I love hipsters, I really do. I know I make fun of ’em a lot, saying they’re too cool for school, that they’re way too predictable, and that they’re really just grown-up mama’s boys.
But I guess when faced with a choice of being surrounded by gang-bangers, metal-heads, Euro-trash, golddiggers, or hipsters, I’d much rather hang out with mod haircut-havin’, iron-on t-shirt-wearin’, art-lovin’ hipsters than the members of any other social group. Based on the way our bodies are shaped, and the ways in which we think, speak, and listen, we all belong to one social group or another, and we all wear a uniform. The baller’s is tall shirts and baggy pants. The metal-head’s is long hair and muscles. The golddigger’s is silicon and brand name labels. The hipster’s: His is cigarette-slim jeans and pretty much anything else he can scrounge from his parents’ attic. DIY to the core, dude!
The cult of the hipster is manifest in the short list of bands that’ll be gigging at the Metrognome Collective beginning next month: Ohioan (Portland, Or.), Mount Eerie (Anacourtes, Wa.), Thanksgiving (Portland), Ad Astra Per Aspera and The Paper Airplanes (both from Lawrence, Kan.), and others, of which the most hipsterrific has to be Super Ultra Fantastic to the Max. Check out MySpace.com/superultrafantastictothemax: References to cheesy ’80s chic, childhood (specifically, lost childhood), and folk art abound. I’ve never met the band, but I can guarantee you that they feign undying devotion to Hall & Oates, they’ve seen Napoleon Dynamite, like, 20 times, and they look as if they haven’t eaten in weeks. Now that I think about it, haven’t I just described every hipster in town? Hahaha. Just kidding! (But not really.) For more, visit www.metrognome.org. … Bad news comes in heaps, apparently. A couple of weeks ago, we told you about a local independent music store that was broken into after-hours and completely wiped out.
Now we’ve just learned that Picnic, producer of the local hip-hop group PPT, lost everything in an apartment fire last week, including his recording equipment and music archives. The one-alarm blaze gutted 16 units in the Brentdale Apartments in Plano. Fire department officials have not yet determined the cause. No one was seriously injured, but dozens of residents were left homeless. This Sunday in Big D, the two other members of PPT, Pikhasso and Tahiti, along with PPT’s record label, Dallas-based Idol, are holding a benefit concert to help Picnic recoup some of his financial losses. In addition to Pikhasso, performers include Strange Fruit Project, S’ence, Verbal Seed, and glam-rockers – and Idol label mates – Black Tie Dynasty. The show starts at 7 p.m. and is at Double Wide, 3510 Commerce St. Cover donation is $10. Call 214-887-6510.
… As for the music store that was broken into – Sessions Music on White Settlement Road – proprietor John Zaskoda is already working on re-opening in time for the holiday season. While waiting for his insurance company to settle his claim, Zaskoda will focus on the only real stream of revenue he has left, instruction. So sign up Little Timmy for some lessons. Anyone with any leads on the stolen gear is encouraged to contact Fort Worth police.
Contact HearSay at hearsay@fwweekly.com.
