I do not harbor a reckless desire to build a wall around Tarrant County to keep out interloping performance artists, and I will not pretend to know the machinations behind an Austin band’s appearance last week at a party thrown by the Lone Star International Film Festival in the Stockyards.
But I still do not understand why non-local bands and performers are consistently hired to play major Fort Worth parties instead of Fort Worth bands. There are a million 817 artists that are as good as if not better than 99.9 percent of bands and performers from beyond. Plus, local bands, I’m sure, would love to participate in any event that gets some national publicity, and locals also can bring the party – their fans live nearby.
Bands from Austin, Dallas, Brooklyn, or wherever, cannot. Their fans probably have better things to do with their gas money than fund a road-trip to the Fort. I understand LSIFF’s incorporating Texas bands into a Texas event, and I applaud the planners for booking a few locals, including The Theater Fire, Tame … Tame and Quiet, and the Skin and Bones Drum Cult, the local collective that followed the Austin band at the Stockyards club and that, even though transcendental, managed to run off pretty much everybody. But why wasn’t more room made for locals on the LSIFF bill? Here’s a short list of bands I would have liked to see get some of that Hollywood spotlight (in alphabetical order): Black Tie Dynasty, The Burning Hotels, Calhoun, the cut*off, Dove Hunter, Green River Ordinance, Jordan Mycoskie, Sleeplab, Stella Rose, The February Chorus, Top Secret … Shhh, Vincent, and a bunch of others whose names escape me at the moment.
Oh, well. Maybe next year. … A great, nigh-legendary Fort Worth band is reuniting for a show this Friday, but, unless you’re a rocker who’s been around a while, you’ve probably never heard of ’em. Bindle could be considered an early incarnation of Goodwin. Three members of the mod-rock quartet – Tony Diaz, Daniel Gomez, and Matt Hembree – all played in the defunct outfit. Bindle also included two future members of reggae stalwarts Pablo and the Hemphill 7: Justin Pate and Steffin Ratliff. The Bindle sound bordered on funk and psychedelia but was never anything less than pristinely melodic, the attribute that effectively defines Goodwin.
Bindle broke up about five years ago, around the time that Goodwin got together. (Drummer Damien Stewart rounds out the band.) Bindle reunites at 6th Street Live, 2736 W. Sixth St. (817-877-0666). … In the studio: Calhoun is making a new album now – quietly. The recording process isn’t quiet. (We hope.) Rather, frontman Tim Locke and company don’t care whether or not anyone knows they’re making a record. His band’s previous, eponymous album, released in 2006, generated a lot of early label buzz. Today, the focus reportedly is on the music and the music alone. Visit www.myspace.com/calhoun. And Black Tie Dynasty will be recording the follow-up to last year’s Movements at the beginning of 2008 with Dallas producer John Congleton of the pAper chAse. Visit www.myspace.com/blacktiedynasty.
Contact HearSay at hearsay@fwweekly.com.
