Turn Records showcase

With Thee More Shallows, Dealership, the Dying Californian, & Calling All Monsters

Bottom of the Hill, Dec. 9th

Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? Who knows what trickery lurks in the chambers of Thee More Shallows' infamous red suitcase? On Dec. 9 at Bottom of the Hill, it sat, illuminated and center stage, the beating heart of a delicate organism that sought to enchant audiences with ... Madonna? Madonna. Or something like it, as vocalist David Kesler was joined by Dealership's Chris Groves in a strange amalgam of Madge's "Holiday" mashed with Kool and the Gang's "Celebration" and a smattering of their own improvised yuletide lyrics. Under his trademark too-large baseball cap, Kesler was nodding, eyes closed, a slight smirk breaking through every now and then just to let the audience know the joke wasn't totally on them. As the song progressed, the crowd went from nodding appreciatively to laughing to shouting back at the headliners as it became clear this was not the most serious musical endeavor.
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Only White Keys

Casiotone for the Painfully Alone’s Owen Ashworth Plays it By Ear

Don’t front like you haven’t heard of him, indie rocker: The guy with the brown cardigan and the glasses who had the nerve to stand in front of you on stage at The Rickshaw Stop last week with a cadre of broken down Casio keyboards and a microphone. You thought he was setting up for someone else, or just sound checking maybe, when all of the sudden: he started singing in this husky rasp of a voice. He began rocking little ditties about a cellist with a broken heart or a friend who worked at a candy store or a shut-in Smiths fan. You thought he was being ironic, or overly cute maybe, until half way through one song, he abandoned melody altogether and made sure every little note on that keyboard was feeding back in the most brutally obnoxious way possible. Clearly, dude was not joking.

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