MON: Mates of State/Black Kids (the Granada) WED: Napalm Death (Ridglea Theater) SAT: Sleepytime Gorilla Museum (Longhorn Saloon) SAT: Convextion/The Great Tyrant/The Watchers/Loop 12/Dj Per (Sons of Hermann Hall) SAT: Record Hop/Saboteur/Nervous Curtains (Annex House) SAT: Spinal Tap (Nokia Theater) SUN: Daniel Francis Doyle/Yells at Eels/Orange Coax/Eat Avery's Bones (Aboca's, 100 S. Central Exp. #63, Richardson)
So, we have kind of diverted from our original release schedule (something we promised ourselves would not happen), to do a full-length (something we promised ourselves we would not do) which is going to be a limited release of 500 copies (an amount we promised ourselves we would never agree to). Each record comes with a properly manufactured compact disc (non-CDR) of the album as well.
After hearing the demos for this record, Daniel Francis Doyle's We Bet Our Money on You, we were so taken by them that we decided to go ahead and help Doyle rush this out ahead of his current tour of the Northeastern U.S. The tour will end with a stop in North Texas, where we will be hosting a show celebrating the record's release on our own We Shot J.R. Records. The official release date is June 9th, at which point it will be made available at traditional brick-and-mortar record shops and Itunes, as well as through this very site. Doyle's record has already hit #1 on Austin's KVRX Chart, and we think KDGE will follow suit quite soon.
Anyway, the event will be held at a very special venue, Aboca's in Richardson, which we have mentioned holds a DIY show every now and then. There will be refreshments, including pizza by the slice, and we hope you can make it out.
Acid Mother's Temple | Sonic Suicide Squad (Hailey's) Japanese Psyche group Acid Mother's Temple combines a wide array of influences, everything from ambient to prog to free jazz to metal to psychedelic pop to guitar god Hendrix/Zeppelin type stuff, releasing material at a very prolific rate over the years and touring quite regularly. I've still not ever had the chance to see this band live, and since their shows are somewhat legendary, this has always made me a little sad. I might change that tonight, as band leader Makoto Kawabata and the Melting Paraiso UFO, my favorite incarnation of the band, come to town yet again.
Man Man | Boom Boom Box | Giggle Party (the Lounge) Man Man is quite well known for their eventful, highly energetic live performances, and I have to say I agree, as I've seen them twice and enjoyed it a great deal each time, even though, to be quite honest, I've never had any desire to listen to any of their records more than once in the privacy of my own home. I don't know what it is, exactly, but their trash can, Waits/Beefheart influenced Gypsy rock just isn't something I usually seek out on record. I might be in a smaller minority than I once was, however, as their 2008 release Rabbit Habits actually hit the Billboard Charts, which is probably why this show is very close to selling out, and certainly will before the night is through. I'd get there pretty early if you intend to catch this.
New Thrill Parade | Abiku | Christian Teenage Runaways | Zwounds (1919 Hemphill) New Thrill Parade has a dark GSL Records type of sound, a solid group with very imaginative playing on the backing tracks: busy bass-lines, spider-leg guitar parts, and prodding, deliberate rhythms. The most forefront part of their sound, however, is definitely the Birthday Party-descendant, theatrical style of the vocals. The dramatic, humorous style of their music was further and articulately explained by the band in an interview conducted with the Notes Unearthed (link: notesunearthed.com) site:
The humor element in our music comes very naturally to us, as the bands interactions with one another are almost solely humor-based. However, our tone and ideas are serious ones. The humor, we hope, helps some listeners swallow our bitter pill jams with greater ease.
The dramatic aspect was and still is at the forefront of our ideas for the band. There are many reasons for this, but among them is a distaste for traditional notions of masculinity as represented in all realms of entertainment. There is nothing more stale and boring than an otherwise decent, interesting band fronted by some Chad howling and whining about his ex-girlfriend. Our penchant for "drama" lets us skirt, so to speak, that type of banality while wallowing in our own homemade, comfortable brand of banality.
Well put. This should fit in perfectly with the Keytar chaos of Abiku, and the recently (not to mention surprisingly) reformed C!TR. For those of you that might not be familiar with Christian! Teenage Runaway, they are the punk group that existed long before Stereogum said it was okay for the Dallas music establishment to notice little Denton bands.
Book of Belial | Cleric | Lychgate | Ascites (Bike House) Solid noise show tonight kicks off at 730 PM. Great to see the Bike House putting on such a risky and powerful show. Even if you "don't like noise," check out Lychgate. Parties at this house are always a pretty good time.
Dust Congress | Tre Orsi | The Make Believers | Drink to Victory (Fra House) This is the official release show for the new Dust Congress release, a one-sided, 12" vinyl record, entitled "Regurgitate Sunshine State." The record had some delays, as they often do, and it's safe to say that a diverse group of local music enthusiasts have been looking forward to it for some time. I hate local music and I'm still looking forward to it. A who's who list of openers will make sure that show will be unbelievably packed.
Hannahmontanatron | Kashioboy | Fizzy Dino Pop | Yeahdef (Hailey's) DJ Yeahdef has put together this all local chiptune line up featuring some of the more regularly discussed names of the genre, including the excellent Fizzy Dino Pop, who we first wrote about over a year ago after we received a few solid tracks via email. As most realize, this genre has been increasing in underground prevalence over the past few years, and was shot straight to the top of many hearts and minds last year with the release of Crystal Castles' debut (Hey did u guyz no they canceled a show last week chek observ r for the deatz!), a record that sort of took a lot of elements of chiptune and welded them with some more standard, pop friendly dance beats and turned the entire concept into a relative commercial smash. Many in the scene will deny that Crystal Castles is even a chiptune group at all, and they really aren't, at least in the most pure sense of the term, but their connection with the sounds and aesthetic of the scene are undeniable. Anyway, should be a quality, high energy show with accompanying visuals
The Horrors | The Kills (Granada) Hey look, it hasn't even been a decade and these band names already look stupid.
Stereo on Strike Label Launch with Blixaboy | Dubbel Dutch | Trademarx (Fallout Lounge) Wanz Dover will be officially launching his Stereo on Strike label, which is looking forward to releases from Blixaboy, Cygnus, and Jack with One Eye, among others. Trademarx is the half of Billingham's Defense System that didn't recently move.
Robert Gomez | Baptist Generals (Secret Location, Denton) See, even some of Denton's most popular bands are now being forced to play these so-called "Fake venue" house shows that many of their own fans seem to be so vocal about hating. Thanks a lot, Lehman Brothers.... JK, DIY 4eva!
If you've been reading reviews of last night's My Bloody Valentine show on message boards, blogs and blog comment sections today, you've probably noticed two recurring themes amongst all the chatter: the first is the show's sheer volume, which was as overpowering as expected, and the second is the surprisingly physical experience of the band's now signature finale, "You Made Me Realise," which was perhaps the most intense performance of any song I've ever seen live, including the last time I saw the group play. Of course, these two aspects of last night's performance were certainly the most immediately arresting and probably the most important to the vast majority of those in attendance (myself included), but what hasn't been discussed in great detail thus far is how much sense this all makes when you consider My Bloody Valentine's approach to both songwriting and recording.
It should be said at the outset that the performance was truly transcendent, and easily the best large venue show I've ever seen in Dallas. Although concerns about the sometimes muddy sound at the Palladium had me wondering whether the Dallas audience would experience the sheer power and clarity that I had heard during their performance last fall in San Francisco, I discovered that the Palladium's sound actually topped that of the SF Concourse's in both volume and quality, allowing the auditory force to be overwhelming while retaining an admirable amount of the melodic clarity that made My Bloody Valentine perplexing and important in the first place. Although the first couple of songs seemed to be a bit quieter, comparatively speaking, than initially expected, it seemed that the volume increased with every song throughout the set, culminating, of course, in the finale that appeared to be shaking almost all in the audience to their core.
The band covered territory very similar, and in fact almost identical to what they've performed at their other recent North American dates, with Loveless favorites such as "Only Shallow," "When You Sleep," and of course "Soon," which is probably the closest thing the band has ever had to a hit given its pronounced, almost danceable drum beat and the catchy guitar carrying the track all the way through. They also tackled "Slow," from the You Made Me Realize EP, as well as Isn't Anything favorites "Cupid Come" and "(When You Wake) You're Still In a Dream," among others, emphasizing how much more conventional their earlier material was compared to their output on Loveless, as well as how powerfully they can perform such relatively straight forward rock songs in a live setting, rendering even those tracks something other than a straight guitar rock experience. All of these songs bordered on a physical sensation as vibrations filled the room and ears were pressed to their limits, and many hinted at the theme that I couldn't get out of my mind throughout the night-- that the volume level at MBV's live shows is completely necessary, and perhaps the only way to properly convey the fact that much of the group's material seems to be most easily digested not as rock songs, but almost more as the IDEA of rock songs. Melodies are hinted at but not thrown in the listener's face, rhythms are apparent and strong (the drumming on MBV records seems to be wildly underappreciated) but almost never emphasized or maintained as a focal point, and overall song structures are relatively traditional at their core yet given so much room to breathe that the listener can focus on particular parts of a song while losing track of others, allowing the music to fade in and out, bend, change, and then come back around to be appreciated as a complete piece, all at the will of and within the mind of individual listeners. In other words, much of their material straddles a line between form and formless, almost hinting at what the listener should hear or directing the audience instead of dictating to it. And as one sits there, taking it all in, the experience becomes more subjective and almost introverted, and the emotions inspired by the sounds seem like they could be almost as diverse as the faces in the crowd. And of course, without the overwhelming volume and composition of the sound in the venue and the effects and techniques emphasized by the band to create lush atmospheres and beautiful, intimidating walls of sound, the borderline chaos of the event would be lost, and the listener's imagination and subjective listening experience would be limited in where it was permitted to take the music. The beauty of My Bloody Valentine has always been found in their ability to push structure to the limits of chaos, and there is no other way that this could truly be experienced live without the punishing sound and confusing visuals to take the whole package to another level.
All of this, of course, lead up to their now famous 15 minute noise assault during "You Made Me Realize." The sound system absolutely roared at a level that has never, in my experience, been touched by any other band playing in this area, and everyone in the audience could literally feel it throughout their bodies. At first it was violent, harsh and even oppressive as listeners got used to hearing something louder and perhaps more formless than most had ever heard before, but after several minutes, as one WSJR commentator eloquently alluded to earlier, the noise became peaceful and almost reflective, and the experience of hearing it began to border on direct sensory and psychological stimulation rather than some form of consumable entertainment, complete with an essential set of visuals that made parts of the stage appear to move when they weren't, and mimicked the kind of sensory overload that allows the subconscious to move closer to the forefront of the human mind, again allowing the subjective experience of each listener to play a much more important role than it usually does when one hears more traditional forms of music being performed at reasonable volumes.
Yes, this all sounds a little cheesy, and some might even wonder whether it is an exaggeration, but most in attendance will probably confirm a similar experience, and besides, My Bloody Valentine's music, along with the necessarily powerful sound of their live performances, made the entire experience a revelatory and intensely personal one, which seems to go along with everything I felt the first time Loveless played through a pair of my headphones.
(Photos by Layla Blackshear for WSJR. We'll post the full set in our photo section some time this evening.)
My Bloody Valentine | Josh T. Pearson (Palladium) One bad thing about reunion shows is that they are a great way to destroy the mystique surrounding certain bands. Maybe its just my personal experience rather than an overarching cultural phenomenon, but this has happened before: seeing the Pixies on a night when the temperature was in the upper 90's at ACL in Austin a few years ago was a fantastic experience that I'll never forget, but it was also far less exciting and pleasurable than I had imagined it to be back when I first discovered the Pixies and had no reason to believe they would ever play live together again. Perhaps I built it up in my head too much, or maybe it was the emerging hangover and the terrible weather that brought me down, but at the end of the evening, all I could say was "man, that was a pretty cool show." I guess on some level the same thing has happened with My Bloody Valentine, at least as far as the unknowable mystique that used to surround frontman Kevin Sheilds-- in just a few short years, I went from never dreaming that I'd get a chance to see one of my all time favorite bands live to tonight, which will be my second MBV show in less than nine months (caught them in San Francisco last fall as well). Fortunately, however, if tonight's performance is anything close to what I witnessed last October, this band' s legend will only grow in the hearts and minds of those in attendance, and anyone who witnesses this performance will likely realize that it is indeed the absolute loudest concert they've ever experienced in their lives. Like, it'll make the Dinosaur Jr show at the Gypsy Tea Room a couple years back sound like The Decemberists on a sitcom or something. Well, maybe not quite that extreme, but volume-wise, nothing I've ever seen has compared, Dinosaur included. Oh, and I'm not normally an ear plugs guy, but for this show, you might want to think about keeping them in at all times-- it is honestly tough to hear anything going on without them, and you'll get them for free, so why not? Former Dentonite and Lift to Experience front man Josh T Pearson will open the show with the Paper Chase's Bobby Weaver on bass and a former member of Lift to Experience on drums. If he plays the same set he reportedly played in Austin last night, you can expect all new material and no Lift to Experience stuff, which seems to simultaneously excite and disappoint his fans. OK guys, My Bloody Valentine is one of the very few overhyped, overblown "musical experiences" that is 100% worth it if you have any interest at all in the group. Getting another full length album from them, however, might remain a fantasy forever.
The Faint | Ladytron | Crocodiles (The Granada) Can we talk about Crocodiles for just a second? I mean, you pretty much KNEW a record like this was going to be released some time soon, didn't you? Crocodiles' debut full length, Summer of Hate, seems to be the poppy, teenage hipster version of what we've been hearing from bands like Blank Dogs, Wavves, Crystal Stilts, Eat Skull, and especially Psychedelic Horseshit, all of which is mixed together with the sounds of newer garage heroes like King Kahn and Jay Reatard, nods to harsh noise, and even a couple tracks that blatantly rip off the Jesus and Mary Chain to an almost laughable extent. Basically, Crocodiles influences are "whatever has been cool for the past couple years, man." This is the streamlined version of this new wave in American underground rock, produced and marketed with just enough cuteness and pop appeal to possibly make this music acceptable to "edgy" teenagers and over the hill professionals who are "losing their edge," so to speak. Don't misunderstand this, though-- there are a couple extremely catchy and well executed tracks on the album, and just because you're a fan of the aforementioned groups doesn't necessarily mean that you'll dismiss this stuff as pure garbage, because although it is certainly poppier than its source material, none of it borders on the posturing offensiveness found with, say, Interpol's borrowing of the "post-punk" aesthetic as a jump off for Carlos D's lame DJ sets. If nothing else, the commercialization of the underground is happening faster than ever these days, and Crocodiles are a timely example of this phenomenon.
Left of the Dial with DJG (Rubber Gloves) G tells us he plays Liaisons Dangereuses at left of the dial, along with a lot of other post-punk, early industrial and classic dance stuff.
SR hates it when I do this, but there really isn't much going on tonight. I'll list what I could find, but it's not a lot. We'll have more for you later this evening, I think.
I've always found it slightly humourous when a group or artist finds it necessary to put a disclaimer on their record. While these lines can range from the innocent, like Let it Bleed's "This record should be played loud," to the slightly enigmatic "Play twice before listening" of the Silver Apples debut, Cottonwoodhill's come in the form of warnings: "After listening to this record, your friends may not know you anymore" and "Only listen to this once a day. Your brain might be destroyed!" Although I'm fairly certain that no brains have been destroyed by this album, I'm still a bit hesitant to put that second one to the test.
Brainticket is often associated with the krautrock movement, but were actually a Swiss group with members from all over Europe. The first two tracks of this album aren't bad, reflecting the heavy Deep Purple/Pink Floyd influence that was prevalent in most of the more obscure European/kraut groups of the time, but the record is really a vehicle for the final, three part track titled "Brainticket."
I guess you really have to put your all into a song that is named after your band and these guys do a pretty good job of that. They pile a pretty outrageous mix of synth effects, found sounds, and crazy 'female on tons of acid' vocal ramblings about paranoia, sex and God knows what else over a pretty funky, repetitive, almost Can-like backing track. I'll admit that it's pretty overwhelming to listen to very often, but it's pretty nice to dust this one off every now and then.
Mike Watt & The Missingmen | Lions | The Golden Boys (The Granada): Having seen Watt in a couple of different situations, I definitely think he's at his best overpowering everyone in a supporting role, as opposed to leading a group. That being said, it's still highly enjoyable to watch and listen to one of the most famously unpretentious personalities in the music industry. He's touring for the third installment in a trilogy of punk rock operas, and I'm definitely interested in hearing what West Coast, avant punk, Tom Watson will add to this particular trio's sound. Watson has played with everyone from Slovenly to Overpass to The Red Krayola, and I think he's one of the most underrated and underappreciated guitarists of all time. His skillfully crooked playing on the Wire and Television covers featured on the Missingmen's page only further reinforces this long-held opinion.
Paul Mooney | AwkQuarius (The Lodge...yeah, I know) Well, this is at a "gentleman's club," which I'm not crazy about, but strip clubs have traditionally featured comedians, and Paul Mooney is definitely someone that's worth a little trouble. Aggressively confronting uncomfortable issues of race head on, he tends to make comedians look downright shy when tackling similar material. One of my favorite all-time bits was his take on Tom Cruise being the "Last Samurai." So obvious and so hilarious. Pikahsso and Tahiti's most recent project, AwkQuarius will be opening.
Paul Slavens (Dan's Silver Leaf) I enjoyed Slavens' campy yet dizzying performance in the Chameleon Chamber Group at Good Records this past weekend. Watching the remarkable number of children who were completely enthralled was just as entertaining.
