Stoned Ranger really regrets not doing this final Weekender as originally planned, so instead you're stuck with me, DL. However, he will have a special note for you this weekend, so make sure and sign the Guest Book sometime soon.
One last note: We will keep our Twitter and Facebook page around for any sort of last word, or post We Shot JR news, and to keep you abreast of any other writing projects we may be involved in, as there has been some "talk," but only time will tell. Perhaps there will be somewhere else that we are welcome to occasionally share our take with you, who knows? I encourage those of you that are so inclined to please continue writing about music on your own websites. I don't think writing about music is stupid. It's difficult, and people simply want to trash things that are difficult as pointless. It requires a lot of meticulous research and requires a certain lifestyle in some ways. You can't always stay in on weeknights.
If it wasn't for cranky and well informed music writing from decades past, I would have overlooked a lot of challenging or nondescript or seemingly unappealing music that would eventually become some of my most treasured moments or ideas or items in my life.
I want to thank the following people, places, and things: El Tocadiscos Cliff Notes Sally Glass Richardson Heights Nevada Hill Zac Crain Dust Congress House: Nick Foreman David Ireland at AEG Live. Art Prostitute/Public Trust: Brian G. Muscle Beach Holly Jefferson Groove Net Records Secret Headquarters: Scott, Kerm, and Cody Fra House: Josh, Ed, Chuck. Marietta/Paperstain: Justin Lemons and David Sailor and Meredith. Thanks so many times to Justin "JC" Collins for various favors and help. Matt Barnhart, Rubber Gloves, Shep. House of Tinnitus: Rob & Amelia. Mark Church at Good Records. Paul Slocum K.O.L.D: Julie, Sasha, and Evan. Joshaa 715 Panhandle, NPNR Travis Smith 1919 Hemphill: Rick, Al, and various volunteers. 8th Continent: Lars, Heather, and Shane The Chat Room: Dave and Ben. Wisconsin: Chris, Brad, Garrick. Majestic Dwelling Of Doom Layla Blackshear Preston Jones Hunter Hauk Sam M. All the people that have written us nice letters. To countless bands, artists, and fearless people that I have found inspiring even when I didn't feel up to doing this. Thanks very much to all of you.
-Defensive Listening
FRIDAY
Bad Brains | Spector 45 | Here Holy Spain (Granada): Is there anything better than those first Bad Brains recordings, including the Black Dots demo collection? You really wouldn't expect reggae, punk, and thrash to actually work as well as it does, and perhaps it never really did again. In other words, I hope this set consists of early material only, but that's every fan's dilemma.
Doctor Troy | Blixaboy (Fallout Lounge) This show shouldn't be overlooked, as it features Doctor Troy who runs the great West Coast reissue label, Medical Records, which certainly contributed to a 200 plus dollar record buying binge I went on during a recent visit to Amoeba in LA. In fact, I wound up buying two copies of the same Robotnik record they put out, just because I knew I wouldn't see any in these parts. Dr. Troy is apparently an actual doctor, and originally hails from Texas, but most importantly he was mining the dust settled corners of the prog synth, minimal wave, space disco and similar 80's genres far before it became hip to do so, and his reissues and mixes are testament to that.
Wanz "Blixaboy" Dover has received a growing number of accolades for his work of late, from XLR8R, RCRD LBL, Fader and all the places you'd want a new record in this style to be mentioned. That sort of brings things full circle on this website. You see, Wanz was the subject of much debate early on, due to his intensely opinionated view of the local underground scene's evolution as well as his part in it, and I remember spending time on here both agreeing and disagreeing with him from time to time as an anonymous commenter before I took on the nom de plume of Defensive Listening. His Melodica fest in 2008 still stands as a favorite memory of many a music fan I know, and I'm talking people who actually listen to records and go to shows that aren't driven by modern bloggo publicist BS. Melodica was by far the best local festival of the past five years, no contest. When he was pointlessly attacked for his efforts, it helped bring an entire group of people together that might not have been unified otherwise, and of course now that he's getting national attention, well, hey it's fashionable and politically easy to cover his music. But that should have always been easy, and free of agenda and forced narratives. Instead, like so often happens in music and art, personal politics cloud the judgment of hack writers everywhere. You see it time and time again; some tiny band or artist goes largely ignored, someone with taste takes the time to shed some light on them, and then all of your former critics come running to your side, pretending as though they'd been there all along. That's okay. I've come to accept and expect that in the world. When it's work out that way, it's really best for the artists themselves to get that sort of recognition and justice, no matter how many fools they confused along the way.
I'm glad to see Wanz do well, and again, I'm glad the record is called "Kliks & Politiks." Full circle indeed. Event is free.
Costumed Critical Mass: Starts in Fort Worth, right?
SATURDAY
We Shot JR is Dead (Rubber Gloves): Yeah, so one more time: This event starts at six and is hosted by Fred Holston. There may be some "surprises." There might not be anything surprising at all. But I hope you join us, as I do vouch for almost all of the acts here. A lot of them represent everything we get attacked for, and I find that comforting. Yes, I know 99 percent of the lineup is awesome. You're welcome. My only regret is that it couldn't be just a few hours longer to incorporate the other handful of bands we like around here. I hope someone brings candy.
Danzig (Palladium): I have never been into Danzig or Samhain and I think the Misfits are by far the most overrated punk band of all time, but he was pretty good at Fun Fun Fun Fest last year. If you're going this year, I'm sorry that Devo canceled. Total drag.
Commando | Heavy Cream | Uptown Bums | Video (Rubber Gloves) I like Video but if anyone ever calls them "No Wave" again, I'm going to vomit blood. No Wave is perhaps the only sacred genre of music in my world. You get knighted in that realm, and hopefully never erroneously.
Wow my last It List. As Coach Taylor said in last night's Friday Night Lights episode while watching his college bound daughter Julie fuss with her mother over something trivial just moments before their familial unit is forever altered by the sands of time, "I'm gonna miss this". Remember you can still catch Monday Morning Rock over at my new movie themed blog Phosphate on Film (launching late next week) or you can always gchat with me via frankphosphate@gmail.com if you ever get lonely late at night, I'm usually around. Wish there was a show tonight that I felt like writing about but... yeah take a look. I don't have the negative energy to spare right now. See you Saturday.
The Numerators | Sunn Talk | Kiwi Sisters (The Cavern) Always a great time with the Numerators. And I'd never heard of Garland's Kiwi Sisters until today-- kind of interesting, at times decent loner bedroom synth pop, and sort of shitty in parts too. I really don't know what to think, but its worth checking out to see what you think.
Bone Thugs n Harmony | Johnny Ringo (House of Blues) Goddamn, I love Bone Thugs. I also love Cleveland, where they're from. I don't know what it is, exactly, but Bone's best singles just fucking kill it every single time. I rocked em in 10th grade, and I like them as much or possibly even more now. Of course, the irony of a bunch of suburban kids singing along about "the first of the month" isn't lost on me, but that's kind of part of the fun, isn't it?
Interpol | White Rabbits (Palladium) What happens to someone like Carlos D when first they're cool, then everyone makes fun of them, then they become unworthy of even mockery? Now that hipsters are more or less a thing of the past, I can't imagine what this guy will possibly do with the rest of his life. I mean, he was more of a professional hipster than anyone I can think of. And if you haven't read the article linked in the previous sentence, I would highly recommend checking it out-- a good look back at the counterculture decade that never was. I'd be curious to see what any of you have to say about that.
Tonight we have two releases from Texas' finest, the 13th Floor Elevators. Both of these recordings are from the same show, the infamous February 18, 1967 gig at the Houston Music Theatre. I've only included the first two thirds of the Death in Texas cd, which is disc 10 of last year's limited edition (and totally awesome) Sign of the 3-Eyed Men box set put out by the resurrected label International Artists. The tracks I left off were from reunion shows in the late 70s and mid 80s. The Magic of the Pyramids has several songs from the same show that aren't included on Death in Texas, as well as an alternate version of the Easter Everywhere gem 'Dust.'
The Magic of the Pyramids was actually the first Elevators recording that I ever bought and I can't tell you how many straight months that it stayed in the tape deck of my 1975 Cadillac when I was a teenager. Maybe that's why I have always had a soft spot for these recordings when many consider them a complete mess and a document of a band that was falling apart. The late Elevators guitarist Stacy Sutherland gave his recollection of the night in a 1977 interview:
"The most mystic vision I ever had was concerning a show we did here in Houston, Theatre In The Round [a k a Houston Music Theatre]. And I had taken some acid, I hadn't had any in quite a while, and it was a super strong dose, about a 1,000 microgram or something. And we had to do a concert, and all of a sudden everyone started glowing. They had a foot of light, like a neon light around them in the room… real bright. And everyone started glowing away, and I freaked out that I was going to die or something. I had some bad trips before, but nothing like this. And then everybody turned into wolves, and I thought that our band was evil, because of some of the things we had advocated. We had had a controversy going on quite a while about advocating drugs and so forth, and mixing it with religion, you know. 'Cause I felt like that was pretty dangerous ground to tread. And Tommy and I were arguing about that quite a bit. I got on a bummer about it evidently. And I was tryin' to escape the room, I didn't know what I was gonna do, but I was gonna get out of there. I didn't want anything to do with it 'cause everybody was turning into animals. And all of a sudden there were angels, and I couldn't move my body anymore. I lost physical feeling all over and I was laying on the floor. And everybody turned into angels, and everybody in the room was the judge at my trial to decide whether I was worthy to enter heaven or hell. Because it was absolute that I was going to die anyway you know."
The rest of the interview, along with a wealth of other Elevators info, can be found here. Enjoy!
There will be a Not New Music coming later today. In the meantime check out some great guitar work from Mark Knopfler in this Dire Straits clip from the Old Grey Whistle Test back in 1978.
Aw, is this the last time We Shot JR will ever tell you about Cool Out at The Cavern? We had some good times at Cool Out. I remember discussing "Where The Scene Was At" and "What makes the perfectly bloggable MP3?" and "Why does that guy from The Observer always have that little notepad with him?" This is all while fielding requests to kiss Thatcher on the cheek. Cool Out is like so many other things around here:
1. People make fun of you for doing it. 2. The people who made fun of you wind up doing it themselves. 3. It becomes such an institution that nobody would question it either way. 4. Once it's gone, people will miss it.
I don't know if we'll be so lucky. I have no problem with Cool Out. I never have. I always heard more disco and soul and Danceteria tracks than anything that resembled "Blog Haus" during those tumultuous years.
Oh, I almost forgot. Speaking of the scene and since you're saying goodbye to us, I wanted to give a long-delayed goodbye to a local scene legend. Yes, this is a tribute to someone I came to know only through the wonderful world of the We Shot JR Twitter account. It's Dustin Hollywood, the local party photographer who moved to actual Hollywood. When he lived in Dallas, he worked for Helloooooo Dot Com and he also worked for Rockwell Collins, the defense contractor. You can read about this in the Dallas Morning News article linked above. He recently did a remarkable feature with the fashion blog Style Like U, where he explained his largely organic jewelry style and it's worth checking out as well.
I always found that dichotomy of Hollywood's photography and the lifestyle it represents with the sometimes conservative tone in his tweets fascinating. I have friends who work for Rockwell Collins; but they tend to be housewives and family men, never a Dallas party photog. You might say that in his time around here, Hollywood was kind of like "The Juan Williams of Dallas Nightlife Photography," you know, kind of the way that Williams was the most conservative man on NPR, or now the most liberal guy at Fox News. Makes your head spin.
Speaking of NPR, I wanted to share with you some of Dustin Hollywood's most entertaining Tweets, in which he addresses National Public Radio. Read a few of these and you tell me if Dallas hasn't lost one of its most fascinatingly complex talents:
TUE: Interpol/White Rabbits (Palladium) TUE: The Fresh & Onlys/Royal Baths/Rayon Beach (The Nightmare) WED: The Numerators/Sunn Talk/Kiwi Sisters (The Cavern) THR: Ra Ra Riot (Granada) THR: Tim Kasher/Minus the Bear (House of Blues) THR: And You Will Know us By the Trail of the Dead (Loft) FRI: Bad Brains (Granada) SAT: We Shot JR is Dead (Rubber Gloves) SAT: Darktown Strutters/Damaged Goods/Yeah Def (Hailey's) SUN: Pinkish Black/Transistor Tramps/Vaults of Zin (Chat Room) SUN: Helmet/Intronaut/Descender (Loft) SUN: Danzig (Palladium) SUN: Commando/Heavy Cream/Uptown Bums/Video (Rubber Gloves)
La Meme Gallery Opening: Mustache Club/Skunk Ape | Yeah Def (Rubber Gloves) Featuring work by John Gonzalez. You wouldn't believe how many acts are called "Skunk Ape."
Black Friday One Year Anniversary with Tense | Anthony Stanford | Keith P | Ben White (Fallout Lounge): Well, this has easily been one of the best DJ nights that's come about in recent memory, and I'm glad to see it reach the one-year mark. Black Friday has always been great for its lack of pretense; you don't feel embarrassed to be there, and it's the perfect night for those who have a little too much Dark and Cold Wave in their collections to not be what one would consider a "closet goth." You know who you are. And you know that it's been a long time since you heard any new music, or returned to any of the spiky post punk records that got you into this stuff. Ben, Keith, and Anthony have all taken the respective tentacles of this genre to their most obscure tangential conclusions, and Dallas audiences have been lucky to hear this stuff blasting out of the taxed speakers of the Fallout for a whole year now thanks to their efforts.
They certainly must have put their heads together for this one, by recruiting //TENSE//, the Houston act that plays an updated version of EBM; the polyrhythms of which have evolved slightly from the more straight-forward Industrial attack that they employed at the K.O.L.D. venue in Denton a couple of years ago. Though their sound has changed somewhat, the mood and themes are as dark as ever, and one would be hard pressed to think of a more fitting band for this occasion.
It should also be noted that //TENSE// will be touring with Industrial pop legends Nitzer Ebb on their North American tour; surely a dream come true for most bands in this genre.
Missile | The Phuss | Max Cady (The Curtain Club): Have you seen the Missile video? Click on the link to check it out. Is this a small band pretending to be huge? Or a huge band pretending to be small? Semantics.
I have come to the conclusion that I do not enjoy writing about music, perhaps not as much as you do not enjoy reading my writing but that's besides the point. Before becoming a writer here at weshotjr I of course fantasied about becoming one, but I was much more interested in doing the Not New Music post where I could release my school girl adoration for albums I thought everyone deserved to hear before they died. While I was more than willing to take on the challenge of critiquing local and touring artist as well, I have always had a feeling that my musical taste were slightly askew of the general public's. Which in the end kept me excited and eager to write about the shows/artist that I did.
I can't stand music blogs, mainly the general purpose indie hit factory variety. The state of music blogging seems very stale to me. A race to see which site can post the latest "under the radar" video or attaching their domain name to a buzz worthy show. Very rarely do I see critical analysis, or even any kind of honest debate/thought that doesn't consist solely of reference to other artist and buzzy sub-genre names. After walking a mile in their shoes though, I don't blame them. As cliche as the line may be, Zappa said it best when we defined music journalism akin to "dancing about architecture".
Music is such a visceral experience to any true music fan. It is possible to pin point technical aspects of a song or album that turn you on but it is impossible to describe what is about certain music that just sucks you in. For the more technical minded people I can see how guitar virtuoso centered acts can be judged on their technical abilities as musicians, but for the most part music taste, just like love, makes very little sense. Although I feel like I have done a competent job articulating my point of view when it comes to music, I think it is too hard to do and takes the fun out of the music to a certain extent.
Having said this, I have decided to start a DFW centered movie blog. Although you may not be aware of it, the DFW is a very nice area to live in if you are a film lover. While we may not have any mom and pop indie theaters we do have two massive hulks - Magnolia and Angelika - that would make a cinephile in butt fuck Wisconsin eye balls explode.
So why write about film and give up music? I feel the cinema is a topic much easier to critique in an universal language that everyone can debate in. Even though I have had some great fun being a border line ass hole in my critique of some artist, especially local, about once a every couple months I have a little trouble sleeping when I think about some things I have said. Why it doesn't keep me from posting is because I believe an artist should never, ever be afraid of honest critique. I honestly do respect anyone who takes the time to create music to share with the world which makes it hard to label something created by someone else as garbage.
Also there is already alot of interesting stuff going on in the local scene, mainly with the Texas Theater, which I am sure will serve as great fodder for content. What I would really love to see is a place local film lovers and makers alike to have a place to congregate because I know most of us spend the majority of time alone with our projector and DVD player. I am even snobbier about moves than I am with music and would love to get in some discussions with you cats about film. It is easier to pin point what makes a good film versus what makes good music. This is something I will go into over on the blog at a later point, so instead of wasting my breath here I am going to direct you over to the URL http://phosphateonfilm.blogspot.com/ (which will drop the blogspot soon) and ask you to please come and visit November 4th when the blog officially launches.
What may interest you people who could give two shits about movies is that I will continue to do Monday Morning Rock at the new site. It will be the same format as it is here but maybe with links built in. The anonymous comments section will be open so if you need a place to vent there you go. Although I will not be doing Not New Music post obviously I will be doing (L)ost which is where I will be posting out of prints soundtracks with a write up about the music and probably the movie as well. Featured below is the prototype first (L)ost which can be found on the Phosphate on Film site but now also here.
You can become apart of the party with the Facebook group.
Not New Music
OST - The Sun of Dracula
1972 - Harry Nilsson/Ringo Starr
The early 70's were a wild and wacky time in cinema as the independent visions of auteurs were defining the standard for independent cinema for years to come. There were also numerous celebrities/musicians begging to burn out from years of drug abuse and made the financial decision to breach into the world of cinema. One of the many gems to come out during this wave was Son Of Dracula starring Nilsson as the young Dracula who longs to be a human capable of love and Ringo Starr as Merlin the Magician. The soundtrack is essentially a rehashing of songs from Harry's albums "Nilsson Schmilsson" and "Son of Schmilsson" with dialog interludes from the movie. There is one original song on the album, Daybreak, which is a typically delightful take on the highs and lows of vampire life. Surprisingly the musical selections and clips flow well into one another making for a fairly cohesive re-telling of the story. The film was directed by respected 60's B-Movie horror director and two time Oscar winning (Glory 89'/Sons and Lovers 60') cinematographer Freddie Francis.
Despite the chops of the personnel and the world's never ending love of vampire movies, this one has remained out of print for the past 25 years. So much like the rest of the world I have not had the chance to see this movie, there is a VHS release out there but is extremely hard to find. If anyone has the hookup let me know. While it's hard not to be interested in a vampire movie starring Harry Nilsson, the dialog from the movie - while fascinating - sounds pretty drug addled and non-nonsensical. Of course this doesn't have to be a bad thing. I'm just not expecting something of the caliber of The Point, Nilsson's more highly regarded foray into film. If you really want to see Ringo Star in a decent movie from this time check out Ken Russell's Lisztomania one of the finest pop art films of the early seventies, and another soundtrack I will be posting in the future.
