Yeah, we know it's been a little quiet around here lately, ok? We haven't been doing all the record reviews, live reviews and feature articles that we've wanted to over the past couple of months, but we've had a good reason-- today, we'd like to announce the formation of We Shot J.R. Records.
After almost three years of thinking, writing about and experiencing local music, we felt the time was ripe for us to get a little more directly involved in supporting some of our favorite local groups, and the idea of We Shot J.R. Records was born in that spirit. We wanted to create a small, locally based label that would showcase some of the music in the area that we feel should be heard elsewhere, and thanks to all the excellent new bands that have emerged around here over the past year, the task of assembling a quality roster was rather easy.
We Shot J.R. Records will focus mainly, though not exclusively, on releasing the music of local artists via limited edition vinyl pressings, sort of a boutique label that will highlight what we believe to be some of the best the area has to offer. Here is a list of the first three records we will be releasing:
Fight Bite-- "Swiss Ex Lover"/"Spring Rain (radio edit)" on 7 inch vinyl
Of course, we will not be offering "reviews" of the records we release, and if you have any question about our objectivity regarding the bands we work with, then you must be dumb because record reviews are never objective anyway. Duh.
In any event, you can go hereto check out the records and purchase one via Pay Pal. We'll have a link to the label site on the top of the sidebar very soon, and although only Fight Bite's 7 inch is available for purchase at the moment, the other two records will see release some time very soon, and we'll update you to let you know when they are ready.
Oh, and here's another little bonus for you-- this Friday, November 7th, please join us for the We Shot J.R. Records Kick Off Party at Time Bandits Vintage in Denton, featuring performances by:
First band at 9pm. Free show. Free Beer. And we'll also have Fight Bite 7 inches available for sale. If you can fight the urge to go see Trail of Interpol at the Halliburton.Com Rockers Garage Lounge or whatever, we'll see you there! And now that we're done launching this label, expect to start seeing a lot more regular feature articles once again. Thanks.
Something (sort of) appropriate for election week:
SHOWS OF NOTE THIS WEEK
TUE: Dallas Democrats Election Night Block Party (Bishop Arts, Oak Cliff) WED: Brightblack Morning Light/Bill Daniel (Hailey's) THU: Yacht (Club Dada) THU: Centro-matic/Baptist Generals/South San Gabriel (Rubber Gloves) FRI We Shot J.R. Party, details to come today (Time Bandits) FRI: Deerhoof/Experimental Dental School/Flying/Hawnay Troof (Granada) FRI ...And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead/When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth/Dead Twins (Club Dada) SAT Diplo/Abe Vigoda /Boy 8 Bit/Telepathe (Palladium) SAT: Calexico/Bowerbirds (Granada) SAT: Spinto Band/Frightened Rabbit/Grassfight (Hailey's) SUN: Parts and Labor/True Widow/Dogme 95 (the Lounge) SUN: Atmosphere (House of Blues)
Shit yeah... this year Halloween comes on the weekend, me and Ghetto Boys are trick-or-treatin':
HALLOWEEN
Great Tyrant | Darktown Strutters | Akkolyte (Chat Room) Frightening. Akkolyte will kick the shit out of you via the toughest grindcore set in town, Darktown Strutters will seduce you before they slit your throat with mutant disco goth, and Great Tyrant will just make you feel all funny with Tommy Atkins' bass vibrating through your body. I guess going to this will sort of be like getting sexually assaulted.
Dj Kool Herc (Minc) For those who don't know, and I imagine many people don't, DJ Kool Herc more or less LITERALLY invented hip hop in the Bronx in the early 70's at house parties he hosted at the famous 1520 Sedgwick apartments, spinning old funk records and focusing on the breaks back when my parents still did drugs. This is a nice grab for Vigilante Music Group, and although I'm not exactly sure what dude spins these days, does it really even matter? This is probably a very rare opportunity to go somewhere where you can ponder a worldwide cultural phenomenon before you point over to the corner and say "oh, that guy. He started all of that shit."
Rock N Roll Masquerade feat. Nouns Group as Joy Division | Make Believers as Flamin' Groovies | Sean Kirkpatrick as Polvo | Drink to Victory as Nirvana (Dan's Silverleaf) Covering Nirvana is almost as tough as trying to dance exactly like Ian Curtis. It helps if you have some kind of nerve disease or something.
Zombie Prom with Yeahdef | Parata | Nanotech | Photobooth/like 15 kegs and stuff (Interskate, Lewisville) Skating and drinking and costumes and hipsters, oh my.
Play N Skillz Halloween Bash (House of Blues) Don't you wish you were me? I've been invited to waltz right into this motherfucker tonight any time I want while the rest of you don't even stand a chance at being allowed to stand in line for this thing. Viva la blog revolution! Everyone already knows the story about these hometown hip hop heroes and their rise to fame via Lil Wayne, so I won't bother explaining it other than to say that currently, these guys are the poster boys for the emergence of Dallas Hip Hop. And lets give credit where credit is due-- Sam Machkovich (spelling?) was writing about a lot of the now successful Dallas Hip Hop acts like three years ago, back when people were laughing at him for it, which is pretty impressive considering what the Observer is like these days. Let me know when Pete Freedman figures out who the Velvet Underground are, ok? And PS-- I'm so fucking cool that I'm not even going to this.
Crystal Antlers | Lake | Desolation Wilderness | The League of Fucking Decency | Dogme 95 (Swiss House, 3114 Swiss Ave.) Very respectable line up over at Swiss House this weekend, and Kudos to Swiss House Evan and John Iskander for putting it together on short notice. It's not exactly mind blowing these days when you hear about a band of punk influenced hipsters who have only half ironically embraced prog and classic rock, but everything I've heard about Crystal Antlers' live show indicates that these guys do it better than just about anyone. If they are half as good live as Akron Family, this will be worth it. Get there a bit early to check out K Records' wonderful Lake, who are one of the few bands on K these days that actually remind me of why I used to like that label so much in the first place. Twee with a dark side. Thanks. Oh, and Desolation Wilderness sound like they will be a perfect band for the Swiss House faithful. Very solid stuff.
Pocket Change | Rival Gang | PVC Street Gang (Rubber Gloves) Here is your chance to catch the excellent PVC Street Gang--- I really didn't give a fuck about this band until I heard some of their newer stuff a couple weeks ago, and I was really impressed.
SUNDAY
Vic Chesnutt | Elf Power (Rubber Gloves) I just downloaded Elf Power's latest, and seriously, I remember them being better than this.
No, this isn't the BIG announcement we promised you... that one has taken a little more time than we thought it would, but we'll have it for you soon. Anyway, we did want to tell you to go ahead and mark next Friday, November 7th on your calendars, because we'll be having a free party at the wonderful Time Bandits show space just off the Denton square. Details to come soon...
Human Eye | Silver Shampoo | Orange Coax | Girlfren | Daniel Bass (715 Panhandle) Um, yes. Very solid show all the way through. I sat down and listened to Orange Coax for the first time several days ago (the group features members of Koji Kondo, PS), and it was honestly one of the most exciting, uh, local music moments that I've had in a while. Apparently, the band Aids Wolf agrees with me-- they left a comment on the groups's Myspace page praising their songs, and Orange Coax, or the "OC" as I like to call them (don't call it that), will be opening for the group when they venture back to Dallas next month. And while you're at it, check out Austin's Girlfren... you'll thank me. Human Eye, meanwhile, sounds like some strange mixtures between The Stranglers, Dead Boys and Iggy Pop's early solo stuff, and Silver Shampoo sort of have a Siltbreeze kinda thing happening, but are in no way derivative of that label. Great stuff.
80's Night with DJG (Hailey's) Tonight will be a Halloween party, of course.
Matthew and the Arrogant Sea | Eaton Lake Tonics | New Science Projects(Lola's) We have a copy of MATAS's latest record, and we'll probably share our thoughts on it some time soon... there's a lot of "next big thing" talk concerning these guys amongst members of the local trad media right now, and I hope for the sake of the band that it doesn't kill their career before it even really starts.
SR and I are having a little spat right now, so this is late and brief, I know. You know how it goes-Who knows more about music, who's more punk, what's lamer: trip-house or ska, Angelo's versus Asti, Austin versus Dallas, Reebok versus Nike, Fort Worth Hospital District versus Lakewood, Gold Rush Cafe versus All Good, Misfits versus Minor Threat, blogs versus blogs etc. Help me.
Convextion | Maetrik | Alta (The Cavern) Some of Dallas' most internationally known DJ's will be playing tonight's Detour at The Cavern. Baby Ruthless plays upstairs.
Blixaboy/Juan Solo (The Lounge) Wanz sent us a brief list of what he'll be playing tonight: Lots of original trax and live improv along with classic Dub trax (i.e. Lee Perry, King Tubby, Adrian Sherwood.......) ,the best in new Dubstep (i.e. 2562, Andy Stott, Benga, Shackleton, Darkstar, Burial........) and some classic dubby post-punk (Killing Joke, The Clash, The Ruts, Generation X, Mark Stewart and The Pop Group.......).
TV On The Radio | Dirtbombs (Lakewood Theater) You know who TV On The Radio is, I don't really think I have to explain it. What I should do is explain why it's at the somewhat unlikely location of the Lakewood Theater, and yet I don't have an explanation for that at all. I know there have been other shows there, but I have heard very little about what it's actually like to see a performance there. I saw Obama's acceptance speech for the Democratic nomination there, and that was pretty exciting, but as far as rock shows go, I just don't know. Seems like it would be expensive no matter what. That guy from TV On The Radio did a bang-up job making that Scarlett Johansson record sound like a cross between a Christmas album and his own band, except better. Dirtbombs have an extensive track record for live shows, as well as the diversity of their releases, and are by far one of the best bands out of Detroit's rather unwelcome garage rock revival earlier in the decade. The lead singer makes Jack White seem like a total joke.
"Zaireeka"/"Christmas On Mars" at Good Records: I have heard mixed things about this vanity project/movie, but I'm still interested in seeing it. Seems like a nice, cheap way to spend Tuesday night. Here's the schedule, straight from G-Rex:
Last year we celebrated the 10th anniversary of Zaireeka by unveiling the elusive 5th disc. This year we are taking it a step further in several ways. We are still encouraging people to bring in their stereos and copies of Zaireeka but we will have PA on hand for each of the 5 discs to make sure they are good and extra loud. Also we will be screening "Christmas On Mars" at the conclusion of our Zaireeka experiment. Costumes are again encouraged as we will be holding our 2nd annual costume contest. Please bring a bean bag or folding chair of some sort so you can get comfy and truly enjoy your listening and viewing experience. A keg of adult libations will also be on hand to get you in that Halloween spirit so to speak.
