Lawrence.com

The Family Curse play heavy, heavy music that's earned comparisons to Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Butthole Surfers but is borderline industrial in its icy delivery and regimented beat programming. Singer Megan Tweed and guitarist Marc Tweed trace their roots back to the Lawrence band Amputatoe and the Kansas City band The Hearers; The Family Curse is currently based in San Francisco. The band recently shot a video with help from Lawrence expatriate Brandon Joseph Baker:Rather than resorting to retro reverence, Roman Numerals embrace creative revisionism: the sound of the past informed by the future, as if Big Black had visited early-'80s era Gang of Four in a vision, or if the ghost of Fugazi had haunted Modern English. The Kansas City band is earning a dedicated following thanks to its incendiary live sets, which promise plenty of get-off-yer-seat-and-hustle rock from former members of Season to Risk and Shiner. The group recently unveiled its debut self-titled album on Kansas City's Anodyne Records. Sideman extraordinaire Eric Mardis (Split Lip Rayfield, Floyd the Barber, Jesus Christ Superstar) is embracing a frontman role with a newly minted six-piece lineup. Featuring Floyd the Barber mates Ryan Johnson (drums) and Dan Pem (sax) as well as Ted Kritikos (keys), Jason Jones (guitar) and Chris Shaw (bass), the veteran outfit has already cooked up more than two hours of Mardis-conceived freakouts. Like Frank Zappa on 'roids, the animated sextet plows through hard rock, fast-pick country and jazz fusion. Like all of Mardis's projects, it's sure to be a whoopin' good time.