They Shoot Horses show trashy

Independent record label Kill Rock Stars has acted, and still acts, as the home for lists of artists with high acclaim and notoriety including The Decemberists, Sleater Kinney, Elliot Smith and Deerhoof. Somewhere in this swirl of indie heavyweights lie multiple unique and weird bands who don’t quite catch on. They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? is one of these bands.

For some reason, the band is one I’m drawn to even though production problems made their debut album a bit lackluster.

There was something unchained and bizarre in it that grabbed my attention. It is for that reason that I booked them to play here last Wednesday.

They arrived only to unload their laundry at the Steynberg Gallery and jet over to my house for a quick pasta dinner. Their lead singer, Josh, is listed on their Web site by the name Nut Brown, and he’s a skinny, bearded man. Four other band members wandered in with him: a soft-spoken heavier keyboardist, two dark-haired brass instrument wielders, and a skinny blonde drummer who usually plays with You Say Party! We Say Die!

The crew seemed extremely thrown together and lacked the stylized appearance that tends to pervade most bands.

When they took the stage though, They Shoot Horses became a crazed back-alley jazz band. Band members strewed a bag of assorted trash across the floor and played blocks of wood, metal rings and broken guitars as extra percussion.

A saxophone and a trumpet blasted from the floor where their players would alternately move between their instruments and whatever garbage they found.

The keyboardist – who frequently wanders off by himself for hours – swelled with intensity and howled out lyrics along with Nut Brown while rocking back and forth. All this flew out among awesome drumming from Bruce Dyck, whose other band has toured with The Blood Brothers and Pretty Girls Make Graves. Peter Steynberg, owner of the Steynberg Gallery, pointed out the drumming as a highlight.

In concert, their songs picked up the frenzy and wildness that their album doesn’t show. “The Bugs” inspired woodsy dancing that the recordings don’t quite seem to convey and the new songs from their upcoming album filled out the set nicely.

With the performance over, they returned to an assortment of various musicians. Conversation during the rest of the night pointed out the differences as cans of Coors piled up. Bruce finds the love in ’90s music and hates Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin. Josh defends these bands although he mainly focuses on how awesome “Dark Side of the Moon” is when synched up with “The Wizard of Oz.” The quiet keyboardist is really the main one who seems to jive along with my indie music trivia, which I spew out whenever I have a conversation with anyone.

The point is, this band looks and acts like a bunch of street performers found in a weird part of town. Pick up whoever you can: a crazy drummer, an introverted piano man, a saxophone and a bag of trash. Then if you got a guitar, man, you got yourself a band.

Show Tip: Chamber folk band All My Pretty Ones will be playing the Steynberg Gallery Wednesday night. The Bloody Heads will be playing at Downtown Brewing Co. on Friday.