Scene, heard
Dallas expatriates Transona Five will be back in the area for a few days later this month to finish mixing their forthcoming album with Matts Pence and Barnhart at The Echo Lab (the studio formerly known as 70Hurtz and Transcontinental Recording Company). The band, which moved to Boston a few months ago, will play a couple of times while here, including a gig on March 22 at Rubber Gloves Rehearsal Studios. The show will feature Stumptone, as well as Tea and Oranges (fellow Boston transplant and Go Metric USA singer-guitarist Mitch Greer's new project), and The Lickets, which features Greer and Transona Five's Rachel Smith. Transona Five will also play at the Barley House on March 25 with several special guests and what they refer to as "general goofiness." No word on when to expect the band's new album, or any new material from Tea and Oranges. And if we know Greer like we think we do, he probably wouldn't let us tell you anyway...
Before heading to Denton for its show at Rubber Gloves with The Delta 72 and New Wet Kojak, Enon will perform at Good Records on March 15 at 3 p.m. The group -- John Schmersal (ex-Braniac, and Rick Lee and Stephen Calhoon of Skelton Key) -- releases its new album, Believo!, the day before, so there should be plenty of copies available at the store if you like what you hear. It makes sense that Enon would choose to stop by Good Records on its way to Denton. If you'll remember, the members of Tripping Daisy -- one of whom, singer Tim DeLaughter, co-owns Good -- were big fans of Schmersal's former band, even covering a Braniac song ("Indian Poker Pt. 2 & 3") on 1998's Jesus Hits Like the Atom Bomb. Maybe that just makes sense to us. Upcoming Good Records in-store shows include a March 31 performance with Centro-matic, Baptist Generals, and Stumptone...
The latest installment of Sub-Tronic Theatre ("Drop the needle," February 3) happens on March 9 at Liquid Lounge. This month's edition is a collaboration with the Artificial Intelligence Collective, a group of Texas-based electronic musicians and DJs. Starfire, Ion, Ropelab, Earthorbit, DJ R-Type, DJ Mundo, and DJ Double U will perform amid a special lighting set-up provided by the Sick Little Bitches. Yeah, that's right: We mentioned the show just so we could type the last part of that sentence. We have the sense of humor of a 10-year-old. At best...
Former Nervebreakers guitarist Mike Haskins' new band, Big Guns, will perform March 10 at Fat Ted's. And while we're plugging shows, The Adventures of Jet, Chomsky, The Deathray Davies, and Stereo Rookie play on March 11 at Curtain Club; Slobberbone hits the Gypsy Tea Room the same night; and Rubber Gloves hosts a Two Ohm Hop Records benefit on March 10 and 11. The pair of shows -- Ohm, Stumptone, and Mandarin the first night, and Sub Oslo and Yeti the next -- will help fund the label's full slate of upcoming releases, including new albums by Yeti (Things to Come...) in April, and Sub Oslo (Dubs in the Key of Life) and Mandarin (as-yet-untitled) later in the spring. Two Hop's roster, most of it anyway, will also be performing on-air on Austin's KVRX-FM (91.7) on March 17, the day after the label's showcase with Last Beat Records at SXSW. If you don't feel like making the drive just to listen to the radio, you can check it out at www.kvrx.org. If you do feel like making the drive to listen to the radio, may God have mercy on your soul...
Speaking of South By Southwest, there are a few additions to the shows we reported last week. Pinkston will not be performing at the North Texas New Music Festival showcase on March 18 with Valve, Slow Roosevelt, Chomsky, and Fixture. The band will instead be appearing with Vibrolux at an afternoon Last Beat Records shindig on March 17 at the Red Eyed Fly. El Gato fills Pinkston's slot at the NTNMF gig. Also, The Foxymorons will perform live for the first time on March 16 at Empanada Parlour in Austin as part of the festival. The band, which up until this point has been Jerry James and David Deweese's recording project, has been hampered in its attempts to break out of James and Deweese's respective bedrooms because, well, those bedrooms are separated by several states -- Deweese lives in Nashville, while James is in Mesquite. The distance has rendered rehearsals a logistical nightmare, let alone live gigs. In addition, while both play guitar, James doesn't own one, borrowing Deweese's six-string in the studio. James reports via e-mail that he and Deweese have yet to practice together and are still without a drummer and a second guitar. "This is going to be a disaster," James wrote. He shouldn't be so hard on himself. As far as we know, that's our job...
It's also our job to tell you about Scene Heard Radio, but this week, we'll let Bob Mehr, music editor at our sister paper Phoenix New Times, do it for us. "What kind of proud Americans would we be if we didn't engage in a bit of shameless self-promotion? We wouldn't, of course. That's why I'm proud to announce that Scene Heard Radio, the weekly Internet radio show broadcast by the Dallas Observer at www.dallasobserver.com, has expanded its format to two hours and moved to Thursdays at 4 p.m. Hosted by former and current music editors (and effervescent on-air personalities) Robert Wilonsky and Zac Crain, Scene Heard is, dare we say, a music lover's dream. With a regular playlist that includes the best in new, old and unreleased music (including advance CDs and the occasional 'import' track -- if ya know what I mean), it's basically the kind of programming you can't and won't hear on commercial airwaves anywhere. The show also includes regular guest spots from other music editors in the New Times chain, playing the cream of their respective city's musical crops. (This week's show features SF Weekly music editor Mark Athitakis.) Best of all, the show is completely free from any FCC regulatory control, which means lots and lots of cursing." And we don't even have to pay him.
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