1. Red Monroe - Red Monroe EP
2. Midlake - The Trials of Van Occupanther
3. Chad Vangaalen - Skelliconnection
4. Ratatat - Classics
5. M. Ward - Post-War
6. Nobody & Mystic Chords of Memory - Tree Colored See
7. The Thermals - The Body The Blood The Machine
8. Mountain Goats - Get Lonely
9. Sorta - Strange and Sad But True
10. Cursive - Happy Hollow
11. Outkast - Idlewild
12. Sleepy Jackson - Personality
13. Beirut - Gulag Orkestar
14. Brightblack Morning Light - Brightblack Morning Light
15. Tapes 'n Tapes - The Loon
16. The Long Winters - Putting the Days to Bed
17. Kashmere Stage Band - Texas Thunder Soul 1968-1974
18. Thom Yorke - The Eraser
19. Tortoise - A Lazarus Taxon
20. My Brightest Diamond - Bring Me The Workhorse

The show at Double Wide on Wednesday featured the most lopsided set of performances that I've seen all summer. I've been to quite a few shows in Denton this busy season, and most of those have displayed some semblance of a shared style, or at the very least, a common musical philosophy amongst the bands sharing the stage. This show featured a couple of California bands that have inexplicably captured some recent blog headlines, along with a local band that hasn't, but actually deserves to. Birdmonster and Division Day did seem to have plenty in common, but it wasn't necessarily anything I would want two bands to share. Local act Tame...Tame and Quiet was nothing like either of these bands, which turned out to be a relief. If they had been in any way similar to the others, the night would have been a complete waste of two precious commodities: gas and time.

I hate it when the best band plays first, or in this case, the only good band.Tame...Tame and Quiet came out and played such a strong set that they probably would have made even a really good band look silly in comparison. They play a very intricate brand of guitar based rock with 70's progressive undertones, and just about any serious music fan would have respected them for all that they accomplish in their brief set. The technically obsessed among us would have marveled at their chops and proficiency. Those who expect intensity at live shows would not have been disappointed by their forcefulness. Even songwriting fans would have been forced to wonder how they went about constructing the tunefulness of their mini-epics.

The band is fronted by two guitarists: Metrognome Collective mastermind Aaron Bartz and Darren Miller, formerly of the late Fort Worth rock group Benway. The band is also more than ably backed by the jazz inspired rhythm hurricane of Boyd Dixon on drums. Boyd plays in Idi*Amin as well, but his drumming is much different and more direct in this setting, exposing his stunning versatility. At their best,Tame...Tame and Quiet reminded me of so manyparts of my favorite King Crimson songs, Polvo albums, and my absolute favorite: Polvo albums that ripped off King Crimson songs. I don't know if they actually count either of the aforementioned bands as influences, but they remind me of the better moments of the so called "math rock" era, when bands aspired to write impossibly complex songs that mixed melody, schizophrenic time signatures and guitar heroics, taking all of them to their logical
extremes. When I heard Tame...Tame and Quiet, I realized how much I miss that time in music, or more specifically, the music itself. The band rocks in such a convincing manner that they blow the intellectual bullshit off of the chin- scratching facade that was so common in that genre. I hope more of you get a chance to see them, and I now know that i should have gone home the moment they exited the stage.

When Division Day came on, I might as well have been at a different show on a different night. Holy shit,where do I begin? Was it the predictable road weary
attitude and stage banter that was played out like theJheri curl? Was it the rocking out on keyboards (an ill advised move for any band)? For the record, I don't care if a band utilizes keyboards, and I actually love it a lot of the time. But please don't jump up and down and try to rock on them like a backup lackey for Nine Inch Nails. With the exception of the keyboard guitar, nothing looks less rock.

Of course, when Division Day showed up, so did the typically late Dallas audience. Dallas crowds are notorious for showing up late, but on this night they really blew it, arriving just in time for two of the worst bands I've seen in recent memory. Division Day did an okay job of silencing a heckler at one point, but for once I was on the heckler's side. Nobody should get away with telling an audience, "It's good to be in Dallas?!" or asking the crowd "How are YOU Dallas?!". Why don't you tell us how Dallas is? Actually, he did say he was glad to be in Dallas because he didn't have a good time in Houston. If that's the case, Division Day was probably treated appropriately in Houston, a town that doesn't take shit from anybody. The band confused me when I saw them play, but I became even more confused when I did a little research on them. They list some semi-adventurous influences on their web page, yet their music is completely Clear Channel friendly, due largely in part to the Mall-Emo melodrama of their vocals. The band was dressed up like Urban Outfitters mannequins come to life, but there was a key difference: the last time I
actually made the mistake of setting foot in that store, I heard some crazy screaming noise rock, indicating that Urban Outfitters mannequins have better taste than these guys, not to mention more stage presence. As confusing as Division Day's hype to substance ratio became after seeing their performance, nothing could prepare me for Birdmonster.


I never thought I'd see the day when I'd get offended because someone decided to compare a band to Modest Mouse. That's right, MTV heroes and KidZ Bop Legends, Modest Mouse. But the rampant comparisons of Birdmonster to Modest Mouse on blog after blog have moved me to believe that Modest Mouse is some sort of sacred entity, and I've begun to wonder how anyone could dare compare this joke of a band to a true pillar of integrity and greatness. Compared to Birdmonster, Modest Mouse is the fucking Beatles. Or Can. Or insert your favorite band here. These guys blew my mind with how far they took the concept of being bland. They were the real life equivalent of Uncle Jessie's band on Full House, only not as cool. I absolutely could not believe my ears. When the lead singer did the Chuck Berry duckwalk, I absolutely could not believe my eyes. If this assault on the senses is what passes for Next Big Thing status these days, we are in serious trouble. I invite you to go to the band's Myspace page, listen to the song "Skeleton Suit", and then tell me how this song is not uncannily like Jimmy Eat World's hit, "The Middle". You can actually count down to the moment when the singer will stomp on his distortion pedal and go into the anthemic chorus. I am truly disturbed by the level of buzz a band can build when the only remarkable thing about them is that they aren't on your local Top 40 station. If that's what they're shooting for, then they're on the right track. The moment when Birdmonster played the opening chords of "Summer of 69" by Bryan Adams was very telling, because it was apparent that it fit right in with all of their own songs. Some bands just give away all their secrets right there on stage. Have some mystique, guys! Don't let the audience know what kind of garbage you worship, because figuring that out is the only thing that makes seeing these kinds of shows the least bit enjoyable.

Fortunately, not even the disastrous turns by these two overhyped bands
could ruin Tame...Tame and Quiet's great opening set. The usual who's who's of the local scene were all in full effect at the Doublewide, and I wonder if they were as let down as I was. Judging by the quality of Dallas rock, its pretty hard to tell.

Despite a few good shows here and there, there isn't a whole shitload happening this weekend. Here you go:

FRIDAY

Chris from Gorilla Vs Bear will be spinning records upstairs at the Cavern tonight.

Pinebox Serenade | Record Hop | Medicine Window (Rubber Gloves) Although bluegrass influenced stuff isn't normally my thing, Pinebox Serenade seems to be pretty good at what they do, and are probably worth checking out... Record Hop is Record Hop, and I dont' know what else I can say about them that someone hasn't already said, but if you want to check them out, most would agree that the live shows are where its at. I actually think that the first band, Medicine Window, is the highlight of this show. Their sloppy start/stop hardcore reminds me of Jesus Lizard and a little bit of Flipper with some PIL style post-punk bass lines thrown in the mix. I don't know much about this band, but their strong vocals and aggro approach could be exactly what you need on a Friday night.

Really, thats all we've been able to dig up for friday.

SATURDAY

Terrorstorm w/ Alex Jones, Theater Fire, JFK screenwriter Jim Marrs, Shanghai 5 and more (Lakewood Theater)
If you're at all interested in politics, or simply enjoy hearing points of view that most people don't even know exist, then you might want to check out Alex Jones' latest film, Terrorstorm: A History of Government Sponsored Terrorism. Jones will be at the Lakewood Theater at 7pm on Saturday to present his film and conduct a Q and A session afterward. His thesis is that the US government, and the Bush administration in particular, was behind the 9/11 terror attacks, and the film apparently presents evidence to this effect (I haven't seen it, so I'm not sure exactly what it will be like). The Alex Jones videos I have seen are typically low quality, and some of his, um, "logic" can be hard to follow. I think he sort of imagines himself as Winston from 1984, more or less alone with his knowledge of the truth. And while I'm not sure about most of what he says, I really think this could be an interesting opportunity to hear some perspectives that you usually don't, and to maybe challenge your own thinking on 9/11... even if only a bit. Because whether you believe Jones or not (Note to Homeland Security: I don't believe in him), it should still be fun to hear what he has to say. I mean, have you seen Info Wars on public access in Austin? If nothing else, it is highly entertaining and fun to watch. And if you dismiss Jones all together, you can look at it as performance art or something. Oh yeah, it costs 10.50, and the Theater Fire will be performing as well. Should be good times.

Casper and the Cookies will be at Metrognome on Saturday. And in case you are frightened by the name, this is a group of ex Of Montreal members, and they take many more cues from Syd Barrett, The Who, and Television Personalities than they do from Polyphonic Spree or whatever. Probably a bit silly, but I really like the cheapo electro/psychedelic tracks I've heard from them, and you might too.

Denton's excellent Current Leaves will be kicking off their September residency at Club Dada with a show there on Saturday night. They will be joined by the Backsliders. Of course, CL will be playing every Wednesday or Thursday or something for the next month, so if you're one of those weekend warriors, this will be the best chance you'll get to see one of Denton's best bands in Dallas.

Dj Nature will be spinning at Zubar again this weekend with DJ Mel, and if this show is anything like the one last week, well, you'll feel pretty stupid if you miss it.

Birth to Burial will be at SHQ with Oklahoma's Engine Orchestra... two great rock bands that are actually doing something interesting in addition to kicking ass. Its three bucks, BYOB, and starts at 8. No reason not to go if you're up in Denton.

Pleasant Grove | Red Monroe | Ennui | Voot Cha Index (Wreck Room in Ft. Worth)

Silk Stocking | Sean Kirkpatrick | Plexus Loom/ (Amsterdam Bar on Exposition) Hadn't heard Plexus Loom until today, but they are pretty fucking good... very strange, like the Cramps playing folk music or something. Oh yeah, they'll all be joined by Oak Cliff's The Sheena Militia.

And as usual, I am running out of steam, but I will say two more things:

Laptop Deathmatch is going on at DoubleWide on Sunday, and its not to be missed.

Also, the Feds are the most annoying group of pussies on the planet. I try to be friends with everyone that requests on Myspace, and The Feds are included in that. But these retarded suck asses have sent me one too many "we're coming home, check out this gig" and "vote for us on the cockfight" fucking bulletins and event invites that I am officially going to hack into their myspace account and do something mean to them. Thats all.

Have to be a bit quick today, so here goes:

1. Night Game Cult | Emil Rapstine of The Angelus | Jen of Shiny Around the Edges | Wild in the Streets (Rubber Gloves)
Not sure exactly what they will be doing tonight because I've never heard solo stuff from Jen, but based on their main musical projects, I'd say its a safe bet that this will be a pretty good show from Jen and Emil. You know we like Night Game and Wild in the Streets, so thats that.

2. Hip Hop Night (Slip Inn)
We've forgotten about posting this for a while now, but I am convinced that it is still easily the most fun you can have in Dallas on Thursday nights typically... and since there aren't any big shows going down in big d tonight, this could be the place for you... if you like JJ Fad and Public Enemy and Pharcyde and De La and Tribe and Big Daddy Kane and stuff like that. Because that is what they play, and it rules.

3. Daniel Folmer | The Fiction | Rifle Recoil (JJs Pizza Denton) This show is FREE, which means you are dumb if you live in Denton and don't at least stop by. I hadn't heard them until today, but from the sound of things, The Fiction's shimmering, hazy electro atmospherics could be right up your alley if you're one of those people who, like me, only likes music that you think other people will think you are cool for being into... nah, just kiddin' dude, psyche! It really is good, you should listen... not a lot of people doing what these guys are doing around here, which might make it worth checking out alone. You could probably call them Casioprog and get away with it. Yes! Rifle Recoil are kind of Radioheady, but unlike most bands you could say that about, they aren't annoying. In fact, they sound pretty good. Should be a good show if you're not looking to go crazy tonight.

4. Dj G is at Hailey's as usual.

5. The excellent Zoo will be showing their unusual collection of music and other videos upstairs at the Cavern tonight.

Bye.

One More Thing: Has anyone checked out some of the leaked tracks off the new Rapture album yet? Hmm, if the three tracks I've heard are any indication of what the rest of the album is like, the people that wanted to write them off are about to find out how wrong they were. I'll post some MP3s if anyone is interested.

1. The Party w/ Dj Natutre (Rubber Gloves- Denton)
I'm guessing that Nature and Select picked up even more of an audience with the full capacity, out of fucking hand set they played at ZuBar last Friday. Its great to see these guys succeeding in Dallas, and Nature apparently already runs shit in Denton... so you probably shouldn't be the absolute LAST person on earth to see one of his sets. Aren't you supposed to be hip or something?

2. Birdmonster | Division Day | Tame... Tame and Quiet (Doublewide)
I don't think I get what all the blogfuss over Birdmonster is all about. I've heard that they are a pretty solid live band, but I can't back that up. All I know is that the songs I've heard from them don't come close to justifying all the hype... they sound like a competent version of most of the poppy post punk revivial stuff that we've all been hearing for the past four years. Nothing bad really, but surely nothing amazing either. Division Day could probably be put in just about the same category, except they seem to lean a bit more towards Shinsy psychedelic pop, and are a bit more interesting. I do like Ft. Worth's Tame Tame and Quiet quite a bit, so I would recommend going early to check them out. The show is probably only like five bucks anyway, so what the hell?

Should I really be reviewing albums like Jubilee Dive? Is a band like the Drams even relevant to what we are doing on this blog? What is the point in trashing a record that most WSJR readers would never consider buying in the first place? These are the questions I started to ask myself after about five minutes of listening to this album for the first time, knowing all too well that there was no way I was going to get through its 14 tracks without a struggle. I needed a way out, an excuse to not listen to these songs ever again, a chance to escape from the feeling that I had to write about them. There were two major problems that I just couldn't seem to get around, and I thought that avoiding the whole thing would probably be best. The first problem was the fact that merely listening to these emotional mid tempo country rock snore fests was a pretty painful experience in and of itself, and the second was that it seemed almost impossible to come up with anything to say about an album that isn't quite terrible enough to be funny, but boring enough to be completely forgettable. Basically, there are only a few ways in which one can say "this sucks," and I think I've tried just about all of them on this blog.

But nevertheless, The Drams are relevant to a lot of people in this tiny little world known as local music, and since this is primarily a local music blog, I decided that a fair review based on a careful listen was warranted. After all, the band seems to be fairly well known on the local circuit, and the fact that all but one of its members have previously played in formerly popular local rock bands Slobberbone and Budapest One means that their record is noteworthy enough to write about, even if doing so might not be very fun. Basically, whether I like it or not, this is something of a big release in local music, and someone probably has to say something about it.

Of course, the difficult part isn't simply telling you that this record isn't very good, because it clearly isn't. The real challenge lies in explaining exactly why it isn't good, since nothing on it is truly offensive. Ok, here goes: take the worst songs on the Clerks soundtrack (especially that Golden Smog song), mix them up with the worst Wilco songs you can think of, throw in a bit of popular Nashville country along with a dash of Train, and you're probably getting pretty close to what Jubilee Dive sounds like. Most of the album consists of overly slick, extraordinarily dry adult contemporary southern rock songs about drinks, girls, politics, angels (not kidding), and just about anything else that you probably don't want to hear these guys talk about. This is "regular guy" music to a fault, and I can't stand regular guys (or at least their music).

And yes, for all you people who are into "good ol fashioned songwritin" or whatever Everyman bullshit you like to say, the melodies are good enough, the singing is decent, and the playing is tight and competent for the most part. The main problem is simply that there seems to be nothing behind these songs, as one flows into the next before you notice it has ended, staying uniformly stiff and lifeless throughout. The first four songs sound like they should be on the soundtrack to an early 90's roadtrip movie where Drew Barrymore is wearing flannel, showing just enough of The Drams' country influences to confirm that yes, these guys are probably from Texas, but never going much deeper than the kind of post-Alternative Nation guitar pop that record executives still think "the kids" listen to. Length is also a big issue on a lot of these tracks. For example, "Holy Moses" clocks in at 6 1/2 minutes with a cheesy chorus about angles coming down from heaven and a torturous helping of unnecessary solos and predictable chord changes that render it a VERY long 6 1/2 minutes that could probably be cut in half. Elsewhere, the ballad "When You're Tired" drags on for another wandering six minutes without really going anywhere, and closing track "Make A Book" ends up being little more than a five minute reminder of the luke warm power pop that dominates the beginning of the record, failing to make a case for going back and checking out those tracks again. Ironically, "You Won't Forget," which is clearly the album's highlight, is also its second longest song. But unlike most of the other tracks, the band maintains interest here with a strong melody, relatively minimal yet effective guitar work, and a horns breakdown/changeup in the middle that sounds unbelievably refreshing within its context. Unfortunately, the Drams fail to bust out with any other surprises, leaving the listener with the feeling that the track was probably a fluke.

The bottom line is that anyone who agrees with this review probably would have never given this album a chance in the first place, and anyone that I've pissed off here has probably made it a rule to never listen to anything they read on this blog anyway. To put it another way, I'm still not exactly sure why I reviewed Jubilee Dive, and I'm also unclear as to why the Drams recorded it.

(rating is out of a possible five stars)

Record reviews will be posted later today. Here are some things that I'm giving you permission to do tonight:

1. Lost Generation w/ Wanz (Cavern upstairs)
Here is what Wanz has going tonight:

have special guest DJ select tonight sitting in with me. I am gonna have guest DJ's with me for the next few weeks. I am kicking this off with Select from the Party. Next week I have Gabriel from Grits n' Gravy and The Lollipop Shoppe. 2 weeks from now I am throwing another Lost Generation concert for solo and duo songwriters and composers downstairs and The Flashlight Party helping me upstairs. I am still compiling trax for the Texas nuggets night. I hope to be able to do this by the end of september. As far as stand out trax tonight go: New songs from Radiohead(live from last months Berkeley, CA show), Scratch Acid, New Digital Mysticz, New Burial(South London Burroughs ep), J Dilla, Pram, Seefeel, Peter Thomas Sound Orchestra, Luke Vibert, Mew, The Knife, Mark Stewart & The Mafia, Mingus, a couple of new remixes by me, and of course whatever else catches my fancy at the time. I am working on a mixtape. It may be ready for tonight. Definately by next week. It will feature a lot of remixes by yours truly.

2. Mix Tapes and Babyfights (Club Dada)
I've never seen Frank Hejl's variety show, but I've heard good things, and thought you might be down. Tonight's performance will feature the comedy of Cooperation Corporation (watch their theme video on the myspace page), and the music of Hardin Sweaty and the Ready to Go (who I'm not really sure about, other than the fact that they have the worst name ever.)

Buh bye.

Because it is hot as hell and there isn't really anything going on today that interests us, we're not going to write about anything. However, if you want to hear what happens when you take every "indie" cliche of the past seven years and wrap it up in a nice little cute as a button package for a 14 year old girl, you can check out the Myspace page for Simon Dawes, who will be playing at the Tea Room tonight. They sound like an American Apparel Gift Certificate.