Kurt Vile & the Violators

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More About

• The War on Drugs (Band)
• Velvet Davenport
• Robert Pollard
• Arts, Entertainment, and Media
• Psychoactive Drugs

Not shockingly new, just blazingly beautiful, Kurt Vile's take on post-Velvets/Stooges pop sounds like Robert Pollard dreaming the Clean: His four-dozen-odd tracks released over the past couple of years seesaw between reverb-spanked folk finger-picking and reverb-ravaged psychedelia, as striking in crackerjack lo-fi seclusion as with his backing band, the Violators. (Vile also plays guitar in Philadelphia's the War on Drugs.) Listen to "Freeway," from his 2008 debut, Constant Hitmaker, or "My Sympathy," from this year's mini-LP God Is Saying This to You..., to get a sense of why Matador was so excited to release his new album, Childish Prodigy. He's more musician than songwriter still—you know you're reaching when your best tune is a cover of Richard Hell's "Monkey"—but few in the genre know how to use a tape recorder more expressively, or have so much talent to "ruin." With Velvet Davenport and Haunted House. 18+. (Photo by Shawn Brackbill)
Wed., Oct. 14, 8 p.m., 2009