Shrouded Strangers

Punk Rock Sideshow w/DJ Tragic & the Duchess of Hazard, every Monday

Lazarus

Tiny Vipers
"Seattle musician Jesy Fortino's stage name Tiny Vipers is an appropriate one; her songs, comprised of haunting folk harmonies and spare arrangements, quietly sink their fangs into listeners, blissfully injecting her voice and storytelling into one's head. Tiny Vipers' latest record Life On Earth (Sub Pop) was released earlier this month — this is a chance to catch Fortino at an intimate venue while you still can." - Tiny Vipers

Mark Matos & Os Beaches

TV Ghost
"In The Red is proud to announce the debut full-length album from Lafayette, Indiana, creepers TV Ghost--a band who ushers in a vile and squalid new disposition to ugly art punk and carves out a black hole of pestilence that will delight its sufferers to no end. If one can swim through the murky grime long enough to let one's frazzled senses adjust, it's clear how effectively TV Ghost incorporates the licentious nuances of The Cramps' earliest scuzz, no wave's cacophony, and Suicide's terrifying throb alongside cavernous bellows from the depths of the third layer of hell."

"This record sounds like a nightmare." --Tom Shannon, Cheater Slicks

Photobooth
"Shakin’ some action here with Jason Patrone (ex-FM Knives/Lyme Regis), back at it with a new band that’s not as aggro as the Knives,
and far less mannered than the Reggies. Nah, Photobooth is pure fun, a grimy, dingy sorta fun that can barely contain itself with glee. “Da Me Tus Besos” is what appears to be a Spanish language cover of Giorgio Moroder’s wedding reception classic “Son of My Father,” one of the most infectiously catchy songs of the ‘70s. The band gives it the bounce it
needs, sounding a little borracho but attacking it with great joy." - Victim of Time

Outdoorsmen
"Totally catchy ballbusters dripping with snot and dirt. No fancy shit, just piss-on-yer-leg lean-n-mean garage goods. You want me to name names? Ok, it's like the Brides or Captain 9's reinvented for a new age. Put that in your fucking pipe. These three kids are from the Bay Area, and I NEVER hear anyone mention them. They don't dress up like Seventies dirtbags? They don't wear Beatleboots or have pageboy haircuts? They don't sing enough tunes about pizza or kissin' dudes? Nobunny doesn't write their songs? What gives?" - Terminal Boredom

Castanets
"Castanets have been lumped in with these freak folks for good reason. Namely, the lead singer has a long beard and sounds like a freak. What more do you need? Actually the instrumentation and mood created by their album are much freakier than any song about birds, trees, and precipitation. Many of the songs on First Light's Freeze are creepy. This isn't the lost soundtrack to the '60s; this is the lost soundtrack to a zombie love movie. Even though Castanets create folk music with tinges of country, this is not the same old crap. But saying whether it's pleasant or unpleasant, uplifting or depressing, that's the tricky part. The mood is ambiguous. The one absolute is that the album is consistently captivating." - Pop Matters

Warmer Milks
Warmer Milks (Lexington, KY): "Simply gorgeous, outwardly reminiscent of the heyday of New Zealand singer-songwriterisms (a la Peter Jefferies, whose plaintive, circular style of acoustic arrangement is referenced here), interspersed with almost Jandekian levels of abstract stumble. On the flip, a short ambient piece creates high-pitched, scraping, extended tension." - Dusted

Featuring live performances by Pirate Band (7pm), David Nudelman (7:30pm), Wild Breed (8pm), Resineators (8:30pm), Clap Band (9pm), Men's Club (9:30pm), Natural Fonzie (10pm), Smile God Loves You (10:30pm), 3 Stoned Men (11pm), and Wig Torture (11:30pm)
The Rot was a house in San Mateo founded (rented) in 1988 (I think) by four likeminded (drugminded) rockers ready to trash, get trashed, and form band after band after band, etc. in the name of getting f*ucked up, listening to records, playing music, being carcasses, and not taking out the trash until the blanket of maggots had to be sponged off the kitchen floor. Yes, your classic partyhouse with its own, unique, drug-eye jargon. Rotfest is a reunion of old men rockers (rockasauruses) and old friends coming together under the watchful eye of David Nudelman (in from the Big Island, bra) for a night of music and what not. Short sets will be commanded by Rot and pre Rot bands:

Three Stoned Men
David Nudelman and the Wild Breed
David Nudelman (solo)
Wig Torture
Smile God Loves You

Rot offshoot bands:

Clap Band
Pirate Band
Natural Fonzie
Mensclub

Sadly missed will be: Vanilla Whores, The Mummies, Clem, Mysterious Dr. Satan, Beardo, Tummy, and probably more.

Japandroids
Vancouver's Japandroids:

"Despite the abbreviated guitar-and-drums lineup, Japandroids' sound is anything but minimalist. The chunky power chords and hard drum bashing don't evoke punk as much as the glory days of rock riffing, with a love of giant, fuzzy melody that's part Cheap Trick and a penchant for clangorous distortion that's part Sonic Youth. Above the fray, the shared vocals are yelped, sometimes screamed, without ever losing track of the melody. It's a unique sound, and I ask King if it's in part due to Vancouver's relative isolation. "I have no context to say yes or no—I have never made music in any other city," he admits. "I assume Japandroids would sound the same if we were from Brooklyn, though we would probably dress cooler." - Portland Mercury

Weekend