Hey! Happy Monday. So I told you last week that I was given a fun assignment. My pal Zac Crain over at D Magazine/FrontBurner blog asked if I was interested in writing my own year-in-music article for FrontBurner. Look, I write about fashion all day and haven't written about music on a consistent freelance basis in like, forever. Since there were no rules or regulations as to what I could write about, I just went for it.
Favorite New Dances
After seeing about six bands
work their routine at the Battle of the High School Marching bands competition
at the Jesse Owens Complex in Duncanville October 4, me and two friends asked
ourselves: Who is Ricky Bobby and how come everyone else up in this place knows
him? He’s getting shout outs left and right from each bit of brass, woodwind,
and percussion. A new 97.9 The Beat DJ? Ohhh. It’s a dance.
Also on the floor? The Stanky Leg — a dance that’s pretty much as dirty as it sounds.
As the stadium and field got down each and every time it was performed, we
realized this was another “first” moment for us. Were we witnessing the new
Cabbage Patch? The new Running Man? It’s a dance revolution, y’all.
Favorite National Show
With services charges and
such, tickets to see Tom Waits at the Palladium Ballroom this past September
cost about a hundy each. Having never seen him live and tired of hearing “but
he’s an icon, come on” from friends I clicked “Charge.” By request of Mr.
Waits, the air conditioning was turned off inside the venue. September still
means summer in Texas. And by request of Mr. Waits, the bars inside weren’t
selling drinks — unless you went to the one lone bar tucked in a corner (sooooo
bootleg!). After awhile, the across-the-map crowd gave into the swampy setting
and quit bitching and fell under his spell. Definitely better than listening to
him on vinyl at home.
Favorite Selection of
Summer Jamz With a “Z”
Add Soul Summer to your RSS feed now so you don’t have be a few
summer’s late (guilty) to this yearly series of special MP3 posts curated by
either invited guests or mega figure Oliver Wang, the super force behind this
audio-blog and the influential Soul-Sides.com. It’s a great place to start in
your search for gems to add to your playlists.
Favorite Sighting of
Dallas Soul Legend, Bobby Patterson
Before I say a word here’s
some of Bobby talkin’: “50 Cent was just four bits when I had a hit”; “Tupac
was One Pac with a hammock when I started”; “I’m walkin’ on the dirt but the
dirt ain’t walking on me.” These regular one-liners are just part of the show,
whether it’s listening to him live on KKDA Soul 73 AM Monday through Friday
from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. or at his oh-my-god good-time show at a Texas Theatre
benefit at Bolsa in Oak Cliff this past September. Patterson strolled the stone
patio and serenaded guests while his backing band, Shibboleth, had his back
from a flat bed truck parallel-parked on the street by the patio.
Favorite Place to Sing
The Hits
At the opposite end of where
Davis Street is deemed cool, the Trade Winds, a weathered and whitewashed dive
with painted palm trees, is a karaoke paradise every Friday and Saturday night.
I’ve seen a down-to-earth assortment of gallery owners, musicians, architects,
hotel designers, artists, and general tastemakers get down with the grubby
mikes. I’ve seen the a local vintage clothing store owner and her partner get
asked to leave after her Dirty South twist on Ludacris and her man’s immediate
follow-up of a Slayer song with a two-minute-plus guitar intro. I’ve seen
too-cool-for-school “rock stars” turn right back around after walking through
the front door. Could have been the cash-only policy. Maybe it was the likes of
locals they’ve never seen before. Note to newbies: if the big boy in leather
from head-to-toe leaves his seat to go outside and rev his s****y-sounding cycle
throughout your entire song, know he’s not just warming the engine.
Favorite Local Record
Label Launch
There was some stiff
competition in this category this year. But the undercover agents at Dallas’
most-love-to-hate music blog We Shot JR stepped up and did
it their way. November marked the launch with a 7″ by Denton’s electronically
dreamy duo Fight Bite — they’ve earned early acclaim on nationally respected
blogs like Stereogum and Dublab, incaseyoudidnknow. Good for the WSJR
collective to take on such a creative and logistical time sucker. I’ll keep
ordering your records because so far I like them and I’m sure it’ll help you
quit your 9-to-5 any second now.
(Least) Favorite Missed
Show
There’s not many shows I
wait in earnest to see live anymore. Ratatat’s show in Dallas was one of them.
Saw them in a basement in Cambridge, MA a few years back and immediately wanted
another round. A friend, I’ll call her Marey Curess, made me the legal guardian
of her spare ticket. And on the day of the show around 8 p.m., it was
absolutely confirmed that her tickets were lost. She. Lost. The. Tiiiiiickets.
So we drained bottles of wine and took an extra-long soak in the tub, at our
own houses of course. Over the next three hours we burned up the line with
texts like “I’m sorry” and “It’s OK! Accidents happen” until everything was
good again. Everything was all-great again about two months later when I could
once again listen to Ratatat without immediately pouting like some Upper East
Side Mitzy.
Favorite Spaniard I
Listened to In Dallas
There’s been justified ado
over the single, “Palmitos Park” from the easy-to-get full length, Alegranza,
from Spanish bunny Pablo Díaz-Reixa aka El Guincho. This is a joy bomb. Only
speak English? You won’t miss a beat of this song sung entirely in Spanish. The
happiness transcends. Chris Cantalini from Dallas’ Gorilla vs. Bear music blog
should be sent a Jeroboam of Cava by Díaz-Reixa’s marketing team for the
complimentary posts that have undoubtedly helped Díaz-Reixa capture a national
piece of the spotlight. Sadly, Texas was ignored on Díaz-Reixa’s too quick U.S.
tour. But Cantalini tried. An email to the musician’s manager Felix returned a
promise to look into adding Texas as well as the slip: “Right now I’m in a car
sleeping with a beautiful blonde girl, I forgot my house keys.” Is it always
like high school summer in Spain?
Favorite YouTube Music
Video
Search “Modelogues” and you
should find a side-splitting video montage dedicated to fashion runway
accidents to the tune of “I’m Too Sexy” by Right Said Fred. Discovered it
around the same time there was an imperfect pairing of platforms and
silky-socks at the Spring 2009 Prada show in Paris this past fall. This clip
has some of some industry headline-making slip ups (search “runway accidents”
for more). There’s slides down the runway, a designer who falls through the
floor, a wibble wobble of heels, face plants, wardrobe malfunctions, back
flips, front flips, and a shake of naked tushies on the catwalk, yeah the
catwalk.
