Like a lot of local musicians, Steven Battles has grazed the floors of Norman’s Opolis for as long as he can remember. The Pink Pony ringleader has seen countless musicians at the venue, even cutting his teeth as a doorman at one point. But no matter how vital the place has been in the booking […]
punk
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Ready or not
The Ready Set Photo: Jared Thomas A 20-something singer-songwriter from the Midwest readies to play a few tunes Thursday night from his ever-growing repertoire of chart-topping singles, acoustic endeavors and previews from his upcoming third full-length album. As The Ready Set, Indiana native Jordan Witzigreuter has charmed national audiences — particularly the teen, female demographic […]
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Boyz to Men
The music made by Oklahoma City’s The Hitt Boyz isn’t exactly what founding members/guitarists Will Ogletree and Adam Thornbrugh intended: to be the next At the Drive-In or Mars Volta. Instead of fighting what came natural, the two decided to roll with the punches. “We wanted a high-energy, punk-rock band, but when we started writing, […]
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Kanye West — Yeezus
Ego alone isn’t what makes Mr. West such a fascinating figure; any other schmo with a head his size would be scoffed and discarded as parody. There’s actually a certain degree of legitimacy that keeps his maniacal sense of self-importance from devolving into full-scale megalomania: that Kanye’s vision and production chops are currently unmatched in […]
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It might get loud
Copperheads Photo: Doug Schwarz To paraphrase Kiss, Oklahoma City loves it loud. It loves it so much so that the Okie Noise Fest, a free, nine-hour tribute to turning it up to 11, returns Saturday, this time to OKC, after a successful launch at Norman’s Opolis a year ago. Fest co-founder Robert Layton, front man […]
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Progress in Color — Get Well
The trio has gone from emo poppers with New Wave underpinnings to the inverse, and it suits the band well, as evidenced by the slick Get Well EP. The cover of Joy Division’s “Love Will Tear Us Apart,” the quintessential post-punk ballad, is a good clue as to the direction in which Progress in Color […]
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Kick back
Of all the national touring acts coming through Oklahoma in the coming months, few can relate to the tragedy the state just experienced than the Dropkick Murphys, themselves barely more than a month removed from a disaster. “It’s clichéd, but Boston is a tough town and always has been,” drummer Matt Kelly said of April […]
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Code 22 — Going Soft: The Acoustic Album!
But after listening to the third track, “Nerdgasm,” I realized they’re not a Christian band at all — just four goofy, kinda nerdy, likable dudes. And we do need those in the world, including for romantic montages on flashback episodes of The Big Bang Theory. With the lyrics “I get to fight the girl of […]
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Mama jama
Your Mom at Norman Music Festival Photo: G.K. Glaser With a name like Your Mom, it’s only logical that the Oklahoma City punk act would make it an annual tradition to play a show on Mother’s Day … especially since it coincides with the band’s first concert. But it’s not a tradition, which makes Sunday’s […]
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Skating Polly — Lost Wonderfuls
But it’s not that these girls are so young, or even that they’re so good at such a young age. Rather, what makes Skating Polly — and its sophomore LP, Lost Wonderfuls — such an anomaly is how brazenly Mayo and Bighorse embrace their youth, weaving a playful, seemingly innocuous sense of melody through unabashedly […]