Anywho, the second round of Buzz-Oven shows wraps up on December 2, with a pair of gigs at Trees--one in the afternoon, one at night--featuring Baboon, Chomsky, and Lucy Loves Schroeder. And as it happens, all three bands are working on new records, or are about to. Or something like that. Lucy Loves Schroeder has been working at Last Beat Studio with John Congleton on a full-length, targeted for release on Vile Beat Records. Congleton has also been working with Baboon on its soon-to-be-released live disc, A Bum Note and a Bead of Sweat, and may work with them on their next studio record, both of which will be released by Last Beat Records. (Last Beat, incidentally, will put out the new joint by Vibrolux on December 5, a release we've publicly doubted in the past. Good on ya, guys. The band celebrates at XPO Lounge, with CHAO!, on December 2.) And from what we hear, Chomsky will begin recording with Barry Poynter in Little Rock shortly for an album that should hit stores next year sometime. There was talk of an EP to be released in the meantime, but that may have been scrapped in favor of the long player. Or maybe it hasn't. Maybe we were the only ones talking about it. It's a tricky bidness. You can also catch Chomsky, along with The Deathray Davies, at an acoustic gig at Borders (the Lovers-Greenville location, yo) on December 3. Or can you? We're sleepy...
Centro-matic will play at Dan's Bar in Denton on November 30 with Little Grizzly, the last area show by Will Johnson, Matt Pence, Mark Hedman, and Scott Danbom for a while. The band will spend a couple of weeks touring Europe, including a gig opening for J. Mascis (whose recent stop at the Gypsy Tea Room was plagued by faulty equipment) in Belgium, a stop in London, and a radio session at Studio Amstel for Dutch National Radio. Expect Hedman to deliver a humorous tour diary to the Centro-matic Web site (www.centro-matic.com) upon the group's return to the states. In an interesting bit of trivia, during our own recent tour of London, we came across a copy of Little Grizzly's "Spelunker" seven-inch single at a used-record shop in the "newly fashionable area of Notting Hill"--well, that's what the guide book called it anyway. Which prompted this thought: If Rees needs the money that desperately, we'll just send it to her. Only kidding. You know we'd never send anyone money...
While we're on the subject of record stores--and we sort of were, right?--Arlington's Laser Trax Records shut down on October 28, blaming slow sales over the past six months for its demise. Laser Trax's Web site (www.lasertrax.com) will remain open, however, in its new guise as OneMusicStop.com, serving as a CD and MP3 distribution site for independent musicians and bands. And as one closes, another opens: Johnny Law Records in Denton is up-and-running and doing its best to sate your appetite for Czech prog rock and other such hard-to-find musics. Just pull into town and ask where the record store is; there aren't many to choose from in li'l D...
Ah, Christ...mas: Brave Combo, holiday favorites thanks to their It's Christmas, Man disc, kick off the holidaze with their annual Christmas shindig, December 1 at the Gypsy Tea Room. In non-Hallmark-sanctioned news, the band will release All Wound Up! A Family Music Party!, its collaboration with kiddie-song vets Cathy Fink and Marcy Marxer, on January 31 on Rounder Records. As for us, we'll be having our first annual Festivus party upstairs at The Cavern sometime this weekend. Check one of the barstools for more information: We'll be the one impersonating Jesus...
Speaking of X-mas--or The Man's holiday, as we prefer to call it--Good Records sponsors its own get-down on December 14 at the Lakewood Theatre, with holiday sounds provided by The Polyphonic Spree. Seems The Polyphonic Spree kids have been working on their first recording, so look for a late Christmas present sometime early next year. And as for the Good Records X-mas par-tay, get there early: Doors open at 7:30 p.m...
[DARYL], whose seven-inch single for Quality Park Records should be ready to go anytime now, is finishing up work on its first full-length at the moment as well, for--we think--Beatville Records, the same label that brought you the greatness known as The pAper chAse's Young Bodies Heal Quickly, You Know. They'll take a break from all of that to hit the road with pals Paris Texas on its five-date swing through Texas. You can see the bill for yourself, and you really should, when both bands play at Rubber Gloves Rehearsal Studios on December 7...
Ben Kweller, who came back to town recently to play gigs at Trees and Liquid Lounge, is doing well for himself in New York. Let's just hope he doesn't pick up any bad habits from former Lemonheads frontman Evan Dando, who Kweller is teaming up with for an East Coast, just-two-guys-with-guitars tour. The kid already leaves the most wonderfully rambling phone messages in the history of voice-mail technology. Wouldn't want to hear what he'd come up with while all hopped-up on goofballs. You know, there's a reason they call it dope.