Yr. Weekend, Pt. 1: New York City Queens (Rev’d!) + Knights of the Fire Kingdom + Fiskadoro + Life as Lions + More

Whoo, yeah. It’s Friday, August 17th, and tonight’s looking like a good one. Here we go:

New York City Queens (album release)/Featherface/The Sour Notes/Wild Child @ Fitzgerald’s
The biggie of the evening, at least for me — I’ve been sadly, pathetically remiss in reviewing {New York City Queens}‘ excellent debut, Somewhere Different, Something New, to the point where, um, I got word they’d be releasing a subsequent album, Burn Out Like Roman Candles. Well, damn.

Happily, Burn Out takes the promise of the first album and builds on it in a great, great way, showcasing a band that’s grown by leaps and bounds in the relatively short time they’ve been around. The NYCQ folks seriously know their way around a hook or a melody, and I’ve been listening to the new album nearly non-stop in the runup to tonight’s release show. Check ’em out, and check out the full review over here.

As an added bonus, they’re playing with another of my favorite bands around town these days, {Featherface}, whose new album, Actual Magic, is now sitting right at the top of my to-review pile. They’ve got a new(-ish) video for first single “I Saw You Dancing,” and not only is it a truly great, heavily Britpop-y song, but it’s a freaky-as-fuck video. Check it out:

And as even more of a bonus, heck, there’s also Austinites-slash-ex-Houstonians The Sour Notes, who play a great, great brand of indie-pop themselves and have consistently blown me away the last few times I’ve seen/heard ’em. Get there early to catch these folks, trust me.

Tax the Wolf/Knights of the Fire Kingdom/We Were Wolves/Mikey & The Drags @ Fitzgerald’s
And then there’s the other floor of Fitz, which has another of my favorite new bands in town, the Roky Moon & BOLT! spinoff {Knights of the Fire Kingdom}, which includes all-round cool dudes Jeoaf Johnson & Aaron Echegaray from BOLT! on guitar (with Jeoaf on vocals), Dave Noske from {Hardwin Store Road} on bass, Chris Wertz of {Hollywood Black} on guitar, and Aaron’s brother Marcos Echegaray, formerly of long-gone emo band Ultramagg(!), on drums.

These guys have come together to form, in their words, “A Solemn Brotherhood Forever Sworn By Blood-Oath to Combat the Forces of That Which Does Not Rock”…which pretty well describes their fist-to-your-throat, overamplified breed of rawk. Their track “Chinese Dragon” is possibly the rawest, heaviest, yet still tuneful slab of rock noise I’ve heard since Rocket From The Crypt’s Scream, Dracula, Scream!, and I consider that pretty high praise, myself.

On top of that, they’re playing with ex-MacKenzies frontman Miguel and his new outfit Mikey & The Drags, who I’ve been desperate to check out, and awesomely good prog-pop band {Tax the Wolf}, who I was fortunate enough to have play for just little old me once upon a time. (No, seriously — I have videographic proof. And yeah, they were pretty great.)

Fiskadoro/mnttaB @ Notsuoh
On the stranger, more experimental side of things, I want to give a shout-out to Lake Jackson noise-punks {Fiskadoro}, who are up at Notsuoh tonight. There were some other folks on the bill previously, but they’ve all dropped off, leaving Fiskadoro as the sole representatives of H-town coolness; Richard from Fiskadoro says they may play an extra dub set to fill up the space, and promises a “dread disco.” I don’t know what the heck that means, but I like it, dammit.

They’re playing with out-of-towners mnttaB, a gang of synth-punks from freaking Melbourne, Australia, so if you can, stop on by & help make ’em feel welcome in our weird, sweaty city…

Waterparks/DWHB/Invent/Animate/Life as Lions/PIZZA @ Warehouse Live (Green Room)
Over at Warehouse Live, there’re a bunch of bands playing that I’m not real familiar with, plus one that I’m liking quite a bit, local boys {Life as Lions}, at least one member of whom used to be in Thee Armada, a sweet-voice, post-emo rock band I used to love quite a lot. This new band doesn’t sound all that far removed from singer Keaton Branch‘s last band, with plenty of fist-pumping, anthemic choruses, emo-boy vocals, and near-solid walls of melodic guitar, but you won’t hear me complaining, nope.

Check out the band’s very cool-sounding EP, Come and Take It, right here:

Runners-Up:
Greg Ginn & The Royal We/Mexican Lions/The Escatones @ Super Happy Fun Land
Sneaker Pimps/Ace Hood @ Warehouse Live
Making Movies/Elyse/DJ Klandestino/Satellite Brigade @ Mango’s
Disco Expressions/Little Joe Washington @ The Continental Club