De La Soul | Rhythm Roots All Stars | Kenan Bell (House of Blues) You know what I think of as late-period De La Soul? 2000's "Oooh (Featuring Redman)" off of their "Art Official Intelligence" record. That was already ten years ago, and it's hard to believe they have been doing this for twenty years. As is often the case with hip hop acts that have been doing it as long as they have, their quirkiness makes them one of those groups who probably have more of a secure following with straight dance music fans more than anyone else. The charm of their records, however, has faded very little in the many years since "3 Feet High And Rising," which has a sample on it so good it actually caused me to "reverse like" a Steely Dan song. For better or worse, there will always be some terrible songs that are perfect for great samples, no matter how you feel about it as an "art form." Wait, is sampling still offensive to people? Weird.
Finally, I want to say that one of my all time favorite moves in music is when a group releases an album that everyone loves, and on the second record, the group decides to kill everything off that people liked about them. This is exactly what De La Soul attempted to do between "3 Feet High" and their sophomore release, "De La Soul Is Dead." Not exaclty subtle, but the attempt to kill off their upbeat aspects was appreciated. I bought a "De La Soul Is Dead" shirt at Bill's Records that had dead flowers on the back many years ago, and I almost got beaten up at a basketball court for wearing it. Miss those innocent times.
Piss Shit Fuck | Akkolyte | Division of Power | Releaser | Cadillac to Mexico | KO 49 (the Alamo, Ft. Worth) Piss Shit Fuck's music tends to be quick release hardcore, with attempts to temper the music with varying elements of everything from thash and crust punk, to doom metal, or just plain metal; basically a pretty diverse mixture of various forms of extreme music. I've been wanting to see how shows at the Alamo are, and it seems like this wouldn't be a bad night to try.
Uptown Fridays with Sober (filling in for Select)(Zubar)
Lehtmojoe | Mount Righteous | Anonymous | Free Agent (Granada) Uh oh. "Good" hip hop. Great. And our very own local version of Girl Talk hosting a record release party. And Mount Righteous opening. At least its free? I guess thats something. I don't know, its just very difficult to stomach a lot of the hip hop thats marketed as "smart" or "quality" or "indie" or whatever label these people want to use these days, because most of what they are trying to sell with these terms is just weak garbage masquerading as "culturally relevant" hip hop that's oh-so-much-smarter than the singles played on loop over on K104 and 97.9 The Beat. The problem is that its not smarter, just weaker. This isn't exactly what's going on with this show at the Granada this evening, but the association is almost unavoidable. The earlier Girl Talk reference was meant for local DJ/producer Lehtmojoe (what?), a guy who has building a small reputation online for unauthorized remixes and mash ups. The worst offender is probably his dance remix of Smashing Pumpkins' "Cherub Rock," which strikes me as a nominee for most unnecessary remix of all time. Elsewhere, Joe's more electro friendly remixes that stay away from Mash ups are much stronger, and mostly not bad at all, just mostly, um, unnecessary. Do we really need to hear more of this stuff in 2009? Not that I enjoy calling out a relatively unknown local artist for bad timing, but Lehtmojoe's original material and less gimmicky remixes are good, indicating that the guy has some talent, but maybe just needs to catch up a little on taste. Local rapper Anonymous has also been building up a bit of online rep for himself as well, and despite some strong beats and a more than competent delivery as an MC, a lot of his material falls flat simply because it tries to be a little too cute and clever, masking many of Anonymous' stronger qualities. A debut live performance from a little known artist might have worked better at the Cavern as opposed to the Granada, as well.
El Ten Eleven | the Bizaro Kids | Ishi (Hailey's) Maybe I should spend a little time trying to answer the eternal question of the comments sections-- "but how does it stack up with Ishi?" I don't know who writes that, but it often makes me laugh, and I guess I'd actually try to answer it if I knew exactly what "it" is. Maybe "it" is everything. Maybe its nothing. I don't know. But since the last time we talked about Ishi several months ago, they've become a favorite of both the Dallas Observer music section and the hipster fashionistas over at Helloooooo.com, which for at least some of our readers are probably strikes one and strike two for Ishi. Ishi reminds me of some sort of hybrid between MGMT, Everything But the Girl and late 90's "chill out" techno with touches of electro acoustic, 70's AM folk balladry and synth pop-- all produced with Hollywood studio gloss that often makes much of it sound like music you'd hear at Starbucks. This undoubtedly is a recipe for potential mass appeal, but if you're going to check out this show, don't expect too many new ideas, just polite pop. They're still probably the best band in this line up, at least-- El Ten Eleven has to be one of the most boring bands I've ever heard in my life.
Elliott Levin Trio featuring Aaron and Stefan Gonzalez | Zanzibar Snails | The Tidbits (Annex House) Here's a bio for Levin that was passed on to us:
Have you seen this man walking the streets of Philly? His signature single dread emits musical spores over sidewalks, music halls, and coffeehouses. Elliott is the ubiquitous Philadelphia musician. He has played with everyone.....reading his poetry into his flute, literally, improvising with Charles Cohen, Rick Iannacone, and New Ghost, the list is long. A discography appears below.
Elliott studied music and creative writing at the University of Oregon. He also studied extensively with Michael Guera (former saxophonist with the Philadelphia Orchestra), Cecil Taylor (..pianist/..composer/..improvisor), and Claire Polin (..flutist/..composer).
Elliott has performed with groups including Cecil Taylor's Ensemble, Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes, Odeon Popes' Sax Choir, Scram!, New Ghost, Atzilut (Fourth World), and Talking Free Bebop. He has collaborated in performance with poets Miguel Algarin, Gloria Tropp, Mbali Umoja, Marty Watt, and Frank Messina & Spoken Motion among many others. Venues have included Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, The United Nations, The U.S. Embassy in Moscow, Yale University, The Greek Theater, Watts Towers, Lollapalooza! and scores of galleries, clubs and theaters. In 1999, he performed at the Crossing Borders Festival in the Hague, the Sexial Jazz Festival in Lisbon and Portugal, The Alternative Festival in Prague, and the Sonic Logos Festival in Philadelphia. Elliott has received awards from New American Radio (New York), The Cityof Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department, the Pennsylvania Council for the Arts and the California Endowment for the Humanities.
A prolific poet, Eliott's work has appeared in L.A. Weekly, Blue Beat Jacket (Japan), The Painted Word, Po' Fly, Vital Pulse, Poets & Prophets, and Intervals: The Poems of Musicians (Beehive & Sisyphus Press). A book of Poetry by Elliott Levin was published in 1996 (Heat Press, Los Angeles).
Born in 1953, Elliott Levin is a Philadelphia born and based jazz musician and poet. For ten years he toured the world with Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes, as saxophonist in The Sound of Philadelphia band. His poetry has been published in several periodicals including the LA Weekly, Blue Beat acket (Japan), The Painted Word, Po' Fly, The Nile, Vital Pulse, Ozone, and Poets & Prophets. He regularly performs jazz and poetry with Gloria Tropp, Miguel Algarin, Cecil Taylor's groups Phthongas and Unit Core Ensemble, New Ghosts, Interplay and Talking Free Be-Bop. His original music and poetry was recorded for broadcast throughout the USA as part of the New American Radio Series. Elliott performed as solo, and in collaboration with Frank Messina at Lollapalooza in 1994, where they also jammed with Courtney Love in Phila. at a late night jam.
He is currently a member also of drummer (Ornette Coleman, Blood Ulmer, Lounge Lizards)G. Calvin Weston's BIG TREE (www...calvinweston...com); Animus (world/fusion music); The Philadelphia Phenomenon (w/ Jamaaladeen Tacuma, Rick Iannacone, Calvin Weston).
Canyons | Regret, The Informer | Big Fiction | Tonn (1919 Hemphill): There is a lot of big rock sludgery with classic "pull-off" riffing to be found here, as well as a lot of dramatic screaming. Fans of one style don't always tend to be down with the other, so perhaps this is best for the middle-of-the-roader who doesn't mind either.
Hippiefest featuring Chuck Negron | Badfinger | The Turtles | Felix Cavliere's Rascals | Mountain (Nokia) I thought all of Badfinger killed themselves in a mass suicide. It's hard to imagine that any of the prominent members are around to tour, but who knows. It's funny how much bands that try to sound like the beatles often wind up sounding like Badfinger instead. You could do a lot worse, I suppose. I would like to point out a couple of other things:
1. I hate when bands change something like "The Rascals" to "Felix Cavliere's Rascals."
Legends Of Surf Music featuring Original Beach BoyAl Jardine, Dean Torrence of Jan & Dean, Original Beach Boy David Marks, and the Surf City Allstars (Bass Performance Hall) Looks like if you're into awkward, amputated, anti-super groups, tonight is your night.
HEAVEN (Fur And Ops) featuring Sean Sparks and Yeah Def (Rubber Gloves) Tonight's projections for the Yeah Def-described "art-sperience" will be handled by ex-Strawberry Fielder and Short Attention Span Theater'sChad Withers. There will also be a "special guest" which you may have heard about on blogs that either everyone reads or nobody reads. I guess that's how you know it's really "buzz."
By the way, I'm working on a long essay defending the altruistic nature of hipsters, based on all the things I've learned by contributing to We Shot JR. As it turns out, you guys are really sweet.
I cannot figure out what the description for this show means: "an employee art competition organized by North Texas Business for Culture and the Arts to recognize and encourage creativity and build team spirit among employees". I guess anyone in North Texas who's not a CEO or stockholder can submit an entry.
Orange Coax | Rival Gang | Lychgate | Drug Mountain | Oicho Kabu (The Chat Room Pub) The last ever show at Fort Worth's wonderful Chat Room Pub takes places tonight, and its a damn shame to lose such an inviting venue. The good news is that Ben Rogers couldn't have selected a better line up to close things out, featuring some of our favorite local groups along with Oicho Kabu, a band with a sound thats difficult to classify but easy to enjoy-- influences are all over the place, everything from Can to Captain Beefheart to afrobeat and a variety of other world music influences, and its all full of horns and a wide variety of instrumentation, and its all quite good. Couldn't recommend this strong (mostly) local line up more, as this is the best reason you've had to drive to Ft. Worth on a weekday in quite a while.
Survive | Florene | H...N (Hailey's) Although Phantastes dropped off this bill, its still very much worth checking out, especially to catch Austin's Survive, which features some nice minimal/cold electronics.
Asher Roth | Kid Cudi | B.O.B./Pac Div (House of Blues) I've heard that "Day N' Nite" song by Kid Cudi 8 million times like I'm sure many of you have if you listen to 97.9 The Beat, and I've never really been able to decide whether I like it or not. It's strange. One of those tracks that gets stuck in your heard, for better or worse, but doesn't really do a lot once its up there. Either way, its probably once of his less enjoyable tracks, to be honest, as a lot of his other material utilizes more interesting musical structures and beats, even if the guy does seem to get a little too close to the whole hipster hop thing at times. Asher Roth, on the other hand, is just embarrassing all around. His hit "I Love College" seems to have been informed by watching Old School and Girls Gone Wild, and I guess we can all be happy that frat boys and fans of Sarah Palin finally have one of their own up there doing his thing. Way to go guys! Whether or not this guy actually went to college cannot be confirmed at press time, however, but I have to quit listening to this garbage right this second, so I'll leave the research to you guys.
We've mentioned the drone-y Yellow Crystal Star before, due to the fact that they tour quite a bit. I noticed they're playing The Mopery, the show space in Chicago run by former Denton musicians Mike Forbes and Andrew Young. I hope to visit it soon, since I've heard nothing but good things since they started hosting shows there.
Oicho Kabu is a six-piece ensemble that plays a tricky, world-infused brand of music that thankfully avoids most of the forced cheeriness that any group with more than five members usually has. It's not exactly dark by any means, in fact some of it reminds me of the cerebral Zappa-influenced work of Czech, prog-punk weirdos, Uz jsme doma, which is a good thing.
Wonder Wheel is a one-man West Coast act with an extremely layered, psychedelic wash blotting out the more obvious pop tendencies of the music. It's always harder to blot out those tendencies when you're playing live though. I wonder if he can do it. Didn't mean to make that a pun, but it looks like we're all going to have to just live with it.
Cassettes on Fire | Caution Children | Pianos Become the Teeth | Zwounds | Jubilee (1919 Hemphill) Although they refer to themselves as a "screamo" band, Cassettes on Fire seem to be a tad more diverse than such a label would imply-- in fact, they even sound like they might be inspired by some of the more extreme metal subgenres, although it would probably be inaccurate to stick this group with any of those labels since they still come off as more devoted to hardcore and groups like Isis, etc. Still a lot better than you might expect, however. Tourmates Caution Children are similarly better-than-expected, with soaring melodic influences and even some instrumental parts that lean in a slightly ambient direction. Again, not the most amazing thing in the world, but certainly solid and more adventurous than many similar groups. Still hard to take anything called "screamo" very seriously, though. Cool Out (The Cavern)
Bad Ass Jazz (Amsterdam)
ADD-- Mayhem Mondays (Fallout Lounge) Stefan Gonzalez and DJ Meco Seco spinning all vinyl sets of hardcore, thrash, grindcore, death metal and more.
VNV Nation | War Tapes (Granada) What's that? Do I want to hear a band that sounds like Mike Ness joined the Pet Shop Boys and decided to cover the ten worst Nine Inch Nails songs? Tell me more. Oh, they also do a raved out cover of "Paint it Black" thats so bad it would make Meat Beat Manifesto blush? Um, can I just listen to the Pet Shop Boys instead? You can call me a pussy or whatever, I don't care.
Lots of new shows added to our show calendar, and here are some of the highlights for this weekend:
FRIDAY
Pterodactyl | Church of the Snake | When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth (Handsome Kitten) Looks like there are a couple good things going on down in Expo Park this weekend, and this is one of them. Just two seconds ago, a part of one of Brooklyn's Pterdactyl's songs reminded me of Les Savy Fav, and I just wanted to take a minute to express how fucking overrated that goddamn band is. I've seriously never heard a single Les Savy Fav song that I can stand, and Tim Harrington has to be one of the most annoying hacks in underground history. They're one of those bands who has really good influences and ruins all of them. Anyway, Pterodactyl don't really sound like them, and they're much better for it. Fans of Deerhoof, Oneida, or even Animal Collective might dig this stuff, although the band incorporates bits of prog and other influences that add a dynamic thats a bit different than any of the aforementioned groups. Church of the Snake now features Denton's Shane English, and I'm sure this has only made them better. I like them a good deal better than some of the members' other project, Attractive and Popular. Lots of post-punk and no wave influences from Fire Engines to DNA, in addition to some hardcore and noise influences.
Jabee | Playdough | A-One | Sober (The Lounge) Pre party for this weekend's Kixpo sneaker and streetwear exhibition down in Deep Ellum. Check out this mix tape for a little preview of what you might hear this evening.
House of Dang and And/Or Closing Event feat. Disqo Disco (House of Dang) House of Dang will be shutting down at this location (not sure if they're opening up somewhere else or what) and And/Or is closing down for good, so they'll be hosting a huge party tonight starting at 7pm featuring free trash can punch and more, including a pretty big sale.
Keith P | Justin Vacant | Disqo Disco (Fallout Lounge) After party for the House of Dang event, will probably be a packed good time, as Disqo Disco seems to have created more or less a built in crowd for themselves at this point.
Dust Congress | Drink to Victory | Piccline/Kampgrounds (503 W. Sycamore, Denton) House show hosted at the home of Dust Congress' Nick Foreman. I hear he talks a lot of shit on the basketball court.
Magnolia Electric Co | Donkeys | Thousand Arrows (Rubber Gloves) Jason Molina's Magnolia Electric Co, currently based in the middle America indie oasis of Bloomington, IN, had always struck me as pretty middle of the road altcountry/folk, but for the most part, his work seems less annoying than this description would imply because the songs are just way better than most similar songwriters produce. Fans of Will Oldham and Uncle Tupelo will probably be into this, but they probably already are.
Darktown Strutters (620 Bolivar) I love seeing Darktown Strutters play live because the audience is usually especially fun to watch-- they start off thinking "omg this band is weird," but after a few minutes, everyone starts dancing and really getting locked into the grooves. I bet most of the people at this party will already "get it," though, so it might not happen tonight... people will probably be drunk and into it from the get go. It's really been great watching Darktown's live shows evolve over the past few months, and I know they're on our label and we're not supposed to "talk about" them or whatever, but don't hate the player, hate the game, people.
Tim Sweeney | Luke Sardello | Red Sean | Feezy | Red Eye (Excuses, 3025 Main St.) Ah, Dallas. You never know what you're going to get, as this is an excellent line up at a venue I've never really heard of. I'm willing to give it a shit, though, as DFA's Tim Sweeney will probably be a real treat. Sweeney's sets are eclectic in the true sense of the word as opposed to what passes for "eclectic" amongst hipster DJs these days, which typically means the DJ downloads shit from TONS of MP3 blogs. Sweeney will focus on house, disco, balearic, etc., but also works in some post-punk and other rarely-heard-on-a-dance-floor stuff that makes his sets a lot more interesting. Sweeney also hosts the highly respected New York based radio show Beats in Space, where he plays things like Carl Craig, T. Rex, Can, Dennis Wilson and Screamin Jay Hawkins in addition to dance stuff. Should be a great time.
Hentai Improvising Orchestra | Yanari | PFF (F) T (Firehouse Gallery, Ft Worth) Solid show at the wonderful Firehouse Gallery featuring some truly interesting groups. Yanari is a group I hadn't really listened to until today, but the mix of free jazz with dub and noise works quite well and is certainly worth checking out if any of those genres interest you. Hentai's music is also compelling, and I imagine you get something different with every performance.
Phoenix Project Benefit with Embolization | Vorvadoss | Cleric and more (Phoenix Project) Massive event featuring a ton of hardcore, metal, and grind groups performing at 406 S. Hakell in Dallas. Starts at 4pm and includes free BBQ. Check here for full line up. Good to see this venue is getting up and running.
