In November 2003, shortly after Sarah Hepola was named music editor at the Dallas Observer, Robert Jenkins cornered her during a Sorta and Sparrows concert at Deep Ellum's Sons of Hermann Hall.
"You're not going to change anything in this town," Jenkins said.
His wisdom and warning came from years of going to local shows and watching good bands struggle to find an audience. Hepola took it as a challenge, as did Lindsay Graham, who was within earshot. Together, Jenkins and Graham have stopped complaining about the lack of recognition for local musicians and decided to do something about it.
In a band? Know a band you'd like to recommend? Use the below link to submit a band you'd like us to know about.
Of course, we probably do already know about them. I mean, come on.
So, yeah, I know: checking this website for updates every day kinda sucks. I mean, I know you love the redesign, these cool designer colors (Martha Stewart's "Zest" and "Chesapeake Fog"), but what you'd really like is to be notified by email of a new show, posting or recommended event. Easy. Click the link below to be taken to a form to sign up for update notifications. So, sign up:
I can’t say much about Carter that wouldn’t be said better by others.
For us to remember you by:
In the MP3, at the end of the song, the crowd screams, “One more! One more!” Jesus, if that were possible.
Torn down,
dconstruction
So, before you get all excited: this is not a new dconstruction.org posting. This is a favor.
About sixty thousand years ago, the anonymous wondermen behind We Shot JR approached us to discuss putting together a podcast/mixtape. Originally, there was going to be commentary from a local radio luminary, but apparently luminaries have very busy schedules, or else need to put down the bongs. Still, through all the delays and missed appointments, I was excited to help get this thing going.
Why?
Like it or not (and I often don’t), We Shot JR is the vibrant, throbbing, irreverent-yet-relevant source for discussion of local music. The tastes run, uh, eclectic and the discourse is often rancid, foul-mouthed, ego-fueled puffery. Reading the strings of comments is commonly painful, and I’ve more than once shut down my browser, mid-comment, in disgust. Despite the caustic tone, misguided derision and in general poor behavior of the commenters (or perhaps goaded on by them), the site itself - the authors of the posts - keeps up daily with a scene that is underrepresented, underappreciated and so fickle and mercurial that we lost pace back in February.
To be a fan of local music requires work. The bands are unknown, no songs on the radio, no videos on TV. The venues are cramped, loud, uncomfortable places, often in areas too far flung or too far gone to be appealing. The songs are rough-hewn, the production and presentation leaning towards amateur. You will not be dressed properly; you will wonder if you fit in. You don’t. Neither does anyone. You’ll be bored. Your conversations will be robbed from you by a blaring PA and the roar of alcohol on tongues. Or else, your conversation will be all that the twelve people in the room can hear, even the crickets silent in reverence for the doomed, lonely set about to be played to parents and friends. You have to want this. It’s difficult. “Rock music is mostly about moving big black boxes from one side of town to the other in the back of your car.” [reference] I’ll submit that being a fan of rock music - the real, local, dirty-faces-and-bloody-knuckles type - is watching big black boxes being moved, with a rare intermission of entertainment.
This collection that We Shot JR put together is entertaining. I have some serious issues with it. There are songs I hate, there are bands that puzzle me; much of it sounds bad. The Night Game Cult needs to change the controls on their time machine to something other than “1986,” “Top Gun,” and “Suck.” But as a collection, in its entirety, it’s entertaining. Enjoyable, even. And as a service to the scene, it’s invaluable.
Love it or leave it, we have:
Tearing it down,
dconstruction
I’m just flabbergasted by last night’s DOMA results. How could we have lost? What plan in Heaven could allow such an injustice? What more do you people want? We give you daily updates. Weekly podcasts. Trenchant interviews. In-studio performances. A public forum. A call-in line. A well-paid staff respected by their peers. Quality control. Over a century’s experience in music criticism and journalism. We are so obviously the single most current, thorough, entertaining and multifaceted local music resource ever.
Ever.
And I firmly believe that.
I also believe this is of note: a short piece on circuit bending, with a complimentary focus on Dallas’ Tree Wave, who also lost last night.
Losers.
Tearing it down (every once in a while),
dconstruction
First things first: did you notice this? We somehow got ourselves nominated for “Best Music Web Site / Blog” in the 2006 Dallas Observer Music Awards. There were many other solid nominees. How we got in their company, we can only guess. It might help that we have interviewed every Dallas Observer Music Editor holding the position since 1999. Speaking of…
Here’s the return to our discussion with Sam Machkovech, current Observer Music Editor. This is the last half of our long conversation recorded with him back in, oh, the Cretaceous Period. As usual, Robert and I are drunk and Sam is squealing. Listen for a particularly ear-shattering soprano from the Editor at just about 12:58 in.
In this episode, we play the dconstruction Gong Show ™, and then continue to play music from three artists Sam brought in:
Thanks for listening. Thanks for sticking with us as we retool/reform/redesign/revamp/resurge. And, thanks for voting.
Tearing it down,
dconstruction
With Robert and WeShotJR already off on their way to Austin for SXSW, it’s going to be difficult to wrangle them up for our weekly Tear Downs. Really, what are we going to recommend besides 200 miles of flat Texas highway? The Mellowship show? Max Cady?
Actually, we will recommend the Rose County Fair show tonight at the Barley House. Go to that before heading south.
But what we really wanted to bring your attention to is this interview on Coke Machine Glow with Will Johnson of Centro-Matic, South San Gabriel and now the Undertow Orchestra. What’s most appropriate here is that in the last podcast, we mention both Will Johnson and Coke Machine Glow, though now I can’t remember if I edited that part out or not.
Regardless, it’s a good interview of a good musician on a good website.
Be good,
Lindsay
What would a dconstruction podcast be, if not late? Well, here it is, the mighty return to the airwaves for us, and all we have to offer is Sam Machkovech. He surprised us though, as between soporific tales of obscure medical disorders and high-pitched, giggly attempts at humor, he brought in some really good music. Say what you will about the Observer - and we know you do - Sam takes his job seriously and tries to cover the scene well, objectively and with an eye towards progress. How successful he is - and Robert and Zac and Sarah before him - will always be debated. Here, on this show, he was successful in bringing good tracks from:
Look forward to our first We Shot JR column to post this week, as well as our regular weekly Tear Downs - shows hand-picked just for you. And you and you and you. Next week, we will post our second music-only podcast, also to become a regular feature.
We hope you enjoy it. And I’m talkin’ to you, Scott Chaffin.
Tearing it down,
dconstruction
As promised (but late, as usual), we have what will become a weekly feature: This Week’s Tear-Downs. Each of dconstruction.org’s contributors will pick the one show that most excites or intrigues them in the coming week. This first week already seems to be a good one:
Thunderbirds are Now!, Serena Maneesh, Field Music, Tuesday, March 14th, at Hailey’s in Denton.
There are about ten really good shows coming up in the next week or so (I think some of the bands involved in these shows are going down to Austin for something), so we had a tough time picking. But we don’t think you can go wrong with Serena Maneesh’s wall of shoegaze (they put out one of our favorite records of 2005), and we doubt they will be back in Texas any time in the near future. Thunderbirds are Now! also seem to be the kind of band that would be great to see live, mostly because they are loud and fast and remind us of the Pixies. Field Music play some pretty decent indiepop, and they’ll be there as well. Something for everyone that’s anyone.
Salim Nourallah and the Polaroids, I Love Math, The Chemistry Set, Friday, March 10, at The Barley House.
Because Belle and Sebastian is sold out. Because it’s three great bands for the price of none. Because it should put you in the mood to support local music and we’re headed into SXSW week so it’s good to remember what we have here.
Solly, Saturday, March 11, at Doublewide.
This is the first show in a long time for Marc Solomon’s Solly - with good reason. After weathering the recent deaths of both his parents, Marc and the rest of Solly are doubtlessly ready to return to the stage, kicking, screaming and spitting. Marc’s enthusiasm, good humor and my-Lord-he-knows-how-to-have-a-good-time-ism make every Solly show a spectacle, but this one is special. While you’re at the show, pick up Solly’s 2005 release, which Robert Wilonsky summed up well:
“File under “The Replacements,” but don’t file away. Get It Wrong It’s Alright is the disc you wish Tommy Stinson would make but doesn’t have to now, since his old Perfect bandmates, Marc Solomon and Robert Cooper, are doing it for him.”
So, I have the show all ready to be posted, but I can’t. Some problem with my media file hosting service. I spent 150% of my lunch break trying to fix the problem, but to no avail.
Sorry.
I hope to have the newest podcast with Sam Machkovech up tomorrow.
Auspicious start to a resurrection, no?
Tearing it apart - and my hair out,
Lindsay
You’re not going to believe it:
We’re back.
It is with great pleasure that we announce the return of dconstruction.org, arriving back on the scene with a new podcast, a new schedule and a new staff member - but the same old swagger, snark and self-importance.
First: the podcasts. The first Monday of every month (like this coming Monday) will debut a new podcast like those you’ve come to know and love. Robert and Lindsay will sit down with some of DFW’s most influential and interesting artists, critics and promoters to listen to and discuss local music.
But then, every third Monday, we’ll release a new, music-only podcast like the one we did January 1st. We received a great deal of positive feedback from that episode, so have decided to make it a permanent feature of the site. The music for these podcasts will be selected alternately by Lindsay, Robert and…
…WeShotJR. We recently received an email from the mysterious authors of WeShotJR.blogspot.com alerting us of their presence on the scene. Immediately, we liked what we read. Crisp prose, thoughtful criticism and a no-nonsense approach to a scene that direly needs a good shaking. We liked WeShotJR so much that we invited them to join the dconstruction.org fold – and they agreed. WeShotJR.com was registered shortly thereafter and we’ll be helping them transition from their Blogspot home to a much bigger, better and more attractive permanent home.
But more importantly, WeShotJR will be contributing bi-weekly columns to the dconstruction.org site. Through these we hope to bring a stronger focus on the greater whole of North Texas music – including Denton and Fort Worth – all while maintaining the requisite level of scrutiny and sarcasm you’ve come to expect from dconstruction.org.
We should clarify that we do not know who are behind WeShotJR. We met them on the Internet, and we’re not embarrassed to admit that. We’ve talked about meeting “IRL,” but have so far just been, you know, trading pics, emails and IMing each other.
What this all means for you, our loyal listeners, is that new dconstruction.org content will be posted every week, including weekly show picks from Robert, Lindsay and WeShotJR. We have in the works more podcast guests, ideas for shorter, more digestible podcasts, dconstruction.org/WeShotJR.com-sponsored concerts and much more.
Not too terribly shabby for a website I know you thought was dead.
Tearing it down,
dconstruction.org
2006, huh? A whole new year, and like last year this one’s started with a hangover. But we’ve been nursing it with plenty of fluids, some sort of multi-vitamins, and then what we have here: a new podcast.
This episode is a special one. For one, there’s no funny intro culled from the out-takes of editing. Secondly, there’s no Robert. There’s no theme music. There’s no Lindsay. There’s no guest.
There’s no talking over the music.
We’re beginning the new year by closing out the last, and here’s a good documentary of what was so compelling about the past 365 days. The songs and artists chosen for this show represent the best of North Texas music from the past year, whether there was a new release, a re-release, an LP, an EP, a notable achievement or just a damn good show - here’s why 2005 wasn’t so bad after all.
The podcast runs exactly 74 minutes. This is on purpose. For you listeners without MP3 players, download the show, then burn to CD. Listen at home, at the office, in the car - anywhere where you might want to feel motivated, moved, excited or touched.
Now, we know we have our critics. This podcast is meant as a celebration, not a declaration of some sort of hegemony of taste. There are bands we left off. There are bands we might have excluded. Bah: enough vituperative posing and acrimony. Enjoy the podcast - and make this a resolution for the New Year: “I will go to more shows in 2006.”
Tearing it down,
dconstruction
