Yr. Weekend, Pt. 3: Charlie Naked + Trout Fishing in America + More

Not quite as much going on today (Sun., October 3), but hey, there’re still a couple of worthwhile shows going. Here’s what looks cool to me:

Binarium Sound Series, featuring Pupi & Charlie Naked @ The Mekong Underground (2808 Milam)
Ah, yeah… It’s been a long damn time since I last saw {Charlie Naked} was playing a live show; I’m glad to see the Binarium folks have dragged him up on the stage again.

Of course, it’s not like he’s not playing anything live these days — “Charlie Naked” happens to be an alias for “Charlie Horshack,” itself an alias for Charlie Ebersbaker, longtime guitarist for the awesome, heavy, stonerriffic {Linus Pauling Quartet} (who’ve been busy lately themselves, btw; more on that to come) and once-upon-a-time SCR contributor on top of that.

As “Charlie Naked,” Ebersbaker plays around with some decidedly un-LP4-ish sounds, diving deep into the experimental/improvised end of the pool. I’ve honestly got no clue what it sounds like these days — I know he’s gone through several phases, the last of which (that I heard about, anyway) was more electronic and computer-y, but there’s no telling where it’s taken him these days…

Trout Fishing in America @ McGonigel’s Mucky Duck
I know I’ve talked up Trout Fishing in America before (probably multiple times), yep, I’ve gotta do it again. Because honestly, these guys are a blast, and they’re fairly phenomenal songwriters, to boot. They deliver their smart-yet-silly, wordplay-filled folk-pop with big, goofy grins, drag the audience back to 3rd grade or thereabouts, and are generally just a crapload of fun.

And besides all that, hell, they’re from here (although they’ve called Arkansas home since the early ’90s), and y’know, once a Houstonian… Anyway, the band sometimes does two shows in a day, an early one for kids and a later one for adults, with different music at both, but it looks like this one’s going to be mostly an “adult” show. Which doesn’t mean anything seedy, mind you, but that they’re not going to focus solely on the kiddie songs.

I’m guessing most of it’ll be from their latest, Lookin’ at Lucky, which is out just last month, but if they take requests, yell out for “There’s a Panther in Michigan,” “Mandaddy,” “When I Was a Dinosaur,” or “What I Want is a Proper Cup of Coffee” for me, eh?

Runners-Up:
Kina Grannis @ House of Blues (Bronze Peacock Room)
The Texas Buzz, featuring Distant Lights, Edge, & Angel Siren @ The Scout Bar (Clear Lake)