Sorry, gotta be brief today. Its not a big loss, however, because the only things going on tonight involve three of the best DJs in town, doing what they normally do. Therefore, everyone should already know about them, and should already be planning on going.

DJ Nature will be doing The Party at Rubber Gloves tonight, and it will be his last time do so for a few weeks, as he will be on tour. The always great $elect will be joining him.

Also, the Axis guys will have DJ G spinning records over @ Hailey's. He'll be playing all kinds of different stuff, but apparently will skip out on his usual 80's house and electro.

More to come later this evening.

Danava | Snow Foxxes | Eat Avery's Bones (Cavern downstairs)
For those that don't know... Danava sounds like Wolfmother. But they're way better. They rock harder, they're less slick, and they're somewhat more adventurous in sound, with synths and spacey song structures adding some meat to the by now familiar neoSabbath hispter sound. I've also heard great things around the world wide internets about their live shows, so I expect this to be a good one. Snow Foxxes have a similar Sabbathesque guitar sound (with vocalist-drummer Celia Wall, pictured to the left, adding a nice touch of Jefferson Airplane vibe with her vocals), but are a bit sloppier and more aggressive than Danava, and also sound quite good. Fans of Silk Stocking and the aforementioned bands will probably dig. And you know EAB.

And remember, Upstairs at the Cavern, Wanz will be doing his Lost Generation thing. Looks like the Cavern could be the place to be tonight.

Helen Stellar | Sarah Reddington | The Psychedelic Journey Band | Chirp! Chirp! (Dada)
You ever heard a good band, as in played good music, that was recorded all wrong and had terrible lyrics, and thus became a band that you weren't sure you could take? Sounds like Helen Stellar could be one of those bands. Of course, I'm a shoegaze kind of person, so if thats not you're thing, don't even bother. But even if it is, Helen Stellar might be too cute and serious and clean sounding and trite to really be very entertaining. In fact, the more that I listen to their Mix 102 love song lyrics, the more I know I wouldn't like them live for the same reason that Jerry Seinfeld doesn't like watching a man sing a song. But anywho, Sarah Reddington is becoming more excellent every time I hear them, Chirp Chirp's lonely guitars and spastic noise sound quite interesting, and the Psychedelic Journey band, um, I don't get.

And finally theres the SLOMO video festival at Denton's SHQ (210 E. Hickory). The SLOMO is a series of 100 one minute slow motion videos produced by 85 different directors and video artists from around the world, all featured back to back. Should be fun. By the way, its FREE, its BYOB, and its at a great Denton space. Starts at 8.

I got into a discussion on a Gorilla Vs Bear comment section the other day about the year in music thus far. My position was (and still is) that its been a pretty dull year for new releases. I think theres been a lot of talk about a fairly high number of very overbuzzed and very overrated albums this year simply because there hasn't been much else to talk about. Yes, several very strong records have come out this year (similar to just about every year), and there has been at least one classic (Liars), but as far as the number of truly exciting and high quality releases in 2006, I would say that this year hasn't come close to stacking up against any of the previous three or four years. Of course, judging music in units of "years" is just as arbitrary as anything else, but its kind of fun.

Anyway, I wanted to share two MP3s from two largely overlooked records that I've enjoyed quite a bit this year. The first is a track off Some Echoes, the fifth full length from Ohio's Aloha. Although the band started as a sort of jazz influenced post-rock outfit, they have morphed quite a bit over the years, developing a rather unique prog/post rock indie pop sound influenced a bit by jazz, 70's AM, and the subdued world beat vibe of some of David Byrne's best solo work (including a noticeable similarity in vocals and phrasing in places). The song I've posted, "Your Eyes," is probably the most straight forward off the record, but its a fantastic introduction to one of my favorite records of the year.

The second MP3 comes from Denmark's Figurines, who sound like a band that I would usually not ever consider listening to. Their debut full length, Skeleton, has a classic pop punk vibe (read: Buzzcocks and The Jam, not Green Day) with a bit of a 60's pop influence that could easily annoy some, but has captivated me for some reason. Lead singer Christian Hjelm's vocals could even be compared to those heard on some of the snotty, modern day mall punk records that are easier to hate than Hitler, but still: the songs are well written, catchy as shit, and seem to be influenced by all the right sounds in all the right ways. Really, it sounds like bullshit, but download "The Wonder" and tell me that you don't listen to it at least five times this week. Its one of those songs that is instantly catchy AND a grower, much like the rest of the record.

Aloha "Your Eyes" MP3 (link)
Figurines "The Wonder" MP3 (link)

Thats two days in a row that we couldn't find jack shit to do... not sure if thats happened before.

1. Thom Yorke - The Eraser
2. Sufjan Stevens - The Avalanche
3. The Theater Fire - Everybody Has a Dark Side
4. Danielson - Ships
5. Astronautalis - The Mighty Ocean & Nine Dark Theaters
6. Camera Obscura - Let's Get Out Of This Country
7. Regina Spektor - Begin To Hope
8. Gnarls Barkley - St. Elsewhere
9. The Paper Chase - Now You Are One Of Us
10. Hard-Fi - Stars of of CCTV
11. Peaches - Impeach My Bush
12. Beirut - Gulag Orkestar
13. Hot Chip - The Warning
14. Cut Chemist - The Audience's Listening
15. Phoenix - It's Never Been Like That
16. Band of Horses - Everything All the Time
17. James Figurine - Mistake Mistake Mistake Mistake
18. Starlight Mints - Drowaton
19. Oneida - Happy New Year
20. Sound Team - Movie Monster

Looks like Sound Team hasn't been too hurt by the pitchfork review that everyone was crying about the other week. Also, its nice to see a band like Oneida on a Good Records chart, considering that they seem to be quite a bit different than most of the stuff that is usually on this list. And I don't care what anyone says, that new Thom Yorke is good.

Are hippies cool in indie rock now? Is commune living the latest fad? Have things gone so full circle that we can't even tell an ironic hippie from a sincere one, much like the mysterious popularity of mustaches and mullets and whether someone is a hipster or a pool cleaner? Does the difference even matter? Judging by the number of "indie" rock's usual suspects that played the jam band purgatory known as Coachella this year, the line is becoming increasingly blurred. Truthfully, gutterpunks are probably the real modern hippies, even though they'd be loathe to admit it. I can understand adopting some of the sounds of the Canterbury scene, the Holy Modal Rounders, or truly freaked out ideas from maybe the Red Krayola when they were still a Houston band, but what made a lot of those acts great is that they strayed from the obvious aspects of sixties and seventies culture or mutated them into something original. Walking around barefoot with the "feelin'groovy" attitude that modern flower children like Devendra Barnhart give off is not really for me. It just isn't practical to walk around your average venue in sandals, much less with your bare feet. Rock clubs usually have a really unique flooring material composed of concrete and broken glass with an alcohol, vomit and urine varnish. Not exactly the equivalent of running your naked toes and heels over the lush, salad-like environment of Northern California... but whatever makes you happy. I saw a lot of happy people at the Brightblack Morning Light show on Thursday night at Dan's Silver Leaf.

Mariee Sioux opened the show with a set of melodic folk-influenced songs. The songs meandered into so many different parts that I sometimes didn't know if she'd moved on to the next song. I can respect that kind of complexity for primarily acoustic songwriter fare, but I thought that some of her more successful moments were when she'd repeat the same vocal phrase ten times in a row or more. The crowd was extremely respectful while she played and there was almost complete silence while she performed. It was the kind of quiet that Chris Garver had probably hoped for at Strategies Against Beauty a couple of weeks ago, but it happens to everybody, especially the acoustic troubadour types. Mariee Sioux made a lot of obvious mistakes as far as forgetting lyrics or the next chord she was about to play. It was like that scene in Nirvana's MTV Unplugged performance where Kurt Cobain forgets that line in "Pennyroyal Tea","I-I-I-I'm o-o-on wwwarm milk and lllaxitives...". I thought it was charming and she seemed to deal with it pretty well, unlike a lot of prima donnas from the past ten years who seem to thrive on making the crowd suffer when they can't get through songs. Mariee Sioux's lyrics dealt with the everyday problems you'd encounter if it was oh, I guess about 1893. I heard a lot of mention of grizzlies and arrows, hides and bramble. These seem like fairly anachronistic issues to deal with when you also have to worry about checking your Myspace page. I thought Mariee Sioux played a decent set for the genre, but I sometimes wonder if these singer songwriters get more credit than they should for the more superficial aspects of their career, like wearing a weird dress or looking like a Charles Manson impersonator. Sometimes that's the only difference between one of them and Jack Johnson or Melissa Etheridge.

Earlier I mentioned how gutter punks might be the new hippies, which brings me to Daniel Higgs. I wouldn't call Daniel Higgs a gutter punk, but he certainly has had a long life in punk rock. His resume includes various projects spanning all the way back to the early eighties, most notably in Reagan era Baltimore punk band Reptile House and later in the widely acclaimed Lungfish, who were one of Dischord Records most beloved groups. I hadn't heard anything about his recent solo work and his set came as quite a surprise, and a particularly jarring one after the sedate performance by Sioux. Overall, Daniel Higgs played with an Eastern feel and often played his guitar as if it was a sitar, whether he meant to or not. When Higgs started, I don't think the sound guy was even aware that the performance had begun, since his set was bleeding over the house PA music. Higgs had an assortment of little amplifiers that looked like toys set up around a Fender Squire practice amp, which was the largest piece of amplification he used. He played with the knobs on the toy amps, creating a shrill array of feedback and pulsating drilling noise. The catalyst that supplied the sound was an electric-acoustic guitar, which are notorious for feedback even without being fed through an array of distorted practice amps. Quite a while passed before Higgs began to sing, and when he did his lyrics were ominous doomsday rants. These lyrics, combined with his long grey beard and endless tattoos, gave Higgs the appearance of a crazed vagrant holding an "End is near" picket sign. And I mean that in the best possible way. He cut a really striking figure onstage.

When Brightblack Morning Light started playing, I had no idea that I would be at Dan's Silverleaf until 1:30in the morning. They played for what seemed like an eternity, which caused me to realize that I'm spoiled by most bands I see, who play for about twenty minutes. I mention this because it was evident that drawing things out is a big part of Brightblack Morning Light's philosophy concerning performance and song structure. They would repeat a three note part on the Rhodes piano and repeat it almost endlessly. And just when you'd think that the entire song was over, the repetitiveness would be shattered by an actual change in note and rhythm, and it was usually a welcome respite. The vocals were so lazy and whispered that they almost resembled two people trying to harmonize to a Jandek song. The band had two percussionists who were the most variable aspect of the band, and both avoided standard rhythms and even snare drums. The band looked like the promo glossy of almost any rock band circa 1970, and that look included but was not limited to aviator sunglasses onstage. I guess it's not that important to see what you're playing when you'll just be repeating the first part of a blues progression for fifteen minutes. It's hard to not like the sound of a Fender Rhodes, though, isn't it? I know that part of being into Brightblack's sound is to enjoy the repetition, but I've got to be wary of a band that plays so monotonously that a dog is able to fall sleep onstage. I'm not making that up. It actually happened.

I probably would have enjoyed Brightblack Morning Light more in a smaller dose, but you know what they say about "Too much of a mediocre thing." The next day, I found myself wishing that I had been as excited about seeing Brightblack Morning Light as my parents had been about seeing Steely Dan with Michael McDonald at Nokia the night before. That's a review I wish I could post.

Lots of action on this blog today, and lots of shows tonight. And remember how we told you about good local and national interviews and CD review and new MP3s and stuff coming soon? Well, they are. You'll just have to wait. But if you've read this blog long enough, you know that almost nothing is done as soon as we think its gonna be, so I'm sure you're not shocked. I know its seemed a bit like a concert event calendar around here lately, but we've been busy with life.

Music:

FRIDAY


1. Undoing of David Wright | Zom Zoms | Mystechs | The Build (8th Continent- 731 Texas St. Denton $5)
I don't know how many more ways there are to tell you to go see an Undoing show at the 8th if you want to see the absolute BEST local show in town, so I'll just say it. Undoing hasn't played a show in a while, and this would really be a good one to check out if you haven't seen them yet because its at a great venue, with great bands, and comes before they begin recording their next album, meaning that they might not be playing out much in the next month or two. But thats just speculation on my part. Austin's Zom Zoms are fantastic too, tehy remind me of Gary Numan, Devo and like a super hyper electro Pere Ubu... so deal with that. They are nothing short of completely kick ass live too. And they look like real jerks on their myspace page, which is a bonus. Mystechs sound like they are influenced equally by late 80's pop rap, Mahjongg, and Ween (which they note on their Myspace page). However I could only listen to one song, so I don't know for sure about their other stuff. I can't say that the Build's insturmental shoegaze excites me all that much, but its pretty solid and will sound good really loud.

2. Theater Fire | Warren Jackson Hearne | Electric Mountain Rotten Apple Gang | W- Burn (the Cavern downstairs)
This show downstairs, Chris from GVSB spinning stuff upstairs. Should be a good Friday night at the Cavern. I really dig the Theater Fire, but you all already know that, so I don't feel I need to say any more, except that I can't stop listening to that "These Tears Could Rust a Train" song. Shit its good. Warren Jackson Hearne is pretty bad ass... reminds me a bit of Tom Waits and Beefheart and Man Man and all that, but they've also got a bit of that cool, creepy Squirrel Nut Zippers feel to them (SNZ before they turned into Zoot Suit Riots were the shit, and I'll kill anyone that says otherwise). Basically, its old timey rustic stomping bluegrass influenced Americana, and its good. Features Paul Slavens and like ten other people. Electric Mountain whatever... whats the difference between counter culture folk and jam band doucheness? I'm not sure, but EMRAG will make you ask yourself this question, and then ask yourself why you care what the answer is. If you like bluegrass however, they are good I guess. Couldn't find anything about Burn or whatever.

3. Camera Obscura | Georgie Jones (Tea Room)
ATTN: If you like twee influenced indie pop, or K Records cute, or the Vaselines, Pastels, Raincoats, etc., or bands from Scotland not named after dukes, then you should love Camera Obscura. Its very pretty orchestral pop, and I doubt they come through Texas too often. Their new album is wonderful, and I think the show will be good. And I couldn't find anything about Georgie either... I guess its not my lucky day. Or maybe it is...

4. Metrognome has Paleo and These United States for $5 bucks at one of my two favorite venues in town. I guess Popfest convinced a lot of other people that this was a cool place to see a show. And I've heard great things about the performance last night, so go to the worth and see whats up. Links are on Thursday's it list below.

5. Jetscreamer | Record Hop | Hogpig | The Nizzardz (Rubber Gloves)
A benefit for the Denton Humane Society... loud noisy rock for the benefit of puppies and kittens. What could be better? And every time I hear the Record Hop "treefrog," I am more and more convinced that I need to see another one of their shows. And is Hogpig supposed to rock out or make me laugh? Because they do both.

Blue Cheer (here) / Black Angels | Dj Wild in the Streets (Hailey's)
THIS SHOW IS TONIGHT, NOT SATURDAY. SORRY BOUT THAT.

Wanz is going to be spinning some experimental, electronic and industrial stuff at Club One tonight... stuff from Bpitch, Areal, etc., which should be a good time.

and check out this guy's page... he does most of the art for You Are the Universe, and he's got some really good shit on his website.

SATURDAY

I'm running out of time today.... sorry. More to come this weekend if we find out about anything new.

1. Prayer for Animals | Teenage Symphony | Haunting Oboe Music | Eat Avery's Bones (Dark Side Lounge)
This show wins best flyer award (above)... who make Miro concert posters? Solid show.

Thats it... bye.

1. Brightblack Morning Light | Mariee Sioux (Dan's Silverleaf-Denton)
Although we screwed up yet another chance to interview this band (we suck, but sometimes we gotta work on stuff that pays the bills instead), I would say that this would have to be THE can't miss show of the week (not that it has a whole hell of a lot of competition). Imagine what it would sound like if Spacemen 3 (yeah I know, how many times can I make that reference?) started a War cover band, and you might have some kind of idea of what BML sounds like. Their melodies, rhythms and arrangements are all fairly complex, but the presentation is straight up psychedelic minimalism with hints of Americana folk, jazz, blues and even a touch of funk thrown in the mix (sometimes recalling Neu!). The resulting songs are quiet and dark but certainly not sad. Instead, the feeling that the band gives off is one that is subdued and hypnotic, as new aspects of their songs reveal themselves each time you hear them, defying a comfortable label resembling any of the aforementioned genres (although some comparison to the quieter moments of Primal Scream could be made.) Their record is fantastic, and if you're the kind of person that doesn't need a beginning, middle and end in a song (like a kid's bedtime story) in order to enjoy it, you might want to click the link above and see whats up. Mariee Sioux is opening with some very solid pretty dream folk.

2. 80's House/ Electro Night with DJ G (Hailey's- Denton)

3. Paleo | These United States (Club Dada)
Much to my surprise, there is actually a pretty good show at Club Dada tonight. Paleo really plays some excellent rustic folk that remains soft but contains an interesting level of weary uneasiness that allows the songs to pack quite a bit more of an emotional and intellectual punch than your average neofolkie. You'll certainly hear quite a bit of Devendra Banhart, M. Ward, Nick Drake and Donovan in there, but don't let that description bore you, you jaded hipster, because the songs stand up pretty well on their own, and most that I've listened to are excellent. These United States kind of sounds like Devendra Banhart too (although quite a bit poppier), but also like a shy Violent Femmes that listens to Beck on a regular basis. You shouldn't let that description scare you either, because they're better than it makes them sound. Simultaneously fuller and less structured than Paleo, they will likely be a solid opening act.