20th Century Accident, 21st Century Greatness

I remember in the mid 90's when I first the discovered the sound often referred to as "alt-country." It was fresh and exciting, injecting the kick of rock and roll into the twang of country. Artists like Old 97's, Bottle Rockets, Earl C. Whitehead & Grievous Angels, and A.M. era Wilco seemed destined to me to change the direction of popular music at the time. Well time passed on, and the movement never caught on as it should have. Some bands (Old 97's, Wilco) changed their sound in time, and others faded into oblivion. It was as if someone sent a memo out: alt-country is dead.

Someone forgot to give Macon Greyson that memo.

Ever since the first time I saw the band in 2004, they have embodied the energy and passion that I felt for alt-country back in the mid 90's. Albums such as Uneasy, and even more so with 2005's Translate, have spent much time in my CD changer. For as good as the CD's are, you cannot fully appreciate the greatness of Macon Greyson without seeing them live. It is loud, it is fierce, it is solid musicianship, simply put, it is rock in the best way possible.

The ne'er do-wells at Macon Greyson are at it again. They are about to release their follow up to Translate, entitled 20th Century Accident. This album is showing more of their rock influence than has been shown on previous efforts, especially on tracks such as "John Q" and "Run for Cover." Never to fear though, Macon Greyson has definitely not abandoned the country. They're even trying to push the first single, "Right or Wrong", to several Americana style stations in Dallas and other areas. I'd give a full album review, but I haven't gotten a copy of the CD yet. The band promised me an early copy, but I suspect it just got lost in the mail. We'll go with that excuse for now.

The band celebrates the release of 20th Century Accident at Granada Theater tonight, as they open for Reckless Kelly. Tickets range in price from $15 to $20, and as far as I'm concerned, they're gonna steal the show, so get there early so you don't miss Macon Greyson. You'll thank me for this later.

Victory Is Mine!

I managed to score myself a pair of tickets to the Wall of Sound Festival this Saturday. I was lucky enough to win these tickets thru Boca Tinta. Amanda ran a contest where you had to submit a schedule for the bands you wanted to see. My schedule was one of two winning schedules. Amanda was obviously impressed with the “wry commentary that accompanied my itinerary.” Thanks, Amanda. I return the love to you, so thanks for writing the second best blog in the city of Dallas ;)

If you’re hungry for something wry, along with some great suggestions on how to spend your Saturday, here is the itinerary that scored me the tickets:

11:00 a.m. Sarah Jaffe
11:30 a.m. 100 Damned Guns
12:00 p.m. Hogpig
12:30 p.m. The Lemurs
1:00 p.m. The Burning Hotels
1:30 p.m. Tacks, The Boy Disaster
2:00 p.m. Red Monroe
2:15 p.m. Calhoun
2:30 p.m. Pleasant Grove

Curse you, SPUNE, for making the 2:00 hour so difficult to decide. Some killer bands are gonna get shortchanged. Now, where was I? Oh yeah…

3:00 p.m. Ghosthustler
3:30 p.m. Record Hop
4:00 p.m. the pAper chAse
4:30 p.m. Black Tie Dynasty
5:00 p.m. The Baptist Generals
6:00 p.m. Micah P. Hinson

I’m not really sure in between Baptist Generals and Hinson if I should see The Sword, The Timeout Drawer, or if that’s a good time to stand in line for food and restrooms. Maybe I’ll do a combination of all the above.

6:30 p.m. Brothers and Sisters
6:45 p.m. Doug Burr

I curse SPUNE again, this time for putting Brothers and Sisters and Doug Burr at close to the same time.

7:30 p.m. White Denim
8:20 p.m. Pinback
9:00 p.m. The Books
9:40 p.m. Midlake
10:30 p.m. Spectrum
11:00 p.m. Explosions in the Sky (of course)

After that, I’ll go home and pass out from exhaustion and from the awe of the rock overload that is Wall of Sound.

If you plan on going to Wall of Sound, you might wanna make a copy of that schedule and use it for yourself. You can also look at the schedule yourself and make up your own schedule. If you’re not going to Wall of Sound, well what the hell is wrong with you? Go to the Wall of Sound website for all the ticket info, and then get your own tickets. This show is going to rule in a massive way, so don’t miss out on the rock!

Ryann Speaks Out

Last night, WFAA broadcast a segment about the drug Chantix and its effect on Carter Albrecht. In the interview, Carter’s girlfriend Ryann Rathbone talks about how the drug caused both her and Carter to have strange, almost hallucination-like dreams. When mixed with alcohol, it caused Carter to have what could best be described as waking hallucinations, which ultimately led to his untimely death.

I applaud Ryann for her courage in speaking out in this difficult time. She is helping to bring attention to a drug whose side effects are much more serious than drug manufacturer Pfizer has stated. What happened to Carter was a tragedy. The only thing that could be more tragic is if another human being lost their life because of the side effects of this medication.

If you haven’t seen the article, you need to click here and watch it.

Digging Demigs

One of my personal missions as a blogger is to bring new and interesting bands to light that might otherwise go unnoticed. Easily one of the most interesting bands I’ve discovered this year would be the Denton group The Demigs. This band, fronted by Chris Demiglio, has managed to write some damn catchy songs that have set up permanent residence in my head. I wanted to do this interview last month, but alas, Chris was vacationing in Europe. My first reaction was to join him over there and write it off as a business expense. Hey, that could work, right? Alas, I don’t think the IRS would go for that, and since the Ghost of Blind Lemon expense account can’t quite afford a trip to Europe (or a stick of gum for that matter), I opted to stay at home and interview him over the phone. What follows is not exactly a traditional interview, but more like excerpts from a very long phone chat paraphrased by yours truly.

I started out with the most basic of questions: how exactly did the Demigs come to be? He told me about his two previous bands, the brit-pop influenced Wellwisher, and his next band Robin Goodfellow, which leaned more towards “post-punk noise and structure”, or at least that’s how they describe it on their last.fm bio. The original lineup of the band featured Chris, his younger brother Mark on drums, bassist Brad Row, as well as Annie Ramich on guitar, who also played with Chris in Robin Goodfellow. As Annie got further into her grad school studies, she found she didn’t have the time to devote to the band, and parted ways with the band, and Eric Lee took her place. Also, Brad was not happy in Denton, so he left the band to move back to Hawkins, Texas (where Chris came from as well). So now The Demigs are breaking in their new bass player, Sid Bledsoe, who previously played with Chris back in his Wellwisher days.

One of the bands that The Demigs get compared to most often would be Pixies. Not only do they sound like Pixies, Chris even has an uncanny resemblance to Frank Black. When I asked him how he felt about the comparison, he paused for a moment, almost as if to choose his words carefully. Originally, Chris avoided the American noise rock scene, and during his days in Wellwisher, his musical diet consisted of almost entirely Britpop music. After the demise of that band, he began to branch out musically and started listening to bands such as Sonic Youth, and yes, Pixies. But while he has definitely gained an appreciation for Pixies music, he also feels a need to distance himself from the band, in large part because of similarities in vocals and appearance to Frank Black. He is careful not to put too much of a Pixies influence on the album since he doesn’t want to appear like a Pixies wannabe. He says “maybe that’s just stupid vanity”, although I view it as a smart decision on his part, because it keeps the music fresh and it helps avoid the appearance of being a copycat band. Chris is more inclined to mention Pavement (and actually Stephen Malkmus’ solo stuff even more so) as well as eels as musical influences. The latter band surprised me, but he told me that his eels influence will probably be easier to hear on their follow up to their debut album Yardling.

The release of Yardling (which is easily THE debut CD of the year) was a path filled with twists and turns. The band originally started recording at Dallas Sound Lab with Channce from the band The Opposites Attract. Unfortunately, technical difficulties with their computers crashing and resetting were causing problems for the band. Around this time, Chris was on craigslist when he saw an ad for a distortion pedal. He contacted Chris Wilder about purchasing the pedal. Not only did Wilder sell him the distortion pedal, he let The Demigs use his home recording studio to record the album free of charge because Wilder believed in the music that The Demigs were playing. In fact, Wilder, The Demigs, and another Denton band The Grass Fight are in the midst of building a new recording studio. The tentative name of it is Shady Lane Studios (another nod to Pavement).

Speaking of The Grass Fight, they are one of the bands he mentioned when I asked him what local bands he felt were not getting the attention they deserved. Others included Record Hop (he believes that Ashley Cromeens is probably the best female singer in Dallas), the cut*off (through whom I discovered The Demigs), and Deep Snapper. We went on to discuss other frustrations about the local music scene, not only bands were not receiving the recognition they should be getting, but what both bands and venues are doing wrong. One problem he mentioned was that the people doing sound at shows are often interested only in making the headliners sound good. They set up the sound board and then walk off and aren’t there for further problems that might arise. Chris feels that promotion of shows is also an issue. Although he says that many bands don’t do enough to promote their own shows, he feels that clubs are equally guilty of lack of promotion. Another problem caused by venues is when bands are placed on a bill where they don’t make sense musically. He told me about one show where he played The Door in Deep Ellum, and he was on a bill where all the other bands were screamo bands. As a result of such mismatched lineups, The Demigs are more careful about who they play with now.

Fortunately, the band has not one, but two killer shows in store this weekend. First off, they will play Hailey’s on Friday night along with The Hourly Radio and Secret Annex. This is a free show. Yes. You heard me right. It is free, as in no cost to get through the door. If you live in Denton, then as far as I’m concerned, you need to be at Hailey’s. This goes double if you’ve never heard The Demigs. Boy, you’re in for a treat.

The second show is Saturday night at Wreck Room. The club won’t be around much longer, so enjoy it while you can. They’ll be opening up for The Drams and the cut*off. The last time I was at Wreck Room was in June for the exact same lineup. Hey, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. You owe it to yourself to attend at least one of these shows. For those who haven’t heard the band, take a listen to the MP3 below of “Throw Me Overboard.” I can just about guarantee you that listening to this song will be the best 107 seconds you spend today.

The Demigs – Throw Me Overboard

Radle Returns with Rentals

A little over two years ago, Sara Radle decided to pack her bags and go west in hopes of bigger rock and roll dreams. I was a fan of hers since the first time I saw Lucy Loves Schroeder back in 2000. I loved LLS, I loved Fred Savage Fanclub, and I really loved her solo work. I missed her when she left for Dallas, but I hoped she would be able to do well for herself out there.

Sara Radle joined The Rentals in 2006. I'd say that she's doing quite well indeed. Tonight, Sara and the rest of the band will be in Dallas, headlining a show at House of Blues. So in honor of her return, I leave you with two videos.

The first, "Nobody's Watching", comes from her full length solo CD, You Can't Make Everybody Like You. Watch for the police helmet costume in the video. I own it now; I bought it from Sara at a garage sale. It's my own little piece of rock and roll memorabilia. The second video is the Rentals' "The Love I'm Searching For", recorded live this past August in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Sara Radle - Nobody's Watching


The Rentals - The Love I'm Searching For

One More Saturday Show Worth Mentioning

In just the past couple of days, I’ve had two people ask me if I’ve heard of Silk Stocking. Since I didn’t know anything about them, I decided I had to take a listen for myself. I hate to be clichéd and say that they sound like Tom Waits, since almost every review of the band posted on MySpace mention Tom Waits. Having said that, lead singer Liz MacGowan does have more than her share of vocal similarities with Waits. MacGowan and band mate Shawn Mauck, have managed to write songs of such a caliber that you’d think they were recorded by Waits himself during his Rain Dogs or Swordfishtrombones sessions.

If you’re curious to hear them live, then go to Club Dada tonight, where they will be playing along with pAper chAse member Sean Kirkpatrick for the release of his CD Turn on the Interference. Will E Lee and The Great Tyrant are also on the bill. So now you have another option for something to do tonight.

As for me, you can catch me tonight at Lakewood Bar & Grill along with former Dallasite Darla Oates, Team Evil, and THe BAcksliders. Afterwards, I’ll probably swing by Barley House and catch the tail end of Sparklepussy Barbie. So if you wanna meet me or hang out with me, you know where to go. This week has been an awful week for everyone in the scene, and I would love to see some familiar faces and drink a toast to the life of Carter. Let the healing (and the music) begin.

Things to do Friday and Saturday

First and foremost, let me remind everyone that Carter Albrecht’s funeral will be held tomorrow at the Parkway Hills Baptist Church at 2 p.m. In lieu of flowers, the Albrecht family asks that you make a donation to the charity of your choice in Carter’s name.

As for the rest of the weekend, I figure you can go one of two routes. Route number one is to sit at home and feel depressed. Heaven knows that would be easy to do. Route number two is to go out and see a show. While you ponder those two options, let me ask you this: which do you think Carter would do?

If you came to the same conclusion that I did, then check out your options:

Friday

• Fishing For Comets (Al Amir)
  
• Red Monroe/Sarah Jaffe (Good Records)
  
• The Happy Bullets/The Peekers (Lee Harvey’s)
  
• The Felons/Warm in the Wake/The Crashdown (The Cavern)
  

Saturday

• 2nd Annual Dallas Observer Losers’ Award Show featuring Rose County Fair, Paul Slavens, Wanz Dover, Steve Austin, DJ Wild In The Streets, and Johnny Lloyd Rollins (Double Wide)
  
• The Backsliders/Team Evil/Darla Oates (Lakewood Bar & Grill)
  
• Red Monroe (CD Release Party)/Baboon/Saboteur/Jonathan Tyler and the Northern Lights/Odis + DJ sets by The Hourly Radio (Granada Theater)
  
• Sparklepussy Barbie (Barley House)
  

Go out with your friends, have some fun, and hear some great music. While you’re at it, raise your beer glass and toast to having known Carter.

Carter's Rock and Roll Days

First of all, if you look above to the title of the blog, you may notice a slight change. As a memorial to Carter Albrecht, the blog shall go by the name of Ghost of Carter Albrecht throughout this coming weekend (the URL will obviously remain ghostofblindlemon.blogspot.com). It’s just my little way of showing respect to one of the finest musicians that I’ve ever had the privilege of watching play.

In last evening’s entry, I chose not to go into a lot of detail on the incident Sunday night/Monday morning, stating only that he was “fatally shot by a neighbor.” I was having a hard time reconciling the kind, fun, laid back Carter that I knew with the Carter that was being portrayed in the media. There seemed to be some major pieces in the puzzle missing. This morning, Danny Balis posted a message on MySpace which helped shed some insight on the situation. The following is only an excerpt from his post (to read more of his post, as well as comments from other friends, read Cindy's story at The Fine Line):

“we've all read the updated story in the dallas morning news, and it seems pretty accurate, according to the play-by-play of events she gave me throughout the night. what we don't know is why he ended up at the next door neighbor's back door, banging and kicking it at 4:06. nor do we know why carter acted out with his girlfriend in a manner that i have never seen in my near-ten years of friendship with him.

this was not the carter albrecht i knew. the police report failed to mention that for the previous week, he and his girlfriend were trying quit smoking with the prescription drug, "chantix". they had both started the program at the same time, and had been on it for a week. monday was supposed to be their quit day. carter had not slept much the night before, and had consumed approximately five cocktails in a two hour period on sunday eve. this was not unusual, as carter had a very good tolerance for the drink. chantix does clearly state on the box that it's drowsy effects could be intensified by alcohol. the two also complained of having crazy, insane, almost horrific dreams that week. they jokingly referred to them as "chantix dreams" when comparing them. i later learned through a close friend that he had firsthand knowledge of two separate couples who had tried to quit smoking using chantix, and in each case, one spouse had tried to kill the other with no previous domestic conflct. one was successful, and many refer to this drug as a psychotic.

was it a combination of sleep deprivation, booze, and the stop-smoking pills that sent him off? it's the only explanation i can even think of. what was described to me sounded like a walking black out. in my years of knowing him, and all the girls he dated, i have never once heard of him getting abusive or physical with them. it was not his character. especially with the woman that i know for a fact he loved dearly. unfortunately, the morning news story paints him as a batterer to the casual reader that did not know him. this, he was undeniably not”

This helps provide some answers, yet at the same time, I’m not sure it can “make sense of the senseless”, as I was saying yesterday. I don’t want to get too maudlin, however. In fact, Danny prefaced his bulletin by saying that “were [Carter] here right now, he would think this is totally fucking gay, and I would never hear the end of it.” The last thing that The Ghost of Blind Lemon Carter Albrecht wants to do is appear gay, so here’s what I’d like to do. In the comments section, I’d like for anyone who feels so compelled to share their favorite Carter story. I don’t allow anonymous posts, but for those who don’t have a blogger account, email me thru my profile and I will post the story for you.

It’s easy to get sidetracked by his death, but I would rather remember the joy he shared with others in his life. He had many great “Rock and Roll Days” (to steal the title of my favorite Sparrows song), and I think that’s a wonderful way to keep the spirit of Carter Albrecht alive.

How to Make Sense of the Senseless

I came home today and checked out myspace, reading messages and bulletins. I see a bulletin from a friend saying she "hates that for the first time in so long that she feels such a connection to so many people it is all due to being so shaken and numb with grief." I read another bulletin, and it all becomes too painfully clear.

Last night, Carter Albrecht was fatally shot by a neighbor. He was a member of New Bohemians, Sorta, and Sparrows. He was one of the most talented musicians I've had the pleasure to see. He was also just a nice guy.

I titled the article "How to Make Sense of the Senseless." When I figure out how to do that, I'll let you all know.

Happy (Belated) Birthday to Me

I’ve wanted to do this post for awhile, but I’ve been waiting for video from my birthday shows to be uploaded. My friend Amy has finally uploaded her videos to YouTube, so now seemed like the right time for to reflect on the awesomeness which was my birthday weekend.

Friday night’s show at the Granada Theater started with Rahim Quazi. There was only one problem with the set: I wasn’t there for it. The good news is that I got to see him play Saturday at Barley House. The bad news is that I missed seeing him play live with Chris Holt. In case you missed it too, this it what it looked and sounded like:

Rahim Quazi - Coffeebreak


Next on the lineup was Johnny Lloyd Rollins. I don’t think I missed more than one song by him, and I was definitely there when he sang this little ditty. Props to my friend Amy for recording this:

Johnny Lloyd Rollins - Let's Be Poor Together

The Slack was next, and as always, he put on a great show. There’s a reason he keeps winning the “Best Musician” award at the DOMA’s. He’s just that good. I have a theory about Mr. Holt, however. I’m convinced he has no bones in his fingers. Next time you go to a Slack show, watch his hands. The only way hands can move that quickly is if there are no bones in them. He closed his set with “What’s to Come”, a song that got me dancing with the ever wonderful and beautiful Camille Cortinas of Fishing For Comets. I wish I could post that video, but since it wasn’t taped (or at least posted on YouTube), here’s another tasty Slack gem for you:

The Slack - Leaving Chicago


I’ve been watching Salim Nourallah perform for the past seven years, but never have I seen perform a set as good as Friday night at Granada. Of course, it didn’t hurt that he had an all star cast supporting him. Seeing Salim play with his former Happiness Factor band mate Paul Averitt was like being transported into a time machine to 2001 or so. John Dufilho (Deathray Davies, Apples in Stereo) managed to fill in on drums for a few songs, and anytime he’s onstage, the song is guaranteed to sound better. However, the real stars of the set were Salim’s songs. The new album, Snowing in My Heart, shows Salim at the top of his game. Here’s one of my faves from the CD:

Salim Nourallah - Erased


I felt badly for Radiant. I would absolutely HATE to have to follow the killer set by Salim. Radiant was unphased, and managed to perform a solid set of catchy tunes such as this (sorry, I don’t know the name of this song):




The following night, Barley House was the place to be. Rahim Quazi played a set good enough to make me forget that I missed his set the night before. He dug out several old favorites of mine like “Almost Home” and “Fallen Star” (where he was accompanied by Josh Hoover of Chemistry Set), and then played several songs of his upcoming CD, Supernatural. Based on the songs he played, the only reason I could see that CD not ending up on my 10 best of the year list is if it gets postponed until next year. Alas, no Rahim video from Barley House :(

The cut*off were next, and they rocked my socks off. If you were there and your socks weren’t rocked off, seek immediate medical help. As if that wasn’t cool enough, Jenn Nabb joined them onstage for “Shanghai-ed” and their cover of Pixies’ “Monkey Gone to Heaven”. The show had such a strong effect that one guy out in the audience felt compelled to jump onstage at the end of “Adults We Know” and burst into a tambourine solo. What can I say; weird things happen at my birthday show. And again, no cut*off video either. If you have video of either of these sets, please email me with the video or a link to the video (you can find my email addy thru my profile page here).

To finish off the festivities, Chemistry Set played some old favorites (“New Hope PA”, “Beautiful Tragedy”), new favorites (“World”), and turned old favorites into new favorites again (their new version of “I Do” puts the rock into the song, and it’s like hearing the song for the first time). They even busted out some Nirvana (again, video courtesy of Amy):

The Chemistry Set - Smells Like Teen Spirit


And so concludes this reminiscence of my birthday shows. Can’t wait for next year! Only 358 days until my next 25th birthday.