Sounds Good: Black Flag @ Granada, CHVRCHES @ Granada, Lord Huron @ RiotRoom

Kanrocksas Promoter Bill Brandmeyer

After Kanrocksas pulled the plug a week and change ago, reaction was mostly along the lines of “Fuck Kanrocksas!”  I’m paraphrasing, of course, but that was the gist of it.

Ahhh, the internet.

But if you want a more measured and practical take, check out a good analysis written by David Hudnall over at the Pitch.  He says a lot of things that I totally agree with regarding the balance sheet and why the fest was doomed from the get-go.  Good read.

Now go out and see the shows I’m hyping.  Otherwise I get no free beer…

Thursday, June 6th

Black Flag at the Granada in Lawrence

So, this is the REAL Black Flag.  At least as real as you can get these days I guess.  I mean, the version that’s coming to Lawrence features Ron Reyes and Greg Ginn.  Not like that impostor version put together by Keith Morris.  This from the OFFICIAL BF website:

“On the upcoming 22 song LP to be released this summer, “Down in the Dirt” features Ron Reyes on vocals, Greg Ginn on guitar/theremin, My War bassist Dale Nixon on bass, and Gregory AMoore on drums. The band will begin touring in May in both Europe and the U.S. ***note: not to be confused with the ‘fake’ Flag band currently covering the songs of BLACK FLAG in an embarrassingly weak “mailing it in” fashion*** We urge you to check out the real BLACK FLAG when they hit your area.”

That’s punk, right?

Friday, June 7th

CHVRCHES at the Granada in Lawrence

Ready for some electronic Euro-pop?  Of course you are!  This Scottish trio features mostly female vocals and bright, synth-y, bleeps and bloops.  Relatively new to the US audience, these guys only recently broke out in the states, playing some dates at SXSW and garnering fairly strong reviews.  But internationally, this group has been killing, and they’re taking their show all over the place this summer, from Japan to Australia, to all over Europe.

Monday, June 10th

Lord Huron at the RiotRoom in KC

This dreamy, LA folk outfit hasn’t been on the scene for much more than two years, but they already scored a gig at Lollapalooza, and have been getting lots of national run of late.  Their polished and echo-y songs remind me a little bit of the layers upon layers sound of Bon Iver, but without the high-high auto-tune vocals.