I made a firm, no-goin’-back, it’s gonna happen no matter what decision last night. I’m committing myself. No, no, don’t getcher hopes up…not that kind of committing. Rather I plan to spend one entire weekend per month in Fort Worth, covering Fort Worth as best I can. I hope to spend many a night hoisting a few at the Wreck Room, Woody’s, Fred’s, Black Dog Tavern and most def, the Metrognome Collective.

For you see my darlings, Fort Worth is about as rich in talent as a Snuffers’ burger is rich in flavor. Plus, my Muffy lives there, so that’s all she wrote.

One extraordinarily wicked-awesome thing that happened as of late is the release of Top Secret…Shhh which holds in it’s vinyl (and CD) innards glorious tuneage from a few dozen of Fort Worth’s finest…lemme let Ken speaketh…

it musta been about two and a half yrs ago. i’d been dating my sweetie for a coupla months, and we were up at the ridglea theater lounge watching some band; i think it was goodwin. after the show was over, we ran into marcus lawyer, ex-brasco and root 420, pablo and the hemphill 7 bassplayer who was just starting to explore a fetish for turntables ‘n’ breakbeats. he asked me if i wanted to play on a rekkid.

my stock response: “sure. just tell me where ‘n’ when.”

his reply: “what are you doing _right now_?”

so off we went, to meet up at marc’s old house on west 7th street. the front room was a jumble-sale mash-up of instruments ‘n’ recording gear; a drumkit sat in a room off to the side. marcus played us some of the music he’d been working on, including one that wound up evolving into the ph7 toon “rude boy” (their best recording to date, imo). then he ’splained the concept for his project to me: how he’d layed down some basic riddim beds, and was recruiting local musos — a _shitload_ of ‘em — to flesh out the tracks. all the players would record their parts separately, listening to the tracks through headphones; nobody would know who they were playing with.

i played a les paul recording model he had, plugged straight into the board — not a setup i’d have chosen, as it gives you _absolutely no tone whatsoever_, but i figured whatthehell. he gave me a few sketchy instructions: “play something repeating that lasts eight bars, then change it.” i listened to the track once, then he rolled tape while i improvised according to the direction he’d given me. afterward, i listened to a playback and he asked if i wanted to do it again. i said no. “that’s pretty much the way it’s gone with everybody so far,” he said. i thanked him for letting me participate and my sweetie and i headed east down west 7th just as the first rays of sunlight were becoming visible over the horizon.

over the next few months, i’d hear from this or that local muso that they too had added a piece to marcus’ “secret project.” ultimately, something like 40 of ‘em participated. last yr, when nearly every musician i know got on myspace (‘cos it’s _free_, see, rupert murdoch and highly questionable terms ‘n’ conditions of use notwithstanding), it was inevitable that a top secret…shhh page would appear there, and in due time, it did…Read, read, read.

Wanna know something Top Secret…Shhh? You can now pick up a copy of this divine work of art at Good Records in Dallas, R-Type Records in Fort Worth, and coming soon to Waterloo Records in Austin. Whaddaya get fer your hard earned cash? Splended transparent green vinyl with a full-length CD. Like buttah I tells ya!

Go here to hear.