The Rundown: Gold Sounds & Alkari & News on the March & Paper Chase…Holy Fuck, What a Weekend.

Okay, it’s true — I am excited by all the awesomeness going on this weekend in part because I’ll be doing the Ramblin’ Man thing, all on my lonesome, once the wife takes The Munchkin and heads out to beautiful Shelby, TX. for a girls-only “retreat”-type thing at her boss’s country abode. What with the kid and the house stuff and all that, a lot of my weekends tend to be fairly domestic, but since I’ll be on my own I’m planning to drag my lazy self out of the house & hit some shows.

And damn, there’s a bunch to choose from. My two top picks are the Electric Attitude show tonight at Walter’s with Gold Sounds, Studemont Project, & Alkari and the News on the March EP release on Saturday at Rudz with Elaine Greer, The Unbearables, & Phillip Foshée, but it’s a hard, hard choice. The Paper Chase & Tambersauro @ Walter’s is calling to me, as well, as is Ladyheat tonight at The Mink. Gonna have to see how it goes, I guess. Here’s the list:

Fri., December 5:
Electric Attitude/The Gold Sounds/Studemont Project/Alkari @ Walter’s on Washington
I don’t care much about headliners Electric Attitude — don’t dislike them or anything, just don’t know them at all, sorry — but I dearly love the EP I got from Deer Park guys The Gold Sounds, and Alkari rule, as well (both musically and as people). It’s way past time I’ve seen both bands live. Oh, and I think Studemont Project is playing, although the flyers just say “Studemont”; did they shorten the name or something?

Carolyn Wonderland @ McGonigel’s Mucky Duck
Gotta love Carolyn Wonderland. I think she singlehandedly revived my wife’s interest in local (“local” taken broadly to mean “from this general region of Texas”) music; despite my near-constant boosterism, Ms. Wonderland’s the only musician lately who’s made her sit up & take notice. (And yeah, I do need to get the wife out to more shows…)

Ladyheat/A.U.X./Flowers to Hide @ The Mink
Ladyheat! Raw, garage-y, sometimes raunchy rock like The Strokes gone on a bender at a strip club. Yes, I need to see these folks, too. Dunno A.U.X., but Flowers to Hide are pretty cool, too.

Duran Duran/Your Vegas @ Verizon Wireless Theater
Her name is Rio, and she dances on the sands. (At least, she did 30 or so years ago. These days, she’s probably at home watching QVC, but y’know.)

H-Town Noisefest 08, featuring Kill the Client, Catheter, Laughing Dog, El Desmadre, Dissent, Ecocide, Termination Force, n.i.b.i.r.u., & Gorenado @ The White Swan ($10; 7PM)
Day 1 of Noisefest 08, and while I’m generally not a fan of stuff that makes you bleed from the ears, I respect that these folks keep doing what they do, no matter what, regardless of the fact that the “music” they play is very likely going to remain an underground phenomenon for the entirety of their lives. They’re like the musical equivalent of Don Quixote. (Um, kind of.)

Artery Hurricane Repair Benefit/Party, featuring Emaniah Shinar, Tony Henry, Manning Mpinduzi-Mott, Jeff Abrams, Tony Asch, & more @ The Artery (7-11PM)
Never been to the Artery, but I’m all for helping out local art/music venues, and this place definitely qualifies. Apparently they sustained some damage during Ike; help ’em fix the place back up again.

Engineering Night Out/Marine Toys For Tots, featuring Whiskey Myers Band, Rodney Hayden, Bo Cox, & Charlie Shafter Band @ The Meridian
No clue on the bands, but I’ve always liked the Toys For Tots thing — a good cause, if you ask me.

Sat., December 6:
News on the March (EP release)/The Unbearables/Elaine Greer/Phillip Foshée @ Rudyard’s
I’ve been listening all week to the pre-release I snagged of the new News on the March Glory Be! (the EP!) (good, good, good stuff — see my review of the EP here), and I’m dying, totally dying, to see them play. “A Song for Your Sweetie” has got to be fucking cool live. Plus, I’ve wanted to see Elaine Greer live for a year or two now but never have, for some reason.

The Paper Chase/Astronautalis/Tambersauro @ Walter’s on Washington
Ahhh, the pain! Soul… being torn… in two… Where… to go? Somewhat more seriously, this does cause me near-physical pain to think that I’m really only going to be able to catch either NotM or The Paper Chase, because I well and truly love those dark, murky, head-fuckers in TPC. Tambersauro are pretty incredible, to boot. What to do…what to do?

Peepshow Creepshow, featuring Attic Ted, Bob Taylor’s Latest Review, & The Carnys, plus art & “peepshow” performances @ Notsuoh (8PM-2AM)
WTF? This promises to be very, ah, “interesting,” to say the least. This is Shawna of DiverseWorks/Proletariat fame’s latest deal, and the idea isn’t apparently to be a real old-school peepshow, what with naked/near-naked wimmen and all that, but to let everybody who wants to get into the peepshow booth and go nuts in front of an unseen audience behind the one-way glass. Which is…well, fairly freakin’ weird, if you ask me. Definitely not my cup of tea, at least not for the doing. But witnessing it, ah, that could be something else… (Oh, and the three bands listed are all carnival-type bands, looks like, from up Austin way. In case you were wondering.)

H-Town Noisefest 08, featuring Indisgust, Superbad, Noisear, Terrorism, PLF, Knelt Rote, Snot Rokitts, Doom Siren, 54R, Satannabis, & The Assholes @ The White Swan ($10; 7PM)
Day 2 of the Noise! Grindcore, sludgecore, noisecore, you name it. See above.

Sun., December 7:
Zechs Marquise/The Goods @ The Mink
Not entirely sure this show’s going to happen — it’s not listed on The Mink’s site — but if it does, it’ll be worth it just for The Goods. Straight-up, rough-but-not-too-rough rawk with a nice grunge edge to it.

Holly Golightly & The Brokeoffs @ House of Blues (in dining room?)
And another “WTF?” show for the weekend… I first saw that Ms. Golightly was scheduled for the House of Blues several months back and thought, “yay!” A month or two later, I saw somebody else listed on the HoB site (Anthony Hamilton? no clue…) and thought, “crap!” The days wore on, and the date stayed on Holly’s calendar but not the HoB’s, and then a kind soul posted to the Hands Up board that she’d be playing in the House of Blues dining room.

And no, she’s still not listed on the HoB site. Which is A). bad, bad, bad promotion on the House of Blues’ part and B). fucking criminal from an artistic standpoint, because Ms. Golightly & co. should rightly be playing a bona fide set in front of a bona fide audience, not a bunch of yobs who just came in for the cajun food and the chance of maybe seeing Dan Aykroyd in person. Again: WTF?

Mon., December 8:
Fishbone/Heavy Mojo/Natives of the New Dawn/World’s Most Dangerous Band @ The Meridian
Sadly, I am way too old for Fishbone shows, but damn, I wish I wasn’t. I still vividly remember moshing in a giant mud pit to “Swim” during one of the Lollapaloozas; it was bloody and messy and loud and disorienting, yeah, but a transcendent concert experience nonetheless.

That’s all I got. Heading out…