This is the last post concerning this, I swear: Bryce Isbell has posted a video on Youtube where he appears explaining the band's side of the story on all this. I won't comment, I'll just let you judge for yourselves. Not sure why he chose this format, but to each his own.

100 Damned Guns | Spitfire Tumbleweeds | Or, The Whale (Dan's Silverleaf)
Many cooks in the kitchen at Dan's Silverleaf tonight. Just three acts and they have 20 members (maybe more) between them! Who knew it took so many people to make country rock? Anyways, even though I can't put my finger on why this is better than most of the acts that ruin my dinner when I'm just trying to enjoy myself on the porch at Love And War Texas, it just is. Maybe it's because those groups don't distort their vocals. More people should.

Kinks Hoot Night with Happy Bullets | Klickitat | The Lash Outs | Zest Of Yore (Double Wide)
Nothing wrong with the "Hoot Night" in theory, where lesser talents get together and perform the bulletproof material of widely respected bands. I love The Kinks, so this one might offend me. Or it might be really cool. But remember bands: your choice of song is just as important as your performance. So no obvious songs, only obscure deep album cuts, b-sides, rarities etc. That's right. No "Lola." I'm looking at you Klickitat. Get some guts and do "Misty Water." Of course, now that a new Wes Anderson movie is coming out, by the this time next year I'm sure everyone will be covering "Strangers", since it was featured in the preview and his films tend to breathe new life into those lost classics. For better or worse.

I received the following letter from Bryce Isbell this morning. Is it a publicity stunt? Has the whole thing been a publicity stunt? I'm not even sure if I care anymore. I'm just glad I didn't try to interview any of their "label contacts." Here it is:

If you ever had any relationship with Matthew (or the arrogant sea), please read

Matthew is not a liar. As of today I am totally convinced of this. Everything that Matthew told me, Bryce, his family, We Shot JR, etc. etc. he truly believed. His fantasy was incredibly complex and he created for all of us a convoluted world with many vibrant characters and minute details. Obviously, we were all enormously skeptical of the massive dollar amounts Matthew attributed to the deal, but he walked us through it so slowly and so... purely, that we rationalized it one way or the other.

Folks of all levels of involvement (including those with copious experience in the music business) would say things like, "Maybe this is just EMI's pitch and by the time the thing is signed it will be more reasonable", "Maybe their desperate for new markets", etc. When combined with anecdotal evidence about this or that obscure act being given X million dollars for being in the right place at the right time, Matthew's story was made plausible. The only other possibility was that he was lying, and if you've ever met Matthew and if you ever talked to him about any of this you would KNOW this wasn't the case. We never considered the third option, that the entire thing was completely real for Matthew and Matthew alone.

Yesterday, we did to Matthew what no friend should ever have to do to another. We went through every tiny step, every detail of his story searching for support or an answer to how NOBODY caught on to this sooner. We checked phone records, emails, made calls to his contacts and each path came to a dead end. We did all the stuff that we would have done much sooner (I'd like to think) if our attentions were not being devoured by the demands of the New Sabbath Festival. We love Matthew and consider him our dear friend. We don't feel manipulated b/c no one was more manipulated than Matthew himself. However, each of us radically altered our lives around this honest delusion and we have too much at stake to let this episode interrupt them any longer.

Magilum Records and The New Sabbath Festival are severing ties with Matthew and the Arrogant Sea. I am, obviously, no longer MATAS' manager. This is THE ONLY change. The festival is still on and is going to be powerful as fuck. The Magilum collective is still a real entity and Bryce and I will do our best to represent Denton with the love and respect Denton music deserves.

We Shot JR is still the most credible blog for news and information on the Denton | DFW scene and this episode cannot reflect on their credibility. Matthew's own family and closest friends were just as convinced as Matthew was that a deal of some sort was being negotiated with EMI. WSJR is in the same boat each of us are.

While I am sorry to all of those who stuck their neck out for MATAS, I say you did the right thing and I thank you for choosing to support your local creative figures over the cynical instincts that we have all, understandably, developed about the world of music. I hesitate to ask forgiveness because none of us did anything wrong. Our mistake was trusting the sanity of a dear friend and family member and that is the sort of mistake I feel no shame in having made. I do ask for your understanding. This is a deeply troubling and confusing time for all of us, Matthew most all. Do not allow this to color your feelings about the many other projects affiliated with MATAS and do not let this rob you of your faith in local music. Denton's potential is extraordinary, as the New Sabbath Festival will make clear, and we of Magilum look forward to strong relationship with all of you in the future. I'm already pretty sick of the past.

with love and gratitude,
freddie & bryce (magilum records)

My short experience at last year's Dallas Video Festival was great, and fortunately for you, the nice people running it this year have decided to hook us up with a couple pairs of tickets to the 2007 festival. I know I know, it already started. But what can you do? If you want these tickets, just email weshotjrtix@yahoo.com any time between now and 6pm this afternoon. Just put "video fest" in the subject line, and we'll pick two winners randomly.

1. The first winner will get the Grand Prize Package, which is an all access pass to the entire video festival (this includes a showing of a series of short works by David Lynch on Friday, which I'm really excited about).

2. The second will win the Music Package, which will grant you admission to any and all of the following films (I wonder what that DFW Punk thing will be like? Sounds interesting.)

8 Bit
Friday, August 3 at 8:00 PM
Dallas Theater Center
A melange of rocumentary, art expose, and culturecritical investigation, 8 Bit is a hybrid documentary examining the influence of video games on contemporary culture and artistic expression. Dallas-based Tree Wave appears in the film.

Rolling Like a Stone
Thursday, August 2 at 10:00 PM
Dallas Theater Center
Stefan Berg looks up some of the locals seen in an
old film from 1965, taken at a private party for the
Rolling Stones in Sweden. Forty years later, see how these beautiful people on the edge of the pop scene turned out.

Air Guitar Nation
Sunday, August 5 at 2:00 PM
Dallas Theater Center
Air Guitar Nation documents the birth of the US Air
Guitar Championships and the experiences of the contestants to become the first World Air Guitar Champion from the United States. The directorial debut of Alexandra Lipsitz, a former prodcuer of “Project Runway.”

DFW Punk
Sunday, August 5 at 8:00 PM
Dallas Theater Center
Featuring interviews with Bobby Soxx, Barry Cuda and
MC 900 Ft Jesus, Laura Tabor-Huerta,,s DFW Punk documents the DFW punk scene from the early years in the late 1970s to the middle years in the late 1990s.

Black White + Gray (shown with "Smells Like Teen Spirit")
Saturday, August 4 at 4:00PM
Dallas Theater Center
An examination of the life of Sam Wagstaff, an influential curator, collector, and force in the art world, this film explores Wagstaff’s particularly strong bonds with Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe. Director James Crump has served as curator of photography at the Kinsey Institute for Sex Research.
Shown with a filmed interpretation of Patti Smith's cover of Smells Like Teen Spirit, a song originally recorded by Nirvana, from experimental documentarian Jem Cohen.

First, you should go here and vote for the We Shot J.R. Awards. We've already got a lot of votes counted without any sign of ballot stuffing, so things are looking good. And here is some footage from the wild ass Party with Pase Rock on Saturday night, featuring one of the grossest songs ever: