1.) For a house party, the 2nd Annual Most Excellent Fest is looking pretty stout. Along with a diverse mix of locals and regionals –– from Fort Worth’s Bummer Vacation, whose Jordan Richardson-produced album should be out soon, to Austin’s Future Death –– your chief excuses for hitting 2800 Martin Lydon Ave. on Saturday are headliners Jean Jean, from France, Austin’s Boyfrndz, and Fort Worth’s Cleanup.
Math-y good times shall rule. All three outfits specialize in quirky time signatures, lots of unexpected changes, and riffage bubbling with colorful notes. Jean Jean has a little Rush-plus-Eddie-Van-Halen thing going on –– lots of dramatic breakdowns and knotty, heavy fretwork and rhythms. Boyfrndz are loud and dark, and as evidenced by Cleanup’s new album, Sun Life (streaming now on the tastemaking international blog Brooklyn Vegan), both Boyfrndz and Jean Jean will be following a tough act.
The $5 suggested minimum donation includes unlimited beer, and Taco Heads will be on hand serving up some delish food-truck fare.
2.) For you hardcore Fort Worth music lovers, Austin’s White Denim may make you miss EPIC RUINS and wish that that Fort Worth rock collective kept going. Like the brainchild of Jordan Richardson (Son of Stan), Sam Anderson (Quaker City Night Hawks), Steve Steward (Oil Boom), and Jeff Dazey (everyone), WD puts out a kind of ’60s-kissed stoner rock that’s full of catchy melodies and toe-tapping grooves. And the guitars are somehow simultaneously fuzzed-out and razor sharp.
White Denim plays Saturday at Shipping & Receiving (201 S. Calhoun St., Near Southside, 817-343-6393) with Dallas’ Reinventing Jude and Fort Worth’s Kevin Aldridge & The Appraisers.
3.) If loud, obnoxious, filthy fucking music and dirty boys aren’t your thing, spend your Friday evening as far away from Diamond Jim’s (305 N. Great Southwest Pkwy., Arlington) as possible. That’s where and when The Murder Junkies will headline a bill that also includes some kickass locals, including Sonsofbitches, The Initiative, Helluva Fight, and Disco for Ferns. Best known as GG Allin’s backing band at the time of his death, The Murder Junkies do their own material along with some of Allin’s stuff. This is proto-punk rock in the best sense of the term: propulsive, bombastic, catchy, naïve, and reckless.
4.) Speaking of loud, crazy-ass music, tonight (Thursday) at The Grotto (517 University Dr., 817-882-9331), two serious and heavy locals –– Caddis and The Cosmic Trigger –– will open for Thunderosa, an Austin project that’s loud, for sure, but a lot more fun, Southern-fried, and wheels-off (read: intentionally sloppy). The band’s sponsored by Jäger. ’Nuff said
5.) Saturday at Fred’s Texas Café (915 Currie St., 817-332-0083), Whiskey Folk’s Tyler Rougeux and double-duty-pulling Fort Worth singer-songwriter Kevin Aldridge, who’s also playing the White Denim show, will open for Bubba Hernandez y los Super Vatos, the group formed by the namesake frontman in 2005 after spending the previous 20-some years touring with Brave Combo. If music were food, Bubba Hernandez’ sound would be decidedly Tex-Mex: mostly upbeat, mostly easy blues-based pop.
