1. Red Monroe - Red Monroe EP
2. Pegasus Now - Careless Loveseeds
3. Midlake - The Trials of Van Occupanther
4. Beirut - Gulag Orkestar
5. Muse - Black Holes and Revelations
6. The Knife - Silent Shout
7. CSS - Cansei De Ser Sexy
8. Thom Yorke - The Eraser
9. Kashmere Stage Band - Texas Thunder Soul 1968-1974
10. Sorta - Strange and Sad But True
11. Vetiver - To Find Me Gone
12. Nobody & Mystic Chords of Memory - Tree Colored See
13. Daedelus - Denies the Days Demise
14. Caribou - Up In Flames [2CD]
15. Mew - And the Glass Handed Kites
16. The Shys - Astoria
17. Cut Chemist - The Audience's Listening
18. Peaches - Impeach My Bush
19. TV On The Radio - Return To Cookie Mountain
20. Long Winters - Putting the Days To Bed

Looks like they've been pushing some local releases this week, as the top three spots are all taken by local acts. And will people stop listening to Muse please? What could be worse than emo influenced Diet Radiohead britpop?

Dont' have time to do a post today. We'll be back tomorrow.

FRIDAY


To begin with, you probably already know that motherfucking Devo will be playing tonight with the Psychedelic Furs and the criminally underrated (just kidding) When In Rome at some band shell thing at Fair Park. I didn't bother looking up much more than that since I figured that if you weren't already going to the show, you probably weren't willing to shell out 45 bucks to see Devo outside when it will still be like 87 degrees. I have also heard some rumors about people claiming that members of Devo will be showing up at the Fallout Lounge tonight after the concert... and without trying to necessarily dis the Fallout Lounge, I just have to ask... do you really think Devo is going to hang out there? Maybe I'm totally off base here and Devo will show up at Fallout and perform their entire first album with special guests Pere Ubu for free, but I am going to go ahead and say that this scenario seems about as likely as the Rangers making the playoffs.... not winning the world series mind you, just making the playoffs. Either way, I'm not going to be able to go because I'll be hanging out with Brian Eno at Ships tonight anyway...

Of course, the great show at House of Tinnitus will be going on as well, featuring Cry Blood Apache, Night Game Cult, Tinnitus and an improv set featuring Sparrow/Hawk- Andrew Michael for free. And I totally understand why the anons hate this shit. I mean, what could be worse than a group of students getting together and playing a free show at one of their houses just for fun? Oh I know, a group of students interested in art getting together and playing a free show at one of their houses and also inviting a very good regional touring act to play with them and possibly providing beer to all the people that are going to get in for free. What a bunch of assholes! And despite how shitty these guys are for doing this, I bet the show will be really good. Cry Blood Apache is one of the best live acts in the state of Texas right now, and Night Game Cult is one of the truly strange musical projects in Denton. Mix in some improv and atmospheric experimental pieces from some people that actually do know what they are talking about, and I think you've got a really good night. Click on the house link above for address and directions.

Of course, if gas prices are keeping your ass in Dallas tonight, you don't have to worry either: Dj Nature and Select will be putting their Party on for free tonight at Zubar. This could be your rare chance to see a smart, discerning dance crowd in Dallas actually having fun. Nature and Select are playing great stuff that no one else in the metroplex touches, and their sets are so fucking easy to like that even your dumb friend that you aren't sure you want to hang out with could go and have a good time. Basically, we're expecting a good eclectic crowd, like most of their events attract, and a DJ set that will more than convince you that these guys are worthy of the praise they get around town. And It beats the hell out of pretending to have fun at like a Titanmoon show or something, doesn't it?

Chris of Gorilla vs Bear will also be spinning records down the street at the Cavern (Upstairs.)

Switching back to Denton, the criminally underrated Evangelicals (not joking) will be playing at Hailey's tonight with Get Him Eat Him and John Ralston. And even if the other two performers aren't your thing (I'm pretty they aren't mine), I can't think of one reason why you shouldn't check out the Evangelicals' debut full length SoGone ,which came out this year... and then see them live tonight. To me, this record is a pretty perfect piece of strange summer pyschedelic pop, and manages to stay totally catchy while staying quite adventerous and never getting boring. Basically, its one of 2006's strongest releases.

Okkervil River, another one of Austin's best, will be at Sons of Herman Hall tonight as well... I bet there will be some ironic cowboys there (those guys really suck), and I know there will be some real old school cowboys downstairs at the bar who will be thinking about how easily they could have kicked some ironic cowboy ass 15 years ago before their hip went bad... so basically, rad show.

Finally, Houston's Inoculist will be at Metrognome tonight as well. By the way, they are a very good band: minimal, sleepy, reverb packed shoegaze atmospherics with some great melodies lurking around. Very good stuff at an always good venue.

So basically, there is a shitload going on tonight all over the place.

SATURDAY

To start with, Voot Cha Index and Red Monroe will be playing at Good Records for free at 2pm for Red Monroe's CD release party, and then

Kneepad | Daniel Folmer | Time Line Post | Dirty Water Disease will be playing over at Rubber Gloves in Denton. Kneepad will rock your ass off, Dirty Water Disease will scare your grandmother with their Sunn0))) meets Black Dice and Wolf Eyes metal noise, and Daniel Folmer will, um, do something weird to you? I don't know. I'm running out of steam and my email account isn't working right now, so if you've sent me info about a Saturday show I haven't posted, sorry about that.

Check back with us tomorrow for some adds to the list, because we might hear about parties, house shows, or regular shows that we've forgotten.

1. Undoing of David Wright | Silk Stocking | The Prids (Darkside Lounge)
Undoing of David Wright is heading off on a small tour here in a few days, and this will be their final show before they get out of town. They've also been working on their second record recently with John Congleton, and have got a pretty sweet demo version of a new song up on their Myspace page right now. I'm sure that they will put on a good show as they always do, and this should be a good chance for Dallasites to listen to some of their new material. I really haven't heard any, but with the kind of influences and knowledge that these guys have, I'm very excited to hear where they take their band next. I could see them heading off into a million different directions, most of which are quite good. The excellent Silk Stocking opens, and The Prids, if the Myspace link above is in fact the right Prids, sound like pretty straight forward nu wave... Urban Outfitter music I guess you could say, but a few steps above most.

2. And of course, DJ G will be at Hailey's.

We're getting shit together right now for out podcast, as well as several local album reviews and the singles review thing we discussed last week. They should be ready for posting soon.

Don't have a lot of time to make this shit all fancy and stuff today, but there are two things going this evening that might be worth your time:

First, our readers in Denton are probably all going to the Party with DJ Nature at Rubber Gloves tonight anyway, so we'll pretend that I didn't feel the need to tell you about it. And Dallasites that can't make the drive to Denton tonight need not worry, because Nature and Select will be bringing the much hyped Party to Zubar on Friday. Friday night will be your rare chance to see some Djs on lower Greenville that don't exclusively focus on bullshit in their sets.

Also, Final Fantasy | Bob Wiseman | The Curtains will be at Hailey's tonight. I do think I dig Bob Wiseman's ghostly cut and paste collage of vaudville electronoise quite a bit. Probably worth the price of admission alone. Never heard the Curtains before and I can't seem to find any of their music, much like I can't seem to locate a proper Final Fantasy website or myspace page amidst all the video game geek crap and anime dork music sites that you get when you type "final fantasy" into just about any search engine... but Owen Pallett is probably one of the more innovative musicians touring the "indie" circuit right now, so I would highly recommend getting your shit together and checking out this show.

It has become a cliche in popular culture (if not necessarily amongst historians) that history is written by the victors. And although this assertion might be useful as an easy way to explain general bias and deficiencies in historical analysis, it is not entirely accurate on its face. Sure, the victors in war, empire building, and struggles for economic superiority always develop their own self serving versions of history, but the important point is not simply what they have written, or the fact that they have chosen to write at all. Instead, what really matters is that such persons and entities are able to communicate their version of events to the largest number of people, since it is the process of organization and communication that turns one subjective perspective into "objective" fact. It isn't as if the dominant actors in history are the only ones that have ever picked up pens, its just that they have largely been able to render their perspectives the only ones that really matter to most people. But if this line of reasoning can be applied (even loosely) to the recording and documenting of local music and the community surrounding it, it can be said that a group of experimental musicians in Denton, and many others like them, have decided to ignore it.

It probably seems kind of silly to talk about historical analysis and Denton noise rock in the same piece, because lets face it- experimental noise/improv groups from Denton aren't going to change the world, and there is a very strong possibility that they aren't even going to change the local music community. No matter how many new and exciting ideas these bands and their associates might develop in the arenas of music, visual art, performance or distribution, the "big" events in local music will probably always involve something along the lines of a fire marshall shutting down a really boring show by a really boring band somewhere in Dallas, while most of the local musicians that have any true potential to innovate and create something new will continue to be marginalized and largely ignored before they finally decide to move or give up all together. Many will argue that this state of affairs is warranted- after all, who the hell actually sits down and listens to noise rock, right? But rather than responding to such simplistic notions, the members of You are the Universe, iDi* Amin, Notes from Underground and some of their friends and collaborators have elected to start an entirely new discussion by playing their own shows at their own space, and using their own methods to document their ventures on their own terms.

This collective effort centers around a house, two blogs and a record label, all of which focus on a group of bands that probably won't ever win any popularity contests amongst the Greenville barhopping general public. The house, located at 628 Lakey St. in Denton, has been dubbed the House of Tinnitus, and it is there that Jason Moore, Andrew Michael Hilburn, and house residents Rob Buttrum and Amelia Jaycen have begun holding free, open admission shows twice a month, featuring a diverse range of acts that might not pull large crowds often enough to be invited back to clubs on a regular basis, but put on shows that should attract anyone with an interest in rock and avant garde music that goes beyond a passing fancy. Their first show last month featured Warmer Milks, and their upcoming show this Friday, August 18th will feature Cry Blood Apache, Night Game Cult, Sparrow/Hawk with Andrew Michael, and Tinnitus, an improv/noise project featuring Buttrum and Jaycen. So far, the group plans to keep the shows free (although they will seek donations), and are planning performances by their own bands, other interesting local bands, and up and coming touring bands. The purpose behind the house, as URTU member Jason Moore explains, is to create a "sort of home base for the growing Denton 'noise' scene," a phrase he uses for lack of a better term. The house is quite large, and its residents are said to be very welcoming to anyone that is interested in attending the shows, giving it the potential to be a true center of activity as Denton comes back to life in the coming weeks with the start of a new semester.

The house will serve as a forum for many of the collective's future endeavors, and the record label/ blog Frenetic Love, as well as the New Century Art blog, will be used to document these and other events that will be important to the growing number of experimental musicians and adventurous music fans in Denton. "The (frenetic love) blog is really just a venue for writing about music as a sensory experience" Moore says, juxtaposing it to most other music blogs, which he claims "are written as a way to simplify music." Frenetic Love and New Century Art already contain reviews, interviews, and short think pieces about noise, local experimental music, and how such music interacts with popular culture and media. Their writing is intelligent and thoughtful, and they appear to be interested in the physical experiences of listening to music, in addition to the theoretical elements of improv/noise that often make such music as fascinating to talk about as it is to listen to. The groups plan to continue using both blogs as a channel for "documenting what (their bands) are creating as a unit," and as a primary source for information on the community that they are developing.

The Frenetic Love record label will serve a similar purpose, albeit through a different medium, documenting live performances and proper, studio recorded releases by some of the better Denton bands. The label will be modeled loosely after some of the indie tape trading labels of the past, recording and distributing live performances and experiments by Denton bands in order to document the creative process as it is occurring. One such recording, an improv document featuring Sparrow/Hawk and Andrew Michael, will be distributed for free at the upcoming show on Friday, and Hilburn plans on creating numerous other live recordings and archiving them as a loose document of what is happening in Denton experimental music as of right now. The label also plans to release proper full length tapes by Chief Death Rage, You are the Universe, and others, with the intent to mass distribute them commercially.

Although those involved with the projects would certainly like to experience some commercial success, Moore does not see it as a realistic possibility, and seems to be equally, if not more interested in simply documenting what the Denton experimental community is doing, and helping to strengthen a small music community that probably can't rely on much attention from the established mainstream local media.

The aspect of the Frenetic Love/House of Tinnitus/ New Century Art project that is perhaps most exciting is not the novelty of the idea, but rather the relative simplicity in executing it. Sure, zines and D.I.Y. record labels, venues and house shows have been around as long as rock n roll has, but today, all of this can be done much quicker and with relatively fewer hassles than ever before. The multimedia approach that musicians can use to document their work and their lives, mixing visual art, writing, music, and happenings, is obviously far more complex and comprehensive than anything that technology has permitted musicians to do before, opening up a wide range of expressive possibilities to people that would have never had access to such media even seven years ago.

Due to a myriad of factors that are far more complex than "Sam sucks" or "corporations," Denton noise rock will probably never be covered in much detail by the Dallas Morning News, the Observer, or any other mainstream local publication. There just isn't the market for it. But today, this fact is becoming less and less relevant to the level of impact that this kind of music can have, since blogs are just as easy to read (if not easier) than newspapers, and burning a bunch of CDs of a live performance that just took place (which I have seen URTU do in the past) is easier and cheaper than shopping for a record label. Put simply, anyone can create media that will shape, market, and document their own perceptions and experiences, which could in turn help shape our collective memories of such events in the future. Did you see George W. Bush dancing with Ricky Martin at his 2000 election victory party? Yeah, thats why shit like this is important. Theres no telling what might come of it, but the fact that this group of bands is able to shape the present and possibly the future through multimedia has to be a good thing, because those who will likely be considered "victors" by future historians seem to have really shitty taste in music.

Check back with us later today for some new writing, etc. As for goings on this evening, look into:

1. The Lost Generation w/ Wanz (Upstairs @ The Cavern)
Here is what Wanz has for tonight:

"I am gonna be heavy on the funk and soul tonight. There will still be plenty of other stuff too. With 4 hours to kill it's pretty easy to cover a lot of ground. I will be hitting my massive Soul Jazz Collection pretty hard tonight. I have a few new remixes that I made over the weekend including a very nice drill n bass version of 7 steps to heaven that would make squarepusher quite happy. If there is a crowd for it of course I will detour into some of the new dubstep, grime and techno stuff I have been hording lately. If not then I will just go with the flow. Hope to see you out. Cheers!!!!"


There are a few other shows going on here and there tonight, but none that really interested us all that much. Just remember, Dallas is usually pretty lame, dudes.... don't shoot the messenger.

Of course, you can give open mic night @ the Fallout Lounge a shot... although I don't know if I can recommend it considering I've never been before. But it is hosted by Tim and Rhett from The Happy Bullets, and various members of various local bands reportedly collaborate with one another regularly at this thing, so if that sounds good to you, it probably will be.

And San Diego's Red Pony Clock will be playing a free show at J&Js tonight in Denton, starting at 8pm. If you ask me, most of this lovey cute boy indie pop crap has gotta go (although I'm afraid that like Rock n Roll, it might be here to stay), but Red Pony Clock probably comes as close as you possibly can to getting it right in that K Records, old school Sebadoh sort of way. Their lo-fi production and neutral, milky hotel horn section set them apart from most of the other bands that populate this genre, and they seem a bit more intelligent and musically competent than their peers. The band put out a couple of pretty decent internet only singles towards the end of 2005, and they seem like they might be able to build something from the promise that those songs provided. They'll be joined by Fishboy, Tha Bracelets, and Hardin Sweaty and the Ready to Go, some of whom might be too cute for their own good. We'll let you figure out which ones!