Last night I trekked out to see Mclusky play at the Velvet Lounge. The name is deceiving – for the smattering of purple velvet cushions lining the front bench and the red velvet sheet draped behind the stage are the only visible pieces of plush décor in the building. Despite its minimal appearance, and even because of it, I love this place. It’s an authentic little hole in the wall with a floor upstairs that shakes when the crowd gets into the music. By authentic I mean that it’s not a super-posh joint just looking to make money, that it’s instead a smaller venue owned by someone who wants to help lesser known bands get a start, that it’s a place that embraces the blood and the gore, that’s unkempt and interesting.
Mclusky’s set was one of the most notable and satisfying that I’ve seen performed by a band that I’ve barely known in a long time. They harness a raucous energy and infuse it into music that’s delivered as a siege of disciplined chaos. A three-man band from Wales, they purportedly “swam across the ocean” to play some quality punk rock with a genuine sex-drugs- and-rock n’roll mentality. I doubt these guys will be unkown for much longer – they just released an album that was recorded with the prodigious indie-rock producer, Steve Albini.
Links:
- review of Mclusky's album "Mclusky Do Dallas"
- NPR recently aired a six-part series on the evolution
of recording and the impact that it has had on the production of music.
Steve Albini comments in a few of thesegments. The series is called
TechnoPop: The Secret History of Technology and Pop Music.
8:53:19 PM 
|
