There are tons of ways for you, Mr. Local Musician, to get your name out there. There’s advertising in the local alt-weekly (wink, wink). There’s forking over wads of cold, hard American currency to a third party who will gently caress and stroke the radio program director of your choice to spin your music during drive-time. And there’s always forking over wads of cold, hard American currency to your favorite local music columnist (not really, though fawning compliments go a long way). There’s also old-fashioned MySpace and Facebook. For the newest, hottest form of self-promotion, though, follow Manning-Dickson’s lead and head out to the highway.
The Fort Worth band is promoting its new album, Drive, on an I-35 billboard in the godforsaken hinterlands between Waco and West, where the hippest vintage-clothing store in the universe, Style Station, is located. The single, “Cold as Her Heart,” is, according to the billboard, available for free download at http://manningdickson.com/. Loyal readers might recall that though I had yet to hear the song, I bet them a keg of “cold” beer (“Lola’s Love from the Netherlands,” Feb. 3, 2010) that the tune includes references to frosty alcoholic beverages. Well, having now heard the tune, I can happily say that my wager was well placed –– though I hasten to add that the song ain’t bad, ’specially if’n your idea of both kinds of music (country and Western) is that it’s uptempo and worthy of boot-scootin’. Naturally, the Fort Worth band will be celebrating the release of its forthcoming album not by performing here but in Dallas on Fri., Mar. 19, at La Grange (2704 Elm St., 214-741-2008) and in Corsicana on Sat., Mar. 27, at The Palace Theatre (112 W. 6th Ave., 903-874-7792). Cover charge at each show is $10.
Uh-oh. What hell for sucka MCs hath the Rivercrest Yacht Club wrought? Coming up on the local scene is Dru B Shinin’, another talented hip-hop artist backed by a live band. Dru (né Andrew McCullough) is from Topeka but arrived in Fort Worth in 2000 to attend TCU. He graduated in 2005 and tried his hand at the local scene but couldn’t break in. He went back to Topeka (also the home of the record label to which he still belongs, Sphere Music Group) only to return here recently and try again. The RYC, with the wildly popular local funk-rock outfit Rabbit’s Got the Gun, joined him last week for a show at The Aardvark –– the Yacht Club’s MC Generic had high praise for the young upstart, who’ll be performing at Lola’s Saloon-Sixth (2736 W. 6th St. in the W. 7th St. corridor, 817-877-0666) on Thu., Mar. 11, with Villain Vanguard, Birds & Batteries, and DJ Dyslexicon. Dru B Shinin’s beats snap and clap in the favored style of straight-up, low-ridin’ gangsta rappers everywhere, though his lyrics are anything but that. Yes, he boasts and toasts, but he’s more concerned with family and the working class than your average G. The video for his song “Little Sisters” was shot in Sundance Square and on the train tracks off University Drive. (The second verse is about Dru’s friends from Kenya who went to TCU.)
Contact HearSay at hearsay@fwweekly.com.
