LOCAL TOP 5 1. Mom - Little Brite 2. Red Monroe - Policia! Policia! 3. The Polyphonic Spree - The Fragile Army 4. Sorta - Strange and Sad but True 5. Salim Nourallah - Snowing In My HeartOVERALL TOP 20 1. Mom - Little Brite 2. Red Monroe - Policia! Policia! 3. Liars - Liars 4. Ben Harper & the Innocent Criminals - Lifeline 5. Madlib - Beat Konducta Vol. 3-4 6. Caribou - Andorra 7. New Pornographers - Challengers 8. Department of Eagles - Cold Nose 9. The Polyphonic Spree - The Fragile Army 10. Aesop Rock - None Shall Pass 11. Junior Senior - Hey Hey My My Yo Yo 12. Angels of Light - We Are Him 13. Okkervil River - Stage Names 14. Bryan Ferry - Dylanesque 15. Bat for Lashes - Fur and Gold 16. Bishop Allen - and the Broken String 17. Sorta - Strange and Sad But True 18. Salim Nourallah - Snowing In My Heart 19. Flaming Lips - U.F.O.s at the Zoo 20. National - Boxer
War Wizards | The Start (Club Dada) I'm proud to say that the War Wizards' live debut was at a We Shot Jr show back in January. That was definitely a highlight of the three shows we've had, though this past one yielded plenty of new good memories. War Wizards are very harsh in every aspect of their setup, whether it's their vocals, guitar, or electronics. With everything pounding full force at all times, it can be a real challenge to focus on any one thing, and that's why I think they're great. I'd like to add that they were picked apart and criticized pretty badly in a review recently that failed to mention them by name. I know we're anonymous and all, but failing to mention a band's name even in a bad review is to deprive them of the one advantage of such situations: having their name in print. History has proven that bad press can work wonders for a band's image, so if you're going to let them have it, at least give them that. Oh, and The Start is from LA and they make the live music sequences from Hannah Montana sound like The Poison Girls.
Cool Outstill seems to be going strong on Monday nights at the Cavern, and I would highly recommend it (especially if they plan on playing sets similar to Prince William's Italo/slow motion disco mix from last week).
Subhumans | Witchhunt | Sacred Shock | Krum Bums (Red Blood Club) Back when I used to listen to a lot of hardcore punk as a kid, I remember Subhumans being one of those bands I think I liked more for their t-shirts and album art than their music (Crass is totally better). However, the cult of followers that they have amassed over the years cannot be denied, and it's pretty cool that Red Blood Club landed this show. I know nothing about the other bands or the potency of Subhumans' current line up, but I'm curious to see what might happen at this show.
(The pic on the left, as well as many others from Saturday night, can be seen on Sally Glass' flickr.)
I might be naive or something, but I really didn't think our awards show at Fra House would get shut down by the cops. Maybe I underestimated the number of people who would show up, or maybe I though we'd be able to keep everything relatively calm no matter how many people came. You can call it wishful thinking I guess, but I just figured everything would work out the way we planned.
As more and more people started to arrive on the Fra House grounds early Saturday night, however, it became clear that the party would be difficult to manage to say the least-- by 10, there were already enough people there to make it a fairly epic event, and it seemed that the Denton Police would probably end up taking notice at some point.
And sure enough, right at about 1030, the cops arrived and told everyone to clear out. I never heard whether it was just a noise complaint or something else, but whatever the cause, the party either had to be moved to a new location or killed off completely, because it would not be happening at Fra House. I was pretty freaked out about the possibility that the Fra House guys would all receive tickets, and I was also concerned that many of the bands and DJs would not be able to play. But thanks to the organizational skills of the Fra House crew, the openness of Denton DIY, and the willingness of Dentonites to hear good music and drink shitty keg beer for free, we were able to shift to Plan B and move the party to new locations with a good deal of success.
Since there were too many acts to shove all into one venue (which is why Fra House seemed to be the perfect place for this show), Ed and the rest of the Fra House guys decided to split the party up by sending the DJs to the 8th Continent and the rock bands to Secret Headquarters (who had previously agreed to serve as a back up venue for us in case Fra House was busted). Of course, we never anticipated the party getting busted as early as it did, so it was quite a relief to find that SHQ was willing to accomodate us and let our crowd and our keg into the party for free. And when we arrived at 8th Continent to check out the dance party, we walked in to find Lars of War Wizards and the Undoing of David Wright already DJing some great tracks while the guys from the Party waited on some equipment to start their set. Unfortunately, the 8th Continent party was eventually shut down by the police as well, but I guess that is what happens when you have too much fun. I'm also sad to say that Ghosthustler wasn't able to spin at all, and the Party was only able to play for a limited time-- very unfortunate, sure, but under the circumstances I'm glad that anyone was able to play for any period of time.
Although we were a bit bummed about the events of Saturday night, we still had a great time, and everyone involved with WSJR was very happy to see Denton DIY come through and make the best out of a bad situation. Every performance we saw was fantastic (especially Akkolyte--absolutely punishing), and the fact that the shows were able to continue in new locations within such a short period of time was quite amazing. We want to thank all the bands, venues and individuals who helped us pull this thing off, and we want to thank everyone else for coming out. We'll certainly put more thought into crowd control and security in the future, but I don't regret trying this out at Fra House for a second. We hope everyone had as good a time as we did.
WED: Akkolyte/Yells at Eels (Red Blood Club) WED: Taxi Fare with DJ Nature (Zubar) WED: Oveo/Locks/Dirty Water Disease (The Cavern) THURS: Diplo/Switch (Suite) FRI: Egyptian Lover/Brian Bejarano/Sober (Minc) FRI: The National/St. Vincent (Granda) FRI: Wilco/Dr Dog (Palladium Ballroom) FRI: John Vanderslice/Bowerbirds (Palladium Loft) SAT: Evan Hecox/The Party/Cobrasnake (Public Trust) SUN: Queens of the Stone Age/Howlin' Rain/Dax Riggs (House of Blues)
We might have a surprise guest-- I won't say who because I'm honestly not 100% sure it will happen, but I'll give you a hint: Vice Magazine hates them. Come to Fra House tomorrow and find out.
After a few of the normal struggles, we have the party ready to go for you guys on Saturday, and we have a weekender for you to. Expect us to return to our normally stellar content next week: CD reviews and interviews to come. Here we go:
FRIDAY
Hands Up wit Yo Majesty | Nature | Sober | Select (The Loft) I've decided that I'm not a big Yo Majesty guy, but I do have to say that it's great to get a chance to hear Nature, Sober and Select at a big place like the Loft (as long as their security doesn't act like a bunch of doucheholes again). The Loft has a lot of downsides as well, but the balcony is a great place to hang out, the sound system is solid, and there will probably be a lot of drunk party chicks there hanging out tonight. Uh, thats a cool Friday in my book.
The Undoing Of David Wright | The Frenz | Electronik Warfare | Florene (Hailey's) So, awards sweeper Shane English is playing in Electronik Warfare now as well as The Undoing and various other projects. I guess you'd be in demand too if you won something as relevant and important as the We Shot JR popular vote. Keep dreaming, Guitar Center. Anyways, this show is definitely the best live show tonight and even though an A-Trainless Undoing worries me, I've heard they pull it off. This is a thematically coherent lineup, with The Undoing and EW sharing some traits, and The Frenz and Florene being a little milder and generally more influenced by the gentler side of electronic infused rock music. As with any show where this crowd's involved, expect some surprises.
Dub Assembly (Green Elephant) The one year anniversary for the criminally underappreciated Unit One dubstep night. Not that people at SMU give a shit whether or not Mundo has received positive reviews in Wire magazine, but I hope the people of Dallas start to notice the great dubstep we have here before the people in London forget that they ever started it.
Long Attention Span Theater (Strawberry Fields) At 8pm, they'll be showing German film Der Wald Vor Lauter Baumen, which translates to "the forest for the trees." Don't know much about it other than the fact that it's about the struggles of a young teacher.
SATURDAY
WSJR Awards Party with Nature/Sober/Select | Ghosthustler | Farah | Prince William | Akkolyte | Koji Kondo | Angry Businessmen | Lebanon | Zanzibar Snails | Douche (Fra House-FREE) In case you're a total dork and you don't already know, this shit is free and all ages, and there will be free beer for those who are 21 and up. And if you're lucky, we won't get all "Suite" on you and turn away everyone who isn't a hot chick after midnight. Just depends on how sassy we get. You can see we added the mighty Prince William to the list of DJ performances as well. Big thanks to Pancakes for Mattie Records and Strawberry Fields for helping us out btw... many of the bands and entities involved with the party will have CDs and stuff to give away and sell, so you should consider buying something since you won't be paying for cover or drinks.
So The Observer's Jesse Hughey commited a total "bro pax" by not realizing that Sean Kirkpatrick's cover of "Tonight The Bottle Let Me Down" was, well...a cover and even went so far as calling it cliche without realizing it was kind of the source material for cliched drinking songs around the world. In his defense, maybe he only received the album in MP3 format and those don't come with liner notes. I mean, why would anyone in Texas be familiar with Merle Haggard? Kirkpatrick's playing the last of twenty CD release shows tonight with a great lineup featuring the always punishing and powerful Great Tyrant as well as new Denton residents Silk Stocking. Singer/songwriter Will E. Lee opens the show.
Centro-matic | Tre Orsi | Bridges And Blinking Lights | Handbrake (Rubber Gloves-FREE) I bet it's weird for Dentonites when they realize that the free Centro-matic show is the SECOND best thing going on Saturday night. J/k y'all! Love ya :) I'm not the world's biggest Cetro-matic fan, but they are obviously well respected and good at what they do, and I'm sure this will be a fine show. But other than this free week finale, the RGRS free week has been pretty weak compared to last year's, hasn't it?
Red Monroe | Baboon | Saboteur | Jonathan Tyler And Northern Lights | Odis Odis (Granada) CD release show for Red Monroe, who seem to be making a play for the big time with the release of their sophomore album. We got our hands on an early copy and you'll probably see a review early next week.
