Cory Graves
Pantera Stays In The News, Deep Fridays Return and Record Store Day's Around The Corner.
We'll avoid using this space to write about Deep Ellum's somewhat recent resurgence with Wit's End, Twilite Lounge and Three Links' openings and/or soon-to-come openings helping to breathe some new life into the heavily music-based district.
At some point, it just sort of goes without saying.
Look no farther than the recent revival of the decade-old Deep Fridays tradition. For those that don't remember when Deep Fridays were a once-monthly tradition, here's the low down: One wristband is good for entrance into shows at several Deep Ellum clubs on the first Friday of each month.
And this month's edition will serve as something of an unofficial Deep Ellum Arts Fest after-party. In other words: After you've caught 100 bands performing on that annual fest's five stages, you can still catch Sign of Reason, Redefine, Opium Symphony, Wes Ford and Plowboy at The Curtain Club; Hippy Nuts in The Lounge; Missile, Erik Chandler (of Bowling For Soup) and Responsible Johnny at Three Links; Horror Cult, Scary Cherry and the Bang Bangs, Flee the Scene and The Implication at The Boiler Room; Covet the Creature, I Am Man, I Am Monster, Aeonic Plague and Heretic at Wit's End; and Beryl Court at Reno's Chop Shop. It's just $5 for your wristband, which at least seems like a good deal, right? (It is.)
Speaking of things that remind us of Dallas in '90s: VH1 Classic will be airing an episode of Behind the Music: Remastered featuring Arlington's Own Pantera on Saturday night. It makes sense; band members Rex Brown and Phil Anselmo have been busy lately, writing tell-all autobiographies and lobbying for reunion shows, respectively.
Elsewhere, other semi-long-running musical traditions continue running strong these days. We're speaking here, of course, about the nationally-recognized Record Store Day, which is now in its sixth year. For its part, the indie record shop-driven “national holiday” has raised awareness for independent music retailers tremendously. And, for some folks, it's just reminded them that current bands are, in fact, still putting out good ol' fashioned vinyl records.
Whichever the case, Record Store Day, which this year takes place on Saturday, April 20, has been monumentally effective. Case in point? The first Record Store Day saw sales numbers reach a ten-year high. From there, each subsequent year has seen an increase over the previous one.
And, earlier today, Good Records released their annual list of acts performing live from the AstroTurf at their Record Store Day party. And while this year's affair won't feature any big national acts — The Ting Tings, Civil Twilight, Switchfoot or Stardeath and White Dwarfs all performed at the Lower Greenville store last year — Good Records has still assembled quite an imposing list of talent this time around. Shinyribs, The Relatives, Myopic, Bashe, Blackstone Rangers, Whiskey Folk Ramblers, Cutter, A.Dd+, Vulgar Fashion, War Party, Dark Rooms, and Unconscious Collective will all be performing inside the store, while the Track Meet DJ collective will be spinning in the parking lot throughout the day.
Meanwhile, out in Fort Worth, Toy Gun, New Science Projects, Vorvon, Mailman, Pinkish Black, and Sealion will be heading up Doc's Records' celebration, and Kurt Baker of the Portland-based pop-punk band The Leftovers will be doing a special acoustic set at Denton's Mad World Records.
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