Madness on Main 2018 Rundown, Pt. 3: Giant Kitty + Get A Life + Har Mar Superstar + Vonne + Londale + Belvoir

And here we are, y’all — back again for the third (and final) round of randomly-ordered previews/rundowns for Madness on Main Festival 2018, coming this Saturday, June 9th, over at White Oak Music Hall and The Raven Tower (which, yes, are both together in the same WOMH complex of buildings, so it’s easy to walk from one to the other).

22 bands/musicians, three stages, food trucks, vendors, art, and a brand-new mural by artist Royal Sumikat, right smack-dab by Little White Oak Bayou and looking south towards the lights of Downtown, and all for a measly $20, which is easily less than it’d cost to see any given three of these bands on their own.

Also, if you’ve missed the previous two rounds of these things, feel free to check ’em out over here and here. If, you know, you want to, and you like words and things like that. We won’t be too hurt if you’d rather not…

Anyway, I’ve got no other Madness on Main-related news to report this time, so let’s get to it:

Giant Kitty
Damn. We start this last batch of previews with a bummer, in that Madness on Main will be punk band Giant Kitty‘s final show. Maybe not “final” as in “forever, no way no how,” it’s true, but final for a good long while — as reported by Free Press Houston last month, guitarist Cassandra Quirk and drummer Trinity Quirk are moving on up to Seattle for work, while frontwoman Miriam K is focusing on finishing her Ph.D. in math. As with Kyle Hubbard‘s departure earlier this year, I absolutely, completely get it; music is awesome, but life and family and job have to come first. Hell, if I got offered a job in Seattle today, my wife would most likely make us move there before the month was out…

It’s a shame, though, to see the band members closing this particular chapter of their lives, given that new album Rampage (which is excellent) has gotten some high-profile press in recent days. Beyond that, the band is/was one of a relatively small number of old-school punk acts that have come around in the last few years, and I’ll admit to pinning some outsized hopes to their flag that they might Make It Big in a major way.

But it is what it is. In the meantime, the fact that this is Giant Kitty’s last show in Houston for what is likely a very long time should move your ass to go see them at MoM this weekend. They’re loud and raw and melodic all at once, simultaneously dead-serious and goofy as hell, and sharp as a knife sociopolitically; see evidence of all of that in the video below for “Et2YT”, then go see ’em one last time.
[Giant Kitty plays at 6:45PM at the Deep Eddy Vodka Stage.]

Get A Life
I already blathered a bit recently about Get A Life, the most recent solo project from music scene everywhere-man Chase DeMaster, who’s literally in so many goddamn bands I can’t keep track of all of ’em. I was pretty impressed then and remain so now, definitely, although I’m itching to be able to hear the new stuff DeMaster’s been working on.

As I noted back in those In Bloom previews, there’s a cool lo-fi Guided By Voices vibe to the solitary two-song 7″ released so far, particularly on “2 Plus 2 Equals 5,” which happily dances from nonsensical to serious, shuffling along with a big, sly grin like it knows how odd it is and doesn’t give a single damn. A-side “What You Deserve” is murkier and more of a rock track, dragging a scraping, keening guitar line through the mud over thumping drums and DeMaster sneering, snarling vocals, but it fits damn well despite the differences.

No clue if the live performance will be DeMaster solo or if he’ll bring friends along for the ride, but whichever way it goes, it’s bound to be fun.
[Get A Life plays at 6:30PM at the Community Stage.]

 

Har Mar Superstar
Okay, two things: first off, yes, this is Har Mar Superstar, aka Sean Tillman, formerly of Calvin Krime and sometimes also known as Sean Na Na in his poppier incarnation; second, no, this isn’t the “Har Mar Superstar” you’re expecting.

I don’t mean that this Har Mar isn’t the same artist he was back in 2000, when it was a put-on persona that kinda-sorta satirized contemporary R&B while kinda-sorta loving it at the same time, with slow-jam songs like “Baby, Do You Like My Clothes?” or “Girl, You’re Stupid”. Tillman went all-in long ago on the Har Mar Superstar thing, proving as far back as 2004’s The Handler that he could actually do the R&B/rap thing without making it a joke.

I mean, c’mon, as goofy as some of that album is/was, it was also entertaining as hell in its own right — “Body Request,” for one, surprised the heck out of me — and it seems pretty clear in retrospect that Har Mar was paving the way for unabashed dance-rock folks like Reptar to follow. Listen to last year’s Personal Boy EP, and you could be forgiven for thinking you stumbled on some unreleased Justin Timberlake tracks, honest (and no, I don’t mean that as a bad thing). Oh, and his cover of the Afghan Whigs’ “Demon in Profile” is stellar.

What I mean when I say that this isn’t the Har Mar Superstar you’re expecting is that the tour he’s on now is a special one, one he’s calling “Har Mar Superstar Sings Sam Cooke”. Yes, that means Tillman and his band will be doing a whole bunch of songs by soul legend Sam Cooke, along with some of Tillman’s own tracks that he says are inspired by Cooke’s music.

I can’t speak for everybody, but I think this sounds really freaking cool, and I’m over the moon to hear what Har Mar Superstar’s able to do with these songs (get an acoustic taste in the video below). This is a good thing, in my book — just be warned that if you’re hoping to hear “Baby, Do You Like My Clothes?” or “Power Lunch”, well, you might be left wanting…
[Har Mar Superstar plays at 10:10 at the 8th Wonder Stage.]

Vonne
Like a fair number of this year’s Madness on Main players, Austin-dweller Vonne (full name Yvonne Eniola Goodwyne) is a new one to me, which is a shame, since she’s apparently been doing her thing for at least five years now. I’m currently enjoying her 2015 Foreign Affairs EP a whole heck of a lot, with its hazy, melancholy, half-sleepy (but never tired) feel and easy, confident musicianship.

Vonne’s bio describes her as a multi-instrumentalist and producer, and that’s pretty apparent from the effortless way she slowly unfurls each song, layering sound on top of sound, with vocal self-harmonizing that makes me think of both early Enya and Dead Can Dance, a crystalline-beautiful brightness akin to Eisley, and an intriguing, Lorde-esque way of phrasing and arranging. If you’re into quiet, deliberate, lush, soulful pop that’s meant for deep listening rather than dancing, then yeah, this is for you.
[Vonne plays at 8PM at the Community Stage.]

 

Londale
My first thought when hearing Londale‘s debut album, AM/FM, was something along the lines of, “okay, that’s a bit of a change.” After a few more listens, though, I realized that no, it’s not, not really. See, my initial exposure to singer/guitarist/songwriter Willy Collins was from an earlier incarnation of his band, The Willy Collins Band, which was an Americana/country-folk outfit with occasional blues leanings.

Kicking into “Hey,” though, the first track on AM/FM, I’m reminded less of country-folk than I am of The Replacements, with lots of buzzy guitars, power-pop melodies, and a driving, bang-your-head rhythm that’s impossible to resist. Pretty different, right? Well, yeah, except that there’s also a lot of Tom Petty and Steve Earle creeping in around the edges, and on later tracks like “If I Were King,” the band turns down and mellows out, bringing an almost Fleetwood Mac vibe to the proceedings.

As the album rolls on, it seems less like Collins and his crew have shifted gears so much as merged all those influences into one tight, rough-edged, smart, thoroughly addictive bundle of Americana-tinged rock that defies any serious classification. And with new EP It’s a Different World, they’ve proven it further, with tracks like “Just Not Me” where the band swings through delicate folk, yearning alt-rock, and even The Bends-era Radiohead, or the swaying, delicate, retro-futuristic pop of “If We Were Normal”, all anchored by Collins’ nicely-roughened, just slightly twangy vocals. Happily, it’s all really damn good.
[Londale plays at 5PM at the Community Stage.]

Belvoir
And here we are, at the last band on the list (no, seriously; this doesn’t happen often, so I’m excited about it), with Belvoir, who are another Americana/roots-rock band on the Madness on Main bill. Not that that’s a bad thing, mind you, particularly because their debut full-length, The Way You Were Last Night, released last spring, is really freaking good.

I’m reminded strongly of gone-too-soon Dallas band The Orbans and Houston’s own The Small Sounds (who I suspect are also gone, sadly); Belvoir, like both of those bands, seamlessly melds rootsy rock with more straight-up pop-rock, complete with fiery, arena-sized choruses, crunchy guitars, and a serious talent for hummable hooks. There’re also hints here of Kings of Leon and Futurebirds, never a bad thing (in my book, at least), but at the end of the day, Belvoir are making their own way. Which, in case you were wondering, is also never a bad thing.
[Belvoir plays at 8:10PM at the 8th Wonder Stage.]

 

Okay, friends, that’ll do it for this little series of previews — see you out at the festival this weekend, right?

(Photos: Giant Kitty photo by Daniel Jackson; Har Mar Superstar photo by Rickett & Sones.)