Weekender: 10/19/07-10/21/07

FRIDAY

Modern Till Midnight with St. Vincent/Peter and the Wolf/Sleeping States/Doug Burr/Tame...Tame and Quiet/Mom/Sober (Fort Worth Modern): Wow, what an impressive line up at the Modern this evening. I usually assume that people involved in "the arts" are a day late and a dollar short when it comes to music, but I think this looks to be quite an event, with a solid local line up that seems perfectly crafted to cater to the vast cross section of people who will probably be at the Modern this evening. I should point out that the English band Sleeping States, the only non locals on the bill, are a pretty nice little pop band that kind of reminds me of sleepy early 90's indie rock and brit pop, maybe something like Belle and Sebastian doing Silver Jews covers remixed by Sea and Cake. Anyway, this event is also a good opportunity to get one final look at the Ron Mueck exhibit, which closes down October 21st. It's fifteen bucks to get in, and you can get more info, including set times, right here.

Man Man/The Extraordinaires (Palladium Loft): Man Man put on one of the highest energy live shows I've ever seen a few months ago at the Cavern, and I'm hoping the excitement they were able to bring to that small venue can be found in the considerably larger surroundings of the Palladium Loft. I bet it can. If you have any interest in their music and you have yet to see them live, I promise you want to. From the Philadelphia art spazz scene that produced the love em or hate em Need New Body, Man Man comes off live like one of the easiest bands in the world to like-- all clapping, yelling, and banging on drums. Worth it. The Extraordinaires will be playing a Good Records in store today at 6pm.

Great Tyrant /Life Death Continuum /Trifle Tower /Aphonic Curtainz (Red Blood Club): This is an impressive lineup featuring some of the top talent in local music, regardless of categorization. Great Tyrant and Life Death Continuum both exhibit the rhythmic complexity and grandiose bombast of every great moment in prog from Magma to King Crimson, but with more anger than 70's cheese. Life Death Continuum has a more direct style of attack than the ominous gloom of Great Tyrant's music. Trifle Tower is frantically tumbling and screaming hardcore. Aphonic Curtains is the new project of Aaron Gonzalez, Rob Buttrum of House Of Tinnitus, and Mike M. of SDS. I caught their first brief impromptu performance at Tinnitus, and was impressed by the trio's ability to manipulate the intensity by their keen sense of dynamics. Buttrum has classic drum chops, which is apparent even as he beats away on scrap metal. Mike M. adds electronic buzz and static over everything and it comes as no surprise that Aaron Gonzalez is a great bass player, even if he uses a butterknife in lieu of a plectrum. We're not sure about the line up for this one, so maybe someone in the know can give it to us in the comments. (This is a rerun of the write up we did last week. We thought the show was last week and added it to the previous weekender because we're dumb. But this time, we're quite sure that the aforementioned show is actually happening THIS weekend. Promise. Sorry for the confusion.)

Thomas Function /Chronic Seizure / Party Garbage /Teenage Cool Kids /Wax Museums (715 Panhandle): Looks like another rad show at Panhandle. Alabama's Thomas Function has been compared to Television, and though I can hear it more in the vocals than anything else, fans of solid poppy jangle rock shouldn't shy away from the punk atmosphere of 715 tonight. Teenage Cool Kids is also very pop-oriented but they tend to be more 90's indie rock and pop punk than late 70's New York. Party Garbage features members of The Snobs and Ben Snakepit of Snakepit fame. Wax Museums will probably be the highlight of this show for me.

Violent Squid/Mad Scientists/Silk Stocking (Dallas Scaregrounds): The Dallas Scaregrounds is an obviously bizarre place to see a show, but this lineup is better suited to the setting and should alleviate the usual overhanging cloud of awkwardness. Mad Scientists return with a new drummer from more of a punk rock background, so expect more force and drive from this quirky, charming guitar solo factory. It's pretty much impossible to predict what Violent Squid will try to do on a given night, but that's more than I can say for most local bands and the results usually hit rather than miss. Silk Stocking playing a haunted house pretty much explains itself.

Strawberry Fields presents Terrorvision (Corner of Oak and Bonnie Brae in Denton): Tonight Strawberry Fields will be showing two "80's schlock" horror films, From Beyond and Brain Damage. Last night was the first time I've caught a show at Strawberry Fields and it was fucking terrific. A packed store, enthusiastic audience, and friendly staff made for the perfect night. And where else can you browse an "Encyclopedia Of Cop Killers" between bands? Woah. I don't know how often Strawberry Fields plans on doing this, but I wouldn't miss their next show.

SATURDAY

Caribou/Born Ruffians (Palladium Loft): Have you ever seen Caribou live? I saw them over a year and a half ago with Junior Boys and Russian Futurists at a sparsely populated Hailey's (imagine the kind of crowd that show would draw these days) and it was a pretty incredible experience-- Dan Snaith's live drumming is worth the price of admission alone, and the fact that he has released an incredible new album this year just adds to the excitement of this show. With a seemingly perfect blend of Kraut rock, psychedelic pop and minimal ELM/IDM style electronica, Caribou has become one of my favorite bands to emerge this decade. And even though their albums have all been fantastic, the two live performances I've caught from the band have put their studio material to shame.

House of Dang One Year Anniversary Party and And/Or Gallery Show with Treewave performance: A big party for these two neighbors, featuring food and drinks and art and music and fun. Does that description sound dumb to you? Well it's my fault, because I don't have time to write much at this point. Anyway, this starts at 6 (at House of Dang), Tree Wave goes on at 830pm, and here is some info from And/Or on the art show, which will also feature the music of Travis Hallenbeck.

The Party (Zubar)

Figurines/Dappled Cities/Lifters (The Cavern): I haven't heard the most recent Figurines record, but I really enjoyed the Danish band's full length debut last year-- an exhilirating and well done dose of pop punk that pulls off the amazing feat of actually sounding original. Imagine that?

Deep Snapper/The Demigs/It's Unamerican to be Sad(Rubber Gloves)

House On Swiss Halloween Show with Tah Dahs/ Sydney Confirm/Laura Palmer/New Science Projects/The Freekout/Sticky Buns (3114 Swiss Avenue in Dallas): The latest edition in a series of house shows to take place in what essentially appears to be a storefront (although it does seem to double as someone's home). This indie pop/folk focused line up will be easy to swallow with two kegs and what is usually a large and pleasant crowd. $5 cover.

Burning Hotels /The Cut*Off/PPT/Black Tie Dynasty (Ridglea Theater): Before you get all confused about why we might be listing this show, I want to let you know that we're willing to mention things when they're for a good cause. The quality of sex education in America is laughably oxymoronic and nearly non-existent, especially in the South. This show benefits The SPEAK Project, which raises STD awareness with the 15-24 crowd. More info here.

SUNDAY

Qui/Record Hop/Red Monroe/(Hailey's): Despite releasing a fairly disappointing full-length debut, I hear that seeing Qui live is the best evidence that David Yow is still the one of the great all-time frontmen. And for the record, Iggy Pop hasn't released a good album in decades. Record Hop continues to impress with the live previews of their anticipated second release and they will pair up beautifully with Qui. Red Monroe is somewhat of a departure from the rest of this lineup, and we'll have their review up soon.

Gogol Bordello/Dub Trio/DJ Dubta (The Granada)

The Flaming Fire/Telethon/The Hack and Slashers (Doublewide)

Zanzibar Snails /Daniel Folmer (Dallas Scaregrounds)