Yr. Weekend, Pt. 1: Venomous Maximus (Rev’d!) + Mason Lankford + The Handshake + Kashmere Stage Band + More

Diving headlong into the weekend, now, with Friday, August 19th, and there’s some great stuff going on across town. First, though, just a couple of changes and reschedulings coming… Tonight it appears that Days of the New have cancelled their show down at The Scout Bar in Clear Lake, so that may be bad news for fans of the band/guy (assuming there are any, of course). There’s still a capable slate of locals playing, though, including {Idol Hand}, {Rainchild}, & Foster.

A little further out, the Brujeria show that was scheduled for October 9th as Warehouse Live has been shifted out a month — same venue, but now a modified lineup (no more {Venomous Supremacy}, apparently) will be playing on November 10th, instead. In the place of the original show, though, there’s quite a nice consolation prize in the form of the ever-awesome Lucinda Williams; she’ll be playing Oct. 9th at the Warehouse, instead.

Now, back to tonight. The biggie for me, at least, is the release party tonight at Fitzgerald’s for the new {Venomous Maximus} 12″, The Mission — got a new review of it up right over here, and I have to say, I’m liking it a hell of a lot. Take some Kill ‘Em All-era Hetfieldian thrash riffage and weld it onto a low end-heavy stoner-metal chassis that kinda-sorta resembles Red Fang or Early Man, and you’ll be close. Check out a little promo video for the new EP:

It looks like it’ll be a pretty great show, crammed full of cool heavy-as-fuck bands like barebones throwback punks {The Energy}, prog-ish metal guys {Carry The Storm}, and pseudo-screamo band {A dream Asleep}, plus {Legion}, about whom I’ve heard some good things recently. And hell, it’s free if you’re of drinking age and only $5 if you’re not, so that’s hard to beat in itself…

Mason Lankford, the frontman for the excellent, excellent {Folk Family Revival} (reviewed their new album a little while back, too), will seemingly be in two places at once tonight…

First he’ll be opening at the Warehouse Live for a band I’ve never heard of called Steffi Graf (I’m going to assume, btw, that this isn’t the tennis star doing some kind of solo musical endeavor), as well as very cool locals {The Handshake} — who are releasing their new EP tonight, as mentioned over at {Houston Calling} — and newish outfit {Khruangbin}, which I’m still not sure is a band and not a person.

Then Lankford’s apparently headed on over to Khon’s, where he’ll play with ultra-mellow dude {Tyagaraja} at what I’m pretty sure is a solo show for both. Either place you can catch Lankford, it’ll be worth it, honest; he does some great stuff.

Down in Midtown at The Continental Club, the fabled Kashmere Stage Band — I can’t claim to know the band’s history all that well, but back in the day, at least, they were apparently the shit, up there with the top funk/soul bands of the day despite being high school students. The recordings they made back then have been re-released, the band’s been the subject of a documentary (which hits theaters 9/23/11), and they’ve since reunited, which is very cool.

(Plus, local retro-rockers {Picture Book} are playing the Happy Hour slot, and that’s always fun…)

What else? Well, at the House of Blues there’s a lineup full of monolithic, heavy bands, headed up by The Black Dahlia Murder, whom I happen to like, The Mink has a cool Summer Soul Jam show with {The Journey Agents}, {Electric Attitude}, {Ozeal}, and other folks, and {Yello Echo}, who our own Robin Babb interviewed a little while ago, are playing over at Bohemeos.

Full list of good stuff (to me, at least), right here:

Venomous Maximus (EP release)/The Energy/A dream Asleep/Eagle Claw/Maleveller/Turbokrieg/Tornadho/Carry The Storm/TeXXXas/Legion @ Fitzgerald’s (upstairs & downstairs)
Steffi Graf/The Handshake (EP release)/KhruangBin/Mason Lankford @ Warehouse Live (Green Room)
Tyagaraja/Mason Lankford @ Khon’s
The Black Dahlia Murder/Whitechapel/Darkest Hour/Six Feet Under/Dying Fetus/Powerglove/As Blood Runs Black/Oceano/Fleshgod Apocalypse @ House of Blues
Yello Echo @ Bohemeos
Kashmere Stage Band/Picture Book @ The Continental Club
Houston Fringe Festival, featuring Milo & Shyla & Olive Juice @ Super Happy Fun Land
Summer Soul Jam, featuring Mexican Stepgrandfather, The Journey Agents, Electric Attitude, Ozeal, The Funka Ja’s, & DJ Comp-1 @ The Mink
Brad Boyer/Jimmy Pizzitola/Johnathon Ross/Hilary Sloan @ Heights Live!
Irene/Devil Killing Moth/A Spanish Disposition @ Rudyard’s
A Fistful of Soul @ The Mink