Lots of things going on this weekend and not a lot of time to write about them (we're planning a concert you jerks!), so if you read the show listings and pretend that the most insightful and humorous paragraph you could possibly imagine appeared next to each of them, you'll be able to get a pretty good idea of what we would have written if we had the time (unless you're just too dumb to imagine how good our writing can be). Dig? And Denton is quite obviously going to be insane this weekend, so you Dallas kids might want to think about making a trip on either or both nights. I know we say that a lot, but this time we mean it:

FRIDAY

Tree Wave | War Wizards | Night Game Cult | Chris Garver | Flashlight Party (Secret Headquarters-Denton)
Just in case you don't know, its doors and Flashlight Party at 7, Chris Garver at 8, Night Game at 9, War Wizards at 10 and Tree Wave at 11. There will be a FREE keg inside, but you should bring your own too since I hear those SHQ dudes will probably be able to finish the thing by themselves in under an hour. So get there early and drink quickly. And if you haven't seen Tree Wave live, you really should change that tonight. I promise that both the music and visual presentation is fantastic.

And it looks as though things will be wrapping up around 1130 or 12 at SHQ, meaning that you could stay until the very end and still catch:

Dosh headline a show with Sole and Skyryder at Rubber Gloves. For the past two weeks, I've been listening to The Lost Take, Dosh's latest record, and I've gotta tell you: its wonderful. Fans of jazz spiked post-rock like Sea and Cake, synth pop like The Cansecos and Russian Futurists, and the Canadian spacekraut of Caribou should really dig this stuff. Doing drugs before you go might make this even better unless you have a totally bummer freak out or something, bro (or is it brah?). Dosh's stuff seems far less hip hop oriented than most Anticon artists, but Anticon peeps will dig it as well, especially those that are into the strange sounds of Flagstaff's Sole, who is opening. And its Rubber Gloves, so I'm going to guess that Dosh will go on some time after midnight.

The Angelus | Noise Revival Orchestra | Grass Fight (Hailey's)
Another show in Denton that you can catch after that first bad ass show up top... and whether you go or not, you should really swing by The Angelus' Myspace page and check out their new song "Turned to Stone," because its really damn good. The ghostly orchestra sounds of Austin's Noise Revival, um, Orchestra sound pretty interesting too. And you want to read all about Grass Fight? Well go to their highly accessible Myspace page and do so. I think they call that kind of thing "black on black crime," do they not?

Current Leaves | 100 Damned Guns | Cartright (Doublewide)
Does 100 Damned Guns remind anyone else of an F-150 commercial sometimes?

Tame...Tame and Quiet | Bridges and Blinking Lights | Handbrake (Ridglea Theater- Ft. Worth)

SATURDAY

Here is where I run out of time:

Early in the evening (around 7), you can stop by Violent Squid's new pad (1729 Scripture St. in Denton) for some BBQ and a brief VS set.

In Dallas, the Hot Flash! Party with Stepehen R ar Fallout Lounge (Expo Park between Minc and Meridian Room) is clearly the best thing going. December's debut of the Hot Flash was packed and a lot of fun, with an eclectic DJ set including everything from trash hip hop to 80's synth to all other kinds of shit I don't have time to describe. This one looks to be equally as good, and probably the best place to go on Saturday if you're looking to score without having to go to a Meat Market.

Tre Orsi | Handbrake (Secret Headquarters)

A Night of Texas Noise/Experimental Music with: Set on Whore | A Fail Association | Aunt's Analog | Dromez | Concrete Violin | Kai Ros | Muzak | Habeeb (House of Tinnitus-Denton)
What a line up. Not sure about the cost, but its usually just a small donation and always a good time.

Baptist Generals | Shiny Around the Edges | The Modern History Duet (House show at Fra House- 2127 W. Oak St. in Denton) Show is BYOB, starts around 1030 and completely free from what I can tell. Shit, this is going to be a lot of fun. I'd get there early if I were you, because I'm expecting the place to be packed and possibly impossible to get into after a certain point in the night. The Modern History Duet is a jazz duet featuring members of Notes from Underground.

Panty Drop Sock Hop with: Wild in the Streets | Sticky Buns | MC Router (Rubber Gloves)
A girly DJ show that will apparently be attended by 8 million girls.

And finally, the guys from Hardin Sweaty and the Ready to Go will be co hosting a house party show at 1227 Fuller in far East Dallas with The Freek Out and a couple other bands that I can't recall at this time. Sorry. Anyway, its five bucks and free drinks inside (keg and mixed) and starts at 8pm.

ADD: And how could we forget the excellent Pleasant Grove playing at the Cavern with Student Film? We didn't forget, thats how.

Check back with us this weekend for updates and Sunday stuff.

Cosmic Catnip | DJ DR Nay Nay (Rubber Gloves)


It's a dance party at Rubber Gloves tonight that starts with the record-spinning debut of Nate from Warren Jackson Hearne's band. He'll be playing everything from Annie to The Tom Tom Club. Cosmic Catnip is the newest project from Shane English formerly of The Undoing of David Wright and currently of Chief Death Rage. If Chief Death Rage took the riffier aspects of The Undoing to a different level, then Cosmic Catnap takes the electronic aspects to an equal extreme. The two song samples on their page actually made me smile the duration of my listen. That's saying a lot considering I spend most of my time sampling songs on Myspace pages with a look that's an unhealthy mix between confusion and disgust. You can always trust Shane's taste, whether he's writing Iommi inspired sludge or making Pauly Shore references over dance beats. Did you catch those influences on Cosmic Catnap's profile? They're like all totally OOP!

Lost Generation with Wanz Dover (Fallout Lounge)

From Wanz himself:

"Tonight we are gonna show the videos from The Liars' "Drums Not Dead". Gabriel is joining me on the decks. Should be a lot of fun. Last wek we had to delay the Can Movie until after the Mavs game. This week we will play The Liars' stuff whenever it seems like a good time to throw it on. Cheers!!!"

DJ G (Hailey's)

Salim Nourallah | Johnny Lloyd Rollins | Gazelles (Ellum: Onstage)

All I really want to say about this show is that I had a hard time describing Johnny Lloyd Rollins' music until I read this rather modest description of what he's all about in The Observer:

"I don't sing badly enough, I'm not ugly enough, and I don't have a beard,"

Well...thanks for clearing that up.

Schutze Rules: First things first. We're pretty sure that a large number of our Dallas readers live somewhere over in Old East Dallas (which I believe can be defined as east of 75, south of Mockingbird, west of White Rock Lake and north of I-30), and if you happen to be one of those people (or simply someone interested in these things), you might want to read Jim Schutze's excellent piece on the changing character of East Dallas. One question: If the tear-down yuppies want to live in nice new cookier cutter houses, why don't they just move to the suburbs? Its gotta be a lot more practical for a young family than paying $250,000 for the right to tear down a house on a small lot so that you can live on one of the "M" Streets.

Scene Rule: I don't know who Ed Masley is, but can the Observer music section stop referencing the Nuggets Box please? I mean its o.k. to do it sometimes, and it probably isn't unfair to reference it when discussing the excellent new Clinic record, but how many times have you seen the Observer do this in the past couple of years? Just quit it dudes.

(and oh yeah, I DID mean it when I said that Clinic's new record, Visitations, is excellent. Surely their best in a while, even if the band clearly has a songwriting formula that hasn't changed a great deal throughout their existence. HERE is a link to download "Children of the Kellogg," one of my favorites off the new one.)

Gang Gang Dance Rules: I've grown to love Gang Gang Dance over the past couple of years, and their upcoming DVD project, entitled Retina Riddim, looks like it will help keep the flame alive until we get a new record from them. This video (which features new music from the band) appears to be pretty experimental and all over the place, but to quote Ashtray's father, "that shit is FUN."

Heartrapers | Chief Death Rage (J&Js- FREE)
Don't know much about Heartrapers since I don't recall having heard them before today (and they've only got one song on their Myspace page), but based on that little bit of information, I would say that they could possibly be enjoyable for anyone that likes Mr. Bungle, Jesus Lizard and Blood Brothers, but you probably have to like all three in order to dig it. Or maybe not. I don't know. And whether that sounds good or not, the always solid CDR is on the bill as well. Starts around 9 and FREE.

This is Radio Clash w | Flashlight Party (Hailey's)

I didn't know anything about it until I saw this report on Pitchfork today, but apparently Uwe Nettelbeck, Faust's founder, died almost a week ago of presently unknown causes. I hadn't really discovered Faust for myself until about two years ago, but I've grown to enjoy and respect their music quite a bit since that time. And although I can't say I listen to them nearly as much as some of their peers (Can, Neu!, etc), they were certainly one of the rawest and most exciting bands of the Krautrock era, and its safe to say that Faust will continue to be remembered as one of most important bands of that time and place.

One of my favorite Faust songs:

"Its a Rainy Day, Sunshine Girl" LINK

Secret Headquarters (Denton)
This Friday, January 26th

$5
Doors at 7
Free Keg Inside
BYOB

Tree Wave-11pm
War Wizards-10pm
Night Game Cult-9pm
Chris Garver-8pm

Flashlight Party- before, between and possibly after the sets

Tiger | The Lovely Sparrows | Midwinter Fits | Clint Niosi (Club Dada)

This show features a handful of melodic song-oriented acts with embellished arrangements draped around their respective skeletal song structures. Tiger sounded like the most noteworthy of the bunch, utilizing pretty keyboard and piano parts against the low and gravelly contrast of David Berman-like vocals. Midwinter Fits' music sounded like their name suggests with the darkly overcast mood they present and gloomily slow songs. The Lovely Sparrows are the most upbeat group on this bill and as a result theirs might be the only set where you'll hear a sped-up tempo. The ubiquitous Clint Niosi is also performing, and if Aaron Bartz and Boyd Dixon of Tame...Tame and Quiet are backing him up then that alone might make this show worth catching.