D Nuts || November 30, 2007

Remember when I said I was gonna post my take on the music editor changeover at the Dallas Observer? That happened two weeks ago, and in the time since the news broke, it seems like everything that needed to be said has come out of the woodwork in one way or another. If you care, my favorite piece in the interim was by former DO music editor Zac Crain over at his (relatively) new FrontBurner digs--even though the bastard ranked me out of the fray.

But my interest became re-piqued when I saw Jonanna Widner's own farewell at bocatinta.com. I sympathize with the punch in the gut she felt once she got the bad news from up high--I had roughly two hours to compose my own farewell column, and corporate made sure she didn't get a similar window of opportunity. But even in her Internet swan song, Jonanna blows her local music responsibilities. This "proper" farewell eschews the North Texas music scene altogether to fawn over a personal favorite and, sadly, make her the star of the story. Some people appreciate this in their music criticism; local scenes don't exist without the personal stories that compel us to become music hounds, I suppose.

But she can't help but speak condescendingly--"Music isn’t even entirely about what’s “good” or what’s “bad” (OK, now the Denton bloggers heads have officially exploded)," she writes. Forget that her point doesn't even make sense (uh, have you heard some of the loud, crazy noise coming out of Denton house parties?). Rather, she makes a concerted effort in her goodbye to remind us that, in spite of her "thank you" and "appreciate the opportunity" sentences, the message conveyed is that she despised her duties as spokesperson for a music scene.

But that doesn't mean her goodbye will change much for North Texas music. The Observer's reputation has a long way to go if it's to ever reemerge as a reliable, trusted source for area music info. Widner's first months of stumbling and learning, which were hugely forgivable at the time, gave way to her final run of troubled material. Local coverage became ever more narrow, as Widner all but bailed on local genres (hip-hop and hard rock, for starters), and the local stuff that wasn't bumped by atrocious, syndicated features barely talked about the music at all. Again, music articles that go beyond the music can work. But in Jonanna's downward spiral, those few "not quite music" successes were drowned out by unprecedented failures.

A scapegoat for the corporate master plan.

Village Voice Media made a concentrated, syndicate-wide effort last year to pool its arts sections together and unify them, assumedly to attract national advertisers. After all, it's easier to pitch 17 papers' worth of ads to national clients like Heineken when you can assure them that their ad will reach the exact same target audience in every paper. National consolidation is one way VVM thought it could survive this post-Internet drop in newspaper readership, and the retail side of the company loved it--what we lose to Craigslist and other Internet classifieds, we'll make up for by selling ourselves to corporate America as the perfect national platform for reaching those savvy 18-35s. But this business model failed to give the "savvy" target market any credit.

Yet Jonanna was soundly punished for following the company line, it appears. So what the hell do these VVM people want? Seems like that'll be a mystery for another month or so, as the music editor search continues. Time will tell who takes the job next--people assume it'll be another VVM employee, but I think word has spread about the past couple of years of Dallas music editors. And in spite of the significant drop in rep, the Observer is honestly in an interesting spot right now--not as utterly far removed from quality as, say, local radio stations, which means a new music editor (or, shit, editors) with a mix of leadership, genre-agnosticism and ear for quality could reinstate the section's long-held rep. But ultimately, the past year of piss trailing down the Maple Ave. office entryway has marked VVM's territory. Who dares swim up that channel? -SM

Dumb David's Pub || November 28, 2007

Alela Diane is easily my favorite songwriting find of the past year; the Nevada City, CA native took me by surprise at this year's SXSW festival, and I've grown even fonder of the gal ever since--good thing I moved to Seattle, then, as she's played three times here since my June move. I was hoping you guys would someday hear what I've been gushing about, and you almost got your chance. Fellow local site/Diane enthusiast Gorilla Vs. Bear was hosting her latest appearance in Dallas later this week...until yesterday.

That's when Diane sent out a bulletin to fans and friends announcing the cancellation of many of her concert dates in the coming weeks. Tour issues with returning from a brief tour in Europe, etc. etc. But the Dallas show this Thursday wasn't canceled because of travel--she actually could've made the gig. The axe came directly from the venue she was to perform at: Poor David's Pub.

What Diane said in her bulletin was confirmed by Chris Cantalini at Gorilla Vs. Bear: PDP decided to yank the show because of the Dallas Cowboys game on Thursday night. "This was unforseen (sic) when we booked the date," Poor David's Pub management wrote to Cantalini (and, by the way, the e-mail actually made a point of listing both team's 10-1 records). "Competing with the Dallas Cowboys in their hometown has always been futile."

Never mind that the show sought an audience that had little to do with football or sports enthusiasm, unless Denton's stellar Mom planned to start the gig's opening set with an ambient, instrumental tribute to Jason Whitten. Never mind that the football game should end by 10:30 p.m., so if for any reason the game cannibalized the audience, the show could still kick off in time to end by 12:30 a.m. (a reasonable time for the audience and night in question). Never mind it all. If the Cowboys play a football game, Dallas must fall in line.

Poor, poor David. I'm not sure why they even bothered booking an incredible out-of-town act like Diane; the venue rarely hosts fare outside of 50-year-old-friendly folk/country standards. To be fair, Diane's the perfect kind of performer to get the sit-down crowd to mingle with the hip kids; too bad PDP will be too busy tailgating to make such a great thing happen. -SM

Too Much Downtime || November 27, 2007

No, I haven't been busy preparing an application to send to the Dallas Observer. I've been busy for various reasons: I managed to snag a short-term job doing some editing and marketing work at Amazon here in Seattle, and because the job will keep me busy through Christmas, I zipped to Dallas for a last-minute trip last week to visit family (and leave JUST IN TIME for a Baboon and Tame...Tame & Quiet concert, curses).

But I'll have a bit of downtime this week, in which I will talk about what Jonanna Widner's firing means to Dallas (if anything), what's happening to Lone Star 92.5, and perhaps an album review. The latter is largely contingent on my schedule for Dd's year-end review-a-rama, so we'll see. Here's to hoping Jasun posts anything about that Baboon/TT&Q show in the meantime. -SM

Tonight || November 15, 2007

Our longtime friend Chelsea Callahan generally throws great concerts for her annual birthday party, and this year's edition at the Double Wide is up to snuff. Glen Farris and Dove Hunter open, and they're proven Dd favorites, so if you have to go to bed early, you can still enjoy the gig's early half (9-11). Dallas' Justin Wilson is up next to unveil his 4,000th band, Brake! Vegas--sounds like his art-rockin' Red Animal War with a large infusion of Supersuckers-style punkabilly. And headliners Little Big Horn sound like the cover band in Guitar Hero II playing Louder Than Love-era Soundgarden...at the very least, that's way better than sounding like the cover band in Guitar Hero III. Best of all, your cover goes towards a good cause, the Carter Albrecht Music Foundation.

If you're all the way out in Denton, save the gas and see Chicago's The Ponys at Rubber Gloves; their Turn The Lights Out is a sleeper pick for one of this year's best albums, and opening act Handbrake is a promising little group of post-punk addicts based in Denton. -SM

Jonanna Widner || November 15, 2007

The anonymous rumors have been confirmed by Dada co-owner Amanda Newman, reported with a conversation with the very woman in question: Jonanna Widner is no longer music editor at the Dallas Observer. I'm assuming the Observer will make its own statement about the matter before the end of the day, presumably on their blog, so until then, I'll withhold anything in the way of comment or speculation. But in spite of the many things I've had to say about Widner on this site, I want to send my most sincere sympathies her way, for reasons I will (hopefully) go into in my next vitriol-ridden post about the matter. -SM

Fishboy || November 13, 2007

Fishboy's playing a free CD release show at Good Records tonight, and if you want to hear his best record to date, you should attend (or, if you can't, consider testing the album at http://www.farewellalbatross.com, where Fishboy is streaming the new album for free). The in-store kicks off "at 6:30 p.m.," which usually becomes 7 p.m., so plan accordingly. -SM

Show to See on Saturday || November 9, 2007

Bridges and Blinking Lights have a CD release show at Rubber Gloves on Saturday, November 10. Red Monroe and George Neal open. This should be grand. We Shot JR will have more picks, obviously, but I'd click that MySpace link and pencil this gig in if I were you. Those sample songs are somethin' else. -SM

Aw, Nuts || November 9, 2007

Jasun and I are in mourning today, as we just received some crappy news in our inbox:

"Hogpig has decided to end Hogpig. There's a slight possibility of a last show, but it's only slight. Hogpig would like to thank everyone who came out and saw them and supported them."

Shame they couldn't have waited until they saw how well they're gonna stack up on Dd's 2007 Local List, but considering how many bands their members have hopped to and from in the past few years, I can't imagine that the separate members will give up rockin' altogether. Still, the foursome that was Hogpig will be sorely missed for some of the best hard rock the area has ever seen.

In conclusion...fuck you, Mike Love. -SM

Take Action || November 7, 2007

No, not against the failed bid to block the Trinity River toll road--the yuppies and business owners got their way with that one yesterday. Rather, this is an instance in which your direct words and actions can make more impact than slipping a ballot into a box.

I was at the Gypsy Tea Room "Town Hall" meeting on the day Laura Miller pranced in and duped a music district into signing over their death certificates. Special Use Permits were the high order of the day, and Miller used Club Blue as the scapegoat--"The number one crime generator in all of downtown Dallas that spills over to Deep Ellum is Club Blue," she declared, and even though her statement about the city's largest hip-hop club at the time was largely inaccurate, the mostly white crowd of rock club and tattoo parlor employees roared and cheered anyway.

Of course, months later, the real reason for the fear campaign became apparent--to placate developers and make that DART rail extension toward Deep Ellum lead not to music venues but to condos and retail. This has been a concern of mine since the second rise and fall of Trees, but not so much in the "SAVE DEEP ELLUM" sense. Deep Ellum worked in its heyday thanks to general people coming out to concerts and nightlife spots and showing interest in their scene; blocking yuppies from converting the place into condos doesn't fix the central issue of the city's declining nightlife interest.

No, now I'm more concerned about Dallas spreading its SUP wings into places where activity is actually bubbling and percolating. MySpace bulletins have been spreading about the City Plan Commission meeting tomorrow afternoon to decide the fate of nighttime clubs, bars and venues that stretch out as far as Exposition Park, a zone that has enjoyed a reputation renaissance (and could see a huge boost if punk/art venue Sloppyworld finally comes to fruition). The Double Wide is among those turning on the bullhorn with a fear-based call to arms of their own: "They could possibly shut us down. Why? Because they want to pick and choose your neighbors and your bars. WE NEED UR HELP."

Is that really the case? I visited the City Plan Commission's agenda site and pulled tomorrow's agenda up, which lists more than a few requests for "a Specific Use Permit for a bar, lounge, or tavern and an inside commercial amusement for a live music venue." Every single one of these requests has a recommendation for "approval for two-year period" right next to it. Seems pretty clear cut.

I put out a phone call to Double Wide booking guru Chelsea Callahan, and she set me straight--"That's what happened last week with Monkey Bar," she says. Essentially, the reps at Exposition Park's Monkey Bar (formerly Expo Lounge) showed up to a CPC meeting having read the same sort of no-trouble agenda preview. A condo resident near the bar came to the hearing and complained about late night noise. MB didn't have anyone show up on their behalf to speak out--because, uh, do you really need your customers to show up to a Special Use Permit meeting? Apparently, you do. Monkey Bar's SUP request was denied, as was Club One's and Tom Cats'.

"That's why we're all freaking out now," Callahan says. "The thing is, they're getting denied so easily." This may be the only time in which I defend the shithole that is Tom Cats, but holy crap, the thought of such strangling control over businesses in Dallas is chilling. It gets even worse when you read THIS ESSAY, which I strongly encourage all of you to peruse. It digs deeply into the stances, statements and perspectives of developers and city representatives that are working hand-in-hand to reclaim control over highly prized real estate in Dallas.

Got the fires burning in your hearts? Then take action. If you don't have free time at 1:30 p.m. tomorrow to show up at the City Planning Commission meeting, you can zip an e-mail to any of the addresses below, with your full name and address/contact info, making a clear, well-written statement in defense of these venues' existence and output. The recipients of these e-mails will appreciate them at tomorrow's SUP hearing.

Write, show up, spread the word. -SM

Monkey Bar (trying again): info@dallasmonkeybar.com
Darkside Lounge: darksidelounge@yahoo.com
Double Wide: kim@thedoublewidebar.com
Club Dada: info@clubdada.com
Amsterdam Bar: amsterdam@theamsterdambar.com
The Bone: info@thebonedallas.com
Minc Lounge: http://www.myspace.com/minclounge

D Nuts || November 5, 2007

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a belated Dd anniversary rant, aimed largely at Dallas-area media's failure to live up to its artistic responsibilities. The rant put more heat on the Dallas Observer's recent failings in music coverage, but that's only because I've already spent the majority of my music writing career aiming a target at local stink-station 102.1 The Edge. Did I really need to restate the obvious?

Apparently, I did.

Josh Venable's two biggest buddies have posted their takes on the man's firing from the only "modern" rock station left in town, but both of their accounts come off as restrained. I have the convenient luxury of not being buddy-buddy with Josh, as he's done his best to ignore me ever since I threw off the gloves at my first day at work. Figures he'd take offense to this line: "Someone is green-lighting The Edge's repetitive, '90s-dwelling playlists. Make them stop."

Let's not forget in the wake of Venable's firing, and the dismantling of his award-winning local/independent show The Adventure Club, that Venable was among the green-lighters called to task. I never got a direct response from the progam director, nor Venable (the music director), about what I had to say, but about a year ago, Venable made his case in an interview with our good friend Cindy Chaffin:

It's a business. The goal is to be the "them" instead of being "the little guy." ... Everybody wants to be Goliath and have a little bit of money and decent ratings. That's another thing that people don't ever remember when they talk about the good ol' days and how much better the Edge was then and how the edge sucks now, blah blah blah, all that crap. The Edge had pretty terrible ratings back then. More than once, there was a good possibility that the Edge was going to go away. I don't want to work for a station where I"m constantly in fear of my station turning into a Hispanic station or a country station or a whatever station.

I've heard the same story from other folks in the lamer side of Dallas music--such as the Club Clearview guys, who told me very similar "we gotta make money" rhetoric as they gutted the building's innards days before losing the lease. Still, it's easy as an outsider to forget that at the end of the day, even the dreamers have to pay bills. But put the above quote of Josh's right next to these quotes of his, also from the interview, in which he gushes about his days as a 17-year-old, dying to work at The Edge when it sat at 94.5 on the dial:

I was so excited there was a radio station that was playing music that I listened to.

It was amazing to me that Lollapalooza 1 sold out two days at Starplex with a bunch of bands that weren't big bands.

It's sad to think that the same guy had been part of the long Clear Channel chain of recent, awful, national playlists for so many years. Josh talks in the Chaffin interview about how DJs have been receiving required playlists far longer than we might want to think, but man, you worked at the Edge because you trusted the people picking the playlists then. It's nice to romanticize Josh as the guy who was holding on with his own fiercely independent show--and I'm not here to trash The Adventure Club. The only fault to the show, honestly, is that its very narrow tastes aren't complimented by other thoughtful, interesting specialty shows around North Texas (with the obvious exceptions of 90.1 At Night and The Good Show). Still, I'd argue the "fiercely" part, based at least in part on The Adventure Club's inclusion of awful emo songs throughout 2005 and 2006 that were clearly out of sync with Venable's Brit-pop leanings. Was the show meddled with in any way?

But even that "fiercely" question still misses the point--that Venable settled into the comfort of putting check marks and signatures on daily playlists full of Slipknot, Seether and '90s rock retreads (or, worse, baffling replays of acts like Cypress Hill). Did he fight tooth and nail to include as much quality and local material on the air as possible? The answer might very well be classified as an internal Clear Channel matter, though from what I can tell, the station didn't sound like he did. But I noticed something interesting in the Chaffin interview--Josh laments a few rule changes in the industry that mean unpaid interns can't be paid in swag and free tickets. Kids now couldn't have a job at the station the way Josh started out over a decade ago.

Thing is, Josh, you're close to the real issue. Kids now wouldn't have a job at the station, because, well, who's gonna play the music that the next Josh is into, that would make the next Josh stalk the radio crew and beg for a job? Who'd want to work for free at The Edge now based solely on the playlist? You grew up, Peter Pan. You blew your responsibility for the sake of job security, and Clear Channel has thanked you for your tireless efforts with a big Captain Hook. Here's to hoping you think about that 17-year-old kid in your new spare time. -SM

D Nuts || November 2, 2007

Josh Venable fired from 102.1 The Edge

Since I'm not intimate with Venable at all, unlike the Crain who filed the report, I'd like to point out how little this changes the current, pitiful state of Dallas radio. Still, it's fucking sad--Venable was the last connection to the golden age of Dallas rock radio, when three stations duked it out and gave the city's airwaves a remarkable level of variety unseen before or since. Worst of all, this is the definite goodbye to The Adventure Club. I'll have a lot more to say about this either tomorrow or Sunday. Gotta run. -SM