Recover from Sunday by staying in Arlington and Dallas June 29- July 1

Hey hey hey. I don't know about you but I'm still in recovery mode from last weekend's FW Weekly Music Awards showcase. Yeesh. So, I'm kind of glad this week is laid back in the festivities action.

Friday 
Burning Hotels at Levitt Pavilion in Arlington
Bust out your best picnic blanket and stock a cooler with some Imperials to see my favorite Fort Worth boys play for free. Yes it may seem I've made it my personal mission to tell you every single time Burning Hotels play but that doesn't mean you have seen them yet and if not this is free so you should definitely go. Coolers with beer and wine are allowed but no glass. Oh and food is allowed haha. #priorities

The Blurries and Dove Hunter at The Foundry in Dallas
I dig both of these bands quite a bit. I feel like The Blurries don't play super often so this is your chance. Actually Dove Hunter doesn't play super often either. Up there I linked the description by that Pete Freedman guy that is better than anything I could tell you. ( Plus I couldn't find a website for the Foundry : / ) Oh and this is free too. Whoa

The Blurries yo ( Trippy)

Saturday

I felt I needed a picture here. So hey look a cave

Caves 9th Anniversary party 3-2am
Everyone mark your calendars because this may be the first and last time I tell you to go to Arlington twice in one week. Caves anniversary party is going down all day. BBQ starting at 4 and Jazz outside from 6-10. On the inside is a sweet line up of local bands

Starting at 6

 Mills and Company
 FTW
Zombie Shark Attack
We're Wolves
The Phuss
Pinkish Black

Apparently they are raffling Passion Pit tickets too. If nothing else at least go see The Phuss and Pinkish Black. I saw The Phuss at Lola's on Sunday and they are pretty rad live. (Side note: I can not find anything to link to the event on the entire internets. So just trust me that this information is correct because someone gave me all the deets or if you find a link holla in the comments section)

Cure for the Pain: The Mark Sandman Story at Texas Theatre
Oh man how legit does sitting in a cold theatre with a gin and tonic for a couple of hours sound. This is one of three events at Texas Theatre this weekend that interest me. Cure for the Pain documents the life and death of the lead singer of Morphine. It might be depressing as hell but the good kind of depressing. There are only two showings Saturday at 7 and Monday at 9.

 Sunday
 Jurassic Park Live Action Dino Show at Texas Theatre
It's like "Be Kind Rewind" but live and it's Jurrasic Park!! What more do I have to say?  Oh it starts at 5
 Just stay in your seat after because there's another event at Texas Theatre at 8. Ok to be fair you will have like an hour to kill. Maybe you can go get fitted for a quinceanera dress in that hour to wear to this party.

Raw: Natural Born Artists at Texas Theatre
A crazy extravaganza of activity: Short Films, Music, Fashion and Art. All in one spot. Seriously I 'm just thinking about how they will set that all up in time. I'm lying. I'm just thinking about what color quinceanera dress I would buy.

Seriously. This needs to be mine.

So This week I decided to try something new and put together a playlist on Spotify for you of what is playing this weekend. it includes the bands playing as well as some music related to the movies. Listen to it here.

OK kids. Stay tuned for next week when I try decide if there's really anything else I want to do besides see Katy Perry: Part of Me ( I doubt it).

My Favorite Song of All Time Right Now 6/19

Listened to The Local Edge on Sunday and "O Sangeeta" by Daniel Hart has been stuck in my head ever since. Daniel Hart is a violinist that tours with St. Vincent and a few other bands. So here's a video or you can listen to my spotify playlist or you can buy the album here.

1 event in Dallas and 4 in the Fort 6/15-6/17

Christ on crutches I've had a lot going on this week. So I'm giving you a quick rundown of some sweet stuff to do this weekend. Sidenote: I started writing this and suddenly my day became super duper busy so click on the links because I'm giving you the simplest rundowns ever in the history of ever today. I probably could have just skipped this week all together but that's not as fun.

Thursday- Sunday:

Oak Cliff Film Festival
 Random awesome movies playing at a bunch of different locations.  New Fumes at Texas Theatre tonight. Wrap up party w/ dranks on Sunday. Woot

My kid acts in this short playing tonight so go see that for sure. ( click on the picture for ticket info)

Friday:

Grand Opening of Live Oak music hall with John Oates
Music. Magnolia. Maneater

                    Rich Girl aka the American Version of Common People

Saturday:

Doc's Records Party Celebration
Free Beer. Free Food. Musics
1pm - Old Snack
2pm - The Treelines
3om - Darktown Strutters
4pm - Pagaentry
5pm - Panic Volcanic
6pm - The Breakfast Machine
7pm - Slumberbuzz
8pm - New Fumes

Solar Powered Music Festival
The Romantics, English Beat, Ishi, Whiskey Folk Ramblers, and Sam Anderson amongst othere playing Panther City Pavilion starting at 3:00

                       I'm kind of in love with this English Beat video guys

Ice Eater, Nervous Curtains, Fungi Girls, and another band whose name is too long at Lola's

I <3 Fungi Girls. I've heard good things about the other bands as well. The end.
 
Also at Lola's Skeleton Coast and Blackstone Rangers on Sunday

Sooo next week hopefully won't be so frigging cray in my real life so I can actually give you a decent post. Phew.

Top 3 of the Week 6/1-6/3

To say I'm in the middle of a shitty day might be the understatement of the year. Therefore this might be the simplest post ever on what to do this weekend. Hope you feel my devotion to you

Friday:
KXT Summercut with The Flaming Lips, St. Vincent, and Fitz and the Tantrums plus more

The only beacon of light for me today is my first time seeing The Flaming Lips is happening tonight at 10 at Starplex. I would prefer a more intimate setting than  I might have a freaking heart attack because I love them so much. There are several other sweet bands opening as mentioned in the title as well as locals Telegraph Canyon, Smile Smile, Air Review.

My fave Flaming Lips song ever

Saturday:
Burning Hotels at Wild Rooster

Wild Rooster is an interesting place. I assumed the first time I went there it was some kind of biker bar just by the title. But then every once in awhile they have a really good show. That's where I saw Homegrown Artist Ume for the first time and they blew most of us away. Anyway, Burning Hotel are playing there and obviously I will always recommend going to their shows. Although the way Chance described the gig in that big FW Weekly article it sounds like they are just throwing a bone at the Wild Rooster. Butttt I never really trust the tone of quotes in articles because the quotes might be out of context. If I were famous the press would go crazy skewing my words. I say the dumbest shit and then a week later I don't even believe that statement anymore.

Friday through Sunday:
14th annual Q Cinema: Fort Worth's  Gay and Lesbian International Film Festival

I love telling people about the awesomeness of Fort Worth. ( I mean I started a whole damn blog about it) When I visit other states I feel like I'm an ambassador of Texas in general. The convo usually goes. "oh where are you from?," " Texas," "Ohh I'm sorry," or my favorite "You don't sound like you're from Texas." No I don't sound like I'm from Texas because not all people from Texas are thick accented republicans with a gun and a horse and bible (of course if I get drunk and angry then my accent comes out a wee bit). Then they usually say "well Austin is cool and then I flip them off and walk away." Or I go on a mission to disprove their dumbass stereotype because OMG where's your hackey sac Oregon. Did you lose it at the free range chicken farm?!!  

There's a point here and I'm almost at it. ( or you can skip to it) SO Recently I went up to Oregon after the Rainbow Lounge raid. In case you don't know the story I will give you an summary that is only based on my memory of the time. A few years ago on the anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, a pretty huge/ popular Gay bar in Fort Worth was raided and several people were arrested and beaten. The aftermath from Fort Worth citizens was remarkable.  People flipped teh fuck out. At least everyone I knew. There was a huge protest people were rading city council meetings. It was amazing to see our little city rally around the LGBT community when stereotypically people think Texans are homophobic assholes. ( To be fair we have yet to pass the marriage equality act so it's not like it's a state wide acceptance.)

POINT BEING  there are several screenings for the LGBT FIlm Festival at several locations including: Rose Marine Theatre, The Wherehouse, and  T&P Tavern. They are showing a documentary about the raid on Rainbow Lounge on Friday at Rose Marine at 8 if you want more of the story than my vague memory. Also can I note this is the 14th year in a row. So yea put that in your stereotype pipe and smoke it.

Man I feel better now actually. I guess there was a reason I started writing in the first place ay?

Song of the Week 5/30/12

Soo I haven't listened to any new music at all really lately. Just old shit that's new to me. I also haven't posted a song in forever so I figured I'd go ahead and post this Wreckless Eric song that I keep listening to. It's not even on spotify which is soooooo annoying. Instead I've just listened to this silly You Tube video. I guess I could actually buy the song. Meh. Well anyway. You've probably heard it but it's worth another listen. I've listened to it about 20 times this week.

I planned your weekend for you. Pack your sunscreen 5/25-5/28

Friday: Urgh! A Music War Screening. Nervous Curtains and Peopleodian show at Texas Theatre

Texas Theatre is showing "Urgh! A Music War" and Omg you guys this documentary sounds so effing cool. Concert footage from 1980 of a bunch of different bands: Devo, X, Echo and the Bunnymen, The Dead Kennedys, Oingo Boingo. I could keep going those but just look at the IMDB cast list it's cray. Afterwards Nervous Curtains and Peoplodian play who are both great.

The movie includes performances by The Police. Heyy young Sting.

 Saturday: Homegrown Fest

 Hells yea Homegrown is here! Homegrown music festival takes place at this pretty sweet park in downtown Dallas, Main Street Garden Park. It's an all day festival starting at 11:30. The line-up includes some pretty big names like Hayes Carll, Octopus Project, Centro-matic and Ben Kweller. Two bands I like a lot that are playing are Ume and Girl in a Coma probably mainly because they are girl fronted groups. By the time you read this tickets will be 25 dollars, but 15 bands are playing so that's like $1.67 per band.

Saturday Night: After Homegrown show at La Grange with Burning Hotels and a Mystery Guest oooooh 

After the show it's the after party (can I get a toot toot). If 9 hours of rocking and day drinking hasn't left you a sunburned, dehydrated mess ( I said pack your sunscreen didn't I ) you should head to La Grange to see Burning Hotels because, as I've said a zillion times, they are awesome. Plus this whole mystery guest business is intriguing.  Only 8 bucks if you have a homegrown wristband.

Sunday: Float: DFW Concert Series at Lake Lewisville

This time you can bring the whole fam (well actually you can bring the whole fam to homegrown too but here they will have more stuff to do) out to the lake to swim and stuff and see some pretty sweet bands: The O's, Grant Jones and the Pistol Grip Lassos, Michael Donner and the Southern Renaissance, Wayne Hancock, James Macmurtry, and Ray Wylie Hubbard. This is the first of the series. There will also be shows 4th of July weekend and Labor Day weekend. I'm excited to see what else is in store.

Again! Bring  Sunscreen! Also, don't put your kid in a tanning bed.

Monday:Penguin Prison, Class Actress, and Datahowler at Club Dada

Ok I don't know anything about Penguin Prison but Class Actress was pretty rad at 35 Denton and Datahowler is one my favoritedudes so this should be a pretty fun show. Plus it's on Monday so what else are doing? TV's all reruns right now anyway.

What Polyphonic means to me: Polyphonic Spree at Lola's

So I'm two songs into the Polyphonic Spree show at Lola's and I can't stop crying. It's not like a Terms of Endearment level cry but a constant welling up. This actually isn't the first time I've cried at a Spree show. 

I've seen the Polyphonic play since probably their third show ever. We even drove to Austin once to see them open for Granddaddy.  The Beginning Stages was my summer anthem the year it came out. This was also the summer I was getting ready to move to Portland. I would ride in my friend Trish's mustang and "I'm ON MY WAYYYYY" would blare out to the streets and Candice would tap me on the shoulder from the back seat and say "That's you. You're on your way". Not just in the literal sense. I was supposedly on my way to a bigger and better life in Portland. Soon after the Polyphonic Spree started moving on to bigger and better themselves. They toured through Portland a few times and I would be so pumped to see my friends and hear my songs from my home. Interestingly once I moved to Portland I rarely went to shows but if a Dallas band came through I was hell bent on getting there.

Then Polyphonic toured with Bowie. I stood in line behind Zia from The Dandy Warhols (who I frigging love and I almost peed my pants with excitement but I of course played it cool in line) to get my tickets. Once I was in my seat emotion hit me like a ton of bricks. My Polyphonic was opening for David freaking Bowie. That day I cried Terms of Endearment style.  I felt like I was on that stage with them and I felt like they represented everything I loved about Texas. The good things or at least the showmanship of the good things.  

So here I was back at Lola's and the feeling hits me again. Lola's is incredibly packed on the stage and in the crowd. My day started in emotional anticipation because some of my friends are experiencing their performance for the first time and I just wanted to be them experiencing it for the first time. it seems so obvious to say it's a spiritual experience since the band wears choir robes but it's beyond that. It fills you up. All these songs about love and happiness and Tim with his radiant smile involving the crowd in every song with his sweet voice. There's so many different instruments playing you can't even focus sometimes, but when I do I'm just so happy. It fills me up and I feel like I should be floating I'm so full of happiness and we all should be floating and the band will just stay on the stage and we'll watch them from the ceiling. On some songs I'm jumping up and down with excitement so hard it's like I'm trying to get up there. So I'm jumping but still crying. 

I cry for the same reasons as at David Bowie concert but this time it's from a place of history. I've been watching this band for ten years. TEN. I've grown up. they've grown up. One of the members I know isn't there because she, like me, has two kids at home and somebody had to stay with them. All the people who were in the band that I knew really well are gone and I miss those people dearly, but somehow it still feels exactly the same as it did back then. We've made it through the ups and downs of living and performing/ watching performances in Dallas. There are bands that have come and gone. Remnants of the past in Dallas of a different time. There are new fantastic bands and a new fresh start but the Polyphonic Spree is my constant. Tim Delaughter is my constant. With Tim comes the history of Dallas and my life there and the first time I heard Tripping Daisy playing live on the Adventure Club in my tiny little room in Cleburne and Tim kept referring to girls as doves and I thought it was the most adorable thing I 'd ever heard. Tripping Daisy was an incredible band and after the sadness of how they ended Polyphonic came and it's not the same. I can't compare the two really. That's like asking a mom who her favorite children are but Polyphonic helped me at least heal part of that sadness. So I cry remembering all of that. 

I cry when they sing "It's the Sun," because that was my Portland song and in some sense Portland wasn't all I had hoped but in another sense going there led me back to here and loving being in Fort Worth and my current life and made me appreciate what I missed most when I lived in Portland. I cry because I missed the first two songs. I cry because Tim mentions MCA and oh hell no do not talk to me about MCA right now. My friends are holding my hand like I have mental problems or maybe just because we remember that we love each other. By this point Tim is hanging halfway off the stage over the crowd and he does a call and response with the crowd singing and the band and choir slowly leave the stage. It's just us and Tim and me and I've stopped crying but I'm still happy.