02.24: See You In Mexico + Dominique LeJeune + The Rooks + High In One Eye – 3613 Chestnut

Yeah, of course punk is dead; it’s always dead. It died when a heroin-adled MC5 didn’t break, and again the year Blondie got rich off “Heart of Glass”, and again the day Nirvana signed to Geffen and again when Green Day tried to make their own Tommy. If there’s one lasting truth to punk’s entire story, it’s that it is always dying. For it to even truly exist in the first place, an artist needs a perfect storm of abrasiveness, energy and appeal – a nebulous form of bottled lightning that, almost by design, can’t last as long as it takes for someone else to find it again.

Yet that has never deterred Greg Rodrigue from living, breathing, pursuing and playing with the ethos that seems to perpetually outlast all who attempt to embody it. Business owner, Community Records founder and champion of all things DIY, he has spent the better part of his last half-decade helping to rebuild a New Orleans punk scene that, almost as fleetingly as punk itself, seems to constantly ebb and flow in and out of minor popularity among the city’s bored and alienated youth. Infrastructurally, Rodrigue has been largely successful thus far, and as a result the area has seen a rejuvenation of authentically reverent punk.

So it should be no surprise that the Rooks, even as a side project, are one of the most riveting bands in the city. De rigueur in their militant positivity and their desire to ignite short explosions of punk rock, bassist Rodrigue, Marathon/Choi Wolf drummer Rob Landry and Lollies guitarist Brian Pretus are pure life together on stage, though not necessarily in the old lightning in a bottle punk hackney: as a unit, the Rooks’ periphery presence is a conscious avoidance of the need to push superficial musical boundaries and instead the result of their need to affranchise a city – both as an avatar of the record collective whose existence the band’s members individually bolster and as a manifestation of the work it requires.

True to unconventional form, the band can be found hosting a house show on Friday to welcome a new addition to the New Orleans DIY community, A Billion Ernies singer and guitarist Ryan Leavelle and his wife Kassandra, who are moving to New Orleans all the way from Seattle, WA. Joining the Rooks will be local experimental punk duo High in One Eye and singer/songwriter/G-Eazy collaborator Dominique LeJeune, as well as Leavelle’s solo project See You In Mexico.

MP3: The Rooks: “Rat Pellet”

02.25: Royal Teeth + King Rey + Vox And The Hound – House Of Blues

02.28: Eternal Decay + Serpentis + Legions of Hoar Frost – Siberia

02.29: The Legendary Shack Shakers + The Dirt Daubers – One Eyed Jacks

Check out our New Orleans Music Calendar for a full slate of constantly updated live picks

(I use the term “discovered” extremely loosely here, as during the halcyon days before the Telecommunication Act of 1996 precipitated the implosion of commercial FM radio and MTV moved away from a programming panorama that highlighted videos from every genre of popular music over the course of any given week, “discovering” music didn’t take much effort nor was it something in which people – or at least people my age at the time – took a self-congratulatory amount of pride.  In a major market like the greater Chicagoland area, the legwork required to find breaking artists was left up to the sea of disc jockeys flooding the FM dial; experienced, well-connected musicheads empowered to play songs largely of their own choosing and expected to be on whatever cutting edge existed before the internet flattened the music world once and for all.  There was no real venue outside of limited circulation fan ‘zines or a savant record store clerk to get a band-knowing leg-up on your peers, nor was there a real need to do so, for there was a brief moment in time when the radio and MTV seemed to perfectly serve all the needs of even an avid music consumer.)

That is, of course, until I moved to New Orleans four years ago, a city where Better Than Ezra’s fan base still thrives, boasting in its ranks men and women of all ages and dispositions. Because while Better Then Ezra was a charming one-hit-wonder in many parts of the country, locally they are a band that formed at LSU in 1988 and have been consistently recording and relentlessly touring for almost 25 years and counting, long before and even longer after the their time in the national limelight.

It’s a cool reminder that – even at a time when songs can get pinged across the globe within seconds of being recorded – music comes from somewhere; not just in the figurative sense of emerging from some mystical tranche of the creative ether, but in the literal, functional and geographic sense.  The commoditized version of the product may drift in and out of cultural relevance, but the majority of the human beings making the songs that once dominated independently programmed radio stations and now surge through the Hype Machine ranks are actual people who live to make music.  And even though there will never be a lack of manufactured tween pop-stars fueled only by widespread popularity, they will always be outnumbered by hardworking artists with enough perspective to understand the fickle and mysterious nature of the music gods and enough talent and wherewithal to make decent music regardless of how long their mainstream success lasts or whether it even comes at all.

MP3: Better Than Ezra: “Good”

02.17: Supagroup – One Eyed Jacks

02.18: Caddywhompus + Big Rock Candy Mountain + Young Mammals + Donovan Wolfington – Cafe Prytania

02.19: Jack Oblivian + King Louie’s Missing Monuments + John Paul Keith – Siberia

02.20: Quintron and Miss Pussycat + Bass Drum Of Death + Har Mar Superstar + Marijuana Deathsquads – One Eyed Jacks

The last time Oxford, Mississippi’s Bass Drum of Death rolled through town, it was as part of what many have correctly identified as the most amazingly programmed show of 2011, an early October triple-feature that also included stripped down Houston psych-funk outfit Unknown Mortal Orchestra and Toro Y Moi. Bundick and Co.’s much belated New Orleans debut induced a pulsing, venue-wide dance party, and the frequency in which UMO erupted into slick intergalactic jams during their set made it one of the most unexpectedly delightful performances of recent memory; but it was Bass Drum of Death that stole the show that night, for doing what can only be accurately described as rocking really, really hard.

Despite the connotations of their (strong candidate for best band) name (in the history of music), the duo of John Barrett and Colin Snead offer one of the the most earnest takes on modern garage-punk the increasingly crowded field of vintage noise-rock revivalists has to offer.  Beyond the lo-fi aesthetic, their recorded material springs forth with an infectious vibrancy owned to fuzzed out guitarwork that still manages to be bright and sharp percussion work that is more likely to punctuate a driving riff with dexterous cymbal work than monstrous low-end.  But it’s the band’s live show, an unbridled explosion of primal energy that has been known to incite an all-female mosh pit or two, that feeds the band’s growing reputation as straightforward purveyors of unpretentious, undeniable rock ‘n’ roll.

They return to town this week for a well-deserved and tailor-made spot in Quintron’s annual Lundi Gras Blowout at One Eyed Jacks.  In a city steeped in musical tradition, this Monday night extravaganza hosted by Mr. Quintron and his performance art partner-in-crime Miss Pussycat is the “Neville Brothers on the second Sunday of Jazz Fest” for the rambunctious freak-out crowd, a rabid mass of followers that have turned the avant-noise alchemist into something of a local living legend. Sweaty, profane R&B crooner Har Mar Superstar along with Marijuana Deathsquads round out the bill, and the ladies of WTUL’s KG Accidental will be back on the 1′s and 2′s spinning the house music all night long.

MP3:  Bass Drum of Death: “Velvet Itch”

02.21: Lonely Lonely Knights + Guitar Lightnin Lee and the Thunder Band + Spooky Le Strange and Her Billion Dollar Babydolls – Saturn Bar

Check out our New Orleans Music Calendar for a full slate of constantly updated live picks

That said, if you were to pick up their 2010 EP Clock Out, you’d be somewhat surprised to hear a sound that belies both style and spirit of a Prom Date live set. The follow-up, Prom Date EP, is a succinct and aphoristic remedy to that looming contradiction. Replete with quirky samples, hard-hitting loops and shining synths, the three-song set finds the band delving into an exuberant island-electronic hybrid in the vein of Tanlines on “Walking Dead”, waxing down the funky, disco crowd-pleaser “Good Morning, Boyfriend”, and finding the closest approximation to their furious stage enterprise on “Riptide”. Certainly a burst of vigor, it essentially feels like a taste of what’s to come, an appetizer that that begrudgingly, though buoyantly, ends much sooner than it would like to.

Prom Date EP on Bandcamp

Slumberland, 2012

Frankie Rose, who the heavens do you think you are? Admirably, though stupidly, averse to the gravy train, you quit the Crystal Stilts and you abandoned the Girls Dum Dum and Vivian to record one of the best thin-air albums of 2010, Frankie Rose and the Outs. You then offered the only decent cover track, that of “Soma”, on the Strokes tribute record, only to claim about-face that you’ve never even really listened to the band, which everyone knows is a lie – you being a resident of New York City and all. Your flightiness, convenient defiance and ever-lingering presence in American music have made you a genuine enigma. And now you have another record, one that nebulously wreaks of Enigma.

How Rose has sustained her presence thus far, though not very surprising, is certainly peculiar: being a bit player in a slew of large national acts can only take a person so far before audiences and the elite start to wonder whether she has something to offer of her own, and her solo work up to now has drifted gracefully under most listeners’ radars. Yet here she is again, confidently backed by Slumberland Records, an entity that seems to have a good bit of faith in her solo prowess. And with the air of whimsical confidence Rose has brought to each of her endeavors once again evident on Interstellar, it’s becoming increasingly obvious that Slumberland may have something of a budding genius on its hands; though hinting at it two years ago, Rose has now proven herself a casual dabbler able to go all in.

The record is a  fun little anomaly of panache parading under substance yet devoid of pretension: it possesses a force capable of hooking a listener onto one pristinely harmonized vocal melody in the opening title track (the specter of which infects every subsequent high moment of the album), but it refuses to allow anything beneath that melody to be mistaken for profundity. After ninety difficult and lumbered seconds, just as the listener, now fully aware of Frankie Rose’s potential self-importance, is ready to either surrender to the prospect of weathering an entire LP of unneeded Julee Cruise retreads or eject the goddamn record altogether, drums and bass of the most economic kind (tom and two-note) deviously – and jubilantly – steer the tone in a more practicable direction.

At its core, Interstellar is an old-fashioned pop record and nothing more (and thank God). But in that caveat is the revelation that Rose has the talent to let her work lie vulnerable in places where many others wouldn’t dare. On tracks like “Gospel/Grace”, she displays a vocal faculty to rhapsodize with absolutely nothing to say, and among a sweeping vista of aqueous bass and Mellotron on “Had We Had It”, she repeatedly warbles a solitary nostalgia-ridden line of written word. In the hands of someone with a less than singular vision, Interstellar would be chided for going so new age, or for weaving stylishly sugary lyrical melodies made of virtually no underlying substance; but Frankie Rose is succinct and pointed in her desire to craft works of opulent pop, and it’s comforting.

Even with a production sheen offered by Le Chev that sees Rose ditching the baroque tendencies of her Outs days in favor of textures noticeably more grandiose, nothing about Interstellar feels unnecessarily epic because she tempers the numerous sinewy, emotionally manipulative lady-in-front numbers with a nucleus of catchy hooks, accessible rhythms and sparkling guitars – the kinds of elements that make single “Know Me” truly the choice cut of the record. In a dichotomy of musical command and brazen catchiness, Rose’s recorded work complements her inherently contradictory persona – of a woman so keenly aware of what she aims to do and executing it so flawlessly while lackadaisically willing to describe it as sounding “like Sade or something”.

Interstellar at Insound

The only downside to Cafe P’s rising profile was the unfortunate way the larger, more frenzied crowds brought the shortcomings of the bar’s unusual layout into sharper focus, as a raised stage/dance floor area flanked by awkwardly placed half partitions limited the comfortable viewing area in the otherwise huge space to what felt like only a few dozen square feet. But a much-needed facelift has removed most of the unnatural boundaries keeping the performance area from the rest of the room, and continued improvements to the sound system and lighting set-up are further signs Cafe Prytania is getting very serious about its place in the New Orleans live music pantheon.

And this year’s Cafe Carnival, the bar’s annual string of post-Mardi Gras parade concerts, appears to have gotten an upgrade as well, with a ripper of a lineup  complementing Cafe P’s prime location with what could easily turn into a non-stop five-day party.  A Thursday night funk-fest with Flow Tribe and Naughty Professor sets the stage for the centerpiece of weekend, Chinquapin Records‘ Mardi Gras Chindig. The two-night event that puts local indie-rock institutions Sun Hotel, Caddywhompus and Big Rock Candy Mountain along side heetseeking newcomers Donovan Wolfington will also feature a fresh-from-the-studio Vox And The Hound and serve as one of the last chances to catch the force of nature that is Country Club.  The Revivalists will pack the place out on Sunday night and the now-Grammy Award Winning Rebirth Brass Band headlines on Lundi Gras.

02.16: Flow Tribe + Naughty Professor + Saltwater Grass

02.17: Sun Hotel + Country Club + Vox And The Hound

02.18: Caddywhompus + Big Rock Candy Mountain + Young Mammals + Donovan Wolfington

02.19: The Revivalists + Star & Micey + The Blue Party

02.20: Rebirth Brass Band + Mississippi Rail Co. + Coyotes

Vox And The Hound at the Living Room Studios on February 8, 2012

Matching last year’s epic headliners the Rx Bandits is an equally – if not more – revelatory announcement that Mustard Plug will be gracing the main stage of Block Party. One of the hardest working bands of the 90s punk ska era, this group of Michigan stalwarts was one of the most pervasive influences on New Orleans’ own ska scene at the time, a legacy that Community Records itself is arguably a manifestation of. Joined by westcoast street ska veterans Left Alone, the Plug will headline a list of touring acts that includes hodgepodge Florida punks Safety, Illinois punk pop band Good Luck, Nashville ska thrashers Stuck Lucky and California’s much-adored A Billion Ernies.

These touring bands will appear along side a lineup of natives that cuts across almost every musical crowd currently rattling cages at the local level.  Lords of Block Party Caddywhompus properly get top billing, but the set ranges from modern-punk surgeons The Lollies and The Riffs to the freakishly talented member-sharing melange of Glish, Choi Wolf and Habitat, while an after party at Circle Bar adds Houston’s bluesy art-rockers The Tontons to the jam packed weekend.

The 2012 Community Records Block Party will take place for 12 hours from Noon to Midnight on Saturday, April 21 at The Big Top.  The current bill features 24 bands on two stages, with more acts as wells as details about a string of pre- and post- shows still to be announced.  Tickets are available online or at the event, and you can save $4 by purchasing in advance or bringing a food or clothing donation to the gate.  All donations will go to the New Orleans Mission and a portion of all ticket sales will benefit the Gulf Restoration Network.

Block Party 2012 / Community Records Block Party 2012 on Facebook