Sweat Records In-Stores This Week: Animal Tropical and John Hancock Tonight, Roofless Records Tomorrow

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via myspace.com/animaltropicalmusic

​For a while there, especially around the summer of 2008, you couldn't go to PS14 -- or any of those usual Miami local-oriented events -- without running into the Down Home Southernaires.Their name never made sense, but what did click was their sort of Talking Heads-esque absorption of world beat and indie rock, way before Vampire Weekend did it, and with a much more swampy feel. It was rock enough for the hipsters but crossed genres enough for the fringes of the Latin-fusion types.

Then, DHS suddenly disappeared... But wait! They resurfaced recently, with what appears to be exactly the same lineup, and a similar approach to sound. The new name is Animal Tropical, and as that group they released an EP in 2009 called Doom Years that shouldn't have been so slept on. You can download the whole thing for free over here at the Sweat Records blog.

By the way, after this gig they're heading up to the northeast to play a few shows around New York, Philly, and D.C., including one slot at Bruar Falls in Brooklyn. That's where Surfer Blood was playing when someone from Stereogum randomly caught them, thus setting off their whole 2k9/10 hype chain in motion. Will blog luck strike twice?

John Hancock also plays tonight -- he's half of Awesome New Republic, so if you ever read this blog then you'll know he also entertains.

But wait again! That's not the only in-store at Sweat this week.

Wednesday, the place hosts a wallet-friendly showcase put on by Roofless Records, a new vinyl and tape label/all-around creative stable that's been putting on all kinds of experimental, lo fi events around town. (If you've ever wandered into an event by the American Legion it was probably either them or the So Raw crowd.) This time at Sweat they're putting on the excellent local garage-rockers Melted Sunglasses, as well as the unclassifiable Night of Weirds mainstays hahahelp, plus an actual touring band, Thunderhole, from "Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts." That's Boston, as explained by people who want to make sure everyone knows they're from a hipster part of town.

Animal Tropical and John Hancock, Tuesday, January 5. Sweat Records, 5505 NE 2nd Ave., Miami. Show starts at 8:30 p.m., admission is free. 786-693-9309; sweatrecordsmiami.com

Roofless Records presents Melted Sunglasses, hahahelp, and Thunderhole. Wednesday, January 6. Show starts at 8 p.m., admission is $3.