Cory Graves
Midlake Keeps On Rockin', Cardo Gets Some Shine and the Toadies Put Texas On Wax.
A week-and-a-half removed from Metallica's semi-controversial headlining performance at England's Glastonbury Festival — the Brits, it seems, weren't too happy with the fact that frontman James Hetfield narrated a documentary on bear hunting — folks are still buzzing about the goofy intro video the band showed leading up to its set that featured its members dressed as bears and gunning down English fox hunters.
But they're not the only ones buzzing of late thanks to a Glastonbury appearance. The Denton heroes Midlake, in particular, have been called out for their own memorable showing. In fact, Consequence of Sound's Tom Hardy cited the band's vocals as a particular strong point.
Writes Hardy: “From the opening verse of 'Young Bride,' Midlake frontman Eric Pulido was in excellent form, comfortably offering the best vocal performance all weekend. He has a commanding though gentle presence, a rich baritone that arches over the lush instrumental patterns laid down by the band and complimented by fine harmonies. And despite losing leader Tim Smith in 2012, Midlake has gone from strength to endurance.”
But the band didn't stop there as far as headline-making vocal performances at festivals go. The unit also went on to lend vocal support to Pearl Jam during a couple of tunes at the band's performance at Belgium's Rock Werchter festival. Check out these videos of the band singing along with Eddie Vedder and Co. for the Lost Dogs cut “All Night” during the band's main set, and for a well-worn cover of Neil Young's “Keep on Rockin' in the Free World,” which Pearl Jam whipped out during its second encore.
Of course, as the band's Eric Pulido recently told Paste, none of this would have been possible if not for his Ray-Bans and Nudie jeans.
Moving on: Another batch of acts with local ties got a bit of an ego boost when they found their most recent releases were among Rolling Stone magazine's list of the best albums of 2014 so far. Like on our own list, the Old 97's' latest fared rather well. So too did St. Vincent's and Parquet Courts'. As did Swans' new one, which, like St. Vincent's, was produced by local studio ace John Congleton.
Speaking of the Old 97's: The band's frontman, it was recently announced, will take part in a September 8 fundraiser at Billy Bob's for the family of recently deceased ESPN writer Richard Durrett. Joining Miller on the bill will be Daphne Willis and, according to a press release, stars that are too big to be named but that boast “12 sold-out shows at Billy Bob's alone and a combined eight singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts.” Well, then.
Also gleaned from the pages of Rolling Stone is the news that Fort Worth's Quaker City Night Hawks will join the likes of Jason Isbell and Amanda Shires, Blitzen Trapper, Trampled by Turtles, Joe Pug and Justin Townes Earle among others on an upcoming tribute album to Bruce Springsteen's Born in the U.S.A.. For that one, the band will cover The Boss' “Darlington County.”
Elsewhere, the Toadies — at whose upcoming Dia de los Toadies festival both the Old 97's and Quaker City Night Hawks will perform — have a new, limited edition, 12-inch, Texas-shaped vinyl being released today. Yes, you read that right: 1,000 copies of a vinyl single featuring an early live version of “Possum Kingdom” and “I Burn” will be pressed on Texas-shaped wax. See and/or buy the thing here.
Another locally-tied vinyl release of note comes courtesy of The Relatives, which has struck a deal with Daptone to release a seven-inch featuring the rare, long-out-of-print singles “Don't Let Me Fall” and “Leave Something Worthwhile,” both of which were recorded by the band in the '70s. Preview and/or pre-order those cuts here.
Also out today is the latest cassette EP from Dallas experimental outfit Spacebeach, which was released via Pour le Corps. Check it out:
In other new release news, you can check out right here a track from The Polyphonic Spree's somewhat unnecessary upcoming release that features electronic remixes of several tracks from its Yes, It's True album .
Likewise, Gorilla vs. Bear debuted a new “mixtape” from Denton dream pop duo Fight Bite that features new remixes of several of the band's old tunes. Check it out:
Not to be forgotten, A.Dd+ also tells White Noise it's been working on a new EP of its own, which will earn its release later this summer, which is very good news, indeed.
Then there's Fort Worth producer Cardo who was responsible for the Jay Z-featuring new Jeezy single, “Seen it All” that earned its release last week. As the producer told MTV last week, though, the beat was originally supposed to go to Big Sean. In fact, he says, Jeezy only ended up with it due to an email mishap. Check it out regardless:
Similarly, Dallas producer Nick Seeley and his wife provided the chopped-up vocal texturing sprinkled throughout Trey Songz's just-released “Dead Wrong” single. Check that out below:
In the theater world, banjo-wielding funnyman Steve Martin and Dallas native Edie Brickell will debut their new musical, Bright Star this fall in San Diego. The production will run from September 13 to November 2 at the Old Globe theater, starting up roughly a month after the duo performs at Dallas' Winspear Opera House on August 1.
Meanwhile, Good Luck Karaoke was the subject of a feature in the Chicago Tribune, defunct Dallas metal act Maleveller will have its song “The Man Who Would Be King” featured on the Hellion soundtrack, and Fort Worth's Special Guest and Denton's Cat People each recently called it quits. You can download Special Guest's final recordings right here.
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