1) This week’s Hearsay is about Meadowbrook-neighborhood-based hard rock band Dead Vinyl, so feel free to read that for a more detailed look at what their new EP, Gold Mine is about; for a more direct experience with Dead Vinyl’s music, you can see them perform and pick up a copy of Gold Mine at its release party on Friday night at Lola’s Saloon (2736 W 6th St), which also stars heavy psych rockers Royal Sons and the blues-rock mastery of the Matt Tedder Trio. Doors are at 8, the bands start at 9 (probably), and cover is an unknown amount of money, so I suggest bringing $20, which should be enough to get in the doors as well as score one of Dead Vinyl’s new CDs. This video is a few years old, but it’s Dead Vinyl covering one of my favorite Led Zeppelin songs, which is pretty tight, regardless of its newness or lack thereof: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCJMsF3oDAw
2) I wrote a lengthy show review about the Dreamy Life comp release party last Sunday, and buried in that prolix rehash are some paragraphs about each of the bands on the Grotto’s Friday night bill, which appears to be headlined by VVOES, and also includes Teenage Sexx, Sub-Sahara, and BULLS. While I hope you read that piece, I’ll save you the trouble right here: these four bands are all must-see local acts, and it’s pretty fortunate that they’re all at the same club on the same night, which I think qualifies Friday night’s concert at the Grotto as the Team to Beat Show of the Week, so don’t miss it. Sure wish this event invite (and pretty much every other event invite I peruse) included more information, but the doors are at 8pm, and the cover is most likely a reasonable and affordable amount of money. This is a video of Sub-Sahara playing at the Door last year. How old were you the last time you went to that club??? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-ZrUR2T-Jg
3) Saturday is Arts Goggle, the annual art-centric street faire during which the businesses and pavement that cover Magnolia Ave fill up with as many artists as there are stars in the heavens, as well as something like a billion bands – if you missed the Dreamy Life Records Group Therapy Vol. 4 compilation release festival last Sunday, you can probably catch a lot of those bands somewhere on Magnolia at some point during the day. I’m not that great at Internet, so I’m not surprised that I am unable to find a master list of the music lineups, but perhaps you can. Failing your own fruitful search for such a list, however, here are a few suggestions: Siberian Traps at 5pm at the intersection of 8th and Magnolia; starting at 7:30, BULLS, Heater, and Dead Words on the roof of Melt Ice Cream (1201 W Magnolia); Same Brain plays at the Boiled Owl (909 W Magnolia) at 10pm. Another thing you can do to find music during Arts Goggle is stand in the middle of the street, cock your ears in any direction, and walk toward whatever is loudest – or you can just go to the Chat Room, which will have a big stage set up, or the Owl, which will have bands going from 5pm until midnight. Pussyhouse Propaganda will have shirts for sale there during the day, and you probably want to get one before they’re all gone. Here’s a short video of BULLS from a couple years ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0I3hiLs65c
4) Be sure to read the disclosure at the bottom of this list, because in this item, I’m talking about my own band’s album release party, and I don’t want you to think I’m taking advantage of my weekly Top 5 authorship in order to try to get you to buy one of our records, even though that’s precisely what I’m doing. But anyway, the KXT Local Music Showcase is on Saturday at Shipping and Receiving (201 S Calhoun) on Saturday, starting at 8:30 with sultry-smooth R&B singer Ashleigh Smith, followed by the socially conscious, polysyllabic, syncopated rhymes of rapper Tornup. Guitar prodigy Matt Tedder and his backing band (aka the band mentioned up there in item number 1) are direct support at 10:30, and Oil Boom (aka my band, see below), who is performing in celebration and promotion of our brand new vinyl record, Terribility, anchors the lineup at 11:30. The show is all-ages, and since it’s a 91.7 KXT-promoted event, the cover is cleverly $9.17, which is a great excuse to have exact change for once. Oil Boom has two new videos to drop, but I guess I have to wait until Friday, per some PR strategery or some shit, so here’s a clip from four years ago that features a song we don’t play anymore: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbOVQUCsUxc
5) As if there aren’t enough shows to recommend on Saturday, here’s one more! Dallas’ heavy, atmospheric, “slow-gaze” band True Widow headlines a bill at MASS (1002 S Main), with the Cush, and Stumptone’s Chris Plavidal in the middle and opening slots, respectively. To be honest, if you own a Slow Dive CD or have ever spoken effusively about My Bloody Valentine for more than thirty seconds, this is where you should spend your Saturday night. The 18+ show starts at 9pm (doors are at 8, though) and the cover’s $10, or $7 if you want to save a buck by making an Internet purchase. When you watch this True Widow video, I hope it doesn’t have a commercial in front of it. I had to sit through some fucking mattress ad that was almost four minutes long. What a vibe killer! Anyway, enjoy this moody spookiness: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJsdrKkIvXg
FULL DISCLOSURE/WRITER BIO ALERT: per editorial suggestion, in addition to writing about music and other shit for the FW Weekly, I am an investor in a venue/bar called Main at Southside, colloquially known as MASS. I also bartend there, as well as the Boiled Owl Tavern, a bar that also hosts shows a few times a month. And, since we’re on the subject of warning you against what may be perceived as my own icky, unseemly self-promotion and/or conflicts of interest, I play bass in the following bands: Oil Boom, Son of Stan, Darth Vato. Sometimes I talk about one or more of those entities in this space, but I assure you that it has very little to do with my own vested interests; it just happens that the aforementioned venues and bands are part of the Fort Worth music scene, and this music scene is something I care very passionately about, as I have been part of it since 2002.
