Best bets, bitches!
Modern Til Midnight with St. Vincent, Peter & the Wolf, Sleeping States, Doug Burr, Tame…Tame and Quiet and Mom 6 p.m. tonight, Oct. 19. Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth (3200 Darnell St.). $15.
Hmm…need we tell you about St. Vincent, our native daughter who is currently touring with the National? Nah, we’ll let NPR take care of that, because the undercard of this show, which takes place in the amazingly stark, beautiful Modern Art Museum in Fort Worth (yo, Nasher, step it up!). Peter & the Wolf, to begin, is one man who produces intense, otherworldly, off-kilter folk. Doug Burr, meantime, can play his deep, hard songs as quiet as a whisper, and upstarts Mom upset the apple cart with ambient, weird electronica. This could go down as the best line up of the year so far, original and striking—appropriately ending at the witching hour.
Carter Albrecht Memorial with Old 97’s, Sorta, The Drams, Salim Nourallah, the Slack and others 7 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 20. Granada Theater (3524 Greenville Ave.). $30.
One of the most amazing things we can note about Carter Albrecht is that he was surrounded by the best musicians Dallas had to offer. It says something about his talent and his character that so many of them were fans, in awe of his abilities and charm. Many of said musicians will take the stage tonight, the most important, of course, being Carter’s band Sorta, in their first public appearance since his death. It’s $30 to attend, and all proceeds go to the Carter Albrecht Music Foundation. Those who can’t make it but who still wish to donate should contact: The Carter Albrecht Music Foundation, Northern Trust Bank, Attn: Keith Braley, 1674 Dallas Pkwy. Ste. 100, Addison, TX 75001.
Birds and Batteries, Telegraph Canyon 9 p.m., Sunday, Oct. 21. Barley House (5612 Yale Blvd.). TBD.
San Francisco’s Birds and Batteries have found a secret formula: Somehow, they manage to combine swirly shoe gaze haze and slightly C&W stylings with bits and pieces of electronica. The whole combo is buoyed by the feather-light touch of sweet melodies and occasional waves of pedal-steel. You gotta love a band that claims both Daft Punk and Graham Parsons as influences. Perhaps they are pushing further the type of genre-embracing aesthetic of Fort Worth’s Telegraph Canyon, who similarly mix and match, though they stick more to down-tempo, minor key Eastern European-flecked melodies, with subtle instrumentation from violins, mandolins, trombone, and banjo complementing the usual rock elements. (Think Beirut without the snot-butt attitude.) Despite the instrumental variety, this crew doesn’t fear fairly straight-ahead California rock or reverb-tinged, U2-like touches.
Jucifer 5 p.m., Sunday, Oct. 21. Good Records (1808 Greenville Ave.). Free.
Even though Jucifer hails from Athens, Ga., don’t expect the kind of jangle-pop the town is usually known for. Instead, this duo—G. Edgar Livengood on drums and G. Amber Valentine on guitar/vocals—careens from vixen-vocaled hard rock to straight up banshee screaming, drum-bashing, off-time, off-kilter explosion. Not for the timid, but definitely for those who could be just as happy listening to Slayer as they would Veruca Salt. -- Jonanna Widner
