Blogs

What you missed on DC9 this week as you sat around marveling at how much you actually enjoyed Iron Man...

- We told you about Strawberry Fields' move and what it meant for the future of the store's DIY concerts.
- We let you know about a certain icon's upcoming tour stop in town.
- We told you how to score front row seats to a show from a band that will never, ever, ever play Dallas again.
- We clued you into free downloads from Nine Inch Nails and The Offspring and told you about NIN's upcoming tour.
- We updated you on Argyle's Footloose situation.
- We went to Ghostbar for nostalgia's sake.
- We told you how to score a signed copy of Mogwais' Young Team re-issue.
- We hit the streets to get your thoughts on What Made Milwaukee Famous.
- We broke down what TVT Records' bankruptcy means for some locals.
- ...and we said goodbye to our local American Idol contestant.

Oh, and we gave you a crap-load of free mp3s:
Nine Inch Nails -- "Echoplex"

Tomorrowpeople -- "Cruel"

Mom -- "Skipping Stones"

Akkolyte -- "A Generation of Fuckfaces"

Airline -- "Farewell Republica"

The Lash Outs -- "The Kids Don't Wanna Dance"

What Made Milwaukee Famous -- "Sultan"

Good Friday's coming up, then we're out. --Pete Feedman

Go ahead and set your iPods to the over-used but somehow still uplifting anthem “Clocks.” Because, ladies and gents, Coldplay’s coming back to town.

According to the press release that arrived in our mailbox this afternoon, the “Viva La Vida” tour (same name as the upcoming album which, unfortunately, doesn't make it any less lame) brings Chris Martin and cohorts to Dallas's American Airlines Center on November 19. Tickets should go fast (no info there yet, though), especially if you believe the band's publicists, who claim that, during a one-week period of free download, Viva La Vida’s first single, “Violet Hill,” was snagged by two million people.

Given the amount of time you've got until the band gets here, you'll have plenty of time to familiarize yourself with the new disc before the show (it gets released on June 17). Plus, you'll probably see them a lot. For instance: Coldplay will be on The Today Show on June 27.

In sorta related notes, if you’re still wondering what to give your Mommy for Mother’s Day, there’s always a donation in her name to one of Chris Martin’s favorite charities. —Merritt Martin

Does Addison have good taste in music? That’s debatable, judging by this lineup, but this weekend’s food and music festival, Taste Addison, has certainly managed to secure some big names for this year’s festival, including Friday performers Switchfoot and Gavin DeGraw and Saturday headliners The Black Crowes.

Locals got some love too: Black Tie Dynasty plays tonight at 5:30, and their Idol labelmates PPT takes the stage tomorrow at 1:30 p.m. Jonathon Tyler and the Northern Lights, The Afters, Celtic rockers the Killdares and other locals are also featured on the lineup, which is available here.

Grown-ups aren’t the only ones who will be entertained. The children’s stage features performances from Eddie Coker (whom Sara Hickman once called “The James Brown of Children’s music”) and Bonkers the Clown.

Incidentally, Bonkers was a frequent guest entertainer at the preschool my son attended last year. Here’s my son Lyle’s review of his act: “He was funny and he did funny jokes. He put a ball inside his hand and then it disappeared, and then it went inside his pants. He was juggling balls, and the dog ball fell inside his mouth. He said it was disgusting. And that’s all I remember.”

No word on whether any of Taste’s food vendors serve dog balls. --Jesse Hughey

How often do we get mail from bands? Often.

How often do we get an actual hand-written letter from a band? Pretty damned rarely.

I remember an inspirational greeting card from witty songstress Laura Palmer around last November and Daniel Folmer has been known to keep us updated on new releases via notebook paper, but two artists does not a lot make.

So the Quebe Sisters Band of Burleson sort of made our collective day when I popped open an envelope and discovered an invitation to cover their show at 7 p.m. on Saturday at Arlington’s Open Door Coffeehouse…in swooping ballpoint. The letter also contained many exclamation points and, coupled with the inherent energy of the group’s music, we kinda felt the contagious excitement.

Since we can’t very well give the old-school “playin’, singin’ and swingin’” Sisters props in print at this point, we may as well say here that, along with winning folks over with actual correspondence, they also churn out some skilled Texas swing, Big Band-era standards and general western fare that couples airtight harmonies with skilled fiddle and guitar parts rivaling the precision of bluegrass greats. A heel-kickin’ good time for $18 at the door tomorrow night, iffin’ you want…and I think you do. --Merritt Martin

Fort Worth singer/songwriter Tim Halperin plays his final area show this Friday at the Chicken Ranch, a club located in the Stockyards. The TCU student will then be off to his hometown of Omaha for a few months to reconnect with his roots.

“The guys I used to play with are all in Omaha,” says Halperin. “I hope to get a band together here in Texas for the fall.”

Halperin released his debut EP, You Are the Moon, in January and response has been so overwhelmingly positive that, well, none are left.

“I actually just sold out,” says the shocked singer. “I will be getting more duplicated in Omaha in a couple of weeks.”

Listening to songs such as “Just Can’t Get You,” “Nice to be Free” and “What I Want” (the last of which is available for download on his Myspace page), it’s easy to see how Halperin has so quickly gained a solid following.

Of course, a high profile gig opening for Nashville crooner Matt Wertz and a featured spot on XM Radio’s Unsigned show hasn’t hurt his exposure.

Obviously influenced primarily by Ben Folds and (don’t cringe too much) Billy Joel, Halperin is the proverbially nice guy who doesn’t finish last, a college kid from Nebraska who uses his innocence to best advantage on songs that speak to a specific demographic: nerds. --Darryl Smyers

John Freeman's had himself a rough 2008 so far, between opening Sloppyworld, perhaps closing Sloppyworld, definitely closing Sloppyworld and trying to scrounge up the money to pay Sloppyworld's leftover bills. Now, just four months before he heads off to New York City to write rock operas with Corn Mo, Freeman's still looking to pay off Sloppyworld's debt. And this time, at least, he's got a pretty enticing offer out there.

"I am selling off almost all of the Sloppyworld PA
equipment to cover some outstanding fees and help pay for some repairs to
the space," he writes in an email.

I'm sure a few venues out there could use an upgrade to its sound system. And I, for one, can confidently say that, for all its issues, the one thing that Sloppyworld never had a problem with was its sound. Interested parties should email John for more information. --Pete Freedman

OK, boys and girls, Mother's Day is this Sunday. That means you've got a mere day and a half to come up with something sweet for that lady who raised you (and maybe your grandma, too? She probably rules, too). In the event you've actually pushed things off to today, and haven't found yourself overwhelmed with maternal gratitude, click through the collection of 15 songs to get you in the mood for Mother's Day. Download a few and see if you don't get inspired. That's what happens when we put Cheap Trick and Iron & Wine in the same list -- inspiration. -- Chelsea Ide

OK, so this isn't really news, per se--anyone who's been to the Palladium recently has seen this on the venue's TV screens--but My Morning Jacket, who our sister paper LA Weekly just deemed the "best live band in the world," officially announced today its upcoming August 23 show at the Palladium Ballroom.

Sure, we're stoked about the show, and we'll let you know about tickets as soon as that info becomes available, but, I have to admit, we're a little lukewarm when it comes to what we've heard of MMJ's new record, Evil Urges. Night and Day editor Noah W. Bailey got his hands on a copy recently and has been jokingly playing it ever since...mostly because, even as an MMJ fan, he can't stand it.

"If you'd like a mix of Prince and Chris Cross, you'll like this," he says. "But I think it sucks."

Worst part is, we all agree. Well, to an extent. Merritt Martin, whose desk is right next to Noah's, has heard it more than the rest of us (Noah's been taunting her with repeat plays of the song "Highly Suspicious" from the disc), and she says: "Well...it is insanely catchy."

But even she's hedging her bets, qualifying that offer with this one: "It's like an earworm," she says. "It just digs itself into your brain. It's kind of like cancer."

So, yeah, there's that. --Pete Freedman

Elvis T. Busboy and The Blues Butchers, a Dallas cover act, are the ostensible headliners at the Blue Shoe Project’s free festival Saturday, but the real highlight will be Marquise “Big Daddy” Knox from St. Louis. Knox is just 17 years old, but sings with a deep, mature-beyond-its-years, drawling delivery reminiscent of a certain blues legend who died a decade before he was born. Knox plays electric guitar and harp with taste and restraint seldom heard among any of his bluesmen peers, let alone players his age. He'll also be leading a blues workshop for children at 3 p.m. on Saturday.

Other performers include Tutu Jones and Gerry Moss.

The fest runs from 2 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Village at Colleyville. VIP passes are available for a $100 tax-deductible contribution to the Blue Shoe Project, which educates youngsters on the importance of blues to American music. Last year, the project put out Last of the Great Mississippi Delta Bluesmen – Live in Dallas, which won the 2007 Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album.

It’s a family-friendly event, so be discreet if you must partake in champagne and reefer. --Jesse Hughey

The Stars' improbable run in the Stanley Cup playoffs continues tonight as Mike Modano and the gang head to Detroit for the first game in the western conference finals. Or so I'm told. Last time I really cared about hockey I was trying to make Gretzky's head bleed.

But, hey, this is pretty cool: When the boys in green and black come home for game three at the AAC, the crowd will be treated to a first intermission performance from the Toadies, who'll play a short set from the friendly confines of the player's bench. And it seems it's all because the AAC's sound guy is a big fan of one of the Toadies' other projects.

"The Stars play the Burden Brothers' 'Beautiful Night' all the time," says the Toadies' label rep at Kirtland Records, Tami Thompsen. "We've talked with them for a while about trying to do something, and now it's finally worked out."

I doubt the gig will be televised, though, so the only ones who'll have a chance to see this set will be the fans in the crowd. --Pete Freedman

When TVT Records filed for bankruptcy back in late February, it was easy to figure out what it would mean for artists on the label's roster, like Dallas' own The Polyphonic Spree: no more label obligations, monies owed, etc. But the fallout for those owed money by the label, which, it should be noted, was named Billboard's top independent label as recently as 2006, extends far beyond just the Sprees, Pitbulls and Lil Jons of the world.

A document currently circulating around the web lists all of TVT's unsecured claims--and, suffice to say, there's a ton of unpaid invoices out there that top the $4,968 owed Tim DeLaughter and Co.

The two highest claims are important, as their being owed so much money opens up a lot of area for question:
- Kaye Scholer, LLP, an entertainment-based law firm is owed $4.7 million and change.
- The Harry Fox Agency, which deals in licensing and distribution, is owed $7.3 million in change.

But even the smaller claims carry weight. Check out the Dallas area businesses and artists owed money:

Akkolyte, Aaron and Stefan Gonzalez's grindcore duo (the two also perform with their father, Dennis, in experimental jazz project Yells At Eels), offers up a live show that's about as fun as grindcore can get (it helps that it's about as loud as any musical duo can get, too), and tonight's gig at the Double-Wide should only be more entertaining: The brothers are planning to record pieces of tonight's gig for potential release.

"We will be recording various improvs, a sing-along, and whatever madness we can coerce out of the audience," writes Aaron Gonzalez.

The sing-along, no doubt, will pair with the group's "Pharmacopocalypse" track, in which the brothers playfully sing in about a "massive celebration at the end of the world" in a schoolyard tone.

Anyway, it should be a good time. If you've ever dreamed about showing up on a local grindcore act's recorded output, but you just don't have the musical chops to pull it off, well, your prayers have finally been answered, bub. --Pete Freedman

Bonus mp3: Akkolyte -- "A Generation of Fuckfaces"

Spoke with Rhett Miller earlier this week for a story about the Old 97's new disc, Blame It On Gravity, which you'll see in next week's paper.

In the meantime, head on over to the band's Myspace page, where someone went ahead and added on two more tracks for you all to listen to. The additions are actually the two most Murry Hammond-influenced on the disc: On "My Two Feet," Rhett borrows the chorus from an unreleased Murry write; and "Color of a Lonely Heart is Blue" isn't just sung by Murry--it just might be the best song on the disc. Check it out. --Pete Freedman

I haven't watched a single second of American Idol this season, the show's seventh, and clearly I'm not alone; the ratings just keep dropping for the reality singing competition that made Burleson's Kelly Clarkson a star.

But area TV viewers did have a reason to watch the Fox reality show thanks to dreadlocked Rockwall native Jason Castro and his, uh, "high on life" sleep-walk to the top four.

Not at all surprisingly, though, that run came to its end last night, as America collectively decided that, if you make this far into the competition, you should probably should know your song selections well enough to not mumble through the fourth line--especially if it's a song as seminal as Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man."

But at least he seemed to know his departure was coming, even going so far as to admit--before he was officially eliminated, no less--that he took Simon Cowell's advice and did indeed already pack his bags so he could head home quickly.

The lesson learned? That, even on reality TV, the supposedly endearing charm of an aloof and apathetic stoner type does grow stale with time. Way to go, Jason!

Full sayonara clip after the jump. --Pete Freedman

Or so it would seem, considering the band just announced that its last ever show will take place at an as-yet-undetermined New York City venue. So, those of you Police fans passing up on the chance to see the band for the second time in a year, might want to reconsider. And you might want to enter in this contest we told you about earlier in the week. --Pete Freedman