Yr. (Late) Weekend, Pt. 1: Rocket From The Crypt + Modest Mouse + Tinariwen + The Lotus Effect (Rev’d!) + The Octopus Project + Bastille + More

Gah. Sorry for the lateness, folks — there’s a lot going on tonight (that’d be Friday, November 7th), but yours truly is only now able to take a break from Munchkin Duty, so I’ll have to keep it quick. Here goes:

Modest Mouse/Rocket From The Crypt @ Bayou Music Center
Alright, let’s be honest: if you’re going to this, hell, you’re already there. Especially since, well, it looks like the show’s already started. Fuck. If you’re nearby to Bayou Music Center, though, you really, really ought to get your ass over there — I would if I weren’t currently in charge of the wee ones, believe me — to see two of the best damn bands of pretty much ever.

I’ll admit to maybe being a little biased, sure, but still, Rocket From The Crypt are one of the best live bands I’ve ever seen, and while I’m not Jason, I’ve seen a crap-ton of bands over the years. They’re like a punk rock band that plays soul (or maybe the other way ’round), and they’re so tight and fine-tuned it’s ridiculous, without losing a bit of that energy that makes ’em awesome. It kills me that I’m missing this, seriously. sigh. I’ll have to drown my sorrows with a vintage video from Scream, Dracula, Scream!, instead (goddamn, how I love “On A Rope”):

And hey, I can’t forget Modest Mouse. I haven’t kept up with Isaac Brock & co. very well in recent years, but 1997’s The Lonesome Crowded West remains one of a small, small pile of ’90s indie-rock albums I still listen to regularly, and it’d be one I’d grab if I was about to be marooned on a desert island with a sweet stereo.

Yann Tiersen/Tinariwen @ Warehouse Live (Studio)
And a close runner-up is this show, over at the Warehouse Live. It’s not so much for headliner Yann Tiersen, I’m afraid, although I do like his densely-layered orchestral pop a fair bit, but rather for openers Tinariwen, who are freaking incredible. The latter are a band of Tuareg musicians from northern Mali who play this insane music that melds together electrified blues, traditional Tuareg music, and Malian guitar, and a lot of the songs are essentially protest songs about the plight of the Tuareg who live scattered across northern Africa. It’s amazing, amazing stuff.

One caveat: for some reason, while the event page for this show is still on Facebook, it dropped off the Warehouse site; no idea if it’s just because it’s late in the evening or what, but be warned…

Little Mania: Ultimate Midget Wrestling, featuring The Lotus Effect (CD release), Icky Hollow, & Carranza @ BFE Rock Club
In case you missed it, we got a review up earlier today of cool prog-metal-rock guys {The Lotus Effect}‘s much-anticipated (by yours truly, anyway), Totality; you really should go read the whole thing, obviously, but here’s the gist: epic-sized, cosmically-reaching, heavy-as-fuck, complex, desperate metal/prog-/alt-/spacerock that’s trying to contemplate the universe as a whole. Oh, and it’s really, really good.

Beyond that, yes, you’re reading the show listing right: Ultimate Midget Wrestling. Intelligent, deep-thinking prog-metal and tough-as-nails little people bashing one another with folding chairs; it’s like the best of all possible worlds, right?

The Octopus Project/Bang Bangz @ Fitzgerald’s
Oh, man. It has been too long since I last saw/heard The Octopus Project… These days, it feels like the Austin-dwelling crew are bona fide grandfathers/grandmother of the whole electro-pop phenomenon, having been doing their thing for better than a decade now without a damn in the world for what anybody else is doing. And they’re still making music that’s quirky and sweet while holding tight to that weird edge they’ve always staggered along. Check out what I mean with the oddball-yet-neato video/song “Mmkit”, right here:

Austin Anijam 2014 – The Octopus Project “Mmkit” from Austin Motion Artists Group on Vimeo.

Plus, they’ve got local darkly-tinted, nighttime-driving electro trio {Bang Bangz} along for the ride, and that’s never a bad thing; the band’s 2013 release, Red City, was one of the most alluring things I heard all that year.

Bastille @ NRG Arena
And lastly, hey, what can I say? I’m not immune to the charms of a gang of floppy-haired popsters, and when Londoners Bastille comes on in the wife’s car (she has their Bad Blood CD), I find myself smiling to myself and bobbing my head along. For want of a better word, it’s downright charming, at least to me.

Runners-Up:
Outer Spaces/Brand New Hearts/Hoofprints @ The Summit (3536 Navigation; $5)
Cass McCombs/Meat Puppets @ Fitzgerald’s
Funeral Horse/Ten Foot Beast/Insolvent/Cadillac to Mexico @ Rudyard’s
Sarah Kicks Cancer’s Ass! Benefit, featuring The Guillotines, The Swamps, Supergrave, The Flying Monkease, & DJ Stewart Anderson @ Griff’s (3416 Roseland)
The Dirty Seeds/Madsons/Large Marge/Jody Seabody and the Whirls @ Acadia Bar & Grill
Dale Watson/Picture Book @ The Continental Club
MFAH Mixed Media, featuring Jump N Funk, DJ Sun, & DJ Chicken George @ MFAH (1001 Bissonnet; 8PM-12AM)
New Kingston/Cassette Tape/Wasi Townsend & Madlove/Lion Heights @ Mango’s
Dadsmom/After Nations/In Casinos/Collective Dreams @ Notsuoh ($5/$8)
RNGLDGRN/Kaneholler/The Young Wild @ House of Blues (Bronze Peacock Room)
Ese/Khobreti/Before I Hang/Screech of Death @ Eastdown Warehouse (850 McKee)
Texas Johnny Boy @ The Big Easy