Very excited about the Magic City show at DC's Velvet Lounge this coming Saturday, June 19.Why?
Well, first off, their performance at the Taffety Punk Theatre Company benefit in St. Louis last March (aka "Return of the Byrne") was simply astonishing. Frenzied, evangelical, yet sharp and soulful, too. Washingtonians need to see this -- and in particular the mind-blowing live version of "Animal Spirits" -- which the excellent version on MySpace can't begin to touch in feral intensity.
Next, they'll be bringing a new EP along with them. (I hope.) Available for purchase and all that.
So what are they like? Check out the MySpace. There's something simultaneously seedy and regal in this music: broad sweeping gestures made in noirish darkness, a cerebral cabaret performed in a three-ring circus. You can hear it in a song like "Mind Right" (also on the MySpace page): the winning self-assurance and swagger climbing to a feverish pitch before finding its 19th nervous breakdown. As I noted in the preview post for "Return of the Byrne," there's a healthy dose of Jonathan Fire*Eater and Bad Seedish Nick Cave in the sound, but it's a starting point, not a destination or a pigeon hole. They're a bit more rockin' than the Bad Seeds, and a bit less calculated than both influences, with a slyly casual recklessness that tends to crop up in the best Midwest rock.
My interview with Adam Hesed (organ) and Anne Tkach (bass) is here. Among the topics discussed? How they swiped their name from a Man Ray film (and not the Atlanta Georgia strip club) and their desire to do a 7" with the amazing Johnny Dowd.
Go see them on Saturday. You won't regret it!
1 comment:
LBJ's Legacy (American Prospect, 2004).
Ive just read your excellent article. Ive also just read Robert Dallek's Lyndon B. Johnson - Portrait of a President (2003).
I think the liberals who airbrush LBJ from history would lose credibility when they then feel they have the authority to attack Bush's Presidency.
It would be sad to think that the likes of Oliver Stone would bracket LBJ with Bush.
I get the impression Obama is not an admirer of LBJ. To see how Obama has struggled to get legislation passed, I hope he has now changed his views on how LBJ got things done.
The Vietnam war was a mistake, but I ask myself, would any other President done anything different. Richard Nixon was not a stupid man, but the war did not end in'69.
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