Yr. Weekend, Pt. 3: News on the March (interviewed!) + Animals As Leaders + Muhammad Ali + Live Reviews + More

First up, yep, we’ve got a brand-new interview up, this time with Brent Randel, of country/folk-meets-Beach Boys popsters News on the March, who’ve just come back into town from SXSW in time for their official tour kickoff show tonight up at Mango’s. Not only are they psyched to be out on the road, but they’ve also been hard at work on new stuff, the teensy little bit of which I’ve heard has been really good… Check out the interview over here, and then go see ’em tonight.

On top of that, we’ve got a couple of cool new show writeups (both from the middle of last month; yeah, yeah, I’m slow getting ’em up here) — one of the Take Action Tour, written by Dre Giles, who apparently experienced some sort of epiphany moment about emo-pop in the process (see here), and one of a recent show by Dallas-based thrash heroes Warbeast, written by Scott “The Metal Guy” Whitt, who really, really likes the band, as becomes apparent from about the first line of the review (see here).

And hey, there’s some good stuff going on tonight, as well; here’s what’s worth checking out, in my book:

News on the March (tour kickoff)/Sgt. Dunbar and the Hobo Banned/Buxton/The Candeliers/Smoky Mountain @ Mango’s
Well, duh. Beyond me interviewing ’em, trust me that News on the March are one of the best, most interesting bands in town right now, and fellow country-pop guys (with whom they share member Jason Willis) Buxton are, if it’s even possible, maybe more mind-blowingly cool. Honestly, both bands are great every time I see ’em.

The Dillinger Escape Plan/Darkest Hour/IWrestledABearOnce/Animals As Leaders @ Wired Live (formerly The Meridian; The Channel)
Metalcore extravaganza tonight at Wired Live, looks like — not only are the now-legendary heavy dudes Dillinger Escape Plan and Darkest Hour playing (both of whom are pretty great, I have to say), but so is the more oddball Animals As Leaders, which is basically heavy-duty instro-metal that’s severely on the prog-rock side of the spectrum, all played by one guy, Tosin Abasi (ex-Reflux), on his eight-string guitar. I’ve heard the AAL’s self-titled debut, and believe me, guitar-heads, it’ll melt your freaking brain.

Brokenwater/ Sickweapons/ Hollywood/ Muhammad Ali @ Rudyard’s
Some weeks, it seems like I don’t go more than three or four days without mentioning just how badass-awesome Muhammad Ali happen to be. I just can’t get over it, y’know? The scraping, raw, don’t-give-a-fuck-ness of it all sounds amazing, especially when you peel back the layers to discover the grin-inducing pop sensibility (and yes, there is one) underneath. These guys are like Nirvana might’ve been, had they been hanging out with Stephen Malkmus on a regular basis, and I mean that as a compliment.

SXSW Overflow Fest, featuring Bad Credit No Credit, Coleen Green, The Big Big Bucks, Many Mansions, Quilt, Cameron Hull, Pablo Trucker, Idiot Glee, Yula Beeri, & I Am The Dot @ Super Happy Fun Land
sigh. I know, I know — my attempts at painstakingly listening to & then writing up all the bands I like who’re playing the SXSW Overflow Fest have sadly gone way, way off the rails. Argh. What can I say? Life intervenes, and spending that much time glued to the headphones just isn’t feasible when I’m not already stuck in front of the computer, so… Anyway, this will most likely still be a damn good show, based on the odds alone, and going by how good some of the bands have been so far, those odds are even better than they might be if it were just crap bands and nothing but. Roll the dice.

Resonant Interval Sound Series, featuring Roomies!, Manu Gonzalez, & Thomas Helton @ The Husk (2808 Milam; $5, 7:45PM)
Latest edition of the Resonant Interval madness, curated for the evening by contrabassist/trumpeter Doug Falk (and no, I have no idea what a “contrabass” is, so don’t ask). Falk’ll be playing as part of his Roomies! outfit, alongside guitarist Ryan Edwards, and bassists Manu Gonzalez and Thomas Helton, both of whom are well-respected low-end experimentalists, are playing at some point, too, although I’m not sure if they’re playing with Roomies! or solo or what. $5 for an evening of ribcage-rattling noise; hard to beat that.

Hesta Prynn/Spero/DJ Joy De La O @ The Mink
Haven’t heard Hesta Prynn solo, unfortunately, but I’m a fan of Northern State, and beyond that, my English Lit degree-having self absolutely must give the thumbs-up to any musician who so blatantly references a Nathaniel Hawthorne character. I just have to.

Kamikazecon, featuring The Slants & more @ JW Marriott Hotel Houston (5150 Westheimer)
Dang… Meant to mention this yesterday, but I totally blanked on it. I dunno a lot of the details, but this is some kind of convention for anime junkies, and it sounds pretty neat… I can’t tell for sure that The Slants are playing today (it looks like they are from their Myspace, but not from the convention page), but if you can catch ’em, do — they play an oddly Asian-centric (if you couldn’t guess by the name) breed of British-sounding retro-electro-pop, and it works a lot better than I’d expected it would.

Runners-Up:
NeverShoutNever!/The Cab/Hey Monday/Every Avenue/The Summer Set @ Warehouse Live