Saturday, June 5; Launchpad (all ages, 8 p.m., advance tickets at Natural Sound): There was no rock record released in all of 2003 that was more compelling than Cursive's blistering tomé to conceptual effort, The Ugly Organ (Saddle Creek). Sexually, emotionally and sonically intense, it's a record just about any rock band would be proud to stand behind. Marking the arrival of cellist Gretta Cohn to the Cursive fold (a revolving door that's seen no less than 20 band members arrive and leave), The Ugly Organ finds the band reaching new heights—from wildly dissonant to wondrously gentle—making them the band to watch if you haven't already.
The Omaha-based band make their way to Albuquerque tonight as part of the Plea for Peace Tour, a concept designed to get the unregistered younger set registered to vote in this year's election, and the registered among us to get off our lazy asses and to the polls in an effort to take America back from the Bible-thumping-while-war-mongering conservative Right. The fact that one of the brightest bands on the horizon have aligned themselves with the tour should be more than enough bait.
