Yr. (Late) Weekend, Pt. 1: Square and Compass + The American Heist + Blues Control (MP3!) + Jody Seabody + Loretta Lynn + More

Argh. Late, late, late… Sorry for being so quiet this past week or so, y’all — early February is Birthday Time at our house, so most of my waking non-work hours in recent days have been spent running birthday-related errands or shepherding large gaggles of extremely loud 8/9-year-old girls around (with much shrieking).

So now I’m attempting to get back on the horse, as it were, with this here weekend, late though I am; there’s plenty going on, starting with tonight, Friday, February 8th:

The American Heist/Square and Compass @ Fitzgerald’s
Oh, yes. First and foremost, there’s this show, which pairs two very cool bands — I’ve liked both for a while now, although I was honestly afraid {The American Heist} were dead & gone, since they seem to fade out regularly for months and months at a time. Glad to see they’re still alive & kicking, and I really, really need to hear their rootsy, countrified take on punk rock again sometime very soon.

Then there’s emo-throwback dudes {Square and Compass}, who just released debut full-length How to Escape, a badass chunk of old-school melodic punk guitar rock that’s equal parts Hüsker Dü and Braid and Superchunk and the Get Up Kids, all rolled into one tightly-wound ball of wiry, buzzing-yet-beautiful noise.

Blues Control/sIngs/Beau Beasley and the Ensemble for the End of Time @ Mango’s ($6)
I’ll freely admit I don’t really know what the hell to make of Blues Control; from the name, I’d kind of expected some sort of Jack White/Black Keys retro-blues-rawk thing, but then there’s label Drag City, who’ve been steadily pushing the boundaries of weirdball, iconoclastic rock.

And after a listen to new-ish album Valley Tangents, yeah, they fit pretty nicely on Drag City’s roster. They’re oddly jazzy/proggy, with some nicely twisty, spiral-y melodies and riffs, and while I can’t say I’m the biggest fan on the planet of that kind of thing, it’s definitely interesting. Take a listen to a song off the new album:

Blues Control – “Iron Pigs”

As an added bonus, cool local indie-rock/pop outfit {sIngs} is opening, along with Beau Beasley and the Ensemble for the End of Time, which is the latest project of said Mr. Beasley, formerly of {Insect Warfare}, {Homopolice}, & a ton of other bands. And I think it involves an organ, somehow.

Acous’Mix Re*View, featuring Gut Radio, Jody Seabody & The Whirls, Tump, & The Big Reveal @ Notsuoh
Man, I feel for those Jody Seabody & the Whirls guys — they had a really, truly rough 2011, losing bassist Matt Johnston in November of that year, but they bounced back hard even while mourning their loss, recording a releasing stellar full-length Summer Us this last (duh) summer. They’re not everybody’s cup of tea, to be sure — hell, at first I wasn’t sure they were mine — but they’ll win you over with those hazy ’70s-ish AOR rock riffs and earth-toned feel.

Loretta Lynn/Holly Williams @ Nutty Jerry’s (Winnie)
Way, way, way out there in ultra-rural Winnie, Nutty Jerry’s has the initimable Loretta Lynn, the Queen of Old-School Country, tonight. I mean, seriously, the woman’s amazing; I can’t even believe she’s been doing this for half a freaking century now, and still going strong. Wow.

Boots on the Beach, featuring Joe Ely, Jerry Jeff Walker, Jesse Dayton, Paula Nelson, & Sam Navarro and The Lone Star Devils @ Beach Central Park (Galveston; 4PM-12AM)
Okay, so I’m honestly not that big of a country fan, as most readers of this blog probably know. Still, though, I have to give it up for Joe Ely & Jerry Jeff Walker, not to mention transplanted hometown boy Jesse Dayton; they do country like it’s meant to be done, without any of the pop or cheeseball campiness. And hey, I always, always, always love a party on the beach, y’know?

Runners-Up:
El Desmadre/Knife Hits/No Qualms/Forced Fem/Black Coffee @ Mango’s ($5)
H20/Terror/Code Orange Kids/Backtrack @ Fitzgerald’s
G. Love & Special Sauce/Swear And Shake @ Warehouse Live
Blaggards @ Ashford Arms Pub
James McMurtry/Graham Wilkinson/Little Joe Washington @ The Continental Club