1. Acid Mother's Temple | The Antarcticans | The Great Tyrant (Hailey's Denton)
The best Japanese experimental noise psych freak band of all time! Really, this should be a great show. AMT will require you to take acid at the door. But even if you don't, you'll still really enjoy it if you don't need music to have a good beat that you can dance to. Antarcticans and Ft. Worth's The Great Tyrant sound pretty good too. Check it.

2. iDi* Amin | Ghostcar (Cool Bean's Denton)
Show starts at 930 and should be a good one, featuring one of Denton's more interesting up and coming noise acts with one of the area's staple experimental fusion jazz etc. groups. Or maybe the area's only. Its on the roof of Cool Beans apparently, and the weather is just right for that sort of thing.

Last night at the Kid 606 show, I was thinking about people who primarily listen to rock music, particularly those that are serious indie or punk fans, and how those people tend to react to dance or electronic music. Then today, I was going through the comment posts on here, and came across one that provided a good example of the attitude that I was considering:

"at least btd (Black Tie Dynasty) play their own instruments.but what is sad,is that any monkey can push any key on a computer program and sound good.it seems easy enough.but sadly enough, not always the case..ie.treewave"

When I was 15 and thought Bad Religion was the coolest band on the face of the earth, I probably would have completely agreed with that comment. Today, however, the very notion that someone is more "organic" or respectable because they "play their own instrument" is totally and completely laughable to me, and anyone with half a brain should know better. Not to pick on Black Tie Dynasty yet again, but lets just use them as an example since that is the example that the Anon poster used. BTD obviously play electric guitars, and they use amps, and PAs, and effects processors, and microphones, and pedals, and everything else under the sun to manipulate the sounds of the guitar, the vocals and even the drums. When rock bands like BTD play live, they are using a club's PA system in order to amplify the sounds so that you can hear them. When they record music, they go into a studio and more likely that not use digital equipment to record their songs and engage in all other kinds of digital sound manipulation, just like most performers do today. Again, I'm not saying there is anything wrong with that, and that is exactly my point. There is nothing wrong with it. When you think about it, guitars were a technological innovation when they were first created, as was reel to reel tape, and sound proof rooms and mixing boards and microphones and pretty much every musical instrument that has ever been invented or studio that has been built to record them. That was all technology too. I guess the only difference that people like Anon see between a guitar and protools is that the technology is digital, and the manipulation of that technology requires slightly less physical activity than playing a guitar or drums. And if that is their basis for saying that there is something wrong with a band like Tree Wave getting up on stage and playing video game music, then I really won't even dignify the argument with a response, because it doesn't make any sense. Besides, I thought only rednecks in Texas militias and shit were afraid of computers. Guess I was wrong. The point is, digital programs are instruments in every sense of the word, created by humans to make music. Any music that incorporates anything other than vocals uses some kind of human created technology, and people should just learn to accept it, because their stubbornness will cause them to miss out on some really great stuff, and make them sound like they haven't put more than two seconds of thought into the whole thing.

Anyone that didn't go to last night's show really did miss out. When we showed up at the Red Blood Club, DJ Nature was in the middle of proving why he is one of the best DJs in DFWd right now. He played a great set of reggae, reggaeton, hip hop, experimental, dance rock, and even a little Kid A Radiohead. His mix was ridiculous, and the medium sized crowd at the show ate up every bit of it, dancing their asses off non stop until the end of his set. If you haven't at least thought about checking this guy out already, then I don't really know what to tell you. Just do it before he moves on to bigger and better places. No one else around here is doing what he does.

Tree Wave followed Nature with a set that, despite some sound problems, was one of the most exciting I have seen from any local band in a very long time. Creating music from old video game sounds and computer programs sounded like a gimmick to me, and if the music had in any way been cutesy or obvious it would have been really bad. But it wasn't. In fact, Tree Wave was exactly what what their Myspace page indicated: loud, noisy, spacey electronic that reminded me of My Bloody Valentine, Jesus and Mary Chain, Stereolab, and of course Eno, whom they covered to open the set. Like I said, they had some sound problems that might have prevented the show from becoming absolutely amazing (the sound at the club in general was full of treble and just not that great), but I'll tell you it was pretty close anyway.

At one point, the male member of the group played some old video game on stage that he had rigged to play music. I forget which game it was, but the screen was very similar to pac man. Every time he would go around a different sphere of the screen, eating all the dots, a different chord would be played, so the music that resulted was based entirely on where his guy on the screen was at any given time. He could make one chord play longer by staying in one ring for a longer period of time, or the opposite. The sounds built up, getting louder and faster on each new level, until it sounded like the whole thing was going to explode on a fast distorted, high pitched wail. Then it was over, and he didn't die once. It was really pretty insane, and the music was quite interesting too. That was what was so great about the whole thing. The music was really really good, despite the sound problems, and aside from the fact that they were making it with video games. It was great stuff completely on its own, with or without the band's back story. And props should be given to their female vocalist as well, who dealt with some sound issues but still gave a great performance, adding a whole other element to their sound that separates them from most laptop based electronic acts. The set was short, but we plan on seeing them again very soon.

Kid 606 was also wonderful. Not knowing nearly as much about dance music as I'd like to, I'll just say that he mixed in all kinds of genres, drum n bass, hip hop, old school Euro techno, and many others to produce an extremely dense, fast and hard sound that was completely captivating and danceable throughout the entire set, even though Kid hardly ever slowed it down to give you a breather. One look at the sizeable crowd dancing at the front of the stage indicating that many people didn't want or need a breather however, and a glance out into the courtyard about half way through the set revealed a good number of people drenched in sweat, all of whom went back inside to finish the set.

A friend and I were talking after the show about how "rockers" often don't know what to make of electronic dance music being played in a setting like Redblood club, which is primarily designed for rock music. All of that is probably changing, and soon many rock n roll fans that can't get into electronic music will have to change their minds, or just become completely irrelevant. But until then, I must deliver a message to many of Dallas' guitar based rock bands: you guys might "play your own instruments" or whatever, but most of you haven't come close to affecting a crowd the way that Kid 606, Tree Wave, and Nature did last night. And while I'm not suggesting that you sell all your guitars and buy turntables like the band in "Losing My Edge," you might want to think about some of the things that electronic artists around here are starting to do much better than you are. You might want to think about how you can put on a show that people will actually find, you know, inspiring. Because playing guitars and keeping time just isn't enough anymore. And thank God for that. Last night's show was one of the best we have seen within the Dallas city limits in months. And there wasn't one guitar in sight.

(EDIT: As my new best friend pointed out in the comments thread, DJ Stephen R. should get some props for putting together a really good show. I hope he continues to do things like this in the future.)

1. Kid 606 | Tree Wave | Dj Nature | Bexarametric | Dj Stephen R (Red Blood Club Deep Ellum)
The last time this blog recommended a show in Deep Ellum that wasn't at Gypsy was... well, a long time ago. In fact, I'd say that we have recommended maybe three or four shows in Deep Ellum since we started this thing in January. However, this show is a rare one for the hood: five different performers, all of which we want to see. Kid 606 spins a little bit of everything during his DJ sets: jungle, drum n bass, pop, house, hip hop, and all other kinds of sped up mashed up shit that is impossible to classify. A WSJR associate saw one of his sets in San Francisco and claims it was the second coming. Tree Wave is a local group that I can't believe we hadn't noticed until recently. Great glitchy, spacey electronica stuff that reminds us of Broadcast, Stereolab, Eno and even shoegaze. Good. Bexarametric is another local that mixes ambient stuff with strings and synths and insane beats on the lap top. Should be interesting to check out as well. We don't know what Stephen R plays, but his Myspace indicates that he has good taste, and you know the deal with Dj Nature. This show will be the most fun you will have in Deep Ellum for the next few months at least. Go.

2. Old Time Relijun | Kind of Like Spitting | Bring Back the Guns | Lemuria (Rubber Gloves- Denton)
Old time Relijun certainly has studied up on their James Chance, but thats not a bad thing... in fact, its a great thing. Listen for yourself, because nothing else sounds like this right now, except for the disbanded Black Eyes of course.... and they weren't nearly as good. Great dance beats, noise, and some pretty insane vocals. Should be very very cool live. And although Relijun is on K Records, Portland's Kind of Like Spitting sounds much more like a K band thats all mixed up with another Portland band we like, The Thermals. Not sure exactly how to describe them, but give em a listen, because they are good. Houston's Bring Back the Guns have played here before if we remember correctly, and they sound like Les Savy Fav and Fugazi and stuff. Lemuria is grrrlpower pop. Could do without it. Should be a really good show.

EDIT: Almost forgot: Theater Fire will be over at Lee Harvey's tonight. Not sure what time they start, but I would guess you'd be cool if you got there by 10. We'll have a review of their new album on Monday.

I like to tell people that I’m a fantastic foosball player. And they believe me, because I’m so good at everything else. I tend to boast, to challenge and bet money. But I always lose. When my reverse-hustle is played out, I’m left feeling frustrated and resentful, and my opponent is usually slightly richer. In this same fashion, I like to tell people I am a fan of local music. I brag and proudly promote shows and bands that seem promising, but at the end of most of these shows I drag myself home, defeated, discourage and broke. And yet, despite all reason, every once in a while I win. It’s usually an accident, or that the guy I’m playing is too drunk, but on rare occasions I win.

Rose County Fair is like that one perfect, fluke game of foosball. They restore my faith in local music and they keep me coming back. Too often, I see bands bog themselves down in tricks and noise, using inappropriate gimmicks to cover up what they don’t know. But Rose County doesn’t use gimmicks; they don’t need to. John Pedigo is a great songwriter, and although he usually shelves himself under novelty acts or rockabilly, with Rose County Fair he finally gets to spread out and write the songs he’s always wanted to. He also finally has a band that can step up to all his interesting changes and really fill them out. They don’t do anything flashy and they are nostalgic in tone, often reminding me of how good it felt to steal my dad’s Miller High Life in 8th grade. At the same time they sound fresh, reminding me of the first time I heard Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. They might branch out and noodle around if need be, but all at once they spin the handles and get the “ball in the hole,” if you know what I mean.

I think a lot of people might assume they are too alt-something to be considered a viable contribution to the scene, but if that’s the case, they’d be overlooking our own Dallas Alex Chilton. That’s right. I said it. I’m comparing Rose County Fair to Big Star. What are you gonna do about it? I’ll tell you what I’M gonna do, I’m gonna challenge YOU to come out to the Doublewide on Saturday night. I promise you’ll get one really good game in before [Daryl] plays and you lose all your money, get pissed off and go home.

(STONEDRANGER NOTE: I was skeptical of Rose County Fair, as I am of most of Taunto's recommendations, until I heard the first song on their Myspace page. You should give it a listen. )

1 MOGWAI Mr. Beast
2 FLAMING LIPS At War With The Mystics
3 MONO You Are There
4 STARLIGHT MINTS Drowaton
5 BUILT TO SPILL You In Reverse
6 LIARS Drum's Not Dead
7 ALOHA Some Echoes
8 TALKDEMONIC Beat Romantic
9 FEU THERESE Feu Therese
10 ELF POWER Back To The Web
11 ENVELOPES Demon
12 BOY LEAST LIKELY TO The Best Party Ever
13 PHILIP E. KARNATS Pleasuresuite
14 SIMON JOYNER Beautiful Losers: Singles And Compilation Tracks (1994-1999)
15 ISLANDS Return To The Sea
16 BRIAN ENO/DAVID BYRNE My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts
17 A WHISPER IN THE NOISE As The Bluebird Sings
18 JOSH RITTER The Animal Years
19 FIGURINES Skeleton
20 LYLAS Lessons For Lovers
21 DANIEL JOHNSTON Welcome To My World
22 FINIAN MCKEAN Shades Are Drawn
23 GLISSANDRO 70 Glissandro 70
24 I LOVE YOU BUT I'VE CHOSEN DARKNESS Fear Is On Our Side
25 SHOPLIFTING Body Stories
26 FIERY FURNACES Bitter Tea
27 MADLIB Beat Konducta Vol. 1-2: Movie Scenes
28 EAGLE*SEAGULL Eagle*Seagull
29 TELEVISION PERSONALITIES My Dark Places
30 DEAD HEART BLOOM Dead Heart Bloom

(Nice to see some Television Personalities up in this piece!)

1. Teenage Symphony (Black Dog Tavern Ft. Worth)
This might be a good chance for Ft. Worth to check out one of the more interesting and surprisingly pleasant bands in the metroplex. Really, give them a listen.

2. Hip Hop (Slip Inn)
You know whats up. Its like listening to those tapes you made off the local rap station in 1989. At least its like listening to the ones I made. People dance, everyone is cool as fuck, and there isn't a guy wearing an ironic blazer and eyeliner within a five mile radius of the place.

3. Zoo (Cavern Upstairs) A new add to the list this week. Nitwit has an amazing selection of music videos that he shows on a screen upstairs at the Cavern. Ok Ok, doesn't sound super awesome or anything. But when we checked this shit out the other week, he was playing really old stuff we had never heard, plus stuff we knew well and liked (animal collective, !!!, Janes Addiction, and did I catch Happy Mondays in there?), and other music videos that I couldn't even describe to you. Zoo should please just about anyone with any kind of good taste.

EDIT: To prevent Bob White and the F Electrics from ending their band forever, we should tell you that they are playing at Metrognome Collective tonight at 10pm. That is all.

Well now we lead this shit 2-0, thanks to another great performance by Dirk Nowitzki and a really good team effort overall. I really liked how all three big men were used to pretty much shut down Pau Gasol. Jason Terry and Josh Howard were also takin care of biz all night.

Next up is the big challenge of the series. Going back to Memphis, the Grizzlies are going to have their home court and their fans, and they are going to be really desperate and pissed off considering that the franchise is 0-10 in its playoff history. They HAVE to win game 3, and they know it. The Mavs are in the best position they could be, obviously, and all they have to do is relax and stay focused, because they are clearly the better team. I think they win the series pretty easily... but I also think the Grizzlies will win one game before its over. Wouldn't it be funny if they didn't?

And in case you were worried that we were turning into jocks and shit around here, we also wanted to let you know that we are teaming up with the dudes at Cowboyriot. They will be taking some pictures at shows and parties and stuff, and we'll be posting some of them on the blog. They take great pictures that make you wish you were at all the places they go, so we think you'll like them.

We'll have an album review and other stuff later this week too, so there.

1. Jana Hunter | Inoculist | Washing Machine (Metrognome Collective- Ft. Worth)
Another good experimental psych/folk show at Metrognome. From the sound of it, not a lot of people have been going to this place so far. I've got a suggestion. You know how you're always trying to be really hip and shit? Well you should go to Metrognome starting now, before everyone starts doing it, so that you can be cooler than them. Oh yeah, its like 5 bucks and BYOB too. Listen to Jana Hunter's "Theres No Home," and tell me that you don't want to check this show out.

2. The Party w/ Dj Nature (Rubber Gloves-Denton)
Nature will be giving out his third mix CD at the party tonight, and he suggests getting there early if you want one. We here at WSJR have both of his other Party mixes, and we rock em like every weekend. Don't go if you aren't into good looking people dancing to good music.

1. The Black Angels - Passover
2. Irving - Death In The Garden, Blood On The Flowers
3. Drive-By Truckers - A Blessing and a Curse
4. The Flaming Lips - At War With The Mystics
5. Islands - Return To The Sea
6. Band of Horses - Everything All the Time
7. Eagles of Death Metal - Death By Sexy...
8. Mono - You Are There
9. Elefant - The Black Magic Show
10. Calexico - Garden Ruin
11. The Fiery Furnaces - Bitter Tea
12. Philip E Karnats - Pleasesuite
13. Built To Spill - You In Reverse
14. Tunng - Mother's Daughter and Other Songs
15. The Appleseed Cast - Peregrine
16. Pretty Girls Make Graves - Elan Vital
17. Great Lake Swimmers - Bodies and Minds
18. Mates of State - Bring it Back
19. Serena-Maneesh - Serena-Maneesh
20. Wolf Parade - Apologies to the Queen Mary

Irving? Elefant? Pretty Girls Make Graves? Come on Dallas, we can do better than that can't we?

And whats up with Wolf Parade? OMG, that is so last year that I forgot who they were! LOL sweeties :-)

1. Lost Generation w/ Wanz Dover (Cavern Upstairs)
What Wanz will be doing tonight:

"A special Tropicalia set tonight faeturing stuff like Gal Costa, Tom Ze, Os Mutantes, Caetano Veloso, France Gall, Jaques Dutronc, Bardot and others. I'm gonna do few 30 minute blocks of this stuff. I also got new Sonic Youth, new Raconteurs, new Arab Strap, new Rapture, Cybotron, Diplo, Gnarls Barkley, Kinga Preis doing polish Nick cave covers and a lot more surprises. You know the score it's Lost Generation......Where great music goes to be found. Come have a drink, Talk shit and Dance."

Go. It starts at 10.

There has been a lot of talk around here lately about alternative venues. It seems that while people do enjoy overpaying for beer, and most aren't completely opposed to club owners making money off of concerts, etc., there is still a feeling that there is something great about places like Metrognome Collective, where art is a little more important and central to the focus, and where something interesting and spontaneous seems that it can happen at any time, providing a little more excitement than the canned fun that you often find at more traditional venues (oh yeah, and BYOB makes it cheaper to get more drunk, ya idiots).

We really need a good D.I.Y. venue like that down here in Dallas since Sanctuary Studios is no more (come on, like one?), but for now we'll have to add yet another reason to go to Denton all the goddamn time to the Reasons to go to Denton All the Goddamn Time List.

This reason would be Secret HQ, the new multipurpose, um, place that will be opening up in the old Art Prostitute space (210 E. Hickory St.) on June 3rd. The space will be open and mostly run by Scott Porter (Record Hop), Cody Robinson (Medicine Window) and Rob Black (Birth to Burial), and will feature an art gallery, a store, and every Saturday night, a venue for early shows.

Each Saturday show will feature two bands for three dollars from 8-10 pm, and from what we gather will be BYOB. Their first show on June 3rd will actually feature three bands and start off at 7pm: Fra Pandolf, the Angelus and Shiny Around the Edges will all be playing. With a solid kick off line up like that, we're kind of excited to see what these guys can do with this place.

They have a lot of other plans for the space as well, but those are like secret and shit. I guess you've just gotta show up to see what else they've got up their sleeves.

1. Half Handed Cloud | Vollmar | Fishboy (Metrognome Collective Ft. Worth)
Lately it seems that Metrognome has been pulling in some pretty intereting shows without that stupid focus on new wave revival bands that Dallas clubs. Tonights show features two out of town acts, Half Handed Cloud and Vollmar. HHC is a solid folk pop band that is actually interesting, and Vollmar is a strange lo-fi electro folk band that is probably an intriguing live act. Fishboy is Fishboy, and we like him.

One of the last songs Irving played on Friday featured a chorus in which they called someone a "pleasant waste of time." I don't know what the song was actually called, but it serves as a good description of the band if you take away the word "pleasant" and replace it with, well, nothing. "Waste of time" does just fine.

Irving appears to be a band that is gearing up for a big commercial push, and why shouldn't they? They've got a lot of ooohs and aaahs and a "funny" keyboard player and a fake Albert Hammond Jr. guitar player and probably some of the most boring, derivative songs you'll ever hear, effectively mixing the worst of the Dandy Warhols with the worst of Elephant 6 and a shitty Beatles cover band that listens to Death Cab but is too embarrassed to tell their friends. Throw in some gross sexuality and dorky girl-kiss ass lyrics and it becomes obvious that this band could be huge. Their songs have the perfect balance of TRL accessibility and Urban Outfitters street cred to ensure that every record executive in the United States will reference their album in attempts to be hip with the kids.

We're not here to bitch about commercially viable indie pop or bands that wear their influences on their sleeves, because both can be acceptable at times if they are done right, as Voxtrot showed us later on in the evening. We just keep seeing Irving on the Insound charts and reading glowing reviews on various MP3 blogs, and we have to say: don't believe the hype. Its really hard to believe that no one has called these guys out on their shit before until you find out that they are from L.A., where no one ever calls anybody out on their shit. Its like Dallas except its the real L.A.

After the horrible experience that was Irving, Voxtrot came out and changed our moods for the better, even if they didn't completely blow us away. Voxtrot's influences also come through pretty clear from the moment you hear them: Belle and Sebastian, the Smiths, the Vaselines, etc., but the difference between them and Irving is that they actually, you know, write good songs with memorable choruses, solid vocals and decent lyrics.

We're pretty big fans of Voxtrot's two EPs, and they certainly performed the songs with a lot of energy and tight playing. But even though their performance was more than adequate, we just couldn't get completely hooked in. All the elements for a good show were there (good band, good songwriters, lots of enthusiastic fans) but there was something about it that just prevented it from being exciting most of the time. I can't tell if I'm just sick of indie pop, or if Irving created a mood that couldn't be overcome, or if it was Voxtrot's fault. But there was something just kind of boring about the whole show, something that made us feel as though writing pop songs with clear pop influences might not be a bad thing if the songs are good and a bit innovative, but that you have to do a little more if you want people to actually give a shit. We enjoyed the show, but we certainly didn't spend much time talking about afterwards. And actually, to inject a bit of local music positivity into this review, we kind of wished that we had gone to the Strange Boys/Undoing of David Wright show at Rubber Gloves instead. Yeah, we can see those bands any time, but we can also see indie pop shows just about any time too, Pitchfork approval aside. Voxtrot is good, might become great, and surely has a bright future both commercially and artistically. I'm just not sure how much I care.

Solid win for the Mavs tonight. It was a real group effort, and they actually looked like a team that plays the way you are supposed to in the playoffs: lots of aggression, defense, and clutch shooting when necessary. It feels really good to get that first win at home, as opposed to what happened last year....

The difference maker tonight? Well, other than Dirk (of course), it had to be Erick Dampier. I never thought I would say that, but its true. 12 points, 12 rebounds and two blocks doesn't look amazing on paper, but anyone that saw the game knows what I mean. He really made some big plays. If he can keep playing like this, the Mavs just might have a pleasantly long post season.

Oh, and Dirk Nowitzki: 31 points, 11 rebounds. If this guy doesn't get MVP this year, I'm going on a shooting spree. End of story.