Cory Graves
Rhett Miller, Tim DeLaughter and Others Pay Respect to Recently Fallen Musicians.
What a killer year death's been having thus far.
In the music world alone, he's been wreaking quite the havoc. His big scores, of course, we all know — the Bowies and Glenn Freys of the world. But those are but a few he's taken so far this month.
Earlier this week, rap progenitor Blowfly lost his battle with cancer. Additionally, Mott the Hoople drummer Dale Griffin, The American Breed guitarist Gary Loizzo, John Denver sideman Pete Huttlinger and country pioneer Red Simpson each passed on to the next plane.
All over the place, musicians that are still with us are paying respect to their fallen heroes. A Bowie tribute concert at New York's Carnegie Hall that's been in the works for seven months has suddenly become a two-night memorial concert, with The Polyphonic Spree recently being added to the bill. As Spree frontman Tim DeLaughter recalled in a memorial penned for the Dallas Morning News last week, his band owes the bulk of its success to Bowie's early cosign.
Similarly, the Spree's former touring violinist, Daniel Hart, turned in his own touching Bowie tribute about the band's opening stint for The Thin White Duke in 2004 for North Carolina alt-weekly INDY Week. And while Old 97's frontman Rhett Miller never had the opportunity to tour or collaborate with Bowie, he does credit his North Star for pretty much his entire musical upbringing in this piece he wrote of Salon.
As for that other huge musician death? Don Henley was plenty deferential to his old Eagles bandmate in the wake of his passing, giving him credit for much of the band's massive success in a statement he issued. Same goes for North Texas ex-pat Tiger Darrow, who studied under Frey at NYU.
Then there was Leon Bridges, who paid tribute to the very much still-alive Willie Nelson last fall when he was being awarded that Gershwin Prize. Over the weekend, that whole ceremony aired on PBS, and you can catch Leon's performance of Nelson's “Funny How Time Slips Away” from that one below.
Speaking of educational programming: Investigation Discovery premiered its new Evil Lives Here series this past Sunday night. And it did so with a story about the Westroads Mall shooter and a creepy theme song courtesy of John Congleton. It's much more subtle than his pAper chAse stuff, though very much in that vein.
Switching media some, Hagfish/Rise Against/Gwar guitarist Zach Blair is the featured guest on the most recent episode of the Turned Out a Punk, the podcast of Fucked Up's Damian Abraham. In the hour-and-a-half sitdown, Blair dives heavy into some Hagfish behind-the-music stuff, and other tales from Dallas rock's '90s glory days.
Also mentioned briefly in that podcast were some early Pantera stories. But that wasn't the most notable pub the Arlington metal legends earned this week. In an interview with ScreenRant, noted method actor Christian Bale told the site he refused to use a body double for the scene in The Big Short where his character pounded his drums along to Pantera's “By Demons Be Driven.” Rather, he brought in a drum coach and played nothing but Pantera and Mastadon covers for two weeks until he could nail it on his own.
Moving on, Oh Boy Prince is back with another “dance craze” that's in the early stages of sweeping the nation. As noted by Guide Live, OBP was previously a member of Arlington's GS Boyz, the geniuses behind the “Oops, I crapped my pants!” dance known as “The Stanky Legg.” Hear the song your parents have been doing “The Astronaut” to below.
Also earning himself a little national attention of late is Jacob Metcalf, the old Fox and the Bird instrumentalist that'll drop his debut solo LP on January 29. Before that, he'll play a release show for the thing at the Kessler Theater this Friday, January 22. Ahead of that, he chatted with Paste, which also premiered his “Cut Your Ties” single.
While your local music little black book is open, let's throw a few more album release dates at you real quick. On January 23, Danny Diamonds will release his sophomore effort at Gloves. On February 19, we'll get the first Tiger + Man EP. On March 5, Parallel Play will celebrate its latest release at Sundown. On March 11, Reagan James will do the same at The Live Oak. And while there's no release show currently scheduled, Mind Spiders will release a new one called Prosthesis on March 12 for Dirtnap Records. Farther out, True Widow has recently returned to The Echo Lab to begin work on its third full-length, which will once again be released by Relapse Records
Back to the here and now, plenty more new local tunes have been recently been released for your listening pleasure. First up is Fort Worth's Kevin Aldridge & The Appraisers, which is dropping the Juan Gonzalez-nodding single “El Juando,” the second of four tracks recorded for the band by Jordan Richardson. Spin it below and catch on the sing-along chorus at the official release show at Chat Room Pub this Friday.
Meanwhile, Senor Fin celebrated its five years together with the release of a new EP, much of which was recorded in Denton in the summer of 2014 before its members left for Seattle. The album's release show will be tonight at Seattle's Tractor Tavern, if the embed below inspires you to jump on a plane.
And, a few days ago, School of Seven Bells released the second taste from its final album. Stream “On My Heart” below via The Fader ahead of the album's February 26 release.
While you're in a streaming mood, Lecrae recently released the third installment of his Church Clothes mixtape series. Executive-produced by Symbolyc One — who also produced the single from the Grammy winner's previous album — the tape also features guest spots from E-40 among others.
Another new single this week comes from Pleasant Grove, which will release its first album in something like 12 years next month. Before the band plays that record in its entirety at the Twilite Lounge on Sunday, February 7, you can grab a free download of “Disintegration (Consider Your Brother)” below.
And in video news, Buffalo Black released a visual treatment for his Lord Byron-featuring Surilla single, “Anomalies,” which you can catch below.
Finally this week: Lily Taylor will take over for the recently departed Moody Fuqua as the Crown and Harp's new talent buyer; KXT hired itself a new assistant program director and Decadent Dub Team will play a reunion show at the Kessler in March.
Cover photo of Tim DeLaughter by Karlo X. Ramos. Got a tip for White Noise? Email us!
