Odds & Ends

 Papa schmo: For some ridiculous reason, we at AAT HQ keep watching MTV, not with any expectation of good music, mind you, but because we keep hoping one of our ex-girlfriends pops up on a show such as Room Raiders or Date My Mom. So imagine our surprise when a Dallas band was given the gold-star treatment on MTV News this weekend. It wasn't so much the Kurt Loder introduction or the five-minute "You Hear It First" segment praising and pimping Barefoot that surprised us as much as the fact that we had no clue who Barefoot was.

We got on the e-mail chain to make sure we weren't totally clueless, but nope, nobody else had heard of 'em, either. It didn't take long to figure out just why these dapper-looking Click Five rejects got national airtime--name-drops for buddies Ryan Cabrera and Joe Simpson came quickly in the segment. Even a TRL junkie who is too busy text-messaging during algebra class to pay attention can still tell that the big S, the man behind artists who landed three separate MTV series, might've had something to do with a completely unknown band getting prime-time Loder love.

It turns out the local quintet (hailing from the creative hotbeds of Sherman and Richardson) is Simpson's first band on his new record label, Papa Joe Records. Oh, and they're already huge--did you see that exclusive Barefoot interview at KidzWorld.com?! There, bassist Matt Fellenbaum reveals exciting tidbits like, "The recording process for us, since this is our first album, was really, really new" and "We do get in fights, but we don't stay mad at each other, ever." Tough, yet sensitive...Matt's so dreamy.

Barefoot's first single, "Rain," sounds like a college Christian rock group that just discovered Coldplay, and the song is nowhere near as good as the last local artist to get "You Hear It First" treatment, Eisley. Probably means Barefoot's gonna be huge. Good luck getting into Ashlee's pants, guys.

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Good-bye: On Saturday night, the independent record store that served as a cornerstone to Deep Ellum for six years closes its doors. As we reported a few months ago, Good Records' current building is to be torn down this spring to make way for a DART light rail line into Deep Ellum, scheduled to open in 2009. Rather than fight the city's request for demolition, the Good crew found a new, huge location on 1808 Greenville Ave. , which opens on Friday, February 17.

The old store's final day of business, February 11, is also its sixth birthday, which means manager Chris Penn is turning closing time into a party. Let us be as frank as possible--you are an idiot if you miss Saturday's all-day concert at 617 N. Good-Latimer Expressway. Watch Fishboy, Astronautilus, Jetscreamer, [DARYL], the Deathray Davies, Salim Nourallah, Record Hop, Baboon and the Theater Fire for free! Food and drink will be in abundant supply, and we're sure a discount or two will pop up in the multicolored CD racks as well. The music starts at 11 a.m. and runs until around 8 p.m.

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True love: Oh, so free concerts, hamburgers and beer aren't enough to quench your cheap tastes? Then you're in luck, greedy ass--Sorta is leaking its new album, Strange and Sad But True, on their MySpace page (myspace.com/sorta) four songs at a time. The first batch has been up for about a week, and we heartily suggest you grab it (if only because opening track "Buttercup" is the coolest song by songwriter Trey Johnson we've ever heard). Keep going back--the band will post the rest of the album through February and March. Keep an eye out for track six, "Lazybones," an up-tempo ditty that has all the makings of a crossover smash hit.

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Handstamps: Original Radiant bassist Jon Schoemaker is leaving the band, which is a shame, since their long-awaited debut LP We Hope You Win will finally see release this year. The band will replace him with Jesse Hopkins (brother of drummer Daniel); before that, Schoemaker plays one last Radiant gig on Friday at the Curtain Club...Need a break from the pop-rock crowd? Then get to Bend Studio on Saturday, as Austin's legendary Alejandro Escovedo makes a semi-rare Dallas appearance as part of an acoustic quintet at 8 p.m.