Archive for February, 2012

“A Blueprint for Summer”

Richard Carter

Doppelgängers at the Pub

What a week of music. It always seems as the weather starts to get warmer, people want to get out and play and people want to get our and listen.

Part of the reason there was off-weekend shows was because the Derby Dames has a pub crawl to raise money for their upcoming season. It turned out that Broadcasting on All Frequencies did a special trio show (without Pedro who had to work) at Toby’s, which was really quite good. Their drummer Mason seemed to be more percussive and the three musicians kept it quite interesting missing one of their lead players. The band brought quite a crowd, and everyone seemed to have a blast.

The next night (Thursday), the crawl turned to the Spot where a number of people played to a solid full crowd. By the way, this coming Thursday (March 1) is the first week of the month, which means that it’s going to be an open mic at The Spot. If you haven’t tried their new New York Thin Crust pizza, you might give that a whirl as well.

Also, Thursday night was a show by the Doppelgangers at the Pub. It’s not very often that the instrumental band plays, but this was probably my favorite show by them so far. They recently asked veteran drummer Barry Sloan to play and he has fit in perfectly. When their other drummer returns, it would appear that the two will play together and there will be some cool percussion to the mix.

It’s interesting because the next night I saw Doppelgangers guitarist Cody Tucker and keyboardist Dustin Bowen at Old Town, and we were waiting for the first show (that I know of) by a new group called Attebury Blueprint. I was talking to them about their Thursday show and they thought it sounded just like one of their practices, and I said to add a whole bunch more energy and a better mix to it. They finally admitted that guitarist Jon Richerson was really amped up and it sounded like it.

I have always believed that when musicians practice they should work out the songs and get the basics down, and when they play live in front of people that they should let the energy and the lights and all the excitement push them into doing more. You add something to the mix, and that’s what makes each live show a little different and exciting. If you were just playing the same old thing it would get boring, unless you’re playing classical music which is sort of a different thing altogether. Great jazz and rock can be looser than most other musics (blues as well) and should always sound a little different. The moment should actually mean something.

Anywho, the new band Attebury Blueprint is pretty much people you already know. It’s Donovan Hickman on guitar, Kory Rogers on keyboards, Drew Johnson on drums and Dusty Potter on bass. It’s sort of Ben Folds meets prog rock, or an excuse for four ridiculously talented musicians to show off their chops playing intricate music that they enjoy playing. The response for them was quite good, and they will be playing next week again already on Friday, March 2 at the Pub opening up for Lewis Louis as a benefit show. Go check both local bands out.

Bad Romance

Richard Carter

The insanity of X at the Pub last Saturday

Unfortunately, Emily Pothast’s multimedia band Midday Veil will not be performing in Wichita Falls this March 9th on their way to performing at SXSW. A Dallas show came through, so they will play there, and when I find out the details, I promise to share.

I had the opportunity to talk with singer Elizabeth Speer and guitarist Johnny Divine of jazzE this last week and the story will run in NEXT on Feb 24 for their March 2 show at Backdoor. The group does Patsy Cline covers plus jazz standards and also Julie London stuff. I think they’re going to be amazing and there are only 100 seats, so get them early if you plan on attending. (940) 322-5000. Since it’s on the dinner stage, you might ask about the possibility of wine.

I got to watch the biannual X show at the Iron Horse Pub last Saturday and the big news was they were playing a Gaga song “Bad Romance” based on the Halestorm version. They played that as the song second in their first set, which I thought was a strong set. Their version included Dustin Fike (of Miyagi) on background vocals, and I told him that he was wearing more makeup than his model girlfriend. Needless to say, the show was very well attended and people had a genuinely good time. The gals from the Derby Dames were out their doing a raffle and they made about $300. The girls have asked X to play the halftime show at their first match. That would be interesting, if it happens.

I keep thinking that in addition to Valentine’s Day and Halloween, that perhaps X should do the “School’s Out” show that’s been rumored that the band will do for a while.

Radio Republic played last Friday night but I missed them and will watch the band play on Tuesday night, February 21 at the Pub, which is part of the all-next week Derby Dames pub crawl. The other night of live music the Dames will be hosting will be Thursday night at the Spot, which could be all kinds of crazy. Looking forward to it.

Regarding last week’s Grammy awards, I think it was interesting that so many musicians I know—who bothered to mention it—thought it was strange and kind of bad that Amy Winehouse was not mentioned once during the ceremonies. Winehouse had won Grammy awards, if I remember correctly, and I think politics should have stayed out of it. It was a sad loss of a woman at the top of her career.

For those of you who dig “new” music, the second Sleigh Bells CD is due out on Tuesday and a lot of people are excited. Sure, it’s another one of those male and female duos that perform high-energy stuff with drum machines and everything, but the first CD was amazing, and I cannot wait to hear their second outing. Let’s hope they have enough ideas and music in them to do two good CD’s.

I am hoping for acknowledgement of some interesting rumors of major tours to come through the area that might actually spur some serious ticket sales. Hopefully some of those touring bands get signed.  Summer is not that far away, and it would be cool to see some serious bands. I hear the Pretty Reckless is touring with Marilyn Manson and that would be lots of fun, not that this is one of the rumors for the area.

Queen for April 7th

Richard Carter

Shantell plays P2 this Thursday at 7 pm

I got a text from my favorite guitarist, Brian Harris of Dallas’ Queen for a Day, earlier this week that his Queen cover band will be playing one final show—the band’s last show ever—at the Iron Horse Pub on April 7^th. The night before that the group will be playing the large room at House of Blues. The group is unbelievably popular in Wichita Falls having played the Pub any number of times along with Hotter’N Hell and also the Dutch queen’s birthday party at Sheppard Air Force Base. I think the only major show these guys haven’t played was FallsFest and I promise you they would have rocked that as well. It’s amazing they will play here gain, and I think that it’s a must see show.

The reason this is Queen for a Day’s last show is because the singer, Greg, has a gig with a west coast Queen cover group. But as a friend of mine commented why would you leave the best Queen cover band ever to play in another one? Shame that.

I went by The Spot on Thursday and watched about an hour and a half of the venue’s now once a month open mic. You cannot argue with success as the more limited open mics are drawing better than ever. But, I sort of miss getting to hang out at local venues and get to listen to new performers. The musicians enjoyed the attention and the crowd was there. I guess I can wait until the first Thursday in March to check out the next one.

On March 3, area band Brother Sharp will play for a marathon (www.runtheexpress.com) benefitting the area Xpress Soccer Club, and they will be playing starting at 8 a.m. in the morning. It’s a great cause, obviously and it should be a lot of fin if you enjoy running and stuff. But wow, can you imagine local rockers waking up, getting there and setting up to play at 8 a.m. Sweet.

I am writing a story on Radio Republic who will be playing at the Pub on Feb 17 with the Tejas Brothers—a really good regional band from Fort Worth with a drummer from Wichita Falls. It will be an interesting combination of music, and the guys from Radio Republic can clearly play. Hint: the band has some major former members from 10 Cent Pistol.

The Lemonheads will be playing at The Prophet Bar in Dallas on Thursday February 9 in Deep Ellum. Check it out, the band is playing “It’s a Shame about Ray,” and that is cool. Motorhead plays the Palladium Ballroom in Dallas on March 1. And Neon Indian plays the Granada Theater in Dallas on Tuesday, March 13. All three shows should be amazing.

Finally, there is an interesting local trend around where it seems like everyone is playing in more than one band. I wrote about that last week re: drummers, but it would appear that other musicians are finding a variety of bands to play in. if that gets us some new music, I am looking to hearing some new bands. Still, it’s been my experience living in Dallas and Seattle that ‘rock’ musicians who are serious tend to put all of their eggs in one basket. There are exceptions, of course, but I guess we shall see. Let’s hope that bands maintain some diversity because musicians want to expand their palettes and song selections.