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Music

Weekender: Dallas Area Concerts for February 7-10

Balmorhea at Dan's Silverleaf, Holly Williams at Good Records, Blowfly's comedy and music, Why These Machines are Winning has their act together, and more.
By Chris Mosley |
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THURSDAY

“Old School Night” (The Gold Standard): I hear the Gold Standard has come a long way since the soft opening I attended last summer, but even then it seemed like an appropriate place to have a throwback old school soul night. This is worth a shot.

Spoonboy/Collick/Kid Prison/Special Guest/Enthusiast (1919 Hemphill): Speaking of throwbacks and Fort Worth, Spoonboy’s David Combs has that incredibly painful pop-punk style of singing that he’s been working on since about 2000 or so. Combs’ heart is always in the right place politically, but I would much rather read a lyric sheet than listen to most of the music spawned from this genre. There are many, many music fans who don’t mind this at all, so I may be in the minority. This style of punk is why I started buying Italo Disco records. Though they would probably not like to be singled out, Collick is much less direct and vocally obnoxious, so they’re a likely highlight here.

Track meet (Hailey’s Club): “Denton is Burning” is now being held at Hailey’s Club, which is an important note since this night used to be at Rubber Gloves.  Lil Texas is the guest DJ tonight, and that name has caused me to chortle at least twice today.

“Discipline” (Rubber Gloves Rehearsal Studios): Last week I put in an inquiry about what tracks would be played that evening, and when I walked into the club that night, one of the tracks was actually playing, as advertised. The actual nights I write about rarely go as planned, but sometimes, life just works out.

“Big Bang” (Beauty Bar): Tonight’s guest is Waajeed, a highly-employed producer and label-owner, who, besides his self-titled project, is also involved with, Jeedo, Tiny Hearts, Jeedeci, and Electric Street Orchestra. The Dilla-influenced artist recently gave an informative and opinionated interview with Dummy magazine, which is worth spending some time on. In it, the Brooklyn resident, but Detroit native, gets pretty hot about the changes he’s seen in his hometown since it took on near post-apocalyptic status in the eyes of the rest of the country. The dichotomy between the new-to-town do-gooders and how a former Detroiter feels about the “progress” makes for a fascinating read, and it draws parallels between our own influx of outside forces teaching us all out about Dallas lately. Here’s an excerpt, where Waajeed explains this delicate relationship by way of meeting a fan:

I was approached after a show by this real sweet woman who wanted a remix from me, so I invite her and her husband over to my spot (I was staying in the Underground Resistance HQ at the time) and they were well-intentioned folks. Artists, like myself. So we got to talking and it turned out that they’d just moved to Detroit, bought and refurbished a house, so we decide to drive the couple miles out to check it and suddenly we’re in the hood. Now, I knew this area from back in the day. This hood was f*cked up. As a young black dude, in this hood? I’d come with tools, straight up…. but we got to their street and it was all smooth. Their house was dope, I met their neighbours… Look, they were people that wouldn’t normally live in this community, but I thought it was a great idea.

Then the tone changed pretty quick for me. We went to a house that had a chicken coop outside,and the chickens were right next to another dudes driveway, with a truck with rims on it parked out front. This put me in a funny place so I asked them, “How did this all work out with your neighbours?” – because you know the dude with the truck was born and raised here, and saw y’all coming like you did – and they said “Well, we kinda protect each other around here, keep an eye on people and all that.”I thought, “What type of sh*t is that? You’re the visitor here!” My mother is from the South and she taught me that when you walk into another man’s room, you introduce yourself properly because you just walked into his room.

Oil Boom (Sundown at Granada): Though the show is free, the band really wants you to know that their new record, Gold Yeller, is on iTunes. You can tell by the way the link is the first thing in the invite, with no other accompanying info first. Don’t just shove it in my face, guys. Tease me with a video at least. I’m a gentleman.

FRIDAY

“(The Party Formerly Known as) Fall in Love at Fallout” (Sandaga 813): Hard to believe that this annual Valentine’s Day celebration is in its sixth year. In tribute, I had planned on doing a retrospective of all the previews I had ever written for this thing. Instead, I only found boastful gibberish and acts of verbal retribution to imaginary enemies. So, it didn’t work out. Did anybody actually read that stuff?

T0MMYL33J0N3Z (How I still loathe typing those characters), and Trademarx, who make up the veteran-duo, Billingham’s Defense System, will be joined by Genova, We are Dark Clouds, and Gallery Cat.

Balmorhea/Summer of Glaciers (Dan’s Silver Leaf): This is a joint promotional production with Spune and Gutterth, and Spune has always held this sort of minimal and reserved way of presenting shows, which helps to lower the hype fatigue one gets when wading through seas of emails and invites. Not so with Gutterth, however, who promise that: “This might be the best show of the decade so far. Don’t miss it.” But they say that about every show.

So, I don’t believe them. Both of these groups are fine. High on “tasteful” atmospherics and low on visceral impact. That has its place, of course. I would recommend seeing this show, perhaps if you just lost a pet or something. An emotional and larger-than-life soundtrack for tiny lives. You can walk from the square.

Mean Jeans/Long Knife/The Novice/Wild//Tribe (Rubber Gloves Rehearsal Studio): Mean Jeans is a great and highly marketable name, but there is nothing “mean” about this band. I listened to a track called “Crummy Crummy” earlier today and it made “Jessie’s Girl” sound like “Nervous Breakdown.” The Emperor’s new jeans, I’m afraid. You can read an interview with the group on Red Bull’s website.

Hopefully, the involvement of Fort Worth hardcore act Wild//Tribe being will help offset the lack of MJ’s advertised cruelty.

 SATURDAY

Holly Williams (Good Records): This free show at 2 pm, which is a steal, since the only other way to see her is opening for Loretta Lynn later that evening.

“Ladies Stay Crazy Dance Party” (Texas Theatre): Featuring DJs Mama Dew and Wild in the Streets.

Blowfly/Booty Stew (Club Dada): It’s a tricky Saturday, since there isn’t very much going on, but this is actually your best bet, since Blowfly is a legend of both comedy and music, and it’s the sort of thing you should claim you saw once.

These Machines are Winning/Here Holy Spain (Double Wide): These Machines are Winning features former members of Daryl, and it’s obvious that there is some industry experience at work here, since this band just formed, and they’re already releasing their first album on “180 gram white vinyl,” with a CD. Which is strange, because I went to buy a new iMac for the office today and the darn thing didn’t even come with an optical drive. Are you supposed to give the CD to your parents?

Anyways, my point is that this crew is obviously a step ahead as far as getting their physical goods act together. Most great bands I know can barely even make a cassette before they implode. I don’t know about the music, but as far as the ambition goes, take notes, kids.

Nervous Curtains/The Blurries/Year of the Bear (Bryan Street Tavern): I want to see this show, if just to erase the memory of the last time I was at Bryan Street, a mere two days ago. It was to see a band called … “Stomach Flu Planet.” That’s what I’ll call them. I refuse to type their name, as it’s one of the worst band names of all time. Somehow the music was even worse.

SUNDAY

Corrections House/Unconscious Collective (Bryan Street Tavern): And another good show at Bryan Street this weekend.

Local H/West Windows (Prophet Bar): What I keep hearing about West Windows is that they take some questionable or dated influences and somehow come up with some pretty convincing music. I would love to go to be convinced myself, but I will steer clear of Local H. I had to work at a record shop in Austin when they played SXSW about a decade ago, and I don’t cherish that memory, unfortunately. I did cherish the free pizza, however. Is it March yet?

 

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