Results tagged “sunsetrubdown”

Anyone who's ever seen Sunset Rubdown live knows that Spencer Krug (Wolf Parade, Swan Lake, every other band you've ever heard of) and crew's mythological, circuitous, and, hell, even byzantine, song structures and brain-busting neuroses play in concert pretty damn well. The last time the Canadian crew did the Mohawk was at an ACL aftershow, and the stoic professionalism and understatement of the band's between-songs approach made all the more stirring the precision execution of their songs, which, in any form, classify as nearly literary in their depth...pretty much, these people are a hair on the smart side, but you wouldn't know it when watching the intensity they pump into their performance. Toss in the fact that they are supporting the newly-released Dragon Slayer, a raw and complex (though less complex than its predecessor, the brutally excellent Random Spirit Lover) peak into one of music's most stunning minds, and Saturday's set at the Mohawk looks to be a standout in what has been an excellent week for concert-goers.

There's something surely intriguing when the star-crossed "supergroup" label becomes affixed to three guys who just a decade ago would have found it nearly impossible to develop a following in the first place, let alone such independent fan bases that when they get together to screw off in the studio it elicits all sorts of anticipatory glee-shouts. Yet in these internet times, musicians such as Spencer Krug, Carey Mercer, and Dan Bejar do have a niche in which to survivably produce some of the most intricate and conceptually demanding albums of the last few years, and even afford themselves the spare time to work on the Swan Lake project, a project best described as what happens when three mad scientists meet at a mad scientist convention and decide to be mad scientists together.

Canada, the Austin of North America, let loose its reigning metaphorical exporters at the Mohawk last night for a solid crowd enjoying an unusually crisp September night outdoors. They got everyone hot and bothered, opening with a new song called "Black Swan," as the vocals soared above 17 layers of sound, pleasing fans of a band whose lyrics demand audibility.

The 2008 Austin City Limits Music Festival is finally here! We hope you’ve been enjoying our various stage previews. Even if you’re not attending the day time revelry at Zilker Park, there are plenty of options to choose from during the evening hours. (Read our ACL Fest after-shows roundup here.) Most weekend live music activities will probably revolve around the plethora of acts in town for the fest but there’s so much more going on; a couple of shows definitely merit a quick mention.

Tonight, Canada will officially move south, as Spencer Krug's beautiful brainchild Sunset Rubdown will grace this Texas town with crazy keyboards, arcane guitars, and a variety of other weapons of musicanery. Their just-released Random Spirit Lover, appreciated by critics all the continent-wide, is certain not to disappoint...unless, of course, you hate eerily strange pop music wrapped danger-tight with eccentricity. Follow the jump for more information on this event and the chance to win a...

It’s not too often that a modern-day musician says “here, take this, it’s my whole freaking brain, synapses and gooey parts and all,” but Spencer Krug, the madman extraordinaire behind Sunset Rubdown (as well as the widely adored Wolf Parade), has done just that. With Random Spirit Lover, he throws his cerebrum straight off the parking garage, giving the audience a meandering but purposeful masterwork of clatter whose intricacy is belied only by its complication....

FRIDAY [27] music • While You Were Out, presented by Bueno Music Bureau, with The Unbearables, She Sir, The Scripts, Friday After Dark at Club de Ville ($5) books • Anita Gonzalez, Ph.D., presents Dancing Between Myth and Reality at CAAAS (UT - Jester A232) (3:00pm) comedy • Tig Notaro and Steve Burr at Cap City Comedy Club comedy • Punchline, open mic stand up comedy at ColdTowne Theater (10pm) dance • Fetish and Other...

By and large, Canada has never been seen, in the eyes of the world, as quite the bastion of excess that the United States is. But until relatively recently, the world had not seen the spectacle of the Canadian indie scene. A tradition of ridiculous extravagance, borderline nepotistic chumminess, and overlapping personnel in the style of European royalty or American boards of directors is proudly continued in Beast Moans, the outstanding debut from Swan...

If you survived the Deliverance-esque Ikea parking lot this weekend, and didn't get shot trying to get yourself a PS3, you deserve to spend even more of your hard-earned cash on records. Here's what you can find on the shelves at fine local establishments like End of an Ear or Waterloo today. Sufjan Stevens Songs for Christmas (Asthmatic Kitty) Featuring five discs worth of holiday music spanning the course of five years, tinsel used...