Lucky 13 John Gonzales Magnolia Theatre West Village, 3699 McKinney Avenue in Dallas Thursday, October 8th, from 8-10pm
"Born and raised in Dallas, John started making art in high school, and continued at the Art Institute of Dallas. Growing up around screen printing and poster creation, John incorporated the individual style of those hand skills through a digital talent with computers, to form a non traditional style."
Check out the artist sites. Limon's got some good-creepy Brueghelesque figurative work and Brown's got some slightly-more-kid-friendly-but-creepy work. Both artists seem supremely talented.
FRIDAY
Poetry Happening And/Or Gallery Friday, October 9th, 7-8 PM
"The phrase and/or indicates that you can either choose between two alternatives or choose both of them. This Friday evening the choice will offer up a reading by local poets Alexander Etheridge and Joe Milazzo with a side order of viewing The Way Things Go, a video by Swiss artists Peter Fischli and David Weiss. The evening is organized around a request made by Karen Weiner. If you like words with your images or can't decide, come be surprised."
SATURDAY
Open Show: Landscapes 500X Gallery Opens Saturday, October 10, 7-10 pm
500X is shifting their annual open show to the Fall (used to be in May). This show's theme: landscape. "...landscape offers participating artists a focus and allows viewers an opportunity to see how numerous artists explore one of art history's most traditional genres." This show includes a painting by unsung Dallas master Rob Polivka (artwork for Early Lines, among others).
Through the Lens mod.shop gallery Opens Saturday, October 10, 6-9 pm
"Six colored prints by Julie Barnofski, six colored prints by Angela Patterson and 20x30 inches archival inkjet prints by Tom Leininger address melancholia, ambiguity and death."
Fancy Fist (The Cavern) Sally Glass makes her triumphant return to Dallas at The Cavern this evening, after being overseas for much longer than she said she would, but who could blame her? Garden Ridge will still be here when you get back. It sounds like Glass went in a more loose and disjointed direction judging by some of the more recent recordings on her music page, but there's no telling if that will work its way into tonight's set. Either way, glad to have one of the best "scene diplomats" back in town. Certainly more diplomatic than us, that's for sure...
Helloooooo.com presents The Ish: DJ Flip Millionz of Three Six Mafia | Jason Faries | WISH FM (Ghost Bar) This is an "unofficial afterparty" for the Kings Of Leon show, however here's to hoping tonight's attendees won't feel the need to endure such a terrible event in order to come to this afterward. RSVP here.
Kings Of Leon | White Lies (American Airlines Center) The ultimate bro band: made up of bros, loved by bros, there is no end to the extreme bro quotient that will be on display here. Brociology 101 Extra Credit: There will be so many bros at The AAC, take advantage of the rare opportunity to witness bros actually getting annoyed that there are so many other bros there. It will make your head spin trying to figure out the depth and complexity of such unselfconscious self-hatred.
Neil Young has to be somewhere near the top of the proverbial "people either love 'em or hate 'em" list of musicians, up there with the likes of Willie Nelson, Tom Waits, and Frank Zappa. There just seems to be no middle ground for the guy at all, which, to me, is rather unfortunate. I can't see how an artist with a 40+ year career, including a 10 year run through the 70s that is nearly unrivaled in terms of both creative and commercial success, rarely has a moderate appeal to so many people. Oh well, fuck it. I clearly fall into the "love em" group and writing this paragraph is the only time that I'm going to devote to this argument, for now.
Anyway, the story goes that Neil Young went to the Bottom Line to see a Ry Cooder performance and decided to play an unannounced/unplanned set after Cooder had finished his. Thankfully, somebody had the presence of mind to roll tape for this, as this show is somewhat of an anomaly in Young's career. Throughout the 70s he frequently toured, whether it be with Crazy Horse, Crosby, Stills and Nash, or as a solo artist, but, as far as I know, he rarely did one-offs like this and it was even more rare that they were actually recorded and preserved.
Neil's solo performances were notoriously intimate, and this one is no different. He frequently takes time to introduce songs with stories, take requests, and even shares a rather interesting technique for ingesting marijuana with the audience. Despite the usual Young schtick, this recording is unique in the fact that it his only recorded solo performance of 1974 to make it's way to the public and includes very rare acoustic performances of songs from his then forthcoming lp On the Beach. He plays about half of the record during the hour long set, turning in a particularly moving rendition of Ambulance Blues.
It's no secret that Neil has been making several archived recordings public over the past few years, releasing three live albums and a rather comprehensive nine disc box of material compiled between 1963 and 1972. Logic would dictate that the next archival release(s) will cover his mid-70s period, and hopefully allow more performances of this caliber to see the light of day.
N'Dambi (Good Records) Free Show at 9 PM. Here is a description from our show site: On her exciting Stax debut "Pink Elephant," N'Dambi ingeniously distills soul-deep inspiration into a sensual style of elegance and power. She has learned well from her mentor Erykah Badu successfully blending Betty Davis and Isaac Hayes by way of a female from Dallas. This is the day the album drops NATIONALLY so let's celebrate in style with Dallas' own N'Dambi and make her feel like she is in NYC or LA.
Insane Clown Posse | (hed) p.e. | The Dayton Family (The Palladium) Possibly the all-time magnet of an easy target for people with no taste to make fun of. The group's fans are usually the real object of ridicule, however much of it is small town ignorance and misguided suburban rage on display, something that I find too easy, obvious, and ultimately too depressing to laugh at. I mean, I "get it," but try finding this funny, for instance.
Whoa, music is terrible tonight, man. What am I going to say about Sunny Day Real Estate or any of these terrible reunited 90's acts for that matter? I guess it's cool that they kind of sound like Peter Gabriel by their last record, right? I can't wait until today's scratchy, distorted groups with really rough recordings start releasing epic double albums with "big name producers." Trust me, that's coming at some point.
To put some of this reunion activity into perspective and the kind of money that's often involved, here's a quote from Greg Ginn in a recent interview with one of the only good alternative weeklies in the nation, The Austin Chronicle, on turning down a million dollar offer to reunite his most famous band for Coachella:
"I'm proud of Black Flag and all, but I'm not really interested in playing monkey for anybody – throw some coins in a cup, and I'll regurgitate some songs I wrote when I was 11 years old."
I think more artists should probably follow this philosophy. Even though I would pay to see a reunion show like the one Ginn is talking about, and I certainly have before, it's often a somewhat empty experience to dig in the trash and scrape the last bit of frosting out of the can. It's especially no good, when it was just trash to begin with.
The Dead Weather | Imaad Wasif (House Of Blues) The Dead Weather is the perfect soundtrack for the "weird, artistic guy" in his fraternity. Hey, that's an important role for some bands to play. Frat guys like feeling cool too.
Let me reiterate that "It Might Get Loud" is the worst two minutes and twenty five seconds I have ever witnessed in a movie theater. I was audibly making gross-out sounds and freaking out when I had the miserable experience of sitting through this preview on more than one occasion recently.
But this show will be a huge improvement over that film, and most of Jack White's other endeavors, since he will have to spend most of his time behind the drum kit tonight. Hopefully that will cut into his usual strutting around with his thin blues-rock posturing, and steam punk shtick. Less of any of these things would definitely be an improvement, except that you won't get to hear Meg White's drumming; that's the only redeeming thing in this peppermint-striped little universe and I'm not being facetious in the slightest.
MON: Hymns/The O's/Somebody's Darling (City Tavern) MON: Sunny Day Real Estate/Jealous Sound (Granada) TUE: Insane Clown Posse (Palladium) WED:These Arms Are Snakes/DD/MM/YYY/Broadcast Sea (Rubber Gloves) THU: Bad Sports/Old Snack/Jail (Double Wide) THU: David Bazan Band/Say Hi (Dan's Silver Leaf) THU: The Soft Pack/Hymns/The Cocky Americans (The Cavern) THU: The Fox And The Bird/The Hand Combine/Seryn (The Lounge) FRI: Wilco/Liam Finn (The Palladium) FRI: Babyface/K'Jon (Nokia) FRI: Wavves/Ganglians/El Paso Hot Button (The Lounge) SAT: Muhammadali/Sleepies/Big Fiction/Legsweeper (Phoenix Project) SAT: This Old House/Dust Congress/Bosque Brown/My Gold Mask (Rubber Gloves) SUN: Dysrhythmia/Four Days To Burn/Vaste Burai/Baring Teeth (Phoenix Project)
There are times when I wish that a "reverse Noah's Ark" would happen, where all the bands that DON'T have animal-themed names would be able to jump on the big boat to avoid the forty day flood.
Bosque Brown (Smoke) Have any Cliff Cafe fans eaten at Smoke yet? I miss the brunch there very badly and I've wondered how they compare. I don't generally trust the food critics around here for the most part, since I assume they have the same taste in food that the music critics have in music. That's not true, actually. If that were the case, local food critics would only eat Twinkies and Owens Sausage Biscuits dipped in Southern Comfort. That's about the food equivalent of local music.
Baruch The Scribe | The Hand Combine | DJ Nodad (Rubber Gloves): Strange to see DJ Nodad on a Friday night, but perhaps he is making up for the recent couple of shows he's missed due to either illness or Neon Indian. Oh, we haven't mentioned them in a while, huh? Heard they are playing ACL tomorrow in place of The Raveonettes. Well, it looks like one good band is playing ACL after all. Worth it. Darktown Strutters | Slackbeat | Oh, Lewis (Hailey's)
DJ Sega | Prince William | Yeah Def | Tommy L33 Jon3s/Teamwork/Ctrl Alt Del (The Lounge) This BYOB event will also be the release show for the Killanova Mix, a collaboration between Killtron and Genova, as well as the launch party for Dirt City Rollers, a local 'zine that covers art, music, and culture.
Intelligence | Video | PVC Street Gang (The Handsome Kitten) Unfortunately the Fungi Girls had to drop off of their own record release show for their debut LP, entitled "Seafaring Pyramids." The record is being put out by Play Pinball! Records, and even though they only have a couple of releases scheduled, this label already seems to have catapulted as the nucleus of documenting all things Denton punk, even though The Girls are from Cleburne. I have been listening to "Seafaring Pyramids" for the past couple of weeks and have enjoyed it very much. SR and I have debated about the impact the new and busy bass playing has on the band's music, which wasn't that apparent to me on the recording as much as it is live. I'll have to listen through headphones. We hope to have a review up soon but you've heard that one before. I once saw The Intelligence cover a Urinals song, and they nailed it.
En Vogue | Mad Skills/DJ Klipse (State Fair Of Texas) I would love to see this group in this venue. I was once in a band that ripped off the riff of "Free Your Mind" for the main bass line in a song. "My Lovin' (You're Never Gonna Get It)" is still classic for "The Big Payback" sample, vocal performance, music video, everything.
Strung Out | Lower Class Brats | Nations Afire | Saboteur (Granada) Always be wary of punk rock bands with logos featuring ironic cursive. Actually, Strung Out might be the band from which this rule originates.
Eek-A-Mouse | Grimy Styles (Boiler Room) Kind of a shame that someone with a career so significant, he once had The Roots Radics as a backing band is playing the Boiler Room, but there lies one of the inherent problems with booking: It's often a complete gamble. I'm sure the booking entity that handled the Eek-A-Mouse show had no idea that The Boiler Room is somewhat of a frat bar, and this show would have probably done better at so many places, but oh, well. I could probably name at least a show or two a week in the Metroplex that face similar problems.
Alleycat Bike Race presented by Doom and Oak Cliff Bicycle Company located at 410 N. Tyler St in Oak Cliff, duh: From our fellow blogger and pal, Halz: Get to O.C.B.C at 1 p.m., get your manifest, scope the checkpoints, start plotting on how you’ll come in first for the cash prize, then hit the road.
Photopol.us and Cyclesomatic present Bicycle Photo Scavenger Hunt (Bishop Avenue and Eighth Street in the Bishop Arts District) From the invite: Team & individual entries can be emailed to us in advance at info@photopolus.com.
Just include your team name and the names of all members of your team. Entries will be accepted up to the start of the event but we’d like a heads up so we can print your team name on cards to be proudly displayed along w/ your photos at the award ceremony at 3:30pm at Oktoberfest in Bishop Arts District.
Our friends at Live Nation/(Red)Nights, who we worked with a few months ago on a Santigold VIP giveaway, were nice enough to offer us another pair of VIP tickets to the latest (RED)Nights charity event-- Thievery Corporation's performance at House of Blues this Sunday, October 4th. The VIP passes include backstage passes and a meet and greet with the band after the show. if you'd like to win them, just email weshotjrtix@yahoo.com any time between now and 5PM today with your full name in the body and "Thievery Corporation" as the email subject. Good luck!
I really liked the paintings by San Francisco artist Jennie Ottinger in the show that opened at UT Dallas last week. She was unable to attend in person, but she was nice enough to answer some hard-hitting art questions via email for this week's Art List.
GREATNESS: JENNIE OTTINGER
Richardson Heights: How did you get involved with this show in Dallas? I see a few other exhibitions here on your CV. What is your relation to North Texas?
Jennie Ottinger: Conduit Gallery saw my work online at Redcakegallery.com and invited me to show in their project room. I had never been to Texas so I was excited for the opportunity. I like to install myself because I group the pieces in specific ways so it has some of the issues of an installation piece. So I went out there for about a week and it was so much fun and Conduit was awesome. John Pomara (curator for the UTD show) saw my work there and contacted me.
RH: You're in San Francisco -- can you describe the logistics of getting your paintings here?
JO: At Conduit Gallery all the work was unframed and taped to the wall with white artist tape on a dark green wall. Hanging that way poses its own obstacles but transporting was easy- I just brought them on the plane with me.
Originally, John wanted to show them that way for the show at UTD. I had a show last month at Johansson Projects in Oakland, CA where they were all in white frames on a white wall. I framed about 110 of them and only used 50 so I asked John if he wanted them in frames or taped still. Because I used mostly ready made frames it would have been easy to take them out. John and I are both Libras which was evident in the decision making process. Libra is the scales so we tend to be indecisive and go back and forth between options. So finally we decided to keep them framed and they almost didn't make it because either I or UPS is stupid. I choose to blame UPS.
RH: What is your studio work environment like? Can you describe some of your process in creating a painting?
JO: Space in San Francisco is a little bit expensive so my studio is really small. It is the former storage closet in a group studio. It is as far away from the windows as possible but since I have only a doorway with no door I do get a bit of natural light. And it is a mess. I can't really walk around which cuts down on procrastinating since it is hard to get free once I have climbed over to my drafting table.
I collect images that interest me all the time from a variety of sources. Then I select the ones that are potential reference for paintings. I choose for subject matter and also for a certain tone. That tone is often present in photos used for documentation. The subjects are there to demonstrate something or record something so they are stone faced and awkward. Everything is very straightforward. I make several versions often and put them with other pieces to suggest a narrative. I'm most interested in how they work with other pieces. How a pistol or a kitten or a plane means different things depending upon the other pieces surrounding it.
RH: I really like the matte white & flat framing job you did. I guess I don't really have an intelligent question to ask about that, but maybe say something fascinating in response?
JO: I have shown them a couple of times taped to the wall. I liked that because it felt really spontaneous and casual. They were dense and a little messy which worked really well in a small room.
I framed them for the Johansson Projects show which is a larger airy space and they were much sparser. I really liked the clean, more formal presentation. Then in the center of the room there was a large pile of the pieces we didn't use. I wanted it to feel like they were interchangeable, as if you could pick one from the pile and fit it into one of the groups on the wall and change the story.
THE LIST
FRIDAY
The Laws of Chance Robert D. Cocke [link #1 | link #2] Valley House Gallery 6616 Spring Valley Road, Dallas, TX 75254 October 2 : 6:00 - 8:30 PM
"magical atmospheres and tantalizing deep space [...] The sense of building energy or impending cataclysmic event is portentous. And Cocke does it all in little panels that run from five inches to no more than about two feet. Wow." (Tasende Gallery, West Hollywood)
SATURDAY
Cottonwood Art Festival Dogwood Drive/West Beltline, Richardson, TX 75080 October 3,4 : 9:00 AM - 6:00 PM
This is always kind of cute. I really hate to dis one of the nicest things going on semi-yearly in the real Richardson Heights... but if you're looking for great Native American theme-oriented airbrushed canvases, bluebonnet paintings, and New Age art, this may be your dream event. It's definitely something fun to attend every couple of years (seriously).
I have to be brief today, because, believe it or not, I have a life that doesn't involve blogging about local music. Doing that all the time actually helps me appreciate the "little things" like trips to the DMV, getting blood drawn, and car accidents.
