Pick It Up

[DARYL] and Slowride's month-and-change tour of the better part of the country makes a pit stop in Dallas on May 2 so the bands can toast their new (or pretty close, anyway) records before heading to the West Coast. (Both bands, along with Lewis, will also perform at Good Records earlier in the evening, beginning at 5 p.m.) Slowride is on the road supporting its debut full-length, As I Survive the Suicide Bomber, which came out not long ago on Deep Elm Records, the same label that will release a split disc featuring songs by Slowride and Red Animal War in the near future. (The band, by the way, also has another disc on the way soon, a split 7-inch single with Eniac.) The Clearview gig, though, is officially the CD release party for [DARYL]'s new self-titled album for Idol Records. Well, that depends on your definition of "new"; if you think some of the song titles on the disc look familiar, it's because the group already issued a version of the record in 2000. Sort of: The band was never happy with the original disc, a five-track EP called Communication: Duration for Urinine Records. So the band re-recorded the songs that appeared on Communication: Duration at Steve Curry's Modern Vintage studio (the same place it recorded last year's The Technology) and laid down a handful of new songs while it was at it, making the result a fraternal twin to Communication: Duration at best. Well worth picking up, even if you already have a copy of Communication: Duration and especially if you don't.

Two days later, Doosu has its own CD release shindig at Curtain Club, with Red Animal War, Macavity and My Spacecoaster also on the bill. The par-tay is for the band's brand-new Feng Shui, which officially hits stores May 7, which the band recorded in Tolono, Illinois, with Shiner's Paul Malinowski engineering and co-producing. The self-released Feng Shui is the group's first effort since its former label, One Ton Records, went under last year, and it's the band's best yet--although, truth be told, we weren't exactly huge fans of their previous albums. Our opinion on the band changes right now: Feng Shui has a number of moments you just can't deny, including "Atcitdio" and especially "War Plan Orange," songs that are equal parts salt, sweat and sugar. We'd like to check it out live, but it seems we've been banned from the Curtain Club. Or something like that. Something about their new "no shirts/no shoes/no scum of the earth" policy. Oh, well. Think we'll manage. Somehow...

You hate to see this: In a post to The Rock's Web site (www.therockdeepellum.com), ASKA says there will be no more shows by the band at The Rock until "the management, specifically one Louie LeCamu, begins treating all bands with a little more dignity and respect." The message continues, blasting the club's supposed plans for a "pay for play" scheme (where, as implied, bands would have to drop a little cash before they step on stage) and calling for a boycott of the club. In a reply, LeCamu agrees that there will be no more ASKA shows at The Rock, "calling their bluff," as he says, among many other things that we were, frankly, too bored to pay attention to. Whatever. Let's call a truce, fellas. It's much easier to poke fun at ASKA and The Rock when they're conveniently located in the same building. Actually, it's easy either way. Never mind...

Hand stamps: Mandarin and History at Our Disposal perform May 2 at Liquid Lounge (guess we're banned from that joint, too); Eleven Hundred Springs and Drag the River are at Gypsy Tea Room on May 4; KTCU-FM's Noizefest 2002 happens on May 3 at the Ridglea Theater, with sets by Chomsky, El Gato, Hi-Fi Drowning, The Audiophiles and the 11:30's; Sugarbomb and Kissinger play Club Clearview on May 4...

This week in Sack of Kittens, in honor of all those bands that sound worse than an IRS agent standing on a bag of baby cats: Shackleford Brown. Looks like? A Lynyrd Skynyrd tribute band playing dress up in Pimpadelic's closet, all shiny Western snap shirts, sagging jeans, braided hair and the occasional flaming drum riser, though, as far as we can tell, no member of the band has "motherfucker" tattooed on his neck. Yet. (Guess we could have just cut to the chase and said "Kid Rock.") Sounds like? ZZ Top for the nü-metal crowd, or exactly what you'd expect from a band that titled its album The Southern Distortion Revival. (Again, we prolly could have just said "Kid Rock," at least when he's acting more cracker than rapper.) Sample lyrics? "I'm gonna buy my mama and daddy a big brand-new house/That way I still have a place to go when I'm finally out of dough/It just doesn't get any better that this, does it?" from "One Hit Wonder," and to answer that question: Actually, yes, it does. Nothing like a band already predicting its fall from the top when it's not even halfway there yet. (Oh, wait--singer Jeff Packer is playing a character in that song. Sure thing, hoss.) Where can you find them? Headlining Curtain Club and Galaxy Club; touring such hot-rock outposts as Wichita Falls and Waco; inspiring the creation of a time machine so we can have a sit-down with Gregg Allman and Ronnie Van Zant and, with any luck, avoid this entire mess altogether. Number of kittens in the sack they're currently standing on? Oh, four or so. And all of them are yelling for "Freebird."