Sat |
October 07, 2023
LiveNation & The Rialto Theatre Present
The Black Angels & The Dandy Warhols @ 191 Toole
w/ Daiistar
Doors: 7:00 pm /
Show: 8:00 pm
191 Toole
21 and up
$39.5
Buy Tickets
Doors 7PM | Show 8PM | 21 & Over | Public On Sale 6/16 10AM
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To provide a safer environment for the public and significantly expedite fan entry into our venues, Rialto Theatre & 191 Toole have instituted a clear bag policy as of March 1st, 2022. The policy limits the size and type of bags that may be brought into our venues. The following is a list of bags that will be accepted for entry: Bags that are clear plastic or vinyl and do not exceed 12in x 6in x 12in One-gallon clear plastic freezer bags (Ziplok bag or similar) Small clutch bags, approximately 5in x 7in All bags subject to search. Clear bags are available for sale at the box office.
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ABOUT THE BLACK ANGELS
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The best music reflects a wide-screen view of the world back at us, helping distill the universal into something far more personal. Since forming in Austin in 2004, The Black Angels have become standard-bearers for modern psych-rock that does exactly that, which is one of many reasons why the group’s new album, Wilderness of Mirrors, feels so aptly named. Says vocalist/bassist Alex Maas, “a big focal point of this record is just the overall insanity that’s happening. What’s true? What’s not?” Adds guitarist Christian Bland, “We leave our music open to interpretation, but our topics are always universal themes – problems mankind has had since the beginning of time. You can relate them to any period.” Indeed, in the five years since the release of the band’s prior album, Death Song, and the two-plus years spent working on Wilderness of Mirrors, pandemics, political tumult and the ongoing devastation of the environment have provided ample fodder for the Black Angels’ signature sonic approach. If the group’s members were terrified as they honed new music heading into an election year, they realized they didn’t even know how scary things could still get. So, they looked inward, focusing on both their ongoing creative and musical development as well as their own struggles amid the external chaos. Wilderness of Mirrors hits even more close to home, as the group recorded solely in the friendly confines of Austin for the first time in more than a decade and entrusted co-production duties to its longtime front-of-house engineer, Brett Orrison. “It was a really great experience, because Brett understands us a lot on a musical level. We’ve grown together,” Maas says. “We worked on this record for over a year in the studio in Austin. I don’t know any other situation where we’d have been able to do that in a 9-to-5 way.” Adds Bland, “Doing it in Austin allowed for open creativity and took away the stress of rushing to get something done. We used our time wisely.” That methodical modus operandi can be heard throughout Wilderness of Mirrors, which expertly refines the Black Angels’ psychedelic rock attack alongside a host of intriguing sounds and textures. “History of the Future” and opener “Without a Trace” are classic blasts of fuzzed-out guitars that simultaneously perk up the ears and jumpstart the mind (“Is it still possible to be invincible when everyone else is expendable?” Maas wonders aloud on the latter), while a fast, thumping bass line and an allusion to a world leader hiding in his bunker propel “Empires Falling” into an ominous decree: “Every time you wake, I want to end you.” “I came in with a riff that was kind of slow and mid-tempo-y,” Bland says of the song. “When I showed it to the band, [drummer] Stephanie [Bailey] started playing a quicker beat over it, [guitarist] Jake [Garcia] added this cool mercurial lead guitar line, and [multi-instrumentalist] Ramiro [Verdooren] laid down a heavy driving bass, and all the sudden it had some rock’n’roll gasoline behind it. That’s the beauty of being with these folks. Everybody brings their creativity to the table and a song could become something you never had envisioned before.” Elsewhere, The Black Angels revel in newfound experiments like the melancholy, acoustic guitar-driven “100 Flowers of Paracusia” and “Here and Now,” two highlights of the album’s back half. “We would have never put songs like that on records before, just because we weren’t in that world,” Maas says. “I’m proud that we pushed ourselves.” There’s also the ‘60s French pop homage “Firefly,’ which features the sultry intonations of Thievery Corporation’s LouLou Ghelichkani. “We don’t ever really bring people in to sing, but I thought it would be cool to have someone singing in French here – a back and forth, playful thing,” Maas says of “Firefly.” “It made the harmony more complete.” Mellotron, strings and other keyboards are more prominent on Wilderness of Mirrors than ever before, and the album also benefits from the versatile contributions of new multi-instrumentalist Ramiro Verdooren, formerly of Austin band the Rotten Mangos. “Having that fresh perspective of a young person who’s a fucking incredible musician, it was a whole different ingredient,” enthuses Maas, who says Verdooren would often take in-progress songs home with him at night to experiment with tape loops and other accourtrements. Adds Bland, “If you think of something you want to add, Jake or Ramiro can do it immediately on whatever instrument.” Another new addition to the team this time around was longtime Dinosaur Jr engineer John Agnello, who stepped in to mix Wilderness of Mirrors when The Black Angels were in need of a fresh set of ears. “When you self-produce your own record and do every single tiny little move yourself, you lose perspective,” Maas says. Adds Bland, “John’s outside perspective on it is what made the album shine. It became 3-D.” But for all the experimentation, The Black Angels remain masterfully true to psych-rock forebears such as Syd Barrett, Roky Erickson, Arthur Lee and the members of the Velvet Underground, all of whom are namechecked on “The River.” The legacy of those artists is also at the core of the group’s beloved, long-running Levitation Festival, the veritable ground zero for the genre’s past, present and future. Says Bland, “Sitting down and channeling these spirits is something I’ve always wanted to do. It’s a little cryptic and spooky, almost like reincarnation. The river of knowledge keeps flowing, no matter what. “The Velvet Underground song ‘I’ll Be Your Mirror’ – that’s what every Black Angels album has been about,” he continues. “You can’t work out your struggles unless you bring them to the forefront and think about them. If we can all think about them, maybe we can help save ourselves.”ABOUT THE DANDY WARHOLS
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Combining psych-rock, shoegaze, power pop, synth pop, and more with the cheeky detachment of their pop-art namesake, the Dandy Warhols are equally skilled at heady reveries and satirical pop. Early on, they scored hits with "Not If You Were the Last Junkie on Earth" (from their 1997 major-label debut, The Dandy Warhols Come Down) and "Bohemian Like You" (from 2001's Thirteen Tales from Urban Bohemia), both of which skewered hipster culture with a wit that suggested they were America's answer to Brit-pop. Later in the 2000s, they dabbled in synth-pop on 2003's Welcome to the Monkey House and indulged their excesses on 2005's sprawling Odditorium or Warlords of Mars. Though more restrained efforts such as 2016's Distortland suggested the Dandy Warhols might be mellowing out in their third decade, 2019's freewheeling Why You So Crazy proved they were committed to keeping their listeners guessing. 2020's Tafelmuzik Means More When You're Alone pushed the envelope even further with nearly four hours of mostly instrumental exploration. Vocalist/guitarist Courtney Taylor, keyboardist Zia McCabe, guitarist Peter Holmström, and drummer Eric Hedford formed the Dandy Warhols in Portland, Oregon in 1994. The band signed a deal with the local Tim/Kerr Records after their first show, and their debut album, Dandys Rule OK?, appeared in 1995. Featuring songs such as "Lou Weed" and "Ride," it openly acknowledged the influence of the Velvet Underground and Ride on the band's music. Capitol Records signed the group the same year, but after the label rejected their first attempt at a second album, the band reunited with Dandys Rule OK? producer Tony Lash to make 1997's Dandy Warhols Come Down. A more polished-sounding set than their debut, the album earned the Dandy Warhols more critical acclaim and more substantial commercial success. This was especially true in the U.K., where the album was certified gold and its three singles entered the Top 40. In the U.S., the single "Not If You Were the Last Junkie on Earth" hit number 31 on the Billboard Alternative Songs chart. In 1998, Hedford left the band, with Taylor's cousin Brent DeBoer replacing him as drummer. The Dandy Warhols returned in 2000 with their third album, Thirteen Tales from Urban Bohemia, which downplayed their psych leanings in favor of sharp-edged pop such as the single "Bohemian Like You." One of the band's definitive songs, it peaked at number 28 on Billboard's Alternative Songs chart in the U.S. and reached number five on the U.K. Singles Chart in 2001. In November of that year, the Dandy Warhols opened the Odditorium, a recording studio in northwest Portland that also functions as an art and event space. In 2002, Holmström married his longtime girlfriend and took her maiden name of Loew. Taylor also changed his name, opting to go by Courtney Taylor-Taylor after an interviewer misinterpreted the pronunciation. To make their fourth album, Welcome to the Monkey House, the Dandy Warhols worked with Nile Rodgers, Duran Duran's Nick Rhodes, and Evan Dando. After Capitol turned down the original mix by Grammy-winning soul music engineer Russell Elevado, the album's final version featured a synth pop and new wave-influenced mix by Rhodes. Upon its release in 2003, it went to number 118 on the Billboard 200 Albums chart and spawned another hit for the band, the synth-disco jam "We Used to Be Friends." Following live shows that included supporting David Bowie on a leg of his 2003 A Reality tour, the band remained prominent in 2004 thanks to Ondi Timoner's documentary Dig!, which chronicled the love-hate relationship between the Dandy Warhols and the Brian Jonestown Massacre and won the Documentary Grand Jury Prize at that year's Sundance Film Festival. Also in 2004, the band released The Black Album -- their name for their rejected Capitol debut -- and the compilation Come on Feel the Dandy Warhols as a double-album set on their own label Beat the World Records. The Dandy Warhols returned with new music in 2005. Odditorium or Warlords of Mars, an expansive return to the band's psych-rock roots, appeared that September, peaking at number 89 on the Billboard 200 Albums chart. Soon after, the band contributed a cover of the Everly Brothers' "All I Have to Do Is Dream" to the soundtrack of the video game Stubbs the Zombie in Rebel Without a Pulse (the song also appeared on Stubbs the Zombie: The Soundtrack). A couple of other stand-alone tracks also arrived, including the 2006 single "Have a Kick Ass Summer (Me and My Friends)" and the theme song to the 2007 film Good Luck Chuck. The band's sixth album, and first for Beat the World, 2008's Earth to the Dandy Warhols, featured collaborations with Mark Knopfler and the Heartbreakers' Mike Campbell; the album reached number 128 on Billboard's 200 Albums chart and spawned two remix EPs. Over the next few years, the Dandy Warhols' output included contributions to the Cure tribute album Perfect as Cats and the Love and Rockets tribute album New Tales to Tell: A Tribute to Love and Rockets. They also issued archival releases: Dandy Warhols Are Sound, which presented Russell Elevado's original mix of Welcome to the Monkey House, arrived in 2009, while the following year's greatest-hits collection, Best of the Capitol Years: 1995-2007, included the previously unreleased "This Is the Tide," the first Dandy Warhols song with DeBoer on vocals. During this time, the band's members focused on other projects, ranging from Taylor-Taylor's 2009 graphic novel One Model Nation to DeBoer's 2010 solo debut, The Farmer. Loew's other band, Pete International Airport, also issued their self-titled debut in 2010, while McCabe's country band Brush Prairie released the EP Carry Yourself Back to Me in 2011. That year, the Dandy Warhols recorded an alternate version of the MythBusters theme song that the TV show used until the end of its 2014 season. In 2012, the Dandy Warhols resurfaced with their eighth album This Machine, a more subdued set of songs that hit number 88 on the Billboard 200 Albums chart, a career-high for the band. The album, which featured a collaboration with David J, also appeared on the Top Rock Albums and Alternative Albums charts, reaching number 29 and 21, respectively. The following year, they rang in the 13th anniversary of Thirteen Tales from Urban Bohemia with a deluxe version of the album and a tour that resulted in the band's first-ever live album, 2014's Thirteen Tales from Urban Bohemia Live at the Wonder. A second live recording, Live at the X-Ray Cafe, was released by Voodoo Doughnut for Record Store Day in 2016; the EP captured their eighth gig ever from 1994. That year, the Dandy Warhols released the patient and pastoral album Distortland, which reached number 43 on Billboard's Rock Albums chart. In 2017, the band issued the single "Thick Girls Knock Me Out (Richard Starkey)," while Pete International Airport released its second album, Safer with the Wolves... The Dandy Warhols' tenth album, the eclectic Why You So Crazy, arrived in January 2019 and commemorated their 25th anniversary. They followed the next year with the sprawling Tafelmuzik Means More When You're Alone -- a catalog oddity composed of previously recorded improvisations that found bandmembers playing instruments outside of their normal wheelhouses -- which clocked in at over three hours. Released at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic with proceeds going to charity, the mostly instrumental set was produced by Jacob Portrait (Unknown Mortal Orchestra) and featured Zia McCabe and Sylvain Sylvain on the album's lone vocal piece, "Zia Rolls Another." Their only other output during this period was a contribution to the Gang of Four covers compilation The Problem of Leisure, their take on "What We All Want." ~ Heather Phares & Neil Z. Yeungyou may also be interested in these events
