Last-Minute Show + Review: Zach Hill (Hella!) + Caddywhompus (Reviewed!) + More

This is what I get for staying off the email/message boards so I can hang with the family & all that. Trying to be good & do stuff with my mom & little girl & all that, and lo and behold, a fairly big-time show rolls surreptitiously into town, slipping right beneath my (admittedly often overtaxed and broken) musical radar. Gah…

So, a little late, but here you go: Zack Hill, of famed/infamed(?) cool-ass duo (now a five-piece?) Hella (whom Danny was kind enough to interview right here back in 2004) is playing tonight, Wed., November 26th, up at Walter’s, swinging through town on his way to, um, I have no idea where. (Austin?) Hell, maybe he — unlike the bulk of indie-music-dom — actually likes our smoggy, bad-self-image city. Maybe?

Anyway, the show’s noteworthy just for Hill, although I’ll admit I have zero idea what his solo stuff sounds like, but it’s made better by the local folks recruited to play the show. Golden Axe has been real prominent real recently, with the “Free the Axe” benefit just this week (fuckin’ cops, messing up The Music, man), and from what I’ve seen/heard, they are a true instro-metal powerhouse the likes of which rarely frequent this planet. Before them, Caddywhompus makes what I think is its first H-town appearance (more on that in a sec), and opener/openers sIngs is one of the guys from By the End of Tonight, which means his solo project pedigree is automatically elevated about ten points.

And speaking of pedigrees…in case you hadn’t heard (I hadn’t, ’til they were kind enough to tell me), Riff Tiffs members Chris Rehm and Sean Hart are currently living over in New Orleans, going to college and hopefully preparing to make something of themselves in polite society. (Since, y’know, fronting a Houston psych-rock band paying the bills? Not so much.) Naturally, the boys can’t sit still for long, so they’ve formed a new branch of the Tiffs tree, charging off as a duo and calling themselves Caddywhompus.

Like I said, I think this is their first time back in town with the new band, and it promises to be gooooooooood. How do I know? Well, they’ve released their own eponymous four-song free on the Web for all to download, check out, and then obsessively play and replay — download a copy yourself right here. And fuck, is it good. I’ve been reeling from listening since that first fateful spin on the iPod, honest. Loud, crunching guitars married with prog-y, noisy, almost Wolf Parade-ish song structures and Zep thunder…badass stuff. See my full take on it here or just listen to it your damn self.

On a mildly sad note, btw, I was a bit bummed to hear about this show, because it apparently means the show Caddywhompus was originally supposed to be playing this week, in my own ‘hood at the Fioza Cafe, now isn’t happening. sigh. Maybe I can convince my little bro to ditch the family festivities with me tonight, hrm…

Oh, and should the above not interest you in the slightest, then you really have no choice but to check out Born Liars, Guitars, and Lazy Horse at Rudyard’s, because it’s going to be equally awesome. Really, you’re legally required to go to one or the other of these shows, or who knows? Maybe the next legal benefit at Rudz will be for your own run-in with the po-po…