Lock Your Doors, Here Cometh Brainhole Fest

Brainhole Fest show poster - Image via Brainhole Fest FB Event Page

As we here at FWN shift gears from Fortress Festival back to the local scene we cherish so, let's turn our attention to this weekend and the awesomeness that is Brainhole Fest.

Seriously, this is likely the largest collection of local talent ever assembled in one place. Sammy Kidd, he of local rock squad Mean Motor Scooter, stands as the guilty party responsible for all this fun.

The Fest starts this Friday at Lola's where it runs throughout the entire weekend.

$30 buys you a three-day pass at the door, or single-day tix can be purchased online right here. Full event details can be found here. 

This past December something caught my eye as I cruised along my FB feed... 

I have always been a fan of Mean Motor Scooter, so anything in their orbit and you can go ahead and consider me interested.

A couple of months went by and I had nearly forgotten about Brainhole Fest. Then this status bomb hit with a headline that read "3 Days. 30 Bands."

OMGeez folks, this Kidd don't play! 30 bands?!!? 

For those that know me, I did my fair share of booking back in the day, so believe me when I say that coordinating an event of this magnitude is quite the undertaking. Big-time kudos to Kidd and co. for pulling it off.

Pick up your 3-day pass when doors open Friday night at Lola's - Photo via Brainhole Fest FB Event Page

Brainhole Fest is an extension of Brainhole Tapes, a new record label recently started by Kidd. If you scope out their page you'll find this excerpt from their bio:

"Brainhole Tapes was founded by Sammy Kidd to establish a way for DFW artists to get their music heard."

At FWN we can completely relate to Kidd's intentions for the new label. We started this website to create another outlet for Fort Worth bands to be heard... period.

We are not paid for this, we do not write advertorials. Not familiar with advertorials you say?  

Now that you know the definition, maybe you will even be able to spot them out in the wild! 

Anywho, getting back on track here; we wanted to honor Kidd's cause at Brainhole Tapes by embedding a song from every single Brainhole Fest artist. This was the most direct approach we could think up to further Kidd's efforts + get you hype for the weekend's festivities.

Before we get to that, we'd like to give one final shout out to Kidd and everyone that's helped make this event happen.  

Enough of the chit-chattin' ... 

FWN Proudly Presents: The Brainhole Fest lineup in audio format !!!

Day 1 - Friday, May 5th

Jeremiah Jackson - 5pm

Signals and Alibis - 6pm

Better Now - 7pm

Hen and the Cocks - 8pm

Kyoto Lo-Fi -9pm

Bellringer - 10pm

The Sex RYNOS - 11pm

The Phantom Sensation - Midnight

Day 2 - Saturday, May 6th

Chillamundo (newly formed band, tunes coming out soon) - 2pm

Caliche Burnout - 3pm

The Confounded - 4pm

House Fire Syndrome - 5pm

The Infamists - 6pm

Dead Words - 7pm

Blands - 8pm

Telemegasounds - 9pm

Dead Mockingbirds - 10pm

I Happy Am - 11pm

Henry the Archer - Midnight

Day 3 - Sunday, May 7th

The Prof. Fuzz 63 - 2pm

Satellite Dream - 3pm

The Fibs - 4pm

Teenage Sexx - 5pm

VVOES - 6pm 

Dome Dwellers - 7pm

Picnic Lightning - 8pm

Loafers - 9pm

Sealion - 10pm

War Party - 11pm

Mean Motor Scooter - Midnight

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about the word writer person:

Prewitt Scott-Jackson writes Dad poetry & short fiction when he's not hyping and typing for Fort Worth Noise. His writing can be found in Ghost City Press (New York), Five 2 One Magazine (Los Angeles), and Sick Lit Magazine (Texas), among others. He prefers short walks on the beach because – and I quote – “It’s really hard to walk on sand.”

I Like This Song - Jetta In The Ghost Tree's "Clandestine"

I Like This Song celebrates songs by local bands sans clichéd music journo over-analysis.

The furthest we take the dissection of songs featured here is, well, you guessed it: "I Like This Song." 

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Today's featured song comes from Jetta In The Ghost Tree's Clandestine Vol. I, an Idol Records full-length that debuted in Spring 2015.

You can catch Jetta in their element this Saturday at Lola's with Shadows Of Jets, Garrett Owen, and ATX's Shapescenes.

If you haven't experienced Jetta live I highly recommend marking your calendar for this one. Ya see, this bill is a family affair. 

Jetta recorded Clandestine Vol. I at Taylor Tatsch's AudioStyles studio >> Tatsch heads up Shadows of Jets >> Einhorn is Finkle >> Finkle is Einhorn

Why does this matter? I'll tell you. 

In my experience, bills that feature "frands" (like a friendship but between two bands) produce a much better overall show vibe. Fans, bands, venue staff; everyone benefits when frands are involved.

Like, I can't stand a bill that doesn't feature at least one set of frands. You know the type of bill I'm talking about.. when the bands don't know each other, when the other bands and their fans simply wait for your set to end. Bleh, gross.

None of that will be happening Saturday at Lola's. Count on it. 

Show starts at 9pm, full event details posted here.

Image via Jetta In The Ghost Tree's Facebook Page

Now that we've launched "frands" into the vast depths of pop culture vernacular, let's get down to the business of the day. 

For this analysis I turn to one of my favorite translation apps, THE YODA-SPEAK GENERATOR (no worries, thank me later for introducing you to this wonderful language tool). 

*drumroll*

This song I like. Yes, hmmm.

I Like This Song "Yoda-style" - Screengrab from Yoda Speak Generator 

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about the word writer person:

Prewitt Scott-Jackson writes Dad poetry & short fiction when he's not hyping and typing for Fort Worth Noise. His writing can be found in Ghost City Press (New York), Five 2 One Magazine (Los Angeles), Prairie Schooner (University of Nebraska Press) and Sick Lit Magazine (Texas), among others. He prefers short walks on the beach because – and I quote – “It’s really hard to walk on sand.”

Show Poster of the Week - Fuzzed Out! Fest at Lola's

Once a week FWN features a show poster from the Fort.

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This week's featured show poster promotes Up to 11 Entertainment's annual Fuzzed Out! Fest going down this Saturday at Lola's.

Fuzzed Out's fuzztastic lineup includes a grip of national acts coming off SXSW shows and is headlined by D/FW's adopted sons Turbid North (for your visual + aural reference, see below music vid).

Rolling into town fresh off three SXSW gigs, Stickman Records' King Buffalo (NY) co-headlines.

Plastic Daggers (CO), Great Electric Quest (CA) and Mountain Tamer (CA) round out the national acts with Wo Fat, The Me-Thinks and Royal Sons providing local support.    

Doors open at 6pm, music starts at 6:30pm. Full event details posted here, tix can be purchased here.

From the new album "Eyes Alive" out 11/20/15. Directed and Edited by Nick Forkel - Additional Camera work by Brian Bridger - Pre-Order at http://www.indiemerch.com/turbidnorth

Didn't have to look too far to discover that Up to 11's Duane Smith (former bassist for Southern Train Gypsy) designed this mountainous wonderland of a poster.

Fuzzed Out! Fest is Smith's brainchild, and bonus: he performs all the booking and promotion duties as well. I also recently caught him slaying the bass at The Grotto for STG's farewell show ... seriously, I'm tellin' y'all this dude is a veritable one-man force! 

Moving onto the poster design you may recognize a familiar friend, one Mr. Seafoam Green. For more of our thoughts on him check out last week's show poster which also featured our favorite shade of green. 

The image itself is what really got our wheels turnin'.

Given the name of the event one can't help but draw out the parallel between it and the depiction of a desolate mountainous desert region begging for an oasis to appear. I mean nothing's fuzzier than the visions of a water-deprived wanderer walking the desert, right??      

The horizontal beige and white lines in the sky lead one to think there's no end in sight with nothing but blurred out horizons ahead. Makes me wanna ditch everything and commence a vision quest right now!

One of the themes we discuss here almost every week when evaluating these show posters is how well the poster's aesthetic matches up with the event's overall aesthetic? Well, here we are again and yet another designer has captured this aspect perfectly, marrying the two together in harmonious synchronicity. 

I also mucho dig on the font choice, especially the alternating black and gray colors. Smith did a nice job working in the Up to 11 logo as well; did you notice it at first? Or even at all?

Lookie here, if I weren't Spring-breaking with my little monsters all week I'd be tearing up the mosh pit at Lola's this Saturday. Nonetheless, since I can't be your personal vision quest guide, here's a map so you won't get lost in the mountains on your way to the show.  

Major s/o to Smith for designing this poster and in general, for being a badass jack-of-all-trades. 

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about the word writer person:

Prewitt Scott-Jackson writes Dad poetry & short fiction when he's not hyping and typing for Fort Worth Noise. His writing can be found in Ghost City Press (New York), Five 2 One Magazine (Los Angeles), Prairie Schooner (University of Nebraska Press) and Sick Lit Magazine (Texas), among others. He prefers short walks on the beach because – and I quote – “It’s really hard to walk on sand.”

Show Poster of the Week - Animal Spirit's CD Release Show at Lola's

Once a week FWN features a show poster from the Fort.

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This week's featured show poster has me seeing stars! And for the record, let it be known that astral-themed show posters always have a home here at Fort Worth Noise.

The poster promotes Animal Spirit's CD Release Show, a celebration of their new album This Is Relevant.

The shindig starts at 9pm and it's all goin' down at Lola’s this Saturday, Feb. 18th. Trái Bơ and Dome Dwellers kick off the night. Full event details here.

So who designed this beauty? To find the droid we're looking for we need not look further than Saturday night's bill, as Dome Dweller's Michael J. Slack stands the guilty party. Btw, the constellation/DNA imagery doubles as the album artwork for This Is Relevant.

Besides the fetching conglomeration of somber blue hues, the concept behind the design warrants focused attention.

It's widely known and romanticized that humans are made from stars but how much so is less well-known. No worries, we got you: Capt. Google says stardust comprises 93% of human body mass.

NINETY-THREE PERCENT!!!

If anything, the romantic-types aren't romanticizing this fact enough. We are walking, talking stars ... every one of us.

Given this context, the brilliance in Slack's design becomes more discernible. In amalgamating stars with a DNA double helix, Slack expertly captures a visual representation of humanity's sidereal evolutionary process.

I'm probably reaching here, but stay with me -- what if this exploration we've conducted today answers the question all of us are asking ourselves?

You know the question. What exactly does the "This" in This Is Relevant refer to? Like, what is "This"? What is relevant? The album? The band?

I think it's more than that. I think this fact is relevant, this fact that we humans are made from stars.

Through this choice of artwork, Animal Spirit and Slack are implicitly sending a message of hope: that we are all relevant. That human life is relevant and by right, the music and art we create is relevant. It's a beautiful message, one that's been well-received by this lowly writer.

Congrats to Animal Spirit on the new album and to Slack for a design that inspires. FWN will be all up in Lola's Saturday, so hope to see you there!

BONUS CONTENT: To get ya hype for Saturday, here's music videos for two songs off This Is Relevant

"Revenge" the first single from the new album This Is Relevant by the band Animal Spirit - Directed by Rue Dwyer - Produced by Rue Dwyer & Animal Spirit

"Doom Surf" the Second single from the new album This Is Relevant by the band Animal Spirit - Directed by Brian Bailey - Produced by Brian Bailey

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about the word writer person:

Prewitt Scott-Jackson writes Dad poetry & short fiction when he's not hyping and typing for Fort Worth Noise. His writing can be found in Ghost City Press (New York), Five 2 One Magazine (Los Angeles), Prairie Schooner (University of Nebraska Press) and Sick Lit Magazine (Texas), among others. He prefers short walks on the beach because – and I quote – “It’s really hard to walk on sand.”

Show Poster of the Week - Quesadilla White Sox at Lola's

Once a week FWN features a show poster from the Fort.

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Goes without saying that this week's featured show poster adds some sizzle to our Show Poster of the Week series ... *ba-dum tshh*  

This savory show poster promotes a hefty portion of rockin' tonight at Lola's Saloon (warning: these puns will never stop folks). Music provided by Quesadilla White Sox; not sure why, but that band name sounds familiar ... ???

Feasting begins at 10pm, there's no cover charge.

Sam Anderson (Quaker City Night Hawks) is the chef responsible for cooking up this appetizing photo and poster design. Anderson's image brings new meaning to one of the most confounding existential questions of our time: Is a hot dog a sandwich?

Image via The Atlantic "It's Not a Sandwich" 11/5/15

Megan Garber over at The Atlantic concluded definitively that hot dogs are NOT sandwiches. Hot dog failed Megan's four-point test by not meating the 'horizontal orientation' criteria she set forth (meating instead of meeting, get it?). 

But idk, like everything else in life, things aren't always so cut and dry. Let's explore this a bit more shall we?

Is Anderson's image a hot dog? A sandwich? Or maybe a quesadilla is more apropos?

I believe the answer is D: All of the Above

Everything is connected y'all, one love and all that mustard. To paraphrase Bernard Jaffe, "I cannot tell where I begin and you end;" why should this be any different? 

With that said, it's a Hotdogwichadilla© [copyright pending]

I love how the font color scheme parallels the tortilla/mustard/hot dog combo. Anderson nailed that mustard yellow font, it's tastefully done (last pun, I promise).

Let's taco 'bout* that photo filter: once again, I don't think Anderson coulda captured the moment any better. It gives the image that '70s high school cafeteria vibe, and lemme tell ya, I heart emoji that '70s high school cafeteria vibe. The choice of paper plate fits the theme perfectly and the carefully squirted out mustard could make a Jackson Pollock blush.

When you put it all together - from the preparation of the food itself, to the photograph, to the font palette and layout - Anderson hit this design out of the Ball Park®**.

Right about now you're probably wondering how someone could possibly write 400 words on Hotdogwichadillas©. I'll take that as my cue to slowly step away from the keyboard and encourage you to dine*** at Lola's tonight.

*I lied, **I lied twice, ***OK, so I lie a lot

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about the word writer person:

Prewitt Scott-Jackson writes Dad poetry & short fiction when he's not hyping and typing for Fort Worth Noise. His writing can be found in Ghost City Press (New York), Five 2 One Magazine (Los Angeles), Prairie Schooner (University of Nebraska Press) and Sick Lit Magazine (Texas), among others. He prefers short walks on the beach because – and I quote – “It’s really hard to walk on sand.”

Show Poster of the Week - Terminus (AR), Summit, Smokey Mirror, The Good Kind Of Mushroom, Acid Carousel at Lola's

Once a week FWN features a show poster from the Fort.

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This week's featured show poster summons the visage of Edward the Confessor to promote a delectable serving of stoner party-psych doom in the form of Terminus (AR), The Good Kind of Mushroom, Acid Carousel, Summit, & Smokey Mirror tomorrow night, Tuesday, Jan. 10th at Lola's Saloon. The show starts at 8:30pm, event details posted here.

Julian Cedillo, guitarist for The Good Kind of Mushroom, assembled this sublime scene of antiquity vs. modernity (looking back in our 'Show Poster' series, this is now a third time we have chosen a poster that plays in this space).

In Cedillo's image, this unceasing conflict jumps out at you: a portrayal of 11th century King of England Edward the Confessor waving his hand - as if to offer up the night's list of performances - amidst a backdrop of '70s paisley wallpaper and psychedelic hourglass sand stamped with vinyl record typeface instructing its patrons to "Bring Your Homies!"

Throw in the buccaneering 18th century vintage skull & crossbones and you have iconography from four different eras concurrently on display. Speaking of, every time I look upon it, my eyes sink like pirate ships in some Caribbean bay, struggling to make sense of the ravishing mayhem set before me.

Side bonus: Edward the Confessor, unlike most saints, did not achieve sainthood via martyrdom. We all know martyrdom makes for the best heroes but if you can manage sainthood without dying to do so?? Well shit, idk, seems like the ultimate life hack if you ask me.   

A life hack is exactly what this strong hallucinatory lineup provides on what is otherwise not considered a likely night for crazy good rock shows; it's Tuesday party time y'all!

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about the word writer person:

Prewitt Scott-Jackson writes Dad poetry & short fiction when he's not hyping and typing for Fort Worth Noise. His writing can be found in Ghost City Press (New York), Five 2 One Magazine (Los Angeles), Prairie Schooner (University of Nebraska Press) and Sick Lit Magazine (Texas), among others. He prefers short walks on the beach because – and I quote – “It’s really hard to walk on sand.”

I Like This Song - Un Chien's "Never Coming Back"

I Like This Song celebrates songs by local bands sans clichéd music journo over-analysis.

The furthest we take the dissection of songs featured here is, well, you guessed it: "I Like This Song." 

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Today's featured song literally debuted less than an hour prior to this posting - talk about farm-to-table! The track comes from Un Chien's new record Where We Belong, the band's sophomore effort, soon to be released by Hand Drawn Records.

The band will be celebrating the new record Saturday January 14th at Lola's Saloon w/ friends War Party and Cut Throat Finches. 

You know what? I like this song.

Photo by Krissy Knight Photography

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about the word writer person:

Prewitt Scott-Jackson writes Dad poetry & short fiction when he's not hyping and typing for Fort Worth Noise. His writing can be found in Ghost City Press (New York), Five 2 One Magazine (Los Angeles), Prairie Schooner (University of Nebraska Press) and Sick Lit Magazine (Texas), among others. He prefers short walks on the beach because – and I quote – “It’s really hard to walk on sand.”

Show Poster of The Week - Pinkish Black, Wire Nest, Programme at Lola's

Once a week FWN features a show poster from the Fort.

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This week we drum up attention to the above eerie poster for a show taking place at Lola's featuring a hell of a lineup in Pinkish Black, Wire Nest, and Programme. Jon Teague of Pinkish Black designed this beauty himself.

If you can manage, I'm gonna wax philosophical a bit about the infectious nature of this piercing design...

Human ears without context are strange-looking, right? Like, ears attached to a head; cool, I can dig it. But ears on their own? Strange-looking to say the least. If this poster design doesn't gain your attention I'm not sure what will. 

And that's the express purpose of gig posters, right? They want your eyes.

In this case, it took a pair and a half of ears to win over my eyes; I find myself unable to stop looking at these beautifully displaced ears.  

Anyways, this show right hear gonna be a killer time at Lola's. Hope I didn't muff this post, we still best buds?

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about the word writer person:

Prewitt Scott-Jackson writes Dad poetry & short fiction when he's not hyping and typing for Fort Worth Noise. His writing can be found in Ghost City Press (New York), Five 2 One Magazine (Los Angeles), Prairie Schooner (University of Nebraska Press) and Sick Lit Magazine (Texas), among others. He prefers short walks on the beach because – and I quote – “It’s really hard to walk on sand.”

Show Poster of the Week - The Confounded Album Release Show at Lola's

Once a week FWN features a show poster from the Fort.

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This week we highlight a gem of a poster designed by Mean Motor Scooter's drummer Jeffrey Chase.

First off, if aliens are involved, count us in. Like, way in. 

Secondly, the juxtaposition of modernity's apex (alien technology) and the natural innocent wonderment of the Pacific Northwest landscape (assuming that's a depiction of Mt. St. Helens) helps create a visual that insta-connects the viewer with humanity's inherent neverending clash of modernity vs. the sacred. 

Plus, I like the colors.

Blackbox & JJTM host Saturday night's event. Be there or be.. rhombus?

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about the word writer person:

Prewitt Scott-Jackson writes Dad poetry & short fiction when he's not hyping and typing for Fort Worth Noise. His writing can be found in Ghost City Press (New York), Five 2 One Magazine (Los Angeles), Prairie Schooner (University of Nebraska Press) and Sick Lit Magazine (Texas), among others. He prefers short walks on the beach because – and I quote – “It’s really hard to walk on sand.”