So between House By House Fest this week and the upcoming South by South Flesh (enough with the puns already!), DFW fans will have a chance to see many of the most buzzed about and exciting bands playing SXSW this year without having to travel to Austin at all. John from Parade of Flesh was nice enough to hook us up with a pair of tickets to give away to this Sunday's South by South Flesh show at the Lounge, which will featuring this very solid line up:

YOUNG WIDOWS
THEE OHSEES
WOMEN
The COATHANGERS
MY DISCO
TRASH TALK
ABE VIGODA
PTERODACTYL
SLEEPY SUN
WAVVES
VAMPIRE HANDS
HOWL
FRESH & ONLYS
JUAREZ

Anyway, if you'd like to win these tickets, just email weshotjrtix@yahoo.com any time between now and noon on Friday with your full name in the email body and "south by south flesh" as the subject. Good luck!

We have to be briefer and more foolish than usual. Forgive us. We are killing ourselves to live; going into "peregruzka" mode, and trying to make sure everything is not complete chaos down in Austin. Nothing really happens until we show up, I thought you knew? -By SR AND DL

Skeletonwitch | Kylesa | Blacktusk | My Son My Exectutioner (Club Dada)
Thrashy, heavy show, which would be a pretty big event on any other Wednesday, especially with Kylesa on the bill. This being the week that it is either results in shows being packed or criminally underattended, since there are so many big shows every day. Hopefully that isn't the case, especially for locals My Son My Executioner.

Frustrations | The Weakends | Bass Drum Of Death | Outer Spacist (Bunker Hill)
The Weakends have received a lot of praise for their garage rock, which is much more infused with traditional blues than most bands playing that particular genre, and how did I just know that Bass Drum Of Death was a one-man-band before I even checked? I was glad to discover that The Box Elders were not, according to the band, named after the single that launched Pavement's career.

Devo (The Palladium)
What would you do if David Bowie and Iggy Pop helped you get your first record contract, or if Brian Eno insisted on producing your debut album? It's hard to imagine how that must have felt for Devo, but maybe the reason it happened to them in the first place is because they seem like the kind of guys who really wouldn't give a shit. Do contemporary Devo shows take on the kind of "Old Guys playing old songs" vibe that many older bands give off? I'm not really sure, but I'd be willing to take the chance.

Prince William | Roy G. And The Biv | Schwa | Darktown Strutters (The Lounge)
Very solid show that we played a small role in helping put together, although Vigilante music group is the main force involved in making this happen. We've told you quite a bit about Roy G and the Biv over the past few months, and they are aiming to make a pretty big push at SXSW this year, playing several shows both inside and outside the official festival. Providing a nice contrast to the glossy synth pop of Roy G will be Darktown Strutters' brand of mutant disco meets Cramps and Nico sludge, as well as tasteful and eclectic DJ sets from Schwa and Prince William.

Restavrant | The Great Tyrant | Spindrift | The Gunslingers (Chat Room)

ADD:

Japanther | Prizzy Prizzy Please | Drug Mountain | The Pharmacy | Rocket For Ethiopia (1919 Hemphill)

Early Man | Red Fang | Silver Tongue Devil (Rubber Gloves)

FRIDAY, MARCH 20th @ Cherrywood Coffee (formerly Quack's)
1400 E. 38th 1/2 St. Austin, TX
FREE
NO RSVP
ALL AGES
Beer for Sale

Performances:

Jeremy Jay (Los Angeles) 3pm
Los Llamrada (Monterrey) 4pm
Aids Wolf (Montreal) 5pm
PRE (UK) 5:30 pm
Fight Bite (Denton) 6pm
Ducktails (New Jersey) 6:30pm
Nite Jewel (Los Angeles) 7pm

Poster art by Nevada Hill.

Thin Lizzy - Jailbreak (1976, Mercury)

I'm sorry. I tried to resist the temptation of St Patrick's Day, but it was unavoidable. If ever there was a record to represent the Irish drinking 'holiday,' this would have to be it. Not only is 'Jailbreak' arguably the finest hard rock album to ever come out of Ireland, it is also a sure sign of the previous night's excessive alcohol consumption to wake and find this one still sitting on the turntable in the morning...

(It's my fault that this wasn't posted on St. Patrick's Day. Sorry friends.) SR

NOTE: The show at 818 Hickory was combined with the 715 Panhandle show.

Wavves | Abe Vigoda | Fungi Girls | Fergus And Geronimo (715 Panhandle)
Big show, little space, and one of the biggest in the entire HXHF schedule. Now let's talk about why that is exactly. What are ABC News and The New York Times trying to do, man? Embarrass this guy into an early grave? Or how about MTV News having a "Top albums of 2008" list that looked like it was lifted right off of Terminal Boredom?

Aren't you guys just so hyped about South By? I know I am. I'll let you in on a little secret: If you go into that weird, junkyard-antique area behind End Of An Ear when you're hanging out at one of their day-shows, you'll come upon a statue of a brass calf, inscribed with the words, "RSVP ONLY." You're only supposed to go in there if you're a publicist, booking agent, or blogger but just trust me. Knock three times and you enter a corridor which leads to a beautiful candlelit scene that features vegan catering, an endless supply of Tito's, and free wi-fi. Mix and mingle with the masons of indie rock as you partake in sacrificial rituals and decide who to crown as king this year. Last year it was obviously Nathan Williams. Poor guy. Who's it gonna be this time?

In all seriousness, along with a wild stroke of "right sound,/right place/right time" good fortune, Wavves is an extremely catchy project, even when buried behind the fidelity of a Panasonic KX-T1450. Much to the chagrin of the underground, people that like Lady Gaga are really into Wavves and everyone's just going to have to suck it up.

One promising development I've seen more and more over the past few years is the willful elusiveness of decades past, where artists release records sometimes with little or no information at all, as well as limiting their online presence. Some say it's a gimmick, and a gimmick it may be, but I'll take it in this super saturated era.

Abe Vigoda is another group that went from playing small shows to grander, though not necessarily more enjoyable events like opening for No Age at The Loft. However I think that their liberally reverbe-d "tropical punk" with its shifty prog rhythms is a little less inviting than Wavves, though still accessible.

As far as local groups that have achieved a lot in a small amount of time, Fergus and Geronimo seem to have barely played out at all, and yet they have records coming out on Woodsist, Tic Tac Totally, and most notably, a full-length debut on Troubleman Unlimited. Which will technically make Fergus & Geronimo label-mates with Farah. Wonder what some of the punk rockers I know will think of that. I've returned to the sincere pop with Motown-leaning instrumentation on this group's page multiple times, and I can't wait to hear the forthcoming records.

Oh, and you guys have heard of Fungi Girls, right?

Efterklang | Human Highway | The Magic | Peter Broderick (Hailey's)


Lover! | Yuppies | Thomas Function | Psychedelic Horseshit (Moved To 715 Panhandle) I have really liked what I've heard of the forceful style of punk performed by Yuppies. I enjoyed what I saw of Thomas Function when they played Panhandle last year, but unfortunately I was called out on the blog by some "just sayin'" kid for playing basketball on the infamous 715 backyard court during part of their set. Correction: Totally schooling some poor sap during part of their set, thank you very much.

Birds And Batteries | Telegraph Canyon | Laura Gibson | Death To Anders (Chat Room)

Fishboy | Amo Joy! | Caddy Wompus | Thomas Function (J&J's Pizza)
I don't have much time to delve very deeply here, but Amo Joy makes Voot Cha Index sound like a grindcore band.

Marnie Stern | DD/MM/YYYY | Medications | Edie Sedgwick (The Lounge on Elm)
I can't hate Marnie Stern. Maybe it's because everyone else seems to, I don't know. Such a huge fuss is raised, people claiming music being the most annoying sound since happy hardcore with most detractors not being able to decide if its her voice or hyper-shred guitar technique they hate so much. I could probably do with a little less guitar heroine-ics, but I think the music is layered and strange enough to inject some innovative revisionist history into her near-constant tapping and soloing method.

After quite a long hiatus, the resilient, Ft. Worth based non-profit Metrognome Collective has returned with a new venue and some exciting plans for the Ft. Worth independent art and music community.  Perhaps most importantly, the group, which ran a high profile DIY space in Ft. Worth in 2006, will be taking over the Firehouse Gallery at 4147 Meadowbrook Dr. and transforming it into a live music venue and new visual art gallery space.  The group plans to set up two PA systems on two stages in separate rooms, and will present "quick" shows (featuring 2-4 bands per) in which one band will play on one stage while another band sets up on the other stage and begins playing immediately following the previous set (much like the set up at The Smell in Los Angeles).  

Metrognome is aiming for an April 1st opening date, and will retain the name "Firehouse Gallery" for the venue while making improvements both inside and outside the building.  They will also be working closely on the project with two non-profit groups, James Watkins' Tolstoy House and Q Cinema, Ft. Worth's long running gay and lesbian film festival.  Details, along with a new Metrognome Collective website, are forthcoming....

Tonight marks the beginning of the onslaught of the House by House Festival in Denton, which is taking place at several different DIY venues around town tonight and tomorrow night. They have gathered a fantastic line up of out of town touring acts for this thing, so do yourself a favor and venture over to the dark side of cheap shows, nice people and BYOB (By SR and DL)


King Khan and the Shrines (the Loft)
You guys are aware that King Khan is way better than Jay Reatard, right?

Magic Lantern | Vibes | Robedoor | Totally Dad | Zanzibar Snails (J&Js)
Considering the press these acts get, I would recommend this show if you want to really catch something you're not likely to see again; what basically amounts to a Not Not Fun showcase in Denton, and at J & J's of all places.

Magic Lantern are one of those groups so shamelessly into wearing psychedelia on their (paisley?) sleeve, that they will call some of their tracks "ragas." The thing is, as with most of these bands, there is something always slightly off about it, whether it be the recording process, or the especially noisy or haphazard approach to each piece of music, separating it from much safer takes on various strains of classic rock styles.

Vibes has members of Pochahaunted, as well as other Not Not Fun projects, and pushes forward with more garage and gospel oriented grooves than most of the other dronier and more detached acts on the label.

Robedoor is the standout group here; really haunting and menacing sounds that resemble Skullflower's drawn-out wash, with Jandek-like vocals on top. I wish I had more time to pick apart the hilarious concept behind Totally Dad, and try to figure out if it's a joke or not, but I want to add that I saw Zanzibar Snails with Mike Forbes (sax), Adam Calhoun (drums), and Sarah Alexander (treated vocals) the other night, and it was really something.

Psychedelic Horseshit | Drug Mountain | Fungi Girls (Chat Room)
One of two really big shows Fungi Girls will be playing this week (the other is tomorrow night with Wavves and Abe Vigoda), and they couldn't have asked for better headliners. Psychedelic Horseshit seem like they're on tour like 300 days out of the year, and my favorite thing about their live shows is probably their obvious on-stage attitude problems-- they obviously aren't up on stage to please you or anyone other than themselves, and I kind of like that. Why does everyone have to be so nice and humble all the time? Anyway, you might miss a tad of that scratchy, no-fi shitgaze sound when the band plays live, but for many people, especially those who arent' accustomed to listening to such recordings, this actually works in the band's favor, as it allows their solid songwriting and ferocious yet sloppy playing to shine through and present itself as the wonderful mess it really is. This will be your first of two chances to catch Psychedelic Horseshit this week, but your only chance to see them with Drug Mountain, who are worth driving to Ft. Worth for all on their own.

Viking Moses | Pictish Trail | Golden Ghost | Rozi Plain (Muscle Beach)
Perfect small setting to see Viking Moses. Moses is most well known for his association with Devendra Banhart's Golden Apples of the Sun "Freak folk" compilation, but the guy actually works in a number of different musical templates. His lyrics are often playful and the presentation is sort of that self aware silliness that you might expect from some of his Pac NW counterparts, but it still manages to be appealing enough to recommend. Be sure to check out Pictish Trail's excellent Hot Chip remix on Myspace before you check out Golden Ghost-- an understated, female fronted folk/doo-wop duo that might actually steal the show at Muscle Beach tonight with sugary sweet vocals and haunting melodies that'll make you wonder why you've never heard them before. Take a listen and get there early.

Box Elders | Lil Daggers | Deserter | Uptown Bums (Bunker Hill)
Lots of Double Shot Records styled organ and punk rock at Bunker Hill tonight. Can't really go wrong with that.

Tricky | Damaged Good$ | Prince William (Granada)
So if you gotta stay in Dallas tonight but still want to hit the town (and why not? It's Monday night and the economy rules!), then this could be a solid bet for you. Of course, most people know that Tricky was supposed to be the marquee name behind the short lived but much hyped mid 90's "trip hop" craze, although its pretty safe to say, looking back, that there weren't too many artists in that era who were able to do very much that hadn't already been done by Massive Attack, including former Wild Bunch members like Tricky. That being said, his work on Massive Attack's essential 1991 release Blue Lines, as well as his 1995 solo debut Maxinquaye, are both considered masterpieces within the genre, and the influence of those records stretched far past the shelf life of "trip hop" itself, affecting everything from American hip hop to downtempo to IDM before eventually playing a role in laying the framework for the emergence of grime culture, even though there were much more audibly obvious influences at work in the creation of that movement. Damged Goods will be a solid opener to pump up the crowd, and Prince William is one of the few DJs in Dallas who will really be an effective opener and mood-setter for this show: Prince Will is the kind of DJ that knows how to avoid making extensive knowledge and dance floor accessibility mutually exclusive.

Paleo | Doyen | Eyes and Ears (Fra House)
Holy crap... is M Ward in Paleo? I don't mean that as a dis or something either, because I actually like Paleo, but this guy really sounds like M Ward. Actually, Paleo is David Strackany, and we've written about him before-- he's the guy who released one song a day ever day for an entire year, and guess what? Most of them are NOT complete crap, or even really gimmicky or anything. Give it a listen... if this guy wrote 365 as good as the ones on his Myspace page, I would be pretty damn impressed to say the least.

The Upsidedown | Weakends | Airwaves (the Lounge)

Cool Out (the Cavern)

Tricky plays tonight at the Granada Theater with Damaged Good$ and Prince William, and we have a pair of tickets to give away to you... but since our software issues prevented us from posting the contest on Friday (or earlier this morning), we're doing it today, and because of the obvious time constraints, we're going to give the tickets to the first person to email weshotjrtix@yahoo.com with "Tricky" as the subject line and a full name in the email body. Go to it!