From this week’s Music Board:
METAL | Underoath
w/ The Red Chord, The Classic Struggle, Near Fatal Fall, Thurs. July 31, Music Farm, $19 ($16 adv.)
Floridian sextet Underoath came to wide renown with 2006’s chart-topping Define the Great Line and their adeptness for busy arrangements that toss pop-punk hooks and thrash squalls into the same pit with reckless abandon. The fact that they do it all for Jesus only makes them the kid-tested, mother-approved Kix cereal of metal bands; they keep the aggression and physicality, but swapping nihilism for more hopeful themes. But that’s not to say that Underoath’s world is all sunshine and smiles. “Desperate Times, Desperate Measures,” the first single from the forthcoming Lost in the Sound of Separation, is a volatile affair that makes real its sense of desperation. The song launches out of the gates, hurling itself upwards into a disorienting fury of rhythmic pitches that dive and lunge around each other, until the listener is totally enveloped in the dizzying fray. —Bryan Reed THURSDAY
INDIE-POP | Deerhunter
w/ All the Saints, Thurs. July 31, Village Tavern, $10
Atlanta’s Deerhunter is a band of startlingly high contrast. The quintet’s website is self-hosted on a free blogspot account, yet their live shows have been hailed as a “religious experience” by Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. They list influences such as Echo & The Bunnymen and David Bowie, but their newest album, Microcastle, earned them an opening gig for Nine Inch Nails. Deerhunter’s first two albums made them critics’ darlings and hipster favorites. Spend a little time sampling concert footage from their website and it’s not hard to understand why. Beautifully layered songs hypnotize with complex lyrics and relentless rhythms, guitars, and keyboards that evolve into long, drawn-out jams that showcase the band’s mastery. Lucky concertgoers will hopefully be treated to a few tracks from their newest album, particularly “Never Stops” which sounds like it could have been a lost track from Elliot Smith’s earlier days or the wonderfully inventive “Little Kids demo.” —Andrea Warner THURSDAY
AMERICANA/POP | Susan Cowsill
Sat. Aug. 2, Fiery Ron’s Home Team BBQ, $5
A seasoned veteran who performed as the youngest member of the Partridge Family-esque pop-folk band The Cowsills and happily hobnobbed for years with former members of The dB’s, The Bangles, and Dream Syndicate in a terrific New Orleans alt-country/pop band called The Continental Drifters, Susan Cowsill is officially out on her own. Backed by her new band, she visits Home Team BBQ’s stage this Saturday armed with a melodic new solo album titled Just Believe It — an upbeat set that picks up where the Drifters left off. Cowsill was originally scheduled to perform Led Zeppelin IV for the “Home Team Album Showcase,” but she and the band are up for two sets of their own Louisiana-tinged pop gumbo instead. —T. Ballard Lesemann SATURDAY
REGGAE | Midnite
w/ Reggae Infinity, Tues. Aug. 5, The Pour House, $15 ($13 adv.)
Midnite gets around. In the last month alone, the band has performed in California, Colorado, Mexico City, Montreal, Slovenia, Amsterdam, and Senegal. Led by singer Benjamin Vaughn, they arrive at the Pour House this week fresh off the plane from France, ready to groove Charleston’s most irie music lovers with their St. Croix, Virgin Islands-bred original reggae. Building off their Caribbean roots and their former home base of Washington, D.C., Midnite has earned a reputation as one of the most genuine, authentic-sounding reggae bands currently performing. Benjamin’s harmonious voice balances perfectly with the live/dub rhythms of the band. Midnite’s reggae is the real deal, and sure to have squinty-eyed dancers skanking like a Marley son. —Stratton Lawrence TUESDAY
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