Michael Chamy sent me the email below, and I was wondering if people who know more about the 90's scene or know this guy personally might like to comment or provide us with more information. We noticed that Wanz had posted something about this in a comment thread the other day, but since I don't know anything about this person and very little about his band(s), I figured we'd give someone else the chance to share:
"apparently Chris Foley was found dead sometime in the past few days in an Austin motel room. I heard this secondhand. Foley, as far as I know, was most recently and perhaps still in Austin's very good melodic shoegaze dream/pop group the Swells (circa 2000 to either present or recently, though I think Foley was only in the group the past couple years, though I am not certain), but much more noted in DFW and Texas at large for being a core member of the great slowcore space-pop outfit of the late 90s, Transona Five (circa 1995 to 2000) ... not sure if they were technically from Ft. Worth, Denton or elsewhere in DFW .... but they made some serious waves around here at some point, especially at the end of the Denton space rock thing (they were kinda closer to Comet & Bedhead though) .... they were on the Austin label Sandwich Records, and I think they may have even moved to Boston or something, perhaps causing their demise."
Here is a a short Wikipedia entry about Transona Five, and here is an Allmusic entry about the Swells.
UPDATE 555pm: A blog on Transona 5's Myspace confirms this.
Rob Viktumwill be spinning old and new hip hop at Monkey Bar if you're into that sort of thing.
Jason Anderson | Fishboy | Tha Bracelets (Rubber Gloves) I was a bit intrigued when I read that Jason Anderson has recorded with people like The Blow, Calvin Johnson and the Microphones, but I became a little less optimistic when I saw that his live shows were described as "participatory, intimate exchanges of humanity and joy." Yuck. Anyway, I spent some time listening to his songs, and despite his impressive background and apparent ability to be high on life, I think I'll stay at home and have an intimate exchange with my t.v. and a Mavs game. Besides, if I want to go to a show where participation is actually fun, I can just wait until Akron/Family plays around here again.
And speaking of waiting for bands to play around here, rumors are flying that Gypsy Tea Room will be closing down at the end of March. Seriously, if this happens, where are moderately popular touring bands going to play when they come to Dallas? Will we all have to drive up to Denton every time a decent band comes through, or will we have to start giving our money to that Christian place for the privilege of not being able to drink at a rock show? Maybe us Dallas types should start pressuring Rubber Gloves to move down here like NOW.
Teenage Symphony | Klickitat | Dream Tigers (Club Dada) This bill was organized by Meat Radio. Teenage Symphony has added a new member and as a result, strengthened the group's overall sound and vocal performance considerably. Klickitat borders on show tune territory with some interesting and spirited vocal aerobics. They should be warned that their band name instantly brings hardcore legends, Clickitat Ikatowi, to mind. However, nobody would get either group's music confused upon further investigation.
Unwed Sailor | Comrade | The New Frontiers (The Cavern) Unwed Sailor is a one-time instrumental group that has received a surprising amount of credit for suddenly adding...vocals. Wow. The vocals are of the hushed variety so you might even wonder why they bothered, considering their instrumental were decent enough. Then you hear the other two bands they're playing with and suddenly remember why a subtle approach is sometimes best.
Mad Scientists (J & J's Pizza) I have to love a band who actually describes themselves as "divisive" in their bio. And you think you're brave.
Not a lot going on as you might guess, but if you Dallasites who didn't make it up to Denton this weekend would like to see what Chris Garveris all about, I would recommend stopping by Club Dadaearly (around 8pm) to check out what I'm assuming will be a solo set from him.
After that, theres Bad Ass Jazz @ The Amsterdam, like you didn't already know.
And we were wondering if anyone had any decent pictures from the show on Friday... we've got some, but they didn't turn out very good for some reason. If you have some and you'd like to share, email weshotjr@yahoo.com, would you?
1. The Shins - Wincing the Night Away 2. Menomena - Friend and Foe 3. Of Montreal - Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? 4. Various Artists - Zac Crain for Dallas Mayor Compilation 5. Deerhoof - Friend Opportunity 6. The Earlies - The Enemy Chorus 7. The Good, The Bad & The Queen - The Good, The Bad & The Queen 8. St. Vincent - Paris is Burning 9. Grizzly Bear - Yellow House 10. The Decemberists - The Crane Wife 11. Radiant - We Hope You Win 12. Suburban Kids with Biblical Names - #3 13. Joanna Newsom - Ys 14. Pilotdrift - Water Sphere 15. Arbouretum - Rites of Uncovering 16. Beach House - Beach House 17. Benoit Pioulard - Precis 18. Clinic - Visitations 19. Fujiya & Miyagi - Transparent Things 20. The Polyphonic Spree - Wait
Gotta say, the new of Montreal album is quite good. Easily their best in my opinionation.
Just wanted to say thanks to everyone that came out to Secret Headquarters on Friday. We were pleased to find a packed house and a very friendly atmosphere up in Denton (its always amazing to see how excited drunk people get when "What A Fool Believes" comes on), and we hope to do some other things up in Denton in the not too distant future. We'll have more on the show a little later. Now this:
Didn't have a chance to post this earlier today, but after the Baptist Generals Performance at Fra House this evening, Shane English and Gray Saint Germain Gideon, better known as Cosmic Cat Nip, will be spinning records in the guest house behind Fra House till quite late in the evening. They promise a visuals set up as well. A solid add to an already exciting show.
Lots of things going on this weekend and not a lot of time to write about them (we're planning a concert you jerks!), so if you read the show listings and pretend that the most insightful and humorous paragraph you could possibly imagine appeared next to each of them, you'll be able to get a pretty good idea of what we would have written if we had the time (unless you're just too dumb to imagine how good our writing can be). Dig? And Denton is quite obviously going to be insane this weekend, so you Dallas kids might want to think about making a trip on either or both nights. I know we say that a lot, but this time we mean it:
FRIDAY
Tree Wave | War Wizards | Night Game Cult | Chris Garver | Flashlight Party (Secret Headquarters-Denton) Just in case you don't know, its doors and Flashlight Party at 7, Chris Garver at 8, Night Game at 9, War Wizards at 10 and Tree Wave at 11. There will be a FREE keg inside, but you should bring your own too since I hear those SHQ dudes will probably be able to finish the thing by themselves in under an hour. So get there early and drink quickly. And if you haven't seen Tree Wave live, you really should change that tonight. I promise that both the music and visual presentation is fantastic.
And it looks as though things will be wrapping up around 1130 or 12 at SHQ, meaning that you could stay until the very end and still catch:
Dosh headline a show with Sole and Skyryder at Rubber Gloves. For the past two weeks, I've been listening to The Lost Take, Dosh's latest record, and I've gotta tell you: its wonderful. Fans of jazz spiked post-rock like Sea and Cake, synth pop like The Cansecos and Russian Futurists, and the Canadian spacekraut of Caribou should really dig this stuff. Doing drugs before you go might make this even better unless you have a totally bummer freak out or something, bro (or is it brah?). Dosh's stuff seems far less hip hop oriented than most Anticon artists, but Anticon peeps will dig it as well, especially those that are into the strange sounds of Flagstaff's Sole, who is opening. And its Rubber Gloves, so I'm going to guess that Dosh will go on some time after midnight.
The Angelus | Noise Revival Orchestra | Grass Fight (Hailey's) Another show in Denton that you can catch after that first bad ass show up top... and whether you go or not, you should really swing by The Angelus' Myspace page and check out their new song "Turned to Stone," because its really damn good. The ghostly orchestra sounds of Austin's Noise Revival, um, Orchestra sound pretty interesting too. And you want to read all about Grass Fight? Well go to their highly accessible Myspace page and do so. I think they call that kind of thing "black on black crime," do they not?
Early in the evening (around 7), you can stop by Violent Squid's new pad (1729 Scripture St. in Denton) for some BBQ and a brief VS set.
In Dallas, the Hot Flash! Partywith Stepehen R ar Fallout Lounge (Expo Park between Minc and Meridian Room) is clearly the best thing going. December's debut of the Hot Flash was packed and a lot of fun, with an eclectic DJ set including everything from trash hip hop to 80's synth to all other kinds of shit I don't have time to describe. This one looks to be equally as good, and probably the best place to go on Saturday if you're looking to score without having to go to a Meat Market.
Baptist Generals | Shiny Around the Edges | The Modern History Duet (House show at Fra House- 2127 W. Oak St. in Denton) Show is BYOB, starts around 1030 and completely free from what I can tell. Shit, this is going to be a lot of fun. I'd get there early if I were you, because I'm expecting the place to be packed and possibly impossible to get into after a certain point in the night. The Modern History Duet is a jazz duet featuring members of Notes from Underground.
Panty Drop Sock Hop with: Wild in the Streets | Sticky Buns | MC Router (Rubber Gloves) A girly DJ show that will apparently be attended by 8 million girls.
And finally, the guys from Hardin Sweaty and the Ready to Gowill be co hosting a house party show at 1227 Fuller in far East Dallas with The Freek Outand a couple other bands that I can't recall at this time. Sorry. Anyway, its five bucks and free drinks inside (keg and mixed) and starts at 8pm.
ADD: And how could we forget the excellent Pleasant Groveplaying at the Cavern with Student Film? We didn't forget, thats how.
Check back with us this weekend for updates and Sunday stuff.
It's a dance party at Rubber Gloves tonight that starts with the record-spinning debut of Nate from Warren Jackson Hearne's band. He'll be playing everything from Annie to The Tom Tom Club. Cosmic Catnip is the newest project from Shane English formerly of The Undoing of David Wright and currently of Chief Death Rage. If Chief Death Rage took the riffier aspects of The Undoing to a different level, then Cosmic Catnap takes the electronic aspects to an equal extreme. The two song samples on their page actually made me smile the duration of my listen. That's saying a lot considering I spend most of my time sampling songs on Myspace pages with a look that's an unhealthy mix between confusion and disgust. You can always trust Shane's taste, whether he's writing Iommi inspired sludge or making Pauly Shore references over dance beats. Did you catch those influences on Cosmic Catnap's profile? They're like all totally OOP!
"Tonight we are gonna show the videos from The Liars' "Drums Not Dead". Gabriel is joining me on the decks. Should be a lot of fun. Last wek we had to delay the Can Movie until after the Mavs game. This week we will play The Liars' stuff whenever it seems like a good time to throw it on. Cheers!!!"
All I really want to say about this show is that I had a hard time describing Johnny Lloyd Rollins' music until I read this rather modest description of what he's all about in The Observer:
"I don't sing badly enough, I'm not ugly enough, and I don't have a beard,"
schutze rules, scene rule and gang gang dance rules
Schutze Rules: First things first. We're pretty sure that a large number of our Dallas readers live somewhere over in Old East Dallas (which I believe can be defined as east of 75, south of Mockingbird, west of White Rock Lake and north of I-30), and if you happen to be one of those people (or simply someone interested in these things), you might want to read Jim Schutze's excellent piece on the changing character of East Dallas. One question: If the tear-down yuppies want to live in nice new cookier cutter houses, why don't they just move to the suburbs? Its gotta be a lot more practical for a young family than paying $250,000 for the right to tear down a house on a small lot so that you can live on one of the "M" Streets.
Scene Rule: I don't know who Ed Masley is, but can the Observer music section stop referencing the Nuggets Box please? I mean its o.k. to do it sometimes, and it probably isn't unfair to reference it when discussing the excellent new Clinic record, but how many times have you seen the Observer do this in the past couple of years? Just quit it dudes.
(and oh yeah, I DID mean it when I said that Clinic's new record, Visitations, is excellent. Surely their best in a while, even if the band clearly has a songwriting formula that hasn't changed a great deal throughout their existence. HERE is a link to download "Children of the Kellogg," one of my favorites off the new one.)
Gang Gang Dance Rules: I've grown to love Gang Gang Dance over the past couple of years, and their upcoming DVD project, entitled Retina Riddim, looks like it will help keep the flame alive until we get a new record from them. This video (which features new music from the band) appears to be pretty experimental and all over the place, but to quote Ashtray's father, "that shit is FUN."
Heartrapers | Chief Death Rage (J&Js- FREE) Don't know much about Heartrapers since I don't recall having heard them before today (and they've only got one song on their Myspace page), but based on that little bit of information, I would say that they could possibly be enjoyable for anyone that likes Mr. Bungle, Jesus Lizard and Blood Brothers, but you probably have to like all three in order to dig it. Or maybe not. I don't know. And whether that sounds good or not, the always solid CDR is on the bill as well. Starts around 9 and FREE.
I didn't know anything about it until I saw this report on Pitchfork today, but apparently Uwe Nettelbeck, Faust's founder, died almost a week ago of presently unknown causes. I hadn't really discovered Faust for myself until about two years ago, but I've grown to enjoy and respect their music quite a bit since that time. And although I can't say I listen to them nearly as much as some of their peers (Can, Neu!, etc), they were certainly one of the rawest and most exciting bands of the Krautrock era, and its safe to say that Faust will continue to be remembered as one of most important bands of that time and place.
