THE SOUTHWEST CAN be a creepy place.

Every other town you drive through is built around a state prison.

Stop at a gas station in, say, Bowie, Az., and it's likely that at least one of the Slurpee-nursing patrons will look they were built in Jim Henson's creature shop.

In the past Houston's Indian Jewelry have nailed this dread vibe dead on.

Records like 2006's "Invasive Exotics" used heat-warped synthesizers and junk percussion to evoke a palpable sense of Cormac McCarthy-style bleakness.

But according to singer and multi-instrumentalist Tex Kerschen, Indian Jewelry's new record, "Free Gold" (We Are Free), is a little more life affirming.

"It was conceived as a record to all of our people," he said. "'Invasive' was more of our exorcism — our getting-out-of-Texas record. It was a response to perpetual war, advanced capitalism and its various excesses, and how that affects everything personally. It was an abstraction of general dread. But we said our piece. It seems like American people are content to live in a state of constant dictatorship, so we just decided to talk about our own people."

Continue Reading "Dread Heads: Indian Jewelry" »

BACKSTAGE AT A recent Cave Singers show in Portland, Ore., one of the singers on the bill broke out some unhealthy substances and pushed her fellow musicians to indulge in them. Ah, the crazy life of a rock 'n' roll star.

"She brought five or six fruit pies that she baked for all the bands; it was pretty awesome," said Cave Singers vocalist Pete Quirk. "I was like, 'This is more my style than people doing coke in the green room.'"

That's quite a changeup from the indie-rock scene in which Quirk, a Seattle post-grunge figure, and guitarist Derek Fudesco of the now-defunct Pretty Girls Make Graves had established themselves before turning to neo-folk and forming The Cave Singers.

As the popular PGMG headed toward a breakup, the roommates found their individual four-track bedroom recordings meshed well, as both were looking to soften their style a little.

"We were both unconsciously learning toward more minimal, quieter acoustic music," Quirk said. "I was trying to sing a bit more rather than just screaming and yelling."

Continue Reading "Seattle Americana: The Cave Singers" »

FIVE FOUR is an almost-all-girl band with a gentle rock sound and lots of clever songs about things like dating robots.

When your boyfriend whines about going to see a "chick band," remind him that their drummer is a guy. Also that the word "chick" is offensive.

» The Rock and Roll Hotel, 1353 H St. NE; Sat., 8:30 p.m., $10; 202-388-7625.

Photo by Eddie Diego

NESTLED IN A STRIP of eclectic bars, Granville Moore's offers a cozy — and loud — setting to claw through piles of jumbo mussels in a variety of savory sauces and equally large piles of crisp frites. But do try the land offerings.

The new spring menu features bison in many forms, including a creamy bison tartar that's hand-cut, laced with capers, whole-grain Dijon, chopped black truffles and first-press Spanish olive oil. Spread the bison over toasted bread and be sure to wash it down with those high-alcohol Belgian beers.

» Granville Moore's, 1238 H St. NE; 202-399-2546.

Written by Express contributor Stefanie Gans

FOALS AREN'T QUITE your typical British buzz-band.

For instance, while lead singer and guitarist Yannis Philippakis sounds as if he would rather swallow hemlock than listen to a Stone Roses record, he's happy to heap laurels on Sweep the Leg Johnny — a defunct Chicago math-rock band that's about as far from the pages of NME as Pete Doherty is from sober living.

But Foals have at least two things in common with their chart-topping peers. First of all, they have a hit — the band's debut record, "Antidotes," hit No. 3 in the U.K. national charts.

Second of all, Foals' music is kind of moody.

To record "Antidotes" (Sub Pop), Foals traveled from their home in Oxford, England, to New York City in order to work with TV on the Radio's David Sitek.

The result is a pop record, but an ambitious one.

Continue Reading "Anti-Buzz & 'Antidotes': Foals" »

Band Marino hails from Orlando, where they've taken the indie scene by storm. Their music sounds like ... well, like some kids who found their grandfather's instruments and book of sea chanteys, which is not a bad thing. They're catchy and good natured and have a reputation for amazing live shows.

»The Red and the Black, 1212 H Street, NE; Mon., 9 p.m., $8; 202-399-3201.

Photo by Anna Melcon

WHEN CONSTANTINES RELEASED their first full-length album on Sub Pop in 2001, the band's hard-charging style quickly caught the attention of critics and college radio. The positive buzz eventually led to a nomination for a Canadian Juno Award in 2002.

But despite an early run at success, there was one thing the band simply couldn't do.

"When we were recording an EP between our first and second records, we were talking about recording 'Ride On' by AC/DC," said singer and guitarist Bryan Webb. "And we tried it, and we couldn't pull it off.

"A few years ago we tried it again, and it worked," Webb said. "I think it has something to do with being on the road together a long time that gave us access to that sensibility that needs to be in place for that song."

Expect that riff-rock sensibility to be unleashed when the five-piece takes the stage at The Rock & Roll Hotel on April 21. Webb says the band's newest material, from the album "Kensington Heights," was written with live performances in mind.

Continue Reading "Riff Rock: Constantines" »

EVERY THURSDAY, revisit your childhood. Sort of. Actually, hopefully your childhood wasn't exactly like this.

Um — anyway — Drunken Jenga! That's right, head to the Rock and Roll Hotel for rousing rounds of intoxicated game-playing fun. Add on that there's no cover charge and indie pop will be playing all night, and why would you even consider going anywhere else?

»Rock and Roll Hotel, 1353 H St. NE; Thurs., 8 p.m., free; (202) 388-7625.

Photo courtesy Lavanya Ramanathan

IT'S HARD TO get a handle on Mass Shivers.

The forward-thinking trio splices demented phrases of funk with dance pop, jumbles that mix with a traditional rock vocabulary and punctuates the whole thing with Afro-beats.

Over the course of Mass Shivers' latest album, "Ecstatic Eyes Glow Glossy" (Sick Room), the listener clings to each song before freefalling into the next, without a clue as to what will be around the corner.

It's a helluva ride.

Mass Shivers treats music the way Jasper Johns treated a canvas: take disparate elements; throw them together and see what sticks; preserve and mount; step back and enjoy. The motley musical concoctions that spring from the minds of guitarist Brett Sova, bassist Andy Johnson and drummer Sean Wilke are always complex but still catchy.

"The [music-making] method for us is really how long the inspiration lasts," Sova said. "We have several intense songs, but we don't arrange them really by design. When we have the material, we put it down and write it."

Continue Reading "Shake Down: Mass Shivers" »

"IT'S A PART THAT any actress would want to play," says Linda Murray of her role as the title character in Solas Nua's production of "Portia Coughlan." "You're kind of like Hamlet and Ophelia rolled into one."

Murray, who is also the company's artistic director, plays a woman drawn to the river where her twin brother drowned 15 years earlier and possibly haunted by his ghost. "That's the central question that the audience will have to answer," says Murray. "Is she mad, or has her brother really come back?"

After "The Mai" in 2006, "Portia Coughlan" is the second play Solas Nua has produced by Irish playwright Marina Carr, who Murray describes as "one of the most prominent playwrights we have at home working today." Carr, who writes in a style Murray describes as "poetic realism," combines bleak drama with fine comedy, Shakespearean and classic Greek dramatic elements as she plumbs the depths of family and national identities.

Continue Reading "'Portia Coughlan': Madness and Memory" »