This week, check out Geto Boys, featuring the author of our recurring column Ask Willie D, check out Ransom Note's CD release show, get a load of the one and only Nine Inch Nails and much more. This Monday's looking pretty gray. Spruce up your week with the following show recommendations.
Lord Dying Monday, September 30, 8 p.m. w/ Thanatos Eternal, Cathedral Fever, Death Horse, Decay Crawler @ Fubar - $8-$10 By Rick Giordano From this July 2013 show preview: Portland, Oregon's Lord Dying are the most recent addition to the legendary Relapse Records roster with a debut album hitting stores on the ninth of this month. The band has only previewed two tracks from the forthcoming Summon the Faithless so far, but they're two that show promise, filled with Baroness-esque (say that four times fast) riff-rock mixed with a dark aggression reminiscent of more recent Celtic Frost and Triptykon.
Nine Inch Nails Tuesday, October 1, 7:30 p.m. @ Chaifetz Arena - $37.50-$99 By Jaime Lees After threatening to put Nine Inch Nails to bed a few years ago, Trent Reznor is back with a new album, Hesitation Marks, and a new tour. As the only original and full-time member of the band, Reznor is credited with bringing industrial music to the masses with massively popular genre-bending albums like Pretty Hate Machine and The Downward Spiral. He's been at it since the late 80's and, traditionally, Nine Inch Nails albums are written and recorded solely by Reznor, who then assembles a cast of talented musicians to translate his music for live performances. Reznor's creative output, combined with inventive marketing campaigns and highly-publicized collaborations (David Bowie, Marilyn Manson) has helped him to build his own brand and personal myth as a respected but mysterious genius.
Richard Buckner Tuesday, October 1, 7:30 p.m. w/ Union Electric, Dan Johanning @ The Demo - $12 By Christian Schaeffer Richard Buckner's stylistic dye has long been cast, it would seem. The folk singer can move from Crazy Horse discursions to his usual format of intimately picked acoustic music and still retain his central spark and delivery. So it's true that his latest, Surrounded, sounds very much like a Richard Buckner record, though working with producer Tucker Martine (Decemberists, Camera Obscura) reveals a more experimental impulse. A pulsing ambience and some looped percussion help fill out "When You Tell Me How It Is," and the melodica solo almost makes Buckner sound like a one-man Calexico. Locals the Union Electric will open the show; the band will likely be dipping from its newly released covers EP, featuring the songs of Neutral Milk Hotel, the Ex, and more.
Norma Jean Wednesday, October 2, 7:30 p.m. @ Fubar - $12-$13 By Andrew Miller From this 2006 show preview: Norma Jean packs venues without airplay, easy hooks or categorical genre support. (The group's Christian beliefs alienate metalcore nihilists.) Norma Jean experiments with vocal lucidity while preserving his intense tone, and the dual guitars — declaring temporary truces from their constant clashing — occasionally march lockstep, generating thunderous grooves.
Humdrum Thursday, October 3, 9 p.m. w/ The Vanilla Beans, Paperhaus @ Schlfaly Tap Room - free By Christian Schaeffer From this 2013 EP review: For Humdrum's latest EP, the band booked time with Steve Albini in his Chicago-based Electrical Audio studio. This fact alone could overwhelm the conversation about the record, but Albini is a famously egalitarian and workmanlike producer. If you book time with him and get on the studio calendar, he'll record your stuff. So his name is less a stamp of approval from one of rock's most famous producers and personalities and more a comment on Humdrum's willingness to throw a good amount of time and money at this project. (To further the EP's analog pedigree, it was mixed at John Vanderslice's Tiny Telephone studio and mastered to stereo tape.) I haven't heard the vinyl version of We Are Electricity, but even the mp3 versions show a more mature use of space and a focus on a few key tones for a band that has previously suffered from a little bit of sonic A.D.D.
