Month of List(s): The Best Things to happen Locally in ’09 part 1

It’s been a rather wonderful year locally. We’ve seen bands sign to labels and break through nationally and internationally. We’ve seen new bands pop up and bring something different to the area and established acts release work we always knew they had in them. With that in mind, we’re tossing out three days’ worth of things we found exciting. This list is in no particular order and we’re trying to cover as much ground as possible, so apologies for things we miss.

Enjoy.

Annex House arrives, flourishes, dies, lives on through promotion.

For a time the best place to catch a show in the area was a house nestled in an aging neighborhood, with a $10 psychic at the end of the street. When a group of roommates decided to start throwing shows out of their two-story home in the middle of Dallas, no one thought it would catch on so quickly. But catch on it did.

The house on Annex Ave. quickly became known as the place to play in Dallas among musicians from around the area. So with a solid fan base which included the Dallas Observer, who used the house as its base for DOMA photo shoot, the housemates started booking bigger and bigger shows culminating with a seven-band bill that was part of the Monofonus Press Summer Slammer.

Sadly, like most things in life, Annex House was short-lived. The house went up for sale, the residents were forced to seek other lodgings and the once-wonderful venue went the way of so many before it. Luckely, head Annex-er Scott Hawthorne took the name with him when he started booking shows around the Metroplex. And now, once or twice a month, you can catch an Annex-curated event that almost captures what it was like to sit on the porch of the house and watch a band run through a set through a closed window.

Poppy five-piece records in DIY setting delivers 10 impossibly polished genre-hopping tracks

I remember the moment Young & Brave completely won me over, I was sitting in my home office listening to their LP trying to figure out what I needed to say about the album when “Say You Will” hit its uproarious peak and I realized there was nothing I could write that would properly sum that moment up. So I sat down, wrote out some thoughts and hit repeat.

Recorded in a series of living rooms with Joel Adair of Small Time Ruffians, Young & Brave put together an album that was evocative of their influences, yet so unique you couldn’t stop listening to it. Add in their electrifying live show and it’s easily see why one of the biggest surprises of ’09 have a lot in store for 2010.

Young & Brave- I Beg You

High-energy Dallas band gets pop-culture- heavy animated video done by British fan

Featuring more pop culture landmarks than anyone could possibly catch, the Damien- Weighill-directed video for Giggle Party‘s “Jason Bought A Hatchet” single has led to everything from Hip-Hop Lincoln T-shirts to a slew of video-inspired tattoos. Proving, yet again, that as long as you offer something unique up to the world, it’ll catch on with the people you want to hook.

We’ll have much more for you tomorrow, including pieces on Yeahdef, The River Mouth, This Old House, Western Giants and Telegraph Canyon.