Brooklyn (New York City)

There's a Helicopter Gun Range Outside Denton, Because Texas

Because special forces training is hard. Because ground-based gunfire just isn't sufficiently soaked in testosterone. Because helicopters. Because this is Texas, goddammit. There have always been plenty of reasons for your average (non-G.I.) Joe to shoot assault weapons from a moving aircraft. What ... More >>

The Power of Kolaches and Support for West Extends to New York City

One should never underestimate the power of kolaches. When the fertilizer plant in West exploded a couple of weeks ago, for many, the soft round pastry that put West on the map sprung quickly to mind as a way to raise money to help the blast's victims. Last weekend, when a few local restaurants and ... More >>

Mosquitoes Are Already Testing Positive for West Nile

The West Nile virus is officially back. Public health officials got their first confirmation of that last week when mosquito pools in Richardson tested positive for the disease. Today, Highland Park announced a positive test of its own. Dallas County is already urging residents to use insect repella ... More >>

13 Dallas Spots for Healthy Foods That Don't Suck

Every once in a very long while I like to make believe I have a little something called willpower. And like most other folks on this planet, I get a surge of confidence in my nonexistent willpower right around January 1. See also: Our Best of 2012 Winners Now, I have this thing that tends to ruin ... More >>

The Babies

Saturday, December 15, at Bryan Street Tavern

Norton Records Benefit

Sunday, December 9, at Magnolia Motor Lounge

At Wyly Theatre, The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity Offers More Head Smacks Than Smackdowns

And not nearly enough flying elbows.

Seven of This Week's Best Show Announcements: Mary J. Blige, Taylor Swift, The xx and More

Mary J. Blige Sunday, November 18, at American Airlines Center, $49.25-$199.25 Tickets go on sale today for Mary J. Blige's "Liberation" Tour, which will feature special guests Brandy and Kendrick Lamar. The tour is in support of Blige's upcoming 2013 release, My Life II...The Journey Continues (Ac ... More >>

Good/Bad Art Collective's Rock Lottery 11 Announced

Denton's historically-popular Good/Bad Art Collective, an artist-run co-operative studio and gallery that was active from 1993 to 2001, comes out of the woodwork each year to organize its Rock Lottery event, and has recently announced that its eleventh one will take place at Dan's Silverleaf on Nov. ... More >>

TJ's Seafood Market and Grill is Now Open in HP/Oaklawn [Photos]

For chief fishmonger Jon Alexis, the building of TJ's new location in the Shops of Highland Park has been a labor of love and the culmination of all the years he's been running his family's business. "This is what I've always wanted TJ's to become," Alexis says. See also: - Jon Alexis of TJ's Seafo ... More >>

The Top 10 Bands at Warped Tour

See also: The Warped Tour in review Judging by the horde at Gexa Energy Pavilion on Tuesday, the local economy is doing just fine. Out of the nearly 100 bands that performed at this year's fest, I've whittled it down to the 10 best that I literally stumbled across. As usual, I found the bands ear ... More >>

Santigold Finds a Balance With Her New Album

Mitt Romney Moves Left With Education Plan. That'll Never Last.

Oh, man, and me a total Obamatoid! Am I going to have to vote for Mitt Romney? But he's already way to the left of Obama on education and batting 1.000 on one of my favorite themes, the need to integrate schools by class, not race. For years there has been persuasive research out there arguing that ... More >>

Urban Savages Slug it out in God of Carnage; Cicerone Needs to Cheer Up

Spring Vegetables, Spring Festivals and Lots of Tequila: The Week In Dallas Eating

More festivals this weekend. The 6th Annual Real Texas Festival kicks off today. I wasn't around for it last year, but Nick Rallo was and he gave the event a ringing endorsement. There are worse ways to spend your time than sampling barbecue from entrants chasing a $500 grand champion prize. Things ... More >>

Producer Lou Medina: "Learning How To Manage a Session and Keep Everyone From Arguing Is an Art."

Welcome to Local Music 'Mericans, where we get to know the people behind the scenes in local music. Lou Medina was born in Denton, grew up in Brooklyn, and moved back to DFW after getting his feet wet behind the turntables. He makes his living as a studio producer and devotes his time beyond that ... More >>

Dallas' Five Best Margaritas, in Honor of National Margarita Day

The margarita may be the greatest drink of all time, if only because it almost always comes alongside a free, bottomless basket of chips and salsa. Born out of desperation, the margarita originally provided a way to choke down bad tequila. At some restaurants this still holds true. At others the dri ... More >>

Five Best and Worst Album Covers of 2011

The actual artistry of the album cover has been making a comeback. Of course, over the years, the cheesy head shot has gradually (for the most part) faded away and been replaced by, well, art. Go figure. Anyhow, 2011 was a particularly good year for the album cover. Well, there were a few examples w ... More >>

Top Chef: Texas Does Dallas at a Fancy Schmancy Highland Park Dinner Party

Socioeconomically speaking, Dallas has a pretty damn diverse food scene. The Big D is chock-full of $1 taco stands (if you're of the financial status to seek them rather than pass with blinders), $2 slightly fancier tacos found at many bars (LaGrange's are tasty), barbecue shacks out the wazoo (hey, ... More >>

Holy Ghost! Frontman Alex Frankel Talks About Being Labeled a Singles Band

Holy Ghost!​Brooklyn-based electro-pop act Holy Ghost! had both an instant and gradual rise to fame. The electro-pop duo Alex Frankel and Nick Millhiser began releasing remixes of acclaimed indie songs such as MGMT's "Of Moons, Birds and Monsters" before debuting their first piece of original mat ... More >>

O'Death, Why Are We Building Such a Big Ship?

Sunday, September 11, at Rubber Gloves Rehearsal Studio in Denton

Joe Jonas' New Solo Act Gets Booed, Pelted With Basketballs

Jason Merritt/GettyJoe Jonas​Just last month, DC9 reported that Dallas' own (Westlake, to be exact) Joe Jonas would be branching out on his own solo project. Seems the middle JoBro was feeling pigeon-holed in the Disney set, so he has taken a sort of bad boy approach with his new stuff. His people ... More >>

The Antlers Buck The Brooklyn Trend Machine

Pitchfork On True Widow: A Band That Has "Complete Mastery of Control."

​Hate to say we told you so -- in this case, that this new record from True Widow was going to be a big deal -- except, well, that's not true at all. We kind of revel in telling you so, actually.So, yes, we indeed felt that nice, warm and comforting feeling of being right this morning, as we read ... More >>

140-Character SXSW 2011 Show Reviews: Fergus & Geronimo, Memoryhouse, Obits, Menomena, MellowHype (Odd Future), Wild Flag, Trouble Andrew, Rocky Business, Trae The Truth, Fisbone and Wu-Tang Clan.

Pete FreedmanHodgy Beats getting ridiculous with the Odd Future crew.​ Our second night at SXSW was pretty crazy -- although pretty much nothing we saw compared to the greatness/madness that was Hodgy Beats and Left Brains of MellowHype from the Odd Future crew's show at the Brooklyn Vegan party y ... More >>

On Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All. (Or: Believe The Seemingly Outlandish Hype.)

​ Oftentimes, the hype an act has built up heading into South by Southwest can be so overwhelming that it creates an insurmountable hurdle for an otherwise pleasing, if hardly life-changing, outfit (see: Vampire Weekend, circa 2008). And no doubt this was the theoretical case heading into this yea ... More >>

Monogamy: Wedding Bells Take a Toll.

35 Conferette Adds More Acts, Including New Sub Pop Supergroup Featuring Michael Cera

If nothing else, Michael Cera is cooler than Danny Masterson, right?​After announcing last week the addition of another 135 bands to its bill, you'd think the folks up at Denton's 35 Conferette might need a breather -- or, I dunno, maybe some time to focus on the actual logistics of the fest, sinc ... More >>

35 Conferette Adds A Whopping 135 More Bands To Bill, Including A Whole Slew of Locals

Big things happening today in the world of 35 Conferette -- bigger news, even, than the fact that the-festival-formerly-known-as-North-by-35 now has an actual website to call its own (!). Bigger, too, than the really awesome web teaser/advertisement that the fest's organizers have created to promote ... More >>

Our Critics' Year-End Top Tens: Daniel Rodrigue Finds Something Happening About LCD Soundsystem's Promised Swan Song

In this week's paper, you may notice a piece including some of our DC9 writers' choices for best albums of the year. But, space being limited, we couldn't run all of our writers' lists. So, thanks to the power of the Internet, we're doing just that, right here.​ Former ... More >>

Daiquiri's To Go, To Go

Click to embiggen the Daquiri's To Go menu​You've been to Daiquiri's To Go, no? Most of our staff has -- something, methinks, to do with its proximity to Unfair Park HQ (it's more or less at Oak Lawn and Market Center Boulevard). That, or there's just something about booze in a cup in a bag -- and ... More >>

Oak Cliff Activists--Between Their Bikes And Gardens And Chickens And Goats--Seek To Redefine Their Community Without Destroying It

Night Moves: Robotnick and Dubstep Make You Sweat

Ray and Peter LekThank you very much, Alexander Robotnick.​It was yet another busy weekend for the Lek Brothers. On Friday, they began with DJ Noah D at the Green Elephant, who spun dubstep alongside Dallas' Dub Assembly crew. Then they ventured to Brooklyn Jazz Cafe for Alexander Robotnik, which ... More >>

Legal Briefs: SLAPP and Jindal

Bobby Jindal​Meant to be sung to the tune of this Squeeze single ...Remember Hiram Walker Royall? Sure you do -- he's the Highland Park developer who sued anyone who wrote, reviewed or pretty much read Carla Main's 2007 book Bulldozed: "Kelo," Eminent Domain and the American Lust for Land, which d ... More >>

Theatre Three Presents A Most Aesthetically Pleasing Sherlock Holmes; There's Big Gay Fun In Forbidden Broadway; Spelling Bee Gets Too Complicated

Why Does Manhattan Have Such Sucky Mexican Food?

Craig Myers, Thank You for Your Courage

​As I'm sure you've come to realize, I have thick skin. In this here blog and on 105.3 The Fan I'm bombarded daily with insults, criticisms and cheap shots. All part of the game. I realize it. I take none of it personal because, come on, I don't know you personally or vice-versa. Truth be tol ... More >>

Giveaway: Three Pairs of Tickets to See Here We Go Magic and Beach Fossils Tonight at The Loft

Brooklyn soft-pop quintet Here We Go Magic is on a sizable world tour in support of their newest record, Pigeons, and they will be passing through town tonight at The Loft. The band's members started as more of a folk outfit, but have outgrown the genre since signing with Secretly Canadian last yea ... More >>

Here We Go Magic, Beach Fossils

Tuesday, August 3, at The Loft

Giveaway: Two Pairs of Tickets To See The Hold Steady and The Whigs at Granada on Saturday Night

The Brooklyn-based bar rockers in The Hold Steady, having just dropped their latest, Heaven Is Whenever album in May, are knee-deep in their national summer tour, with stops all over the U.S. and even the occasional dip across the Canadian border. Their new album has met widely positive reviews, and ... More >>

Wrestling the Ghost of Jimmy Buffett at Preston Center's Flying Fish

Photos by Patrick MichelsI once at a fish this big.​Flying Fish6126 Luther Ln.214-696-FISHDude Factor: 8, or Don Knotts, on a scale of 1 (Kevin Costner) to 10 (Ernest Borgnine) I'd been too long on the turf, dudes, and got the hunger for a little surf. Fish Shack would have done nicely, but no way ... More >>

A Talk with Kyle Rote Jr.: Dallas Tornado, Hall of Famer, Soccer "Missionary"

NASL Jerseys​Kyle Rote Jr. -- who, it was announced this week, is finally being inducted into the U.S. National Soccer Hall of Fame as a "veteran," no kidding -- did indeed call me back earlier this week. Said I'd have better luck trying him later -- meaning, oh, 'round 11 p.m. or midnight, he'd b ... More >>

Local Natives, Suckers

Thursday, April 22, at Sons of Hermann Hall

Watch: Neon Indian Says Goodbye To Denton, Finally Owns Up To Its Roots At Saturday's Spune 2K10 Winter Dance Party

Well, despite a slow turnout early on in the evening, Saturday's Spune 2K10 Winter Dance Party featuring Neon Indian, Ishi, and a slew of others turned out to be exactly the massive soirée that many predicted it would be. If you weren't there, well, then you missed out on a truly exceptional showca ... More >>

Someone Dipped Their St. Vincent in My Neil Young (and Dolly Parton and The National)

​Ya know, before Pete came along, I was doing a fine job of writing about St. Vincent all by my lonesome. So, don't tell, but a Friend of Unfair Park sends along these MP3s featuring Annie Clark and Bon Iver performing at Saturday night's Haiti benefit concert at Brooklyn's Music Hall of Williamsb ... More >>

Sons of the Shining Star

So What Exactly Are You Eating When You Order Fajitas In A Tex-Mex Restaurant?

Great Scot...Land!

Horton Heard What?

Find out Who's Who at Romano's latest venture

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