Show Schedule
Sunday, February 13, 7 p.m.: Thank You + Dustin Wong (Ponytail) + Ed Schrader + Combine, $5 donation
Thank You makes shambolic art-punk that thrashes, simmers, and eventually explodes. The band is often compared to Pere Ubu and Big Black—acts from the late ’70s and early ’80s that exemplified the bombed-out cities from whence they came—but a new album on Thrill Jockey, Golden Worry, functions on a more meditative level. The percussion is still fierce, and everything could fall apart at any second, but there’s always order to the chaos.
Dustin Wong is the guitarist for Ecstatic Sunshine and Ponytail (currently on hiatus), but it’s his recent solo work that’s getting a lot of attention. Infinite Love is a single 40-minute piece, composed of layered guitars and exquisite counterpoint, and totally worth getting lost in. Pitchfork’s Marc Masters describes Infinite Love as follows: “Pin-pricks congeal into chords, loops swing into low-end waves, and strums spawn glistening notes like a sparkler emitting embers.” Read that three times fast, and then hoof it over for the show.
Ed Schrader is the host of the Ed Schrader Show, an online video series that calls to mind Glenn O’Brien’s TV Party. He’s a Baltimore scene staple, and what he does on stage is hard to predict or describe.
Combine, opening the show, writes in with this description:
Combine is an an art punk group from Philadelphia that’s willing to get fast and snotty for the right price. They were marinated in 80s post punk, were julienned with 90s post hardcore, and then topped with a dollop of millennial anxiety. Think somewhere between Flipper and the Dead C. They have a mean experimental streak that cuts through their spacey, sludgy, double drum sound. The kids on Glee are going to cover one of their songs in the episode about the high school massacre next season (spoiler alert!). Best served with muscatel, the champagne of the people.
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Friday, February 25, 5 p.m.: Bird Names (Athens, GA)
Bird Names, proud members of the ever-fertile Athens scene, are playing at the Ox later this night - but they’re stopping by for a quick set right beforehand. Think psychedelic pop along the lines of your favorite Elephant Six bands—really great, really fun, pretty trippy.
