We'll start off with a bit of news:

In case you haven't heard, Denton's Current Leaves are going to have a Wednesday night residency at Club Dada in the month of September, and will be playing an additional show at Dada on August 26th to kick everything off. I think regular performances like this are generally a good thing, and this could very well be the set of shows that earns Current Leaves a sizeable following in Dallas. They're that rare combo of a genuinely good band that also has potential to be successful on a fairly large scale in the usually disappointing local Dallas market, and I think people will get excited about it. I'm interested to see what kind of audience they will attact at these shows, because I think just about anyone can probably dig them, including most of the contrarian anons on here.

In other news, Denton will soon see the opening of Strawberry Fields, a forward thinking everything media store that will be located at the corner of Oak and Bonnie Brae. The store will sell music, books and videos focusing on counterculture themes and typically hard to find material, meaning that they'll have a lot of the stuff that you wouldn't even bother asking the dipshit at B&N about. Here is a bit more from them:

"Why oh why has Denton been without a store that caters to the counter/youth/free thinking/Starbucks hating/Wal-mart despising culture for so long? Great question! We don't have an answer to that, but we do have a solution! Strawberry Fields Books, Music and Video!Specalizing in media that your parents warned you about and what your uncle secretly stashes underneath his bed, Strawberry Fields is here to provide you with media dealing with counter culture, activisim, arts, alternative lifestyles, trash, left of center, shlock, radical, queer, erotic, artsy, fartsy, artsy-fartsy, forgotten, hidden, recently recovered, activism and what ever else you can think of that they dont sell at Barnes and Nobles.

AND:

We speacilize in... Independent Documentaries, Music Videos, Exploitation, Erotic, Foreign, Arsty Fartsy and what ever weird shit YOU are into. Is there a Swedish zombie musical that you have been looking for forever? Put us on the case and we will do our best to find it!

Want to know how to over throw the goverment and society in general? Our books can help! We are providing Denton with a breath of fresh air when it comes to books.

We specialize in...Independent Rock, Pop, Hip - Hop, Rap, Regeaton, Electronic, World and all left of center music. But most importantly we carry what YOU want! Is there a genre/style of music you want us to carry drop us a line via the website www.strawberryfields.biz and visit our music section and drop us a line. This store is for the community and we need to know what you want!

Sounds like a place the WSJR crew might frequent when we're up in Denton... not that we're into porn or anything like that.

Stuff to do tonight:


We're not the biggest Eels fans in the world, but they will be at Gypsy Tea Room tonight in case you are.

Whats that you say, you're a Spoon fan? Well they're playing at the Ridglea Theater in Ft. Worth tonight, but if you didn't get invited by Camel or whatever the fuck corporation is sponsoring the show, then you can't go you dumbass! Its invite only, and I guess ours was lost in the mail or something. Flashlight Party will also be spinning, and WSJR favorite Black Tie Dynasty will be opening. And even though this might sound fun in theory, I've seen Spoon play so many fucking times that driving to Ft. Worth and having to sit through Blackheart Society to see them again doesn't sound very VIP to me...

Dj G will be doing his normal 80's night thing at Hailey's tonight... its one of the two best regular nights in the metroplex, in case you were wondering.

Vancouver's Ladyhawk (featuring members of Black Mountain) will bring some hard nosed pop slop to Rubber Gloves tonight along with the quite boring Coke Dares and Denton's own Fugazi influenced grunge outfit Knee Pad. The limited amount of material that we've heard from Ladyhawk is solid ( like just about everything related to Black Mountain), fairly straight forward guitar rock. And while bands like that might often bore you to pieces, Ladyhawk does what they do quite well, adding enough noise, energy, and a sloppy yet forcefull execution to make it a good listen. Probably a great live show too.

The Tah Dahs will be playing with Austin's excellent shoegaze influenced Pavementesque noise pop band Peel at the Doublewide, right in the heart of our very own Dallas! See Dallas, we get some shows here and there too. We like the Tah Dahs and all, but you should get there early, because Peel seems to be the real draw tonight. I'm not sure how popular they are in Austin, but I can really see this band taking the fuck off in the very near future. Check out "Bells" on their myspace page to hear what I mean: multi layer noise inspired guitars and dreamy vocals that come together in just the right way to remind you of what you wish the mid 90's sounded like.

Finally, The Angelus' Emil Rapstine is playing at J&Js with Brazos Del Amor (who I can't seem to find anything about), and a typically bad emocore band called Waking up April. I don't suggest going early.

I wanted to interview Zac Crain not because I had necessarily planned to support his candidacy, but just the opposite: I wanted to interview him because I initially thought that there was no way in hell I could support his run for mayor. To be honest, I've seen a lot of bandwagon jumping all over town by musicians and scenesters and others that seem to support Zac Crain for the simple reason that he is a friend, or something of a figure in the local music scene. Being the grumpy person I am, this made me pretty much reject the idea of supporting Crain right off the bat, and it still bothers me that some people seem to be supporting his run as more of a fashion statement than a rational and thoughtful political decision.

However, I should say that this brief interview has shown me that while I'm not sure who I might vote for in 2007, Zac Crain seems like an intelligent and thoughtful person that may have some good ideas that could genuinely address some of the huge issues that this city is facing right now. Just for personal reasons, I wanted to get a better idea of who Zac Crain is, why he's running for mayor, and what he might do in the off chance that he wins. And although I have very serious doubts that his campaign will be able to compete with whatever bozo the Preston Hollow elites decide to throw their support behind, I certainly like the idea of an intelligent outsider shaking things up a bit, especially one that actually cares about the city and has some interesting things to say about its future. And hell, I can even see myself casting a vote for the man, because I have no doubt in my mind that most of the rest of the candidates will be completely unappealing in just about every way, while Zac Crain at least seems to have the interests of average citizens in mind.

It will be interesting to see how far Crain can get on ideas rather than money, because in American politics these days, its hard to tell whether ideas really even matter at all.

(Full disclosure: Lindsay from dconstruction, who we will be working with on the upcoming We Shot J.R. podcast, is Zac Crain's campaign manager.)

Hey Zac. I guess we'll have to talk about music at some point, but lets get some general info out of the way first. To begin, would you mind telling us when the mayoral election is, and who else is confirmed as running right now? Could you tell us specifically why you think each of your known opponents is NOT the right person to be the next mayor of Dallas?

If the election happened tomorrow, my competitors would be Gary Griffith, Darrell Jordan, Phil Ritter, and Roger Herrera. When the actual election happens May 12, 2007, I imagine that number will have grown substantially. But I can only work with what I've got. So to answer your question: Gary Griffith is not the right person to be the next mayor of Dallas because he, like Darrell Jordan, like Phil Ritter, is more concerned with simply steering the ship rather than checking to see if the ship is actually seaworthy. Griffith, Jordan, and Ritter all seem to believe that the only real problem with this city is its current mayor, which probably jibes with the folks at the Dallas Citizens Council, but doesn't really track with, you know, actual citizens. As far as I can tell, they are out of touch with 90 percent of the people they'd be serving. I don't know much about Roger Herrera. From what I've seen, he's a lot like me, apart from the fact that he's gay, Latino, and a lawyer. He's similar to me at least in terms of being a political outsider. But from the little I do know about him, I don't see any real, pragmatic ideas, other than a vague goal of uniting the city. That's not enough.

Could you describe to us why you think that you are the right person for the job? It seems that aside from money, the main problem for your campaign will be convincing people that you have the experience, qualifications and knowledge to do the job of mayor and do it well. Could you describe some of those qualifications for us?

I think political experience is overrated. There are plenty of longtime politicians out there, and I'm not referring to Dallas specifically, that I wouldn't trust with the responsibility of making me a sandwich. I consider the fact that I don't have any political experience a plus; I haven't had the idealism beaten out of me. So what qualifies me for this job? I wasn't spending the better part of the last decade deciding public policy. I had a job that allowed me to observe (no pun intended) how public policy affected people, and write about it all. I've spent most of that time thinking about the kind of issues that I will be dealing with as mayor, and I think that's just about as long as any of my competitors have been doing it. At the very least, I'm not at as much of a disadvantage as some would think. But beyond being thoughtful and coming up with considered solutions to problems, the other part of the deal is having enough guts to make decisions when the time comes. I don't necessarily have anything on my resume that speaks to that, but I think the fact I'm doing this in the first place more or less proves I have that in me.

Money is obviously going to be a huge issue for your campaign, since you don't seem to have some of the big business and dallas establishment support that some of the other candidates do. How do you plan to compete with the big boys financially?

Quite simply: I don't plan to compete with them. I might be naive, but I fail to see how a candidate can justify spending close to $1 million to win this election. That just really strikes me as egregious. If my competitors can't run a campaign on a budget, I don't see how voters can expect them to run this city on a budget either. I think some of the people I am (and will be) running against have been tossing around thousands and millions of dollars for so long, they have forgotten how much a dollar is actually worth. Money has almost become theoretical to them.

Do you find the monetary advantage that people get from having insider access to the local business and money establishment to be inherently undemocratic in some way? Has domination by elites in Dallas politics hindered the success of the city in certain ways? If so, how?

Great questions. Those are definitely ideas I've been thinking about since the campaign finance reports were released. In those reports, you'll see that someone has donated to several different candidates. Why? It means that no matter who is eventually elected for the job, he has a favor coming to him. That is partly what is destroying this city: our city leaders are wasting time and energy fulfilling the favors racked up on the campaign trail while the really important and necessary work is pushed further and further down the agenda. This has been happening for so long that almost nothing of consequence gets done; it's a snake that eats itself. The only people that benefit are the candidates and the tiny fraction of concerned citizens who receive the favors. What does everyone else get? Frustrated.

Moving on to more substantive issues, it seems that crime probably has to be the top issue in this election, since the current overall and violent crime rates in Dallas are some of the highest in the country, which seems completely inexcusable for a town this size. People are pretty fed up with the incompetence of the police force, and I think Dallas residents are really going to start demanding serious action. What is the real source of the crime problems that our city faces? Is simply adding more officers on the streets enough to solve some of these problems? What specifically do you intend to do about crime?

I think Chief David Kunkle is doing a great job. Well, I should say that Chief Kunkle is doing the best job possible given the situation. He has inventive strategies to combat and prevent crime, and he has proven to be a man of integrity who expects and demands the same from the members of his force. But he can't fight crime by himself, and he still doesn't have the resources needed to do the job to the best of his ability. Chief Kunkle needs more men and better equipment. Which means he needs more money. Which means the mayor and the council need to make this a top priority. I mean, why keep fighting to build more bridges and skyscrapers and on and on if we can't protect whats already here? I've been looking at the situation, and the first step, yes, is adding more officers. The easiest way to do this is squeezing as much money out of the current budget as possible. For one thing, I propose doing away with court time overtime, that is, eliminating overtime pay for officers making court appearances. (This, obviously, wouldn't apply to officers on overnight patrol; their appearances are overtime in the truest definition of the term.) Cutting out court time overtime would open up the budget. Those funds could then be used to 1) give all officers a bump in pay and 2) recruit and hire more officers. So there's a start.

One of the issues that you highlight on your website is local education. I'm not sure how much power you are given by the city charter or the Texas Constitution over education in DISD, but could you tell us what you will be able to do to improve schools in Dallas, or how the administration of the distict is conducted? Is this really more of a state than a local issue?

Directly? The mayor has no real power over DISD. Indirectly? The mayor has more power than any previous mayor has cared to explore. The key is never letting it leave the conversation; the mayor has the biggest voice in the city and he/she needs to use it. And I mean this in a public and private sense. The mayor and Superintendent Hinojosa need to be meeting on a regular basis, once every couple of weeks at a minimum. Everyone benefits from an extra set of eyes and ears every so often, and it's clearly been far too long since that was the case at DISD. I think the problem with the school district over the last 10 years or so has been too much micromanaging on the education side and not enough in the administration. That's why you have credit card scandals on one end, and declining graduation rates on the other. It feels like, to me, that DISD has been almost a rogue state during that time. It would help if someone was watching the watchers. I think parents would feel more trusting if they knew someone was looking out for them. And since I'll have a kid in the system before long, I'll be doing that anyway.

What long term potential do you see for public transportation in Dallas? As more and more people begin to live and spend more time downtown on a regular basis, it seems that the DART system will have to improve drastically in order to grow with the city. At the same time, the lack of urban planning and the sprawling and spacious development throughout Dallas might hinder DART's ability to expand its services. What can be done about this?

I hate to drive, and am a big fan of the services DART already provides. So I'm definitely excited to see light rail travel throughout the city become a reality. I absolutely agree with you that poor urban planning has limited DART's ability to grow; it's almost as if no one trusted DART to be able to do what it's doing. We've been sorely lacking some sort of a master plan for some time, something that accounts for future developments and growth. That's why I'm cautiously optimistic about the Forward Dallas plan. It's not perfect, by any means, but it at least addresses the problems that DART is having now, and wouldn't have had if there were a plan in place. Where the developers of Forward Dallas were mistaken, however, and what DART has to avoid, is they didn't take into account the public's wants. DART needs to take people where they want to go. It's sounds silly and stupid, but I don't think enough people keep that in mind.

One of the things that we talk about all the time on WSJR is a lack of a strong music and visual art scene in the city. And whether you agree with this or not, it seems that there isn't any reason why our local government can't assist in improving the arts community here. We know that many state, local, and national government agencies in other countries provide financial assistance to artists and musicians, or at least provide low cost places for those people to practice their crafts and perform or display their work. Is there anything that the city of Dallas can do to improve the artistic community here? Any possibility of publicly funded art spaces in this city? Does the city have money for such things, and are they even a priority in your mind?

You're right: There isn't any reason why local government can't assist in improving the arts community here. There are plenty of reasons why they won't, but no real reason why they can't. There are models to work off of, if the city leaders would pay attention. Jack Matthews was successful with the artist residency program at South Side on Lamar, and he didn't do it because he was such a patron of the arts. He knew that was an easy way to create life and scene where there wasn't any, and it was relatively cheap. Why couldn't the city make something like that a condition of the tax breaks they so regularly cough up to developers? It wouldn't be hard. Make those businesses earn it. But it's not just tax breaks and things like that. Look at Austin. It stakes its reputation on its music scene, past and present. We have at least as much history. Or we did before bulldozers got involved. Why not build something around that? Create a Dallas Music Museum, which could double as something of a community center for artists and musicians. It would help tourism, if you're interested in that sort of thing, and I would bet the money could be raised in the private sector. That's just an example. There are a million ways the city could and should get involved. I mean, why isn't the city more behind what Erykah Badu is doing here?

Ok- music question. I didn't have a lot of experience reading the Observer when you were the editor, so could you tell us, just for fun, what some of your favorite all time rock records are? What are you listening to currently?

Ouch. This may be the toughest question, since this is the one the folks in the comments section will have the most fun skewering me with. Some of my favorite all time rock records? Well, keep in mind this changes all the time. For now, I'll say: Elvis Costello and the Attractions, Blood and Chocolate; The Clash, London Calling; Pixies, Trompe Le Monde; Television, Marquee Moon; Johnny Cash, Live at Folsom Prison; Neutral Milk Hotel, In the Aeroplane Over the Sea; Guided by Voices, Isolation Drills; Bruce Springsteen, Born to Run; Super Furry Animals, Radiator; Wilco, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot; and the first Stone Roses record. Oh, and Spoon, Girls Can Tell. As for what I've been listening to lately: Band of Horses, Rogue Wave, Midlake, My Morning Jacket, Thom Yorke, Bonnie Prince Billy. OK bring it on.

1. The Party w/ Dj Nature (Rubber Gloves- Denton)
Hey, have you ever said to yourself "man, it would be cool if there were a couple of DJs in this town that actually have good taste and don't play off ipods?" If so, you should know better. Dj Nature has been part of the small group of Djs in the US that have been at least six months ahead of everyone for the past five years. And he lives in Denton. So quit your bitching. Theres almost always a fun, good looking crowd at this thing too (another rare combo in DFWd), so its the perfect place to go tonight if you're looking for the smart kind of party.

2. The Dallas video Fest kicks off today as well. There will be some cool Laptop Deathmatch shit going on this Friday, but you should pay a visit to the schedule and see what you might be interested in.

Also, if you'd like to hear some good stuff on the radio, you might want to stop listening to broadcast and check out Chris's Gorilla vs Bear show tonight at 9pm on Sirius radio. Info

Oh, and because blogger sucks, you'll have to scroll down a bit to check out Defensive Listening's excellent piece of Infinite Zero. Do it.

I continue to be pretty bored with new music this year, and I still can't decide if its just me, or if 2006 has been one of the slowest years for indie releases in recent memory. Who knows. Anyway, here is some stuff we've been listening to round these parts lately. Most of it isn't new, but we've posted some MP3s in case you haven't heard some of it and are interested in checking it out.

Lee Perry Arkology: I've never been an absolutely huge reggae fan, but I've maintained something of an interest in 60's and 70's reggae for quite a while, which inspired me to finally pick up Arkology, a 3 cd collection of the "best" of Lee Perry. Of course, spending just a short bit of time with these songs reveals the vast reach of Perry's influence on popular music in all forms, but his innovations in dub and the revolutionary way that he approached production can be most clearly heard and felt in hip hop and dance. But shit, even Ariel Pink seems to be heavily influenced by the guy, so I'm sure you can come up with a million more names to prove that quite a bit of the music we like could sound quite a bit different if Lee Perry had never been around. The MP3 below is his recording of The Heptones' "Sufferer's Time."

MP3

Ethiopiques Series: Ever wonder what Jabba the Hut's band in Return of the Jedi was influenced by? Well, some dork on here probably knows the real answer, but I'm going to pretend that they were influenced by 60's soulfunk from Ethiopia. We were inspired to check out the Ethiopiques series a few weeks ago when Ray from Castanets mentioned it in our interview, and we are quite glad we did. The French record label Buda Musique has put together this series of over 25 discs compiling Ethiopian soul and funk in the 60's and 70's, as well as a couple of discs of modern african electronic music. How the hell did Ethiopia have a funk scene that produced material to fill 25 plus discs, you ask? Well, Ethiopian capitol Addis Abbaba was one of Africa's most happening party towns during the reign of Emperor Haile Selassie in the 1960's and 1970's. This, combined with American students, aid workers and missionaries introducing western records to elites in Addis Abbaba, produced a very prolific scene of talented African musicians inspired by both western musicians like James Brown and the traditional Ethiopian folk music that they had been playing all of their lives. Take a listen to the MP3 below, from Ethiopiques Vol. 3. The vocalist is Tey Gedyeleshem, and the song is called "Alemayehu Eshete." You'll likely discover that this strange combination of soul, funk, african rhytms, and middle eastern influences is quite interesting and instantly enjoyable.

MP3

Ratatat Classics: I truly don't know how to describe Ratatat's new album, but it is shaping up to be one of my favorites of the year. Everyone is jumping all over the "Wildcat" single already (which happens to be one of my favorite tracks of the year), so I thought I might post the first track from the album, which has a slightly more subdued feel. Let the amazing melody and percussion grow on you a bit, as you start to see how everything fits together, and why Ratatat's music makes so much damn sense. The song is called "Montanita."

MP3

Flosstradamus "Overnight Star": I pretty much can't fucking stand mash ups. I've never really liked them (although a couple of those Pavement- Jay Z songs were pretty cool), and I never thought I would change my mind. This track alone hasn't converted me by any means, but Flosstradamus has probably created the best mash up I've ever heard. I'm not sure why I like it so much, but it might be because it combines Sigur Ros' "Staralfar" with Twista's "Overnight Celebrity," creating an amazing dance track that is truly ass shake worthy while still somehow maintaining much of the emotional power of the Sigur Ros track. Don't believe me? I don't blame you. But Flosstradamus has been spinning to packed houses in pretty much every club they've set foot in around the country this year, and there is a good reason for it. Give it a shot.

MP3

And has anyone else been dusting off some late 80's/ early 90's shit like Jesus Lizard, Melvins, Swirlies, Nirvana's Bleach and Jon Spencer Blues Explosion lately? Well I have, and I'm happy about it.

"We weren't successful, but nothing can beat the feeling when a 15-year-old tells you: "Hey, I listened to Gang of Four, they are brilliant!" Man, that's just awesome!"-Henry Rollins quoted in German Music Magazine "Spex" on the reaction to his failed reissue label, Infinite Zero.

Is Henry Rollins responsible for the glut of derivative retro revival bands that have dominated the underground and mainstream music industries for the last few years? I originally thought he was only responsible for the parade of pseudo intellectual tattooed bullies that have dominated a lot of hardcore since 1984, but he might also be a key figure to blame for everything from Gang of Four sound-a-likes Bloc Party to the oxymoronic phenomenon of No Wave records digitally recorded on Pro-Tools. Don't get me wrong, I like a lot of things about Rollins, but I don't usually associate him with the current decade's trends.

This whole theory came to me while I was recently glaring at the disorganized state of my own CD collection. I noticed on at least every couple of rows, there was a ubiquitous blue band on the spine of certain jewel cases, signifying the disc as something to really take note of: An Infinite Zero reissue.

Infinite Zero was the noble pursuit by two well known music industry personalities, Rick Rubin and Henry Rollins, in the mid 1990's. I'll leave Rubin out of this, since his influence on modern music is much more obvious and annoying than Rollins'. Some have suggested that the label was a tax shelter or vanity project for the two principals, but I would take issue with either of those claims. Rollins actually gave up any kind of significant compensation for the project and instead opted for free copies of the reissues in lieu of payment, claiming that any other form of compensation would have forced the label to choose a mere ten releases for reissue instead of the twenty five that saw the light of day.

Of course, none of this kind of selflessness would have mattered if it weren't for the diversity and quality of the releases: Gang of Four. Alan Vega of Suicide. Tom Verlaine of Television. Monks. Trouble Funk. James Chance. In 1995, these names certainly didn't mean as much to as many people as they do today. To the label's credit, I believe the notoriety and infleunce of these visionaries is actually more widespread as a direct result of the reissuing of these records on Infinite Zero. Forexample, I recently found a music sampler for the American Eagle clothing store that was meant for in-store play, and it had a Contortions song on it. It's hard to believe that we live in a time where some of the most deliberately confrontational music ever made is pushed on the masses by a preppy outfitter like American Eagle, a place that is pretty lame by even mall standards. Although this particular example came about in part because of some dubious connection between American Eagle and the online Wal-Mart for hipsters, Insound, it was Infinite Zero that initially blew the dust off of that old "Buy Contortions" record a decade ago, assuring that it could be purcahsed at retailers that were just as unlikely to sell no wave as American Eagle was to play it.

I remember seeing the cover of "Buy Contortions" staring back at me in the crammed bins of Circuit City almost exactly ten years ago. All Infinite Zero releases had a weird white border around a shrunken version of the original album jacket, and the Contortions record features a picture of a girl wearing sunglasses and a shredded bikini. I remember thinking that the picture wasn't really sexual at all, but was instead kind of scary and off putting. The word "BUY" is written in this big imposing font right next to her head, and suggests an obvious visual satire on advertising and consumerism. After hearing that record, I realized that anything with that uppercase "Z" layered over an Infinity sign was going to be nothing like the stuff I heard on the radio in 1996. And even though most of these recordings were already decades old by the mid Nineties, they were actually years ahead of their time.

There is no exact method to prove just how much impact releasing this music has possibly had on the burgeoning throwback bands of the early 21st Century, but if you consider the styles that some of these artists helped establish, it starts to make a lot of sense historically. Garage Rock wasn't exactly hip in 1997, and Monks records were just a dorky record collector's dream. But then Infinite Zero released the legendary punk blueprint that was also one of the great musical anomalies of the sixties, and several years later, Monks are a commonplace name to drop during what is now the cooling stages of a full on Garage Rock revival. Gang Of Four are somehow their own genre, spawning so many copycat bands that you really can't even count them today. But I'm sure that just before the re-release of their debut album "Entertainment" in 1995, you could probably only find their album rotting on vinyl in an un-alphabetized stack at the back of Bill's. People were too busy listening to space-rock, rap-rock and Weezer to really care. I've watched a lot of these people and their music age rather ungracefully and get completely blind-sided by a group of No Wave savvy eighteen year olds on several extremely mismatched bills all around the country. I think that's a completely healthy step in musical evolution that could be traced back to being able to find an album by someone like Alan Vega at Best Buy. I think these reissues might explain the mysterious gap between a band like Hum being labeled the "hot new sound" not so long ago, and a band like A.I.D.S. Wolf receiving that same label today.

If you think this is a stretch, consider that if all the post-punk reuniting that's happened this decade had happened ten years ago, it wouldn't have been nearly as lucrative. Gang of Four actually did put out records in the Nineties to little or no fanfare. The members of Suicide were almost completely forgotten, but now if they put out a record, it would almost be a crime for all the usual music publications not to review it. I think Infinite Zero went very far in reinserting this music into the average music fan's consciousness. Do a "Set Search Criteria" on Myspace music and see how many bands pop up when you enter the query: Influences-Keyword: Gang of Four. I was surprised to find that the number of pages had almost caught up to all the typical mainstream acts. That's remarkable for a band that's never had a platinum selling record ,and it probably wouldn't have happened if their releases hadn't been made available at a reasonable domestic price. Devo was obviously more well known than Gang of Four, but even their key albums were out of print in the mid 90's. I hear a lot more Devo when I go see bands today than I did ten years ago, and it's strange to consider that it could indirectly be because of Henry Rollins.

In the end, Infinite Zero was considered a failed venture, and Warner Brothers cut Rubin and Rollins off from their pet project. The label even tried to release the first seminal Fall records to no avail. This would have raised their profile even more, and I wish I could count those among my collection. Rollins actually went so far as to release the Trouble Funk reissues for a second time on his own 2.13.61. imprint. Ironically, now that many of the Infinite Zero reissues are themselves out of print, I've seen them start to fetch collector's prices. But I can't be bothered with that right now, because I have the latest Futureheads record ready to listen to. I hear it sounds just like Wire.

1. Lost Generation w/ Wanza (Cavern Upstairs)
Seems that Wanz has slowly but surely started to pick up a nice Tuesday night following for the Lost Generation, and there is good reason for this: the guy plays whatever the fuck he wants, and almost all of it is good. He says that he is going to start the night with some French Pop and bossa nova, followed by some of his own mixes and his typically challenging and exciting set of dance, punk, postpunk, kraut, goth, industrial, house, and just about anything else you can think of. Good times over there, and as a side note: the past few times I've been, theres been a nice little dance party going, which should be good news for all of you who are looking for, um, dance partners.

And thats about all I can think to do tonight, unless you're into fucking Lagwagon or something. And if thats the case, get the hell off my blog!

We're going to be reviewing some new material from local bands in the next few days (mostly track reviews), so if anyone has any new shit on their Myspace page or recorded material that they would like us to listen to, please attach it to an email and send it in MP3 format to weshotjr@yahoo.com , or just comment on here or via email and let us know that you have new Myspace stuff. We've got a bunch of stuff we're already going to review already, but we'll try to do as many as we can.

Thats it.

1. Attractive and Popular | Blonde Girls (8th Continent- Denton)
Due to scheduling issues and other concerns, tonight's show will be the last at the 8th Continent for several months, so if you wanted to get a chance to check the space out any time soon, tonight would be a good night to do it... as in the only night to do it. But even if the place wasn't temporarily closing up shop, this would be a good night to go anyway, as I can't think of many bands that would be more fun to see at the 8th than the two that are playing tonight. In case you haven't heard, Ft. Worth's Blonde Girls are an excellent live band, with hyper start/stop rhythms and machine gun noise guitar assaults that certainly will command the attention of even the snobbiest of WSJR readers. Fans of the ridiculously good Lightning Bolt, Blood Brothers, and our own Eat Avery's Bones will surely dig it. Attractive and Popular's infectious and completely danceable no wave is also well worth the drive to see live, with synths and even a slight prog influence separating them from the vast majority of bands that could be described by using the words "punk" and "dance" in the same sentence. Check out "Sononon" on their myspace page. Should be a great show at a venue that we can only hope will keep going.

2. Fallout Lounge Open Mic Night (with Rhett and Tim from Happy Bullets)
We haven't had a chance to see the new open mic night over at Fallout, but I'd be willing to bet everything I own that its at least better than the old fallout open mics, with completely laughable singer songwriters and joke bands that were about as funny as a Dick Cheney press conference dominating the stage... so we can say that this version will be a bit better than that, at least. I don't know if Rhett and Tim actually have control over who plays there, but they have been looking for good acts to come experiment and have some fun, and considering that those guys seem to have pretty good taste, they might be able to make it a good night. I'm willing to go down and give it a shot.

1. Midlake - The Trials of Van Occupanther
2. Nobody & Mystic Chords of Memory - Tree Colored See
3. Astronautalis - The Mighty Ocean & Nine Dark Theaters
4. Kashmere Stage Band - Texas Thunder Soul 1968-1974
5. Vetiver - To Find Me Gone
6. Regina Spektor - Begin To Hope
7. CSS - Cansei De Ser Sexy
8. Asobi Seksu - Citrus
9. Umbrellas - Illuminaire
10. Silverspun Pickups - Carnavas
11. Strange Fruit Project - The Healing
12. Philip E Karnats - Pleasesuite
13. The Knife - Silent Shout
14. The Paper Chase - Now You Are One Of Us
15. The Black Angels - Passover
16. Sufjan Stevens - The Avalanche
17. Thom Yorke - The Eraser
18. Danielson - Ships
19. Phoenix - It's Never Been Like That
20. Caribou - Up In Flames (2CD)

Hey... I've started to go through all the emails I have in my inbox, so if you've sent me something in the past week or so and I haven't responded, you'll hopefully be hearing from me soon.

Also, if you've sent me info about upcoming shows, CD releases, or anything else, please resend that information to me as a reminder. I'll be back with the writing and It Lists tomorrow, and this should be the last dumb housekeeping post for a while.

1. Blonde Girls | Eat Avery's Bones | Attractive and Popular (1919 Hemphill)

This is the only show I could find tonight and that's okay because with this lineup you don't really need to go to any other shows. Blonde Girls play really intense songs that mix prog/fusion complexity with the forcefulness of noise punk. They blow almost every band I've seen them with off the stage and they do it while just kind of shrugging and without a shred of pretentiousness. If you can track down their debut seven inch, "Husky Deluxe", I highly recommend it. I think one side of that seven inch is better than all of the local releases I've heard in 2006, critically acclaimed or otherwise. But that's just me. I've seen Eat Avery's Bones quite a few times now and it's been different every time but always really fun. Attractive and Popular bring their dance rock all the way from Arkansas to Texas so often, you'd think they were from Denton. Go see them at 1919 and witness them live up to their name.

2. DJ Wild in the Streets (Hailey's)

If you just want to hang out and not see bands play this is probably the best place to do it tonight. The DJ with the mouthful of a name gives you an earful tonight at Hailey's. Maybe she'll play "My Little Red Book".

1. Faux Fox | Chief Death Rage | Cry Blood Apache | The Strange Boys (Rubber Gloves)

Faux Fox has been playing 80's sounding, keyboard heavy rock for so long that they actually existed in a time when it wasn't nearly as common to do so. Their music sometimes seems to almost border on parody and they piss a lot of people off, which is always a plus. Faux Fox also has one of the most obnoxious band websites I've ever seen. Chief Death Rage is Shane and A-Train from The Undoing of David Wright playing with a third member in a sludge rock power trio. The one time I saw them was really good and I've been meaning to catch them again. Cry Blood Apache is an Austin trio that play scratchy and disjointed songs that get better with each listen. They have gained some notoriety through guerilla style shows where they just show up and play on the street or someone else's show or even in a museum. I'm sure you're aware of The Strange Boys. I respect the fact that they don't play exclusively with other garage rock styled bands.

2. Record Hop | White Drugs | The Backsliders (Dan's Silverleaf)

Dan's Silverleaf is a probably a good venue to see Record Hop at. The sound is pretty good and that's important since I always seem to catch this band in a worse case scenario as far as sound is concerned. In my opinion, their self released debut, "Pareidolia" is one of the better local albums in the past five years by a DFW band. The newer songs that aren't on that record have impressed me live as well. White Drugs play trashy rock and roll that's kind of like Pussy Galore when they started playing actual songs. According to The Backsliders Myspace page layout they like alcohol and rock music.

3. White Ghost Shivers (Sons Of Hermann Hall)

White Ghost Shivers continue their journey through DFW by appearing at Sons Of Hermann Hall tonight and that's probably the ideal venue for this group. 

4. DJ Panda Flower/DJ Tiger Bee/The Nitrons (Double Wide)

This 60's retro theme event would probably be fun just to hear all the obscure records I don't have the money or time to invest in played really loud and clear instead of suffering through swishy files on an MP3 blog. There is also a band playing but I can't tell if they're a surf group or not just by looking at the flier.

5. Washing Machine | Shelter Belt | Lousy Robot (Darkside Lounge)

Washing Machine has been discussed here before and I when I listened to them again today I noticed they sound kind of like Beck's softer non-rapping albums. Shelter Belt and Lousy Robot are both touring acts that play really poppy indie rock songs.

6. Will Johnson (Bend Studio)

Will Johnson of Centromatic is playing at this venue I've never heard of. I think the place also doubles as a yoga studio or something. Check it Out.

7. Zoo: The Visual Menagerie (The Cavern)

This celebrated and unique event is on tonight at The Cavern.

I've got time to post three shows to supplement the list tonight:

Sorry, the Current Leaves show at SHQ is tomorrow night. We'll be sure to add it on the list tomorrow for all you "special" people.

Current Leaves | Chris Garver (SHQ Denton)
Show starts at 8pm. I've never seen them live, and I haven't heard any new material, but I really think Current Leaves is one of the best bands in the area right now. This will also be a great night to see them play since they'll be playing at SHQ with Chris Garver, another WSJR favorite. This show will give you a good look at some of the better talent in Denton right now. Secret Headquarters is located at the old art prostitute space in Denton. Click above for better directions.

Eat Avery's Bones is at J&Js but I haven't had time to look up who they are playing with. I'd get there at 9 if I was you.

Also, the excellent Night Game Cult will be playing at Karma for an art opening. Unfortunately, I don't have any other information on the aritsts.

Thats it.

And I apologize if you've sent me an email that I haven't returned (there are over 100 in my inbox). But I will start getting to all of them this weekend. Thanks for your patience.

1. The Theater Fire | White Ghost Shivers (The Wreck Room)

The Theater Fire have established themselves well here holding their own on the Good Records chart for awhile now. Expect selections from the album that got them there, "Everybody has a Dark Side", to be played with the all the love and attention a band usually gives it's hometown crowd. Unless of course, a band hates it's hometown (common around here). Then the crowd gets extra love and attention. The Theater FIre is playing the Wreck Room and I think that's really cool since this band is not exactly The Wreck Room's usual bread and butter. I would say that the average Wreck Room show is a little bit more "aggro", to use a word someone described me as this week. White Ghost Shivers are from Austin and I think they're probably one of the best live acts in Texas. They play this really Vaudeville style of music and none of their songs bear any resemblance to Rock in any way save for some risque subject material. I saw them at an art gallery and there was free root beer and everyone was really happy.

2. DJ Gorilla vs Bear (Cavern)

Gorilla vs. Bear has quickly turned into a one man blogging empire by branching out into the world of satellite radio and live DJ sets. I'm sure he'll be playing a mix of pop and electro tinged indie rock with some nineties hip-hop thrown in, which would be the highlight for me. Gorilla vs. Bear is probably the most famous currently active music entity in Dallas right now, more popular than any local band I can think of. Even if you can think of one getting more attention they're probably not going to get their own radio show anytime soon.

3. The Whigs | Red Monroe | Voot Cha Index (Gypsy Tea Room's "Tea Room)

"Fader" Magazine approved band The Whigs play the kind of dirty open chord pop rock that bands have been trying to perfect since The Replacements, who will always be associated with this style of playing. Red Monroe is different from the more straight ahead Dallas rock bands due to the desperate nature of the vocals rather than focusing on power pop harmonies. Voot Cha Index sound like they came out of the gumball machine at Good Records, complete with sugary songs and Brian Wilson references.

4. El Boxeo | Mega Church 1 | Everything Looks Better Upside Down (1919 Hemphill)

El Boxeo describe themselves as playing mostly "post rock" but I think they deserve better than that unfortunate and dated term. I was impressed by their minimal arrangements and the well placed dropping in and out of various instruments. I don't think enough bands realize how effective that is. Space and silence are just as important as full on rocking and it's refreshing to hear a band that understands that. Mega Church 1 plays what's been described as 8-bit prog or 8-bit doom metal. The song samples sound like the soundtrack to the 8-bit classic "Rygar". I don't get to say that enough when talking about bands. I can't really describe Everything Looks Better Upside down but I remember every song sounding different when I heard them.

5. The Prids (Rubber Gloves)

The Prids are actually compared to Van Gogh and Hemingway on their band bio. I really don't know how to address that but I do know that they sound very much like a somber British New Wave era act, though they hail from Portland. I liked the skeletal intros to a couple of their songs that kind of resembled Young Marble Giants. If you're into the newest wave of New New Wave then go to Rubber Gloves tonight.

6. Faceless Werewolves (The Aardvark)

There are a few other bands on this bill who are nothing like Faceless Werewolves. As in, they're KDGE aspiring types. I always get kind of suspicious when I notice a bill like this because a lot of times the band that sticks out ends up not playing. I think a the band usually realizes they're on a sub par bill at a sub par club and goes out drinking instead. Faceless Werewolves were, at one time, a beloved garage rock band from Denton with two boisterous females and one quiet guy that played guitar. They have since moved to the crowded music scene of Austin. They were a pretty entertaining live experience as I recall. So if Faceless Werewolves are actually playing at the Aardvark tonight then you should go.

Sorry, there is no list today. Feel free to post anything. Be back tomorrow.