Dead Prez | RC Williams & The Gritz Band | Jay Clipp (Prophet Bar) Dead Prez seems to have at mellowed out considerably, at least in sound, if not in world view, judging by what I've heard on their most recent album, Pulse Of The People. Their newest music is no longer the harsh, minimal sound that they made their name on, and instead tracks are fleshed out with bigger production, lush instrumentation, and melodic backing vocals.
Their lyrical content is still socially conscious and aggravated, but stic.man and M-1 seem less interested in making the music as confrontational as the message at this point, which is bound to happen with any group that has been as intense as they have for as long as they have. Most of the record isn't as light as this track, entitled "Summertime," but it's a good example of how startlingly calm some of their more recent work can be. In any event, I would definitely take the opportunity to catch this show if you can, as it's not often that a hip hop act this highly regarded plays such a small venue in Dallas on a Wednesday night. I did a double take when I first saw the advertisement.
Decades With DJ Nodad (Rubber Gloves) DJ Nodad will be giving away free copies of Denton Deluxe Volume 5, ahead of its official release this weekend. The new edition will be available at Time Bandits on Saturday if you miss out tonight. Remember that Time Bandits has moved to 308 E. Oak St., just off the square in Denton.
Doug Burr | Eleisha Eagle | Glen Farris | Kirby Brown (City Tavern) One of the most widely misspelled bills I've seen in a long time. Come on, everyone, is it that hard to double-check a name or the artist's website?
The Smothers Brothers (Nokia) No clue on what attending this would actually be like, but I've always thought that the straight guy bit by Tom Smothers on this clip was great.
KMFDM | Angelspit | Ugly Mustard (Granada) Show me the aging goth that attends this show, and I will show you a guy who mumbles "I work 'in computers'," when asked what he does for a living.
Bad Sports | Spooky Folk | Redsean | Art By Andrew Williams (The Cavern) Bad Sports really does seem to own Dallas lately.
Pinback | Bellini (The Loft) I'm sure a lot of Pinback fans will be in for a pretty rude awakening when Bellini takes the stage tonight, and I think it's a great decision on both band's parts to have the group as the opening act. The group's explosive, blistering and intense music is...well, that and many more adjectives that are the opposite of Pinback.
Bellini's lead singer, Giovanna Cacciola, and guitarist, Agostino Tilotta, are a married couple from Italy, and they have been playing music together since the late Eighties. To see these two on stage is really an experience, especially watching a fifty-something year-old man writhing, jumping, and violently thwacking his guitar; basically doing the same thing musicians half his age do and look completely stupid, and yet he pulls it off.
Giovanna is as equally powerful a vocalist as her husband is a guitarist; her pleading, urgent singing is as forceful as it is wounded. Though I still miss original drummer Damon Che's completely inhuman and cephalopod-like acrobatics, the rhythm section consisting of Texan Matthew Taylor and Girls Against Boys' Alexis Fleisig is suitably impressive. Bellini is an inspiring group and I have not missed them once in the past seven years. Easily the best act on Temporary Residence, and probably the last band that I can still really support playing Chicago underground-styled, "beautifully aggressive" music.
Disqo Disco (Fallout Lounge) Tonight is Redsean's birthday, so wish him well.
Emilie Autumn (The Granada) I found this bit of info on the Emilie Autumn website to be very peculiar:
ATTENTION, PLAGUE RATS: In addition to regular tickets, EA will be offering a limited amount of Exclusive VIP Packages. These packages include the following:
-1 ticket -1 Hand-signed copy of EA’s long awaited book: "The Asylum For Wayward Victorian Girls" -1 Hand-signed limited edition Emilie Autumn poster -1 Meet and Greet with EA and semi-private reading from “The Asylum...” after the show
There's no real accounting for something being "long-awaited," so I guess I can't really knock that description, but I can knock this one (used by Autumn to describe what she does) "punktorian." Ouch.
Touche Amore | Komarov | Nouvex Riches | Zwounds (1919 Hemphill): Nouvex Riches is half the members of Jubilee, who you may or may not be familiar with, but they did a split with Zwounds, and you can download it by clicking here. I'm sure that neither band will mind, since that link is posted on their Myspace.
Disco Workout (Hailey's) "Dance music from the 70's and beyond" according to the Hailey's website.
Mayhem Mondays with Stefan Gonzalez (Fallout Lounge): I read somewhere that this might be the last Mayhem Monday, and that would be a total shame, since this event is one of the only places you'll hear a lot of this music or more specifically ever hear Limp Wrist at Fallout Lounge. In fact, one of the event's stated goals is "to shed light on international and obscure heaviness, as it's something that is just not too easily accessible in this city." Agreed.
Hope Sandoval & The Warm Inventions | Dirt Blue Gene (Sons Of Hermann Hall): I'll admit that I heard part of the most recent Hope Sandoval album at Good Records the other day, and that it wasn't bad at all. In fact, I was surprised to find out that's what it was. That's how much I didn't hate it. Another ringing endorsement.
TUE: Pinback/Bellini (The Loft) WED: KMFDM/Angelspit/Ugly Mustard (Granada) WED: Bad Sports/Spooky Folk/Redsean/Andrew Williams (The Cavern) WED: Dead Prez/RC Williams & The Gritz Band/DJ Jay Clipp (Prophet Bar) THU: Lou Barlow (Good Records) THU: Built To Spill/Dinosaur JR/Lou Barlow & The Missing Men/Disco Doom (Granada) THU: Breast Cancer Awareness Benefit with The Donnas/Max Cady/Peacemaker (Trees) THU: Matthew Gray/Spooky Folk/Jenn Gooch (Dan's Silver Leaf) FRI: Denton VS Dallas: DJ G/Yeah Def/OPS/Teamwork VS Sober/Killtron/Genova/Tommy L33 Jon3s (Hailey's) FRI: No Thanks Fest 3 with Doom Siren/Chest Pain/Creeping Jeans/Bring Down The Hammer/Embolization/Coin Return and many more (Emory Texas: From Dallas- 30 East To Greenville, TX, 69 South To Emory, Right On 19 South (1 Mile), Right At The No Thanks Sign, Follow Signs To Parking. Call (214)287-2510 for more info) SAT: Lo Fi Chorus/Naptime Shake (Lee Harvey's) SAT: Whoa!Coder/Kashioboy/Blixaboy/Yeah Def (Rubber Gloves) SAT: Red Faced Laughter/Eat Avery's Bones/Fuck Facts/The Numerators (Majestic Dwelling Of Doom) SAT: Black Heart Procession/The Mumblers/Seryn (Hailey's)
The other writers were really good about turning their work in on time. I was not. This is so late, I know. I just want to tell any and all of my pretentious friends that no, I will not go see Where The Wild Things Are with you this weekend. I'm taking my two little cousins, aged six and ten respectively. We are seeing it first thing tomorrow morning, simply because I can not bear the thought of having to hear you talk about how great Dave Eggers is or even worse, what a "crazy genius manchild" Spike Jonze is for shooting at his house-guests with a BB gun or whatever, when I'm just trying to enjoy myself at a film adaptation of a storybook for children. I want to to make it through this thing without being overloaded with the hip analytical babble you'll be breathlessly whispering from all the way up from the parking garage and back down to the lobby. This goes double for the upcoming Wes Anderson film. In that case, I'll have to take a newborn baby if I want to avoid hearing that shit. The six year old already told me that Roald Dahl's original novel, Fantastic Mr. Fox, was "overrated." -DL (written by DL, Frank Phosphate and Nite Maus)
FRIDAY
Javelina | Kill The Client | Vorvadoss | Maleveller (Phoenix Project) I caught the tail end of a show here last weekend, and it was a great space, even in its incomplete state. I would actually fear for the structural integrity of the place tonight, considering that Kill The Client is easily one of the most physical bands I've ever seen. BRUTAL.-(DL)
Power Trip | Dark Forces | Backtrack | Coin Return (Lion's Den located at 22 N. Austin Street in Denton) We heard of this hardcore house show at the very last minute, and it looks like a good one. Still really want to make a Lion's Den show.-(DL)
Atomic Party With Royal Highnuss | TomB | Blixaboy | Tommy L33 Jon3z | New Fumes (Fallout Lounge) Featuring "Dubstep, Techno, Nu Electro, IDM and other electronic weirdness." Har Mar Superstar | Best Fwends | My Jerusalem (The Lounge) It's tough to have a sense of humor when you are a musician. The occasional sly non sequitur not withstanding, most attempts at humor in music I find to be very unsatisfying. I can't stand half of Frank Zappa's catalog due to his pompous holier-than-thou hippie prankster persona. Weird Al Yankovic makes me want to put a bullet in my head. Every once and a while an artist can marry tongue-in-cheek satire with a musical persona while also possessing the chops to back it up. Peaches has been successful and so has Sean Tillman aka Har Mar Superstar. Har Mar is a send up all things cliche and trite about modern R&B, or what's disgusting about popular music in general. Sean Tillman is a balding, overweight every man with a looking glass eye on popular culture. Har Mar Superstar is a rhyme-spewing sexual vagrant with enough gravitas to seduce 100 Betty Drapers.
Beyond what ever grand concept Tillman is projecting, the music itself is catchy and a lot of fun. Dude knows to how to write an absolutely ridiculous pop song. That pretty boy Justin Timberlake ain't got nothing on this guy. While I wouldn't recommended his catalog to anyone outside the most kitsch-friendly connoisseurs, the live show should not be missed. Tillman's Kaufman-level character devotion ensures you will always be treated to a sweaty, roof raising groove-fest. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that he will play the cover of The Association's "Never my Love" featured in the Ellen Paige's movie Whip It. Not that I saw it of course.
If you are looking for something with a little more... substance from Tillman you should check one of his other personas, Sean Na Na. More or less the same deal; satirical lyrics and solid song writing, but with power-pop in the place of Superstar's R&B. I'm not sure what to make of the announcement that Tillman and the aforementioned Ellen Paige are writing a series for HBO centering around "two painfully cool hipster girls." Tillman has shown that his pop sensibilities can be marketable, writing songs for the likes of Jennifer Lopez and others, so maybe the transition to mainstream TV will be successful. Gotta have something to take the place of Flight of the Concords I guess.-(FP) The Paper Chase | Great Tyrant | Personal Victories With George Quartz (Lola's Sixth)
David Cross (Lakewood Theater) I was parked in a car in the middle of some decrepit strip mall when I first heard David Cross. One of my friends swore that I'd love Shut Up You Fucking Baby (and that we had to listen to it in a car), and as it happens most of the times someone tells me "you'll just loooove this CD of stand-up comedy," it took all my strength to ignore the impulse to throw up all over the leather interior. Comedy clubs are my idea of hell, and paying someone to make you laugh is akin to joining a frat, but this night of hanging out in a parking lot was different. Because listening to David Cross is actually fun.
There's some sort of animal magnetism that happens between a certain crowd and David Cross. Mostly known from his stint as Tobias in Arrested Development and from the amazing Mr. Show, David Cross is a total asshole. And there's a large group of people, myself included, who are terribly attracted to assholes. He doesn't try to be hilarious, he doesn't write punch lines, he probably doesn't even care that there are other people in the room; he's just smart and a pleasure to listen to (if you don't care about him insulting everything you care about and believe in). I'm not only interested in seeing what kind of crowd this show attracts and how many people will thrilled and enthralled, but also how many people will end up not going home with whomever took them to this show, simply because they'll be so appalled and enraged.-(NM) The Hand Combine (Art Six)
SATURDAY
Daniel Folmer | Dust Congress | Glen Farris | Sabra Laval (J&J's Pizza) Excellent review of the new Daniel Folmer disc here, the release of which this show is celebrating. Though I'm not sure if a "subdued Ben Folds" (as he was called in the Sarah Crisman's review) would open a song by telling the audience that "...how you know you can tell you've fucked a girl good, is when you're leaving, she remembers your first and last name," as he did on this recent Gutterth podcast. Interesting advice, and it's good to know the songwriter is as sensitive as ever. When you have as many press blurbs as this guy has on his Myspace, you would hope that somebody remembers.-(DL)
Arlington Info Shop With Wu Fru De Lu | The Decency Project | New Fumes | AFTV | Zwounds | Pain Free & Relapx (Arlington Info Shop located at 1127 S. Davis In Arlington) Anytime I talk to a buddy from out of town about music and the Denton scene is brought up, the conjecture is often repeated: "There are weirdo bands there, noise and improv stuff." I have found that this mythical ideal of the Denton artist being insular musical misfits with only the most abstract of musical sensibilities in the Denton scene, for the most part, to be a delusion. Although Wu Fru du lu vs Space Dragon Killa would be an example of a band my friends are talking about. Beyond the weird name, Wu Fru also creates weird music. Lacking form and structure but making up for it with, well with weirdness.
For those of you cognitive learners out there you could compare Wu's live performance to the likes of Zanzibar Snails or Violent Squid. Avant-garde, "weird," and challenging, but intriguing and inviting enough to encourage you to stick around to see what happens next. The organic, percussion-heavy sound they often conjure has an Animal Collective feel I guess, minus the American Apparel qualities. The show can be uncomfortable. Has the music started? Is that guy in the band or just really drunk? All questions better left at that door. Just be glad you live in a place where such weirdness can live and thrive instead of just as a slogan for shirts and bumper stickers.-(FP)
Valient Thor | Early Man | True Widow | The Ramonahs (Double Wide) This is a six year anniversary celebration for the Double Wide. Though it is quite a feat to keep a club open that long, it seems like it's been here a lot longer than that. Perhaps that's because I associate it so closely with Dallas music, period. It just seems like it's always been there.
Congrats to True Widow for the recognition they have received from Aquarius Records in San Francisco. That doesn't happen to local bands everyday, especially not from around here.-(DL)
Michael Tole is showing some paintings at Conduit Gallery this weekend (details below). He was kind enough to sit down with WeShotJr for some bone-crushing art opinions.
Richardson Heights: You've written one of the few artist statements I've ever read that doesn't suck. Can you tell us the intentions behind the Faberge Egg and expensive knick-knack paintings?
Michael Tole: Thanks for the compliment. The Faberge Eggs are such over the top baroque objects, it's impossible not to find them beautiful, but they come with a lot of baggage in terms of history, class, and as class signifiers today. The eggs I've painted are sold in a curio shop for thousands of dollars, and I find it interesting that people still use these as markers of class in today's society. It says a lot about who we strive to be. I snap hundreds of photos when I go to this shop and I shake the camera while I'm doing so. About one in a hundred of the photos comes out with amazing double images and tracers that make the eggs even more baroque than they are in real life. I then translate that back into a traditional media, namely oil on canvas with an exacting technique that revels in all those weird little chance happenings of the blurry photo. In this upcoming show I have some intaglio prints of the eggs, but I also have some beautifully strange paintings of Chinese camel bone carvings I found at various Ripley's Believe it or Not Museums around the country.
These camel bone carvings are amazing objects. Most are about 6 feet wide, 3 feet tall, and just a few inches deep. I've taken about a thousand photos of these sculptures, but unlike the eggs, I've used a combination of photographic, painted, and computer generated tricks to create fantastic landscapes and dramatic vistas that reinterpret the original bone carvings into technicolor dreams. They are conflations of tradition and technology, American pop culture and Chinese high culture, Eastern imagery and Western media. My paintings in this show embody that very American habit of taking the exotic and projecting something American onto it making a new reality that is loud, original, entertaining, but not authentic. These paintings have all the authenticity of sesame chicken or the Pai Mei sequence from the Kill Bill movie... but I love both those things, and I love these paintings. Authenticity can be boring. Mistranslations hold worlds of possibility.
RH: Your paintings are so meticulous and photo-realistic -- how do you know when you're finished with a painting?
MT: It's easy to know when I'm finished with a painting. I begin in the upper left hand corner, and I'm finished when I get to the bottom right. I usually paint in one layer, but even if I use two, I start the new layer in the upper corner and work across...when I get to the opposite corner I stop.
RH: How, if at all, do you fit in to the Dallas / Fort Worth art scene?
MT: I've shown with Conduit Gallery for seven years now, so I'm friends with many of her stable of artists. I've also had a studio at Art Motel (behind Marty Walker Gallery) for a couple of years and have many friends there. I try to stay in touch with everyone, which is harder now that I have a daughter, but I manage. I feel very comfortable here and I hope I add something to the artistic diversity of this area. My work is based very much in the unique local culture of DFW, which may sound like a strange thing to say, but the more I travel the more I realize how distinct it is. This metroplex is a sponge that sucks up culture from everywhere else, and sometimes forgets its own past in the process (not that there's much past to forget). We end up being a one of a kind combination of visual styles, languages and cultures with little sense of indigenous culture, especially in North Dallas and the Northern suburbs, but I like the fluidity of this milieu.
RH: Can you tell us an unusual or unique studio process you currently use or have used in the past?
MT: This is a little embarrassing to admit, but my most unusual studio practice is probably the fact that I listen to audio books all day long... only the unabridged versions though. I feel like I'm cheating a little bit by not physically reading the books, but I'm in the studio 40 hours a week, and you can only listen to NPR for so long, and I prefer stories to music. This way I get to read all the books I should have read in college while I work. I'm especially fond of Russian authors because their books are so long. One Dostoevsky audio book lasts me for weeks.
RH: What is your studio situation like? What kind of environment do you create while you work?
MT: As for my studio environment... imagine how pristine and exacting my paintings are, then imagine the total opposite of that precision and you have my studio. It's a slovenly mess. There are three clean things in my studio, my canvas, my coffee mug, and my hands, the rest is feral.
RH: Please describe a favorite piece of art in your personal collection.
MT: My personal art collection is pretty small right now, but I'm very fond of a Ted Kincaid line drawing I have, and a digital print by Todd Camplin who is currently a grad student at UNT.
This Would Be A Big To-Do In Georgia Jim Burton David Willburn @ Gallery 219 at Eastfield College 3737 Motley Drive, Mesquite, TX 75150 October 17 : 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
Not sure if the show title is meant as an insult to Georgia. Here are an installation photo and some more details.
To Be Someone Must Be a Wonderful Thing Erick Maybury, Alejandro Diaz, Bryan Ryden, Rachel Strum @ HCG Gallery 1130 Dragon Street, Suite 190, Dallas, TX 75207 October 17 : 6:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Eminent Domain - Mark Messersmith Fractured Form - Philip Evett and Ansen Seale Collage of Coincidences - Dean Corbitt and Curtis Scott @ The MAC (more on this show here) 3120 McKinney Avenue, Dallas, TX 75204 October 17 : 5:30 PM - 7:30 PM
All Natural @ Marty Walker Gallery 2135 Farrington Street, Dallas, TX 75207 October 17 : 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
I was surprised to see a Savage Republic video on Monday Morning Rock, as I had already planned on doing this record this week. This was purely coincidental and I apologize for the redundancy. I do, however, believe that Savage Republic is a group that can be hard to appreciate with only a 3 minute video; so here is 75 minute live double lp!
Traditionally, live albums have been shunned by critics for one reason or another. Lackluster sound quality, performances and song selection are often critiqued, and there is usually an issue concerning how much of the album is actually a live concert recording or overdubbed studio "correction." Hell, sometimes the integrity of the release itself is in question, with live albums often being released to fulfill some sort of contractual obligation that a band has with a record company. Claims like these were likely not made about this Savage Republic album due to it's lack of mainstream exposure, but I frequently find live albums to be an interesting, and, in some cases, integral, part of a band's catalog and I figured that now would be as good a time as any to share this view and maybe get some other people's opinions.
Back to the matter at hand. L.A.'s Savage Republic had gone through a few line up changes and even a break up before embarking on the tour that produced this album. By this time, Bruce Licher and company were a six piece band that had developed quite a reputation as an intense live act, and these recordings do nothing to disprove that. A nice selection of material from both SR studio records is presented, though group had largely abandoned the industrial sound that was present on their debut, 1982's Tragic Figures, in favor of the tribal/eastern/Branca/noise/post-punk thing that they had going on 1985's Ceremonial lp and Trudge ep. This is not to say that they changed their sound altogether, by any means; they only made it a little less intentionally harsh.
Live Trek holds the rare distinction of being a record that can serve as both a comprehensive introduction to a person unfamiliar with the artist and a great addition to the collection of someone that is already a fan. It may be a lot to take in all at once, but you will probably have realized how awesome this record several times before reaching the final track, 'Year of Exile,' which is a personal favorite of mine and one of the many highlights of this album.
Vivian Girls | Uptown Bums | True Widow (The Cavern) While overseas this past summer, I was in the middle of doing some unbelievable record shopping with some friends in Berlin's beautiful Mauerpark Flea Market, before we were rudely interrupted by two pushy members of Vivian Girls' European street team. These two young men saw the records in my hand, and immediately tried to push these mini tour posters into my free hand, while trying to tell me about the group's upcoming shows. I quickly explained that I had seen the Vivian Girls twice in the States already, one time was pretty good, the other not as good, and that I didn't want any promos. They seemed stunned and fascinated by this admission, and began to probe me about it. I went on to explain that I understood the excitement behind the group, how I thought they were decent, but that perhaps they could do more with the overall concept, besides just putting out song after song, with little distinction from one to the next. I also told them that I thought they had a lot they could do with what I felt was basically a "good sound" and I appreciated the historical sonic references, but that the whole thing was in danger of being beaten into the ground and sinking under the smug weight of a record collector's smirk, and that this was never more apparent than over the course of a show with an overly long set-list. They nodded with the desperate desire to understand the incredibly complex American and I let them know with the vaguest of gestures that I didn't want to murder them for being part of something as pathetic as an indie rock street team.
What had started as an awkward and almost unfriendly encounter ended with both parties coming away having better understood each other, and the guys waved and smiled at my friend and I as we left the market, even though I had pretty much dissed them and their product. Can we please have that kind of civility here too, even though we all really disagree with each other, and I hate your guts and you hate mine? How about it?
80's Night With DJ G (Hailey's) DJ G is one of the most knowledgeable guys around town, and if they handed out PHD's in 80's music and Italo Disco, well, he would have a few hanging in that dark little sound booth at Hailey's. All that being said, whoever made the way-off assertion that Bill Laswell is the kind of stuff that's overplayed at 80's Nights in Denton not only baffled a handful of us, but I would still say you're more likely to hear a crowd singing along to Simple Minds than getting annoyed that Material is too repetitive or whatever you imagine actually takes place at these events.
Buddy Guy (House Of Blues) Buddy Guy is one of those living Blues greats that everyone's dad likes, yet few armchair blues critic dads can ever tell you why Buddy Guy is any good, or why he matters other than some generic answer that involves Clapton rather than the far superior Magic Sam. I actually find that Guy's improvisational playing often comes off as fascinatingly sloppy, however that is meant in the best way possible. He is always the highlight of any of those cheeseball all-star blues lineups you catch on PBS pledge drives simply because he is daring enough to play something unconventional next to a bunch of by-the-book stiffs.
Railcars | Kampfgrounds | Hail/Stoned Men (Rubber Gloves) Stoned Men picks up where Scoff left off, featuring Adrian Scoff and Kasee Scoff (not their real last names) on guitar and drums respectively, with both gentlemen handling the vocals. Scoff was a bizarre little group that played a mangled style of punk and they quickly became a beloved live act, at least amongst who attend house shows. Whether or not the mangling was intentional, I find to be a rather unimportant detail. I miss their video fliers, and I wish they would have made one for this show.
Kampfgrounds is another fairly new act featuring slightly agitated and sometimes just barely annoyed vocals over straight-forward yet dynamic guitar rock. The songs seem simple yet keep changing over their duration, and makes one wonder how well this comes off live, but it seems worth exploring more.
NOTE: This show was moved from The Majestic Dwelling Of Doom, due to a recent flooding and the cover is $3.
Railcars | Ghetto $lang (Good Records) Once again, we have a band that is much more pop-oriented than I would expect from an act I've seen described as experimental punk in more than one place, but that doesn't mean they are entirely dismissible. Railcars' method involves warping the sound of the melodies and somewhat standard pop song structures through a variety of effects and toys, but it's still pretty catchy music and people who seek out the slightly off yet mostly accessible would not be disappointed by giving this a chance, especially for free.
According to the description on our show calendar, Ghetto $lang is the project of Good Records customers, Tony Martinez and Nick Munoz, and it seems to be a campy mix of dance beats, cuttingly shrill keyboard sounds, and campy vocals that venture into balladeer territory.
Helloooooo.com presents The Ish: Redsean | Tommy L33 Jon3z (Ghost Bar) This event has been apparently been very well-attended so far, and I can't believe redsean: One night he's carrying DJ equipment around the puddles that lie in the little alley next to Meridian Room, and the next day he's all way up on the 33rd floor of The W. That's one busy guy.
Japanadroids, | The Coathangers | Tober Omi (The Cavern): Trying to figure out what Japandroids is going for, versus what they actually do, is a real head-scratcher. On their page, they claim that they are play Garage Rock." I've even read a couple of reviews that supported that description. Now, there a lot of times when I'm told about some "crazy," "noisy," "completely fucked up" band that gets a lot of attention from Terminal Boredom or Art For Spastics, and I'll hear it and say, "Oh, that's just Garage Rock." Or "That's pretty good, but yeah, it's Garage Rock." Or even "Yes that whirring sound might make a passing sonic reference to Chrome, but it's still basically Garage Rock." But Japandroids, I would never, ever call Garage Rock. There are way too many 90's Indie Rock melodies and even anthemic emo-sounding tracks for that. Okay, so I've heard one one sludgy riff and maybe a slightly tough tom-heavy drumbeat, but that's it and still nothing remotely resembling anything "Garage-y." The songwriting is all of the super sensitive variety and seems to be mostly about relationships. This band also described themselves as such: "Imagine Guns N Roses meets Iggy & The Stooges meets The Sonics meets the Rolling Stones!!!!. That's the band we wish we were."
Hate to break it to you fellas, but I'm pretty sure if all those bands met, it wouldn't sound anything like Hey Mercedes, not even for five seconds.
I think The Coathangers are a very good band and definitely make this show worth seeing, all misleading critical and band-generated attempts at categorization aside.
Cool Out (The Cavern) Tonight is a "Cool Out Appreciation Party," AKA COAP, and the first 100 people in the door get a free drink. Um, excuse me, excuse me, um, Schwa, can I uh, um, get a Shirley Temple with extra Grenadine? Thanks.
Alice Cooper's Theater Of Death (The Palladium) According to the press release for this show, Bob Dylan 'publicly proclaimed in a January 26, 1978, Rolling Stone cover story: "I think Alice Cooper is an overlooked songwriter."' That's a pretty eyebrow raising bit of information, but I find it to be a completely supportable opinion if you're familiar with Cooper's work beyond the surface-level theatrics for which he is mostly known. At the opposite end of the popular music spectrum, apparently John Lydon thinks that the "Killer" record from 1971 is the best rock album of all time, at least according to the always entertaining "Superbligged 84" blog, and there is a great post and show preview here. I think it's a drag that Alice is actually a golf-playing Republican, but I actually think most shock rockers are Republicans when you really break down the fascist and misogynist imagery.
U2 | Muse (American Airlines Center) I heard parking at Cowboys Stadium is something along the lines of thirty dollars, which is not only absurd, but makes you think twice about complaining about a twelve dollar show. I am really glad that Glenn Beck likes Muse, and I really wish he would become a fan of more bands I can't stand, because I know it's very damaging to a group's credibility.
U2. Hmm. What is left to say about them, except that I support the assessment that they have the "worst rhythm section in the history of Rock," and that R.E.M. once totally showed them up on their own song. In fact the only terrible part of that video is U2 drummer Larry Mullen Jr's annoying bongo playing. Not surprising.
MON: Alice Cooper's Theater Of Death (Palladium) TUE: Japanadroids, The Coathangers, Tober Omi (The Cavern) WED: Railcars (Majestic Dwelling Of Doom/Good Records) THU: Vivian Girls, True Widow, The Uptown Bums (The Cavern) FRI: Javelina/Kill The Client/Vorvadoss/Maleveller (Phoenix Project) FRI: Mono, Maserati (Haileys) FRI: Har Mar Superstar, Best Fwends (The Lounge) FRI: The Paperchase/Great Tyrant/Personal Victories With George Quartz (Lola's Sixth) SAT: Theater Fire/City Center/Outliner Trio/Sunset (Mable Peabody's) SAT: Wu Fru De Lu/The Decency Project/New Fumes/AFTV/Zwounds/Blunt Force Crew/Pain Free & Relapx (Arlington Info Shop located at 1127 S. Davis In Arlington) SUN: Screening: Three On Sunday With Martin Iles (Dan's Silverleaf)
Again, here are the shows for tonight. Not much time to write because I will be going to every single one of these events. Thanks. Muhammadali | The Sleepies | Big Fiction | Legsweeper (Phoenix Project)
This Old House | Dust Congress | Bosque Brown | My Gold Mask (Rubber Gloves): Almost saw Bosque Brown at Smoke last week, but had to leave because the ribs were so sweet they tasted like French toast sticks, so I immediately had to go out and get some actual French toast sticks.
Pathetic attempt, but there were a lot of problems today. These are the shows just for tonight. We'll try to be back tomorrow with the rest of the weekend. Thanks.
Old Snack | Jail | Bad Sports (Double Wide) I've been hearing good things about Milwaukee, Wisconsin's Jail, for a little while now, and so far I've found their somewhat psychedelic, mostly poppy, garage rock pretty good, especially for the stabs at varying the tempos and tackling slower numbers along with the outright rock songs. It's not just a constant pummeling, and it sounds like there is a lot of thought put into the songwriting even if it comes off as haphazard and spontaneous; something that many rock bands try to achieve but fail miserably at. Sometimes they come off like The Reigning Sound with Late Seventies New York Punk, man-bitch vocals. I mean that in the best way possible. Top it all off with two of the most reliable garage pop bands in the area, and this is a solid show.
The Soft Pack | Hymns | Cocky Americans (The Cavern): The Soft Pack are formerly known as The Muslims. Can't imagine why that name would cause controversy. Here's a really depressing video of the beloved Czech Stop that might shed a little light.
Top Notch Thursdays with DJ Sober (The Cavern Upstairs) Sober will also be putting on Top Notch at Boondocks in Houston, the last Saturday of every month.
David Bazan | Say Hi (Dan's Silverleaf): Does anyone seriously care whether or not Li'l Davey believes in God? Journalists, man. They always have to have their narrative, though I don't doubt musicians milk it for their own purposes as well. Another thing: see how many groups you can name where the "mysterious" lead singer is presented, along with ample help from the the media and/or his publicist, as having a tortured childhood with an overbearing Pentecostal/Baptist/preacher father. Wait, stop the presses! Your childhood sucked? Your parents believed in God? You had a strict upbringing? WELCOME TO EARTH, SINGER SONGWRITER.
As for his music, he peaked at the first two tracks off of "The Only Reason I Feel Secure." He once moonlighted with Starflyer 59, who I find to be fairly superior as far as Spiritual Slowcore goes. What a drag of a genre. Fox And The Bird | Hand Combine | Seryn (The Lounge) I had a long description here that included references to whittling and making soap from lye, but I decided to hold back. You're welcome.
Lazy Magnet | Nothingberry Plasma | Welby | Evil Spirits | Whore Hair (Wasted Words house located at 2404 S. Fielder Rd. in Arlington): Lazy Magnet began as the solo project of Jeremy Harris, who released stylistically diverse records for fifteen years, and eventually invited others to join him, turning the project into a collective effort, though I don't know if that's still the case. His material has been available through Providence's respectable Corleone Records, a label that has worked with many noteworthy acts including Night Wounds, Black Pus, and Landed. This should be really good show for Wasted Words. Also, has anyone ever heard of Drugs Bunny? Are there some great band names in the underground or what? I recently heard a band called Butt Simpson, and it was the best thing I have heard in six months to a year. But how do I tell people that with a straight face?
