Mystery Of Two Play The Charleston on Thursday (10/1) and Piano's on Saturday (10/3)

DOWNLOAD: Mystery of Two - "Repeat It" (MP3)

You have to love a band that can capture the proto-punk urgency of bands like Television, Pere Ubu and early Talking Heads and create music that sounds fresh and alive. Cleveland's Mystery of Two is touring behind their recently released self-titled second disc (Exit Stencil Recordings) and are in town for two shows this week.

The first show is Thursday night at The Charleston (Why doesn't The Charleston have a decent website?? Someone other than me might want to know cover charge, set time, etc.).

The second show is at Piano's on Saturday night with Exit Stencil label mates HotChaCha. Cover is $10 -- HotChaCha goes on at 10PM and Mystery of Two play at Midnight.

Mystery of Two - CMJ Festival, Spike Hill, Brooklyn, NY 10-21-08


Here is Mystery of Two's upcoming tour dates:

Oct. 01, 2009, 8:00PM, The Charleston, Brooklyn, New York
Oct. 02, 2009, 8:00PM, Asbury Lanes w/ HotChaCha Asbury Park, New Jersey
Oct. 03, 2009, 8:00PM, Piano’s w/ HotChaCha, New York, New York
Oct. 04, 2009, 2:00PM, Ruintown w/ HotChaCha (Skate Board Party & BBQ), Baltimore, Maryland
Oct. 05, 2009, 9:00PM, HMAC w/ HotChaCha, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
Oct. 06, 2009, 8:00PM, The Velvet Lounge w/ HotChaCha, Washington, Washington DC
Oct. 07, 2009, 8:00PM, The Boot w/ HotChaCha, Norfolk, Virginia
Oct. 08, 2009, 10:00PM, The Tin Roof w/ HotChaCha, Charleston, South Carolina
Oct. 09, 2009, 9:00PM, The Caledonia w/ HotChaCha, Athens, Georgia
Oct. 24, 2009, 8:00PM, CMJ Showcase @ The Charleston, Brooklyn, New York

Links:
Mystery of Two's MySpace Profile

Cleveland's Mystery of Two Play Shows In Brooklyn Tonight and Tomorrow

Cleveland's Mystery of Two is in town this weekend for two shows in Brooklyn. Tonight's show is at Spike Hill (184 Bedford Ave, Williamsburg) and tomorrow night's show is at Tommy's Tavern (1041 Manhattan Ave, Greenpoint).

Mystery of Two has a 70's art-punk feel to their music and the closest points of comparison would be Rocket From the Tombs/early-Pere Ubu or Television. Singer Ryan Weitzel has a similar vocal style to Pere Ubu's David Thomas and the band's music has some of the same free-form, wall-of-sound elements of both Ubu and Television. There are a number of live and studio tracks streaming on the band's MySpace page. All of the tracks are well worth a listen - good starting points are "Desolate", "Corner" and a punked-up cover of Canned Heat's "Going Up The Country".

Links:
Exit Stencil Recordings

Eagles of Death Metal Booted Off Guns N Roses Tour

Picture from The Cleveland Leader









I caught one of the Guns N' Roses - Hammerstein Ballroom warmup shows earlier this year and thought the band was pretty good (not great). It is hard to take the band too seriously with Axl being the only original member and Chinese Democracy now being about 10 years behind schedule. (Can anyone say Boston - Third Stage?) Guns N' Roses still put on a pretty good rock show but they are nowhere near the caliber they were when they headlined stadiums in the early 90's.

I was quite amused to read that Axl is kicking the Eagles of Death Metal off the tour after just one show as the GnR audience didn't respond well to the band. Blabbermouth reports that Axl reportedly said something to the effect of, "So how'd you like THE PIGEONS OF SHIT METAL? Don't worry, that's the last show they're playing with us."

Let's compare...Josh Homme has been consistently building his chops by recording and touring with both the Eagles and Queens of the Stoneage. Sebastian Bach hasn't done much of anything (outside of the Rocky Horror Pipcture Show) since being kicked out of Skid Row and The Last Hard Men has to be one to the worst CDs that I have heard in the last few years. The Suicide Girls are just strippers who strip to punk tunes.

So...what is the lesson here? On a tour where punk strippers are one of the "opening acts" and are scheduled to go on right before the headliner, any opening band has to question whether the audience will be receptive anything they can't drunkenly sing along to.

OpEd: I saw the Eagles of Death Metal headline CBGB just about two years ago and the crowd couldn't get enough of the band. Hopefully the Eagles will find better acts to tour with.