by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

I’m known by some for my predictions. Here’s one for you: This time next year, Thick Paint will be in Austin performing at South By Southwest. That is, if they ever get around to recording and releasing a proper album.

Rumors have been bandied about for years about which record label this band will end up on (one hot take had Saddle Creek Records in the mix). Yet, here we are so many years into their existence and still no formal label release, though there was a digital self-release that came out in 2019 that doesn’t sound anything like they do today.

Thick Paint just released a two-song single last Friday, “Zaddy Mountain” b/w “Infographic Rain” (linked below this review), that does sound like the band I heard last night at a packed Reverb Lounge. While there were a lot of vintage references heard in their music, no modern band sounds quite like them.

These days Thick Paint has a distinctively proggy style that’s a throwback to early ’80s Robert Fripp-fueled King Crimson, complete with repetitive, asymmetric, layered guitar lines that are both percussive and trance-inducing. At the same time, there’s a weird combination of traditional ‘70s rock structures mixed with avant-garde, almost Beefheart-ian sounds. Add Graham Ulicny’s unique, high-end vocal delivery that ranges somewhere between Geddy Lee and Supertramp’s Rick Davies (and at other times, seemingly channeling Infidels-era Dylan on the more traditional stuff) and you’ve got something special.

That’s a lot to take in, but it all works. And if the music was released on an album, I’d buy it. But it isn’t, and who knows when it will ever be. One assumes those two new tracks are part of a larger session, recorded at Enamel Studios here in Omaha and mixed at world-famous Chase Park Transduction in Athens, GA, by former Reptar member Ryan Engleberger (Reptar is Ulicny’s old band, too). Some record label needs to get the horn with these folks and sign them so my prediction will come true.

By the way, the scheduled show opener, And How, was a no show, which we figured out after waiting 20 minutes for their set to start. Super disappointing. I stuck around for a couple Masonjixx songs, but had to go to work early this morning, so…

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It’s St. Patrick’s Day and what could be more traditionally Irish than to go to The Sydney in Benson tonight for hardcore punk band BIB. The band is kicking off a lengthy tour that eventually will take them to a date playing the world-famous St. Vitus Bar in Brooklyn. But you can see them here tonight for a mere $10. Glow opens at 10 p.m. No doubt green beer will be served.

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Read Tim McMahan’s blog daily at Lazy-i.com — an online music magazine that includes feature interviews, reviews and news. The focus is on the national indie music scene with a special emphasis on the best original bands in the Omaha area. Copyright © 2022 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.