I was bored today, and I thought about this song. I posted it for a couple reasons:
1. I wonder if people think the early 90's were the Dallas music scene "glory days," at least within the past several decades. Is anyone that reads this blog old enough to actually remember the Tripping Daisy, Hagfish, Toadies, etc. era? As in, went to the shows all the time, knew the people in the scene, etc? Does anyone too young to remember care about or like this song? Or this band?
2. when did people stop crowd surfing?
3. I'm not a big Tripping Daisy fan at all, but is it just me or is this song better than those being made by at least 90% of currently active local bands?
4. If so, then how depressing is it that the review on Allmusic said of this album: "Not a landmark album, but not a bad one, either. A pleasant souvenir of its time."
5. Is Dallas producing any "pleasant souvenirs" of THIS time?
1. Built To Spill - You In Reverse 2. The Flaming Lips - At War With The Mystics 3. The Black Angels - Passover 4. Band of Horses - Everything All the Time 5. Calexico - Garden Ruin 6. Editors - The Back Room 7. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Show Your Bones 8. Serena-Maneesh - Serena-Maneesh 9. Philip E Karnats - Pleasesuite 10. Great Lake Swimmers - Bodies and Minds 11. Islands - Return To The Sea 12. Irving - Death in the Garden, Blood on the Flowers 13. Figurines - Skeleton 14. Eagles of Death Metal - Death By Sexy... 15. The Appleseed Cast - Peregrine 16. The Sounds - Dying to Say This To You 17. Brian Eno & David Byrne - My Life in the Bush of Ghosts 18. Centro-Matic - Fort Recovery 19. Mono - You Are There 20. Two Gallants - What the Toll Tells
Who knew that there were enough cool people in Dallas to chart My Life in the Bush....? Did people start taking AntiDaryl pills or something?
And the Band of Horses album. I've only listened to it twice, but I'm gonna have to say... overrated.
Yeah, so I would really like to talk some shit about Neko Case. They love her at the Observer, she seems pretty annoying and self important in interviews, David Cross makes fun of her, and she really just seems to deserve some bad press... even if she is in fact very hot. I don't know. I just can't truss it.
But the songs on Fox Confessor Brings The Flood, her latest solo effort,make that hard to do because most of them are pretty damn good. Yeah its nothing new, mostly sad reverby country and strings, but she's got a great voice and some obvious talent as a songwriter. Damn it. I really want to piss some people off today too.
Add in the fact that the High Dials, opening for her at the Granada tonight, are really good too... and you've got a pretty boring post for today.
Oh well, at least we can say that the Granada blows or something.
1. Black Arm Band | Silk Stocking | Fra Pandolf (The Cavern) I hope the Cavern can handle the sound explosion that will occur tonight. Should be a great show. Come on Dallas, take a break from Radiant, Christian Emo and the Deathray Warhols and check out something a little different tonight.
3. Washing Machine(Club Dada) Yeah, its in Deep Ellum at a lame club. What can you do? None of us have seen Washing Machine live in concert, but we bet it will be worth it.
4. Smile Smile | Prayer for Animals | Teenage Symphony (Darkside Lounge) Frank from Frequency Down recently said that Teenage Symphony was one of the local bands that he was getting excited about. Go to their Myspace page and listen.... you will probably get excited too. How they will sound live is anyone's guess, but we really like what we hear on Myspace, especially "Lucky." Sort of like if Spacemen 3 and the Beach Boys started a marching band.
heavy rotation: the we shot j.r. playlist for 4/14/06
So you were probably sitting around this week going "Hey, I wonder what kind of cool, extraordinarily hip shit the badasses at We Shot J.R. have been listening to lately." We heard your cries, crybabies (and we'll even throw some Mp3s into the mix)
LiarsDrums Not Dead (Record of the year so far? Yes.) MP3 "Lets Not Wrestle Mt. Heart Attack"
Fleetwood MacRumors (why this never leaves my record player I'm just not sure.)
IslandsReturn to the Sea (other record of the year so far? yes.) "Jogging Gorgeous Summer" Mp3
Well, doesn't look like a big night for fun around town tonight. But there are a few scattered things that you might want to check out:
1. Centro-matic is playing with Great Lake Swimmers @ The Granada tonight. Of course, you can see Great Lake Swimmers for free tomorrow afternoon at Good Records, but you should check them out one way or another.
2. Pegasus now is playing at Doublewide tonight at 1145pm.
1. El Aviador Dro | Hi-Fi Chorus/ S-1 Committee (Rubber Gloves-Denton) So I'm not usually in the business of recommending bands that I haven't listened to more than once, but I'm gonna forget about that rule for today because the last 15 minutes that I just spent listening to Aviador Dro kicked my ass. Think Devo and Kraftwerk in Spanish... and really fucking good. Go to this show unless you're an idiot. And you can go to their website and download some tracks if you don't believe me.
2. Femme Fatality | Peachcake | Undoing of David Wright | Girls Rise with Heat (Darkside Lounge) Yes, as a matter of fact I am going to keep posting about every David Wright show that takes place until I somehow am assured that every last one of you have seen what is probably the best live band in DFWd right now. And they're in Dallas tonight, so no excuses about having to drive far and cry cry cry. Femme Fatality are a decent synth dance combo thing that will probably be fun live. Peachcake is sounds pretty cool too.
3. Real Live Tigers (Metrognome Collective- Fort Worth) Haunting folk, very interesting. And its at Metrognome, which is a good place to hang out anyway.
And yes there is other stuff going on tonight, like Bosque Brown for free at the DMA at 7:30, but the three shows above are where you really should be tonight if you can. Oh, and there is no reason not to stop over at the Slip Inn for some good 80's and 90's hip hop after.
Voot Cha sent us an email about their new video on YouTube, and we've decided to share it with you because, well, the song kicks ass. And so does claymation.
Do these guys remind you of a young Mercury Rev or what? And I really like the way the song was recorded too. Good stuff:
The upcoming Denton noise/free folk festival Beauty and the Beast Vol. 1, originally scheduled for July 1st at Rubber Gloves, was recently served with a cease and desist order from Myspace and possibly Disney for use of a Disney movie title in its name.... or I guess as its name. Maybe the talking tea cups got a little pissed off when they heard about the festival... they're more into emo or something.
But fear not noise rockers, because the fest is back on under a different name: Strategies of Beauty Vol. 1. The date and time have not changed, and so far they have confirmed the following acts:
Fra Pandolf Notes from Underground You are the Universe Hotel, Hotel IDi*Amin Shiny Around the Edges Chris Garver Ribelle Scaltro
Should be a good one. Go to their Myspace page and listen to some of the bands that will be appearing.
Um, so theres this other rumor going around that DWide will be back open THIS WEEKEND with new owners... jesus. That would surely be cool, but if its true, I wasted one big long winded post on nothing. Oh well.
We don't know for sure, but we've heard from a couple of seemingly reliable sources, so we'll give you more info when we get it.
Not a lot of live music going on tonight, which means that it might be a good night to head up to Denton to check out DJ Nature's Party at Rubber Gloves.... and if you're too uncool to get why you should go by now, just remember that they've got two dollar well drinks tonight, meaning that you can drink AND get someone else drunk enough to actually believe that you're hip, all at the same time! That is one dollar more than the confirmed price of PBR at places that don't exist anymore folks, so ch ch check it.
Just when it seemed like the wave of Deep Ellum/Dallas scene obituaries (including those coming from this site) was finally dying down and people were moving on , DoubleWide had to go and close its doors, forcing local music writers to yet again come up with a batch of well written statements about the death of Deep Ellum, local music, and the neighborhood. But I refuse to bore you with that shit, because I think most of what can be said has already been said. I also think that Doublewide's closing, while certainly not a good thing, doesn't really change that much. Yes, it means one less place to see decent music in the downtown area, and yes it happened to be one of the best small venues in town, but its closing also doesn't happen to have much of an impact in an area where there isn't much happening to begin with.
DoubleWide seems to have been one of the most beloved bars in Dallas, especially amongst the crowd that generally takes an interest in the kind of music we cover on this blog. On a personal level, I had some great times at DoubleWide, saw some pretty good shows (the Undoing/Strange Boys show earlier this year being the best I can remember), and really enjoyed the atmosphere of the place most of the time. It was great to have separate bars; one for music and one for hanging out, along with a courtyard in the middle to serve as a break from the two. It was large enough to see a lot of people you knew at once and avoid those that you didn't want to see. The sound in the performance room was also quite good, and the space was big enough to host a decent sized local show but small enough to remain intimate. All in all, many good times were had by a lot of people at DoubleWide, and that is something we should all remember.
But lets also remember some other things about the place. For starters, it was a theme bar. And we all know, or should know, that theme bars are lame. And although Doublewide was far less guilty than others of taking their theme to obnoxious levels, it also created what sometimes ended up being a Texas Post Modern altcountry kitschy macho tattoo dude vibe that, like it or not, could get pretty annoying. Paying three bucks or whatever for a can of PBR, by the way, didn't help make the joke any funnier.
And another thing: how many great shows did Doublewide actually host? I don't have a number for you, but there were a lot of weekends that I remember Friday night's line up being some bullshit rockabilly band and three local ass rock outfits that I had never heard of and didn't care to hear, followed by a Saturday Night Roller Derby party featuring the Feds or some shitty pop punk band that probably would have been annoying beyond words if I had actually ever been dumb enough to go to a Roller Derby event. What I am trying to say is that while Doublewide had all the makings for a great bar, and often was one, there were many nights in which it hosted bad music for boring crowds. And that certainly didn't help things in my mind.
Well, now its gone. And although the reasons aren't entirely clear, a few things are. For starters, it seems that it is becoming less and less economically feasible to keep a decent concert venue/bar open in the Deep Ellum/ Downtown area. You can blame crime, a lack of good bands, a lack of good fans, outrageous parking prices and shady Deep Ellum club clientele, but whatever the cause, the results are the same: right now, for whatever reasons you want to cite, business is not good in Deep Ellum and downtown Dallas. But instead of trying to figure out how we can "save" Deep Ellum (please, dear Christ, not another festival), it seems time to start looking elsewhere, perhaps to places with cheaper rent, or maybe to a different model of doing things all together. I would be all for a revived Deep Ellum , but I just don't see any really cool bars opening up in the neighborhood any time soon, and I'm not planning on holding my breath.
Greenville might also have some potential to take some of the slack, but I'm not holding my breath there either. It seems like a lot of club owners over there are perfectly happy with the SMU clientele, the Friday night suburban millionaires, and the other groups of assorted idiots that you see at the Taco Cabana on Saturday night. One of the few places that seems to have good shit going on, The Cavern, has terrible sound problems right now, and each time I go there I want to go back less and less. Its a great space in a great location, and whoever does the booking there obviously has better taste than 99% of those that book other Dallas clubs/bars, but until they get that sound fixed, I don't see how it will work. And it might even be a tad too small for some of the national touring acts that could come through.
Of course, most of the shows that I actually care about seem to take place in Denton these days anyway, and the closing of another venue in Dallas will probably just shift even more action to our friends up north. But since I live in Dallas, I would like to focus on my town for a moment. Here are three possibilities for the future of Dallas music venues that I see:
1. Bars that Already Exist in Deep Ellum/ Lower Greenville will pick up the slack and get interesting again at some point: Places like Darkside Lounge and several bars on Greenville could in fact start hosting good live music more often (darkside already has good shows from time to time), but only if it can be demonstrated to club owners that it will be profitable for them to host the kind of bands that people who read this blog want to see. I don't know if that is possible, but it might be... although I doubt it will happen in Deep Ellum.
2. New Bars or Pre existing bars in other parts of Dallas will pick up the slack: I don't really know about bars in other parts of town, or where new bars could be built or rented and renovated for cheap, but it seems that there must be places in Dallas where rent will be low enough and the location will be central enough to make it work. What about the drag around Columbia, or the Expo park area, or Oak Cliff, or places farther east of Fair Park? Rent has to be cheap in those spots, and if people are willing to go just a tad out of their way into neighborhoods that aren't very pretty, this might work too.
3. DIY/Non Profit/ Co-OP Venues: If the economics aren't working for Dallas club owners, why not change the economics and drop the club owners? If profits can't be made off hosting good music in bars, then are profits really necessary? A good DIY place like Sanctuary Studios is hard to come by, but there are so many little spots all over Dallas with vacant buildings that are probably cheap to rent, it just seems incredible that there isn't already one or two or three functioning DIY spots in a city this big. And another thing: a couple months ago, we posted an article about a new Co-op bar in Austin. What is wrong with that idea? If one or two hundred people could get together and throw in 100 dollars or so per person to rent and possibly fix up some bar or space and get things started as a co-op not for profit music venue for a certain period of time, who is to say it wouldn't work? I'm sure people have tried this and will say that it hasn't or won't ever work, but it just doesn't seem like anyone would have much to lose, other than 100 bucks and some free time. If a lack of profits is what is closing down bars and clubs around here, something like a Co-op could provide a remedy (and no, this isn't my attempt to start a We Shot JR co-op, its just an idea that I hope someone will try.)
None of these ideas are thought out in any detail, and they weren't written to cheer people up or anything warm and fuzzy like that, because frankly they are just baseless ideas that might have no ground in reality at all. I'm just sick to death of talking about how much Deep Ellum sucks, and I frankly don't give a shit about that neighborhood anyway. What I care about is having fun while I'm here, and I'm not having it in downtown Dallas. Maybe there are other places to go, or other methods to use to get something going in this town, but I simply refuse to sit around on here and cry about some bar or group of bars closing down. Its just boring.
Just to let you know: we've got some new stuff coming later tonight, including our take on the closing of DoubleWide, which several people have sent emails asking about today.... and you know you wanna know what we think. Here is fun:
1. The Lost Generation with Wanz upstairs at the Cavern. You know the drill, but in case you don't, here is a list of what you'll hear tonight from the mouth of the beast himself:
"Tonights will feature tracks from The Pogues, TSOL, Sun Ra, T Rex, Robert Wyatt, Deltron 3030, Antipop vs Matthew Shipp, Celebration, Charles Mingus, Battles(Live), Trax off of The Downtown 81 soundtrack, Ghost, Lady Sovereign, Jean-Claude Vannier, m.i.a., Michael Mayer, Paul Anka, Human League('79), This Heat, Television, Serge Gainsbourg & Jane Birkin, Quantic Soul Orchestra, Silk Stocking, The Dwarves, The Get Hustle, POLYSICS, Sons & Daughters, Metal Boys, Pussy Galore, Buck 65, Gogol Bordello, Gang of Four, Magazine, Guru Guru, Curtis Mayfield, the White Noise, The Flaming Lips, Serena Maneesh, The Liars, MF Doom, We Are Wolves, The Stooges,Miss Kitten, Ellen Allien, The Boredoms, Rod Lee(Baltimore club music), The Cramps, "New" Nick Cave, Nouvelle Vague, The Slits, Beat Happening, The Feelies, The Invincinle Czars, hOlly Golightly, Gal Costa, The Monks,a few ace trax off of the new Jarvis Cocker & Steve Mackey DJ disc "The Trip" and much much more...........I am also gonna do small block of Scratch Acid related bands in order of the anouncement of their reunion show at the Touch and Go 25th anniversary show in september. That means Rapeman, ,Birthday Party, Jesus Lizard, Shellac, Big Black and Denison Kimball Trio. Get ready to get your Drink on. Seeya there. Cheers!!!!"
Got it? Good. Also:
Two Gallants, Cold War Kids, and Cartright will be playing at Rubber Gloves tonight. We've seen Cartright before and the guy puts on a great live show. And although Cold War Kids are kind of dorky, we can't help but like their catchy songs... thanks to Gorilla vs. Bear for that one. And yes, we really do HATE everything on Saddle Creek other than the Faint, including Two Gallants. They sound like emo for people that are into Rev. Horton Heat or something. Du-umb.
According to Jennet at Daughter Entertainment, the Liars shows that was scheduled for later this year at Hailey's has been cancelled for unknown reasons. Their website has also removed the date from their list of live shows. Guess its just doom and gloom around here these days. MAN were we looking forward to this show.
We'll let you know if they add a different DFWd date at a later time.
UPDATE: Jennet says that the show was never confirmed, as opposed to being confirmed and then cancelled. I guess that makes a difference in the biz, but either way it means that we don't get to see the show. Suck.
