Weekend Agenda: July 2-July 5
"Team America: Wold Police" says "Happy birthday, America. Fuck yeah!"
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Another four-day holiday weekend with nothing to do? Here are some suggestions:
THURSDAY
1. The Vans Warped Tour turns 15 this year, which means after a few more trips 'round the country, the tour will outgrow itself and begin searching for more meaningful music in used record stores. For the time being, it's enjoying the hell out of its mid-teens, paying reverence to old-timers like Less Than Jake and NOFX, but caring much more about irreverent, neon-colored party-starters in the vein of 3OH!3 and brokenCYDE (which is a terrible band, but not as terrible as you may have heard).
2. Explosions In The Sky's show at Stubb's is the biggest (sold-out) ticket this weekend, but if you weren't able to get one, This Will Destroy You's set at the Mohawk could fill your desire for sweeping guitar pyrotechnics.
3. Stand-up comedian Tom Rhodes has seen the world, and he's determined that Austin is one of the best parts of it. Before heading off to lesser parts of the globe (*cough*Dallas-FortWorth*cough*), Rhodes does two nights of skewed observations and laid-back non sequiturs at Beerland.
4. You know who else is well-traveled? The paramilitary marionettes of Trey Parker and Matt Stone's Team America: World Police. (Fuck yeah!) The Alamo Drafthouse's weekend of over-the-top patriotism (See also: Master Pancake Theater's skewering of the inaugural "Will Smith saves the day" blockbuster, Independence Day) begins with a sing-and-quote-along screening of the only puppet musical with the balls to portray Kim Jong-Il as the maniacal, "ronery," space cockroach we all know he is.
FRIDAY
1. Will Rhodes' 'Til We're Blue Or Destroy (there's a whole lot of explosions and destruction this weekend) hides a bruised and broken broken heart under its effervescent dance-pop, and with the help of its self-titled, debut long-player, the band is ready to show that dichotomy to the world. It celebrates the release of 'Til We're Blue Or Destroy with the more outwardly dark New Roman Times, playing here behind its own new disc, On The Sleeve.
2. The Mohawk puts the "free" back in "freedom from the oppression of the British government" with a two-stage, no-cover assemblage of several styles that fit uncomfortably under the "independent music" umbrella, from the acid-fried industrial of Indian Jewelry to the born-too-late-for-Shindig! garage pop of Shapes Have Fangs to the creaky sea-shanty folk of Cartright.
SATURDAY
1. The kids going to this year's Warped Tour know Henry Rollins used to front Black Flag, right? (Have we gotten enough digs in on the current generation of punks? Moving on… ) Rollins gets his spoken-word indignation on at Emo's, while hardcore revisionists Gallows provide him with a double shot of speed and anger.
2. If the timing works out, local post-rock heroes Explosion In The Sky will take the Stubb's stage right as the fireworks start exploding in the sky above Lady Bird Lake, but even if this chance for spine-tingling musical synchronicity gets blown, you'll still be taking in an all-too-rare Explosions At The Sky show, where the band is sure to serve up enough bombast for at least three Fourth Of July celebrations.
SUNDAY
1. Bill Callahan's latest record, Sometimes I Wish I Were An Eagle, is being praised as a return to form for the man formerly known as Smog. Correcting the upbeat lyrics of 2007's Woke On A Whaleheart, Eagle finds Callahan applying his dry-humored baritone to some naturalistic breakup songs. (Which are bound to happen when your relationship with a wood nymph ends and she moves on to the "Dick In A Box " guy.)
2. Bernard Herrmann's screeching piece for strings, "The Murder," is likely the most recognizable musical cue in film history, thanks to its association with Psycho's infamous shower scene. Never one to suffer sacred cows, local composer P. Kellach Waddle and his "Music And A Movie" series return from an eight-month hiatus to tackle "The Murder" and Herrmann's other Psycho pieces, along with some Waddle originals "inspired by insane composers."
3. The Scoot Inn hosts tributes to a handful of ones-of-a-kind on Sunday: A memorial service for the late Sky Saxon, followed by the touring version of Jonathan Messinger's The Dollar Store, where writers are given a Dollar Tree curio and a month to write about it, and then they report back with whatever narrative they've been able to spin out a pack of temporary tattoos or socks branded with the words "Hot Stuff."
