A soundtrack album that should have been buried in a rabbit hole, Spike Jonez keeps it real and reverent, and MLB gameplay that requires no testing for performance enhancers. Here are your new releases for Tuesday, March 2.

MUSIC

Almost Alice , various artists: Apparently compiled by a Hot Topic employee, the soundtrack for Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland is a confusing muddle of the good (Robert Smith, Owl City, Franz Ferdinand), the bad (All-American Rejects, Shinedown, Motion City Soundtrack), and the completely awful (3OH!3, Mark Hoppus and Pete Wentz, Avril Lavigne).

Hillbilly Bone, Blake Shelton: In the title track, Shelton name drops Conway Twitty in what is sure to become a radio-friendly, pop country NASCAR anthem. Still, something tells me the late, great Harold Lloyd Jenkins would be spinning in his grave for receiving props amid such wannabe honky tonk nonsense. The song implies that "we all got a hillbilly bone down deep inside, no matter where you're from." If that's the case, you'll have to excuse me while I call my health care provider to see if they cover having such unwanted growths surgically removed.

Smoke & Mirrors , Lifehouse: Fans of uninspired, cookie cutter grunt rock have been waiting for this album for nearly three years. The wait is over and it's gotta be great! Why else would the record label have pushed the release date back four different times in as many months?

The Pursuit, Jamie Cullum: Not sure which way to go with this Brit singer-songwriter who specializes in "blue-eyed soul" and "jazz pop." I suppose he gets points for collaborating with Dan the Automator and Pharrell. But there's no denying his laser-guided appeal aimed at the Starbucks-soccer-mom-after-one-too-many-margaritas demographic.

DVD

Where the Wild Things Are: Director Spike Jonze refuses to soften the darker underpinnings of Maurice Sendak's classic children's tale; staying true to its original intent while broadening its scope and scale.

2012: Disaster porn. It's not just a disturbing adult film niche anymore.

Ponyo: Take The Little Mermaid, change the mermaid to a goldfish, add voice talent from the likes of Cate Blanchett, Matt Damon, Tina Fey, and Cloris Leachman, put Oscar-winning animation director Hayao Miyazaki at the helm, and you have Ponyo. Highly recommended for any parent who has seriously considered selling their children to a Third World sweatshop after one too many viewings of The Backyardigans.

Curious George 2: Follow That Monkey!: Finally, all the lingering unanswered questions from the first Curious George movie will be answered.

GAMES

MLB '10: The Show (PSP, PlayStation 2, PlayStations 3): Major League Baseball's Spring Training preseason starts today. Coincidence? Now you can get a jump on the action, say, by recreating another season wherein my beloved New York Mets fail to make the playoffs despite having the roster to do so.

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360): The original Bad Company was a fun, if not particularly groundbreaking, first-person shooter that had you playing as a member of a wise-cracking four-man combat squad. As any great sequel should Battlefield: BC2 retains all the aspects that made its predecessor enjoyable; namely, a fast-moving action story with a potpourri of weapons at your disposal. Then it ups the ante with pristine graphics and a single-player mode for all you wolf packs of one.

Lips: Party Classics (Xbox 360): All the fun of Rock Band or Guitar Hero, without the pesky plastic peripherals. Lips is essentially Xbox 360's rec room karaoke franchise that usually focuses on contemporary Top 40 hits. This time around they're featuring genre-spanning crowd-pleasers such as the B-52's "Love Shack," "I Think We're Alone Now" by Tiffany, and, well it wouldn't be a party without the Village People's "YMCA."

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The latest issue of Nightclub and Bar magazine features its annual Top 100 list of the best nighttime hot spots in the country. This year's round-up includes honors for two local lounges.

Wish Ultralounge (above) made the top 100 list of the leading nightclubs in the US. And Addison's romantic Mercy Wine Bar was named a finalist in the best wine bar category. Congrats to Sam & Co. at Wish and to Craig & Co. at Mercy!

To celebrate its honor, Wish is throwing a bash at the club this Saturday at 11 p.m., featuring special guest DJ Politik. AND the Wish crew is even flying to the Nightclub and Bar convention in Vegas on Monday to accept their award. Good times ...

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Denton's NX35 music festival is now less than two weeks away, and you know what that means: time for the annual deluge of "this is the year NX35 beats SXSW" articles. Don't look to me for one, though ... at least, until I see F***ed Up play a free midnight bridge show at NX35. The whole Denton vs. Austin argument is utterly played out and pointless. Trying to equate the two cities makes about as much sense as paying for SXSW. No, Denton isn't Austin. It never will be. Actually, Denton's an entirely different town with a music scene and identity of its own. Imagine that. Just reminds me of bands that associate 'authenticity' with a specific look or sound, when the 'realist' thing they could do is just be themselves. In celebration of Denton being Denton, this week's Dead Beat focuses on two Denton bands playing showcases at NX35.



Final Club
Showcase: Friday March 12 at Hailey's with Woven Bones (Austin), Pure Ecstasy (Austin), and Fergus & Geronimo


New release: Hot Gaze EP


Final Club's members have only been together for a few months, having only played a handful of shows. But the group's recently released debut, Hot Gaze EP, positions the crew near the top of Denton's guitar-rock heap. And apparently, people are already taking notice. The band played to a sold-out house when it opened the Meme Gallery a few weeks ago. The basic formula is currently well-worn territory: Jesus and Mary Chain muddy, lo-fi production, distant, shout-from-the-back-of-the-stage vocals, and bright, reverb-heavy riffs. But where most bands using these elements ride the current beach-vibe, 's**t gaze' trend and tend towards one-dimensional novelty, Final Club have found their own shimmering wave.


The tunes on Hot Gaze are basement-rockers built to sound big anywhere. The mono-quality production lends itself well to Final Club's skillfully layered guitar textures and psychedelic, college-stoner ethos. Songs like "Runaway Bay" exhale the muddled confusion of young adulthood, interspersed with moments of clarity. The guitars are slinky and spry, going for broke with every riff. Especially during the band's enthralling, starry-eyed finales, every note lingers in the air, basking in the smoke as it floats skyward, pausing just long enough to take everything in. But the band also knows restraint, pulling back just as often to reveal a single melody or section. When the tremendous rock-outs hit, admittedly, I have a hard time not screaming, cheering them on.


Local audiophiles Weekly Tape Deck recently posted the EP for free download on its blog, check it out here.

The Timeline Post
Showcase: Thursday March 11, Gutterth Showcase at Andy's: The Timeline Post, History At Our Disposal, Nervous Curtains (Dallas), New Science Projects, The Great Tyrant
New release: Slow Descent (The Timeline Post also plays tonight at Hailey's.)

It's not often a band's press release is worth regurgitating when writing about the band's music. However, this is a special case. Meet the Timeline Post.


Excerpts of press release via Gutterth Records:
"When truth is buried by greed and when trust has been overdrawn, what can be done? The Timeline Post does not have an answer. Instead, the band provides a bookmark in time where future listeners can hopefully look back and see how far they have come."


Now, I'm not here to discuss the finer points of writing press releases (I already spent two years doing that at SMU). However, stating an album essentially has nothing to say, other than standing as a document of current cultural woes, might not be the best marketing strategy. On another note, though -- timely!


If the press release doesn't make much of a case for why you should listen to the Timeline Post, the fault doesn't lie with the band. However, when the band's own album can't hold your attention, well ...


The production is solid. The playing is competent. But everything just feels soulless and stale. The guitars, vocals, the rhythm section -- everything feels bled dry of personality or conviction. Virtually all the songs are in standard 4x4 time, most often coming off like extended jam sessions, almost always heading in the most expected direction and only occasionally veering into adventurous territory. The structures are, for the most part, standard hard rock fare, and easily cascade into clichéd, sing-songy melodies. Much of the record sounds like the Christian '90s alternative and rock of Tooth and Nail Records and similar acts ("Kill The Girl" seems to echo Pedro The Lion's Control).


The band is a decent enough hard rock group. But the weaknesses of Slow Descent have nothing to do with talent, and everything to do with a lack of tact or ambition. Tracks like "Devil's Alamo", "Caldera" and "Wild" have some inspired moments, but overall, the band just sounds bored. Documenting the apocalypse should be much more exciting than this. Unless you're still jamming Anberlin regularly, re-think your Thursday.

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I attended the third annual Pin Show, where designers from Dallas and beyond (some were from Austin and Houston; one traveled from Atlanta) put their best garments on display. As a whole, the show at Union Station was smoother and progressed more seamlessly than last year's event -- though, who knows, maybe I felt better about it because this year I had a prime seat right near the runway.

Nope, it wasn't just about having prime real estate apart from the hundreds of other guests. This year, the designers also shined brighter overall. From Sharrari Couture's edgy swimsuits to the Meline Collection's sumptuous, flowy knits and Indigo 1745's modern kilts for men (check one out above), a good number of original, eye-catching designs came down the runway. Interestingly, some of my favorite looks came from the student designers! Remember the name Jonathan Aparicio -- that UNT student is going places. He sent a floaty jacket across the runway that had this coat-aholic drooling.

Another memorable moment was when designer Carmen Campos' creations hit the stage. A line of real-world-sized models (a.k.a. plus-sized models in the fashion universe) came walking, no, strutting out onto the runway, to the audience's positive hoots and applause. Fierceness!

But kudos go to all the artists who presented, and to Pin Show founders/producers Rachel Nichelson and Julie McCullough Kim for leading a more streamlined effort this year. I expect their labor of love should get better and better with age.

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Our thoughts are with the friends, bandmates and family members of Tommy Atkins. The bassist for Fort Worth band the Great Tyrant was reportedly found dead in his home earlier today. Not a lot of details are available now, but friends of the musician are already planning a memorial/benefit concert. We'll be sure to let you know when we find out more.

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If you've yet to experience the irreverent and racy humor of Archer, do yourself a favor and check out the cartoon for adults tonight. A four-episode marathon starts at 9 p.m. on FX.

The premise: ISIS is a group of spies, led by boozy matriarch Malory Archer (voiced by Jessica Walter of Arrested Development), son Sterling Archer (H. Jon Benjamin) and siren Lana Kane (Aisha Tyler), along with bumbling support by Cyril (Chris Parnell of Saturday Night Live fame), super-sexy-and-weird Cheryl (Judy Greer) and the slightly more sane Pam (Amber Nash).

Why it's funny: The voicework is terrific, especially Benjamin's droll monotone. It's packed with bizarre, laugh-out-loud scenes (like the episode titled "Diversity Hire," in which Archer gets into a nude fight with another spy in the men's locker room). And the show uses expletives that network TV doesn't. No f-bombs, but just about everything else.

Calls to mind: The brilliance and madness of Adult Swim's quirkiest programming on Cartoon Network (Space Ghost, Sealab 2021, The Venture Bros.).

See for yourself: The clip below doesn't quite do the show justice. But it does collect scenes featuring Archer's go-to line when dealing with ex-lover Lana. Let's just say he's a Kenny Loggins fan.

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Were you captured by our cameras at State & Allen Lounge this past weekend? Click on the picture to see Quick's Club Cam gallery. And check back next Thursday for a new slideshow.

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Check out We've Never Met by David Hopkins and Chad Thomas in this week's Quick, out today. And then look for it every other week!

Click on the image above to see the larger version.

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The Grapevine-born act currently sits at No. 1 on iTunes' album chart after the release yesterday of latest album Of Men and Angels (on Island/Def Jam). The Rocket Summer is fronted by 27-year-old Bryce Avary, who started the project about a decade ago, originally playing all the instruments himself. I talked to Bryce for a story in this week's Quick. Stay tuned for that to be posted later today on the site (UPDATE: Click it hard). But in the meantime, give Of Men and Angels a "spin" below. You'll understand why the album's No. 1 on iTunes and why it's been rated more than 500 times by listeners -- It's full of soaring, melodic power-pop that's custom made for radio. Avary and Rocket Summer play a big hometown show on Friday at the Granada. My guess is that you should try to get those tickets as soon as possible, if the show's not already sold out.

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Just signed in to e-mail and saw a note from Dallas rap duo Damaged Good$: Their new mixtape Spread Love Not Germs is up and ready for downloadin'! If this all sounds familiar to you, you may remember that the guys released a few tracks from this to coincide with charity events they held around town. Overall, a good-hearted and creative project for a local act. And of course, the guys encourage you to make some sort of Haiti donation before or after downloading the full mix.


Add this download to new releases from Grapevine-act-done-good The Rocket Summer and Sean Kirkpatrick's band, Nervous Curtains, and it's pretty much Super Tuesday around these parts. More on the latter two albums coming in this week's Quick. Stay tuned.

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