GAZA STRIPPERS 3/6, LOUNGE AX I’m always enamored of a good mystery, and no one can tell me shit about this band except that it’s the new project of former Didjits singer and guitarist Rick Sims. I do know that next week the Gaza Strippers will take whatever (probably raucous) thing it is that they do down to South by Southwest to try it out on all the schmoozeballs in Austin, so tonight might be a good night to take a chance on an unknown band with a hell of a great name. If you go, wear your asbestos hat, because Nashville Pussy headlines.
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SEAM, BROKEBACK 3/6, EMPTY BOTTLE If you’re eagerly awaiting that new Seam record…well, maybe this show will take your mind off it for a while. Though the album was due out this month, the belated discovery of faulty equipment at two different studios in town will send the band packing for North Carolina to mix it next week. Down a notch on the bill is Doug McCombs, who has just released his second seven-inch single as the solo act Brokeback. For obvious reasons, Brokeback doesn’t approach the complexity of McCombs’s main gig, Tortoise–the melodies are played on a six-string bass over simple loops programmed into digital delay pedals–but there are links in both mood and material. The singles are little slices of engaging, entrancing, unpretentious pop (yes, pop) augmented by impeccable taste: the first includes a Beefheart cover, and the second deserves to sell thousands for its gorgeous die-cut sleeve alone. The Lonesome Organist and Jim O’Rourke also perform.
JESSE COOK 3/8, ROSEMONT THEATRE Though this Berklee-trained guitarist and his unfortunate Michael Bolton hair hang out on Billboard’s New Age chart, there are moments on his second album, Gravity (Narada Equinox), that threaten actual funk. There’s a method to Cook’s mildness–he neatly incorporates mild flamenco guitar, mild Arabic rhythms, mild hip-hop beats, and mild Latin jazz into a mildly intoxicating brew. So you toss back your glass of nonalcoholic sangria, then step into the dance (wearing sensible flats under your black lace) with a tall, dark stranger who might be handsome if he lost that baseball cap. But what the hell, it’s Sunday night and you’re feeling reckless. He plays as a guest with the Chieftains. –Monica Kendrick
