Soundbites

CRYPTS AND DREAMS

In this week’s installment of “What’s New on Local Merch Tables?”
the short answer is new discs from Dead End Dragstrip and
Namoli Brennet.

Let’s start with Dead End Dragstrip, shall we? Unfortunately, the
group didn’t get a copy of its debut full-length, Quarter Mile to
the Crypt, to Soundbites, so your guess is as good as ours whether
it’s any good. But we might as well tell you what you’re in for, should
you choose to attend the release party. The trio, which uses the
standard guitar/standup bass/drums configuration, is regularly filed in
the “psychobilly” section of your local record store. While the
“psycho” part of that equation may be fitting—DED’s songs are
littered with ghouls and the ghastly things they do—there’s a lot
more old-school punk rock in the band’s music than rockabilly. Any way
you cut it, though, it’s pretty fun stuff. Here’s hoping that
Quarter Mile to the Crypt is a decent representation of what the
band does live.

Dead End Dragstrip perform at a CD-release party at the Surly
Wench Pub, 424 N. Fourth Ave., on Friday, May 29. The show
gets started around 9:30 p.m. with the Belfry Bats and Rogues
Gallery. Questions? The number to call is 882-0009.

The following night, Namoli Brennet performs her first local gig in
a while in celebration of her brand-new album, Until From This Dream
I Wake. (It’s so new that we were supplied with a digital copy
without song titles, as Brennet was waiting to get the finished copies
back from the manufacturer.) It is yet another feather in the cap of
the veteran performer.

It would be easy to ghettoize Brennet as “the best transgendered
singer-songwriter in Tucson”; sure, it would be an accurate tag, but
that would be doing her and the rest of us a disservice. Brennet is,
plain and simple, a songwriter who bounces easily from the
slow-burning, bluesy opening track, whose high-and-dry narrator heads
West in search of “the land of the blessed” (it also goes a long way in
demonstrating the versatility of her voice, which runs from a sultry
near-whisper to a bluesy belt), to the more standard folk and folk-pop
that makes up the bulk of the disc. On this, her seventh album, she’s
once again got it down to a science.

Namoli Brennet celebrates the release of Until From This Dream I
Wake at 7:30 p.m., Saturday, May 30, at Conrad Wilde
Gallery, 210 N. Fourth Ave. Admission is $5. For more information,
call 622-8997.

COLLECTIVELY POPULAR

Here’s an odd bit of trivia for ya: The last time Namoli Brennet
released a CD, in September 2007, Animal Collective performed at
the Rialto Theatre the very same week. This week, the group
returns to the Rialto the day after Brennet’s CD-release show.

Coincidence? Well, yeah, probably.

Animal Collective represents one of the most surprising stories in
music right now. For such an experimental act, their surge in
popularity is surprising. Instead of traditional song structures, the
group generally favors intricately woven vocal parts that at times
resemble a song-in-round vibe or Beach Boy-esque harmonies, often with
noisy, cluttered electronic arrangements backing them up.

When the band performs live, they often perform as many new,
unreleased songs as those found on their albums—which was the
case at that September 2007 show. Though they were ostensibly promoting
the then-new Strawberry Jam (Domino, 2007), which was recorded
at Tucson’s Wavelab Studio, the tracks that really stood out were
previously unheard ones. One in particular was especially captivating
and, by Animal Collective’s standards, positively catchy.

That song, “My Girls,” appears on Merriweather Post Pavilion (Domino, 2009), and it’s just as infectious in recorded form as it was
live, a hypnotic tangle of voices engaging in lovely melody and
countermelody against a pulsing but still dreamy beat. “My Girls,” as
well as “Summertime Clothes,” are probably the catchiest songs Animal
Collective has ever recorded, and MPV is certainly the band’s
most accessible album yet. But as Michael Petitti so eloquently put it
in his review of the album in these pages: “Accessible to whom? Looping
beats and rhythms, lyrics repeated like mantras in low bellows and
pixie chirps, and a layered electronic din smother this album. Granted,
the overall result is an album more easily digestible than anything
Animal Collective has done in the past, but still far wilder than any
other ‘accessible’ pop album this year.”

And therein lies the mystery of an already mysterious band. Like
Wilco and Radiohead, Animal Collective has become immensely popular
performing music that would be a stretch to call “popular music.”

Animal Collective performs at the Rialto Theatre, 318 E. Congress
St., on Sunday, May 31. Black Dice opens the all-ages
show at 8 p.m. Tickets are $21 in advance, and $23 on the day of the
show. Call 740-1000 for further details.

SHORT TAKES

Like, say, Bob Dylan or Neil Young, Lucinda Williams doesn’t
possess a traditionally great voice, but it fits the songs she writes
so perfectly that it’s difficult to imagine anyone else singing them,
although that hasn’t stopped many from covering them; it was, after
all, Mary Chapin Carpenter who had a hit with “Passionate Kisses.” But
that was back when Williams was a more of a traditional folk
singer-songwriter. These days, she’s just as revered for her swampy
blues-rock grit.

Lucinda Williams returns to the Rialto Theatre, 318 E.
Congress St., on Friday, May 29. Buick 6 opens the
all-ages show at 8 p.m. Advance tickets are $28 for general admission
floor, and $33 for reserved seats in the balcony. That number again is
740-1000.

Praised as much in recent years for her vocal and songwriting skills
as she was at the start of her 30-plus-year career for her
fiddle-playing, Laurie Lewis trades mostly in a modern bluegrass
style, though there are certainly folk, jazz and country elements
sprinkled throughout her work. She’ll appear, accompanied by longtime
collaborator Tom Rozum, at Old Town Artisans, 201 N. Court.
Ave., on Saturday, May 30. Peter McLaughlin and Earl
Edmondson (the nephew of the recently departed Travis Edmondson, to
whose family we pass along our condolences) open the show at 8 p.m.
Advance tickets are available for $20 at Antigone Books, Plaza Liquors,
Enchanted Earthworks, rhythmandroots.org or by calling (800)
594-8499. They’ll be $23 at the door. For more info, call
319-9966.

ON THE BANDWAGON

The High Strung, The Lemon Drop Gang and Big Daddy
Bobby at Plush on Friday, May 29; Queensryche at the Rialto Theatre on Monday, June 1; Lady Dottie
and the Diamonds and the Michael P. Big Band at Plush on Saturday, May 30; Bachelorette, Pikelet and
… music video? at Club Congress on Wednesday,
June 3; Langhorne Slim, Samantha Crain and Sam
Lowry at Plush on Monday, June 1; Thrones at
Solar Culture Gallery on Monday, June 1; Von Iva,
Gliss and Sick of Sarah at Plush on Wednesday,
June 3; VAST at Club Congress on Tuesday, June
2; Basshaters and Peninsula Project at Solar
Culture Gallery on Friday, May 29; Sergio Mendoza Y La
Orkesta and Salvador Duran at Club Congress on
Friday, May 29; the Carnivaleros‘ second CD-release party
for Happy Homestead at Boondocks Lounge on Sunday, May
31; Sublime tribute band 40 Oz. to Freedom at The
Rock on Saturday, May 30; 8 Minutes to Burn at
Twelve Tribes Reggae Shop on Friday, May 29.

Please note that the Brandi Carlile show at the TCC Leo Rich Theatre this week is sold out.

R.I.P.

The world prematurely lost two great men last week.

Singer, songwriter, producer, engineer, multi-instrumentalist and
former Wilco member Jay Bennett died in his sleep on Sunday, May 24.
Linda Ray wrote as great of a tribute to Bennett as any I’ve read; it
can be found at TAMMIES.com.

On a far more personal note, my dear friend Stevhan Gobble died in a
scooter accident in Chicago on Wednesday, May 20. While he played in a
series of bands you’ve probably never heard of unless you lived in
Illinois at some point in the last 20 years, he is better known as the
face of John Constantine on a series of covers of the comic
Hellblazer. If none of that means anything to you, let me assure
you that for those of us who knew him—and, therefore, loved
him—the loss is absolutely devastating. I’d like to offer my most
heartfelt condolences to his family and friends.

Stevhan, you will always live on in our hearts and memories. Rest in
peace, brother.

This article appears in May 28 – Jun 3, 2009.