Last year, a bunch of kind, gentle musos gathered under the banner of The Bleeding Heart Machines, an ad hoc, grassroots charity group, to raise money for a scenester’s ill grandmother. This year, Bleeding Heart Machines has rounded up Oso Closo, High School Assembly, The Iliads, The February Chorus, and The Burning Hotels to play The Aardvark on Sunday to help raise money for Burke Mills, frontman for the dearly departed Voigt and older brother of Taylor Craig Mills (The Iliads, TheFebChor). About 12 years ago, Burke, who’s now 30, was diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease, an ongoing disorder whose main symptom is inflammation of the digestive tract, and he’s been plagued by complications ever since, including a re-sectioning of his small intestine and the removal of ulcers and his gall bladder. At one point not too long ago, while he was still performing with Voigt, he also had to undergo 12-hour-long treatments every night for about six months. He had another operation a couple of months ago, and he seems to be doing much better as a result. Taylor says his brother’s almost well enough to go back to TCU and finish his degree. Finally: He enrolled almost 10 years ago. “He’s maybe one semester away,” Taylor said. “He’s been trying to finish, but with being in and out of the hospital so much … .” The suggested donation at the door is $7, and Taylor hopes that he and his fellow rockers can raise a couple thousand bucks: in no way enough to “put a dent,” Taylor said, in the Mills family’s massive medical bills, but enough to help Burke pay for books and any other costs associated with going back to school. Event t-shirts will also be available for sale. As for the performance, Taylor says that he may call his brother up on stage to do a song or two. The show starts at 7 p.m. and will go until midnight, at The Aardvark, 2905 W. Berry St., in Fort Worth, 817-926-7814. … Even though I haven’t heard it yet, my favorite local album of 2007 is Stella Rose’s Nine Caged Tigers. The Fort Worth band’s awesome not just ’cause they are, but because frontman Stephen Beatty goes out of his way to support his peers. I recently stumbled, literally, into Rick O’Sheas and caught Beatty performing solo acoustic. He played some covers but not any classic rock bullshit. My man played covers of local tunes. Absolutely wasted, I invited myself onstage and joined him in his killer renditions of Calhoun’s “Kick-Drum Mind” and Brandin Lea’s “When They Come For You.” The best part: the quizzical looks in the crowd. I felt like Beatty and I knew something the hipsters didn’t and that, frankly, we found their ignorance quite offensive. Afterward, I wanted to say, “What? You mean y’all haven’t heard those tunes?! Losers.” Instead, I did the right thing and said, “Instead of just going to local shows to be seen, y’all oughta pay attention sometime.” Then I tried to start a fight. Rock ‘n’ roll, people. Rock ‘n’ roll.
Contact HearSay at hearsay@fwweekly.com.
