Cory Graves
Karaoke Shakeups Hit The Goat and Spillover Fest's Lineup Is Increasingly Impressive.
To continue the trend that's been a big player for the past few weeks now, festival announces lead the week's music notes.
In case you somehow missed it, Spoon and Old 97's were announced last night as headliners to this summer's sixth annual Homegrown Music and Arts Festival. The Spoon get is a big-ish one, we suppose, but doesn't do much to branch out from the formula set by the fest that saw the Toadies celebrating the 20th anniversary of its best album by playing it at the show last year. Spoon released its Merge Records debut in 1996 — the same year the 97's released its first professionally released album for Bloodshot Records.
Considering other recent tidbits — like the fact that Erykah Badu and the Toadies will play the opening week of The Bomb Factory or that Baboon, Corn Mo and Deathray Davies all shared a bill this past weekend — it seeming less and less likely that 2015 will be the year that Dallas finally gets over its obsessions with its own past.
Another indicator we're still trending that direction is the just-announced lineup of Richardson's 23rd annual Wildflower! Arts and Music Festival. Heading up the May 15-17 fest will be Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo, Blue October, Everclear, Minus the Bear, Zepparella (read: the all-female Led Zeppelin tribute) and Le Freak. Guess you really can't be everything to everyone, huh?
On the other hand, the most consistently interesting of the region's 50-plus music festivals continued its growth this week. With the addition of Iceage, Viet Cong, Screaming Females, Single Mothers, The Shrine and Weedeater to its already impressive lineup, Spillover continues its march toward what looks to be its biggest year yet. The new adds will join previously announced bands Liars, Pianos Become the Teeth, King Tuff, JEFF the Brotherhood and Diarrhea Planet for that March 22 date. What's more, the fest's expanded offerings will be spread across stages at Trees, Club Dada, Off the Record and Three Links.
Before either of those fests go down, though, Double Wide will host the first-ever KHYI-FM The Range Music Awards. The free event will take place Monday, February 16, and will feature performances from Matt Hillyer, Dave Perez of The Tejas Brothers, Deryl Dodd and Zane Williams.
Moving on: Longtime Brave Combo multi-instrumentalist Jeffrey Barnes announced via Facebook that he's leaving the iconic Denton polka band. Wrote Barnes: “I, Jeffrey Barnes, being of (arguably) sound mind and (63 year old) body, have embarked upon a journey of self-discovery this year. I have left Brave Combo, my job of 31 years — literally 1/2 of my life(!) — and cast my fate to the wind. I apologize to any disappointed fans, but it's necessary.” For a little more gravity on the situation, we recommend you look to the guidance of the inimitable Robert Wilonsky.
Speaking of shakeups: Karaoke Carmen left East Dallas dive The Goat last week after holding down the bar's Sunday night slot with her live backing band for more than 12 years. This Sunday, Carmen started her residency anew at Deep Ellum honky-tonk Adair's Saloon. Per an interview in the Dallas Observer, Carmen says the move was largely credited to the bar's increasing displeasure with her longstanding tradition of bumping the best singers to the top of the lists. Replacing Carmen at The Goat is DJ Hammertimez of Good Luck Karaoke notoriety. For what it's worth, Hammertimez says his new gig won't resemble the themed, costumed affairs he throws at Good Luck — although there's been no word on whether or not he'll continue to bump performers to the top of the queue in exchange for booze.
Meanwhile, in this week's release news, we'll lead off with the fact that NPR premiered a new, remixed and remastered version of Leon Bridges' “Coming Home,” which you can find here.
And just a day after his buddy Justin Bieber told Rolling Stone that he was “not who he was pretending to be,” the Biebs' Oak Cliff-based bad influence, Lil Twist, released his best track to date. The ode to growing up poor — and doing cocaine — also features Yung Nation's Fooly Faime and shouts to Collin County among other areas of note. Check it out below.
Conversely, Sam Lao rhymes about not being broke in her new, Ish D-produced track, “Money Money.” More importantly, she raps about being more than “just a pretty face,” which is something that anyone who has ever caught one of her increasingly charismatic live performances can certainly attest to. Steam it below.
Then there's the interesting case of Sad Cops, a new project from 16-year-old Coppell High student Grayson Harris. His is a sound that would simultaneously make Oberhofer proud and put fear into the hearts of the members of The Azalea Project, who may just be losing their distinction as the area's most promising teen musicians. Check out his debut EP below. It's rad.
Other new releases to look out for include the latest from Fort Worth emcee Doug Funnie. His tenth release is dropping on February 10, and we hear it will feature an appearance from nerdcore pioneer MC Frontalot. Then, the very next day, punk outfit Unmarked Graves will release its latest record with a show at Dan's Silverleaf.
Also: Don't expect it to come out any time in the immediate future, but Calhoun just wrapped pre-production on its next record over the weekend.
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