Boz Scaggs (Bass Performance Hall) Didn't realize Boz Scaggs had Dallas (and more specifically, Plano!) roots until today. That's actually not surprising at all considering that Scaggs' work embodies everything sleazy and bluesy about 70's rock radio. Dallas is a proven training ground for such illicit bro blues activity. I had a hard time finding the most embarrassing album cover of his, but I'm pretty sure I nailed it. I mean, check that shit out. Here's a close runner up.
As we mentioned earlier in the week, this Saturday's show at 715 Panhandle, which will be a part of the Denton DIY community's second annual Phat Camp weekend, will be the final event at the widely respected house venue, and whether you've been there dozens of times or never in your life, we highly recommend joining in the festivities and bidding farewell to a wonderful place.
Over the past couple of years, 715 Panhandle has truly been one of the best places to see a show in the metro area, with its rare combination of typically stellar booking, a friendly, relaxed atmosphere, all ages admission, and free or extremely inexpensive covers (not to mention BYOB, of course). This set of characteristics not only led to Panhandle hosting well regarded touring acts such as Blues Control, Kimya Dawson, Woods, Meneguar, Sex Vid, Total Abuse, Thomas Function, Psychedelic Horseshit, and others, but it also created the kind of environment where anyone in Denton could go to see stellar local acts such as Koji Kondo, Marked Men, Angry Businessmen, Wax Museums, Bad Sports, Teenage Cool Kids and more (a couple of whom will be reuniting for Saturday's show) in a welcoming environment that seemed to be relatively free of pretension, hardcore orthodoxy and negativity on almost any level.
Hopefully we'll have a little more on Panhandle for you later this week, but for now we thought we'd share the Phat Camp schedule with you and encourage you to check out 715 Panhandle one last time. The place truly embodied the spirit of DIY done right :
----------------------------- MAY 15 FRIDAY
4PM PRE PARADE KEG PARTY @ 715 Panhandle ***BEER ***PARADE PREP ***BAKED GOODS ***OFFICIAL PHAT CAMP T SHIRTS ***ALL DONATIONS GO TO 715 REPAIRS
7PM- PHAT CAMP OPENING PARADE, starts at 715 Panhandle, ends at Bunker Hill
9PM- BUNKER HILL DANCE PARTY (ft. DJ SCHWA, Fergus & Geronimo)
------------------------------ MAY 16 SATURDAY
8AM- YARD SALE @ 715 Panhandle
1PM- RECORD SWAP/FACE PAINT @ TIME BANDITS ***BRING YOUR RECORDS TO TRADE OR SELL
4PM- LUAU @ MUSCLE BEACH w | Florene Sabra + more TBA ***GET TROPICAL
9PM- 715 Panhandle LAST SHOW! w | Green Day Dookie Bleach Boys Uptown Bums Koji Kondo (reunion) Angry Businessmen (reunion) Teenage Cool Kids ***ALL DONATIONS GO TO 715 PANHANDLE REPAIRS!
------------------------------ MAY 17- SUNDAY
1PM- PHAT CAMP OLYMPICS @ McKenna Park
5PM- CHILLI COOKOFF @ 1827 Scripture
9PM- 818 Hickory St. Show Green Day "Dookie" Cover band Embolization Sodomorhea, Collick Big Blow Wiccans MOVIE AFTERWARD "Heavyweights" (1994) CLOSING BIKE RIDE AFTER THAT
Wow. Hell of a Mavericks game last night, and even though I could easily go into why the series should be tied 2-2 and how we should be super excited about it and are instead just watching a team prolong the inevitable.... I won't. I'll just say excellent game overall, great performance from Dirk, oh... and to quote some anonymous commentator of the DMN Mavs Blog, "fuck KMART and his busted ass Momma." Let's add his dumb ass tattoo to the mix too, shall we? Shows (and more on our calendar)
Elvis Perkins in Dearland (Good Records) This free in-store begins at 730 PM. Elvis Perkins might have one of the saddest personal stories I've ever heard, considering that his mother died in September 11th and his father, actor Anthony Perkins, died of AIDS. That's about as brutal as it gets. Perkins' music consists of standard issue "folk rock" for the most part, but it's pretty well done for what it is, even though much of it ventures a tad too close to the NPR Dad Rock side of the spectrum. I'm not a dad, but sometimes I do like to chill out in sweatpants or whatever in my living room and listen to music, and if I didn't own any Bob Dylan, Nick Drake, Neil Young or Crosby Stills and Nash records, then I might think about listening to this. Well actually, that's probably not true because I'd rather listen to similar, superior contemporaries such as Wooden Wand and Skygreen Leopards, but I was just trying to say that it really isn't too bad, and the band will be giving away tickets to their not free show at House Of Blues later this evening as well. And oh yeah, I don't own fucking sweatpants, either, ok?
When I was growing up, for reasons that are still unclear to me, I had and almost instinctive hatred for the saxophone in rock music. Maybe radio and MTV were to blame, shoving the sax saturated tunes of the Boss and Bob Seger down everybody's throats, or maybe it was that dude from the Lost Boys. It was probably a bit of both. Surly I would have gotten over my disdain for this instrument much more quickly had I heard this record at a younger age.
Blomington, Indiana's MX-80 Sound (later shortened to MX-80) utilizes the sax to near perfection throughout Out of the Tunnel, their second album and their first to be released on the Residents' Ralph Records. It's refreshing to hear a punk/metal/art/noise group from this era use the instrument to complement the rest of the group's playing as opposed to the obnoxious, up front squall that was prevalent in some of their comtemporaries like the Contortions and 8 Eyed Spy.
I'm not going to waste too much time telling you about my incredible weekend,* other than to say that I really enjoyed the experience of visiting Public Trust, Road Agent, and the last official And/Or show, all in a 24 hour period. Chad Hopper's video work came as a nice surprise, and I always love it when artists have CD's, DVD's etc. for sale when you just can't justify splurging to the tune of 800 bucks and up for a piece. Though you should, if you can. Speaking of money and art, there is a really insightful interview with Paul Slocum on KERA's Art And Seek Blog.
I was a little stunned today when I heard that Saturday marks the last 715 Panhandle show, which is a shame, but probably necessary and completely understandable. Anyways, onto the completely amazing It List:
Sun Club (Hailey's) Featuring DJ's Fur, Teamwork, and Sid Spinoza.
*My weekend was, in fact, not incredible. I actually hate it when reviewers and critics try to act like they had their mind blown, when you can be 99% sure that they had the same typically shitty weekend that you did.
THU: Vega CD Release (Lounge on Elm St.) FRI: Fergus and Geronimo/Schwa (Bunker Hill) FRI: Metal Rouge/Anvil Salute/Shortwave Death System/Aaron Gonzalez, Nevada Hill, Sarah Alexander (Firehouse Gallery, Ft. Worth) FRI: Fisherspooner (Granada) FRI: Johnny Moog/Hawatha/Ty City/Prince William/Yeahdef (Rubber Gloves) SAT: Sabre/Florene/TBA (Muscle Beach, 4PM) SAT: Bleach Boys/Uptown Bums/Koji Kondo/Teenage Cool Kids/Angry Businessmen (715 Panhandle) SAT: Record Hop/The Great Tyrant/Hawk Vs. Dove (Lola's Stockyards) SUN: Collick/Big Blow/Wiccans (818 Hickory St.) SUN: Chain and the Gang (Ian Svenonius)/Hive Dwellers (Calvin Johnson)/Shiny Around the Edges (Hailey's) SUN: TV On the Radio (House of Blues)
Late as usual. Today we are telling you about more gallery-oriented events than usual, since we felt it absolutely necessary. That and we finally decided that we are in love with you.
-WRITTEN BY DL AND SR, BUT MOSTLY DL, SCREW SR
FRIDAY
Gallery Closing: "Far From The Maddening Crowd" featuring Rebecca Carter, Celia Eberle, Thomas Feulmer, Margaret Meehan, Julian Opie, Stephen Park, Richard Patterson, Dan Perfect, George Quartz, Giles Ripley, Edward Setina, Kevin Todora, and Erik Tosten (Road Agent Gallery) This closing coincides with the openings at Public Trust, and Barry Whistler, which are both nearby. This informal Friday night closing event will include free alcoholic beverages, but the last official day you'll be able to view the show is Saturday, May 9th.
I should also mention that artist Margaret Meehan's catalog from her Road Agent solo show, "On Sugar Mountain, Up Shit Creek" will be available in one of our state's most respected art entities that's outside of Dallas, Domy Books in Houston and Austin. It will be available locally at Public Trust and at the Cadd Art Lab. The catalog's photography is by DFW favorite Alison V. Smith.
Handbrake | Jack with One Eye | Tang Lung (Rubber Gloves) I'm worried after seeing MBV recently, that one of these shoegaze disciples is going to attempt the violently loud climax that blew everyone away at the end of that show. My advice: please don't. It just won't ever be the same. However, I hope Jack With One Eye continues to write more tracks like "Sun In Glass." The song is so upbeat in the midst of all of the distortion that it's almost perverse. Top Secret Robot Alliance | Intake | Machine Gun Hand | Meta (Prophet Bar)
Secret Show (306 Texas St. Denton) Well the Bee's Fifth Collective is putting on a secret show this evening. They tell us that the concept for the show is for people to come see surprise bands with no preconceived bias about the acts. Hmmm. It's five bucks to get in and free keg beer is included in the price. And since they wouldn't tell us who was playing, this show could end up being really great or totally shitty, depending on the featured acts (although I'm guessing it will probably fall somewhere in between), so if you feel like rolling the dice on this one, go for it.
Louis CK's stand-up is great, particularly his views on the horse-beaten topic of raising children. But I especially admire the work he did on The Chris Rock Show back in the 90's, touching on topics in a way that made the oft-overlooked program very much ahead of its time.
And/Or Gallery Final Show Featuring Chad Hopper: I'm not going to try to hide the fact that I think it's a total tragedy and utter drag that this place is done. Let's not dress it up, Dallas: This sucks. I'm happy for Paul Slocum for going to where the action is, and I don't blame him in the slightest, but this is a pretty bad cultural casualty for the city. We are losing the fascinatingly anomalous combination of a gallery that often showcased work that is still shunned in many (and even more cosmopolitan) places, as well as our close proximity to the ever-evolving body of work of Slocum's Treewave, which was often a credit to a fairly desolate music scene in Dallas proper. It is with a mixture of disappointment and respect that we say goodbye to And/Or, which will be going out on the highest note by once again showcasing the work of North Texas ex-pat Chad Hopper, whose underground antics were an enormous influence on my involvement in music and art when he still lived here; playing in a quirky little project with Slocum while giving all of his vast visual and musical output away. Goodbye, Paul and And/Or, you will be greatly missed.
TV Dads/Back Stabbath | Hoop Dreamz | Big Blow/TBA (Bunker Hill) Man, don't go entering the wrong Hoop Dreamz URL into myspace. THIS SHOW WAS APPARENTLY FAKE. SORRY.
Rocket for Ethiopia | Geezus Krust (1250 Fuller St., Dallas) One thing I have grown to love over the years is the practice tape as Myspace page samples. Seriously, it rules.
ADD: Plexi 3 | Krunchies | Bad Sports (818 Hickory St.) Plexi 3 is a pretty solid Milwaukee group that takes influences from classic garage, 60's pop and classic punk, and pull together some pretty solid tunes in the process. They've received praise from Terminal Boredom and a number of other trustworthy publications, and with Bad Sports opening, you can be assured that this will be a solid show. Not sure what time this is running since there's a show at Bunker Hill tonight as well, but perhaps someone can let us know in the comments section, which, despite the fact that it says "Zero comments," does in fact have a comments.
The Paper Chase | Astronautalis | Valina (the Granada): This is the local release show for The Paper Chase's new album for Kill Rock Stars, "Someday This Could All Be Yours." I recently saw a review that called the album, "Kafkaesque."
SUNDAY
For Your Pleasure with DJG and The Smoke (Hailey's)
Don't know if it's true or not that Mount Righteous is supposed to debut a louder, more "rock" sound soon but I am extremely curious. That's the gossip I overheard in the Buff' Ex' dressing room anyway. I don't know what that would entail exactly. Distorted accordion and more tricky triangle flams, perhaps? And speaking of instruments that are hard to rock on, Parata is playing tonight as well, taking on the uphill battle of being taken seriously while brandishing a piano while spewing lyrical content that would benefit greatly from just a single reading of the summary on the inside cover of "The Purity Myth." Best of luck to all involved. Who knew rockin' was such tough business?
Richard Buckner | Doug Burr (Lola's Stockyards) An aging rock critic's wet dream of a double bill, as well as people who scour lyric sheets before they even press play.
Centromatic | The Crash That Took Me | Monahans (Granada) Of course there really isn't a whole lot to say about Centro-matic's music that hasn't been said over the past few years, and since there really doesn't seem to be any exciting news surrounding the band right now, I just thought I'd point out this article from the Houston Chronicle a few weeks ago that discusses Will Johnson's baseball themed paintings, some of which sound fairly interesting. Read it here.
