Live Music Roundup: Bumbershoot '09 Pre-funk Edition

Daniel Johnston photo courtesy Tyron Francis

Ear Candy's Travis Hay is having a (f)unofficial, very eclectic Bumbershoot pre-party at the High Dive tonight with Grynch, Born Anchors, the Redwood Plan and Victor Shade. It's $10 and starts at 9 p.m.

Two of my all-time favorite local bands, the Curious Mystery (ambient country psychedelia womaned by Shana Cleveland and her gorgeous voice) and Blood Red Dancers (dark, Gothic bass lines, creepy vocals, thudding drums and freaky organs with no guitar in sight) play the Comet Tavern tonight with Strix Vega and Scriptures. It's a mere $6, and if you find yourself on the Hill tonight, it's the best place to be if you're looking to keep it under $10.

If not, Daniel Johnston plays Neumos tonight with the Dead Science at 8 p.m. for $18 or so:

"Fake Records" is an early indication that the forthcoming Is and Always Was is not the usual Daniel Johnston. It could be a great song, offering up a perfect set-piece for the music obsessive Johnston, but feels slightly artificial, veering heavily into straightforward, glossily produced rock-record territory, like its own caricature. It's either a very awkward try at a not at all awkward song, or a brilliant ploy, poking fun at his subject through the very method of the joke's delivery. Eschewing his usual lo-fi take on fractured pop, Johnston emerges with a fully realized studio album. It takes a bit of getting used to at first, almost like watching your favorite movie in color for the first time. The best moments are revelatory, like the loose, low, buzzing guitar that opens "Mind Movies", providing the perfect backdrop for Johnston's plain, slightly awkward, lisping delivery.

The title track offers spacey strumming as Johnston reels through cosmically charged mutterings, creating a perfect psych-pop piece that follows into "Lost in My Infinite Memory." "Without You" comes across as an homage to '70s pop-rock acts, with riffing piano and intermingling synths. This isn't so much a departure for Johnston as it is a re-imagining, or perhaps a fuller realization of the ideas that were with him all along. As the man himself puts it, "Everyone needs to take their demos and go back to the studio." NICHOLAS HALL

And Woven Hand plays Chop Suey with the Pill Thief and the Bad Things for $12 (show starts at 9 p.m.):

One of the coolest things about Scott Walker is how the dude has actually gotten weirder with age. Most artists, as you surely know, do the exact opposite: as more and more grey sprouts form their scalps, they retreat to the familiar, safe and comfortable. Another musician who has beaten the odds is David Eugene Edwards. Compare just about any release from his band 16 Horsepower to his more recent work under the moniker Woven Hand. The differences are astounding. The former more or less specialized in '90s-flavored alt-rock steeped in twang. The latter, meanwhile, is all about Edwards filtering Americana through creepy goth, industrial, art song, Brit folk, ambient weirdness and even touches of Native American music. So yeah, do not miss this show. Edwards is a true visionary. JUSTIN F. FARRAR