“Jazz and A.W.O.L, that’s our team/ Step inside the party, disrupt the whole scene/ When it comes to beats, well, I’m a fiend/ I like my sugar with coffee and cream/ Well, I gotta keep it going keep it going full steam/ Too sweet to be sour to nice to be mean/ Well, on the tough-guy style I’m not too keen/ Trying to change the world, I’m going to plot and scheme…”—“Intergalactic,” second verse, by Adam Yauch, Mike Diamond and Adam Horovitz.With a lingeringly lovely late summer merging into a fine, fine fall this week, you really ought to do yourself the obligatory solid granted all rockers and take yourself and someone you love out to a show. Though the world may not change significantly due to such precise decision-making, you can be damn sure your corner of it—festooned with the celebratory accoutrements of Albuquerque, as it were—will seem a bit lighter afterwards, while you shake your head and tug at your ears, exclaiming (potentially) “Did I really just hear that? Bitchin’!”
Show Up!: Thursday
Green Druid
courtesy of the artist
After YOB and Sleep made their delightfully droning and dismal cases to local audiences this year, it’s no wonder that darkly ambient, sometimes psychedelic doom-bound stoner metal has risen revenant-like from whatever black-painted crypt held its spirit back for so long in El Duque. This searching with a sledge hammer and war axe for meaning in the universe can be grokked in real time on Thursday, Sept. 20 at Sister (407 Central Ave. NW) when Denver’s Green Druid make an appearance at the aforementioned rocanrol club. I dig this band for their Lovecraftian referentials, but tunes like “Ritual Sacrifice” and “Dead Tree” help out with that feeling I get while listening. Albuquerque’s own Red Mesa, a band we’ve spoken of in awe and hushed tones before, as well as Prey For Kali—on the more math and metal side of the evolving stoner-rock road—share opening honors at a surely Satanic rite where you are bound to leave behind your eternal soul. Look on the bright side, maybe you’ll hook up with someone wearing all black; how cool is that? 7:45pm • $5 •21+
Show Up!: Friday Part I
Shonen Knife
Courtesy Damnably.com
Briefly stated, its Friday night and you have some choices. Adult choices, fun choices, musical taste-type choices that may further define your identity in a maelstrom of subcultures, cliques and independent collectives here in El Duque. Just kidding; everything you wish for you shall have, even if you’re like Thom Yorke and want everything all of the time.Coming at you from the rocktastic side of things is choice number one. Shonen Knife will be performing a concert of their twee, stripped down, poptastic tuneage on Friday, Sept. 21 at Launchpad (618 Central Ave. SW). They’ve been laying down the hits since I was a frosh at El Golden City, but I gotta admit, I still like the style and substance—or lack thereof—on albums like Burning Farm and Yama-no Attchan. Local punk rock advocates Carrier Waves and, significantly, Nizhoni Girls—an up-and-coming sound selection unit with rez roots—open this display of women-powered rocanrol. 8pm • $13 • 21+.
Show Up!: Friday Part Ii
Def-i
Adam Rubenstein
Get this: In a town the size of Burque, there are only a handful of rock clubs, and Sister (407 Central Ave. NW) has been getting hella good gigs lately in demonstration of that organizing apparatus. That is to say, the place rocks the eff out and on Friday, Sept. 21 please note that the folks over there—next to the former HQ of Weekly Alibi—will be doing it again and again when they host a reggae, hip-hop and funky no wave extravaganza and album release party featuring local mic masters and musicos Innastate, Def-i, electronic funk finalists Lindy Vision, DJ Breakaway and wait for it … Bat Wings for Lab Rats, a super amazing quartet of guitar obsessed, punked-out and full of funk hip-hop artists from right here on the banks of El Rio Grande. Check it out, homies, this one will scorch the Earth, I’m telling you. 9pm • $5 • 21+.
Show Up!: Saturday/Sunday
Stop all that horsin’ around you are up to and grab your tent, plenty of provisions and feria; load that lot into su troca. Head east through Tijeras canyon, exiting on State Highway 14 headed north. Keep on driving toward Santa until you hit Madrid and please do not run over any ancient miners or young hippies during the last five miles of your journey out to the other side of the Sandia Mountains. I am going to tell you why in a moment. Take a deep breath, take a toke first, because this is all about Madstock. That’s a multi-pronged cultural event meant to celebrate the artistic and cultural diversity of our neighbor to the Northeast. It’s all happening at the Mine Shaft Tavern (2846 Sate Highway N. 14, Madrid, N.M.) on Saturday, Sept. 22 and Sunday, Sept. 23. The bands playing are top notch and include Alibi favoritos Felix Y Los Gatos and the legendary and mysterious Family Lotus on Friday. Saturday rocks Betsy and the Hollyhocks plus main man Eric McFadden (what!). In addition to all the jams, there will also be craft vendors, local microbrews, healthy foods and a costume contest. So yeah, get your arse to Madrid, mateys. If you still don’t believe ol’ Carnak over here, visit, holdmyticket.com, nubes. Noon to 11pm Friday and noon to 7pm Sunday • $15 per day, $25 for both days • All-ages.
