Exwhites are a new-ish punk band featuring parts of some of the greatest dearly departed Columbus combos (The Feelers, The Slide Machine). I already gushed about their live show. Now I'm happy to report that I also dig the recording they posted to MySpace. Hell of a blitzkrieg!
After being lulled and then totally destroyed by that killer video for "Scissor," you'll be expecting the crash to come deafeningly on Sisterworld's No. 2 track. It never does. Things just stay locked in that weird tension that defines Liars even more than the band's punishing bursts of angry noise.
(Album dropped Tuesday. Entire thing is streaming here for a week.)
Andy Cabic from Vetiver was one of my first interviews at Alive, so I'm always glad to see the San Francisco psych-folkies bring their warm reverberations back to town. Tonight the place in question is Circus, 1227 N. High St., where Cabic and company will perform with Moon High and Vug & the Stallions. Doors open at 8 p.m., and admission is $10.
The short version of the story is that the minute Todd Rundgren bragged that he could write a hit whenever he wanted he stopped making hits. Until then, he was pretty unstoppable, so prolific that nearly everything on his sprawling 1972 double album was good.
Something/Anything? is chock full of a clean, stark testimonial rock that sat somewhere between a moody singer-songwriter and an angsty hard-rocker. That's a tight rope, friends, and Rundgren only fell once he started looking down.
When Titus Andronicus came to Cafe Bourbon Street two years back, I was impressed with the way the band translated its humongous sound to the stage. Not everything was as epic as desired because they played up their go-for-broke garage rock side and let their artier pretensions fade into the background, but all in all, solid stuff. So I expect much the same when they play at Used Kids, 1980 N. High St., tonight at 6 (preview, foo). They're touring in support of their sophomore LP, "The Monitor," out this week on XL.
Golden Triangle got reviewed in Pitchfork today, and they'll be in Columbus tonight at Cafe Bourbon Street, 2216 Summit St. As my own preview indicates, they're an artsy garage rock combo from Brooklyn in the vein of Vivian Girls, but with more unhinged energy and stylistic variation. No clue who's playing with them tonight, but it'll be $7 and start around 9 p.m.
Also noteworthy: shoegaze, blues rock and "retro-futuristic" art music are coming together at Skully's tonight.