CLOWN RAP | TWIZTID
Fri. Aug. 30
8 p.m.
$20/adv.,
$25/door
Music Farm
Like a horror movie, Twiztid appeals to those with a particular, generally dark, theatrical sensibility. White-paint provocateurs Jamie Madrox and Monoxide are part of the Insane Clown Posse camp, and they’re inspired by the pioneering horror-core rap of fellow Motown resident Esham. Like their Psychopathic Records brethren ICP, Twiztid portrays grim, desultory dystopias where predation is the only defense against becoming a victim. The pair possesses great chemistry with Monoxide’s brawny swagger keenly contrasting Madrox’s wiry tongue-twisters. There’s a certain nihilistic humor there, as on “Kill With Us,” where they promise “we’ll certainly try to put you in graves” with nursery-rhyme insistence. Though disparaged and cast as music biz outsiders, two of Twiztid’s last three albums have broken Billboard’s Top 20, and the half-dozen before inhabited the Top 100. However fringe the Detroit pair look, their sales don’t. The last few albums have showcased a variety of wrinkles in the formula, from the funkified “Circles” to the jazzy-psych “Killing Season” and the swamp blues of “Bad Side” off their latest, Abominationz. —Chris Parker FRIDAY
QUIRK ROCK | Viking Progress
w/ Banditos
Sat. Aug. 31
$5
Tin Roof
Nothing is fishy about Patrick Morales and his haunting indie folk ballads — except for his inspiration, that is. The Athens, Ga.-based Viking Progress was formed amid the “bellows of whales and the smell of diesel and fish,” according to the band’s Facebook page. Morales explains exactly what all of that means. “Shortly after college, I took a job working on commercial fishing vessels as a fisheries biologist in the Bering Sea. While on two boats, The Viking and The Progress, I wrote a collection of songs,” he says. “I spent my downtime on the boats writing in small deck closets with a hand-held recorder set to its own soundtrack of diesel boat noise. That low hum would serve as a guide and the backdrop for my record.” Once back on land, Morales was joined by Lemuel Hayes on drums, Nick Mallis on bass, and McKendrick Bearden on guitar for the recording of 2012’s Whistling While The End Is Near, an end-of-the-world obsessed mashup that has hints of the Beatles, the Elephant Six collective, Built to Spill, and the Decemberists. Morales is currently working on a collection of home recordings for a limited release and a full-length studio album in the fall. —Kalyn Oyer SATURDAY
QUIRK POP | Bombadil
w/ The River Whyless
Mon. Sept. 2
8 p.m.
$7
Pour House
For nearly three years, Durham, N.C.-based quirky folk-pop band Bombadil was silent. In early 2009, after heavy touring behind a handful of Ramseur Records releases and appearances at big-time festivals like Bonnaroo, the buzzed-about band was forced to slam on the brakes: Pianist Stuart Robinson quit during the polishing stages of the band’s second album, Tarpits and Canyonlands. Three months later, bassist Daniel Michalak was sidelined by unbearable pain in his hands and arms; he was barely able to feed himself let alone play bass or drive a tour van. And then drummer James Phillips moved to Oregon. Suddenly, a magnetic band with a bright future was finished. But somehow, they came back. The trio would reconvene (with original guitarist Bryan Rahija, who now lives in Michigan and doesn’t tour) in 2011 to record All That the Rain Promises, a disc that found the band at its most playful. This year, Bombadil released the triumphant Metrics of Affection, an adventurous and varied collection, filled with fantastical and baroque arrangements. It’s just like the Bombadil of old, but full of raw emotions and the fiery spirit of a band once left for dead but given a second life. —Patrick Wall MONDAY
RETRO ROCK ‘N’ ROLL | Say Brother
w/ Les Raquet
Mon. Sept. 2
9 p.m.
$5
Royal American
Columbia’s Say Brother are that all-too-rare retro act: The band is inspired by the sounds of yesterday — in the case of Say Brother, it’s early, early rock ‘n’ roll — but it doesn’t sound like a pack of plastic pretenders. Judging by Say Brother’s grimy and grungy seven-song EP, All I Got Is Time, these Capital City rockabilly badasses sound oh-so fresh. In many ways, they’re in the same boat as the Black Keys, a band who wears its back-to-basics blues inspirations on its guitar cases without sounding like a group of fanboys engaged in cosplay. “I think, and dig most times, when bands have an idea of exactly what they want to be, but a lot of times it seems like they become that idea rather than an actual original band,” says lead singer and guitarist Tripp LaFrance. “When we write, we try to avoid that mentality of ‘OK, this song is gonna be country’ or ‘this song is gonna have the Little Richard swing,’ and just sit the fuck down and write what comes out. Sometimes it’s rock ‘n’ roll, sometimes it’s country blues sounding, and, shit, from time to time I’ll catch myself 45 minutes into writing a hip-hop beat.” LaFrance adds, “Just go with what grabs you like the old boys did. That’s why their shit is classic.” Amen, brother. —Chris Haire MONDAY
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