thursday28
Thursday28
Geh20 Goth1k
David Grubbs
Friday29
Fielded
Hunx & His Punx, Shannon & the Clams
Mind Over Mirror
Mogwai
Saturday30
Battles
Dead Milkmen
Grails
Florian Hecker
Femi Kuti & the Positive Force
Joe Mullins & the Radio Ramblers
Wednesday4
An Horse
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FIELDED It’s hard not to fall for Fielded, the solo project from Ga’an vocalist Lindsay Powell. One listen to “White Death,” the title track of her new seven-inch on Sophomore Lounge Records, ought to be enough for anyone with a working prefrontal cortex and the capacity to feel. A rapturous, minimalist anthem, it features sparse, sampled vocal percussion and a velvety backdrop of pulsing synths, but the real treat is Powell’s clear, fierce voice. Her singing anchors the four-song single, and it’s just as moving whether she’s shouting to the heavens or electronically warping her voice beyond recognition. Onstage she’s no less engaging, often tossing a hand in the air like a gospel singer swept up by a gust of melody or a flood of the holy spirit—and in the heat of the moment you can feel it right along with her. —Leor Galil Zath and Verma open. 10 PM, Hideout, $8.
HUNX & HIS PUNX, SHANNON & THE CLAMS Recently a loose confederation of Bay Area bands—including but not limited to Girls, Nobunny, Sonny & the Sunsets, Shannon & the Clams, and the Sandwitches—has been mining golden-oldies bubblegum pop and dressing it up in punk drag. They’ve been hitting pay dirt with almost alarming frequency, sending garage-rock aficionados worldwide into a collective swoon. The latest such gem is Too Young to Be in Love (Hardly Art), the sophomore full-length from Hunx & His Punx. Like his contemporaries, front man and songwriter Hunx (aka Seth Bogart, formerly of queer dance-punk outfit Gravy Train!!!!) largely bypasses the direct influence of the stomping, Nuggets-approved Stones wannabes that pieced together the garage-band template, instead diving into the fluffy, candy-toned, Brill Building pop of the girl groups and proto-boy bands that their little sisters were hooked on. Bogart puts a tiny bit of camp spin on the proceedings—think equal parts John Waters and a slightly ironic, punkified take on Tom of Finland—but his love for the source material rings true, and his reimaginings of it are addictively excellent. —Miles Raymer
BATTLES When Tyondai Braxton, who cofounded Battles in 2002, announced his sudden departure in August, I admit I doubted the band had a future. Based partly on Braxton’s stylistically slippery 2009 solo album, Central Market, I assumed he’d been the guiding force behind the genre-averse sound the quartet created on 2007’s Mirrored. But the remaining members—guitarist Ian Williams, bassist Dave Konopka, and drummer John Stanier—proved me wrong with Gloss Drop (due from Warp on June 7), pushing Battles further into turf all their own. The band wrote much of the material on the new record while Braxton was still aboard, but in a Pitchfork interview Konopka says the group reworked it all. They brought in guest vocalists to compensate for Braxton’s absence—techno producer Matias Aguayo, Blonde Redhead front woman Kazu Makino, new-wave relic Gary Numan, Boredoms kingpin Yamantaka Eye—but the instruments burst with so much personality, colliding daring ideas and unclassifiable sounds, that the music would sound great without any singing. There are clearly plenty of electronics and keyboards, but it’s hard to say where they leave off—trying to figure out which noise is coming from where is wonderfully puzzling. The pointillistic, chiming guitars sound like a cross between steel-pan drums and amplified kalimbas; Stanier’s jittery, punishing beats sound like a drum machine gone berserk. For me it counts as very high praise when I find music almost impossible to describe, so I’m very happy to be confounded by Gloss Drop‘s irresistible grooves, ever-shifting textures, and gleaming melodic fragments that seem somehow lighter than air and heavier than an anvil. —Peter Margasak 10 PM, Lincoln Hall, sold out. 18+
JOE MULLINS & THE RADIO RAMBLERS Banjoist and singer Joe Mullins named Hymns From the Hills (Rebel), the second album with his band Radio Ramblers, after a gospel radio show that his father, DJ and bluegrass fiddler Paul “Moon” Mullins, launched in Middletown, Ohio, in 1964. The younger Mullins followed his father’s twin vocations, playing in a local band called Traditional Grass while breaking into radio in 1982, and by 1990 he’d launched a version of his father’s program that even used the same name. He’s found success in both fields—he owns several Ohio stations—and before leading his own group he worked in the all-star band Longview. Steeped in the conventions of bluegrass, the all-gospel Hymns From the Hills makes a fine addition to the repertoire, with high-profile guests (Doyle Lawson, Larry Sparks, Rhonda Vincent) adding extra flavor. In fact, Ralph Stanley saves the collection’s sole misstep, a spin through the Sunday-school standard “Jesus Loves Me” that includes a ragged children’s choir from Mullins’s church cloyingly delivering the chorus. The Radio Ramblers complement the traditional numbers with some decent originals, but one new tune jumped out at me: “O the Love of My Redeemer,” written by Chicago’s own Josh Caterer of Smoking Popes fame. A quick Google search indicates it’s become a modern gospel staple. —Peter Margasak Long Journey Home opens. 8 PM, American Legion Hall, $20, $15 seniors and children.
