Crowds swelled at the OKC Farmers Public Market, waiting to enter the 2010 Carnality Ball when a handful of Bible-thumping protesters with bullhorns set up shop across the street. Hellfire-and-brimstone Scripture was volleyed at scantily clad women and drag queens, but members of the avant-garde band Of the Tower stormed out in costume, banging drums […]
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St. Vincent — Strange Mercy
No longer girlish in her vocal performance, Annie Clark grips a “horsehair whip” brought to life by her sinister voice that’s simultaneously desperate for intimacy and confident expressing it. The line “no kisses, no real names” makes it pretty clear that she’s playing the dominatrix here. All that’s missing is a black mask on the […]
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Stoney LaRue — Velvet
The song opens Edmond resident Stoney LaRue’s second studio full-length, “Velvet,” six years after “The Red Dirt Album.” At times, LaRue and his band (which features CMA favorite Randy Scruggs on guitar) kid themselves with the limited singer’s range, but they really nail the dark, smooth feeling suggested by the title, with soft-rock guitar fills […]
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Staying current
No one will ever accuse Electric Six of being too serious. The Detroit sextet’s shimmying dance rock is as lighthearted as it is lively. Their spirit recalls the movie “This Is Spinal Tap” in that singer Dick Valentine delivers the lyrics with macho mock seriousness. In 2003, Madness ringleader Suggs caught an Electric Six gig […]
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Sweet charity
It took but one quick trip home for the guilt racket front man Bobby Reed to realize he wasn’t living right. “My dad, he always did a lot of charity work, the entire time I was growing up and even still. I went home for Christmas about a year ago, and he asked what community […]
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Paws command
Kitten front woman Chloe Chaidez had played in a cover band — performing alongside the likes of Band of Horses and Midlake — for three years before she decided to pursue something more mature and artistically satisfying than those cute, little cover songs. She was 13 at the time. One year of songwriting led her, […]
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Westerns’ union
It’s been a busy year for Smith Westerns. Luckily, with their respective ages barely reaching into the 20s, they group’s members had plenty of energy to meet all the opportunities that have presented themselves since the release of their critically acclaimed sophomore effort, “Dye It Blonde.” The Chicago-based, indie-rock band has made the most of […]
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Lyrical leprosy
What happens when your marginally successful punk-revivalist group winds down? If you are Steve E. Nix (!), you just start another one. Nix’s original group, The Briefs, lost steam when members lusted for lives not dictated by tour schedules. With the few still interested in the road, he formed The Cute Lepers, which functions quite […]
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Entertainment review
I miss your TV reviews with Dean Robbins, and I really enjoyed your DVD reviews. Why do you give so many pages to the local music scene? Your food section is perfect. I look forward to it every week. I love the Gazette, and I hope we can see more on the entertainment side. —Jeremiah […]
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Superior sequel
It’s been a long ride for Oklahoma City indie-rock act Student Film. The band is fast approaching a full decade, much of it full of laborious promotion, touring and recording. Although the group never expected to necessarily hit it big, frustration with expectations — both their own and others — and the Oklahoma music scene […]