hochimen @ lola's 6th, 3.26.2009

reggie rueffer of the hochimen has more songs i love than any songwriter i know (with the possible exception of carey wolff), replete with captivating melodies, smart lyrics, and interesting structures (he's an ex-smu orchestra geek who digs mahler, after all, besides having fiddled for ray price, johnny bush, and charlie pride). his intermittently-active rock band's debut disc totenlieder ("which, as we all know, means 'songs about death' in german") is one of my all-time faves, and the sophomore ceedee tierra del gato is no slouch, either. and he's gotten to the point where he's claiming _all_ of his past, including a few spot toons in the mix. (he's even threatening to dip back into the mildred songbag, but we'll see.) also dig the way his brother chad (ex-speedtrucker) and ed mcmahon (ex-ten hands) seem to intuitively fill different spaces, gtr-wise -- chad's real clean and melodic, while unt jazz guy ed employs distortion, dissonance, and feedback to good effect. and the new drummer (whose name i missed, duh) sounded even better than pete young -- more crisp and hard-hitting -- even though this was only his second gig. they played all my faves (except "my lame ass"), including a couple that i don't recall hearing them essay live before ("in an old house," "death in captivity") and there were still a fair number of folks -- equally divided between spot/hcm fans and fans of the rueffers' country stuff from pearl's -- in the house by the time they quit. if you weren't there, you missed it.