Don Caballero | DD/MM/YYYY | Hawk vs. Dove | Magnets (Rubber Gloves) Oh, I hate writing about Don Cab shows. It's 2008! You peaked in '97 or '98, I can't even remember. It's weird because I remember around that time, seeing little dudes with shorter girlfriends haunting Bruce Hall, and they'd both be really scruffy, and one of them would have the Don Cab "fist" shirt on. I see the exact same couple now in Denton, and they are totally wearing Deerhunter shirts. Funny. Anyways, this band has one of the greatest drummers ever, Damon Che, yet, I was always very suspicious of this style of music. He went ahead and proved me right by just replacing his entire band with metal-heads. I KNEW IT!
Will Johnson | Cory Branan (Double Wide) I'm not that much of a Centro-matic person to be honest, but Will Johnson's solo shows, of which I've seen two in the past year, are certainly everything that a Centro-matic fan would hope for.
Slobberbone | The O's (Dan's Silverleaf) Everyone reading this blog probably already knows enough about Slobberbone to avoid having to talk about them, but the O's, John Pedigo's new project and the latest Idol Records signees, are a relatively new group that has sort of become the Observer's latest "buzz" band over the past couple of months in addition to making it on to the cover of Quick recently, meaning that they've received about as much local ink as one band possibly could short of having a top 40 single or something. After listening to the O's brand of No Depression-era twang infused indie folk/pop/rock, it's pretty unsurprising that they have become darlings of the local music media-- this is just the kind of music that the Dallas music establishment has been embracing since the early 90's, and will probably continue to embrace for the foreseeable future. This certainly doesn't make it BAD music per se, even if it does set up something of a barrier for anyone who has grown suspicious of successful Dallas bands over the years. Truth be told, The O's are competent and do what they do quite well, and anyone who's ever had an Uncle Tupelo or Gram Parsons fetish will probably enjoy this music. Nothing earth shattering or particularly forward looking, even for their genre, but that doesn't appear to be the intent here, and you'll probably get exactly what you're expecting to from these guys.
SATURDAY
Au | Florene | Hawk vs. Dove (The Lounge) Portland's Au has consisted of many different members in its history, presently including personnel from Jackie O Motherfucker, and their music, falling somewhere between Animal Collective and a marching band, contains exactly the kinds of musical risks, atmospherics and true unhinged enthusiasm that would probably make Mount Righteous ten times better. Pretty interesting stuff.
Steel Hook Protheses | A Smile Full Of Ale / Ashes / Yatagarasu | No Music Plays In Hospitals | Necronomycunt (Wasted Words House, 2404 S. Fielder Rd., Arlington) Loud, harsh show in Arlington at a place I'm completely unfamiliar with. Yeah, I know driving out to somewhere like Arlington sucks, but honestly, sometimes shows like this are the most fun of all... when you have no expectations whatsoever.
Etacarinae | Akkolyte | Division of Power | Deskonocidos (Exploding House) The two out-of-town acts sing mainly in Spanish, only Etacarinae has come all the way from Spain to play The Exploding House. You have got to admire that. Personally, I love it. It really makes me question what I'm doing with my life. As in, why am I not hanging out in Barcelona's version of The Exploding House rather than taking the DART Rail to a brutal little building with no windows everyday. Anyways, Etacarinae plays a kind of anthemic style of crust that I'm not so big on, but they probably make up for their shortcomings in energy, as do many bands in this genre.
Deskonocidos is a little closer to more effective, basic, hardcore with less long-intros and other melodic punk unnecessities. Akkolyte and Division of Power are the locals here, and for some reason DOP being on the bill pisses some people off. What doesn't piss you guys off? We're just trying to hang out with you guys and be cool. Why does everyone have to be so mean to us? :(
This year we decided to get together with our friend Chris Cantalini from Gorilla vs Bear to plan a day show that we're extremely excited about, and we're pretty sure you'll be into it too. We'll have a lot more info as we get closer to the date in question, but for now we can tell you this:
Gorilla vs Bear and We Shot J.R. SXSW Day Show
Friday, March 20th @ Quacks' Bakery (1400 E. 38th 1/2 St., Austin,TX) FREE
Appleseed Cast | Burning Hotels | True Widow (Lola's) I was about to talk about how Appleseed Cast is one of those bands I hate simply for their name, but then I found out that they used to be called December's Tragic Drive, and I thought maybe I should lay off since they made a slight improvement. Anyway, Appleseed Cast is one of those bands that makes EXPERIMENTAL music, my man. Think you can handle that? Oh, and the Burning Hotels call themselves "indie" on their Myspace page. Cool man.
Sun Club (Rubber Gloves) Sun Club is a new regular night centered around a DJ collective consisting of Fur (Bryce Isbell), Teamwork and Sid Spinoza. The group will spin rare disco, house and old school electro, and the guest DJs this week will be Females. Sounds like it could be one of the more daring and quality DJ nights you'll find around here these days.
Billingham's Defense System w/ guest Blixaboy (Fallout Lounge) Blixaboy will be spinning mostly original remix material tonight, focusing on dance floor beats as BDS's guest DJ.
L.A. Guns (the Lounge) I remember when I was like in third grade, I really wanted to start getting into "heavy metal" even though I really didn't know what the hell it was or how someone became a "metal head." All I knew was that Metal was rad, and my previous purchases of Bon Jovi tapes had certainly not served as a proper introduction to the genre. So one afternoon I went to a stand alone Sam Goody with my dad (remember when those actually existed?) and I started looking through all the heavy metal tapes. My dad said he'd get me a tape as long as it wasn't "Satanic," and this created quite a dilemma for me-- basically, I had to find the most metal as fuck looking tape cover I could without getting something that appeared to involve Devil worship because my dad would never buy it. This, of course meant that Slayer and Iron Maiden (the two I really wanted) were totally out of the question, and I had to find some middle ground: tougher looking than Bon Jovi but not as evil as Slayer. I came across an L.A. Guns tape (the cover is basically pictured to the right), and I thought-- ok, this looks pretty metal but not Satanic. My dad apparently agreed and decided to get it for me (despite the fact that the cover featured guns, a real threat, as opposed to Satan, a fake threat). I think I thought it sucked at first and then started to like it until my friend taped me a copy of Kill Em All and I stopped giving a shit about bands like L.A. Guns for the rest of my life. The End.
Dallas Art Fair (Fashion Industry Gallery) This is the very first annual Dallas Art Fair, with 30 national art dealers presenting modern and contemporary paintings, photographs, sculpture, prints, and drawings. And wait...is that a Henry Darger painting on their website? And Chuck Close? The price of admission is a little steep- $20 for a day pass, $40 for a three-day pass- but it sounds like it will be totally worth it.
Jeff Elrod (The Modern) Part of the Modern's Focus series, which just featured the Ranjani Shettar scuptures. Elrod's paintings start as drawings on a simple computer graphics program which he transfers to canvas by hand, a kind of mix between new media art and postwar abstraction.
Lost Generation | Rooftop Vigilantes (The Lounge) Tonight's show is scheduled to run from eight until midnight, to make it easier on those who have a hard time going out during the week. The guest DJ is Gabe from Lollipop Shoppe, though I'm told he'll be playing punk, post-punk, no wave, and soul as opposed to the more 60's-oriented psych and pop etc. he usually plays. Lawrence, KS residents, Rooftop Vigilantes, are this edition's live music act, and they were once described in a lucky appearance on Stereogum's "Band To Watch" as a "drunken Fugazi." I really don't know about that. Maybe it's just me, but I don't think that Fugazi would sound like that if they were drunk. My guess is drunken Fugazi would still sound pretty great, and not so emo-pop. I have to stop myself though, I'm starting to sound like the Superfans discussing "Little Ditka." Band is scheduled for ten o'clock.
Get Fucked Wednesdays (Fallout Lounge) This is a new weekly at Fallout Lounge and the lineup is Mikey Rodge, Killtron, and Whack-A-Tone. Wait, was Killtronix shortened to Killtron? I know I'm one to talk, but it's hard to keep up with all this nickname shit. Harder than remembering all the profiles in "Stryfe's Strike File."
The Killers | M83 (Nokia) ADD: I apologize for forgetting that M83 is opening for The Killers. Forgive me. If you forgot every other watered-down, shoegaze-pop, caricature of a band, I would forgive you.
Tyler Stout is a graphic artist based in Oregon. He's created gig posters for bands including Flights of the Conchords, Blackalicious, and The Books. He recently sat down with WeShotJr for some bone-crushing art opinions.
Richardson Heights: What's it like doing posters for bands you might not exactly be a big fan of?
Tyler Stout: it's not a huge problem for me, i'm a freelance illustrator that does stuff for lots of things that i'm not personally into, so most projects i just approach like that, try to make the client happy. i usually look up their previous material, albums, website etc, if i'm not familiar with their work, and try to get a feel for their style and how they want to present themselves. then i go from there. while at the same time trying to do something that is fun for me stylistically and whatnot. i'm not a big fan of being art directed into the ground, those projects always turn out much weaker than ones where you're given some creative freedom. but the best bands to work for are the ones that trust you to do something cool on your own.
RH: How did your style evolve? It's very realistic but completely graphic at the same time.
TS: i suppose it just evolved through my changing likes and dislikes, influences and interests etc. i used to be much more into graffiti and my work had more elements influenced by that style. now that i'm less interested in that, my work tends towards things that i am interested in. as for why i draw the way i draw, i have no idea. feedback and people's response, mixed with what i personally preferred doing probably had a hand in shaping where my style is at this moment in time.
RH: When did you know it was time to go full on into art, and take that jump to self-employment?
TS: i probably knew when i was getting enough freelance work that it was keeping me from doing my day job adequately. when i had enough work booked 4 or 5 months in advance that i felt like at the very least, i was just taking a 4-5 month break from my day job. i wasn't a huge fan of waking up early and being to work at 8:30 every day, plus the 45 minute commute was killing me, so i eventually just figured i'd try it out. worse comes to worse, i'll just start applying for jobs.
RH: You've recently had a studio built - what is it like? Basically, I'd like to know if you put anything in there that's MTV cribs-worthy.
TS: ha. well no, its just my garage that i converted into a studio. its nice because i have kids and my wife works from home as well, and this way i can have my own space while i work, instead of being interrupted. i'm easily distracted, so people coming and going makes it easy for me to not work. now that i can shut myself into a space, its easier to concentrate. as for what my studio has, not much, a couch and my xbox, bookshelves, all my posters/flatfiles/shipping material. and a computer. easy enough.
RH: What is the process required for a band to get a poster out of you?
TS: well, they usually have to contact me, if i'm doing the poster through the band and not through the promoter or the venue. and if i have a hole in my schedule, i'll check out the bands stuff and see if i'm into it. if i am and have time, then i'll do something. its a pretty big investment of time on my part, so i have to make sure i'll have time to do it, if i can't and flake out, then the band is stuck without a poster for a show. if i can do it, i see what their budget is, both for getting the poster screenprinted and if they have any sort of design budget. its a bit of a checklist i guess, availability, budget, deadline, interest etc. my main thing isn't music posters, its just kinda a hobby since i have bills to pay and music posters don't pay super well. so if it seems like fun i'll probably do it.
RH: Can you talk about any particularly interesting/exciting work you have lined up for 2009?
TS: hmm...not really? i don't plan that far in advance. i have some snowboard stuff which is pretty reliable, some new prints for the alamo drafthouse theatre in austin. i might try to put together a book or something. really hard to say since i don't want to jinx it and have everyone be like 'what happened?' i guess we'll see, here's hoping 2009 is a good year.
A lot of Mr. Stout's work can be found at tstout.com. His most recent limited edition poster and t-shirt are being released this week by Austin's own Nakatomi Inc. Image courtesy of Tyler Stout.
Goblin Cock | Blood OV | Warship (The Loft) A word of caution about the headliners: Yes, they are a real metal band. However, they do play in a gimmicky, side-project, indie rock, joke-band called Pinback, complete with car commercial keyboard melodies and lyrics focusing on being upset about stuff.
What's not a joke is local doom/drone metal group, Blood OV, who have a captivating track on Myspace that is so long and drawn out, it had to be sequenced in multiple parts. The music is so painfully slow, you'll be inching forward in anticipation of each thud and strike. An excellent use of space and volume that make for an overall frightening listening experience.
Legendary Shack Shakers (Pontiac Garage/House Of Blues) Lead Shack Shaker, J.D. Wilkes, is the man behind the acclaimed documentary , "Seven Signs," a film focusing on music and culture in the Deep South. The movie looks very interesting and I would honestly rather go to a screening of "Seven Signs" than watch another psycho-billy band, however they're better than most from what I've heard.
Duane Denison has been playing with this group of late, and I'm just glad that The Jesus Lizard has reformed. I'm sure that playing with groups like Tomahawk and artists like Hank III are fun and pay well, but his music with TJL is on another level of innovation and artfulness that has never been quite as striking or obvious in his other work since, most likely due to the quality of his collaborators.
Im doing something a little different this week. This is a mix of some songs that are on albums that I don't feel like writing about right now (or ever) with a few singles mixed in. Funkadelic - Standing on the Verge of Getting it on (Standing on the Verge of Getting it on, 1974)- This one has been on heavy rotation lately at my place, I just can’t get enough of Eddie Hazel’s guitar playing.
Faust - Krautrock (Faust IV, 1973) - Hey there fuckface, you happy now?
Tractor - Shubunkin | Hope in Favour | Every Time it Happens (Tractor, 1972) - These guys were one of John Peel’s favorite bands in the early 70s, he even bought them recording equipment and suggested their name. I think these three songs are fantastic, but I’ve never really been able to get into the rest of the record.
Cromagnon - Caledonia (Orgasm, 1969) - Wild shit for 1969, too bad the rest of their album isn’t this awesome… There was a rumor at one time that some of these guys were in the residents, but that has never been substantiated.
Fleetwood Mac - The Green Manalishi (with the Two-Pronged Crown) (single, 1970) - I can remember listening to the Judas Priest live version of this song on my walkman as a child and my uncle telling me that it was a Fleetwood Mac cover. I thought he was bullshitting me for years.
Dot Vaeth Group - Armed Robbery (White Collar Worker 7“, 1978) - The best damn band to ever come out of Haltom City!!
Heavens to Betsy - Playground (These Monsters are Real 7“, 1992) - This is one of my guilty pleasures. I really do hate all that riot grrrl shit, except this 7”
The Jesus and Mary Chain - Everything’s Alright When You’re Down (Happy When it Rains single, 1987) - It seems like Psychocandy is currently going through the resurgence of popularity that occurs every few years when the next generation discovers it. That’s great I suppose, but JAMC would probably be my favorite band if this was the only song they ever released.
Kevin Ayers - Decadence (Bananamour, 1973) - Damn, early Spiritualized REALLY sounds like this.
My Solid Ground - The Executioner (My Solid Ground, 1971) - Apparently I don’t know shit about krautrock, so y’all are on your own for this one
Samhain - Archangel (Initium, 1984) - Samhain, you used to post here all the time. This is my fave song of yours.
AmonDüül II - Archangel’s Thunderbird (Yeti, 1970)- I put this one on damn near every mix I make, so here it is.
Mick Ronson - Slaughter on 10th Avenue (Slaughter on 10th Avenue, 1974) - Instrumental greatness from the Spiders from Mars guitarist.
Pentagram - Sign of the Wolf (Pentagram) (Pentagram (Relentless), 1984) - Say what you will about Warren Zevon, this is the best fucking werewolf song ever!
Martin Rev - Mari (Martin Rev, 1979) - An uncharacteristically melodic tune from Rev’s first solo outing.
Peter Laughner - Calvary Cross (Take the Guitar Player for a Ride, 1995 (recorded 1975?)) - Rocket from the Tombs | PereUbu founder giving Richard Thompson a nice workout. I believe this is with his group Friction, but I’m not 100% sure.
Jonathan Halper - Leaving My Old Life Behind/I am a Hermit (1966?)- There is not much known about this guy other than these were the only two songs that he ever recorded and that they were used as the soundtrack to Kenneth Anger’s ‘Puce Moment.’ I’m not even sure when they were actually recorded, one hardly credible source says 1966, and that sounds about right so I’m sticking with it.
Lykke Li will be performing on Wednesday, February 18th at the Granada Theater in Dallas as part of her U.S. tour behind her highly acclaimed debut album Youth Novels , and we have two pairs of tickets to the show to give away to you guys. If you want to win them, simply email weshotjrtix@yahoo.com any time between now and tomorrow (Tuesday) at 5pm with "Lykke Li" in the subject line and your full name in the email body. We'll select two winners randomly. Good luck!
Annihilation Time | ANS | Unit 21 | Teenage Cool Kids | Power Trip | Dark Forces (Rubber Gloves) Sometimes I really hate press releases and press kits. For example, the description of Annihilation Time on Rubber Gloves' website, presumably provided by some kind of PR or booking agency, reads like the liner notes to a White Zombie greatest hits album or something:
"Quite simply the most powerful band in the world at the moment. Forget about the once-great dinosaur bands still roaming the earth (Metallica, Blue Oyster Cult, Winger) their time has past. This planet's future lays in the hands of the mighty Annihilation Time, who day by day, are slowly creeping their raunchy rock and roll across every inch of this dying heap of shit we call a world..."
See what I mean? I know it's supposed to be funny and sarcastic and maybe I'm just too sensitive since I read press releases like that almost every day, but still. Just can it already, will ya? Anyway, Annihilation Time actually ARE pretty sweet, despite the lame press release-- they sound a whole fucking lot like Black Flag and a variety of other filthy, SoCal first wave hardcore bands, but what the groups lacks in originality they make up for in style and energy, and the doses of rude guitar solos and chunky, riff heavy swagger really make them sound quite imposing. This is sleaze punk for assholes who listen to metal, and it's way better than 99% of the currently touring "old school punk rock n roll real music No BS party time real bro music" garbage that people are constantly trying to shove down your throat these days. Recommended, especially with the solid local supporting line up that comes along with it. And if you haven't already, be sure to check out Denton's ANS... pretty brutal.
Holy Diver | MV & EE and The Golden Road | True Widow (the Lounge) We'll have more on Dallas shoegazers True Widow here soon, but for now we'll tell you that they're probably the local highlight of this show. Oh wait, Holy Diver is a Dio tribute band. Nevermind. True Widow is definitely the local highlight. Ecstatic Peace's MV&EE is kinda what you might expect from Thurston Moore's label, which is a little surprising-- stoned out slacky blues influenced neo-psychedelic jams featuring doped up singers who sort of sound like they've listened to Sonic Youth every day for the past ten years. But whatever, you could do a lot worse in this arena of music, that's for sure. Better than Awesome Color, I promise.
MON: Annihilation Time/ANS/Unit 21/Teenage Cool Kids/Power Trip/Dark Forces (RGRS) THU: Appleseed Cast/Burning Hotels/True Widow (Lola's) FRI: Don Caballero/DD/MM/YY/Hawk vs. Dove/Magnets (Rubber Gloves) FRI: Will Johnson (Double Wide) SAT: Au/Florene/Hawk vs. Dove (The Lounge) SUN: Etacarinae/Akkolyte/Division of Power/Deskonocidos (Exploding House) SUN: Tre Orsi/Shiny Around the Edges/TBA (Majestic Dwelling of Doom)
