where do you live now?

Los Angeles. We've been there for the past two months. We finished our record there, and we're just temporarily living there. We're kind of tired of being identified with D.C. and talking about it all the time. We just didn't really want to deal with it anymore. It kind of had a lot to do with the inception of the band, but for the last five years we've been touring, so we kind of don't really identify ourselves with any one place. You kind of become a citizen of the universe.

Yeah, it seems like you guys are constantly on tour. Do you do it simply because you like it, or its a good way to make money, or what?

I like to do it. And its also a good way to make money, and a good way to get better. As far as I'm concerned, its the only way, if you're not recording or writing songs, being on tour is the best thing to do, especially when you're in the writing process, trying things out for people. Its a kind of cool tradition to participate in. The band on the road. And it beats working, for sure.

So there has certainly been a new interest in what people call "stoner rock" over the past couple of years, especially concerning bands like Sleep. Have you noticed that?

Well I don't really know how to comment on that, because I've always thought that stuff was cool.

Has that new interest created a rise in interest in your band?

I don't know if its because of that, but I know a much bigger scene has emerged with a lot of different kinds of music that kind of relate to things we've been doing on our records over the past few years, like the psychedelic rock and neo-folk things, and both are kind of picking up steam. I find a lot less pure stoner rock people at our shows these days, and its kind of getting into a lot more regular rock fan territory, so maybe thats partially an explanation. You also kind of hope that thats happening because you've been on tour for a while and people are starting to come around.

Well you guys got a lot of good press for your last album, Feathers, and it seems that Feathers incorporated more shoegaze elements than previous efforts, with more of a focus on melody. When you were making that record, did you find that you were incorporating elements in your music that hadn't been there before?

Yeah, it just kind of feels like a natural progression, when you start off doing heavy riffs and a lot of volume and just that alone is enough to keep you interested, but the longer you have to work on the songs, you want to do something that can translate outside of being a loud band playing loud. Like a song that could live on after your band, you kind of have to work at it from a different angle.

I'm sure you guys get asked a lot of questions like this, but what does the term "psychedelic" really mean to you? Because to me, dance music can have a lot of the same properties as what people think of as traditional psychedelic rock, and I wonder what you think is incorporated into the term "psychedelic?"

Thats interesting because it doesn't have much to do with an actual sound, but it has more to do with a spirit that you feel more than you hear. When you hear something you identify as psychedelic, it can be something that sounds like 13th Floor Elevators, or a dude playing a guitar alone in a room, or a lot of the old blues stuff seems really psychedelic to me. I don't know, anything that makes you feel like you're tripping out. And that dance music connection is an important one, with trance and all that stuff.

And early rave culture was probably the closest thing to the 60's psychedelic culture that we've seen in our lifetimes.

I think the other side of it was that with rave culture, the music and the lights and the whole eperience had to be put on by a very large scale crew, not necessarily a large number of people, but it took a lot of gear and money, whereas with the 60's it could be three or four or five dudes playing instruments, and I think that going in that direction is a more meaningful political statement for our times because it seems that with the whole rave thing, its an all encompassing experience but its also kind of dehumanizing, because all you see is a DJ spinning records, but when you're playing in a band, you've got the whole production right there in front of you, and if anyone screws up, thats part of the whole human element. Its a lot harder to feel that connection when you're just listening to a giant PA.

So you feel like you can create a more profound connection with people when you're playing live instruments on a smaller scale?

I think so, and we've played a lot of shows where the live bands will have the early part of the night, and then they'll be like "get the heck out of here, its time for the DJ and all the girls to come!" Its discouraging, and I'd rather not participate in anything like that.

Its interesting that you say that because "indie" culture has really embraced dance music a lot more in recent years, so you'll find a lot more shows where rock bands are playing with electronica DJs. Do you not like that development necessarily?

I definitely don't. I like dancing and hearing music, but I don't think it should be put above people making music. If theres going to be a hierarchy, I think it should be musicians above DJs. Its cool, everyone likes to have a good time, but its kind of just like listening to the radio or something like that. Its not providing a service thats unique to that moment and place.

Would you feel the same about someone getting up on stage and playing their own original electronic dance music live?

Yeah, that stuff is cool, but when they get up and play electronic music on a computer, it seems like its not really live most of the time. Usually its a lot of prerecorded preprogrammed stuff. Its really hard to play electronic music live because you're looking at someone touching a laptop or you have a set of gear bigger than the first IBM computer.

So to you, the actual experience of watching someone perform live is a pretty big key to the whole thing?

Yeah, knowing that a sound is being produced live by a human. If you can't screw it up live, then there really isn't any triumph in doing it right.

Well the renewed interest in stoner rock is coming at the same time as the rising popularity of classic acid house, both of which might be called "escapist."

Sure. The escapist connection is a meaningful one right now because people don't necessarily want to celebrate whats happening now in this country with the government.

And I read somewhere that the lyrics on Feathers are more directly political than anything else you guys had done previously.

Yeah, and there are lyrics on the next one that are even more so. Not that we've ever wanted to be a political band, but the times seem to just call for some kind of reaction. Its just too crazy and horrible not to say anything about it. We sort of feel responsible for it.

So, you did this purposefully, like it wasn't just a part of your lives, but you felt compelled to address politics in the current environment.

Yeah, and especially living in DC, you just can't get away from it.

And its interesting because we were talking about that escapist element in your sound, and people can certainly use that phrase to describe your music, but the lyrics have become more of a direct reflection of living in DC and being around politics and things like that all the time.

Yeah, we started out as more of a total fantasy, escapist kind of thing. But the more you live through it and get used to it, the more (politics) becomes a part of your life, so whatever you're thinking and feeling has to get channeled through the music.

And you said you just got tired of living in D.C. Did that have to do with the negative political climate or more with the music scene there?

Well, the negative vibrations have had an influence on the music scene. I moved to D.C. in 97, and every year its gotten worse and worse and less and less. Every summer, more people would either move away or quit the scene because they were either getting older or just didn't want to do it anymore, and at the same time, D.C. was becoming less and less inspiring of a place to be, and we were traveling farther and farther out in the country and the world, and it gets to the point where you ask yourself why you're living there because it keeps getting worse and everywhere else starts looking better.

What attracted you to L.A.?

People respond well to us there, they always buy our records and go to our shows. Its the same as New York City, but New York is a very expensive place to live. LA has a lot of available housing since its so spread out and huge, and theres a lot more happening there in terms of random connections. You can encounter a lot of different music or different types of people in LA as opposed to D.C., where you only ran into political people, which didn't do too much for us.

Have you had time to settle in there and see whats going on locally in music and art?

Yeah. All the people we've been staying with are friends of ours, and we kind of just jumped right in to what they've got going on. Its exciting because there are new friends to be made and old heroes to connect with. Its been really cool. There are some cool bands in LA too, like we're on tour with a band called Spindrift, and another group called Winter Flowers that are more of an acoustic prog kind of band, and they're really cool. And theres a guy named Jonathan Wilson who one of my roommates plays with, and he also plays with Chris Robinson from the Black Crowes.

And you guys did a live record with Anton Newcomb a couple years ago. Are you pretty good friends with the BJM guys?

Yeah, Anton actually lives in New York, but most of the BJM stuff that was done in LA was done at a place that is owned by a guy named Rob Campanella, and we do stuff there too. Everything and everyone out in L.A. is really linked.

Did you have a problem with the way the band was portrayed in Dig?

Well that took place way before I ever knew those guys or toured with them, so I can't comment on whether it was accurate or not, but it definitely did get a lot more people out to Jonestown shows, which is good for them. And theres always been a bunch of people that have come out to their shows that aren't interested in the music and just want to see something crazy happen, but as long as they pay their covers, you know, its ok. I don't know whether the movie has been good or bad, but as far as I can tell its been good for them.

So you have the album coming out in September, anything else going on?

We're going to be doing some touring in England in August, but as far as any of our individual stuff, its all in such early stages that I can't really talk about it right now.

Shearwater | Pattern Is Movement | So Many Dynamos | Johnny Blackmouth (UTD located @800 W. Campbell Rd. in Richardson) : It's the start of an impossibly busy week for music in the state and this Radio UTD showcase is a good indication of just how busy it's going to be. Austin's beloved Shearwater have just signed to Matador, who are kind (and powerful) enough to rerelease their critically adored Palo Santo album. I'm sure Matador owner Gerard Cosloy living in Austin helps, which might lead to other Austin groups getting the privilege of releasing albums bearing that famous flag logo. I wouldn't hold my breath. So Many Dynamos are a midwestern indie pop band with the kind of ridiculously pleading Get Up Kids-style of singing that I thought had fallen out of fashion in the past three to five years. Maybe not in St. Louis. Pattern is Movement is pretty interesting since they weave their standard melodies over willfully complex backing tracks which makes for a sometimes jarring listen, but I wouldn't say that's necessarily bad. Johnny Blackmouth is a local group with a nice unvarnished demo quality to their music that kind of reminded me of the dry recording aesthetic of "Sugar On My Tongue" by The Talking Heads. The best show you're likely to see in the suburbs on a Monday night.

Dead Meadow | Chief Death Rage | Spindrift (Hailey's)
Matador owns the Metroplex tonight with one of their star acts playing Denton besides the aforementioned UTD show. Dead Meadow are pretty tranquil compared to a lot of groups in the "Stoner Rock" genre, with some rather serene pieces of music that sound influenced by repeated listens of The Madcap Laughs or Oar. Of course, there were always quieter moments on Sabbath, Budgie, and even Blue Cheer records. Dead Meadow is also unique in that their heavier moments don't sound cartoonish and forced the way some of their bong-choked peers do. Spindrift sounds like a 60's desert cult addicted to Morricone soundtracks. Chief Death Rage are the perfect local band for this bill and they can hold their own with any national act.

Psychedelic Horseshit | Pink Reason | Stag Film | Brimstone Howl (Club Dada)
Psychedelic Horseshit make this whole band description thing really easy. I love when genres are included in names. They sound better than I remembered and I really like the distorted organ sound in some of their songs. Pink Reason also sound pretty cool and are along similar lines with both bands being charmingly sloppy and psych influenced. Stag Film is a bass and drums duo with some decent riffs when the garage rock vocals don't get in the way.

1. Arcade Fire - Neon Bible

2. Raleigh - The House on Seedling Lane

3. Arcade Fire - Neon Bible Limited Ed

4. Air - Pocket Symphony

5. Peter Bjorn & John - Writer's Block
6. !!! - Myth Takes

7. Bright Eyes - Four Winds EP

8. Menomena - Friend and Foe

9. Dr. Dog - We All Belong

10. The Polyphonic Spree - Wait

11. Eluvium - Copia

12. Bloc Party - A Weekend in the City

13. Explosions in the Sky - All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone

14. Elvis Perkins - Ash Wednesday

15. Postmarks - Postmarks

16. RJD2 - The Third Hand

17. Son Volt - The Search

18. Apostle of Hustle - National Anthem of Nowhere

19. Big Business - Here Come the Waterworks

20. M. Ward - To Go Home

Over the weekend, the Strategies of Beauty folks announced that they have added the excellent Wooden Shjips to their already excellent SXSW day/night show, which is surely one of the most daring and interesting events going on in Austin this week. Local fans will also be happy to know that they have added Denton's Mom, a band that seems to be getting a lot of support from all corners of the DFWd music landscape recently. This is really going to be a great event for anyone attending SXSW that might be a little weary about having to sit through another Pepsi sponsored Birdmonster acoustic show at Urban Outfitters.... or whatever the kids are into these days.

(Contributions from SR and Wildcat, someone you'll hear more from soon)

Seems like a lot is going on this weekend as we enter into one of the best times of the year for music in the area. We'll have some SXSW stuff for you next week, but we really plan to focus on the day parties and free stuff more than any of the actual showcases since: 1) you can read about showcase stuff all over the place and 2) the free day shows and non-SXSW events taking place in Austin next week are usually ten times more fun than the actual showcases themselves. I've gone to SXSW for a number of years now, and each year I've been more and more inclined to forget the wrist band all together. This year, I'm doing it: no wristbands, just free stuff. And I bet I'm going to have as much or more fun that I've had in years previous. Anyway, here we go:

FRIDAY

Chief Death Rage | Nouns Group | Kaboom (Secret Headquarters)
A solid early show over at SHQ this evening featuring the sludgy CDR, one of our local favorites (who will also have the honor of opening for Dead Meadow next week), along with two other much talked about local groups whose performances will probably be more than worth the massive three dollar cover. I've never seen Nouns Group or Kaboom live, but I hear very good things. Certainly a must see up in Denton, especially considering that it starts early enough (first band at 830) to give you plenty of time to do something else after the show is over.

Baptist Generals | Shiny Around the Edges | Mom (Denton Arts Center)
Tonight, the Greater Denton Arts Council—GDAC—hosts a fundraising event that it has dubbed the Ultra Extra Arts Mix, which will include appearances by ShinyAround the Edges, Baptist Generals, and Mom. The GDAC uses its fundraising arm, The Arts Guild (link), to underwrite public arts programs and support area groups.It would appear that one product of such support is the GDAC operated Center for the Visual Arts at 207 S Bell Ave,which is where things will go down tonight from 7-11pm. Admission is $20 if you’re going solo, or $35 if you bring your date and/or mom. Between sets, you might enjoy perusing the hard and soft materials on display in the Materials: Hard and Soft exhibit in the Meadows gallery. Another reason to support GDAC? On tap for next week is an impressive partnership with University of NorthTexas College of Music to provide for the residency of Mario Davidovsky from 3/11 to 3/13. If you were a member of the Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States (http://www.seamusonline.org | ), you’d know that Mario Davidovsky is a true golden oldie pioneer composer of electronic music. I think these days Davidovsky typically combines the sounds of live musicians with tapes of recorded music/sounds. Maybe the tape components can be thought of as embedded pre-recordings, since they’re played with live musicians as pre-recordings, and themselves are sometimes composed from various pieces of pre-recordedmaterial. For example, Davidovsky has composed by cutting and variably splicing magnetic tape containing previous recordings to create new recordings for which I have offered “embedded pre-recordings” as an example. At any rate, if that sounds like your cup of tea, then maybe you’d like to compare an Electronic Study piece with a recent Synchronism composition on this guy's page. There will be a performance of Davidovsky’s works at 8pm on Monday at the UNT College of Music, and if you’re still not convinced that the Ultra Extra Arts Mix is the culturally responsible way to spend your hard earned monies tonight, then maybe you should consider that according to GDAC, this is the first event “specifically targeted at the 25-45 year old arts lover,” featuring an atmosphere that’s “like a cool, hip, modern nightclub.” Incidentally, if you’re thinking of starting up one such cool, hip, modern nightclub yourself, maybe since the Gypsy is soon to bedefunct and all, you’d do well to check out some tips this guy. (by Wildcat)

Purple Crush (Zubar)
This band, coming through with the support of The Party's Sober and Select, has had a couple of impressive dance singles that have received a decent amount of play in clubs in the US, UK and France, and they really remind me a hell of a lot of the excellent I Am The World Trade Center, particularly with their cover of "Two of Hearts." You need to go ahead and listen to the song "Fire Wire" on the group's Myspace page to see what I mean. If you had any doubts about this show, I'm willing to bet that this song will change your mind with an instantly catchy verse that is quite unique for upbeat tongue in cheek art school dance pop from Brooklyn. This is a sure bet if you're looking to let lose this evening, and I'm sure the always fashionable, attractive and seemingly built in audience The Party has acquired over the past few months will be out in full force for this.

Raised by Tigers | Current Leaves | Medicine Window (Rubber Gloves)
Should be quite a good show tonight at Rubber Gloves, if not the most rockinest thing you've ever seen. Raised by Tiger's pleasant songs remind me a bit of early Sea and Cake (just a bit, mind you) and the softer side of post-britpop English indie and straightforward shoegaze. You guys know Current Leaves already, and the majority of loud rock that you'll hear at this thing will be provided by Medicine Window, whose tense, jagged, rhythmic post-hardcore songs will be a perfect way to start the evening.

Fishboy | Mermaid Police | Beauxregard (J&Js)
Give a listen to Belgium on Beauxregard's Myspace page. Pretty strange song, kinda good. I don't know if I really dig all the songs I've heard from them (one of them remind me of Elefant or however you spell it, who happen to be one of the worst bands ever), but this might be a good night to see what kind of band Beauxregard is since this is free and all.

The Happy Bullets are playing a free show at Good Records tonight at 7pm. I assume free beer is also on the bill.

SATURDAY

White Drugs | Warren Jackson Hearne | Liz McGowen (Secret Headquarters)
Shit, White Drugs really pack a fucking punch on record. Why they have yet to become wildly popular around town I don't quite understand, but I think its gonna happen sooner rather than later.

Baboon | Tame...Tame and Quiet | LaLaLand | Zoo video DJ (The Cavern)
Although I've never been the biggest Baboon fan of all time, people keep telling me that I need to check them out live, and this might be the time I try it, considering that the small Cavern setting might be the perfect place to see a loud rock show like this, especially since TTAQ will be opening. And if it gets too hectic downstairs, the always enjoyable Zoo will be happening upstairs.

And of course, that big ass North by Southwest thing will be going on over at the Bible Banger joint in Deep Ellum. Not really seeing anything on Saturday that does it for me, but you can catch the excellent Okkervil River on Sunday.

I'm often unsure of what I should say about bands like Primordial Undermind and Oveo. I mean really, what is there to talk about? Sure, you can partially describe the music Oveo creates by discussing the equipment they use: guitar, live drum, reel to reel tape manipulation, etc. And while this might provide a reader with some basic idea of how the different parts of their compositions sound, such a description doesn't get you very far if you're trying to convey the experience of hearing this music live. And of course, you could probably tell people about Primordial Undermind by comparing them to other guitar heavy psyche rock bands from past and present, but that really doesn't touch on what the band is actually trying to do, even if it does provide a loose set of parameters for imagining what their music might sound like. No, to get to the heart of what either of these bands do well, you probably just have to accept the fact that they are attempting to engage the audience on such a highly personal level that its hard to convey exactly what you find appealing about them, even if their missteps are a bit easier to point out.

Oveo's music is generally tense, repetitive and fragile, sounding simultaneously like a challenge to the audience, a cry for help, a statement of vulnerability and a celebration of all things unsettling. On Wednesday at J&Js, Oveo's set started like the others I've seen from them in the past couple of months: trickles of swirling electro noise and manipulated tape began to rise from their amps, sounding rather formless at first but eventually developing an impressively coherent and unique texture that eventually started to command attention to the details. As these sounds continued to repeat and slowly change, it became clear that with all the talk of Denton "noise" bands just getting up on stage and freaking out, Oveo's compositions are really quite deliberate (in purpose if not in detail), and rhythm is much more of a focal point than one might guess. At about the seven or eight minute mark, just as the audience was starting to settle into the overwhelming musical space the band had created, a rather sharp, alarming bass sound started to pump from one corner of the stage area, sending the set to an entirely new place where the band attempted to control and manipulate the rhythmic atmosphere that had already taken a life of its own. As one member began banging on a drum with a tribal intensity, the commanding bass part continued to pulsate and transform, and a weakness in the band's set was revealed: the live drums, though a great way to add something raw to a highly processed set, sometimes took away from the otherwise mesmerizing nature of the band's music, as the seemingly improvisational live rhythms occasionally undermined and threw off the rest of the composition a bit. However, this misstep was a very small one, and the band was able to end their set doing what they seem to be so good at: creating an atmosphere and allowing the minds of audience members to wander a bit while maintaining a noticeable level of control over the mood in the room.

Primordial Undermind did something similar, albeit in a very different manner. Instead of presenting fragments of sounds and allowing listeners to wrap their thoughts around them, the band took relatively straight forward, bluesy psychedelic rock and infused it with sprawling, hazy instrumental passages that made their song oriented moments all the more exciting. Whereas Oveo succeeded in slowly building certain moods throughout their entire set, Primordial Undermind utilized contrasts between fuzzy blues riffs and wandering, jazz influenced breakdowns to pull the audience back and forth between head nodding trad psyche and loose but compelling improv. At certain points, the band could probably be said to share qualities with bands like Comets on Fire and Dungen, but they also seemed to approach their music in a manner similar to Ariel Pink, providing enough of a basis in traditional rock and blues to make the stranger passages seem more purposeful, and the more traditional passages more, um, strange. And with an out of this world drummer holding everything together, there was hardly a time when the band was anything but completely in control of their sound and presentation, even if the control was rather laissez faire compared to that of most guitar based rock bands.

While there were moments in both sets where the bands lost focus or failed to pull off everything they wanted to, both were quite good because they left the audience so much mental space to take what they wanted from the sets. While I enjoy house music and pop as much as the next guy, bands like Oveo and Primordial Undermind are so enjoyable to see live because they give you some space to breathe. Instead of playing "sad" songs or "happy" songs or "fun" songs, they just played, attempted to set moods, and gave the audience the freedom to move in and out of the spaces they created. In the first sentence of this review, I talked about how hard it is to describe what is appealing about these bands, which must now seem like an absurd proposition four paragraphs into a mostly positive review. But even if I can't tell you exactly why I enjoy this music with much precision, I figured I should at least try. After all, shows like these are just too much fun to ignore simply because they're a bit tough to write about.

Deerhoof | Experimental Dental School | Macromantics (Gypsy Tea Room)
Deerhoof is probably one of the most polarizing bands I can think of. Most people I know either think they are brilliant or simply can't stand them, and many in the latter camp cite lead singer Satomi Matsuzaki's vocals as their chief complaint. To be honest, I'm not crazy about the way she sings either, but after spending some time with the past three Deerhoof records, I have to say that her vocals, while not always a highlight, don't do much to detract from the overall Deerhoof experience. Although the Observer recently referred to guitarist John Dieterich's playing as "Sonic Youth inspired," I really don't see the comparison at all, and I certainly don't think Deerhoof sound even a bit like any period of Sonic Youth that I can recall. Instead, the band's child-like avant experiments seem to pull from countless sources all at once, with prog rock, free jazz, punk and 60's psych pop all standing as clear reference points. But no matter how you might describe the sound of the music or the vocals, the point seems to be that Deerhoof's songs, abstract and sometimes annoying upon first listen, grow and change as you engage in repeat listens, and it is through this process that you find the compelling balance between the experimental and the pop that make them completely worth devoting your time to. I've never seen them live before, and I've heard mixed things, but I'm looking forward to finding out for myself. Experimental Dental School's harsh, synth heavy circus dance punk seems like it will be a nice opener for Deerhoof, and Macromantics is surprisingly decent for a former Noise Addict member Australian girl hip hop group. What a mouthful.

The Howling Hex | Tame...Tame and Quiet (Rubber Gloves)
Neil Haggerty has a long and twisted career and I consider myself an admirer even if I actually find much of what he has done puzzling. I'm sure I'm not alone in that sentiment and I'm also sure that it bothers him not in the slightest to be perceived that way. Everything from his groundbreaking guitar playing in Pussy Galore, the anarchic classic rock revisionism of Royal Trux, through some impossible solo work, and even the borderline Tarantula-like gibberish of his first book, all paint a picture of a thoroughly complicated human being. His newest project, The Howling Hex, is at Rubber Gloves tonight and I think it's some of the most accessible work he's done since his terrific batch of songs on Historia de la Musica Rock or even Cats and Dogs. There's a confident swagger to the music that recalls the egomaniacal turns Eric Burdon took in his solo career and that's something I've always enjoyed in an artist's evolution. His style of guitar playing also proves that just because the Allman Brothers suck, people influenced by them don't necessarily have to. One more thing: Though incredibly spotty, Royal Trux's records have aged about a hundred times better than Jon Spencer's. Tame...Tame and Quiet is probably the best local band that plays almost exclusively at "proper" clubs and their spartan indie-prog will compliment the Hex's guitar heroics well.

80's Night With DJ G (Hailey's)

Lost Generation With DJ Wanz Dover (Fallout Lounge)
Wanz promises: new tracks from The Stooges, War Wizards, LCD Sound System, Battles, [A]pendics.Shuffle, Coil vs Venetian Snares, Simian Mobile Disco, Surkin, !!! and Klaxons.