Hailing from Raleigh, North Carolina, The Cherry
Valence are a rock-and-roll band, straight, no chaser,
splitting the musical difference between ’60s garage-rock and ’80s metal. The
band’s latest album, Riffin’, couldn’t have
been more appropriately titled, and the bet here is that the band’s
tunnel-vision thunder will come across even better
on the stage. Valence will be at the Hi-Tone Café on Thursday, March 13th, and
will be joined by Pittsburgh’s Modey Lemon, a perhaps more compelling outfit.
A bluesy, raw drums-plus-guitar duo, Modey Lemon would seem to be
riding a current indie-rock trend, but the way they splice their protopunk blues
with Bo Diddley beats, owing as much to the Animals as to the Jon Spencer Blues
Explosion, inspires belief. One bio of the band describes their sound
as “minimalistic excess rock,” which,
judging from their eponymous debut, about sums it up, except that this band
explodes where so many similar outfits are content to merely rock out. Chances are
you won’t be able to make out many of their seemingly B-movie-inspired lyrics,
and chances are it won’t matter much.
Rounding out the bill is Milwaukee’s garage-rockers
The Mistreaters, onetime labelmates of Memphis’ Lost Sounds,
who will join Cherry Valence on Estrus Records when their new album drops this summer.
Also at the Hi-Tone this week, Monday, March 17th, are Richmond,
Virginia’s Avail. Avail has roots in the
much-revered Washington, D.C., hardcore scene that grew up around Minor Threat and
their perhaps more famous spinoff, Fugazi. But rather than the art-rock, funk, reggae,
or even “emo” sounds that touch most
D.C. punk, Avail’s sound is more old-fashioned rock-and-roll, with the populist punch
and true-believer grandeur of Rancid or current Fat Wreck labelmates
NOFX. This is punk-rock sans pretense and, on their most recent album,
Front Porch Stories (engineered and produced
by Brian Paulson, who previously worked the nobs for such spiritual and
musical predecessors as Hüsker Dü, the
Replacements, and Dinosaur Jr.), it sounds damn good. Avail will be
joined by New Jersey’s Ensign, who boast a more traditional brand of hardcore.
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—Chris Herrington