Shiny Around the Edges, Hotel Hotel, The Evangelicals

Somewhere between the naked beauty of Low and the gut-wrenching intensity of the Swans lies Shiny Around the Edges, a husband and wife duo from Denton that likes its songs wrapped in an ear-bending sheath of finely-combed feedback. If the material off their fine Secrets of the Double Blind CD-R doesn't get to you, their grave deconstructions of Neil Young and Depeche Mode will. Joining them is Hotel Hotel, the latest project from longtime local experimentalist Pablo St. Chaos (aka Pablo de la Musica). Hotel Hotel is a large ensemble producing atmospheric fare heavy on the violins, wavering between pastoral and apocalyptic...sort of like Godspeed You Black Emperor in a good mood. Joining them are Oklahoma's Evangelicals, on the always-solid Misra Records label, and Denton's Daniel Folmer.