I traveled to Detroit this past weekend to check out the Swell Season, aka, Glen Hansard (above) and Marketa Irglova from last year's beloved indie musical Once, and I have to say that although the music was in fine form, I was a tad disappointed at the concert overall.
Some yahoos in the front wouldn't shut their yaps during a new song that Marketa sang solo at barely above a whisper. So when Glen -- Marketa's boyfriend, by the way -- came up to the mic next, he chided the talkers in the audience, even inviting them to leave for talking over Marketa's performance. End of story, right? Except that Hansard's comments about the talkers and rude concert-goers in general never ended. It's fine to take the yappers to task in a strongly worded comment or two, but it became too much when he punished the entire audience for the faults of a few, for rest of the night. It was so bad, I didn't think they'd come back out when the crowd cheered for an encore!
Although the offenders were wrong in chatting so incessantly and loudly as to garner the attention of the performers (and likely the annoyance of everyone around them), the last time I checked, a concert isn't exactly a library. But you've been warned, Dallas: When the Swell Season rolls into the Palladium Ballroom on Aug. 29, shut the eff up!
Sometimes I get really excited about an artist's upcoming release and do a big interview way too early. Such was the case with Will Johnson. I talked to him in March about the Centro-matic/South San Gabriel double-album, even though it's not coming out until June 6. But I'd just heard the news that Johnson and his bandmates had new music from their rock and country sides coming out simultaneously. I couldn't control myself.
So to serve as a reminder that Dual Hawks is on the way, I'll play you the first single.
"The majority of [the Centro-matic side] was tracked in one week ... done in the studio and recorded the day the songs were written," Johnson said in our interview. "Just a lot more spontaneous. Get in there and go for it and capture everything in raw, very unbridled form. It's a fairly raucous recording."
Centro-matic, "I, the Kite":
The local CD release party for Dual Hawks is May 31 at Dan's SilverLeaf in Denton. Following that will be a U.S. tour, with a June 28 stop at the Granada, where Johnson and crew will be filming the show for a DVD.
Let's switch gears a bit by featuring one of the shining talents of the local singer-songwriter scene, Rahim Quazi. Rahim just released full-length CD Supernatural, which (thanks to his recording it at Pleasantry Lane) achieves the clean, full-band treatment that his smart songwriting deserves.
The title track introduces a theme that lasts throughout the set, Quazi told me today on the phone (and no, I'm not sure if he was using that pink one in the picture).
"'Supernatural' is semi-autobiographical in that it's about a guy who doesn't realize he has everything," he said. "There's a metaphor about one day learning you can fly, only to later find out that up there isn't where it's at -- being down here with other people is what brings happiness."
"My personal inspiration came from having a daughter at age 22, but I really wanted this song to be broad enough to let everyone find a little of themselves in it. The theme of wanting to fly and then getting back down to earth is pretty universal."
Rahim Quazi, "Supernatural":
Quazi will play an acoustic set Saturday night at Opening Bell Coffee during a daylong music fest organized by local songstress Kristy Kruger. His next full-band show will be June 26 at 8.0 in Fort Worth.
I'm writing about Aura for next week, but for those of you who like to know things now, the club is probably the hottest spot on McKinney Ave., if you're into lists and blondes and bottles and that kind of thing. (This is an aside that has nothing to do with Aura, but if I see the phrase "Models and Bottles" on another flyer, I'm going to run away screaming.)
Aura was jumpin' last Saturday around midnight. A line of cars snaked down McKinney, waiting in the valet line. People crowded around the door. Another line ran alongside the building, presumably the I-just-showed-up "non-VIPs." (I think I saw some of the same folks waiting on our way out.) Luckily we were on the list, because otherwise I don't think we would have gotten in.
Got an email yesterday from Lift and Obar owner Tim McEneny, who says he gets several phone calls a week from people asking if Lift charges $20 for men. The answer is no. It's free. (Ghostbar is the one that charges for guys, folks.)
Also, Lift has loosened their age restrictions for men. Guys can now get in if they're 21 and over. Just, you know, dress nice, because they will vet you at the door.
For real! May 21! Only, Billie Joe and company will be performing as their alter-ego band, Foxboro Hot Tubs. Tickets are $20, but you can only get them day of show. Billboard has a story about the whole weird thing.
In other Billboardbreaking news, it looks like Ozzfest will put on its one-day, one-stop event here on Aug. 9, at Pizza Hut Park in Frisco, The surprise headliner? Freakin' Metallica!
If you saw 11-member symphonic pop group Mount Righteous do its thing outside the Palladium before Quick's Big Thing, you know how exciting it is to get to hear an unreleased track from the group's forthcoming CD.
When the Music Starts comes out June 6, and was recorded over a two-day period in March at the Oak Cliff studio of producer John Congleton (frontman for the Paper Chase). Band spokesman and guitarist Justin Spike told me on the phone today that Congleton and the players tried their best to capture Mount Righteous' unplugged, marching-band vibe in the recordings.
"We recorded the instruments live, all together, one day, and then did the vocals live the next day," Spike said. "And John set up some ambient mics to get those big room sounds."
The track, you're about to hear seems fitting as a sort-of thesis statement for the band's musical mission. "At least for how this album will be, the song gets at how we are all about community and the power of friendship. And positivity," Spike said.
Mount Righteous, "The Feeling You Bring":
Mount Righteous leaves for a U.S. tour on Thursday and will be back to play KTCU's The Good Show June 1 and a CD release concert with Fishboy at Rubber Gloves in Denton on June 6.
P.S.: Thanks to Cindy at Fine Line for turning us all onto this band months ago.
Two local acts I often call up in iTunes while I'm waking up and getting ready are Denton's Mom and Florene. They're both ambient electro-acoustic duos from Denton that create mostly-vocal-less soundscapes. Not that my description will make a bit of sense to you until you hear the music.
If you saw last year's piece on Mom, you know that the members take an improvisational, playing-by-ear approach to recording. So do the guys in Florene, Gavin Guthrie and Aaron Mollet -- probably to an even greater degree considering their latest tracks, which are part of a collection called "the Room Series."
Writes Guthrie in an e-mail, "What happens is, we set up a microphone or two in the room and record everything for an hour or more, go back and listen to it, mix it a little bit, then cut out a portion of it we like best for general listening purposes."
The guys are on their sixth track in the series, and they plan to release everything they've done thus far on Rooms Vol. 1 in late May.
Florene, "Room 6":
(It'll be a few seconds before you hear anything.)
Also a possibility for Florene: A summer tour with Mom. Well that would make sense!
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