“HearSay, you just like goofy shit ’cause it’s goofy. You’re just so glad there are people in this town doing goofy shit that you don’t care whether what they’re doing is good or bad. Go fly a kite,” (or partake in some other, less savory activity). Well, Dear Reader, touché: I admit that my heart warms at the thought that rawk isn’t the only musical language we speak here. I also concede that, by dint of both my profession and natural instincts, I am drawn to non-rock-ish behavior. I’m still not a shill. The only way for me to encourage your agreement, I guess, is by driving to your house this Saturday, hoisting you off your couch (by the seat of your pants, which I’m eminently capable of doing), and taking you to Firehouse Art Studios and Gallery (4147 Meadowbrook Dr, FW; 802-860-7474) to see another installation of the long-running monthly experimental music show, IMPRoVISED SILENCE. Hosted and coordinated by experimental musician and card-carrying member of the culturati Terry Horn, this ain’t your father’s rock show. Like all good excursions into the sublime, Horn’s show engenders active thought. As with an accomplished ab-ex painting, enjoying IS requires concentration. There’s a certain artistry to bleeps, bloops, and scratches that has its own engaging qualities. If a major tenet of art is that it communicates, then discomfort, annoyance, rage are commensurate with joy, happiness, and fortitude. Experienced experimental musicians know when to push, pull, or go fly a kite. In addition to Horn, who’ll be making noise with Ryan Supak, IMPRoVISED SILENCE will feature performances by Dirty Water Disease, T.E.F., Scanning for Satellites, Habeeb, and A.F.A. As Horn says on his web site, “The only thing that is not art is inattention.” While he continues producing IS shows, Horn also wants to put out records under the IS name. Visit www.myspace.com/improvisedsilence. … Down in West, the development juggernaut is gearing up to roll through, and a landmark vintage clothing store, known to musicians pretty much everywhere, might end up, well, in the way. Since Style Station (17265 N. I-35) began selling cool duds 12 years ago, it’s become an unqualified sartorial mecca. J Mascis and The Fog, Los Lobos, and Bleu Edmondson are just a few of the hundreds of musos, national and local, who’ve scored groovy gear at Art and Rebecca de Vitalis’ institution. The demise of the quaint one-story retailer, said Rebecca, is “inevitable – they’re widening I-35, and we’ve known about the threat for the past three years.” By 2007, Rebecca said, TxDOT will begin buying land on Style Station’s relatively empty western side of the highway. The store’s future, Art said, is uncertain. The present, however, is painfully real. “They’re already tearing up the road on the other side of the highway, and there’s dust everywhere,” he said. “We’re wondering if we wanna be around this. They might not have to widen the road to get rid of us, just park their heavy machinery here.”
Contact HearSay at hearsay@fwweekly.com.
