Yr. Weekend, Pt. 1 (NYE!): Warpaint + The Wild Moccasins + Mobley + New Years Noise + More

Well, folks, the end of 2010 is upon us; both the end of a year and the end of a decade. I’m tempted to take a minute to complain about the latter, in particular, because in a lot of ways the ’00s was not the era I was hoping for waaaaaay back in 2000, but heck, this decade also saw me getting married to my beautiful wife and having two awesomely amazing super-children, so I really-and-truly have no cause to gripe.

And naturally, Houston’s going to go nuts celebrating the death of the current year & the start of the next, as of tonight, Friday, December 31st. There’s a crapload of stuff going on, but I’m really only going to hit the highlights here — this is just what sounds/looks good to me, eh?

Here goes:

PEASE OUT: 2011 NYE Party, featuring Warpaint, Girl In A Coma, Ume, The Tontons, Tax the Wolf, The Handshake, Young Girls, Fat Tony, B L A C K I E, Female Demand, & Electric Attitude @ Groundhall (8PM-2AM)
Yep, I’ve talked this one up a few times already, but hell, I’ll do it again: tonight’s PEASE OUT show pretty much tops the bill, at least for me. It’s got an excellent mix of local heroes, like {B L A C K I E}, {The Tontons}, {Female Demand}, & {Tax the Wolf}, and up-and-coming out-of-towners, namely headliners Warpaint, San Antonio’s Girl In A Coma, & Austin band Ume, and I hear the newly-refurbished Groundhall is pretty sweet.

Of the bands playing, btw, there’s scarcely one I don’t like — I haven’t heard much by {The Handshake} or {Young Girls}, I’ll admit, but even then I’ve heard good things. And big-namers Warpaint, in particular, are freaking incredible, in my book, riding that sweet, sweet line between post-punk noise and narcotic indie-rock nodding-out. (I’d hoped we could cram in an interview with the ladies in the band, but sadly, it didn’t materialize in time…damn.)

FPHNYE: Free Press New Years Eve Cataclysm, featuring The Wild Moccasins, Weird Party, Golden Axe, LIMB, Fat Tony, Hamamatsu Tom, B L A C K I E, Delicious Milk, & State vs. Judd Nelson @ Fitzgerald’s (free for 21+)
And here’s the other “big” NYE show of the night, this time with an extra-special hometown-love dose of badass Houstonians. I’m not as familiar with some of these folks (I dunno much about {Delicious Milk}, for one, beyond the fact that {Free Press Houston} honcho Omar is in it), but the ones I am familiar with, like {Fat Tony} (who, along with B L A C K I E, will apparently be in two places on the same night; go figure), {Weird Party}, {Golden Axe}, and the awesomely strange {LIMB}, are fairly mind-blowing.

And hey, I can’t forget {The Wild Moccasins}, who are still solidly in my list of favorite bands of the moment (and that means from anywhere, kids, not just from here); the band’s debut full-length, Skin Collision Past, takes off from the previous Microscopic Metronomes like a supersonic jet, blowing the past stuff behind and getting older, wiser, & tougher in the process.

Oh, and as a side note, Austin band The Hex Dispensers are still listed on the bill but are reportedly not going to be playing, sorry — the band’s Facebook page specifically declares that they won’t be here in town tonight.

New Year’s Eve Party, featuring Lower Life Form, Mobley, Square & Compass, The Journey Agents, & DJ Smoove @ Jet Lounge
Tonight’s Jet Lounge NYE party is the underdog, compared to the two “biggies” above, but hey, it’s still scrappy. Hip-hop crew {Lower Life Form} are pretty badass, for one, I like what I’ve heard from Square & Compass so far, I’ve heard good things about {Journey Agents}, and kinda-headliners Mobley, from Austin, play some nicely keys-heavy, sweet-voiced electro-pop. Don’t count this one out, y’all.

New Years Noise – NYN7, featuring Oblive, Boar, I Like You, Go Home, The Annoysters, A Fail Association, T.E.F., Deadskeleton, Serum Fantis, Illicit Relationship, & Protists Of Nebula/Thou Shalt Not Kill…Except @ Super Happy Fun Land
Noise. Noise. That’s what the aptly-named New Years Noise show’s about, now in its seventh(?) year and still rattling fillings loose and causing skull-splitting headaches. I can’t claim to be any kind of an authority on anybody playing — although the name I Like You, Go Home is pretty awesome all on its own — but I applaud the hell out of the organizers for steadfastly ushering in the new year with blistering, paint-peeling, decidedly unmelodic sound. Fuck that “Auld Lang Syne” bullshit; blaze in the New Year to a full-on aural assault, instead.

Runners-Up:
Chelsea Hotel/Darwin’s Finches/Gnome Chomsky/Only Beast/The Nothing @ Mango’s
New Years Eve, featuring New Orleans Hustlers Brass Band @ Under the Volcano
No Cover New Years Eve, featuring The Allen Oldies Band & David Beebe & the Conrads @ The Continental Club
Turntable Fury: Live on NYE, featuring ThatKidNamedCee & DJ Needlz @ The Mink
New Years Eve Party, featuring The Hunger, Dev Electric, Raging Apathy, & Born From Ruins @ The Scout Bar (Clear Lake)