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

If you’re into 1.) music and 2.) podcasts - why you’re here if you’re not is a mystery - be sure to check out CMG’s podcasts, some of the best downloading you could ever do.

Thunderbirds are Now!, Serena Maneesh, Field Music, Tuesday, March 14th, at Hailey’s in Denton.

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:

• Versatile
• Baboon
• Bosque Brown
• Centro Matic
• The Theater Fire

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

Direct download: 14_Show_Ten__Sam_Machkovech.mp3

Solly, Saturday, March 11, at Doublewide.

Salim Nourallah and the Polaroids, I Love Math, The Chemistry Set, Friday, March 10, at The Barley House.

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:

We Shot JR (who?)

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.

Robert:

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.

Lindsay:

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.

Or wished was.

Tearing it down,

dconstruction.org