(Image via Claudio Simonetti’s Goblin/ Facebook)
Claudio Simonetti’s Goblin
Tuesday May 24, 8 pm at the Marlin Room, Webster Hall: $25
Goblin– the late ’70s Italian band best known for their amazingly spooky soundtracks, written for the Italian art-house horror master, Dario Argento– really needs no introduction. However, Claudio Simonetti’s Goblin might call for some explaining.
After leaving the original lineup of Goblin, the band’s keyboard player Simonetti (who was responsible for the creepy, childlike threads of their music) went on to form some Italo Disco outfits, before joining other, subsequent Goblin iterations with names like Goblin Keys. Simonetti eventually started his own reincarnation of the outfit, while the other Goblin, confusingly, continues to reunite and tour occasionally.
Phew, so there’s that. If you can get past all that slight awkwardness and this incredibly cheesy preview video from Rust Blade Records (see below), then you’ll probably seriously enjoy the show. I know I’ll be there, drinkin’ blood. Or doin’ whatever hardcore horror fans do.
Hank Wood & the Hammerheads, Urochromes, Warthog, Wrung, Suspect
Thursday May 26, 8 pm at Palisades: $12
Any show with NYC regs Warthog (ultra-evil death punk) and Hank Wood & the Hammerheads (B+B faves and organ grinding rabble-rousers) is immediately a “duh” in my book.
You and me both, however, are most likely less familiar with Urochromes, a punk band outta Western Mass, that have the angst, adolescent prankster ‘tude, and legit-gritty production that only such a barren home base could provide. Their juvenile-delinquent banger “My Dickies (Dirty)” tape comes highly recommended, and for good reason– it shows that the band can be both sloppy and pissed-off without being too much of one or the other (both pitfalls of this particular brand of punk).
The local lil’ wigs of Wrung, who I’ve squawked about before, are on the bill too. Later listens gave me a more dynamic read on the band, which propels them far beyond some of their noise-rock peers. They fearlessly blend raspy, vomit-burned throat roars with post-punk melodies and even some heavy-metal inspired guitar shredding, which at first might sound like a subtle deviation from the slapdash instrumental destruction of other, more purist likeminded bands, but Wrung’s touch of virtuosity makes for song-to-song variety and unexpected twists in what’s otherwise (and I say this with great love and respect) a repetitive-as-freakin’-hell musical tradition.
(Flyer via Don Pedro/ Facebook)
Anasazi, Sadist, Vivid Sekt, Plastic, Haram
Saturday May 21, 8 pm at Don Pedro: $12
Here’s another show in the same vein as the last one– several solid NYC bands, Anasazi (darkness-reigns, post-punk outfit) and Haram (Arabic-language rawish raucous punk) paired with a couple of touring bands. That way, you’re at least guaranteed a good time, and might even meet-n-greet with a brand new, totally chill band.
But I think that betting on Vivid Sekt (classic chanty political punk from Portland) is probably a pretty good idea, while Plastic outta Chicago definitely has my vote. Their most-evil form of “synth punk” is literally the nastiest form of the genre I’ve heard in my whole pathetic life. Get it before she’s gone.