Yelle (House Of Blues) The fact that Yelle is kind of like the French version of mid-90's novelty-pop queen, Gillette, automatically launches her into the undesirable designation of "guilty pleasure." In fact, when I found a promo copy of her album for five bucks earlier this year, I figured it was perfectly priced considering my level of interest, and though I snapped it up, I then just as quickly hid it from my fellow record shopping companions, hoping they wouldn't notice. It's not that I necessarily care what they think, I just didn't want to get any shit from some folk/prog dork buying a Mellow Candle record, or some hardcore brat sneering at me while clutching a Cryptic Slaughter slab under her arm. Totally OOP, dude. Well, of course, I was then faced with the inevitable interrogation, "What'd you get, DL?" I sheepishly popped the CD into the player, yes I'm that old-fashioned, and I brace myself to be slightly embarrassed. But as it turned out, that Yelle record had many more good tracks than I expected, and everyone was actually into it, even the snobs. The record, entitled "Pop Up," is much more memorable than you'd expect for an artist played on "The Hills" or one that advertises for Reebok. There is the expected mix of 80's Pop, with the current dance music that relies so heavily on it, infused with sophisticated melodies worthy of a really good, obscure Belgian Post-Punk record. This is all topped off by some really tacky but wonderful rapping in French, with the kind of pacing that's ruled since "Rapture." Ticket price and venue aside, I would like to see if Yelle's live show is as surprising as her debut album.
Bible Of The Devil | Blood Of The Sun | Broadcast Sea (The Lounge) Man, a lot of this modern metal is really wearing on me. Some of these bands just don't rock as much as I want them to. Wasn't that the whole point of metal's resurgence in popularity? That some of it actually rocked this time? With a name like Bible Of The Devil, you had better be fucking brutal. Ironically, Broadcast Sea rocks more than the other two bands, and I wouldn't really consider them metal. Actually, there's nothing ironic about that at all. And what's with "ladies over 21 get in for free?" Come on, Dallas, I think you can do better than that. Let's not embarrass ourselves in front of guests.
Jeff Hukill is a North Texas visual artist and songwriter who's been painting professionally since 1975. Mr. Hukill was kind enough to answer some hard-hitting art questions for our first edition of WeShotJr: Greatness.
Richardson Heights: What first inspired you to paint?
Jeff Hukill: A deep inner connection to the beauty, wonder and adventure of life as a young boy. My inspiration to actually pick up a brush started in the early 60's when I saw an ad from the Famous Artists School of Westport Connecticut. Norman Rockwell was one of the co-founders. I wanted to inspire others the way I was inspired by what I saw in their work while taking the 2 year course.
RH: Do you remember a specific piece of artwork or artist you saw that made you think, "I can do that." ?
JH:Maxfield Parrish has been a great inspiration to me with the way he captured the imagination and his use of color. I like all of his work.
JH: As mentioned above I took a 2 year correspondence course from FASWC. I taught myself from many sources of information including books but mainly through my own doing.
RH: What is your work environment like? Can you describe what your process is while painting?
JH: My painting environment has changed over the years from listening to many types of music. Now I like it quiet. I paint with acrylics colors because of the fast drying time of the thin transparent glazes of color that I use in my technique.
RH: Your work is obviously very spiritual in nature. Can you explain what drives you?
JH: I believe I explained that in my bio web page but dreams are what I'm interested in -- dreams of a spiritual that move me to create, give meaning to life and share with others, and hopefully inspire others, beauty, color, light, nature, order.
RH: A recurring image in your painting is that of a transparent being, human or otherwise. Can you explain what that signifies?
JH: We are all spiritual in nature. Dreams are as real as this place we call earth. The true nature of our being is Soul which is not the the physical body, mind or emotions. As Soul we use the body, mind and emotions while in this world of matter, energy, space and time. This physical world is not separated from the dream or inner world. As Soul we can live in both worlds. We are in this world but not of this world.
Image courtesy of Jeff Hukill. Be sure to check out all of his work.
Wow. We were pleasantly surprised with the voting for this year's awards-- not only did we receive more votes than ever before, but we also noticed that the quality of the votes submitted this year was higher than in either of the previous years-- most voters voted in most of the categories, and the vast majority of the votes seemed serious and well thought out. So congratulations to everyone in our little community who decided to make their voices heard. As much as we like to be dismissive smart asses around here, we recognize the fact that these awards can be a great way to pay tribute to some of the musicians in the area that are actually producing important and interesting music, and we also recognize that the legitimacy of this whole process has much more to do with your participation than ours. So thanks for that. Below is a list of the winners for every category. We'll be making an announcement concerning our plans for Awards celebrations and the like a bit later this week, but for now, take a look at the wieners:
Best Band: Record Hop Best New Band: Darktown Strutters Best DJ: Schwa Best New DJ: Tommy Boy Best MC/ Hip Hop Artist: Damaged Goods Best Noise/Avant garde: Zanzibar Snails Best Metal (all genres) Akkolyte Best Punk/Hardcore/Grindcore/Garage: Wax Museums Best Folk/experimental folk: Dust Congress Best Indie Pop: Fight Bite/Teenage Cool Kids (tie) Best Solo Artist: Sarah Jaffe Best Local Album or Ep of the Year: Record Hop, s/t Best Local Single of the Year: "Swiss Ex Lover" by Fight Bite Best Vocalist: Daron Beck of Great Tyrant Best Guitarist: Will Kapinos of Jetscreamer Best Bassist: Tommy Atkins of Great Tyrant Best Drummer: Steve Hill Best Instrumentalist that doesn't play one of the above instruments: Megan Carrol of Nouns Group Most Underrated band: Kaboom Best Live Show: Teenage Cool Kids Best Art work: Nevada Hill for a variety of projects Best Sound Guy: Justin Collins of Hailey's Best Promoter/Booking Agency: Parade of Flesh Best Local Spot to Record: Echo Lab Best Dressed: Rival Gang Worst Dressed band: Black Tie Dynasty Worst Band Name: Mom and Black Tie Dynasty (tie) Best Local Music Journalist that isn't Us: Hunter Hauk of Quick, Dallas Morning News Best WSJR Commentator: Anonymous Best Local blog: US! (we set this up so that no one other than us could win) Age When you Realized that D Magazine Covers Local Music Better than the Observer: 22 Best Good Ol' Fashioned Songwriter: Doug Burr Best Venue: Rubber Gloves
Just to let you know, we'll be posting the winners of our 2008 awards a little later this morning, and if you're interested in winning Magnetic Fields tickets, you'll have until noon to do so (scroll down two posts and find out how to win). Now here's a great little pep talk to start your day:
SHOWS OF NOTE THIS WEEK
WED: Monotonix/El Paso Hot Button/Rival Gang (the Lounge) WED: Pattern is Movement/History at Our Disposal/Moth Fight/Florene (Swiss House, 3114 Swiss Ave.) THU: Cat Power (Palladium) FRI: Akimbo/Resigned to Fate/First Curse (The Lounge) SAT: Lords/Children of the Grave/Four Days to Burn (the Lounge) SAT: The Walkmen (House of Blues) SAT: Ryan Adams and the Cardinals (Nokia) SAT: The Roots (Palladium)
Kind of a slow Friday but a very busy Saturday.... all next week will also be very busy around here, so stay tuned. Shows:
FRIDAY
Akkolyte | Vorvadoss | Tiger Fight (The Cavern) A Melissa's Delux Party gone metal, featuring one of state's best live bands in Akkolyte. I'm seriouss too.
Roky Erickson | The Black Angels | Dove Hunter (Granada) Roky Erickson comes back to Dallas for his second tour of duty in the city in less than a year. I remember the last time I saw him in Dallas, he said the exact same thing after every song in the exact same tone: "thank you, thank you. thank you." It was really cute to me for some reason. Anyway, it was a surprisingly strong set for a guy who's been "out of the game" for so long, and if you couldn't catch it last time, I'd recommend this show.
Daniel Francis Doyle | Yellow Fever | Nouns Group (Rubber Gloves) I am going to attempt to describe these bands in a way that the mainstream media might not like, or my opponent bloggers, nor my moderator, SR-- but I want to give you, the American people, some straight talk.
Dan Frankie Doyle is a real Joe Sixpack, or Joe 18-pack, or Joe Alcohol Poisoning. The guy can drink. He can drum almost as well, and his songs are about the concerns of people on Main Street, not Wall Street, dog-gone it. He can't be in a band with other people, heck no! He's too much of a maverick, ya know! He tried once, but he just ruffled too many feathers in his own party.
Sorry, this is kind of tough. I'm second in charge of operations here at We Shot JR, and I just don't know what I'm supposed to do everyday. Oh yeah, talk shit, oops, I mean straight talk about bands and stuff.
YellowFever aren't one of those elitist, intellectual noise groups, they write good ol' fashioned songs that everyone can relate to. Blue collar titles like "Joe Brown" and "Culver City," songs about average Americans and small towns. What's the difference between YellowFever and a pit bull? Skinny Capri Pants!
And Nouns Group. Oh, it's sad, yes they have a special needs lead singer but that doesn't make them any less good than anyone else's band. Like Future President McCain, they don't know how to use the internet because they don't have a Myspace profile. I guess they're just not in touch with the concerns of everyday people like you and me. Anyways, have fun everybody!
White Denim | PVC Street Gang | Kaputter Rock (Pastime Tavern) Could be one of the bigger shows Pastime Tavern has ever seen thanks to the big blog buzz that has recently arisen in regards to Austin's White Denim. Gorilla vs Bear has promoted this show fairly well, and the site also had some nice things to say about locals PVC Street Gang, who play a somewhat intriguing garage meets lo-fi, electro influenced post-punk that ends up sounding like the current big thing amongst the real men Vice Hipster set. Nothing you haven't heard before I'm sure, but the execution is good enough to warrant a listen for sure. And although it isn't saying much, they are easily one of the best bands in Dallas right now... I think they're from Dallas, anyway. Check out the track "Night Terrors," which sort of sounds like Folk Implosion covering a PIL cover of a Homosexuals song. Pretty good.
Lollipop Shoppe (Allgood Cafe) No need to tell you what happens at this long running mod night monthly, because most everyone already knows.
So our friends at Radio UTD hooked us up with a couple pairs of tickets to give away to Magnetic Fields' performance at the Majestic Theater in Dallas on Monday, October 13th. Want to win them? First, simply email us at weshotjrtix@yahoo.com. Then, in order to find out whether or not you've won, you'll have to tune in to Radio UTD this coming Monday (October 6th) from 6-8pm. One random winner will be picked from the list of names we send them, and they'll do the same thing at the same time with the same names on Wednesday and give away another pair. Bottom line? Email us your name by 2pm this coming Monday, and then tune in to Radio UTD to see if you're lucky.
So tonight's debate was supposed to be all about Sarah Palin, and although I realize that the McCain campaign has been managing the expectation game for the past couple of weeks, she did a little better than I thought she would this evening. However, it seemed that Joe Biden turned in the performance of his lifetime tonight, and frankly, relative to Obama's performance in the first presidential debate, Biden was the stronger advocate for the Democratic cause-- he seemed to have an authentic connection with working people as he made straight ahead arguments concerning the ways in which Obama's policies would have a directly positive effect on people's daily lives, and he also effectively calling into question John McCain's "maverick" status better than I've seen anyone do it so far this year. So thanks to Joe Biden for doing even more than he probably needed to do.
And by the way, it looks like a lot of other people agree with me. Feel free to comment on the debate and the election in general. Off topic comments will be erased because I do what I want!
