Yr. Weekend, Pt. 1: The Octopus Project + Benefit for Tim Young + Co-Pilot + Clory Martin + The Suffers + More

It’s gonna be a crazy one, y’all; this weekend is insanely busy, with tons of stuff going on each & every night, starting with tonight, 11/11/11. I swear, it’s just been like that lately — the weekends when not much good is happening have been few & far between in recent months…

First, though, a couple of notes about stuff that’s not happening. The fairly awesome-sounding show up at Mango’s that was on our little list a while back for tonight, with {Fiskadoro}, {Defending the Kingdom}, & others apparently fell through the cracks, sadly, with {Kleos}, {Sons of Blackwater}, & {Ten Ton Hammer} playing instead (don’t know any of ’em, sorry).

Then there’s what I’d heard was going to be the first-ever show for new punk outfit {Guilt Party}, scheduled at one point for tomorrow (11/12/11) over at Notsuoh. Unfortunately, I’ve been informed by the band that they won’t be playing, although they are working on scheduling their inaugural show. Word on that when we get it…

Lastly, Winnipeg band The Guess Who were originally slated to play at Nutty Jerr’s out in Winnie tonight, but that show’s been postponed allllll the way back to Feb. 4th, when they’ll be sharing the bill with Blood, Sweat & Tears. Just so you know.

Now, back to tonight; here’s what’s on:

The Octopus Project/Searching for Signal/Bang Bangz @ Fitzgerald’s
Oh, yes. I love The Octopus Project, and have for years — they are quite honestly one of the coolest, most interesting electro-pop/experimental bands I’ve heard since, well, ever. No, really. You can keep your Animal Collective over there, thanks; I’ll take the Octopus kids over ’em, any day. They make music that’s intriguing and prog-y but still warm and friendly and inviting, and that is no mean feat, believe me. They’re like the coolest moments of The Beta Band, all warmth and “organic” electronics, but stripped (mostly) of vocals, married to some impressively huge, Mogwai-like drums, and sent spiraling down some interstellar wormhole to another dimension for its inhabitants to gape in wonder.

Oh, and they’re ridiculously nice people, to boot. And hey, they put up guitar tabs of their 2007 release, Hello, Avalanche, for crying out loud. How awesome is that? Check out a few tracks from last year’s Hexadecagon, right here:

The Octopus Project – “Fuguefat”
The Octopus Project – “Hallucinists”

Sweetening the pot are semi-local gang {Searching for Signal}, who nowadays spend a fair amount of their time up in Austin but who’ve sworn to me they still call H-town home, so I’ll forgive ’em that. Besides, their latest EP, As If Nothing’s Changing, sees the band transforming from a gentle, jangly pop band into a throwback to mid-’90s “sleepcore” (or whatever it was called) like Codeine or Bedhead. And yeah, it’s pretty great.

On top of that, there’s also {Bang Bangz}, which I’ve already talked about fairly recently and which is Mario Rodriguez of {Tax the Wolf}‘s new late-night electro-murk trio. Haven’t seen ’em live yet, but the recorded stuff I’ve heard so far has been neat, neat, neat.

1st Annual Tim Young Benefit Art Show, featuring Muhammad Ali, Female Demand, & TeXXXas @ Sacred Heart Studio (327 Westheimer)
This one’s pretty tragic, honestly, and not something I’d heard about before now. Apparently tattooist Tim Young of Sacred Heart Studio suffered a horrific accident back in 2009 and has since been struggling to recover fully from the brain trauma, his family running out of money in the process. He’s apparently still bed-bound even now, two years after the incident. Man… At any rate, tonight’s show is a benefit/fundraiser of sorts for Tim, with art, food, beer, and music all donated by kind friends/coworkers to help raise money for his rehabilitation and living expenses. The awesome {Muhammad Ali} is playing, as is badass instro-duo {Female Demand}; not sure how much it is to get in, but donations are definitely welcome.

The Migrant/Not In The Face/Co-Pilot/Featherface @ Fitzgerald’s
Sweet! Two of my absolute favorite bands in town, playing on the same stage up at Fitz; what’s not to like about that? (And that’s in addition to the Octopus Project/etc. show on the other floor, thus making Fitz a reality-warped locus of coolness tonight; if the edges of our universe start to fray, don’t say I didn’t warn you…) {Featherface} are everywhere these days, and deservedly so, because their fresh-faced, stutter-stepping take on psych-pop is freaking incredible, and those {Co-Pilot} dudes blaze through epic spacerock that verges on stoner metal in the best possible way — I still can’t escape their Course of Empire EP from back in 2010. The latter don’t play out all that often, btw, so take that into consideration, eh?

The Young Maths/Clory Martin @ Sedition Books (901 Richmond; 8PM-12AM)
Dangit — I mentioned cool anarchist/etc. “infoshop” Sedition Books today, and I completely blanked on the show going on tonight, naturally. It sounds like a very cool one, with jangly, soft-voiced folksinger/guitarist {Clory Martin} (who I like more & more each time I hear her) opening for McAllen band The Young Maths, whose new album ERRORRS is fairly impressive even on just a quick spin…

Devil Killing Mother CD Release Party, featuring The Illegal Wiretaps, Ed Koch, Devil Killing Moth, Yello Echo, Insert Credits, Days N Daze, i1150n, Wasi Townsend, Clory Martin, Poetic Mental Aggression, Secret Room, DJ Nikkhoo, Swans Will Attack, & Alex Tu @ Notsuoh/Dean’s Credit Clothing (9PM)
And speaking of Clory Martin, yep, she’ll apparently be up at Notsuoh/Dean’s in downtown this evening, as well, this time for the CD release of jangly acoustic weirdballs {Devil Killing Moth} (who I need to hear more of). They’re also bringing along cool trio {Yello Echo}, excellent rockers {The Illegal Wiretaps}, and neat folk-punks Days N’ Daze, to boot, making it a party well worth checking out, truly.

The Suffers/Soup/Only Beast @ Rudyard’s
Oooh, cool. I have yet to hear ’em, unfortunately, but {The Suffers} are a new (ska?) supergroup of sorts, pulling together folks from {Idiginis}, {Los Skarnales}, {The Handsomes}, and a half-dozen other well-known ska/funk/whatever bands in town, all with frontwoman {Kam} providing the vocals. Trust me: this is practically guaranteed to be excellent.

Runners-Up:
Method Man/Curren$y/Big Krit/Smoke Dza/The Pricks @ Warehouse Live
The Woggles/The Ugly Beats/Jade Idol @ The Continental Club
Houston Specialties Benefit, featuring Neckpiece, Poetic Mental Aggression, Arcane Alchemy, Heart & Soul, Adrian Zavala Band, DJ Weezar, Dee Colonise, 9, Salvador M, & Becky Meter @ Super Happy Fun Land
La Catrin/Ceeplus Bad Knives/Mr. Castillo @ The Big Top
Alesana/A Skylit Drive/Sleeping With Sirens/Attilla/Memphis May Fire/My Deepest Dream @ Warehouse Live (Studio)
Fastball @ Rookies Sports Bar and Grill
DJ Andrew Dansby @ Leon’s Lounge (1006 McGowen)