The Literary Greats Finally Bring Black Blizzard to the World, Thursday

I’ve been waiting in eager anticipation for this one, folks, seriously. I mean, I’ve been lucky enough to have my hands on Black Blizzard, the latest full-length from awesomely tight, smart, tuneful indie-country-rockers {The Literary Greats}, for a little while now, but I’m damn glad it’s finally going to see the light of day…

This coming Thursday, April 28th, the Greats will officially debut the album over at The Continental Club, and for the occasion they’ll be playing the whole thing in all its multi-layered glory, including the horns and backup singers. Holy freaking yeah, y’all.

Be warned that if you’ve see The Literary Greats before now, you might be in for a little bit of a shock — while Blizzard definitely does build on both the band’s previous releases, Ocean, Meet The Valley and The Literary Greats, it veers off in a decidedly different direction for a fair chunk of the album. The gentle, smiling alt-country jangle of the band’s earlier stuff is off to the side somewhat, replaced by bluesier, more “rock” sounds that are beefier and more muscular even as they layer on the strings and bumping, funky (yes, funky) horns.

And yeah, it’s pretty awesome — see here for the full rundown on what the band’s up to with this release, and then hit the Continental on Thursday to witness it for yourself.

Of course, you don’t even have to take my word for it; here’s a preview:

The Literary Greats – “Night Owl”

To make things even cooler, the show’s really a twofer, because Dallas-dwelling openers The Orbans are flat-out amazing themselves. I got to check out the band’s 2010 release, When We Were Wild, towards the end of last year, and trust me, it’s fucking phenomenal. I could listen to opening track “New Dress” for days on endless repeat, seriously.

And hey, glancing back at my own review of the disc, lo and behold, I compared ’em to — yep, no lie — The Literary Greats. I’m psyched to see the two bands sharing the stage…

If you don’t happen to live here, well, you may not totally be out of luck, by the by; after Thursday’s show, the Greats will apparently be headed on up to Austin for a second CD release show, this time at Lamberts Downtown Barbecue.

They’ll be playing with Austinite heroes The Eastern Sea, which pretty much means these two shows are both practically guaranteed to be awesome. See one or both; you won’t be sorry.