Island Records Inc.

Jeff Liles Tells Stories From Dallas' Past and Looks to its Bright Creative Future

There it is. Nestled in South Dallas, rescued by caring souls of our local arts. The beacon that is The Kessler. A majestic Texas juke joint, pampered with TLC and vision that only a handful of true music fans could bring. The Kessler (or rather, "The Kessler X " as our subject refers to it) is o ... More >>

Marley Stirs It Up

An Oral History of the Dallas Music Scene

Some of Dallas' most successful musicians recount the rebirth of its most storied entertainment district: Deep Ellum.

The Story of N.W.A.'s "Boyz-n-the-Hood" and The First Time It Ever Earned Radio Airplay

​Today marks the 20th anniversary of John Singleton's Boyz n the Hood, the film that, in many ways, put the tragic world of Los Angeles street culture into our nation's collective consciousness. Really, it's a point relative to nothing other than the fact that it might make a few of us feel old. A ... More >>

Counting Down the Best Local Albums of 2010

The Best Songs in Dallas Music, 2010: PlayRadioPlay! Becomes Analog Rebellion and Overtakes The Machines at No. 11

[Over the next few weeks, we'll be presenting our favorite local songs of the year, counting down from No. 25 to No. 1, one track a day. Today, we take an in-depth look at song No. 11 on the list -- and, please, feel free to click after the jump to grab a free download of the track. Also after the ... More >>

This Week In Dallas Music History: Wait Till You Hear The Sound of Deep Ellum!

​Well, ain't this fitting: Almost a 23 years to the day before The New York Times returned to Deep Ellum and proclaimed that Dallas was getting its groove back, Observer music editor Clay McNear penned a piece about Island Records' interest in the Dallas music neighborhood and its burgeoning scene ... More >>

Think You're The New Sound of Deep Ellum? A New In-The-Makes Compilation Wants Your Tunes.

​Twenty-three years after The Sound of Deep Ellum was released by Island Records as a sort of snapshot of the burgeoning scene happening just east of downtown Dallas at the time and just as one of the bands featured on that disc (The Buck Pets) prepares for a Saturday night reunion gig at Trees, a ... More >>

The Wailers Band

Sunday, January 10, at House of Blues

Echoes and Reverberations: Decadent Dub Team, Fracturing the Mash-Up

DDTers Jason Wolford, EZ Eddie D and Jeff Liles​ The puke green exterior made the Mitchell Building in Deep Ellum look like a frightening industrial shop of horrors. Far from being accidental, that's by design -- the place was actually a weapons manufacturing facility during Word War II.In the ear ... More >>

Echoes and Reverberations: At the Theatre Gallery, Capturing Lightning in a Beer Cup

Outside the Theatre Gallery in Deep Ellum a quarter-century ago.It was the summer of 1984 and the city of Dallas was in the midst of a serious makeover. The Republican National Convention was coming to town and Big D was trying to put a conservative foot forward as the media spotlight fixated on our ... More >>

PlayRadioPlay! forms an Analog Rebellion

Echoes and Reverberations: "The War Across The Alley"

[Editor's Note: This is the last time we'll be running Echoes and Reverberations as a regular feature here on DC9. Will we see future installments? Don't know yet. But in the meantime, a big thanks to Jeff Liles for the past 30 installments of the series. It's been fun.]Shallow Reign, performing at ... More >>

Echoes and Reverberations: You Shoot, We Score

Texas music looks great. It provokes the imagination and illustrates the intangible. For years, we've been providing the necessary flavor to help filmmakers tell their stories. It's what we do; we're obviously good at this kind of thing. And it goes both ways: Movie soundtracks are the kind of thin ... More >>

Echoes and Reverberations: Allen Ginsberg’s East Dallas Drive-By

Allen Ginsberg and Karen X. Minzer at the Starck Club in Dallas in 1986 Driving through East Dallas the other day I had the odd impulse to swing by the old KNON studio. Kind of depressing to see an empty lot taking up that space now. The studio was formerly located upstairs in a wooden 50’s-e ... More >>

Method Rocking

Minnie Driver and Juliette Lewis have started bands. Come on, you know you're curious.

The Drifter

Tim Gibbons can't get enough of the Streets of Dallas

Blues Valentine

Tom Waits for no one--except guitarist-singer John Hammond

Born to Die

Knowing how Nick Drake expired helps bring his music to life

Out Here

Tripping Daisy

Home groans

Will this year's best local records survive the millennium?

Tripping, falling

Don Berggren remembers the way his son Wes lived... and died

Rock this town

Or: Oh, look...it's another end-of-the-century list

Heads up

Fifteen years later, the reissue of Stop Making

Sense opens old wounds ... and heals them

Ben there, done that

Radish may be loosening their label's restraining bolt

While he's away

Chris Savage looks to the future by playing in the past

Lip service

The Flaming Lips come back from outer space to deliver The Soft Bulletin

Will Oldham

Rubber Gloves Rehearsal Studios

Liberation front

Two local Web sites hope to bring Dallas music to the world

Rhett's exploding

Rhett Miller wanted to be famous for as long as he can remember. Will the Old 97's upcoming Fight Songs finally make him a star?

My name is Weener

A Dallas supergroup forms to play...Weezer songs?

Nothing but static

Broadcast Data Systems listens to the radio so you don't have to

Macha men

More than a decade after fronting one of Dallas' first new-wave bands, Joshua and Mischo McKay go out of this world

Redrumm is the case

Local rap label gets no love at home and takes its show on the road

Schmidt happens

After 10 years of being told he was the Next Big Thing, former Three on a Hill and Funland frontman Peter Schmidt makes the best record of his career. And he did it, for the most part, all by himself.

Run its Course

A decade later, Course of Empire utters its last words

Back in black

Willie Nelson and Johnny Cash are still our greatest Storytellers

Hit or miss

Kacy Crowley savors the moment between anonymity and fame

Jingle bells, Jingle sells

The industry aims for the heart of Christmas-- with a shotgun

Silver linings

Rainmaker Records gets the credit line it deserves

Unsung diva

R&B great Etta James ponders the fame that got away

Star maker

Can Interscope do for four local bands what it did for Nine Inch Nails and Snoop Dogg?

Myth, martyr, musician

With each passing day, the ghost of Selena looms larger over the mainstream