Niggahlaws
Money Waters (Noir Sound) CD Review(14.November.2006)
Miller Time
Bosque Brown's uncertain future is clarified in an exclusive interview.
(10.November.2006)
Apply Yourselves
Independent music's Spring Break is fast approaching. Which Dallas bands will best represent at the (metaphorical) kegger?
(6.November.2006)
Mercy
Burden Brothers (Kirtland) CD Review...as a one-act play(2.November.2006)
Come and
See
Colin
Meloy wants you to put the dictionary down and get busy sweeping his
chimney. By Pepper Martin
(25.October.2006)
For
New Starts
Dd
pulls recent CDs and worthwhile bands back through the cracks. This
week: South San Gabriel.
(19.October.2006)
Intelligent
Design
The
evolution of Baboon into Dallas' best and loudest rock band took only
16 years, two tastes of major label stardom and a few horse heads.
(13.October.2006)
Attitude Solution
After nearly two decades of
frustration, local MCs Pikahsso and Tahiti finally exhale on PPT's Tres Monos In Love.
(4.October.2006)
A Memorial To The Tunnel
The roadblocks in front of Deep Ellum's entrance probably look familiar to local musicians. (28.Sept.2006)
Dunno how this popped up outta nowhere, but Beck will perform at the Gypsy Tea Room tomorrow night. Tickets are $16 ($12 plus service charge) and are obviously going fast [UPDATE: Sold out in about one hour]. The only question, really, is why the show is being billed as "Beck Jam" rather than just "Beck." Does this mean fans are in for an acoustic set? Some sort of tribal pow-wow where everyone in the crowd is given a tambourine and encouraged to..."jam"? Queries to the booking folks at the Gypsy Tea Room and Charles Attal Presents have yet to be answered, but it's probably fair to guess that no matter what the twist is, the show'll be plenty entertaining...remember, this is Beck, not Matt Sharp during his solo career plunge. You can probably buy a ticket with little worry about the show's quality.
At any rate, be happy that your status as a diehard Dd fan secured your Beck ticket. You do check this site every hour on the hour, right...? -SM
UPDATE: Just spoke to Chris Cantalini, who was apparently hip to the gig as of yesterday. Frickin big-time bloggers think they're so cool... ahem. "They were trying to find a venue to throw it at," Cantalini says, "because the ballroom side was too big, but the tea room side was too small...but I guess that's where they're doing it now." He linked me to the following report of a similar gig in DC and let me know that some of these Beck gigs have gone sale on the day of the show...I guess we lucked out. Looks awesome!
Wear your costume at a concert tonight. Sheezus, so many choices:
Club Dada: The Naptime Shake performs as Nacho Libre. Cape, mask, stretchy pants and at least one cover from the Nacho soundtrack will unfold at a relatively early 9 p.m. start time and will accompany Noah Bailey's usual brand of not-too-odd songwriting. The only knock I have against his act is how much the man's songs (thought-provoking but not annoyingly poetic) deserve a full, talented band, but Bailey's had trouble getting one together for some reason. He opens for two Philadelphia acts, The Capitol Years and National Eye, and both of 'em sound like the kind of interesting takes on Americana that would qualify for SXSW sleeper picks...here's to hoping the good MySpace impression translates to their gig tonight.
Dan's: The Angelus busts out a few new songs, which makes sense, seeing as how they play so infrequently that the guys should have some new frickin' material by now. History At Our Disposal and Small Sails play as well; can't speak on behalf of either, as I've never seen 'em...HAOD had a fine turn at Saturday's tribute band show, but I've never seen their normal set, and I've never been to Portland, so Small Sails loses out with that one, though their MySpace page hints to a sound too dependent on digital trickery to translate well to a live show. Then again...MySpace samples usually aren't to be trusted (see above).
Dallas Scaregrounds: I've yet to promote a Scaregrounds show, but Dallas' The Uncontrollable Urge are probably the best take on amped-up mainstream hard rock that a typical a Scaregrounds crowd will see this Halloween season, so kudos on them for landing the juicy 31st.
Will Rogers Auditorium: Screaming, tweenie Ben Folds fans may very well be confused as hell by the touring star's opening act at Will Rogers tonight, but really they should take pride in living so close to the hometown of Denton's glorious Corn Mo. Accordion-arena-rock. Should be awful, winds up being one of the best live acts in the nation. I dunno how that works...I just go with it. Be sure to arrive early enough for the Mo.
After hearing Rhett Miller sing about his goddamn baby over and over this weekend, we thought we were done with imperfect advertising tie-ins, but we received a link from The Polyphonic Spree today with a "treat for you tricksters from us and adidas." Oh, goodie.
It's a slow, awkward site, so we don't recommend following the link. Basically, this Major League Soccer playoffs promotion ties each qualifying team in the league with a band from its respective city. The New England Revolution is matched with Mates of State, DC United gets Spank Rock, FC Dallas teams up with the Spree, and so on. To prep for each game, the competing cities' bands are "mashed up" in a video...but, oh, lordy, how adidas blows this one.
Get ready for repeated use of the phrase "marketing genius," because whichever marketing genius Googled the phrase "mash-up" and made the Spree's spot must've clicked here instead. The video combines the Spree's new single, "Mental Cabaret," with some band called Vaux out of Denver...not that the bands sync up naturally in the first place, but most of the clip is spent clumsily attaching one song to the other. Though a few cool mash-up moments do emerge by the end of the clip, the unnecessary MLS crowd and action clips inserted into the music make the whole affair too painful to endure.
That said, if you're a Spree hound and desperately want to see video footage from the band's Granada Theater performance last month, the video link is below (and will save you the trouble of surfing through the piss-poor adidas site). Fortunately, FC Dallas was knocked out of the first round of the playoffs, so no more Spree mash-up clips are in the pipeline in the near future. Maybe next year... -SM
It's an all-nighter at DdHQ tonight. Not for any Dd articles/features, however; the entire staff has been outsourced to another project (one that pays money!), so we're burning the midnight oil and downing cans of Monster Energy Drink that were hand-delivered months ago by members of Dallas' Strangleweed (...yes, really).
Point is, we're getting through the night with our new favorite record of the past few weeks. Benoit Pioulard is responsible for Precis, a beautiful folk album that teeters into the almost-too-arty with lots of ambient noise and atmospheric elements. Thankfully, not only is the songwriting lovely enough to anchor the near-pretension but the experience of Precis from start to finish is among the most satisfying we've had with a full LP this year. The guy's not local, we know, so we won't go on and on with a CD review (not until the year-end list, anyway), but people with an affinity for the likes of Iron & Wine, Shiny Around The Edges and that one really weird Apples In Stereo record would be wise to hunt this down post-haste. Especially if they have any mid-term/job-related all-nighters coming soon.
(We'll try to post some meaningful local content up by the end of today...at the very least, we'll tout tonight's Halloween concerts, since you gotta show your costume off somewhere better than the office, right?) -SM
Saturday's Our Band Could Be Your Band concert at Dan's Silverleaf deserved an adjective I normally reserve for Madonna: immaculate. It's hard to begin complimenting the show (a 13-local-band tribute to the musicians featured in Michael Azerrad's book Our Band Could Be Your Life), since so much of it went right. Even the least interesting performances (Inaction Park as Big Black, Raised By Tigers as Husker Du) were still plenty worthy of their source material, while the best stuff rose above "tribute" status and assaulted the crowd with memorable energy and power.
The entire Drams lineup, known already for legendary boozin' in their Slobberbone days, announced early in the evening that they were "getting hammered" in order to perfectly cover The Replacements. And man, did they ever; by the end of the incendiary--and spot-on--set, bassist Keith Killoren had lost his sense of balance, drummer Tony Harper's pants were filled with beer and lead man Brent Best was a heap of rubble.
The Drams' Brent Best becomes a heap of drunken rubble
Fra Pandolf, already known for its quality Sonic Youth love affair, started the first frantic slam-dance of the night with its SY tribute, on which Shiny Around The Edges singer/siren Jennifer Seman joined the group and exploded in a rare, shrieking frenzy. Record Hop stepped that energy up to ignite a flurry of crowd surfing during a mighty three-song Fugazi set (on which drummer Josh Prisk surprised the crowd with a quality turn on vocals...do that more often, Prisk). Birth to Burial killed, as did The Baptist Generals, History At Our Disposal, This Ain't No Picnic...I could go on and on, but, eh, just watch the low-quality videos I recorded while being beat upon by the dancing crowd. -SM
Unhappy with the video quality? Not-so-simple way to fix that: On those video links, choose to download the AVI versions. Then load those in Windows Media Player and increase the brightness in "Enhancements" -> "Video Settings." Once you do that, you'll be able to see everything, including Brent Best bum-rushing the crowd.
Austin's Pink Nasty (aka Sara Beck) performs a solo show for free at Good Records today (Saturday) at 3 p.m. Her new album, Mold The Gold, has already gotten a bit of buzz on the Pitchfork, and I've praised her live show countless times in the past year, so go check out the best combo of sweet vocals and twisted humor you'll find in an American singer-songwriter these days. And if you don't trust me, this guy gushes over her and includes live MP3s as well.
...I'll be asleep, anyway, as the dickweed in the Dd cubicle next to mine has gotten everybody here sick. And here I thought I'd gotten away from the obnoxious parts of corporate life.
But that doesn't mean I can't bitch about the booking travesty that is tomorrow night. Dan's Silverleaf and the Double Wide are each throwing special tribute band concerts on Saturday, a total slap-yer-forehead screw-up that deserves a huge round of boos. Is one show better than the other? Not really, and forcing local music fans to pick one rare theme show over another is plain rude. But use these tips to make up your mind.
1) Dan's: Our Band Could Be Your Band Thirteen local bands, many of which I've never even heard of, cover the 13 acts in Michael Azzerad's classic indie-rock book Our Band Could Be Your Life. Denton fret-burners Record Hop covering Fugazi? Cool. Brent Best's Drams covering the Replacements? Perfect. The insanity of the Butthole Surfers recreated by the equally off-kilter Baptist Generals? Sweet Jesus, yes. The Minutemen by Deep Snapper? Uh...who the hell is Deep Snapper? It's hard to gauge the complete lineup when I haven't seen most of these bands live (though some of these bands' MySpace samples are promising), but that point aside, this concert breaks my very important, personal rule, established after this year's Wall of Sound Festival: If more than five bands perform, a venue damn well better offer some sort of distraction once the inevitable cabin fever sets in. If you really think you can handle 13 bands from 8 p.m. onward, go test your fortitude.
2) DW: Adventure Club Halloween Extravaganza Good news: Baboon's take on Echo and the Bunnymen will certainly be the most worthwhile of the cover sets at both venues. Expect their tribute to be impassioned and interesting, rather than a rock-by-numbers retread of the band's songs. Bad news: Who knows how the rest of the night will go? Blow Aces (the Oasis tribute band helmed by former Chomsky guitarist Glen Reynolds) hasn't played in years, Peter Schmidt covering Elvis Costello isn't exactly a stretch and Josh friggin' Venable (who has openly admitted his lack of musical talent) is taking the stage with members of Blood on the Moors (who underwhelmed at the Spune Back to School Bash) to murder Bruce Springsteen's legacy. But it's shorter, it's closer to Dallas and honestly, nobody performing here can be any worse than the unknowns at Dan's.
There are plenty of other shows this weekend, but I need to nap. But I can't help but recommend Rose County Fair at the Cavern tonight, even if they're sandwiched between two bands that I'd never pay to see. Anybody who thinks alt-country is played out beyond belief should listen to RCF's demos and fall back in love. -SM
We thought we were done posting Old 97's news, since the group is rarely in Dallas these days and has no gigs or albums coming anytime soon, but we at Dd have a huge batch of interns that watch TV at all hours of the day, much like The Daily Show does to capture random/wacky news feeds. Of course, our interns just watch Comedy Central and G4 all day, but somehow, that painstaking work resulted in this gem, which we just had to post:
His face isn't on the ad, but Rhett Miller's voice is unmistakable on this Chili's baby back ribs jingle, and if that's not the Old 97's backing him up, then Rhett has found a remarkably faithful Ken Bethea clone on guitar to support his fondness for "barrrrbecue sauce."
We got on the phone, but Bethea didn't answer his, so we tracked down Traci Thomas, the band's publicity rep at New West Records. She confirmed that it was indeed the full Old 97's lineup on the commercial, then passed us along to a New West media rep by the name of Wilson...just Wilson, "like Madonna." Figures that we were transferred to the California branch of New West.
"Rhett's about getting out there and looking for opportunities," Wilson says. "And it's a big revenue opportunity...Chili's came to the band with the pitch; the ad company that works with Chili's [GSDM Advertising] is based out of the Austin/Dallas area, and so is Chili's. Everybody there's really familiar with the Old 97's, so I'm pretty sure that's how it came to be."
When we asked about the fact that the band had never done a commercial or jingle before, Wilson couldn't really speak on behalf of the Old 97's, but he noted, "The whole attitude of the industry has changed a little bit. I don't think the whole selling out factor is there anymore these days."
The band's done a coupl'a tie-ins, but those were (in our humble, unemployed opinion) more sensible, from a full-on concert appearance in a Jennifer Aniston movie to a contribution to the King of the Hill soundtrack album (which just makes sense, dammit). But we must admit that this spot is a much more tolerable take on the annoying baby back ribs song, and we understand that running a separate tour bus just costs more, so more power to 'em. -SM
WHOPPIN' UPDATE: The incredibly kind and informative Ken Bethea called us to chat about the advertisement, along with 1st grade soccer, tour bus rumors and the hypothetical Old 97's biography. Listen to the whole thing on MP3 by clicking here.
...Technically, we missed this too, as we were nowhere near the Festival Millefeuille in Paris this September. Josh Pearson, the ex-Lift to Experience lead singer, had been pub crawling and wasting away in East Dallas for a good while before quite suddenly zipping off to Berlin roughly one year ago to enter a contest for the world's greatest beards...seriously. (He lost, in case you're wondering.) His music reflects this kind of bizarre, misplaced passion, winning over diehard fans while in LtE with never-ending, post-apocalyptic shakedowns of Jeff Buckley, and it was all but confirmed that the new Berliner would never return to the stage (or Dallas).
While away, he finally resumed performing, giving hope to the impending release of his long-awaited Angels Vs. Devils solo album. Guess he needed some German prodding? At any rate, diehard Euro fans with a camera crew filmed his Millefeuille performance, so here's one of his brand new songs, "The Clash."
More can be found at Pearson's page; on there, the long list of fall tour dates is particularly encouraging for anyone wondering if the guy will ever actually get his album done (or at least become the subject of more impassioned, Euro YouTube moments). No dates set for the States, but since his schedule is clear after December 21, we'll be assholes and assume he's coming home for Christmas. Right, Josh? Come on. -SM
Both Fine Line Live and Texas Gigs report today that albums by Red Monroe and John Dufilho have been placed in the nomination pool for the 2007 Grammys "Best Alternative Album" category. However, Internet searches do not reveal any trace of this nomination ballot (a pool of over 40 bands, which will be narrowed down to a final five for the Grammys broadcast next year). So is the report true?
Eric Steele (photo: Kate Mackley)
"It's 100% legit," Red Monroe lead singer Eric Steele says. "Man, honestly, on Monday, we got this e-mail from somebody with the ballot, that PDF, and our reaction was like, 'What the fuck?', you know?"
Yes, we know. When asked how two local albums--neither with labels or blog buzz, and his having not even been in stores for three months--could land on a list of indie heavies like Destroyer, TV On The Radio and Gnarls Barkley, Steele hasn't a clue. Unless he's hiding an incredibly clever payola scheme--and really, money could be better spent than a spot on a ballot that he admits "Oh God, no, there's no way we'll get nominated"--Steele assumes the CD just got into the right hands after being mailed all over the country by its producer, Chris Bell, and strong sales at Good Records ("that's one of those stores people watch") might not hurt, either. But he's certainly not sweating it; "This is something we'll be laughing about, I'm sure."
Coincidentally, we're working on a Red Monroe CD review, so expect that soon...or go to Hailey's on Saturday to see what might be the best live band in Dallas at the moment. Does Red Monroe's self-titled CD live up to such kudos? We'll answer that before too long. -SM
We here at DdHQ would like to remind all of our readers to back their data up on a regular basis. Thankfully, we didn't suffer a computer crash today, but a good-sized plume of smoke--and $70 spent on replacing our PC's faulty power brick--reminded us this morning how precious our data can be. So get some burnable discs handy, folks...
Speaking of crappy computers, BlogSpot will have a scheduled outage this afternoon; luckily, our tech bureau in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, configured Dd to stay up even when that site's down, so assuming our good friends at We Shot JR fall victim to the outage, here's tonight's local concert rundown.
Gypsy Tea Room: Decemberists. I'm not keen on this show's whopping $20 price, so I don't blame anyone for finding cheaper entertainment for the evening, but the band's new album is just about exciting enough for me to splurge.
Ridglea Theater: Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins, Will Scheff, The Blow. Not much cheaper ($16), but certainly more value for the buck. Jenny Lewis, of course, is the acting phenom from 1989's The Wizard ("Get the star, Jimmy!")...or the lead singer of Rilo Kiley, depending on who you're askin'. Expect the tweener crowd to gobble her up, but that doesn't mean your older ass won't be charmed to death by her Emmylou love affair as well. Will Scheff is the songwriting genius behind Austin post-folksters Okkervil River; he's that rare songwriter who packs as much power by himself as he does with a band, though if you hate his polarizing voice, his solo sets won't win you over. Portland, OR duo The Blow is responsible for one of the year's best EPs, Paper Television, a 30-minute hunk of "I'll be 14 forever" bedroom pop full of sweet, Rilo-style singing, intriguing drum loops and unbelievable hooks, but if the duo doesn't have a backing band, prepare for an underwhelming live set.
Rubber Gloves: Peelander-Z, The Undoing of David Wright. The former is a Japanese punk band that milks its Engrish schtick for all it's worth...yawn. The latter, well...I'm not ready to recommend Denton's Wright just yet--seen 'em twice and I'm not hearing or seeing any of the genius that the JR posse sees. But if you're crazy about post-apocalyptic new wave (think Big Black or even Ministry with a dash of modern dance-punk), this band understands you.
Barley House: Rock Star Karaoke Finals. $300 will be awarded to whomever does the best version of the Sex Pistols' "Anarchy in the UK" for the trillionth time. Or, hey, you could also ogle Barley's SMU fake ID crowd. It's up to you.
Fallout Lounge: DJ Johnny Murder, aka John Freeman. Expect the sounds of screaming children and chainsaws juxtaposed with J-Pop and bands like Asscancer.
Boy, what's with these busy Wednesdays as of late? People have to wake up on Thursdays, you know. -SM
Last week, while visiting with the staff at our sister site (er, more like stepsister site) at Matt's El Rancho in East Dallas, we noticed a familiar bug-eyed grin walking out of the restaurant--former Chomsky lead singer Sean Halleck. He was with a posse of local musicians who had scuttled out before we could grill--or identify--them, but they weren't the dudes in the old band. Got Sean's number, said we'd call him later.
Sean Halleck (old-ass photo by Cabe Booth)
As former members of the Chomsky army (and, therefore, fans of XTC-addled pop with incredible hooks and one helluva stage presence), we have a few million opinions on the band--its rise in the early-'00s local scene, its Aezra Records disaster and its anti-climactic breakup/hiatus/freeze. We talked to Sean about these things earlier this year for a column that never came to light, mostly because his quotes were about as uninformative and vague as could be. Wish we could repost the quotes from that, but, uh, the computer said interview was housed on was hosed. In short, he wouldn't go so far as to kill off the namesake, and he just about invited the original lineup to return should they desire (though lead guitarist Glen Reynolds has publicly stated his lack of interest in doing so), but Halleck had otherwise written off the original band. No dirt scooped (not even off the record...ass); as far as he was concerned, he was just a dude with a day job and a few minutes on the Craig Kilborn Show so many years ago.
Nearly a year later, the dude with a day job finally has some new songs. "I dunno specifically what songs or how to do them or what," Halleck says, "but I've gone so far as to talk to [Valve member] Casey Diorio, and I've had conversations with people to record music for a living" (including, yes, chats over queso at Matt's). Details are still mighty sketchy--and this is no guaranteed winner, either--but for Halleck, this much of a declaration is a rare thing, so takes what ye can gets. "It was refreshing to start pushing myself to get some of these demos going. That's part of the confusion, figuring out which direction to go. One group of songs sounds like one direction, and the other sounds like a different direction. I just gotta pick one."
Gigs? Song titles? A band name? Nothing yet (except for the fact that "Chomsky" is out), but we'll continue hounding Halleck for more info in the coming months. In the meantime, the rest of the band members are still active in acts like Shibboleth, Peter Schmidt A.H.G.S. and Reynolds' solo act (not to mention his Oasis cover band, Blow Aces, who guest at an Adventure Club-sponsored Halloween gig on Saturday). Halleck's gotta catch up to the rest of the guys, so we cordially invite Sean and any friends he enlists to debut his new material before year's end (if possible)...we've been chomping at the bit to organize a good Dd concert. Give us an excuse to throw one. -SM
When we heard word that some battle raps were brewing around town, we got pumped. Some LL Cool J vs. Kool Moe Dee shit in Dallas? Oooooh, it's on.
But today's Texas Gigs report is about as deflating as a modern LL album; one member of Euro-spoof techno act Lazer, who lost to PPT in this year's Mavericks Playoff Theme Song Contest, guested on Sports Radio 1310 The Ticket back in April, putting out a battle challenge to the hip-hop trio ("eat a Picnic for a four-course meal"..."Hey Ya, Andre wants his beat back"). Six months later--jesus, six months? Really?--the PPT response is pretty bland.
"Y'all sweeter than syrup, take your whack raps back to Europe. Y'all corny, no flow, three grown men with cameltoes."
...well, the cameltoe line's good, but the rest is kinda ho-hum. Otherwise, the only really funny thing that has come out of this is an actual reaction from a Texas Gigs user: "What purpose is served by tearing each other down aside from massaging your egos?" Dude, it's not even a good fake battle, let alone a real one. But that doesn't mean PPT couldn't have been a little more direct--mean is still funny when it's in the spirit of a fake rap battle, after all, and making fun of a fake group's purposely cheesy outfits kinda misses the point. So we sent a call out to our hip-hop bureau in Beaver Dam, WI, to lend the PPT dudes a hand, and here's what they came up with:
Two dudes named Briso and Hammel? More like Chet Michaels and Charlie Randell. I think we saw those dudes the other day holding down day jobs at EB Games in North Richland Hills and Plano; You're Germans? You haven't even been past Waco. We'd keep this song going but we already forgot about their outdated take on Borat.
...don't worry, we're not quitting our day jobs, either. -SM
Didn't go to the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth on Friday? You missed a dandy li'l show, and if a photo of a guy (Stumptone's Chris Plavidal) on trumpet isn't convincing enough, click below for video proof. Though the footage is badly lit, the music is actually clear on my camera for once. And it's not like these bands are dancing around on stage, anyway.
Plan ahead; these two bands share one helluva bill with Pleasant Grove at the Double Wide on December 30, and they each play a few gigs before then as well (check their MySpace pages) including...Dove Hunter at the Burden Brothers CD release show on November 3? Hot damn. I didn't think everybody was easy...
Just kiddin', Dove Hunter. Hope the BB audience doesn't eat you alive. -SM
Best bet: Haven't been to the Modert Art Museum of Fort Worth for a while? Tonight's Modern 'til Midnight event tosses local bands and some Pedro Almodovar flicks onto the museum's already compelling collection...if you normally don't attend local concerts, this is an ideal chance to check out what you're missing (and escape to the rest of the museum as a Plan B in case you're not into the tunes). 8:30: Dove Hunter Saw 'em at Dan's Silverleaf last weekend, and the full-length show matched the style heard on the band's MySpace site. Their subdued, country-infused take on the unique pop-rock stylings of Denton almost-legends Mandarin is still a little green--and the band showed a bit of anxiety at the gig--but for a young band, their songs are already quite fleshed out and compelling. 9:30: Stumptone The reason to attend. This Fort Worth group has risen from its years of hiatus to pump out an intense rock attack that is both spacey and easy-to-handle at the same time. Think Doves if that band grew a pair (there's more to 'em than that, but it gets the point across). 10:30: The Octopus Project This growing Austin band is still riding on the strength of their latest album, One Ten Hundred Thousand Million, and their live show appears to be catching up as the years progress, though the group's dependence on synth elements may bore the folks who attend this for the likes of Stumptone.
The Amsterdam Bar in Exposition Park hosts noise/jazz act Ghostcar on its patio stage, 10pm-ish. Into jazz like Bitches Brew but think that said album is overrated? This is your show. Can't speak either way about Dallas openers Swirve, but they're certainly like-minded, if not a little further in the Yo La Tengo direction.
Out-o-towners CSS / Ladytron at Gypsy Tea Room. Do you live and die by your fake ID? Then attend this.
And if you haven't yet heard, Stephin Merritt (Magnetic Fields) is part of a Lemony Snicket reading/music event at a Barnes & Noble in Frisco at 5 p.m. today. Rocker parents, you know how rare kid-friendly concerts (read: not crap like the Wiggles) are, so get to it...you only have about an hour. (He also performs on Saturday in Waxahachie...you can find the info from my very good friend Noah W. Bailey at this link.)
Saturday, October 21 Best bet:White Denim has ridden some blog buzz from our good pals at Gorilla Vs. Bear, but that's not always a safe bet (uh, Teddy Bears?), so we attended this Austin band's gig at Club Dada last night with some serious trepidation, even though the band's sample songs sounded wicked. Well, golly gee, they wound up putting on one of our top five concerts of the year. The footage we captured is entirely too rough:
The clip doesn't do justice to the quartet's manic combination of influences; with the balls-out enthusiasm (and huge, impressive take on the blues) of the Sonics and the bizarre song compositions and harmony vocals of Akron/Family, these kids set last night's 18-person crowd on fire. We don't normally see a band twice in three days, but tomorrow at the Double Wide, we may very well make an exception, as we'd rather see these guys while they're "young and promising" instead of "overhyped" (which, after SXSW '07, they just might be). Get to the Double Wide's Lost Generation show early, as White Denim is the first band around 9ish...even though they may ruin you for the rest of the night.
Good bet: Denton one-two punch George Neal (ex-Little Grizzly) and Lo-Fi Chorus open for New Yorkers Oakley Hall at Hailey's. Anyone with a Slobberbone/Drams/Centro-matic/Marah fixation on post-alt-country-with-a-good-dash-of-1972-Americana will be in heaven with those Yankees.
Sunday: Comrade headlines an early show at the Cavern. They're a little more Coldplay-focused than their delightful debut EP would lead you to believe, but this young band is still a compelling act on stage, making a crapload of synthesizers work out to their favor.
If you'd intended to go out tonight, only to learn that comedian Todd Barry had cancelled his appearance at the Cavern, well, shit. Your Dallas live music options are limited. But if you've been on the fence about whether Hogpig is worth your cash, now's your chance to see their fist-pumpin' rock for free at the Double Wide. They open for Max Cady and Donny Ray Ford...the former doesn't really do it for me, while the latter doesn't have a single song up on the Internet, but hey, the show's free, right? Hogpig's the first band, on around 10 p.m. or so. See ya there. -SM
You've probably heard in the past week that Tower Records is a goner all over the country, but have you been to the "everything must go" sale at the corner of Oak Lawn and Lemmon? No? Then you might assume that the best stuff is gone by now...Dd certainly did, but we had time to kill after a matinee, so our 45-person crew stopped by last night to comb over the stock. Though the store's legendary stock of quality magazines has dwindled considerably, CDs appear pretty plentiful, particularly the box set section. But before we get to why that didn't excite us, here are a few random things we noticed:
1) Want some free peeps at naked ladies? Tower's got you covered, as the remaining nudie mags have mostly been stripped of their plastic, protective shields (not to mention moved away from the "18 and up only" section to a much easier-to-reach spot for the kiddies). In particular, one mag that was there--and we think it was Barely Legal, though we were, uh, too busy to copy that title down--was folded, ripped and tattered. Better way to put it? Used.
Since Dd's a family-friendly site, we're withholding the dozens of hairy, dirty, greased-up snatch-n-titty photos we snapped at Tower Records' magazine section yesterday. But rest assured, we endured all kinds of dirty looks while verifying our report. All in the name of journalistic duty.
2) Vinyl's been picked darn near clean; the remaining stock is either cheaper at Good Records or not worth your buy, though a few solid Dallas records still remained: Centro-matic's Fort Recovery and Eisley's Room Noises.
3) The DVD section is shrinking drastically, even with a particularly meager discount (15% off of many of the DVDs we checked were still on par with Target and Best Buy prices). More than a few Criterion Collection DVDs (you know, those arty/'spensive ones) remain, though the special Criterion kiosk has a few guests right now. Either that, or Will Ferrell's Kicking and Screaming was added to the Criterion roster with little-to-no fanfare.
4) Like jazz? Get the hell to Tower's downstairs room for a taste of cheap remaster heaven, as the jazz stock appears to remain at 100% capacity. Us, we'll wait for that section's prices to drop even further, since the demand for Charles Mingus and Lee Morgan CDs seems like next-to-nothing at this point.
5) Nerds, don't waste your time. The only video games left in stock, even after discount, actually cost twice as much as EB Games. (Sadly, we called our girlfriends while at the store to double-check that one.)
With some exceptions, the current discounts aren't much to shout about. Granted, that opinion comes from Dd's staff of unemployed matinee addicts...but shouldn't utter, depraved liquidation skip this 15-20% nonsense and skip straight to 25, 30, even 35%? Tower was never known for low prices, and when you walk in hoping to damn near rob the place, it's sad to realize that prices are still a smidge above eBay. If they drop in the coming months, we'll pass the news along. -SM
Conveniently, as I was typing my Hourly Radio CD review (see left sidebar or click here), I received an e-mail from Dd tipster favorite Paul Burrough full of news both old and new. As the Dallas band announced on their site last month, they've indeed found their way into Rolling Stone's pages as part of the editors' "Hot List." This means anyone who cares about modern political coverage will notice the band, because, really, do people read Rolling Stone for anything other than Kennedy Jr.'s reports on election scandals anymore? Still, it's a step above their "Spin.com Band of the Day" feature from a few months back, since Spin apparently lists every band in the world on that thing.
Anyway, the new news tidbit is that the band has reportedly landed a spot on David Letterman's stage in the coming weeks; considering that their current national tour hits New York and New Jersey at the beginning of November, such a gig would certainly be convenient. If it's true, more power to 'em. A quote from Paul's e-mail to finish off the sentiment:
friend of mine in San Fran said the Hourly Radio is packing shows in Cali right now...Just when that started sounding impressive, i remembered that The Fray is hot shit right now.
Indeed. Speaking of overrated acts, I'm glad I didn't attend The Old 97's concert at the Granada last week. One of our field operatives reports that lead singer Rhett Miller stunk up the middle third of the concert with a solo, acoustic set. This report was accompanied with a low, guttural groan, and then our operative added that on last weekend's three-date jaunt through Dallas, Austin and Shiner, TX, Rhett Miller and his wife rode in a tour bus separately from the rest of the band. Did the rest of the 97's shun Miller after repeated acoustic versions of "Question" in the bus? Our operative didn't have a firm answer to that one, so we'll assume that the answer is a resounding "yes." -SM
Local painter Cabe Booth hosts an art collection debut at the Meridian Room from 7-11 p.m. this very evening. You may recognize his work from various venues around town (most notably Nokia Theatre), or you might just recognize the name (the dude is a local booking legend). Either way, this is no average, boring art opening; Cabe's style is very in tune with the kind of intelligent pessimism that rises from the concrete of Dallas' streets--a gritty, semi-surreal take on modern iconic images. Free bites to eat, 1/2 price drafts...if you have tonight off, this might be a good way to start your night before walking down the block and catching Monday night jazz at the Amsterdam Bar.
His 400th Dallas Gig This Year || October 16, 2006
Former SMU student Andy Bothwell, better known to the worlds of indie rock and hip-hop as Astronautalis, sure does come near his alma mater frequently...perhaps not 400 shows a year, though the actual number might be close. But that's not such a terrible thing; live hip-hop shows are usually torturous, often with unnecessary hype men, bad sound setups and MCs too busy begging for you to throw your hands up. Gimme a damn reason to throw my hands up.
Luckily, Astro's as much a unique presence in the indie-hop world as he is a consummate performer (and a hilarious guy to boot), so you might not see a better hip-hop show in your life (really). Not just because of his normal songs, either--he's a freestyling madman, which means at every show, he hits the audience up for ideas and makes songs out of them on the spot. I proved this for the unsuspecting back in June, and in case the phone call version of Astro's freestyling isn't impressive enough, here's a clip of him just last month in Seattle (the audience prompts: the library, "Seattle drivers are pussies," Tom Petty).
See the man in the flesh at Good Records tonight at 7 p.m., or head to Hailey's tomorrow evening for another, longer performance. -SM
To those who missed Baboon last night, I pity you (and that includes the strange number of people who left the Granada when the DRD was done...double-u tee eff). Good concerts tonight, let's do this.
Saturday
Dan's Silverleaf: The extremely promising, Mandarin-tinged Dove Hunter has an opening slot for tonight's Burntsienna Trio / Phillip Roebuck combo. They only have only one song to sample so far, so it's tough to give that new band an all-out recommendation, but the whole roster of this show is solid in case they're a fluke (but judging by their roster, I doubt that'll happen).
The Cavern: Smile Smile has another CD release party? Huh. Nice kids, but I'm still not quite convinced why their quiet, kinda tame tunes are worth shouting about. Adventure Club faves Here, In Arms open with their spirited parroting of Bright Eyes, as do solid local longtimers El Gato.
Hailey's: Damien Jurado / David Bazan (Pedro the Lion). Fans of singer-songwriters are much better off attending this than the Cavern show. Sorry, it's just true.
And guess what?! THE FUTURE OF DALLAS MUSIC IS AT SAMBUCA TONIGHT! Go see the future! -SM
Friday: No big national shows. See local bands tonight.
Granada Theater: Please read the feature to your left, Intelligent Design, to catch up on the Baboon story before attending this show and buying the band's incredible, brand-new self-titled album tonight. It's a true masterwork that deserves a wider audience than the band has ever had, and I forced my friends to listen to Baboon on the way to Wilco last night. They were quite surprised to like it, as will you. In addition, this is quite possibly the last Deathray Davies concert for a long time, so I'm assuming they'll leave it all on the stage tonight. Pleasant Grove shows off new/old/new again drummer Jeff Ryan tonight as well, and the bill's rounded off by one of the few [DARYL] concerts this year. Considering these four each qualify as their own headliner, this is easily the best local bill in some time.
University of Texas at Dallas: If it weren't for this Granada gig, I'd be here because of one band: The Baptist Generals. The Denton quartet, famous for its haunting, dirty folk songs and brutal poetry, has been in exile for over a year, choosing not to play gigs until the new record is out (still unfinished, and Sub Pop tells me it only has a vague "sometime in 2007" release date), but UTD offered enough cash to chase 'em out of hiding. I spoke to Natalia at UTD Radio, who thinks the Generals will go on around 10 p.m.... she also offers these convenient directions. "N on 75, exit Campbell, go West (left). When you reach University Pkwy, keep going and you'll see a stage. Turn left into the parking lot." Oh, it's free, as is the food/drink on hand. If I disappear from the Granada for an hour or so tonight, you'll know why...
Rubber Gloves: Record Hop will play brand new songs tonight, Birth to Burial will blow your ears out and Thorn Vs. Side, a relatively promising Denton group, headlines. Wouldn't bank on this gig, but UNT students without cars can't do worse.
And to those of you who read this site out of curiosity (read: wouldn't be caught dead at a rock show), please try the Lakewood Theater tonight. There, a series of short films dedicated to The Theater Fire's Everybody Has A Dark Side will be screened, and all proceeds go to victims of the Israel/Lebanon bombings.
Bobby Patterson Becomes Famous || October 12, 2006
Dallas soul singer turned radio DJ Bobby Patterson only gets so much love in this town, so it was mighty strange to hear an out-of-towner--Jeff Tweedy, no less--give the guy such an amazing plug last night at the Will Rogers Auditorium. "This song goes out to Bobby Patterson," Tweedy yelled, only to hear crickets in the audience. "You guys need to listen to him, on 730 AM...not the time, but the AM radio station." More crickets as Wilco rolled into "The Late Greats"...fitting.
Bobby probably still looks this good, right?
Figures that a Tweedy recommendation for Patterson's weekday morning show is the equivalent of Kurt Cobain praising the Pixies; won't be long until Patterson undergoes a Tarantino-assisted career revival.
...not at all, but the shout-out was a good excuse to remind readers that you've got one of the best morning radio shows in the country right under your local nose. Check your AM signal and switch over from the Ticket to Soul 73 KKDA (730 AM) around 9 a.m., won'tcha? -SM
(note to frequent reloaders: Baboon feature will be up this afternoon, along with weekend recommendations. But seriously, do plan on being at the Granada tonight for one of the best all-local rock bills in a long time. Baboon, The Deathray Davies, [DARYL] and Pleasant Grove. Day-umn.)
(Technically, you still can.) But if you'd rather not pay $34.50 for leftover, nosebleed tickets, Dallas and Denton have a few options for ya. Are they ultimately better than the Wilco show? Unless you're burnt out on Wilco, no. But they're cheaper and not awful (some of 'em, anyway).
Granada Theater: Austin's Li'l Cap'n Travis infuses a solid Beach Boys backbone into their beer-soaked country-rock, making them an ideal--if not superior--opening act for the Old 97's at the Granada tonight. Why the Old 97's would book a hometown show the same night much of their alt-yuppie target audience is seeing Wilco is beyond me, but hey, I didn't understand Rhett Miller's The Believer, either.
Rubber Gloves: Another Austinite's in the area tonight, but he's clearly on the other side of the drug-influenced spectrum. Peter and the Wolf is really more weird than trippy; though the lineup will vary from show to show, the band revolves around Red Hunter, and any annoyances he might bring (no lights on, no microphones, crap like that) are worth enduring for some soulful pieces of folk that are as timeless and gorgeous as The Theater Fire (which explains why TTF once sat in as his band for a Double Wide gig and sounded tailor-made). A solid one-two local punch of Spitfire Tumbleweeds and Sarah Reddington opens, making this an extremely worthwhile Wilco alternative.
Club Dada: Jesus fucking Christ. A Spot reunion? Pardon me while I try out my soothsaying powers...I'm getting a vision..."Hi. Remember 'Straight Thru The Sun's Head' and 'Moon June Spoon'? Yeah, we'll get to those after we play all the other songs you've never heard of. Q102 for life!!" If you feel compelled to go solely based on mid-90s nostalgia (and as an old Q102 junkie, I can't blame you if that happens), Doug Burr will get you through the night by opening with some quality tunes, though afterward, some Santa Monica band called Sputnik Monroe combines At The Drive In with ska. Nothankya.
Good Records: Free in-store at 8 p.m. starring one-man-band Phillip Roebuck. I saw the guy play a Yard Dog party at SXSW a few years back and the drum-playing banjo-wielder was plenty memorable, though I'd imagine his schtick, as good as he is at it, is better in a free setting than at a late-night nightclub. Then again, his gigs at Double Wide tonight and Dan's Silverleaf on Saturday are both solid, each featuring Denton's Burntsienna Trio. At any rate, show up late to Good, because LA's The Spores play for free at 7 p.m., and even at that price, they are a must-miss...unless you really wish Queens of the Stone Age sounded more like Jet with a lead singer dressed like a slut. -SM
Would like to attend tonight's Strange Boys/Black Angels concert at the Gypsy Tea Room, even though I can't. Dallas' Strange Boys are fresh outta the studio from working on their debut full-length album, meaning they'll almost certainly have new garage-rock cuts to unleash, while the Black Angels, though hit-or-miss in concert, are still responsible for one of my top-10 singles of the year, "The Sniper At The Gates Of Heaven." Poke fun at the Austin band's psych-rock niche and boner for Brian Jonestown Massacre if you want, but that's a killer little tune.
Man Man lead singer Honus Honus (...yeah, yeah) serenades the Cavern in June.
Instead, I'll be at Hailey's for Philadelphia's Man Man and Portland's The Thermals. The former put on one of the year's best concerts at the Cavern a few months back (the same night Beck rolled into town, besting him hands-down with their deranged mix of indie orchestration and carnie aggression), while The Thermals' latest CD, The Body The Blood The Machine, is my #2 pick for best crossover disc to give to your less musically inclined friends (second only to Band of Horses' Everything All The Time). If your concert calendar is already full this week, you might consider taking a breather tonight, but with two concerts like these in the region, you'd be a damn fool to relax. -SM
Finishing off yesterday's Nuts post about the Deathray Davies, John Dufilho returned our call to confirm that yes, he is now the new drummer for the Apples in Stereo. Turns out he's been pals with Apples guitarist John Hill for "years," and he later made a connection with lead singer Robert Schneider, who Dufilho claims is a longtime DRD fan.
"They don't even know me as a drummer, more of a singer-songwriter," he says, "but Bob left me a message the other day. He said he was listening to The Return of the Drunk Ventriloquist and was like, 'we need to get THAT drummer.'"
And a big reason they're pals is because of a project that Schneider is contributing to--a compilation of DRD/Dufilho songs recorded by other artists (including, according to this Glurp info sheet, Ben Kweller, Superdrag's John Davis and Centro-matic's Will Johnson). Good idea to bring more national attention to our scene, and conveniently enough, I've also heard rumblings that a similar project is being worked out with Will Johnson that would feature folks like the Drive-By Truckers. Would love to see either of those records see the light of day before too long; in the case of the Dufilho one, the man says he has "about eight songs done, and I have three or four people lined up to sing still. After those, I'll either call it finished or keep looking for more."
Dufilho's not sure about the length of his Apples tenure; "It depends on how the next coupl'a months go," he says. "They asked me to join, but, you know, we'll see. One thing that [bassist] Jason Garner and the Deathray Davies and I have agreed on is that we don't wanna break up that band, or I Love Math [Garner and Dufilho's other, quieter band] for that matter. We're gonna keep both projects together."
And he, like Garner, chooses not to elaborate on potential changes in the DRD's lineup, only confirming that Friday's gig will be "the last with the current lineup, so if you liked it, come out." Furthermore, the band's next record will be a back-to-basics affair, with only Dufilho and Garner recording the entire album by themselves. Though the duo has plenty on its plates, "my hope is we get the record done by the end of the year," Dufilho says. "But I'm not gonna rush this one at all. We've done five records in five years, so I figure it's time to take our time with one."
Speaking of records, please run--don't walk--to your neighborhood record store to purchase the new Baboon record, which is officially in stores as of yesterday. Oh, you're a wuss? You might still be able to snag the band's latest single for free at either Bill's, CD World (Mockingbird/Greenville) or Good Records. Later this week, Dd's feature-length look at the decade-plus Dallas rock band will explain why their latest self-titled long-player is nothing like you'd expect, a worthwhile disc both for longtime fans and scared newcomers. But the free single may be just enough to convince you that the whole album's worth a purchase, so you may as well claim on the freebie.
While you're at it, snag tickets for that Friday night Dallas pop-rock legends concert we keep touting in these DRD and Baboon posts...also on the bill are [DARYL] and Pleasant Grove, the latter of which will be showing off the return of one of Dallas' top tier drummers, Jeff Ryan. Mr. Ryan has confirmed that his return to the band will bleed into the studio, where he will help them finally finish the album that's been in production for roughly 22 years now. Granted, he didn't give a progress report, so they may have 22 more years to go, but still, we are stoked! -SM
As part of an extensive research project towards my nonexistent gradua-masters-hD thesis essay titled, "102.1 The Edge is the '90s version of a classic rock station," I happened upon a rare new song between spins of old Tool and Everclear songs: the new Burden Brothers single from their upcoming full-length album Mercy, set for release on October 31. But I quickly had to add an asterisk to that "new" claim. The ditty, "Everybody is Easy," sure sounded familiar...so much so that I dug out the iPod on the spot to verify my suspicions. Vaden and co., I'm not letting you off so easily.
I've made the comparison simple for you, Dd diehards, by cooking up a very small (200K) MP3 with the first 30 seconds of both the new BB single and the song it kinda-sorta rips off. It's not a total structural copy, but the similarities in this side-by-side listen are just about as obvious as how much better the 2nd song is than the local one.
Ever since we saw the Clearview / Curtain Club advertisement return to the Dallas Observer, we haven't been very stoked to pick up print editions of newspapers. Big surprise: We're still bitter.So it wasn't until today that we decided to catch up on the news tidbits in Hunter Hauk's weekly Liner Notes column for Quick, and hot holy crap, did we get scooped. John Dufilho, why didn't you send us this e-mail first?
"A lot of changes going on with the DRD: One more show (Granada, Oct. 13) and then [bassist] Jason [Garner] switches to drums. We're in the middle of recording a new CD, and we'll be taking a break from playing live until next year. ... In the meantime, Jason and I are both going to be playing drums for other bands, too: He's playing with the pAper chAse, and the Apples in Stereohave asked me to drum for them. Should be interesting."
Just the other night, the Nuts staff got into a conversation with someone who informed us that, unbeknownst to most of the region, Garner's actually an incredible drummer. Wish we could remember who that person was, though...damned shots of Patron. At least the recent story of drummer Hilarie Sydney's departure from the Apples sees some resolution (local, no less) in the Hauk update.
But we can still scoop, too: The one news point that Quick missed was a big reason for the touring break. "You know I'm moving to San Antonio, right?" says Garner from his home phone in Dallas, which will be cut off when they move--geez, this is quick--on Sunday. "My wife and I, our families are from there," he says. "She's going down to help her mom manage a couple of restaurants that she owns. It's long overdue. Her mom's been bugging her for about seven years, so it was about time for me to do some compromising."
Deathray Davies bassist/drummer Jason Garner (top right) moves to San Antonio on Sunday; "It was about time for me to do some compromising."
Garner's drumming switch might be a surprise to less observant fans, but he points out his drumming can be heard on DRD records like The Kick and the Snare. "I've been playing with John for so long; when our relationship started, I was the drummer. He writes the songs, obviously, but as far as arrangements, that's what I do with him, always on drums...I think it's been odd that I've been playing bass for so long."
And with his jump onto the pAper chAse's roster, one question comes to mind: What of original chAse drummer Aryn Dalton? "I think he's out, I think he quit. I don't know. He bought a house and was settling down, I think. [The band is] being very lighthearted about it all." It's certainly an overwhelming post to overtake, as Dalton is surely one of the region's top drummers, hands-down, but Garner seems up for the challenge--if he's joining shortly before moving away from Dallas, certainly.Though other factors weigh into the upcoming DRD touring hiatus, Garner resists going into detail. No drama or fights, though it's certainly an unsure period for the band; as he simply states it, "when I brought the news to the table in late July, it just seemed like everything unfolded right after I said that."
John Dufilho hadn't yet returned our calls, so we'll have to wait to ask him about his new Apples in Stereo gig on Friday night when they play with [DARYL] and Pleasant Grove at Baboon's CD release show at the Granada Theater. With this DRD uncertainty looming, it's gearing up to be even more of a can't-miss gig than it already was. -SM
...is Steve Steward! We received a few entries that praised and trashed Josh Venable, but this one required its storyteller to put his butt on the line by announcing himself--and his band, Darth Vato--proud Sublime fans, a stance that he knew wouldn't be looked upon fondly by the Dd crew. It may not take guts--or originality--to call Josh Venable out for being rude, but declaring your allegiance to "Santaria" in an indie-rock publication is somethin' else. Steve will receive REM's 2-disc And I Feel Fine: The Best of the I.R.S. Years compilation, along with a CD of his choosing from my personal promo stash. His story, and those of the other qualifying nominees, can be found in the link below.
lead singer Sean Halleck. He was with a posse of local musicians who had scuttled out before we could grill--or identify--them, but they weren't the dudes in the old band. Got Sean's number, said we'd call him later.
