Abilene

Mary's Cafe: A Guide to Getting Fat(ter) on Spring Break

Spring break season is here. Even if you're an adult with a real job and you say things like "demographic" and, "my HMO is such an asshole," you can still pretend like you're granted that magic week in March sans responsibility. Because I've decided to accumulate degrees instead of typing up TPS r ... More >>

A Road Trip Through Texas, And The State of Dallas Radio

In the last few months, research for a project has taken me across the state and, more recently, into Mexico. It may be something sentimental in me, or this weird notion that road trips are meant to be soundtracked by where you are and not by a list you cultivated online, but I noticed what was popu ... More >>

Texas Wants 'In' on National Immigration Database, But Why It's Necessary Is A Mystery

Yesterday, Texas Secretary of State Esperanza "Hope" Andrade requested access to a federal database of immigration records as a way to ensure that voters are here legally. It's a little like putting border patrol agents at polling stations -- but without the threat of deportation, at least for now. ... More >>

Don't Flee the Flea

Picture Show: Toadies, The Phuss and Sealion at Rockin' Rodeo

These three bands have been rolling around Texas on a mini-tour: They just got in from Beaumont, did last night's show in Denton, spent a couple hours in their own beds, then off to Abilene. The Toadies/Phuss collaboration goes beyond this small tour, as Toadie Vaden Todd Lewis helped produce the Ph ... More >>

Strippers Who Sued Jaguars Claim the Chain Retaliated. And That, Judge Says, Is a No-No.

A Dallas-based strip-club chain facing a class-action lawsuit tried to compel its dancers not to join that legal action -- and even fired a woman who wouldn't comply, or so the strippers claim. In a motion filed earlier this month, the dancers also claim that the clubs foisted the agreements on the ... More >>

Dickey's Opens Its 200th Mecca of Meat

200th store in Abilene, Texas​Dickey's Barbecue done growed up. The restaurant chain celebrated its seventh decade of existence in October, and now it celebrates another major milestone: its 200th location. While new locations have been popping up across 36 states, this latest opening is a lit ... More >>

Strippers Have Rights. But Do They Want Them?

In courthouses across the country, lawyers are fighting for strippers' rights -- and winning. But dancers are worried the lawsuits will cut into their cash flow.

And We're Off ... Cowboys Signing Rookie Free Agents

Lyle Leong, the newest Cowboy​With their first practice in San Antonio's Alamodome in about 48 hours, the Cowboys are scrambling to piece together a roster. The first step in that process is signing undrafted free agents, which can begin today per the post-lockout NFL rules. Who ... More >>

A Starr is Born: North Texas' Other Entry in MasterChef is a Globetrotting Pumpkin Fan

Ben Starr of MasterChef.​With all the publicity swirling around Polyphonic Spree singer Jennie Kelley's participation in the current run of MasterChef on Fox, it's perhaps understandable that the other North Texan, Ben Starr, still in the running for the $250,000 first prize, should have gone ... More >>

Spune Productions' Lance Yocom Wears A Whole Slew Of Local Music Caps.

Welcome to Local Music 'Mericans, where we meet some of the people behind the local music scene -- those who aren't necessarily members of local bands, but more the people who make the scene move.Lance Yocom​When you consider all that Lance Yocom does for local and regional indie music, you have t ... More >>

My First Show: Sean Kirkpatrick Recalls His First Nervous Curtains Show, Remembers The Few Rock Shows He Saw As A Teen in Abilene

Welcome to My First Show, where we give bands a chance to talk about the first shows they ever attended -- no matter how uncool and embarrassing those tales may be. Spike JohnsonSean Kirkpatrick​Sean Kirkpatrick has been a busy fellow lately: His band, Nervous Curtains, opened for Destroyer last ... More >>

For a 115-Year-Old Book Featuring 88 Photos of a Very Young Dallas, It's Quite the Bargain

Click to embiggen for a look at two of the pages from Art Work of Dallas, Tex.​Glad to see yesterday's eBay offering landed in the right hands: The folks at Dallas Market Center send word this morning that they purchased John and Storey Stemmons's Christmas pamphlet, and that it "will find a perma ... More >>

DPD Needs Help Finding Elderly Couple

Schley and Elsie Ervin​This just in from the Dallas Police Department: It's asking for the public's help in finding 85-year-old Schley Ervin and 84-year-old wife Elsie. According to the Critical Missing Persons bulletin just sent to media, yesterday afternoon -- sometime between 1:45 and 5:45 -- t ... More >>

Hey, Tampa, You Lost. Now Pay Up.
Arlington is Hungry.

We think they're ordering crab claws.​With the Rangers on the brink of entering the World Series, the city of Arlington still hasn't wrapped up a food bet covering the previous round of play. According to the mayor's assistant, Tampa Bay hasn't anted up the seafood package it promised Mayor R ... More >>

Lost Immigrants

Pasaporte (Lo-Fi Tofu)

News & Notes: Don't Waste Water, But Do Build a Better Block. And, More Than You Needed 2 Know 'Bout Palin4Life.

A few odds and sods on this Census Day:The fine folks at Bike Friendly Oak Cliff have posted a video follow-up to our post about plans to build The Better Block at the intersection of N. Tyler and W. 7th Streets on April 10 and 11. That's it up top, and it's rather self-explanatory ...So too is the ... More >>

DC9 in SPACE, Ep. 24: The Rocketboys

...and for y'all who are still stuck on Youtube, take your link.Austin's The Rocketboys, once upon a time, were known as Homer Hiccolm & the Rocketboys, and, at that point, they were based out of Abilene. That alone, actually, makes them the best formerly-mispelled-October Sky-referencing band e ... More >>

DC9 in SPACE, Ep. 23: HYMNS

...and for the Youtube-inclined, here's your link.Fresh off a three-star review Rolling Stone review of its new EP, Appaloosa, Brooklyn-based retro-rock outfit HYMNS stopped by to participate in our ongoing DC9 in SPACE series last Wednesday night, offering up toned-down versions of the new EP's so ... More >>

On The Cover...

Yet Again, Quincy Carter Throws Away a Job

This is the image that accompanies Quincy Carter's slot on the Abilene Ruff Riders' site. Seriously. And, yes, his name is Rowdy.It's awfully difficult at this late date to recall when last we heard the name Quincy Carter -- he was either getting arrested or signed to yet another team, hard to say. ... More >>

Echoes and Reverberations: The Twisted Fate of a Lifetime Crate Digger

Many of them were tucked away in suburban strip malls, their storefronts always the black sheep of the retail family. They were usually owned by a single lifelong music fan, someone who relished the opportunity to dog-paddle in the eye of the pop culture hurricane. Sometimes they smelled like incens ... More >>

"West Texas Puro Tango Blast" -- Not As Much Fun As It Sounds

Only a few days ago, The Dallas Morning News ran a piece about Texas' Tango Blast gang, which was formed within the confines of the state's penitentiaries and "could change the Dallas landscape because it rejects old notions of prison gang exclusivity and lifelong commitments," wrote Tanya Eiserer. ... More >>

Scary As Ever, the Cover Bands Come Out on Halloween

Who knew tributes would be a Halloween thing? Also: the New Frontiers break up and Ricky Bobby returns

Sarah Jaffe and Dove Hunter Stubb's Sets Wow Austin Chronicle

Micah P. Hinson Gets Stereogum Nod

Mount Righteous Dispatches From The Road: Day 13, The Short Road Home

Mount Righteous Dispatches From The Road: Night One, Working In The New Members

Mount Righteous Dispatches From The Road: Day One, Off To Abilene

Cotton Pickin’ Crazy

Leprechaun Bandit Admits Stealing

Dallas is Good for Two Things: Jobs and Cheap Houses. Well, Damn, Ain't That Enough?

Odds & Ends

As if the Combo wasn't Brave enough, now they have a symphony to contend with

The Earlies, The Theater Fire

Take Me Home

England has been raving about half-Texas, half-Manchester band The Earlies for two years. Now it's our turn.

Micah P. Hinson

Saturday, September 24, at The Cavern

Democracy Inaction

Mr. Gonz doesn't go to Washington

Capsule Reviews

Our critics survey the local art scene

Depress Tour

I coulda sworn I was there when they turned on the TV

Sects and Lies

Did the isolated, unhappy life of an Arlington family of Jehovah's Witnesses breed false charges of sexual abuse? Absolutely, says a family member who never got a chance to tell her side of the story.

Howard's End

Carlton Stowers goes in search of the dark muse that inspired pulp-fiction legend Robert E. Howard, the West Texas recluse who created Conan the Barbarian

Slipped discs

Are Virgin and Tower really the enemy, or can the indie stores fight back?

an arlington church turned mosh pit ministers to god's lost children

Buzz

Buzz

We are the R.O.T.

The Enloes are Republic of Texas stalwarts, but they don't go for hostage-taking. They prefer using bogus money orders to battle "the eight banking families that control the world."

BeloWatch

'They wanted to destroy me'

The truth about a troubled teacher--and why DISD deserves the blame

Buzz

Rough road ahead

NAFTA road warriors fight it out for federal funding