Hometown rocker Angela Lese, who now resides in Nashville, is coming north on Friday, Dec. 7, to perform at the Brass Rail with her new band, Taco Mouth. The Leo High School graduate has returned on a couple occasions with the Raelyn Nelson Band and her previous band The Dead Deads. With Taco Mouth, she is drumming to some old-school, angsty rock n’ roll and has never sounded so good.
She is surrounded by vocalist/guitarist Erica Sellers (ex-The Dead Deads), lead guitarist Shawn Hammer (engineer of Chevelle, Conor Oberst, Cursive) and bassist Flip Cooper (Damon Johnson, Brother Cane). Together, the band has performed a number of gigs in Nashville and beyond, not to mention opening for Beasto Blanco and the supergroup MC50. In October, Taco Mouth released their first full-length allbum, A Deafening Silence, which was produced by Michael Wagener (Dokken, Metallica, Skid Row, etc.).
“It’s a throwback to ’60s, CBGB rock days mixed with pop hooks,” Lese said. “The music will get you moving and the lyrics will get you thinking.”
The band plans to tour their tails off to support this haymaker of an album and we’re very fortunate that Fort Wayne is one of their stops. Lese shared with me that they will be doing the SXSW festival in Austin next year and hopefully hit Europe in the fall.
“I’m really happy and only good things are coming for both my bands,” Lese said.
Taco Mouth will share the Rail stage that evening with local stalwarts Wolfbearhawk and Streetlamps for Spotlights. If you’re into The Ramones, The Runaways, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and Awolnation, you’ll LOVE Taco Mouth. If anything, come out to give Lese a warm welcome and witness her all-out aural assault on the skins.
Speaking of returns, rockabilly frontman Nic Roulette will be strolling through town on Sunday, Dec. 23, to also play the Brass Rail with his band Hillbilly Casino. He too is now based out of Nashville and continues to make music and tour like a wildman with the highly caffeinated Casino. The band is returning for the Hillbilly Casino Christmas Spectacular which has become quite the local Xmas tradition the last few years. It will be a night full of the bands hits and Christmas classics in pure Casino fashion. This will be an early show with things kicking off at 7 p.m. so make sure to plan accordingly.
Members of the ever-popular The B45’s recently launched a couple of new projects. Uncle Muscle is the latest creation from the rhythm section of The B45’s: Colin Taylor, Sam Clay, and Kellen Baker. The guys only have a couple of shows under their belts thus far, including a Record Store Day Black Friday performance at Neat Neat Neat Records.
As for The B45’s guitarist and lead vocalist Ben Tarr, he currently resides in Los Angeles. That’s right, Tarr along with Jacqueline Victoria (My Apollo) headed west a few months ago. There, they started a new pop act called Jacquie. The duo has already released a couple singles as well as a music video for “Something New,” which can be found on YouTube.
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