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As Pete points out over on DC9, some of us 'round these parts got a classified-ad missive yesterday from one John Freeman -- you know, the Dutch Treat behind the shuttered Sloppyworld. Well, Uncle Sloppy is headed to NYC to work on a rock opera with one Corn Mo, but before he heads out thataway, he's got a rather unwieldy piece of equipment to unload: "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. ... It is a top-notch PA; possibly one of the loudest in town."

Interested parties can reach him here. And, yes, there's a good reason we mention it: "I know you guys aren't The Thrifty Nickel," notes the sweet-talking Johnny Dooms, and, frankly, I wouldn't be so sure. "But I figured I'd rather sell to people in the scene than strangers on stupid Craigslist." That, Friends, that right there is a tear-stained letter. --Robert Wilonsky

Ladies and gents, Mr. Bobby Patterson as performed by Golden Smog on April 18, 1996, at a place called Cat's Cradle in Idunnowhere, Someplace. It's courtesy Captain's Dead, which, far as I'm concerned for the next four minutes and 34 seconds, is the greatest MP3 blog in the history of compressed music. And the rest of the show, with its Neil Young and David Bowie and Charlie Rich and Blondie and Rolling Stone and Nick Lowe covers mixed amongst essential originals, ain't bad neither. --Robert Wilonsky

This is a very special treat, exclusively for the Friends of Unfair Park: A few days ago, Shibboleth's Don Cento shot me a few demos Shibboleth and some Very Special Guests recorded with Bobby Patterson -- who, far as I'm concerned, ranks at the very top of the list of this city's most valuable musical assets. I met Patterson -- whose songs had been covered by the likes of Albert King ("That's What the Blues is All About" for Stax), the Fabulous Thunderbirds ("How Do You Spell Love?") and Golden Smog ("She Don't Have to See You (To See Through You)") -- in the mid-1990s, when he was between semi-retirement and a comeback. And I've been a huge fan ever since.

But Cento's done more than write a few nice words about Patterson. In February, he took Bobby to producer Stuart Sikes' studio and laid down four songs, which Cento hopes will lead to a full-length with Patterson -- assuming they can find someone to finance such an endeavor, which won't be cheap. As Cento tells Unfair Park: "I'd love to go to Memphis and record there with Stuart and the Memphis Horns and the band and do something informed by that Memphis sound, without slavishly recreating it."

Over on DC9, Pete's featuring four of Erykah Badu's tour posters, created by EMEK, which are making the rounds courtesy Soulbounce. This one's a personal favorite -- suitable for framing, even at this size. But I'd still like one in extra-effin'-huge. For more of EMEK's work -- and he is "The Thinking Man's Poster Artist" -- check out his astounding site, where posters are indeed for sale; his work for Erykah has its own special place as well. Warning: You'll need about 30 minutes, at least, so schedule accordingly. --Robert Wilonsky

I cannot comment on the quality of Cappulido Coffee, the Denton-based seller of beans that "believes that a fair wage, a quality bean, and a choice roasting technique make for the finest cup of coffee." I can, however, tell you that, far as I know, it's the only cup of joe currently available on the mail-order market from the guitarist in Midlake -- ya know, Eric Pulido -- which has to count for something, especially if you like your coffee flavored Indie-Rock. It's a subscription service, with a bag of beans dropping on your doorstep 'round the end of every month. --Robert Wilonsky

A couple of musical notes, beginning with something posted over on DC9 at Night -- two surreptitiously shot videos from someone going by the moniker TOADIESsuperfan. Seems the feller had himself a run-in with the Toadies, who, sez Kirtland Records' Tami Thomsen in the comments, are rehearsing for some June dates forthcoming any second now, really, on the band's MySpace page. Of course, what's gotten folks so excited about the two clips is that they seem to suggest the band's working on some new material.

Over at the FrontBurner, you'll find recounted a funny story involving Rubber Gloves' owner Josh Baish. But speaking of the olds, after the jump is a rather nifty blast from the past just posted to the YouTube: a clip of golden-oldie Dallas band Southwest F.O.B. performing its hit cover of West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band's "Smell of Incense" on Houston TV, circa 1968. And, yes, that is the local band in which England Dan and John Ford Coley got their start. --Robert Wilonsky

In The Los Angeles Times today, there appears a brief paid obituary without any further explanation; all it says is the name of the deceased, William David Bindler, along with Mount Sinai Memorial Parks and Mortuaries. But there are plenty of folks living in Dallas who could fill in the copious blanks: After all, David was one of the first people any of us at Thomas Jefferson High School in the mid-1980s knew who was in a real band. Back then he was the drummer in Da Nu Man, which would perform at the Theatre Gallery and 500 Cafe and Kool Vibes, and which, in October 1986, released the single "Sidestreets" on Russell Hobbs and Jeff Liles' Deep Ellum Records. Later came Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! with no less than Nervebreaker Barry Kooda.

David died over the weekend of a bleeding ulcer, according to a mutual friend from T.J.; she says "it got the best of him," simple as that. He was 41 and married, and he leaves behind a 17-year-old son. For his part, yesterday Barry Kooda posted a video, available after the jump, Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! made at the State Fair of Texas many, many years ago. Also, some of David's former classmates from T.J., many of whom also grew up and moved away only to settle back in the old neighborhood, will gather on Friday at 7:30 p.m. at Club Schmitz. Of course, all who knew David are welcome. --Robert Wilonsky

On Friday, we provided you a link to some long-lost live Bedhead, circa 1998. Well, the same MP3 blog today offers something perhaps a little more special: 11 songs Matt and Bubba Kadane performed in Germany in November 2004. (The site says '01, but Bubba tells Unfair Park, nope, it was '04.) The quality of the 11 tracks is OK, a little too heavy with the bass, but what makes the set list truly special is the inclusion of both New Year tracks and Bedhead songs, among them "Bedside Table" and "Crushing" off 1994's full-length debut What Fun Life Was. Because, see, The New Year don't play them old songs. Not often, if ever.

From the nostalgia section comes this excerpt from and review of Hermes Nye's long-lost 1958 novel Fortune is a Woman, posted today to The Neglected Books Page. Nye's among those once-upon-a-time famous Dallas folks whose name has slipped into history's margins: The Chicago native spent most of his life in Dallas, where the lawyer accrued his fame as both writer and folkie -- releasing, as a matter of fact, five albums on the immortal Folkways label (with such titles as Ballads of the Civil War and Texas Folk Songs) while appearing on other compilations. A few words about his place in Dallas' folk-music past can be found in James Ward Lee's Adventures With a Texas Humanist.

Nye penned two books about Dallas: the novel Fortune is a Woman ("the explosive story of a struggling young lawyer and the girl who got in his way") and, in 1972, the autobiographical Sweet Beast, I Have Gone Prowling: A Novel of Dallas, which you'll still find on the Half-Price Books shelves on occasion. You'll find a little about the latter here (including Nye's feelings for his adopted home town: "I love it now as one loves a beautiful, dangerous and wayward woman, as much for her faults as for her virtues"). Though I'd love to find a copy of his 1965 book How to be a folksinger;: How to sing and present folksongs; or, The folksinger's guide; or, Eggs I have laid, which is among the best titles in the history of words. --Robert Wilonsky

For the benefit of the olds in the listening audience, here's a 10-year-old track I found whilst taking my cane down Amnesia Lane: Bedhead, performing Transaction de Novo's "More Than Ever" at Bennington College on April 20th, 1998. It'll do whilst Matt and Bubba Kadane and the rest of The New Year finish the band's forthcoming disc, due out sometime this annum. Still, though, I dare you to name 10 better and more influential bands to come from the DFW in the history of the guitar string. But it's hard to tell what makes this post essential: the pristine recording of so vital a song -- expansive, intimate, hypnotic, fragile, the familiar languorous Bedhead whisper that swells into a beautiful roar -- or the accompanying picture, in which Tench Coxe looks all of 8. --Robert Wilonsky

Almost a year after its debut at the Cannes Film Festival, Wong Kar Wai's first English-language film, the not-well-received My Blueberry Nights, has a Dallas release date: April 18 at the Angelika Film Center. (Though clips from the film, including the famous final scene and this one featuring Chan Marshall, have been showing up online for months.)

Its local connection, of course, is some former Popolos pianist and Arts Magnet grad by the name of Norah Jones -- who, turns out, will be on The Late Show with David Letterman on April 2 to perform her sole song on the soundtrack, "The Story," which gets its release April 1. Only, if you're dying to hear the song now, well, it's streaming at this very moment on the official site for the soundtrack, which also features the likes of Cat Power, Ry Cooder, Mavis Staples and Amos Lee. The trailer's after the jump. --Robert Wilonsky

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Early this morning over on DC9, Rich Lopez posted word that John Freeman has closed down the newish yet already beloved Sloppyworld -- only because, well, five Dallas police officers and an assistant city attorney made him.

See, Freeman -- the genius behind Dooms U.K., Dutch Treats and about 539 other bands over the years -- does not yet have a Certificate of Occupancy for the Expo Park venue at 3601 Parry Avenue (the old Millennium spot). Unfair Park spoke a short time ago with Raul Martinez, assistant director for building inspection, and he said Freeman applied for a C.O. on January 24, but that it's under review -- and opening a venue during the review process isn't allowed, not at all. "They should not have opened," Martinez says.

If you go over to DC9, you just might find where to download -- till it goes adios, anyway -- a song from the Old 97's' forthcoming Blame It On Gravity, produced right here by the great Salim Nourallah. Titled "Dance With Me," it's a pretty terrific song well worth grabbing a couple of months in advance of the album's release -- nice, 'zat an organ I hear amidst those big guitars? Also, while you're over on our music blog, may I recommend the Q&A with Murry Hammond in advance of his solo record's release? I may? Swell. --Robert Wilonsky

A Friend of Unfair Park with a punk-rock past points our attention this morning to this "awesomely bad version" of Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody," performed by Irving "Punk / Reggae / Hardcore" band The Cygnus Psyanide. Me, I don't think there's a damned thing wrong with it -- I mean, what do you expect from a band that describes itself as sounding like "a compound of poisonous stars located in the milky surrounding a black hole"? Nailed it, you ask me. --Robert Wilonsky

No doubt DC9 will include among its weekend picks Will Johnson's solo show tonight at Dan's Sliverleaf in Denton; he's sharing a bill with Sarah Jaffe, for which you should need no further recommendation. But we point your attention to our old friend for another reason (or two): At this very moment, Johnson is auctioning off a collection of 10 beer-can paintings he made all by his lonesome -- and "all are signed and dated by Will in finest, high grade, black Sharpie," notes the eBay site where they're currently resting at the $455 mark after nine bids thus far.

There are still nine days left to bid, and the money's going toward a worthy cause: covering the cost of burying The Silos bassist, guitarist and singer Drew Glackin, who died January 5 without health insurance. And in other Centro-matic news, courtesy Captain's Dead we discover that for the forthcoming twofer Dual Hawks the band is looking for fans to write a why-come in exchange for grand prizes. Instructions and explanation at Captain's Dead, where you'll also find a six-song Centro-matic and Will J. sampler for those still in need of an intro, God forbid. --Robert Wilonsky