Those of you who were around here last year know that we had a policy during the playoffs: no posts after a Mavs loss. One of the reasons we did this was because we knew a Mavs loss would cause our writing to suffer: essentially, we were afraid that we'd jump to irrational conclusions about the games because we were too pissed and/or drunk to calmly analyze what we had just witnessed.
And frankly, despite my best efforts, I'm starting to think that we might have to adopt that policy again this year. After all, there are a few things we need to remember before we start talking shit: the Mavs were consistently the best team in the NBA this season. They won 67 games, went on multi double digit winning streaks, and basically seemed to come through whenever and however they needed in order to win, often dominating even the NBA's best teams in the process. The Mavs were one of the deepest, most talented and disciplined teams in the NBA pretty much every night they stepped out on the court, and it would be insane to think that Golden State, an 8th seed that has played terrible on the road all year, would be able to beat the Mavs in a seven game playoff series, especially since the Mavs have been so focused on winning a championship all year long. These are the kinds of things that we might tend to overlook if we started posting every time the Mavs lost, and it really isn't fair.
Instead of having faith in the NBA's best team, we might, for example, get too hung up on the fact that the Mavs came out in game 1 with no fire, drive, or sense of urgency. Or we might spend too much time talking about how Dirk looked limp, timid and unconcerned throughout the whole game, or how Golden State seemed to know how to get him rattled from the start, causing him to shoot a dismal 4-16 from the field. Or we might go on and on about the fact that the Mavs, one of the NBA's deepest teams, was only able to get 4 points from their bench, including absolutely nothing from Jerry Stackhouse, who should be a serious contender for sixth man of the year. Or we might incorrectly focus on the fact that the Warriors, despite not playing their best basketball, were able to control the tempo and feel of the game all night, and didn't seem to look nervous or intimidated at any point as they maintained control pretty much throughout. Or we might waste our time wondering if Nellie, who is out for blood against Mark Cuban and the Mavericks organization, might just know enough about Dirk, Avery, Del, and the rest of the team to expose all their weaknesses on such a regular basis that even if the Mavs do win this series, the rest of the NBA will have a blueprint on how to take them down. Or we might just pointlessly worry about the fact that over the past two seasons, the Mavs have not been able to beat the Warriors under pretty much any circumstances (including their last six meetings), which is quite problematic since they are presently better than they've been at any other point during that stretch.
You see? These posts are just a downer, and quite frankly, we're probably allowing our anger to get the best of us. The Mavs are the best team in the NBA, and they just had an off night tonight. Thats all. And there is no WAY they could lose in the first round to a mediocre team like Golden State. Right? Right?
The guy to the left is pretty much the personification of the reason why I'm embarrassed to even mention "4/20" in polite conversation. However, seeing as how I'm currently re-reading Hunter Thompson's Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail (its creepy how many parallels you can draw between 72 and 04), I guess I'll let my freak flag fly and tell everyone to go take drugs or something on this very special day. Besides, everything else about April 20th is pretty creepy, meaning that we could probably do a lot worse than a dude with a funny hat and bongos. Cool? Anyway, I anticipated having more time to do this than I do, so things are going to be a bit short today. But what do you care? You're all probably too high to read anyway. Lets go:
FRIDAY
The Party with Select | Sober | Witnes (Zubar) There hasn't been a party at Zubar in a while, I believe, so this might be your best bet tonight if you're looking for a chance to get stupid at a straight up dance party.
Stereo On Strike with U-Gene | Wanz and Ineka | Matthewmatics | Stephen R(Avenue Arts) Promising diverse sets of minimal techno, DJ sets and live laptop performances (along with a keg), this should be a great spot both before and after hours to party and hear some music that you pretty much can't find anywhere else in the metroplex. $6 cover.
Mad Scientists | Violent Squid | Oveo | Christian! Teenage Runaways (Secret Headquarters) All over the place experimental show in Denton featuring the rotating cast of characters known as Violent Squid, lead by Ty Stamp and including collaboration with members of Oveo and Shane English of Ghosthuster, Undoing of David Wright and Chief Death Rage. This is also Mad Scientists last show in their current incarnation.
The Baptist Generals (Dallas Public Library- 8pm) This is free, literally goes on all night, and takes place in the, um, big library downtown? Yep. Baptist Generals play at 8, and you can get the low down on all the other stuff going on right here.
Young Jeezy | Lil Wayne/Fat Joe (Smirnoff Music Centre)
Bob White and the F-Electricsare playing with someone at J&Js for free starting at 9pm. I'd tell you who else was going to be there, but I can't read the damn poster.
Pete Rock DJ set (Minc) And I reminisce over this guy, for real. No idea what kind of stuff Pete Rock is busting out these days, but I bet his DJ shows absolutely fucking rule. Read more about his long career here. Sober and Select will be opening.
Check back with us for Sunday shows AND the start of our Mavs playoff blogging... I know some of the anons are super excited about that! Sorry to have to be so short. Also sorry if I screwed any links up.
Well at least Pitchfork waited until Ghosthustler played their first show: The band got a nice little write up on the Forkcase today, which you can read by clicking the link above. Congrats to those guys for all the attention, because the hype seems more than justified.
A few weeks ago, someone in one of our comment sections remarked that one of the only ways to hear interesting new music in Dallas these days is to go see a DJ set. Given the context, it seemed like the statement was made in jest, but when taken literally, there appears to be more than a bit of truth to it. Although there ARE talented musicians in Dallas making interesting original music right now (Treewave, Unconscious Collective, The Frenz, various members of the Laptop Deathmatch, etc.), many of them perform sparsely, and the majority of forward-looking, well attended and interesting local music events that have taken place in the city over the past six months have been DJ shows. The talented Central Booking crew has played a major role in this development and have deservedly received most of the local coverage, but recently, a veteran local DJ named Keith P released a free downloadable mix CD that is likely to garner him some attention of his own.
Keith P has been spinning around the city for several years as a long standing member of Unit One, a DJ/design/marketing crew that is probably best known around town for its Vice RecordsRun the Road release parties and Dub Assembly, its rotating dubstep party currently happening once a month at the Green Elephant. For the past few years, Keith's sets have focused mainly on 2-step, dubstep and grime, rapidly evolving genres that have started to gain popularity in American electronic underground circles over the past few years. These influences can certainly be heard all over Bass Music, Keith P's latest collection of songs, but the mix happily finds the DJ branching out into a myriad of other highly relevant sounds while utilizing eclecticism, effective live mixing and a seemingly instinctive knack for track selection to create one of the most shrewdly contemporary, accessible and exhilarating party soundtracks we've heard all year.
Mixed completely live and clocking in at just over an hour, Bass Music is a showcase of contemporary club-bangers that seem to rise, peak and fall at exactly the right times, demonstrating a utilitarian focus on dance floor movement propelled by a selection of highly tasteful tracks that will likely impress even the most knowledgeable vinyl hounds. The mix's main strength lies in the breadth of sounds and scenes that it touches on, shifting from tracks like the bouncy, ultra hyper collaboration between French hip hop act TTC and Bpitch Control'sModeselektor to the sugary r&b dance pop of Jamelia's "Something About You," all with a seamless and casual confidence. Present through the duration of the mix are the influences of acid house, dubstep, hip hop, R&B and even a bit of synth pop, but none of these sounds ever truly shine through to dominate the mood. Instead, we get a virtual meet and greet with some of the most talked about DJs and producers in dance music today, including the glitchy, anthemic new house of Sebastian's "Ross Ross Ross" and the red hot Erol Alkan remix of Justice's "Waters of Nazareth", as well as Jesse Rose and Sinden's hard hitting dub influenced "Me Mobile" and poppier songs from the likes of Lilly Allen, Basement Jaxx and Sneaker Pimps, whom Keith uses to close out the mix with great effect. Balancing menacing, repetitive dub heavy tracks with pulsing bass, blip house hits and exclusive cuts from Drop The Lime and Curses, among others, Keith effectively whips together highly varying sounds and turns them into a unit in which not a single break or turn seems forced or out of place, which is a much more difficult feat than he makes it seem.
Essentially, Bass Music has everything you would expect from a hip, competent mix CD, but the truly exciting thing is that Keith P is someone we have just started to hear things about even though he's been sitting in our backyard for years. You probably couldn't take a better snap shot of the current state of tasteful, quality electro than he has here, and its good to know that Keith is just one of several local DJs with a thumb firmly planted on the pulse of the international dance underground. And speaking of pulses, the cohesive mixing and dance floor appeal of Bass Music make it truly accessible to anybody that has one.
(You can download Keith P's Bass music for free on his Myspace page. Rating is four stars out of a possible five)
Bill Callahan | Sarah Jaffe (Sons Of Hermann Hall) As far as tortured Drag City geniuses go, I prefer David Berman or Neil Hamburger over this guy. Berman's a better singer/songwriter and Hamburger's funnier, even if I have always laughed out loud at that kitty cat picture over there. Callahan's songs (and recording fidelity) have "matured" over the years, but I don't know if that necessarily translates to "improved." I do respect the guy's history and enjoy some of his work but I know he is notoriously inconsistent live. Hopefully he'll feel up to playing a full set tonight at the beautiful Sons Of Hermann Hall. I've always liked that place, but now it's pretty much the only completely respectable venue left in Deep Ellum. Come to think of it, that was probably true five years ago.
Catfish Haven | Lucero (Club Dada) Catfish Haven writes decent and unpretentious pop music and they perform it with refreshing conviction. I saw them last year at some Long Branch Inn day-show and I was prepaed to be bored but left pleasantly surprised. Lucero's bio states that they have been called both "alt-country" and "punk country". What a dilemma. Let me help them out a bit...How about cowpunk? Remember when everything got labeled cowpunk? I definitely don't miss that shit.
Whiskey Folk Ramblers | Denton County Revelators/Sweetgrass (Rubber Gloves) For my money, the Denton County Revelators are one of the best roots/Americana oriented groups from the area.
Lost Generation with Wanz and Ineka (Fallout Lounge) I hear Wanz is playing some Mission of Burma live footage tonight. Wow. What city am I in? Portland? Boston? Providence? When did Dallas get "cool?"
I was actually kind of impressed when I heard that this week's Dallas Observer music section featured a story on Laptop Deathmatch. And then I actually read it. Yikes. You know, I'd be satisfied if it mentioned some of the quality artists that regularly perform at Deathmatches (it doesn't), but the story would at least be marginally acceptable if it didn't read like the synopsis of a Jack Black movie that went straight to video (it does).
Remember yesterday when we said "new posts later tonight" or something to that effect? Well, what we meant was "new posts some time on Thursday." Sorry about that. Now why don't you watch a Current Leaveslive video:
Other than Strawberry Fields' Short Attention Span Theater @ Hailey's(which will feature animation this evening) I can't really find anything of interest today. Slow week I guess. We'll have new stuff later tonight, so check back with us.
Nothing extremely exciting but these shows are worth mentioning.
Brightblack Morning Light | The White Lodge (Hailey's) I'm not the biggest fan of a bluesy three-note Rhodes part repeating for all eternity, but Brightblack Morning Light is worth trying if that description doesn't turn you off. I recommend this if you're into sleeping sickness vocals and pills with your booze.
Estradasphere | Invincible Czars (Wreck Room) These bands wear thin quickly, despite their technical ability. I mean just because you can jump from hair metal to lounge to polka in a single song doesn't mean anything to me other than you probably have hideous taste in music.
1. Voot Cha Index - The Talking House/Cradle 7" 2. The Polyphonic Spree - Wait 3. St. Vincent - Paris is Burning 4. Hogpig - Hold Back the Curse 5. Tame.. Tame & Quiet - Tin Can Communicate
TOP 20
1. Hell Yeah - Hell Yeah 2. Voot Cha Index - The Talking House/Cradle 7" 3. Blonde Redhead - 23 4. Panda Bear - Person Pitch 5. Modest Mouse - We Were Dead Before the Ship Ever Sank 6. Bright Eyes - Cassadaga 7. Danielson: A Family Movie DVD 8. Stars of the Lid - and their refinement of the decline 9. Andrew Bird - Armchair Apocrypha 10. Kings of Leon - Because of the Times 11. The Polyphonic Spree - Wait 12. Grinderman - Grinderman 13. LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver 14. EL-P - I'll Sleep When You're Dead 15. Jarvis Cocker - Jarvis 16. Peter Bjorn & John - Writer's Block 17. Jana Hunter - There's No Home 18. Centro-Matic - Operation Motorcide EP 19. Menomena - Friend & Foe 20. David Vandervelde - The Moonstation House Band
Goth Valentine's Day with The Pointy Shoe Factory | The Night Game Cult | The Undoing Of David Wright | Minx Burlesque (SHQ Denton): Secret Headquarters may face capacity issues with this one. Here you have two(!) recently reunited bands playing on the most suitable day for both acts just short of a Halloween show. The Pointy Shoe Factory's legend has only grown since they disbanded with some of the area's prominent younger musicians citing them as an influence. In fact, since they'll be sharing the floor of SHQ with The Undoing, you will actually get to witness their influence live. Almost too much personality for one band, you have the wonderfully over-the-top lyrical drama of vocalist Daron Beck, Night Game Cult leader Kyle Cheatham on bass, and the best possible showcase for Tyler Walker's explosively good drumming. It's either a privilege to see these three together again or for the first time if you missed them a few years ago. Night Game Cult will also be performing and I've seen one solid show after another from him in the past six months. You could almost say "them" seeing as how much the audience tends to play a role in each performance. As excited as I was to see The Undoing Of David Wright at Rubber Gloves last week, I'm almost more excited to see them unleash their fury in front of a captive audience in the more intimate confines of SHQ. Sound problems also seem to be more manageable in that room. Minx Burlesque is a spirited take on that timeless Vaudevillian art-form with more talent and soul than you get with emaciated Suicide Girls knockoffs around the country.
David Karsten Daniels | Arbouretum | The Naptime Shake (The Cavern) Well there's not gonna be any dancin' at this show (or swimmin' for that matter), but we can take a night off from all that stuff if the music is as good as what you'll find at The Cavern tonight. The weary, hazy sounds of Thrill Jockey's excellent Arbouretum might actually be a perfectly chill way to start a weekend: founder Dave Heumann has played with the likes of Bonnie Prince Billy in the past, but the compelling atmospherics found on his band's debut album have a lot more to do with soft psyche folk and Built to Spill than Will Oldham's material. Wildcat suggested that they sound like a typical Drag City band, and I agree. And thats a compliment. DKD's latest release might remind some of you of bands like Pink Mountaintops, Wooden Wand and Six Organs of Admittance, and although much of the (ironic?) religious imagery of those bands is present throughout his material, Daniels' music leans a lot more trad folk than most of those guys. Very solid.
SATURDAY
Fry Street Fair(Denton North Fairgrounds) So a lot of the bands at Fry Street Fair are probably going to be a major beating... Space Cadet, Mad Mexicans, the list goes on and on. And then there are a lot of bands that I've never even heard of before, many of whom will probably suck too. But whatever. Most people go to Fry Street Fair just to drink and goof off anyway, and there will be SOME good bands scattered throughout the day, including: Tame... Tame and Quiet, Current Leaves, Record Hop, Jetscreamer, Red Monroe and Knee Pad. And since its like 5 or 10 bucks to get in, it probably wouldn't hurt to check it out, as long as you can save your energy for the evening's festivities.
8th Continent Not Fry Street Show: This is one of the two Denton events that we are really looking forward to. Our first post on this show has all the details and links, but let me spit the line up out at you one more time: Abigail & Hansel, Hotel Hotel, Zanzibar Snails, Delphi, Oveo, Angry Businessmen, Nouns Group, Christian! Teenage Runaways, Chief Death Rage, Unconscious Collective and The Great Tyrant. Shit thats good. And to top it all off, its free, BYOB, and located at one of the most pleasant DIY venues in the area. If you're up in Denton on Saturday, I would say that stopping by is necessary, especially to check out the incredibly intense noise theatrics of The Great Tyrant at midnight. The first band goes on at 2pm, and as far as we know, they are playing in the order you see them here, every hour on the hour. Located at 731 Texas St. in Denton.
Ladies' Night @ 715 Panhandle with: Koji Kondo | Teenage Cool Kids | Get Serious | Angry Businessmen | Jumping Phoenix | Black Wizardz | Trifle Tower (8pm) Now that you know how great we think this place is, go for see for yourself but only if you want to have a fucking awesome time. This is a pretty straight-forward all out rock show with the punishing blast beats of San Antonio duo Get Serious, the skronky hardcore of Koji Kondo, 90's indie rock influenced Teenage Cool Kids, the screaming complexity of Trifle Tower, and brand new Alex Atchley project Black Wizardz. Angry Businessmen are working overtime by playing this show as well as making an appearance at the 8th and I don't really know anything about Jumping Phoenix, but I do know that this show will be a lot of fun. Come witness the increasingly rare phenomenon of an audience that gives a shit.
Zoo (The Cavern) Shit. We haven't been able to stop by for an episode of Zoo in a while, but the always entertaining video DJs are really busting out with some great stuff as of late. Check the partial set list for Saturday night:
NEW & Classic MUSIC VIDEO by:BSS, Groove Armada, the Flaming Lips, Justice, Gus Gus, M.I.A.,theKINKS, Radiohead, the Knife, R.E.M., Faithless,LIARS, 2-Pac, Simian Mobile Disco, LCD Sound System & MORE...+ LIVE & RARE stuff from:Beck '97, Reo Speedwagon '81, Pulp '99, Squarepusher '03, Tom Waits '74 - '94, the PIXIES '93, Lynyrd Skynyrd '74, White Stripes '04, & KISS '74 - '77
If you're in Dallas, you'd be dumb not to stop by for a drink at least. Most of the newer electronica stuff they're showing here is fantastic, and acts like The Knife, Justice and Liars seem to take their video production serious enough to make the visuals a must see.
Elsewhere, We Shot J.R. will pay you good money if you take acid and go see The Charlie Daniels Band and Little Texas for free at Sundance Square. First band at 6pm!
SUNDAY
Blood Brothers | Celebration | The Dead Science (Ridglea Theater) Gotta be honest: I'm not the biggest Blood Brothers guy. I understand what they're trying to do I suppose, and I'm sure they're great live, but theres something about them that just ventures too closely to screamo for me sometimes. Someone will probably want to hang me for that, but what can I do? I'll take the Locust if I have to make a choice. However, my so-so take on BB will not prevent me from going to the show to catch the excellent Celebration, who are probably one of the more overlooked post-punk influenced bands to have emerged over the past couple of years, reminding me of a more gentle Slits at times. Besides, its been like six months since I've been able to use the phrase "angular guitars."
I was talking to some friends from Austin the other day when I actually had to pause and reassess something I had just said out loud. "Denton has six D.I.Y. venues." Six. Count them. Secret Headquarters, 8th Continent, Fra House, X-Treme Dudes Manor, House Of Tinnitus, and 715 Panhandle. It seems that Denton is in the middle of a renaissance for this particular type of venue, and people far and wide have taken notice. I've never been a blind supporter of Little D (don't call it that), but I often hear people from around the state gushing about how good Denton has it, even compared to the super-hip Austin, a place I have always blindly supported. When talking with out-of-town bands, I hear pangs of envy when referring to the wealth of great places to see shows in Denton, which is starting to be come known as a place where you're likely to see almost any kind of act you can think of at any one of these venues on a given weekend. And out of the six thriving epicenters of Do-It-Yourself culture around town, 715 Panhandle in particular seems to be almost completely free of any type of sonic or social agenda.
715 Panhandle is kind of the positive little brother of the Denton Do-It-Yourself circuit, with a stronger link to the history of that culture than you might expect. It's shows cover a wide variety of music, from acoustic singer-songwriters to free jazz, and poppy indie rock to spazzed-out hardcore. The house is inhabited by four young lads with an assortment of tastes that dictate the mixtape-like nature of the eclectic line ups and add to the overall spirit of the venue. And speaking of tapes, the house is also the headquarters for a cassette-only label, NPNR, which stands for "No Parents, No Rules." The name actually provides a fairly good summation of the fun-oriented fliers, shows and overall feeling of the cassette label and the ethos it embodies, as well as the venue itself. I really enjoyed doing the research for this piece, including actually attending a Panhandle show, since the extremely upbeat attitudes of all involved with both the house and the label are a nice change from the typically jaded seen-it-all pose of music scene people, which I myself am quite guilty of. The enthusiasm for each show held there as well as the care put into the label is quite an admirable and refreshing break from the norm. The show I attended was witnessed by a cross-section of Denton's community of musicians, students, and grown-folks alike, comprising a group that differed slightly from the familiar faces you see at other places. It was such a mixed crowd, in fact, that I constantly saw little groups of people pointing at each other and simultaneously blurting, "What are you doing here"?! With such large numbers of people from diverse crowds and walks of life, its actually pretty remarkable that 715 has never had a problem with police intervention, even though it seemed like the crowd I encountered was a body short of spilling into the street, which is apparently a regular occurrence at the place.
Inside the house, people were shoulder to shoulder, moving, dancing, pushing, swinging and swaying. This is all too rare at shows now days and the energy from the bands and the crowd was easy to get swept up in as everyone seemed to move without the usual constrictions of self consciousness. 715 Panhandle is definitely a place to see a lively show, free of the extreme intellectualism or hardcore dogma you might find at similar places, but I don't mean to suggest that there isn't a lot of thought put into the music at the shows. It's just that the"No Parents, No Rules" motto does truly convey the feeling of the place: one of being at a house party someone threw when their parents were out of town, which often provide some of the best memories of growing up. Bands from out of state and as far away as Scotland have played 715 in addition to the usual Austin/Houston travelers and many DFW acts, including such diverse local groups as Unconscious Collective, Daniel Folmer, Trifle Tower, and Koji Kondo.
Again, I don't mean to make it sound as if the men of 715 Panhandle and NPNR are just here for the party. The NPNR label is a project founded by Clint Butler of Denton's Angry Businessmen, who started the label as a viable but cheap answer to the glut of "burned CD-R's with the Sharpied on title." NPNR releases include artwork and lyrics and are assembled with more care than you typically get from the aforementioned CD-R or myspace.com/mp3 formats. The first release was by singer-songwriter Sparlin, Jessels, the second will be from the Teenage Cool Kids, available at their release show this Saturday, and Angry Businessmen themselves will see their release on the 21st. The bands record onto an 8-track hooked up to a computer, where the music then finds its way to a master tape on a deck and is finally duplicated with a high speed duplicator. The releases all come in editions of 100, with represses possible if warranted. The idea of the cassette label seems more radical than ever in today's online dominated world of music, and hearing NPNR's story reminded me of labels like ROIR from the 80's and the now legendary status of those cassette-only releases, which have all eventually found their way on to other formats. Clint hasn't completely ruled out the possibility of another format for the self-released imprint, indicating that a 7-inch is possible at some point.
The next 715 Panhandle show will be at 8:00 pm on Saturday, which will be right about the time the headlining Fry St. Fair acts go on...three stages. I've got nothing against the Fry Street bands, and frankly it's quite mind boggling to think of the over-abundance of quality there must be in Denton right now when the biggest music related event in town can't fully represent what takes place there at so many different venues on a weekly basis. I'm as shocked as I am grateful that places like 715 Panhandle fly in the face of my typically jaded seen-it-all pose, even if my pose does happen to be pretty cool.
