Islands | Jemina Pearl | Toro Y Moi (Rubber Gloves) Wow, these guys are still around? I enjoyed The Unicorns' one and only album, but figured the breaking up and then reformation as current entity Island, would be the kiss-of-death for these Canadians. I was pleasantly surprised to see the new incarnation sticking close to the original band's sound, with just a bit more streamlining for the Islands' debut. Islands never had much to make the group really stand out from that wave of cynical indie-pop that came out in the early 2000's, but they are still kicking so you've got to give them some credit there. The music is enjoyable, but doesn't have much substance, although it is certainly better than Arcade Fire. Other Canadian comparisons not withstanding, there isn't much there in the recorded material to keep you coming back.
More by happenstance rather than choice, I have seen both incarnations of this band live and enjoyed both more than I or my respective dates, thought we would. The homogenized sound that the band can easily be faltered for doesn't effect the live performance. They work well as a live band; very tight, and nice enthusiasm from the diverse make-up of instrumentation. If you are bummed that Neutral Milk Hotel haven't released a new album in the past ten years or are still pissed off at Of Montreal for selling out to Outback Steakhouse, I recommend you check out the show, you might dig it. (FP)
So, former Be Your Own Pet front-woman, Jemina Pearl, has started a solo career, and at her best, she sounds like an overlooked side-project that would be on Kill Rock Stars twelve years ago, and the record is aptly on Ecstatic Peace, which is entirely suitable, except for the fact that it makes her label-mates with Richard Ramirez. If this was being released as some sort of weird tween-pop parody put out by what is predominantly a noise label, that might make it more interesting, but that's not the case. The track she does with Iggy Pop ("I Hate People") isn't as bad one would expect, and the rest of the tracks would benefit if that approach were more prevalent. That particular song's composition and melody almost have Pearl potentially moving away from Be Your Own Pet's sound, and reinventing herself with the sophisticated style of a younger Holly Golightly, but unfortunately it's the exception here. (DL)
Old Snack | DJ Dirty Cha Cha (The Cavern) Old Snack is the only actual band listed, and I'm worried about this show since they only have seven songs. In situations like this, it is essential to have a body of work that can be easily split up into two long sets with an intermission. I remember seeing shows like that at The Cavern, before it was "cool." Everyone hates shows like that, by the way. Your co-workers had no idea what they were getting themselves into.(DL)
Zaireeka 12th Anniversary Party (Good Records) This is an actual Halloween Party with a costume contest and everything, and I'm pretty sure I'll be more than sick of writing about Halloween-themed shows by the end of the week. This holiday has seriously gotten worse and worse over the years, making Fall even more seasonally bloated and drawn out than the original offender, Christmas; there are parties for about three weeks solid, exploiting Dia De Los Muertos into becoming some shitty Halloween Hangover Day (Parts One and Two), and to top it all off, some clubs have the nerve to charge thirty bucks to watch a shitty local band, or even worse non-local band as if it were New Years Eve. Thanks a lot, Joe Businessman, but I really appreciate free shows on Halloween or not milking these rowdy drunks for all they're worth; they'll be in enough trouble as it is. Candy Corn is shit and should just be there on the table when I walk into a club, I shouldn't have to pay over twenty bucks for the "privilege."
Back on topic, this little event is one of the free ones, with free drinks for those who are of responsible drinking age. Though I have rolled my eyes in at least two different countries upon being invited to a "Zaireeka Party," the music is pretty good actually, and I'm sure some people would be surprised that I would say that. I prefer the b-side tracks where the songs, such as "Thirty Five Thousand Feet Of Despair," have already been combined, because I'm lazy and I dare you to find five fucking cd players in any one house now-a-days, or even one for that matter.
Sea Wolf | Port O'Brian | Sara Lov (The Cavern) Just about all I can say about this show is that Sea Wolf is better than Silversun Pickups, and also that the vaguely nautical themes on both Sea Wolf's and Port O'Brian's music pages are really...aesthetically grating. Are you trying to sell me tartar sauce, get me to buy an abandoned lighthouse on Hyannis Port, or convince me that Neil Young and Bright Eyes or Will Oldham and Pavement aren't all that different from each other? Come on, which is it sea-hipsters? I'm waiting.
Why? | Serengeti and Polyphonic | Au (Hailey's) Most people I know that want to go to this show have really been talking up Serengeti, who, with the video above, rekindled my love for Chicago, America, and "Ruffles, Ruffles, Ruffles, Ruffles..." I wish I knew where that beautifully dramatic string sample is from, and I'm sure some Hip Hop "scholar" or purist can tell me. This is an open request. Let me know. Most of the other Serengeti songs I have heard are more along the lines of thoughtful indie hip hop that I'm not so big on, but I think Serengeti's delivery, range, personality, and approach is superior to most of his better-known contemporaries.
Mayhem Mondays (Fallout Lounge) It turns out that this event is still happening, Stefan Gonzalez just won't be spinning records for a short while. That duty will apparently be handled by Mayhem Mondays founder, Alex Moreno, AKA DJ Meco Seco.
MON: WHY?/Serengeti & Polyphonic/Au (Hailey's) TUE: Zaireeka 12th Anniversary Party (Good Records) WED: Islands/Jemina Pearl/Toro Y Moi (Rubber Gloves) WED: Old Snack/DJ Dirty Cha Cha (Doublewide) WED: Sarah Jaffe/Matthew And The Arrogant Sea (Dan's Silver Leaf) WED: The Ish with Killtron/Yeah Def/Blake Ward (Ghostbar) THU: Dead Ramones (Subhumans)/Fakeshrine (Crimpshrine)/Ippur (Buzzcocks)/Genius Party (The Queers)/Teenagers From Mars (Misfits) (1919 Hemphill) THU: R. Kelly/Pleasure P/K Michelle (Nokia) THU: Youth Brigade/The Broadsiders/The Lashouts/Uptown Bums (The Lounge) THU: Sabra Laval/John Taylor Young/Isaac Hoskins (All Good Cafe) THU: Wolfmother/The Heartless Bastards/thenewno2 (House Of Blues) THU: Jello Biafra & The Guantanamo School Of Medicine/Here Holy Spain (The Door) THU: Leon Russell/Don And Melissa (Dan's Silver Leaf) THU: Screening: Dario Argento's Deep Red (The Angelika Dallas) Note: One time showing at 9 PM. Presented By Dallas Cinemania. FRI: Digital Leather/Thomas Function/Yussuf Jerusalem/Leg Sweeper (The Lounge) FRI: The Pogues/Justin Townes Earle (House Of Blues) FRI: Ourselves/Melting Season/Sunnybrook (J&J's Pizza) FRI: N'Dambi (Clarence Muse Cafe Theater) FRI: Butthole Surfers/Peaches/Men (Granada) FRI: Bloodfest with Tolar/Kill The Client/Embolization/Uptown Bums/Powertrip/Negaduck/The Scandals/Life Erased/Unit 21 (Phoenix Project) SAT: Baring Teeth/Great Tyrant/Silk Stocking/Lychgate (Chat Room Pub) SAT: SAS/Broken Teeth/Sound Clash Present: Select/Schwa/Vice Versa/Keith P (Zubar) SAT: The Ishi's/Wild In The Streets (Double Wide) SAT: Ghostland Observatory (Palladium) SAT: Matthew And The Arrogant Sea/Yeah Def/DJ B/Lil Foot (Hailey's) SAT: Kurt Vile And The Violators/The Aquaholics/Giggle Party (The Lounge) SAT: Neon Indian/White Denim (Granada)
Denton VS Dallas: DJ G | Yeah Def | OPS | Teamwork VS Sober | Killtron | Genova | Tommy L33 Jon3s (Hailey's) Man, I'm always up for a good "Dallas VS Denton" debate. Nothing more mature than that. Anyways, this is a good idea, and though I'd like to see the same concept executed with live bands, well, I actually wouldn't, since that's a little more lop-sided of a contest, unfortunately.(DL)
Black Friday with Keith P (Fallout Lounge) Anthony Stanford will be also be performing.
The Naptime Shake | Glen Farris (Bryan Street Tavern): Busy weekend for The Naptime Shake, as they will be playing multiple shows promoting their new release, Blood And Panic.
No Thanks Fest 3: Ecocide | | Cleric | Vorvadoss | Chest Pain | Creeping Jeans (Ex members of Pools) | Violent Messiah | Skurge | Stull | Releaser | Life Erased | Rotundus | Baring Teeth | Coin Return | Serows | Doom Siren | Geezus Krust ((Emory Texas: From Dallas- 30 East To Greenville, TX, 69 South To Emory, Right On 19 South (1 Mile), Right At The No Thanks Sign, Follow Signs To Parking. Call (214)287-2510 for more info): It's pretty remarkable that the No Thanks Fest is in its third year. I was skeptical about people showing up to this when I heard about the first one, but that's the thing about punk, metal, and hardcore fans: they're dedicated. Nobody's bitching about the drink specials or parking here; instead you have avid supporters willing to drive to the middle of nowhere and set up camp to watch mostly local bands play.
One of the non-local groups actually has DFW members that are now based in Austin, so this is the closest they have come to playing the Metroplex. Power violence act, Chest Pain, features members of Angry Businessmen and various other hardcore acts that have long broken-up. They recently got a great write-up on the Terminal Escape tape blog, which included a review of a live appearance from the group's recent West Coast tour, as well as a download link to their cassette at the end of the post. If you check out the comments section, you can also download the group's side of the split 7-inch they did with fellow Austinites, Naw Dude.
Note: This lineup changed significantly since the show was first announced, but I believe this is accurate or close to it. Geezus Krust was added pretty late as openers. Bring necessities, camping equipment, and donations. Free food provided by The Phoenix Project. Festival starts at 8 PM. (DL)
SATURDAY Phillip Glass Ensemble: Dracula Live (Margot And Bill Winspear Opera House, located at 2403 Flora Street in Dallas): There is at least one good Halloween show put on by the "patron set" every year, and this looks to be the one to beat in 2009. Can you believe Phil Glass is about to be seventy three? (DL)
Lo Fi Chorus | Naptime Shake (Lee Harvey's) This is an early afternoon show, with Naptime Shake going on at 4 PM. This "Dog Day Afternoon" benefit is fifteen dollars, which will get you two free drinks and entry to see the show, however the money goes to the Humane Society of Dallas County.(DL)
Kinky Friedman (The Ranch at Las Colinas located at 857 West Highway 114 in Irving)
Red Faced Laughter | Eat Avery's Bones | Fuck Facts | The Numerators (Majestic Dwelling Of Doom) A lineup that seems right out of the Secret Headquarters Calendar circa 2007, and that's not a knock on any aspect of this show. Glad to see Lubbock's Numerators getting some attention from Fader, of all places, as I had mentioned recently, and though I like their newest recordings, it's their rather involved live show that's not to be missed, where they playfully assault the audience while tearing through a set of noise punk, Ipod rap, weird instrumentals; basically everything people who think they have "taste" hate. Fuck Facts is a new band which includes Eat Avery's Bones bassist, Meggie Hilkert, and hopefully she'll be handling some of the vocals, since the one time I have ever heard her sing with her other group left the audience wishing she would do it more.(DL)
Black Heart Procession | The Mumlers | Seryn (Hailey's): One of the great things about going to college is meeting other people via band T-shirts. During my freshman year of university I believed this to be the best way to meet friends and influence people. One day in Government class I wore one of the many Sonic Youth t-shirts in my wardrobe. "Hey, nice shirt dude" I hear from behind me. I turn around with hushed anticipation. I could tell the questioner had the same idea as myself, only he was wearing a Black Heart Procession shirt. I being the honest person that I am regretfully told him that I had never heard of BHP. "Ah man I'll burn you a CD, it will speak to you" and then proceeded to lazily high five me. The next day he brought me a blank CD, letting me know it was a "best of mix" and that he had also included some tracks from his own band. Joy! With mind wide opened I put the CD in and approached the music but it all sounded like one long moody uninspired bummer fest. And of course I couldn't tell where this guy's band started and Black Heart Procession ended. All I know is that it couldn't end quick enough.
So why tell this story other than to inform you I am at least partially college educated and I befriend people based on musical preference? It is to drive home the point that they BHP are painfully bland. Let's take a sampling of song titles from their most recent release. "Drugs", "Rats", "Heaven and Hell" and "Suicide." Not very imaginative, are we? The music is somewhat reminiscent of The Birthday Party, but dropped into a vat of molasses. Where Cave and Co. were able to embrace the dark, demonic side of human nature and transform it into art, BHP seem only capable of isolating the darkness and crying about it.
I would like Black Heart Procession much more if they had no lyrics and/or singer. The music is moody and brooding without drifting off into the self indulgence that rock n' roll journal-keepers often do. But man those lyrics are lame. As I am sure most of you do, I consider myself a misanthrope and enjoy indulging in the cathartic art of fellow lonesome travellers. But you still gotta have some pizazz, which BHP have none of. The tried and true topics of depression, loneliness and death are all explored with the same boring syntax we have heard many times before in the annals of indie rock. Maybe if there were more personality, or personal resonance in the lyrics, it would work, but the broad brush strokes of destitution just don't resonate with me. They weren't even creative enough to name their first few albums. Or perhaps they were just ripping off the equally brooding but far superior Red House Painters. So what happened the next day in Government class? I wore an Of Montreal shirt and sat at the front of the class. (FP)
Hey everyone, Anticon's Why? will be playing at Hailey's this coming Monday, October 26th, and we have two pairs of tickets to give away to you. If you want to win them, please email weshotjrtix@yahoo.com any time between now and Saturday at noon with "Why?" as the subject and your full name in the email body. We'll pick two winners at random. Good luck!
Lazy autumn dayz with Richardson Heights. Today I get someone else to do the work for me.
FRIDAY
Gallery Grand Opening Jardine Studio Gallery 3810 West Northwest Highway, Dallas, Tx 75220 October 23 : 6:00 PM - 9:00 PM
SATURDAY
Creepshow Kettle Art Gallery 2714 Elm Street, Dallas, Tx 75226 October 24 : 7:00 PM - 10:00 PM
SHOW REVIEW
Peter Barrickman's "New Work" in currently on view now through the first weekend of November at Centraltrak. We interviewed him about a year ago here. You can view a whole lot more of his paintings here.
Guest Review by Lady Tugboat NOTE: this was posted on 10/22/2009.
The twentieth century taught us well that Middle America could indeed be art. Abandoning the premise that fine art only arises in vast urban centers, we are left with scenes that leave the majority of us in comfortable territory. Peter Barrickman reminds us of the familiar in a brightly illuminated suburban world, enhanced by strong, direct color, definitive lines, and a scene or two close to home.
Peter Barrickman's collection currently on display in the main gallery at Centraltrak teeters between frenetic clutter and sparseness, all the while maintaining a sense of comedy and Mid-western purity. Rather than rejecting the provincial American culture that surrounds him in his home environment, Barrickman's paintings blend odd fabrics and paper cutouts of disparate subject matter with standard painting media to express the variety he observes in the suburban environment outside his studio.
Centraltrak's spacious main gallery allows you to absorb much of the plentiful visual information in one round glance. Upon entering, the first trio of paintings centered on the northwest corner subtly transports you from a bright sub-tropical exterior to a cozy winter interior. You are first greeted with a colorful breezy collection of hammocks hanging between trees in a sort of warm out-of-doors in the abstract piece entitled Kosmiter's Zweck. The next piece finds you looking up from below into an ambiguous windowed portal to an interior colored with throw pillow like blobs of color, perhaps a motel in a pastel Miami of recent history, but the title Loom betrays that notion. And then we then find ourselves firmly inside a space: in the very crowded interior of Lodger.
Lodger seems to be a companion to the claustrophobic Luggage that was featured in the And/Or Gallery show earlier this year: it employs an illogical use of perspective that makes the far wall of the room feel inches away from the surface of the canvas. Both of the pictured interior spaces act as a crowded archive of dreams, ideas, and possessions – they could be the storage spaces of any residence in America. In Lodger, any apprehension caused by the digitally challenged hand creeping in from the hallway is quelled by the humorously large socked feet basking in the steam of an antique iron teapot. At this point, you feel that you are in sitting back comfortably in an easy chair for an evening of unstructured knowledge assimilation: keeping yourself sane with the ideas printed upon hundreds of thousands of pieces of bound paper somewhere in the middle of Barrickman's America.
There is something invitingly strange emanating from this guy's brush. Barrickman, a Milwaukee-born artist with an MFA from Milton Avery in New York, is a former resident of the University of Texas Dallas' Centraltrak. In interviews he displays an unambiguous respect for his hometown and suburbia, he sees childhood dramas as performance art, and he uses technology – contemporary or relatively antiquated – to generate art. It is in fact a feeling of faked digital assemblage that you will find in the next piece, Big Nose, the first in a related series of four large abstract mixed media pieces all now within view as you progress through the room. This piece, along with Borrowing a Rake, Christmas in Data Entry, and the Untitled mixed-media collage, form the non-objective core of the exhibition. They all imitate what is possible in an era inundated and comfortable with Photoshop: precisely juxtaposed and resized sub-images and grids of pixels digitizing various planes parallel with the canvas surface. But this is betrayed by the true manual labor Barrickman employs in these large-scale pieces – edges are intentionally messy, sub-drawings are awkward and oddly arranged with a mix of variety and humor.
Borrowing a Rake depicts a ritual – a suburban fall tradition. The air conditioners are no longer necessary and all the neighbors emerge from their respective homes. Once again they need each other and cross the asphalt to borrow their neighbors' yard tools, just like in previous times: the community banding together to bring in the harvest. Barrickman's figures – which are enlarged reproductions of the figures in his smaller drawing entitled Tuesday, also in this exhibition – are obscured by disc-like leaves of various painted fabrics and wallpaper samples falling from sky. A shockingly denuded tree stands dead center in the canvas. A construction-paper chain hangs in the upper left corner. The “leaves” serve also as a pixilated filter; perhaps a filter for what is really going on inside this “television screen.” But presumably these leaves will be collected by the rake and put out with the trash.
Around the corner, you find one of the two truly figurative and seemingly straightforward pieces in the show. From afar, it appears to be an igloo village wherein an Eskimo is helping his fallen friend stand up in front of an uncomfortably close horizon. But upon closer inspection, it is simply a green-jacketed Midwesterner helping a fur-coated friend stand up, surrounded by two massive pumpkins. Additionally, the flesh of one of the pumpkins has been penetrated by a seemingly random collection of foreign objects including an apple, invoking Kafkaesque images of Gregor Samsa. Which interpretation is more odd? The title Comrade Cereal Breath does not help much, and we are left with only questions.
In the opposite corner is the companion piece that might provide some answers. It is titled Community Theatre and you see from a point of view behind actors on a stage looking out upon an audience, or possibly you are a stage hand looking out through a sea of poorly constructed stage props and background pieces. Blobs of color representing the anonymous audience uncomfortably spill onto the stage reinforcing the sense of “community” in this theater, whether or not you want to experience that community as an actor exposed on the stage. There is a dizzying forward movement in this piece that makes you feel you are being pulled toward the inevitable.
After the starkness of Christmas in Data Entry from the series of abstract pieces, you will find yourself warming back up in front of Mura, an intense large canvas that could be a hot corrugated tin roof in the sun shedding light in every direction. This reverts you back out into the exterior that you found upon entering the gallery, and neatly sums up the variety of experience Peter Barrickman's New Work expresses. The suburbs are not so monotonous after all.
Built To Spill | Dinosaur JR | Lou Barlow And The Missing Men | Disco Doom (The Granada) Dinosaur Jr. with Lou Barlow, is perfection. You're Living All Over Me and Bug are two of the most amazing records that came from the late 80's, and are remembered not necessarily because of instrumental proficiency or mind-blowing songwriting, but because of how they sonically embody the sheer coolness of the American underground at that particular time.
Whenever, wherever a Dinosaur Jr. song plays, there's this split second of anticipation, excitement, and a thought of "Fuck yeah, I'm going to enjoy the next two and a half minutes of being in this shitty bar, because 'In A Jar' is playing." All their songs take you to a teenage place, a slightly angry and very energetic confusing state where very few things matter except for having an odd kind of primal satisfaction that is often underrated. It feels like those days when you were waiting for the late bus in high school because you were too broke to get a car, messing around with your friends in the parking lot, listening to music doing nothing in particular, thinking about getting laid. Sometimes, that's just perfect happiness.
Built to Spill appeals to a different set of needs, with more of a calculated passion. Perfect From Now On and Keep It Like a Secret, wind down the 90's at the opposite end of the same aesthetic spectrum that Dinosaur JR inhabits. Where it seems that Dinosaur Jr. stumble into a fuzzy melodic mess of a great song, it sounds like Built to Spill recorded and produced their tracks a few hundred times over, in order to get everything right. As for the results: they are something worth returning to for the rest of your life. The sound is so north-west, so gusty-cold, slightly bare, but perfectly crafted.
With two bands that are so worth seeing live, I can't imagine this being bad. I wish Dinosaur Jr. wasn't "opening," but I guess this is Built to Spill's tour for their new album so it's their party. -(NM)
Lou Barlow (Good Records) Free in-store at 6 PM. I would actually like to make it to this since I'm not sure if I'm going to make it to The Granada, but I'm still interested in hearing Barlow's newest solo material, and that's something I haven't been interested in for a long time. I wonder if he finds the current "lo fi" debate amusing at all, considering he was a big reason the debate was so passionate the first time around, fifteen or more years ago, but definitely after he released Sebadoh'sWeed Forestin' in 1987. That record has aged rather well, all things considered, perhaps in part because many artists still embrace those techniques, but it's been a long time since I've heard any home studio sound on anything Barlow's done. I thought the newer songs on his Myspace page were better than expected, but I wonder why guys in their forties always have to come up with lame names for their backing groups when they do solo projects. The Missing Men? Come on, Lou. Just make up some more silly words, I know you still have it in you. -(DL)
Correction: I was just reminded by Drex who The Missing Men were. Ouch. Now, I actually want to go to this show. I'm an idiot. The Missing Men includes not only Mike Watt, but one of my favorite guitarists of all time, Tom Watson, who played in Slovenly, Overpass, and The Red Krayola. Again, I'm an idiot. (DL)
The Donnas | Max Cady | Peacemaker (Trees) This a benefit show for Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and I want to add that since almost every lineup tonight is making it feel like Nineteen Ninety Something in here, it's perfect that this show is at Trees. If you want to know a dirty secret, I actually saw The Donnas at The Galaxy Club in that very decade. Yikes. -(DL)
