THE LAST HURRAH Sweetthieves. |
You're killing me, Sweetthieves. The freshly released Blood & Curses gets my late-inning nod for rock album of the year, and then you decide to call it quits with a CD release/farewell show at Milk & Cookies Gallery in the Bucket on Friday. Drummer Mike Viele (a beast on the disc) and co-vocalists Hilary Jones (bass) and Dave Martinka (guitar) will debut plenty of tracks from their second (and final) album Special guests are Lolita Black and Cowgirl, and there's a gallery opening of artwork for Sweetthieves' original drummer Jay Mayoh's Tales of Rocky Point Park comic series.
"We've been going in that direction for a while, and the break-up is a group decision," Hilary Jones said earlier this week via email. "The band had taken a back seat to other things over the past year, plus we each have other musical directions we'd like to explore that don't necessarily work in the context of Sweetthieves."
Sweetthieves operate as a cohesive unit on Blood & Curse, once again channeling Sonic Youth, Slint, Jawbox, and Sleater-Kinney as they did their 2006 debut View From a Glass Tower (available on iTunes), but the trio cook like never before on tracks such as "Reactance" and album opener "Bullet," both bound to get the crowd spazzing out at the Grant Building.
The album also benefits from the new and improved Machines with Magnets recording studio in Pawtucket. "We're really psyched about the way the new record turned out," Jones said. "We tracked digitally this time around so it definitely has a crisper sound, and the new location has an excellent live room, which you can definitely hear in the recording."
Jones and Martinka share vocal duties again, which sometimes become an afterthought when coming in so late on scorchers such as "Phantom" and "Nine."
"The vocals almost always come last — not that they aren't important, but we like to see where there's room for vocals and let the music guide them," Jones said of the recording process.
Cowgirl's Spencer Swain chimed in and lamented the loss of another promising local outfit. "Sweetthieves are a great band, a little bit Sonic Youth, a little bit X, and a lot of their own thing," he said. "It's really too bad they're calling it quits."
For Jones and her mates, the Sweetthieves Experience comes full circle on Friday. "It's sort of a culmination of our experiences over the past six years, to be playing our final show in conjunction with an art opening for our original drummer," she said.
"We'll be playing some older songs that we haven't played in a while, along with songs from the new record, and we've got a little surprise for anyone who's been with us since the beginning."
SWEETTHIEVES | LOLITA BLACK | COWGIRL | Milk & Cookies Gallery @ the Grant Building, 250 Main Street, Pawtucket | December 19 @ 9 pm | myspace.com/mandcgallery
Bring the nog
A SLEW OF PRE-CHRISTMAS TREATS
Tonight (Thursday the 18th), MIKE G & ASSOCIATES plug in at Jake’s Bar & Grille with THE MELODELODIES opening up. Call 401.453.5253. Sling some shuffleboard with MARK CUTLER & FRIENDS at their free gig at Nick-a-Nee’s (401.861.7290). The Hi-Hat delivers party band virtuoso JOHN ALLMARK & THE EAST SIDE HORNS, covering everything from Big Band swing to Motown hits. Call 401.453.6500. And HEATHER ROSE & THE DRAMA rock out at the Greenwich Hotel, also the spot for a great indie-folkster lineup on Friday (the 19th) when David Lamb, aka BROWN BIRD, performs with Best Music Poll victor BEN PILGRIM and JOE FLETCHER of Wrong Reasons fame. Both shows are free, call 401.884.4200 for the scoop. Also on Friday, Jerky’s Bar (401.621.2244) PROSPECT HILL kicks off a busy weekend, with scary-ass Providence metalheads ARTICLE UNMAKE and North Kingstown headbangers TRAIN OF THOUGHT. Other Friday shows of note include Taunton’s BRIGHT WHITE LIGHTS and a solid stoner noise-rock duo from Athens, Ohio called SUBMARINE SPACESHIP opening for Boston’s SPANISH ARMADA at Fire-house No. 13 (401.270.1801). And Jake’s will fill up quick when THE QUEERS stop by. To paraphrase Rick Pitino, Steve Perry isn’t walking through that door, so head to the Newport Blues Café (401.841.5510) and fill up on the Frontiers-era goodness with Journey tribute band SEPARATE WAYS, who’ll also stop by Mardi Gras (401.463.3080) in Cranston on Saturday (the 20th). Other Sat-urday highlights: indie kids THE DANGER ROOM (reportedly working on a debut EP) at Jerky’s; JERI & THE JEEPSTERS at the 133 Club (401.438.1330) in East Providence; the drummer for Inno-cent Uprising who calls himself ZIG ZAG opens for BAYLOCK at Cats (401.722.0150) in Pawtucket; and the show of the week goes down at Jake’s when THE JESSE MINUTE headlines a Christmas bash with FASHION FAILURES, brother-and-sister rawk duo VULGARRITY, and Boston’s DRAG RIVER opening up —all for only $7. On Sunday (the 21st), Club Hell has THE CADENCE headlin-ing along with two diverse pairs of Providence bands, metal-screamo acts ASTRELA and ABSENCE OF DESPAIR alongside power-pop newcomers JUNE and THE OCEAN AND THE INTEL. Call 401.709.3923. AS220 hosts a pair of $6 shows beginning Sunday with electro-locals SACRED OBJECTS with INFINITE CHILDREN and synth-humping prog-rockers RUSTIC DRAMA; and on Monday (the 22nd), TRAINS THROUGH THE COUNTRYSIDE (Warwick), OFF TARGET (Wakefield), and OF ANOTHER PLANET (Providence) open for THE SKINNY MILLIONAIRES (straight outta Newport). Dial 401.831.9327 for details.
Chris Conti can be contacted at buckeebrooks@gmail.com.
