The Weekender 1/5/07-1/7/07

(FYI: for the couple of people who have asked, our year end look at local music will be posted bright and early Monday morning. Sorry. You can call us lazy if you want, or you can call us People With Jobs Who Wish They Could Do This Full Time But Can't Right Now. Its up to you.) Anyway, not an extremely busy weekend ahead, but a couple things to look out for:


FRIDAY

Gorilla vs Bear Showcase- The Dimes/The Early Tapes/Teenage Symphony (Club Dada): Has anyone been over to Gorilla vs. Bear lately? If not, then you've missed an extremely solid run from the always surprising MP3 blog. Chris has honestly been knocking shit out of the park the past few weeks with new music from !!!, Panda Bear, Chromatics, Deerhoof and more, and it looks like he's got a pretty solid showcase for us this weekend. Fans of The Thermals and rhythm focused guitar bands like Bloc Party and Oxford Collapse will probably enjoy Houston's surprisingly satisfying Dimes, who despite sounding a bit derivative of a lot of stuff I don't have to tell you about still seem to pull off their simple, short, catchy guitar pop/punk songs quite well. And drawing from influences like Spacemen 3, The Who, 60's psyche, garage, and Brian Jonestown Massacre (which I guess is shorthand for all the other stuff I just listed), Austin's Early Tapes also sound like they could be a great live band, even if they won't completely blow you away with the originality of their sound. And finally, the excellent Teenage Symphony, whom Chris has referred to as his favorite local band, will be opening up. Is anyone else excited to hear where Teenage Symphony is going to take their sound? The possibilities seem endless to me.

Tame...Tame and Quiet/Eat Avery's Bones/Brickfight/Wounded Infidel/Frank Helj (Metrognome One Year Anniversary at the Wreck Room in Ft. Worth): As many of you probably know, the one year anniversary of Metrognome Collective is upon us, and despite the obviously positive nature of such an event, the space has been having quite a few problems recently and could really use your help. After running into a series of issues with the City of Ft. Worth's code enforcement people, it appears that Metrognome must raise somewhere in the neighborhood of $5-10,000 in order to make the necessary renovations and improvements to keep its doors open. To this point, the only thing that Metrognome has done for the area is host over 90 music shows, dozens of gallery events, a handful of film screening and readings, and provided low cost studio space to dozens of visuals artists in the area in just less than a year's time. Basically, they have become the center for forward thinking art and music in Ft. Worth, and have put on some of the highest quality local shows we've seen this year. Their show at the Wreck Room will feature two of our favorite local bands, but more importantly, it will provide you with an opportunity to help Metrognome keep its doors open, as all proceeds from the show ($5 cover) will go towards their renovation project. Metrognome is honestly one of the best local stories to have emerged all year, and all you have to do to help out is go a to bar, listen to some music and drink. Doesn't seem like a whole lot to help save a truly great DIY venue, the kind that everyone reading this blog should be happy to support. And if appeals to charity don't work on you, you might also want to go check out the strange electro/industrial noise of Wounded Infidel, who seem to be equally influenced by dub, Southern Lord, triphop and Throbbing Gristle. Yeah, it's pretty strange, and it will scare the crap out of anyone who hangs out at Club Dada on a regular basis. And if you can't make it you can just go to Metrognome's website and make a donation via pay pal... donations over $20 will be rewarded with a Metrognome t-shirt, pictured above.

Pretty Little Flower/The Prosthetics/Akkolyte/50/50/Tolar
(House Party show at 1119 Frame St. in Denton): Hardcore punk/Grindcore show at a place called Extreme Dude's Manor in Denton. If you like grindcore and punk, then you'll probably like these bands, as they seem to do what they're trying to do quite well, especially considering how young some of them look. Actually, Akkolyte has been around forever and they have influenced many younger bands, even those that aren't minimal drum kit and bass grindcore duos. 50/50 formed from the remains of the legendarily vicious Machine Gun Romantics. If you don't like either of the aforementioned genres, then there probably isn't anything that can be said to make you want to check out this show. This kind of stuff isn't really something we'd listen to all day and all night, but I bet this should be a fun show to see anyway, as this kind of stuff is always best experienced in a live setting. And if nothing else, you can at least give these guys props for the name of their house.

SATURDAY

Swedish Teens/Apeshits/Free to Kill Again/The Pumpers (Rubber Gloves): We've probably stated before that we aren't the biggest Swedish Teens fans in the world. Free To Kill Again's vocal style almost reaches Dez Cadena territory and that's never a bad thing. The opening bands in general might be the highlight of this show.

Bob White and the F-Electrics/Drink to Victory/The Early Tapes (Secret Headquarters-Denton):

Three very different bands on a smartly booked bill. Early Tapes will give SHQ a 60's atmosphere, Drink To Victory will take it to the rockin' 90's, and Bob White will take it beyond. And there will definitely be drinking, although I don't know if the place you'll ultimately find yourself would be considered a "victory".



SUNDAY

Cartright/Prayer for Animals / Wild in the Streets (Hailey's): A tour of former local bands that recently relocated to Austin. We like both of these groups and everything, but who wants to live in lame ass Austin?