December 19, 2015

A holiday week usually means slimmer pickings in the club listings. My first pass yesterday came up dry -- every name that stood out was one I'd written about in the past. A fresh look this morning revealed a sleighload of possibilities, narrowed down to these five gifts:

Broken Trail
I like when one word has two nearly opposite meanings. Breaking trail clears the way for those coming after. But a broken trail could also be a path in poor condition, rough, overgrown or intermittent.

The Keynote Speakers
Part of an excellent sound system that people would pay to hear. It also reminds me of a busted old stereo speaker that was transformed by abuse into an awesome feedback machine and duly named Speaker of the House.

Lonesome Rhodes & the Good Company
Classic X and the Y structure, in beautiful complementary balance.

Sacred Signs
This one would have fit into last week's holiday-themed post. The carol "Love Came Down at Christmas" includes this puzzling line: "Worship we our Jesus: But wherewith for sacred sign?" I've never really understood what Christina Rossetti meant by that, but it's always a line I look forward to singing because when else do I get to say "wherewith"?

X
I rarely write about big-name acts, but I will make an exception for X, as I have been a fan of both their name and their music since the '80s. The bare-bones, almost illiterate simplicity seems like the essence of punk. It is at once a signature, a deletion, a vote.