Cory Graves
Drug Mountain Supports Nevada Hill, and Menkena Gets Set To Take a Beating.
In this week's Dallas Observer, Brian Rash breaks the news that Bludded Head mastermind, visual artist and rock poster designer extraordinaire Nevada Hill was recently diagnosed with melanoma.
The crux of Rash' piece centers around the fact that Hill, like nearly all independent artists, is without health insurance. To help alleviate a portion of the five-figure medical expenses Hill has already racked up, Hill's ex-Drug Mountain bandmate Britt Robisheaux has begun organizing a series of Drug Mountain reunion/benefit shows. According to Robisheaux, there will be three shows total in Dallas, Fort Worth and Denton, and each will include raffles of rare and signed merch from several bands. To the best of our memories, the avant noise-rockers have only played one other reunion show since calling it quits back in 2010, so you'll definitely want to stay tuned for more detailed info on the upcoming benefit shows in the coming days.
Speaking of upcoming shows: Austin soul-sonic bluesman Black Joe Lewis will be at Good Records on Saturday for an in-store performance in support of his just-released Electric Slave LP. While the bulk of the disc, which is currently streaming in-full over at Paste, was recorded in Austin by Stuart Sikes (Baptist Generals, The Polyphonic Spree, Riverboat Gamblers) an additional three tracks — including the psych-heavy single “Skullduggin'” — were recorded by studio ace John Congleton (St. Vincent, Sarah Jaffe, The Polyphonic Spree) at his Elmwood Studios out in Oak Cliff.
And while 1310 The Ticket's ninth annual Fight Night promotion isn't necessarily an upcoming show — at least as far as live music is concerned — the event, which will see several of the station's listeners throwing on boxing gloves and pummeling the crap out of each other, will have at least one tie to the local music world this year. Stepping into the ring this Saturday night will be Menkena frontman Jimmy “The Miracle” Menkena, who will be squaring off against a yet-to-be-determined opponent.
“Really not sure [how I got into this],” Menkena told White Noise this week. “Originally, it was a reason to get back into shape. Then, two bloody noses later during training, I said 'I'm going to die.' I guess it's a challenge, something I had to prove to myself.”
Moving over to Fort Worth, Queen City Music Hall has made yet another step towards long-term sustainability by hiring on former The Moon Bar owner Chris Maunder as its new general manager. According to a press release sent out by the venue last week, Maunder will also be handling some show coordination as part of his position as well. The best indicator thus far that Maunder was the right hire? To date, he's been the only person we've heard mention the venue without calling it “Granada Fort Worth” and/or insinuating that the best move for the venue would be to try and steer shows to Queen City that would have otherwise ended up in Dallas. Says Maunder in a new Fort Worth Weekly interview: “We're not trying to be a downtown version of the Granada Theater, but I think we can fill the hole left when Caravan of Dreams closed down.”
Lastly, we'll leave you with a couple of entities that recently experienced a reshuffling of the deck, of sorts, as well. First up is the news that local ticket brokers Prekindle are relocating their physical offices to 2528 Elm Street in Deep Ellum, in part to be near the fans and venues who most frequently use their services. Meanwhile, North Texas' official brewery tour band (read: Fish Fry Bingo) suffered a serious blow this week when four of its five members decided to leave the group. While FFB founder Dan Benjamin will reunite with a pair of original FFB bandmates and return to the stripped back sound of the band's early days, members Tony Drewry, Matthew Broyles, Adrian Cook and Blackie Graham will continue performing together under the name Shotgun Friday.
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