Sort of a slow weekend... and we're sorry we were a bit short on content this week, but we'll have several features next week for you. And PS- checked out 80's night at Hailey's for the first time in a while, and I honestly wouldn't be surprised if there were more people there than at 90% of Hailey's live shows. Anyway, here are things:
FRIDAY
VHS or Beta DJ set | Roxy Cottontail | The Party (Palladium Loft) This is a FREE party at the new Palladium loft venue organized by the Central Booking crew. VHS or Beta comes through for their second area DJ set in a month, and Roxy Cottontail comes back for another round in Dallas as well. Like I said before, VHS or Beta kind of blows as a band, but they seem like they might have decent enough taste in dance music to make their DJ set worth checking out (according to their Myspace page, they're into Justice and Kitsune and stuff like that). This will probably be the most fun thing you can do in Dallas tonight, even if Palladium has given in to the hippie-communist-west coast-liberal assholes that can't stand a little smoke in their venues. This is Texas damn it. We can leave the union ANY TIME WE WANT, you know. Roxy Cottontail even got her nails done to show her support.
Spitfire Tumbleweeds | The Silver Arrows | Tame...Tame and Quiet | Night Game Cult (Rubber Gloves) Eclectic line up at Rubber Gloves, with the two opening acts serving as the major highlights. I can't decide exactly what to think of the Silver Arrows... pretty goofy lyrics and a stylistic range that's all over the place- bits of shoegaze, AOR inspired indie pop, and avant rock loosely inspired by early Pink Floyd and Beefheart (check "Parade" on their Myspace page.) The recordings aren't as interesting as all that, however, even if their live show might be worth seeing.
Nouns Group | Dust Congress | Seth Sherman (Secret Headquarters) Everyone knows that Nouns Group has developed a reputation for great live shows (I've seen a couple of them myself and agree), but I do want to say something about Dust Congress: if you live in Denton, you're probably overloaded with folk or country influenced beard bands and Josh Pearson disciples, many of which are good at little more than boring me to tears... but to me, Dust Congress stands out in the pack, effectively utilizing their Americana influences to create songs that are rough around the edges and intense enough to make hearing them anything but a boring experience.
Soft Environmental Collapse | Pretty Vacant (Liquid Lounge) The people behind the excellent first edition of our We Shot A Mix will be playing records tonight before a set from Dallas' Soft Environmental Collapse... some of their tracks kind of remind me of The Verve or Starsailor if they were fronting an early 90's Warp Records ELM/space disco influenced British synth pop band... pretty safe and standard I suppose, but certainly different from most of the Dallas local music douche sound- the well put together tracks are leagues above most in area, even if you could call it "chill out." As commercially friendly as they sound, I'm surprised they haven't found more success in the area. Could be a good show.
SATURDAY
The Frenz | Kneepad (Secret Headquarters) I've seen two performances from Wanz Dover's Frenz, and had completely different reactions to each. The first show at Doublewide a few months back was fantastic, with hard driving Kraut inspired rhythms, space/ambient influenced drone electro and a supreme confidence in the material. The second show I saw, also at Doublewide, was much more of a mess. The songs seemed a bit meandering a little uninspired. But the recorded material I've heard from this project has been great, and you have to cut them a little slack due to a revolving line up and the newness of the project itself. I'm looking forward to seeing where Wanz takes this next. Check the song "For the Seducer" on their Myspace page. Good stuff.
Cindi Lauper/Erasure/Debbie Harry/Dresden Dolls (Smirnoff) I'm only listing this due to some stupid loyalty I have to to Debbie Harry. She could be doing ballads with Clay Aiken these days for all I know. And I'll keep pretending like I don't like a couple Erasure songs... shut up dude, I'll kick your ass!
Coolio/Tone Loc/Color Me Badd (Lakewood Theater) Movin' 107.5 put together this little ditty in the neighborhood for everyone thats into I love the 90's or whatever... two things- 1) "Fantastic Voyage" was a skateboarding in the summer jam for a lot of people, but Coolio can probably die already.... 2) I heard that "sex you up" shit the other day and I was like "hey, this is kind of cool." Seal got all the credit for this kind of music, but I don't remember making any mixtapes for girls with "kiss by the rose on the grave." I was more on the "I Adore Mi Amore" tip. Tone Loc can also die.
Some references to Farah appeared today in Pitchfork's review of the latest Italians Do it Better compilation (which is great, btw). Add that to the props she received from the respected 20 Jazz Funk Greats and other European electronica blogs, and you might start to think that her music is better known abroad than it is in her own town. Typical, I suppose.
Anyway, after hearing Johnny Jewel discuss their collaboration, we're happily wondering what else those two might be able to put together in the future.
Shibboleth | Magic Cyclops | Dutch Treats (Double Wide) Magic Cyclops just played RGRS, and he'll be bringing his one-man/one-joke act to the Double Wide, which makes a lot of thematic sense. Shibboleth does what more bands should do, go instrumental. Hey, at least that's one less thing you have a chance of completely fucking up. The Dutch Treats is John from Sloppyworld's solo project and it looks like he'll be a good match for Magic Cyclops.
Menomena | Mom | All Smiles (Granada) I think Menomena might get a little undue credit for being "experimental", when they are far from it to my ears. I am, however, familiar enough with music biz propaganda to understand that might not necessarily be the band's fault. They do seem better than most indie-pop acts, high concept or otherwise. This will be a good show for Mom to open, with their celebrated violin-heavy atmospherics. All Smiles is a Grandaddy side project. I'll let you figure the rest of that one out.
Lost Generation with Wanz Dover and Ineka (Fallout Lounge) From Wanz: New stuff from Burial, Blackstrobe, Diiplo, Prinzhorn Dance School, Simian Mobile Disco, Data, Surkin, kaman leung, LCD Soundsystem, Tayo meets Acid Rockers, Skream, Loefah, Ben Klock, Battles, Pole and much much more.........tonight is gonna be a step above normal. Our guest DJ tonight is Sean Vargas.
80's Night WIth DJ G (Hailey's) I heard this guy talking about Italo disco waaaay before they sold comps of the stuff at Costco.
Join us TONIGHT as we take a kaleidescope journey through Saturday Night Live drug references! We have over 50 skits ranging from the first season to now all with characters high on something more than life. And to make it more interesting we are going to let YOU choose which ones we are going to watch!How could this be possible you may ask? You will just have to come and find out. And as always in between viewings Chauncey and Chad will be spinning the grooviest tunes this side of the Betty Ford Clinic. As a service to you the viewer, we will be showing classic drug awareness/rehabilitation videos as well while the music is happening. We don't want you to think we approve of Bill Murray's lifestyle choices back then.
1. The Polyphonic Spree - Wait 2. PPT - Tres Monos in Love 3. Voot Cha Index - The Talking House/Cradle 7" 4. St. Vincent - Paris Is Burning 5. Glen Reynolds - In Between Days
GOOD RECORDS OVERALL TOP 20
1. The Polyphonic Spree - Wait 2. The National - Boxer 3. Fair To Midland - Fables from a Mayfly 4. Fennesz Sakamoto - Cendre 5. Soundtrack - Once 6. All Smiles - Ten Readings of a Warning 7. Voxtrot - Voxtrot 8. Shout Out Louds - Tonight I Have To Leave It 9. PPT - Tres Monos In Love 10. Shellac - Excellent Italian Greyhound 11. Dungen - Tio Bitar 12. Handsome Furs - Plague Park 13. Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation (Deluxe Edition) 14. White Rabbits - Fort Nightly 15. Andrew Bird - Armchair Apocrypha 16. Blonde Redhead - 23 17. Battles - Mirrored 18. DJ Jazzy Jeff - Return of the Magnificent 19. Cornelius - Sensuous 20. Betty Davis - Betty Davis
RADIO UTD
1 NATIONAL Boxer Beggars Banquet 2 BOOM BIP Sacchrilege [EP] Lex 3 CAKE B-Sides And Rarities Upbeat 4 METRIC Grow Up And Blow Away Last Gang 5 BONDE DO ROLE Bonde Do Role With Lasers Domino 6 RAY'S VAST BASEMENT Starvation Under Orange Trees Howells Transmitter 7 QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE Era Vulgaris Interscope 8 ARCHITECTURE IN HELSINKI Heart It Races [EP] Polyvinyl 9 MINUS STORY My Ion Truss Jagjaguwar 10 SEA AND CAKE Everybody Thrill Jockey 11 SAGE FRANCIS Human The Death Dance Epitaph 12 HANDSOME FURS Plague Park SUB POP 13 WILCO Sky Blue Sky Nonesuch 14 BJORK Volta Atlantic 15 BATTLES Mirrored Warp 16 DOG DAY Night Group Tomlab 17 LAVENDER DIAMOND Imagine Our Love Matador 18 MATTHEW DEAR Asa Breed Ghostly 19 FROG EYES Tears Of The Valedictorian Absolutely Kosher 20 SHAPES AND SIZES Split Lips, Winning Hips, A Shiner Asthmatic Kitty 21 BLITZEN TRAPPER Wild Mountain Nation Self-Released 22 WOODEN WAND James And The Quiet Ecstatic Peace 23 MICE PARADE Mice Parade Fat Cat 24 ROCKY VOTOLATO The Brag And Cuss Barsuk 25 DAVID VANDERVELDE Nothin' No [EP] Secretly Canadian 26 BLACK MOTH SUPER RAINBOW Dandelion Gum Graveface 27 RUFUS WAINWRIGHT Release The Stars Geffen 28 ELLIOTT SMITH New Moon Kill Rock Stars 29 DNTEL Dumb Luck Sub Pop 30 ARTHUR AND YU In Camera Hardly A
It might sound strange, but Denton folks probably weren't surprised today when they made their way to Pitchfork and found the face of Ghosthustlerlead singer Alan Palomo starting back at them from the website's lead page. As most of our readers probably already know, Ghosthustler has attracted an incredible amount of attention (both nationally and internationally) in recent months on the basis of a very short resume: three original songs, a couple local shows and a Myspace page. And truth be told, the band is quickly becoming one of the area's most well known and highly praised independent/underground acts, despite a surprising lack of coverage by most of the local media.
We were fortunate enough to be able to talk Ghosthustler into creating the second installment of our We Shot a Mix series, and we're really glad we did. The track selections, ranging from Alan Vega to Simple Minds to Justice, reflect the band's influences quite well, displaying both the timeliness and timelessness of their synth/disco/glitch house aesthetic. And the mixing? Stellar. Looks like these guys are still on their "Do No Wrong" streak.
Download the mix, which they've titled "Blog House is Dead, Long Live Blog House," right here(UPDATE: the link is fixed) and check out their first music video for "Parking Lot Nights" below the track list:
1. Mr Oizo - Patrick 122 2. Does it Offend You, Yeah - Battle Royale 3. Chromeo - Call Me Up 4. Alan Vega - Saturn Drive 5. Crystal Castles - Air War 6. Jackson & His Computer Band - Radio Caca 7. Klaxons - Gravity's Rainbow (Van She Remix) 8. Bumblees Unlimited - I wanna be Your Ladybug 9. Daft Punk - Technologic (Vitalic Remix) 10. Simple Minds - I travel 11. Justice - New Jack 12. Chris and Cosey - October Love Song
Dinosaur Jr. | Black Keys (Ridglea Theater) Big-time lineup put on by that wild underground indie-rock/party people collective known only as Camel Cigarettes. Dinosaur Jr. were much better than I thought they'd be when I saw them, and I thought they would be pretty good. They absolutely killed, especially when they played anything off of the first album and it was amazing to hear those songs at unbelievable volumes, free of the claustrophobic SST sound so prevalent at the time. When they went in to "Just Like Heaven", everybody went as crazy as if The Cure themselves were at Gypsy Tea Room. I recommend going but I think it's lame that Dinosaur Jr. might open the show. Who do The Black Keys think they are? I think they're kind of a frat rock band, but that's just me.
Casiotone For The Painfully Alone | Gym Mat Nap | Magic Cyclops | Alex Atchley (Rubber Gloves) Woah, pretty intense venue change. One minute you're playing at the 3,000 capacity Palladium (upstairs, but still), and then you're playing at the 300 capacity Rubber Gloves. I don't know what the story is, but it's cool of Rubber Gloves to add two acts to the bill at the last minute. I feel like Casiotone For The Painfully Alone is an idea that's reached its logical extreme, but it's also had its fair share of acts ripping it off over the years, thus making them seem more overplayed than they probably deserve. Magic Cyclops is the aesthetic opposite of the earnest CTFPA, featuring a one-man act that features a lot of synth but also a lot of trailer trash jokes. Gym Mat Nap is the experimental pop side project of Matt from Tha Bracelets. Alex Atchley is in Black Wizardz and I'm assuming this is his electronic-based solo project. I'm sure he'll leave a snide comment confirming as much.
The Rosebuds | Land Of Talk (The Cavern) The Rosebuds are pretty safe and sweet pop music, with a lot of dance beats. Kind of an indie-rock take on New Order but minus the moodiness. Land of Talk is a little more rocking than their tour-mates, with straight-forward catchiness and achy-voiced melodies not unlike Scrawl or Bettie Serveert at times.
is cancelled at Palladium for tomorrow... sorry to those of you who won tickets to the show. It appears that someone is trying to schedule another show for him at a different venue tomorrow night, and we'll keep you updated as to that. We'll be sure to hook the winners up with something equally as good to make up for it.
