Tonight: Fruit Bats (Reviewed + MP3s!) + Wild Moccasins + Crazy DFW-ers + More

Yep, another day, another review — sorry to be late on this one; I wrote it up last night but couldn’t get it posted ’til just now… I really wanted to review the Fruit Bats‘ latest, The Ruminant Band, btw, because I truly, truly dug Spelled In Bones and felt damned bad that we missed out on writing ’em up the last time around (thanks to a former writer who cheerily requested a bunch of good stuff and then absconded with it). “Silent Life” has been in steady rotation on my iPod since way back then, and somehow pops into my head every time I feel like making a mixtape/CD for friends & coworkers.

Imagine my surprise, then, when The Ruminant Band turned out to sound like it was crafted by a totally different band. Gone are all the Shins-y shiny pop bits, the Say Hi-esque synths, and the distant spaciness I loved so much the first time ’round — four years on, the Fruit Bats are now, well, pretty much a full-on ’70s pop band. As in Elton John, as in Harry Nilsson, as in Paul McCartney. Hell, especially McCartney; I can’t help but hear his influence all over the album.

None of which is bad, of course — I was resistant at first, but I’ve been steadily coming around and finding different tracks from the disc locked into my brain throughout the day. I mean, if you’re going to dive headlong into ’70s pop warmth and goodness, you really couldn’t do much better than to grab hold of McCartney and not let go, right? Anyway. If you’re up for more blathering from me on the subject, head right over here.

Plus, the band will be playing in town tonight (Thurs., September 3rd, naturally), up at Walter’s on Washington, where they share the bill with fellow Sub Pop folks Death Vessel, who’re also very damn cool in a folky, back-to-the-past kind of way. Local heroes and idols of mine News On The March will be opening, too, and I honestly can’t think of a more perfect combo than these folks’ sweet, ragtime-y country-folk-pop (which also has a serious back-to-the-past thing going on) than Death Vessel. It’s gonna be a pretty ridiculously great show.

Oh, and for those who’re on the fence, here’re three of my fave tracks from both the Fruit Bats and Death Vessel:

Fruit Bats – “My Unusual Friend”
Fruit Bats – “Silent Life”
Death Vessel – “Bruno’s Torso”

More Options!:
And yeah, this being Houston, that ain’t all that’s going on. If you’re not headed to Walter’s, be sure to head for The Continental Club to catch always-awesome (and seriously, they get better each time I see ’em) indie-popsters The Wild Moccasins.

Or, on the other side of the spectrum, you could go all-out noise/mess/skronk over at Super Happy Fun Land, where entertaining locals The Annoysters, Organ Failure, & more play with a biiiiig crew of DFW-bred noise bands like the awesomely-named Wu Fru De Lu & Ruuu P. Versus Space Dragon Killah. Whoa.

Lastly, for the more bluesy set, H-town expat Carolyn Wonderland will be gracing us again, this time at McGonigel’s Mucky Duck. There you go, y’all…