Results tagged “lucero”

Fun Fun Fun Fest has confirmed four more bands to this year's lineup, including Yeasayer, Kid Sister, DRI and Vega. This is in addition to already-confirmed performers Atlas Sound, Death, Red Sparowes, WHY?, Broadcast, Lucero, Les Savy Fav, GZA (performing Liquid Swords), HEALTH, Jesus Lizard, Melt Banana, 7 Seconds, King Khan & BBQ Show, Shearwater and Todd Barry. More leaks expected very soon.

This Friday evening, Emo’s hosts one of our favorite Tennessee bands, Lucero. Increasingly popular locals Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears open -- check our interview with Lewis and Zach Ernst at last year’s Fun Fest via Roxwel’s site.

Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears have quickly become a favorite, dynamite-packed act in Austin. Their bluesy instrumentals and funky lyrics typically attract a wide crowd of far-reaching musical tastes which we expect to be no different at their show this Friday at Emo’s.

Filling the dead-space between indiedom and the first major label outing for his band Lucero, Ben Nichols’s solo debut is as quiet and mannered a record as he’ll ever sing on. The sound - a bed of rambling guitar, pedal steel, piano and accordion

This is a star-studded tour if you’re into gritty, gravely punk. It’s Chuck Ragan of Hot Water Music, Tim Barry of Avail and Ben Nichols of Lucero all playing solo sets, but it usually ends up with the guys all playing on the stage backing one another.

Sit at the bar with a Lucero fan and you’ll hear a lot about Ben Nichols, and rightly so. In the quiet war of big personalities under the alt-country big-tent, Nichols holds his own; as the Memphis band’s creative hub and lead singer, he’s more brash and less deliberately poetic than Tweedy, and he’s held closer to his punk rock roots than Ryan Adams. If any other big name comes close to Nichols, it’s Patterson Hood careening off the edge. Regardless, he plays in that league. But for a guy to garner such constant comparisons to The Boss, The Replacements, and all of the above – and to stick out from every other singer who mythologizes Darkness On The Edge of Town – he needs a band. Nichols’s crew pulls all sorts of weight, but their sound isn’t gussied up or overly technical or bursting with embellishments. Even more than Nichols’s grating growl, this is where the punk starts to show – the band just puts in work, shoulder-to-wheel, fast and loose, and the songs (and Nichols) benefit as a result.

Call ‘em Cowpunk. Call ‘em alt. country. Call ‘em country-ish indie rock. But, whatever tag you affix on Memphis rockers Lucero know that there will come a time at least once in your life when their gritty, twangy, whiskey-soaked tunes of hard livin’ fit snugly like a wooden peg. And maybe, that time is during South by week.