Jayson Bales wrote an article over at Texasgigs about the Dallas music scene and what he sees as some of its highlights. The thesis of the article is that despite popular opinion, the scene is alive and well, and may even be ready to prosper due to various developments and local forces that are doing positive things. Normally I would react by saying that one of the signs of a failing music scene is people having to write articles in order to affirm its very existence. I would also take issue with some of the things that he described as "reasons to believe" in Dallas music: Radiant? Some jam band? House of Blues? But I really don't feel like arguing about this shit today, so I've decided to simply copy Jayson and write my own little (short) list of positive things that I have seen recently. Although I might disagree with Jayson's outlook for now (despite my full agreement with his $35,000 millionaire line), I do think that there are a few good things going on too, even if I'm pretty sure that we are nowhere near turning things around in the metroplex. Here goes, positive things about the Dallas music scene:

1. Denton: What? Doesn't Denton steal shows from Dallas? Isn't it really far away? Maybe, but I would say that a vast majority of the good things going on in local music right now are happening in Denton. Hailey's is the best play to see national touring acts in the region, Rubber Gloves always seems to have something interesting going on, and there is a quickly developing noise-rock scene up there that might produce some exciting things in the near future. Not to mention the fact that you can pretty much go up to Denton any night of the week and find a house party with live music (especially over at the Yellow house) and kids that are genuinely interested in the artistic and cultural aspects of a music scene. Just take a look at what Undoing is, um, doing over at the Eighth Continent, and you will see what good bands, knowledgeable fans and a DIY venue have the potential to do for a music community. Add the talent pool that is the UNT music school into the mix, and you have a small town that has way more going on than it ever should.

2. Daughter Entertainment: Pretty much any good national touring show that you've seen in recent memory was probably promoted by Daughter. It is nice to see that people with good taste also have enough influence to book great bands and be successful in a town where Pat Green is considered cool.

3. People finally recognizing that Deep Ellum sucks: Lets face it, Deep Ellum has sucked for a long time, and I think it is great that people are are starting to figure that out. Expensive parking, crime, crappy clubs, dumb people, abusive cops, and a general lack of ANYTHING worth going to see has killed Deep Ellum in the eyes of many. And that makes perfect sense. It has been time for that neighborhood to shape up or ship out for quite a while, and it looks like the club owners there are finally trying to figure out which they will do. Either way, it will be great to be rid of Deep Ellum as we know it now.

4. Meat Radio/Frequency Down: Two places that you can listen to good underground music without supporting Clear Channel or Scott Stapp's coke habit. These are two sources for music that might inspire people in Dallas to pick up an instrument and play something good, rather than copying the latest Interpol rip-off band and trying to out-cute one another.

5. Metrognome Collective: Again, this isn't in Dallas, but another great DIY spot for art, film, and experimental music cannot go unmentioned. This is a place where some really good things could happen.

6. Some good bands: Midlake, Undoing of David Wright, Happy Bullets, Pilotdrift, Strange Boys, Fra Pandolf, Eat Avery's Bones, Voot Cha Index, Mazinga Phaser, Tah Dahs, Shiny Around the Edges, You are the Universe, Bosque Brown. I might have left out a few, and there are probably a couple more out there that i haven't heard... yet.

So there. Come on get happy.

So we've seen about 8 million Myspace posts concerning this itunes shuffle game, so we decided to give it a try live, right here and now. Basically you just ask one of these questions, and then hit shuffle on the old itunes and see what song you get. Let us see what happens:

1. How does the World See Me?

"Frontin'"- Pharrel and Jay Z (shit!)

2. Will I have a happy life?

"energy of death"- Apostle of Hustle (Great. Just great.)

3. What do my friends really think of me?

"Scoff" - Nirvana

4. Do People Secretly Lust after me?

"I feel like a child" - Devendra Banhart

5. How can I make myself happy?

"chicago seemed tired last night" - The Hold Steady

6. What Should I do with my life?

"Big Sky" - The Kinks

7. Will I ever have children?

"Run for your life" - The Beatles (Ha! Kids are such little jerks.)

8. What is some good advice for me?

"Turn into Something" - Animal Collective

9. How Will I be remembered?

"Dialog Box" - David Byrne

10. What is my signature dancing song?

"Aero Zeppelin" Nirvana

11. What do I think my current theme song is?

" We Built Another World" - Wolf Parade

12. What does everyone else think my current theme song is?

" According to plan" - I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness

13. What song will play at my funeral?

"Even Better Than The Real Thing" - U2

14. What Type of Men/Women do you like?

"Swab the Temples" - Roller Skate Skinny

15. What is my day going to be like?

"Only Someone Running" - Matt Sweeny and Bonnie Prince Billy

16. Will I ever have love again?

"Bring on the Terror" - Robbers on High Street

Just to let you know, what we have heard most recently is that SXSW is still deciding whether or not to sell anymore wristbands, but if they decide to do so they will go on sale next Wednesday, the first day of the music festival. That is all the information we have right now. Someone suggested in a previous comment thread that they will only be sending text messages to people with 512 area codes, so if anyone finds out more in that regard please post about it in the comments, because we're not entirely sure when and how the announcement will be made. We got a couple emails from people looking for wristbands, so we're just trying to help out. We're soooo nice.

First, we found out from our best friends at Texasgigs that the last batch of SXSW wristbands will be going on sale some time next week. What time next week and where? We don't know yet, although we would guess it will be at Waterloo... have they ever been sold anywhere else? Anyway they will cost $175 and there will probably only be a couple thousand available at most, so we'll give you more info when we get it. Oh yeah, you apparently HAVE to sign up for SXSW text messages in order to get the information next week, so you can do that here.

In other news, Dallas kids should get over to Good Records in a couple hours (by 6pm to be exact) to see a free instore set from Casiotone for the Painfully Alone and The Donkeys. Both are good and its free, even though you will probably end up buying a CD or something.

Denton kids don't have to worry because they can see Casiotone for the Painfully Alone along with the Donkeys tonight at Rubber Gloves for five bucks. If you don't know, Casiotone sounds exactly like the name might suggest... bedroom synthpop. Very good stuff. Donkeys remind me of sad Velvet Underground songs... and a few of the happy ones too. We'd never heard them until today, but we likes it.

And as usual, tonight will be Mile End at Fallout, where electronica, indie, britpop, etc. will be heard. Word on the streets is that the crowd is starting to pick up over there a bit, so maybe you should jump on that bandwagonesque.

People clearly want to be like us. Can you blame them? We only have like the most indietastic blog in town, not to mention how cool our name is. I mean, do you think anyone else could have ever come up with a name involving a character from "Dallas" the t.v. show for a blog about Dallas music? Well, you might be shocked to learn that the city of Dallas is trying to get some crappy movie studio to film some crappy movie based on the aforementioned crappy t.v. show here in town, and they have decided that their campaign slogan will be "Shoot J.R. in Dallas." Don't they know that "we" already shot him? If this movie does come to town, I might have to change the name of this blog to Falcon Crest or something.

Here is a link to the story.

1. The Party w/ Dj Nature (Rubber Gloves-Denton)
Tonight is nature's birthday, so he thinks the party will be pretty crazy tonight. This will be a good opportunity to check it out for the first time if you haven't already.

2. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club (Granada)
I didn't really like their new album, Howl, when I heard it the first time. I thought the lyrics sucked and I wondered why they would abandon the shoegaze sound that seemed to work so well for them. Anyway, Howl has grown on me a bit, and they'll probably play enough old stuff tonight to keep you happy no matter what you think of the new one. Oh, and the word on the street is that Elefant bailed for some reason. Thank god.

jog on over to Weedemon if you want to see the new Streets video. It rules.

Someone really needs to beat this jackass in November, don't they? I really could care less if it is Kinky, Bell, or hell even Strayhorn at this point because I don't know enough about any of them to make a choice just yet (although I'm pretty sure that I won't be picking Strayhorn). All I know is how much I don't like Mr. Cool over there, and how just about anyone would be better.

Here is a good piece from the Dallas Morning News about the strategies of the various candidates.