Soundbites

PREPARE TO TAKE COVER

Calling all local bands: The 12th Annual Great Cover-Up is a
couple months away, and submissions are being considered from
bands and performers who would like to participate. This year’s event
will take place at its traditional home, Club Congress, from
Thursday, Dec. 17, through Saturday, Dec. 19.

The gist of The Great Cover-Up, from a previous column: “Local bands
that normally perform original material gather to perform a 20-minute
set of songs by another band or artist. Simple enough, right? And best
of all, every penny of the proceeds from the event is donated to TAMHA,
a local service organization that connects local artists and musicians
to health care and health care resources. Of course, that means that no
band will receive any compensation for slaving away at practice for a
month or two, only to learn a set of songs they’ll probably never play
again. But look at it this way: It’s probably about the most fun you’ll
ever have doing charity volunteer work.”

(A quick note: The Rialto’s Curtis McCrary and I, who have been
among the event’s organizers for the past decade or so, are taking a
break this year. Don Jennings, former host of KXCI’s “Locals Only,” is
working with Club Congress’ David Slutes and Dan Hernandez to put it
all together.)

If you’re interested in participating, e-mail greatcoverup@gmail.com with the
following information: your band name, what type of music you normally
play, your top three picks for bands you’d like to cover, and a contact
name and number and/or e-mail address. Additionally, if you have a
scheduling conflict with any of the three nights (legit ones only,
please), let ’em know as far in advance as possible, as this sucker is
always a scheduling nightmare. Deadline for submissions is Nov.
1!

LEATHER GOODS

We reported a while back that local synth-punks Digital
Leather—OK, it’s really just one synth-punk, Sean
Foree—signed on the figurative dotted line with Fat Possum
Records. This week the fruit is ripe for pickin’, as Foree brings his
live unit to Club Congress for the release party for his Fat Possum
debut, Warm Brother.

I don’t mean to sound like a cheerleader for the local team, but
goddamn! This album’s awfully good.

DL’s first album, Sorcerer (Goner, 2008), was a half-live,
half-studio affair, with Foree recording the studio side on his own,
and the live side with his band. Warm Brother, on the other
hand, is pretty much entirely the work of Foree. While the debut was a
gritty, lo-fi hodgepodge of electronic-aided punk rock, Warm
Brother is a bit more varied, more dynamic. There are plenty of
acoustic guitars—’nuff said.

Hell, “Homesick for Terror” resembles nothing so much as Sebadoh’s
“Truly Great Thing,” both in vibe and melody, while other tracks,
especially “Kisses,” are something like a punkish take on ’60s girl
groups. “Hurts So Bad,” meanwhile, is genial acoustic
indie-pop—though Foree would probably cut me up for saying so. In
the same way that Jay Reatard, who just happens to be Digital Leather’s
manager, has largely dropped the sleazy punk stuff in favor of
hook-laden tunes that are, for lack of a better way of putting it, a
bit more grown up, Foree has followed suit. Almost every song on
Warm Brother is hummable.

Digital Leather celebrates the release of Warm Brother by
performing at Club Congress, 311 E. Congress St., on Sunday,
Oct. 25. Lenguas Largas and Bullet open the
proceedings at 9 p.m. Admission is a mere five bucks. For more
information call 622-8848.

HOMECOMING

Two Tucson expats bring their current bands to town this week for a
sort of homecoming.

First up, Lagoon, as you may remember, relocated to Boston a
few years back. The group, which once traded in Brit pop influences and
evolved into something a bit more original and dynamic, is hard at work
on a new, as-yet-untitled album. A sneak peek at a couple of the songs,
the highlight of which is the decidedly ’80s-guitar-pop-influenced
“Heater Rabbit,” reveals further progress still. To its credit, the
group continues to defy expectations.

Lagoon will perform at Plush, 340 E. Sixth St., on
Saturday, Oct. 24. The show starts at 9:30 p.m. with opening
sets from Umbrella Bird and Rescue Lights. Admission is
$5. Call 798-1298 for further details.

Then, next week, it’s Mark Matos’ turn to show us what he’s been up
to since relocating to the Bay Area several years ago. Matos released a
trio of albums with his former outfit, Campo Bravo, which was highly
influenced by Howe Gelb’s Giant Sand. His new band, Mark Matos and
Os Beaches, comprising Matos and “a collection of regulars of the
bars, stages and alleys” of San Francisco, according to a bio, will
release its debut album, Words of the Knife, next month on Porto
Franco.

The disc is a largely subdued, countrified affair—there’s
weepy pedal steel all over this thing and the tempo is decidedly down
on most tracks. There is a notable lack of Gelb’s influence here, and
it seems to have been replaced by an affinity for the recent output of
Conor Oberst. Which isn’t a bad thing at all. On Campo Bravo releases
Matos came off a bit self-conscious in his Gelb worship, but the
Americana in which Oberst trades these days is a bit more open-ended.
Oberst himself steals from the best Americana songwriters, so it’s a
short jump for Matos to use those same influences and churn out this
fine, sleepy album.

Mark Matos and Os Beaches perform a pair of shows in upcoming days.
They’ll play on the patio at Hotel Congress, 311 E. Congress
St., at 7 p.m. next Thursday, Oct. 29, and then the following
night, Friday, Oct. 30, at the Red Room at Grill, 100 E.
Congress St. Both shows are free. Call 622-8848 for info about
the Congress show, and 623-7621 for details about the Red Room
one.

BUILT TO SELL OUT

It’s pretty common for nationally touring bands, as their stature
and draw grow, to graduate from playing clubs to playing theaters like
the Rialto. So, what to make of the fact that indie-rock royalty
Built to Spill, which played the Rialto its last time through
town, is this week performing at the far smaller Dry River
Collective?

BTS frontman Doug Martch apparently came across an online
documentary, Radical Resources: The Story of the Dry River
Collective, and was duly impressed by the organization—enough
so that he contacted the folks who run it and asked to play there.

To accommodate the crowd (get there early or be shut out), the band,
which earlier this month issued an excellent new album, There Is No
Enemy (Reprise), will perform in the venue’s outdoor courtyard. The
show is open to all ages, and alcohol is strictly off limits.

Catch Built to Spill in the smallest venue in which you’ll ever see
it on Wednesday, Oct. 28. Opening at 6:30 p.m. are Disco
Doom and Doctor Dinosaur. Dry River Collective is located at
740 N. Main Ave. Admission is a suggested donation of $15 to $20 at the
door, and is cash only. For further details head to dryriver.org.

ON THE BANDWAGON

Once again, there are more great acts performing this week than
we’ve got space to tell you about. But be sure to check our club
listings for info about these fine shows, among others: Peaches;
Art Brut; Brother Ali; The Low Anthem and Blind
Pilot; Joan Osborne, Paul Thorn and the Holmes
Brothers; the Tucson Bluegrass Festival; Heart;
Rob Thomas; Ezra Furman and the Harpoons; Tech
N9ne; Cowboy Jack Clement and Marley’s Ghost;
George Lopez; Colbie Caillat; the Ditty Bops and
Silver Thread Trio; Rebelution and Passafire;
Kraak & Smaak; Warbringer; Koffin Kats;
Chirgilchin and the Lian Ensemble; the Tucson Musician
Club’s Music of Woodstock.

This article appears in Oct 22-28, 2009.