Update: KTRU Outdoor Show Gets (Mister) Heavenly

Some nice additional news about the recently-announced 20th Annual KTRU Outdoor Show, folks (which’ll be on April 9th, by the way) — way back when the show was still in-the-works & under-wraps, we got word that the KTRU gang were hoping against hope that Mister Heavenly, the indie quasi-supergroup that features members of Man Man, The Unicorns, Islands, and Modest Mouse, plus Michael Cera of Arrested Development fame.

We wore sworn to secrecy, and then…well, it seemed to fall through. Dang. I figured that would be the end of it, ’til late last week, when we got an update that the band would be playing the Outdoor Show after all. Niiiice. (That’s the updated flyer over there, btw.)

I’ll admit, I’m a little wary of getting too excited about the band — Cera’s recent PR troubles have made me leery of him, in particular, and most indie-rock supergroups tend to be more hype than anything else, it seems like — but hell, I’m liking what I’ve heard so far. They’re like a doo-wop band with shaggy hair and crazy eyes, ’50s crooners hopped up on some kind of weird drug you’ve never heard of, and once they get cranking, well, it works.

Listen for yourself:

Oh, and there is another name on the bill that you won’t see over there on the flyer — the triumphant winners of this year’s KTRU Battle of the Bands, The Smoking Section, will also be taking the stage.

The band of Rice kids, whose guitarist/singer Erik Tanner I think may be the brother of once-upon-a-time local ska scene hero Bill Tanner, are pretty darn good, from what little I’ve heard so far; I’m guessing they’re playing first, so make plans to show up early, eh?