We’ve already mentioned Peter Murphy Saturday at House of Blues, Lil Wayne at Nokia Saturday for Summer Jam, George Michael Sunday at the AAC and Cute is What We Aim For Sunday at the HOB. There’s also the Blood on the Highway premiere tonight at the Lakewood Theatre, with the DOMA-nominated 100 Damned Guns and Tober Omi.
How could the weekend get any better? Glad you asked...
Mount Righteous, The Unbearables, DJ Magic Fly 9 p.m. Friday, July 11, at Space We’ve already said plenty about the headliners. The Unbearables, from Austin, are a nine-piece powerpop powerhouse with big, catchy hooks and R&B-influenced horn section. You may remember their “Zombies Unite,” which is just one song out of an entire musical they wrote about the walking undead, from the 2006 Lollipop Shoppe compilation CD.
Dove Hunter, Transona Five 3 p.m. Saturday, July 12, at Good Records Transona Five will perform their delicate, dreamy pop first, followed by Dove Hunter, whose new album is not too shabby, as Pete Freedman wrote last month.
Hymns, Tim Miller Band, Somebody’s Darlin’ Saturday, July 12 at City Tavern Darryl Smyers hipped us to Hymns back in March. “Mixing the hip/slacker influence of Pavement with a classic Americana icon like Gram Parsons, the music of Hymns is a heady blend that grows with repeated listens,” he wrote. Not sure if I hear the Pavement influence myself, but they’ve got a picture of Stephen Malkmus in the “Influences” section of their site, so it must be in there somewhere. To my ears, Brian Harding’s voice is more reminiscent of The Band’s Levon Helm than Malkmus.
Brave Combo Friday, July 11 at J&J’s Blues Bar in Fort Worth and Saturday at Poor David’s Pub The Denton nuclear polka band is celebrating the debut of the PBS animated series As The Wrench Turns, which uses the Combo's take on the William Tell Overture for its theme song, with two local gigs. KERA members get two-for-one tix.
Smile Smile, Calhoun Saturday, July 12 at Barley House The guy/girl duo of Smile Smile sing about lust, failure, breakups and betrayal over deceptively pretty, jaunty pop. Calhoun was nominated for just about every category except Best Tibetan Throat Singing in the Fort Worth Weekly Music Awards, and managed to win “Best Song” (for the intricate pop of “Breathe”) and “Best Songwriter.” This is a free show, too, so you’ve got no excuse not to check it out. --Jesse Hughey
