Stephen Malkmus and The Jicks | The Joggers (Granada) "Stephen Malkmus sucks" has pretty much become a cliche whenever he's brought up. Each solo album increasingly gives you that Westerberg syndrome, or: guy from some legendary band who continues to lose his way. That being said, I recently heard some tracks from "Real Emotional Trash" playing in a retail setting, and it caught my ear more than anything he's done since the two tolerable tracks off of his first solo record. And by caught my ear I mean everything from "Hey, this is okay." to "Weird. This is Malkmus? What the hell is he thinking?" That's better than the usual reaction. The Joggers have some quirky, spiky little guitar parts that would almost convince you they're going to be good, until they come in with their vocals, which are the something to the effect of a guy from Portland trying to sound like Ray Davies.
MON: Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks/The Joggers (Granada Theater) WED: Kids in the Hall (Nokia) THU: Quick Next Big Thing with Polyphonic Spree/Record Hop/PPT/Ghosthustler/The Party (Palladium) THU: Elf Power/Calhoun/Telegraph Canyon (8.0, Ft. Worth) THU: Van Halen (American Airlines Center) FRI: Rush (Superpages.com Center) FRI: The Party (Zubar) SAT: Hotflash (Fallout Lounge) SUN: Yea Big and Kid Static/Sticky Buns/Farah/The Triggermen (Rubber Gloves) SUN: 97.9 The Beat Concert and Custom Car Show with Ludacris/Bun B/Rocko/Plies (Dallas Covention Center)
(There is a show at House of Tinnitus this week as well, but we're not sure when it will take place, so stay tuned for that.)
Man, it's another one of those busy weekends that seems like a real drag while I'm writing about it but actually ends up being really fun while I'm experiencing it. Saturday in Dallas should be particularly great, and I'm not just talking about Game One between the Mavs and Hornets, a team I know we can beat. Shows (by the way, I know Cat Power canceled, but a homie can still paste a picture, know what I mean?)
FRIDAY
Yellow Fever | The Theater Fire | Strange Fruit Project | PPT (Ft. Worth Modern) We talked about this in our Art List this week, and I highly recommend you get there by 7 for Yellow Fever, clearly the best band in this line up.
ADD: Dub Assembly with Scuba | Mundo | Keith P | Royal Highnuss (Green Elephant)
Nelly Party (Opus Lounge) Nelly is hosting a party where they will be filming his new DVD
Concernathon 2008 with Record Hop | Shiny Around the Edges | Bridges and Blinking Lights | White Drugs | Tre Orsi | Jetscreamer | Handbrake | Last Men (Rubber Gloves) This was put together by Department of Concern, a local booking entity run by Heather Yiirs, who formerly booked for Rubber Gloves exclusively. A lot of familiar names in this crowded yet solid lineup, and I want to mention that Record Hop will feature the subversive charms of Martin Ile's video projections during their set.
Jodie Foster's Army | Bark Hard | ANS | Rageous Bros (Red Blood Club) This will be the first Texas show in about a decade for the unfathomably influential skate punk band, with a very strong opening lineup.
Dove Hunter | Sarah Jaffe | Sean Kirkpatrick (Club Dada) New rule-- band URLs on myspace must either be 1) myspace.com/nameofband; 2) myspace.com/nameofbandmusic; or 3)myspace.com/nameofbandband. If you can't do one of those, you lose. I'm talking to you, Dove Hunter and Fight Bite.
SATURDAY
Good Records 8th Birthday (Good Records) A free, all day show at the store that runs from 11 in the damn morning to midnight, and usually features free kegs and food and plenty of opportunities to drunkenly buy stuff you can't really afford. I'll probably base my Good Records appearances on the Mavs game: drink some beer before the game, stop by at half time, etc. The line up is quite varied in both styles and quality, but some highlights include Fight Bite, Great Tyrant, Record Hop, Baptist Generals and headliners the Black Angels. You can see the full line up here.
ADD: Jesse Saunders (Minc) Famous house producer comes to Minc; credited with releasing the first ever house single in 1984. Can't believe I missed posting this show earlier. Boo.
Some Sort of Party (House of Dang) Going from 6 to 930, this thing will feature free drinks and music and all the other stuff that makes HOD parties fun. I don't know exactly what is going on there other than that, but who cares? It's not like you don't go there just to see and be scene. Duh.
Hands up with The Party (The Loft) 18 and up. You can decide whether that is a good thing or not. Guess it depends on how drunk you get.
Dana Falconberry | Matthew and the Arrogant Sea | Man Factory(Swiss House, 3114 Swiss Ave) Five dollar cover and BYOB. Some people were bitching about the cover in one of the comments sections earlier, but honestly, in Dallas, that is a pretty good deal, especially considering that it's turned into a lively after hours spot. Sure, it sucks to have to pay a cover after all the bands are done, and I hope they quit making people do that. But then again, it is a dude's house, so you might have to forgive him for that small error in judgment. Besides, you should get there early enough to see Dana Falconberry anyway, dumbass. I think she goes on around 12.
The Sub Rosa Blog Presents Akkolyte | Warcola | Vorvadoss | Molotov Compromise | Electric Brown (Red Blood Club) A benefit of some kind starting early (around 4pm) and featuring some visual art. Learn more here. Akkolyte and Vorvadoss are two of the best heavy bands in the area, in case you didn't know, and Akkolyte's grind-core set is not to be missed.
Negativland (Sons of Hermann Hall) Check out our interview with Negativland below. I can't think of a better show for 4/20 than this one, especially considering that they will be playing entirely unique and new material as well as doing some improv. Show starts at 8pm, and you can pick up advance tickets at Good Records if you wanna.
New York Dolls | American Fuse (The Granada) It's kind of strange to me that the New York Dolls are playing in Dallas some 30 years after their peak. It's also kind of strange to me to imagine them without guitarist Johnny Thunders. But whatever. Out of all the old "legendary" bands that seem so reunite every year, the gender confused, glam influenced proto-punk New York Dolls seem more likely than most to come off as a wonderful trainwreck, even if it is a trainwreck all the same. Seeing these dudes in tight pants and stuff? Not cool.
I have to say that up until a few weeks ago, when I learned that Negativland was playing their first ever Dallas show (on Sunday at Sons of Hermann Hall), I really hadn't listened to their music much. Of course, I had read about the group's interesting ability drum up controversy, as well as their epic copyright battle with the band U2 and their own record label, SST, profiled famously in Naomi Klein's massively influential book No Logo. However, after a few listens to their groundbreaking 1987 record Escape from Noise, I became much more interested in finding out more about them, as I found their tracks just as intriguing as their somewhat well known back story. I was lucky enough to speak with founding member Mark Hosler about the history of their band, their approach to making music, and his take on the nature of media and copyright law. Here is what he said:
Could you tell me the story of how the original Negativland trio got together?
Well one thing I should mention is that I'm one of the founding members of the group, but I'm not the leader or the spokesperson or anything like that. We've been around for a long time. We got together in 1979 and our first record came out in 1980 when I was still in high school. I met the core members of Negativland at an after school job in high school calling people on the phone asking them questions about their favorite tv shows, so it was an appropriate starting place. We were just really interested in unusual music and strange noises and didn't know a whole lot about the history of avant garde music and collage and cut up and appropriation. But there was something we wanted to hear that we couldn't find out there in the world. We were living in the suburbs so we were fairly isolated culturally, but we just started mixing things together. We liked the sound of taking instruments and synthesizers and plugging them in the "wrong" way and seeing what happened. And we also liked taking things from the world around us and mixing it in, and the world around us, since we were growing up middle class west coast white suburban kids, was the t.v. set and sounds of the neighborhood and the radio. And of course, there were five or six channels and that was about it. We mixed all that stuff in the music, and we just loved the sound of taking things out of one context and repurposing it in another context. We weren't trying to make a statement about the world or media or anything political, we just thought it sounded really cool and interesting and different. Ironically, to us, what sounded new was using something old, but in a new way.
When you first got together, was the band primarily interested in making music and writing songs, or did you focus more on creating some kind of conceptual sound art?
Kinda somewhere in the middle, I know some of these questions if you asked another member of Negativland you would get different answers, but I always liked that spot where the avant garde is getting appropriated into popular culture, because there is a funny little edge there. For us, we were always trying to take these more experimental approaches and conceptual approaches to sound and mix them in with a pop culture sensibility. So we were making little songs. From the first record, there are little weird, messed up songs that are on there, scattered throughout the work.
It sounds like you were just as influenced by non musical ideas and things around you as you were by music.
Sure, I would say that we were very influenced by things like listening to Pink Floyd records and listening to Monty Python or the Fireside Theater. I know I was probably very influenced by stuff the Beatles were doing. Tubular Bells was influential too because it was this continuous piece of music we really liked, and our first record, which came out on vinyl, has lots of tracks on each side, but there is no track points in between, it just plays as one continuous thing all the way through. I remember when I heard Tubular Bells, not only was I excited and inspired by the music, but it was done by a kid who was 19 years old, and he played all the instruments by himself. These days, this is a very easy thing. You can have your own little lap top studio and do production on an inexpensive bunch of equipment that you would have needed thousands and thousands of dollars to get back then. So back then, it was super inspiring to find out that some kid did it, and I was only a few years younger. I was working on the first Negativland record when I was 17, and it came out when I was 18. Of course, if you asked someone else in the group, you would get a different set of answers, but something like David Lynch's Eraserhead was influential too, stuff where you had a sense of whole different worlds that had complete logic and concepts behind them. We didn't want to imitate any of this stuff, we wanted to make something that was unlike anything we'd ever heard. I've always been puzzled by people that start bands and want to sound like their favorite band. It's like "your favorite bands are already doing that thing really really well, why would you want to copy it?" Seems kind of ridiculous to me, but that's just me.
Do you think the music you make should or can be judged or assessed using any of the same criteria that people use to assess pop or rock music? Is it fair to do so? Or does it require a different mindset and criteria to understand?
That's an interesting question because the answer to that has changed. What's happened is that, all the way up until the late 90s, you really had to have a very open mind to hear our music and wrap your head around it and be able to follow and understand it, because it didn't really fit a lot of people's ideas of what music is and what makes a piece of music. But what has changed is that because of computers, and the ease with which people can download and appropriate and mash up because of Youtube and Napster, etc., it has become so common now for people to do collage type work. I think a very normal teenager can be playing around on their computer and be making what can really be called some kind of avant garde tape collage thing, because they've heard this stuff and want to try it. So now, I think the answer is that it is much easier for people to hear what we do and get their head around it and say "sure, this is music, I get it." And it also means that we're no longer on any cutting edge at all with what we're doing. If you look at the definition of what avant garde even means, we're not it, because these techniques have been so popularized and spread everywhere. It's really fascinating.
And your average listener is exposed to so much more music, not only is it easier to make any kind of music you want, but it's a lot easier to hear any kind of music you want.
Exactly, that is the other important point. If you're just poking around on Myspace band pages, it is only one click away for you to hear something that 20 years ago you only would have encountered if you had one cool record store in your town, or one great radio station that played it, but if you didn't have that near you, then forget it. Now, the amount of things and different ideas that people are exposed to in politics, art, culture, music and film, everything, is fascinating. It's a whole different world.
You guys started off playing and recording a lot of your material on the San Francisco radio show Over the Edge. Did you find this format or medium to be particularly beneficial to you in some way? Because there aren't a lot of bands that get to go on the air regularly and try new stuff.
Yes, it was an enormously important laboratory for us to play around in and try out ideas and develop what we were doing. I think it was more important than we even realized. We met a guy named Don Joyce who has been part of the group since 81. He had a radio show called Over the Edge, and he played records one after another just like a normal DJ, and we had lunch with him and started talking about what else you could do on the air, and Don was interested in trying new things, and we thought about coming in and using all the different stuff in the studio. And back then, 27 years ago, there were all kinds of reel to reel tape decks and mixers and cassette decks and we could bring all of our own gear and plug it into the board. So we wondered what would happen if we approached the radio station like we make our records in our home studio. We started putting callers on the air right away, and the callers could do anything they wanted, make noise, make sounds, play tapes, say stupid stuff, and add to our mix and interact with us on the air, and we immediately started developing characters and all these different universes. At first, we did totally random mixing, but within months, we realized that we wanted something more coherent, so we would say "ok, this week, the theme is all about war, or fire, or money or holes or dirt or flying," you could pick any subject, really, and bring in all the material we had and stuff we had collected And once it was over, everything we used in the show would be archived, all the raw bits. So when it came to our studio recordings, we had this library of material that we could dip into. It's this enormous amount of really good stuff we have, and I can't really think of any other group who had that kind of situation where they could develop so much material.
Right now, the show we are bringing to Dallas is taking the radio show Over the Edge and putting it live on stage, taking some shows we did on Over the Edge that we felt contained some really powerful, good material, and stuff that had potential to work in a performance situation. So we took hours and hours of radio on one subject and narrowed it down to a two hour long best of the best of bits that we could put together in collage form on stage, and it's called It's All in Your Head FM, and it's like we're a radio network broadcasting all the time, and the network is devoted to talking about God and faiths and why the idea of believing in one single God is probably a bad idea. It's causing us a lot of problems, when we have a President who thinks God tells him what to do fighting against terrorists who think God tells them what to do.
And you guy don't play live very often right?
Well we don't tour very often, and we've never ever played in Dallas. The last time we toured the country was in 2000, so if anyone has any interest in Negativland, we don't come to your town every year. The chances that we'll come back, I don't know, maybe it'll never happen because it's just so rare that we play live. The show we are doing is unique, too, certainly. We aren't performing things from the records. Whenever we play live, we create live shows from scratch that are intended to be performed on stage, so we're trying to make it a completely unique experience for people in the audience.
Could you tell me the story of "Christianity is Stupid" and the infamous press release that came along with it?
The track is based around a recording of a preacher saying "Christianity is stupid, communism is good, give up," and the recording is taken out of context, the preacher was actually talking about Communists taking over the country and brainwashing us and putting us all in concentration camps, and the record came out in the early 70s. We found this record in a thrift store and thought it would be something really inspiring to build a piece around. And that's another point about our work-- we get inspired by what we find. We don't pick a subject and go look for material that fits the subject, for us that is backwards. We find material and build around it. It isn't always what people are saying on a tape but how they are saying it, the quality of their voice and the way they say it. "Christianity is Stupid" is a classic example where it's not just what he said, but the guy had this really great voice, this very musical way of saying the phrases, and we immediately could hear him as the vocalist in the song. This was in 1987, we made this a long time ago, and back then it was a pretty unusual thing to do in a piece of music, and it certainly caught some attention and got a lot of play on college radio. Anyway, we were going to tour the US. We were hoping to break even on the tour, we were all going to take time off from our jobs to go do this, but it quickly became apparent that the tour was going to lose a lot of money, and just out of boredom, one of the members of our group, sitting at his all night security guard job, saw an article about a boy in Rochester, Minnesota who chopped up his mother, father, brother and sister with an ax in the middle of the night, a teenage boy. And Richard Lyons, who is another founder of Negativland, has a really black, dark, kind of fucked up sense of humor, and he wrote this fake press release that said "For immediate release, Negativland has been asked to cancel their long planned 17 city tour pending an investigation in connection between the quadruple ax murder in Rochester, Minnesota and their song 'Christianity is Stupid." And we thought this was kind of sick but funny, and we wondered what would happen if we put this out as a real press release, because the real reason we were canceling the tour was very boring, for financial reasons. So we did, we put out this press release. These days you couldn't get away with it because people would be able to check their facts really fast on the internet, but back then, the story really took off, and we ended up being in a local arts and culture magazine, which led us to getting on a CBS news affiliate, which led to us being in the San Francisco Chronicle, and then Village Voice wrote about it, and then we ended up on NPR. So this hoax story got bigger and bigger, much to our shock because we thought it was easy to figure out that we were lying. But it turns out that the news media relies a lot on other news media for it's reporting, a lot of what you see on the news is just stories taken from other stories, it's like a hall of mirrors, and trying to get any truth is almost impossible. So the story got pretty huge, and it was finally when we got on NPR that we revealed we were lying. We ended up deciding to make a record documenting the whole thing called Helter Stupid. The funny thing is that if you find this online, the liner notes explain all the context and set it up the way I have, but if you just download it, you'll never know.
I was going to ask about the big controversy with U2, and I kind of wanted to get your take on it.
(sarcastically) Oh, we're all good friends now, and we all like to vacation on the same islands, and it's a real relaxed situation with those guys now, no more trouble.
Well I was going to ask you about the nature of copyright law, because at the time, the law was used against you guys, and I wonder if you think that certain aspects of copyright law inhibit artistic creativity generally, even though it was created to protect it?
When copyright law first came into being, copyright was granted for only 14 years. Now, copyright is granted for the life of the creator plus seventy years. When it began, it didn't occur to anyone to make it as long as it is now, so copyright used to expire during the life of the creator. When I first learned that I was kind of shocked. Think about it, JD Sallinger wrote Catcher in the Rye, and the guy really never gave us another book, and it's considered one of the greatest books ever written. If his copyright had expired in 14 years, I wonder if we would have been given a little more incentive to write more books. Negativland doesn't think that the idea of copyright is a terrible idea, the notion of it is fine. It's the way it has been applied and pushed and morphed and mangled that is the problem. And it's really all for the corporate interest. Corporations are these immortal creatures that are legally seen as being persons, unfortunately, and they are legally seen as having free speech, which is terrible for our democratic process in this country. It is what has destroyed our democracy really. You can't punish a corporation by sending it to jail or giving it the death penalty, so corporations enjoy all the privileges and perks of free speech and none of the responsibilities. And because corporations can last forever, there is no time when, say, Disney, is going to allow Mickey Mouse into the public domain. Of course, this makes perfect sense given their view. So I think what needs to be seen is that copyright shouldn't be extended that long, and also the whole notion of what constitutes fair use of a copyright, which permits you to use someone else's copyrighted work in your own work, needs to be expanded, I think, to allow things like what we do to be legal. We consider what we do to be fair use, but many other people think it might be illegal, which is why we are always told to do things ourselves, like running our own record label. Because we're kind of a legal nightmare.
Negativland plays this sunday the 20th at Sons of Hermann Hall
Modern 'till Midnight (the Modern) This is one of my favorite events in DFW, hands down. This Friday will feature the opening of artist Kehinde Wiley's portraits and the continuing exhibit of Martin Puryear's sculptures. It will run 'ya $15 for admission, and it starts at 6pm. Don't pull a Stonedranger and get there an hour and a half late- you'll miss WSJR favorites Yellow Fever. The lineup is as follows:
7 pm – Yellow Fever 8 pm – The Theater Fire 9:15 pm – Trimble Tech High School marching band 10 pm – PPT 11 pm – Strange Fruit Project
SATURDAY
Ed Blackburn and Brian Belott (And/Or) 6-9pm If the always excellent openings at And/Or aren't enough to get your ass out there, then go for the concurrent party at House of Dang. They are unveiling their new "giant party yard" that will soon feature movie screenings and assorted debauchery. Artist Brian Belott will also be performing at 8pm.
Danny Williams (Barry Whistler) 6-9pm Danny Williams is returning to Texas after two years in France with 60 drawings in tow.
Dallas Art Dealer's Association Gallery Walk 2-8pm 32 Dallas galleries are involved in this event, which includes a "Chat and Chew" lecture panel from 10:30 to 2pm at the MAC. I could list all of the galleries, but frankly I'm lazy and the DADA website has a guide complete with a map. Also, everything is free, except for the panel discussion.
U-Haul Show (PDNB)2-8pm Part of the gallery walk, UNT students will be displaying some of their work in two U-Haul trucks.
False Space and Time in the Apartment (Centraltrak) 6-9pm The first show at UTD's new artist residency space on Exposition.
Nick Lowe | Ron Sexsmith (Sons Of Hermann Hall) Two veteran songwriters at the Sons tonight, with the kind of ticket price that will make you pay for "experience." Both are respectable enough, however, and "Cruel To Be Kind" is one of my mom's all time faves.
Ministry / Meshuggah | Hemlock Palladium: For as long as I can remember, I have never liked Ministry. Not the syrupy synth early years, not the industrial pop, and certainly not whatever you call their current music. They have had some respectable collaborators, some great drummers etc. but there is something about it. I'm still waiting to find out I've been missing the boat on this for decades, and I'm willing to give it one more chance. Help me out? Lost Generation (Fallout Lounge) Wanz will be playing an extended version of his Blixaboy performance from last night's Dub Assembly.
Admiral David V. | Mauve X | Will E. Lee | Charles Marley (Rubber Gloves) Mostly singer-songwriters here, but this is a much more rough-around-the-edges gang of artists than that title would have you believe and the night should be all the better for it. I'm hoping that Will E. Lee plays something off of his long in the making punk concept album under the name Psychic Rattlers, a band that finds Lee fronting 2/3 of Burnt Sienna Trio as his rhythm section. The new music on that page are an intriguing glimpse into another aspect of Lee as a songwriter, particularly on tracks like "Gila Monster." Looking forward to a proper release.
Dimitri From Paris (Ghostbar) French House pioneer that received the honor of "Knight Of Letters and Arts" from the French government. Man, you can really get away with murder in Europe.
Check out the pics from last night's HEALTH/Daniel Francis Doyle show. I guarantee you had a weak ass Tuesday if you weren't there. As for this image, I just wanted to shed some light on my new default Myspace pic and kind of hype myself on Myspace a little. You love it.
Dub Assembly with Mundo | Wanz Dover | Dragon Man | Soy Capaz | Royal Highnuss | Abso!ute (The Boiler Room) I wonder how this will do in Denton compared to the solid turnouts they've had in Dallas lately. Watch out for the Boiler Room's Karaoke DJ. He is not playing games with you, do I make myself clear? You're done. One more song and you're done.
Feist | Hayden (Palladium Ballroom) Okay, so I'm not going to say anything bad about Feist. Even people with shitty taste make fun of her, so I'm going to let her off the hook. Besides, I like Yael Naim. But what's going on with the opening act, Hayden? I remember this improbably dull video from 120 Minutes circa '95 with him just mowing the lawn and shit. Remember when Indie Rock was "understated" and "subtle?" Really awful times. While we're on this topic, does anyone remember Sammy? There is nothing more obscure than failed major label rock oddities.
ADD: Big J and Sober will be spinning for free at Pastime Tavern tonight, located at 1503 E. Ervay. It's free, y'all.
Health | Daniel Francis Doyle | El Paso Hot Button | Last Men (Rubber Gloves) So I've actually seen Health like four times in the past six months, but I still haven't got my fix just yet. In case you haven't heard these guys by now, live is really the way to experience them. Despite loving the music that appears on their self titled debut album, I've concluded that the recorded presentation really doesn't do justice to the power of Health's live sound. Their music is harsh as shit, noisy, and quite aggressive. All of that is true. But the material is also tightly constructed, highly conceptual and immaculately written and rehearsed, making for one of the most exciting live shows I've seen in a very long time. Not to mention the fact that when you listen carefully, you can hear some of the more pop leaning elements of the group's influences struggling to get to the surface, and the push-pull is quite rewarding. The hype is real when it comes to these dudes, and I'm guessing this will be your last opportunity to see them for quite a while. Get there a little early too, as Daniel Francis Doyle's performances absolutely never disappoint.
Disqo Disco (Fallout Lounge) The Disqo dudes will be joined by Prince Williamand Tommy Boythis evening. Last week, we posted a well received mix from Tommy, and were impressed with his focus on old school synth/disco/early house material. It's a party mix that also happens to be tasteful and fuck and free of much of the "blog house" that you've probably become bored with over the past year... basically, we hope homeboy starts playing out more frequently. Anyway, Tommy has been involved in dance music for a number of years, including a rather successful stretch in NYC that saw him DJ with acts such as Mike Simoneti, Psychic Ills, Excepter, and Gang Gang Dance, just to name a few. The guy also does his own visuals as well, meaning that the whole experience at the Fallout tonight will be different and probably quite fun. Hopefully, Disqo's normally healthy crowd will dig what they hear tonight.
Forgot about this one: Megadeth | In Flames | Children of the Bodom | Job for a Cowboy | High On Fire (Nokia) That's weird-- I just listened to both High on Fire AND Megadeth's "Symphony of Destruction" yesterday without knowing that this show was even going on. I guess I just rule. I hope HOF isn't going on first... and by the way, anyone care to share their favorite Megadeth album?
So in case you hadn't already noticed, back when we launched our new site in January, we created something called We Shot J.R. Videos-- a new section of the website that features hundreds of different music videos as well as interviews, documentaries, political stuff, and random goofy shit we've found here and there. Anyway, we have been updating the section regularly with videos new and old, and in the process, we realized that it might be fun to get a little help with our Mosaic. Hence this post, Pick 5. On a regular basis, we'll be asking some of our favorite artists to search the net, pick five videos to share, and write a little something about each one. Ghosthustlerwas nice enough to give it a try this week, and their selections are below. Click on the links, and you'll be able to view the videos right here on our site. Also, feel free to play around in the video section and see what other surprises we have there for you.
If you want to see more, click the link above, or just click on the "videos and shit" link on the side bar. Move your cursor over the videos blocks to see the titles, and click on whatever you want.
PPT (TePheJez, 2226 Elm St.) PPT will be throwing one of several upcoming events this evening in celebration of the release of their latest album, Denglish, which we reviewed about a week and a half ago. TePheJez (how the hell do you say that, anyway?) is a downtown club that I know absolutely nothing about, but according to their website, R Kelly and Ja Rule have hung out there. So there's that.
TUE: Health/Daniel Francis Doyle/El Paso Hot Button/Last Men (Rubber Gloves) WED: Feist/Hayden (Palladium) THU: Philip Glass (Nasher Auditorium) THU: Ministry/Meshuggah/Hemlock (Palladium) FRI: Yellow Fever/The Theater Fire/Strange Fruit Project/PPT (Ft. Worth Modern) FRI: Scout Niblett/The Angelus/Lo Fi Chorus/Joey Kendall (The Cavern) FRI: Concernathon 2008 with Record Hop/Shiny Around the Edges and more (Rubber Gloves) SAT: Cat Power/Appaloosa (Palladium) SAT: Hands up with the Party (The Loft) SAT: Good Records B-Day with Mom/Fight Bite/Baptist Generals/Great Tyrant and more (Good Records) SAT: Concernathon 2008 with Astronautalis/Tame....Tame and Quiet/Mom and more (Rubber Gloves) SAT: Violent Squid/Silk Stocking/Zanzibar Snails/Delmore Pilcrow (Hailey's) SUN: Negativland (Sons of Hermann Hall) SUN: New York Dolls (Granada)
I love weekends like this one, when all the stuff I want to do is in Dallas one night and Denton the next. Saturday in Denton should be especially fun, particularly if you like to run around between cheap and/or free shows and goof off. Here is stuff:
FRIDAY
Oops... Jay Z is tomorrow everyone. Sorry.
British Sea Power | Film School (The Loft) Film School had to drop off of this bill this evening due to a family emergency of some kind, so you'll get a set from Wild in the Streetsfollowed by BSP's set. I think things start early, around 830. "Heartfelt" and "anthem" oriented indie rock are usually a bit hard to swallow if you aren't a total moron, but man, British Sea Power really knows what they are doing with these big blasting rock songs. Furthermore, several WSJR associates have attested to the complete greatness of their live shows, so I'd check this out if you need some fist pumping shit tonight in the tradition of The Pixies, Husker Du, etc.
Paper Chase | Faux Fox | Mt. Righteous (Rubber Gloves) Mt. Righteous has been getting a little attention around town lately, but if you want to hear them, I guess you have to go to this show because they don't have any tracks on their myspace page. Yeah, they have links to MP3 downloads on there, but who has the energy?
SATURDAY Mary J Blige | Jay Z (Superpages.com Center) Although not as critically acclaimed as the Blueprint or the Black Album, Jay Z's latest, American Gangster, is a really strong record for sure. The first time I heard the title track and debut single, I was riding around in a car in New York (a rare experience in and of itself, I know) and acting like I was way cooler than I actually am. But you really can't help it when you're crossing the Brooklyn Bridge with Manhattan in your view and the blazing, soulful horns of "American Gangster" on the stereo. Dude WAS NYC that day, as far as I was concerned, and the rest of the album, full of soul samples and sassy ass rhymes about how bad a motherfucker is, is the perfect soundtrack for just about any time when you want to feel invincible. Anyway, this will be a fun show for sure, as Mary J Blidge always seems to find a way to release a single that I secretly listen to non-stop. Got a problem with that? Sensitive thugs, you all need hugs.
Eat Avery's Bones | Fight Bite | Last Men | Nouns Group | Kaboom | Geistheistler (Strawberry Fields) Unfortunately, Fight Bite had to drop off the bill for this show due to the fact that lead singer Leanne Macomber has lost her voice for the time being. That sucks and all, but this show will still be packed with exactly the kinds of bands that make Strawberry Fields fun in my opinion. And Eat Avery's Bones shows are rare these days too, so do yourself a favor and head up to Denton for one of the most insane ten minute freak out sets you'll hear anywhere. Circa 77 Presents The Party (Hailey's) This 18 and up show is sure to be crowded and completely raunchy. These things are always a hit in Denton, and they always make me feel kinda dirty.
Verulf | Gavin Guthrie | Voyant (J&Js) Pretty solid show at J&Js that I believe starts at 9pm. Verulf is probably my favorite of all the Matthew and the Arrogant Sea side projects, leaning much closer to ambient than most of the other groups associated with that band. Fans of newer, buzzed about groups such as Growing, Fuck Buttons, Mom, and even Phosphorescent might dig some of this stuff. Gavin Guthrie is a member of Florene, and his solo work is often quite interesting, focusing a bit more on a beat driven, synth-centric sound. It's still slow moving, moody and loosely constructed in many ways, but the post-rock, IDM and electro influences add some interesting textures and surprises that might be pleasantly surprising to some of you. Finally, Voyant is one of the newer project's from Denton's prolific Andrew Michael in which he focuses on extremely harsh electronic noise.
Holy Diver | Schwa | Jeremy Jackson (Avenue Arts) You know, Avenue Arts is actually a pretty cool little venue in a lot of ways. It's a great space with the perfect amount of room for small and medium sized show. You could even have some decent touring acts there too, as they demonstrated when Glass Candy played there last year. It even sounded pretty decent for that show. But jesus Mr. Ruiz, an $8 cover to see Holy Diver (a cover band)? And the place isn't even BYOB anymore, meaning I have to buy drinks after I pay that cover? I don't know about that, especially considering that Holy Diver sounds like Mudhoney for Republicans. Well, at least you'll get Jeremy Jackson spinning metal and Schwa doing his thing.
SUNDAY
Bruce Springsteen (American Airlines Center) Hey, you DO know that it's cool to like Bruce Springsteen again, right? I'm glad all the little indie rockers finally decided that it was "daring" and post-ironic to start telling their friends about the time they started crying when they head "Born to Run" on KZPS or whatever. Sorry songwriting fans... I couldn't care less about this show, and yes, I've heard Nebraska, so you really don't have to try to pull that card on me either. I'd probably like the guy more if I hated you less. Oh no. Did I just "jump the shark?" By the way, that phrase is still banned in the comments sections.
Abiku | Dream Eater | Smart Patrol | Naxat (1919 Hemphill) Apparently, Dream Eater changed their name from Amethyst, to Hate for Man, to their current moniker all within a short timespan. I can not keep up with this shit. Naxat is one of the two electronic music projects of Alex Atchley, and Smart Patrol features members of Bleach Boys and Undoing Of David Wright. The 1919 description says they'll be playing "technical licks" and "fast jams." In other words, nobody gets to make fun of this band for not knowing how to really play their instruments, whatever that means. I love live music. This is a chance to catch Abiku in Fort Worth if you missed them in Denton.
Ra Ra Riot | The Little Ones (Lola's) "OMG, this band Ra Ra Riot has a violin and a cello!" "Yeah, but what do they do with them?" "Um...Old instruments are cool." Lost Generation (Fallout Lounge) This marks the beginning of a straight Techno focus for Wanz. From what I understand, Wanz will be focusing on a lot of the stuff popular in Berlin these days, but I wonder exactly what that means considering that there seems to be two opposing camps there: the party heavy Modeselektor types, and the minimal intellectuals. Who wins at the fight for Fallout Lounge tonight? That is anyone's guess. Ineka plays tonight as well.
Le Loup | The Ruby Suns | Kyle Sherman Band (Lola's) Oh great, it looks like I'm going to have to start driving to Ft. Worth to see shows now too. Thanks a lot Dallas. Anyway, the Ruby Suns are the latest Pitchfork approved pop band that apparently jumped on to the Summer 06's Tropicalia/Afro-beat bandwagon and decided to give it a go in the form of a sort of cute indie pop group. As annoying as said trend can be sometimes, I think Ruby Suns pull it off about as well as anyone could. Their stuff could be dismissed as trendy hipster posturing or merely a Vampire Weekend for stoners, but for anyone who takes Sgt. Peppers as a base for good rock music, this is going to be pretty enjoyable group. Their songs are crafted with attention to detail and a requisite number of surprises to render them a few legs above other indie rock fashion victims who try this sort of thing. Headliners Le Loup are a band I admittedly don't know a lot about, and while I didn't exactly jump out of my seat when I downloaded their debut album last night, I suppose they pull of a pleasant enough mix of Arcade Fire, psychedelic folk and even one song that pulls from Silver Apples fairly successfully. Check "Outside of this Car" on the Myspace page. I'd show up at this late, however, in order to miss the Dudebrah blues of Kyle Sherman.
The Ruby Suns will also be playing a Good Records in store at 6pm. Sweet. Now I don't have to drive to Ft. Worth AND the shit's free, y'all.
It's What We Get (Hailey's) I'm really enjoying the recent influx of show fliers that remind me of the cover of a Trapper Keeper from like 1991, and It's What We Get is doing pretty well in that department.
Taxi Fare (Zubar) Last time I checked in at Taxi Fare, I heard a lot of 80's dancehall and newer stuff from the islands, and unless you're way cooler than me (highly doubtful), then Wednesdays at Zubar might be pretty much your only opportunity to listen to this kind of stuff.
