Want to go see Health this Thursday night at Club Dada? I bet your hip ass is all over that shit. But as we all know, the only thing cooler than seeing a cool band is being on the guest list at the cool band show, so here's your chance to outcool the cools: we have a FREE pair of tickets to give away to the Health show courtesy of Parade of Flesh. Want win them? Email weshotjrtix@yahoo.com any time between now and Wednesday at Noon (If you already emailed us at our regular account, don't worry. Your names will be entered in the drawing too). Please include your full name in the body and title the email "Health." Good luck friends!
Other than the usual-- Cool Out at the Cavern, Jazz at the Amsterdam and Paul Slavens at Dan's, not much is happening today as far as I see. There's a "hardcore" show at Rubber Gloves tonight featuring a band called Cold World, which sort of reminds me of Suicidal Tendencies and Biohazard if their lyrics had been written by the kid from Old Skull.
1. Centro-Matic/South San Gabriel - Dual Hawks 2. Dove Hunter - The Southern Unknown 3. Mount Righteous - When the Music Starts
LAST WEEK'S GOOD RECORDS OVERALL TOP 20
1. Hold Steady - Stay Positive 2. Beck - Modern Guilt 3. Sigur Ros - Med Sud I Eyrum Vid Spilum 4. Ratatat - LP3 5. Less Than Jake - GNV FLA 6. Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes 7. Coldplay - Viva La Vida 8. Centro-Matic/South San Gabriel - Dual Hawks (LP) 9. Pattern Is Movement - All Together 10. Dove Hunter - The Southern Unknown 11. Abe Vigoda - Skeleton 12. Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (LP) 13. No Age - Nouns 14. Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes/Sun Giant (LP) 15. Coldplay - Viva La Vida (LP) 16. Beck - Modern Guilt (LP) 17. Karl Hector & The Malcouns - Sahara Swing 18. Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - Lie Down In the Light 19. Mount Righteous - When the Music Starts 20. MGMT - Time to Pretend
RECYCLED RECORDS TOP LOCAL AND NEW ARRIVALS
Tied for first this week:
Pinebox Serenade - Let the River Take them Home Record Hop - Pareidolia Uptown Bums - Uptown Bums EP
New Arrivals:
Beauxregard - When Balloons were Sleeves Febrifuge - Short Instance of Separation Fever Sleep - Fever Sleep
Akkolyte | The Genuine Imitations | Summer Salt | The Gravestones | Gorge | Rocket for Ethiopia (Carrolton Plaza Arts Center) The always fierce Akkolyte headlines this suburban punk rock show organized by members of the excellent Rocket for Ethiopia and some of their crew from Carrolton. Be sure to check out RFE's quality new material on their Myspace page.
Hieroglyphics (Granada Theater) Hip hop crew founded by Del Tha Funkee Homosapian in the early 90's makes an appearance at the Granada this evening. The group had a HUGE influence in late 90s underground rap circles, and you can hear this loud and clear in their music. You could maybe call this stuff a bridge between Tribe and Guru and later backpack heroes suck as Jurassic 5. Some of this stuff might sound a bit plain and watered down to today's hip hop audience, but shit is pretty solid.
Febrifuge CD Release Show with The Fuzzy Coos (Art 6) We'll have more on Denton's Febrifuge next week, but for now we can tell you that they'll be celebrating the release of the debut Febrifuge full length this evening. It's a pretty interesting CD too.
Beauty School Drop Out with The Fire Nation | Sticky Buns | Small Town Ruffians | Swamps of Sadness (Rubber Gloves) Last minute show put together by Promohomo that will apparently help him pay to go to Beauty School or something. Fuck Darfur man, THIS is charity.
Paper Jam feat. Schwa (Public Trust) This thing goes from 6-9pm and features a big sale of prints, some up to 40% off.
Time Bandits Party (Time Bandits) This party at one of Denton's quality botique stores (they focus on vintage fashion and a fantastic little vinyl collection) will feature free beer and vegan food, as well as 20% off clothes. Goes from 7-11 pm.
Nasher Sculpture Center Friday Night Films (Nasher) They'll be playing 80's classic Big this evening. The website is unclear as to when exactly it starts, but it says 6-11, and I'm guessing the movie will begin at sundown, right around 9pm.
SATURDAY
Dub Assembly 2 Year Anniversary feat. Hatcha (Green Elephant) The highlight of the weekend for us here at WSJR HQ. As Mundo discussed in our interview with him today, Hatcha is one of the original English dubstep pioneers, and could probably be considered a visionary within the genre. He is often credited with compiling and releasing the very first dubstep compilation mix (Dubstep Allstarts Vol. 1), and was a major force at Big Apple records in London, which served as the epicenter of the movement at its inception. Not only that, he was a regular on the legendary London pirate radio station Rinse FM, as well as a resident at Club Forward >>, which is widely considered to be the first club in London to concentrate on the bass heavy dubstep sound. Basically, you couldn't have this music without this guy, and it's a real privilege to have him here in town.
Marked Men | Birthday Suits | Wax Museums | Bad Sports (Rubber Gloves) If you've ever wanted to see the Marked Men, definitely make it out, as this is their last show for two years and it could even be longer than that due to guitarist and singer Jeff Burke's move to Japan. Arguably Denton's most successful punk export besides The Riverboat Gamblers, The Marked Men have made quite an impact with the diehard garage extremists that swear by distorted barre chords and two minute sing-alongs while absolutely hating everything else. That's somewhat of an exaggeration but the proud mood will be elevated, and this is the perfect lineup to send The Marked Men out on a locally supportive high note.
That's What's Hot (Fallout Lounge) After hearing a 20 minute Italo/synth pop/space disco/acid house mix from That's What's Hot like six months ago (it is not posted on their Myspace page), I've been wanting to hear more from these guys ever since. Tonight's free performance at Fallout is certainly one worth checking out, especially if you want to try dancing to something new-- which in this case is very rare old school dance tracks. No one else in DFW is doing quite the same thing these guys are.
Animal House 2 with The Kul | Damaged Goods | Sydney Confirm | Uzoy | Rayne | Prince William | Fishr Pryce (Doublewide) Quality local hip hop heavy show this evening featuring several of our favorites, including Prince William and Damaged Goods, who contributed an excellent track to our most recent Projection Compilation. Sydney Confirm's dance oriented electro pop and The Kul's fairly straight forward dance rock add a bit of spice to the mix. The Kul is pretty heavy on cheese and recycled riffs, but shit, this show is solid pretty much all the way through.
Dallas Observer Music Awards (Various locations, Greenville Ave.) Well, the one thing the Observer might have done right is selling all access passes that get you into all the showcases. This will help make it easy to catch the scattered few quality acts while helping patrons avoid sitting through one of these horribly planned shows in full.
So you've probably heard us talk quite a bit about Dallas Dubstep producer/DJ Jason Mundo over the past year and a half, and since his monthly Dubstep party, Dub Assembly, is celebrating its two year anniversary this saturday at the Green Elephant, we thought we'd let him speak for himself this time. For those who don't know, Mundo and the Dub Assembly crew were at the forefront of the Dubstep movement in the U.S. starting several years ago, and Mundo's production work has garnered critical praise across the board-- his work has been featured as the Boomkat single of the week, and he has received positive reviews in Wire, as well as many other reputable online publications. Mundo has emerged as one of the major movers and shakers in U.S. Dubstep, and although you might not have heard his name quite yet, we're pretty confident that you'll be hearing a lot more about him in 2008. We wanted to ask Mundo about his background as a DJ, the creation of the Dub Assembly crew, and his plans for the future. We were also excited to discuss the fact that Dub Assembly's two year anniversary will feature Hatcha, one of the pioneers of the movement. Here is what he had to say:
1. Could you tell us about the history of Dub Assembly--- who started it, when, why, etc. And could you tell us what your first few shows like?
I started the Dub Assembly concept in the spring of 2006 as a musical outlet for the dubbier and heavy bass sounds I was producing. And as a place where we could focus on and celebrate these Heavier sounds that we had been playing at Groovology, our UK Garage event since 2000. But previously we had mixed it in with the UKGarage & 2step of the day. At Dub Assembly we could zero in on it. I brought Lifted MC, Tiny, Keith P, and Royal Highnuss on board right away and its been wicked ever since. The first few shows starting in the summer of 2006 were at the old Sand Bar spot but quickly grew to where we could move it back Home…to the Green Elephant…5627 Dyer Street...home to Groovology since 2000..and home to Dub Assembly ever since.
2. Tell us about your backgrounds in English Dance music and how your interest in UKG, grime, etc, led to dubstep.
I grew up listening to Edge Club and loved the UK Bass sound and then followed its evolution and mutation over the years…UK Ardcore (what’s now called NuRave), Jungle, UK Garage, and now Dubstep. It’s the forward evolution of Bass. I still love all those genres and produce music for all those genres.
3. Could you tell us a little about the history of dubstep and how it was birthed in England?
In the late 90s early 2000-ish Dubstep started out as a deeper, heavier side to 2step garage, mostly non-vocal instrumentals, infused with UK Dubplate Culture. Dubstep evolved from UK Garage. But the UK Garage scene in England rejected the sound so they did their own events, separate from both Garage and Grime (which came long after dubstep). In Dallas and in the States we mixed Garage and Dubstep together back in 2000 but that didn’t happen in England. The scenes there were almost totally separate. Dubstep has continued to evolve, on its own, over the last 8 years or so, from its early roots as deeper garage, to a bare minimal phase in 2003, to the halfstep of 2005-2007, and its current lush sounds in 2008. There is a lot of variety of sound in the music, and that is its Strength. It draws on a lot of influences and therefore attracts a lot of people.
4. How did dubstep make its way over to the states? Any particular US pioneers worth mentioning?
The original UK Garage deejays in the States were spinning it in with their Garage sets as I said. There are about 20 individual names from the late 90s to 2004 but we were all on the “2step list”. A nationwide email list of the UKGarage and Dubstep deejays pushing the sound. The first real compilation (both dubstep and UKG) in N. America is “Transatlantic Bass”, a cd which can be found on cdbaby. com to this day. Check it out. We had 4 events at the WMC in Miami (2001-2004) where we first dropped UK Garage and dubstep on the WMC. This event was called “Transatlantic” and it was made up of deejays from the “2step list”. Names included T.S. Heritage from Miami and Boosted Records, Mundo from Dallas, Oron and Light Touch from Baltimore, DJ Joseph and Eric H from Iris Records in Chicago, Casper in Chicago, Cooper Bethea in NC, Jam 2 and G Notorious in Boston, Deepsix in Toronto, Skye Poier in Vancouver, Rama in Seattle, the Minnesota crew, Abstract in San Francisco, and Tomas from XLR8R in San Francisco and Voltage Records (the first N. American dubstep label with multiple releases). This was Generation One without a doubt. Many more came soon after but this was Generation One in N. America.
5. You sometimes hear people proclaim that dubstep is boring, probably because of the repetitiveness and lack of a dance beat. What is it about dubstep that interests you musically?
Dubstep is FAR from boring. It is quite varied drawing on Reggae, Techno, Dub, Garage, Drum n Bass, its beats are swung, sometimes half step, sometimes not, sometimes at 140bpm sometimes at 70 bpm, but it has those DEEP SUB BASS PULSES of UK Bass that draw everyone in, especially the girls. This is no midrange bass or bass-less electro. This is Subbass cabinet wrecking soul food that knocks bottles off the wall at the Green Elephant.
6. Do you think southern bass has had an influence on how you and your regional peers make music? Is this reflected in the music? Do you think southern US producers are doing something different with the music than their counterparts in England and the rest of the US?
Its hard to say. The Dirty South is clearly all around us so maybe it has influenced us, particularly when we produce the half-step sound. It is interesting though that each region in the US is doing different sounds even from that of England. The distance from each other breeds innovation.
7. Could you tell us about your record label and the successful releases you've had as a producer so far?
The Dub Assembly label has had 7 10” vinyl releases in a year and a half as well as several digital download releases that are found on itunes, beatport. com, digital-tunes. net, and many more. But we actually have a TON of releases coming out from the end of the Summer to the end of the year starting around the time of my Dub Assembly Unit One European Tour 2008.
8. Do you find it strange that you get so much more press in England than in your home town?
SF has always had XLR8R, LA has had URB, NYC has had several outlets in the past (and now XLR8R too), and London has had tons of outlets but ya know until We Shot Jr and Gorilla vs Bear were created Dallas didn’t have ANY vehicle for publicity for its artists other than Edge Club and that which is created by the artists themselves. So thanks to you guys for this interview ! Its all good man. I gotta give a lot of thanks and props to the DFW crowd for always coming out to my events in the past and present. Even when I have too many events in a month they keep attending and I gotta give thanks!
9. Assess the health of the Dallas electro/dance scene. Do you think Dallas is particularly fertile ground for the kind of music you are interested in?
Yes, Dallas has always supported the UK Bass sound for years. No matter what name is attached to it, Dallas supports proper Bass weight.
10. Do you think dubstep is doomed for niche status in the US, or do you think it could reach a more mass audience unlike grime was able to do?
Dubstep has had a slow STEADY climb since 2000 with a rapid acceleration since 2006. Unlike Grime and unlike Garage it has all the infrastructure in place for success: Quality Distribution of both physical and digital download product, a rabid unified fan base on one single forum: dubstepforum. com, easy access thru DOZENS of nationwide events and DOZENS of online radio shows, a sound that has stayed varied and continues to evolve without cornering itself for over 8 years, and a general overall happy and open demeanor of the people involved in it. Dubstep actually welcomes people. It includes not excludes people.
11. Can you tell us about Hatcha and why he is significant to dubstep? How did you land him here?
Hatcha is currently on tour in the US. He was one of the early Dubstep pioneers first as a deejay and soon after as a producer. He is based in London England and has a weekly dubstep radio show on Kiss FM. I first met him in 2002 when I pressed 300 white labels 12”s of “I Stand Rasta” at a UK facility and spent my whole vacation carrying boxes of records in my arms on the subway to all the record stores I could in 10 days. Hatcha worked at Big Apple Records, South London’s Legendary store that was primarily Dubstep, and I first met him there. Big Apple Records sold nearly 100 copies of “I Stand Rasta” on its own. It was spun by many including Jay da Flex, Kode 9, Cyrus, LWiz in Sweden, and 90 or so others that shopped or mail ordered from Big Apple hahaha, all the Stateside deejays mailordered from there! That store was legendary.
12. What are your immediate plans for the future of Dub Assembly?
The plans are ever sprawling. We have a dozen or more digital download releases on the label planned for this year. And I am going on a European Tour in September with events in Ayia Napa Cyprus, the Netherlands, Manchester England, Exeter England, Vienna Austria, Augsburg Germany, Galway Ireland, and then meeting up with team Unit One for a bass festival on an island in Magaluf Spain. We also have several T-shirts planned starting with the Anniversary t-shirt for sale at the show Saturday. And later T-shirts designed by the great Royal Highnuss. And then there’s another NYC event I am playing at on Nov 14, and a St. Louis event sometime around then too, and of course there are more monthly Dub Assembly events in Dallas and Denton…Tings are getting Serious and I want to thank everyone for the support because I truly appreciate it. Thanks !
Hands Up! with Nacotheque and The Party (The Loft) The Party brings yet another high concept touring act, this time it's the New York DJ Duo, Nacotheque. Nacotheque spins an entire Spanish-only set, consisting of one-hit-wonders, electro obscurities, Nouveau 80's, punk, and just about any underground sounds that avoid the mainstream Latin and Reggaeton pop that Telemundo presents. Starting off modestly in the respectable Cake Shop venue, the duo has gone on to be nominated for "Best Party In New York," and puts on shows from Monterrey to Madrid. Read the insightful interview conducted by Nature, here.
Simon Joyner | Sam Locke Ward | Sarah Jaffe | Delmore Pilcrow (715 Panhandle) About as far away as you can get from last week's show, this is a handful of folk and song-focused acts, although it looks like Chris Garver might be playing with band in tow. Omaha songwriter Simon Joyner has been touring and recording for the last fifteen years and has released records on Secretly Canadian and Jagjaguwar, though they're pretty much the same label. Joyner's clear, well annunciated singing creates an almost uncomfortable atmosphere over the 70's styled folk rock while managing to shake off the trappings of that era and sometimes even sounds like Lou Reed's more direct solo statements. Worth checking out and definitely the best place to see this or almost any kind of show.
80's Night With DJ G (Hailey's) At last week's 80's Night it occurred to me that I've heard "Let's Dance" probably five times as often as I did in 1983, when it was played on my parents' stereo non-stop.
Summer Smackdown [And/Or Gallery + House of Dang] It's movie night in the yard behind the building and they're showing Clueless. Bring your own chair + booze.
UT Dallas Lecture on Native American artist Allan Houser. I'm assuming this is some time in the evening, but no time is listed. [More Info] [UPDATED: it was at 10:00 AM]
Festival of Independent Theatres starts at Bath House Admittedly, I don't know anything about theater/re, but I don't even remotely recognize a single title or playwright in the list except Václav Havel, and only then because of his significance in Czech history. So, I guess this is pretty hardcore independent.
FRIDAY
Chiura Obata (featured picture) Holy crap! I just found this in the backlog. There's an exhibition going on through August 23 at the Wichita Falls Museum of Art of Chiura Obata's woodcuts of Yosemite National Park done in 1930. See some of his prints here. It's kind of like Hokusai meets Yosemite Sam. Really nice.
Paper Jam [The Public Trust] 2-Day print sale benefiting other good stuff. Party Friday from 6-9PM.
Carrollton DIY at the Plaza Arts Center (more info) Starting at 7:00 PM Friday, eight artists and six bands for $5. Promises to be "radical".
SATURDAY
"cool artist talk" [Barry Whistler Gallery] I swear, if I have to read one more summer event description that starts with "beat the heat", I'll... oh well: "Kirsten Macy and Robert Wilhite will both be talking about their current exhibitions [...] Topo Chicos* and chips will be provided." Saturday July 19 at 2:00 p.m. Unfortunately, the Barry Whistler site runs solely on Flash, and I can't really find much about Kirsten Macy because her name coincides with a b-list actress from the late 90's (same person?). However, Robert Wilhite's portfolio looks interesting, particularly the theater sets and housewares (check out the stainless steel place settings).
* this seems to be some kind of fancy bottled mineral water.
Closing at Craighead-Green Gallery: Jackson Hammack (great name, obvious Modigliani influence, still good) Jason Brown (abstract IKEA shelving on wall) Jeanie Gooden (nice acid-bath abstracts)
Maestros Tejanos: Benito Huerta Solo Exhibit [Latino Cultural Center] The last event I attended at Latino Cultural Center resulted in my stumbling around drunk until I spilled an entire plastic cup of red wine all over my favorite blue shirt. And all down my pants. And all over the floor. So, I looked around to make sure no one saw, and then quietly left by the side door. But man this is a really beautiful building with an incredible view of downtown, and they've done some really unique shows there. You might want to check this out (or events in the future).
BAD ARTIST STATEMENT EXCERPT OF THE WEEK [game points in bold]
Diversity of the capacity to break monotony and engage the hiden realms of energies and causes them to arise to communicate with the hiden realms of nature; Energies which cannot be explained/taught, they can 'only', be experience to commune/learnt; Art awakens the realms of these energies and process/evoke them in dialogue...; The.'spirit'is higher than the 'mind' and 'body',its metaphysical,which I focus on because of its intense abstract, philosophical,imaginative transcendentical power; This'spirit' permeates the pores of my concepts; My art expresses, my deep awareness of global and urban issues is counterbalanced with my cultural heritage; Inspiration:Life and the mental energy that creates the dialogue,leaps and spirals into the imaginative energy and breaks the Monatony...; To paint reality,not dreams because I don't know what dreams are;It is always clear what belongs to the real world and what belongs to the dream world;I don't think dreams/paint them and I don't experience dreams but I know about life because life is visible, I can feel and touch it; I cannot discribe my process of creating, it's too spiritual to express, however, it is the same expressive energy as the work itself,transfused between energies...; Art defines itself.
Score: 14.99 points
.99 extra points (max allowed) for putting concrete concepts in quotes to make them sound abstract; creative use of spelling, punctuation, and spacing; and abundant use of the word "energy" in its various forms. This one was so good (and long) that I decided to break it up over two weeks. Stay tuned to find out how "art defines itself"!
