Mike Watt & The Missingmen | Lions | The Golden Boys (The Granada): Having seen Watt in a couple of different situations, I definitely think he's at his best overpowering everyone in a supporting role, as opposed to leading a group. That being said, it's still highly enjoyable to watch and listen to one of the most famously unpretentious personalities in the music industry. He's touring for the third installment in a trilogy of punk rock operas, and I'm definitely interested in hearing what West Coast, avant punk, Tom Watson will add to this particular trio's sound. Watson has played with everyone from Slovenly to Overpass to The Red Krayola, and I think he's one of the most underrated and underappreciated guitarists of all time. His skillfully crooked playing on the Wire and Television covers featured on the Missingmen's page only further reinforces this long-held opinion.
Paul Mooney | AwkQuarius (The Lodge...yeah, I know) Well, this is at a "gentleman's club," which I'm not crazy about, but strip clubs have traditionally featured comedians, and Paul Mooney is definitely someone that's worth a little trouble. Aggressively confronting uncomfortable issues of race head on, he tends to make comedians look downright shy when tackling similar material. One of my favorite all-time bits was his take on Tom Cruise being the "Last Samurai." So obvious and so hilarious. Pikahsso and Tahiti's most recent project, AwkQuarius will be opening.
Paul Slavens (Dan's Silver Leaf) I enjoyed Slavens' campy yet dizzying performance in the Chameleon Chamber Group at Good Records this past weekend. Watching the remarkable number of children who were completely enthralled was just as entertaining.
The Granada has hooked us up with five pairs of tickets to see the legendary Mike Watt this evening, and since the show is happening tonight, we'll give them away to the first five people who email weshotjrtix@yahoo.com with "Mike Watt" as the subject line and their full name in the body of the email. Good luck, and we'll let you know as soon as we have our five wieners.
The contest has been over for a couple hours... sorry i forgot to update!
MON: Mike Watt/Lions/Golden Boys (Granada) WED: My Bloody Valentine/Lift To Experience (Palladium) WED: The Faint/Ladytron/Crocodiles (The Granada) FRI: Acid Mother's Temple/Sonic Suicide Squad (Hailey's) FRI: Man Man/Boom Boom Box/Giggle Party (the Lounge) FRI: New Thrill Parade/Orange Coax (Exploding House) FRI: Lychgate/Ascites (Bike House) SAT: Hannahmontanatron/Kashioboy/Fizzy Dino Pop/Yeahdef (Hailey's) SAT: Stereo on Strike Label Launch with Blixaboy/Dubbel Dutch/Trademarx (Fallout Lounge)
I was going to bitch about how hard it is to keep track of shows when people tell me about them: 1) in person, 2) via text message, or 3) via email, instead of using our show calendar, but then I realized that at least one of the shows we forgot to add to our weekender was, in fact, on the show calendar, thanks for Firehouse Gallery's Ben Rogers, so then I felt a little stupid. And then I remembered the look on Tim Duncan's pathetic face when he took a seat on the bench in the 4th quarter and watched the Mavs steal home court advantage from his team, and I realized that nothing was going to ruin my day. Anyway, here are a couple things going on tonight that we forgot to tell you about:
Going on for a couple more hours (until sunset), there's a free Disco BBQ party going on at Samuel Grand Park with people playing old school house and disco. It's BYOB and there will be grills if you want to bring food.... we don't know exactly who will be spinning there, but Schwa is the one who let us know about it so I'm guessing he's involved.
Also happening tonight is the premier of the Metrognome Collective's Firehouse Gallery in Ft. Worth, with performances from Yells at Eels, Dave Dove, Sonia Flores and Jason Jackson. A great night of free and improvised jazz starts at 8pm.
We have a lot more shows listed on our show calendar(including shows at Doc's, 1919 Hemphill, Hailey's and more) for this busy weekend, but here are some things to do:
FRIDAY
Furnace | Finisher | Trifle Tower | Big Fiction (Exploding House) Furnace and Finisher are two touring New England hardcore bands. Despite all of the good things I've heard about Furnace, I think that Finisher might be the more impressive of the two bands. They utilize the growling singer/screaming singer tag-team technique you hear less and less of lately, and they have a more to the point style of rock that avoids the dramatic breakdowns employed by Furnace. Show starts promptly at 8:30.
Hjertestop | Tolar | Wiccans (818 Hickory St.) Though I'm told this show is "so punk that the floor will cave in," I have my doubts about that rather ambitious goal. Hjertestop hails from Copenhagen and they play rhythmically tight punk about throwing rocks at cops and shit; the kind of thing that Europeans tend to pull off more charmingly than anyone else at this point in punk history. Tolar are a known brutal quantity, and the new Wiccans' recordings (now posted) are so good that I was fooled into thinking they weren't analog.
No Genres with Blixaboy | Cygnus | PWR (Absinthe Lounge) We're told that Wanz and company will be spinning "challenging" electronic music, which I'm guessing involves the more experimental side of IDM as well as maybe some ambient and things like that. Cygnus is always great. I'd mention more specific genres, but they did say NO genres.
SATURDAY
Dan Deacon & Ensemble | Future Islands | Teeth Mountain | Fight Bite (Fort Worth Modern) A timely, fantastic show put together by Spune as part of the Ft. Worth Modern's Modern Till Midnight series featuring Dan Deacon and his ensemble, which apparently consists of more than a dozen other musicians, mostly from Baltimore, who are involved in some level in the now famous Wham City collective. Baltimore's Future Islands feature a more new wave leaning take on that signature Wham City spazzed synth pop aesthetic, and they do it fairly well, while Teeth Mountain explore highly rhythmic, almost tribal compositions that will probably sound fantastic live. Tickets are available by calling the Modern or at the door before the show. starts promptly at 8pm.
Erykah Badu | White Denim | Starlight Mints | Farah | True Widow and more (Good Records) Good Records will be celebrating "record store day" with what has to be the largest event they've ever held, with a full line up starting at noon and going well into the evening. You can check our show calendar for the full line up of all the bands and start times. The store says that if it ends up raining tomorrow, they will move their outdoor stage next door to the Beagle, while all the indoor performances will continue as scheduled inside the store.
(FUN FACT: We've kind of decided to start a little game here at WSJR hq-- every time we post a ticket give away, we're going to bet on how long it will take for the Observer to post the same exact contest on their blog. To our knowledge, they've done it with just about every contest we've posted in 2009, and it usually seems to take them 2-3 hours. Sometimes they even use the same pictures we do! Glad we can help set their agenda over there, and it also means more free tickets for everyone in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area! Anyway, today it took just under 3 hours.)
First things first, here is a little primer from Robert Reich regarding the utter stupidity of the Tea Bagger protests from yesterday. Hey, Billy Bob-- you know your taxes actually went DOWN recently, right? And that we pay LOWER taxes than any country in the industrialized world, right? Ok, go back to your NASCAR now.
Second things second, our beloved Dallas Mavericks will be playing the hated San Antonio Spurs in the first round of the playoffs starting Saturday. I have to admit that I've been something of a fair weather fan this year, but man, this has the makings of a great playoff series. The Mavs are playing their best basketball of the season, and the Ginobli-less Spurs aren't looking so hot. There's nothing sweeter than sticking it to Spurs fans either, and I'm saying Mavericks in 6. Don't hate me if I'm wrong. Now for music shows ya'll (and sorry I'm so late... sometimes you have to work, you know?)
Amon Amarth | Goat Whore | Skeleton Witch | Lazarus AD (Granada) Long time Swedish "melodic death metal" band Amon Amarth headlines a show this evening that certainly has the potential to inspire a much tougher and less good looking riot than Crystal Castles. Much more interesting is New Orleans black metal group Goat Whore, who seem to take a lot of inspiration from black metal legends Emperor, albeit with much better production values.... same goes with Skeleton Witch.
Sun Club with Fizzy Dino Pop | VJ Jibu/ OPS ESPONJA w/ XIAOCHUAN LI (Rubber Gloves) Interesting line up at Rubber Gloves this evening, put together by Thursday residents Sun Club. I'm not 100% sure about this, but I believe Fizzy Dino Pop is a former Dentonite who has relocated to Austin, which is a shame because his chip-tune/electro-pop tracks are quite invigorating and almost all rather catchy-- sure, a lot of it is pretty standard chiptune stuff, and the material is certainly influenced by artists operating outside of what you might call the chiptune underground, such as Mr. Quintron, Dan Deacon and the Death Set, but most of this stuff is poppier than the first two and decidedly more dancefloor oriented (not to mention stranger) than Death Set's stuff, and quite frankly, Fizzy Dino Pop is a lot more approachable and enjoyable than a lot of similar artists who are supposed to be "good" or whatever. Elsewhere, Jibu does original video productions, and Ops Esponja performs some sort of "down tempo," although we haven't had a chance to hear any of it.
Art Motel: Spring Open Studio Night (Marty Walker) 6-8pm Beer, burgers, margaritas, a little mystery- start at Marty Walker and go from there.
Re• (Decorazon)6-9pm A show themed around our favorite prefix.
SATURDAY
Modern 'til Midnight (the Modern) 6pm-midnight This will probably be a pretty packed event, since Dan Deacon is performing, along with Fight Bite, Teeth Mountain, and Future Islands. There will be a screening of St. Nick from local filmakers David Lowery and James Johnston, and the new Rosson Crow exhibit is up, along with some of the permanent collection.
DADA Spring Gallery Walk 2-8pm Look here for the participating galleries, who's showing what where, etc. I'm not going to lie, I'm always pretty disappointed by these things
Firehouse Gallery Grand Opening (4147 Meadowbrook, 76103) A new location for the Metrognome Collective! Here's what they have to say about this Sunday's opening shindig:
"From 5-7pm James Talanmbes will spin music, and we will open the doors for an artist reception featuring the works of Jeru Gabriel in our studio gallery. The Studio Gallery will rotate mixed-media works monthly. The garage gallery will rotate photography works monthly, staggered two weeks from the studio gallery openings. We're currently displaying photography from our permanent collection in the Garage."
From 7pm on there is a $5 cover to see improv from Yells at Eels, Dave Dove, Sonia Flores, and Jason Jackson.
And a brief word about last night: It got a little crazy there at the end, after the announcement that the show was canceled. I thought the world's weakest, hippest riot was about to break out. I've never seen so many good looking people so unhappy. Anyways, I think The Granada is doing an excellent job of trying to remedy what is obviously an unpleasant situation, as the following forwarded email shows:
Fans of Granada Theater, and Crystal Castles:
We are very sorry for the unfortunate circumstances of last night's canceled Crystal Castles concert. Refunds are already taking place (04/15/09 10:00 am) It is the policy of The Granada Theater to never cancel shows, but sometimes matters are beyond our control. We pleaded with the band for several hours to play their set, but in the end they refused to perform...or apologize.
To make things right, we are offering something special to the people who bought tickets on our web site for Crystal Castles:
We will let all of you who bought tickets from www.granadatheater.com come FOR FREE to the show of your choice.
There are a lot of you fine folks, so here's how this will work:
Email management@granadatheater.com with a list of the top 5 shows you want to see from our calendar (in order of importance to you).
Include your order number from the Crystal Castles show.
As guestlist space permits, we will give you all tickets (1 ticket for every ticket purchased to Crystal Castles) to one of your 5 specified shows.
Please be understanding with us, we expect to receive 500+ emails with guest list requests, so we will deal with each and every one of you personally in the order we receive your emails.
Please exclude The Faint & Ladytron, Ryan Bingham and Brandi Carlile concerts from your lists as they are almost sold out.
Apologies to our friends Vega, who were very understanding about not being able to play the show last night. As it worked out, they were able to have a successful show of their own last night. We're looking forward to the next opportunity to have Vega here at The Granada!
We're terribly upset about the situation. Our fans have never been inconvenienced so greatly at our venue before, and we're doing everything we can to make it right.
Thanks for being so understanding.
Management @ Granada Theater
Order #: ___________________ Band of Choice: 1- 2- 3- 4- 5- (Put in order of importance to you, Tickets will be General Admission, if Reserved Seats are available on the show you can upgrade for a couple extra dollars night of show if you desire). Our response to you will have the name of the band only and the quantity of tickets in the body of the email. This will be all we will reply with. You will be on the guest list for the night. Print the page and bring it with you on the night of the show for extra confirmation. (Not required)
Explanation from Crystal Castles management regarding the cancelation last night (reposted from Gorilla vs Bear)
"a) Vegas (sic) were not kicked off for "petty bullshit", if Vegas want to try to create an internet meme out of this that's fine, whatever.
b) CC obviously did not want to leave 1000+ people hanging outside. The people at Granada pulled the plug on CC during CC's soundcheck, claiming they feared CC would "blow the soundsystem." The people at Granada tried to rent (at the last minute) proper speakers that would not "blow" for the show but it just couldn't happen on short notice. At one point they thought they had found professional speakers but 2 hours later this fell through and the decision was made that the show could not happen. Also of note, a DJ had blown their speakers a few weeks ago and they did not want this to happen again. They said they couldn't afford to repair the speakers again. It would be nice if you knew the truth and were fair to the band since this wasn't their fault. The blame goes to whoever booked this band at this ill-equipped venue."
and finally:
"Vega stole an FX-Pedal from CC. If this is not a good reason to get kicked off a bill and (possibly) get blacklisted by a promoter I don't know what is. Worst part is CC liked the guys and tried to convince us to forgive them."
Of course, we talked with Alan Palomo last night, and he claims that Crystal Castles actually borrowed one of HIS guitars, and that one of their effects pedals ended up bieng placed in the guitar case when Crystal Castles returned it to him. Crystal Castles doesn't deny that they borrowed one of Vega's guitars.
Finally, response from the Granada via press release:
Let me start with a definition: Prima donna: Prima donnas cannot help the way they are because their parents spoiled them and they are still developing their personalities. All a prima donna has to do is whine and their parents give them what they want.
Here's how our day went at the Granada on Tue: Vega (Alan from Ghosthustler) opened for CC in Austin Monday night. At 5pm (3 hrs before doors) we received a call from CC that Vega could not be on the bill. Vega had been approved by CC in advance for the bill. Early on Tue CC hired a light tech from Austin that is also a DJ to replace Vega. CC could have communicated with Vega early in the day before they left Austin. Vega was at the Granada waiting to soundcheck. CC would not enter the building until Vega was gone from the premise. Alan was super cool. No prima donna. We've never seen this request. The other co-promoter out of Austin has never seen this kind of request. CC whining... CC soundchecked at 6pm instead of at 4pm. CC didn't "like the sound of their kickdrum". CC insists that "more woofers be brought in". Rental places close at 6pm. It is now 7pm. Granada has 16 - 18" sub-woofers and 12 - 15" sub-woofers. Also 32 - 8" midranges. Lots of firepower. Sound check was great. CC says they would rather cancel the show than possibly not have enough kick drum. Granada begs that the show goes on. Granada even offers to dismantle sub woofer stacks and place them in different places in the room. Granada was willing to do anything to have the show go on. CC waits until after 10pm to give final cancellation.
The show must go on. Life is all perception. One person sees the day as beautiful, another sees the day as crap. Why would any band crap on their fans like this? Insecurity is a cancer. Love yourself. Love your sound guy and the system at the club you are playing. Play the show. Then listen to your fans. If you don't like the sound at a club never go back to the club. We've had every big band imaginable in every genre imaginable and had amazing shows. Nobody has complained about our sound. This is totally out of left field. The sound at Granada is amazing...and would have been if CC would have just got on stage and played.
Today Granada is refunding ticket cost and entire service charge to each patron. No one cares for live music more than we do. We've put together an amazing room, staff and sound system. We'll see you soon fellow music fans.
Mike Schoder and all the Staff at Granada.
And thats about as close to the full story as we'll probably get, so we're done here.
Crystal Castles | Vega (The Granada) Where to begin with Crystal Castles? It's increasingly impossible and even pointless to measure things in terms of album sales at this point, so we'll have to come up with something else. Their Myspace page has over 11 Million hits; you hear their music piped out of every hip clothing botique; you hear their music piped out of every lame-ass, dark wood, dude-bro bar or should I say "pub." Their music is everywhere cool and everywhere lame, so it's just plain everywhere, let's face it. This of course, makes them the stars of this decade's 8-bit revolution, a genre they must resent on some level, specifically after they stopped 8-bit sampling rather early in their career and created the sounds on their own. They symbiotically rose to prominence largely in part to the remix job they did on HEALTH's "Crimewave," which, as much as it helped that group, will probably always annoy them when fans ask why they "didn't play the Crystal Castles version?"Because it's a remix. That's why.
Crystal Castles can however "play a remix" and I'd be surprised if they didn't tonight. They also feature live drums and a wildly interactive live show, which may or may not be partly inspired by the group's metal and noise-punk origins. The excellent Vega opens the show, and I would encourage you to check out the track, "Other End" on his page, for a more subdued Eno-like side to the group if you thought all they did was party.
UPDATE: Vega, aka Alan Palomo, posted via Twitter that he was somehow booted off the Crystal Castles bill tonight, apparently because CC's manager "hates him." Vega is planning to play at Disqo Disco tonight at Fallout Lounge around midnight instead. We'll let you know when we hear more about this. UPDATE #2: Just got off the phone with Alan Palomo, and he tells us that Crystal Castles asked that they be taken off the bill, but that they officially don't know why this happened and are "awaiting further information." Anyway, they WILL be going ahead with the midnight set at Fallout Lounge for those who would like to see them.
UPDATE #3: Just spoke with some people at the Granada, and apparently Crystal Castles found a new supporting act, Rebel Leaders, Crystal Castles is scheduled to take the stage at 10.
UPDATE #4: So as most people already know, Crystal Castles canceled the show last night, and we were told that the Granada, at least at this point, has plans to refund everyone's money, although their official plans won't be announced until a press release comes out some time in the next few minutes, so wait and see on that. Representatives from the Granada couldn't tell us why the band canceled last night, but we have heard claims that the band did not feel that the Granada's sound system was adequate for their purposes, although we did not speak to the band or any of their representatives regarding those claims. Furthermore, representatives from the Granada seem to feel that the group never had any intention of playing the show at any point during the day, hence the problems with Vega. etc., although they say that they have no official confirmation as to Crystal Castles' reasons for the cancelation. We'll give you more details when we receive the forthcoming press release, but in the meantime, here is an explanation from the band's perspective, and representatives from the Granada defended their sound system quite emphatically to us, stating that no one has ever complained about their sound in the past.
Disqo Disco (Fallout Lounge) It had been some time since I had been to this weekly event, and I was impressed by how packed it was last week. They certainly have come a long way in the past year.
I'll be damned if I can find much more information about this album than what is listed on the insert, which is included with the download. Accidental Music is the second release by the LA based group, whose revolving line-up has resulted in them being termed a "collective." This is a term that seems to get thrown around quite a bit these days if more than five people play in a band, so I don't really read much into that. Their debut, 1978's Ich bin ein Spiegelei, piqued the interest of Steven Stapleton, who included them on his now infamous list. Much like the aforementioned list, this record is all over the fucking place. Influences like Stockhausen, Can, Lard Free, and Tangerine Dream are smashed together and beaten into some strange, dark progressive (I use this term loosely) mess that at times recalls several things, but as a whole reminds me of nothing.
Brian Jonestown Massacre | The Flavor Crystals (The Granada) By pretty much all accounts, Anton Newcombe, founder of Brian Jonestown Massacre, is a fairly ridiculous and troubled individual who is prone to violence, drug addiction and a variety of other irresponsible behaviors. Anyone who attended BJM's last local show at Trees can attest to this-- within literally one minute of being onstage, obviously drunk and intoxicated by any number of other substances, Newcombe got into a shouting match with an audience member, asked that the guy be kicked out by security, and then proceeded to tell the audience that he had "lost his voice" and would be unable to sing that evening. Instead, he lead a pointless 20 minute instrumental "jam" by the band before inviting audience members on to the stage to sing BJM classics to the mostly disappointed fraction of the audience that actually decided to stay through the show. And this was an extremely tame and unenventful night by his standards.
So yes, Newcombe has proven himself to be a hit-or-miss live performer, to put it kindly, and although he might not have come across as quite as much of a douche as the members of the Dandy Warhols in Dig!, the infamous documentary about the two bands, he still seemed like a caricature of a rock n roll cliche, and a pretty poor one at that. Still, the guy can be given a few props-- for starters, his behavior in Dig was highly entertaining, for the most part, and for better or worse, it can probably be said that Newcombe's influence as a songwriter in the American underground has increased quite a bit over the past few years, perhaps because of Dig, or maybe in spite of it. His embrace of 60's psychedelic pop and groups like Spacemen 3, Jesus and Mary Chain and My Bloody Valentine was certainly never as revolutionary as many around him seemed to think it was, but the group had a string of great records in the mid and late 90's, perhaps culminating in their underappreciated foray into shoegaze and british psychedelic pop, Bravery, Repitition and Noise, released in 2001. The best of BJM's work is perfectly executed guitar pop that touches on everything from They Byrds to Slowride to Suicide, and you can probably expect to hear a lot of this material this evening. I admittedly don't know much about Newcombe's more recent work (although the little I've heard has been fairly terrible), but if you are willing to roll the dice concerning what kind of mood Newcombe will be in tonight, you could very well see a pretty fantastic show.
Themselves | Yeahdef | Lil Foot (Hailey's) Anticon's Themselves have been around for more than a decade now, and like you might expect from a group on the aforementioned label, they've worked with people like Busdriver, Aesop Rock and Mr. Dibbs... as well as some that you might not expect, such as the Notwist.
Our friends at the Granada have hooked us up with two pairs of tickets for Crystal Castles' performance tomorrow night with Vega, and we're going to give them away to you... if you want them, email weshotjrtix@yahoo.com any time between now and 5PM today with the "Crystal Castles" as the title and you full name in the body. Good luck! And by the way, tickets are apparently going very fast and getting close to a sell out, FYI.
