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A Family-Friendly Music Festival and Cannibal Corpse: Just Another Saturday in Dallas

Saturday in Dallas was a day you could choose to paint in the starkest possible contrasts, if that's your thing. Two big gatherings cut from an extraordinarily different cloth were happening within a relatively pleasant fifteen-minute stroll of each other, and how often do you get to travel from one ... More >>

Top Ten Must-See Concerts In DFW This Week: April 25-May 1

As this final week in April comes to a close, we can all take a deep breath that we've conquered (a lot of) the festivals, survived the wannabe tornado season and seen the types of amazing concerts that Texas weather has so kindly afforded us. Oh -- no, no -- don't get me wrong, we've still got a lo ... More >>

The Five Best Songs Protesting Margaret Thatcher's Policies

Update: Judy Garland's "Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead" is forecast to be #1 on the British charts on Sunday, the day the official charts are released. I'm not even shitting you. This means that it will end up being played on Radio 1's Sunday Chart Show. Radio 1 is a Government-owned broadcaster. Can y ... More >>

Jason Molina, RIP: We Have Lost One of the Great Songwriters

Jason Molina of Songs: Ohia and Magnolia Electric Company died after years of alcohol addiction at the age of 39 on Saturday, March 16, 2013. He was born in a factory town in Ohio. Industry was in his blood; it was in his songs. When some of us were in grade school, he was staring down the white li ... More >>

Ra Ra Riot Doesn't Read Reviews, But They Will Argue With You on Facebook

Although the music of Ra Ra Riot has been described as baroque pop, it's not nearly as pretentious as that might imply. Hailing from Brooklyn (by way of Syracuse), this intriguing five-piece has been making classically-tinged indie rock for the better part of seven years. And with each successive re ... More >>

Grapevine Craft Brewery to Break Ground on New Brewery This Spring

Grapevine now has another craft brewery in the works (in addition to Noble Rey). Gary Humble, who lives in Grapevine, has been a pastor for the past 15 years and more recently has fallen in love with home brewing. It's a natural progression, after all. The process of purifying water into beer was co ... More >>

Bucks Burnett: "The Dallas Music Scene Needs To Be More Like a Monarchy. It Needs More Pageantry."

You can't really write a column about behind-the-scenes people in the Dallas music scene and not include Bucks Burnett. We are big fans of Bucks, and he's been featured in the Observer numerous times. Hell, one of the last times we tried to interview him, we kept getting interrupted by calls from th ... More >>

Wuthering Heights: Black Like Me

Andrea Arnold's adaptation of Brontë braves lines of color

UPDATED: The DC9 At Night/Good Records Challenge #4: Yells At Eels

UPDATE 10:30 a.m.: Congrats to Tracy Halliday, who is the lucky winner of Index Festival tickets and the loot from the Good Records challenge. Have fun out there, Tracy! Here we go now, get busy! It's time for another Good Records Challenge. I wish I had a whistle to blow. You know the drill: We gi ... More >>

How to Speak Republican: Decoding the GOP

Between Fancorps and Bowling For Soup, Colter Hall's Perfecting His Juggling Act

See also: Jaret Reddick is the new voice of Chuck E. Cheese Colter Hall wasn't really looking for anything when he happened upon his current gig with Fancorps. He's also helping out Jaret Reddick of Bowling for Soup and People On Vacation, who just happens to be Hall's uncle. After a stretch at Col ... More >>

Dallas Animal Services Still Overheated and Understaffed

Good news first: the kittens have their own room now. Bad news: most of those kittens are still going to die. Every few months, the Animal Shelter Commission gets together for a progress report from shelter manager Jody Jones and director of Code Compliance Jimmy Martin. It's always a mixture of a ... More >>

Heritage Auctions Working With Mongolia to Determine if Dinosaur it Sold is, in Fact, Mongolian

Update at 2:30 p.m.: Just got off the phone with Jim Halperin, Heritage Auction co-chairman who confirms that the Observer is a force for peace and good in the world and that it was indeed our blog post that prompted him to reach out to Painter. As for what happens if the dinosaur turns out to be M ... More >>

Perfume Genius: "I Think All Gay Men Are Used To People Saying No To Them, To People Not Giving Them Choices."

Mike Hadreas, aka Perfume Genius, is a talented, young singer-songwriter who has made quite a mark with his sophomore effort, Put Your Back N 2 It. However, the release was not without controversy. Perfume Genius' 16-second ad for the new album was deemed inappropriate by YouTube because it feature ... More >>

Feargal McKinney, Owner of the Old Monk and Blackfriar, on the Magic of an Old Irish Whiskey

Originally from Dublin, Ireland, Feargal McKinney came to the U.S. after college to see the sights and do a bit of traveling. After some time in New York City, he took the scenic route to California and stopped in Dallas to visit a friend and essentially never left -- partially because he got stuck ... More >>

Anthony Bourdain's Playlist: Sippin' on Gin and Juice, and That Better Be Fresh-Squeezed

Anthony Bourdain recently created an iTunes Celebrity Playlist. And what does a playlist say about a person? Everything. It's their soul on paper. Bourdain isn't necessarily shy though, case evidence being his current media scuffle with Paula Deen. So it's no surprise that the unruly Ramones hea ... More >>

Raised An Army Brat, Jerry Rutherford's Now a Deep Ellum Metalhead Through and Through.

Jerry Rutherford​Within Deep Ellum's metal scene, Jerry Rutherford is everybody's friend. It seems like he's at all the shows, always up to do a shot and let out that rallying, supportive cry-of-the-rocker that barely edges up above the volume of whichever hard rock act is blaring not far in front ... More >>

With the Mayor, Celebrating 60 Years of Kiestwood, Where No Change is Good Change

Photo by Leslie MinoraRaymond Crawford presents Mayor Rawlings with a big hairy portfolio of ideas from the community.​The Kiestwood neighborhood in southeast Dallas turns 60 this month, and in Texas years, that's old. Raymond Crawford, who lives in the home where he grew up, hosted a well-attende ... More >>

At Long Last, Texas International Pop Festival In Lewisville to Receive a State Historical Marker

The scene in Lewisville during Labor Day weekend 1969​Longtime Friends of Unfair Park are by now well aware of my lifetime obsession with the Texas International Pop Festival, held during Labor Day weekend in 1969 in a Lewisville field. The roster, put together by, among others, Angus Wynne, was l ... More >>

Eat Street: James Cunningham Celebrates Street Food ... Not Here, Of Course

Eat Street host James Cunningham lets food serve as the real star of his show.​Eat Street leads with one of its many trump cards when it starts out each episode with chrome-domed host, James Cunningham, just taking up some space on a city sidewalk, shooting the breeze. Cunningham may have been ... More >>

Before His Improv Sets This Weekend, Prank Legend Tom Green Talks Cancer, New Projects And Why Owling is Complete Horseshit

Marleah Leslie and Associates​Tom Green is best known for livening up MTV with the weirdness of his Tom Green Show, tormenting his parents, strangers and, by having viewers request his "Lonely Swedish (The Bum Bum Song)" on the secretly-not-really-live Total Request Live, the network itself with p ... More >>

Sad Sports Sunday For Your Good Ol' Red, White and Boo

​Woke up rooting for America Sunday morning. Phil Mickelson made a charge, Dustin Johnson was in the hunt and it looked like a U.S. golfer would steal the Claret Jug at the British Open. I was rooting for America after lunch, too. Abby Wambach scored late and it looked like the U.S. would ... More >>

Why do Mexicans in the United States Root for Mexico Against the U.S. in Soccer?

Jennie Kelley's Different Kind of Spree

FoxPolyphonic Spree member Jennie Kelley competes on MasterChef.​Jennie Kelley may possess no more or less an unusual background as preparation for being one of the latest contestants to face the kitchen fire of notable British hothead, Gordon Ramsay on his second season of the MasterChef seri ... More >>

So Sad About Them: Roger Daltrey's Coming to Perform Tommy. Without Pete Townshend.

​I received a press release yesterday about which I have enormously mixed emotions. Because on the one hand, The Who is my Favorite Rock and Roll Band of All Time, precariously perched just one rung above The Clash. I've experienced The Who in myriad iterations -- at Reunion in the summer of '80, ... More >>

Kings Of Leon & Band Of Horses, Civil Wars, and Over 100 New Show Announcements

Kings Of Leon​The first time the Kings of Leon came to town, they played an intimate show at the Gypsy Tea Room. And what a different time that was: Critics referred to them as The Stokes of the South, and before long, Kings Of Leon found themselves as the opening act for Julian Casablancas & ... More >>

Glen Reynolds Shares His Earliest Memories of Chomsky, Weener, Bluh and Blow Aces

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. Glen Reynolds​These days, you see Glen Reynolds in the crowd at shows more than you see him on the stage. ... More >>

Doug Havard Pleads Guilty to a Federal Crime. But What of All Those Local Charges?

​As you no doubt recall, Doug Havard -- the former Winston School and SMU student who skipped town after being arrested on charges of counterfeiting, selling GHB and armed robbery, among many others -- was brought back to the U.S. a few days ago following a six-year prison vacay in England. This m ... More >>

"Crazy White Mother" Doug Havard Is Back to Face Charges in Dallas. Only Took Nine Years.

​Over the weekend news broke that Doug Havard is back in the country -- nine years after the former SMU student was arrested on charges of counterfeiting, selling GHB and armed robbery, but bullet points on a longer laundry list of crimes of which he's been accused. Havard was extradited from Engl ... More >>

UFC 127: Fitch Over Penn. Wait, That Was a Draw?

​Ties are for Troy Dungan or calf ropin' or Oscar night or Mila Kunis' brother (cuz kissin' his sister would be bueno). But UFC? Watched UFC 127 with some buddies Saturday night and was entertained, but confused. Always figured in this manliest of men sport featuring bloody knockouts and ... More >>

Beth Orton

Friday, February 18, at Dan's Silverleaf in Denton

If You Thought Tom Hicks Had Forgotten About "Epic Swindle" In Liverpool, You Were Wrong

Kit Nelson​It's been a whole two months since last we contemplated Tom Hicks's threat to sue for $1.6 billion over the sale -- pardon, "epic swindle" -- of Liverpool FC to New England Sports Ventures way back in October. But right on schedule, Paul Girolami, a barrister repping Hicks and George Gi ... More >>

Hicks Is Getting Ready to Take His $1.6 Billion Challenge of Liverpool FC Sale Back to Court

Hicks in October, when he told all of the U.K. that the sale of Liverpool was an "epic swindle."​Moment after a Dallas court date that cleared the way for the sale of Liverpool FC to New England Sports Ventures, attorneys representing Tom Hicks called it an "extraordinary swindle" and vowed to "ap ... More >>

Why would a Mexican-American want to move to Mexico?

Tonight, Tonight: The Octopus Project at South Side Music Haoll, Jason Bonham's Led Zeppelin Experience at the Fair Park Music Hall, The Queers at The Boiler Rom (in Denton), Corb Lund at The Granada and Robbie Fulks at All Good Café. Plus: A Few More!

By this busy line up of shows, you'd think it's already Friday.

Tom Hicks and His Attorneys Haven't Filed Suit in England. Yet. But Also "Haven't Given Up."

Tom Hicks on SkyNews over the weekend​Following Friday's hearing at the George Allen, Tom Hicks's attorney in the Liverpool FC case, Fish & Richardson's Steve Stodghill, issued a press release announcing that Hicks and George Gillett's attorneys would "apply all of their legal energies toward ... More >>

Dallas Theater Center stages a lavish Henry IV (with a touch of Rufus Wainwright).

What, finally, will keep Mexicans out? Mines?

Bucks Burnett, Musician Again, Creating "Something Great, Catchy, Timeless, Fun"

Robert GreesonHubertus Winnubst, left, and Bucks Burnett​Good ol' Bucks Burnett, ex of 14 Records and The Volares and currently of Eight-Track Museuming, stopped by this week bearing gifts -- specifically, the double-disc debut Colorbl nd (and, yes, that is the correct spelling) by his latest rock ... More >>

I Think I Can't

Ghost Story

The DTC scares the Dickens out of you

Bones to Pick

Is the 2006 invasion of culinary foreigners killing off our local character?

Apple Gazing

Stolik operator hopes to beat the odds

Great Shakes?

Do expensive salts really make a difference?

French 101

Le Rendezvous offers a respite from the flashy and the fancy

Tippling Tips

Can you please solve all our alcohol-related mysteries?

Smoke Gets in Your Eyes

And your hair, your clothes, and your skin as the Big Smoke blows through Dallas

Eurotrash pickup

Avanti Euro Bistro proves that a little smarminess isn't all bad

Hash Over

Where's PoPoLos?; Dowdy McKinney; Lo lo Lola

Hole-in-the-wall treasure

Tasty Greek is disheveled, but the food cleans up