-- Max Cady's drummerless right now, but Dave Spearman (who played drums on latest CD Gun Crime) is in from Chicago and will join the band for its show at Vickery Park.
A few highlights from the bazillion things going on tonight:
+80s Party at Obar
Prince, New Edition, JJ Fad, Salt-n-Pepa, Madonna, Michael J., and the list goes on and on. Bring your L.A. Gear dancing shoes. Picnic of PPT hosts, and Whiz-T, M. Knight and DJ Viz are on the decks. It’s free until 8 p.m., and $2 “and up” after.
+Haunted at the Granada
A big ol' costume party with The Party providing the music. Best-dressed wins $1,500 cash. That’s like your electric bill for two years. $25 to get in and proceeds benefit charity. Doors at 8 p.m. (Obligatory disclaimer: Quick is a sponsor.)
+Neva Dug Disco bash at the Palm Beach Club
Free Jamaican food, one-on-one Bboy battles, live graffiti painting, live body painting, DJ sets from Fysher Pryce, DJ Nemeses, Tape Mastah Steph (love that name, but not the MySpace page, which crashed my computer) and D. Teknics. Plus live performances from Crew 54, Stick up kids and The Co-Op. And it’s free. 8 p.m. to 2 a.m.
+Armin Van Buuren at Cirque
One of the biggest names in trance hits the new downtown club. It’s going to be packed. If you like your space and you have the cash, I’d splurge for VIP. Doors at 10 p.m., $25 presale general, $35 presale VIP.
+Pulp Fiction Halloween Party at the Windmill Lounge
Dress up as your favorite character and compete for $100 and $50 prizes. There’ll also be a Jackrabbit Slims dance contest with a $50 prize. Party starts at 8 p.m. sharp. No cover. And have a cocktail while you’re at it, they’re quite yummy. I highly recommend the Manly Man in a Skirt.
You already know the greatness that is Mom, and now Denton gives us another ambient electro act, Florene. The duo (above), made up of Gavin Guthrie and Aaron Mollet, opens for Mom at Rubber Gloves tonight with Mistress, Fizzy Dino Pop and Sticky Buns at the Magilum Records Halloween Party. Go in costume and get in free!
So you'll know what you're getting into, Gavin sent us a free track to share with you, "Mother/Daughter." He also wrote a few words about the tune:
"As of now it might be the best representation of us. It was recorded at Rubber Gloves in early spring and was our first real attempt at multi-tracking a song. Our usual song-writing process consists of hanging a microphone from the ceiling and recording everything we do for about an hour. A lot of good comes out of these sessions and we take parts of them and combine them to form fully realized songs. 'Mother/Daughter' is a mash up of all things we love in music today. Equal parts organic and acoustic with equal amounts of electronics."
Download it below, and expect more Halloween show picks this afternoon.
This is a bit late, but I’ve been in training all day and am barely coming up for air now.
Cool Out is the usual Monday night party at the Cavern, with Big J and Schwa spinning old-school soul and funk. Always sounded fun to me, but usually I’m too tired to go anywhere on Mondays…. last night I finally powered through. And was very glad I did.
First off: $2 beers. You’re there two hours — if you’re a slow drinker like me — and you’ve spent $4!
Second: The crowd’s very low-key. (Not boring, just chill and unpretentious.) Some folks wore costumes last night, but a lot of people wore jeans and T-shirts. Plus the music was loud enough to where you could actually have a conversation and not have to scream.
Loved the music… a good mix of disco and funk and I think even some early 80s R&B. My fave was Isley Brothers’ “Between the Sheets,” which was my parents’ jam before I was born.
I attempted to video the whole thing, but I left the lens cap on for part of it, and then my battery died. Live n’ learn. Heading to the Elbow Room tonight to try and get some video there, too. This time: Lens cap OFF.
Wish I had a photo to post of the fabulous breakfast tacos I had at Kozy Kitchen on Saturday morning. Organic corn tortillas, eggs, chunks of smoky venison sausage, a dusting of shredded cheese…. and fresh salsa that had the perfect amount of cilantro. My head hurt after too many shots. This made it feel a lot better. That, and a mug of green tea. (Coffee after I've drank too much makes me feel worse.)
I'm now on a quest to find the best hangover-reducing breakfast tacos. Who can give me some more suggestions? I used to be a fan of Santiago’s Taco Loco in Deep Ellum — they cured me of many a’hangover in my early twenties — but I have no idea if they’re still around.
Eric Michener (above), a.k.a. Fishboy, clued me into some upcoming excitement:
--New rock opera Albatross: How We Failed to Save the Lone Star State With the Power of Rock and Roll comes out Nov. 13 on Happy Happy Birthday To Me Records.
--There'll be a release-day in-store performance at Good Records.
--The CD release party will be Friday, Nov. 16, at Rubber Gloves. Also playing are Cavedweller and Man Factory.
Not that I know what I'm talking about in the slightest, but I named Fishboy's last CD Little D the local album of the year back in '05 (Those were the good ol' days ...). I think I like the new one even better, based on what I've heard here.
Check out DJ Stephen R.'s Myspace for his stripped-down remix of "Trees and Pour Houses," a song from Red Monroe's latest album ¡Policia! ¡Policia! Speaking of ... WeShotJR posted a well-written review of that album last week. It doesn't really bother me that the recording is so pristine, but the reviewer makes a good case for liking things dirty dirty.
You know, Dallas, it ain't against the law to have good live shows on Monday and Tuesday nights. Denton is smaller than you and it has two. You should be ashamed.
Well, maybe I'm being a bit harsh. After all, Wolff will stop by Good Records for an in-store performance before it takes its downtrodden industrial self up to Dan's Silver Leaf.
And later at Good Recs, there's a Halloween party celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Flaming Lips' Zaireeka. It's the album that came in parts to be played on different stereos all at once. The store invites people with copies to bring their boomboxes to add to the sound. And "Virtual Wayne" will be there, whatever that means.
For those who missed the big Halloween show Saturday night at Double Wide, Adventure Club Josh has posted some pics of himself as Bruce Springsteen on the show's MySpace profile. No video of Nightmare on E Street just yet, but you can see a clip here of opening act Fleetwood Hacks, starring Smile Smile and Chris Holt. Enjoy.
I'd totally be in Denton if I weren't chained to my cubicle this evenin' (grumble grumble), as up-and-coming smart-pop act Parata debuts material from new CD Heads! Heads! Heads! at Rubbagloves. I got my copy of the CD last night and haven't gotten to listen to it yet, but I'm a fan of the tracks up on MySpace. More on Heads! Heads! Heads! (I just love saying that) later. And check out a likely-to-cause-some-controversy interview with frontman Timothy Smithhere. He basically be dissin' Denton peeps. But that doesn't seem to bother opening acts Sean Kirkpatrick (who, from what I can make out, plays keys on the Parata album), Silk Stocking and New Science Projects.
Didn't delve too deeply into the Dallas happenings, but I know there's a nice show at the Granada with Happy Bullets, Calhoun and Bishop Allen. All worthy of a trip to Lower Greenville. If you aren't working late. Like me. Sigh.
Let me start by saying: I heart Granada. Every time I go there I love it more. Great crowd, great musicians, and very cool people to run the place.
I went last night to see Hot Hot Heat, Bedouin Soundclash and De Novo Dahl. I was late (as always) so I missed De Novo Dahl and the first half of Bedouin Soundclash. The second half was really good though!
Hot Hot Heat put on a great, non-stop show with a very cool light set-up and more energy than any one group of people should possess. I never realized how many of their songs have non-stop vocals and when I noticed they were playing every song back-to-back I began to wonder about the lung capacity of Steve Bays. I suspect he might be using performance enhancing drugs. (you know, like beer)
So here’s the recap of what I saw/enjoyed:
--Steve Bays (lead singer): he has a white-boy fro. That’s it. Just an interesting fact I thought I’d throw out.
--Also, when the drummer (Paul Hawley) came out he was wearing an undershirt with scribbled black marker that stated: “me too, eh”. I was really confused until, about halfway through the show, I made the connection to Steve’s shirt, which stated: “F*&$ You, I’m from Texas Canada.” Nice.
--Paul was also wearing a sweatband that really made me think of Richie Tenenbaum from The Royal Tenenbaums
--lots of one-handed keyboard playing
Overall: very cool show. Plus I made it down to Billiard Bar to enjoy a $1 draft before the warm coziness of my bed started calling my name.
Felix Da Housecat (above) at Ghostbar.
I don’t know a whole lot about him, so normally I might not care so much. But his new album sounds really interesting. He’s mixed in a lot of soul and funk and disco — one reviewer called it his “Purple Rain” album. He says he was drawing influences from Sly & the Family Stone and even George Michael. Sounds like it should be a great show. And it’s FREE. This is part of the Thursday night Rocket Science series that Full Access and Ghostbar are doing together… it just launched a few weeks ago.
Faces of Def at the Double Wide.
Good, solid, live local hip-hop. On the bill: Sivion, Subchronicles Crew, Mega, T-Wrex, Cooley Fly and Swishaman. It’s presented by Neva Dug Disco — all their stuff is usually top-notch.
Arrested Development’s “People Everyday” is coming back. I've now heard it three times in the past few months -- once at the Slip Inn (it brought the house down), once somewhere else that I can’t remember (but I distinctly remember hearing it, because my husband was there and he remarked how he hates Arrested Development, which of course I find out AFTER we got married), and the third time was last night. Travis McCoy used the beat as a background for some other song.
I still like it. It’s bright and fun, and the chorus is easy to sing along to after a few drinks.
Arrested Development officially broke up in 1996, but it looks like they’re touring again. YouTube has a bunch of clips from performances from this year.
The show was okay. We got there around 11:15 and the place wasn’t that crowded. A good number of people, and one extremely tall man covered in dark body paint, but not "DJ AM" crowded.
Pete and Travis didn’t go on until almost 12:30. But a few minutes before, the entire entourage walked right by me, including Ashlee. (As a sidenote: This is the second time I’ve had a celeb walk by me at Ghostbar on their way to the DJ booth… the secret is hanging out in the wide aisle between the tables, somewhat near the far entrance to the patio. If I had a drawing application on this computer I’d make you a schematic.)
Anyway, Pete was doing his eyeliner thing, and Ash was smirking, as if she was waiting for a paparazzo to pop out at any minute. Or maybe that’s just her relaxed expression, which looks weird because of the plastic surgery she’s had.
For our latest Q&A with a local booking pro, we gots Chelsea Callahan, who puts together some kickass shows over at Double Wide. She also works in music distribution, and is well known around town for her good taste and passion for local bands. Here's more.
What was the first show you ever booked?
The first real show was probably the first year of my birthday gala in 2004 at Gypsy Tea Room. It was Baboon, Max Cady, Pleasant Grove, and Radiant. I'm still real proud of that lineup.
Klever (esteemed Atlanta DJ, above) and Tittsworth (equally esteemed DJ, from D.C.) will be in Dallas on Dec. 14, for the aptly named “Kleavage Tour.” They're at The Loft. The Party opens.
Sting Dallas will be a gigantic, 22,000 square-foot club housing several "nightlife concepts," or so says a press release I just got.
There'll be an upscale sports bar called Cooter Brown's (funny, the name "Cooter" just doesn't say upscale to me); a live performance venue with karaoke called Cheers; a restaurant, Cabo Tropical Grille, and an ultra-lounge, Sting, which will be decked out in all-white decor. Hmm, where have we seen all-white before? Oh yes, at every other ultra lounge in Dallas....
Not sure who the demographic is (maybe the people who go to Carson's Live? That's the only other "multi-concept" place I know about), but good luck to 'em. It's set to open in November in the old Club X spot at Belt Line and the Tollway.
This isn't exactly new news, but I just heard about it a few days ago, so I'm posting something about it anyway.
Wax, a tiny, underground-ish house club on Commerce Street, closed a few months ago pretty much without warning. DJ Love, who used to play there on Friday nights, told me they kept his mixer. How crappy is that? He was being nice by letting them borrow it. Now it's behind locked doors because he can't get a hold of the landlord.
Branson B., the hip-hop entrepreneur who some credit with introducing Cristal references into rap songs, now has a champagne brand bearing his name. Apparently he researched and selected the vintage himself. And it’s a lot less expensive than Cristal, at less than $100 a pop.
There’s a really fascinating article here about the whole hip-hop/luxury spirits market. Most interesting is that none of the celebrity Kings of Hip-Hop (Jay-Z, P. Diddy) are outwardly endorsing Branson's venture. Maybe because he's trying too hard to be hip-hop? There's a fine line, I guess.
Champagne doesn't rule as much in Dallas as it probably does elsewhere... I've seen some folks drinking it with bottle service, but it's also usually the cheapest thing on the menu. ($125 or $150 a bottle, compared to $300 for liquor.) Vodka, particularly this kind, still reigns here.
UPDATE: Diddy just announced he's going to promote Ciroc vodka, in a deal possibly worth $100 million. You can find Ciroc locally at Amuse.
It’s pretty dead in clubland tonight — could only find a few things going on.
DJ Turbulence of LA’s Power 106 is at Vue. For some reason, people in Dallas looove the Power 106 DJs. Turbulence has been here before, and Echo was here too, recently. I think this event is free.
Stonerokk and Graham Funke -- two more LA dudes -- are at Suite. Both have been at Ghostbar a few times. Stonerokk has residencies at Le Deux and Area. Funk's at Ivan Kane's Forty Deuce. They play dance-y hip-hop/rock/80s/mash-up mix, which is insanely popular right now. (Me: If I hear “Pour Some Sugar On Me” one more time, I’m going to scream.)
GB usually has big-name DJs on Tuesdays, but not tonight. They’re bringing in Pete Wentz and Travis McCoy tomorrow, and Felix Da Housecat on Thursday. Then starting Saturday, Halloween madness ensues across town.
I’m going to bed early tonight (after dinner here, for my anniversary, yippee!). Gotta think about what I’m going to be for Halloween. Need to find some clever friends who can give me ideas, especially if they involve a red wig.
This show was FANTASTIC. I’d only heard one of their songs — “Alcohol” — but I'd heard that their live show is kind of insane. This ended up being true: The lead singer, Eugene Hutz, whipped off his shirt within the first 15 minutes, and the violin player (a dead ringer for George Carlin, at least from the Granada’s second-floor balcony) wowed everyone with this super-fast playing technique.
Gogol Bordello call themselves Gypsy Punks, and the songs were loud and catchy and punctuated with lots of “hey hey hey hey!”s. The melodies seemed cheerful, with an almost dark undertone. Hutz's antics made you smile, though -- one point he donned a long red wig and pointy red patent-leather heels. He's suprisingly agile in those things.
Besides Hutz and the violin player, the band also comprised an accordion player, a guitarist, a bassist, a drummer, two dancing gypsy girls and a T-shirt-clad hype man, who screamed at the crowd and played a bongo drum. Very impressive that no one smacked into each other.
The audience — lots of young’uns, a handful of whom had Mohawks — was jumping up and down from the very beginning. By the end, folks were crowd surfing. When the concert was over, Hutz and crew just stood around and kind of chatted with everyone from the stage. I loved it. Totally worth the $20 admission.
Hailey's has a poppy lineup of touring acts this evening, including headliner Say Hi To Your Mom. Actually, the Seattle band now just goes by Say Hi. I'm all for making band names shorter. Still holding out for ... And You Know Us By The Trail Of Dead to cut its first six words. Coincidentally, Trail of Dead (see, that sounds much better) plays Thursday at Rubber Gloves.
That's all. I'm still reeling from seeing the greatest Ryan Adams show evar Friday at McFarlin. I'm talkin' "Come Pick Me Up." I'm talkin' "When the Stars Go Blue." Read the DMN review here. While you're clicking, also check out the very busy Mike Daniel's wrap of the Carter Albrecht Memorial Show. I was at a wedding, so I had to live vicariously.
Gezellig on Lower Greenville Odis pays an intimate gig at Gezellig starting at 10 pm.
Saturday, 10/20
(Maybe not true nightlife items but fun stuff nonetheless!)
Armhole on Blackburn in Uptown (is getting ready for nightlife)
Saturday from 3p-7p enjoy “spooky snacks & scary spirits” while you design your new Halloween t-shirt, underpants, tank top or dog shirt. Plus, the first 40 people get a free trick-or-treat bag to decorate with designs of your choice!
Stars vs. Ducks (is the best party in town if you ask me)
This one’s pretty self explanatory. GO STARS!
State Fair (involves interesting people watching and consumption of unhealthy food/drinks, sounds a lot like nightlife to me)
It’s the last weekend to enjoy corn dogs, barnyard animals, fancy cars and questionable roller coaster rides all in one magical place.
Good Records on Lower Greenville boy/girl plays an afternoon in-store set at Good Records on Lower Greenville at 4pm. The Good Records website calls this drums/guitar pair “spazzy and messy” but I think they mean that in a good way.
Minc has two big-name DJs two nights in a row -- Japan's DJ Krush tonight, and Miguel Migs tomorrow. Migs performs with his eight-piece band, Petalpusher. Krush is $10 presale, Migs is $15 presale, $20-$25 door.
Tomorrow, Eva Pigford hosts a spoken-work poetry event and fashion show at 603 Munger. Keke Wyatt performs, too. No cover if you register here.
A few years ago, maybe even five years ago, this was the song to play when everyone was wasted and wanted to dance. Now it just feels old and trite. There's always that one hip-hoppy guy mouthing the words to the intro -- "Pack it up, pack it in/ Let me begin" -- and it's just so sad and lame now. Let's shelve it for another 10 years.
This site has professional quality vids from last month's Wall of Sound Festival, including songs from Midlake and the Books. Wish there was video from that Paper Chase set ...
Cirque was a blast last night! I haven’t seen that many people out on a Wednesday in a really long time. Crowd was super energetic and really diverse — black, Asian, white, Latino. Most people looked like they were in their early 20s, and the dress code was casual-cool. Lotsa T-shirts and jeans and fedoras on the guys. (Fedoras are apparently the accessory right now.)
The place was way more packed than I expected. The main floor was pretty much full, and so was the upstairs VIP lounge, although there was room to dance. Downstairs, they played “Magic Carpet,” which was my jam in ‘95. Also loved the one male go-go dancer (possibly a drag queen?), strutting around to the thumping electro house in a long wig and a scarf wrapped around his neck. Everything felt really spontaneous and fun.
Cirque is exactly the same as Blue, although they’ve added a raised area on the main dance floor. (Where said drag queen strutted.) Drinks prices were about average for a nightclub — one well drink and a Miller Light was $10.50.
Loved the hip-hop in the upstairs VIP area. DJ Love played M.O.P.’s “Ante Up” — whereupon I nearly got smacked in the face by some moshing dude — and Onyx “Slam,” and a bunch of other old 90s stuff.
So it's already kind of late (after work for all you nine-to-fivers -- some of us are STILL HERE), but I did want to bring up a few things going on tonight:
There's a fundraiser for Joe Vega at Purgatory. We had him as our DJ Trading Card on Oct. 4; he got shot three days later while driving with his girlfriend down I-30. Police are saying the shooting was random. All the door proceeds and 10 percent of the bar go to their recovery.
Celebrated turntablist Mr. Dibbs is Rob Viktum's guest at this week's Celebrity Beatdown. It's not at Monkey Bar -- it's at 603 Munger in the West End; doors at 9. (Someone please go to that place and tell me what it's like.)
Sushi Samba has a soccer watching party -- it actually starts soon, at 7, Brazil vs. Ecuador.
And Nature's doing his usually weekly reggae thing at Zubar.
Update to Electrique Wednesdays, which I mentioned below -- Select is out of town, so he won't be spinning.
Heading to Cirque tonight to check out Electrique Wednesdays, the new night put together by Willie Trimmer (of the 12 Inch Pimps), Wild On Dallas and some other folks. I actually got a press kit on this, so you know they’re taking it seriously.
Weekly residents in the “Big Top” main room — which will play electro house and old dance classics — include Jeremy Word, Trimmer, Kelly Taylor and Kean. The “Side Show” room (aka the upstairs VIP area) will be old- and new-school hip-hop. Select and Danny V are the residents there.
Guest DJs will rotate weekly, too. This week’s are Rob Vaughan, Josh Fade and DJ Love.
It’s a good handful of the big-name DJs here in Dallas, plus some sexy go-go dancers. Willie says they’re trying to revitalize the “old Wednesday night experience” at the Village Station that ran several years back. I wasn’t in Dallas then, so I have no idea what he’s talking about. But it sounds cool.
It's free before 10 p.m.; after that I'm guessing about $10. $2 wells until 11, $3 Royal F. shots all night. Cirque is where Blue used to be.
If you go, come say hi. I’m the girl in the red glasses.
Comments (0)
