While we're one the subject of familiar faces in new bands, Tim DeLaughter and Mark Pirro--both formerly of Tripping Daisy--will unveil their new outfit, The Polyphonic Spree, on July 15 at the Gypsy Tea Room, with Grandaddy and Bright Eyes. We've sort of known about the band for a couple of months, but didn't think it would be up and on its feet until much later this year, since DeLaughter has been so busy with Good Records. "It's completely different from anything I've ever done, and it's something I've been wanting to do for a while," DeLaughter said when we talked to him about The Polyphonic Spree in March. "It's gonna be more on a symphonic scale, a lot of voices." As for Pirro, besides re-teaming with DeLaughter in The Polyphonic Spree, he's also been dabbling in carpentry (he crafted Good's lovely magazine rack) and production; at the moment, he's working on El Gato's forthcoming album. By the way, you can (and should) pick up a copy of Tripping Daisy's self-titled farewell at a record store near you...
Centro-matic kicks off a short Midwest tour on June 24 with a show in Austin, featuring Spoon frontman Britt Daniel and the band's fellow Quality Park Records team members The Baptist Generals. The group will be back in town on July 1 to perform at the Gypsy Tea Room. The tour appears to be a warm-up for Centro-matic's longer jaunt up the East Coast, which is set to begin July 18 in New Orleans. If nothing else, it appears as if Centro-matic's hard work is starting to pay off: All the Falsest Hearts Can Try, the band's latest effort, landed all the way up at the No. 2 spot on the recent Rolling Stone charts, which track weekly college radio airplay. Damn straight...
Sub Oslo's new record, Dubs in the Key of Life, hits stores on July 1, just in time for the band to play a few shows before drummer Quincy Holloway heads off to Thailand to get hitched. (Congrats, Quincy.) The band will perform June 30 at Gypsy Tea Room with Two Ohm Hop Records label mates Mandarin, and July 1 at Rubber Gloves Rehearsal Studios. Completing the local trifecta, Sub Oslo will hit the Wreck Room on July 7 with Stumptone. Later in the year, most of Two Ohm Hop's roster--Sub Oslo, Mandarin, Stumptone, and Yeti--will possibly be making the trip to Portland for the annual North By Northwest festival, the smaller, younger cousin of Austin's gargantuan South By Southwest shindig. Of course, with Sub Oslo's ever-expanding lineup (eight to 10 performers, standard), travel plans are a bit more complicated...
Buzz-Oven, a new project started by One Ton Records to spur interest in local music, kicks off on June 24 with an all-ages show featuring Slow Roosevelt, Valve, and Red Animal War at the Lone Star Country Club in Coppell. Two songs from each band in the lineup--all of which will also perform on June 30 at Fort Worth's Ridglea Theater--appear on the first Buzz-Oven sampler. The disc will be distributed free of charge to young music fans in an attempt to get more of them to come out to shows by local bands. A team of "buzzers," headed up by Matt Gunter (who was also partly responsible for last year's Static Orange compilation), will hit the streets to try to build the, you know, buzz about the bands. From what we can tell, this is the first of three yearly installments, so look for more good things from Buzz-Oven in the future. (To get involved, head to www.buzz-oven.com.) Good luck, fellas...
Wally Gagel--who produced The Old 97's major-label debut, 1997's Too Far to Care--will be back behind the boards for the band's follow-up to last year's Fight Songs. (For more on the group's newer material, see Christina Rees' story on singer-guitarist Rhett Miller's recent performance at a London club's open-mike night on page 92.) Rounding out the technical team, Tchad Blake, engineer on Pearl Jam's recent Binaural (along with records by Tom Waits, Ron Sexsmith, and the Latin Playboys, among others), will mix the as-yet-untitled disc. Recording on the project is set to begin at Willie Nelson's Pedernales Studio in late July. In the meantime, you can catch the band at the Gypsy Tea Room on June 23. And as for the forthcoming album by the Ranchero Brothers (Miller and Murry Hammond), it looks as if it will be sold via mail order and the Internet. Get yer credit cards ready, kids...
Brave Combo headlines this year's installment of the Texas Beer & Music Festival, which happens on June 23 at Lincoln Square in Arlington. To be precise, it happens in a parking lot, conveniently located in the Lincoln Square area near Six Flags. Brave Combo hits the stage around 9 p.m., and admission is $5...
Speaking of Arlington, and listen up because we rarely do, the city's own Laser Trax Records (a unique record store/studio/occasional live music venue) hosts a special local-band showcase at the Galaxy Club on June 24. The lineup for the show, which is intended to celebrate and promote Laser Trax's Web site (www.lasertrax.com), includes: Pimpsta, Oak Cliff Assassin, Darlington, the Hellions, Slowride, Boa Drape, Shmunks For You, Montrose, and 41 Gorgeous Blocks. The music begins at 6 p.m., lasts until 2 a.m., and tickets are $6 to $8. By the way, speaking of 41 Gorgeous Blocks, the band features singer-guitarist Matt Riggle (formerly of The Fitz), guitarist Deedle LaCour, drummer Matt Morris, and bassist Matt Pittman, who also plays guitar for Red Animal War. Maybe it's just us, but with three Matts in the group, it seems a much more obvious name escaped their attention. Bad ideas aside, the band's debut CD, An Emotional Young Person Just Like Yourself, is available through its Web site, www.41gorgeousblocks.com. Or you can always just pick one up at the show...
In other record store/occasional live music venue news, Good Records has a full week of in-store performances scheduled. The high jinks start with Cerberus Shoal on June 23 at 6 p.m., and continue with appearances by Beachwood Sparks (June 24, 4 p.m.) and the one and only (and portly) Frank Black (June 27, 7 p.m.). In the interest of full disclosure, we recently learned that one of Good's co-owners, Chris Penn, is our neighbor, living a mere two doors down from us. Rest assured, that fact has nothing to do with the Observer's covering the store's happenings as if we're on the payroll. It does have something to do with our not letting the dog do her "dirty, sinful business" (to quote The Simpsons' Rev. Lovejoy) in Penn's yard anymore. Well, we try anyway...
In addition to being part of the Friday Nite Fuzz multimedia series at Plush (a new downtown gallery), Blush's gig on June 23 is also a release party of sorts for the band's new single, "Hopscotch." If you hurry, you can also catch the band on June 21 at the Ridglea Theater, on a bill that includes John Galp, Demijohn, Listen, and Eskimo Kisses. Nope, we don't know either...
As we're sure at least a few people care, Stink!#bug has reunited, and apparently, it feels so good that the group plans to record a new album, set for release on Last Beat Records. (Guess we can go snuff out that candle at church.) The band will re-debut on July 28 at Trees. In other Last Beat news, Captain Audio's East Coast tour (which we had heard from a fairly reliable source was to be more of a permanent move) will not be anything more than that. At least, according to Last Beat's Tami Thomsen. "The plan is to play Saturday's show [the band's June 17 gig at Rick's Place in Denton], take some time off, regroup in August, and do East Coast dates," Thomsen reports, via e-mail. "They are going to do an 'industry showcase' kinda thang at Brownies (which is tentatively scheduled with Jesse from D-Generation's new project), plus (hopefully) a Good/Bad show at their space in New York City. We'll book dates around the Brownies showcase...That's the plan as it stands today!" There you have it.
Maybe the following words will shed some light on why Street Beat is always in such a craggy mood. "My God, you are fucking pathetic. You suck as well as that idiotic rag you 'write' for. Do the world a favor and kill yourself. Have a great day fuckface." And, "Hi asshole. How are you? Still writing a bunch of the same old fucking bullshit about the same fucking bands? Have a great weekend dumbass." The previous messages, received via e-mail from a budding wordsmith by the name of "Bert," are exactly the kind of encouragement that gets us up in the morning. By the way, since we actually do know who sent the missives, maybe this is what they were looking for: The Cock Outs performed June 11 at Rubber Gloves Rehearsal Studios with Chaotic Past (featuring former Brutal Juice bassist Sam McCall). And we're sure they're playing somewhere else again real soon. Hope that makes everyone happy...
Finally, for some reason (hmmm), Starplex Amphitheatre is now known as Smirnoff Music Centre. Change your summer schedules accordingly.
Send reasons for random bursts of curse words to Street Beat at [email protected].
