Selling Out Isn't Possible

I wonder what you guys thing of this little essay, written by Of Montreal's Kevin Barnes in response to criticism of his decision to permit advertisers to use Of Montreal songs in commercials. Here's the whole thing:

Are you a sell out? Yes. Don't let it bother you though, cause apparently I am also a sell out, and so are your parents and everyone you've ever known. The only way to avoid selling out is to live like a savage all alone in the wilderness. The moment you attempt to live within the confines of a social order, you become a sell out. Once you attempt to coexist you sell out. If that's true, then selling out is a good thing. It is an important thing. If we didn't do it, we'd be fucked, quite literally, by everyone bigger than us physically who found us fuckable.The pseudo-nihilistic punk rockers of the 70's created an impossible code in which no one can actually live by. It's such garbage. The idea that anyone who attempts to do anything commercial is a sell out is completely out of touch with reality. The punk rock manifesto is one of anarchy and intolerance. The punk rockers polluted our minds. They offered a solution that had no future. Of course, if the world would have ended before Sandinista! was released then everything would have been alright. It didn't. Now we have all of these half-conceived ideas and idiot philosophies floating around to confuse and alienate us. I think it is important to face reality. It is important to decide whether you are going to completely rail against the system or find a way to make it work for you. You cannot do both -- and if you attempt to do both you will only become even more bitter and confused.

When I was younger, and supported my parents, I chose to float between the two. A lot of people choose to do this. There are so many confused young people running around now polluted by this alloyed version of the tenets of the punk rock manifesto. Of course they're confused. It isn't possible to be in chorus with capitalism and anarchy. You must pick one or the other. Very few people are willing to do it, though. The worst kind of person is the one who sucks the dick of the man during the daytime and then draws pictures of themselves slitting his throat at night. Jesus Christ, make up your mind! The thing is, there is a lack of balance. When capitalism is working on a healthy level, everyone gets their dick sucked from time to time and no one gets their throat slit. It's impossible to be a sell out in a capitalist society. You're only a winner or a loser. Either you've found a way to crack the code or you are struggling to do so. To sell out in capitalism is basically to be too accommodating, to not get what you think you deserve. In capitalism, you don't get what you think you deserve though. You get what someone else thinks you deserve. So the trick is to make them think you are worth what you feel you deserve. You deserve a lot, but you'll only get it when you figure out how to manipulate the system.

Why commercialize yourself? In the art industry, it's extremely difficult to be successful without turning yourself into a cartoon. Even Hunter S. Thompson knew this. God knows Duchamp and Warhol knew it. Some artists are turned into cartoons and others do it themselves. I prefer to do it myself. at least then I can control how my cock is photographed. Why should it be considered such an onerous thing to view the production of art as a job? To me, the luckiest people are the ones who figure out a way to earn a living doing what they love and gain fulfillment from. Like all things in this life, you have to make certain sacrifices to get what you want. At least most of us do. If you're not some trust-fund kid or lotto winner, you've got to slave it out everyday. People who wanna be artists have the hardest time of it 'cause we are held up to these impossible standards. We're expected to die penniless and insane so that the people we have moved and entertained over the years can keep us to themselves. So that they can feel a personal and untarnished connection with our art. The second we try to earn a living wage or, god forbid, promote our art in the mainstream, we are placed under the knives of the sanctimonious indie fascists. Unfortunately, there isn't some grand umbrella grant that supports indie rockers financially and enables us to exist outside of the trappings of capitalism.

The thing is, I like capitalism. I think it's an interesting challenge. It's a system that rewards the imaginative and ambitious adults and punishes the lazy adults. Our generation is insanely lazy. We're just as smart as our parents but we are overwhelmed by contradicting ideas that confuse us into paralysis. Maybe the punk rock ethos made sense for the "no future" generation but it doesn't make sense for me. I like producing and purchasing things. I'd much rather go to IKEA than to stand in some bread line. That's because I don't have to stand in a bread line. Most people who throw around terms like "sellout" don't have to stand in one either. They don't have to stand in one because they are gainfully employed. The term "sellout" only exists in the lexicon of the over-privileged. Almost every non-homeless person in America is over-privileged, at least in a global sense.

Obviously, I've struggled with the concept. I've struggled because of the backlash following my songs placement in TV commercials. That is, until I realized that the negative energy that was being directed towards me really began to inspire my creativity. It has given me a sense of, "well, I'll show them who is a sellout, I'm going to make the freakiest, most interesting, record ever!!!" ... "I'm going to prove to them that my shit is wild and unpolluted by the reach of some absurd connection to mainstream corporate America."

I realized then that, for me, selling out is not possible. Selling out, in an artistic sense, is to change one's creative output to fit in with the commercial world. To create phony and insincere art in the hopes of becoming commercially successful. I've never done this and I can't imagine I ever will. I spent seven years not even existing at all in the mainstream world. Now I am being supported and endorsed by it. I know this won't last forever. No one's going to want to use one of my songs in a commercial five years from now, so I've got to take the money while I can. It's the same with pro athletes. You only get it while you're hot and no one stays commercially viable for long. It's not like Michael Vick is going to be receiving any big endorsement deals anytime soon. As sad as it may seem, one of the few ways most indie bands can make any money whatsoever is by selling a song to a commercial. Very very few bands make enough money from album sales or tour revenue to enable themselves to quit their day job.

Next time you see a commercial with one of your favorite bands songs in it, just tell yourself, "cool, a band I really like made some money and now I can probably look forward to a few more records from them." It's as simple as that. We all have to do certain things, from time to time, that we might not be completely psyched about, in order to pay the bills. To me, the TV is the world's asshole boss and if anyone can earn some extra bucks from it and they're not Bill O'Reilly, it's a good thing.

Jonanna Widner Fired

A super secret inside source from the Dallas Observer confirmed in an email to us this morning that Jonanna Widner was fired as Music Editor yesterday. A retrospective on her role in the highly regarded local cover band/dudes with birds nest hair scene is forthcoming.

None of the details are available at this time, but I bet someone will send us something soon. Stay tuned.

Secret Headquarters: 6/03/06-10/13/07

Now that some of the dust, figurative and otherwise, has settled around the local institution that was Secret Headquarters, thus begins the venue's legacy and its potential influence on future spaces, musicians turned venue owners, show bookers, sound people, and those who could probably be considered several of those things at once. The musician in such dual roles is not specific to SHQ, of course, but everything regarding the venue is unique due to the group of people that ran the place and their unusually welcoming attitude to noise, melody, beauty, ugliness, sincerity, plasticity, the most grandiose, the meekest, the well-meaning, the mean-spirited, everybody, everywhere, anywhere, locally, globally and beyond if they could reach. And therein lies the simultaneous tragedy and triumph of a place that will be one of the most warmly regarded memories for anyone who set foot there, even years from now. A place that tries the impossible of pleasing all of the people all of the time will ultimately always fall short in someone's eyes-- in this instance, the cliched specter of an uncompromising landlord looking for a reason to pull the plug. No surprise there, but what is surprising is the aforementioned pleasing of the people all of the time bit: They came closer than anyone.

SHQ began on the opposite side of the building facing Hickory Street, replacing the Dallas bound Art Prostitute. Opening day was a surefire lineup of local favorites and all the usual faces of Denton's storied music community showed up, as expected. Many were skeptical that anything significant could fill such a void as that of the justifiably loved Art Prostitute. Secret Headquarters did the unexpected to ultimately silence any skeptics or detractors. The venue actually improved by living up to its name and shrinking, flipping its front entrance to the back of the building, and shunning any sort of actual sign or marquee. The physical transformation of the venue acts as a metaphor to the gentle way it guided rather than forced everyone to try a little harder to seek things out and give uncharted territory a chance. All the while it took some very challenging booking demands head on, and managed what was easily the most bafflingly diverse schedule week after week for sixteen months.

Secret Headquarters didn't just book their friends, they didn't pander to local legends, nor did they shun them. This was an environment free of pretense, everyone on equal footing, where drunk frat types might be slam dancing with introverted library ladies, both of them enjoying it, and everyone being generally more accepting than they would out in their daily lives. Far fewer arms were crossed or dirty looks given under that roof in comparison to the average rock show, dance club or elsewhere in the area. It was what you wished a speakeasy was like if they still existed, with everyone putting aside all of their bullshit for a common desire. And though you could bring your own, the real draw was the privilege of seeing a performance in such a relaxed, noncompetitive, and friendly atmosphere. To put it simply, Secret Headquarters was a fun fucking place to hang out, even if you weren't into the bands on a given night. People would gravitate towards it from the square and surrounding venues, seemingly drawn by the attitude and the kindness as much as the music. There was often food around. Cupcakes, cookies, vegetable trays, alcohol and barbecue. People were always celebrating. The last time I was there, a just married couple was in the audience catching a show, hours after being wed. It was that kind of place.

Not to look too much into my own prophetic prowess, but I recently lamented the fact that my long soured attitude towards local music had improved exponentially over the past couple of years, and how this unnamed "golden period" might be showing signs of waning, at least as we know it. In Denton especially, since 2005 or so, there has been a wealth of quality venues, bands, and shows. Bands move on, break up, people go to college, graduate, get married and on and on. That's a necessary part of the cycle. Secret Headquarters' departure from local music will be a little harder of a blow to absorb. When We Shot JR put on its second ever show back in January, the experience with SHQ from all angles couldn't have gone more smoothly. Over the rest of the year, SHQ started putting in overtime and actually hosting shows that had been shutdown at other DIY places, sometimes well into the extreme late hours that other venues legally can't touch. When our most recent show at The Fra House was somewhat expectedly shut down, they were there to pick up where it left off, staying open until three in the morning and still finishing its obligation to an Indiewriter.net benefit. This altruistic type of phantom booking probably put an unfair strain on the staff at times, but has solidified the reputations of venue and staff alike indefinitely.

SHQ through sheer unconventionality was straight-ahead rock venue, punk rock hangout, late night jazz club, singer songwriter opry, drag show catwalk, art gallery, psyche happening, grindcore pit, and even once hosted a toy show. I saw just about every type of show I enjoy going to there, and if a band I liked was playing there, I knew it would be the ideal setting. Recently, Secret Headquarters had really started to hit a stride by becoming a necessary ally in local hardcore, punk and garage shows of the type that 715 Panhandle throws, and by hosting more and more national touring acts and international acts as well. I consider myself very lucky to have been at the first show, the last show, and so many unforgettable moments in between. I loved Secret Headquarters as much as is humanly possible or healthy for someone to love a beat up old building with an alley full of drunks behind it. There are many fans, bands, artists and musicians alike that walked out of that place spoiled by the joy of being there, and I would just like to counter the understandable pain and bitterness that accompanied its hastened demise last week and feel free to leave a comment doing the same: Thank you, SHQ.

SHQ Closed Due to Vandalism

According to a post from Scott Porter on Denton Rock City, Secret Headquarters is being forced to shut their doors permanently, effective immediately, due to an act of vandalism that occurred late Saturday night. We have no details on who might have done it, but there was speculation that some of the materials used by the vandals came from SHQ itself. We'll give you more details when we get them, or maybe someone in the know can explain further in the comments. I'm not sure I understand exactly why the SHQ, as a tenant, is being blamed by their landlords for vandalism on the property, but I bet we'll find out soon enough.

I'm A Hustler, Baby

I'm glad Ghosthustler finally got some press from Dallas' "alternative" weekly (a mere four months after Spin wrote about them, way to go guys!), but I'm not sure I understand what this article is supposed to be about. I've been able to gather: "blogs," "retro," "future," "80's," and something talking about how Radiohead isn't rock n roll. Someone want to explain this to me?

The We Shot J.R. Awards

I love being right. After predicting that the results of the second annual We Shot J.R. Awards would better reflect what is actually happening in Dallas/Denton/Ft. Worth than those "other" awards, I was proven right by the large number of quality votes we received. This isn't to say that I personally agreed with all of our voters' choices, nor is it to say that all our categories were completely cut and dry and perfectly defined. But I do think that what we have here is a high quality and respectable group of winners (aside from the "worst" dudes), and I'm happy to share this list with you. Anyway, before you go on and read the list, I want to tell you a couple things:

1. The We Shot J.R. Awards Party will take place on Saturday, September 8th at the Fra House in Denton. We'll share the line up with you in a couple days when we have it finalized, but I'll tell you right now that you won't want to miss it.

2. If you tried to stuff the ballot box in order to change the results, or if you did it just to fuck with us, you should know that we didn't count your votes more than twice if you voted several times in a row from the same computer (all votes had an ip address attached to them), and it took us a total of five minutes to figure this out (I'm looking at you Matthew and the Arrogant Sea).

3. The official winners are in bold, and our staff picks are included below them.

Here we go:

BEST BAND
Shiny Around the Edges

(SR: The Great Tyrant; DL: Eat Avery's Bones)

BEST NEW BAND
Ghosthustler

(SR: Ghosthustler; DL: Koji Kondo)

BEST EXPERIMENTAL
Mom

(SR: Mom, Zanzibar Snails: DL: Mike Forbes)

BEST DJ
Nature

(SR: The Party, Prince William; DL: Select)

BEST ELECTRONIC
Undoing of David Wright

(SR: Treewave; DL: Electronik Warfare)

BEST VENUE
Rubber Gloves

(SR: I really can't pick between all the Denton DIY, so we'll call it a tie; DL: House of Tinnitus)

BEST LIVE BAND
Nouns Group

(SR: Koji Kondo; DL: Angry Businessmen, Christian Teenage Runaway)

BEST USE OF VISUALS
Treewave, Undoing of David Wright (tie)

(SR: Treewave; DL: Zanzibar Snails)

BEST MC
MC Router (single mc), PPT (group)

(SR: what DL said; DL: The guy who rapped with Krispee Ones at the WSJR/Art Prostitute Show last December)

BEST BOOKING
House of Tinnitus

(SR: the Denton DIY venues combined; DL: Rob Buttrum and Amelia at H.O.T., Scott Porter at SHQ)

BEST VOCALS
Ashley Cromeens of Record Hop

(SR: the members of CTR, Farah DL: Farah, Kyle from Night Game Cult)

BEST GUITAR
Shane English of Ghosthustler, Undoing of David Wright and Chief Death Rage

(SR: Nevada Hill; DL: Adam of Koji Kondo and Blonde Girls)

BEST BASS
Shane English

(SR: Shane English; DL: Shane English)

BEST DRUMS
Nick Martin of Nouns Group

(SR: Jon Teague of Great Tyrant; DL: Stefan Gonzalez of Akkolyte and Unconscious Collective)

BEST VIDEO ON WESHOTJR VIDEOS
Violent Squid "Sassy Mink"

(SR: Violent Squid was my favorite local video; DL: Violent Squid)

WORST BAND
Black Tie Dynasty

(SR: There are so many terrible bands that I don't even want to think about it- so I'll side with the voters on this one; DL: Cartright)

WORST VENUE
Hailey's

(SR: The Cavern for trying to rip me off; DL: 8th Continent for being the best and then disappearing)

DOUCHE PROMO PHOTOS
Black Tie Dynasty

(SR: Gotta agree with the voters again; DL: Nothing against him, but I'm suspicious of anyone with Hal Samples promo pics.)

Matthew Didn't Have Clout: In which a comment thread and a bunk story are injected with a strange truth...

I hate to drudge this up, but I had an addendum about the piece Stonedranger did on Matthew And The Arrogant Sea last week. I have to admit, I was surprised by all of the music industry experts that suddenly came out of nowhere. With such a music savvy population, you'd think that Dallas would have made more of an impact on the national music scene in the past oh, ten to twenty-five years. The figure that MATAS proposed sounded high to everyone, and it could have just been left at that. But what followed was punditry worthy of the Fox News Channel, complete with facts and figures pulled from nowhere and links to Reggaeton budget breakdowns. There was even quite a bit of talk about whether EMI existed at all.

And since D.Construction's (is that worth mentioning anymore?) Lindsay Graham took it upon himself to post a link to an incredibly relevant article about Keith Richards and his big-time book deal the other day, I thought we'd post a link to an article I ran across as well. It was a strange little piece that The Dallas Observer posted on their Unfair Park Blog referencing another article written on a Hip Hop News website exactly one week before Stonedranger posted his Matthew And The Arrogant Sea piece. It was about: EMI striking a "major deal" with a record label in Dallas. Sounds somewhat relevant in light of recent discussion on our fair and lovely blog last week. Some thoughts...

This discussion basically broke down into two groups, those who were immediately dismissive once they read the article (The aforementioned Graham, You Go Live In Utah's Amanda Cobra, our anonymous friends) and then the band, its fans, and us, trying to make sense of the whole thing. I honestly understand why someone might read the piece, see the figure, and just move on not really buying it. But what troubled me was that there was such a smug certainty based on the answers, links and figures of our fellow bloggers, and none of it really added up to the case I was hoping it would. And all along, there was apparently a relevant link that nobody hipped us to. Come on, we can't know everything. I wonder if anyone from The Observer read this whole mess, knew about the article, and decided to keep quiet instead. And yes, posting an article on the Dallas Observer's blog does qualify as "keeping it quiet."

Lindsay Graham suggested that maybe it wasn't "the best time to be "investing" a non-recoupable $6MM in a new act," but I would ask whether the time was right for a label with the business woes of EMI to be investing in DFW Hip-Hop or DFW music period. The aforementioned hip hop deal took place a short time before the Terra Firma buyout, and Hip-hop in particular has never been a very successful Dallas export, save for how people always bring up D.O.C. albums that came out almost twenty years ago and some of the little-known gems you can find on this site. It's actually a real shame that Dallas has never had anything to match the success of Houston's rap scene, which isn't to imply that the talent isn't there. It's just that there seems to be a stigma or even a curse attached to DFW music when it tries to break free of the Metroplex, and DFW hip hop, at least until this point, doesn't seem to be a sure fire profits machine.

So Graham continues:

"I'd suggest handing a $6MM allowance to a bunch of Denton kids (25 or not) is not in line with making a company "look robust." My only hope is that some executive, seeing the end for EMI and likely his career, is making some last-minute, middle-finger gesture to put a pet band on the roster - and Terra Firma on the hook."


So I have to ask: is doing business with a small Dallas rap label, handling distribution, promotion, putting out DVD's and going through the trouble of sending a representative to Dallas all the way from Southern California a good way to make a wounded company look robust? Is this the proverbial "middle-finger gesture" you spoke of? I'd just be interested to hear Lindsay's take, since he seemed to know so much about it when it was just a theory. And I'm definitely not implying that there is six million bucks involved here, but now that it has actually happened with someone, what do you think?

And even more Cavuto-esque financial babble:

"When investing in the stock market, you can always sell your holding and get back (the hopefully appreciated) beginning capital. You cannot do this with a band - especially if it is 'non-recoupable'. We can argue about what the payback period should be for a band, but I assumed 1 to 2 years. Using my same numbers from above, that's 915,000 copies a year."

So Lindsay please apply your "trick" and stock market theory to EMI's new partner, Clout Records . You might know shit about music but you sound like a good businessman. Does Clout strike you as something obviously profitable? I mean, I don't know. For DFW's sake, I hope they are.

Fellow blogger Amanda Cobra offered her own theory to counter former MATAS band manager "Freddie" about why EMI would have any interest in this "freak folk" we've been hearing about for the better part of our aging decade:

"While I appreciate your theory about EMI trying to sneak into the "freak folk" market, I'm pretty sure that particular niche is not something a company like EMI would be worrying about if they are currently being bought out by an investment firm to stabilize their plummeting stock value. Again, just my theory."

Amanda, I would also appreciate your industry analysis as well. What's been more likely to be blasting out of independently owned coffee shops and Urban Outfitters for the past five years or so: Dallas Hip-Hop or Freak Folk? Freak Folk at its core is still basically just a singer-songwriter with various other sonic ornaments to signify that it is not just ordinary folk. Singer-songwriter fare of the experimental variety has done quite well lately, especially in Texas, and its "cool" factor is of the sort that advertisers and executives eat up all the time, rendering the idea of EMI getting into the "freak folk market" just as if not more plausible than EMI getting involved with a DFW hip hop label that, gasp, most people have never even heard of.

The deal is actually significant for a couple of other reasons as well. A record company with EMI's history being owned by a private investment firm makes it the largest privately owned major label in the world. That might actually make dealing with a label as large as EMI less of a dehumanizing experience, since they'll no longer be answering to stockholders, who I'm sure have all the subtlety and charm of our friend Lindsay. Hell, it even brings imprints like DFA that much closer to being truly "indie." Also, the distribution deal between Clout and EMI is a 75/25 split with Clout retaining the rights to the masters. That is actually the definition of what a truly beneficial long term deal should be like, and it's virtually unheard of when dealing with big labels. In fact, most indies will split 50/50 at best.

On the flip side of things, you have an understandably frustrated Stonedranger, forced to keep off-the-record details to himself, as promised, even as the story begins to unravel:

"There is also an entirely untold part of this story that makes a pretty big difference. Unfortunately, at this point, I have promised to keep that portion of the story confidential... but let's just say, for the record, that it involves a smaller record label and a buyout, and if true, it makes the idea of MATAS getting signed out of nowhere less difficult to believe."

And now we know that this actually happened with EMI and another local label two weeks ago, so you might understand why Stonedranger would believe something like that. Little cool labels are pumped with big money from majors all the time. EMI has had various distribution deals in hip-hop, releasing everything from more recent Ice Cube and Fat Joe records to the Beastie Boys' now defunct Grand Royal imprint. Of course, EMI yanking the critically and publicly lauded "Grey Album" by Danger Mouse was a less proud moment in the British company's hip-hop history, but that is neither here nor there.

In the aftermath, Freddie added in his open letter:

"Folks of all levels of involvement (including those with copious experience in the music business) would say things like, "Maybe this is just EMI's pitch and by the time the thing is signed it will be more reasonable", "Maybe their desperate for new markets", etc. When combined with anecdotal evidence about this or that obscure act being given X million dollars for being in the right place at the right time, Matthew's story was made plausible."

Since "this or that obscure act" or in this case, a label with an entire stable of obscure acts, was indeed awarded a contract with the major in question, Matthew starts to not sound as crazy. In fact, I think the truly crazy people are We Shot JR's fellow bloggers who were so smugly sure of themselves and their knowledge of the music industry. I mean, the EMI buyout from Terra Firma was announced a mere nine days after the press release for the Clout Records deal, and it's not as if Clout has some obvious built in profitability that anyone outside the deal would recognize.

I'm not saying Matthew was telling the truth, but I AM saying that those who pretended to know so much don't look quite as savvy: a little known Dallas based music entity (which is really what MATAS and their side projects were as well) was in fact presented with an unusually good deal right before the buyout. Again, this doesn't make Matthew's story true, but it certainly would have changed the debate and at least been something substantial to refer to rather than the rambling made-up figures of Wall Street Journal Op-Ed wannabes. And one more thing (and this goes out to bands, label owners, singers, rappers, artists etc.): If any wack-a-doodle on the internet EVER asks you for a PDF of your contract, no matter what the circumstances, politely tell them to fuck off.








Update on Matthew and the Arrogant Sea

This is the last post concerning this, I swear: Bryce Isbell has posted a video on Youtube where he appears explaining the band's side of the story on all this. I won't comment, I'll just let you judge for yourselves. Not sure why he chose this format, but to each his own.

Matthew and the Arrogant Sea: Probably NOT the Biggest Local Band You've Never Heard of

I received the following letter from Bryce Isbell this morning. Is it a publicity stunt? Has the whole thing been a publicity stunt? I'm not even sure if I care anymore. I'm just glad I didn't try to interview any of their "label contacts." Here it is:

If you ever had any relationship with Matthew (or the arrogant sea), please read

Matthew is not a liar. As of today I am totally convinced of this. Everything that Matthew told me, Bryce, his family, We Shot JR, etc. etc. he truly believed. His fantasy was incredibly complex and he created for all of us a convoluted world with many vibrant characters and minute details. Obviously, we were all enormously skeptical of the massive dollar amounts Matthew attributed to the deal, but he walked us through it so slowly and so... purely, that we rationalized it one way or the other.

Folks of all levels of involvement (including those with copious experience in the music business) would say things like, "Maybe this is just EMI's pitch and by the time the thing is signed it will be more reasonable", "Maybe their desperate for new markets", etc. When combined with anecdotal evidence about this or that obscure act being given X million dollars for being in the right place at the right time, Matthew's story was made plausible. The only other possibility was that he was lying, and if you've ever met Matthew and if you ever talked to him about any of this you would KNOW this wasn't the case. We never considered the third option, that the entire thing was completely real for Matthew and Matthew alone.

Yesterday, we did to Matthew what no friend should ever have to do to another. We went through every tiny step, every detail of his story searching for support or an answer to how NOBODY caught on to this sooner. We checked phone records, emails, made calls to his contacts and each path came to a dead end. We did all the stuff that we would have done much sooner (I'd like to think) if our attentions were not being devoured by the demands of the New Sabbath Festival. We love Matthew and consider him our dear friend. We don't feel manipulated b/c no one was more manipulated than Matthew himself. However, each of us radically altered our lives around this honest delusion and we have too much at stake to let this episode interrupt them any longer.

Magilum Records and The New Sabbath Festival are severing ties with Matthew and the Arrogant Sea. I am, obviously, no longer MATAS' manager. This is THE ONLY change. The festival is still on and is going to be powerful as fuck. The Magilum collective is still a real entity and Bryce and I will do our best to represent Denton with the love and respect Denton music deserves.

We Shot JR is still the most credible blog for news and information on the Denton/DFW scene and this episode cannot reflect on their credibility. Matthew's own family and closest friends were just as convinced as Matthew was that a deal of some sort was being negotiated with EMI. WSJR is in the same boat each of us are.

While I am sorry to all of those who stuck their neck out for MATAS, I say you did the right thing and I thank you for choosing to support your local creative figures over the cynical instincts that we have all, understandably, developed about the world of music. I hesitate to ask forgiveness because none of us did anything wrong. Our mistake was trusting the sanity of a dear friend and family member and that is the sort of mistake I feel no shame in having made. I do ask for your understanding. This is a deeply troubling and confusing time for all of us, Matthew most all. Do not allow this to color your feelings about the many other projects affiliated with MATAS and do not let this rob you of your faith in local music. Denton's potential is extraordinary, as the New Sabbath Festival will make clear, and we of Magilum look forward to strong relationship with all of you in the future. I'm already pretty sick of the past.

with love and gratitude,
freddie & bryce (magilum records)

Matthew and the Arrogant Sea: The Biggest Local Band You've Never Heard of?

As you might guess, the We Shot J.R. Myspace page receives it's fair share of friend requests from relatively unknown local bands. Every once in a while, we get one that makes us feel like we struck gold-- something unique, interesting and exciting being produced right in our own backyard (Ghosthustler and Mom, for example). Most of the time, however, the bands we encounter in this manner are young, inexperienced and predictable at best, providing very little for us to get excited about. When I first heard Matthew and the Arrogant Sea via a Myspace friend request roughly six months ago, I quickly placed them in the latter category. What I found on their page was relatively traditional indie folkpop (the kind that kids in the suburbs seem to be producing in wholesale quantities these days), and in the short amount of time I spent with the music, I failed to find anything that struck me as particularly noteworthy. But ever since that first encounter, after months of seeing the band's name pop up again and again on local bills without much hype or media attention, things have dramatically changed with Matthew and the Arrogant Sea, and it's not just their music. In fact, they might be on a very fast track to becoming one of North Texas' biggest bands, even if many in the area have yet to hear their name.

Matthew and the Arrogant Sea consists of Bryce Isbell, Sarah Wilson and three members of the same family: brothers Matt Gray and Caleb Gray, and nephew Jacob Gray. Matt and Bryce first met at a show a little more than two years ago when they were both performing as separate solo acts, one of which was an early incarnation of Matthew and the Arrogant Sea featuring Matt playing solo. After the two began hanging out and casually collaborating on tracks for Matt's project (Matt on lead vocals and guitar and Bryce on drums, synths and effects), Gray's brother Caleb, a solo performer himself, started accompanying the duo on electric slide guitar, saw and bass, while Jacob joined shortly after on violin and Sarah came in to play lap harp and tambourine. Not surprisingly, this influx of new blood helped birth a drastic change in the sound and philosophy of what was now a full fledged band trying to find it's way.

"Things have changed in our hearts," says Bryce Isbell as he explains the band's evolution, "our views on life have really changed and we realized that we needed to quit trying to be what our mothers want to hear and make what we can listen to and dig."

While the band's older material certainly wasn't awful in any way, it seemed to be a bit too cute and obvious (if memory serves) to stand out in a sea of ambitious young local bands with developing record collections and Myspace accounts. But as Matthew and the Arrogant Sea continued to grow as a band, the members' collective interest in a darker, noisier and more abstract version of experimental psychedelic folk began to take hold, showcasing a flair for the literary and theatrical while maintaining the intimate appeal of more traditional solo acoustic guitar folk/pop.

The band's sound seems to fall somewhere between Nick Drake and older Animal Collective, drawing from strange, dramatic 70's folk acts such as Fairport Convention and Pearls Before Swine (whether intentionally or not) and dressing those influences up with the sounds of a variety of contemporary indie touchstones ranging from Espers to Fruit Bats to Devendra Banhart to the experimental tribal avant folk of Sunburned Hand of the Man. The result is a solid base of acoustic pop lying beneath layers of swirling noise, reverb and other textures that give much of their music a sense of loneliness, distance and detachment. Songs like "The Irony of Anigav..." buzz with tin can percussion, bits of white noise and a hypnotic use of repetition, while "Pancakes on Mars" treads on more traditional folk turf but remains interesting due to it's recording, which creates an artificial acoustic space reminiscent of hearing an old country song in a car on a long dark highway. And while the band hasn't exactly invented the particular styles they are working within, their take is unique and quickly rewarding, displaying a locally uncommon willingness to create experimental pop that is both experimental and, well, poppy.

Although the band's recent musical evolution has been quite noteworthy in it's own right, the sheer number of outside projects it's members are working on at this very moment makes the story even more interesting. Mixing and matching musicians and seemingly forming new bands at the drop of a hat, the core of Matthew and the Arrogant Sea literally has 13 current side projects that all seem to spawn from a singular musical vision and branch out organically. And of course, each one of them has it's own Myspace page. Gashcat, one of the more immediately memorable of the bunch, heads in the darkest direction of all with hauntingly dramatic vocals and a dizzying mix of synth strings, noise and distorted vocals, while Koala Bees embraces a slightly brighter, more electronic approach on songs like "Word Word Word," which sounds influenced by Panda Bear's recent material. Elsewhere, Papa Viking tackles bluesier, rough around the edges Americana with a hint of acid hangover, while the excellent Verulf probably owes the biggest debt to groups like Espers, Wooden Wand and Animal Collective, focusing on spacey, naturalistic atmospheres and tones that qualify as the most non-traditionally Western of the bunch (aside from Verulf's minimal noise influenced project Concrete Animals). Some of the projects are more intriguing than others, of course, but the energy, emotion and attention to detail in each is admirable, and sometimes downright captivating. Flipping through their Myspace pages, which all link to one another, is sort of like running a gauntlet. Only with mostly pleasant surprises around the corners.

These various side projects are also tied to together by more than a common set of ambitious band members. Bryce Isbell and the others have formed their own record company, Magilum, to release some of their recorded material and serve as an organizational mechanism for their prolific output. Aside from releasing Verulf's debut The Rattlesnake Tree, the label's first major step into the public realm will be the upcoming New Sabbath Festival, taking place on August 18th at J&Js in Denton. The festival boats a large, diverse bill that will feature Peter and the Wolf, Jana Hunter, and Brothers and Sisters, as well as local favorites like Theater Fire and Chris Garver, and a few other non-local surprises that haven't been confirmed quite yet (at least one of them is a HUGE name).

So what did all this hard work and Elephant 6 style collaboration get these guys? The answer most local music cynics (including me) would expect is nothing, but again, Matthew and the Arrogant Sea have managed to surprise. According to Bryce Isbell, the band has recently entered into a $6 million recording contract with EMI, the result of both luck and hard work. After beginning a relationship with a smaller locally based label that didn't exactly pan out, the band went on the road and played a series of what Matt Gray considers "some of the best shows [we've] ever played in the presence of the right people," providing them with an opportunity to shine musically and make the kind of connections they needed to garner the attention of potential suitors. And although a large sum of money offered by a very large record label might give some musicians pause, the members of Matthew and the Arrogant Sea seem quite comfortable with what they're doing.

"We've had nothing but a positive experience with this label," Isbell says, "they've been wonderful to us. They have given us 100% complete creative control." And furthermore, according to Isbell, the $6 million figure is not some major label recoupable advance that will keep the band in a hole forever, but more of a sign on bonus and an investment in the group's development. Again, pretty damn weird for an industry that has become comically clueless in recent years.

The whole thing seems like a large and surprising leap to the big time for a band that was hardly on anyone's radar even six months ago (especially considering the competing offers they received from Capitol Records and American Recordings), but unusual happenings and big changes just seem to be business as usual for Matthew and the Arrogant Sea these days. As the band prepares for it's major label career and a likely move to Sacramento within the next couple of months, the strangeness of the entire endeavor is striking. Matthew and the Arrogant Sea is experimental but digestible, easy to enjoy but hard to figure out. And as so many careerist bands in Dallas struggle to "play the game" and "make it" on anyone else term's but their own, the refreshing thing about Matthew and the Arrogant Sea is the way they've gone about their business on their own, creating a small but complicated world of music, art (thanks mostly to Sarah Wilson), and storytelling that seems to be largely insulated from the outside world.

"To those who wonder if our days of tribal folk and psychedelic pop are gone," Isbell says, "think again. We have only just begun." For some reason, I kind of believe him.

Brave New Sloppyworld

The story of Deep Ellum's downfall has become as played out as the neighborhood itself, but the tale of Expo Park's rise is just starting to get interesting. Over the past several years, the small community of bars, cafes and lofts located at the corner of Exposition and Perry has emerged as an on again off again alternative to the dreary Deep Ellum and dude-brah controlled Greenville, providing an intimate and relatively hastle free environment in which several interesting things might (or might not) be happening within mere feet of one another on a given night. Places like the Amsterdam, Art Club, Fallout and Minc have all hosted at least a few solid shows (along with some bad ones as well) over the past three years, and the popular neighborhood spot Meridian Room has continued to be a favorite of many East Dallas and Oak Cliff residents. Expo Park does face it's share of problems- crime, inconsistent venue booking, and that annoying homeless magician in the parking lot, but one newcomer to the neighborhood might help to raise the bar in area that already seems to be on the up and up.

As I walked through the relatively empty space at the corner of Perry and 2nd Ave that will soon be known as Sloppyworld, scene veteran and Sloppyworld proprietor John Freeman began to explain why he decided to risk a great deal of time and money to open a new music venue in a city that hasn't exactly been hospitable to such things lately. "Expo Park is the last cool neighborhood in Dallas," Freeman says, "and we can't let it die too. This might be our last chance." This kind of intensity and concern for the state of local music is a force that seems to guide Freeman in his vision for Sloppyworld, which will be Expo Park's first full time live music venue. He also seems to possess a keen sense of practicality.

"Dallas needs a cool mid sized venue run by people who are musicians themselves," he says, and any objective observer would have to admit that he has a point. With the closing of Gypsy Tea Room and Trees, as well as the emergence of the somewhat cold and corporate Palladium Loft and House of Blues, it is clear that Dallas could use a mid sized venue (200-500 capacity) run by someone who understands the city and the void that currently exists for more eclectic and experimental shows. Sure, places like Art Club and Doublewide will have a good show here and there, but due either to the size and/or booking preferences of Dallas' current venues, there doesn't appear to be a single place that is looking to consistently book the kinds of acts that many readers of this blog might enjoy. Like many in the area, Freeman realized that there was a sizable niche in the Dallas live music market that wasn't be satisfied, and he decided that it was prime time to seize a golden opportunity.

John Freeman's history in the Dallas and Denton music and art scenes is fairly well known, and his experience as both a musician, a venue employee and a promoter has been highly influential on his vision for Sloppyworld. He has seen and done a lot, working at the Argo, organizing as a member of the Good/Bad Art Collective, and most recently booking quality acts like Beach House for The Amsterdam. Learning from both the good and the bad, Freeman seems capable of taking the best aspects from some of those well known ventures and applying them to the concept and reality of Sloppyworld. "I can promise you that (Sloppyworld) will be like nothing you've ever seen," he says, adding that he envisions the place will be "kind of a mixture of the Argo, the old Good/Bad Art Collective, the Orbit Room, and a bizarre x factor that is all my own." He plans to have the venue open anywhere from 5-7 days a week, and hopes that the place will be seen not only as a venue, but as an epicenter for the musical and creative community in the area, hosting various activities and events in addition to the kinds of concerts that often have to venture north to Denton to find a home these days.

When I visited Sloppyworld a few weeks ago, the two things that became apparent from the get-go were it's size and highly desirable location. Located in 80 plus year old building that previously housed an antique store, the space's high ceilings, structural support beams and large, rectangular shape help create a spacious and warm atmosphere that is glaringly absent at places like House of Blues (duh). Furthermore, it's corner location assures that Sloppyworld will be one of the most highly visible venues on Perry street, situated a few dozed feet away from Meridian Room and Bar of Soap.

Of course, with so many upsides to a place that will be located in the economically depressed Fair Park area, it would seem that the city of Dallas would be more than accommodating to a business owner like Freeman. But unfortunately, things have not gone as smoothly in the planning and permit stage as one might hope. After several unsuccessful and unassisted attempts to figure out what kinds of permits were needed for the venue, Freeman's original opening date had to be pushed back several months in order to get all the paper work in place. "I had been to the permit building in Oak Cliff seven times over three months before they just told me that I needed a special use permit," Freeman said, "so then I had to go to City Hall, and it takes two months to process." City officials were largely indifferent throughout the process, but the problematic delays in construction were at least somewhat mitigated by some of Freeman's helpful neighbors and friends. "The girls at Doublewide have been amazingly supportive. Bar of Soap, Meridian Room, Fallout Lounge, and even Club Dada and Rubber Gloves have all sent their support. They're smart enough to realize that a new bar/venue in this area could only help everyone and bring more business to the area, which benefits everyone."

With the official opening date now set some time in mid to late September, Sloppyworld is just a few months away from opening it's doors. Of course, one new venue is not going to change the face of the neighborhood or the Dallas music scene at large, but talking with Freeman convinced me that he has the experience, integrity and musical knowledge to book good shows and run the venue in a way that should be beneficial to patrons and performers alike. Not every show will be something we're all into, but considering some of the highly respectable names he mentioned when discussing possible bands to book (I promised I wouldn't tell who), Sloppyworld's presence on the scene seems like one of the most promising developments in Dallas music in some time. "I plan to book bands that might not get shows here otherwise," Freeman says, "and I like strange and interesting bills where you have a mixture of bands on the same evening that may not seem to fit on paper, but when you put them together, some kind of rock n roll alchemy makes it the best show you've ever seen." How many Dallas venue owners have said something like that recently?

(Thanks to Dudes McRudes for taking the pictures above)

It's True: Jandek in Fort Worth

July 12th at the Rose Marine Theater in Ft. Worth. I've heard mixed reviews of his recent live shows (as in some very positive and others a bit unimpressed), but this is a MUST SEE in just about every sense. More info here.

Marnie Stern

Quite possibly the most annoying musician I've ever had the misfortune of hearing. Talk about an overrated piece of shit. If its a joke, then the punch line is too squeaky to be funny. And if its not, then the Pitchfork people really have turned into a bunch of douches.

Weekender coming a little later.

Brothers, Sisters, Can't You See? The Future's Owned by R.J. Reynolds

Throwing a fit when one doesn't get a front row seat at a fashion show is the kind of behavior that we commonly associate with royalty, celebrities, socialites, and Lenny Kravitz. But in a world where an English Prince is actually trying to fight in Iraq and Sean fucking Penn is apparently the most charismatic anti-war spokesperson that the left can drag in front of a television screen, it probably makes sense that Geordon Nicol, one of the founding members of New York's (in)famous DJ trio Misshapes, demanded the best seats in the house at a recent G Star fashion show and threatened to leave if he didn't get his way. After all, in the eyes of Madison Avenue, Nicol is one of the hippest people on the planet, and he seems to be well aware of it.

And really, why shouldn't he have a little attitude? Think about it: if you'd read a Village Voice article that compared your presence in the downtown New York scene to those of Larry Levan, Fab 5 Freddy and Andy Warhol among others, you would probably feel entitled to take full advantage of your 15 minutes too. Its undeniable that the Misshapes have had a noticeable impact on what we'll call "hipster culture" (for lack of a better term) over the past couple of years, and if comparing them to Larry Levan seems more than a bit ridiculous to you, you might want to consider the number of 18-24 year olds around the country that know who Misshapes are and compare that to the total number of people that knew who Larry Levan was during his first two years at Paradise Garage. This has everything to do with media technology and nothing to do with musical innovation to be sure, and the long term cultural significance of emo hair and Depeche Mode revivals is questionable at best, but the result is unchanged: Misshapes have built a gigantic and loyal following in one of the world's most exciting cities, and not just any hipster dumbasses can pull something like that off.

Just look at what they're up to these days if you don't believe me. After packing houses for several years with their regular DJ nights in New York, curating the music at just about every major party during New York's fashion week, and sharing decks with Madonna and a slew of other high powered celebrities over the past few months, Misshapes are cashing in on downtown cool as they embark on their first ever national tour, bringing the Lower East Side to us Red State folks just as Gawker's anti-Misshapes coup d'etat has started to drive the trio's stock price down with the Brooklyn/Houston- Ludlow hipsters that put them on the map in the first place. Of course, it would be far too easy to completely dismiss Misshapes and those that emulate them as clueless hipsters, and it would be incorrect to say that their sets aren't exciting and highly entertaining at times. But with all their lucrative corporate tie-ins and friends in high places, it also must be noted that the trio has been able to milk the current incarnation of 00's hipster cool more effectively and notoriously than almost anyone else on the face of the planet (other than Vice).

Take their upcoming set this Saturday at the Lizard Lounge in Dallas as an example. Normally, a well known DJ can pull in quite a nice cover at a large established dance venue like the Lizard Lounge, but Misshapes didn't come all the way to Dallas to take your money. No, they're just here to chill out and throw a huge free party with their ultra hip friends over at R.J. Reynolds, and if you want to go, all you have to do is get an account and RSVP (aka "track down your local rep") over at Camel's website. But wait a minute. Since when are the old southern white men that run R.J. Reynolds "ultra-hip," you ask? Well, it might surprise you to learn that they practically invented the term, at least in the parlance of our times (get it?).

Not to get all "truth.com" on your ass, but a 1994 internal document produced by Camel's marketing department has been cited by Naomi Klein and others as the first document of its kind to make use of the contemporary idea of a "hipster" to describe a marketing demographic that the brand was having trouble reaching. In this rather humorous report, the marketers describe scenes of urban young adults scoring smokes at cool bars as they talk all cool and do various other cool things. Here's an example of one of the scenarios the document lays out:

Saturday night. Smoke filled night club. 1am. Nirvana blares through the sound system. The cigarette machine is broken. Lisa's looking to bum a smoke. She saunters up to the bar in her ripped Levi's and vintage motorcycle jacket and looks at the bartender. "Manny, got an extra cigarette?" Manny reaches into the chest pocket of his black tee shirt and pulls out a Camel.

You get the idea. And if you think it sounds like they were way off on what was hip in 1994, all you have to do is go rent a copy of Clerks in order to see that RJR was pretty much right on the money with this one. As the document goes on to state, Camel started an aggressive campaign 13 years ago to get to these cool kids and link the Camel brand image to whatever happens to be hip at any given time. One look at their Website (or a quick flashback of the Camel sponsored Ladytron show at Hailey's a couple months ago) reveals that they've been pretty successful at doing just that. They currently sponsor all kinds of events all over the country that deliver consumable hipster culture to people in all kinds of famously unhip locations with little or no direct sales pitch involved, other than a friendly reminder that Joe Camel is the motherfucker that told you about all this cool stuff in the first place, dipshit.

What does this all mean? Who knows. The ideas behind branding and its effects on target markets are certainly debatable and mostly immeasurable, and we're certainly not going to sit here and lecture you about corporations and society and why its so wrong to dance. After all, the Misshapes party will probably be pretty fun, and we might even show up to it ourselves (I've already contacted MY Camel rep, have you?) It just seems funny that Misshapes, who have become a perfect example of savvy hipster self-marketers, are teaming up with Camel, the people that just might have invented the modern hipster marketing demographic in the first place. If nothing else, this connection might pop into your mind five years from now, during the middle of the inevitable grunge revival, when you're sitting at a bar in your ripped Levi's and motorcycle jacket, laughing about the bad clothes in that old issue of Fader and desperately searching your pockets for that one last delicious cigarette. That damn Manny might have moved on to another job at that point, but rest assured, your local Camel rep might just be sitting at the other end of the bar doing something cool. And you know he'll probably hook you up.

Misshapes play this Saturday at Lizard Lounge with our friend Justin V (formerly of High Society) opening.