Music For Marriage was to have thrown a big concert this Saturday with 18 bands, 14 sponsors and dozens of volunteers. Frolic, The Vanished, The Happy Bullets and others had signed up to rock against amendment HJR 6, the ban against gay marriage that will hit Texas ballots November 8. But a few weeks ago, the group quietly sent out a news release announcing M4M's concert cancellation. Had some right-wing conspiracy snuck in and taken the show down?
"No, it just fell through," M4M founder April Samuels says, citing last-minute issues with potential venues. "If it was some kind of political thing, I would be hollering all over the place about it." While Samuels says that it's too late to reschedule a concert in time for October 11, the final date Texans can register to vote, she isn't retiring the group name yet. "We're considering doing something next year and plowing forward. However the vote turns out, there's still work to be done." Find out more at musicformarriage.org.
Mmm, spam: Thanks to our spam guard, we no longer have to read penis enlargement ads, mortgage rate quotes or promo announcements for contemporary Christian bands. Still, on occasion, noteworthy bulletins get stuck in our spam filter. For example, Dallas' venerable the pAper chAse put out a bulletin this week, as singer/ guitarist/producer extraordinaire John Congleton is "looking for a relatively 'trained' female vocalist and a musical saw player for recording on the new pAper chAse album." Congleton didn't get back to us in time for press with any information about a timetable for this next album, but we'll assume that if all remains on course, we'll see a new CD by the end of 2006. Head to thepaperchaseband.com for contact info if you have the itch to saw (or sing).
In addition, I'd never heard of clandestineproject.com until this week, but the promotion group's latest project is the kind of local music-loving goodness that deserves attention. As a part of the upcoming Summer Break Records benefit for Katrina victims, which is tentatively scheduled for early November, Clandestine will offer concertgoers a benefit mp3 CD-R, the proceeds of which will go to Habitat for Humanity. Organizer Chris Lewellyn is asking for any and all local bands to visit the site and submit an mp3 of their choice, which will be included on the 150-song compilation. Some awesome bands have already submitted, including Centro-matic, Midlake and Day of the Double Agent, and it sounds like no bands will be turned away, so get to it.
Save yourself the trip: We're going to the Austin City Limits Music Festival this weekend. You might think we're bragging, but for the first time in ACL's four-year run, we kinda want to stay home. Most of the best bands at the fest are touring through DFW, so the fest isn't exactly necessary to get a good fill of tunes, while a few Dallas-only shows (and the potentially bad weather courtesy of Hurricane Rita) are making our Austin trip a little tough to stomach. Some of those concerts are already listed in our Critics' Picks section (read: Micah P. Hinson), while others didn't make the cut (Cincinnati's ultra-bluesy Thee Shams stop at the Double Wide on Thursday), but if you're in town, keep your eyes on the local treats, too.
The Barley House hosts an all-day rock-a-rama on Saturday, starting at 2 p.m. with Tom Petty cover band Petty Theft and continuing into the night with Olospo, Jack Ingram, The Drams and more. That night, the AllGood Café hosts a Fort Worth-only night of tunes with Colin Herring, Tim Locke and Flickerstick's Brandin Lea, and the next day, Sons of Hermann Hall throws a Humane Society benefit with a bajillion puppy-loving bands--read more about that on page 37. Let's not forget the Latin Katrina benefit on Monday, either, with Zayra Alvarez and Havana NRG raising funds at the Hard Rock Café.
