Friday March 12
Denton, Texas’s NX35, originally a panel for Denton bands at SXSW, celebrated and produced a formidable first in what one could only hope becomes more in-town annuals March 11-14. I had attended the first Denton-anchored event and was experiencing this bloated annual with every bit of awe and elation as, I expect, those who had put it together must have also felt.
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Thursday night at NX35. Opening night. Denton is not a 9-to-5 kind of town, but even the indiest community feels the workday pinch when putting on a ruckus, even one as all-consuming as NX35.
Rob King, who has some experience with local music, made the trek to Denton, Texas for NX35, a music conferette and cultural explosion. I, however, got sick and missed most of it. Rob will tell you the full story of NX35 later this week.
What I did experience was two febrile nights of venue-hopping greatness, a video dump of which I’m providing here.
For what it’s worth … Continue Reading »
Farrago and F.M.I. contributor Mark Teppo may have qualms about self promotion, or maybe he’s just too busy creating quality posts and fiction to bother.
Whichever it is, all F.M.I. readers are required to buy his latest novel, Heartland. If you don’t, you’re forbidden from reading our site any more. In fact, you’re banned from the Internet. Yes, we have that power.
The author has kindly provided a suggested soundtrack to the book, for those of you like me who require a constant influx of stimulus through every functional stimulus-gathering apparatus.
Update: You can also read Teppo’s thoughts on faith and its role in Heartland on John Scalzi’s The Big Idea, posted moments after I posted this.
It was a fine evening a couple of weeks ago, occurring as it did in an inconvenient time of year for those caught in more traditional types of jobs and families. Readings from Upstart Crows and Upstart Crows II were interspersed with Farrago-friendly music.
The delay was great, but the video is in HD, so enjoy a few highlights. Sadly, the video does not include JD Reid’s reading of his “Exeunt, to Screaming,” which contains a reference to Michael Dudikoff and is thus the pinnacle of Western literature.
Guest blogging again at Jeff Vandermeer’s place, Rima Abunasser takes a look at the malignant sexuality and imperialistic drives behind some popular holiday music.
She also offers at least one acceptable alternative. In that spirit, see the good and the worst of holiday music after the cut …
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Fair Warning: the following may cause Ye Olde Double-Take Whiplash and/or bring about a gut rupture and a bruised tailbone when you fall out of your chair. Those of us who wander in the deepness of Farrago’s Stygian Broom Closet know this nerd passion.
We’re still working on the best way to archive and present these events. Recordings of various quality are made, but until a strategy is worked out, the best I have to offer is short YouTube clips of varying degrees of decipherability, recorded on a low-quality digital camera with too little memory to record even a sample of each performer in an evening.
While the inside, full-on proper show later in the night provided the focus of the night’s festivities, the patio at Dan’s Silverleaf provided the more immediate and ephemeral experience.
That’s just how it happens, and I was in the mood that night to fill my memory card with this despite the amazing performances of our headlining acts. After all, anyone who has seen them knows the power of Warren Jackson Hearne or Pinebox Serenade in concert, and they’re already heavily represented on YouTube.
Presented here are four clips, with three of the four focused on the outside, unmiked portion of the evening. Continue Reading »
You can’t go wrong with zombies in sunglasses.
Actually, you could—you could go very, very wrong with it. When I hiked down the Harry Potter-esque alley to The Boiler Room in Asheville’s historic Grove House, I didn’t know what to expect. I was there to hear Zombie Bazooka Patrol. Great name, but would this be some ’80s Goblin rip-off? A bunch of “musicians” with unhealthy appreciations for Argento’s soundtracks?
