Going live with The Giraffes and Hank and Cupcakes

Did you know you can watch indie rock bands play full sets every Saturday night at 12:30 AM on Fox, and then vote on them? Well, you can. Or you can just go to Crash Mansion every month and see them in person, which is what I did last night.

Fearless Music is a critter hosted by Jamie Lamm, who interviews the bands onstage (although Tuesday it usually devolved into a lot of name-calling and anatomical references, but that probably won't get aired). Brooklyn hardcore-ish boozers The Giraffes headlined, which kind of explains that, as well as why everyone, including singer Aaron Lazar, were smoking inside during the show. I have my own theories about Lazar, who according to legend (i.e. Wikipedia) suffered two heart attacks in 2005. At age 26, that has to put him near the top of the Keith Richards scale of hard living. But I strongly suspect, for all of his larger-than-life swaggering, that he must have some background in musical theater. Or maybe that's only because he reminds me of Adam Lambert. Or that guy who played Sky Masterson in that Arizona Repertory Theatre production of Guys & Dolls I worked on, a long time ago in another life.

In any case, his singing voice rips it up, especially last night, and on "Prime Motivator," 2008's fourth full-length album, a nothing-to-lose, edge-of-death collection of songs that make you think that maybe it isn't all just an act.

Mp3 - The Giraffes - Done (via Metal Injection)

Then we come to Hank and Cupcakes. They're just two people, Cupcakes, a charming girl and Hank, a handsome guy, from Israel-by-way-of-Australia. When they get onstage, and she starts commanding her drumsticks and shimmying her shoulders, presiding over her drum kit like a Greek temple goddess, they become so much more. They just now released the EP "Pleasure Town," a truly fearless record that plucks up handfuls of good-time soul and darkened '80s pop, stringing them all together with Cupcakes' ribbonlike vocals and Hank's masterful manning of bass-gone-electro, creating so much sound you wonder just how they pull it off. Maybe with a little magic lipstick?

Even better, as an exclusive treat to Indichik readers, they're offering us the chance to stream three tracks from "Pleasure Town." Click below to listen!

Hank and Cupcakes - Pleasure Town, Sweet Potion, She's Lost Control (Joy Division cover) (from Pleasure Town EP)


They play again later this week, Thursday at 9 at Death by Audio.