1. Lost Generation w DJ Mwanza (Cavern)
We heard that Mwanza is out of town and that there will be a guest DJ tonight. We'll let you know when we hear who it is, but we think they'll be playing similar tunes... which is a good thing.

Get ready everyone. Wave bye bye to a constitutional right to privacy, which has implications that go farther than just abortion. Wave hello to an executive branch shrouded in secrecy with unprecedented power, now that there are four conservative ideologues on the court, and a fifth, Anthony Kennedy, that usually goes along with them on most issues. Say goodbye to the federal government's right to make and enforce consumer protection regulations through the commerce clause as Alito and company take us back to a view of federalism that hasn't been popular since the 19th century. Say hello to a man that is willing to ignore stare decisis when it isn't convenient for him to give it the proper consideration. And with the retirement of Justice O'Connor, get ready to say hello to the most conservative court since the early 1930's.

Although its true that Anthony Kennedy supported the majority decisions in Roe and Casey, it is also true that he almost voted to overturn Roe in Casey, and was so close to doing so that Rehnquist had already drafted a majority opinion in which he expected Kennedy to join. The fact that there are technically still five people on the court that support Casey doesn't give me much comfort. And really, although abortion is an important issue, I think it will seem like small potatoes compared to the other things that this super conservative court will do with business issues, race issues, criminal procedure issues, and federalism. And what is really sad is that the democrats didn't do everything they could to stop it. Why not filibuster? They had the votes to do it. And politically, what were the risks of doing it? Alienating the majority of the country that favors legal abortion, does NOT support George W. Bush, thinks that Republicans are more tied to special interests than Democrats, and wants a change in congress this year? I don't think so. Instead the Dems rolled over and played dead, like they always seem to do. Whats it going to take to wake these jerks up? If a lifetime appointment of a man like Alito to the most powerful domestic court in the western world isn't serious enough to get them in gear, I don't know what will.

Yeah yeah yeah, pretty cliche. We know that this record has been near the top of just about every year end list you've read. And we also know that this band does sound like you know who to some extent. But we'll go ahead and take sides with the L Train clones rather than the haters, because we listened to Wolf Parade more than just about any other band this year, and unlike some of the other albums on our year end list, Apologies to the Queen Mary was easier to get into than Texas Tech. Its a record that you can put on at any time in just about any place, and all year long we did just that.

And really, does Wolf Parade actually sound like Modest Mouse THAT much? Maybe "Grounds for Divorce" does, but should that really hold you back from getting into a record that is clearly an almost masterpiece? See, if Wolf Parade sounds like Modest Mouse, it sounds like Modest Mouse did in 1996. Not how 1996 Modest Mouse sounds right now, but how it sounded then. New. Exciting. Different. A record you want to talk about, think about, and oh yeah- listen to. All the damn time. Wolf Parade is catchy and poppy without being dumb or cute, and they also have two of the most compelling vocalists that we've heard in a straight up indie pop band in a long time, not to mention some of the greatest organ/synth arrangements to be recorded since god knows when played over bouncy, tight rhythms that hold it all together while teasing you with the possibility that everything might just fall apart. You can go to Pitchfork or the New York Times to read much more eloquent descriptions of their sound if you need to, and chances are you've probably already heard this record anyway. So we won't bore you with the details.

If this band was a Modest Mouse rip off and still good, we would probably not hate them.... but we would know their limitations. Wolf Parade takes tiny pieces of whatever Modest Mouse does, along with Arcade Fire, Neutral Milk Hotel, David Byrne, OMD and dozens of other critic favorites from past and present. Then it makes it something completely different, fusing those influences with a confidence and energy that you don't hear every day. Or even every year. And we can promise you, Apologies to the Queen Mary is just as, if not more exciting than anything Modest Mouse has done in quite a while... not to mention pretty much every other band on the planet.

(NOTE 1: Here is a cut that you might not have heard. Its called "Disco Sheets" and its from the Wolf Parade ep that came out earlier in 2005. We don't know why it wasn't on the album, because we think its one of their best.)

(NOTE 2: As you might have figured out, this #3 tie means that there will be 11 albums in the top ten. Sue me.)

1. Good Records Good Mornings w/ DJ CEE PEE (Cavern)
We haven't been to this thing yet, but we're planning on stopping by tonight to see if we like it. The DJ is the manager at Good Records, and from what we gather there are three reasons to give it a shot: 1) his list of bands he likes on his Myspace page 2) free food at midnight 3) what the hell else are you gonna do on Monday night? Sleep?

Maybe we didn't catch it the first time we checked, or maybe they were just added to the list. Either way the Strange Boys are playing SXSW this year. No word as to when or where of course, but we'll let you know as soon as we find out. Good to see that there is at least ONE good Dallas band playing.

Part of the reason this blog was started was to bitch about Dallas and be funny as shit and way cooler than you. Another reason was to learn more about local music, and to see if there were any good bands in Dallas that we didn't know about before. So you'll have to excuse us if you've already heard of Red Monroe. We hadn't until recently, and we actually listened to them for the first time today. The influences are nothing new I guess... Mercury Rev, Echo and the Bunnymen, Pink Floyd, Radiohead, Joy Division. But shit, no one in Dallas is referencing these kind of post-punk/goth/ psyche bands and doing it any better than these guys. Before we heard them, we had seen their name around town here and there, so a lot of you might have already heard of them, listened to them, and made up your mind about them. Or maybe not. For those that haven't, take a little journey over to their Myspace page and listen. Fans of the aforementioned bands as well as those that fancy the shoegaze thing will probably dig it. They've got a show on Feb. 11th at the Curtain Club in Dallas and we're going. So should you.

Sounds like something interesting is going on at Rubber Gloves tonight, and it involves a person who has played drums with Neutral Milk Hotel and Broadcast to name a few. We think this means that it will probably be quality. Here is a Myspace message we got about it earlier this evening:

"Jeremy Barnes, who is still perhaps best known as the drummer for Neutral Milk Hotel, has not allowed the grass to grow beneath his feet during that outfit's continuing period of inactivity. After working with his post-NMH group Bablicon, Barnes has seen spot duty with Bright Eyes, the Gerbils, and Broadcast, and for the past few years has apparently been living life as something of an itinerant minstrel.Over the course of his journeys-- in the past year alone he's lived in England, Prague, and New Mexico-- Barnes has accumulated fragments of ethnic folk dialects from seemingly every region on the atlas, and now as ringleader of A Hawk and a Hacksaw he ambitiously attempts to fuse these varied tongues into a unified, coherent vocabulary. Darkness at Noon, the second album from AHAAH, is a frenetic, dizzying pastiche of Eastern European folk, klezmer, mariachi, Appalachian fiddle music, and evocative jazz. And though Barnes and company fail to bring this bewildering array of streams into confluence, the album contains enough flashes of such melodic invention and daredevil instrumentation that armchair travelers can't help but be drawn to the group's exotic scrapbook"

Some short films will also be showing during the performance.

Not much happening tonight. However, there will be short Wild in the Streets Dj set at Hailey's tonight, starting at 1230 and going till 2. There are some bands playing first, and we've never heard of them... so we recommend going to Hailey's for a night cap. See you on the flipsh...

So sorry about all that. We got our virus situation under control. There was something called a Trojan Vundo program that was fucking our shit up hard core. We've got most of the problems fixed, and we're pretty much officially up and running again. We'll do an It List for today, along with maybe another record review or sumpin, and then resume our regular programming on Monday. Thanks for your patience.

JR

I'm using my friend's computer. I have a virus on mine and I can't use it. Things will be up and running on Sunday. No posts until then. Thanks.

Do you want to make a new and better life for yourself? These guys can help. Lets go to the Gap.

1. The Party w/ DJ Nature (Rubber Gloves Denton)
So getting people in Dallas to drive up to Denton is like pulling teeth, but you should really go up to Rubber Gloves some Wed. night and check out DJ nature so you can see what the buzz is about. The guy played with MIA for shit's sake. Nuff said.

2. Faux Fox (Hailey's Denton)
They're opening for Some Girls, which we've never heard, so we recommend stopping by early to catch an interesting local band and then over to Rubber Gloves for drinks and such.

3. 80's Night DJ G (Cavern)

Well... its not very often that a show (especially one on a weeknight) turns out to be everything I hoped for. Akron Family at Andy's in Denton last night was one such rare occasion. Wow. Thats really the only thing I can say, and everyone who was there last night knows exactly what I'm talking about. This actually was one of the best shows I've seen in a very long time. The band's energy was contagious, forcing otherwise stoic hipsters and art majors to jump around, shout, and basically forget that they were supposed to be acting cool. They played songs from both of the albums they put out this year, and the band freely went back and forth between quiet, soulful folk and loud, feedback laced freak out psyche jam sessions with eyes closed and bodies moving, all the time seemingly forgetting that they were the ones onstage playing instruments, lost in a trance of their own creation. And not only could these gentlemen play their instruments, they could fucking SING. All of them. And all of them did sing, seemingly all the time, harmonizing and shouting their way through a set that they described as "folk music," but in truth had about as much in common with Joan Baez as David Bowie does with Bob Dylan.

The truly awe inspiring moment came at the end when all four band members jumped off stage, went into the crowd, and closed the set with a chanting and dancing circle, repeating the mantra "Love and space" while they sang, played guitar and watched the crown around them completely loose themselves in the moment. It was a joyful, surreal, and transcendent experience, and one that left a huge smile on just about every face in the room including mine. If you hadn't seem them play on the stage, you wouldn't have been able to tell who was in the band and who was a fan, as everyone seemed to be contributing to the finale with singing, shouting, stomping or clapping along. Not to sound like some goddamn hippie but it was truly an experience, an event, a happening. It was more than you would ever expect from a hip, pitchfork approved Brooklyn band, having much more to do with 1967 than 1977 without going anywhere close to lame jam band or hippie revivalist territory. And if you can't dig that, man, well I really just feel sorry for you.

So what in the name of fuck is up with the Dallas Music Fest (just look at all these awesome bands like Drowning Pool!)? Maybe there are some good bands playing that we don't know about, but other than Eat Avery's Bones we didn't recognize a single one that we like. As if Deep Ellum didn't have a bad enough rap as it is, these people had to go and schedule a frat boy Nu Metal daterape crapfest right in the heart of a neighborhood that doesn't need any more shit than it already has. So instead of putting in the work and listening to these bands to figure out if any are actually worth going to see, we've decided to go through the list of performers and decide what some of them probably sound like anyway, without the whole listening to them thing. Here are some thoughts:

1. Deus Ex Machina: The lead singer got kicked out of UNT, where he majored in literature and Chillin', after they found out he cheated on his SAT. He quoted some greek drama one time at a party and got a hand job, so he was like "fuck it dude, I'm startin a band. Dues Ex Machina forever motherfucker!"

2. Strangleweed: These guys will kick your ass if you short them on a sack

3. Shiver Tree: Have you ever thought about seasons, and how they affect your feelings? These guys have

4. Shallow Promise: The best way to deal with the memory of that really horrible time in your life where your dad made you transfer to Plano West from Plano Senior is to SCREAM ABOUT IT AND PLAY POWER CHORDS!

5. Chasing February: These guys... oh, fuck it. Emo bands are too easy.

JR

So these guys (and girl) are young (like not old enough to drink, and one isn't old enough to vote), and the recording quality on this track leaves something to be desired since its really just a demo. But its a fun song, and it reminds us a little of The Fall if they all took speed and were fronted by Milo from the Descendents. Fans of the Mae Shi will probably dig this. Listen to it a couple times.... its only like a minute long anyway, and you'll realize that EAB are a young Denton band with some promise.

Here it is: "Sweater Petter"