[Record Crate] Sunset Rubdown: A description for the novice listener

Sunset Rubdown is touring behind their delightfully convulsive new release, Dragonslayer, complete with Spencer Krug’s panicked charm and their way of bending a pop melody around a corner to get you. I know I’m not selling this well, but I think that accurately describes Sunset Rubdown to the novice listener. They will be at Chelsea’s on Thursday.

I am tough on new wave revivalists; I lived through it the first time and can remember how ephemeral we thought it was then, but I am completely suckered in my Telepathe. I reviewed the album elsewhere in detail, but I’ll summarize by saying they get the mix right: just enough warmth against the ice of the synthesizers, dance-floor sensibilities matched with a defiant sense of structure. It’s good stuff. They will be performing Monday at the Spanish Moon with Lemonade.

Our local blues watering holes have some great lineups this week. Teddy is hosting Terry “Harmonica” Bean, one of 24 kids of a Mississippi bluesman that played with B.B. King according to his bio, and the Richard family reunion, putting Zachary and Rudy up on the stage together to charm the blues right out of your pants. Phil Brady’s has the incomparable Larry Garner and country phenom David St. Romain.

In the incendiary song “London Calling,” the late Clash frontman Joe Strummer sneered “phony Beatlemania has bitten the dust” but it appears to have outlasted him, as the cast of Beatlemania, the tribute show that sold out theaters through much of the 1970s, is hitting The Varsity stage along with Satisfaction, a Rolling Stones tribute band.

Thursday, June 18
Sunset Rubdown at Chelsea’s
Jake Smith at The Varsity
Krash Karma and No Fuego at North Gate Tavern

Friday, June 19
The Givers and Prom Date at Spanish Moon
Rebirth Brass Band at Chelsea’s
Satisfaction and BeatleMania at The Varsity
Polk Presents Pearl Jam’s “Ten” at North Gate Tavern
Cracker Jackson at Click’s
Drew Zaunbrecher, Chris Sherman and Geared Up at Boudreaux & Thibodeaux’s
Larry Garner at Phil Brady’s
Terry “Harmonica” Bean at Teddy’s Juke Joint

Saturday, June 20
Bluegrass Underground at Chelsea’s
Pyledriver and Peckernut at North Gate Tavern
Pandemic and Know Your Enemy at Click’s
Jaryd Lane at Boudreaux & Thibodeaux’s
David St. Romain at Phil Brady’s
Richard Family Reunion at Teddy’s Juke Joint

Sunday, June 21
Elvin Killerbee at Teddy’s Juke Joint

Monday, June 22
Telepathe and Lemonade at Spanish Moon