OLD GuideLive.com music blog: Playlist DO NOT USE

Why? 'Cause Roger Waters is coming to town.

Just announced about 10 minutes ago: Dallas will be one of only four U.S. stops for Mr. Waters' raved-about and semi-controversial Dark Side of the Moon Live Tour, which features the ex-Floyd mastermind's take on both the seminal progressive arena rock band's greatest hits and a front-to-back, sequential performance of the band's mega-selling 1973 opus, The Dark Side of the Moon.

The concert will be May 2 at the Superpages.com Center (er, formerly Smirnoff Music Centre and longingly referred to as Starplex in the interest of avoiding a twist of the tongue). Tickets -- no word yet on pricing -- will go on sale on Feb. 16 at 10 a.m. through (who else?) Ticketmaster.

Posted by Mike Daniel at 5:42 PM | Permalink

Sometimes having to leave a gig early to file a review really, really reeks.

Reader Cliff filled me in on what went down during Ryan Adams' second set, which I missed because of a deadline for this, on Friday at McFarlin Auditorium. Turns out Mr. Adams played a little superhero game:

Says Cliff: "Ryan comes out in a muscle shirt and "Batman-y" wrist straps and does some "Ode to Judas Priest" bit for a couple of songs including the great "Goodnight Hollywood Boulevard." Then he says, "I feel a little vulnerable now" and runs off stage to change into a different outfit. The band vamped with a horrendous joke and time chatting with the crowd." "

The gig was already stellar, and Mr. Adams' stream-of-consciousness interplay on stage had already won over the throng. Looks like he made some more fans during the second set, which Cliff called "just wonderful. Far less guitar noodling and time between songs…he really was outstanding."

Posted by Mike Daniel at 12:53 PM | Permalink

As Midlake plays a new song destined to be on its yet-to-be-recorded third album, I'll wrap up my blogging for the evening.

I'm staying for Explosions in the Sky, but you're going to have to catch my formal review in Monday's GuideLive to read my impressions on the current national standard bearers of instrumental shoegaze pop.

WoS still has problems with patron amenities, security (I saw one policeman on the grounds the entire evening, and the baseball field has trash strewn across it) and keeping performance times on schedule, but this is an event that needed to be held outdoors. Let's hope that the folks with the Fort Worth Cats allow Spune (who I'll be calling tomorrow to ask about the Midlake issue) to hold this here in 2008. La Grave Field really does work well, as long as this event doesn't draw more than three or four thousand. And it didn't appear to even reach four figures this year.

Posted by Mike Daniel at 12:35 PM | Permalink

In some ways, the jazzy little Denton band that could is topping its performance at Austin City Limits six days ago. The band feels peppier and a little more deft than then, especially now as it plays its most well known song, "Roscoe."

But a couple of oddities are surely causing it consternation. Bassist Paul Alexander's tone is very thin, and hi instrument has little sustain, which signals an amplification issue. And to me, at least, the band is playing slightly too loud.

And we just got an explanation from lead singer Tim Smith for why it was late. "Sorry that we didn't go on earlier," he said. "We've got all sorts of issues happening."

And that's it; nice and nebulous, kind of like Midlake's soaring indie pop. Guitarist-keyboardist Eric Pulido added a thanks to Ghostland Observatory for swapping slots last minute, too. Yes, it was worth the wait.

Posted by Mike Daniel at 12:35 PM | Permalink

Here's a curiousity. Ghostland Observatory isn't a good here as it was at Austin City Limits last weekend.

Don't get me wrong; its electro-funk is still good. Heck, it's great. But the lack of bodies here at WoS, the delays, the dubious sound system (the board op just turned the master volume down a good three decibels) and the shackled sense of drama here is reducing the act's effectiveness.

Ghostland's music is meant for large places: for massive throngs of sweaty, horny young stylin' adults to get their groove on to. Without that sense of sweep and insistence, this band loses a little poignancy.

Interesting tidbit that I learned about the band earlier; it's self-released it's recordings and charges more than the usual cost for wholesale purchases of its CDs. And the difference isn't peanuts, either; it's along the lines of three bucks per CD.

I still think that Ghostland is major-label worthy. But does the act revel in controlling its own destiny, or would it hand over its marketing and publicity reins to someone else?

Posted by Mike Daniel at 12:34 PM | Permalink

Here's the verdict: Ghostland Observatory and Midlake have flipped time slots. Though frankly, it's basically as if we're back on time here, but the MC promised that Midlake would be playing after Ghostland.

Which begs the question: what's up with Midlake? It's here; I ran into guitarist Eric Pulido earlier, and its tour bus is on the premises. Is a member missing? We shall see ...

Posted by Mike Daniel at 12:34 PM | Permalink

Well, now the main stages are 50 minutes behind schedule, thanks to Om and an extended turn by Pinback. And now, Midlake is taking its sweet time getting on stage. The sound was dialed in five minuetes ago, and the band jasn't made it onto the blue-bathed stage ...

What're they doing? Huddling up? Does one of them turn into a pumpkin at midnight? C'mon, guys ...

Wall of Sound has promise earliee today in terms of staying on time. Now, it's devolving into what it ended up being in 2006: late-running and somewhat contentious. Oy.

Posted by Mike Daniel at 12:33 PM | Permalink

Oooh. This Massachusetts-by-way-of-NYC-and-North-Carolina duo is the first to use the video-display screens behind both main stages, and the vertically spliced visuals of animals and machines are tres cool. They accompany the Books' electro-gothic lullabies succinctly. Nick Zammuto and Paul de Jong's music is an acquired taste - it's not tremendously melodic, and it relies on a tapestry of voiceovers and seemingly random programmed effects and other aural flourishes.

But once past the experimental inderpinnings, it's haunting and pretty storybook stuff. One could picture the Books scoring a bevy of moody indie films, or perhaps contributing to more than its fair share of TV-show interlude scenes. It's currently playing a tune that interweaves a minstrel-esque acoustic lick with a swelling cello and a stampeding bass that makes me want to go skipping off into right field here. Aaaah.

Posted by Mike Daniel at 12:33 PM | Permalink

I didn't expect this. Armistead Burwell Smith IV's indie pop outfit has always been among the genre's more obtuse and complicated listens, but live the band's rhythm section is solidifying the craziness that happens in the upper registers.

The effect is essentially transforming Pinback into a more thunderous and punchy dance band. Though if you wanted to dig on the interwoven harmonies and playground-free minor-chord workouts, they're there, too.

"Wheee!," Mr. Smith cries. Yep, he's at his playground, and he's one talented and gifted kid.

Posted by Mike Daniel at 12:32 PM | Permalink

I gotta get me some of that. Whatever substances that these Denton spaz-rockers mainline before gigs, they must work really well.

I'm thinking Red Bull, spiked with herbal something or other. But I coulds be wrong ... heh.

The band looks like a trio of computer science majors who've skipped out on final exams to binge. They sound like Jimi Hendrix might have had he idolized T Rex and the Clash. Or: the B-52s without female representation and on so much speed that they swear that they're James Brown's indie-punk offspring.

It's set is sloppy, chaotic and almost masochistic in its looseness. But it's also energizing and attractive in a what-is-that-kooky-racket sort of way.

Posted by Mike Daniel at 12:32 PM | Permalink

Om has performed for almost an hour on Stage One: the main-stage schedule is now almost a half-hour behind. Did Al Cisneros peeve Bobby Bare Jr. off so much that the latter has refused to perform now? p

Especially in indie-rock circles: why can't we all just get along?

No, wait. Mr. Bare, complete with his band's tenor sax and with daisy strings wrapped around his mike stand and amp stack, are doing a quick sound check.

Sounds like San Franciscoan Mr. Cisneros decided that the sound-check diss entitled him to an extra 25 minutes on stage. So why didn't the sound engineers just pull the plug on him, no matter how ornery and empowered he felt ...

Posted by Mike Daniel at 12:32 PM | Permalink

Om. Yum. And Ow. Freaky stoner-pocketed stuff from this pair, who are the rhythm section for Sleep, one of the more trance-enhancing stoner rock outfits in the country.

Al Cisneros' Rickenbacker bass is so distorted and fuzzed out - on purpose, people! - that it's covering both the low and some of the high-end territory that's normally occupied by regular guitar. And drummer Chris Haikus is laying down beats so heavy that they threaten to pulverize the less-fortified eardrums of the country fans in the Stockyards about a mile north of here.

Mr. Cisneros is playing through two immense green speaker cabinets that would be entirely obscene if used by most other musicians. But here, his nasal vocal moans are totally indecipherable, flicked away as they are by his aggressive tone.

Om is significantly heavier than the Sword, and that's saying tons (pun quite intended, thank you). Criminy. Could Om be the heaviest act in America? It's the thickest music that I've heard live this year ... and this is coming from TWO MEN. Yes, the music is monotonous and relies on a very plebian 4/4 groove. But I feel 50 pounds heavier just standing here listening to it.

Whoa. And with attitude, too. "Could you not sound check during our set, please?," he snidely tells Bobby Bare Jr. and his band on the other main stage. It was not a kind request, either. Hey, now; aren't we all family here?

Posted by Mike Daniel at 12:31 PM | Permalink

On Stage Two, the countrified pop of Brothers and Sisters is wafting out, and the only ones standing - even right at the front of the stage - are some folks playing Frisbee and a little pickup game of soccer.

The familial, music community-based feel of Wall of Sound is cool, to be sure. But it'll have to lose a lot of that to grow any bigger.

Posted by Mike Daniel at 12:31 PM | Permalink

... "We're coming at you in mono tonight!," Noah Lit says. Yep: Oliver Future is at it without that left-hand P.A. speaker. Still sounds fine, since the small stage is, well, small and not very loud, so the band's own amps and speaker cabinets are filling things out.

Posted by Mike Daniel at 12:30 PM | Permalink

These guys are kind of nerdy in an L.A. way. All are wearing black T-shirts - three are freakin' V-necks - and the bassist somehow felt the need to sport a red polo shirt to match his red bass. Guitarist Josh Lit's wearing a bowler hat that's too small for his head, too.

But man, this band's fun to hear play. It moved from Austin to L.A. in 2005, and hipster pop outlets out there are taking notice in Oliver Future's creepily melodic hyper-pop. It's first post-move release, "Pax Futura," has incredible potential, and frontman Noah Lit's got a whimsy in his pipes that simultaneously clashes with and soothes the band's crispy breakdowns and grooves.

One question, knowing that Oliver Future loves to play tiny holes-in-the-wall like the Cavern in Dallas and the Wreck Room and the Moon in Fort Worth: Why is it on the third stage? It should be on one of the two main stages here ...

Posted by Mike Daniel at 12:30 PM | Permalink

I blogged too soon. Stage Three is now a half hour behind schedule because of a blown P.A. speaker. A replacement is en route. "Give us seven minutes," said a fest staffer. "We have Oliver Future coming up, and we want to do this right. So sit tight."

Some aren't; they're wandering away to mingle (lots of that going on here). But about 40 folks are parked on a knoll between the stage and the stadium's home plate wall, waiting socially.

Attendance is picking up, too, as the day begins to cool off and the bigger acts come closer to their set times. But it's not drastic; I'd say 800 or so are here. About 700 advance tickets were sold for Wall of Sound, and at 35 smackers at the gate, I'm thinking that there aren't gonna be a mass of walk-ups tonight ... especially since at this point, the event's more than half over.

Posted by Mike Daniel at 12:30 PM | Permalink

Think of a combination of Chris Isaak and Johnny Cash, but with a disposition much more melancholy and shattered than either, and you'd have Abilene native Micah P. Hinson. "Somebody robbed my car the other day and stole all my stuff," he laments apologetically on stage.

He hasn't caught many breaks in life; he'd been a drug addict, been broke and served jail time by age 20. And his morose, minimalist music refects that; his songs come off as written as self-effacing cowboy dirges in a cramped mobile-home bedroom. It's an acquired taste, and somewhat unusual for Wall of Sound ... but the new dimension is oddly refreshing, even if Mr. Hinson's peeformance has the poise of a wilting sunflower.

Posted by Mike Daniel at 12:29 PM | Permalink

... I and several dozen other concertgoers are extinguishing cigs on the outfield grass at La Grave Field. It hurts for me do it, as much as I worshipped baseball as a kid and as a player ... but hey, this is rock and ROLL! (and don't worry; I'm throwing away the butts in a proper receptacle).

Posted by Mike Daniel at 12:29 PM | Permalink

Here's one thing that's evidently changed from last year; the bands are actually about five minutes ahead of schedule here, instead of grossly behind schedule as they were in 2006.

That means that fantastical Austin heritage-metal act the Sword took the stage at 5:25 p.m. It opened with a solitary song from last year's debut, "Age of Winters," and has lauched into a showcase of "all-new jams," said singer J.D. Cronise. (The band's got a new bassist, too, apparently). The fresh cuts have more dual-guitar interplay and blast just as monolithically as "Age of Winters"' national buzz-generating metal did. Sweeet.

Posted by Mike Daniel at 12:28 PM | Permalink

Intrigiung. Chris Flemmons and Steven Hill's oddball mix of country, folk and indie has a certain down-home mysticism about it ... kind of as if Weezer spent a year in a West Virginia mining village with nothing but a synthesizer, a blown speaker and a supply of beef jerky for sustenance.

It's dynamic - as delicate as a sleeping sheep dog at times and as ferocious as an Arizona coyote at others - but it reverts to juvenile wheeziness too much for me. It's sound is just a bit too frayed and ratty, too. Maybe it's better recorded.

Posted by Mike Daniel at 12:28 PM | Permalink

Cool setup: the local-music-happy Granada Theater's got a tent here complete with misters, seats, an automatic bubble machine and an air mattress. Owner Michael Schoder's already confessed to taking a nap on it earlier, having had to be here at 9 a.m. after presiding over Macon Greyson's CD-release show at his venue.

And actually, Wall of Sound's setup here isn't bad. For instance, shade can be had in the seats around the baseball diamond without a severe penalty regarding band volume or sightlines. But that third stage really should be more accessible both visually and aurally.

If Spune wants this event to grow like it envisions, two things have to happen: more concessions need to be made available, and word must spread better about it. It's got book higher-profile indie acts to attract more than the local-music cognocenti and a few college students.

Oooh. Fort Worth-based neo-wave act Black Tie Dynasty has a few equipment issues just now, forcing it to lose what momentum it'd built. Also: the wind is playing havoc on the strap-tied video backdrops behind the two primary stages; they're both swaying to and fro like a moored sailboat in a choppy harbor. Will they be used? We'll see.

Posted by Mike Daniel at 12:27 PM | Permalink

The Paper Chase's drummer, Jason Garner, just threw up. "It's all for you!," the singer declared to the crowd. Let's hope that it was from outdoor overexertion and not from early-day overimbibing ... and not a sign of things to come here.

Quick note: one cool thing about local/regional fests such as this is that the band members wander in and out of the crowd all of the time. Heck, the artist's hospitality/warm-up tent is just over the four-foot-high right-center field wall.

Posted by Mike Daniel at 12:27 PM | Permalink

I arrived at Spune Productions' third Wall of Sound Festival in Fort Worth about half an hour ago, and the crowd's sparse. Maybe 500 indie music fans are here, enjoying the cathartically funky-punky rock of Dallas' the Paper Chase.

Yeah, it's somewhat hot - right at about 90, I'd say - and there isn't a cloud around to spell the sun's wrath. But there's a light breeze blowing across the Fort Worth Cats' home baseball field, La Grave Field, which was opened in 2002 in between downtown and the Fort Worth Stockyards. It's a quaint and modern facility that feels like a Division 1 baseball facility in terms of size and amenities.

John Congleton's outfit is unusually heavy today; Bobby Weaver's bass is growling like an earthquake on Stage One, which is set up smack dab in center field. Stage 2 is right next to it in left-center: Tiny, sad-looking Stage 3 is outside of the stadium behind home plate (and there were maybe 10 people taking in Kissing Cousins out there).

Most hardcore local indie followers aren't exactly sun worshippers, of course, and these dog days are certainly keeping some away as Wall of Sound moves outdoors for the first time (I know of a few who won't be coming since it's hot). But a relatively varied lineup, ranting from indie crooner Ian Moore and stoner-metalers the Sword and Om to shoegazers Explosions in the Sky and electro-rock duo Ghostland Observatory, should draw more out than this. Right now, it's mostly band members, their friends and North Texas indie scenesters here now.

Posted by Mike Daniel at 12:25 PM | Permalink

What better way to christen our new music blog than with staff writer Mike Daniel's live observations, accolades, disses and more from the 2007 Austin City Music Festival at Zilker Park?

Ghostland Observatory (Austin-American Statesman)

This blog is so brand new, in fact, that Mike's musings from the weekend are still housed at sister blog Over the Top.

Check out ACL coverage here:
• Live blogging, Sept. 14-17
• ACL music fest wrap-up

Posted by Christy Robinson at 2:22 PM | Permalink | Comments