Ok kids, it’s been a minute. Blame the life of being a freelancer, and honestly, I’ve not been myself. I’ve been tired. Like, real tired lately. I don’t know if it’s getting up there in age considering I’m staring down the barrel of 40 in a few years or that I pretty write myself to death week in and week out.
So, it ain’t you, it’s me.
Let’s do a Round-up so I can clear out this here inbox because a lot of people are doing cool shit right now. So, shall we?
Saw Patrick Sweany a few weeks ago. Was hoping to interview him since he was recording in Austin, but no dice. Anyhow, the show was incredible. I’ve been wanting to see him for quite a while now and I was damned excited to get the chance. If he comes to your town, get the fuck to that venue. He’ll give you your $15 worth and then some and then some.
If you’re in my former stomping grounds of New Orleans, Margo Cilker and An American Forest will be in town the week of Feb 10-12 playing shows around town. One of which will be at Dragon’s Den. If you’ve never been, it’s easily one of the best small venues in town you can catch a good show. I’ve seen some insanity in that building.
Pickathon released its lineup and it’s nasty. If you’re in Portland, might wanna pony up some cash for this one. TBH, you might want to grab them just to see Tyler not play a stadium at this point. It seems like each time he rolls through a town the venue triples in size. He’s got TWO sold out shows at Stubb’s down here.
Anyhow, here’s the lineup:
To go deeper into the lineup, here’s Pickathon’s Spotify playlist:
Jeremy Short is headed back to the International Blues Challenge in Memphis. Short has placed as a semi-finalist in the past, but let’s hope this year he wins this shit. That dude’s record smokes, plus he’s gets something right: blues records aren’t meant to sound clean, they’re supposed to sound vintage and dirty. Short’s records keep the spirit of the music intact and if you’re need some voodoo magic from a dude who sings about chicken shacks, you’ve got your man.
Vandoliers have a new record, Forever dropping the end of Feb and it’s a mixture of the best stuff about Texas: it’s a little red dirt country, but has a Lucero punk flair to it which pleases me. What’s nice about Vandoliers is they go to places musically I wasn’t expecting. A lot of times, you can guess where the songs on a record are going to go and I was legit surprised the collection Forever had some huge hooks and even parts that reminded me of Mariachi El Bronx.
If you’re feeling that old school Appalachian style bleeding from the hollers right now, Allison De Groot & Tatiana Hargreaves have a record dropping that will satisfy the purest of country sweettooths. The duo dance around that Flatt & Scruggs banjo meets fiddle style that honestly so few can do correctly. Give it a spin, you can find it here.
Austin Terrorfest just announced its lineup. Indian and Pig Destroyer are playing. Consider me psyched.
I guess Static-X is doing a memorial tour…. without Wayne Static. The surviving members of the band are going do a massive summer thing with Devil Driver in tow. I think this is going to become the new thing for fans. I’m waiting till they do the Nirvana tour with Dave, Kirst, and Pat. So, while it seems stupid on the surface, it gives people the chance to holler along to the songs they have so many times in cars or sitting around at a party talking about how they wished they could have seen ‘that’ band.
Side note: Devildriver are going to be playing a bunch of Coal Chamber tunes. Dez keeps talking about how good they’ll sound.
Jessie Leach is taking a break from Killswitch Engage again, so is Howard Jones coming back?
