Blues Control at Mohawk Tuesday

It takes some serious effort (and pocket change) to sift through all the handmade CD-Rs, cassettes and seven-inches that fill up the annals of scum-rock and "New Weird American" music. Certainly a fair amount of these groups veer towards noise and semi-ambient clatter and drift, but the line from No Neck Blues Band and Talibam! to an outfit like Blues Control ends up quite squiggly. Blues Control consists of keyboardist Lea Cho and guitarist/keyboardist Russ Waterhouse, an apartment-sharing duo who haven't received quite the attention of their Brooklyn sisters and brethren outside the boroughs and the Northeast, despite having three well-regarded full-lengths in their belt. In fact, Blues Control's discography is (mostly) in print, via labels like Siltbreeze, Holy Mountain, Woodsist and even a holiday Sub Pop single.

But the Blues Control live experience and recorded output can be quite divergent, so Austinists weaned on the "Cluster & Eno at home at 4 A.M. with a bottle of bum wine" aesthetic permeating 2009's Local Flavor (Siltbreeze) probably shouldn't arrive at the Mohawk with any preconceptions. Seeing them at a Brooklyn storefront in 2007 resulted in a war between eardrums - torrential guitar scuzz and keyboard rattle meeting up with limping, lopsided drum machines, a feral and woozy concoction that upended any comedown vibes. Though as Blues Control matures these polarities are sure to be reconciled somewhat, luckily for us a semblance of concept is a little ways off. Opening is the local shambled-guitar army Expensive $hit, and Vitamins and The Young.