B L A C K I E/Vulgar Fashion/Silver Saint (Rubber Gloves Rehearsal Studios): Did a house show get canceled or something? This is a remarkably strong lineup for a Monday night. Though I despise all caps, some caps, and the spacing of gimmicky nome de plumes, I’ll make an exception for Houston rapper, B L A C K I E, who literally instructs you to write the name “in all caps, with spaces.” The artist, otherwise known as Michael LaCour, describes the reason for insisting on the request as such:
..I started writing it down, like over and over and when I would write it normal like just with the B capitalized it looked ugly, I didn’t like how it looked. Then I started writing it in all caps real big all over the paper and I thought it looked really intimidating, really good..
That violates every rule in the D Stylebook, but I won’t argue. B L A C K I E has become one of the most seldom referenced names in underground Texas rap and experimental music, and the incorporation of very abrasive noise has seen the artist appearing on a variety of bills that don’t often include hip hop of any kind.
Silver Saint is Wanz Dover’s newest project, and it incorporates the buzz, drone, and disjointedness of No Wave guitars with dance beats. I caught part of a set a couple of weeks ago, and it was intriguing, even through a struggle with sound issues. Vulgar Fashion is always worth seeing, especially in Denton, where they seem to be the most comfortable.
Cvlts/YYU/Exael/Flowhawk (Macaroni Island): And speaking of house shows, this is also a good opportunity to take a quick drive to see the ambient band Cvlts, who could easily have been playing a more expensive event with some avant pop act in Dallas, but who wants to go through all that?
Ronnie Heart (Lola’s): I witnessed a decent chunk of Ronnie Heart’s DJ set at Sundown at Granada recently, and it was little surprising that the selections were often excellent. He played Lizzy Mercier Descloux’s revisionist dance version of Arthur Brown’s “Fire,” and that’s pretty much all you need to know. Just watch this video. It’s a nice reminder that Earth is not always that bad.
Other Monday shows—
Boxcar Bandits (Hailey’s)
Vinyl Tap (Double Wide)
Photo: Ronnie Heart, performing with Son of Stan at Cassette Store Day, 2013. Credit: Andi Harman.
