TulsaPeople / July 2010 / Tulsa Sound: Sizzling summer sounds

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Tulsa Sound: Sizzling summer sounds

A look at what’s happening in the local music scene.

Welcome to your summer.

The good news? Summer has a plethora of local, regional, national and international acts awaiting your approval.

The bad news? You have to stand next to Stinky McStinkerson to render your judgment.

It could be worse. He could take his shirt off …

Oh, no.

Sorry.

I shouldn’t have said anything.

7/10 Wighead with Poot Poot and the Ruskettes Soundpony, 409 N. Main St.

“Absurd,” “surreal” and “quirky” are all words in the dictionary.

And each may have photos of the band Wighead next to them. Or Ween. Or Zappa. Or any other band leaving the constraints of popular music. Wighead is not beholden to any particular sound or genre. The band’s recent “The William and Edward Frontage EP” is as random as it gets.

But this band, as experimental as it is, has a sweet soul. Maybe it is that the band members are still relatively young or the birth of Evan Inman-Butt’s twin girls last year, but whatever the case, their musical experiment is a happy one. They use a slide whistle, a ukulele, a glockenspiel and woodblocks.

But this rich cacophony of sounds works. Whether it’s tales of love affairs between man and a body of water or just a normal one between mammals, their songs are oddly accessible.

7/14 Delta Spirit Cain’s Ballroom, 423 N. Main St.

A Long Beach, Calif., band that sounds as if it is from Mobile, Ala., Delta Spirit has used everything but the kitchen sink (they haven’t ruled that out yet, though) to make its distinctive Northern soul/Southern rock hybrid.

While the band drives like a runaway tractor-trailer rig through the Deep South, lead singer Matt Vasquez sounds as if he might be on the CB shouting for all to hear to convert these weary masses: “And when I die it will be the day, when every one of my wrongs will be made right / Only time’s gonna heal my pain, Lord knows the mistakes I will make” (“People, C’mon”).

Audio files pulled from the vacuum tubes of the “interwebs” sound like lost tapes from a long-ago revival. Live clips show a band totally losing itself in its music and pulling crowds along with it.

The band is touring in support of its recent release, “History from Below.” Don’t be left out of the congregation.

7/25 The New Pornographers Cain’s Ballroom

Dan Bejar, Kathryn Calder, Neko Case, John Collins, Kurt Dahle, Todd Fancey, A.C. Newman and Blaine Thurier make up The New Pornographers. All have other bands/solo careers except for Thurier, who is an independent filmmaker. This Canadian power-pop super-group formed in Vancouver in 1997 and has been making silly-good music ever since.

From the 2003 release of “Electric Version” to this year’s release of “Together,” it is not the plentiful smorgasbord of killer tunes this band has put down that is most remarkable but the fact that the band is still together. Besides Thurier’s films, more than 15 other bands are pulling this group in different directions.

Yet here comes “Together” with songs such as “Crash Years” with Case’s gorgeous voice and a band killing it behind her and “Your Hands (Together)” smashing chords and drums and vocals more like a ’70s super-group than one from 2010.
It’s all incredible.

And it’s just down the street.

7/30-31 FreeTulsa! In front of Cain’s Ballroom, Crystal Pistol Saloon and Soundpony

In response to Dfest’s recent demise (ARRGGH!), some enterprising souls in association with Hard Work Records have created Free Tulsa: a two-day event featuring the best and brightest of Tulsa’s music scene along with other regional acts.

Bands signed up so far: Unwed Sailor, Native Lights, Fiawna Forté, And There Stand Empires, Recorder, Dead Sea Choir, The Panda Resistance and Ester Drang (seriously?). This list is neither complete nor are organizers done booking bands. It does give you an idea of the weekend of incredible live music. Advance tickets are available for $15.

FreeTulsa! will take place on Main Street in downtown Tulsa’s Brady Arts District. There will be nine stages.

7/30 and 7/31 Black Gold Oklahoma Music Run East 18th Street and South Boston Avenue

Also rushing into the void created by Dfest’s hiatus is Donnie Rich at the Flytrap Music Hall. The Black Gold Oklahoma Music Run will feature more than 70 local and regional acts. Early reports sound promising, and $1 of every ticket benefits Edison Preparatory School’s music program.

Who knows — maybe this whole Dfest thing is a blessing.