It List: Thursday

...And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead/Funeral Party/Midnight Masses (Granada): I wasn't too deeply involved in the Trail of Dead craze that occurred at the beginning of the decade, although I did happen to pick up their supposed masterpiece in 2002 and I thought "this is pretty good." Then they came out with that concept record about post-911 emo feelings and shit, and I thought "these keepin' it weird Austin dipshits want to be the American U2 except they suck ten times more." And I don't even like U2 that much. Apparently their latest album, called a "return to form" by numerous publications, is a return to the form of the aforementioned concept album, meaning that it sucks less than their last records, which I never actually heard myself but is rumored to be even worse than the 9-11 concept album. Wait, why am I writing about this again?

ADD: They are playing at GOOD RECORDS RIGHT NOW (6PM) IF YOU WANT TO TRY AND FIGHT THE CROWD.

Top Notch Thursdays with Sober (the Cavern)

FreeWill Benefit show with Stickup Kids/Playdough/Original Soul/Blaze Won/Street Tribe/Fort Nox/Rob Viktum (The Lounge): A Vigilante Music Group organized benefit for the late Free Will features Dallas hip hop staple Rob Viktum and headliners Stick up Kids, who put out an excellent mix tape early last year that was criminally underappreciated in the local press. Solid, raw beats and way better than average MCs. It doesn't have that "Dallas hip hop" sound that a lot of us happen to like (it seems more a nod to the golden era of early 90's east coast and current Detroit stuff), but it's well worth checking out if you can get your hands on it.

Billingham's Defense System/Yeahdef/Females (Fallout Lounge): Tonight will apparently feature a "prom" theme with photos from our friend Stephieyaknow. Do people do these prom themed parties because they loved their original proms, or because they hated them so much that they want a do-over of sorts?

And there's even more on our show calendar.