3 minute read
This Little Underground
VENUE NEWS
With all the stirrings happening at the West End Trading Co., the Sanford scene is about to get a pretty notable boost. The longtime Sanford live-music pillar is currently working on a spate of significant upgrades that will expand the venue by 50 percent (to a 450-capacity space), enhance the stage, open up the courtyard and add the new bar Wild Wild West End Honky Tonk Bar on the other end.
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According to the venue’s new booker and events manager, Dom Maresco — best known as the drummer for the Supervillains — the enhancements will be ready by West End’s big annual Hurricane Party on May 28. This year’s lineup, by the way, will be especially loaded with headliners like Less Than Jake, Passafire, the Aggrolites and Authority Zero’s Jason DeVore, alongside dozens of well-known area acts. The honky-tonk bar should be in soft opening around the same time.
LOCAL RELEASES
Orlando music label Circuit Church has built its name on electronic music. But its latest release, the first in over a year, ventures into shades of the pop music spectrum that play more like lost 1980s alternative radio transmissions.
On their new debut, Super Passive — the Orlando band of David Furrevig, Sean McNulty, Allie Slasher and Circuit Church label boss Jared Silvia — wax nostalgic and true with the sounds of post-punk and dark synth pop.
The four-song Radio EP weaves downcast beauty with a classic alternative aesthetic that ranges from originals like Anything Box and Alphaville to modern revivalists like Black Marble. Radio now streams everywhere, but can be owned on cassette or digital through Circuit Church’s Bandcamp.
After some fast-and-dirty Soundcloud drops, Orlando’s Los Jarritos — the Bobby Clock & the Soda Pops spinoff band formed by surviving members Ray Brazen (guitar, vocals) and Cesar Marquez (drums) — have returned with their first official Bandcamp single. A-side “Agua Fresca” is a hit-and-run punk rock tribute to Mexican candy and the Mexican supermarket near where the band plays. B-side “Take Me Back to June,” on the other hand, is a lovely moment of reflection whose tender garage melody features some of Brazen’s best hooks. The Bobby Clock–dedicated single is available now on Ray Brazen’s Bandcamp.
On their new album, Super Passive wax nostalgic and true with the sounds of post-punk and dark synth pop; the songs weave in downcast beauty with a classic alternative aesthetic ranging from originals like Alphaville to modern revivalists like Black Marble
CONCERT PICKS THIS WEEK
If you go out, be safe, be cool.
Ho99o9, N8NOFACE: For their sonic and physical extremity on stage, incendiary rap punks Ho99o9 are already underground legends on the live circuit. Orlando knows this well because whenever they come to town, they leave a trail of destruction and bodies in their wake. This time, though, they’re coming with N8NOFACE, a West Coast electro-punk artist whose dark and twisted fantasies may be the best match I’ve seen yet for Ho99o9’s lurid intensity. The touring bill will arrive here hot on the fresh release of N8NOFACE’s grimy-ass new album, Homicide, so expect extra sickness. (7 p.m. Saturday, May 7, Henao Contemporary Center, $18)
Better Strangers, King Complex, Skyclub, Kerry Courtney: Miami’s Better Strangers don’t like to lead with it, but they happen to have rock royalty tucked in their ranks. Drummer Nic Collins is the son of Phil Collins. And though he’s barely into his 20s, he’s been keeping the beat in arenas around the world for years with both his father and Genesis. Better Strangers, however, is his own thing with his bandmates. And they just debuted themselves to the world last month with widescreen single “But I Don’t Know Your Name.” Now, they come here with an all-Florida bill to more fully introduce themselves. (7 p.m. Sunday, May 8, Will’s Pub, $12)
Executioner’s Mask, Expander,
Kaupe, Vacancy, TTN: Few bills attempt to capture the spectrum of dark music like this impressively expansive one. Between the gothic post-punk of Philadelphia’s Executioner’s Mask and the crushing metal punk of Austin’s Expander, the headlining Profound Lore labelmates set the amplitude wide.
Filling the range between will be the excellent noise punk of St. Pete’s Vacancy, the heavy progressive rock of DeLand’s Kaupe and the blistering industrial rock of Orlando’s TTN. It’s a great sampler of national and regional talent that’s heavy on the darkness. (8 p.m. Tuesday, May 10, Will’s Pub, $12)
BY BAO LE-HUU
Super Passive | photo courtesy of the artists
baolehuu@orlandoweekly.com orlandoweekly.com ● MAY 4-10, 2022 ● ORLANDO WEEKLY 29
