Gonzalez Brothers Honored by Leading Portuguese Jazz Magazine

Local borthers Aaron and Stefan Gonzalez (of Yells at Eels and Akkolyte, among others) were recently honored by the highly respected Portuguese Jazz magazine JazzPT for their playing on Luis Lopes's Humanization 4tet, which the magazine voted as its record of the year for 2008. Here's more from their father, trumpeter Dennis Gonzalez:

I am very proud and pleased to announce that the leading Portuguese jazz magazine, Jazz.PT has named Humanization 4tet, the self-titled CD released by Clean Feed in mid-2008 as Portuguese Jazz Record of the Year. The working quartet, which will tour the US in May and June, is led by Lisbon's electric guitarist Luis Lopes. Personnel are Lopes on guitar, pre-eminent tenor saxophonist Rodrigo Amado, and Dallas musicians (and my sons), bassist Aaron Gonzalez and drummer Stefan Gonzalez.

Local Black Metal Legends reveal new track ahead of SXSW

Plano, TX Occult Metal Band ABSU is playing a much anticipated show at this year's SXSW, though I have to admit that the venue, Spiro's, can be a real drag. Often (and rather unimaginatively) compared to Slayer, ABSU formed twenty years ago, and are one of the main points in my argument that Plano has long been fertile ground for extreme music, something that makes perfect sense if you have ever spent a little time there. Somewhat fittingly, ABSU was famously featured on the soundtrack to one of the most notorious statements on small-town plight ever, Harmony Korine's Gummo. Plano has also produced similar and/or related acts such as Divine Eve, Infernal Oak, and Rape, Pillage and Burn.

It's worth noting that original ABSU bassist and founding member, Equitant, left the group to make electro/dance music and has found success in the genre under that name. In fact, his newest release is "Live at the Loft." No, not that Loft, the one in Bogota, Colombia. There's a download available here.

After the Austin show, ABSU will continue touring with dates in Dripping Springs, and Baltimore, and then onto Germany and Austria, playing Pößneck, Friedersdorf, and Spital Am Semmering.

ABSU's preview track, "Girra's Temple," is the lone song sample on their Myspace page. The new self-titled album will be available February 24 on Candlelight Records.

Morrissey Tickets on Sale Today

Morrissey will be stopping by the Palladium for a show on Friday, April 10th, and if you know what's good for you, you'll go here and buy tickets now, because

1. It will probably sell out

2. The last time I saw Morrissey at Palladium was one of the best concerts I've been to in years. And yes, he DOES play a lot of Smiths songs.

Strange Boys Featured on Dusted's Destined Today

Yeah, I know they aren't exactly local anymore, but former Dallas band The Strange Boys (a band we covered quite a bit back when they were local) were featured in Dusted Magazine's Destined 2009 list today, and you can read the rather long and complimentary article about them here if you want to. I know there was some blurb about them in Rolling Stone the other day, but these days, something like the Dusted feature probably means just as much, if not more, and the source is, well, more trustworthy to say the least. For example, the following are among bands that Dusted Destined predicted to be big, often WAY before they actually were:

2003: Japanther, Growing
2004: MIA, Skeletons
2005: Hot Chip
2006: Spank Rock
2007: Deerhunter
2008: Hercules and Love Affair, Sex Vid, Fuck Buttons

New Sober Mix For Decade Clothing

Central Booking's DJ Sober has put together a new mix for his clothing label, Decade Clothing, and you can download it right here. (LINK IS UPDATED AND WORKING NOW) As you can see from the tracklist to the right, this thing is heavy on 90's hip hop and R&B jams, so if you're into that sort of thing (I am), you'll want to give this thing a try for sure.

Wait A Minute, Dick Cheney Moves His Own Boxes?

Sounds like bullshit to me.  

Wavves, Abe Vigoda and Weird Weeds to Play Denton House Shows

A further testament to the strength of Denton DIY:

Wavves
Abe Vigoda

@ 715 Panhandle on March 17th

The Shivers
Weird Weeds

@ Muscle Beach March 14th

Wavves, Women and The Ohsees to Play SXSFlesh Fest in Dallas

As a part of what should be a huge wave of SXSW run off shows in Dallas, Ft. Worth and Denton in March, Parade of Flesh will be hosting the first annual SXSFlesh at the Lounge on March 22nd featuring:

Young Widows
Thee Ohsees
Women
Abe Vigoda
Wavves
Sleepy Sun
Pterodactyl
Howl
My Disco
Vampire Hands,
Fresh & Only's
and others tba.

Kudos on a very solid line up. Stay tuned for more details.

Wax Museums Reviewed on Dusted

Denton's Wax Museums, who have apparently already sold nearly 1,000 copies of their debut full length, got a pretty solid review on the respected Dusted Magazine this morning. Read it here ya doofus.

New H.O.T. Label Preview

After Death Records is the new label project of Rob Buttrum from House of Tinnitus and Andrew Haas from Lychgate, and I have been pretty excited about it for a little while now. The label will primarily be releasing "extreme electronic music" of the sort regularly featured at Tinnitus. The two images to the right are a preview of what the limited-edition cassette releases will look like, and you can go to their Myspace page to hear a sample from the forthcoming Werewolf Jerusalem cassette. We'll have more on this soon.

Interesting Upcoming Shows At 1919 Hemphill

Partly as a result of the SXSW spillover, and partly just because, 1919 Hemphill will have some pretty notable acts coming through in the next couple of months. Everything from internationally renowned hardcore group, Dropdead, to Baltimore weirdos, videohippos, to Japanther (of course). List:

FEBRUARY
Fri/13: Dropdead/Hatred Surge/Kill the Client/Hercules/JV All Stars
Thu/26: Ghost Mice/Benny Lenny/County Lines
Sat/28: Prizzy Prizzy Please, TBA

MARCH
Tue/17: This Bike is a Pipebomb, Mose Giganticus, Shellshag, Stupid Party, Hermit Thrushes
Wed/18: Japanther, videohippos, Prizzy Prizzy Please, TBA

New Akkolyte Tracks

Akkolyte have posted several new tracks from their upcoming full length, Clues in the Chaos Pile, and you can stop by their Myspace page (linked above) to check them out.

SXSW Announces the First Round of Bands

You can see the whole list here, but for now, we'll give you some of the highlights from the initial selection of groups:

Asobi Seksu (Brooklyn, NY)
Blaqstarr (Baltimore, MD)
Crystal Stilts (New York, NY)
Dead Prez (New York, NY)
Explosions in the Sky (Austin, TX)
Kid Sister (Chicago, IL)
Mika Miko (Los Angeles, CA)
Peter Bjorn & John (Stockholm, Sweden)
Primal Scream (Glasgow, Scotland)
Sage Francis (Providence, RI)
St. Vincent (Dallas, TX)
Thee Oh See's (San Francisco, CA)
Tittsworth (Washington, DC)
Akron/Family (Williamsport, PA)
The Sonics (Seattle, WA)

NIN / Trent Reznor Releases 400gig of HD video license free

Trent is having all sorts of problems making a movie due to his label.. so. instead of dealing with lawyers.. he just released the footage. all 400 gigs of it.

read more here

obama hires corporate music's biggest lawyer.. for top justice post..

not only is having a mp3 going to get you thrown into guantanamo.. it will also be against the law NOT to buy the new britney spears album.

CLICK HERE for change you can believe in?? *sigh*

New Ghostcar and Shiny Around the Edges Tracks

Two groups we've been talking about forever, Ghostcar and Shiny Around the Edges, have posted new tracks on their respective Myspace pages. Ghostcar has six selections up from their forthcoming release (recorded by David Willingham), and Shiny has added one from their new album due out March 10th on Sounds Are Active.  All of it is really quite solid, and much of the Ghostcar stuff is absolutely fantastic, so be sure to take a minute to check them both out.  

New Fungi Girls Downloads

The best goddamn band in Cleburne, TX, Fungi Girls, have posted a few tracks for download as a preview for their upcoming split tape releases with Natural Numbers and Reading Rainbow (the artwork for one of these is posted to the side, and you should really check out these other two bands while you're at it).  The downloads include two new ones, "Glare" and "Lady Myco Purple." Get them all right here.