It List: Monday

Nine Inch Nails/A Place to Bury Strangers (American Airlines Center): Trent Reznor re-emerged back into the American underground's line of sight briefly this year when he pulled a Radiohead and released not one but five albums independently via download and several other formats from his website. The first was a four CD set of 36 instrumental tracks, and the second was a more pop affair with vocals that has been downloaded for free nearly 2 million times since it was released. This is quite an accomplishment on many levels, but hardly surprising given the fact that 1) Nine Inch Nails is by far the most popular industrial group of all time and 2) dude has enough money to try whatever the fuck he wants. You know? Anyway, be sure to show up early and catch the set from NYC's A Place to Bury Strangers, who's industrial, shoegaze and noise influences came together perfectly on their uncomfortably loud debut record several months ago. People seem to throw the name Jesus and Mary Chain around most often when talking about this group, and although the link is clear, you won't find any of the latter group's subversively bubble gum vocal melodies hidden beneath the noise... this stuff is darker and even less organic. Highly recommended.

From The Depths/The Doomies/Maruta/Cult Ritual/Ippur/Division of Power (1919 Hemphill): Politically charged grindcore/metal/hardcore show with some fairly tight groups. The real attraction for me, however, is tonight's interactive workshop that features step by step instructions on how to crash the major national Parties' conventions this year, complete with advice on creating blockades and defending yourself against 5-0 when they start trying to fuck with you.

Cool Out (The Cavern)

DJ Holla (Hailey's): Holla is a New York based DJ who seems to play (if his Myspace is any indication) some of the most stereotypical hipster dance mixes you could ever imagine. Daft Punk's "Around the World" mixed with Rye Rye? Yessir! Stardust's "Music Sounds Better with You" mixed with Simian Mobile Disco's "Hustler?" Check. Kavinsky and MSTRKRFT? As the Olsen twins would say, "you got it, dude!" I guess you could do a lot worse than this on a Monday night in Denton, but shit, its like this guy went back in time to Spring 07 so that he could give us 1.21 Jigowatts worth of no surprises. Expect a sizable crowd!