After Head Cabinets' thoroughly engaging set, my party needed some food. We ordered Bison Witches sandwiches to go, then stopped in at Bigfoot Creative to visit a friend workin' late. We admired their (relatively) new storefront, which was stocked to the hilt with quirky Oklahoma-reppin' tees. I want a Norman one.

Our visual art impulses satiated, we kicked it to Bluebonnet, where O Fidelis was setting up ... and setting up and setting up. Songwriters Brian Gilliland and Laney Coker played a two-song acoustic set to cover the space the technical problems were creating, and it was a neat way to hear them. I'd like to see more of that.  With all the equipment in place, they tore through an abbreviated version of their set, which featured slightly different arrangements of familiar O Fidelis tunes. I'm taking this to mean that their promised release "Bible Promises and Dinosaurs" must be near, what with the revisiting old songs. They brought a ferocious energy to their tunes, as usual, once again reminding me that I just love watching them play. If you haven't seen O Fidelis yet, you're just in the wrong. Do it now.

I'd had to choose between The Gentle Art of Floating and O Fidelis, and as much as I love the aforementioned band, I second-guessed myself when I arrived at Opolis. The small venue was filled with balloons, streamers and a huge light show; I clearly missed something incredible. But, after the apparent party was dismantled, Depth and Current took the stage to rumble through their tunes.

Depth and Current is incredibly well-named, because their low, heavy songs sometimes feel like a heavy wave hitting swimmers. They set up red lights on themselves, casting an eerie glow over everything. Their songs were incredibly tight and impressive in their power. I especially enjoyed the fact that they had learned how to play a remix of one of their tunes.

I’m no fan of cloning, but only because it doesn’t actually do what I want it to do. When I say, “I wish I could clone myself,” I really mean that I wish I could replicate/duplicate myself. Bill Watterson, genius creator of Calvin and Hobbes, understood this and created some of the best strips of the best comic series ever about it (scroll down to the sixth strip). 

The reason I need a replicator tonight is that there are five local concerts I want to attend tonight. I need duplicates.

The one I’m going to be hitting for sure is the one I’ve been looking forward to for weeks/months: Brine Webb and The Nghiems’ double-CD release show in Norman. I’ve been stuck on Webb’s gripping tunes for weeks now, and I’m thoroughly excited to see them played live. Also, he and The Nghiems are planning to accommodate Thunder fans by having The Nghiems play during halftime, and Webb play after the fourth quarter. As a pretty rabid Thunder fan, I’m stoked about this.

The one I’m most depressed about missing is Feathered Rabbit, Junebug Spade and The Gentle Art of Floating at Belle Isle Brewery. Both Feathered Rabbit and The Gentle Art of Floating are on my to-see list — the former because it’s a new Kyle Mayfield (O Fidelis, Junebug Spade, Larry Chin, everyone else in Oklahoma City) project, and the latter because they throw parties, not shows. Alas, I will have to wait yet again.

If the Webb show gets done early, I’ll traipse my way over to Opolis, where Kite Flying Robot, Chrome Pony and Guardant will be throwing an end-of-school dance party. I have been known to dance wildly at Opolis.

Before all this started getting crazy, I had planned on going seeing Ryan Lawson, Ali Harter and O Fidelis at Bad Granny’s Bazaar, as all three are OKS faves. If you like acoustic country/folk, this is your show; these are three of the best in the metro at it, and rare is the show where they all play together.

And I just heard that Anty Shanty, 318 Main Street in Norman, will be hosting Skating Polly, Luna Moth and Shitty/Awesome as part of Second Friday Art Walk. I still haven’t been to a show here yet, despite my desire. Must everyone play on the same night?!

As for non-local artists, Jamey Johnson will be stopping at Diamond Ballroom for those who are into straight-up country. It doesn’t get earthier than Johnson these days, so if that’s your bag, this is your gig. Red-dirt Austinite Brandon Jenkins will play Joy’s Palace, 300 E. Main Street in Norman, also as part of Art Walk. Finally, Avenged Sevenfold ,Three Days Grace and Bullet for My Valentine will be rocking faces off at Zoo Amphitheatre.

Saturday is less stacked, but still a difficult choice, as The City Lives’ final show is at The Conservatory; The Boom Bang, Copperheads and Purple Church make ears bleed at Opolis; and new band Bona Fide Villains (ex-Sweetwater) play Sauced.

Don’t ever let ‘em ever tell you this town had nothin’ for ya.

Music goes in cycles: Fall is writing season, winter is recording season, spring is release season and summer is tour/shows/music video season. With spring now officially over (weather-wise and calendar-wise), OKS has been taking a much-needed breather. But now it’s time to get out there and rock to the music that you bought/downloaded weeks/months ago. Here’s the rundown.

The major event for the weekend is easily Saturday’s Schwarzstock, although I received word from Doug Schwarz himself that O Fidelis is no longer headlining. Mannachine will pick up those duties. Check the info for the event here.

I was super-excited to hear Austinites Football, etc. at Norman Music Festival, but their drummer broke both his feet (!!) right before the fest. The band canceled, but they’re back now, playing a show Saturday at Bad Granny’s Bazaar with Pswingset, Cedres and Partners. For indie rockers who aren’t up for liability-waiver-necessary festival antics, this is your best bet Saturday.
 
Schwarzers who peter out early could head on over to Grady’s 66 Pub in Yukon, which just opened. The title persona is none other than Grady Cross of Cross Canadian Ragweed. The grand opening was yesterday, with Stoney Larue playing a sold-out show. I’m always down for new venues in the metro, so traipse on out and catch Austin Allsup tonight, Jake Moffatt tomorrow, and Kyle Carter playing a standing gig each Sunday called “Sunday Night Revival.”

Since you won’t be able to see O Fidelis kill it as headliners at Schwarzstock, those jonesing for a fix will have to head down to Opolis in Norman tonight and catch them with The Wurly Birds and The Electric Primadonnas. They’re billing it as a “Time Travel Expo” based on the disparate genres of the three acts.

Finally, Suzanna Choffel, who I raved about over here, will be coming to the Brewhouse in Norman tonight. The Brewhouse is one of my favorite places to watch music, so this promises to be an excellent show all-around.

While you’re here, grab these free MP3s:
“Rainbow Colors” — Wonderful. Self-explanatory.
“Block Party” — MiMosa. Also self-explanatory.
“Glow Worm” — Diva. Glowy indie happiness from a girl who was in Pocahaunted, which both Best Coast and Indian facepaint as a fashion statement burst forth from.
“Get Real Get Right” — Sufjan Stevens. To celebrate the release of the documentary “Make,” Sufjan releases this “Age of Adz” cut for free. You should already own this, but if you don’t …

It’s tough work doing everything yourself.

Living in Altus, the post-pop-punkers known as The Typist do a lot of music-related things themselves (read on for more about that), and that includes purchasing and operating their own recording equipment. Turns out, they did that quite well.

There’s a lot of enthusiasm in “Midwestern High Life”’s 10 tracks — specifically, the big-rock keyboard melodies, but also in the earnest, aggressively sung and shouted lyrics that mourn busted-up relationships and reconcile the future against the prospect of leaving where you grew up and fell in love (see: “Midwest”).

Singer Matt Moran was nice enough to answer a few questions about the birth of his band and what it’s like recording music in a place like Altus. Read on, and be sure to give “Midwestern High Life” a listen, below.

The Typist plays The Conservatory tomorrow night with Frank Smith and O Fidelis.

OKS: How did you guys set up this show with Frank Smith and O Fidelis?

Matt Moran: We’ve got a little bit of a history playing The Conservatory with old bands. I was also in a band that played with O Fidelis at the benefit for the UCO Jazz Lab a little while back. That’s how we got that going.

OKS: What other bands have you guys played in?

Moran: Our bassist, Patrick [Bellamy], and I were in You’d Prefer an Astronaut, which was a post-rock band that was in the vein of This Will Destroy You-type music. I’ve been in a few older punk bands from a waaaaay that played Conservatory. It was a pretty youth-punk-type deal.

How did The Typist come to be?

Moran: I’d been in and out of bands, and I started doing stuff on my own. I’d been doing it for a while and I decided, "Y’know, I should probably start recording and playing new songs for people." So I recorded a short little EP — five songs, acoustic — but I realized that I was just meant to do the band thing. I got help from my friends Justin [Strickland, drummer] and Patrick, we started playing the songs and then decided we needed to write songs as a band, and get everybody involved. We came up with an album’s worth of material, so we decided to record it.

We were like, “Well, we can go to a studio and lay this down,” but we decided that we wanted to take the time we wanted to take and not be limited by studio money. So we threw all our money together, bought some recording gear and spent the last two and a half months recording it, day in and day out.

We didn’t even actually add our keyboard player — who’s my brother, Daniel [Moran] — until last month. He came in and laid down a lot of keyboard parts, and as soon as he was finished, we just looked at him and said, “You’ve got no option; you have to be in this band. You just completed it. You made everything sound twice as good.”

OKS: What did Daniel bring with his keyboard? Was he playing a lot of riff-type stuff, or what?

Moran: He was doing a lot of Hammond organ stuff. I happen to be a religious follower of Charles Gillingham of the Counting Crows, and my brother came in and did that type of thing. He nailed it.

OKS: Do you guys all live in Altus?

Moran: Yes, except for Daniel. He lives an hour north, in Elk City.

OKS: What are some of the challenges of living and recording down in the southwest?

Moran: I guess the biggest challenge is just playing as much as you can. Down here — most people don’t know this — we actually have a pretty good music scene. It has a very DIY aesthetic about it. Everything we do, living in Altus, we have to do everything ourselves. If we want to get a show together, it’s the old DIY thing of finding a place, renting it out, getting a sound system, getting everything together yourself, promoting it as much as you can, and trying to do all that.

We like to come up and play in the city as much as we can, because we feel like it’s one of the really good places to be. For so many reasons, we remain here, but we try to make the best of what we got. I think it instills a good work ethic into us.

OKS: What sorts of venues do you guys play in for shows in Altus?

Moran: We’ve done all sorts of shit. We usually rent empty halls out and put it on, but we’ve done house shows. I’ve done a show in a storage shed, which was actually a pretty fun time. We packed about 50 people into it.

OKS: That’s impressive. Do you guys have something like a record store down there?

Moran: We don’t have a record store, but we have a really awesome music store that’s actually helped us out a bunch. Our drummer works there, and they’ve really helped us out and backed us up.

OKS: How do you stay up with new music?

Moran: Largely the Internet. We’ve got friends who are way more into that than we are. I go to Size Records every time I’m in the city, but otherwise, we’ve got to keep up with it online.

OKS: Through the Internet, you’ve got just as much access as me at my desk or somebody in New York or whatever. Do you feel it’s a big enabler for you guys, like you have the same opportunity as anybody else?

Moran: Yes, definitely. That hits the nail on the head. It’s kind of an equalizer for us. It’s not like we can go up and socialize with people as much as we want to, or go to the places we want to go on a regular basis. We have to socialize and keep up with music online, then make the trip when we can. 

OKS: What are the biggest limitations in being physically removed from the music scene in OKC, where you’d like to be more involved?

Moran: Mainly, it puts a limit on the camaraderie you can have. It’s a small social network that we have, and you don’t get to connect with people as much as you like to. When you can’t have that regular connection, it makes it difficult.

OKS: How does that frustration factor into you guys’ music?

Moran: Because of the tighter circle, we all know each other — musically — really well. You’ve got limited resources and limited people to make things happen with, so you really get to know each other. You grow to be a family.

Our drummer, he’s an incredible drummer. When he tells me something, I know exactly where he’s coming from, what he’s talking about. There’s nothing that ever gets lost in translation from instrument to instrument, player to player, or whatever.

OKS: If you had to sit down and talk it out as a band, what band would you say informed your music directly?

Moran: Like our biggest influence? I’d have to say probably a band like Manchester Orchestra. Very direct rock ’n’ roll with Southern sound and a distinct keyboard.

OKS: Who wrote the lyrics? You?

Moran: Yeah, that was me. It was an interesting feeling to write all the lyrics for a record.

OKS: Had you never done that before?

Moran: I had, just mostly for my personal music before. Never with a band.

OKS: So were you apprehensive going into it?

Moran: It honestly did, because these other guys are really great musicians. I didn’t want to do them a disservice. I didn’t want them to walk away thinking, “This should change, that should change.”

OKS: Did anybody else in the band try to offer advice on the lyric-writing, or do they understand it to be your thing?

Moran: They leave it to me, but they’re very free with the advice on the vocal melodies.

Listen to The Typist’s first album, “Midwestern High Life,” below. You can download it for $5.

O Fidelis — “Mad World”
Normally, married Okie folkers’ songs occupy the opposite side of the emotional spectrum as this 1982 Tears for Fears track (which you might recall that Gary Jules covered for the cult film “Donnie Darko”), but this cover suits them quite nicely, I think.



Dr. Pants — “Calling Chewbacca”

Don’t neglect to read the story behind this one. It’s a doozy.


Two Suns — “Not the End” and “Nostalgic”
“Dream Familiar,” the debut LP from Jake Davidson’s Norman recording project Two Suns, is now up to five tracks available for listening in his ongoing-release model. Check ’em out, as well as our review of the entire record.



Larry Chin — “Days and Nights”
While not a new song, this dreamy, drippy guitar track from Kyle Mayfield (né Larry Chin) is now available for free download, with the message that he’s working on a new EP. Gives a new meaning to the phrase “chin music.” Anyway, this one gives a local lease on the excellent major indie band Real Estate.


Jack White — “Love Interruption”
Let’s just say I liked Jack White better when he sported red and white and distorted blues guitar. This clarinet-blue-shaving-thing just isn’t working out for me.


Dr. Dog — “Be the Void”
OKSee’s groovier, hippie tendencies got really excited last week when we found out Delo Creative shot the video for the first single on this record. With the whole album now available to hear, we’re happier than a dog off his leash.

Shearwater — “Animal Joy”
Looking for a high-concept indie record about nature? Look no further.

Air— “Le Voyage Dans La”
This first track “Astronomic Club” goes from sounding like My Morning Jacket’s weird single “Holding On to Black Metal” into some kind of oddball spaghetti Western twang. Welcome back, Air.

Fucked Up — “Zodiac”
A couple of rare tracks from Canadian hardcore sextet about the Chinese zodiac. Nifty.

So this way-cool, beautifully shot Jabee music video premiered at this past weekend’s 2012 Addy Awards as part of a campaign “to educate advertisers about the wealth of quality original musical available to them for their local advertising campaigns.” To date, OKSee has never agreed more vigorously with a press release.

It goes on: “When musicians are supported by the arts AND the business communities, the likelihood of them being able to attempt to make a full-time career in music here, rather than Nashville, Austin, LA, et al goes up = economic and cultural stimulus.” Boo-yah!

So yeah, 200 thumbs up to producer/director Digital DK and creative director Robot House Creative for this one, which has Jabee spitting his love for his hometown all over said hometown.

The fun doesn’t stop there. The aforementioned campaign came with a two-disc, 37-track compilation of local songs that you can download for free! Artists included are Broncho, Sherree Chamberlain, O Fidelis, The Rockettops, Horse Thief, Zach Winters, Crocodile and plenty more!

Speaking of Jabee, dude’s just announced a Kickstarter project to fund his next album, and he’s aiming high. Like, $25k high. Watch and donate: