I just got done watching the Scott Walker documentary 30th Century Man and found it quite fascinating despite the fact that I honestly haven't dug too deeply into the guy's catalogue thus far in my life. I think I might be tempted to explore it quite a bit more, however, after learning more about Walker's ideas and approach to recording, even though I can't say that I've always been particularly moved by every piece of music that I've ever heard from him. Anyway, shows tonight:
Patrick Wolf | Living Things | Jaguar Love | Plastiscines (Granada) Patrick Wolf is one of those musicians who is initially intriguing to me because of the level of anger he seems to inspire in the kind of people that are full of "opinions" about music but are usually totally wrong about everything. This isn't to say that the guy isn't pretentious, of course, or that everything he does is great by any stretch, but his musical ambition, and particularly his attempts at reaching grandiose heights at almost every moment throughout his recordings, are certainly interesting in their own way, and much of his material often works very well despite the inherent difficulty, at least on paper, with combining elements of classical western music and literature with electro-pop and folk. And because Wolf always seems to reach so high with everything that he does, even his failures are somewhat appealing in that wonderful train wreck sort of way, as his over the top persona becomes campy and cartoonish, providing entertainment, whether purposefully or not, even in his worst moments. I saw someone in one of the comments sections comparing him unfavorably to David Bowie, but come on-- since when is "not as good as David Bowie" an adequate reason to dislike a musician? If big egos, high drama and an almost fascist admiration for classics are a turn off for you, then by all means skip out on this show. But within the confines of our current "indie" "subculture" that seems to value comfort over innovation and pastiche over purpose, its at least a little bit refreshing to encounter a musician as over the top as Wolf, whether he succeeds in his efforts or not. If Grizzly Bear can get away with posting Youtube videos about how to make veggie omelettes or whatever the fuck they do, then surely we can avoid getting angry with Patrick Wolf for cross dressing and singing about mythology with just a touch of mystery, can't we?
Before we get started, you should check out this developing story about a disturbing incident that occurred in Fort Worth over the weekend. Unbelievable.
Cool Out (The Cavern) We've been told that tonight will be an MJ tribute, with lesser heard material from the performer's early days and not the "usual three songs everyone's been hearing all weekend." Should be a good time.
The Extraordinaires | Tiger Shark Death Brigade | Kijoto | Touching Tongues (Rubber Gloves) Why didn't anyone tell me that Street Hassle changed their name? Possibly inspired by their own Myspace URL, they're now called Touching Tongues, though it sounds like they are no different sonically. Definitely some questionable names on the bill tonight period, especially in the case of Tiger Shark Death Brigade. The group has some pretty standard distorted punk riffs, but it's eventually largely improved upon by a very spirited vocal performance. Kijoto plays the kind of Deep Elm Records, super-serious, start/stop emo-rock you hear less and less of as the decade fades out. If you had told me back in 2000 that it was going to end like this, I would have never believed you.
Our friends at The Granada have very generously given us 5 pairs of tickets for tomorrow night's Patrick Wolf show. The first five people to email weshotjrtix@yahoo.com with their full name in the body and "Patrick Wolf" as the subject get them. Thanks.
There has been so much controversy this week about whether or not we should care about the deaths of famous artists. So, today we're going down the list, to see who would care if any and all of the artists playing this weekend died. SR descriptions are in italics, since he wasn't in on this. Ready?- FRIDAY Big Fiction | Legsweeper | Gun Gun | MuhammadALi (Bike House) The grieving in this case would be people into straight-ahead, big-riffing, "rock music." They would be mostly people from Texas, since these bands are all from around the state. Fans of slightly humorous all-female duos would be mourning as well. If the Bike House died, people who are into the rare but increasing occurrence of Dallas DIY that is more than just an after-hours twee or electro-acoustic show would definitely be bummed.
Cryptacize | Fishboy | Shiny Around the Edges (Rubber Gloves) The affected in this case would include people into deconstructed Steely Dan covers and bands that are surprisingly more interesting than some of the current Grizzly Collective sound-alike glut that is sweeping the Late Night Show circuit, in the case of Cryptacize. They sound extremely conventional one second, and then will sloppily throw in some overly loud and out-of-place guitar part to throw everything off. I might even care if Cryptacize died. Considering all of the people complaining about their opening set for Danielson along with Mount Righteous last year, it only made me like them more. As far as Shiny Around The Edges goes, local fans of Jarboe and people that don't like backbeats would be grief-stricken. As far as Fishboy goes, well, fans of the quirky, "Grapevine Mills" pop sound would be heart broken. So would the sweatshops that are ripping off American Apparel and currently making athletic headbands for Target.
Ben Kweller | Jones Street Station (Granada) The grieving: Anybody that graduated from Texas A&M Commerce, and people that still hold out hope for MTV 2.(DL)
God. I recently read the chapter on Ben Kweller in John Seabrook's book Nobrow, and all I could think about as I read was how embarrassing all that shit must be for him now. The chapter profiles Kweller at the beginning of his career as a teenager in the mid 90s, playing with his former band Radish in and around Dallas as they prepared to sign a huge major label record contract and attempt to "make it big," with the added fun of having A&R douches label Kweller as the "second coming of Kurt Cobain" in case he didn't feel enough pressure. In addition to the fact that Radish was an absolutely terrible band (what else would you expect from a 15 yr old? No offense, Fungi Girls, you guys r kewl), Kweller came off as a dopey kid being used by dopey adults to sell pathetic music to other dopey kids, and the whole thing was so inconsequential that I could barely bring myself to laugh, even though it was pretty funny. Sort of a Michael Jackson story minus the fame, money, talent, and pretty much anything else that was remotely compelling about Michael Jackson. Kweller has, of course, transformed his public persona to a degree over the past decade with a series of mildly successful "indie rock" solo records, and it's clear that the guy must be doing something right if we're still discussing him more than 15 years after his brush with major label stardom. The music media around here loves to pat Kweller on the back whenever possible in order to bolster his status as some kind of local micro-celebrity, but in reality, this guy is about as famous as he probably ever deserves to be, and although he clearly has a talent for writing pop songs, he seems more useful as an example of how to handle child stardom than he does as a musician, even if the large number of slightly adventurous rock fans at the Granada tonight would loudly disagree with me. (SR)
Drink To Victory | Kaboom | Tweenhattan Lobstars (Hailey's) Shady online dealers of spare, outdated pieces of analog equipment, as well as most of the breweries in Milwaukee.
Dance Your Face Off: Trash Yourself | Genova | Justin Bell | Richard Blake (the Cavern) First of all, the extremely active Twitter community of Dallas Dance music would overload the site, and I say that with certainty, since I spend an embarrassing amount of time reading their Tweets. Also potentially affected: employees of Native Instruments.
Waxeater | Daniel Francis Doyle | A Smile Full of Ale | The Sneeze (1919 Hemphill) Well, it's almost like the Sneeze did kind of die, since everyone always talks about them as this legendary missing link in the local punk underground. People have been bringing up the split they did with Japanther for years, and it will be cool to finally see them. Waxeater's death would greatly impact makers of aluminum guitars, and I have to say, I'm always a little suspicious of the quality of groups brandishing special aluminum equipment. The loss of DFD would send shockwaves of grief through the Wrangler Jeans community, and pretty much any other clothing maker whose products can be found within the same vicinity as leaf blowers and outdoor gas grills.
Our Brother the Native | Religious Girls | Zanzibar Snails (Majestic Dwelling of Doom) People that download all 400 Les Rallizes Denudes live albums and post them on geeky message boards who have really silly "psychedelic" user-names and misspell everything (or worse, use archaic spellings) to prove how "out there" they are. Anyone else tired of this shit? All kidding aside, this show is probably worth checking out.
Sleep Whale | Power Animal (Hailey's) Sleep Whale is one of those groups that I refuse to discuss any further until they have a new album out or something (I mean, don't you know enough about these guys already?), but Power Animal is a one man project that plays live as a group, utilizing a lot of found sounds, random telephone voice recordings (some sent in by fans) and a variety of traditional and non traditional instruments that results in a junkyard style of collage structured, off-beat pop that seems to exist somewhere in between early Beck, Microphones and Boards of Canada with nods to early K Records twee and contemporary K Records earnestness. It's pretty decent stuff for the most part, fairly catchy and just adventurous and impacting enough to remain interesting and occasionally moving, such as on "Track 8," where a recording of a telemarketer is used in a surprisingly tense and pleasing way. It would be interesting to see how it all plays out on stage, as stuff like this is usually completely hit or miss live. (SR)
Annex House BBQ with Diagonals | Pillow Queens | Sir Wes Coleman | Pataphysics | Follow That Bird | Eyes Wings and Many Other Things | The Polycorns | Orange Peel Sunshine (Annex House, 3PM) A good handful of these bands are from Austin and they represent the dark underbelly of the Austin music scene, the one that actually has taste. That's probably the best summary I have for this show. I would hate it if anyone from said underbelly died. They're saving Austin from being as overrated as everyone tries to tell me it is.
SUNDAY
Finally, if SR and died, maybe our moms (big maybe), and Red Sean would care. That's probably it I think.
Leslie Wilkes: Sequels Polly Lanning Sparrow: Sleeper Barry Whistler Gallery 2909 B Canton Street, Dallas, TX 75226 Saturday June 27, 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
Cash & Carry: An Ever Rotating Summer Show The Public Trust Opening Reception: Saturday, June 27, 6-9 pm On view June 27-July 18, 2009
From the flyer: "Cash and Carry will be the answer to the often asked question, 'What is in your backroom?' The less formal presentation of the exhibition will allow people to take the work immediately after they purchase it."
We're happy to announce that We Shot J.R. Records' latest release, Daniel Francis Doyle's We Bet Our Money on You, is now available through our website and at Good Records (it'll be in a few other stores soon too, and we'll let you know about that when it happens). If you'd like to buy it directly from us, just click here to visit our Shop page and purchase. One lucky online purchaser chosen at random will have their record mailed to them with a love poem written by DL, so get those orders in if you're feeling lonely. Dan is currently finishing up a tour of the West Coast and will be performing this Saturday night at 1919 Hemphill with Waxeater, A Smile Full of Ale and the Sneeze.
Dark Castle | Four Days to Burn | Maleveller (Pastime Tavern) Dark Castle, a male/female duo, play a doom influenced, sludgy and slow brand of metal that seems to work way more often than not, even if it contains only a few surprises for those familiar with the genre-- its well crafted and exciting, though, and will likely be a blast to hear live. Four Days to Burn, meanwhile, are similar in influences and style, but seem to have a harder and slightly rawer edge to them that adds quite a bit to what they do. Pretty quality all around, and I couldn't think of a better venue for a scuzzy metal show like this. Oh and one more thing-- Dallas' Maleveller takes a more classic approach than either of these two acts, with nods to speed metal (although certainly not classifiable as such) and earlier European stuff for a sound that will be familiar to any casual metal fan, but will also appeal to a lot of you. Very solid local group that I'd recommend checking out if you haven't heard them before-- finally, a Dallas rock group with balls that actually doesn't sound like fucking grunge leftovers.
ADD: Sound Clash with Royal Highnuss (dubstep, back room) Taxi Fare (dance hall, front room) (Zubar)
Sarah Jaffe (House of Dang) After the $22 coffee shop cover charge fiasco a couple weeks ago, Sarah Jaffe has decided to treat her Dallas fans to a free show this evening, starting at 8pm at the wonderful House of Dang. Again, I'm not saying that I think all shows need to be free because music is spiritual and spirituality can't be bought and sold or some shit like that, but this is certainly a bonus for her younger fans, and guess what? The coffee shop yuppies can come too!
When I saw the line-up on this record back in 1998 I knew I had to get it. I was a fan of Dieter Moebuis' fantastic work with Cluster and Harmonia, Conny Plank's name was on the production/engineering credits of several highly regarded 'krautrock' albums, and I considered much of Mayo Thompson's work with the Red Krayola fairly interesting. The album was shelved by Sky records for 15 years before Drag City made it available, so I really had no idea what it would sound like.
I rarely use the words 'weird' or 'strange' to describe an album, but I can't avoid them with this one. Moebius and Plank lay down a goofy, funky Talking Heads-y backdrop for Mayo Thompson's monologues on various subjects. It doesn't always work, but it sounds much worse on paper than it does on record.
Maybe I was just having a great time anyway, but for some reason I really liked watching the band Lemonade on Saturday when they opened up for Telepathe. I wasn't expecting to enjoy them at all, and almost everyone I was with disagreed with me, but what I heard was a band with influences ranging from Acid House to A Certain Ratio to dub to afrobeat to Liquid Liquid to PIL to various other forms of rhythmic world music, and I enjoyed the shit out of it. Anyway, not a whole hell of a lot happening tonight, but here's what we got:
Wow, slow week. If we missed anything, let us know.
SHOWS OF NOTE THIS WEEK
TUE: Jenny Lewis/Heartless Bastards (Granada) THU: Starlight Mints/Evangelicals/ Matthew and the Arrogant Sea (Granada) THU: John Vanderslice/The Tallest Man On Earth (House of Blues-- Pontiac Garage) FRI: Big Fiction/Legsweeper/Gun Gun/Muhammed Ali (Bike House) SAT: Waxeater/Daniel Francis Doyle/A Smile Full of Ale/The Sneeze (1919 Hemphill) SAT: Cryptacize/Fishboy/Shiny Around the Edges (Rubber Gloves)
Peter Murphy (Lakewood Theater): The Bauhaus Singles Collection (Volume 1) is undeniable; a nasty, solid slab of extremely dark and desperate punk rock. The rest of their catalog is a murky, gothy swamp after that. I think I should give it another chance, and I'm partly saying this so some of you aging geeks with upside down anchs hanging in your closet can point me in a better direction than I've been led in the past. As for Peter Murhphy as a live performer circa 2009, he apparently still has what it takes after all this time. And I hear he's a hell of a dancer.
Bad Sports | Uptown Bums | Brother Machine | Kampgrounds | the Teenage Bees | the Cunts/Younger Sons (2311 Houston Pl. Denton) Solid house show tonight should attract a healthy turnout amongst Denton's DIY community, which is probably struggling a bit to find a new home base after the recent closings of a few beloved house venues that had become impressive centers of activity. And we should all root for this community to grow and prosper, because after all, I could have stayed in Denton during SXSW this year and seen almost half the bands I really wanted to see in Austin. At houses. With no crowds. For next to no money. And props to the Teenage Bees for having a "Teenage Bees" theme song. I love when bands do that.
Meat Puppets | Retribution Gospel Choir (House of Blues) This is like the third time the Meat Puppets have been through town in the past couple of years, but this visit seems to have gone unnoticed by a lot of people around town, perhaps because its just strange to think of the Meat Puppets playing at House of Blues. Anyway, I probably don't have to say much about this band to most people reading this site, but the band's first three albums absolutely can't be denied, and to tell you the truth, I even used to dig their 1994 Alternative Nation smash single "Backwater" quite a bit, which is nothing compared to their earlier material. And almost all of their early stuff still sounds so goddamn fresh too-- if Meat Puppets II had come out this year, Terminal Boredom and Todd P would building shrines for them as we speak.
Unholy Grave | N.I.B.I.R.U | Magrudergrind | Akkolyte (Alamo, 8335 Camp Bowie, Ft. Worth) This all ages/BYOB show looks great, but I'm going to spare you and let Japanese grindcore legends Unholy Grave explain themselves (via their Myspace page description)
UNHOLY GRAVE was formed by TAKAHO (ex:DEATHPEEDM,ex:NAUSEA) to play GRINDCORE in very early 1993.since then, we have over 50 releases in underground. played at tons of gigs/fests includes foreign tours.(USA,UK,AUSTRALIA,EUROPE,SOUTH-EAST-ASIA) besides UG, TAKAHO is organizing "GRINDFREAKS"gig (since 2001) & "GRINDBASTARDS"fest. (since 2007) and with chew/CORRUPTED, TAKAHO is running underground records shop "GRAVE" & DIY label "GRINDFREAKS"...after 15 years of grinding struggle, still our passion for the "GRINDCORE" is real.....
Big J | Sober (Suite Basement located at 4515 Travis St.) Free with RSVP (4 guests with RSVP). Email full name to: suite.basement@gmail.com
SATURDAY
Telepathe | Lemonade | Fight Bite (Hailey's): Telepathe are a Brookln based group that has received about as much online buzz as a band possibly can. A lot of times this means I'm going to hate them, but Telepathe is an exception to this rule, with an interesting array of influences ranging from contemporary R&B and top 40 hip hop to mid 80's Wax Trax and the darker side of 80's New Romantic pop. At first you might perceive the group's lyrics and vocal delivery as being a bit weak, but a few more listens reveal the subtleties of their approach and open things up a little bit. This kind of music is hardly a revolution these days, but if you're going to go see a band like this, you could do a whole hell of a lot worse.
Ear Pwr | Alex Atchley and the Bad Times | Eat Avery's Bones (The Handsome Kitten) Eat Avery's Bones joins a growing list of local bands with killer full-lengths that will never see the light of day. That's a shame, but if you make it to this show, ask them for a CDR at the very least.... you won't be disappointed.... not to mention that all the members of the band are some of the chillest bros and babez you'll meet in the 'local scene.' Also-- its funny when a band sounds exactly like you think they're going to, as is the case with Ear Pwr-- super poppy, relentlessly hyper synth pop/chiptune influenced craziness thats SO punk because its SO not. You've heard this before, but if you liked it, you'll like this. Also a good excuse to check out the new Dallas DIY spot Handsome Kitten.
DJ OPS | Kashioboy | Pocket Change (Muscle Beach) Pre party that takes places before the Telepathe show at one of our favorite DIY spots, located at 907 Denton St.
Hey there, our pals at Spune have given us two pairs of tickets for Saturday's Telepathe | Lemonade | Fight Bite show at Hailey's, and we're gonna give them away to the first two people who email weshotjrtix@yahoo.com with their full name in the body and "Telepathe" as the subject. We'll have a preview for the show a little later today, and we'll let you know when the contest is over. Good luck ya'll! TICKET CONTEST ENDED A COUPLE HOURS AGO, SORRY TO THOSE WHO ENTERED RECENTLY :(
St. Vincent | Pattern Is Movement (The Granada) For me to say anything about St. Vincent at this point would be like me trying to give my two cents on Cowboys training camp. It's a completely overexposed subject in the local media that a bunch of "experts" weigh in on, boring everyone who has to read their press-release tainted tripe to tears, or even worse, until tears of pure blood drip down your face and stain the news-print document you clutch in your bored little hands.
I'm sorry. Let's slow down a little bit.
Look, the hype isn't her fault and I should mention that St. Vincent plays inoffensive, meticulously constructed, pop songs with superficially "weird" sounds thrown in, along with the occasional odd structure. Critics love that. There's nothing really terrible about it, but I used to get her mixed up with Regina Spektor, until I heard Regina Spektor do this wonderfully arranged and surprisingly decent version of "Real Love." I don't get them mixed up anymore.
Santigold | Amanda Blank | Trouble Andrew (House Of Blues) However unfairly, Santigold is often compared to MIA. For her sake, it would be a shame if Santoigold would ultimately be more known for her work being sampled more than anything else, a fate that has befallen MIA, who is rather successful in spite of that fact. Of course, this is nothing new, it's been happening since ESG had an underground hit with "UFO," but the track was much more known for being so commonly sampled in hip hop songs. Anyway, the track that made me think of this in the first place, "Brooklyn Go Hard" is on the Notorious soundtrack, and it's by Jay-Z, who Santigold is supposed to eventually collaborate with again at some point. Whatever comparisons you make with Santigold, don't just say anything about R&B. Her annoyance at being lumped in as an R&B artist produced some rather truthful insight on the vague racism often inherent in genre classifications, and she blurted some pretty choice quotes in this Lipster interview:
"It's racist (laughs). It's totally racist. Everyone is just so shocked that I don't like R&B. Why does R&B keep coming into my interviews? It's pissing me off. I didn't grow up as a big fan of R&B and, like, what is the big shocker? It's stupid. In the beginning I thought that was funny. I'm an 'MC', I'm a 'soul singer', I'm a 'dance hybrid artist'. And some guy said I looked like Kelly Rowland!"
Santigold claims that people are overlooking the New Wave and Rock influences in her music and it all kind of reminds me of when I worked at this record store, I won't name any names, and I had this one boss who insisted on putting Prince and Michael Jackson in the "Soul/R&B" section, as opposed to "Pop/Rock." I confronted him in my last five minutes on the clock, on my last day at work, and explained, "Prince and Michael Jackson are in the top ten list of the most important and iconic artists in POP MUSIC. Why do you insist on categorizing them otherwise?" Anyways, kids, I don't recommend basically calling your boss a racist on your last day at work, but sometimes you just have to.
Ty Segall | The Moonhearts | The Aquaholics (Club Dada) Wait, let me get this straight: A ONE-MAN BAND that plays GARAGE ROCK?! Wait, what? Are you serious? So, he just has a bass drum and a tambourine? And he drums while playing guitar? That is really crazy! And he could have chosen any type of music but he chose GARAGE ROCK! How fucking mind-blowing! How does he go on tour? Does he have to load all of his equipment himself? Is he one of those dudes that asks the crowd to buy him a drink from the stage? How does he sell his merch? He must have to bring a "band" full of roadies, haha. WHOA.
