By David Okamoto, KERA 90.1 commentator
Dallas, TX – [Track One: "Laugh At Loud" by Sorta]
Sometimes you gotta leave town to appreciate your local music scene.
That's what I realize every year after attending the South By Southwest Music and Media Conference in Austin. It's not that artists from other parts of the country don't make an impression. It's just that once I leave Dallas, I stop thinking about bands like Sorta and Chomsky as being local or national, and start thinking of them as being bands.
Every act gets treated the same at South By Southwest. Whether you normally play sold-out theaters or half-empty clubs, you still get only 40 minutes to show what you've got. And you know what? Dallas stacks up pretty well against some of the other, more publicized musical hotbeds. We're certainly more diverse: Detroit may have bragging rights to The White Stripes, but almost every new Motor City act is pillaging the same garage-rock riff book. Yet, there is no dominant "sound" that conveniently sums up our scene. So when out-of-state critics start asking about Dallas acts showcasing at South By Southwest, you can't just say, "Well, they're kind of like the Polyphonic Spree, only with leather jackets instead of choir robes." I find myself grasping for sound-bite descriptions and soon, adjectives are flowing, my sentences start ending in exclamation points, and I'm championing artists like Deadman and Centro-Matic with a renewed sense of hometown pride.
[Track Two: "Flashes and Cables" by Centro-Matic]
At South By Southwest, you get to see your hometown bands through the eyes of strangers - which can be a one-stop reality check and wakeup call. Patterson Hood, the leader of Georgia's critically acclaimed Drive-By Truckers, raved online about Centro-Matic, writing that "Pound for pound, they're my favorite band in America." The first words Liz Phair spoke to a crowd at La Zona Rosa was her endorsement of Dallas country-rock act Sorta, whom she stumbled onto at an afternoon party. And when Brent Best of Denton-based Slobberbone lumbered onstage to join the Drive-By Truckers, the cheers from the audience made it clear that outside of the Metroplex, he's emerged as an alt-country icon - which he proved by transforming a wispy Bee Gees song into a rowdy Southern anthem.
[Track Three: "To Love Somebody" by Slobberbone]
It's not like I need somebody else to tell me that Dallas bands are good, but I do need the occasional reminder that I shouldn't be taking the weekend club listings for granted. Two years ago, that slap in the face came from New York Times critic Jon Pareles, who uttered "Shame on you!" when he overheard me admitting that I had seen the amazing Polyphonic Spree more times at South By Southwest than at home. This year, the nudge comes from Sorta, another local band I saw for the first time in Austin, and their marvelous new album "Little Bay," which establishes them as the band Wilco has forgotten how to be. They're from Dallas, but their sound is out of this world.
[Track Four: "Sweet Little Bay" by Sorta]
David Okamoto is an entertainment producer at Yahoo Broadcast in Dallas and a contributing editor to ICE magazine.