Yes, I realize that this list is too late, and I'm sorry for that. I also just realized that "Defect Defect" is most likely a Wipers reference. Thanks, DL
Defect Defect | High Life | Wiccans (Exploding House) Defect Defect features members of Clorox Girls and The Observers. I don't understand how Wiccans are going to play this show since they share members with Teenage Cool Kids. For more info on just how complicated that is, see the diagram to the right.
Tyvjk | Teenage Cool Kids | Schwa | Art by Caleb Barnard (The Cavern): Especially good lineup for Detour tonight with a solid touring act, a beloved local indie pop group, a beloved DJ, and artwork by a local tattoo artist. I often see Tyvjk described as garage rock, or even "Detroit garage rock" which is more implicative than necessary. The group does have elements of garage rock, but more importantly there is a type of crumble to their sound akin to all of their equipment tumbling down the stairs while a singer tries to keep up with a combination of panic and indifference. This is really where the group's strength seems to lie, setting them apart from other less interesting garage rockers and displaying a kind of messy and arrogant aloofness utilized successfully in everyone from The Fall to the more recent work of Teenage Panzer Kops.
Gordon Lightfoot (Nokia) I remember being made fun of at a book store for buying a Gordon Lightfoot fakebook, and even though I have my doubts about this show being good on any level, at least give it to the guy for writing the song featured in this video. I think that should be enough cred for anybody.
For those who don't know, Kool Keith, a.k.a. Dr. Doom, a.k.a. Dr. Octagon, will be performing this Friday at the Loft in Dallas, and AEGLive was nice enough to give us two pairs of tickets to give away to you. If you want them, just email weshotjrtix@yahoo.com any time before 7PM this evening with your full name in the email body and "Kool Keith" in the subject line. We'll choose two winners at random. Good luck!
Brightblack Morning Light | Rio En Medio (Good Records) In case you missed it last night, you have the opportunity to catch the same exact show in Dallas, and for free. Not bad.
Visitations | Daniel Folmer | RTB2 (Dan's Silverleaf) The Visitations features Elephant 6 veteran, Davey Wrathgaber, and I'm a little surprised to see that association is still used in a press-release circa 2009. Isn't that like saying you once drank OK Soda, worked for 1-800 Music Now, or that you were once interviewed on The Adventure Club? Anyways, this is your average "experimental pop," where there are some great influences listed, some weird noises here and there, and some pretty ordinary pop songwriting barely hiding underneath. Wrathgaber has been described as a "poet, songwriter, and humorist," though many of you are aware I'm sure that such a three-pronged description is really all one in the same.
Richard Thompson (Lakewood Theater) I had forgotten how good Richard (and Linda) Thompson can be until TC reminded me earlier today. Everyone makes a big deal out of "Shoot Out The Lights," but I think their first album is a lot better. "Shoot Out The Lights" is probably mentioned more due to the fact that it's often referenced, or even covered, by the likes of similarly somber icons like Bob Mould and Michael Stipe.
Thompson is a saving grace on the sometimes dull Fairport Convention records, and their discography is pretty much irrelevant after his departure. It's a safe bet that this will probably sound like adult contemporary folk rock more than anything else, but it might still be worth going to if he plays some older songs, or at least doesn't have a fretless bass player or something fucking insane like that.
Disqo Disco (Fallout Lounge) Wanz will be guesting tonight, playing some rare Italo and post-punk remixes.
I could probably do this column for a couple months writing solely about records released on Island in 1974. Kevin Ayers, John Cale, King Crimson, Eno, Nico, Roxy Music and Sparks all put out fantastic albums that year. This particular album, Thompson's second since leaving the Fairport Convention, may not be a glam/prog/weirdo masterpiece, but it is one of the better 'drinking and sex' themed English folk albums that I've heard.
There is a pretty good chance that Richard Thompson will play a few songs from this record tonight at the Lakewood Theater. Well, I hope that it's him playing, the Lakewood's website calendar says 'An Evening with Ricahrd Thompson.'
Brightblack Morning Light | Rio En Medio (Rubber Gloves) I feel like I've written about Brightblack Morninglight so many times that there really isn't much to say. Fender Rhodes. Repitition. Weed. These are some of the keywords in most BML reviews, and you can probably gather a lot just from reading that little list. This is the kind of music that seems to either put people to sleep or completely blow them away, and you probably know who you are already. They've played with Os Mutantes and Vashti Bunyan, which have both emerged as credible name checks over the past few years amongst people who shop on InSound, so there's that. This is music that's made to float in the background yet rewards you if you pay close attention. If that doesn't sound appealing, proceed with caution.
The Points | Bad Sports | Hoop Dreamz | Occult Detective Club (818 Hickory St.) The music player stuff on my computer is fucking up, and although the local bands I'm familiar with on this bill will surely make it a good show, I have an idea-- why don't one of you describe The Points in the comments for us. If it's funny and/or informative, we'll give you a job at WSJR where you'll get paid nothing and have your self esteem battered and bruised to the point that you'll either quit or stop caring what everyone thinks of you. Either way, you lose.
I'm not sure where I read about Nite Jewel for the first time, but ever since I first heard the track "Chimera" off of their stellar self released debut Good Evening, I was quite captivated with their sound-- something approaching a combination of the most minimal moments found in the Italians Do it Better catalogue and the spacey surrealism of Ariel Pink, all with an eye towards new romantic dream pop, disco, and 80's r&b and synth/dance pop (not to mention some noticeable early Euro electro influences).
I've often read of Nite Jewel as the one person project of Ramona Gonzalez, but I've seen two people in some photos and you just referred to Nite Jewel as "us." Who's in the band and how are the band duties divided up (songwriting, playing live, etc.)?
The people in the pictures are me, Ramona, and my buddy Emily Jane. Nite Jewel began as solo recording project of mine. I recruited Emily for the live shows back in November. The other players are Cole M.G.N. as recording collaborator, DJ Whitemare as vinyl inspiration, and others. Songwriting is my task but everyone pitches in here and there.
So you're from LA, a city that has sort of emerged as an "indie hotspot" (for lack of a better term) over the past couple years, and a lot of it has centered around The Smell. Of course, more so that just about any other American city I can think of (other than maybe Dallas, coincidentally), people seem to have very extreme and often negative views about Los Angeles-- its plastic culture, its suburban sprawl, its crime, etc (I do also know people who absolutely love the city as well) What is your view on the city in general, and do you think that LA will continue to be fruitful ground for interesting music? It might sound crazy to ask such a question these days, but lets not forget that LA has had some pretty big dry spells in underground culture.
My experience is that I moved to L.A. because of its bad reputation. I had lived in New York, San Francisco, places that people love. I didn’t love those places when living in them full time. The people I knew were too hell bent on the myths or the history of the city to focus on their own endeavors. Not to mention the cost of living. Figured if no one wants to live in L.A., I’ll at least find somewhere cheap to rent. At that time I felt that L.A. was producing some of the most inspiring, fragmented, nostalgic, future-thinking, lonely experimental pop I had ever heard come out of my generation. So long as artists can continue to afford to live here this may perhaps continue to be the case. Emily is from L.A. originally so I am sure she has a completely different take on the situation.
So essentially, Nite Jewel creates dance or at least dance-leaning music that seems to take a lot of inspiration from synth pop, early german electro (kraftwerk, cluster, etc.) 80's funk and R&b, disco, and maybe even hip hop. A lot of the most popular music from these genres (other than perhaps the german stuff) is often recorded in a very glossy and highly produced manner, while you take the opposite approach, with lots of reverb and softness. Was this a stylistic choice that had some conceptual significance to you, or did you just like the way it sounded, or was it born out of necessity?
I think we are used to thinking that these genres you mentioned are recorded in a “glossy manner”, but actually that is a recent development. There is infinitely “lo-fi” hip hop, synth pop, R&B, etc. Moreover, many groups who worked within these genres in the past may have recorded in a studio, but with a strictly analog set up. For me, the stylistic choice is always going to be a matter of utility. I can’t go out and buy pro tools.
Not to get all gear dork on you, but can you tell us about some of the different tools and instruments you use to make your music?
I use a Tascam 238 cassette 8 track. I have several used synths and drum machines. At one point I had an incredible keyboard called an Elka OMB 5. Harry Merry inspired my purchase of that keyboard because “OMB” stood for “One Man Band”. I sold that keyboard to my friend Jack and now apparently Dangermouse owns it.
What led to your interest in making music in the first place, and what, from a standpoint of musical and artistic influences, led you to create the kind of music that Nite Jewel produces?
I am not sure why at age five I made the conscious decision to start studying music. The road to creation is even blurrier. Who knows when I started writing songs? I can remember times in my bedroom late at night recording songs a hand held tape recorder. I was like seven or eight. My memory of it seems like it was a pretty organic development. So I guess that’s what it continues to be…organic.
Not to get all school dork on you, but I read that Ramona is currently a philosophy student. What are some of your interests or focuses within philosophy, and does any of that side of your life have a tangible impact on your art and/or music?
Hopefully the goal in philosophy is to consider the discipline as a study through which you view your entire life.
Can you tell us a little about your work as a visual artist? Maybe describe a few recent pieces or tell us what kind of concepts you're interested in or mediums you like to work in? Maybe include a website if you'd like.
Emily says no comment.
So I've read that the Nite Jewel debut full length is scheduled to be re-released the week of SXSW. Can you tell us a little about making that record? Are you working on new material right now?
I recorded the songs on that record in my house from Jan 2008 to August 2008. My band of two years had just broken up in a fairly drastic fashion and my drummer/best friend left L.A. I guess I was somewhat upset, which led me to pursue my own stuff in an isolated way. I’m always working on new stuff. Otherwise what would I do for fun?
So I'll always wondered this-- from the perspective of a musician such as yourself, what is your motivation to play a festival like SXSW? I understand that exposure is obviously a big factor, but I often wonder what, specifically, bands hope to gain from playing SXSW showcases? Or do you just think its fun?
MON: Brightblack Morninglight/Rio En Medio (Rubber Gloves) TUE: Richard Thompson (Lakewood Theater) WED: TYVJK/Teenage Cool Kids (The Cavern) WED: Defect Defect/High Life/Division of Power/Wiccans (Exploding House) THU: Mi Ami/Thank You/The Watchers (the Lounge) FRI Dr. Doom vs. Dr. Octagon (The Loft) SAT: Cut Copy/Matt and Kim/DJ Knightlife (Granada) SAT: PVC Street Gang/Darktown Strutters/Eat Avery's Bones/Slackbeat (The Chat Room)
This list was written by SR and DL, and if you want to see even more shows that we didn't have time to cover here, check the show calendar. Here we go:
FRIDAY
Dance Your Face Off One Year Anniversary with Damaged Good$ and SOCIAL feat. Females | Schwa upstairs (The Cavern) The one year anniversary of the Dance Your Face Off party will feature a performance from the excellent Damaged Goods, photos from stephieyaknow and solid set lists both downstairs and up. One of two big dance parties on lower Greenville tonight. Damaged Good$ goes on at Midnight ya'll.
Council of Doom (Public Trust) Central Booking will be hosting the Dallas premier of Council of Doom, a documentary film about a group of fixed gear bikers in California that, according to this clip, appear to do a lot of freestyle riding. Shit, don't ask me any details, I don't know anything about this stuff. Looks pretty interesting though. Its free and starts at 8pm. Free keg too. They'll be moving the party over to Zubar after that, and a lot of people are apparently planning to ride to both places if you'd like to join them.
Dave Brubeck (University of North Texas, Murchison Performing Arts Center) Wow, we weren't even aware that this was happening until earlier this afternoon, but its quite exciting that Dave Brubeck is still fucking alive, much less playing in Denton tonight. Some people like to complain that his west coast jazz is responsible for helping white people "understand" the music while simultaneously watering it down, but those people are just bored liberal arts students.
Jucifer | Hawk vs. Dove | Tendril | Soviet (The Lounge) Jucifer is louder than any band on this bill, or on any bill, period. But as a beach-hick heckling a band in San Diego once taught me, "Loud doesn't equal good." Jucifer is fine actually, but I think that Soviet is probably the most impressive band on this bill, one that's pretty crowded with groups pushing the extremes of volume and power. The one exception is probably Tendril, who claims to be a "rock conglomerate" with a "unified mission" to "bring down the house," but that will be tough to do against the other three groups.
The Party (Zubar) This will, of course, follow the thing at Public Trust tonight.
Gordon and the Whale's Watchmen Party with Sun Club | Yeah Def (Rubber Gloves) Sun Club, one of the more promising new DJ groups in Denton or Dallas will headline this Gordon and the Whale party for the Watchmen. They usually have a lot of giveaways at these things, and most of the time the crowds are quite impressive.
Silver Shampoo | Bleach Boys | Wiccans | Lychgate (Bunker Hill, 2614 Elm St, Denton) Very solid line up at Bunker Hill this evening. Silver Shampoo is one of the more exciting Denton bands I've heard in a while, actually-- check out "Jethro Skull" on their Myspace page and you'll see exactly what I mean. Yes, you can here the influence of shitgaze or noise pop or whatever buzzword you want to use in there, and comparing them with groups like Eat Skull, Nodzzz and even Human Eye wouldn't be unfair, but they seem to tread in the slightly more pop punk side of the pool, and it really works for them-- sing songy verses and super catchy riffs that allow you to find them rather than getting right up in your face. Quite catchy and highly recommended, and remember-- every comparison we mentioned is a GOOD one, ok? And we haven't had the chance to catch Wiccan yet (UPDATE: We just did, and we were right), but the group features members of Orange Coax and Wax Museums, so you can probably place a safe bet on quality. And Lychgate is a frightening must see. This will be a fantastic show.
Akkolyte | Vorvadoss | Cleric | Embolization (Bike House) Obviously glad to see more DIY shows in Dallas, especially one that doesn't sound so...glossy. And though we have said a lot about most of these groups, I would have loved to have also mentioned Embolization's actual music, but they don't have any tracks posted yet. Guess we'll have to actually, you know, show up. Isn't that right, Stoned Ranger?
Prizzy Prizzy Please | Orange Coax | Boogdish (1919 Hemphill) Prizzy Prizzy Please sounds too much like a music school in-joke, but it seems like they'd probably take that as a compliment. They ironically jump from genre to genre to the point that it's not really ironic anymore. Not having a guitar but still managing to have shitty solos is probably the "craziest" thing about this band. The rest of the lineup makes it worth it, though.
Sleep Whale | Hotel, Hotel | Sunnybrook | My Empty Phantom (Rubber Gloves) Sleepwhale is the band formerly known as Mom, in case you didn't know, and Sunnybrook is one of the more interesting songwriters in Denton that you probably haven't noticed in between your daydreams about Will Johnson or whatever, so give it a listen.
Wednesday 13 | Dommin | Ghoultown | Bastardos de Sancho (Club Dada) I don't think anyone really needs a detailed breakdown of a gothic/horror-punk/hellbilly show, but I was really pleased with myself after hearing the found-percussion, blues-rock clang of the costumed Dallas act, Los Bastardos de Sancho and muttering to myself, "Doo Rag! These guys remind me of Doo Rag." I look over to the Influences section and it's the first band on the list. Nailed it. Look, I'm all for a band just coming out and admitting who they borrow from. There is not enough honesty in music lately. At least they didn't claim to be influenced by Marie Curie or Anna Karenina the way so many ultra-pretentious interviews read. I always want to tell a band to jump off a fucking bridge when they have the nerve to say that shit. You don't have to read an entire Russian novel to rip off Jesus And Mary Chain.
SUNDAY
Bosque Brown CD release | Fight Bite (Dan's Silverleaf) This will be the CD release party for Bosque Brown, a group we've covered for a long time on this blog and recently interviewed a few weeks ago for the first time. There seems to be a lot of local and regional anticipation for this release, so go grab it at the show while you can.
For Your Pleasure with DJ G | Gabriel (Hailey's) Quality set with lots of funk, reggae, soul and krautrock. Might be a nice place to hit up after the show at Dan's.
