Tonight: Santogold (er, Santigold) at the HoB

Can’t believe I let this one creep up on me like this — one of my absolute favorite, most intrigued-by music-makers going, and I nearly freaking forgot she was playing here this week. Gah…

Anyway, Santigold will be playing tonight, Wed., June 17th up at the House of Blues, and while I’ve been burned by the HoB recently and am somewhat disgruntled, I can’t help but point folks to this show; Brooklyn’s Santi White, the woman behind Santigold (she apparently had to update her name after some crap-ass late-night infomercial gold seller called “Santo Gold” threatened to sue), is fucking phenomenal. I know she’s been around for several years, popping up on Wu-Tang spinoff albums & all that, but I’ll be damned if when Santogold appeared last year, it wasn’t like she’d fallen through some crack in the sky from an alternate universe where R&B has a brain and soul and some damn intelligence, to boot.

Seriously — if there’s any justice, Santigold will wipe all the annoying, fake, light-as-air R&B singers out there (I’d throw out some names, but hell, I can’t even remember their freaking names at this point, there’s so many of ’em) off the planet. Tracks like “L.E.S. Artistes”, “Lights Out”, and “Creator” are like the missing link between Blondie-era NYC pop and wall-rattling dub & grime, and it’s utterly jaw-droppingly cool.

Don’t believe me? Hell, you don’t have to; just watch & listen:

(I know it’s slow as dirt at the beginning, but it gets better; wait for the paint to start flying…)

Afraid I dunno Trouble Andrew or Amanda Blank, sadly, but eh, enjoy ’em when you go — as you should — to check out the headliner. The show’s gonna rule, I swear.