So we know this track has been floating around a while and everything, but we just had to post it on here for your listening pleasure (can you tell that we just figured out how to post mp3s). I'm starting to think that I like everything that James Murphy touches, and since rumor has it that this song is a preview of the direction that Hot Chip will be going on their next record, you can bet we're gonna try to go see them at SXSW this year.

"Over and Over" here

So Boris, a japanese psych-metal whateva band has just put out an amazing record that has been on repeat here at JR headquarters for a couple days. It got a good review on Pitchfork, and if that doesn't convince you completely (which it shouldn't), we've got a track for you to download here. The real name is some strange Japanese shit that we can neither say nor type, but it has been translated into English as "Six to Three." After you hear it, you probably won't care what its called. Sounds like Dungen had kids with Jesus Lizard....

And theres more to come today, including the It List and more local shit.

This is one of the bands that we have been noticing around town lately: Interesting electronic/shoegze kinda stuff. Anyway they need a drummer for a small tour, and here is a repost of their Myspace request:

Body: From: Mazinga IIDate: Jan 19, 2006 6:57 PM

If you can play a floor tom, Snare and crash cymbal ala Moe Tucker style we need you. We are leaving next week. We will be gone from jan 25th to feb14th. You do not have to be a badass. Just be able to keep a simple beat on a floor tom, snare and a crash cymbal. Our regular drummer is playing with us this weekend in Dallas and Denton. If you are even the slightest bit interested please contact me asap. 214 886 9776. Most of the shows are in the northeast including 4 in New York.Cheers!!!!-Wanz

So, does a drunken review work as well as a sober review? We're both about to find out. And another question: has the Clientele ever made a bad song? I think the answer is no. Going to see the Clientele live in Denton a couple months ago when the band had terrible sound problems and had to turn the reverb completely off on the p.a. would have convinced me that all those people that used to say the Clientele hid behind their effects were dead wrong. But it didn't need to, because Strange Geometry had already done it. Here, the Clientele go for a bigger, more clear sound. And it works. Very well. "Since K Got Over Me," one of the strongest singles put out by anyone all year, sets the tone. The vocals and guitar are crisp and clear, but somehow the Clientele manages to maintain that dreamy, surreal vibe they've always had going for them. I was a little put back upon first hearing that this album had been produced in a real studio with "professional production values," but all it really does is help point out what great songwriters these guys are, and the fact that they can properly utilize acoustic guitars and strings to expand their sound without compromising it. Like most Clientele albums, delicate Byrdsesque pop dominates the day while sad impressionist lyrics and a sense of calm, pyschedelic sadness set the tone. More than any other band I can think of, the Clienetele paints pictures with their songs. Despite whatever is going on around me, when I hear a Clientele song I envision exactly what I think they want me to while forgetting everything else that I see. They set the mood not only audibly but visually as well... colors, shapes and light come to mind just as easily as sounds, which seems to be the point. While other bands have "energy" and make you want to dance or draw your attention to their clothes or the city they are from, the Clientele paints pictures for you, and gives you a glimpse of what it is like to exist in a permanent dream state that happens to have a great chorus that will be stuck in your head for days. Try seeing if Bloc Party can do that for you.

Um, we just got part of the set list that this guy played last night, and you should probably take your ass up to Denton to see him next week because no one else in Dallas is playing a set like this:

Track/Artist 1. Lucky You - Nanko 2. Notorious (Ghetto Arc/Xl records remix by The Socios) - Turbulence 3. Galang 05 - MIA 4. Ganja Farmer - Marlon Asher 5. Hater vars007 - Various Artists 6. There is a Light That Never Goes Out - Schneider TM 7. Random - Lady Sovereign 8. Newsflash - Diplo 9. They Don't Know - Paul Wall 10. Combustive - Arto Lindsay 11. Rise to the Occasion - Sizzla 12. Tulips (dancemix) - Bloc Party 13. Closer - The Cure 14. 10 Crack Commandments - Biggie 15. Blinded By the Lights - The Streets 16. 5 to 1 - The Doors 17. The Takeover - JayZ 18. One Evening (remix) - Fiest 19. Pull Up the People (Nature Remix) - MIA 20. Shorty Swing My Way - KP and Envyi 21. Nomad for love - Gang Gang Dance

Paul Wall, Gang Gang Dance, The Cure AND MIA all appear on this list. I don't think we have to explain how cool that is.

We heard this from Undeniable themselves today, although we don't know many of the details. A nice match between one of our favorite local bands and one of our favorite local labels. You'll get more information about this soon... probably when we publish our interview with Undeniable in the next day or two.

To me, Kill the Moonlight is one of the bench mark albums of the early 00's underground. Literally, from the first SECOND I heard the guitar intro to "Small Stakes," I was sold on Spoon. Every song was so goddamn catchy and strange at the same time. Minimal to their core but poppy and immediate, with Britt Daniel's smoky voice and strange, surreal lyrics setting a mood that can only be described with contradictory adjectives and metaphors. Basically, the perfect album for its time and place: 2002.

Gimme Fiction was supposed to be the band's coming out party, the one that would turn them into minor indie rock celebrities. And even if it didn't do that, it did prove to be a worthy, if slightly inferior follow up that was still good enough to be one of the best albums in a year that saw some incredible releases. This album is Spoon finding its unique sound, mixing much of the sparse minimalism of Kill with the more complex layering and pure pop of Girls Can Tell. The first comparison that comes to mind is John Lennon's Plastic Ono Band, with its somber, ominous story telling and dark mood. However, like Plastic this is also one that sounds full of hope. Britt Daniel's vocals are the real star here, showing off his suddenly expanded range on songs like "Turn my Camera On" and "The Beast and Dragon Adored" where he launches into falsetto at several points. And what about "Turn my Camera On?" Was that one of the greatest songs of 2005 or fucking what? Spoon's M.O. seems to include having at least one unbelievably catchy song per album at least, and with Camera this album was no different.

the combination of better singing (although Daniel was already an amazing vocalist) and a band that seems more confident and comfortable in its own skin than ever before made Gimme Fiction feel like a record by a band in its prime. The album that I bet 10 years from now the band will call its favorite. Although not as immediately gripping as Moonlight, no one has a sound quite like Spoon, and they're doing exactly what the fuck they want without for one second giving in to the industry snakes that know as well as the band does that Spoon could probably write top ten singles in its sleep. Instead, they continue to challenge listeners and make it a pleasure to accept their dare.

1. Centro-Matic (Dan's Silverleaf Denton)
We haven't listened to these guys in a long time, but remember liking them quite a bit back in the diz. Solid alt-country, none of that pretty boy Ryan Adams bullshit.

2. Mile End w/ Dj Laureen (Fallout Lounge)
For the love of Christ if you're gonna go to Expo park on Thursday nights, go listen to some good music instead of some jack ass singing "Paradise City." Won't you?

3. Wild In the Streets: The growing buzz about this night continues in Denton, and tonight it travels down to Dallas. Go see what its all about.

(If anyone knows of anything else going on tonight, drop us a line and let us know: weshotjr@yahoo.com

So we're giving this whole file storage thing a try by posting a couple Mp3s by one of our new favorite local bands, the Undoing of David Wright. If these links don't work for some reason, let us know and we'll try to fix them.

These songs are just a little taste however, my friends. You really need to go see them live, like now. And if the crowds are as big as the one at Double Wide last weekend, the shows will be even more fun... and you can also go to their website for more info about shows and all that goings on.

The Mp3:

Heres one

Heres the other

( I guess these links take you to another page where you can download the file... Well, its a start isn't it? By the way, we just checked and the downloads work fine.)

So to all those people who think that environmental issues and global warming in particular are partisan issues where liberals think this and conservatives think that and blah blah blah "theres not enough science" and "some scientists think global warming doesn't actually exist," take a look at this. Anyone, politician or otherwise, that claims there to be a serious debate over whether global warming is actually occurring and/or whether or not humans are at least partially to blame and can do something about it is either

1) a completely ignorant jackass OR
2) a liar.

Its good to see that responsible Republicans (No its not an oxymoron, but close) are starting to question the way this administration addresses environmental issues (it doesn't), in addition to the way that it (mis)communicates with the American people on the issue. And tell me again, how exactly does the Kyoto protocol affect U.S. competitiveness in the global economy when we are behind the vast majority of industrialized nations in environmental regulations, with the exception of China? Something to think about. More to come tonight...

Its called Gorllia vs Bear (click here). I'm sure most of you have read it before, but we just wanted to say how much we like reading it, and that it is in fact a local blog although it covers mostly national music. Go read, jerks.

ALSO: This blog has some really cool pictures from a really cool idea on it. What kind of secrets do you have? We've got a few.

1. The Party w/ DJ Nature (Rubber Gloves)
This is apparently the first week for this DJ night. We checked out the Myspace page and it sounds like this guy has his shit together... some minimal electronica with a party vibe, and a cool MIA remix. Perhaps the start of something good on the weekdays in Denton...

2. 80's night with DJ G (Cavern)

I guess thats pretty dumb. Anyway, we've got more stuff coming for you today, including some MP3s, another Bestest Album, a review of Bosque Brown, and your mom.



Also the It list, of course.

Man, sometimes I really hate bands like Deerhoof. And until fairly recently, I actually hated Deerhoof. You see, they were one of those bands that I never "got" but always felt like I was supposed to. You know the bands I mean. The ones that friends rave about. The ones that get mostly great reviews in publications that you respect. But no matter how hard you try, you just can't seem to understand why. I mean, I saw them as a couple of avant tard art students and some strange Japanese girl singing off key. Big deal. They reminded me of every annoying K records band from the early 90s that I was also supposed to like but didn't.

Hearing The Runners Four didn't really change my attitude. Ok, more of the same weird for the sake of being weird stuff. Maybe I'm not very "artsy" I thought, maybe I'm "losing my edge." For some reason however, I kept listening to this record. I don't know why: boredom(s) perhaps. Maybe just to give them a fair chance before I wrote them off for good. Whatever it was, something happened after the third listen or so. I started to hear the pop melodies. The abrupt changes started to make sense. The rhythm section started to really impress me. The little hooks started getting stuck in my head. And before I knew it I was telling people about Deerhoof, and even started raving about their singer, which is something that I would have made fun of just a few months before. This is certainly the most poppy record they've ever made, and probably the best introduction for someone that hasn't heard them. But to be sure, they aren't for everyone: the changes are still strange, the vocals are still taxing, and its still an all around difficult record to listen to. However, like me, you might start to hear things differently after a couple of listens. You might start to hear delicate, quite textures and foot tapping rhythms. As you listen to songs like "Wrong Time Capsule," you might start to hear classic rock as fuck guitar parts, and you might start to wonder how you could have classified this band as anything but rock n roll despite their inescapable art school vibe. And listening to "Spirit Ditties Of No Tone" for the 3rd or 4th time, you might start to wonder why you hadn't noticed how catchy Deerhoof could be despite their unconventional approach to song structure. And then you might start to wonder why you didn't like them before even though you've always liked Stereolab and the Slits.

Or maybe you won't. You might just keep making fun of me and people like me for being slaves to the indie hype machine, for liking a band just because Pitchfork does. Thats fine... I used to do the same thing. But just remember, now that I actually like Deerhoof: I'm definitely more hip than you.

JR- Weshotjr@yahoo.com

Um, we don't know whether to hug or punch their name, but this Denton band on the UK's Moshi Moshi records will be performing songs at sxsw that they describe as sounding like a "hyper Hall and Oats or something." The band also refers to themselves as "two retards that don't know what we're doing." We doubt both claims.

We can't say that this is the greatest thing we've ever heard, but shit, it doesn't sound like anything else in Denton or Dallas right now, and the limited number of songs available to us on the internet were: loud, short, and mostly fun. "1000000" sounds like M.I.A. if she was fifteen and listened to Daniel Johnston, with a hard to make out dance beat and playful percussion. There is also a pretty strong Go Team sound throughout all five songs we listened to, as well as clear nods to bedroom synth pop such as The Cansecos, Russian Futurists, and mid period Magnetic Fields (for the best example of this, check "Sk8 or Live" on their Myspace page). These guys obviously don't take themselves very seriously, which is good, and the amateur quality of their songs is part of this appeal. Most of their sound likely comes from Casios, Atari 2600s and other pretty basic noise making machines (drum machines and crappy keyboards), and they seem fine with that. So are we. Although this band can be a little immature sounding at times, its mostly endearing and quite forgivable considering that all their songs seem to be a minute and a half long at most. They could improve with time and experience, but we think they're pretty interesting right now and would surely be worth seeing at SXSW if you can fit em in... especially if you can't get into that Morningwood show, you hip fuck. - JR