Yeah, so this is the busiest Tuesday of the year here in good ol' DFWd, and you can start the day off at Good Records' free in-store:

Aloha 3pm
Ill Ease 4pm
Parts & Labor 5pm
Skeletons and the Girl Faced Boys 6pm
Saturday Looks Good to Me 7pm

And then you can go pay for some shit later tonight:

1. Thunderbirds are Now! | Serena Maneesh | Field Music (Hailey's Denton)
Check our preview of this show on dconstruction if you want, but we can promise that this will be the best thing going in town tonight unless you like to cry yourself to sleep with Scottish music playing in the background or something.

2. Belle and Sebastian/ New Pornographers (Granada)
Just kidding, we love B&S and might have made this #1 if it wasn't $32 and if it wasn't at the Granada, where the sound has been known to make my Discman sound like Carnegie fucking Hall. If they can get their shit together at Granada tonight, this will surely be a fantastic show. If not, then you might go home at the end of the night and cry yourself to sleep with Scottish music playing in the background or something. Do I really have to link these bands?

3. Ted Leo and The Pharmacists | The Duke Spirit | Aloha | Les Aus (Tea Room)
Damn it. I really want to see Ted Leo live, but I guess I'll have to catch one of his 73 performances at SXSW this week. I've seen this guy twice, and he puts on a hell of a show, and pretty much manages to sing just like he does on his records... which is pretty impressive if you've never heard him. And the Duke Spirit kicks ass. So does Aloha. And so does Les Aus.

4. Skeletons and the Girl Faced Boys | Headlights | Metal Hearts (The Cavern)
Get in free with your B&S ticket, or skip that and just pay five bucks to see this. Either way, Skeletons go on at midnight, and you'll want to be there for it because they are fantastic, unless you've decided to go home and cry yourself to sleep with... nevermind.

5. Saturday Looks Good To me | His Name is Alive | Crystal Skulls | The Reputation (rubber Gloves) His Name is Alive is a really great band that is worth showing up early for.

So many good shows today. Anyway, later on we will have a band profile and an interview for your ass.

1. Moving Units | The Standard (Gypsy Tea Room)
"Hey dude, you wanna go to the Moving Units show tonight?" "Nah man, dancepunk is so fucking 2003." "But have you ever seen these guys live?" "No, but I'm really more into like freak folk and ironic heavy metal and shit now. Haven't you ever read Vice Magazine?" "yeah, but they're an amazing live band, and you won't wanna miss them even if you didn't think their record was all that great because Pitchfork said so." Trust me on this one.

2. Clipd Beaks | Faux Fox | Sciflyer | Orson (The Cavern)
You'll hear dancey new wavey experimental stuff and some shoegaze at this pre-sxsw stop over show. And don't forget CeePee spinning the indie hits upstairs, playa.

Yeah, the Sopranos Season 6 debut was all I was interested in seeing last night. And yeah, it was good. I won't ruin it for any of you On Demand or Tivo people, but lets just say it was the most exciting season premier of the show's history. Hopefully Slate will start its weekly Sopranos blog back up again ( I'll link to it if they do). The new Polygamy family drama HBOish show "Big Love" was pretty good too, although we do like Bill Paxton's performance in Weird Science a bit better that what we have seen from him in the show so far.

Oh, and this week we'll have a band profile thing happening, and also an interview thing happening. And then starting Wednesday, we'll have a SXSW thing happening. We'll be filing reports each day, and we'll be taking some pictures and spilling some drinks and all of that good stuff, and then posting shit on here. Why are we doing this? Because no other blog in the world is actually going to be posting ANYTHING about SXSW, and we'll be your only source of information! And as an added bonus, we don't really have cool hook ups to any good parties or secret shows or anything special at all, so needless to say you'll be getting an "insiders" look into the festival. Fan fucking tastic! We'll try to make the posts funny or something.

Don't catch a case of the "Mondays" today! lol and stuff! :-)

1. Happy Bullets/Seventeen Evergreen/Pegasus Now (Rubber Gloves Denton)
You know the deal with Happy Bullets, and Seventeen Evergreen is a pretty solid band that has been playing around town all weekend, so you might have heard them already too. Pegasus Now are a pretty promising new Dallas band that reminds us of Sea and Cake at times, but a little more rockin'. Its five bucks.

2. Dj Wild In the Streets (Hailey's Denton): 60's garage, psyche and pop. You can go see it even if you don't like "mods." I mean come on, is there really such a thing anymore?

Another fun party/show at the Yellow House in Denton last night really reminded me of how far Dallas has to come before the local music scene gets interesting. And let me say from the outset that I do recognize the many built in advantages that Denton has over Dallas: Denton is a college town, and there is a reason why "indie" was once referred to as "college rock." College towns are the bread and butter of the kind of music we cover on this blog, and Denton is no exception. Denton has a lot of young people with a lot of time on their hands, a lot of student loans, a lot of alcohol, and the kind of youthful passion that people tend to start losing in their mid 20's (which might explain why Dallas crowds act like they are being forced to see live music while Denton crowds act like they live for it). Add cheap living expenses and the UNT music school into the mix, and you've got a place where a lot of people will naturally be interested in producing and listening to the kind of music we like to talk about on here. It really makes sense when you think about it.

But Dallas has certain advantages over a place like Denton that should at least put it in the same ballpark: more clubs and bars, a much larger and more diverse population (both of which would presumedly make it a more attractive draw for national touring acts), and an older, slightly more mature crowd that you might expect to have slightly more refined tastes. However, for whatever reason (and we're pretty sick of speculating about it) Dallas continues to be pretty dead on most nights when there isn't a big national act in town. We've more or less said all of this before, but right now it simply appears to be a fact of life. And anyone that tells you otherwise is simply kidding themselves.

As we pointed out in a post earlier this week, there are SOME signs of life here and there, but we've got a long way to go before this town is even as interesting as Denton, much less Portland, Austin, Toronto, or any other cities of a similar size. Really, can you think of any other city in the United States roughly the same size as Dallas that has LESS going on? We can't. But don't take this as a "lets all move to austin" rallying cry either, because for a combination of reasons we are all here together, and there must be a way to make this place and this time interesting before we're all too old to enjoy it. Hopefully someone will eventually figure it out.

We went up to Denton mostly to hear a DJ set (which apparently started way later than we were prepared to stick around), but what we saw instead was a band called Cartright, which we enjoyed quite a bit (poppy indiefolk). As usual in Denton however, it was the combination of the band and an enthusiastic crowd that made the show a worthwhile experience. Half the fun of being there was watching other people watch the band, and enjoying the friendly, relaxed atmosphere of the house. Nothing earth-shattering or life changing took place, and it wasn't even the best show we've ever seen at the Yellow House. But like many recent weekends, going up to Denton sounded much more appealing than anything (music related) happening in Dallas. And despite whatever combination of personal and other reasons that might have influenced our choice, the drive from Dallas to Denton and back is becoming a pretty regular weekend occurrence for a lot of Dallasites, and that in and of itself is worth noting.

Or actually didn't know until now....

party at the Yellow House in Denton tonight.

Featuring:

Ben Cartright (indie folk)

Other bands (we don't know who)

Flashlight Party Djs (featuring Jordan Kline and Markus Diffee)

Where is this place? Right near the corner of Mulberry and Fry St. in Denton, next to UNT. And no that isn't a picture of it. This is probably the most fun you can have tonight.

1. Baptist Generals (art prostitute Denton) 10pm, 210 E. Hickory St. Apparently the last show at AP's Denton location. Good way to go out.

2. The Angelus | Killing Fields | Am Syndicate (hailey's Denton)

3. Metrognome Collective: Tame Tame and Quiet | Everything Looks Better Upside Down | The Bracelets

Lots to do tonight all around town. To kick things off, you can stop by Good Records to see a free instore with Sound Team and Record Hop (5pm). On to the main event(s)

1. Gorilla vs Bear Showcase- Tapes N' Tapes | Seventeen Evergreen | Birdmonster (the Cavern)
This is pretty much perfect timing for Chris from GVB, since he helped break Tapes N' Tapes, booked them to play his showcase, and then watched them get a "Best New Music" review from Pitchfork last week. Tapes are a really great band that will appeal to just about anyone that has ever liked "indie rock." Really, their first album is pretty great. Seventeen Evergreen also be good. Never heard Birdmonster. This show will probably sell out since Tapes N Tapes are a buzz band and the Cavern is small, so get there early. Here is the Pitchfork review.

2. Mates of State | Midlake | Sound Team (Gypsy Ball Room)
Not big Mates of State fans (sorry dudes), but Midlake will be playing shit off their new album, which already has more buzz around it than a naked picture of your mom on the internet. Sound Team is pretty good too.

3. 8th Continent: Strange Boys | Eat Avery's Bones | The Vietniks (Denton- 731 Texas St.)
This is a great DIY venue you need to check out if you haven't already. Some of our usual favorites are playing tonight for $5, along with the Vietniks... who have a New York late 70's thing going on. Should be a really fun time.

4. Metrognome: Bob White and the F electrics (1518 E. Lancaster Fort Worth)
You know the deal on this one.