Cory Graves
Locals Head Off To CMJ, Luke Wade Makes Gwen Stefani Cry And Tim McGraw's Playing The Mall.
Last night on the television, North Texas continued its dominance over the current season of The Voice.
As the program kicked off its Battle Rounds phase, Fort Worth's Luke Wade faced off against the single-named Griffin in a rendition of Sir Paul McCartney's “Maybe I'm Amazed.” Not only did Wade annihilate his competition and earn the right to continue his run on the show, but judge Blake Shelton called the performance “definitely one of the greatest battles we've ever had on this show.” Judge Adam Levine, meanwhile, called Wade the “best singer in this competition.” Check out the clip that earned Wade such high praise below.
What you didn't see in that clip, though — at least according to this interview Wade gave to Fort Worth radio station 95.9-FM The Ranch this morning — is the judges tearing up after the performance.
Speaking of big performances, the Dallas Morning News reports that Tim McGraw and The Band Perry will perform a free concert in the NorthPark Center parking lot on Saturday, November 8. Free doesn't necessarily mean easily attainable, though: You're going to have to endure a few hardships if you want to catch the performance that'll mark the opening of the mall's new Microsoft Store. To wit: People are expected to begin lining up at 10 p.m. on Friday, November 7, in order to snag some 2,500 pairs of tickets that'll begin getting distributed at 10 a.m. the next morning. Then the hour-long show will take place just a couple hours later, at around 1 p.m.
It's just the latest in a number of corporate scores of late. Kacey Musgraves, for instance, has done her fair share of schilling over the past week: Just yesterday, aboard a symbolic Virgin America flight from Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport to Dallas Love Field to mark the carrier's move to the latter. Musgraves walked the aisles, performing acoustic versions of cuts from here Grammy-winning Same Trailer Different Park album; then from there, she headed over to The Rustic, where she performed more acoustic cuts as part of a launch event for Zodiac Vodka.
As far as a few other upcoming shows for your calendar go, the CF Concert Series will return to Granada Theater for its eighth annual concert benefiting cystic fibrosis research. This year's performers include Rhett Miller, Prophets & Outlaws and The Wind & The Wave.
Then there's Bishop Arts' new record shop, Spinster, which will mark its grand opening this Saturday, October 18, with in-store performances from Exit 380, RTB2, Raul Campos, DJ Sober and Dustin Cavazos, who will be selling cassette copies of his new mixtape at the event. Performances are scheduled to begin at noon.
Speaking of new releases: We somehow forgot to mention the new one from Howler Jr. in last week's column. No worries, a week after its official drop date, Getting Somewhere still rings true as one of the most enjoyable things we've listened to this year. Stream it in full below.
Another one we've kind of slept on is the debut full-length from Fort Worth scuzz-punk trio Bitch Bricks, which was released back on September 27 for International Cassette Store Day. Check out this disc, which was produced by the band's bassist Jennifer Rux at her Dreamy Soundz studio, below.
Jennifer's husband Robby Rux, meanwhile, recently debuted a new video with his own Year of the Bear project late last week. Check it out.
Then there's Joel Ford, who has been sharing tracks from his own solo debut of late — the most recent of which, called “Breathe,” features the vocals of his Ejecta bandmate Leanne Macomber. As far as the rest of the expected early 2015 release is concerned, we've been told to expect “sample-based techno made from classic '80s/'90s action thrillers.” Get a better idea of what that means with the stream below.
Also, Fort Worth rock outfit Picnic, Lightning released its new Gilded Youth EP earlier today. Check out the video for single, “Smoke Signs,” below, or head here to stream the thing in-full. Or just check the band out in person when it performs on October 25 at Two Bronze Doors.
Also just announced this week is the soundtrack to the new wrestling videogame WWE 2K15, which was “curated” by John Cena. In addition to featuring Cena on a couple of tracks, rapping alongside the likes of Wiz Khalifa, it will also include a track from the once-Dallas-based Mystery Skulls' debut as well.
Speaking of soundtracks: This next pleasant little folk tune from North Texas expats Ben Kweller and Selena Gomez comes from the soundtrack to the upcoming film, Rudderless, which earns its release this weekend. The video for the duo's “Hold On” was directed by by William H. Macy, who can be seen on keys and backing vocals. (Macy also directed the film.)
More new music this week comes courtesy of Fort Worth rapper Lou Charle$, who followed up this summer's “RiCH KiD$” single with a new, Blue, the Misfit-produced cut called “Jackie Moon” that also features a verse from 88 Killa. Check it out.
Longtime Dallas rockers Bobgoblin also released a video from its upcoming “classic arcade tribute EP,” Thruster. Check out the video for “Sinistar” below and grab the song and its b-side, “Robotron” as a name-your-price download here.
Moving on, The Longshots, Somebody's Darling, Pageantry and The Chloes make up the local contingent that'll represent DFW at next week's CMJ Music Marathon in New York. The Chloes' drummer Leila Wright tells White Noise the band also just finished recording its new EP, No Filter, with Casey DiIorio at Valve Studios.
“[It'll] soon to be released on coke bottle glass[-colored] vinyl with limited edition glitter vinyl,” Wright says, “And it's pretty freaking sweet. [It's] much more electronic than our last album.”
Meanwhile, Wright says her other band, Funeral Shoes, is gearing up to record its new one at Deep Ellum's new Aqua Lab Sound Recording, which she says her fellow bandmates helped build.
Finally, we bring you the following video recap from the most recent installment of those 16Bars.XXX house parties — y'know, in case all the words and photos we've posted from his past events haven't done a good enough job detailing what these events are all about. You should probably just go ahead and follow 16Bars on Twitter in order to find out when the next one of these will go down for yourself.
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