Paranoid Time | Being | Rusalka | Taskmaster | Godless Girl | So Boring (Majestic Dwelling of Doom) This show is presented by Rob Buttrum of House Of Tinnitus, and as always, he threw a few words on the Facebook invite to describe each performance to break down the style of noise each act plays, as only he could. What follows are his descriptions for each act, with some notes on each.
Paranoid Time - Rob says: "HARSH AS FUCK. BRUTAL LOWS AND PUNISHING HIGHS."
Aye yai yai, sounds like my last relationship!
Being - "HARSH AS FUCK. INTENSE STATIC WALLS."
Apparently, this act is going to be extremely harsh.
Rusalka - "HARSH AS FUCK. MINIMAL WALLS OF NOISE."
So is this one. Except minimally.
Taskmaster - "HARSH AS FUCK. CRUMBLING WALLS OF HARSH NOISE.
And this one. Except crumblingly.
Godless Girl - "HARSH AS FUCK. THICK WALLS."
Ok, and this one. Except thickly.
So Boring - "HARSH AS FUCK, FACE RIPPING, WEIRD NOISE."
Alright, finally, so will this one. Except weirdly. Beats "brutal," right?
One more thing: "So Boring" is a great name and they have an even better Myspace URL.
I don't know too much about this style of metal played by Mammoth Grinder but I will tell you about this one time I was in a museum having a delightful discussion about Mammoths native to the North American region when...nah I'm just joshing ya no personal story to go along with today's posting. This show is starting early, around 8:30, so if you want to catch it get there early. Evidently everyone is trying to get out early so they can go to Gamestop to pick up a John Madden football game at midnight. Seriously? I thought the genre peaked with Joe Montana Sports Talk Football.
special show alert: alexander robotnick is playing in dallas this week so don't be a moron and miss it
Italo Disco icon Alexander Robotnick (real name, Maurizio Dami) is playing for the first time ever in Dallas on Friday, and you should do what you can to make it out to this extremely rare performance. Robotnick's career began with the quirky "dance cabaret" act Avida, whose 1981 seven-inch is quite different from most of his work, but still worth checking out.
He first gained underground notoriety with the single "Problemes D'Amour" which became a set-staple at important New York spots such as The Loft and The Paradise Garage. After producing a number of Italo classics he went on to do collaborative multimedia work in art and theater productions, and eventually branched out into more world music territory.
Thankfully, his current performances seem to focus more on the era in which he made his name. Not only was I told by a friend that had the privilege of recently performing with him in London that he was amazing live (especially at his age), but I was impressed by this "live edit" take on Charlie's "Spacer Woman" at a recent performance in Russia.
This show show was originally at an art studio, but has since been moved to Brooklyn Jazz Cafe, located at 1701 South Lamar in Dallas. Event is presented by Fresco & Axel.
One of two terrific experimental/noise/whatever shows to happen in Denton this week, the other being the Doom show Tuesday with RUN DMT/Take up Serpents. Tuesday's show was so far my favorite show of the summer, with Ariel Pink and Quintron close contenders. Perfect mix of the unexpected, audience coagulation and sweat. I gave a stranger a ride home after the show which ended sometime after 3am. The entire ride their eyes were wide open in post shock from the nights performances, or possibly some DMT that was consumed earlier. We discussed how difficult it is to pin point what exactly it is about these live experiences that are so enthralling. The general consensus was the power they have to bring people together to experience a performance that most would never dream of attending. But back to this show. Experimental Birthday Band features members of Ghostcar while ...Deflowered Electric Flesh Bride features Aaron Gonzalez. I'm sure tonight will end up like a avant-garde version of Hee-Haw with members on and off the stage at various times. Recommended.
The show starts at 9pm and it is requested that you leave the premises promptly after the show is over so the cops don't show up. This is a great place for shows and we all want these to happen more often don't we? So don't be a dummy and linger in the street trying to pick up half drunken girls, get over to Dan's cause I bet the show will still be going on over there. If you are lucky I bet you can convince the girls to follow you.
Curvette remind me of the experimental instrumental stuff that came out of the early nineties via Chicago like Gastr del Sol or Tortoise but with a dirtier southern grace. I can get bored easily by music of this type but these guys have a energy more akin to a jazz trio that keep the songs exciting from the get go. The songs seem tailored made for live performance and crowd surfing.
The other contender for weekender video was of course Nervous Curtain's All Yesterday's Parites. A very well done and funny video. Could this be a break out single for Nervous Curtains, I am putting twenty dollars down that they will be opening for Norah Jones next year.
Happy Birthday | Residual Echoes | Fungi Girls (The Nightmare) Happy Birthday certainly seemd to be a band for the age of the MP3 blog, snapped up and signed by Sub Pop after a mere three gigs and a few tracks floating around the internet (most noteably "Girls FM," the song that earned them a lot of their early praise and buzz). Its a sensational overnight success story for sure, and its almost enough to make you forget that the group's music actually sounds like little more than a lo-fi Fountains of Wayne and Beulah rip off, but it all kind of makes sense when you think about it-- for bloggers and other industry fringe types, Happy Birthday is as sure a bet as you'll find: a brand new band of fresh faced goof balls doing a slightly off center version of very digestable pop music that's catchy enough to possibly result in a blogger receiving credit for "breaking" them to the world, but just "quirky" enough to maintain credibility if the group doesn't go over all that well, meaning that the "hey its just my personal taste bro" defense can be invoked if a blogger gets called out for promoting something boring and/or derivative. Just like a lot of the bands getting shoved down our throats these days (Best Coast, Tame Impala, The National, Titus Andronicus, etc.), Happy Birthday certainly has some things going for it, including a few stand out tracks and a boatload of good intentions, but at the end of the day, the experience of actually listening to them doesn't even come to close to what you'd expect if you read the sloppy, overenthusiastic fan-boy slop that constitutes much of underground music journalism these days. Who would have thought that the "democritization" of the media would lead to the promotion of such middle of the road music? And its good to see Fungi Girls back in town after a brief tour.
