Cory Graves
St. Vincent Gets Honored, The Dividents Go Platinum, And Son Of Stan Gets Grinding.
For someone who splits his time between North Texas and Los Angeles, divorce pop auteur Son of Stan sure manages to maintain a heavy local presence. This week alone, he opened Sarah Jaffe's Sunday performance at Dan's Silverleaf — and he'll top the best electronic offering in town this week at Fort Worth venue The Grotto, too.
But for as much face time as he's been putting in around North Texas this fall, Son of Stan mastermind Jordan Richardson has earned his share of national praise of late, as well. Just yesterday, for instance, the website Beats Per Minute premiered the video for the artist's “Noxeema” video. Immediately, the clip, which was directed by the Emmy-nominated Daniel Stessen, is a contender for the year's best thanks to a few unlikely twists and a heavenly reimagining of MTV's The Grind. Check it out:
Speaking of a national presence: The Dividends have exponentially increased their exposure in recent weeks. To that end comes the word that Eminem's Marshall Mathers LP2, which contains a track co-authored by the local duo, attained platinum status in just its second week of release. Even more impressive is the fact that it is just the third rap album of the year to do so, behind Jay-Z and Drake's most recent efforts.
Also making Dallas proud this week? Local guitar hero Annie “St. Vincent” Clark, who earned the prestigious honor of receiving the Smithsonian's American Ingenuity Award at a ceremony last week in Washington, D.C. Her award was presented by her sometimes-collaborator David Byrne of The Talking Heads, who commended Clark for her ability to “push the boundaries” but also “stay connected” with audiences.
Said Byrne of St. Vincent's ability to wow her listeners: “We don't want to abandon you. We don't want to make something that's so difficult you can't listen to it. [But] sometimes that's OK, too.”
Even better? Clark's been in town, of late, recording her solo follow-up to 2011's Strange Mercy, which probably helps explain her onstage cameo at last week's Pearl Jam show.
Clark is far from the only artist in town that's been busy recently readying a new release. Fungi Girls bassist Deryck Barrera just hipped us to his ukulele/trumpet folk-jazz hybrid project, Lazy Summer. The band's October-released Fall Creeping In is a batch of 10 songs that were recorded in five hours at Eagle Audio. Check it out here.
And, despite just releasing an immaculately Halloween-ready EP last month, the mysterious producer behind the Mega Drive persona is already back with half-dozen equally creepy cyberpunk tunes. Both EPs are currently streaming here.
Then there's Denton's Bukkake Moms, whose latest batch of tunes is most certainly worth your time. The off-kilter rhythms and frequently shocking subject matter of the band's latest EP was dedicated and named after Civil Recording producer Michael Briggs, who produced the effort.
Elsewhere, Satans of Soft Rock have begun posting a handful of new demos here, War Party's upcoming cassette release Tomorrow's a Drag is available for streaming/discounted purchase here ahead of its official release next week, Blackstone Rangers announced that its next effort will finally earn its full release in March, and Toadies have announced that they've re-entered the studio to record their follow-up to last summer's Play.Rock.Music.
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