Cory Graves
Studies Show Local Music Is Good For The Economy. Also, People Love Beatles Tributes.
We here at White Noise are pretty into the whole local music thing. That much kinda goes without saying.
But, fun as it is to tirelessly keep track of all the upcoming music releases, watch all the latest local music videos, keep up with upcoming festival lineups and learn which local musicians are saving what local restaurants from kitchen fires, it turns out that a thriving local music scene can also help drive economic growth.
Or so says Michael Seman of Denton band Shiny Around the Edges, who recently sat down with the Washington Post to discuss how members of local bands are often key figures in the creative community and how they can play important roles in a city's urban development.
Seman's one to know: The guy has a doctorate degree in urban planning and public policy, and he recently took a trip to Omaha, Nebraska, to study the phenomenon firsthand. Local musician or not, his interview's an interesting read to be sure.
As mentioned previously, though, we still do get our rocks off writing about locally-tied upcoming releases, too. And according to the recently revealed tracklist for that Flaming Lips and Fwends tribute to The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's album, there will be a few contributions from North Texas artists: Birdflower (read: a new collaborative project that features New Fumes' Daniel Huffman and Brooke Kelty) appear on a version of “Within You Without You,” Def Rain will join the Lips for a cover of “When I'm Sixty-Four” and New Fumes plays third wheel to BFFs the Lips and Miley Cyrus on the closing track, “A Day in the Life.” The album, cleverly titled, With a Little Help From My Fwends, will officially be released on October 28.
Also coming this fall is a full-length from the aforementioned Birdflower. Check out the just-released video for “Bish at the Beach” to get your first official taste of the band's brand of snarky electro-pop.
Worth mentioning as well it that other four-disc tribute to Beatle Paul McCartney that'll feature Dallas-bred guitar hero Steve Miller covering a pair of tracks alongside such heavyweights as Billy Joel, KISS, Bob Dylan and The Cure, just to name a few. That one releases on November 17, and you can pre-order it and check out the full tracklist here.
Moving on to even more locally-based releases: Low Dark Hills released its latest EP last Tuesday. Stream that one in full via BandCamp.
Then check out Eat Avery's Bones' terrifically noisy new LP, which was recorded in Denton by Michael Briggs. On it, the band packs 18 tracks worth of cynical diatribes and rhythmic blasts into a breezy 30 minutes. Pick up a physical copy when the band performs a release show at Briggs' Macaroni Island house venue on October 25 along with Bukkake Moms and Wiving.
Similar bits of lyrical wisdom are recited by the Dallas-born Butthole Surers frontman Gibby Haynes on this new Mastadon track, which was released as a free download this week courtesy of Adult Swim. Grab it below.
And just in time for Halloween, Daniel Markham will release the followup to last year's Ruined My Life on October 31. Unlike that last album, on which Markham handled most of the instruments himself, Pretty Bitchin' will find the fuzzy, grunge-meets-alt-country musician recording live with his band, which now includes both members of RTB2 and Satans of Soft Rock frontman Tony Ferraro. Markham also recently told the Lubbock-based New Slang blog that he basically wrote the thing in two days. Below, enjoy your first taste of that one.
On the louder end of the spectrum, Baring Teeth will release its new full-length via Pittsburgh's Willowtip label on November 25. The first single, “Mountain,” is an angular assault that's a brutal as it is catchy.
Elsewhere, Somebody's Darling will debut its third full-length this Thursday via Red Bull's site, Dead Flowers released the first single from its upcoming sophomore record via iTunes, Jacob Furr will play a release show for his Trails & Traces album on September 20 at Magnolia Motor Lounge, and Blackstone Rangers just finished recording a full-length tentatively called Narrow Birth — although that one, says the band, won't be ready for release for quite some time.
Moving on, The Phuss took the popular “Let's throw a house party and film it!” approach for its new “I Don't Feel Good” video, which you can watch below. The track comes from the band's upcoming On the Prowl album that'll earn its release via Magnetic Eye Records on October 14.
Other big announcements from the past week include the fact that Edie Brickell will take some time away from her tour with Steve Martin and prepping her new musical to reunite with her old band The New Bohemians at the North Oak Cliff Music Festival, that'll take place on October 25 at Lake Cliff Park. Also appearing on that bill will be Seryn, Kat Edmonson, South Dallas Funk Revue (featuring The Relatives, Bobby Patterson and The Disciples), David Garza Trio, Fox & The Bird and Emily Elbert, among others.
That's certainly more impressive than the lineup being rolled out at the Dallas version of the Chipotle Cultivate Festival. Acts featured on that one are Amos Lee, O.A.R., The Colourist, MS MR, Sylvan Esso and DJ Christopher Golub.
Also announced this week are the performers for the tenth annual Art Conspiracy art auction, which will go down November 15. Those include DJ Cee Pee, The Happy Bullets, Son of Stan and Booty Fade.
Then there's Fort Worth singer-songwriters Luke Wade and Reagan James, the both of whom auditioned for the upcoming season of The Voice that premieres on September 22. We can't confirm whether either of them were claimed by any of the show's judges, but as the Star-Telegram's Preston Jones points out about the promo below, “…you can glimpse Wade's face around the 40-second mark, and James giving new coach Pharrell Williams a high-five at about 1:59.” So that bodes well for their odds, no?
Lastly, Jonny Mack and Rich Williams, who performed together in galleryCat, are behind a new iOS app called 12Bar that they say will help musicians to create and share chord charts and setlists for their live shows more easily. If all goes well, they say, the app should appear in the iPhone App Store sometime in November.
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