DIKES OF HOLLAND @ Echoplex

9pm/ $15adv; $17dos / 18+

Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears || Listen|| Watch
Joe Lewis is stuffed into a van with his six bandmates and one stranger, as they hurtle across Texas to a gig in Marfa. Most of the guys are sleeping now, content in the knowledge they’ve just made the record of their lives. All killer, no filler, the fittingly titled, take-no-prisoners Scandalous (Lost Highway)—once again produced by Jim Eno, moonlighting from his main gig as Spoon’s drummer—is a churning slab of rock & roll, blues and funk, laced with a double shot of 100-proof punkitude.

This band has gotten tight as a gnat’s ass through nearly two years of barnstorming without a break. “We’ve grown a lot as a band, and so has our fan base,” the lanky, enigmatic Lewis acknowledges. “Hopefully it’s still going up, but it will ultimately be what we make of it. As the shows get bigger and we get bigger, we have to keep improving to meet the demand. If we can’t do that, it won’t go anywhere.” From the look in Joe’s eyes as he glances at the one-stoplight towns and endless open country of central Texas whizzing past, you can tell he knows whereof he speaks.

While on the road, they also eagerly soaked up the worldly knowledge of touring mates the New York Dolls and Cedric Burnside & Lightnin’ Malcolm. “The Dolls covered Bo Diddley and Sonny Boy Williamson, and so do we,” says guitarist Zach Ernst, riding shotgun in the van, as he does in the band. “That youthful, aggressive, unschooled thing is really appealing to us. That’s what we like to listen to and what we’re shooting for. We’ve had some lineup changes since the first record, but at its core, it’s still the same band, and everyone’s excited to move on to the next stage.”

Like his forebears, Lewis writes from direct, often bitter experience with unflinching veracity. The songs of Scandalous are littered with the debris of age-old issues: hard times and one-night stands, lying and cheating, redemption and revenge. Gritty, raunchy and real, his music is not for the squeamish, but experiencing it fully can be genuinely cathartic.

The album opens with the funky fantasia “Livin’ in the Jungle,” as Joe wails with tonsil-shredding abandon over a rhythm section erupting like a tropical storm and horns honking like hyenas in heat. “I’ve always said that if I ever got rich, I would go buy a bunch of land in the Congo or the Amazon, build a nice house and have an Amazon woman to hang out with,” he explains, straight-faced. On the following “I’m Gonna Leave You,” the band sends a jolt of electricity through a Mississippi hill country blues template. “It’s about leavin’ a girl, just gettin’ out while you can, before the shit gets too thick,” he says, punctuating the line with a wicked cackle……Black Joe Lewis Bio

The Sheepdogs || Listen|| Watch
While most rock bands are all too focused on the riff, the Sheepdogs remember the importance of those other elements that make for great rock music: melody, harmony and groove. To see them live is pure rock and roll jubilation, to revel in the splendour created by 3 part vocal harmonies and heavy hitting dual guitar leads. Their latest album, “Learn & Burn”, is a beautiful blend of power and imagination, ranging from ferocious rockers to southern boogie and grooving psychedelia. Big guitars, stacked harmonies, vintage organ and piano skillfully colour each of the album’s 15 tracks, proving that these boys are as dedicated to the craft of songwriting and album making as they are to playing a dynamite live show. The Sheepdogs are an old-school rock and roll revival.

After securing the reputation as the most exciting band to see in their hometown of Saskatoon (and being voted favourite local band by the readers of Planet S magazine), The Sheepdogs have taken their show on the road, touring from coast to coast in Canada and down into the US. They have opened for Matt Mays, the Arkells and Tricky Woo, and have played at POP Montreal, NXNE, Junofest, the Western Canadian Music Awards, and Canadian Music Week. They have independently released three full-length albums, all of which have charted on Earshot’s national monthly top 200 chart, with 2010′s “Learn & Burn” reaching as high as #21. In the summer of 2009, their album “The Sheepdogs’ Big Stand” was nominated for a Western Canadian Music Award for Independent Album of the Year, and the band was nominated for Artist of the Year on XM radio’s The Verge. With no intentions of letting up, 2011 sees The Sheepdogs touring across North America spreading the good word while continuing to write and record in their home studio.The Sheepdogs Bio

Dikes of Holland || Listen
“Keep Austin Weird,” huh? Dikes of Holland might be doing exactly that, on a debut album that cuts a left-field party/garage rock influence across a number of possible outcomes, all of which are interesting and relevant to a time-machine-centric approach wherein we roll back the calendar to the mid-‘80s and start over. For the most part this is a pretty loud rocker from start to finish, full of big hooks and bashing rhythms, ranging from a front porch holler that would suit the Volcano Suns or maybe Dumptruck to some serious aggression on “Anymore” that, without the keyboard or quieter moments, bears resemblance to the Cherubs. There’s as much jangle to their sound as there is gut punch, and it seems clear from this set that the band doesn’t want to differentiate between the two. That’s one of the main reasons why it all works, too, these Dikes taking the left turns necessary to differentiate themselves and eventually stand out. Sounds like it’d be a trip live, and in January some Americans are going to get to find out for themselves. Good times, though I wish the excellent photograph on the inner sleeve would have replaced the odd painting on the front cover. 500 copies, includes a download code. Still Single Tumblr