You're Joshin' me: The 2006Dallas Observer Music Awards voting period still has another two weeks to go, so tear the ballot out on page 74or visit dallasobserver.com to cast your vote if you haven't already. Chances are you don't need a reminder, though, as nominees have inundated e-mail lists and MySpace accounts with plenty of pleading in the past two weeks.
Mark Graham
The Adventure Club's Josh Venable, seen here without a copy of his favorite newspaper in town, the Dallas Observer.
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But none of those bulletins has been anything like this one. Josh Venable, host of 102.1 The Edge's Adventure Club (nominee for Best Radio Show that Plays Local Music), sent the Internet voting link to his fans a little over a week ago, and underneath that link was the following (unedited):
"Here is a disclaimer I've made a bit over the past month or so. Vote if ya want. We won't be doing the full court press of years past because...I don't really care this year. I don't read the Observer anymore except for the DVD reviews occasionally. That being said, we all love to be recognized in our field. So vote for the Adventure Club in best radio show if you'd like. If not, thanks for listening anyway. xoxo, Josh."
Come on, Josh. Not even Jim Schutze's column? Really, we're not sweating his opinion--if Venable thinks coverage of Bosque Brown, the Theater Fire, Fishboy, Red Animal War, the Undoing of David Wright and other promising locals isn't worth reading, he wouldn't be the first. And for the record, our very public hatred of 102.1's dismal play list, which plays more Sublime than our college dorm neighbor ever did, has never seeped over to his Sunday night program, even after he dedicated an entire episode to Coldplay a few months back. But the whole "here's how to vote for me, but, uh, don't vote for me" schtick is pretty transparent, and he slaps some wonderful local radio shows--and fellow nominees--in the face with his posturing.
So, out of respect to the other nominated radio shows, we're a little miffed, but we're not here to start a feud--the last thing local music needs is a urinal swordfight between the big indie-rock show and the music rag--so come on back, Joshy baby. We'll have Brit-pop dinner waitin'. As the inestimable Will Smith would say, "Daddy loves you."
Get Fry'ed: If you were too intimidated to give the two-day
Wall of Sound Festival 2006 a go a few weeks ago (and, to some extent, we can't entirely blame you), then you'll probably have enough energy pent up to check out Saturday's
Fry Street Fair. For the second year in a row, the day-long music fest has secured its hometown location after an ill-fitting move to Deep Ellum in years past--really, how did FSF work on any street other than Fry? In addition to four local-loaded stages, crammed full of
Denton treats like
Birth to Burial,
Fra Pandolf,
Pinebox Serenade and
Record Hop, along with Dallas powers
Bobgoblin,
Saboteur and
the Happy Bullets, the fairgrounds will be packed full of booths where you can enjoy local food, art, clothes, "smoking accessories" and more. Festivities kick off at noon, and gubernatorial hopeful
Kinky Friedman will entertain fest-goers with a speech on the Fry Street stage at 3:30 p.m.. Visit
frystfair.com for full schedule details.
DW 24/7: In case you missed our updates at
Unfair Park last week, here's the latest: As of 1:13 p.m. on Tuesday, April 18, 2006, the
Double Wide is up and running. We've just opened our newest editorial bureau beneath the bar's jackalope; if the club randomly and inexplicably shuts down again, or even if someone farts next to the jukebox, we'll be the first to report it. You can count on our dedication.
Handstamps: For some insane reason, three quality bands from DFW are unleashing albums this week. We simply couldn't get to all of them for this issue--in particular,
Calhoun still hasn't sent us their new platter--but we'd be remiss not to direct readers to the release shows in the meantime. The Cavern hosts 'em all: Calhoun and
the Chemistry Set throw a dual CD release show on Friday, and
Black Tie Dynasty unveils
Movements there on Saturday...Holy crap, Chicago's
Fruit Bats are playing at Dan's Silverleaf on Thursday night. Last time they came through town was when they played to a barren crowd at the Cavern. Hopefully, the UNT crowd will get off their butts this time...
Course of Empire's
Paul Semrad recently hipped us to his latest band,
Team Evil, and the straight-out southern-rockers on the trio's MySpace page are pretty bitchin'. See the band open for
the Tah Dahs at the Bar of Soap on Friday.
