Tonight: Mantis (Video!) + Sing Your Life + Nobunny + #RSAApproved + Saints & Tzadiks + More

Some good, good stuff going on tonight (Wed., February 16th), so I didn’t want to let it slip past without at least a mention…

First & foremost, I’m psyched to see that the band {Mantis} has crept stealthily back out of the dark and made themselves known; I first heard these guys back in 2007, when they stuck these awesomely soulful, murky, classic-rock-influenced tracks up on Myspace…and then promptly disappeared without a trace.

They’ve popped up a few times since then, seemingly in different incarnations, but now it sure looks like they’re back aboveground to stay; hell, they even made an awesomely creepy, freaky video by Danny Ocean (of Evesborough Films) for “Money” as proof:

Mantis – Money from Evesborough Films on Vimeo.

If you can get past the massive bowtie, the band makes some truly quirky/cool music that’s equal parts funky soul and strange-o experimentalism; the band’s song “Mona” (check it out at their ReverbNation page) makes me think of Modest Mouse, while “Money” makes me think of a soulified Eminem. It’s impressive stuff.

And hey, the band’s playing its CD release tonight at Walter’s, along with {The Niceguys}, who happened to put out one of the best hip-hop albums I heard last year.

Beyond that, there’s the Sing Your Life Acoustic Showcase at Echo, which features a ton of talented folks like {The Literary Greats}’/{Finnegan}’s Taylor Lee, {Sydney Harkreader}, {Spain Colored Orange}’s Gilbert Alfaro, ever-cool folksinger {Gretchen Schmaltz}, & {Hollywood Black} side project {Framework}. Oh, and it’s free.

Over at Rudz, there’s plenty of oddball-ness going down — I dunno much about Nobunny, but the few songs I’ve heard have been cool in a messy, lo-fi, rockabilly-tinged pop way, and {The Wiggins} are (er, is?) always cool to see/hear, too. Plus, there’s {All At Sea}, who totally don’t fit with the other two bands but instead do some intriguing, streetwise, organ-heavy punk and sound like they’re pretty cool all on their own.

On the hip-hop side of things, there’s the #RSAApproved show (and no, I have no idea what that means), which features Dirty & Nasty and {D-Risha}, both of whom I’ve heard good stuff about lately. And hey, there’s always {Robert Ellis} up at Fitz, so don’t forget him…

A little further from the normal scenester haunts, there’s a show over at Jones Hall, on the University of St. Thomas campus, called Saints & Tzadiks: A Concert of Yiddish and Irish Songs, and it sounds pretty interesting — apparently it’ll feature both traditional Irish and Yiddish music (duh), with Dubliner Susan McKeown and Klezmatics member Lorin Sklamberg both playing. Very cool.