The Ex-Optimists (College Station, TX)
https://www.facebook.com/theexoptimists/
Pop songs played with guitars plugged into amps turned up way too loud to get over a drummer who hits them too hard, hollered to be heard.
A Sundae Drive (Houston, TX)
https://www.facebook.com/asundaedrive/
Hearts Of Animals (Houston, TX)
https://www.facebook.com/Hearts-of-Animals-291037294544/
There’s room for a little bit of everything in HOA, yet the music never feels like a kitchen-sink contrivance. Superb songcraft and a delicate touch allow Mlee to create music that is at once astonishingly heavy and gossamer-light; under her spell, seemingly disparate concepts and styles play nicely with one another. Dense noise provides the perfect foil for power-pop sugar; cheaply effective Casio beats underscore stabbing waves of pseudo-shoegaze psychedelia. This is musical magical realism to turn Gabriel García Márquez green-eyed with envy.— Nicholas L. Hall
Friday September 29, 2017
The Ex-Optimists
A Sundae Drive
Hearts of Animals
Show at 9:30pm, tickets $5.