SHOW PREVIEW: T.C. Costello

It’s not surprising that there is someone like T.C. Costello making music now, however I am still surprised that it’s taken someone this long to combine all of these influences into one cohesive mold. Taking the Eastern-European Gypsy influence which has slowly been permeating it’s way into our current musical climate, with the lyrical bite of Jello Biafra and the silly-to-be-silly tone of The Frogs Costello crafts a bevy of unique songs on his album simply entitled “Mistakes”. If Franz Nicolay formerly of The Hold Steady got rip-roaring drunk, I would expect something of this nature to occur.

Earlier this year, after being based in Berlin, Costello did a Central European tour dubbed “The Unimpressive European Tour.” Upon getting back to the states, he played a show at the Ulu’Katu Festival in North Carolina. In addition to his solo endeavors he has also been playing with one of our site favorite’s, Wasted Wine, with which he will be playing with in Asheville the 11th. Then he will be back in Greenville at Smiley’s on the 12th playing solo.

You can check out his latest album on bandcamp here, and it is available for download for $5. The disc features him playing 13 different instruments including (in order of apperance): classical guitar, accordion, xaphoon, acoustic guitar, angkuouch, electric guitar, piano, toy piano, beatbox, gwaengeori, cutlery flute, melodica,and the bamboo flute. I don’t even know what some of these are, but I won’t contest his claims! The German edition was released in February, and the American edition was released in June.

Again you can catch his one-man show at Smiley’s in Greenville this Saturday the 12th. If nothing else feel free attend to watch the regular Smiley’s patrons scratch their heads and try to figure out what it is exactly they’re seeing!