HARD-CORE HONKY TONK | Skye Paige
w/ Special guests
Fri. June 6
9 p.m.
$10
The Windjammer
Former burlesque bombshell and current slide-guitar queen Skye Paige is dropping 18 tracks on her brand-new collection What You Want. Paige has become a rockabilly rebel since her last record that pigeonholed her in that genre. “I love the rockabilly culture, but I am more than that,” Paige says. Her new two-CD project comprises Honky Tonk Heaven on one disc and Date with the Devil on the other. The work juxtaposes good and evil in both lyrics and sound. Honky Tonk Heaven is light-hearted, humorous country and blues, while Date with the Devil is all lusty, greed-driven hard rock. Paige is looking to cross the border from Black Sabbath to hillbilly bluegrass, all the while adding her personal stamp. The double-CD is also a throwback to older concept albums. “The first time you listened to one of those records, you would open it up and look at all the cool album art. I’m trying to be more old-school,” says Paige. In addition, the project features her first political song entitled “The World is Broke.” The stripped-down track speaks of our indifferent culture. “Nobody cares anymore. There’s no love, no respect, no loyalty,” says Paige. The release party will be a night of songs exclusively from Paige’s new albums, featuring many collaborators both on stage as well as in the crowd. An open jam session will follow. Paige says, “I was a slave driver in the studio, but now it’s time to have some fun.” —Kalyn Oyer FRIDAY
INDIE ROCK | Pillage & Plunder
w/ Magic Camp
Sat. June 7
9 p.m.
$5
Tin Roof
Atlanta power trio Pillage & Plunder employ an unusual and strangely fetching blend of styles to create something very much their own. Frontman Gokul Parasuram’s tenor frequently suggests a ’50s crooner, and there’s plenty of keen melody and classic pop hooks undergirding their songs. This is balanced against a sometimes noisy angularity, ranging from stabbing post-punk power chords to woolly flights of jazzy art-punk intricacy that evoke the Minutemen and King Crimson. It’s bracing but catchy, odd yet elegant. Pillage & Plunder almost seems like a better distillation of emo’s original intent, as is evident on 2011’s Look Inside for the Prize. Moments of delicate beauty stand out in the album’s jangly acoustic guitar opening of “August Apple,” which swells into a teeming wall of distortion, and the jagged Wire-y rhythmic guitar pulse of “Can You Hear It?” as it surfs a rubbery, melodic bassline that would’ve fit on an old Cure album. Drummer Noah Kess is particularly active with accents flying around to match the nervy “forward-never-straight” guitar lines. Parasuram’s mannered vocals thread the durable melody and unpredictable musical movements with a presence that soaks up the spotlight and allows the odd beauty to swirl around him. Pillage & Plunder recently finished work on their second full-length album, The Show Must Go Wrong, which is due out in early August. Charleston’s Magic Camp will open the show. —Chris Parker SATURDAY
SURF POP | Tape Waves
w/ Gold-Bears
Sun. June 8
9 pm
$5
Royal American
Newlyweds and wonder-pop duo Kim and Jarod Weldin of Tape Waves have been producing sunny afternoon-inspired melodies since their first self-titled EP in 2013. The local pair recently debuted a 7-inch, four-song limited release of Tape Waves’ usual laid-back brand of dreamy surf-pop. The band’s first full-length project, out later this year, was sent to press only last week. Tape Waves offers a rejuvenating simplicity that seeps into your pores like sunlight. It’s the sound you might imagine echoing through your ears from a conch shell. Though the couple has recently spent time in the studio, they are now out on the road and ready to take the stage more confidently than when they first entered the local music scene. “For the Royal American show, we are bringing new songs and hopefully a slightly less shy performance on my part,” Kim says. The couple will play with Atlanta’s crash-pop crew Gold-Bears. —Kalyn Oyer SUNDAY
SPACE PSYCH | Sons of Hippies
w/ Brett Nash and The Frizz
Mon. June 9
8 p.m.
$5
The Sparrow
Originally from Tennessee, singer/guitarist Katherine Kelly and drummer Jonas Canales came together in 2008 and have since added bassist Morgan Soltes to form the psych outfit Sons of Hippies. Most recently, the trio joined the “Royals” bandwagon, releasing their own space rock version of the Lorde single in February. As to the origins of the band name, Kelly says, “Jonas and I were at a music festival talking about all kinds of things, when it came up that his father once made a living as a young man wandering through the Andes selling his art and jewelry.” She adds, “My mom dropped out [of art school] to drive a VW bus to Woodstock. So we drew conclusions from there.” But does this hint to their particular musical genre? Not hardly. “We’re a rock band, and there are space and psych influences throughout. Gene, our dealer, likes to tell people we’re The Bangles on acid.” Chances are, even without the, ahem, mind-altering substances, Sons of Hippies will still deliver one blissed-out experience. —Lindsay Anne Bower MONDAY
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