Welcome to the weekend and our Friday Double Feature. Each week we’ll recommend two films, shorts, documentaries, music videos, video art pieces, etc. These will include, but not be limited to, works by Texas filmmakers. If you have a lead on an upcoming online release that might be fit to debut in this series, drop me a line.
The radar show that inspired this post turned very dark over the weekend: here’s how to help Houston in the wake of Harvey.
Pearl Earl’s heart-eyed Bowie sounds landed them on She Shreds over the summer for a debut of “Captain Howdy.” When the Denton trio-turned-four-piece leans furthest into garage power-pop, it always sounds as if they’re painting over something dark. And they out themselves as ghosts (cover: aliens) in the gleefully abrasive “Meet Your Maker” video. Haunting a psychedelic backdrop in palest pink catsuits and lipstick, the original trio appears intermittently to dance and play their instruments. Artist Alex Aulson provided analog visuals that go from neo-psychadelic chaos to sharper geometrics and back again. Pearl Earl plays Friday at Texas Theatre after a screening of 1970 British crime drama Performance featuring Mick Jagger at his most gorgeous.
Dallas art-rock act Siamese has just changed its name to Midnight Opera. “It’s regal. Velvety. Lustrous. And most importantly nobody else is using it,” Teddy Georgia Waggy concedes. Milwaukee’s Hear Here Presents hosted the group under the new name for a live performance in their loft, which looks to be covered wall-to-wall with the kind of framed landscape paintings you find at thrift stores. Surfy dream-pop alternates with an intensity approaching PJ Harvey levels in their performances of “Older Hands Prevail,” “Goldmine,” and “Stars Grow Cold.” Midnight Opera kicks off a tour Wednesday at Double Wide with Nervous Curtains.
