Screening: Alfred Hitchcock's Rope (Texas Theater, located at 231 West Jefferson Blvd.)
YellowFever | Aaron Barker (Dan's Silverleaf) YellowFever is possibly the best pop band in the state, and has been for, let's see...about four years now. How did 2006 get to be so long ago? Anyways, while many of you were listening to early bloghouse, this is what I was moping around to, and now that you have all moved on to minimal 80's synthpop and darkwave, I still on occasion mope around to YellowFever. Well, kind of. Due to the fact that their retrospective/compilation took so long to see its well-deserved release, they definitely remind me of 2006/2007, but they are often compared to 90's twee pop, and while that may be true on a superficial level, the songwriting is much more sophisticated than that, as are the accompanying harmonies. After all, how many twee artists went to Berklee? Hmm, maybe more than we think. YellowFever songs (especially "Donald" and "Alice" duh) are instantly memorable and a surefire and extremely sneaky way to lure the average kid into listening to "cool" music once they're ready to graduate from Yo Gabba Gabba or whatever. I personally don't think it's a good thing to force your kid to be hip before he or she is ready. I mean, isn't there plenty of time to decide whether or not you want to look anemic and mistreated by society in your teen years? Do we really need toddlers donning ironic sweaters or wearing mohawks and creepers like daddy right now? Come on. You've got your whole life to look stupid.
I never really understood the shit that gets thrown NSP's way. I guess it is the eccentrically messy faux-blues stomps done by a young white boy in war-paint. Does seem a bit unauthentic but I think he makes up for with his theatrical grandstanding which some might find annoying but I find kind of endearing. Even though I would not consider myself a super fan I have to admit the dude has a special place in my heart. I didn't get into local music until around 2006ish and the thing that sparked my interest was a performance by New Science Projects I happened upon on a trip to J&J's when all I was looking for was a slice of pizza. I grew up in the Austin area so I was constantly surrounded by music, going to live shows back when The Alamo Draft House was the Village Cinema Art. Even though I saw tons of my favorite bands from far and away, I never paid mush attention to what was going on locally outside of the occasional track heard on KVRX.
There are two key moments in my youth that sparked my lifelong obsession with music. My grandmother buying the Peel Slowly and See box set for my 13th birthday was one. The other involved a crush I had at the age of 14 who would carry tapes of Surfer Rosa and Daydream Nation - inherited from an older sibling - in her purse at all times. My grandmother instilled in me the sense of musical discovery and that connection between the giver and recipient. Veronica Cecca instilled in me the passion for discovering new music in order to pick up chicks, and that there is alot of crazy alternative music out there that sounded like nothing else I had ever heard.
So what does this have to New Science Projects? I had never given two thoughts about local music before that night at J&J's, I was always too busy listening to what ever album I was obsessing over at the time. After that night I made a consorted effort to check out more local music and as you can now tell I am knee deep in it. So you could say, along with two examples listed above, that show was a musical turning point for me. I still listen to Belle and Sebastian on a near daily basis but good god do I enjoy things like having my ear's rattled by the vicious noise of Gheistheistler in the complete darkness of a basement surrounded by boys and girls with a collectively repulsive BO. Great fun. If I wouldn't have walked into the basement that day I don't know if I would have caught wind of what the local scene has to offer. My life would definitely be less for it.
Looking back now I’m not going to say that NSP is one of my favorite acts around but his performance on the final day of Strawberry Fields was pretty epic.
MON: Mincemeat or Tenspeed/Nero's Day at Disneyland/Lavas Magmas/Yellow Crystal Star/Dromez/Yatagarasu (Dwelling of Doom) MON: New Science Projects/Eyes, Wings & Many Other Things/Daniel Folmer (Pastime Tavern) MON: Lava Magmas/Yellow Crystal Star (1919 Hemphill) TUE: Boris/Russian Cirlces/Saade (the Loft) TUE: This is Hell /Product of Waste/The Love Below/Judas/Burden me (19191 Hemphill) TUE: Yellow Fever (Dan's) WED: Sleep Bellum Sonno/Warren Franklin (1919 Hemphill) THR: Peolpeodian/ Slow Animals/Stunts/Sextape (Dan's)* THR: Eyes, Wings and Many Other Thing/Diamond Age (The Nightmare) THR: Hypernova/The Yellow Dogs (Rubber Gloves) THR: Ceremony/Punch/Human Errr/High Anxities/Innards (1919 Hemphill) FRI: Liturgy/Akkolyte/Vaste Burai/Lychgate (The Nightmare) FRI: Lazy Native/The Future Unlived/Western Skies (Andy's) FRI: Flecther C. johnson/A Giant Dog/Old Snack/Sir Name (Rubber Gloves) SAT: Yakuza Hearattack/Naxat/MicroD/Pixle Junket/Albino Ghost Monkey (1919 Hemphill) SAT: Action Extravaganza Double Feature - Samurai Cop and Undefeatable
*This will also serve as a screening for the latest TV Carnage release Let's Work It Out, a collection of self improvement exercise videos. The guy behind it all, Pinky Carnage, will be in attendance. Pretty awesome.
DYX | Orange Coax | George Quartz (Fallout Lounge): Orange Coax is about to embark on a lengthy US tour with the excellent No Babies, and will even be playing a couple of shows with the recently reunited legends, Arab On Radar. Yet another fine example of smart booking at The Fallout by Joshaa Flores.
Unconscious Collective | Welby | D And N (1119 N. Bishop in Dallas) This is a house show and there will also be art on display by Ricardo Oviedo, Nevada Hill, David Price, Evita Cortez, Alex Mitchell, Jason Barnett and more.
This will be one of the most entertaining and joy filled experience you will have in a club this summer. Quintron & Miss Pussycat put on a surreal show filled with other worldly funktified beats and puppets that seem to exist in a demented child's fever dream. Don't think that these to are a comedy duo or novelty act, they also make some BRUTAL white boy funk. I really hope that the next season of Treme, the HBO drama following post Katrina musicians, choose this duo as a subject. I wonder if she lost any of her puppets in the flood? Regardless, don't miss this show.
It's too bad that Lady Gaga's music isn't any better than it is because I really admire her as an artist and as pop icon in this burgeoning millennium. I don't follow or care for fashion trends but I do like to see people dressing like freaks and walking down the aisles of Target. The fashion scene, seen from my ambivalent eyes, has become really boring and not fun as of late. Why do people want to dress like Grand ma's? Lady Gaga uses a cool mix and mash of style that looks utterly ridiculous but will give us warm feeling thinking back ten years from now. Also, much like Madonna she seems interested in pushing taboos concerning sex, race, gender and all those other hot topics that popular artist shy away from. Her music is boring and redundant, but there is no one else who deserves to sellout American Airlines at the moment other than her. Soular Power (Cavern)
