The Spin

♦ When he's not toiling away at his day job as bandleader for the USA Network's Nashville Star, John Bohlinger lets his freak flag fly with Redneck Buddha, who played last Wednesday at Hair of the Dog. They may not be as big and rich as Big and Rich, but they certainly are a helluva lot less annoying. Though rooted in country, Redneck Buddha venture into Southern rock and blues territory, sounding at times like a country Blues Traveler, in part due to the fine musicianship of lap steel and harmonica player Tim Beattie (who plays about one-third the amount of notes as John Popper—in other words, the right amount). Their songs "Life Sucks and Then You Die" and "Whiskey and Weed" won't likely get played on CMT anytime soon, but that didn't seem to bother those in attendance, including songwriter Jason White and Gypsy Hombres violinist Peter Hyrka, not to mention what looked like a busload of recent auditionees from Barely Legal magazine. Redneck Buddha are going to be firing up the still and the chronic every Wednesday at Hair of the Dog, and admission, like the love, is free.

♦ After something like a decade without a Japanese band playing here, three somehow arrived at two different clubs the same night on the same scruffy patch of Elliston Place. Headlining the Exit/In last Thursday were J-punk heroes Guitar Wolf, but the show was stolen by openers Electric Eel Shock, an amped-to-11 power trio whose command of metal-god shtick was as electrifying as it was goofy. The show was so loud that the club's garbage can vibrated like a tuning fork. Bounding around the stage like a duck on a hot plate, frontman Aki Morimoto shook his 'fro, kerranged his guitar off his skull and made more rock 'n' roll devil horns than a high-school smoking area listening to "Iron Man"—which, not coincidentally, started their set. Kudos to monster drummer Tomoharu "Gian" Ito for playing nude except for a strategically placed sock—but dude, did you have to wipe your face with it? And domo arigato to metal-studded tattoo chick Crystal and work-shirted Trevor, the cool punk couple who had the balls to stage-dive and slamdance in the initially indifferent crowd. Their effort didn't just fire up the audience, it stoked the band into hyperspace. Maybe because somebody poured beer on him—or because his band would have seemed anticlimactic otherwise—Guitar Wolf bass player Bass Wolf (not his real name) hurled a mic stand into somebody. A second stand was immediately kicked over, and then the grand finale: a guitar-smashing so crazed and yet so thorough that even Bass Wolf's bandmates couldn't stop him. He stormed offstage, followed by the rest of the band, who may have been as surprised as the audience.

♦ Across the street at The End, meanwhile, The Spin is told that DMBQ treated its small but loyal audience to broken glass and a blood-smeared face, as well as a trick in which the band crowd-surfed its drum kit one piece at a time along with petite drummer Yuka Yoshimura, who commenced to play from the back of the room.

♦ The Elliott Smith tribute at 3rd & Lindsley Friday had its moments, though it dragged on a bit too long—three hours of melancholy was enough for us, so we left before the last two bands. Well, "melancholy" may not be entirely accurate, as upstarts The Foxymorons, featuring Luxury Liner David Dewese, could make a Nick Drake song sound like "Good Vibrations." Dewese and company, along with Abbie Huxley, provided the night's pre-midnight highlights, though for all we know, Fluid Ounces and Miles of Clear June might have been brilliant—it's just that listening to more than 180 minutes of Elliott Smith at once, against medical advice, is too reckless for us.

News you can use

♦ Local pop quartet Feable Weiner are about to embark on another month-long European tour, this time with UK label-mates Do Me Bad Things and Tokyo Dragons.After their return, the group plan to record their latest full-length with studio whiz Matt Mahaffey (Self) in Los Angeles; it's tentatively titled 2FNHOT.

Shows this week

♦ Every once in a while there's one of those rock shows you didn't think would be that big a deal, so you blew it off, and then you regretted it, because it was all the buzz the next day. Consider yourself warned. This Thursday night at the Exit/In, The Pink Spiders are playing a free show to celebrate signing with Geffen Records. Local buzz band Be Your Own Pet will open the set, and the show also doubles as a farewell bash, as the Spiders are moving out to sunny L.A. to live the rock 'n' roll dream.

♦ Armed with new songs and a new record label—L.A.'s Century Media—Slack return to Nashville after two and a half months on the road. The Features headline before venturing to the UK, where they'll hopefully entice British audiences to do some hand-clapping and singing along. The two locals play this Friday night at the Exit/In.