Say what you will about daily papers. They’re still daily papers and, as such, offer the kind of critical validation that even your favorite alt-weeklies can’t approximate. For a band, getting praised/slammed in our pages, the Observer’s, or even in the pixelated pages of We Shot JR is great exposure. But it’s not as great/horrible as getting praised/slammed in a publication that’s skimmed by hundreds of thousands of people at their breakfast nooks or on the can.
For reasons that are ambiguous to me but that might be painfully obvious to you, the Star-Telegram has pulled pop music critic Preston Jones’ regional music column, Lone Star Sounds, from the paper’s weekly entertainment tab, the ridiculously titled Go. (“Go” where, exactly? Home? To bed? Potty?) Not that Lone Star Sounds was an amazing, mind-boggling read, but it was pretty much the only part of the paper where local artists could expect to be mentioned. Jones’ energy is being funneled into the music page of www.dfw.com, the paper’s entertainment portal, a Siberia of sorts, considering that the Star-T is, well, a newspaper, not a blog: Part of the reason blogs are so popular is that their content can’t be found anyplace else. The Star-T you can pick up on any street corner. Part of me is glad about Jones’ new assignment: Less competition for us. But for the sake of some of the really talented artists here, I’m kind of bummed. That whole “validation” thing. If only the Star-Telegram — and medium-market dailies across the country — would just stop trying to compete with TV and online media and be newspapers, the one thing that no blog can ever be … Things are looking just peachy for Telegraph Canyon. The local septet is one of only two 817 bands slated to play this year’s SXSW, the annual music industry schmooze-fest in Austin — the other is Capitol Records signees Green River Ordinance. Telegraph also is having its forthcoming album produced by genius Will Johnson, frontman for Centro-matic and South San Gabriel. But perhaps most importantly, the band has purchased a van, a conveyance that will come in handy once frontman Chris Johnson and company embark on a regional-national tour following the May release of the still-untitled album. One new track is posted on www.myspace.com/telegraphcanyon, a reworking of “Old Dark Hymns,” one of the standout tracks from the band’s 2007 debut, All the Good News. The new version is more fully orchestrated, with the addition of harmonica and some pedal steel, though it’s still somehow as light as the original. The band is performing on Valentine’s Day, Saturday, at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth (3200 Darnell St, 817-738-9215), opening along with singer-songwriter Tim Locke (Calhoun, Flickerstick) for moody singer-songwriter Doug Burr, who’s something of a big deal. Seriously, he’s been getting some major national press. (We were one of the first pubs to write about him, of course 😉 For a pair of free tickets to see the show, drop associate editor Anthony Mariani a line at anthony.mariani@fwweekly.com. First come, first served. A valid driver’s license will be required to pick up the tix at the door — they’re going for $12 apiece.
While no longer found in Go, Lone Star Sounds still appears in the Star-Telegram, in the Your Life section on the Now Playing page.
“Old Dark Hymns (Revisited)” will not appear on Telegraph Canyon’s forthcoming album. The song was retooled for a video shoot.
Contact HearSay at hearsay@fwweekly.com.
