Cassavetes @ Lenny's tonight (ATL)

I have a busy day ahead of me, but I plan to stop by Lenny's tonight to catch Cassavetes before I crash. My first live Cassavetes show came just last week at Corndogorama, when I arrived at The EARL shortly after they started playing. I liked what I heard, so I'm eager to check out a full show.

Cassavetes is a quartet of indie-rockers from Atlanta who've been playing together over the past couple years. They complement the usual guitar/bass/drums setup with horns and keyboards. Reading through their list of influences is a bit like browsing my own CD collection -- Wilco, The Walkmen, Constantines, Flaming Lips, Broken Social Scene, and Neutral Milk Hotel are among the bands cited as as influences on their MySpace page. While my memory is fuzzy of the live show last week (too many bands, too little time) they seem to straddle the indie rock/pop line.

Cassavetes has a forthcoming album, Funny Story, due out on Headphone Treats in mid-July, and I'm told by those "in the know" that it will be the bee's knees. For now, here are a couple of older Cassavetes tracks (demos, I presume?) courtesy of their website:

Cassavetes - My Heart Your Beat
Cassavetes - An Ancient Mistake

I have to say, the delivery of that opening line in "An Ancient Mistake" totally made me think of Chris Cornell. I haven't figured out exactly who plays what yet, but I'll try to get that down tonight. I'm sure Tessa from Drive a Faster Car can chime in with that info.

They're playing with Tova Rinah & the Way Home and Moorish Idols tonight. If you're gonna be at Lenny's, say hello.

ELSEWHERE...

The Fiery Furnaces & Man Man show tonight in DC will be broadcast on NPR. The story is here with more info. Man Man for the masses!