So, Hump Day is packed full of hot action — and no, I'm not just saying "hump" and "hot action" for search engine optimization purposes. It's actually true.
Black Moth Super Rainbow frontman Tom Fec, aka Tobacco, will play tonight at Mercy Lounge, and contributor Saby Reyes-Kulkarni wrote a preview on that show for us, wherein he talks about Tobacco's brand-new Ultima II Massage. Here's a little excerpt:
"It's such a fine line between something that's energizing and something you can zone out to," Fec tells the Scene. "For this, I wanted to push the crazy aspects as far as I could to get into that zone-out state. A lot of the lo-fi black metal stuff — I'm sure in person it's probably insanely crazy and heavy, but the way it's recorded, it's almost ambient in a way. When I made [previous Tobacco album] Maniac Meat, I was out jogging around the neighborhood and would listen to the demos at the gym. So the music made sense for that setting. Making this record, I was just zoning out to it." And what's the album title all about?"We have a dying mall in the area," says Fec, "and they had this place called Ultima II. I was looking for a theme that incorporated that late-'80s/early-'90s infomercial hotline vibe from when people were really getting into tanning and body products and shitty chemicals that everyone thought would make them look good."
From there, Saby goes on to talk about Daft Punk a little bit — I don't particularly agree with his point, but hey, go to town. Provocative piece, though, and worth a read.
Now, psychedelic songstress EMA was initially slated to play next door at The High Watt, but it looks as though the two shows have been rolled into one one ticket will get you into both shows. Makes sense to me. Culture editor Steve Haruch wrote a pick on EMA. Check it out:
The imagery of EMA’s new album The Future’s Void couldn’t be more of-the-moment — she’s on the cover wearing an Oculus Rift virtual reality headset, and she’s singing about a dystopian surveillance society on the majestically blown-out lead single “Satellites.” These owe their resonance to a quirk of timing, but it’s not the now-ness of Void that recommends it: At its best, this thing flat-out rips. The woman behind the acronym, Erika M. Anderson, has described the scuzzy folk-rock deconstruction “So Blonde” as “meta-grunge,” and it’s true: The dream of the ’90s lives on here, to some degree. Not just the caterwauling, pedal-stomping ’90s, which appears more in spirit than form, but also flashes of the choking damaged-robot angst that made Brainiac’s proto-electroclash swan song seethe with power — rebooted with sleek melodies and glossily skinned for fresh new ears. STEVE HARUCH
Stargazer Lilies and Downtown Boys will also play at Mercy, and that big ol' electro show goes down at 9 p.m. Tickets are $15.
Looking to stay a little more grounded? Swedish metal act Graveyard will play Exit/In with Bombus. Contributor Sean L. Maloney did the pick thing for us on that one:
This Swedish metal band’s album Lights Out may have come out in 2012, but it still sounds like it was recorded, uh, 40 years ago. The album has lost none of its verve or edge, lost none of the charm and allure that it had when I bought it way back during Obama’s first term — but that’s probably a result of being so thoroughly steeped in the sounds and vibes of the ’70s. If you had handed me Lights Out during the Romney campaign and said, “This has been buried in a cave, unheard, for 40 years,” I probably would have been like, “Duh.” It’s freakish how these dudes can summon the demons and wizards of Uriah Heep, the space-truckin’ vibes of Deep Purple, and Black Sabbath’s love for the sweet leaf without sounding like rehashed trad-by-numbers affairs. SEAN L. MALONEY
That one goes down at 9 p.m. and also costs $15.
And finally, frequent Nashville-visitors Local Natives will hit the Ryman tonight, and Stephen "Goose" Trageser picked that one for us:
Local Natives love a Nashville crowd; they’ve played here twice since the release of their sophomore LP Hummingbird, produced by The National’s Aaron Dessner, this past spring. If you were waiting for the best time and place to catch their propulsive, vocal-heavy, riff-laden indie jams, you played your cards right. While previous appearances included 2013’s Live on the Green and a stop at Marathon Music Works, their lengthy spring headline tour wraps up at the acoustically stunning Mother Church of Country Music tonight. Support comes courtesy of also-Los Angeles-based Moses Sumney, whose Mid-City Island EP showcases a Panda Bear-esque facility for mixing Beach Boys harmonies and deceptively dense electronic production with soulful touches of R&B. STEPHEN TRAGESER
Starts at 7:30 p.m., costs $29.50.
Feel free to peruse our listings or let us know what we missed.
