Secret Headquarters (Denton)
This Friday, January 26th

$5
Doors at 7
Free Keg Inside
BYOB

Tree Wave-11pm
War Wizards-10pm
Night Game Cult-9pm
Chris Garver-8pm

Flashlight Party- before, between and possibly after the sets

Tiger | The Lovely Sparrows | Midwinter Fits | Clint Niosi (Club Dada)

This show features a handful of melodic song-oriented acts with embellished arrangements draped around their respective skeletal song structures. Tiger sounded like the most noteworthy of the bunch, utilizing pretty keyboard and piano parts against the low and gravelly contrast of David Berman-like vocals. Midwinter Fits' music sounded like their name suggests with the darkly overcast mood they present and gloomily slow songs. The Lovely Sparrows are the most upbeat group on this bill and as a result theirs might be the only set where you'll hear a sped-up tempo. The ubiquitous Clint Niosi is also performing, and if Aaron Bartz and Boyd Dixon of Tame...Tame and Quiet are backing him up then that alone might make this show worth catching.

1. Various Artists - Zac Crain for Dallas Mayor Compilation (2XCD)
2. The Polyphonic Spree - Wait
3. Deerhoof - Friend Opportunity
4. St. Vincent - Paris is Burning
5. Joanna Newsom - Ys
6. Baboon - Baboon
7. Heartless Bastards - Stairs and Elevators
8. Radiant - We Hope You Win
9. Cold War Kids - Robbers and Cowards
10. Heartless Bastards - All This Time
11. Regina Spektor - Begin to Hope
12. Cat Power - The Greatest
13. The Gentleman Losers - The Gentleman Losers
14. Dosh - The Lost Take
15. El Perro Del Mar - El Perro Del Mar
16. Om/Current 93 - Inerrant Rays of Infallible Sun
17. North Sea and Rameses III - Night of the Ankou
18. Black Tie Dynasty - Movements
19. Benoit Pioulard - Precis
20. Brightblack Morning Light - Brightblack Morning Light

Curious to hear that Zac Crain CD...

But there is a big empty comments section if you know something we don't. Which isn't often.

(The following descriptions were written by DL, so complain accordingly)

(SR- Massive problems with blogger and other personal factors have caused us to be late and short with the weekender today. However, there doesn't seem to be a whole hell of a lot going on this weekend, so you're cool dog.)

FRIDAY

Lil' Wayne | Paul Wall | Trey Alizay (Fair Park Coliseum)
You see that picture above? Its a picture of Lil' Wayne. Why is there a picture of Lil Wayne on this post? Well, aside from the fact that this appears to be one of the thinnest weekends we've seen here in a while, Pitchfork was right about Dedication 2, Lil Wayne's mixtape with DJ Drama. Its pretty damn good. Tickets are $35, so you can't go as an ironic hipster unless you have a very unironic job.

Mix Tapes And Baby Fights with: Fishboy | Laura Gibson /Bryce Richardson | Frank Hejl /Cooperation Corporation (Rubber Gloves)
Frank's farewell performance of his beloved variety show. He'll be moving to New York soon. Laura Gibson and Fishboy are the musical acts this evening. Laura Gibson is acoustic singer-songwriter fare while Fishboy will be making his electric debut tonight.

SATURDAY

Jeff Tweedy | Scott McCaughey (Granada Theater SOLD OUT)

The overly worshipped Jeff Tweedy sells out the Granada on Saturday, which just adds to the list of his sellouts. I saw him backstage killing the free vegetarian food at the Touch and Go fest. Surely, his finest performance.

Passport Exhibit Gallery New Balance Party feat. The Party (3112 Swiss Ave.)
One of a few "Party" related happenings this weekend. The RSVP event at this boutique is to celebrate the premiere of limited-edition New Balance sneakers. Which are excellent for avoiding a narrow path, or so I've been told. Email Peg@posturemagnetic.com to RSVP.

Art Prostitute - Pale Analogies: Opening reception is from 7-10 PM and features the work of Brendan Monroe, Evah Fan, Zachary Rossman, Brooks Salzwedel, Marci Washington and Paul Urich. Monroe and Fan will be in attendance.

Roxy Does Dallas: Roxy Cottontail | Select | Sober (Zubar)

Solid trio with Select, Sober and DJ Roxy Cottontail from New York. Roxy is a former big NYC promoter who started making music and will be playing Bmore club, Hip Hop, and 80's stuff. If you're lucky she'll play this track that samples one of the greatest dance numbers ever, "Mind Your Own Business" by the Delta 5. You can't really go wrong with that as your foundation.

Heartless Bastards | Pleasant Grove (Sons of Hermann Hall)

Fat Possum recording artists Heartless Bastards will share the stage with the seasoned Dallas group Pleasant Grove at Deep Ellum's last charming venue.

SUNDAY

We'll let you know...

The following email from Metrognome Collective's James Watkins just appeared in my inbox, and the same message has been posted on Metrognome's website. This really sucks. 1518 was a great space, and I hope these guys can bring their intelligence, energy and enthusiasm to a better location in the near future.

After much discussion and debate, Mission Co-op/Metrognome Collective is going to discontinue operations and efforts at 1518 East Lancaster. Please, rest assured this is not the end of the Metrognome Collective. Unfortunately we just don't have the resources to make the current location work for us. We will be moving everything out of the building and into storage by Feb. 1.
Thank you all for attending our most recent fundraiser at the Wreck Room earlier this month. We raised almost a thousand dollars, the bulk of which has been sent as a cashiers check to the IRS as part of our application for federal tax exemption. The rest will go toward paying off our final bills. We expect to receive confirmation of our 501(c)3 status in the next few months. Once we have our legal ducks in a row, and have settled all of the details of moving out of our current building, we will be putting together a series of exciting fundraiser events at various sites around the Metroplex in the spring.

We will also be pursuing additional grants and other funding sources, to meet our goal of finding a new space somewhere in Fort Worth to continue operations some time in the summer. I continue to believe that we have shown ourselves to be a vital and viable force for promoting and assisting all types of artists over the last year, and I believe this is an opportunity for us to regroup and find a new location in a building and neighborhood better suited for our goal of providing a true community arts space.

Our special thanks go out to the men and women of the city of Fort Worth's Development Department who were so gracious in instructing us in the details and nuances of the International Building Code, ANSI standards, and Fort Worth's amended building codes. Key support has also come from our landlord Flora Brewer, whose assistance in launching the Metrognome was indispensible, and who has proven herself to be a devoted patron of the arts in her own right.

And finally, thanks to the Metrognome's vital and growing artists community, the residents who have assisted and poured their energy into making the collective what it is. Thank you all for your help and consideration, I know everyone did their very best to make this possible and we all deeply appreciate it. I look forward to working with each of you in the future.

The Chimeneas | Dirty Water Disease | Aunt's Analog | Mom | Dromez (J & J's Pizza)

Very strong lineup tonight at J & J's Pizza including a couple of bands who have credentials to burn. The shockingly noisy Aunt's Analog are one of the few bands you'll ever hear who have actually accomplished conveying the live nastiness of their music on their profile player. They once opened for Wolf Eyes at the height of that band's hype, much to the dismay of Emo's, and good for them. Aunt's Analog mastermind Matt Lacomette also did time as a member of one of North Texas' all-time great (and greatly overlooked) pop-rock bands, Climate. Also playing is Fort Worth's The Chimeneas, which features members of one of North Texas' all-time great hardcore bands, ...Of Death. The Chimeneas are the polar opposite of that erratically spastic group, and feature a lot more texture and slower rhythms. They lace the spaced-out tempos with guitars drowning in reverb and subtle synth parts. Dirty Water Disease plays a very dark brand of experimental rock music. This would also be a good chance to see what Stonedrangers's been talking about by catching Mom's set.

Lost Generation with Wanz Dover (Fallout Lounge)

Wanz continues to nail it with this excellent idea:

"Really good night planned. A special Alice Coltrane tribute. The new album from The Fall and at 10pm The Can Free Concert movie from 1972. If you ever wanted to know why so many people bow down at the feet of CAN this movie hits it on the button. Guaranteed to blow you away. I also have a bunch of other new stuff to drop on ya. Come drink, Come dance, come geek out Lost Gen style."

I love geeking out. I remember when you could only get that Can performance either with the box set or as a $5 VHS bootleg at RPM Records. Those were different times.

Jucifer | Bowel | Hand Of Onan (Rubber Gloves)

Jucifer is a guy-girl duo known mostly for one thing: putting on one of the loudest shows you'll ever attend in your life. Hand of Onan features the gross-out humor of Denton's Wally Campbell. Wally runs local legend Hot Link Records and the lyrics to his songs would make David Allan Coe blush.

Cartright | Leatherbag | Future Clouds And Radar (The Cavern)

Austin-centric show with Cartright probably being the standout act. The other two groups play mild and inoffensive pop songs. Some of these band-bios are really starting to wear on me. Don't tell me what authors you're influenced by or how you're really into wind-chimes or your mom's pancakes. Just fucking admit you listen to Townes Van Zandt, "Street Legal", and Leonard Cohen way too much. It would make my life just a little easier.

80's Night with DJ G (Hailey's)

It's the man's birthday, so do him a favor and don't make any idiotic requests.

Most of you knew someone like this in High School, didn't you? And why did those kids always have that same mustache?

Secret Headquarters in Denton will be the place to be next Friday... come join us for:

Tree Wave

War Wizards (debut performance of a new band featuring Lars Larsen, Wanz Dover and Shawn Mauck of Silk Stocking. No one has heard their music yet, but we've seen phrases like "digital hardcore" and "no wave" used to describe it.)

Night Game Cult

Chris Garver

Flashlight Party (before, between and after the sets)

$5 bucks gets you the show and as much of the free keg as you can grab (doors at 7). We highly recommend that you BYOB as well, however, because the keg at Art Prostitute ran out pretty fast. Glad to see we have some drinking problems around here. More details to come...

The Day God Died | The Witty Bastards | Final Fight | Mom (Rubber Gloves)
This show will also feature DJ sets from Chief Death Rage bassist Shane between bands. Mom is the clear highlight here, but we read somewhere that Final Fight, a new Denton band, is supposedly influenced by groups like Mogwai and Explosions in the Sky... haven't actually heard them, but you can take that for what its worth. The Day God Died are a decent metal band from Denton... haven't heard them live, but could be good.

ADD: Flashlight Party is @ Hailey's as well.

First, you should go to Mom's Myspace page and watch a part of their excellent performance at Good Records. The video moves kind of slow (at least it did for me), but the song sounds great. I guess the fact that three of their CDs appear on this week's Good Records Chart indicates that some of the people at the show enjoyed it as much as we did.

And after you finish that, you might want to stop by the Myspace page of Plano's Farah and check out the song "Dancing Girls," which Gorilla vs Bear blogged about just last week. Chris didn't exactly give it a ringing endorsement in his post, but when we learned she was from Plano (and relatively unknown to us), we decided to give it a listen. The music we found on her page was a bit strange to be sure (especially for a local artist), but I was instantly intrigued by the dark, minimal synth production (it kind of sounds like The Knife tricking Alan Braxe and Fred Falke into taking downers and listening to Electroclash) and Farah's lyrical stew of random thoughts, detached teen angst, bizarre journal entries and Farsi. After a few brief Myspace conversations with the singer, we learned that she is currently working with producer Johnny Jewel of Portland's Glass Candy (although its unclear whether he worked on any of the tracks that appear on her Myspace page) and is also collaborating on a project with Wanz Dover. Some of Farah's lyrics struck us as more than a bit silly, but the overall mood created by the contrast between the production, lyrical content and vocal delivery is quite interesting, and at times a lot of fun. Certainly worth listening to.

RTB2 | Matt Whipkey | Brass Bed (Club Dada)

Didn't get a chance to give these acts a good enough listen but I'm somewhat familiar with RTB2 and this was the only remotely interesting show I could find. Be warned that RTB2 is one of those classic cases where the band's Myspace profile has elaborately fleshed out tracks while the live show is just two guys, a guitar, and a drum set. Brass Bed is described as "The Flaming Lips crossing paths with The White Stripes". If I'm not mistaken, didn't that already happen?