It List: Wednesday

Sir Richard Bishop And His Freaks of Anaby Ensemble/Oaxacan/Shane English (Rubber Gloves): Sir Richard Bishop is a former member of Sun City Girls and though his roots are in noisy post-punk, he performs heavily Eastern-influenced guitar pieces, and that's a direct influence from extensive traveling in Asia, not just listening to old field recordings. His style is sometimes reminiscent of a less busy Bert Jansch, though now that he's playing with an ensemble, whether or not these various disparate sounds are enhanced or diminished by the group remains to be heard. In any case, I'm sure it will be worth seeing live. I have no idea what Shane English will be performing tonight, but I would bet good money that it won't suck, and I would pay good money to see it.

Blackmoth Super Rainbow/School Of Seven Bells/Darktown Strutters (Hailey's): It's pretty remarkable that producer Dave Fridmann's "sound," characterized by a big and slightly clipping drum production technique, has yet to go out of style. I remember when "Soft Bulletin" came out, the general consensus was, "Yeah, this big, distorted drum sound is cool, but it will sound so dated in ten years." Guess not. And nobody seems to mind that every record he even breathes on sounds like Mercury Rev.

It actually makes perfect sense to pair BMSR with Fridmann's less-than-subtle technique, since it sounds like the band has sort of pushed for a smaller-scale (or lower budget) version of this aesthetic in the past anyway. When I first heard the tracks from the new album, they sounded very close to what I had predicted, which is not bad at all. Even Kanye likes it. This is one of those bands that make music perfectly suited for the instore-play at Urban Outfitters, except they are actually pretty good. It seems like something I would usually hate, like some band that grew up listening to "The Virgin Suicides" soundtrack while doing suburban gutter drugs in eighth grade, but I usually like what I hear enough to where I would probably ask what it was if it came on while I was shopping at a hipster clothing outlet. Just kidding. Nobody does that, do they? Ghostly International recording artists School of Seven Bells, as well as the excellently dark and sarcastic Darktown Strutters make this a very strong bill.

Detour with Redsean/Select/Vega/Ishi/Hoyotoho (the Cavern): This is one of the biggest lineups for a Detour show in some time, mixing some of the best known DJ's with some of the best known groups heavily influenced by electronic music, or groups that work in a lot of dance elements. Speaking of dance music, I was just in Germany and I found an Italo compilation record for four Euros at a flea market, as opposed to the two hundred dollars they often go for at record conventions in the US. Made my day. Not happy to be back, but I may try to make it to this show, since it is one of the most Dallas things I could do, and it might help ease the transition back into North Texas nightlife.