1. The Undoing of David Wright | The Night Game Cult | Nora Keyes | Madame P (Hailey's- $6)
Of course you guys know the Undoing already, and Denton's Night Game Cult sounds pretty cool too, although we don't know much about them. They kind of do a minimal electro dance thing in the spirit of Junior Boys and stuff like that, which means that its good if not actually danceable. Probably worth checking out. Nora Keyes sounds like a midget witch singing in a broadway musical being performed in front of a bunch of rotting corpses. Its honestly some of the strangest music I've heard in a while. The first song on their Myspace page is too annoying for words, but the second one, "The Show is Over," is quite good. And if Nora Keyes is the stangest band I've heard in a while, Madame P is the second, although they (she?) are (is) almost as creepy. This is the place to be if you want to hear some really different stuff tonight.

Boogdish | Chin Up Meriwether | Eat Avery's Bones (Metrognome- Ft. Worth $5)
This should be another great show too. Boogdish, from Belton, TX (wherever the fuck that is) remind me of Soft Cell with more of a bedroom pop feel and much more aggressive, punk influenced vocals. Chin Up will be liked by fans of the post-punk neotwee K Records sound of the late 80s/ early 90's. And EAB always puts on a great show.

Teenage Symphony just posted two new songs on their Myspace page, "A Promise" and "I'll Never Forget You." We usually don't make little announcements about Myspace crap, but they are both really good and well worth your time, unlike most Myspace band bulletins about "Check out or new shit" or whatever.

From our friend Taylor. He's got more on his YouTube page as well.

Daniel Francis Doyle



Green Milk from the Planet Orange in Austin (also played at Metrognome)

1. Echo and the Bunnymen (Gypsy Tea Room- $20)
I'm not going to go into a whole long thing on Echo and the Bunnymen, because I seriously doubt I could say anything about them that you haven't read or heard someone say before. I thought their most recent album was really good considering how old they are, and how bad it COULD have been. And actually, scratch that, I though it was pretty damn good independent of that stuff too. If Ian can still sing, which I bet he can, this will be one to remember.

Also, DJ G will be spinning at an Echo afterparty over at Avenue Arts (825 Exposition near Minc and the rest of the Expo park area). its $5, and his sets always rule.

2. Constantines | Oakley Hall (Sons of Herman- $10)
The Constantines are one of those bands that you just KNOW is going to be really good live, and honsetly, is there any other band that reminds you of Fugazi and the Boss at the same time? They play a lot of loud and fast, but also some slow and textured, and it will be interesting to see how the latter is pulled off live. Shine A Light was one of my favorite records a few years ago, and although I don't like their latest quite as much, I'm still pretty pumped up about this show. Oakley Hall should be a great opening act if you can get there early (by Sons of Hall standards, which could mean like right now).

Residual Echoes | Mammatus (Metrognome Collective)
Do you still need to be convinced that Metrognome is THE cutting edge venue in the Metroplex? I don't. Mammatus' sprawling, distorted stoneresque noisescapes should not be missed by anyone that gives a shit about that sort of thing.

(and you are going to start to see some changes around here in the next week. A new writer, some features that we've never tried before, and some other things that we don't wanna tell you about right now. Basically, we're going to be trying some new and different shit to see what sticks. Keep those eyez ballz peeled.)

What the hell happened last night?

You bitches know theres a Mavs game tonight, don't you? I guess things got a little more interesting last game (remember, we don't do mavs posts when they lose), but I'm not worried at all. I think we take this one and send fat ass Shaq and rest of em to death's door. And I expect Josh Howard and company to deliver a beating to Mr. Wade tonight, and I'm gonna go ahead and guess that Dirk could be huge tonight. We'll see.

1. Fra Pandolf | Mom | In Dot Dat (J&Js- Denton) FREE: See below. Also, Fra and In Dot Dat should help make this a really goddamn good show.

2. Frequency Down Funeral: Record Hop | Smile Smile | Cordelane | Voot Cha Index (Rubber Gloves $5)
This should be another great show in, sigh, Denton tonight. Do local bands that I like ever play in Dallas anymore? We're down with Voot Cha of course, although we hear mixed reviews of their live shows. They're young, remember, and they seem to be too good at writing songs to not become a great live band some time soon. And we really want to see Record Hop again. We always like what we hear on record (hop) from them, and we always hear good things about their live shows, even though we didn't really jam out much to their performance at Wall of Sound. Hope to catch another show soon. Smile Smile? Mmmm... don't know about that. Maybe one smile. Cordelane is like indie music. I think thats a genre now.

3. Zoo (Cavern- Upstairs)
Music videos, strange videos, good videos. A cool place to see some stuff you've never seen before, hear some stuff you've never heard before, and hopefully chill out after a Mavs win.

4. DJ G, as always, at Hailey's

Most Americans between the ages of 15 and 60 have probably had some kind of direct or indirect experience with LSD, acid, and/or other kinds of psychedelic drugs during their lifetimes. A few people seem to love them enough to partake regularly, and often claim that they are a cure for many of the world's (and their own) problems. These people are called hippies, UNT students on academic probation, and Timothy Leary. Other people try them once, have an incredibly bad experience, and don't touch any of them again. Others don't ever try these drugs (even though they kind of want to) because they are afraid, which is a probably a shame in most cases. And then there are people that never have the desire and/or means to tune in and drop out at all, and hence never do. This is probably for the best in most cases. However, the majority of people fall somewhere in between these categories, or have at the very least had a relationship with a person or persons (including fictional characters) that have taken these drugs and lived to tell typically corny tales about religious experiences, visuals and the "oneness of all the creatures on the earth." The point is, even if a majority of Americans never have and never will touch a psychedelic drug, everyone seems to have enough familiarity with what they do to at least imagine what it might be like to take one. Put simply, they have been a part of the collective American psyche since the baby boomers took over, and it seems to have as much to do with culture as it does with chemicals.

The thing thing that you always hear about psychedelics is that they come and go in waves of euphoria and fear, often taking users to the heights of heaven before dropping them down to the gates of hell at a moment's notice. Beauty, enlightenment, mind expansion, fear (and loathing), paranoia, and destruction are all supposedly lurking in the back of one's mind during these experiences, and they all take turns running the show at different points in time. This is this kind of exciting push/pull relationship that Mom's music captures quite well, and I have no idea whether they take drugs or not.

This would normally be the stage in the post where I tell you about the guys in the band, what they do, how they make their music, etc. But my information requests from Mom didn't produce many of these details, so I'll instead give you a little taste of what they told me about their interests:

* Sculptor Andy Goldsworthy click
* Music Boxes click
* Wind Chimes click
* Womb Noises click
* Making what they call "sky music" click

They also live together and record their music at home, but thats about all I know. And while this lack of information can be a little frustrating, listening to their songs reveals how little any of the Behind the Music factoids matter to them. And after a few listens, the band's bio probably won't matter much to you either. Mom's instrumental songs seem to thrive somewhere in this psychedelic realm of twisting emotions and changing states of mind, but their tense and purposeful electronic components separate the music from anything that would normally be labeled "psychedelic." Clean, quiet acoustic guitars playing pretty notes fade in and out throughout the tracks, allowing bits of noise, feedback and glitchy blips to build up, break down and destroy themselves before starting anew in a different and slightly altered place, without ever getting too far away from where they started. The songs are all about contrast, at once beautiful and unnerving, ethereal and precise, they come and go in unexpected waves that combine the synthetic electro noise and organic acoustics in a way that produces tension while remaining completely seamless. They are joyous and sad, destructive and gentle, and yet somehow make complete sense as a cohesive whole. This might sound like a lot of bullshit to you, but I bet if you listen, you'll discover some of the introverted beauty of these songs and the range of emotions that they inspire. You'll also discover, much like I did, that you don't have to give two shits about mushrooms or hippies to appreciate the, um, trip that these songs will take you on. God I hate those baby boomers.

"We Know" MP3 (grab this one first)

" the sound of joy" MP3

Mom plays tonight at J&Js for free.

1. Chief Death Rage | Bark Bark Bark | Eat Avery's Bones (J&Js- Denton)
Everyone that reads this blog knows what we thing of the the first and last bands on this list, so we won't go over that again. We'll just say J&Js knows what they are doing as far as booking goes. Bark Bark Bark are a Phoenix electo band that reminds us of Les Georges Leningrad, a baltimore junk version of !!! and a little Spank Rock, which all equals drunk dancing after a couple JJs pints. Should be good.

2. DJ G 80's House Night (Cavern downstairs)
Oh yeah, stuff still happens in Dallas sometimes too... like great dance nights that most people choose to ignore. Fuck, theres gotta be enough cool kids in Dallas without jobs to make this a well populated event every week, doesn't there? Maybe not. You should give it a try: its Italo, chicago house, etc. No "Take on Me" to be heard.

3. The Party w/ DJ Nature (Rubber Gloves- Denton): I've had more people email me thanking us for introducing them to DJ Nature than any other band/musician we've ever talked about on here.

4. The creeping and dark yet strangely soothing A Childlike Fear from Ft. Worth will be opening for Fishboy and Ryan Anderson tonight at the Metrognome Collective. Great acoustic folk with minimal, ambient soundscapes serving as a backdrop to unique, slightly offkey vocal harmonies that don't sound like much else in the DF to da dub right now. Its emotional stuff without being cheap or crybaby. How many bands around here pull that shit off? Listen for yourself.

sorry, I'm having internet problems today, so I've gotta make this quick in order to make it at all:

1. Notes from Underground/Bob White and the F Electrics (J&Js- Denton) Should be a great show down in the basement, and its free.

2. Lost Generation w/Wanz (Cavern Upstairs)
Heres what he's playing tonight:

new trax from Scott Walker(this record rulez), Burial, Peaches, Paper Chase, Primal Scream, My Education, Barry Adamson, Mission of Burma, Yo la Tengo, Matthew Herbert, MSTRKFT, Digital Mystikz, Tom Ze, Venetian Snares, Oneida and a bunch of remixes by Phones

3. The excellent White Drugs will be over at Darkside Lounge tonight. I'm starting to like these guys more and more every time I hear them.

4. Paul Slavens Music Theory Lessons (Rubber Gloves)
Paul Slavens will be discussing music theory and various other things tonight for free at Rubber Gloves. I hear drinking will be involved. It starts at 9pm, and I bet it should be fun. Some kind of improv jam thing will be going down as well.

5. Prayer for Animals will be over at the Tea Room tonight. I've heard some new material from these guys, and it seems that they are going off in all kinds of strange directions. I think they got a reputation early on as being some sort of BJM rip off (there is some truth to that), but it sounds like they are really developing a pretty interesting sound of their own these days. I stand by my previous statement: a band to keep your eye on.

Sorry about the no links today, but I'm just pressed for time. We'll be back on the game tomorrow. I also think you will really enjoy some of the stuff we've got planned for the next couple of weeks. Stay tuned.

LOCAL MUSIC LAW #63: Christian emo dudes aren't allowed to act like Jesus is cool, and they certainly aren't allowed to act like they're really chilled out about the whole thing. If you've played at The Door, you're a nerd. There are no exceptions to this rule.

tonight:

1. Tapes N Tapes | Figurines | Cold War Kids (Gypsy Tea Room Tea Room)
I know its Monday and everything, but you might want to get your rocks off while you can, because this appears to be the big show of the week. I'm going to go ahead and guess that the readers of this blog don't need an introduction to Tapes N Tapes, and probably don't want to read another blog post about how good they are. Thats cool, cuz I really don't feel like writing one, even though I should say that I have started to dig their record quite a bit, despite my initial skepticism. Moving on, The Figurines are one of those bands that make we wonder whether or not I'm supposed to like them. On the one hand, they are from Denmark, have a "the" in their name (sooo 2001), and kind of look cute and fashionable, which makes me feel ugly and behind the times. They're also friends with The Cribs on their Myspace page, which takes away some additional points. But shit, I got pretty hooked on their songs a few days ago during my pre-show download n listen, and I'll be damned if they aren't writing some of the best punk-influenced jangle pop on either side of the Atlantic right now. Come to think of it, they might be the only band that does what I just said in a way that doesn't suck. Think Buzzcocks if they had been friends with Wayne Coyne. And Cold War Kids, well... I'm just not that impressed with them. At first they reminded me of Maroon 5, and then of the French Kicks, and then Jeff Buckley in Strokes cover band, and then I pretty much gave up. In fairness, I suppose they are better than some of those bands, but I'm just too bored with stuff like this to really give a shit. Sorry. Based on the records, though, I think Tapes and Figurines will be well worth the ten bucks or whatever.

And for those that don't like paying for stuff, you can catch the Figurines at Good Records at 6. Give em a listen.

1. The Paper Chase - Now You Are One Of Us
2. The Theater Fire - Everybody Has a Dark Side
3. Vetiver - To Find Me Gone
4. Raconteurs - Broken Boy Soldiers
5. Beirut - Gulag Orkestar
6. Camera Obscura - Let's Get Out of This Country
7. Danielson - Ships
8. Sound Team - Movie Monster
9. Boards of Canada - Trans Canada Highway
10. Walkmen - A Hundred Miles Off
11. Mojave 3 - Puzzles Like You
12. Philip E Karnats - Pleasesuite
13. Wolfmother - Wolfmother
14. Gnarls Barkley - St. Elsewhere
15. Be Your Own Pet - Be Your Own Pet
16. Secret Machines - Ten Silver Drops
17. Struart A. Staples - Leaving Songs/Lucky Dog Recordings 03
18. Asobi Seksu - Citrus
19. Astronautalis - The Mighty Ocean & Nine Dark Theaters
20. Scott Walker - The Drift

Two locals at the top of the charts this week. When was the last time that happened? Probably not long ago, but I think its the first time I've seen it since we started posting these charts. Not that its particularly exciting or anything, but it certainly takes away from those dumb arguments about people "Not supporting the scene." People will buy good stuff when it comes out. I promise.

And its nice to see Vetiver making an appearance, as well as Scott Walker holding his place.

And a special thanks to Google Image Search for giving me a reason to listen to Be Your Own Pet. I would probably be preparing myself to feel ripped off right now, but its not like I'm gonna buy it or something.

5 points, 2-5 shooting, 1-7 from the free throw line and 6 rebounds in 20 minutes. I guess thats Shaq's "No more Mr. Nice Guy" line in an NBA finals game. Of course, it wasn't really possible to tell whether he played like total shit or not, because the Mavericks absolutely smothered him each and every time he touched the ball, with especially fantastic performances from Diop and Dampier, who Shaq probably won't be referring to as "Ericka" again for the rest of the series. Although there were some great offensive moments, I tonight was the best defense in a single game that I've ever seen the Mavs play. They shut down Shaq and basically did the same to Wade, while holding the rest of the team in check with solid coverage on almost every Heat possession.

Dirk and Howard were obviously back on their games, and Stackhouse was absolutely killer with those 3s. Harris played well too, and even Damps got in on the scoring with a rare fast break dunk. Tonight, we looked like an NBA finals team, and they looked like a second round exit Eastern Conference team at best. That being said, Tuesday in Miami will be a very tough game to win. The crowd will be going nuts, and Pat Riley (along with the rest of the world) knows that this is a must win for his guys, and he'll have them ready to play. However, I can't help but feel that we have done everything we could have possibly wanted to, and I feel much more comfortable in this series than I ever did in either the Phoenix or San Antonio series. It also feels good to know that if any team in Mavericks history could win this next game in Miami, its this year's squad, lead by a guy who is coach of the year, and already clearly the best in Mavericks history.

Oh, and a message to the anti-sports people: get ready for fun, because USA World Cup coverage starts tomorrow.

Cex | Love of Everything | Various Laptop Deatmatch artists (Hailey's)
To sort of quote the Vaselines, Cex sucks. "IDM," if its a real genre at all, really has to be done well in order to work in my mind. The 19 year old kid that is Cex doesn't quite pull it off, because I just don't think the world needs another jokey white hip hop kid, even if his beats are a little better than that of the average jokey hip hop kid. The reason we are recommending this show, however, is the charming electro-folkpop of Love of Everything, and the always great participants in the Laptop Deathmatch scene.