The CD sampler that guitarist Todd Rittmann (of U.S. Maple, Cheer-Accident, the latest Rhys Chatham gangbang, and a few other things) sent me a few days ago didn’t have a track listing, but it didn’t need one. It’s by his new band, T&A Lounge Presents, and the songs are well familiar: “Dear Mr. Fantasy,” “Life of Illusion,” “Baby,” “Mexican Radio.” As Rittmann puts it, T&A Lounge Presents is “not JUST a cover band. We are amusmologists taking your hard earned entertainment dollar seriosly [sic], we are not going to bother the audience with all our fancy ‘originals’ (what are we geniuses or somethin’?).” The band also includes Andrea Faught (whose name I keep wanting to type as “fraught”) and Jeff Libersher of Cheer-Accident, and Andy Coon of the Living Blue, all arguably geniuses of a sort. Their show at the Hideout on Sunday, July 1, promises to be a charmingly undemanding good time; for such a scary guitar mofo, Rittmann’s quite the lounge host. Also on the bill are the more challenging Matnia and Magic Movie Machine, featuring Rittmann’s Maple exes Pat Samson and Mark Shippy.
