Image from MySpace

The Sour Notes, more at The Hole in the Wall
Thursday, June 26
Hole in the Wall (2538 Guadalupe St)
9pm, 21+
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Before viral marketing, writing songs for toothpaste commercials or hassling people via MySpace to check out your songs was commonplace, the best way to get the music out there was to either hand out LPs on the street or start gigging. Sometimes the old-fashioned way is still the best, and for three promising but slightly under-the-radar bands, this Thursday night could be the perfect way to get the word out.

United by a few common strings, Pataphysics, Antarctica Starts Here and The Sour Notes are sharing the bill at the Hole in the Wall this evening. Goofy to a fault, Pataphysics align themselves with the Business Deal records crowd and commonly write songs with titles like “Mexican Seafood” and “Jesus Grow a Handlebar Mustache.” Despite the tongue in cheek theatrics, the songs are still ripe with solid hooks and engaging vocal interplay.

If Pataphysics is the goofy younger brother grossing his siblings out with nose picking and other shenanigans, Antarctica Starts Here is the sedate older sister, reading Proust on a long road trip and trying to ignore the squealing in the backseat. A five-piece from Space City, a.k.a. Houston, Antarctica Starts Here prefers the moody middle ground, that thing we call atmosphere. They’re also (“Karen,” “Caroline,” “Ruth,” “Shannon”) into naming songs after girls. Try listening to them and not thinking of the Cocteau Twins. Somewhere in the middle ground between these two bands sits The Sour Notes, who really, desperately want you to know they are pop. And pop they are – their new record The Meat of the Fruit specializes in gentle and bittersweet sad love songs.

Pataphysics: [myspace]
Antarctica Starts Here: [myspace]
The Sour Notes: [website] [myspace]