William Bryan Massey III doesn’t play music anymore. The former drummer for the Fort Worth punk band The Playthings hung up his sticks a long time ago. But the gray-bearded, bespectacled Fred’s Texas Café cook is a rock ’n’ roll motherfucker, and he’s back doing what he’s probably best known for: spoken-word poetry. Outrageous, profane, horribly offensive spoken-word poetry. Massey has authored nearly a dozen chapbooks, each bound with duct tape and sometimes high-quality beer-box cardboard, including the classics All-American White Trash Bitch, Texas Beer Jesus Whiskey Pussy, and, my favorite, Tales from HCTX: Hardcore Texas, all published on his vanity press, Genuine Lizard. Massey stopped writing and performing a couple of years ago. Life just got in the way. But a painful breakup has put him back in front of his old manual typewriter. And the microphone. On Saturday at Lola’s Saloon (2736 W. 6th St., 817-877-0666), he’ll open for Pinkish Black, The Angelus, Yells at Eels, and DJ Wild in the Streets (cover is $8-10), and on Thursday, Oct. 25, at 1919 Hemphill (817-920-9665), he’ll open for North Texas’ only proto-punk repertory band, Stoogeaphilia, and The Gideons, who’ll be reuniting after a long hiatus. Hopefully, the self-proclaimed “Redneck Poet” will bust out some of his hits, namely “If You’re Not Doing Anything for Me, Then You’re Not Doing Anything,” “Tidy Bowl Youth Culture,” “Hey, Denny! Grand Slam This, Bitch!,” and, of course, “I Just Picked Up My Bottle of Beer and Downed It, Flies and All.” I have no idea what the cover for his 1919 show is, but it should be $50.
Fort Worth indie-rockers We the Sea Lions will celebrate the release of their debut album, Consequence in Sequence, on Saturday with Fort Worth psych-rockers Jefferson Colby and We’rewolves (see story above) at The Grotto (517 University Dr., 817-882-9331). Recorded from December through July at Elmwood Recording in Dallas with producer Stuart Sikes (Calhoun, Loretta Lynn, Cat Power), the album will send the band on a mini-tour of Colorado and Arkansas (?!) in October. “We plan on trying to sell what we can and play until our bones hurt,” said frontman Jon Badillo. Cover to the Grotto show is $5.
On Friday comes another installment of Friday on the Green, a free outdoor concert series brought to you by Fort Worth South Inc., Comerica Bank, and your friends here at the li’l ol’ Weekly. At 7 p.m. at Magnolia Green Park (the 1100 block of Lipscomb Street between Rosedale Street and West Magnolia Ave.), Fort Worth space-rockers Secret Ghost Champion will take the stage. They’ll be followed by Fort Worth/Austin neo-grungers Stella Rose and the headlining, roots-rocking Fort Worth quintet The Orbans. Bring lawn chairs and/or blankets but no coolers –– food and booze will be available for sale. For more information, call the Weekly offices at 817-321-9717.
Contact HearSay at hearsay@fwweekly.com.
