If you remember, a year or so ago, we told you about John Freeman and a few other local types doing voices for the wildly popular Dragonball Z anime cartoon show for Cartoon Network. Now, it seems that even more area musicians are making appearances on Dragonball, the precursor to Dragonball Z, which Cartoon Network execs have resurrected and brought into the states. "Confusing? I agree," says Rob Avsharian, who plays drums on the soundtrack for the show. "That anime shit is a weird racket." Brave Combo's Carl Finch produced the music for the show, and various other local folks contribute to the soundtrack, including Bowling for Soup bassist Erik Delegard. Speaking of Avsharian, his band, The Adventures of Jet, will be making a long-awaited return to the stage in October, with a show at Club Clearview. Word is, the group will be touring with Vue, a band from Sub Pop Records' roster. Hope so...
The lineup for the latest installment in Wanz Dover's semiannual Melodica Festival has been confirmed, and it'll happen September 14 and 15 at the Ridglea Theater in Fort Worth. Scheduled to perform on the first night are The Ex, Earl Harvin Trio, The Falcon Project, Young Heart Attack and The Polyphonic Spree. Bands on night No. 2 are Lift to Experience, Hi-Fi Drowning, Jetscreamer, Cemi All Stars, Mercova, Stereo on Strike, Stumptone, Skellydown, The Wild Bull, Mandarin, Faceless Werewolves, Ghostcar and JD & B Green. Tickets are $15 for Friday, $12 for Saturday and $22 for a weekend pass. Just go ahead and get the weekend pass; it'll be worth the extra money...
Erstwhile Son Volt front man Jay Farrar will release his solo debut, Sebastopol, on September 25, a few days after his former Uncle Tupelo band mate Jeff Tweedy makes a stop with his band Wilco at the Gypsy Tea Room (September 21), playing songs off their latest album, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. (Wilco's disc, currently without a label home, is amazing, by the way.) Farrar recorded Sebastopol at his own Jajouka Studios in Millstadt, Illinois, the same place where Centro-matic recorded enough songs for two albums and change a few years ago. Obviously, Farrar made friends with the band when it was in town, because Centro-matic drummer Matt Pence shows up behind the kit on six of the album's 14 tracks. Other guests on the disc include Superchunk drummer Jon Wurster, the Flaming Lips' Steven Drozd and Gillian Welch, among others. While Sebastopol soon will be in stores, if you have to hear Wilco's disc sometime soon, the songs are floating around somewhere on the Internet on something called MP3s...
You knew this had to happen: The Dixie Chicks filed a $4.1 million breach of contract lawsuit against Sony Music Entertainment in U.S. District Court in New York on August 27, countering the breach of contract lawsuit Sony filed in the same court on July 17. Sony claimed the group still owed the label five more albums and was attempting to wriggle out of its original deal. The Chicks' suit, however, claims that Sony "withheld over $975,000 in royalties by failing and refusing to compute and pay royalties at the agreed rates" and also withheld another $1.8 million in royalties as "reasonable" reserves for potential returns. "Surely all businesses are not conducted in this manner," the Chicks--Natalie Maines Pasdar, Emily Robison and Martie Seidel--said in a statement released August 28. "Frankly, what they are doing, not just to us but to other artists on the label, gives this industry a bad reputation. We got tired of having to beat down the doors and send letter upon letter every time Sony breached our contract. It threatened to take us away from doing what we love, making music." And that takes us away from what we love, which is making snide remarks about that music. Don't do this to us, Sony...
Hell House, a documentary that The New Year's Matt and Bubba Kadane did the music for, will be screening at the Toronto Film Festival this month and should be making the festival circuit throughout the rest of the year. No idea when it'll score an official release and hit Dallas, but there are certainly enough theaters for that kind of flick all of a sudden. The Kadanes and their former band, Bedhead, could also be making an appearance on a Touch and Go DVD compilation that's in the works. No idea when that's coming out either. Hey, we're just the messenger...
Show down: Red Animal War opens for Burning Airlines and Rival Schools at Trees on September 6; The Happiness Factor supports the Push Kings at Gypsy Tea Room on September 6; Jab releases its self-titled debut at the Tea Room on September 7, with The Sparrows and Sorta, and Cramer does the same the following night, with Vibrolux and Chao; The Shells, Spivey Accent, Climate and Austin's The Arthurs are at Liquid Lounge on September 6...
Another week, another listening party: BMG Distribution is hosting a shindig at Liquid Lounge for the forthcoming Mercury Rev disc, All is Dream, which hits stores September 11. We've had the record in the car for a week or so now, and we'd have to say it's somewhat of a wide-eyed version of the Flaming Lips' The Soft Bulletin, if that helps you out at all. Meaning: good, good stuff. BMG's Tony Edwards wants to make sure any and all Mercury Rev fans are taken care of--or at least 10 of them--so the first 10 people to e-mail us with Mercury Rev in the subject line get a free Mercury Rev U.K. subway poster. Don't say we never gave you anything.
