YES, PLEASE
11.13 THE MOANERS/ THE TRAMPSKIRTS @ RESERVOIR
Here's a double bill of few-frills rock: Chatham County duo The Moaners takes the top slot with grimy guitar that spins through distortion that hangs in the air like moisture, big drums that barrel like a downhill semi, and lurching melodies that creak with swagger. The Moaners' last album, 2007's Blackwing Yalobusha, was recorded at the old Money Shot Studios in Yalobusha County, Miss., with Squirrel Nut Zipper and Buddy Guy sideman Jimbo Mathus on deck. Nashville's Trampskirts takes a decidedly more punk-rock approach, the quartet's full-band fury raging like a swamp-rock Distillers. Donations/ 10 p.m. —Bryan Reed
INTRODUCING...
11.19 TEH VODAK @ NIGHTLIGHT
As they'd have you believe, Teh Vodak is both an up-and-coming rock band and a drunken mistake. The name, after all, is a misspelled tribute to the band's spirit of choice, and as they'd tell you, it stuck only after they misspelled it when starting a MySpace band profile. The truth is a bit more mundane. Teh Vodak formed from the (mostly online) meeting of Pink Flag's Betsy Shane and Blackstrap's Ben Donnelly. Oh, well: "If you wanna perpetuate the myth, I'm all for it," says Donnelly.
But the band's fabricated backstory fits the uninhibited rock sounds they're peddling. Donnelly's noisy, angular approach and Shane's pop propensities would never work together if both parties weren't up for (or under) some influence. "I think we end up with the sound that we're both going for," says Donnelly. More specifically, Wire's bristle, The Minutemen's jitters, and the pop-punk sugarbuzz of the late Be Your Own Pet, all parlayed through one drunken promise. With Alcazar Hotel and Joke & Jokes & Jokes at 10 p.m. —Bryan Reed
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