“Well you didn’t wake up this morning ’cause you didn’t go to bed/ You were watching the whites of your eyes turn red/ The calendar on your wall is ticking the days off/ You’ve been reading some old letters/ You smile and think how much you’ve changed/ All the money in the world couldn’t buy back those days/ You pull back the curtains, and the sun burns into your eyes/ You watch a plane flying across a clear blue sky/ This is the day your life will surely change/ This is the day when things fall into place.”—“This Is the Day” by The The from the album Soul MiningBrothers and sisters, I guarantee that if you attend even one of these concerts, it will fucking change your life. So let’s get on with it, shall we?
Show Up! Thursday
The Elected Officials
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Whoa. After reading this week’s Rolling Stone coverage of Burque’s police violence scandal, who the heck wants to listen to the elected officials? Unless you’re talking about the politically minded punk rock band from Austin, I’m like, “No way, dude.” But if you’re going on about the Texan quartet with New Mexican roots, I’m all ears. Seriously. The Elected Officials play a gig at Launchpad (618 Central SW) on Thursday, Feb. 5. Influenced by cultural commentators like Dead Kennedys and Bikini Kill, the smashingly, dashingly destructive sounds of vocalist Sophie Rousmaniere, guitarist Jay Minton, drummer Shane Pennington and bassist Brian Shannon will bring turned-on tears to your eyes while growing your awareness of this country’s cruelty and injustice.Local hardcore advocates Annihilate (not to be confused with Austrian dark metal masters Annihilate!), metal maniacs Bodies of Evidence (not to be confused with DC gospel group Body of Evidence) and uniquely named “grimecore” go-getters Doomed to Exist—a power trio whose Facebook page features a damned fine painting of Jesus giving the finger to the whole of creation—rock the house in advance of a demonstration of the political power of punk. Tickets for this 21-plus, anarchic assemblage will run interested listeners five bucks. Doors are at 8pm, and the show begins at 9:30pm.
Show Up! Friday
The Wailers
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I don’t know about you, but in the fashion of the fine folks over at Camper Van Beethoven, “Every day I get up and pray to Jah.” This is a ritual that leads to the sublime realization that The Wailers perform the highly influential and totally diggable Bob Marley and the Wailers’ album Survival as the central aspect of the Bob Marley Celebration being held at Sunshine Theater (120 Central SW) on Friday, Feb. 6.Featuring a revolving, evolving group of reggae all-stars led by Marley collaborator, cohort and comrade Aston “Family Man” Barrett, The Wailers have been instrumental in promoting, popularizing and developing Marley’s musical vision. A live rendition of Marley’s 1979 epic about freedom, justice and unity signals a return to roots for an otherwise inwardly descriptive, ganjafied dance sound; it also acts as an acknowledgment of the revolutionary genius embodied by the late artist’s outward-looking efforts. Reviva and Brotherhood Sound System begin this celebration of Marley’s life and work. The cover for this all-ages event costs $22. Sunshine Theater opens at 7pm that night for this 8pm show.
Show Up! Saturday
Five Mile Float
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There’s a relatively new all-ages venue in Burque. If you really want to hear about it, the joint is called Duke City Sound Stage, and it’s located at 2013 Ridgecrest SE near a huge ceramic sculpture of a 1950s car. On Saturday, Feb. 7, Duke City Sound Stage hosts a CD release party for Five Mile Float (Zack Block, Matthew Jaeger, Ryan Saavedra and Matt Ehasz), a wittier-than-average band whose members resemble Holden Caulfield if you squint cynically.No fooling, their music rocks, as evidenced by Soundcloud tracks like the enigmatically wavering post-glitch psychedelia of “Ha Ha” or the nostalgic yet thoroughly deconstructed folk demonology of “Blind Man.” I guess this is what rocanrol sounds like if one combines Simon & Garfunkel with Yorke and Greenwood, or perhaps even Stipe and Mills. The party also includes the complex melodicism of Burque indie incarnation Great States, cybernetic rockers Ugly Robot, hard-rocking Belen natives Crushed!? and the acoustic punk intimations of Joe Timmons as High Hopes Big Dreams. Ten dollars gets you in at 6pm, and the next generation rises beginning at 6:30pm.
Show Up! Tuesday
Pharmakon
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Downtown club culture meets the avant-garde on Tuesday, Feb. 10, when Sister (407 Central NW) welcomes Pharmakon, the precise, unimprovised noise project of New York experimentalist Margaret Chardiet. Chardiet’s oeuvre demonstrates an uncompromising urban brutality that’s disturbingly entrancing. Relying on a variety of electronic instrumentation and vocal effects, Pharmakon reflects the terrifying yet ecstatic chaos of the world around us, communicating “complete psychic abandon” as both artist and listeners seek sonic release.Contributing to the total transformation of Sister into a locus of lofty musical incantations that evening, New Mexico-based composer Raven Chacon invokes the not-so-subtle sounds of a vast universe in the midst of creation and destruction. Further out Farmington’s A. Augustine, in the guise of multi-instrumentalist Horse Thief, portrays an elusive and atmospheric otherness guaranteed to fill the hall with both wonder and dread. It only costs $5 to visit this other world; entrance is possible starting at 8pm, and alterations to the collective consciousness begin at 9pm.
Show Up!
For a thoroughly British band, The The—which was mostly the project of Matt Johnson, though Johnny Marr dropped by—was great at expressing the inherent existential angst that all humans experience. Plus they had a groovy, new wave sound. That doesn’t really matter much except as a means of connecting the beginning of this column to its end. So here’s the connection: Music can and will change your life. And today is the day it might do precisely that; your life will surely change if you go out to a show.
