Cory Graves
The Morning News Hires A Music Critic, Josey Records Opens and Parquet Courts Maybe Changes Its Name
Fourteen months after Dallas Morning News music critic Mario Tarradell resigned from his position at the paper, his replacement has finally been named: Taking up the mantle beginning on December 1 will be Hunter Hauk, who has been a special contributor to the paper for over a year now.
The move makes a ton of sense, given Hauk's experience — not to mention the fact that he previously held the role of entertainment editor for the DMN-owned Quick before it folded in 2011. In the interim, Hauk will continue his role as website editor at Cowboys & Indians magazine.
Of course, this is but one of the changes going down across the Dallas music scene of late. For instance, there's been some shakeups over at Granada Theater recently as well. There, talent buyer Ryan Henry resigned his post to join Transmission Dallas. He's since been replaced by Joe Cepeda Overman, who has been a part of the theater's promotions and marketing team for the last few years. Says Overman, from his experience fronting the Denton-based band Bashe, he's learned a thing or two about booking shows.
Speaking of learning a thing or two: You'll have the chance to do just that yourself soon enough — and from one of the area's most-cherished local music historians, no less — as Jeff Liles will kick things off as the guest speaker at the still-pretty-new Deep Ellum record store bar Off The Record's new free, monthly High Fidelity Lecture Series on November 17.
Says the former Trees-affiliated Liles, who these days works as the artistic director at the Kessler Theater in Oak Cliff: “It will be a talk about the reclamation of the neighborhood; how it went from being the center of gravity for the African-American community during the Depression Era to being relatively dormant for decades to then being the safe haven for younger musicians who attempted to lead the Dallas music community out of the Dark Ages of copy bands in bars to actually landing major label record deals and eventually taking our music to the rest of the world. And I'm sure we'll talk about art too, and the important role it still plays in giving voice to the counterculture community in a red state. I was kinda surprised to be asked. I'm happy to oblige; I still love the neighborhood, of course.”
The bar also announced that a new music-themed book club will be starting up next month as well. The first meeting will go down on Monday, November 24. First up on the club's discussion list will be — you guessed it! — Nick Hornby's High Fidelity.
A little closer on the horizon, the massive Josey Records is inching closer to its formal opening. This weekend — on Saturday, October 25, to be exact — the 15,500-square-foot store will be hosting its soft, “pre-grand opening.”
Until then, there's plenty more current North Texas music goings-on worth mentioning.
For instance, here's the clip of semi-local emcee Snow tha Product rhyming alongside David Banner, King Los, Treach and Vic Mensa during one of last week's many BET Hip Hop Awards 2014 cyphers.
After briefly trending on Twitter following that airing, Snow took the opportunity to digitally release her new, Ty Dolla $ign-featuring single, “1 Time.” Check it out.
Also on cable this week, the Cartoon Network premiered an episode of its Squidbillies series that featured a new version of the show's theme song performed by the soon-to-be-departed Centro-matic. Check out the band's soulful, Newcleus-interpolating take on the show's them below.
Elsewhere on the televisions, Kelli Douglas became the first North Texan bounced from Season 7 of The Voice. Here's the clip of Douglas' final performance on the show. Still, though, four North Texans remain. And we hear that Burleson's Reagan James will sing a Lorde song on tonight's episode. Somehow, the results of her forthcoming battle are already on Wikipedia, in case you're the type that's into spoilers.
Speaking of looking ahead: Young Ejecta — or, uh, just Ejecta, if you haven't been paying attention — will release a new, six-song album on January 27, 2015. Here's the official album trailer.
Another local ex-pat that may have recently changed its name as well is Parquet Courts, which announced via press release for its upcoming Content Nasua LP that it'd be rebranding to the homonym Parkay Quarts. Reads the release: “With one member completing a degree in mathematics, and another starting a family, Content Nausea features mostly the work of Andrew Savage and Austin Brown, with the help of a few friends (Jackie-O Motherf*cker's Jef Brown on saxaphone and Eaters' Bob Jones on fiddle). This likely explains the homophonic name shift, which was previously used on last years' Tally All the Things That You Broke.”
Whether the group is serious about the name change remains to be seen. When we reached out to the band's publicist to confirm that the name switch would be a permanent one, all we got back was a shrugging emoticon. Regardless, you can check out the album's first single, “Uncast Shadow of a Southern Myth,” below.
In other corners of the web, that same band is still being referred to under its old spelling. For instance, Impose reports that Dull Tools (read: the label run by Parquet Courts' Andrew Savage and Future Punx' Chris Pickering) will release the debut Future Punx EP on November 11. Check out the first single below — and/or check them out at City Tavern on November 26 or Rubber Gloves on November 28.
Also streaming this week courtesy of NPR is the new Flaming Lips tribute disc to The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's album that features appearances from locals New Fumes, Def Rain and New Fumes' new Birdflower project. Hear it in full here.
Of course, there's plenty more streams worth mentioning this week, too. Take, for instance, Oil Boom's debut full-length, Red Metal, which the band premiered earlier today via Pop Matters. You can also find it below. The band will hold a release show for the album on November 21 at The Prophet Bar.
Other upcoming release shows include Cosmic Trigger on October 24 at Lola's, Mothership on November 14 at Curtain Club and Wesley Geiger on November 28 at Kessler Theater.
Then there's Denton's Pageantry, which will play a string of CMJ shows throughout the course of the rest of this week. As such, the band premiered a new tune called “Spine” via CMJ, which you can stream below.
Sarah Jaffe, meanwhile, premiered her new “Leaving the Planet” music video via Noisey. The semi-trippy, reversed, stop-motion clip for the Don't Disconnect single features Jaffe's sister Jessica Jaffe Longoria and brother-in-law Anthony Longoria. Check it out below.
In other news, Denton eletro-folk outfit Pansy Moon, which we recently learned wasn't a metal band, released its ever-so-gentle Night on Elba LP today. Stream it in full below.
Then there's Big HUD who, inspired by the miracle first half of the Dallas Cowboys' season, reworked Wiz Khalifa's “We Dem Boyz” into a team anthem called “How Bout Them Boys,” which you can hear below.
Not to be overlooked, either, is the new single from Dallas rapper Chudi from his forthcoming Unspoken Scriptures EP. Check it out.
Meanwhile, organizers have announced that Fort Worth's Rock Assembly be returning for a third year. At the three-day event this November at Lola's, bands such as Sealion, The Orbans, RTB2, Oil Boom, Son of Stan, War Party and Calhoun will perform tribute sets to bands like Weezer, The Smiths, Nirvana and Huey Lewis and the News.
Similarly, over at Curtain Club on November 1, Shaolin Death Squad will perform as Ozzy Osbourne, The Raven Charter will play as Pink Floyd, Vinyl will pay tribute to The Cars, The Spectacle will offer up its best Metallica, The Barrior Brawlers will try to pull off Stone Temple Pilots, Redefine will do its best Tool and I Am Warbird will honor The Melvins.
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