"keep it together!"

reviewing the book keep it together!: cosmic boogie with the deviants and the pink fairies by funtopia scribe rich deakin for the i94bar.com. relevant clips follow.

fort worth burrito project benefit, 4.5.2008

five bucks donation to help feed the hungry/homeless of fort worth gets you into three venues (the bronx zoo, fred's cafe, and 1919 hemphill to see these acts:

bronx zoo
scott copeland 12:45-1:45
darrin kobetich 11:45-12:40
clint niosi 11:00-11:40
jacob ide 10:25-10:55
david gayler 9:50-10:20
kristina morland 9:15-9:45
shanti michelle 8:40-9:10

1919 hemphill
one fingered fist 10:30-11:00
excretion 9:45-10:15
jane loves dick 9:00-9:30
the shortest distance 8:15-9:15

freds,texas
panther city bandits 9:00-10:00
jordan mccoskie 7:45-8:45
fish fry bingo 6:45-7:30
stoogeaphelia 5:45-6:30
rivercrest yacht club 4:45-5:30
hands for bad habits 4:00-4:30
a child like fear 3:15-3:45
tanner4105 between sets

backsliders review @ i94bar.com

a review i penned of the backsliders' self-titled cd for the i-94 bar is here.

r.i.p. buddy miles

former fort worth resident buddy miles left the planet yesterday, aged 60, in austin. as a teenager, miles drummed on the jaynetts' "sally go 'round the roses" and backed classic soulman wilson pickett before forming the electric flag with gtrist mike bloomfield and playing the monterey pop festival in 1967.





jimi hendrix produced miles' post-flag band the buddy miles express (which included ex-mitch ryder gtrist jim mccarty), and miles later drummed in hendrix's band of gypsys when they recorded at the fillmore east, new year's eve '69.



miles served jail time on drug charges in the '80s and provided the voice for the "california raisins" tv commercials. he was a fixture in fort worth blues clubs from the late '90s, performing on drums and guitar, and worked with gtrists james hinkle and rocky athas. i wrote about him once for the fw weekly, and had the bizarre experience of standing behind him in line at pep boys' on highway 80.

miles' signature tune "them changes" (here performed with carlos santana) is still a staple of bar bands everywhere. go easy, dude.



ADDENDUM: big mike posted this vid of buddy w/buddy guy in england, 1969. best one i've seen yet. sir marlin von bungy also recalls that buddy once had some kind words for the me-thinks after a gig they played at the wreck room. who'd a thunk it?

midnight the magnificent

ever since i discovered that there's a webcam in our new 'puter, i've been trying to take pics of our cats. here are some early attempts with midnight, our elder statesman/nurse cat.

middie's going to be 11 this year. i got him when i had the house in benbrook, ostensibly so my youngest dtr would have a pet when she came over to visit. unfortunately, she didn't come over very often, so midnight bonded with me pretty much to the exclusion of all other humans. we got him from one of kelli's schoolmates, and supposedly his mother and all his siblings died not long afterward from some strange illness. my middle dtr always thought he was so hostile to outsiders because he was haunted by his family's spirits. i thought it was because one of her friends put him in a shoebox once and wouldn't let him out.

the first day i had him, he leaped into the toilet bowl, but he had shaken himself dry by the time he caught up with him. he was so sleek and handsome we used to call him "ailurophile magazine coverboy midnight." he used to bully sir shadow, our older black cat, chasing him around and cornering him. he got a little nicer after we gave him an "over the hill" party for his second birthday, but his behavior really changed after i left him in my sweetie's care while i went on the road with nathan brown when midnight was six. when i came back, he behaved like a different animal. when i asked her what she'd done, she said, "i just stopped rewarding him for bad behavior." with pablo, middie seemed to be the dominant one, but he seems to defer a little bit to auggie, our mini-"leader of the pack" (whom you can see in the background of the first shot).

vivian stanshall ADDENDUM

here's some of what happened after i lost the thread:

in 1974, viv released a solo album, men opening umbrellas ahead, filled with songs that fairly dripped with self-loathing over his years of rockstar excesses and a couple about, um, his penis. for some reason, warner bros. decided not to release it in the u.s., and only pressed 5000 for the u.k. in spite of the presence on it of big rock musos from the band traffic. there's a petition to have rhino reish it, but perhaps realizing how well those things work, some enterprising soul has the whole alb streaming online in mp3 form.

p'rhaps the apex of viv's manic comedic genius was sir henry at rawlinson end, which started as a series of sketches viv produced for john peel's bbc radio show about the adventures of a family of eccentric aristocrats that went through incarnations as an album, a book, and a sepia-tone film starring trevor howard (who said it was his favorite film performance) as sir henry.

ph7/mcpullish @ embargo this wednesday

my friend joe vano writes to say that pablo & the hemphill 7 be's at embargo downtown this wednesday night with austin dub crew mcpullish. admission is _free_.

further: pablo be's at central market on april 10th. yeah!

paul unger trio @ scat jazz lounge this wednesday

this from fw symphony/flipside bassist extraordinaire paul unger:

Date: Thursday, February 28th Time: 9 PM (sharp!)
Location: Scat Jazz Lounge (111 E. 4th St., in Sundance Square, downtown Fort Worth)

Thursday, February 28th, the concert hall will invade the Scat Jazz Lounge in downtown Fort Worth. The Paul Unger Trio will be bring the worlds of classical music, popular music and jazz music together for an evening of unique music making.

Paul Unger is currently the Assistant Principal Bass of the Fort Worth Symphony and joining him will be Steve Harlos - staff keyboardist for the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and Coordinator of Piano at the University of North Texas - and Mark Miller - violinist, President of the Mount Vernon Music Association and former assistant
concertmaster of the Robert Schumann Chamber Orchestgra in Dusseldorf, Germany and former member of the Orchester der Beethovenhalle in Bonn.

They will perform Paul Schoenfield's "Cafe Music", "Addendum" by Chick Corea, six tango compositions by Astor Piazzolla and a few standards from Gershwin, Porter and Kern. After the first set the trio will be joined by drummer extraordinaire - Dennis Durick.

destroy all monsters

been listening to swamp gas, a 2001 release by detroit art-noise weirdos destroy all monsters. in the late '70s, the band employed ron asheton (ex-stooges) and mike davis (ex-mc5) and achieved some notoriety in the u.k. for playing fairly conventional post-punk rock'n'roll, but in their earlier and later incarnations, they were into something much, much more outre. dig this blastitude 'zine that founder carey loren (who runs detroit area bookseller the book beat) guest-edited, which includes a discography/bibliography and scrapbook. swamp gas features stuff like a spiritualist channeling madame blavatsky, a lengthy rant by mike kelley about 1966 ufo sigtings in michigan, and cut-up snippets from a lengthy sun ra monologue, among other wonders. fascinating stuff.

xavier nuez

my sweetie knows i dig fire escapes, so she pulled my coat to these photos of alleys and fire escapes by the cali-based "guerrilla photog" xavier nuez.

soft focus

calvin also sent this link, to arthur magazine scribe ian svenonius' vice tv music show soft focus. and another to a show about true norwegian black metal.

pieter hugo

pussyhouse propaganda / asian media crew art dude calvin abucejo sent a link to the powerful images of south african photog pieter hugo.

r.i.p. teo macero

teo macero, who produced classic miles davis albums like kind of blue, sketches of spain, in a silent way, and bitches brew, left the planet february 19th.

mini-political rant

wanna decrease your ecological footprint? forget about those canvas grocery bags -- ditch that big-screen tv! was reading a squib from the 12.17.2007 u.s. news & world report, wherein i learned that the electric power research institute found lcd tv's use 75 percent more power, and plasma tv's _three times more_, than yr old crt set. and that according to displaysearch, anticipated north american sales of 23 million set sets and 3.9 million plasma could increase electricity demand by 5 million megawatt hours. that's as much juice as is produced by all the power plants in rhode island.

also, if you're thinking of voting for nader, please don't. after the election in oh-oh, when i still worked downtown, i had a sign on my door that said "don't blame me, i voted for nader." when the dust settled and dubya was on his way to the white house, i crossed out the "don't." i read in yesterday's star-t about local reps who voted in the dem's primary to try and swing the vote to hillary because "she'd be easier to beat" than barack. the past few elections, the dems have been the party that could fuck up a wet dream, even when they held a clear majority. all they need is a past-his-sell-by-date egomaniac sticking his oar in to swing the vote to the reps.

katboy update

busy bassist matt hembree, whom i admire because he loves to play more than any other muso i know, reports that sunday's reggae workshop/instructional video shoot/concert at arts fifth avenue was a rousing success, and that jamaican drummer dyrol randall is "all that is fun about reggae wrapped up in one 5'5" man." the event was documented on audio and video by sub oslo's john nuckels and quincy holloway, the latter of whom grew up just a hoot 'n' a holler away from matt in tennessee.

matt also warns guitar hero players to brush up on their chops for the goodwin cd release show at the ridglea theater this friday, where the game will be playing (on the big screen, no less) during goodwin's performance. there might even be a prize for the person with the evening's high score. i'll be there myself, once again donning the squirrel-sized jumpsuit of the asian media crew to shoot pixxx of the mighty me-thinks with rat and calvin. and the backsliders will be there, too. so should you be.

vivian stanshall

listening again to the bonzo dog band's recordings, i'm reminded of how much my humor (including stupid things i say all the time to this very day) was influenced by them back when i was 13-14 (around the same time i discovered the stooges). just found this documentary on their resident genius-lunatic vivian stanshall, which the bbc broadcast on the occasion of his death in a fire in 1995. like lots of creative 'n' funny people, viv was a deeply troubled and unhappy man, with lotsa unresolved issues with his father. fascinating.

ray bradbury

here's pulitzer prize winning sci-fi scribe ray bradbury talking about writing and life. the video quality kind of suxxx but his words are pure gold. makes me wish i'd snaked my old copies of the martian chronicles and dandelion wine when i was at my mom's house.

faleyuh

can this be a preview of ppt's new denglish cd? and where's picnic, anyway?

half of woodeye tours canada w/hayes carll

it's true. multi-instrumental whiz scott davis and drummer-raconteur-bon vivant kenny smith are touring canada with hayes carll, a houston-based singer-songwriter with a new album trouble in mind due out april 8th on lost highway. kenny also sez that since moving to austin, scott can't seem to sit in with anybody without getting another gig. no surprise there -- we always knew he had it in him.

lord buckley

reviewing a spoken-word-and-blues cd by ur-hipster blues poet wes race, i'm reminded of a noble precursor, that "most immaculately hip aristocrat," lord buckley.

tahiti, rachella parks

i wasn't there, but i heard that rapper-filmmaker tahiti (whose group ppt has a new cd, denglish, out income tax day on idol/koch) and ex-decoding society saxophonist rachella parks to' it up yesterday at the black history month program for the jo kelly school, where my sweetie works as a speech-language pathologist. not only did they perform their own solo bits, plus a spontaneous, improvised-on-the-spot collaborative piece that involved audience members, but they hung around afterward to visit and sing with a jo kelly alumnus who'd arrived too late to catch the show. jo kelly's an "intensive services" campus for medically fragile, multi-disabled kids aged 3 through 22, and not evabody's comfortable around their students (altho musos including spoonfed tribe, brian sharp, tim locke, and caroline collier have spent time there), but my sweetie sez that both tahiti and rachella were able to connect with 'em immediately and had students 'n' staff alike rockin'. wish i'd a been there.

where everybody knows your name ADDENDUM

i'll admit that i never knew that cap'n willie, bassplayer for one fingered fist, was the son of shamrock publican matt mcentire -- until he wrote in reference to the bar piece on iloveftw.com:

The cat's pretty much already out of the bag, though for safety's sake if you want to mention it in the press (net, print or otherwise), myself and two other guys (Chris Ledbetter, fellow Shamrock bartender and Glen Keely from Pour House, Reata and other establishments) are taking the Sham over in March/April. We have to rename it and all that jazz... it will be known from then on as Poag Mahone's Pub (poag mahone, pogue mahone, pog mo thon and many other spellings/misspellings meaning "kiss my ass" in Gaelic). Hoping to add more of a mixed clientele to cut the monotony of the TCU frat boy grind, improve the juke, eventually expand the "bidness area" of the bar itself and whatnot when time and money become available.

we're definitely gonna check it out.

where everybody knows your name

just penned an overview and rumination on local bars for iloveftw.com.

big mike's going to see dylan

too bad bob prolly won't play either of these songs, which are my faves of his, first heard on a mixtape uncle johnny bargas made me a decade or more ago when i asked him, "so, john...dylan?!?!?"

i saw bob once, on his "guess which song i'm playing now?" tour, around '79 at the tarrant county convention center. he was the size of the tip of my little finger.

new arthur mag

hooray! arthur 28 is coming. if you're paper-aversive or can't wait for justin to drop it off at lola's, the chat room, and spiral diner, you can download it in pdf format from the link.

carl stone electronic music concerts downtown, march 7-8

this from herb levy of other arts:

You may have heard music by Carl Stone before; Carol & I like his work a lot and we've played it for many people over the years. Whether or not you've heard his music before, I think you'll find these concerts to be pretty wonderful.

Carl takes music by other composers & performers (sometimes, but by no means always, something you may recognize) and digitally manipulates it so that you're hearing something entirely different. His music is great and not like much else you've heard (even if you recognize one of his sources). There are more details on the attached flyer. I hope that you'll come hear one of his concerts.

In case you can't read or open the attachment, Carl Stone is playing two nights in the Cliburn Recital Hall of the Maddox Muse Center at 330 4th Street in downtown Fort Worth. On Friday March 7, 2008 at 8PM, he'll be playing recent shorter pieces, including music from his recent CD "Al-Noor". On Saturday March 8, 2008 at 8PM, he'll be playing "Guelaguetza" an hour-long intermedia work with manipulated digital sound and images. Tickets for each concert are $25, $15 students & seniors; combined ticket packages for both nights are $40 & $25. Tickets are available from Bass Ticketing, 817 212-4280.

Also, if you know anyone in Austin who may be interested in Carl's music, please let them know that he'll be performing there twice in March. On March 5th at Ballet Austin at the Firehouse (3002 Guadalupe) 8PM (I think this concert is Guelaguetza) & on March 10th at Scholz Beer Garden (1607 San Jacinto) for an event sponsored by the Electronic Freedom Foundation as part of SxSW Interactive.

Boris' "Smile"

Since releasing their last album, Pink, in 2006, the Japanese doom metal trio Boris has been far from idle. In fact, 2007 saw them release collaborative projects with fellow doom titans sunn o))), Japanoise godfather Merzbow, and psych guitar eminence Michio Kurihara. Their new album, Smile, will be released April Fool's Day on Southern Lord, preceded by a 7" which is available now. Their discography, while still dwarfed by that of their countrymen Acid Mothers Temple, who must release a new record every week, is both vast and varied, encompassing epic extremes of stoner sludge, punk thrash, and psych spaciousness. But if you think you've heard all the tricks in their trick bag, one listen to Smile -- a feast of shifting dynamics and tonal colors, produced by You Ishihara, also a muso of note (White Heaven, The Stars) -- will make you think again.

In its first 30 seconds, the opening track (and single A-side) "Statement" gives you motorik electronic percussion, burbling bass, a damped guitar string syncopating like an African drum, and "woo-hoo" falsetto vocals. WTF, you might think, a Boris dance record? Then the rhythm guitar introduces some dissonance before a whooshing (backwards?) guitar solo swoops in, along with almost poppy lead vocals. Some sizzling electronics pan rapidly back and forth to create a head-spinning soundscape, followed by some acidic fuzz guitar. Some static, a crying baby, some kid babble, then a blast of guitar signals the start of "Buzz-In," and we're back in Heavy Rocks territory, the song's punk forward motion broken up by blast beats from Atsuo and a full-throated, shrieking Takeshi vocal. Wata unleashes a noise apocalypse to kick off "Shoot!", her buzzsaw oversaturated guitar riding atop what sound like electronically distorted taiko drums. The song reaches a full-on, pummeling climax -- like a steroid-and-human-growth-hormone-enhanced version of the Yardbirds' chicken-scratch "I'm a Man" finale -- before the song closes with a gentle acoustic guitar and quavering vocal.

"Flower Sun Rain," a cover of a song by '70s Japrock supergroup Pyg (an amalgam of veterans from top '60s Group Sounds outfits the Tigers, the Tempters, and the Spiders), starts off with the familiar rumble of Takeshi's bass before the form of the song emerges, a loping ballad with an arcing solo in the style of Love It To Death/Killer-era Glen Buxton that you can actually slow dance to. "Next Saturn" pits cool (keyboard) against white-hot (guitar) accompaniment over jackhammer electronic percussion, giving way to the densest forest of lysergic guitar tones imaginable. "Dead Destination" opens with an orgy of overheated Frippertronic guitar surfing on a wave of fuzzball thrashing as though it's going to be a reprise of Pink's extended outro "Just Abandoned My-Self" before achieving a level of sonic meltdown worthy of Acid Mothers Temple at their most abandoned.

"Your Path Is the Umbrella" starts out with a gentle lament over a clock-like, mechanical rhythm before Takeshi's brutal bass kicks in midway through to start off a droning finale with a beautifully melodic fuzz 'n' feedback ride (thinking how wrong the Back From the Grave garage comp guy was to complain about the Yardbirds' "guitars that sounded like violins" or some such piffle), flowing seamlessly into the 19-minute-plus bonus track, which seesaws back and forth between Flood-like spacey ambience and squawking, skronking chaos and thence into one of Boris' trademark stately doom processionals, slowly deconstructing itself into waves of pealing feedback, like giant behemoths caught in an electric tar pit.

Boris retains the ability to surprise us with new variations on a now-familiar approach. While Smile might lack the grand sweep of Flood and Feedbacker, it's a worthy successor to Pink and Akuma No Uta and a mind-melting piece of work on its own terms.

chef keith in the star-t

today's star-t gives some love (and ink) to ovation chef keith hicks and his "happy food." m-m-m, m-m-m!

cute kittens in a music video

i got nothin'...

darth vato has a new gtr player

from darth vato bassist-resident cali punk steve steward:

We’re a four-piece now, and we stuck with family -- we are proud to announce that Joshua Loewen is slinging axes in DV. We pretty much decided to be a three-piece forever, but we did so many cool overdubs [on the new CD] that playing them live left a lot to be desired. Josh was the only one we wanted to play with us, and luckily he was stoked to jump in. I’ve wanted this to happen since he got canned from Voigt, and it’s really changing the dynamic in a really cool way -- Eric is loosening up a lot, and Kerry’s turning his performances waaaaay up.

new cd out in may.

dallas music and the theatre gallery

speaking of scenes / rooms from yrs gone by, katboy found some myspace pages for "a history of dallas music" here, and for the theatre gallery (storied '80s dallas venue) here and here.

"ugly things" and the trajectory of my life

reading the new ugly things, feeling strangely alienated from all the rekkid collector froth therein (altho awed as always by the level o' scholarship, which in my own "career" i've only approached twice), i'm nonetheless quite taken by the lengthy rant "no more jubilees: punk before punk" by johan kugelberg, who spent punk's formative yrs in sweden, of all places, and here picks up the rock-rant torch lit by meltzer's aesthetics of rock and carried by st. lester and the didactic carducci to try and connect the dots between (among other things) brit pub rockers kilburn & the high roads (ian dury's 'riginal outfit) and dr. feelgood (as big of an influence as the ny dolls, johan opines); parisian marc zermati's seminal skydog label; '70s scandis the hurriganes (including an explanation of raggare -- scandinavian greasers -- which gave me a new understanding of why turbonegro would have a song called "raggare is a bunch of motherfuckers"); the intarweb as a source of metaphorical "constipation, indigestion, and flatulence" for ocd rekkid-collector scum; '70s danes the kalemaris (who looked kinda like a proto-turbonegro); the dictators; '70s cleveland bands; the flamin' groovies; lobby lloyde's coloured balls; the dickens, a side project of members/roadies from nrbq (which august outfit is still touring the rawk dumps 30+ yrs after their inception, i was surprised to discover when i saw their name on a flyer at a spot i played with nathan brown in charleston, 2003); '60s garage punk comps and too much more.

all of which caused me to contemplate the realization (which first hit while viewing the excellent joe strummer biopic the future is unwritten) that punk really was an extension of hipi after disillusionment set in (as my sweetie likes to point out, there's no one more truly cynical than a disappointed idealist). also, the trajectory of my own life and how i've been kinda like the guy with one shoe nailed to the floor, plowing the same furrow over 'n' over again, from teen brat getting goofed on by the older guys at the hipi rekkid store for digging stooges/mc5/velvets/nuggets while writing earnest letters to greg shaw asking what kind of drugs he took to fuel his writing (note to self: must read suzy shaw 'n' farren's new tome bomp!: saving the world one record at a time this year); to hermetic obsessive, writing 10,000-word screeds on obscuro detroit bands as therapy from my soul-destroying corporate gig around the turn of the century; to the healthier (more cathartic) outlet of playing in the stoogeband. and how rocket redux is prolly my fave release in the genre since funhouse. and how i'd just as soon listen to "state of girl" by bindle as any/all of the above (except funhouse, of course). whew!

sun kil moon

sun kil moon is another band i discovered via frank cervantez's mix cd. the band's name comes from a korean boxer, as does "duk koo kim," the song i dug the most on frank's cd. that song's namesake was killed in the ring in november 1982, while i was stationed in korea, in a bout with the american boxer ray mancini. i remember them telling us when it happened not to bring up the topic if we were traveling off-base.

the band sun kil moon is the current project of guitarist-singer-songwriter mark kozelek, whose previous band the red house painters was much beloved by goodwin's evil dictator daniel gomez. their music has a somber, morose neil young-like quality that i find quite appealing. their 2003 rec ghosts of the great highway was highly acclaimed. they gots a new one called april that's due on april fool's day on kozelek's caldo verde label.

papa m

before frank cervantez gave me the mix cd that got me through my recent jersey jaunt, i'd never heard of papa m, the nom de roque of david pajo, a cat from louisville (funny, i'd a thought denton) who played in slint and billy corgan's zwan, two bands i know not from adam. lately i can't stop listening to his hole of burning alms comp, even tho my fave toon (a cover of the byrds' turn turn turn, excerpted in the clip below) skips on our "good" cd player and so is only playable in our 'puter. this music seems to chill me out in the same way the biofeedback disc we got from dre's mom does for one of the kids at my sweetie's school -- a useful thing.

the bonzos

spent an enjoyable coupla hrs before work yesterday listening to a double-vinyl comp of the bonzo dog (doo-dah) band, a gang of brit university wankers who coalesced in 1966, doing twisted comedy music on a bbc kids' program called do not adjust your set with the future monty pythons, and had a 1968 hit in the uk with the pseudonymously-mccartney-produced "urban spaceman" (the bonzos having appeared in the beatles' ill-fated magical mystery tour tv show the previous year). bona fide nutball frontman vivian stanshall (r.i.p.) and drummer-tapdancer "legs" larry smith were pals with keith moon. guitarist-songwriter neil innes wound up working with the pythons, while roger ruskin spear (various horns and bits of stage business) released a worthwhile-if-you-like-this-sort-of-thing solo alb called electric shocks and designed the ridiculous stage props mott the hoople used when i saw 'em at the uris theater on broadway in '73. in the fullness of time, they became a credible live act (see the set from a german jazz festival in the clips below), and their last 'riginal alb keynsham was a decent-if-idiosyncratic slice of late '60s brit pop psych. like every other band on earth, they reformed and toured in 2006-2007. long live.

vernixx on the axis club

here's a groovy li'l snippet of foat wuth music history from the ex-toadies drummer.

boris live in a rekkid store

...with michio kurihara:

terry vernixx has a blog

yep, the dj/remixer/ex-gideons drummer, now relocated to albuquerque, has a blog, and it's here.

fort worth theater overview @ iloveftw.com

an overview i penned of live theater in the fort is online now at iloveftw.com.

great tyrant cd release @ the chat room, 3.8.2008

that's right, you heard right. the great tyrant's cd release party be's at the chat room on march 8th. the healers and cadillac fraf are also on the bill, and admission's free. will this be for the single-with-4-song-cd i just reviewed for iloveftw.com, or something _newer_? film, as they say, at 11.

the fort worth circle

today's star-t has a story about a show at the amon carter which covers the works of the fort worth circle, a '40s crew of cowtown artists whose work ran the gamut from representation to abstraction and contributed to the emergence of an arts-friendly climate here in the fort. an interesting slice o' history. show runs through may 11th.

carnival @ the rose marine theater

bulletin from the rose marine theater:

The Rose Marine Theater is hosting Brazilian Carnival on March 29 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $35. Read below for more details, and we hope you can make it to this important event!!!

Artes de la Rosa is hosting Carnival on March 29 at 7:30 p.m. at the Rose Marine Theater. This event will celebrate the rich traditions of Brazilian Carnival by presenting Samba Dallas Dance Company, the Samba musical group Wave, and decorations including Carnival masks crafted by children from our award-winning after-school drama program. The event also will include a silent auction, menu selections from Blue Mesa restaurant. Attendees also are encouraged to show their Carnival spirit and creativity by wearing their own mask and competing in the "Best Mask" contest. Individual tickets, which are $35, and corporate sponsorships are for purchase by calling 817-624-8333.

Carnival, which is co-chaired by Artes de la Rosa board members Tina Olson and Veronica Villegas, was created to help Artes de la Rosa meet a $25,000 fundraising challenge goal set by the Amon G. Carter Foundation. The deadline for the challenge, which is being matched 100 percent, is May 2008.

"This is an important event for our organization," said Cathy Hernandez, Executive Director. "It is part of an organizational strategy proposed to us by the Kennedy Center to increase our individual giving. The Kennedy Center has noted that nationally, many of culturally-specific organizations are not funded widely enough by individual donors. We - in partnership with the Amon Carter Foundation - are working to reverse this for our organization. This is a step toward accomplishing this goal, and the Carter Foundation's match is a huge incentive for people to come and support this event."

Patrons who are not able to attend the event but would still like to contribute to the Carter Foundation fundraising challenge are encouraged to send a donation to Artes de la Rosa at 1440 N. Main St., Fort Worth, TX 76164.

"Artes de la Rosa is dedicated to preserving, promoting, and interpreting the art, culture, lives, and history of the Latino community."

goodwinmania on the radio

this from dj janice:

Gentlemen and Ladies,

A quick radio programming note for this weekend: I will interview the local power pop favorite GOODWIN this Saturday at 1:00 pm on my show Sputnik, on KTCU 88.7 FM The Choice. Goodwin is supporting the release of their new CD, "2". If you haven't reviewed or heard this disc, tune in Saturday as we feature several tracks from it. I think it's likely to be one of the best CDs by a Fort Worth band this year, and certainly worthy of whatever local media exposure it can get.

Any blurbs you might be able to get in print about this would be much appreciated!

Thanks,

Janice McCall
Radio Sputnik
88.7 FM KTCU "The Choice"
Fort Worth, Texas
Radiosputnik.net

april is the kindest month

according to tiny mix tapes, there's a live clash dvd _and_ a new boris album coming in april. woo-hoo!

cute japanese kittens

i got nuthin'. their mama has a pretty deep voice, tho, for a mama.

listening

today i screwed up and thought i was opening the market when in reality i'm scheduled to work a mid-shift. so i used the time to pen a review for iloveftw.com of the new great tyrant 7-inch with 4-song cd that i got from teague after stoogeprac last night. thanks to jon, frank cervantez, and forced exposure, i've spent the rest of the morning reading doug sheppard's 1988 interview with the late mc5 frontman rob tyner in the new ugly things and listening to toonage by alice cooper (a '69 live set from the whisky-a-go-go in l.a., sounding very folk-rockish), speed glue & shinki (their first alb eve, a mess of drug-addled '70s blooze-rock), the juan de la cruz band's up in arms (the first alb by sg&s drummer-singer joey "pepe" smith's filipino band, preceding his membership but with added live bonus tracks where he does appear; the leon russell and frank zappa covers were kinda disconcerting, as was the song that's a ringer for macca's "maybe i'm amazed," but the live stuff's pert rad, even though i can't understand the tagalog lyrics), and miles davis' the complete on the corner sessions (which includes material that appeared on big fun and get up with it as well as the originally damned, now hailed eponymous album). was thinking the other day about how influential the '70s avant-garde (things like electric miles and krautrock) are on the hip muzak of the oh-oh's, like the music they play at the market that one customer complained to me sounds like "porn mixed with outer space" (which is actually a fusion i could get behind).

melodica festival lineup, dallas, february 22-23

$25 for all of these bands (quantity + quality), plus the Sunday show, venues all within 5 minutes walking distance

Sloppyworld

Friday: Light Bright Highway, Spectrum, Silver Apples, The Frenz, Stumptone, Strange Attractors

Saturday: Melodica Mystery Band, Sub Oslo, Mundo and MC Lifted, The Great Tyrant, Faux Fox, Skyisfalling

Art Club

Friday: Life Death Continuum, Halo Kinetic, Raised by Tigers, Loop 12, Silk Stocking, Subkomander

Saturday: Red Monroe, Faceless Werewolves, Transona 5, Mission Giant, Yells at Eels

New Amsterdamn

Friday: Record Hop, Happy Bullets, Jetscreamer, History at Our Disposal, Jack with One Eye

Saturday (We Shot J.R. Night): Finally Punk, Cry Blood, Apache, Medio Mutante, Yellow Fever, Treewave, Zanzibar Snails

Fallout Lounge

Friday: Florene Total Vengence, Sydney Confirm

Saturday: Laptop Deathmatch solo performances, "It’s What We Get," Farah

Minc (DJ Club)

Friday: (Indoors) Dev79, Keith P, Select, Sober, Nature, Royal Highnuss, Dragonman (Outdoors Patio) Scwha, Killtronix, Prince William, Ctrl Alt Del

Saturday (Indoors) [a]pendics shuffle, Robert Taylor, Mike Simonetti, Convextion, Ian Orth, Ineka Guerra (Outdoors) Willie Trimmer, Woody, Sean Vargas, Alex Ander, Red Eye, Wanz Dover

reggae concert/workshop at arts fifth avenue

this is interesting: on sunday, february 24th, there'll be a reggae workshop for intermediate-to-advanced bass players and drummers from 4-6pm, followed by a concert at 7pm. the events are $15 apiece, or $20 for both. the musos include jimi watusi on keys and voxxx, ras kumba on gtr and voxxx, dyrol randall on drums...and busy pablo & the hemphill 7 bassist matt hembree (so it's not a festival, duh). mondo drummers will also be participating, and there'll be jamaican food provided by exodus restaurant. it's a-happenin' at arts fifth avenue, 1628 fifth avenue. call 817-923-9500 for reservations to learn the science of the one-drop, and bring your axes/sticks.

nits and shits

the little stoogeband is rehearsing again tonight (thanks to the mighty me-thinks and the great tyrant for rearranging their respective prac skeds to facilitate this), but we gotta wait until hembree meets with this reggae producer to get the toons he's gonna play with an outta town artiste at a festival on the 24th. matt's ph7 / goodwin harness-mate damien stewart got the call and made the referral. matt's also busy doing promo for the goodwin cd release party (remember, kids, that's 2.29.2008 at the ridglea theater). a busy katboy indeed.

kavin allenson and bill pohl's sat'day throwdown at the blue grotto will also feature darrin kobetich and harmonica virtuoso kip. yeah!

and i've been invited to play on the new top secret rekkid. can't wait.

backsliders vid on youtube

here's vid of the backsliders rippin' it up at the double wide in dallas (presumably from their dvd). can't wait to see 'em at the ridglea theater with goodwin on the 29th. i like the way the drum intro to the last song echoes turbonegro's "dungaree high," which maybe the mighty me-thinks will play that night.

grass fire @ fonky fred's!

OK, that was a cheap shock tactic. Here's the real deal:

The Blackland River Devils (that'd be Darrin Kobetich, Mark Deffebach, Erich Schriefer, and Andrew Bond; basically the Electric Mountain Rotten Apple Gang sans Adam Kobetich) -- here joined by Justin and Justine from the Sweet Leaf Trio -- play Darrin's "Bent Tree River" at Fred's last weekend.

o lucky man!

just watched an old fave, lindsay anderson's o lucky man! from 1973. written by star malcolm mcdowell, hot off his role as alex in kubrick's a clockwork orange (which i saw a million times as a midnight movie back in them days), it's a sort of everyman's odyssey inspahrd by his experiences as a coffee salesman. a key element is the songs of alan price.



price arranged and played the organ solo on the animals' "house of the rising sun" but quit the group before they came to america because he was afraid to fly. his geordie brogue gives him a more-than-passing vocal resemblance to his former frontman eric burdon. on his own, he was an early advocate for the songs of randy newman (with a whack english horn section).



his own songs had as much english music hall in 'em as lennon & mccartney's did. i particularly liked thisun, from his between today and yesterday alb.

arts 'n' culcha blog @ kera.org

this from anne bothwell, former dallas morning news arts editor who's apparently landed at kera.org:

Want to let you know about a little experiment we’re trying on the Arts + Culture blog at kera.org. We’re turning over the keys to the blog to artists and arts professionals who have an issue to discuss or a project to share. Two interesting examples up now:

Charles Santos, executive director of TITAS, on the pros and cons of staging risky, edgy performances:

http://www.kera.org/blogs/culture/?p=450

Andrew Garrison, director of the documentary Third Ward TX, on the five principles inspiring Project Row House, a successful community-based artist residency program in Houston.

http://www.kera.org/blogs/culture/?p=452#more-452

Check it out. We’d like to know what you think.

Best,

Anne Bothwell
Arts web portal coordinator
KERA

paul unger trio @ scat jazz lounge this wednesday

from bassist extraordinaire paul unger:

This Wednesday, February 13th my jazz trio will be performing at the Scat Jazz Lounge (111 E. 4th St., downtown Fort Worth). Start time is
9 PM sharp. The first set will be with special guests Mark Miller on violin and Steve Harlos on piano. We will be performing Paul Schoenfield's "Cafe Music" and three works by Astor Piazzolla - "Contrabajisimo", "Oblivion" and "Otono Porteno". We will also perform a some jazz standards by Gershwin, Jobim and Mancini.

I'll see you there.

if allah is merciful and fortune smiles, the stoogeband will be rehearsing that night, but otherwise i'd be there.

jubilee weekend

this sat'day, i'm gonna join my sweetie 'n' her work peeps for dinner at fonky fred's, followed by romulus linney's a lesson before dying at jubilee theatre. anticipate an evening of good eats 'n' powerful drama.

yells at eels update

this from yells at eels:

All kinds of great news to share:

1) The boys and I are playing with SubKommander Big Band at Melodica 2008 on Fri., Feb. 22. I am playing accordeon and Stefan will play bass clarinet

2) We play the next night as Electric Yells At Eels at Art Club at 9 pm for Melodica 2008

3) We now have the definitive Flying Scarab Yells At Eels shirt for sale for $12 in M / L / XL

4) Yells at Eels goes on tour in Poland from March 7 - March 16 with Portuguese saxist Rodrigo Amado

5) While there, we pick up the newly released Dennis Gonzalez Jnaana Quartet CD (with Aaron, Stefan, Alvin Fielder, Chris Parker, Leena Conquest, and Robbie Mercado)...it's on Poland's Not Two Records company, so pre-order it now

6) We play Mountain View College on Wednesday night March 19 at 7 pm, free concert, just after getting back from Poland

7) Aaron and Stefan leave for Portugal im April for a Humanization Quartet tour, in support of their about-to-be-released Clean Feed CD

If you need anything, send us a MySpace message...All Great News for us and our loyal fans.

opera @ tcu, april 25-27

my market co-worker laura gastinel is singing a lead role in one of the operas at tcu on april 25-27. thankfully, it's not on the same weekend as my dtr's wedding, or the stoogegig for the fort worth burrito project.

Friday - Sunday, April 25-27
7:30PM Friday/Saturday, 2:30PM Sunday
Ed Landreth Auditorium
TCU Opera Presents
“Mozart vs. Salieri”
TCU Opera Studio
Rick Estes, director
TCU Symphony Orchestra
German Gutierrez and Danaila Hristova, conductors
$10 admission; $5 students and seniors

simon napier-bell on the music biz

here's nik cohn (from rock from the beginning) on former yardbirds manager simon napier-bell: "He was a great lineshooter, that's all. He was an amazing cosmic talker, a true mouth, and he'd sell you anything." here's napier-bell spouting off on the music biz. fascinating. and, wouldn't ya know, napier-bell writes more 'n a little bit like cohn; a good thing imo. and his website is filled with more of the same. hotcha!

ian johnson

calvin abucejo from pussyhouse propaganda / asian media crew pulled my coat to san fran-based artist ian johnson's paintings of jazz musos. dig him.

donald fagan on ike turner

a nice bit of music history (albeit one larded with wife-beater apologia) by way of an obit for the late r&b pioneer from the steely dan frontguy. thanks 'n' a tip o' the hat to big mike for the link.

sun ra on npr

here's a downloadable 54-minute npr feature on sun ra.

patti smith has a website

and it's here.

the man who brought me here

...is charles buxton, who runs a pet store in arlington now, but for 25 years, under four different companies, ran a record store at 6393 camp bowie, which i came here with him to open in the fall of 1978...30 yrs ago this september (october?). he had employees that stayed with him for 10 or 15 years, which is _unheard of_ in retail, but then again, he's not your typical retail management dude. far from it, in fact.

i met charles when i went to work at peaches at cole and fitzhugh in dallas after working for one day laying pipe in the woods in irving, and almost ran him over with my '71 torino the first night i knew him when i saw him coming out of faces on lemmon avenue, where i was going with my crew of noo yawk expats to see the fabulous thunderbirds. after about two months, some friends from long island came through town on their way west and i bagged the gig to go down to the gulf with them.

when i'd run through the last of my traveling money, i went back to dallas to plead for my job back. charles told me he was coming to fort worth to open a store, and i signed on as an assistant manager. i worked at peaches in fort worth for maybe a year before i quit to move down to austin and thence to colorado.

when i was back in the fort, spring of '80, following a failed attempt to start a band in aspen, i slept in my car in front of charles' old house on pershing and met him going to work to ask for a job...again. by that time, peaches had folded and sound warehouse had taken over the store at 6393 camp bowie. i worked with him there (and briefly on berry street) before i made an ill-advised move to memphis in the fall of '81 to be an assistant manager at a store that was opening there.

i wound up getting shitcanned from the memphis store in january '82 (some dude hit the till on my shift and skipped town and i guess they needed a scapegoat) and joined the air force, but when i was back in the fort _again_ after leaving active duty and separated from my future ex-wife in the fall of '93, charles hired me yet again, this time to work for blockbuster music. i worked for him until may of '95 that last time.

when i think about all of the good things that have happened to me since i came to this town, and realize that it was always charles who gave me a place to land when i'd fucked up (or gotten fucked over), it becomes pretty clear that he's had as big an influence on the direction of my life as anybody, and that i owe him more than i can ever repay.

randomness

in the last week, i've gotten email from a guy i knew in the air force 15 years ago who's now a "professional life, career, and business coach" in maryland; discovered that one of the security guards at the market graduated from the same high school i did on long island, one year after i did; and got a blog comment from another long islander, a gtrist from whom i indirectly learned a piece of beefheart music over 30 yrs ago (and found a snippet of his own music online). uncle walt was right: it _is_ a small world, after all.

urgencies review on i94bar.com

a review i penned of the urgencies present their manifesto by austin's the urgencies (featuring fort worth expat jeremy diaz on RON-esque gtr) is live now on i94bar.com.

akkolyte @ sloppy world last night

this is what the gonzalez brothers, aaron and stefan, do when they're not playing free jazz with their dad dennis in yells at eels.

dazed and confused

while this doesn't prove that the yardbirds were better than led zeppelin (they weren't: not just the singer, but most especially, the drummer), it does show that they got there first. and stole this song from jake holmes. altho i no longer own a violin bow (as i did when i was a 15-yr-old snotnose making very inappropriate noises in a soul band), i miss playing this song with the wednesday night jamcats.

the backsliders, goodwin

caught a hot show at chris maunder's born-again-rawkin' moon last night with dallas' the backsliders and our faves goodwin -- kind of a warm-up for 2.29's goodwin 2 cd release party at the ridglea theater, which'll also feature haltom city's pride, the mighty me-thinks (whose frontguy ray liberio was in attendance in the muso-heavy crowd).

never having seen the backsliders -- a stripped-down outfit led by gtrist-singer chris bonner and fronted with aplomb by "my wife and yours, kim pendleton" (ex-vibrolux, ex-lithium xmas) -- i was suitably impressed by their minimalist garage-rawk fury, reminiscent of outfits like the raveonettes, detroit cobras, and, um, chrissie hynde fronting the sonics. first impressions stand: little bitty amps, great big sound, _and_ they know how to color coordinate (boyzzz in black, bad-girl up front in red, of course); their sound dispenses with any conceivable excess, leaving nothing but _the essence_; their relentless momentum never stopped any longer than it took bonner to count off the next toon, and he kept things interesting with his high-kicking, arm-twirling onstage antics (as if anyone in the crowd was paying attention to anything besides "his wife and ours"). they shoulda come from scandinavia about ten years ago, but as longtime band friend ken neal said, "they come from dallas, texas, right now." and kim pendleton is the best singer of any gender/genre i've heard in a few seasons.

headlining, the goodwin boyzzz brought the good stuff -- tony diaz working every available inch of space (including that in front of the stage), daniel gomez wringing every bit of goodness out of the songs on his new cherry red gibson sg (causing me to suffer extreme sg envy), damien stewart as flashy and spot-on as always, bluegrass-bowtied matt hembree pulling out all the stops with a knee-droppin', thrashin' 'n' flailin' performance on "arm and mouth," my fave as-yet-unrecorded toon in the goodwin canon. another highlight: the lovely bass-'n'-voxxx-only "trading up," which closes the new disc. after taking four years to release this sophomore disc, gomez promises a follow-up "within the next six months": a four-song e.p. which the band plans to cut live in the studio and rush-release, "with a surprise that you'll find out about later." color me intrigued.

also in the crowd: bassist extraordinaire jeremy hull, who sez he's now playing bass in calhoun "about 25% of the time," is rehearsing original toonage in a new band with his li'l bro adam (ex-king friday) on gtr, and just played on six toons for the new johnny case ceedee with the pianist and drummer danny tcheco. mr. hull sez johnny's disc'll be out this september, the 25th anniversary of johnny's gig at sardines.

fw burrito project benefit @ fred's, 4.5.2008

this from stoogeaphilia:

We're playing a benefit for the FORT WORTH BURRITO PROJECT at fonky FRED's on Saturday, April 5th. There'll be a similar event at 1919 Hemphill, details to follow. Here's the lineup for Fred's:

2:00-2:35 hands for bad habits
2:40-3:15 kristina morland
3:20-3:55 clint niosi
4:00-4:40 darrin kobetich
4:55-5:40 rivercrest yacht club
5:55-6:40 STOOGEAPHILIA
6:55-7:40 fish fry bingo
7:55-8:45 jordan mycoskie
9:00-10:00 panther city bandits

The Burrito Project folks are doing a great service, feeding hungry homeless people every Sunday at 2pm from their homebase in Trinity Park. We'll be out to support them with our usual blast of noise, feedback, and partial nudity. Hope to see you there.

Love,

THE STOOGEAPHILES

faust

my insomnia is rewarded by the discovery of some vid by krautrock pioneers faust, lauded by cope in his krautrocksampler and a big influence on my man o' the moment magical power mako, shown below in performances from 1971 and 2005. when i usedta sell rekkids back on lawn guyland and listen to stuff like slade and mott the hoople, the only ppl i knew who dug these guys were weird, asocial losers -- or so i thought at the time. i shoulda paid more attention when they tried to pull my coat. "fuck tv's!" indeed.

juan de la cruz 2

apparently "juan de la cruz" is the filipino equivalent of "john doe" in the states -- kind of an everyman figure. since there's no pinoyrocksampler (yet), i'm searching for info on these guys. found a page on their gtrist's website and also a fan club page with a discography.

the hardest working man in...um, school biz

my pal phil overeem's in the paper, again. he's a high school english teacher in columbia, missouri, who sponsors his school's "academy of rock" and an annual battle of the bands. reading about his achievements, i can forgive him for yelling requests for velvet underground songs when i was playing on the street in columbia with nathan brown.

johnny case @ scat jazz lounge (doo-dah, doo-dah)

this from johnny case:

Johnny Case will perform with Drew Phelps & Duane Durrett Thursday @ Scat Jazz Lounge in downtown Ft. Worth, beginning at 9:00 PM. Cover: $5.00 - Please come enjoy the music and club.

return of the rock 'n' roll secretary

trying to get a coupla stoogeband gigs booked. one will definitely be at fonky fred's on sat'day, 4.5.2008, at a benefit for the fort worth burrito project. just trying to make sure there won't be a time conflict with a gig hembree has with goodwin in dallas later that same night. teague is doing the heavy lifting for the chat room; hoping we'll be able to get a date in march, what with sxsw 'n' all.

have actually been practicing gtr in my newly-refurbed music room which now boasts jesse and greg bahr's coltrane sun ship painting that usedta hang on the stage at the wreck room (r.i.p.). there's a lotta detail there i always missed because it was covered by curtains. the canvas still has some of the smell of el wreck, which i perversely like. thinking about sittin' in with the wednesday night jamcats at lola's, and hoping for word on another kamandi show.

i'm going to have my debut singing in public at my middle dtr's wedding in april. they're having a "musical gift" segment of their reception, during which friends of theirs who play 'n' sing will get to do so. i wouldn't have offered, but my dtr asked me to sing "waterloo sunset," so i'm busily working on rememberizing the lyrics and trying to figure out how i'm going to hit that low note at the end of each verse. (i know i could transpose it but then i'd have _two_ things to remember. pathetic.)

for doris' girls

happy berfday cari, and thanks to betsy for sending me the hendrix at monterey dvd (along with more pics of my sweetie as a teenager). spent a few hrs the last coupla days working on some "jo kelly school black history month music moments" for my sweetie to have recorded and broadcast over the intercom at her school the next few days, leading up to their big program with tahiti and rachella parks. definitely much more fun than stealing tires.

goodwin @ the moon, 2.8.2008

i missed seeing sir steffin sittin' in with goodwin at 6th street, but they'll be playing at the moon this friday, early enough for me to go and still get up in time to open the market sat'day, so i'm planning to go check out gomez's new sg.

works in progress

darrin kobetich's new metal project sumassouls got some jam results up on their myspace thingy.

and kavin allenson's posted his album in progress for the rpm challenge (the "make an album in a month" folks).

jasper stone review at iloveftw.com

review i penned of the new jasper stone cd is live now at iloveftw.com. so there.

the savages

my big sis just sent me a link to this flick about a brother and sister (played by philip seymour hoffman and laura linney) whose dad has dementia. the clips are a hoot. i wanna see this.

box

dig tahiti's short film box. the passenger in his car is j.d. jimmerson IV, a.k.a. mr. aggravated foe.

willie b. recites bertolt brecht

doing some writing this week, so here's another vidclip.

smog veil's peter laughner comp due in october

from smog veil records:

The definitive Peter Laughner retrospective which Smog Veil has been working on for the past 16 months, is now tentatively set for an October 14, 2008 release date. Laughner was a talented singer, songwriter and guitarist who played with Rocket From The Tombs and the earliest incarnation of Pere Ubu. The Cleveland native died in 1977 but left behind a number of lo-fi live, rehearsal, and demo recordings.

but what would mr. cope make of this?

howlin' wolf

ladies and gentlemen, chester arthur burnett...

super bowl sunday

inspahrd by darrin kobetich, started today with a big bowl o' mccann's irish oatmeal with brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg. listening now to love's forever changes (r.i.p. arthur lee). who needs football when you've got heart-healthy chow, served with a masterpiece of depresso-rock on the side?





(this isn't from forever changes, but it's a great toon the gideons usedta cover.)

roybertito's

wtf?!?!? this is just the weirdest thing i've seen all week.

kavin and bill @ blue grotto, 2.16.2008

gtr wizards kavin allenson and underground railroad progfather bill pohl perform "an evening of electro-acoustic music" at blue grotto, 517 university, starting at 9pm on sat'day, 2.16.2008.

great american novel @ the moon, 2.2.08

hadn't been down to berry street in many, uh, seasons, but tonight after i got off work, we traipsed over to the moon to catch a set by rootsy rawkers great american novel on the recommendation of our friend jesse sierra hernandez, who sez he's finally gonna make the great leap into cyberspace with a website featuring his artwork this yr. dug what chris maunder's done with the room, making it more of a music venue, rather than just a bar with a stage in the corner.

maybe it was the proximity to the old hop location, but we were waxing nostalgic tonight (while contemplating the realization that there are now ppl in college who were born in 1990). great american novel reminded both my sweetie 'n' me of the old fort worth cats (not the ball club but the band whose remnants still occasionally perform as icicle & the kid). maybe it's the onstage dynamic between curmudgeonly gtrist will gillham (who looks more 'n a little like man about the fort ken neal) and gangling bassist rob caslin (who also works the four-string axe in lost country), and how it resembles the one between ex-cats john "johnny icicle" siebman and david "kid" daniel. the two musos split the difference on lead vocals; maybe someone can get kid to show rob how to do a backbend. comparisons (always odious) and "recommended if you like" similes aside, great american novel's what we used to call "a rock 'n' roll band," plain 'n' simple. there's nothing flashy or showy about these guys, they just lay it down with lotsa energy, drive, and a fair amount of self-deprecating humor, with good original songs and an imaginative choice of covers (on this occasion, pink floyd's "fearless" and, um, michael jackson's "billy jean"). plus will uses a roland cube 60 like the one that served me well on two years' worth of wreck room wednesday nights. and while drummer chris squires solos a lot between songs to cover what'd otherwise be dead air during his bandmates' several instrument changes, he at least has the decency not to do so during a song. (i'm kidding.)

anyway, my sweetie shot some pics which are up now on her photo blog. and we're looking forward to hearing more from these guys.

fort worth artists in the star-t

today's star-telegram included a nice surprise: a profile by photographer chris blay on three local artists -- his fellow photogs nick prendergast (also drummer for the theater fire) and loli kantor, and our fave painter jesse sierra hernandez. the online edition includes some pics that didn't make it to print, as well as audio interviews with the artists (chris provides commentary for jesse, who doesn't dig interviews).

while i'm thinking about it, here's the profile i wrote of jesse that didn't make the cut for the "hard rock cafe" thingy that ran in fw weekly a few weeks ago. (the idea was to include artifacts we'd wanna see in a fw-centric hard rock cafe.)

Jesse Sierra Hernandez's fedora: Jesse is his own creation -- a son of the north side who taught himself representational painting, whose work has graced some ephemeral spaces (the walls of the Wreck Room, the back wall of Tequila's) as well as galleries. Famous for his depictions of nudes and musicians (he was Sleeplab's original conguero), he's also done more challenging work -- his politically-themed 2003 "Cortez the Killer," for example, which combined Aztec and Iraq war imagery and was lost in transit from a show in San Antonio. Like many of the greats, though, his persona is as much a part of his art as the work itself, and Jesse's immaculate suits, cigars, and courtly demeanor make a statement that's as much about grace as it is about style.

jhon kahsen w/top secret and a cat

muso/dj/producer marcus lawyer reports that while recording a track for the new top secret project, jazz piano institution jhon kahsen briefly "duetted" with marcus' cat zoey. i suspect this wasn't without precedent in johnny's past, as his three-legged cat roscoe has been known to play some cecil taylor-esque clusters on the piano chez kahsen.

juan de la cruz

thisun's for rat and calvin.

see, there's this filipino rockband called juan de la cruz.



singing drummer joey smith and bassplayer mike hanopol were in the notorious '70s japanese band speed, glue & shinki (chronicled in cope's japrocksampler). coincidentally, "joe smith" is also one of rat's asian media crew pseudonyms. go fig.


anyhoo, wa-a-ay back in the early '70s, smith, hanopol, and gtrist wally gonzalez played together in a band called zero history, performing r&b covers in japanese shopping malls. after the wheels came off speed, glue & shinki, they regrouped in manila as juan de la cruz and have been filipino superstars ever since.



beyond that, wally is apparently a badass rekkid reviewer -- see examples of his scrawl here (gotta scroll down) and here.