ATTN THIS WEEKEND: YOU ARE LIKE BASING AN ENTIRE MUSICAL PROJECT ON A SINGLE ISSAC HAYS SONG

That song would be Walk on By, and the project would be called Portishead. No joke. We are still on vacation and not posting, but wanted to give you a heads up on what is coming up this weekend. We will check back in Monday with our New Year's guide. party call me.

FRIDAY
Dead Roses, Future Blondes, A Thousand Cranes, brown paper kites @ The Engine Room
This little jammer is called Winter Luck Festival, and will cost you the monumental sum of five dollars. That’s like two and a half times what you owe your menacing paperboy, but still, can you imagine what A Pink Cloud is going to sound like in the cavernous hall that is The Engine Room. Also, according to this Hands Up post, the Fatal Flying Guilloteens are also playing, but we’re like 87% sure it’s a joke. BUT WHO KNOWS, OH MYSTERIONS. We’ve also seen a listing of this show where A Pink Cloud is on the bill. We have no idea.

Program, The Factory Party, DJ Dirty @ Bohemeos (708 Telephone Road)
This show, on the other hand, is only a SINGLE PAPERBOY FEE! They also do setups, so bring your liquors and what not and have a chill cheap evening with two of the city's dance rock best. Wurd.

SATURDAY
Secret Show @ The Shady Tavern
The Daytime Rock gets started at 2pm. As always there will be good times, veggie food and a shamefully small crowd. Last week Butch from 30 Foot Fall played, along with a rockabilly band with members of Elaine Greer’s band. Serious Party Call Me action. This week, we sadly do not have a riddle to help figure out who might be rockin’ a little, but we’ve seem to recall that perhaps Ben from Basses Loaded/American Sharks will be doing a solo set. Rumorz.

Grand Buffet, Bring Back the Guns, DJ Jester, Cee Plus @ Rudyards
HAH! This is a weird bill, but we’re pretty convinced it will work. Steel-town rappers Grand Buffet should provide a pretty good follow-up for the Malmsteen in the Middle rock of The Guns (wish we could take credit for the Malmsteen thing). Jester and Cee Plus will totally tear it up on the discs. If you have been thinging “gee, I wish there would be a dance party at Rudyards soon” then your New Year’s Panda dreams have come true.

Judas Bear, Bright Men of Learning, Che Arthur, Elaine Greer @ The Proletariat
FEATURING DJ LAWN CARE and DJ ADR CHANGING YOUR LIFE WITH WHIPS RECORD SELECTIONS. IMAGINE IF GOLDEN AXE FOUGHT THOR FOR RIGHTS TO THE DANCE FLOOR – THE JAMS WILL BE SO EPIC. Also, these are good bands, and it has been forever since BMOL took to the stage.

SUNDAY
Balaclavas, Dead Roses @ River Oaks Theater
What a whips place to see a show. Why has no one thought of this before. Seriously. Balaclavas is Next Level and playing here just goes to show it. Also, they will have some remaining copies of their totally wheel in the sky new ep. GO GET ER IN THE DONE ZONE!

TOP 50: PART FIVE

Our fifth and final installment of a look back at some of our favorite tracks this year.

Reggie Goes to War – The Western Civilization
Letters of Resignation
A staple of their live performances, and generally including several members banging away on snare drums throughout the stage, Reggie is as intriguing a take on a pop song as we have heard put out this year. The title is in the third person, as are the vocals, which is twisty, as they are presumably being sung by the very same Reggie they are about. Driven by a martial march, plucked strings and a heavy, almost churchy, organ, the song is at once both signature and a complete departure from their other compositions. It seriously begs the question why more groups don’t take the occasional step outside the comfort zone.

Reveal the Rats – Fatal Flying Guilloteens
Quantum ****ing
Can you imagine living in a city without the Fatal Flying Guilloteens? Like, say Toledo, Ohio, for example. That must not be fun at all. I mean, in addition to the tour stories, the caterwauling live shows with their requisite DRAMA, and the great-to-be-around members themselves, we've got songs like this. Oh sure, there is no doubt a band in Toledo who is the most crazy live, and one who tours with the biggest names while barely being able to keep from getting kicked off it, and one whose record is getting a lot of good press - but we doubt all those different things are happening all at once to a single band. If you read about these guys online lately, this is the track they reference, and for good reason too. It's damn fine like the summertime.


Revelations 21:8 – The Western Civilization
Letters of Resignation
“But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.” Oh. Ok. You know, we kind of actually like the Wycliff New Testament translation of this passage better. It replaces “murderers” with “man-quellers.” Hahahah. What is a man-queller? Are there chicken and cow quellers too? Is there that much of an academic disagreement as to the translation of this word, that some folks think its MURDERER and other think “Nah, it more like thin the herd or something”? And actually, while we’re on the subject, the International LOLCat Translation is much more concise “But if u suck u lose.” Whatever. This song send us to the firely pond with its simple pop-craft, vocal interplay and most assuredly not-up-for-argument brimstone use of xylophone.


The Sad Pony Rides Again – O Pioneers!!!
O Pioneers / The Measure [SA] 7"
For some reason, and we’re not really sure why, we had it in our heads that O Pioneers!!! was the sort of abrasive hardcore band that generally gets our eyes leering over our shoulders in search of the exit. We freely admit, afterall, not really being into the harsher parts of life. Imagine our surprise once we finally sucked it up and went them see a show. We felt sort of like the guy wandering around the airport with the toilet-seat cover stuck in the back of his trousers. DUMB. Turns out, there’s quite a bit of pop and jangle in their songs, especially this one (our favorite from their two split releases this year), which hums around in our head long after the needle has been raised and the turntables quitted. Even Eric I Heart U’s voice, rough as it is, is far more sugar in the raw than grit gut prognosticator. In spite of it’s toughness, the up and down bounce of the guitar is almost merry-go-round fun, with a kickapoo set of drums riding the pony next to you. Such a sad pony.


Sharp Teeth – Over Sea Under Stone
5 Songs Are Not Enough
Taking a break from the more operatic vocals that are so defining on the rest of this ep, Sharp Teeth nevertheless sounds like OSUS while thrusting its walking stick into new lilly pads. A sweeping, robotic mask covers nearly every pronounced word, an effect whose repetition seems like it should get, well, repetitive - yet it never does. With an uncharacteristic crescendo, you wonder if OSUS is previewing the evolution of their sound to come, or are just taking a break from themselves. Either way, it works great.


Spitekyte – Motion Turns it On
Rima
If we had to choose a word that characterized the other indiestrumentals on our countdown, it would have to be ‘un-sanded’. Ok, so that’s not really a word, but it has to be because the closest in the thesaurus is unfinished, but that somehow implies that acts like Blades or By The End of Tonight aren’t wanting that rawness in their sound – they certainly are. Spitekyte, on the other hand, gleams. MTIO has taken their songs (which, it is said, lean more heavily towards improvisation in a live setting) and not just sanded them, but applied a shop-smelling coat of laquer on top. And it works. Really well. Spitekyte, with its keyboards and and tight snares, is a carefully sculpted recording, without a single rough edge to distracts from the beading rain that cannot penetrate it.


Teenage Ruins – Something Fierce
Something Fierce/The Hangouts 7”
Thank the maker for this song. It’s been so long since we’ve been a teenager (and ruined as one). Ruin now is about so much duller of things; there is no melodrama about being old and things not going your way. It’s completely not interesting. That’s why those sorts of shows are set in hospitals or freaky magic islands or cities in Kansas after some sort of nuclear catastrophe. Even then they’re still pretty boring. Just as no hurt is more boring than the hurt felt by someone with the life experience and capacity to handle it, so to is there nothing better than being reminded of what young pain and disappointment felt like. Man we miss it.


Translations in the Lost – Hearts of Animals
Grey Ghost #39
HAH! We always wondered when someone would get around to using the TEMPO UP and TEMPO DOWN buttons on the drum machine from their keyboard as part of a song intro. Like the tap tap tapping of nervous fingers on the teller’s counter, the beat moves along until ambushed by guitar and voice waiting outside for the bank-heist double cross getaway. And get away the song does. Bedspring guitar spurts where the cash is stashed, but only in small doses and always on the run. The revenue agents are coming and that means, well, gotta keep going.


Vultures – Jana Hunter
There’s No Home
If the Beach Boys had beach cruisers instead of 409s, and were more interested in sea-birds, turtles and having crab roasts with their friends than in girls, they might have had the early introspection to write this song. Nuff said.



West Side Boring – By The End of Tonight
The Gunslinger EP
We have this daydream fantasy where we win a fantastic sum on money in the lottery and use it to produce a TV show where our whole crew is sort of like the A-Team of bringing the PARTY to the places in the world that need it most. Most likely, this song will be in the opening episode, and during the sudden SNAP BACK of the guitar at precisely 0:58, on the screen, a c-130 cargo plane with PARTY CALL ME stenciled on the wings will emerge head-on towards the camera out of a cloud of burning black smoke. From the tail of the plane an 8 passenger van will parachute and bring the RAGE directly to the troops in Iraq. After the celebration a serious amount of hyjinks will be pulled on John McCain, who is in the country for yet another fictional fact finding trip.

Well, that wraps it up for for this trip through our favorite tracks of the year. What do you think? Were there any that we missed? And what about albums - did you have a local top ten, top five or even top one? Share your thought in the comments.

THE SKYLINE 50: PART FOUR

Part Four of our all-week series of our 50 favorite tracks of 2007

Malgamesh – Graustark
Live Demonstrations Field Recordings
Dismissing this track (or any Graustark composition really) as so much aimless guitar noodling somewhat misses the point (though we were most assuredly guilty of it initially). There is no attempt here to carry on the legacy of any sort of pop music, rock and roll or “Surfing Bird.” Invoking the improvisational slice of 60s music that will most likely never be used as the soundtrack for retirement investment vehicles, this open-road Kodachrome moves things along at a more sustainable pace than most of Demonstrations, bringing to mind all those Exploding Plastic Inevitable soundtracks clogging up your Velvet Underground box-set.


Mamma Come Quick – The Generic Tribe
The Dressmaker, The Drone and the Yellow
The Generic Tribe, whose Dressmaker is so all-over-the-place they could also pick up honors in the Hip Hop and ElectroDance categories were we to have such things, have been putting out albums outside our radar for years. (Yet with a substantial fan base, apparently, as they are the only known local act to have successfully carried out a “Make A Fan Video Challenge” in 07). They are joined by scores of local fellow-minded on their recordings, inversely proportional to their relatively rare shows. Momma has them at their most shrimp-boat-on-the-bay chill, with the very definition of a lackadaisical approach to the nightmares that may or may not actually be confronting them.


Mat of Human Hair – Rustler
Phonetic Whips
We are in favor of instrumental metal. BRING IT. Perhaps this is due to the fact that the overwhelming majority of metal vocalists fit neatly into one of three categories: the tuff nu-metal closet emo-fan; the shrill enchanter of the glam era, or; the mumbling zombie growler. It is for this reason that we think people who listen to heavy metal records and are inspired by the lyrics to commit heinous acts are idiots on more than one level. YOU’RE DOING IT WRONG, DINGLEBERRY! The best part of metal is the MUSIC, and that’s why bands like Rustler rule our faces cause there’s not some guy trying to freak you out with stories about dead trees. Like all of Whips (WHIPS!), Hair can almost just hold a candle to Rustler’s blistering live shows, but it's sure great to tide you over in the meantime.


Mr Simon – The Tenspeeds
The Tenspeeds
One day at the counter of Sound Exchange, peering as we often do through to glass to be sure a bootleg DVD of Rising Force hadn’t escaped our attention, we noticed a little cardboard box with CDs by two local bands we hadn’t heard of, The Treetops and The Tenspeeds, sitting proudly on display. Always intrigued by locals we’ve never heard of, we picked up a copy of each. And smiled through our commutes for the rest of the week. It turns out, these are both the brain-children of a local kid named Kirke, a talent who later released a Grey Ghost under the name Little Red Lighthouse. In the lowest of lo-fi glory, we’re pretty Passionate about this Youthy Thing.


No Control – The Factory Party
Good Boys Tonight
We’re always heard that musical trends come to Houston somewhere between when Bedford Avenue invents and Madison Avenue expropriates. For a while there, it seems like you couldn’t swing a skinny neck-tie without hitting some sort of break-out band that wasn’t referencing the works of folks like Joy Division, early New Order and Gang of Four. Now, here we are a few years later, there has been an Ian Curtis biopic and a band called She Wants Revenge, and yet Houston appears to have largely survived this trend without much of a local ripple. Which is surprising, as there is a pretty top of the pops local that might find itself swimming near the top of that morass should it ever start hitting practice spaces as hard as needles on copies of Entertainment, mainly the Factory Party. On No Control, they exhibit no shyness in taking a page from their influence’s fakebook, and it pays off as a satisfying reminder of a trend that unfortunately passed the city right by.


On Your Own – Something Fierce
Something Fierce / The Hangouts Split
It’s weird to think that Steven Van Zandt, who is in the E-Street Band and played the role of Silvio on the Sopranos, is pretty much at the top of the Garage Rock taste-making pantheon. Let’s face it, anyone with a syndicated weekly garage radio show heard on 200 stations around the country plus TWO satellite radio channels is doing a lot more for the get out the vote project than anybody with a pristine collection of Trashmen 7”s in their safety deposit box. And yet, in spite of his notable real world credentials, we can’t help but picture him as Silvio, complete with pompadour and double-breasted suit, sitting in the back room of the Bing, nodding his head up and down to this song, and exclaiming “These kids are good. Real good. A Hit is a Hit is a Hit!”


One Picture Frame and One Half a Picture – Tambersauro
The Blue Letter/Tambersauro Split
Probably beating out even the Linus Pauling Quartet LP in the category or “highest per-unit manufacturing cost”, Tambersauro’s split with like-minded Pacific coasters Blue Letter is just about as beautifully packaged as can be imagined. Picture, the single song that is captured in the grooves of the ten inches of white and splattered sherbet vinyl, is an unfolded piece of origami paper on a stranger’s table. It doesn’t unfold for you, its rather a series of creases that you must make sense of on your own. You must wrap it up in your own mind, to make sense of the interplay between the different parts and arcs and lines. It’s a very rewarding exercise.


Palms – Jana Hunter
There’s No Home
We have no idea how an Etch-a-Sketch works. We know all it would take to lift the Copperfeildian cape would be a few keystrokes and BAM, we’d be introduced into an entire subculture dedicated to the art and science of all things magnetic dust. But no. We like the unknown, and that mystery is part and parcel of the medium itself, and therefore important to preserve. We have as much interest in that as learning the science behind what is taking place when paint dries. So too with a good song like this one. We need not know why it has the particular affect it does on us, and we’re not looking to delve deep into the alt.musical.appreciation.stimuli.understanding.bin of our own heart to find the answers. That sort of vulnerability to inspection is the work of the artist. On this track, a hopeful transition between Home and her stripped down debut, Jana backtraces the knobs like a schoolyard pro.


Philthy Collins – By The End of Tonight
Complex Full of Phantoms
Lately, we’ve become more and more convinced that Phil Collins is the new Hall and Oates. This is often an unpopular observation to make in polite company. This isn’t to say that Portable Radio, Rich Girl, Private Eyes or I Can’t Go For That aren’t as sweet of jams as they were last month, but every piece of bubble gum looses its flavor eventually, and once you empty your pack, you might find yourself tempted to try on a new flavor for a change. Something with No Reply, for example. Therefore, it comes as no surprise to us that our favorite off of BTEOT’s latest is named after the resurgent man-puppet of Sam the Eagle. Quite the contrary. We expect to references to the Jacketed one popping up all over soon enough. See you in the Su su sudio.


Radio Song 04 – Bring Back the Guns
Dry Futures
What is the most common cliche of all time ever in the last several years or so? There’s never anything good on the radio. WELL PRAISE THE MAKER THAT IT’S SO. The radio is on in so many situations where you really need to get something done, that it would be a DISASTER if there was always something you wanted to hear on. Ordering a sandwich at Subway – DISASTER, because you’re tuned out and totally grooving to Booker T and the MGs and accidentally say yes to “extra day-old tuna” on your turkey sandwich. DISASTER: You’re at the DMV totally rockin' it to every song on the PA, and then you get to the front of the line and you’ve been so distracted you forgot to fill out your paperwork and then you have to go wait in line again. DISASTER: Radio Song 04 is on in the bathroom at work, and you can’t help but tap your foot and air guitar along and yell “I’M ON THE RADIO! I’M ON THE RADIO!”, but you didn’t realize that you are now in the hallway and never bothered to pull your pants up.

THE SKYLINE 50: PART THREE

Part Three of our all-week series sharing our 50 favorite tracks to come out of the city this year.

Hearts Break – Hearts of Animals
Lemming Baby
We’re not entirely convinced that Mlee Marie didn’t just get dropped off by some well meaning spirit in the sky, complete with a back-story, back-catalog and pointy auburn guitar. A year ago, we didn’t know her from Eve, today, we can’t turn around without stumbling upon some new project she’s involved with. But this was the song that got it started for us – simple, sweet, coy; freight trains and hearts you really believe are broken. Yes, it's true, we made a Doctor and the Medics reference.


Hello Boss!!! – Fatal Flying Guilloteens
Quantum ****ing
Remember when you were a kid and there were still tapes and it always seemed like the first thing you did when you tore one out of its shrink-plastic was fast-forward it to the first song on the second side – like it was the FCC mandated position for the most bangin’ radio single of all times of that week. OH SNAP! MOTOWN PHILLY BACK AGAIN! Now somewhat older, possessed of more wisdom perhaps but less likely to act on it, we tend to listen to our records straight through. That’s why we love a break you off somethin’ lead off like this one. (Excluding the intro, of course. By the way, what ever happened to that original French Kiss name-checking intro that had the back bacon references?) A total next-level departure from previous Guilloteen full lengths is stuffed in the ballot box from the get go, and isn’t it great to hear McManus in action one last time?


Honesty – Papermoons
Papermoons 7”
Sitting on a grassy little embankement watching a girl you’ll never get teach the neighborhood kids how to play kickball is not how one should spend their Sunday afternoons. You should be at home with your mates planning a tour where you take a day off to catch the Superdrag reunion show and coaxing worthwhile sounds out of an accordion you bought for a dollar off the wall of a bootmaker’s shed at a flea market. Pinhole cameras, pinwheels on beachbikes and songs like this are antidote to the too much of anything we are all sometimes seduced into feeling. Grab your kite.


I Drempt of a Terrible Adieu – Listen Listen
Listen Listen
The Listen Listen ep is made of wood. The packaging anyways. Sometimes we wonder if perhaps this is because, once the recording was complete, they chopped their instruments up with axes so as to exile the demons that had no doubt taken residence inside during the creation of such a melancholy opus. Prolly the saddest song on our countdown (oh and bonus – suicide lyrical content), only a master along the lines of Kacey Kasem could ever segue between this banjo plucking dirge and, say, an Arthur Yoria song that happened to have the same instrument in the background.


I Told You Not To Write Again – Arthur Yoria
Handshake Smiles
Here’s a tip on how to get into this countdown every year. Be Arthur Yoria. Write a song about some impossibly common aspect of the human condition that had somehow not occurred to anyone was an impossibly common aspect of the human condition. Add some egg shakers. Play a banjo in the background. Arthur: please record another record soon, we need more insight into our own lives. kthanx


In Piles/Files – Bring Back the Guns
Dry Futures
ATTN T-PAIN: We got your next remix ring-tone right here. Piles/Files is a rock club shredertainer that is to the 2007 live show what apple is to strudel and unfortunate berry combinations is to Kosher wine. If this jam was cattle, it would be an entire cow made of whips pre-seasoned center-cut fillet (is that even possible?) served on a solid 28” platinum plate to Kanye West in his V inspired mothership hovering above the Source Awards. PARTY CALL ME.


James Ralph Brown Part II – Riff Tiffs
Afflictinnitus
Judging by the reaction of their fans to our review of their full length, there is an entire legion of the Riff Tiff Army that does not think it is a compliment to have your music designated as the eternal soundtrack to Puff Daddy’s voyages through the ocean depths should he ever be transformed into a Dolphin. Whatever. Those people have no idea what they’re even talking about. If they can think of a better song to glide along to should you ever awaken to discover you’ve been metamophesized into a marine mammal named Franz, we’re all flippers to hear what it is.


Legion of Serpents – Fatal Flying Guilloteens
Quantum ****ing
We heard this uncharacteristically long and tempoed song was the first ever Roy Mata Guilloteens composition. This is no doubt why we are so GET INTO IT GET INTO IT GET INTO IT GET INTO IT GET INTO IT GET INTO IT GET INTO IT GET INTO IT GET INTO IT GET INTO IT GET INTO IT GET INTO IT GET INTO IT GET INTO IT GET INTO IT GET INTO IT GET INTO IT. (rewind) GET INTO IT GET INTO IT GET INTO IT GET INTO IT GET INTO IT GET INTO IT GET INTO IT GET INTO IT GET INTO IT GET INTO IT GET INTO IT GET INTO IT GET INTO IT GET INTO IT (rewind). (Realize we have drive all the way to Juarez with this song on repeat when our intent was only to goto La Tapatia.)


Lonely Goodbye – Paris Falls
Lonely Goodbye (single)
It says something when a local band goes to the trouble of self-releasing a two-song single when they’ve just dropped one pretty aces full length and have a second all wrapped up and in shop-around mode. It’s a special song to them, to be sure - one they had to get out there in the intra-release interim for whatever reason (if we were a thoughtful site, it might have occurred to us to ask them before this moment what that reason might be). It’s a tender and warm lullaby; a blanket of leaves in a rural yard beyond the times. It’s why more musicians should get married and till death do they record.


Lucky – Paris Falls
Vol. I
Paris Falls has their own lighting rig, complete with the ability to trigger it for choreography with what they’re playing at the moment. If you have such a setup, you’ve got to bring the minerals to the water, or else you’re just going to be that group of wankers who thought they were too good for the illumination options the rest of the bands were ok with. But here’s the key – PF aren’t just great musicians and songwriters, they’re great showmen too. Not in the spandex pants kick and splits jump vein, mind you, but in the fact that they see a gig as more than just a thing – as something more akin to the original meaning of the word ‘show’. The whole thing tells the tale of a quartet who take things a bit further than just showing up. The same care went into their Vol I, and this song especially.

REVEALED: HOOTENANNY POSTER!

NICE WORK LIZ MOLINA!

THE SKYLINE 50: PART TWO

Part two of our all week series of the best tracks to come out this year

Eight For Eight - The Dimes
Wires and Buttons (Grey Ghost #47)
We love the Dimes. We love this song. We love the man who recorded it. But treading as gently as possible on the feelings of all those involved, a much tighter version of it is begging to exist. The springing and sprightlyness of the guitar lead, which screams, “we may have developed a new form of cowboy rock” plays along like saddle soap with the souza march of the snare, both flowing well into the sort of SEND UP THE ROCK breakdowns we’ve come to expect from this soon to be differently-named foursome. But secrets – re-record soon.


Everyone is Gay – Black Math Experiment
All You Need is Blood
We hope that you never find yourself wandering aimlessly through the falling snow on the grounds of an empty ski resort in the Utah mountains, asking yourself if you have made the right relationship decisions and if maybe burying things in the snow to try and find later was a good idea. Never question yourself like that. You made the right decision. Put this song on repeat, go wander around in the woods for awhile and feel better. It’s so catchy and fun you’ll completely overlook the fact that it’s bemoaning how much other people do not rule, but you rule even less. But isn’t that the job of a good pop song? To confront you with temporary truths of your life and make you feel better about them?


Exist – Papermoons
Papermoons 7”
This is such a delicately beautiful song on such a delicately beautiful ep. Timid little guitar strokes and drums low in the mix, with vocals telephoned and dialed down to being barely audible during the breaks. On record, this perfect little warbler is a bird in the nest, asking why we can’t just live. On the stage, Papermoons are a rockier and a rollier, and this song tells you unequivocally that you are living, and that this is one of the best expressions of it you’ve heard all year.


Fire For Wings – Gretchen Schmaltz
Laced Up Tightly
Sometimes we wonder if the brushes in the opening verses of this song are on a drum, or maybe a little bit of percussive time-keeping a loathed step-daughter makes as she sweeps the cold and foot-worn wood floors; wanting release, wanting to let go, wanting to go to the ball. Making an afternoon of mope and the way the light filters through the blinds and dust into her own private waltz, Gretchen’s voice Huck Fins you into her chores with equal parts husk, soult and unknowing.


Goodnight, Goodluck, Godspeed and Goodbye – Listen Listen
Listen Listen
The Listen Listen formula for (whips!) songwriting is to start with an instrument raid on the store-room of the Grande Old Oprey. Make a getawy in an olde time medicine huckster’s covered wagon/traveling stage horse-drawn contraption. Trot lazily through the night, drinking every brown bottle of snake oil rattling on the shelves until you fall asleep. Pick up an extra few wandering musicians by the side of the road. Stop at a revival tent near dawn. Be forgiven. Sleep through the day in the light of the Lord.


Goons, Hired Goons – Blades
Who’s the Creampuff Now
Quick! Make for the exits! Lock the doors! Watch out for snakes! Beware the CBS Saturday Murder Mystery! This empire is not Holy, or Roman, or even an empire! Who’s the center square! Stay out of Wollworths! This song has a way of running its riffs through your memory bands, connecting one thought to another in ways unaccustomed. It’s a hard one to concentrate on any one thread throughout it. Presumably, it’s about goons – but there’s nothing particularly menacing about it. Neither does it lumber and disappoint like so many Homers. BEHOLD, THE FACE OF HELEN!


Granny Clampet’s Pure Grain Know-it-All – Dizzy Pilot
**** Out the Bones
ROCK YEAH! Lest the last few tracks make you think otherwise, we are into things that get the heart a pumping and fist a shakin’. We can’t make word-one out of the vocals on this banger, but we’re totally content with any song where the don’t put down the phone and spell things out to us. The perfect soundtrack for sketchy 80 mph cab rides down the back-streets of Lafayette, Louisiana in a car whose head-liner is being ripped away by the pummeling gust-stink from the open windows and which hasn’t been washed since the meter stopped working four years ago.


The Grey Call – benjamindavismurphy
Grey Ghost #43
One of the best things about the Grey Ghost series (there could be no one best thing, cause it’s about as whips an idea as soup in a breadbowl) is all the old tracks clamoring around on people’s four-track tapes that wouldn’t otherwise see the light of day. Like this minute and a half jangler from friend of the Skyline Ben Murphy, for example. It’s a reminder that the best chicken is nuggets, and that it’s generally pretty chell to go ahead and put your stuff out there.


The Guards – Gretchen Schmaltz
Laced Up Tightly
Were it not for this track (and, in fairness Elaine Greer as of late), you wouldn’t be able to ever convince us that there are any solo-flying songstresses out there that weren’t on the sad train to bummersville. Not that this sort of expression doesn’t have it’s place, but just like every rose has it’s thorn, so too must it want nuthin but a good time (and it don’t get better than this).


He’s Home With Bones that Grow the Way They’re Supposed to – By The End of Tonight
He’s Home With Bones that Grow the Way They’re Supposed To
To paraphrase our own review, it’s like a bunch of miscreant school-yard jump-ropers from planet Angry Purple Sun got together and tried to tell the story of the Bayeux Tapestry through a combination of freaking you out and stealing your lunch money to buy you pomegranates they later hide under your pillow. If this song was accidentally swapped out with whatever was on the phonograph record they put on the Voyager spacecrafts, an entire terrified universe is going to preemptively invade us just so their children can sleep at night.

CATCHING UP WITH INDIAN JEWELRY

Editor's Note: A big welcome to should-be-more-frequent Skyline Contributor Anna Garza, who put together this interview with local upsetters of grandmas and collectors of bad words, Indian Jewelry.

You may have heard of them when they were called Swarm of Angels… or NTX + the Electric Set...or Hong Kong…or Corpses of Waco. Some of the players may have changed but not the game. After brief stints in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and other destinations unknown, Tex & Erika are back in Houston – picking up where they left off… playing mind blowing / ear shattering live shows. Below are a few questions from yours truly to… Tex? Erika? Does it really matter who answered the questions? I think not because they ARE the wild beast.

Yours truly, Anna Garza

Why so many personnel changes?
Shit got weird.

Why so many band name changes?
Shit got olte, and as anyone who's ever seen us play live knows, we're perfectionists. We had to get the name right.

Out of all the cities you have relocated to, which one is your favorite?
LA is home to the Museum of Jurassic Technology and the Ocean of Cold. Chicago has the best food, Mexican excepted, see below. Hotsun has the most floor space, yard space, and family. So it depends on what a person is looking for.

Out of all the cities you have relocated to, which one had the best music scene?
In LA more than 12 people actually like our band, so that sort of prejudices us thataway. Chicago has Bobby Conn and many cool underground spaces. All the while, Houston looked so sweet in our rearview mirror. But don't fucking axe us why.

Which local acts are you digging currently?
WICKET POSEUR DR WIGGLES TINSE KUNT FASCION MUZAK? PANK CLOUD CRAWLING IRIS DISSY PILOT HILARY SLOAN COP WARMTH LAWYERS BOLLYCLAVAS RUSTIN' SHUT + ROTTEN PIECE.

If you could assemble the ultimate line up for Indian Jewelry, who would you choose and what would they play?
GIRL, YOU KNOW WE BEEN THERE DONE THAT>>> Erika Thrasher (sympathizer, guitar, & vox) Brandon Davis (guitar) Rodney Rodriguez (drums) Jimi Hey (ozark percussion) Michael Belfer (guitar) Abi Cohen (pandemonium) Candice Vincent (saxophone) Bobby DJ (syn-drums) Leslie Keffer (static) Nic Barbeln (vox) Rosalinda Gonzalez (violin) Don Bolles (drums) Margeaux Cigainero (guitar) Andrew Scott (guitar) Donna Huanca (drums) Pete Czechvala (saxophone) Bryce Martin (drums) Anna Bechtol (drums) Ken Consumer (electronics/gongs) Mariana Saldana (funky drums) Bobby Deeds (electronics) Domokos (projecting gongs/feather axe) Travis (war rattles) J-Morrison (ghostworm) Squeaky (pizazz) Ralf Armin (starmaker/saxophone) Chad Colehower/Sequential Sheik (sequential circuits) Nathan + Ben + Russ + Weber (havocking)

Are you going to release any new music in the near future?
Fuck yeah we are and this here is the only promotion we are gonna do for any of this, the rest of the real world and the internerd notwithstanding:
1. This winter, Swedish label Deleted Art is releasing "Fake and Cheap," an lp of music we made in LA + Chicago.
2. This winter, or as soon as we get the artwork in their hands, which is to say as soon as we reckon which songs to ditch, Irish label Skinny Wolves Records is releasing "Sangles Redux" on a vinyl lp.
3. In April 2008, Monitor Records new imprint WE ARE FREE is going to release our newest and heartiest cd&lp, which we recorded between here, Chicago, and LA, and which unfortunately, will be titled neither 'Bustin' Ass' nor 'Rude Scootin.'
4. Lastly, Tigerbeat6 is supposed to re-release our 2003 record "We Are The Wild Beast," but God only knows when.

Do you have any New Years resolutions?
To get back in the habit of fucking shit up. You see, its been a mellow couple years for us. Hakuna matata!

Where is the best place to find a breakfast taco?
IN HOUSTON, TAQUERIA LAREDO-- the Fulton @ Patton location. IN AUSTIN, TAMALE HOUSE.

Indian Jewelry will perform as Depeche Mode for the Hootenanny show on Saturday January 5, 2008 at the Backroom @ the Mink.

THE SKYLINE 50: OUR FAVORITE SONGS OF THE YEAR, PART ONE

OH SNAP! This has been such a whips year for local releases. The beautiful people that we all rub elbows with on a daily basis have put out a slew of aces recordings, both those barely registering on the local radar and ones getting good reviews in publications across our mighty and rarely making erroneous foreign-policy decisionsish nation. Therefore, in the week leading up to the announcement of our first ever SAMMIES AWARDS (you’ve voted, right?), we are pleased to unleash upon you our fifty favorite tracks 0f 2007. To qualify, the songs need only have been released on some media or another (LP, CD, CDR, tape – whatever) and be really really party call me.

So, without further ado, we present the 2007 Houston 50, in totally non-biast alphabetical order:

Alien Abduction – Linus Pauling Quartet
All Things are Light
What better way to start our countdown than with a nearly nine minute album-opening opus by one of the 713’s has-been-around-but-definitely-not-has-been stardog champions. Combining the big fuzz that got you listening to Soundgarden in the first place with enough of a groove to tempt Herbie Hancock, Abduction rides out her parts to the last exit for Roswell and then loops back around to enjoy the drive a little longer.


Ankstiyeti – Cop Warmth
Centaur Cop Top
We remember in High School there was this total dish of a photographer who wrote angry editorials in the school paper and once took this picture of a rack of girl’s clothes, all identical and neatly placed next to each other, under a sign that said “Be an Individual.” We freely admit that we were not yet sophisticated enough to immediately understand a pictorial representation of the irony of wanting to be different just like everyone else. In a sense, Anksiyeti is similarly satiric of that part of life, with its demand that no on/every stop looking. It baffles us to no end how a song so chaotic can be so catchy at the same time.


Art of Malnutrition – Bring Back the Guns
Dry Futures
A friend of The Skyline (and BBTG) asked the question, can a song that’s been played live for so long really be considered one of 2007’s best? Yes. Absolutely. Even if it had taken another five years for this record to finally come out, this song would have been one of 2012’s best. A band notorious for not riding out any of the gunch-busting riffs that pack their songs like a wet burrito, Malnutrition is one of those rare exceptions where an almost, dare we say it, conventional approach to rocking out pays off like Casa Ole green dip. Pass the salt.


Ashes – Balaclavas
Inferno
When we first heard this ep, we immediately got in touch with Chris Ryan over at Dead City Sound to ask how he recorded the bass on it. While we won’t reveal his secret, we will say that in terms of the tone it’s a complete departure and total breakthrough for the band. It slinks around heavily and without hard edges, like a gigantic scorpion’s tail stabbing about with unknown intentions in the dark. On Inferno especially, it adds a new form of pleasurable disquiet to what was already one of the most unique sounding acts in town. It gives us the creeps and we love it.


At a Second Glance – Balaclavas
Balaclavas
Sometimes, you’re supposed to avert your eyes and not look directly at something, even when it might be polite to look just as though there were nothing shameful, awful or disturbing about what you’re seeing -because you know that, if you look away, every muscle in your neck and ocular sockets will try instinctively to go back for that second, perversely satisfying glance. For us, this song isn’t about that second look – it’s the struggle not to, and the bit of self loathing when you do.


Beatle Battle – Golden Axe
Kill Them Allah
If Golden Axe had put out a 50 song release, they would be the only band in the top 50 this year. Fortunately for everyone else who poured blood, sweat and tears into their Tele’s f-holes during 2007, Golden Axe did just a Grey Ghost single this, which means that there isn’t an overwhelming amount of material evidence that your band is not as good as Golden Axe and that you really should stop practicing right now and start spending more time planning for what the world will be like when it is ruled by James and Warren’s benevolent co-dictatorship.


Bird – Jana Hunter
There’s No Home
We iTuned this album, as it came out on the net a few weeks before the actual release, and we needed something that reminded us of home to listen to while we walked aimlessly around the akward Stevedore paradise of Long Beach, California. As such, we’ve never (to this day) seen the credits for this song and who all it is that’s singing and strumming along with our city's favorite daughter-in-exile. Even if there isn’t one, this track always sounds like home to us, and every few months we’re both surprised and not to learn of someone else we know who was sitting around the campfire when the gentle romp got put to tape. Come home soon.


Bruise the Paper – The Western Civilization
Letters of Resignation
Aside from platinum selling and prematurely deceasing rappers, Houston is generally know for bands that ride in a very different bumper car from bands like The Western Civilization. Bruise the Paper, in spite of lyrics that might get a troubadour down, is pure pop bliss. But this syrup is anything but factory processed maple that’s never seen the inside of a tree – so far from it. This taste of Karo doesn’t have a lot of local contemporaries, but they’ve sure got the pancakes to put them on.


Cuttin’ a Rug – Arthur Yoria
Handshake Smiles
We’ve heard the studio chatter lead-in to this song, “I do need a click for this one,” so many times this past year that we’re more than a little astonished it hasn’t become a catch-phrase around the newsroom along the lines of the now ubiquitous “oh word?” Frankly, we wonder why Arthur Yoria isn’t more ubiquitous either. It doesn’t speak very highly of the music industry that Cuttin’ a Rug hasn’t cut its way up the charts of some sort. Maybe it’s for the best, as it means we get to keep our local treasure around just a little longer. Party call me.


Drugs and Drawing – Wicked Poseur
Wicked Poseur 7”
Arthur Bates is a weird weird weird dude. We’re not really convinced that this song is about drugs or art. Seems too obvious and, well, not weird enough. That’s pretty subversive, to write a song about the role of chemical substances in artistic expression and spell it out plainly but still have people wondering "yeah, but what is he really talking about here.” Weird.

ADDENDUM TO YR WEEKEND: SHAMELESS PLUG

HAH! For the curious, Gil Mantera's Party Dream will be going on tonight at nine, or perhaps a few minutes afterwords @ The Prolo. Here is what you can expect:



N2IT!

Plus, Shameless plug, our very own senior dictatorial editor ADR will be DJing at the Wols show Saturday night at the Proletariat. Want a preview of Wols? Turn on KTRU today at six, as Ayme and Mlee will be on the air doing some music and competing for the SAMMIE for BEST NON-STANDARD FEMALE NAME SPELLING. PARTY CALL ME!

ATTN THIS WEEKEND: IT IS NOT POSSIBLE FOR YOU TO BE LESS GOOD THAN THIS WEEK, CAUSE THIS WEEK WAS DECIDEDLY BAD

Man. It seems like everyone we talk to had a bad week. What is with that? Not into it. Here’s what we think you should be up to this weekend. Man. What a terrible week. Man. (But on the real tips – how rad is it going to be to have THREE daytime choices on Saturday?!)

FRIDAY
Gil Mantera’s Party Dream @ The Proletariat
EARLY SHOW. EARLY SHOW. We caught these guys a while ago and they do not disappoint. Were it not for a completely obligatory Christmas Party, we would totally be there in the front row for a much needed face-splash of all fun synth pop while a chiseled Adonis with eagles tattooed on his chest danced around in a male-stripper Indian getup. Real Talk.

Will Boone’s A Man’s House is his Coffin @ Domy
Will Boone isn’t just a handsome man in skinny jeans fronting the men of LAWS (playing as Credence at the Hootenanny, by the way). He’s also an artist. Fancy. And the good folks over at Domy books are doin’ like a good man should and putting some of it up on display. We’re not sure what sort of cow-poke throw downs might be in store for attendees, but good art rooted in the city is sure to be among it.

Robert Earl Keen @ Verizon Wireless
C’mon. You know you’d go if you could score a ticket.

Texas Gone Garage @ Rudyards
The biggest local schebang of the year kicks off and runs through the weekend. Get the complete schedule from our post yesterday.


SATURDAY DAY
Secret Show @ Shady Tavern
Be sure to bundle up warm for this week’s installment, as both rain and cold are in the forcast, but not so cold as the place in your heart if you miss a lineup that includes Mlee Marie and others (though we have no hints to share this time. Sowwy). BUCK UP BUTTERCUP – its always fun. DJs @ Noon, Bands @ 2.

Texas Gone Garage @ Walter’s on Washington
Free! All Ages! Chris Hansen! Lineup!

A Whiskey, a Dance, a Fight and a Kiss Goodnight @ i.am.we.commUNITY House
That’s just one band, FYI – They’re from Florida and will be giving away free copies of their EP. This thing is a Chili potluck too – (vegan and norma) – so bring yr appetites. A cool new thing by people from back in the day. Starts at Five. Peep the details.

SATURDAY NIGHT
One Night, One Woman @ H Gallery
Lindsay Peyton lives in like Conroe. And technically, there are two women this night, since Sabra Laval will be playing a set at the opening. But hell. It’s in the Heights and is right around the corner from new hot as hot hawt spot Antidote, where you’ll need to step in for some hot black coffee by this point in the day. 7ish

Mlee Marie, Wols, The Wiggins, Wolf Explosion and Terry Suprean @ The Proletariat
Earlier this fall, we caught a snapshot of Ayme Wols taking a slug off of a bottle of Purple Rain Mad Dog like she was a member of the New Power Generation. The other night, we heard her enter into a ficticious relationship due to the promised payout being one of those $13 hot dogs as the one year anniversary dinner. Plus, she’s moving to Scotland for a while. It’s not possible to be any cooler. Not possible.

Texas Gone Garage @ Rudyard’s
Schedule here! Bang! Could only be better if the Wallflowers were playing!

Sunday
Texas Gone Garage @ Walters; Rudyards
We’re tired of typing and want to go to bed now. Schedule

MLEE MARIE WANTS YOU TO HAVE A VERY SPECIAL HOLIDAYS AND SEE HER PLAY FIVE TIMES THIS WEEKEND

Friend of the Skyline and candidate for the Mike McBike Lifetime Achievement Sammie for Most Concurrent Band Memberships, Mlee Marie (ex-The[e] Freed), has plugged in the Christmas lights for yet another MySpace page showcasing both her cuckold-warming musical talent and near-crisis scheduling conflicts. Yes, as it turns out Mlee (Hearts of Animals) has, every year since 2002, put out a Christmas release much like Sufjan Stevens or nearly every pop band in Britain. Now this year, sadly, there won’t be any new recordings to share, but since most of us were no doubt not included on Mlee (Vaarg)’s naughty vs. nice lists in the past, getting the whole collection at once is akin to our having helped a lot of old ladies cross a lot of old streets all this old year long: You’ve been wicked nice and its time to reap the reward. You can get the entire Mlee Marie(Wols) Christmas recording catalog online here.

While we’re on the subject, Mlee (singing as Kim Deal with The Dimes at HOOTENANNY!) is taking it easy this weekend, playing only five different times. If you're a Beaumontian, you can catch Hearts of Animals on a bill that includes Indian Jewelry, Wicked Poseur and The Wiggins Friday night at The Vortex. Houstonians can (secretly) catch Mlee (Kidnaps) playing as herself during the Secret Show, Saturday afternoon at the Shady Tavern, or later than night during the last hurrah show for Wols (for which she, along with Will Adams are stepping in to back-up the soon-departing-for-Scotland Miss Amye). She’s also on that bill playing as herself (Mlee Marie) again. Sunday she’ll be playing as Hearts of Animals during the final night of Texas Gone Garage. Party call me.

ATTN TEXAS – WHERE HAVE YOU GONE? TOTALLY GARAGE, IT TURNS OUT

You gotta hand it to Travis He Said She Said. The man works hard. And while he doesn’t always bring to town the kind of acts that that tickle the fancy of our well-manicured weak-kneed taste for indie wonk, he does his own thing and he does it well, and that does tickle us the right way. And no event he has organized to date can match up to the long-publicized but suddenly here before we knew it Texas Gone Garage fest, which kicks things off tomorrow night and runs strong like the hammer of a mighty dulcimerist until the weekend end. Three night shows (at Rudyards) and two all ages day-time-athons (at Walters) have your weekend nailed down tighter than a Walmart business trip.

The lineup (31 bands in all) includes both acts currently burning up the flavor crystals in our personal pop charts (The Monocles, American Sharks, Something Fierce, Eat Grapes, Black Black Gold, Sew What, The(e) Freed, Hearts of Animals, the Linus Pauling Quartet, etc) and reunited regulators of rock from beyond our memories (The Mirrors, Dig Dug, The Mike Gunn, etc). HERE’S THE COMPLTE LINEUP

Friday Night Show
8:00 - 8:25 - the Monocles
8:45 - 9:05 - Welfare Mothers
9:20 - 9:45 - Bad Rackets
10:00 - 10:30 - the Born Liars
10:45 - 11:15 - the Matt Mayo Band
11:30 - 12:00 - Alright Tonight
12:15 - 1:00 - the Ugly Beats
1:15 - 2:00 - Amplified Heat

Saturday Day Show
3:00 - 3:20 - Teenage Kicks
3:35 - 4:00 - Bad Sports
4:15 - 4:45 - the Uptown Bums
5:00 - 5:30 - American Sharks
5:45 - 6:15 - Something Fierce

Saturday Night Show
8:00 - 8:20 - the Takes
8:35 - 9:00 - Maaster Gaiden
9:15 - 9:45 - the Teeners
10:00 - 10:30 - the Ape-Shits
10:45 - 11:20 - Something Fierce
11:35 - 12:05 - Dig Dug
12:20 - 12:50 - the Hex Dispensers
1:05 - 1:45 - the Pumpers

Sunday Day Show
3:00 - 3:30 - Eat Grapes
3:45 - 4:15 - Sew What
4:30 - 5:00 - Black Black Gold
5:15 - ??? - Greg Ashley (solo)

Sunday Night Show
8:00 - 8:30 - Sew What
8:45 - 9:15 - The(e) Freed
9:30 - 10:00 - Hearts of Animals
10:15 - 11:30 - the Mike Gunn
11:45 - 12:45 - Linus Pauling Quartet
1:00 - 2:00 - the Mirrors

DAMN. PARY! CALL ME! Remember, the night shows are at Rudyards, are 21+ and have a cover. The day shows take place at Walter's on Washington and are free and all ages. You can apparently still buy tickets online here. Totally the makings for a good weekend. See you then.

WORST MONDAY EVER: THE PROLETARIAT TO CLOSE FEBRUARY 4TH

Well poop. We knew it was coming, but I don't think any of us expected it to happen so soon. Sadly, the Proletariat will open and close it's doors for the last time Sunday, February 3rd, meaning that the Fourth, we will all have a pretty bad case of the Mondays. We predict in advance that no amount of pizza shooters or extreme fajitas will be able to cure it. We spoke with our friend and the Prolo's owner Denise Ramos Sunday and Monday night about it and, in turn, it's time to let you all know.

For these final few weeks, she wants to use the venue for what it has become legend, a stage for our music and our scene. They've got alot of open slots for bands to play, so if you're looking for one last time under the red lights, send them a MySpace message or email booking at theproletariathouston dot com. The final weekend will include a show by the Fiery Furnaces Saturday night and a to-be-announced finale on Sunday.

At some point in the future, Denise may be ready to share the how and why of it all, to give a little bit of the closure that you might be wanting right now. Personally, we've got alot of good memories of this joint, and with each tick of the clock, we're getting more and more sentimental. We're not ready to write the obituary yet, but you can be sure that, as the date approaches, we'll have a weepy weepy retrospective. Sorry to take the air out of your morning. Be well.

Photo from Indie-Music.com

ATTN THIS WEEKEND: YOU DROPPED THE BOMB ON ME, BABY

66 years ago today, Japan got too big for her britches and decided to let it all loose on Pearl Harbor. We got pissed and put a bunch of Japanese-Americans into prison camps and then dropped nuclear bombs on two of their cities. OUR BAD. We’re not sorry about the rest of it, though. Plus, you make such good cars and cameras now that obviously it didn’t hurt too bad, though we’re pretty sure that the whole Hiroshima/Nagusaki thing is why all your films consist of a giant monster wreckin’ shop, disturbingly scary horror movies, or FREAKISH cartoons. But hey – nothing but love now for you. And if you’re visiting Houston this weekend, look what we have in store for ya:

FRIDAY
Hearts of Animals, The Dimes and Sunset @ SoundExchange
Yuss. In stores. Other engagements will keep our vaunted and wanted reporting staff from attending this WHIPS weekend kickoff, but it’s sure to be (as always) a who’s who of our city’s bold and beautiful. Sometimes sporting a free keg, but never charging a cover, your best bet is to come early, buy a tallboy across the street and do a little record shopping while you’re there.

Vinyl Ranch @ Leon’s Lounge
This monthly hoe-down of classic cowboy and western hits boasts ‘the smallest dancefloor in Houston’ and pulls from Lee Walker’s (Basses Loaded) madcap collection of the era’s greatest records. Special guest DJ this month is the notorious Trish, formerly of T&T Music Factory. Party. Call me.

SATURDAY
Saturday Secret Show and Gear-rage Sale @ Shady Tavern
Ok, this is gona rule so hard that we’re going to clone a dragon and slay it all over 20th street just to say thanks. FIRST OFF: The bands. There are slated to be four this week and the only clue is this riddle that the organizer sent us. We haven’t quite decoded it yet. What do you think:

here is the happenings this week if you so dare to figure it out. there will be a sparkely darkness in the air as someone with the same last name as a character in fight club performs. there will be an almost indian named(feather not dot) group rocking out the jams while someone will be knife fighting in the parking lot.

Totally can’t come up with any of them. If you figure any of em out, leave it in the comments. BUT, it’s sure to be good, as it has been every week. PLUS, this week bdm and Erik Bogle are having their Gear-age sale, where you can come to buy and sell all manner of musical equipment. Get their sneak peak list of what is FOR SURE going to be there (along with who knows what else) in our post about it. Plus, we’ll be there oogling over DJ Curtis’ sweet freaking jams and selling some Skyline Network awesome every band in Houston t-shirts. DJs at noon, Gear-age sale starts at one, bands hit the stage at two.

Basses Loaded and Sabra Laval @ Kelvin Arms
This is a weird place to do a show, but it’s a great little club in the Village. Apparently they are looking to broaden their appeal, and so a free show. Good for us, good for them.

Danseparc @ Numbers
This week’s Danseparc is billed as “Black Celebration”, some sort of “dress in all black” anti-holiday fest. That the flyer has a black Santa on it kinda confuses the message for us, though. It seems to be that, because the standard iconography for Santa is that he is White, the incorporation of a Black Santa as the design’s centerpiece seems to imply, because this is an anti-celebration, that somehow Blacks are the anti-, the opposite, the Other, whereas Whites are good, normal and standard. We reject this conceptualization of race. So yeah, in summary: “Hey let’s have an anti-something, oh and throw a Black dude on the flyer.” Classy. We’d be offended if we thought they put any thought into the artwork. Whatever. GO AND DANCE!

REVIEW: BY THE END OF TONIGHT / TERA MELOS - COMPLEX FULL OF PHANTOMS

All of us, every one that has ever played in a band where we were not the lyricist has experienced it. It’s a whips Sunday afternoon, and we’re sitting enjoying the day – outside perhaps – strumming the strings or plucking a few notes here and there. Daydreaming about a person or a memory or a thing or a history yet to be written; and out of it emerges a riff. And from the riff, a progression, and from the progression, an entire song. My lord, how hilarious, just the thought of Robin or the love you had to hide away or the time you went tubing down the Guadalupe and you met the fair Brazilian you would never cross lines with again turns itself from daydream into song. No words, of course – that’s the job of other men, but it’s the source, the hot spring from the mountain as it were. And in the end, they guy with the microphone and the pen and the pad ends up writing a song about someone called Lola. Lo Lo Lo Lo Loooolah. How discouraging.

The power of the voiced word is immutable. A picture may be worth a so many thousands, but a single sentence caption can change the entire meaning. Similarly, the dreaded context that the voice brings can utterly destroy the original meaning of a chord progression. I once sang a song that others wrote the meaning for. I do not think they meant for it to be all love spirited away and holding out hope for divorce paperwork to be signed. Atrocious. Let us never speak of it again.

Similar then, the power of the instrumental composition, be it rock or jazz or classic or electronic – how it gives us so few words, just the title, and lets our own hearts and ears connect the dots between the notes and the stated intent. Riding the A train. A watermelon man. A higher state of consciousness. Kings of snakes. Delaware is Depressing. Phil Collins is a filthy man. Perhaps that is what is so liberating about By The End of Tonight’s best recording to date, their split with Tera Melos, Complex Full of Phantoms. That, ironically much in the same way text-driven Sierra adventure games once did, so much imagination in required when we elevate it from potential film score to scripted narrative.

Its true too that we, the listeners, bring so much of our own baggage to these compositions to derive meaning. Nowhere is this made more clear than in the closing seconds of Ghost Boat, where this dialog, lifted from somewhere, unfolds between a man and a child:

Stories? Tell me.
They’re not the kind of stories you can really tell.
Too Dirty?
I suppose they’re dirty too, but only incidentally. Mainly, they’re angry, sensitive intensely felt, and the dirties of dirty words –

And then BAM!, into the closing track of BTEOT’s half of the record with no indication of what the dirtiest of words might be. Is it love? hate? Hope? Fear? With so many of their engaging songs having ignorable goofball titles, the Alvin foursome (er, trio right now), forces us to ignore their stated meaning and find one of our own. They hold a mirror up to us polished so sharply, that we cannot even pretend that we aren’t making our own fables for their works. Every one of this compositions has a different meaning to every single one of us. Whips.

Much in the same way a photographer might have evolved from disc film to 35mm to digital to polariod, this record is a next level achievement by the band. No doubt this is due in no small part to the production values of the record itself. It was recorded by Chris Ryan at Dead City Sound earlier in the year, and even the limited sneak peak listen we were granted of it when visiting there oh so many months ago, it was obvious that By The End of Tonight had fantastically come into their own. Those of us that have never personally recorded with him, nor heard legend of his laid-back style behind the glass and levers, certainly like to imagine Mr Ryan an angry Viking in the most anti-Christopher Walken as Bruce Dickenson sort of way – storming out of the control room into the studio’s live room screaming such ultimatums as “I SAID LESS DISTORTION AND MORE GAIN, DANGIT” and “WHEN I SAY TRY IT IN 7/4 TIME I DON’T MEAN 14/8!! TRY IT AGAIN” But in reality he is just good at what he does, and has produced the best sounding BTEOT release to date. Mad Props.

We could go into detail here about how emblematic of the actual BTEOT this release is in contrast to the solo EPs we have spent the week reviewing. We could talk about how great a pairing they are with Tera Melos. We could make up something about the sound of a hulking space freighter trying desperately to run the blockade or whatever else these songs make us think of. But we won’t. This is a record you really need to hear. This is a record you need to put your own narratives in. We know it seems like we're always recommend every record we review, but that’s because we like them to the point we’re at home writing about them when we should be out trying to meet a nice girl. We don’t waste our time on things that aren’t worth it. And conversely, we spent our entire week listening to, thinking about, and spouting out our thought on one of the city’s serious treasures. Think about it. Recommended.

MP3: By the End of Tonight - Philty Collins

REVIEW: BY THE END OF TONIGHT - HE'S AT HOME WITH BONES THAT GROW THE WAY THEY'RE SUPPOSED TO

This record totally freaks us out. SHIPOOPIE! It's like Vern Fonk decided to s