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    The Agent from Iran

    How a mother of two ended up in a plot to smuggle high-tech gear to the enemy.

    By Deirdra Funcheon

  • Westword

    Murder By Design

    In life and death, tattoo artist Kauri Tiyme made her mark.

    By Alan Prendergast

  • Village Voice

    My Brother the Slumlord

    Amy Neustein never could resist going public with her family dramas.

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  • Houston Press

    The Ghosts of Galveston

    A visit with the hurricane victims that a country forgot.

    By John Nova Lomax

Stumptone, The Harpeth Trace, Shiny Around the Edges

By Michael Chamy

Published on March 30, 2006

Chris Plavidal's Stumptone has been tearing genres apart since 1996 in the wake of his old bands MK Ultra and Lid, who wrote page one in the sacred book of Dallas/Denton cosmic rock. Stumptone's M.O. is Plavidal's acoustic psychedelic folk, embellished by ethereal atmospherics, gradually morphing into exhilarating drone-rock jams and accented by the songwriter's own pedal-effected trumpet. After years in hiding, the group has emerged with an apparent sequel to its 1999 full-length in the pipeline. L.A.'s the Harpeth Trace joins with their dark-chocolate songcraft, often veering into that psych-folk territory as well. Denton's gripping Shiny Around the Edges rounds out a whale of a bill at the relatively new Metrognome Collective art space in Fort Worth. But for Siddharta's sake, do not attempt to find the place without directions from metrognome.org (click "About Us" at the very top).