Ladies and Gentlemen, my name is Christopher Mosley, but you may know me as “Defensive Listening.” I worked on the local music website We Shot JR from 2006 until its demise in October of 2010. In that time we spent almost every day researching the best and worst of local art and music and gave the most honest stab we could at assessing it, not only to help one determine how to spend their evening but also to come as close as possible to gauging where Dallas-Fort Worth-Denton was culturally. Now I’ll be doing the same for FrontRow, bringing you It Lists, Weekenders, interviews, reviews, and more. It is an honor, and I look forward to being involved in the local conversation again. So after the jump, what’s going on:
“LowCo” featuring Alberto Martinez/DJ G/Brian Knolley/Uchin Chung (Fallout Lounge): Perhaps this is the most backhanded compliment in the world, but you can often tell how legitimate a house music event is by the inherent visual dubiousness of the show flier. The second you see a ’90s Trapper Keeper graphics eye-sore featuring robots or in a worse-case scenario, fractals, it’s immediately apparent that the party will most likely include truly tenured talent, as opposed to the glut of amateur-hour DJ’s that finally gave up their screamo bands six months ago.
That’s the feeling one gets when you see the gaudy invite to the rather new Fallout Lounge bi-weekly “LowCo,” which will showcase the booking talent (and thankfully, the sound-system) of local DJ Uchin Chung. Every other Thursday, Chung will present the thorough catalogs of various DFW-based House Music experts. However, I’m told that national acts are a possibility in the future.
My original hunch about the artwork couldn’t have been more accurate considering that the lineup includes a notable like Alberto Martinez—who has been playing records since 1982 and oversaw the Liquid Lounge in its ’90s dance hey-day. So, appropriately, you’re likely to hear New York ’90s Garage House tracks from Clinton-era labels like Eightball and Strictly Rhythm, along with the Deep House that Martinez is known for.
Also performing is DJ G (aka Jonathan Graham), a local ’80s scholar who gave me some insight into the event and told me that it centers around nothing more than the simple concept of “classic, quality dance music.” That’s something in which Graham is certainly well-versed, and as always he’ll focus more on ’80s genres; Post-Disco and Proto-House, which should add a nice evolutionary arc. Brian Knolley will also perform.
Paper Robot/Deep Snapper/Virgin Wolves/Till Blue Or Destroy (Rubber Gloves Rehearsal Studio): Oddly prolific act Deep Snapper has benefited from the addition of second-guitarist Aaron Bartz, who often played impossibly complex patterns in the assumingly defunct Tame.. Tame and Quiet. A recent outing in Denton’s DIY “Barn” venue saw (and heard) them silencing some of their critics who once probably agreed with the rather unfair Maximumrocknroll assertion that the group played “Dad Rock.” Whatever that is, but I suppose a pretentious punk “knows it when he hears it.”
