Most Popular
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Pentecostal Preacher Sherman Allen Turns Out to Be Reverend Spanky
The Fort Worth preacher is accused of beating, threatening and assaulting women for more than 20 years
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Obama and Me
It was the year 2000, and I was a young, hungry reporter in Chicago with a young, hungry state legislator on my speed dial
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Texas' Peyote Hunters Struggle to Find a Vanishing, Holy Crop
Harvesting peyote is legal for only three people, and all of them live in Texas
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Why is Hillary Neglecting Delegate-Rich Dallas County?
While Obama has events going on throughout the city, Clinton is nowhere to be found
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Obama and Me (62)
It was the year 2000, and I was a young, hungry reporter in Chicago with a young, hungry state legislator on my speed dial
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Melodica Festival Self-Indulgent, But Still Positive for Dallas (51)
If a festival happens in Exposition Park and only the built-in crowd shows, does it make a sound?
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Ole Oops (58)
Popular prosperity preacher sues ABC and Trinity Foundation
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Pentecostal Preacher Sherman Allen Turns Out to Be Reverend Spanky (21)
The Fort Worth preacher is accused of beating, threatening and assaulting women for more than 20 years
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Why is Hillary Neglecting Delegate-Rich Dallas County? (18)
While Obama has events going on throughout the city, Clinton is nowhere to be found
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Melodica Festival Self-Indulgent, But Still Positive for Dallas
If a festival happens in Exposition Park and only the built-in crowd shows, does it make a sound?
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MySpace Stalking Dallas Music
There are things you can learn on MySpace, and there are things you can't
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Remembering DJ Frantic
The turntablist's friends and collaborators will remember him for his love of the craft
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Dallas Music Finally Getting National Attention
It may not be Austin-level love, but we'll take it
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Erykah Badu Has Returned
The songstress burst through her stuggles with writer's block and created a solid record
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And This Glimpse of Jessica Simpson Will Not Cost You $75
06:28PM 03/09/08 -
Meet the Woman Who Has Royally Pissed Off Tom Hicks
05:44PM 03/09/08 -
Yeah, But, Like, Where's Tony?
03:07PM 03/07/08 -
Over The Weekend: Centro-matic, All-Con, Texas Guitar Competition
01:10AM 03/10/08 -
Good Friday: Centro-matic, Beach House, Pleasant Grove, Sean Kirkpatrick
04:22PM 03/07/08 -
Video: Paul Thorn at Granada
08:11AM 03/07/08
What we are writing about
- $30,000 millionaires
- Avi Adelman
- basketball
- Bob Dylan
- carcinogens
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- cheap lunch
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- douchebags
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- I'm Not There
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Recent Articles By Ben Westhoff
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The N-Word Still Alive and Well in Hip-Hop
Eight month after the hip-hop community gave the word a funeral, it hasn't died
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Rapper's Caviar Dreams
Are the latest boastful rappers billionaires or boobs?
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Mary J. Blige
Growing Pains (Geffen)
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Wu-Tang Clan
8 Diagrams (Loud/SRC/Universal)
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Band of Horses
Cease to Begin (Sub Pop)
National Features
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Houston Press
"It Was Like an Armageddon Movie"
For days after Hurricane Rita, a Texas prison was hell on earth.
By Chris Vogel -
SF Weekly
The Candidate
Our columnist knows Ralph Nader's running mate all too well.
By Matt Smith -
The Pitch
How Not To Be a Rap Star
First of all, lay off the Ecstasy.
By Nadia Pflaum -
Village Voice
Project Runaway
What becomes a gossip columnist most?
By Michael Musto
Subject(s): Beirut
Twenty-one-year-old Beirut frontman Zach Condon is too young to have any stories of his own, so he imagines other folks'—usually folks living on other continents in other centuries. On "The Penalty," he speaks from the perspective of a worker caught in a time of plague: "Yesterday fever, tomorrow St. Peter, I'll beat on my drum until then. What melody will lead my lover from his bed? What melody will see him in my arms again?" Narrative conjecture such as this doesn't have much to offer, but Beirut's lush orchestrations do, and The Flying Club Cup follows in predecessor Gulag Orkestar's brass-heavy, enchanting wake. Where Gulag invoked a rollicking, marching band sound and was blanketed with an accordion-heavy Eastern European influence, Cup invokes the more delicate French chanson music, accented by nylon-string guitar. Thankfully, Condon doesn't display his Magnetic Fields and Neutral Milk Hotel influences so strongly here, but otherwise Cup is as musically dynamic and lyrically anemic as Gulag. Condon's main problem seems to be success at a young age; his stories don't offer the substantive sorrow their melodies cry out for.
