Um, we don't know whether to hug or punch their name, but this Denton band on the UK's Moshi Moshi records will be performing songs at sxsw that they describe as sounding like a "hyper Hall and Oats or something." The band also refers to themselves as "two retards that don't know what we're doing." We doubt both claims.

We can't say that this is the greatest thing we've ever heard, but shit, it doesn't sound like anything else in Denton or Dallas right now, and the limited number of songs available to us on the internet were: loud, short, and mostly fun. "1000000" sounds like M.I.A. if she was fifteen and listened to Daniel Johnston, with a hard to make out dance beat and playful percussion. There is also a pretty strong Go Team sound throughout all five songs we listened to, as well as clear nods to bedroom synth pop such as The Cansecos, Russian Futurists, and mid period Magnetic Fields (for the best example of this, check "Sk8 or Live" on their Myspace page). These guys obviously don't take themselves very seriously, which is good, and the amateur quality of their songs is part of this appeal. Most of their sound likely comes from Casios, Atari 2600s and other pretty basic noise making machines (drum machines and crappy keyboards), and they seem fine with that. So are we. Although this band can be a little immature sounding at times, its mostly endearing and quite forgivable considering that all their songs seem to be a minute and a half long at most. They could improve with time and experience, but we think they're pretty interesting right now and would surely be worth seeing at SXSW if you can fit em in... especially if you can't get into that Morningwood show, you hip fuck. - JR

So, Channel 8 has a new report (you will find it on the bottom of their homepage) on the incident in Deep Ellum involving the possible use of excessive force by a police officer against a girl on rollerskates. Tonight's report, along with last night's report, revealed some things that we didn't know about the incident:

1. The officer in question claims that she tried to harm him physically, and that she at one point attempted to "gouge his eyes."

2. Both witnesses interviewed in the reports claim that the officer used excessive force, and that the girl was not at fault.

3. The girl was arrested for assault on a peace officer, and as far as we know, those charges have not been dropped.

4. The Dallas Police Department has commenced an internal investigation into the incident.

5. The officer in question has a "lengthy" internal affairs investigation profile, including six allegations of use of excessive force since 1994, and has been disciplined twice during his career for escalating an incident, as well as for something along the lines of conduct unbecoming of a police officer.

6. The officer has also been given awards for good service.

7. The officer was also treated for minor bruises.

Some people have been asking that stories about this incident be kept quite for a while, but we decided that since this is all public information, we would go ahead and publish it. However, we will wait to pass judgment until the full story is out there, which it doesn't appear to be just yet. The pictures of the incident, which we linked to below, are pretty grotesque, but we really don't want to formulate any kind of opinion about fault until more facts come out. We recognize that the Dallas police have a tough job, but if the incident went down the way the witnesses claim, then the city might have a very valid lawsuit on its hands, especially considering the pattern of unacceptable behavior that this officer seems to have. We'll see what happens.

We have a Myspace page. If you become our friend, you'll get bulletins about new posts and the daily It list, etc. You can also send us messages there too. Heres the link. More to come tonight, including a little write up on Best Fwends of Denton.

1. Lost Generation w/DJ Mwanza (Cavern)
So DJ nights are sometimes a fun thing, but more often than not they aren't that great because a lot of people don't show up, especially when its on a weekday. However, we saw a poster for this DJ night that promised New Order, Sonic Youth, Silver fucking Apples (where else will you hear them in Dallas, I might ask) and My Bloody Valentine. Sounds pretty good to us, even if there aren't a lot of attractive scenesters around. And who knows, maybe there will be...

Heres something we saw today that made us think of a recent scuffle we had with a certain local band, as well as the attitude that many musicians seem to have toward album reviews in general.

It also made us think of one of the comments someone made in our "Ravens" post about how the Ravens do NOT in fact sound like a band playing at a Wal Mart shareholders meeting or opening for Cherry Poppin Daddies. They called us an "example" of why Dallas is failing as a local music scene. If you think WE are the problem, as opposed to boring ass "rock" bands that play the same old crap that has been getting shoved down our throats ever since Happy Days went on the air, then you might want to really sit down and listen to the Ravens like we did. We don't really mean to pick on them, and we certainly don't want to look like we are taking sides in some scene battle... thats why we keep our names secret: so we can tell anyone to fuck off at any time. But as stated in the link above, no one should get a free pass for being a local band. THAT is why local music sucks. Because expectations are diminished for local bands, because they are our friends, because they are a relatively "new" band, because we want Dallas to have a fun scene, because we want local bands to succeed, or because people we know want to make money. All of these factors diminish our honesty about local music, don't they? And they also cause bands that aren't really that great to become full of themselves, and local music fans to settle for crap that is in fact subpar at best.

There are a LOT of people in DFW, and that means that there MUST be a decent amount of talent here in town, much of which we don't yet know anything about. The sooner we stop accepting boring bands just because they are local, the sooner we can start looking for better, more interesting local music to see. Dallas local music fails BECAUSE of the music, not because fans are jerks or because a local blog read by a couple hundred people trashes a band that deserves it.

JR- weshotjr@yahoo.com

Just wanted to let everyone know that one of the Texas bands we like so much, the Black Angels, has hit number four on the CMJ College/Independent radio chart nationwide. Unfortunately, this doesn't mean that they will be showered with riches just yet, but it does show that they are getting some deserved national attention.

Up early today, and it feels... sad. However, we'll use our sadness to create happiness. Coming today, we've got another entry or two on the Bestest list, our first discussion of one of the sxsw local bands, and anything else that comes our way. We're also going to have an interview with the guys from Undeniable Records (Tah Dahs and Happy Bullets) for you some time later this week. You know you like it.

We also want to say hello to our new blogging friend Weedemon. We've been reading her for a few days, and we enjoy it. She kicked a shoutout to us as well, and we're trying to figure out how to put a permanent link to her on our sidebar like she did for us. However, we're stupid and don't know how to do it yet... we'll keep trying.

So we took the time to read through the current list of confirmed performers at SXSW to find all the local acts. Some we know quite well, others we haven't ever heard of. We decided that we would give you the list, and then go listen to all of the bands/artists on the list and give you our take on them one by one. We'll start this some time this week, and we'll check back with the sxsw site to see if any more local bands have been added, since the list is apparently incomplete. For now, here is the list of local acts:

- Best Fwends (Denton)
- Bosque Brown (Fort Worth)
- Burden Brothers (gross)
- Centro-Matic (Denton)
- Collin Herring (Fort Worth)
- Donal Hinley (Denton)
- Salim Nourallah (Dallas)
- Pilotdrift (Texarkana)
- South San Gabriel (Denton)
- Theater Fire (Fort Worth)

Way to go Dallas, a whole TWO bands... neither of which are very cool! I wonder if Happy Bullets, Tah Dahs, Strange Boys, etc. got bids.