Odds & Ends

 Big Oven: We don't question the intents of the Buzz-Oven series. Please continue giving attention to local groups, by all means, but after putting on 14 compilation concert series, can't organizers jazz things up a bit? How about a rooftop concert with rings of fire and alligators and stuff? No? Then how about an all-day concert that culls from the past few years of the Buzz-Oven family? You know, a 19-band affair with hard-rock headliners like The Feds, Fair to Midland and Bowling for Soup might do the trick. Yeah, you see where this gimmick is going. The Buzz-Oven Summer Blowout hits the Plano Centre on Sunday at 2:30 p.m., and BFS will have a meet-and-greet with fans at 4 p.m.

Unfortunately, we have a sneaking suspicion that Record Hop's set at 4:20 p.m. will be skipped by the concert's target audience (cough, cough), but that doesn't give music fans an excuse to miss Denton's loudest Sonic Youth lovers this weekend. Catch 'em Friday night at Dan's Silverleaf, where Vibrolux's Kim Pendleton will debut her new band, The Disasters.

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Fore: Two weeks ago, we reported that bling-crazy rapper Chingy would play the Majestic Theatre. Not the most fitting venue, right? It seems the rest of Dallas agreed, as only 60 people showed up; the show was subsequently moved to Starck Club. With that in mind, we wonder just what the hell is going on with this one: Eightball and MJG, underground sensations of late-'90s Memphis rap, play the Brookhaven Country Club on Saturday night, and the show's open to the public for $20 a pop. Opening rappers start at 10 p.m. No hors d'oeuvres.

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Frequency up: More good radio news, this time courtesy of Frequency Down, the 88.1 KNTU indie-rock show on Sundays at 10 p.m. Host Frank Hejl reports that the show is now receiving CDs from indie stalwarts Matador Records and Beggars Banquet. Big whoop, right? Well, if you assume that Frequency Down gets buckets of CDs from record labels across the country, think again.

"I don't get paid for doing this, so a lot of the stuff you hear on the show is from my and [show assistant] Jeff Stickrod's collection," Hejl says. "We want to play all this music that people request and keep on top of the game, but we're poor college students. And because we don't report our playlists to any of the college [top 10 charts], most labels don't wanna bother with it."

Also, Trees and Gypsy Tea Room are teaming up with Frequency Down to give listeners free tickets to indie-leaning concerts. Can't afford that Brian Jonestown Massacre show next month? Who knows--maybe Hejl will hook you up.

Local music fans have even more to look forward to on KNTU this fall. In addition to more editions of FD's "Playing Favorites," in which local musicians spin their favorite songs for half an hour, upcoming program The Green Room will play full-length local concerts every week. So far, Fishboy, The Happy Bullets and [DARYL] have been recorded for the show, and it's shaping up to be a definitive source for local bootlegs.