Cory Graves
Check Out New Music From Old 97's, St. Vincent, Mystery Skulls, Booty Fade and more.
It's fitting that this column comes out on “new music” Tuesdays, because, well, we've got word on a whole boatload of new local releases to dish on this week.
First and foremost, that long-discussed Old 97's LP finally got an official release date. Per the band's site, their Most Messed Up LP is due out April 29 via ATO records. While song titles such as “Let's Get Drunk & Get It On” and “This Is The Ballad” appear to indicate that this is the band's effort at putting out a snarky, “adult-themed,” fuck-off record, another new track that the Old 97's debuted this week via Entertainment Weekly doesn't seem to fit that bill.
In “Longer Than You've Been Alive,” the usually literary-minded Rhett Miller spends six minutes rattling off hokey self-referential rhymes about how much he hates self-referential songs. Go figure. Anyway, The Replacements' bassist, Tommy Stinson, is said to make a guest turn at some point on the disc, so for now we'll hold out hope that the band's tenth studio LP will feature at least a few redeeming moments.
Until then, we have St. Vincent to rely upon. The artist born young Dallasite Annie Clark is set to debut a whole slew of new material from her upcoming self-titled full-length this Sunday at Diane Von Furstenberg's New York Fashion Week runway show. Fortunately for us, less fashionably adequate, homebody types, the whole thing is set to be live streamed via Amex Unstaged's YouTube channel. And speaking of Youtube: St. Vincent debuted a new music video there late last week, too. Check out the official “Digital Witness” clip here.
Before any of that, though, country darling Madison King will offer up a few preview spins of her new disc, Onward & Upward tonight at Twilite Lounge before performing some of the new cuts with her live backing band. A full-on release show for the album is scheduled for April 3 at Trees, with support from Dead Flowers and Dovetail.
Here's a rundown of some other local album release show dates to add to your calendars, too: February 7 will see Jessie Frye at Lola's and Catamaran at Dada; February 8 has The Fibs at The Where House and Jessie Frye at Three Links; February 22 will have Parallel Play at The Prophet Bar; March 6 will feature Levi Cobb & the Big Smoke at Abbey Underground; and March 8 will find ice cream punks Street Arabs dropping their new effort at Crown and Harp.
While a formal release show has yet to be announced, Andrew Tinker's debut for Hand Drawn Records will earn its release April 18.
But why wait for all those shows when there's so much new local music to stream in the meantime?
First, let's get a taste of Mystery Skulls first single from its upcoming Warner Bros. Records debut, as seen in its below, Vice-premiered music video.
But, wait! There's more! Earlier today Booty Fade premiered its new Tum Tum-featuring single, “It Goes Down,” from the group's forthcoming debut EP that's set for release in March.
Meanwhile, the Caleb Ian Campbell-led Denton upstart Moonbather uploaded its Philip Seymour Hoffman tribute song to Soundcloud just hours after the actor's overdose. You can check it out below, but we'll refrain from comment on its tastefulness.
Also uploaded earlier today is a new tune from the long-dormant Low Dark Hills.
There's also area pop-punk outfit Fever Dreamer, which just released the below video in the wake of announcing that it's signed to Sumerian Records.
Then there's Denton's Flesh Born, which recently changed their name from Elesh Norn. The noisy outfit, which features both members of Two Knights, by the way, just released this split with Cara Neir. And, two weeks, before he is set to move away from town, ex-Hormones drummer Jordan Williams released the debut effort from his new (semi-local?) Street Cries outfit, which features notable contributions from Little Black Dress guitarist Brent Elrod and Spookeasy guitarist Logan Kelson.
Moving on to the festival-watch portion of the proceedings: Homegrown isn't the only festival that made big announcements this week. ScoreMore's JMBLYA confirmed performances from Chance The Rapper, Bauuer, RL Grimes, A$AP Ferg, Griz and a Purity Ring DJ set for its May 2 offering.
Meanwhile, the Deep Ellum Arts Fest, which will take place April 4 to 6, also announced its full list of performers, found here.
Also? That Elm Street Tattoo music and tattoo festival that kicked so much ass for three days in Deep Ellum last summer will return this June 11 through 15. We'll save you the three seconds it would have taken you to click on your computer's calendar app and just go ahead and confirm that once again that range of dates will, in fact, feature a Friday the 13.
Elsewhere: Paste recently named a whole bunch of North Texans to its list of Texas bands you should listen to; Denton honky-tonk supergroup Country Nightmares changed its name to Raised Right Men; and Bowling for Soup's frontman wants you to join him in his weight loss quest.
Mystery Skulls cover photo by Frank Maddocks. Got a tip for White Noise? Email us!
