Chaos in Tejas Preview: Guitar Wolf, Off With Their Heads, Crystal Antlers, Ringo Deathstarr and more at Red 7
Saturday, June 4
Red 7 (611 E. 7th St.)
9pm, $12 outside, free inside
[info] | [tickets]
In a city that hosts ACL and South by Southwest, it's easy for smaller, more genre-targeted festivals to get overlooked. Not that people aren't taking notice of Chaos in Tejas, though. This year's iteration of the punk/hardcore/noise festival is its seventh, and features more bands than ever before swarming into the Red River district. Timmy Hefner has curated the festival's strongest lineup yet, replete with big names in the scene from across the globe.
Case in point: Guitar Wolf. The veteran Japanese power-punk trio will headline Saturday's showcase at Red 7, bringing ear-shattering feedback and propulsive energy to those who can deal with it at 12:45 in the a.m. The band have coined the phrase "jet rock 'n' roll" to describe their sound, which blends a bit of the bubblegum melodic tendencies of the Ramones and the rockabilly of the Clash into their own heavily distorted guitars and throat-shredding vocals. Over the course of nine studio albums and twenty-plus years of touring, the band have honed their sound and style into a cohesively sharp, ass-kicking experience. You won't want to miss it.
Off With Their Heads will also play the outside stage, tickets for which are $12. The punk rock group from Minneapolis have released two studio LPs alongside several EPs, split 7"s and singles. Their latest LP, last year's In Desolation, was released on Epitaph Records, which is notable because Off With Their Heads was the first true punk band signed to Epitaph in almost ten years. In the interval, the traditional punk rock powerhouse label had gravitated to metal and hardcore.
The inside stage is free to all comers and features two bands of a decidedly different ilk. Long Beach, California psych-rockers Crystal Antlers gained a lot of praise for their 2009 debut, Tentacles, a noisy mishmash of abrasive sonics that seemed capable of falling apart at any instant. They're releasing their follow-up, Two-Way Mirror, on their own Recreation Ltd. imprint in July with cover art by Raymond Pettibon. Local shoegazers Ringo Deathstarr will play before them. After years of far-flung touring and a couple of EPs, the band finally released their debut LP, Colour Trip, earlier this year. It's a well-crafted labor of love, a dense listen thick with breathy vocals and guitar effects reminiscent of My Bloody Valentine.
Here's the full lineup:
Red 7 (outside)
Guitar Wolf-12:45-1:30
Off with their Heads-12:00-12:30
Underground Railroad to Candyland-11:15-11:45
the Mind Spiders-10:30-11:00
Cheap Time-9:45-10:15
the Hex Dispensers-9:00-9:30
Red 7 (inside)
Crystal Antlers-12:15-12:45
Ringo Deathstarr-11:00-11:30
