Cory Graves
The Open Carry Movement Invades The Local Music Scene and Ishi Succumbs To Robots.
Over the weekend, members of Open Carry Texas gathered at an Irving Target brandishing loaded rifles and automatic weapons, which they proceeded to carry inside the store whilst buying all the Oreo cookies they could manage to hold in their non-gun-wielding hands.
In recent months, these “political activists” have made similar demonstrations at several area fast-food restaurants and retail stores, much to the chagrin of business owners, their employees, fellow customers and pretty much everyone else not currently in possession of a weapon of their own. In the process, they've drawn the ire of everyone from the left-leaning Jon Stewart to the NRA.
Rather than put a damper on the Open Carry Texas demonstrations, though, these criticisms have only lead to more — and louder — displays. More recently, the to-do has spawned offshoot organizations eager to make waves with demonstrations of their own.
Tentatively scheduled for next month, Nervebreakers guitarist Barry Kooda intends to follow Open Carry Texas' lead by gathering his own unruly mob of followers in public locations with their own weapons of choice — their instruments. Even more shocking is the fact that they don't plan on keeping them in their cases, either.
Or as Kooda puts it: “Never point a guitar at anything you're not planning to rock.”
We recommend keeping tabs on this pretty hilarious parody movement — the First Open Carry Guitar Rally, they're calling it — on its Facebook page.
As long as we're talking about members of legendary Dallas bands, here's somethign worth noting: Rigor Mortis just announced that it has finally wrapped up work on Slaves to the Grave, the band's first album since 1991, the first recorded with the original lineup since 1988, and the final studio album that guitarist Mike Scaccia recorded before his untimely passing back in 2012. The band's surviving members (read: Casey Orr, Harden Hampton Harrison, Bruce Corbitt and Doyle Bright) and Rabid Flesh Eaters guitarist Mike Taylor will perform a set at Curtain Club on September 27, where early copies of the new LP will also be available for the first time.
Speaking of Corbitt: The singer also appears in the eight-years-in-the-making Texxas Jam '78 documentary that was only just recently made available via the iTunes store for the first time. The first of 11 such massive shows, the inaugural Texxas Jam featured performances from Journey, Ted Nugent, Aerosmith and Van Halen's second-ever Texas appearance, and packed 100,000 spectators into the Cotton Bowl on what would prove to be the hottest day of the decade.
While we're still on the subject of the past: The Kessler Theater will hold a reunion for anyone who worked, performed or booked shows at Trees from 1990 to 1995. Keep tabs on that one, including the yet-to-be announced lineup of throwback acts performing at it, right here. Similarly, a reunion for popular '90s club Red Jacket was held this past weekend at Lizard Lounge.
That's quite enough backwards-gazing for now, though, as plenty of modern-day local acts are doing noteworthy things in their own right.
Take, for instance, Midlake, which will join Neil Young in Istanbul's Kucukciftlik Park next month, where Young will play his first-ever show in Turkey.
Then there's Street Arabs guitarist Matthew Powers and The Aquaholics bassist Josh White, who say that their new recording studio and rehearsal space, Aqua Lab Sound Recording, will open in Deep Ellum at the beginning of next month.
“We're all digital for now, but a tape machine is in our near future,” Powers says. “We want to be the SweatBox of Dallas if that makes sense.”
Powers, it's worth noting, has also recently taken over booking duties at Double Wide.
Meanwhile, Ashley Myrick has launched a crowd-funding campaign to help pay for her first LP in four years. Judging from the album's first singles, which you can find below, Myrick seems to have moved on from the country-tinged indie pop of her 2010 debut — back when she was still using the lalagray moniker — and to a more realized place, even, than the cabaret nature of her recent live performances.
Also new this week is this interesting project from long quiet electronic act Melting Season. It's the first in a series of webpages that, in turn, will double as music videos from the Bruce Blay project.
Lastly, we share yet another new music video with you below — this one an animated effort from Ishi for its latest Digital Wounds single, “Emotional Hard Drive.” Check it out:
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