Heavy metal was a bad reaction to psychedelic music and everything it stood for: peace, love, freewill, dirty hair, smelly clothes, everything. Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, and a lot of equally heavy but lesser-known outfits, mainly from Across the Pond, basically told the hippies, “Take your fucking flower-power and shove it up your arse!
Life is hard, and brutal, and unforgiving, and you can paint that fact as many silly DayGlo colors as you want, but you’re never gonna be able to change it.” Along the way, though, as the metal-heads mellowed out and as the hippies got disillusioned, a melding of the minds was reached. KatsüK, the name of the band fronted by singer-songwriter Daniel Katsük, may have some precedents. Maybe Captain Beefheart. Or Hendrix. Or maybe even Spoonfed Tribe, Katsük’s former band.
Still, based on a rough recording of Katsük’s new album, what he and his band of merry pranksters are cooking up is singular and, dare we say, accessible to everyone, from flower-children to metal-heads, and from Tribe Called Quest fans to frat-holes, and to all peoples in between. A good name for it might be “folk metal.” There are moments that are heavy because they’re loud and others because they’re simply epic, the fallouts from a million slowly building moments of dramatic tension. There also are a lot of quiet moments, like the reggae-ish “Roadside Assistance” (a reference to his former band, A-hummin’ Acoustical Acupuncture, or “Triple-A”), “A Tale of Two Lovers,” a jaunty semi-bluegrassy, semi-Afro-poppish track, and the crowd favorite “Evergreen.” (The one that goes, “In full view of the …” and then he lifts his voice into a crisp falsetto, “full moooooon.” That one.) Now backed by Sally Majestic, the prog-ish yet never self-serious hard-rock trio that’s been around for ages, Daniel Katsük can truthfully articulate the complex musical visions swirling around in hishead, though I don’t think he really had any problem before. On Friday at Lola’s, 2736 W. 6th St., in the West 7th-Street corridor, Katsük will mark the official debut of his new band and new album.
For more information, visit www.myspace.com/katsuk or call the club at 817-877-0666. … Most scenesters know that back in the day jazz pianist Jhonny Kahsen (né Johnny Case) was somewhat of a Western-Swing prodigy, playing dancehalls around the region before he was old enough to imbibe legally. But what a lot of folks may not know is that Jhonny was accompanied by his older brother, jazz guitarist Jerry Case, who moved to Los Angeles years ago but will be back in town this week to join Jhonny and some other local jazzbos onstage at Sardine’s Ristorante Italiano, where Jhonny has been holding court for almost 25 years.
Jerry is in town to participate in the 24th Annual Texas Steel Guitar Association’s Jamboree, taking place this weekend at the Sheraton Grand Hotel in Irving. The first jazz show is tomorrow (Thurs.) from 8 p.m. ’til 11 p.m., and the second is on Sunday, from 7 p.m. ’til 10 p.m. at 509 University Dr. on the edge of the Cultural District. Sitter-inners include Chris White, Joey Carter, Daniel Tcheco, and Ron Thayer, among others. For more information, call the restaurant at 817-332-9937.
Contact HearSay at hearsay@fwweekly.com.
