Austin, Texas noise rockers return to Memphis this Thursday night for a show with locals NOTS and Strengths. Spray Paint are no strangers to Memphis (or Murphy’s for that matter), having played here multiple times including their memorable performance at Gonerfest 11. The Austin band often gets compared to UK post-punk pioneers Wire, which is a fine comparison, even if Spray Paint’s drummer Chris Stephenson hits the skins way harder than Robert “Gotobed” Grey (Wire’s drummer) ever did. The band has been around for the past few years, cranking out records for labels like Upset! the Rhythm and 12XU (run by Matador Records founder Gerald Cosloy) before settling with Monofonus Press for their second record of 2015, Dopers. The album will be officially released on October 23rd.
Recorded in California by Chris Woodhouse (The Blind Shake, Thee Oh Sees, Ty Segall), Dopers features eight tracks of noise-infused punk, and the recently premiered second track “Signal Master” indicated that Dopers could be a sleeper for one of the last great punk albums released this year. Thursday night’s show is the start of an East Coast tour for Spray Paint in support of the new album, and hopefully the band will have copies of Dopers for sale at the show.
Also on the bill is NOTS, who are about to go on a relatively long East Coast tour. The band recently had their breakout album We Are Nots re-released in the UK by Heavenly Recordings, and they plan to head to England sometime before the end of the year. Opening up the show is Strengths, a new-ish noise-rock band featuring Alyssa Moore, who was recently voted best sound person in Memphis in the staff picks of our “Best Of” issue.
Spray Paint, NOTS, Strengths, Thursday, October 8th, at Murphy’s, 9 p.m. $8.
