Also Tonight: Pillars and Tongues + listenlisten (New Album Coming!) + Robert Ellis

Yeah, I know I just posted about the KTRU benefit show going on tonight (Thurs., September 9th, in case you’ve forgotten), but I wanted to mention a couple of others, as well, in case you’re out & about:

Pillars and Tongues/listenlisten @ The Orange Show
Tonight up at The Orange Show promises to be a fine, fine show, especially if the weather holds out a little while longer, at least (say, between the hours of 7PM and 10PM or so). Chicagoans Pillars and Tongues are headlining, and what I’ve heard of ’em has been pretty intriguing, very dark and and orchestral and slow-moving and gospel-y, like that collab from a while back between slow-folk heroes Low and instrumentalists The Dirty Three. Should be cool, seriously.

The true selling point for tonight’s deal, though, is {listenlisten}, who’re one of a handful of bands from here that make me feel utterly and completely stunned, amazed that they even exist; the somber, elegaic, gorgeously melancholy (and yet sometimes wonderfully frenzied) folk dirges they craft are pitch-perfect, with not a thing out of place unless it’s specifically meant to be.

I’m particularly psyched, in fact, because I’ve been lucky enough to hear bits & pieces (so far) of the band’s forthcoming full-length, dog, which is the followup to last year’s awesome Hymns From Rhodesia, and yes, it’s as good as I’d hoped. A bit less bleak than the Hymns stuff, but honestly, it was about time for that to happen, and I’m glad to see it.

Robert Ellis & The Boys/Mason Lankford and The Folk Family Revival @ Warehouse Live
I swear, every time I hear a song by {Robert Ellis} that I hadn’t heard before, my jaw drops even further to the floor. He’s like this crazed, in-constant-motion Renaissance man of Houston music, the guy who’s in every band you go see and then does his own awesome thing that (well, nearly) blows away everything else he’s helping out with. Whatever he tries his hand at seems to turn to gold.

I mean, I’m still very partial to the more fully “country-folk” stuff like “Good Intentions”, but “Cemetery Song”, off the recent KTRU Live Vol. 2 comp, is more mainstream-sounding but still awesome. For tonight’s show, I suspect things’ll be a little more on the country side, but trust me, that’s no bad thing…

Oh, and if you’re interested in hearing these folks, just check the H-Town Mixtape over there on the right; the lead track’s a brand-freaking-new one from the listenlisten guys. More soon…