Several weeks ago, we realized that it had been over a year since we released our last local music podcast/compilation CD, and we thought it was about time to do it again. So for the past few weeks, we've been gathering tracks from some of our favorite local artists in an attempt to put together a compilation that accurately highlights the interesting things going on in the area right now. Projection 002 is the result of this effort.

What you'll hear on Projection 002 is a wide variety of sounds from Denton, Dallas, Ft. Worth and elsewhere in the area. Many of them may surprise you. You'll find a brand new track from Ghosthustler that you'll probably agree is their best song yet. You'll hear fantastic hip hop tracks from Krispee Ones associates Hawatha Hurd and Damaged Goods. You'll be floored by a catchy, ferocious and absolutely killer opening track from Record Hop (recorded with Steve Albini). You'll peek through the haze as the underappreciated Mundo and Liften MC lay down a druggy, bass in your face dubstep track. You'll marvel at beautiful tracks from Mom and J Gray, and get a chance to hear Chris Garver rock the fuck out on one of his best songs to date. Of course we could go on and on, but rather than telling you about each track, we'll just tell you that we're really excited about this collection of songs, and we hope you enjoy it as much as we do.

The podcast is just that: one podcast containing all the tracks you see below. The MP3 downloads are split into two seperate MP3s as indicated below. And within the next couple of weeks, you'll start to notice double disc hard copies of Projection 002 appearing magically in places that many of our readers frequent, and we'll give you the details on all of that very soon. Enjoy!
(UPDATE: If you look down and see that the podcast is missing, it's because we're having bandwidth issues-- we've had an unexpcted number of downloads up to this point, so we've decided to temporarily remove the podcast and to transfer the MP3s to a file hosting site for now. So you can still download the MP3s via the links below, and we'll give you more details on the podcast and other formats soon. Sorry.--SR


to download Projection 002 directly as two MP3s, use these links:
Part 1
Part 2

The tracklist:

Part 1
1. Record Hop "End of the Line"
2. Ghosthustler "Only Me To Trust"
3. Damaged Goods "I'm Killin Em"
4. Hawatha Hurd "Fuckin' with Me (Krispee Ones Lacquer Remix)"
5. Peephole "Lacquered Strawberry (Lacquer Remix)"
6. Violent Squid "Sassy Mink"
7. Transona Five "No Motor"
8. The Frenz "Burn Session"
9. Mundo and Lifted MC "Kill Softly"
10. Electronik Warfare "Real-ize"
11. The Great Tyrant "Take Care"

Part 2
1. Bleach Boys "Pukewave"
2. Koji Kondo "Armand Bonvincin"
3. Koji Kondo "Hypothetical Bong Violence"
4. Chris Garver "Captives of a Furious Nation"
5. Farah "Law of Life (Remix)"
6. Mom "Green Echo"
7. Shiny Around the Edges "Applied Quantum Physics"
8. Dust Congress "Kravche"
9. J Gray "Stop Playing Those Sad Songs"
10. Matthew and the Arrogant Sea "Pretty Purple Top Hat"
11. Mom "Giant Wings"
12. J Gray "You Are the Golden Child"
13. Zanzibar Snails "Brown Dwarf (Omega)"

Amandla | The Frenz | Vaqueros Electronicos (Club Dada)
Interesting lineup with headliner Amandla, a group fronted by,Claude Coleman, who is mostly known for his session player chops in Ween. Indeed, when I saw Ween several years ago, he was certainly the most entertaining part of the show. His solo project sounds kind of like a less funky Jamiroquai. Not sure what the lineup for The Frenz is going to be like tonight, but I heard Gini Mascorro drop simply "Wanz Dover" on NPR today. Does anyone know Gini Mascorro? What's she like?

Folks from the Loft decided to hook us up with a pair of tickets to Friday's Les Savy Fav show, and we're going to pass them on to you. So if you want em, email weshotjrtix@yahoo.com any time between NOW and TOMORROW (Wed) at Noon. It's short notice, but we gotta do what we gotta do. Be sure to use "Les Savy Fav" as the subject line and include your full name in the email. Good luck brahz!

We're happy to present to you a little project that Red Monroe has been working on for quite some time. A few months ago, the guys in the band told us that they had asked several DJs and bands to remix each track on their album Policia! Policia!, and were wondering if we might be interested in hosting its release. Of course we were intrigued by the idea initially, but we wanted to find out a little bit more about the project before we decided to commit-- after all, "remix" albums often, um, suck.

Happily, after hearing a bit more about what the guys wanted to do and getting a chance to sample some of the material, we realized that this remix album would not suck.

Turns out we were right (as usual). The album features ten solid remixes, with most tracks exhibiting different stylistic qualities drawn from various genres of electronic music and some bringing a sharper focus on the dance floor, which serves as a pleasantly surprising change of pace for the band. The variety of sounds and textures covered throughout the album is impressive, but the way that the sequencing seems to bring everything together is probably the project's most noteworthy feature. Everything from distorted disco (Frenz) to strangely melodic yet glitchy paranoia (Treewave) to relaxed ambient passages (Mom) can be found here, and I think many of you will be pleasantly surprised with the contributions from various locals. See for yourself--

The Tracklist:

1.) Trees and Poor Houses - DJ Stephen R
2.) ¡Policia!¡Policia! - Jasinski
3.) The Sundown Shade - The Frenz
4.) Midnight Rites - Picnic
5.) City Boy Motel - The Hourly Radio
6.) Lion in Waiting - Treewave
7.) Fever Kids - Smile Smile
8.) Sunday Papers - Kriminal Klub
9.) Governor's Ball - Mom
10.) ¡Policia!¡Policia! (reprise) - Jay Wadley

download it here.

Nothing much tonight, except for the usual Cool Out at The Cavern and Jazz at the Amsterdam. This new site design makes it fun even to say there's not much going on. Special thanks to our pal, Cliff Notes, for all the hard work and lost sleep.

If you are looking at this through weshotjr.blogspot.com, then switch over to http://www.weshotjr.com | because we are no longer using blogspot/blogger.

For the past few months, we've been thinking about what we can do to improve our blog and expand what it is we do here, and what you see in front of you is the beginning of this process. But before I explain our new features to you, I'd like to take this opportunity to thank our new friends at News Corp. for providing the funding we needed to get this done.* We couldn't have done it without you guys!

Here's the deal: the section you're reading right now is same old We Shot J.R. Blog. We're going to continue doing It Lists, interviews, album reviews, DJ mixes, and various other ranting right here, just like we always have. To the right of these posts (at the top of the page) is our new We Shot J.R. News section. We decided that we needed a place to keep you upated on the latest local music news and events that we might not want to devote an entire blog post to, and the News section is where you will find these items. For example, if a band we like releases a video or a seven inch, we'll post that information there. Or if an interesting show line up is announced (both local and touring), you'll find it in our news section before you see it anywhere else in town. We've been lucky enough to convince a couple new friends to help us keep this news section updated as much as possible, and we've even added a new email address just for the news section: news@weshotjr.com . So if you're a band, venue, artist, promoter, or anyone who has some news that you think we'll be interested in, send an email to the new address and tell us about it (our old yahoo email and myspace will still be checked every day as always, but we would prefer that news items be sent to the new address if possible).

Below the news section is where you'll find We Shot J.R. Videos, a project we've been working on for quite some time. In this section you'll find a wide variety of videos that we found funny, interesting, or enjoyable in some way: everything from interviews with William F. Buckley to Violent Squid songs to REM's debut on David Letterman to Mavericks highlights to Cool Kids videos can be found there, and new content will be added daily (brand new videos and golden oldies alike). What you see on the main page is a random sample of five of the videos, and when you click "browse all videos," you'll be sent over to our video mosaic. Just drag your mouse over one of the video squares to find out what it is, and if you want to watch it, click on it and watch. It's as easy as a Diebold machine. And if you have any videos that you think we might like to add, send links to videos@weshotjr.com
Below that is where you'll find We Shot J.R. Photos. We decided to ask Sally Glass to expand her role with us and allow us to host her work, and we were happy that she agreed. The photos section is where you'll find all of Sally's pictures from Cool Out, Central Booking events and everything else. Sally will also be expanding what she does for us, and soon you'll start to see band photos from shows, pictures from gallery openings, and shots of all other kinds of things going on in the area. Click on a photo square to see a particular set, or click "browse all photos" to find a mosaic similar to the video section.

And finally, in the next few days you'll see We Shot J.R. Tracks, which will be located at the bottom of the main page. We Shot J.R. Tracks is where you will find links to MP3 downloads that we enjoy-- local, national and international in origin. This section won't include a lot of description, but since you already know that we have better taste in music than you, you can probably just trust us and click away!

And of course, you'll be able to comment anonymously in every single section of the new site. We're currently working on a system that will allow you to register an account if you would like to post under a particular name all the time, but for now, you can fill in an ID (or not) and comment till your little heart's content. We realize that there will be some kinks in the new features at first, but let me assure you that we will be constantly fixing these things and working on new and better features and usability ideas. Feel free to share your stupid opinions with us concerning the new site, and we'll always take your comments into consideration!

In addition to all of our new bells and whistles, we'll also be working hard to provide high quality content more frequently, and once we've had a little time to settle into our new site with our news friends, I think you'll find a vast improvement in our content with same opinions, attitudes and thought that we've always put into what we do. So if you hate us, it probably won't change, but if you like us, you'll probably start to develop a pretty serious crush here in the next few weeks. Thanks so much for reading what we write, and I hope you have as much fun with the new stuff as we expect to.

*The validity of this statement cannot be confirmed at this time

SHOWS OF NOTE THIS WEEK

WED: Six Organs of Admittance/Zanzibar Snails/Dust Congress (The Cavern)
WED: Six Organs of Admittance (Good Records, 6pm)
FRI: Les Savy Fav/Fatal Flying Guilloteens/Mom (the Loft)
FRI: Rosemary Malign/Steel Hook Prostheses/Concrete Violin/Werewolf Jerusalem/Aphonic Curtains (House of Tinnitus)

FRIDAY

Transona Five | The Theater Fire | Dust Congress | J Gray (Sloppyworld)
This show came together for us based mostly on good luck-- Wildcat, a long time Transona Five fan, randomly decided to email the band one day a few months ago to see what they were up to. The guys responded that they were working on new material and were planning on doing a couple shows (one in Dallas and one in Austin), and we asked if they would like us to be involved. And duh, they totally did. So we helped them put this line up together, and here we are. We've discussed Transona Five this week already, and I know most of you know what Theater Fire is all about at this point, but we would highly recommend that you check out Dust Congress and J Gray if you haven't already. I haven't had a chance to see Gray live yet (as he doesn't play solo that often), but I've really been enjoying pretty much every song I've heard on his Myspace page-- his haunting vocals clearly set him apart from the pack, and the eerie, almost psychedelic nature of his music makes the material even more interesting still. If you're going to this show, I'd recommend showing up early to check him out. Show starts at 9 and is BYOB. $5. The order: J Gray, Dust Congress, Theater Fire, Transona Five.

Uptown with Select (Zubar)
Select will spin a variety of records tonight at Zubar with no cover.

Paul Slocum (Dunn&Brown)
Treewave founder Paul Slocum will be showing several visual art installments tonight at Dunn and Brown gallery. One of them, according to Gorilla vs Bear, will involve 20 people acting out a scene from the TV show Full House. Not kidding. You want us to come check it out, Paul? You got it dude! Starts at 6pm and looks really cool on the D&B website.

Mammoth Grinder | Koji Kondo | Teenage Cool Kids | Pool (715 Panhandle)
Sorry I forgot to add this one...

Mistress | Rival Gang | Kaboom | Violent Squid (Slutbanger- 1729 Scripture, Denton)
Don't have all the details on this show, including the full line up, but we've heard that the above bands will play and that it will get started around 930. BYOB of course.

SATURDAY

Dan Deacon / Florene (Hailey's)
Dan Deacon rolls back in to town tonight after an incredibly fun show at the Cavern a few months ago. I had the chance to interview him back in June, and despite his larger than life, goodier exterior, the guy really knows what he's doing musically, and he's made a big impact with fans and critics a alike over the past year. And although people often complain about the stillness of Dallas audiences at shows, Deacon had the Cavern rockin in June (almost by force), which makes me think that a Denton location and an extra six months of a rising profile will result in a big excited crowd at Hailey's. On this, his "Ultimate Reality" tour, Deacon will be joined by fellow Wham City dude Jimmy Joe Roche for a multi media performance that will include a 40 minute original video production with an original soundtrack as well at two live drummers playing along AND a regular solo set from Deacon after the video. It sounds really great, and I can't wait to see how they pull it off.

Hands Up! 90's Party with The Party (The Loft)
I'm hoping 90's means tons of new jack swing jams, because I'm always in the mood for that stuff.

Silk Stocking | Sean Kirkpatrick | New Science Projects | Ryan Thomas Becker | Glen Farris | Emil Rapstine | Delmore Pilcrow | Sabra Laval (Strawberry Fields)
Starts at 6, free, BYOB. And btw, has anyone ever once heard an 80's dance hipster in an ironic t-shirt say something like "hey bro, come to this DJ show. There won't be very many beards, pearl snaps and people who secretly listen to James Taylor, but you could still check it out." I never have. But I don't really hang out with ironic t-shirt people anyway.

Chris Brown and Bow Wow | Soulja Boy | Sean Kingston | Lil Mama (American Airlines Center)
Despite the fact that this is a commercial hip hop show, I still bet it would easily be the strangest thing you could do this weekend. And I am dumb enough to kind of like that one Sean Kingston song.

Fishboy | Poison Control Center | Teenage Cool Kids (Rubber Gloves)

SUNDAY

Wild in the Streets (Hailey's)