To all the people who have tickets to Sigur Ros at Bass Performance Hall tonight: I hate you. Or I mean I love you.... now sell me your ticket!

Thanks,

J.R.

In other news, this week is going to be a big one. We've got a special secret announcement to make later this week (no, it isn't our identity), and we'll have a good interview with a good band. Oh and you should vote for our J.R. awards so that we can give the winners absolutely nothing for all their hard work!!

The Eighth Continent is a house. Or actually its the basement/garage part of a house. The ceilings are low. Its smoky and dark, and it makes you feel claustrophobic even when its not entirely full. Its BYOB, its makeshift, and its hard to find if you've never been before, tucked away in a residential neighborhood in Denton. In short its a great place to see underground music, particularly when the band you're watching is one of the best live bands in Dallas/Denton/Fort Worth and the audience is made up mostly of rabid fans dancing like crazy throughout their entire set.

From what we can tell, The Eighth Continent is actually part of a house owned and/or lived in by Lars from Undoing of David Wright, and the large garage area beneath the house has been renovated and made into a music venue complete with a small stage and a space for a DJ booth. But you shouldn't be picturing a garage, because it really doesn't look or feel like one... its more like an old basement bar than anything else, and the set up is actually pretty fantastic. The stage is against the far wall of the space when you walk in, and there is an equally good place to see it from all three sides surrounding it, maximizing the available room (which can probably fit about 75 people). There are places to sit inside, and an outside area to cool down in front. The sound was a bit muffled last night, but its pretty goddamn good all things considered, and this was apparently the first show they've had there, which makes the quality of the mix even more impressive. Basically, it seems like a place where something memorable could happen.

Oh yeah, the band played too... and as usual they were tight as shit (didn't seem to miss a note), running through a set of loud, danceable no wave/post-hardcore that pretty much kicked everyone's ass (you could tell by looking at them). Most of the people there were obviously huge fans, which made it really fun to just sit back and watch the whole thing from time to time as the rest of the audience continued to go fucking nuts. People that were actually there to have fun were having fun, there was lots of smoke, a cheap cover, no four dollar Bud Lights or asshole bartenders, no Deep Ellum cops or problems parking, and a great band onstage that actually puts on a show thats worth two shits. Maybe stuff like this should happen every weekend.

So we've caught some shit from a few people for being into Red Monroe, not to mention Hourly Radio (people sent us emails about how much both bands suck), but thats ok. Cuz we're good enough, and smart enough, and you know the rest. But if you doubt whether either of these bands is worth a shit, why don't you go check them out for FREE tonight at the Darkside Lounge? Red Monroe goes on at 10, Hourly Radio is on at 11. We must admit that we've never seen them live before, but we like what we hear on record. Oh, and if you're going to see Coldplay and Fiona Apple for $47 tonight, then get off my goddamn website.

1. Hourly Radio/Red Monroe (Darkside Lounge- Deep Ellum) FREE

2. Wild In the Streets (Hailey's Denton)
Mods and such. You know the drill.

And finally, if you don't feel like going out but you also don't want to tune in to the Adventure Club's "All Coldplay" show live from wherever they're playing, you might want to listen to:

3. Frequency Down on 88.1 KNTU at 10pm. Frank the tank says he'll be playing:

"NEW Flaming Lips, Buzzcocks & Abbey,!Also songs from The New Amsterdams, Single Frame, Sonic Youth, Tigerbaby, Autolux, Essex Green, Metric, Mates of State, Super Love Attack, The Hourly Radio, Voxtrot, Voot Cha Index, Reggie & the Full Effect, Electric 6, The Life & Times, Arcade Fire, Yo La Tengo, The Melvins, The Riverboat Gamblers AND SO MUCH MORE!!!"

So stick it to Clear Channel twice tonight by skipping out on Coldplay and the adventure club, and instead go to a good FREE show or listen to a great non-commercial radio program. By the way, is Voxtrot the best band in Austin right now? I think they might be.

We'll have more for you later tonight, including a write up of that Undoing of David Wright show last night...

AND BY THE WAY: Vote for the JR polls on the sidebar dog...

Lots and Lots to do tonight, and most of it isn't in Dallas. Imagine that. Anyway, check it:

1. Undoing of David Wright/Best Fwends/Death Set (Eighth Continent Denton)
Eighth Continent is, according to Undoing of David Wright, a new avant garde performance space located at 731 Texas St. in Denton. We don't have a whole lot of information other than the bands playing there and the fact that its all ages, 5 bucks and BYOB. You know we think Undoing is one of the best live acts in town, and we've already talked about Best Fwends a bit, who will be playing at SXSW this year. They're pretty good too. Death Set from New York is also playing, but we don't know who they are. The Undoing has emailed us to say that doors open at 8 pm, and the show should start at 9 or 930.

2. Bob White and the F-Electrics | Like You Like/The Motherfuckers | White Drugs (J & J's Pizza Denton)
J and J's is at 118 W. Oak St in Denton, which we're pretty sure is in the square. Anyway this looks like it will be a great show for fans of the noise post-hardcore sound. Bob White reminds us of Scratch acid, and White Drugs is, well, loud. Both are good, and while we don't know about the other bands we're going to guess that they're loud too, and probably interesting. Take a chance, its free. Starts at 8pm

3. Record Hop | Sharks and Sailors | Woozy Helmet | Tame...tame and Quiet (Rubber Gloves Denton)
We like Record Hop, but you already know that. Austin's Woozy Helmet has kind of an early 90's K Records thing going on, and they sound pretty good. Sharks and Sailors, like we said before, have a Les Savy Fav thing going but maybe a little more rockin' at times. Fort Worth's Tame...Tame and Quiet are decent too. Should be a solid show.

4. Prayer for Animals (Darkside Lounge)
Go see Prayer for Animals at around 9pm, and then go somewhere else unless you want to put up with the Kansas City Faggots. We don't.

5. The Smoke (825 Exposition Ave. Avenue Arts venue)
Mods, go go dancers, you bringing 6 bucks and your own beer so that you can make a fool of yourself on the dance floor. Good combo.

6. Metrognome Collective: 100 Damned Guns | Cartright/Sarah Reddington/ Matthew and the Arrogant Sea: A folk/alt country kinda thing going on at a cool venue, 1518 E. Lancaster in Fort Worth.

1. Undertow Orchestra (Hailey's Denton) Link Will Johnson from Centro-matic and members of American Music Club (good) and pedro the Lion (whateva) will be playing songs together.

2. Metrognome Collective- Sonic Death Monkee/Notes from Underground/Malise (Fort Worth)
We talk about this place all the time because it rules. You should really make the drive some time.

3. Mazinga Phaser II (doublewide)

sorry its short today, but we've got a life too ya know!

So it appears to be music award season here in Dallas, and we've decided to get in on the action. Of course the Dallas Observer awards are the big ones, but we thought that our readers might want to choose their local favorites without having their votes diluted by Flickerstick and Johnny Lloyd whatever fans. So heres the scoop:

For the next two weeks we'll be taking votes for the J.R. Awards. There will be eight categories, and you can vote by posting your choices in the comments section of this thread, which we will create a permanent link to on the sidebar. Post with your name, or as anonymous, or whatever you want. I think you might have to register with Blogspot to be able to post comments, but if you do its really not that hard and you shouldn't be so lazy. Just register and vote ya jerk.

We'll also be having a contest: submit your own award category and nominate a winner. The category can be anything as long as its related to local music. The creator of the funniest category shall receive two free tickets to a Dallas/Denton show TBD later, and will be famous among the few hundred people that read this blog. We can assure you that your prize will be for a show that we would want to go to , and we'll probably give you a list of a couple bands to choose from... we just aren't sure which ones yet. If you create a category, you'll either have to post with your name or send us an email telling us who you are.

Maybe everyone will like this idea, or maybe no one will even respond. But its worth a shot. You can vote in all categories, just one category, or whatever. We don't care. Here they are:

Best Band Overall
Worst Band Overall
Best New Act
Best Venue
Worst Venue
Best DJ
Best Experimental Group or Musician

GO!

1. Happy Bullets and Tah Dahs (Free In Store at Tower Records, Lemmon and Oak Lawn)
Starts at 6:30, so get there early bitches.

2. Dj G 80's Night (Hailey's Denton)
you know the deal.

3. Lions/ White Drugs (Rubber Gloves Denton)
Lions appears to be one of those new Black Sabbathesque hipster metal bands where you can't tell whether or not its a joke. I guess that rocks. White Drugs are a Denton band that also rocks, but they sound more like a mix between the Stooges and a slower Thermals. Probably a pretty good live show.

4. Mile End w/ Dj Laureen (Fallout)
you know the deal here too: shoegaze, britpop, indie.

After receiving a series of emails from another group called "The Veldt," Arlington's Veldt recently decided to change their name to Prayer for Animals in order to avoid dealing with a cease and desist letter. No matter what they might be called, their songs reveal a group that is musically ambitious and potentially buzzworthy, given that they are already close (at an early stage in their existence) to finding a good formula for a sound lying somewhere in between loose psychedelic experimentation and dark indie pop.

Prayer for Animals, formed in 2005, is headquartered at their group house in Arlington where they write songs that have a good deal of range in composition and style, despite possessing what can be classified as the beginning of a "sound" in its early stages. The most obvious reference points here are Brian Jonestown Massacre and Matador Records' The Double, but you can also hear touches of Radiohead, Television Personalities and the excellent Circulatory System. The fun of listening to this band derives not from their influences, however, but from their ability to diversify, letting strange folksy guitar plucking turn into moody, ethereal noise and blues-based psyche rock. Although certainly a young band still searching for its musical path to a degree, Prayer for Animals is well on its way to nailing down something interesting, even if its not entirely clear which direction they will take. And that is exactly what makes them worthy of some attention.

Prayer for Animals plays Saturday at the Darkside Lounge.

Some Mp3s if you please (and really, listen to all three because they are all pretty different)

"The Tale of the Yellow Spider" Link
"The Great Plains" Link
"You're Never Gonna Die" Link