Weekender

Shit yeah... this year Halloween comes on the weekend, me and Ghetto Boys are trick-or-treatin':

HALLOWEEN

Great Tyrant/Darktown Strutters/Akkolyte (Chat Room): Frightening. Akkolyte will kick the shit out of you via the toughest grindcore set in town, Darktown Strutters will seduce you before they slit your throat with mutant disco goth, and Great Tyrant will just make you feel all funny with Tommy Atkins' bass vibrating through your body. I guess going to this will sort of be like getting sexually assaulted.

Dj Kool Herc (Minc): For those who don't know, and I imagine many people don't, DJ Kool Herc more or less LITERALLY invented hip hop in the Bronx in the early 70's at house parties he hosted at the famous 1520 Sedgwick apartments, spinning old funk records and focusing on the breaks back when my parents still did drugs. This is a nice grab for Vigilante Music Group, and although I'm not exactly sure what dude spins these days, does it really even matter? This is probably a very rare opportunity to go somewhere where you can ponder a worldwide cultural phenomenon before you point over to the corner and say "oh, that guy. He started all of that shit."

Hands Up! Halloween with Klever/Sober/Select (The Loft)

Rock N Roll Masquerade feat. Nouns Group as Joy Division/Make Believers as Flamin' Groovies/Sean Kirkpatrick as Polvo/Drink to Victory as Nirvana (Dan's Silverleaf): Covering Nirvana is almost as tough as trying to dance exactly like Ian Curtis. It helps if you have some kind of nerve disease or something.

Zombie Prom with Yeahdef/Parata/Nanotech/Photobooth/like 15 kegs and stuff (Interskate, Lewisville): Skating and drinking and costumes and hipsters, oh my.

Play N Skillz Halloween Bash (House of Blues): Don't you wish you were me? I've been invited to waltz right into this motherfucker tonight any time I want while the rest of you don't even stand a chance at being allowed to stand in line for this thing. Viva la blog revolution! Everyone already knows the story about these hometown hip hop heroes and their rise to fame via Lil Wayne, so I won't bother explaining it other than to say that currently, these guys are the poster boys for the emergence of Dallas Hip Hop. And lets give credit where credit is due-- Sam Machkovich (spelling?) was writing about a lot of the now successful Dallas Hip Hop acts like three years ago, back when people were laughing at him for it, which is pretty impressive considering what the Observer is like these days. Let me know when Pete Freedman figures out who the Velvet Underground are, ok? And PS-- I'm so fucking cool that I'm not even going to this.

Hailey's Halloween with DJ Nature/Wild in the Streets/Black Tie Dynasty (Hailey's)

SATURDAY

Crystal Antlers/Lake/Desolation Wilderness/The League of Fucking Decency/Dogme 95 (Swiss House, 3114 Swiss Ave.): Very respectable line up over at Swiss House this weekend, and Kudos to Swiss House Evan and John Iskander for putting it together on short notice. It's not exactly mind blowing these days when you hear about a band of punk influenced hipsters who have only half ironically embraced prog and classic rock, but everything I've heard about Crystal Antlers' live show indicates that these guys do it better than just about anyone. If they are half as good live as Akron Family, this will be worth it. Get there a bit early to check out K Records' wonderful Lake, who are one of the few bands on K these days that actually remind me of why I used to like that label so much in the first place. Twee with a dark side. Thanks. Oh, and Desolation Wilderness sound like they will be a perfect band for the Swiss House faithful. Very solid stuff.

Pocket Change/Rival Gang/PVC Street Gang (Rubber Gloves): Here is your chance to catch the excellent PVC Street Gang--- I really didn't give a fuck about this band until I heard some of their newer stuff a couple weeks ago, and I was really impressed.

SUNDAY

Vic Chesnutt/Elf Power (Rubber Gloves): I just downloaded Elf Power's latest, and seriously, I remember them being better than this.