1. Half Handed Cloud | Vollmar | Fishboy (Metrognome Collective Ft. Worth)
Lately it seems that Metrognome has been pulling in some pretty intereting shows without that stupid focus on new wave revival bands that Dallas clubs. Tonights show features two out of town acts, Half Handed Cloud and Vollmar. HHC is a solid folk pop band that is actually interesting, and Vollmar is a strange lo-fi electro folk band that is probably an intriguing live act. Fishboy is Fishboy, and we like him.

One of the last songs Irving played on Friday featured a chorus in which they called someone a "pleasant waste of time." I don't know what the song was actually called, but it serves as a good description of the band if you take away the word "pleasant" and replace it with, well, nothing. "Waste of time" does just fine.

Irving appears to be a band that is gearing up for a big commercial push, and why shouldn't they? They've got a lot of ooohs and aaahs and a "funny" keyboard player and a fake Albert Hammond Jr. guitar player and probably some of the most boring, derivative songs you'll ever hear, effectively mixing the worst of the Dandy Warhols with the worst of Elephant 6 and a shitty Beatles cover band that listens to Death Cab but is too embarrassed to tell their friends. Throw in some gross sexuality and dorky girl-kiss ass lyrics and it becomes obvious that this band could be huge. Their songs have the perfect balance of TRL accessibility and Urban Outfitters street cred to ensure that every record executive in the United States will reference their album in attempts to be hip with the kids.

We're not here to bitch about commercially viable indie pop or bands that wear their influences on their sleeves, because both can be acceptable at times if they are done right, as Voxtrot showed us later on in the evening. We just keep seeing Irving on the Insound charts and reading glowing reviews on various MP3 blogs, and we have to say: don't believe the hype. Its really hard to believe that no one has called these guys out on their shit before until you find out that they are from L.A., where no one ever calls anybody out on their shit. Its like Dallas except its the real L.A.

After the horrible experience that was Irving, Voxtrot came out and changed our moods for the better, even if they didn't completely blow us away. Voxtrot's influences also come through pretty clear from the moment you hear them: Belle and Sebastian, the Smiths, the Vaselines, etc., but the difference between them and Irving is that they actually, you know, write good songs with memorable choruses, solid vocals and decent lyrics.

We're pretty big fans of Voxtrot's two EPs, and they certainly performed the songs with a lot of energy and tight playing. But even though their performance was more than adequate, we just couldn't get completely hooked in. All the elements for a good show were there (good band, good songwriters, lots of enthusiastic fans) but there was something about it that just prevented it from being exciting most of the time. I can't tell if I'm just sick of indie pop, or if Irving created a mood that couldn't be overcome, or if it was Voxtrot's fault. But there was something just kind of boring about the whole show, something that made us feel as though writing pop songs with clear pop influences might not be a bad thing if the songs are good and a bit innovative, but that you have to do a little more if you want people to actually give a shit. We enjoyed the show, but we certainly didn't spend much time talking about afterwards. And actually, to inject a bit of local music positivity into this review, we kind of wished that we had gone to the Strange Boys/Undoing of David Wright show at Rubber Gloves instead. Yeah, we can see those bands any time, but we can also see indie pop shows just about any time too, Pitchfork approval aside. Voxtrot is good, might become great, and surely has a bright future both commercially and artistically. I'm just not sure how much I care.

Solid win for the Mavs tonight. It was a real group effort, and they actually looked like a team that plays the way you are supposed to in the playoffs: lots of aggression, defense, and clutch shooting when necessary. It feels really good to get that first win at home, as opposed to what happened last year....

The difference maker tonight? Well, other than Dirk (of course), it had to be Erick Dampier. I never thought I would say that, but its true. 12 points, 12 rebounds and two blocks doesn't look amazing on paper, but anyone that saw the game knows what I mean. He really made some big plays. If he can keep playing like this, the Mavs just might have a pleasantly long post season.

Oh, and Dirk Nowitzki: 31 points, 11 rebounds. If this guy doesn't get MVP this year, I'm going on a shooting spree. End of story.

1. T.V. On the Radio | Celebration (Gypsy Tea Room)
Heard the new TV on the Radio today, and I really like what I hear so far... very experimental, and the songs sound a bit more alive than the ones on their first full length, which I thought fell a little flat after the brilliant Young Liars EP. It will be interesting to hear what they sound like live, but their new stuff sounds good enough to make me take the gamble. Celebration (whose lead singer does vocal duties on some TV on the Radio songs) opens, and they're pretty good too. Some very spastic kind of no wave rhythm heavy songs mixed in with some quiet weird ones. Go early and check them out.

2. Books on Tape | Captain Ahab | Malise (Metrognome Collective-Fort Worth)
Two strange bands from LA tonight: Books on Tape play rough, choppy, sorta minimal experimental electronica that leans toward the dance. Good stuff. Captain Ahab are a train wreck, and although I'm not usually into "Joke bands," this joke is made easier to swallow because their tunes are entertaining and sort of like, funny and stuff. And I'm not even sure it is a joke. Dallas' Malise, who I have never heard until today, play some strange noise that actually has a beat behind it. I'm not sure if you can dance to it, but this will probably be a really fun show. And its at a really cool not-for-profit DIY venue, so get off your ass, drive to Fort Worth and make something happen.

Also tonight at 10 on 88.1 KNTU, Frank of Frequency Down will give you this:

NEW Sonic Youth, Islands, Sufjan Stevens, Land of Talk, Rainer Maria, Pretty Girls Make Graves, Spector 45 and Midlake!Also songs from Wilco, The Helio Sequence, Crystal Skulls, Eniac, The Tah-Dahs, Prayer For Animals, Teenage Symphony, American Analog Set, Experimental Aircraft, Moonbabies, Drive By Truckers, Drop Nineteens, Single Frame, Thee More Shallows AND SO MUCH MORE!!!

If you're not at Fry Street Fair getting trashed today, or even if you are and are still able to function by the time the sun goes down, you might want to move it on over to one of these two spots:

1. Strange Boys | Attractive and Popular | Eat Avery's Bones | Cartright (Double Wide)
This should be a really good show. You all know Strange Boys and Eat Avery's Bones already, but Attractive and Popular play some pretty solid dancerock stuff, and Cartright does a set of folk inspired pop... which sounds lame until you hear it. Or actually, until you see them live. We caught them at the Yellow House a month or two ago and they were fantastic. Go early and see for yourself.

2. Spankrock | Dj Nature | Best Fwends (Hailey's)
Spankrock is fun and filthy Bmore club hip hop at its finest, and you all know what kind of shit nature brings. Get there around 10 to catch his set. Best Fwends at 11 too.

Once again, its happening in Denton tonight:

Voxtrot | Irving | Bosque Brown | Tacks the Boy Disaster (Hailey's- Denton)
Great line up tonight. We're still a bit skeptical about Irving, but we'll see how they sound live.... they do have some good songs, so who knows? The entire We Shot JR crew could possibly be in full force at this thing tonight. Tacks is pretty sweet.

Undoing of David Wright | Strange Boys | Attractive and Popular (Rubber Gloves-Denton)
Another great show up in Denton tonight. There is a possibility that you will have your face rocked off.

AND DONT FORGET: The Kettle, a gallery across the street from Trees, will have Unconscious Collective at 9pm, featuring Aaron Gonzalez of Sanctuary Studios fame. We are told that fans of Sun Ra and Ornette Coleman should get over there tonight. Sorry, no website for you or anything.

AND ANOTHER THING:

Tomorrow, the Yella House in Denton will be hosting a free show in the afternoon, starting at 3pm. There will be grilling involved, keg beer, and:

Sarah Reddington
The Undoing of David Wright
The Pebble that Saved the World
Meroe

AND ANOTHER NOTHER THING:

Good Records- Black Angels instore for the "Passover" release party. 4pm Saturday.

Heres a new track from the Theater Fire's new album Everybody Has a Dark Side, to be released in early May. Reminds me of Angels of Light a bit. And its pretty damn good by the way.

MP3 "Barrel Riders"

From our good friends at Radio UTD:

1 FLAMING LIPS At War With The Mystics
2 MONO You Are There
3 BUILT TO SPILL You In Reverse4
4 LIARS Drum's Not Dead
5 PHILIP E. KARNATS Pleasuresuite
6 GLISSANDRO 70 Glissandro 70
7 BOY LEAST LIKELY TO The Best Party Ever
8 ELF POWER Back To The Web
9 ISLANDS Return To The Sea
10 LOOSE FUR Born Again In The USA
11 EELS Eels With Strings: Live At Town Hall
12 CENTRO-MATIC Fort Recovery
13 MOGWAI Mr. Beast
14 SIMON JOYNER Beautiful Losers: Singles And Compilation Tracks (1994-1999)15 TALKDEMONIC Beat Romantic
16 SHOPLIFTING Body Stories
17 MADLIB Beat Konducta Vol. 1-2: Movie Scenes
18 ENVELOPES Demon
19 CALEXICO Garden Ruin
20 CASIOTONE FOR THE PAINFULLY ALONE Etiquette
21 I LOVE YOU BUT I\'VE CHOSEN DARKNESS Fear Is On Our Side
22 STREETS The Hardest Way To Make An Easy Living
23 CONCRETES In Colour
24 FIGURINES Skeleton
25 DEAD HEART BLOOM Dead Heart Bloom
26 EAGLE*SEAGULL Eagle*Seagull
27 ALOHA Some Echoes
28 TE' If That Is What Is Being Thought,Liberated Sound Talks The Depth Of "Musical" World
29 FIELD MUSIC Field Music
30 JOSH RITTER The Animal YearsRadio

We recently communicated with Voxtrot lead singer Ramesh Srivastava via the world wide web of internet communications, and asked him some questions about music and shit. His band is playing at Hailey's tonight on the second to last date of a tour on which they have sold out two shows at New York's Mercury Lounge and another one in Toronto. During the tour, they also received a very strong Pitchfork review, instantly placing them in that "internet buzz band" group that you know you all get excited about. They are one of the Austin bands that everyone is raving about these days, and probably the best of that bunch. Here we go:

We recently read the Pitchfork review, which seems pretty important considering that Pitchfork (not to mention almost everyone else) makes a pretty big deal about their role as Kingmakers in the indie world. Was this review exciting for you? Do you think it had any immediate impact on your career, considering that your two EPs recently charted at numbers 5 and 8 on the Insound bestseller list (as of April17th)? Do you a see a real cause and effect relationship between Pitchfork praise and greater commercial success?

I am very thankful that Pitchfork gave us a positive review, as I understand their sphere of influence is great. I normally do not read Pitchfork (or any similar website, likely because I don't have the internet in the house), but thought that our review was intelligently
written. There probably has been an immediate impact, but I suppose it will be a little while longer before we know exactly what that impact is. It seems positive thus far so let's hope that sustains. Either way, I hope people who feel connected to the music would feel
so in any circumstance, positive review or otherwise.

You've also received quite a bit of buzz on some of the tastemaker music blogs. What do you think of this new phenomenon in music, i.e. the fact that there are a handful of blogs (most of which are operated by one person) that can have a pretty serious impact on the industry?

I love blogs. They're delicious. Just kidding. I think blogs are brilliant because it's a totally subversive form of media. The primary catalyst is passion for music, as opposed to commercial gain.

We hear a lot of twee influences in your music, as well as brit pop and sixties pop. What would you say are some of your bigger influences as a band?

Belle and Sebastian and Whitehouse.

We recently read on the Voxtrot Kid blog about your optimism concerning the Austin music scene. Why do you think things are going so well down there now as opposed to several years ago? What are some of the more interesting new bands and venues that you like in Austin?

I'm not sure why Austin is so great these days; it's hard to determine what gets the cultural wave going. My first guess was the internet, but I'd like to believe the force is of a more 'cosmic persuasion.'My favorite bands in Austin? Cry Blood Apache, Peel, Sound Team,Tacks! The Boy Disaster, The Carrots, and I've heard stuff from a band called Magic Surprise recently, which I thought was quite good.

What new music are you guys listening to these days?

New Things I have bought and liked in the last wee while include: Modeselektor, Hot Chip, Luciano, Nathan Fake, Electrelane, Scout Niblett, Royksopp.

We also read that you guys consider dance music to be a big influence, especially the kind coming out of Optimo in Glasgow (where Srivastava lived for a period of time). Do you think indie dance or dancerock is a fad that will pass (or has passed) in the US, or is it the first sign that dance music is becoming more accepted in the U.S., like it is in England and Europe, amongst people that primarily listen to rock music?

I am still a big proponent of Optimo and hope to do stuff with them in the future. we brought Optimo to Austin a few months ago and it was quite successful, which is a good sign. Dance music will probably continue to have waves in the States, but I seriously doubt that you will ever have a room full of twenty-somethings jumping off the walls and pumping their fists to Green Velvet. The culture just doesn't lend itself.

Any plans for recording new material any time soon?

This summer we should be recording our first full length album.

While it is true that people are people, there is much disagreement as to whether people are in fact strange when you're a stranger. Why is this?

The stranger wants others to be strange, thus releasing him/her from the burden of being singularly estranged.

Irving opens tonight @ Hailey's

"Mothers, Sisters, Daughters and Wives" MP3

Amidst all the bong smoking madness going on in, um, some circles today, you can probably go see some decent music tonight. However, I discovered a new local band I hate that you can click on if you really need to fuck up your high and get sober quickly. You know, if you get called into work or have to have dinner with your mom or something, this would be the thing you should listen to first. They are called Melba Toast. They are sensitive frat boys. Sheesh. The better stuff:

1. Fruit Bats | Amandine | Sam Jayne (Dan's Silverleaf Denton)
Fruit Bats don't really do anything new: folk influenced 70's radio pop that will remind some people of the Shins (if you don't have any frame of reference before 1998). Pretty straight forward. But the songwriting is so catchy, and their albums are so well done, that the sameness of their approach really doesn't matter after a few songs. In fact, you'll probably forget all about who they sound like, and just enjoy how they sound. Really, their last record is the perfect spring time listen, and we've had it on our stereo a lot lately. And don't worry, you won't even have to show up early because the other two bands are, well, boring as shit.

2. Prayer for Animals | Eat Avery's Bones (Redblood Club)
EAB goes on first, and Prayer for Animals goes on last. In between is an absolutely horrible punk band called Black Eyes and Neckties. Really, they are a pretty good summary of why I think "punk," at least in its current incarnation, absolutely and completely sucks. There is also a band from Dallas called the Lash Outs playing. Um, they're really not my thing (garage rock, rockabilly), but they aren't bad at all if you're into that sort of thing. Listen for yourself.

3. And of course, there is always the world of mid period hip hop at the Slip Inn tonight, if you feel like going "Out" out, you know? You might even catch various members of the We Shot JR crew there, pretending to be cool.

Come on guys, lets admit it. Bush was right. And its time for liberals everywhere to recognize what the majority of the American people now know, which is that the neocons have figured out the best way to manage our foreign policy. Iraq, Afghanistan, and Iran are all going as planned. Here comes freedom (if you have trouble loading this, just double click on it and it will take you to the YouTube site)



PS- Is this band from Dallas? They sound like they are.

Only one place to be tonight people, and that is at Rubber Gloves for the Party with Dj Nature.

It seems like every year since 2001, there have been three or four new songs each year that have come out and just completely kicked my ass right off the bat. You know, the kind of song that just floors you right from the start (White Stripes, Radiohead, Russian Futurists, LCD Soundsystem, Liars, Junior Senior, Akron/Family and Devendra Banhart have all done this to me in the past.)

And aside from the new Liars record, there hadn't been much that really blew me away this year... until I heard Feathers' record.

In case you didn't know, Feathers did a lot of the backing music for Cripple Crow, Devendra Banhart's last album, and have released their self titled debut on Banhart's record label Gnomosong. Although the rest of the album isn't quite as strong as the track below, it is quickly becoming one of my favorite releases this year, and probably deserved a slightly higher rating than the 7.7 it got over at Pitchfork (although it is a pretty positive review). Listen for yourself:

"Old Black Hat with a Dandelion Flower" MP3

One of the Cavern sound guys, upon noticing the large amount of, um, constructive criticism on here about the Cavern's sound, decided to write us a letter. Here it is:

Re: Sound at the Cavern

I just wanted to tell you a little about the p.a. system at the Cavern and the people who operate it. The p.a. system was installed last September when Spune Productions took over as booking agent/talent buyer. Glen Squibb is the production manager at The Cavern and Hailey’s Club. He works with Daughter Entertainment and Spune Productions. He selected the very best components for the p.a. with the Cavern’s budget, with most of the money invested in an Allen & Heath GL2400 console and Turbosound speakers. It is actually a good system for a small venue like The Cavern. One night, I walked in to the Cavern to see Mazinga Phazer II and this band from NYC called Downtown (very disappointing). Anyway, the sound was awful. I mean really bad. Glen wasn’t there that night. You see, Glen does a great job. He is the main sound guy at Hailey’s, so whenever there was a Hailey’s show he would have to find someone to cover his job at the Cavern. The guy that was there that night didn’t know anything about audio. So I started helping out. Long story short, in March I started running sound at the Cavern whenever Glen is at Hailey’s. So far, I have had no complaints. In fact, I have received many compliments and a few bands have requested I tour with them. I will do my very best to make the bands sound their very best. I love working at the Cavern and I hope to help make the Cavern the very best little venue in Dallas. The owners have been very helpful. I suggested that they relocate the A/C unit so that the electromagnetic field doesn’t get looped back through the p.a. system (it used to be above the stage). They spent $500 to relocate it two weeks ago. The Cavern makes ZERO money off the door. All the door cover goes to the bands and a few $$$ to the sound guy. I don’t do bookings, but I know that it is hard to always have stellar bands every night. That’s why there is the occasional shit band. We don’t like it either.

Cordially,

Josh @ The Cavern

Someone told us in the post below to "live in the now." Here we go:

1. Lost Generation w/ Wanz Dover (Upstairs-The Cavern)
kraut, experimental, shoegaze, noise, electronica, and lost of other interesting stuff will be played by the guy that everyone on here either loves or loves to hate. Whatever you think, its a great place to hear some music that you've never heard before.

2. Captured by Robots | Fra Pandolf | It Smells of Sex and Mannequins (Rubber Gloves)
We like Fra Pandolf, and Mannequins sounds like the Locust or Blood Brothers with more of a death metal vibe... which we don't know if we're into, but the kids like it, ya know? Captured by Robots is just kinda fucked up, and sounds like a joke. Don't know how long the joke will be funny. Probably a pretty cool sight to see, however.