Cory Graves
Weezer's Coming To Reunion Park, The Colony Angles For Relevancy and The Kessler Eyes Houston.
Remember when Bruce Springsteen played a free, outdoor concert on the site of the old Reunion Arena? Yeah, that was pretty effing incredible.
The Boss' closing-night blowout was one of several huge performances the NCAA brought to town in April of last year to hype its annual championship tournament, which was being held in Arlington. Hell, even Conan O'Brien came through thanks to that monster event, taping a week of shows at The Majestic.
Even cooler than Bruce, though, was the revelation that Reunion Park was a pretty damn special tract of land, as evidenced by the fact that our Springsteen-nut of an editor's review of that show spent more time pondering the field's potential future than on the Wizard of Asbury Park himself.
So it was only a matter of time, really, that someone would try to recapture some that magic sans the NCAA's involvement. And that's exactly what's taking place this October 9.
Well, sort of.
CrowdSource (read: the event arm of the Dallas Morning News) is bringing headliners Weezer, Fitz and the Tantrums and Trombone Shorty to perform an all-day festival on the spot the night before the Texas/OU game in Fair Park. OK, so there's at least some tangential tie to the NCAA. But this year's event will also be different due to the fact that it will be a ticketed event, with $40 passes currently on sale here.
Speaking of things you might want to buy passes to: The Oaktopia folks will have their second annual Pretopia party at Harvest House on Friday, August 28. Headlining that one will be Astronautalis, who's dropping by Denton for the first time since performing at Oaktopia 2013. He'll be joined there by hometown outfits The BoomBachs, S. Good and Greenhouse. Tickets, which cost $15, are currently on sale here.
Another huge news item this week comes from the DMN, which broke the news on a massive new 29,000-square-foot restaurant/live music venue called Lava Cantina that's opening in — get this! — The Colony, a corner of the Metroplex that's somehow not affected by the fact that North Texas hit peak venue a long time ago. Pair this with the other recent news that members of KISS are opening a classic rock-themed restaurant right around the corner from Lava Cantina too, and your mom is bound to start telling you how cool the area is becoming any day now. Both are set to open in 2016.
Moving on, Denton ex-pats Parquet Courts made a handful of announcements today. First, the Last Great New York Band has a new EP called Monastic Living that it'll be releasing on November 13 via its new home at Rough Trade. Then, following a slew of European dates, the fellas will return to their old Denton stomping grounds on November 5 for a show at Rubber Gloves. The band's new EP, meanwhile, can be pre-ordered here.
Speaking of 817 punks: War Party was kind enough to pass along a couple of new tunes that the band recently recorded with Jordan Richardson called “Eat Rent” and “Hobo King.” Per band frontman Cameron Smith, it's going to be some time before War Party's releases its next full-length, so in the interim, the band plans on releasing an LP's worth of split EPs and singles to finish out the year. These first two, anyway, represent a dramatic turn for the band, finding the guys turning in their highest fidelity effort to date without losing any of their edge in the process. Check it out.
Also released today is a new record from Dallas noise act Fond Phantom. All four songs on the album, interestingly enough, have 11:11 run-times. Check it out below; it'll put you in a mood.
You also might recall the fact that Street Arabs co-frontman Matthew Powers recently started a Stones-y new solo project. Well, over the weekend, Powers played his first-ever solo show at AllGood Cafe. Also? He and his fellow Street Arab, Aaron Barker, will perform sets at the Deep Ellum eatery together on Thursday, August 20. Ahead of that, you can get a sense for his new direction via the pair of newly streaming cuts we've posted below.
More new music this week comes from pop-punk revivalist act Hate Your Friends, which posted a pair of tunes from its upcoming Quit Your Job LP to its BandCamp page this morning. Take a pretty spot-on nostalgia trip below.
In the video world, Telegraph Canyon recently released a new clip for its “Why Let It Go” single. The Brandon Schwindt-directed video is a slick one, too, featuring scenes shot in that old barbershop across the street from The Chat Room and the bar at Shipping & Receiving that the band's frontman lives atop. It also happens to maybe be the best cut from the band's first new LP in six years. Check it out below before the band plays its official album release show at the Granada Theater on Friday, August 14.
Denton's No Touching, on the other hand, took a different approach while shooting its new video, turning in a live-looking clip of the band performing in the basement of J&J's. It's probably the most well-lit we've ever seen things down there, but we digress. The catchy little number is a new song, and it'll be included on the band's new EP that'll be released via BandCamp this Friday. Check out the video.
Another interesting clip comes from Dallas' Poppy Xander who, along with fellow Dallas-based artist Jeff Skele put in over 200 hours crafting her newest video. The reason being? The stop motion-style piece was created using “12 hand drawn backgrounds, 160 moveable parts and 2,000 pictures.” The debut of this clip coincides with the release of Xander's new Little Ghosts EP, which is available here.
Elsewhere, Kessler Theater owner Edwin Cabaniss has got a new pet project in the works, as he's now gone on record as saying that he's under contract to purchase a historic Houston venue. Like the Kessler, the Heights Theater was also damaged by a fire in its day — so, in that regard, Cabaniss is probably the perfect man to revitalize it as he's already proven himself a pro at that game.
Finally, there are a handful of local album release shows that should be on your radar. They are as follows:
• August 7: Brent Best at Dan's Silverleaf.
• August 8: Shadows of Jets at Boiled Owl Tavern.
• August 8: Jonathan Tyler at Good Records and Trees.
• August 21: Pink Smoke at Three Links.
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