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David Lowery fronts Camper Van Beethoven at 9:30 Club on Jan. 18, 2020 (Photo by David LaMason)
As I was listening to Camper Van Beethoven at the 9:30 Club recently, I was reminded of the title of a Spotify playlist of ’80s alternative rock: Left of the Dial. To the crowd’s delight, the band opened with their delightfully odd cult hit “Take the Skinheads Bowling,” from their 1985 debut LP, Telephone Free Landslide Victory.
YACHT performs at Songbyrd Music House on Jan. 15, 2020. (Photo by Mickey McCarter)
Editor: We have updated this post with more photos of YACHT performing at Rough Trade NYC on Jan. 18, 2020!
Inspired in part by an application called the Verbasizer offered by David Bowie in the ’90s, synthpop trio YACHT wrote an album in collaboration with an AI program last year.
YACHT performed the appealing results in its entirety at Songbyrd Music House recently, offering the 10 new wave tracks of Chain Tripping live in reverse order of the record. And interestingly, the songs sounded like something that could have sprung directly from a Bowie collaboration with Brian Eno in the ’70s.
The Devil Makes Three (Photo courtesy DMK Publicity)
The Devil Makes Three, whose latest album Chains Are Broken (New West Records) debuted in the Top 10 Bluegrass Charts and has spurred a successful two-year U.S. and international tour, are showing no signs of slowing down. The Americana triumvirate has embarked on a US winter tour that includes a show at Rams Head Live on Thursday, Jan. 23.
Cracker’s David Lowery and Johnny Hickman (Photo by Bradford Jones)
Why front one band when you can front two? That’s surely the philosophy of David Lowery — guitarist, vocalist, songwriter, and mathematician — who heads both Cracker and Camper Van Beethoven. As is David’s habit in the past several years, he’s bringing both bands to 9:30 Club for a double bill on Saturday, Jan. 18.
Yacht (Credit: Neurography by Mario Klingemann, Training photos by Jaclyn Campanaro)
Disco punks YACHT recently released Chain Tripping — the band’s seventh LP and third for DFA — after recording it between Marfa, Texas, and the band’s home in Los Angeles. The 10 songs are unlike anything YACHT has ever made: pop experiments from a sideways dimension coaxed into their studio through a portal opened by machine intelligence.
Chain Tripping received a Grammy nomination for Best Immersive Audio Album in the 2020 Grammy Awards, and YACHT performs the album in full at Songbyrd Music House on Wednesday, Jan. 15.
Los Lobos (Photo by Piero F. Giunti)
Touring behind their new holiday album, Llegó Navidad, Los Lobos played new tunes and old classics — with the band’s two sets covering territory from traditional Latin music to roots rock in a two-night stand at City Winery recently. They ended their show, as is their custom, with the Dead’s “Bertha,” which they introduced with the line “I’m gonna tell you how it’s gonna be,” from Buddy Holly’s “Not Fade Away.”
Health (Photo by Faith Crawford)
A whole lot of noise is coming to 9:30 Club on Wednesday, Dec. 18 — a whole lotta noise *rock* that is. Noise rockers Daughters and Health share a bill for us to get all contemplative yet dancey just a week before Christmas.
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