Cures for wintertime blues

Warwick - So, year ’05 is over. Pretty soon it will be time to binge eat our New Year’s resolutions away and forget all of our “top five of ’05” lists. It was the year with a ring to it, and it had its bearable moments. Now we are in ’06. Not Route 66 or the number of the beast, just a solitary six. However, this is no time to mope because the shows at the Warwick Valley Community Center on Friday, Jan. 6, and Friday, Jan. 13, will be sure to make it into your “top five of ’06.” The shows are set for 7 p.m. on the 6th and 6:30 p.m. on the 13th. Both shows cost $5. Here is the lineup for Jan. 6: • Panda Dafetus: Young, Warwickian, half-Japanese and brutal. These seemingly unimportant details are what first comes to mind when encountering this bamboo hording, angst ridden four-piece. Grind is what they play and loud is how they play it. Panda Dafetus is aural cotton candy for fans of Napalm Death, Brutal Truth and Melt Banana. However, underneath their neon, sugary, endearing exterior is a deafening and unapologetic wallop of blast-beats, shrieks and distortion. (myspace.com/pandadafetus) • The Bonnie Situation: Punk rock, Pulp Fiction and pubescence are just the tip of the ice-berg here. This band is about playing hard, being mad and not singing nice. The Bonnie Situation is a tight, high-energy catharsis, much akin to Minor Threat, NOFX and early Black Flag. Featuring members of Panda Dafetus. (myspace.com/thebonniesituationny) • Stereo Fever: Innocent kids sporting unruly haircuts. Watch as these local punk rock water testers make a re-appearance at their alma-matter, the Doc Fry Building. Come for the lighthearted song titles, stay for the hope of getting information that has yet to appear on their Web site. (www.stereofever.com) • Mental Spanking: Do you know what it’s like to be humiliated? Try to visualize the unpleasant feeling in the form of sonic radiation. Good. We’re getting somewhere, somewhere close to a description. About Mental Spanking, I know they are local and probably not mental. (myspace.com/mentalspankingny) • Razbari Sumthing: This band is refreshing, despite lacking the presence of citrus they promise in their sweet and palpable name. It’s not their fault. They wear nice suits, drive a long way and have real shiny horns. Plus, Ska bands are so hard to come by today. (www.razsum.com) • Zen: Get ready to indulge in some rock that is past the point of hiding femininity. It’s not awkward it just is what it is, an all-girl rock band. Zen and Panda have it out for each other. The up-beat, danceable and positive rock Zen plays is up against Panda D’s underage and fetishistic grind core. Warwick may never be the same again. (myspace.com/zenmusic) College student Jesse Heffler supplied this preview. A preview of the the Friday the 13th program will appear in next week’s Warwick Advertiser.