The Mid City nightclub will be presenting an unprecedented run of performances on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights for the month of February. The concerts are in conjunction with Valentine’s Day and Carnival.
Highlights include some wonderful shows brought to you by the fine folks at Family Fish Productions.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOJQ0FTBFeY
February at the club includes “A Mali Mash Up,” “The Unlucky In Love Revue,” Clint Maedgen’s One Man Show, Susan Cowsill Does Cat Stevens, the Bandicoot 4, and the “The Reconstituted Gourds.” The full schedule is below the jump.
One of Dallas-Fort Worth’s best-kept secrets knows all of Dallas-Fort Worth’s best-kept secrets. In other words, Sofar Sounds did it again last month.
A global music movement bringing unplugged, intimate concerts to cities around the world, Sofar Sounds took root here in DFW just a few years ago and since then has introduced the region to some of the area’s most buzzed-about talent. Many Sofar alumni like Luke Wade, Leon Bridges, and Tony Lucca, have gone on to become nationally-acclaimed artists on and off the indie wire—proving that these folks know talent when they see it.
That said, we always love the introduction to under-the-radar artists Sofar features at their local concerts. Like these guys.
Meet The BoomBachs, the eclectic, Denton-based hip-hop outfit who made their Sofar debut last month at Audacity Brew House in Denton. Melding funk, hip-hop, rock, and jazz with clever rhymes, smooth vocals, and groovy beats, the group gave a performance unlike anything we’ve seen come out of DFW.
Listening to new EP “Why Does Everything Happen So Much” from NYC’s Prelow is like taking step back into those mythical high school summers.
There’s something about the slick, laid back grooves that are reminiscent of a lazy summer night sneaking around drinking with friends and trying to get the attention of the opposite sex. Lyrically, each song feels like a series of well strung together vignettes using catchy hooks as the connective tissue. It’s remarkably well polished for a new act and worth checking out.
Prelow’s latest EP came out on January 27th and you can find them on tour with Skizzy Mars from late February through mid April.
Memory is a strange thing. I owned Robin Trower’sBridge of Sighs on 8-track in the mid-seventies, but I distinctly recall it being a horrid shade of lime green. But everywhere I look now, it’s a sandy brown. I wish I still had it, because then I’d know. But it was undoubtedly eaten by the 8-track player in my older brother’s Dodge Duster, along with innumerable other 8-tracks.
I know this piece is for The Vinyl District, but you have to love the 8-track for its general fecklessness. It was the biggest loser in the history of musical media. That click that signified the track was changing generally occurred in the middle of your favorite song, totally ruining it, just as the 8-track itself was soon thereafter ruined by the 8-track player. The life of an 8-track was nasty, brutish, and short, but I have to admit I kind of miss them, because they were like the dodo of sound technology—feckless and doomed.
So I had what I remembered as my lime green Robin Trower 8-track, and I played the hell out of the thing. This was when Trower was being labeled—rather absurdly—“the white Hendrix” and led a power trio that played a downed-up blues rock—blues rock on Quaaludes, as it were. His songs tended as often as not to be slow, mist-enshrouded, and atmospheric, while his guitar playing was totally unique thanks to his trusty Stratocaster and frequently employed whammy bar. I’ve never heard him described as a progenitor of stoner rock, but the label fits him as well as it fits Black Sabbath.
Trower made his bones playing axe for Procol Harum during their glory years, before jumping ship to join a short-lived band called Jude. When Jude failed to record Trower split, and took bassist and lead singer James Dewar with him. He then recruited Reg Isidore to play drums, and presto, the Robin Trower band was born. 1974’s Bridge of Sighs was their second release, and their most successful by leaps and bounds.
Slow news day: “Colored Vinyl Ain’t So Groovy, Says Curmudgeonly Music Editor Mike McGonigal”
“On Saturday, Vinyl Junkies set up at Casbah from 11a till 5p for an afternoon of cocktail sippin’ and crate flippin’, whilst local luminaries Jon Kanis, Jeff Terich, Mike Halloran, Records with Roger, and Vaughn Avakian spin their own favorite waxy trax…”
I’ve actually seen my wallet float away before. No, really… “This Guy’s Floating Record Store Is The Sickest Thing You’ll See Today”
“Groovacious, the iconic Cedar City record store, is moving this spring: …Groovacious became the sole survivor among Southern Utah record stores. When it opened there were multiple record stores in both Cedar City and St. George but all have since closed.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUIMbwvYVOI
Is a dope: “As compact discs die off, so does a piece of me”
“The Vinyl Factory is currently working with Christian Marclay and the White Cube as part of Marclay’s investigation into sound, live performance and vinyl. As part of the exhibition Marclay and The Vinyl Factory will live press limited editions of vinyl records, made from live performances, within the gallery. Gallery visitors will be able to witness the entire vinyl manufacturing process and then purchase the results.”
“Putting a Czech Spin on Vinyl: A company that hung on to its record-stamping machines is now the world’s No. 1 maker of LPs”
“Pioneer Electronics Inc. today formally launched the PL-30 turntable, designed for consumers who enjoy the warm, rich and accurate analog sound generated by vinyl records. ‘There’s a resurgence of people who want to play records again, so we developed a turntable for this new generation of vinyl listeners…'”
One of the finer things about Los Angeles is the abundance of culture. LA is a melting pot of people, few of whom are from here. Having such a rich cross-section of cultures translates into incredible food—and great music.
Dengue Fever is a cross-section not only of cultures but of eras. The band’s sound is a take on ’60s era Cambodian psychedelic pop, a little Bollywood, and surf rock played by a group of alt rockers and fronted by former wedding singer and the lone Cambodian, Chhom Nimol. If this doesn’t excite you or have you curious, you need to get your pulse checked.
Nimol sings in her native tongue (note to you—buy the record to read the lyrics) with her vocals both sinuous and sensual—it’s world music for the cool kids.
This week the band celebrates the release of their sixth album, The Deepest Lakeon their own label, Tuk Tuk. This hometown show tonight at the Echoplex will not only be a worldly delight, but the crowd is bound to be refreshingly diverse as the headliner’s sound.
The Maple Leaf Bar is the place to be to support a great cause and see a reunion of two of the lesser sung bands of the 1990s second wave of funk/jam bands in New Orleans.
Jonas Risin’ will be appearing with special guests Papa Mali, Joe Krown, Leslie Blackshear Smith, Adam Crochet, and Calvin Johnson. Pocketfoxx, another rocking band from the era, reunites to open the show.
http://vimeo.com/86373316
Proceeds from the concert benefit Grow Dat Youth Farm. It is an urban farm, located in New Orleans City Park, that works with high schools and youth organizations throughout New Orleans to recruit a diverse and committed group of youth who develop leadership and life skills during their intensive, hands-on work experience.
BRIDGES release their fantastic single “BFF” later this month, but ahead of the release they’ve unveiled the video which gives you a feel for their cinematic, epic indie rock sound.
The video tells the story of a hard-working band—BRIDGES, of course—as they endure life on the road and on stage, sharing their massive sound with audiences up and down the country. There’s something wistful yet anthemic about the track and it’s a song you can definitely imagine being performed in stadium sized venues around Europe.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5H7JXRzIvI
BRIDGES already sound massive and that’s half the battle won—we predict big things for these guys.
Greater Manchester’s most in the know radio host Shell Zenner broadcasts the best new music every week on the UK’s Amazing Radio and Bolton FM. You can also catch Shell’s broadcast here at TVD every Thursday.
“My ROTW is from BC Camplight—it’s called How To Die In The North and I’ll be playing three tracks on the show today!
This weeks #Shellshock is by Surf City. It’s called ‘Hollow Veins’ and it’s got Fire Records through and through soundwise—fuzzy, edgy, kooky, lovely!” —SZ
First there was Bombay Disco: Disco Hits from Hindi Films 1979-1985, a very worthwhile collection from Boston’s Cultures of Soul label. It was smartly followed with Tropical Disco Hustle, an appealing survey of the Caribbean adaptation of the titular style. Next was Bombay Disco 2, and now the latest installment has arrived; The Brazilian Boogie Connection: From Rio to São Paulo (1976-1983) features 13 tracks from 11 acts. Compiled by Deano Sounds and Greg Caz, the 2LP/CD continues to document the fleeting global dominance of the USA’s dance floor export.
Cultures of Soul’s anthologizing of disco’s extensive impact has been steady, thorough, and to these ears quite welcome. Still too frequently derided as a fad rather than a transitional stylistic phenomenon springing from the ‘70s Philadelphia underground, disco deserves its due, and the more evidence of the music’s worldwide assimilation the better.
Well, as long as the sounds hold up. If more than a passing fashion, disco could be easily and brazenly transformed into a vessel of uninhibited commercialism, and in fact that’s all many people remember about it, or even noticed at the time. And as one of the most populous countries on the planet, it was inevitable disco mania would emanate from Brazil’s twin record-producing locales Rio and São Paulo.
Those cities would remain the centers of the Brazilian music industry until the ‘90s. The compilation opens with two from Bossa Nova man Marcos Valle; his most highly regarded stuff comes from ’68-’74, but after five years in Los Angeles, where he worked with Chicago and R&B artist Leon Ware, he returned home ready to boogie. His “A Paraíba Não é Chicago” is slick but crisp, wielding clean guitar, spongy bass, smooth horns, and energetic if unperturbed voices in Portuguese and English.
“I’m 51 and a former professional musician. I know how to listen. But when I bought Pono’s expensive remastered songs and compared them with the identical songs on my phone, I couldn’t hear any difference whatsoever.
I got worried. Is the Pono story a modern-day “Emperor’s New Clothes” fable? Were those famous rock stars just imagining things?
There was only one way to find out: conduct a blind trial, using identical songs on identical headphones, comparing the Pono with a standard audio player — an iPhone. So that’s what I did. You can watch the process in the video [below].”
“Tower Records documentary set for premiere at SXSW Film Festival: Nearly seven years after actor-director Colin Hanks began making it and four years after a hit Kickstarter campaign that helped finance it, the Tower Records documentary All Things Must Pass is set for its world premiere.”
So, yea. Not for those with weak constitutions: “The Music Behind The Worst Album Covers Ever”
Sometimes you just need to get out on a Monday night and go see some good metal. I had a choice between Periphery or Sleeping With Sirens. I choose Periphery mostly because I hate emo metal, but even more because Wovenwar and Nothing More were rounding out the bill that night at the legendary Fillmore. This show was perfectly primed to be a shredfest and that’s exactly what it was.
It was the eve of the release of two new albums from Periphery—Juggernaut: Alpha and Juggernaut: Omega. Two epic metal records that go from blistering technical metal, to free-flowing jazz, to soaring harmonies—all intertwined effortlessly with insanely heavy riffs. In an era when record sales are at an all-time low, who in the hell releases a double album? These guys do and they deliver big time.
Hailing from Maryland, Periphery is rapidly expanding its audience and, as founder and guitarist Misha Mansoor recently told Rolling Stone with a laugh, “Lately, we’ve even seen some females there who aren’t completely miserable.” I love that these guys have a sense of humor.
The Faces may well have been the best party band of their era, if not all time. The Rolling Stones were all sex and menace, the Who was a thinking man’s band, while the Kinks dealt in England’s hallowed past as viewed through the prism of its dystopian present. Which left the Faces, who boogied and drank to excess and were cheerful, mischievous lads, ne’er-do-wells of the sort who frequently got tossed out of parties for engaging in some innocent fun. Why, I wouldn’t be surprised to learn they even managed to get themselves thrown out of their own parties. They were, as the title of their excellent 1995 best-of compilation noted, Good Boys When They’re Asleep.
Rock’s most impish rotters only released four LPs. Or five if you count 1974’s live Coast to Coast: Overture and Beginners, which was credited to both Stewart and the Faces—a sly signal that Stewart’s band mates were no longer equals, but in effect had been relegated to his backing band. It was this development that caused the great Ronnie Lane to split the band, to be replaced on bass by Tetsu Yamauchi, and that soon led to guitarist Ronnie Wood’s desertion to the Rolling Stones, spelling the end of one of my favorite bands in the universe.
Lane’s decision to part ways with the Faces was partly attributable to Stewart’s comments following the release of the band’s final studio LP, 1973’s Ooh La La. Stewart, preoccupied with the enormous success of his solo career, largely left the LP’s recording in the hands of Lane, then came out in the press afterwards and called the results a “stinking, rotten album.” To quote another Faces tune, Rod, you’re so rude. Especially for a guy who would soon be releasing songs like “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy?”
But at their peak, The Faces were a great band, both in the studio and on stage. Its members included several former Small Faces in Ian McLagan on keyboards; Ronnie Lane on bass, guitars, and vocals; and Kenney Jones on drums and percussion. Indeed the Faces were the Small Faces, minus Steve Marriott—who formed Humble Pie and took his boogie in a decidedly harder direction than the Faces—but plus Ronnie Wood and Rod the Mod. Lane’s amiable vocals provided a nice counterpoint to Stewart’s raunchier trademark sandpaper rasp—to say nothing of his lascivious cackle—and the songs were often written by two or more members of the band.
“So, seriously…I roll into Vegas last weekend and nab this girl’s brick of bills. I know, I know—it was an accident!”
“And she’s a little hot about it turns out and I jump into this taxi and head straight to a casino and I’m tossing—big money. I’m having the time of my fucking life—rollin in uh, …ladies too. (By the way, Gibson Guitar Room? Super close.) But she’s on my heels, y’know? NOT happy. But me? Top of the fucking world.
http://youtu.be/BnFR73so69U
I’m tossing dice, playing nice, don’t think twice—and wham. I blow the whole bank. So I’m trucking through the desert with my thumb in the air—and guess what the fuck. RIGHT. Drives right up on me and it’s like that Brad Pitt movie—yea, Seven!—and I’m picturing my cranium all up in a cardboard box.
And, so yea…I filmed it—like, all of it. But man, I am not going back to Vegas any time soon. Seriously.”
“Chantael” is taken from The Grizzled Mighty’s third album, Closed Knuckle Jaw, released via Red Bull Sound Select on February 17, 2015.
Between Mockingbirds are a Scottish three-piece from East Kilbride (that’s just outside Glasgow, for those who don’t know). Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past 6 months, you may have noticed that over the pond Scotland very nearly packed its bags, took the kids, and split the record collection that it had accumulated with the UK in half. They very nearly gained independence.
Riding the wave of the national come down felt by Scotland’s “No” vote, Between Mockingbirds decided to put their feelings into their latest track, “Do You?” The lyrics are told from the POV of a “Yes” voter, and captures the disappointment felt by those who came so close to the change they’d been campaigning for.
http://youtu.be/n7Ag3acpiko
The band have quite the smorgasbord of influences, and it will come as no surprise that Queens Of The Stone Age make the cut. This is ’90s college rock through and through, but with a mean streak.
Greater Manchester’s most in the know radio host 
