Saturday, March 22, 2008

Riff Raff: Odds and ends in local music (March 16-22)

By Erin Rice

Several new albums came out this week, a local country musician is getting praise for being not quite as country as others, and bassists continue to play band roulette all over DFW.

The Vibes

One song, two songs, free songs...

The Vibes are running a pre-Lola's show promotion in which they'll be offering one free song download per day. The promotion started on Thursday and will run until their show on March 29th. The songs will change everyday and can be downloaded from the band's MySpace player.

...new songs (albums, that is)

Play Radio Play!'s new album, Texas hit stores on Tuesday. Dan Hunter, the teen behind the poppy, electronica sounds is the "Artist to Watch" in the April 6 edition of Rolling Stone as well as "Artist of the Day" on Spin.com. He is currently on tour with Yellowcard and The Spill Canvas, which will stop by the Granada Theater on March 30, with a solo, in-store performance beforehand at Good Records.

PlayRadioPlay! - Texas

Oceans Firing recently recorded three new songs with buddy Matt Lucas of the very successful, but now very defunct, Terminal. OF will be releasing the songs on a limited edition copy of their 2006 release, Bravado. Two of the new songs have been posted as samples on their MySpace player, with a full, downloadable version of the third song. You can check out Ocean's Firing along with Hey Hollywood, Homer Hiccolm and the Rocketboys, and others on March 29 at The Door Dallas as part of Scion's Spring Indie Fest. God-willing you can get in and out of the place without actually having to look at a Scion.

In slightly, ok, much much harder music, Rivethead's 13th Step is now available on CD Baby. The album was released at the end of February, but the band is still playing CD release shows all over Texas and Oklahoma, with the next show coming up April 26 at the Skillman Street Pub. The band expects the album to be available on iTunes and similar MP3 download sites over the next few weeks.

Finally, Addison Road's self-titled album was released on Monday. This is the fourth album for the group, but the first under INO Records. For a limited time you can buy the entire album on iTunes for just $7.99. While I'm usually skeptical of Christian bands, lead singer Jenny Simmons' voice, though not entirely distinctive, is strong and dances all along the pop music spectrum. "All That Matters" is worth a listen if this is your preferred genre.

And the nominee for not-quite-country video is...

Dallas' celebrated alt-country musician Jack Ingram was nominated for a CMT Country Music Award. He is in the "Wide Open Country Video of the Year" category which is awarded to an artist or band whose video falls outside the mainstream of country. I will never understand CMT no matter how hard I try. His video, "Measure of a Man," will face off in a death cage match against Willie Nelson, The Eagles, and Allison Krauss and Robert Plant's respective videos. Ingram asks for your vote via another video to the right. The following video was not nominated for anything, country or otherwise.

Redefining the line-up

Finally, Denton alt-rockers Redefine have some lineup changes in their recent history. Bassist David Spinks and the band decided to part ways. A recent email to PegNews indicates that the split was amicable. Redefine will not be canceling any scheduled shows and will find a temporary or permanent bassist to fill Spinks' shoes in the meantime.

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• Arts > Popular Music

Comments

Mike Orren Staff

You can win free tickets to PlayRadioPlay! here:

http://www.pegasusnews.com/blogs/pega...

3 months, 4 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )