PROMISE RING 1/30, METRO It took me a few listens to recognize this zircon in the rough, but now I’m sold on the ragged power-pop charms of this Milwaukee quartet’s Nothing Feels Good (Jade Tree). Derivative but sincere, grandiose but disarming–if Philip K. Dick was right, Paul Westerberg is making records like this in a parallel universe.
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CASH MONEY 1/31, EMPTY BOTTLE This free “customer appreciation” show kicks off with a couple of shit kickers, guitarist and singer John Humphrey and drummer Scott Giampino. Their second full-length as Cash Money, Halos of Smoke and Fire (Touch and Go), is an intense, timeless rockaboogie blast, peppered with off-kilter balladry and even a sort of Charlie Daniels Band update featuring Dirty Three fiddler Warren Ellis. With the Delta 72 headlining, it’s a fine bill–but if they really, really appreciated us, the drinks would be free, too.
LOREN MAZZACANE CONNORS & ALAN LICHT, JIM O’ROURKE & DARIN GRAY 2/2, EMPTY BOTTLE Guitarist Loren MazzaCane Connors plays a biting, abstract blues that gives the sense of passion struggling out from under restraint; on their three albums together, he and regular collaborator Alan Licht trade wails and drones, utter fuzz and crystal-clear chimes, in evocative music that’s always full but never busy. In a separate set, Jim O’Rourke, flush from the release of his bittersweet, playful new Bad Timing (Drag City) and his Indiana Jones-like escape from Gastr del Sol, will duet with Brise-Glace bassist Darin Gray. At the end of the night, when all four play together, the threat of lily gilding looms, but I think the risk is worth it. Connors, Licht, and O’Rourke also play Saturday at 4 at the Reckless Records on Broadway.
