Delmore Pilcrow | Manned Missiles (J&Js) Chris Garver, central figure behind Delmore Pilcrow, is one of the few artists we've consistently covered over the life of this blog who seems to continually improve, and Manned Missiles seem to be a fairly enjoyable little indie pop band.
Anavan | Sydney Confirm | Billingham's Defense System (Fallout) I totally heart when DL accidentally posts about a show that is happening on a day when I'm supposed to write the It List, because it means that I don't have to do shit. So scroll down to yesterday's It List and read what DL had to say about this show, and we promise it'll be happening if you should up at Fallout Tonight.
Unwed Sailor | Ishi | The Boat Lights | Menkena (The Cavern) Dallas scenesters have been talking up a storm in recent weeks regarding Ishi, a Dallas based synth pop band that has been making waves at after parties and DJ events for the past couple of months. The buzz about the group seems to revolve largely around their live shows, and we've heard from a number of people that Ishi should not be judged based solely on the material found on their Myspace page, as they have made a good number of changes and adjustments to their sound since posting those tracks a while back; including, I assume, writing new tracks. If true, this is probably a good thing, because the stuff I've listened to so far sound like what might happen if Sea and Cake got together with Everything But the Girl and hired Jesse McCartney to front a Junior Boys cover band. Not that soft and introspective is bad (I'm accused of being a pussy a lot more often than I am of being a noise extremist or something), but most of these tracks pack the punch of a goose feather, and there's just something about the mixture of soft synths and acoustic guitar ballads that doesn't sit well in these circumstances. However, the fact that we've heard so many good things about the group's newer material means that we'll have to give them another chance once we're able to catch them live/ hear some of this new stuff. Elsewhere, another Dallas act, the Boat Lights, goes through a lot of stylistic jumps, from quiet indie folk a la Wooden Wand to Arcade Fire full band drama to synth heavy instrumental pieces that seem to be influenced by the minimal soundscapes of Tangerine Dream, or possibly other influences that were themselves influenced by Tangerine Dream. Not bad for what it is. And finally, Dallas via Brooklyn act Menkena describes themselves as "shoegaze,"which is accurate only if they are referring to the most docile aspects of the suddenly hip late 80's genre. Not sure how "shoegaze" something can be when acoustic guitar is the most prominent instrument in any given mix, but I don't think I care enough to complain.
Want to give a shout out to Rocket For Ethiopia for their bulletin yesterday. Thanks, guys.
Deskonocidos | Sacred Shock | Unit 21 | Wiccans | Raging Boner (Exploding House) Sacred Shock and Deskoncidos are two hardcore punk bands from Austin, currently on tour to New York and back, and releasing a split EP together soon. Wiccans is a punk rock "super group" featuring members of every single local band that's ever been into hardcore. More accurately it includes members of Wax Museums, Teenage Cool Kids, Orange Coax, the now defunct Secret Bangs and more. Heard they do a killer version of "My War." Speaking of Orange Coax, they (as well as Bad Sports) put on a much better show than you would expect or even deserve at Hailey's on a Monday night.
Anavan | Dance Your Face Off with Mikey Rodge | Killtron | Indo (Fallout Lounge) Heard about this show from a Phoreladeliah bulletin, and I'm surprised there has been absolutely no other mention of it. Anavan are from LA and I've heard that they've played quite a bit at a club that a lot of people like there. They are sometimes described as synth-punk, but they're a lot more synth than punk if you know what I mean. When I listened to them earlier, I perfectly tapped the disco beat on my desk along to a song intro before it actually came in, and was quite proud of myself when they matched up. That doesn't mean they suck. It does mean they are probably the most dance music sounding group that has ever put out a record on GSL. NOTE: SHOW IS ACTUALLY THURSDAY, MARCH 26.
BS Art Fusion featuring DJ G | Scott Danbom of Centro-matic | Adam Bertholdi of Gazelles (Rubber Gloves): DJ G's new weekly coincides with this special event which sounds similar to events where you eat sushi off of naked people, except there is paint involved. DJ G will apparently be playing stuff with a decidedly more darkwave slant, less "Breakfast Club" and less "Neverending Story" theme, I'm assuming.
Slash Dance with the DJ Itis Collective (Mable Peabody's) My favorite DJ-related anything since Tommyboy, featuring Sash Parts and Kubic Zirconia. A sample of what they'll be playing: Bush Tetras, Francoise Hardy, Three Six Mafia, Le Tigre, Chantels, Duran Duran, Blondie and more...
Peelander-Z | Birthday Suits | Stew (Rubber Gloves) Peelander-Z tours constantly, and I think we've talked about them in various capacities, nothing new to report. The Birthday Suits are a punk duo from Minneapolis that did a split with the beloved Marked Men, and that alone should bring some people out. I've seen them compared to Melt Banana, No Means No, and Wire, and I can't hear a single one of those bands in their music. They sound like a fairly typical punk duo, with some hard rock tendencies and distorted passages that run a little longer than the average punk band. They are yet another one of these groups that are supposed to be "crazy live." I don't doubt that actually. Stew used to be called Holy Diver, a Dallas rock band that you've probably heard of.
It must have been a shocking day in 1970 when 'the weird guy' from the Velvet Underground released his first solo album, Vintage Violence. It was a pretty damn straight-forward pop album for a guy that had worked with La Monte Young's Theatre of Eternal Music, produced both the Stooges debut and Nico's 'The Marble Index,' AND played that fucking organ on Sister Ray.
In the years between Vintage Violence and the featured album, Fear, Cale kept himself busy releasing the mostly instrumental albums Church of Anthrax (with Terry Riley) and The Academy in Peril, as well as his baroque pop 'masterpiece' Paris 1919 (I have NEVER been able to get into this record!). During this time he also managed to produce a few records, including Nico's Desertshore and The End, the Modern Lovers demos that ended up being their first record, and Patti Smith's Horses, among others.
1974's Fear marked the beginning of the most focused and creative era in Cale's solo career. His trilogy of albums for Island in 1974-75 (Fear, Slow Dazzle, Helen of Troy) and his accompanying tours defined his recording/live persona for nearly the next decade. Fear finds Cale paired up with not only Phil Manzanera (Roxy Music), but also with Eno, who would become a long-time friend and collaborator.
First things first, we almost have our comments situation resolved. For the past few days, comment posting has worked just fine once again-- you can post comments and they'll publish right away and all that works. However, all the comment counts on the main page will say "zero" even when comments have been posted, and date and time stamps are still missing too. This will be resolved soon. Now for music on an unusually busy Monday night (check our show calendar for more)
Boo And Boo Too | Ashes | Smile Full Of Ale | Ko49 (Exploding House) Hailing from mid-sized indie rock Mecca Lawrence, Kansas (actually, its more like a Medina probably), Boo and Boo Too have been compared to some lose combination of My Bloody Valentine and Sonic Youth, which is a pretty tenuous comparison for anyone who's ever listened to either of those bands for more than five minutes. Actually, Boo and Boo Too, in addition to having one of the worst band names I've seen in a very long time, seem to borrow more from groups like the Wedding Present, Broken Social Scene, Oxford Collapse and Ride, with sprawling walls of soft guitar generated noise that builds up and breaks down and does all the other stuff its supposed to do if you want to be buzzed about at CMJ, which is apparently what happened to the group when they played the festival this past year. It's pretty solid stuff, if a bit predictable, and the band appears to have all the makings of a Matador mainstream almost-crossover-- so I'd see them now at Exploding House tonight before they are forced to open for TV on the Radio at House of Blues or whatever. On the complete opposite end of the spectrum, After Death Records signees Ashes are one of the harshest groups in Denton, and their churning, nightmarish, black metal influenced violence will provide a powerful contrast to the other groups on this bill. And it's a bit hard to tell what Denton's A Smile Full of Ale are like since I haven't caught them live yet and their Myspace tracks are fairly limited live recordings, but they sound pretty promising to me. Finally, KO49 is a Lubbock based hip hop group with less than convincing MC performances but some very solid electro beats that at times are influenced by Detroit techno.
Princeton | Fight Bite | Orange Coax | Bad Sports (Hailey's) You never know what you're going to get when a band calls themselves "tropical" these days, because that phrase has been used to describe both Ducktails and Vampire Weekend, among many other trendy things that have emerged in the last year. Princeton, meanwhile, seems more influenced by David Byrne's solo work and the crate digging, internationally minded selections from his acclaimed Luka Bop label, especially when applied to the group's lead vocals. This is light, well crafted pop that I'm surprised I haven't heard until today but am tempted to go experience for myself. And if you ever read this website, you know that they'll have some very good opening bands joining them.
Maynard James Keenan Bottle Signing (Whole Foods in Plano) This started at 430, so there are probably a ton of Tools in line already. I bet you can get down there in time if you hustle, however. I've always found this guy's name really annoying.
We don't "live blog" at SXSW, ok? We don't go to like Echo and the Bunnymen at Auditorium Shores or whatever so that we can tell you about how long the line was or how amazing it was when they covered a Bob Dylan song or something, alright? We don't care. We're co-hosting this day show today, and we're going to be pretty busy with that. We have a show calendar you can look at for shows in the DFW area, and there are a million other idiots "live blogging" about the secret Justin Timberlake show at the Perez Hilton party, so just check in with them, ok? If anything really cool happens, we'll tell you about it, but if not, then we'll probably see you on Monday. Have so much fun guys!
