Ovrld Recommends: Trail of Dead, De Palma, Gloves and more

Ovrld Recommends

Yeah, yeah, we’ve been in a drought forever, we need the rain, but would it kill the Austin weather gods to maybe not dump biblical floods on us all at once? Every day this week has been a miserable reminder of what it was like to live in the Pacific Northwest, and why I left that place, except with harder rains, way more humidity and obscene temperatures. It’s almost enough to make you not want to go out at all, except…

Friday

Trail of Dead Hole in the Wall

Holy shit you guys, look at this fucking line-up. It’s like a guitar apocalypse. Austin legends …And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead are doing a 20th anniversary show at Hole in the Wall, which means you’ll get to see them up close and personal (and from their recent Facebook postings, it seems like this might be your last chance for a long time). But to make it even better, they’ve brought along some of the very best guitar bands in Austin, from the ferocious alt sounds of Megafauna to the Dinosaur Jr-meets-Shellac riffage of Ovrld faves Carl Sagan’s Skate Shoes to garagey stars American Sharks. This is an obscene bill, and you’d best not miss out.

 

Saturday

De-Palma-Safer-Streets

I’m going to a house party on Saturday that I can’t tell you about, but if I wasn’t doing that, there are a few other things I’d be checking out instead. First up, ATX Safer Streets is doing a benefit at Elysium featuring De Palma, an appropriately cinematic new minimal wave group I’ve been enjoying. Philosophically connected to groups like the Soft Moon, De Palma are a shift away from the more John Carpenter-influenced dark electronic scene in Austin, particularly what has come out of the Holodeck camp. More repetitive, more grimy and not as lush as those Holodeck acts, De Palma instead get by on anxious grooves and menacingly alien vocal touches. I haven’t caught them live yet, but I suspect their live shows are where they truly come to life. So why not go check them out while supporting a great cause?

 

Gloves Lamberts

 

If you’re looking for a more hip shaking kind of good time, though, Lambert’s is where you’ll want to head, as hot shit future funk collective Gloves will be strutting their stuff. The band’s debut LP Get It Together has been in constant rotation here at the Ovrld House, and with good reason– it’s a super solid collection of freaky beat-focused jams as likely to stimulate your bored brain as your rump. Anyone who is growing frustrated with the sameness of the oversaturated psych and garage scenes in Austin owes it to themselves to pop by for Gloves’ set, as their rambunctious rhythms are the future more Austin acts should be aspiring to. Just don’t take any lessons from their fashion sense.

 

Sunday:

Beerland has a really fucking weird bill that mostly seems unified by how little the bands sound alike, and honestly, that’s alright by me. At the heart of it is Nght Hcklrs, who are fresh off a Spider House residency and have a sound that is alternately catchy as all fuck and crazy as shit. I’d liken them to parts of that Super Furry Animals/Boom Bip spin off project Neon Neon except I think I’m the only one who was into that project enough to remember it. Comprised of electropunk, hip hop and pop parts, Nght Hcklrs are particularly volatile live, and Beerland should be a great fit for their “fuck everything, let’s party” philosophy.

Nick Hanover got his degree from Disneyland, but he’s the last of the secret agents and he’s your man. Which is to say you can find his particular style of espionage here at Ovrld as well as Loser City, where he mostly writes about comics. You can also flip through his archives at  Comics Bulletin, which he is formerly the Co-Managing Editor of, and Spectrum Culture, where he contributed literally hundreds of pieces for a few years. Or if you feel particularly adventurous, you can always witness his odd .gif battles with his friends and enemies on twitter: @Nick_Hanover