Stardeath and White Dwarfs w/ The Phantom Family Halo

While acid punk purveyors Stardeath & White Dwarfs are often mentioned in the same sentence as their friends The Flaming Lips – as both hail from Oklahoma, tour together, and just released their collaborative re-imagining of Dark Side of the Moon late last year – the strength of their debut, The Birth, and their theatrical live show stands on its own merits. Stardeath & White Dwarfs’s brand of fuzzed-out psychedelia gives up “what up” nod to The Swirlies, Spacemen 3, The Helio Sequence, Black Moth Super Rainbow, and Grandaddy, and synthesizes such celestial meditations into a personable, danse galactic party atmosphere. The group has melted faces worldwide supporting the likes of Deerhoof, British Sea Power, and Explosions in the Sky. Stardeath is currently on tour with The Flaming Lips, and will perform Dark Side of the Moon in its entirety during their headlining slot at this year’s Bonnaroo. Hence, you need to see them in an intimate and amazing atmosphere on the Glassworks Rooftop, with their trippy visual show, the Louisville skyline, and a beautiful May evening as the backdrop. Rarely is space rock this much fun, so do not miss ‘em! (Stardeath and White Dwarfs on the MySpaces)

Get your dome blown open by Phantom Family Halo, and hide the women and children. Phantom Family Halo dropped their sprawling 2LP post-apocalyptic lament on Karate Body last fall called Monoliths & These Flowers Never Die. It’s evil. While the entire body of work can be classified as psych garage rock or acid rock, the record’s all over the place within the parameters of “brain burning.” A bit of Warp-worthy ambient explorations here, a bit of krautrock motorik rhythms there… and then insanely reverberated crunchy guitars ascend from the primordial ooze scary enough to make Fever Ray poo her trou. If you love Brian Jonestown, Loop, Six Organs of Admittance, Boris, and the like, Phantom Family Halo is essential for you. These dudes are sonic warriors. The group just finished up big support slots with Russian Circles and Young Windows. And just last week they smoked WFPK’s Live Lunch. Did they tone down for the midday crowd? Hell no. The band ripped a 20-minute jam session with Steve Good from Sapat, summoning some serious Meddle-era Floyd and Faust shit (and probably provoking some listeners at the $150 level to turn off their office radios, so high fives all around). Hard truths were learned, and Phantom took up teaching duties with panache.

And I just found out that two of the dudes work at my favorite video store, Wild & Wooly Video… which means that two of the dudes from my favorite Louisville act know about all the Freddy Prince Jr. flicks I rent. BUMMER!

Before, between, and after the sets, look for a rotating cast of Louisville scaliwags hitting the DJ decks, spinning joints you love and hate and taking no requests (maybe they’ll take requests).

This show is also brought you by Crash Avenue, the good folks at Transpanther Group, and viewers like you. Major thanks to Papalino’s Pizza for providin’ some pies for our guys. Ya’ll don’t get none, though. Start a band if you’re tryin’ to grip that ‘za. Just joshin’… I’ll save you some pizza.

Stardeath & White Dwarfs with Phantom Family Halo happens Saturday, May 8th on the rooftop garden of the 10-story Glassworks in downtown Louisville. This event is all ages. There will be a cash bar for those old enough to challenge their liver. Advanced tickets are only $8, and you can get ‘em at Brown Paper Tickets, as well as at ear X-tacy