Sean Kirkpatrick / Danny Delamaytr / Telegraph Canyon / Marcus Rubio / Eaton Lake Tonics

Mike Orren, says:

Amanda sez:

Tomorrow’s Listening To: series starts off as the next to last Thursday show for Artist in Residence Sean Kirkpatrick.

Every week Sean is bringing new material to Dada, reinventing old material and pulling out an occasional cover. Last week’s cover…well I was gobsmacked when I heard the words, “Did you ever see Dallas from a DC-9 at night?” tumble out of Kirkpatrick’s mouth, accompanied by the most interesting and thoughtful arrangement I’ve ever heard of the song, with exception to the original. I can’t wait to see what he pulls off next!

Then at 9, my little discovery from a spring-time trip to San Antonio, Marcus Rubio, will delight and amaze us. You must hear this 17 year old genius. To quote myself, “and, though he also claims to play the saw, I watched him abuse a guitar and violin in a way that I never thought imaginable. There is nothing commonplace, contrived, pretentious, or ersatz in his musical creations. Alternately plucking, sawing, strumming, and bashing about his guitar and violin, he remained doll-faced and devil-may-care while conjuring up brainy incantations of everyday life, his influences, and robots. The boy can write some damn witty, able, smart lyrics, to boot.” I just got back from taking Blackheart Society down to San Antonio this past weekend for a show with Marcus, where he did was he does best. If you missed Marcus this summer when I brought him up for Listening To:, please don’t miss out this time, too. Voted Best Of in San Antonio, Mr. Rubio also just opened back in November for… ahem… Alejandro Escovedo and also got to play with the man. Stick that in your pipe and smoke it.

At 10 it’s Danny DeLaMatyr. Though he’s moved on to L.A. you may know Danny from bands such as The Days and from Rhett Miller’s touring band, The Instigators, and oh, yeah, he was once even a member of Hard Night’s Day with his buddy, Chris Holt. Nowadays Danny’s most recent project, The Sheers, described by Not Lame as, “bringing to mind the classic sounds of Doug Powell, The Grays, Material Issue, Crowded House, Toy Matinee, The Dotted Line and Jellyfish” has been his focus. But he’s come back home for the holidays, to bring us that voice that sounds like “the perfect blending of Andy Sturmer, Neil Finn, Doug Powell,” while also bequiling us with his ability to write songs that worm their way into your head and remain watermarked there on your brain.

Then at 11 we have Telegraph Canyon celebrating their CD release, “All The Good News” here in Dallas. It sucks for me sometimes when I form friendships with members of bands I wo,rk a lot with. My opinion becomes even more biased. But I’ve got to be honest here, when I first had TC play, I was underwhelmed at first. It had been one of my first shows on a Thursday, and it was a total clusterf$ck from start to finish. But then something happened half-way into their set, and suddenly it was a phenomenal cacophony coming out of the PA and I stopped doing whatever it was I was doing and started paying attention. Since then, Telegraph Canyon has failed to disappoint me. Oh, yeah, by the way, Telegraph Canyon was recently given a shout out from Casey Parks of The New York Times Select. She mentioned Telegraph Canyon's song, "You & Jane" as a tune she was listening to on her way to Africa. "You and Jane" was number 7 on her list just below Springsteen’s "Devils & Dust.” It's a good place to be on any list: Just right below the freakin’ BOSS.

Finally at 12 it’s Eaton Lake Tonics. Really, how much more can I say about this freakin’ band that I haven’t already said? ELT is perfection. And frankly, I’m sure you guys are tired of me droning on and on about it. Sorry, just haven’t found anything worth criticizing about these fellers from The Town of The Cow. See for yourself. A common fixture in FW Weekly…” ELT's wonderfully tattered, rinky-dink experimental music hunts for and often slakes its unremitting thirst for genius at the heretofore mythical oasis where humor and musicianship actually live in harmony."