It’s a luscious mix of words and tricks/ That let us bet when you know we should fold/ On rocks I dreamt of where we’d stepped/ And the whole mess of roads we’re now on/ Hold your glass up, hold it in/ Never betray the way you’ve always known it is … “Caring is Creepy,” written by James Mercer and performed by The Shins.Wow. Just wow. After last weekend’s supercharged, soulfully sublime Alibi Best of Burque Music Showcase, you may be plumb afeared that the entirety of the local scene has finished expressing itself—and so may be wont to shine with the same hep-toned resignation favored by Mercer and the gang over at Shins Central. Well, the song may rock, but I gotta change up its downtrodden expression here with some kinda bright optimism, a kind of new slang if you will: The scene doesn’t stop. Practically every night and especially on the weekends, the creative forces behind our local music community have a bevy of big sounds and ecstatic encounters available to keep you up and interested—so brighten up and be there while the squawking birds quit and the cold weather recedes into spring.
Show Up!: Thursday
Phantom Lake
Via Facebook
The poster for this Thursday’s Show Up!-chosen concert features a combination of chaos and beauty to tell the story of female rockers here in Dirt City. “Thursday Night Girl Fight” is a thing, and it’s happening on Thursday, March 16, at Launchpad (618 Central SW). The event features some notably noisy woman-lead and woman-based rocanrol ensembles from around these here parts. Phantom Lake, an instrumental, lo-fi surf rig—and one of the many mucho-talented vehicles that Jessica Billey uses to traipse terrifically around town—is playing. Add to that salty nuance a performance by rising no-wave phenoms Tear Pressure, and you’ve got a real, uh, pressure-cooker of rock. With the further addition of the gluey-detuned guitar energy of of Cecilia McKinnon’s project Star Canyon as well as performances by Cat Teeth, Emma Crane, Katrina Benally and Kateri Lopez, this is bound to be a boundless and badass show meant for those 21+ who have a Lincoln to spare and a couple of decent ears to listen with besides. The concert begins at 8pm.
Show Up!: Friday
Cactus Tractor
Kate Burns Photography
David Bashwiner—part of the brain trust behind intensely quirky and terrifically toothsome “Bohemian pop folk disco” ensemble Cactus Tractor—is also a professor of theory and composition in the music department at UNM. Dude is responsible for publications like “Lifting the Foot: The Neural Underpinnings of the ‘Pathological’ Response to Music.” He’s also responsible for one of the most elusively enjoyable, genre-bending, ecstasy-seeking sound units here in the Duke City. With fellow tractor drivers Christy Cook, Stephanie Graner, Samuel Sullivan, Brandon Baca, Jordan Fredrick, Michael Olivola and Fernando Garavito, Bashwiner makes music that is sly, sunshiny, complex and urges a type of Dionysian abandon that’s both palatable and pulsating. You can check all that out for yourself, dear reader, when Cactus Tractor erupts from the desert and plows the ground at Hotel Andaluz (125 Second Street NW) on Friday, March 17, beginning at 7pm. It’s a free performance, meant for those 21 years old or older who have a demonstrated interest in the progressive art-folk made by hippie punk-rockers with degrees.
Show Up!: Saturday
¡Revíva!
Courtesy of the artist
On Saturday night, March 18, Burt’s Tiki Lounge (515 Central NW) will give the distinct impression that they are caught up and cognizant of a city’s favorite bands when they host a concert featuring two of last week’s big Best of Burque Music winners—¡Revíva! and The Big Spank—along with other bands whose sonic emanations demonstrate trends towards the revitalization of American music that we’ve been telling you about for nigh on a year now. While ¡Revíva! has got the musica Latina via American folk tendencies thingy down to a fine art, The Big Spank brings local motion to the notion of reggae with their delightfully danceable oeuvre. They’ll be supported in their efforts by Marujah, a post-Latin group of whiskey drinking, desmadre-making ska addicts, Cali electro-surf rockers Tesuque Revolt and folk fanatics the Gershom Brothers. Like many other awesome events at Burt’s, this one’s free for 21+ music lovers. The funky hoe-down gets going at 6pm with libations to Jah to be offered simultaneously.
Show Up!: Sunday
Lone Piñon
Kerry Sherk
Madrid is a special place I get asked about all the time. I am wont to believe this fact is due to my circumstances. The reasoning goes something like this: Since I’ve lived here most of my life, I ought to know about the fantastically musical hippie family that lives next door, you know, next to the abandoned silver mine on the corner? Well, “yes, I do” is the probable answer, and I will add to it by saying the Mine Shaft Tavern (2846 NM-14) is a helluva place to get in on that local Madrid culture so as not to make you bother me with questions about it. But in case you want to know anyway, Lone Piñon, a trio of Nuevo Mexican troubadours—whose debut release, Dias Felices, got the notice of our resident rock record music snob Geoff Plant—is playing there Sunday afternoon, March 19. These dudes (Jordan Wax, Greg Glassman and Noah Martinez) command the Chicano stringband style that once flourished in our state, mastering forms like conjunto, chotes and huapango with foot-stomping aplomb. Their 21+ gig up in the cool, cool mountains is free and it begins at 2pm, dig?
