Tonight: football, etc., Sneeze, Earhart, & The Clippers at Vinyl Junkie

Meant to mention this earlier on, sorry, but just got back into town from a fam trip down to Galveston, the first in a few years… Tonight (Tues., August 16th) up at Vinyl Junkie, there’s a cool-sounding lineup of emo-tinged bands set to burst onto the “stage” and tear things up (in a seriously melodic way, obviously).

I’m not real familiar with Allston, MA-dwelling headliners The Clippers, but I’m liking the pair of songs they’ve got up on their BandCamp page, which ride a nicely Ted Leo & The Pharmacists-esque line in terms of both the overall sound (esp. the guitars) and the slightly off-kilter arrangements. Bright, shiny post-punk sweetness, at least to my ears.

Tourmates and fellow Massachusettsians Sneeze go a bit louder, cranking up their Superfuzz pedals (do people still use those? I’m no longer a pedal nerd, sadly…) and injecting a bit of punk rawk snarl into the prettiness. The songs on their Grandma In The Trenches 7″(?) are overfuzzed and roaring like the crop of bands who blasted across the musical landscape back in the late ’90s — I’m thinking Fudge and Treepeople, in particular, but there’re some Archers of Loaf-y bits here, too. Holy crap do I want to check these guys out…

Truth be told, though, the primary reason I may attempt to escape the black hole that is the couch tonight — after doing the dishes, helping with laundry, bathing the munchkins, wolfing down dinner, and all the rest of the standard evening activities — is local gang {football, etc.}

After waffling on ’em for far too long, full-length The Draft (reviewed over here) picked me up bodily and threw me over the line into all-out love for this band. They play alternately drifting and head-nodding indie-rock with severe emo tendencies, the kind I fell into right after college and freaking adored for years, ’til…well, ’til never — throwback that I am, I’ve never stopped loving stuff like this.

The trio plays drone-heavy, insistently melodic rock that’s thoughtful and warm and wide-open, like the best parts of Sarge, Silver Scooter, and Tsunami, all taped together like a lovingly-crafted zine from Back In The Day. Trust me on this; The Draft is absolutely killer. Every time I hear “X’s and O’s,” it makes me want to weep happy, happy tears for my long-dead youth. (And yes, that’s a good thing.)

Also playing are Angleton-bred crew {Earhart}, who I’ve been meaning to hear/see for a little while now but hadn’t really had a chance to check out yet… Thanks to the wonders of BandCamp, again, now I have, and I’m wishing I’d given ’em a listen sooner. They’re sweet and emo-tinged like everybody they’re sharing the stage with this evening, but in more of a straight-up post-emo-rock kind of way, all shy-boy choruses and softly-distorted guitars. Think Mae or Copeland — both of which I like, mind you — and you’ll be in the right neighborhood. Looking forward to hearing their new album…

The details: the bands start at 7PM tonight and play ’til somewhere around 10PM, and it’s a mere $5 for all that crunchy emo goodness. Check it out.