James Brown

The Eight Best Shows in DFW This Week

Is there such a thing as the end of festival season here? I don't know. What I do know is that there are a couple more this weekend -- Fort Worth Music Festival features twang on Friday and fuzzy guitar bliss on Saturday. And Wildflower remains the most fun I can imagine having in the general proxim ... More >>

Fela! Shakes It (and You) at the Winspear

Dallas Children's Theater Delivers a First-Class Version of The Musical Adventures of Flat Stanley

Father John Misty, Granada Theater, 5-6-13

Last night in Dallas there was a man seemingly comprised entirely of hips, the James Brown of Americana-folk, Mr. Father John Misty. He glided across the stage of the Granada Theater crotch-first, the first man to perfect the penis-led moonwalk. It was as if he was comprised only of the finest, slin ... More >>

Ten Must-See Concerts in DFW This Week: May 2-8

Ringing in your first week of May is a week of music that's as diverse as it gets. We've got everything from Rodriguez, the legendary musician and subject of the Oscar-winning documentary Searching for Sugarman, to the Dwarves, a group of disgusting punk badboys. Get a taste for them by watching cli ... More >>

Get To Know Your 2012 DOMA Nominees: The Relatives

Leading up to our November 10 showcase, we'll be getting you familiar with some of our Dallas Observer Music Awards nominees, either via past features we've done on them, or new ones. You can vote for your favorite acts, venues and more right here. This piece originally appeared in our March 1 issu ... More >>

Swans' Michael Gira: "My Job As An Entertainer Is To Surprise People, Not Be Some Karaoke Act"

There are few bands that can maintain an uncompromising sound and still have a shelf life. Rising from the sordid bowels of New York's post-no wave scene, Swans, helmed by Michael Gira, have proven to be the glaring exception, creating music on their own terms, on and off, for over 30 years. They ... More >>

So, What's On Mitt Romney's iPod?

Over the last two nights of the Republican National Convention, both Vice Presidential candidate Paul Ryan and Presidential candidate Mitt Romney have taken the time to mention the music on Romney's iPod, with Ryan, a noted Rage Against the Machine fan, saying, "There are the songs on his iPod whic ... More >>

Best Texas Songs of All Time: #19-1

Songs #100-80 Songs #79-60 Songs #59-40 Songs #39-20 The Spotify playlist for songs #19-1 19. Billy Preston, "Nothing From Nothing" Houston pianist Billy Preston got to hang around some decent talent (The Beatles, The Stones), but his solo material went in another direction altogether. This is ... More >>

DC9er Mixtape, Vol. 42: DJ Gabe

Gabriel Mendoza, aka DJ Gabe, has been spinning (literally, he uses turntables) since 2004. His DJ career took off when his friend, Patricia Rodriguez, pitched him on doing a psych/mod night. Gabe's response was, "Hells yes." He now spins all over town, and folks looking to unwind to some funky t ... More >>

The Relatives Bring the Gospel to the Masses

The Best and Worst Performances of Last Night's Grammys

Five Best Performances 1. Jennifer Hudson Grammy host L.L. Cool J had a hard enough job presiding over a celebration undercut by tragic circumstances, and he achieved a perfect, almost pastor-like tone from the get-go. But Miss Hudson's musical tribute to Whitney Houston - a subtly searing but stil ... More >>

For 26 Episodes in 1966, WFAA Played Host to the Funkiest, Most Soulful TV Show in America

​Last night, I got a text from Peter Schmidt, who could not believe I've never written about a short-lived 1966 TV show called The !!!! Beat, hosted by iconic Nashville deejay Bill "Hoss" Allen. Wrote Peter, who'd come across it yesterday after a lunchtime discussion about Etta James turned up an ... More >>

The K-Ticket Christmas Eve Music Playlist, With a Few Leftovers For the Morning

​If I'm allowed on K-Ticket airwaves for a fourth annual Christmas dance party, I will ask management to carve space enough for a 17-hour set. The list of songs I wanted to play but didn't is much longer than those that actually made the air. Then again, if you really want a copy of Anya Marina's ... More >>

Last Night: Eels and Submarines at Granada Theater

Eels, SubmarinesGranada TheaterJuly 21, 2011Better than: being mistaken for a terrorist at an airport. Mark Oliver Everett, the rockstar.​From frontman Mark Oliver Everett's dramatic entrance after his band had already begun their opening number, to his exit before they had finished their last o ... More >>

Listomania: The 15 Most Unexpected, Unlikely, and Downright Awkward Collaborations of All Time

Beck​Yesterday Beck announced that he had been "recording some tracks" with country singer Dwight Yoakam. And yeah, we guess we could kind of see that, as Beck has run the gamut of styles during his career, touching on hip-hop, electronic, folk, and mariachi. But, even though it makes sense when ... More >>

Bootsy Collins

Friday, June 17,at the Palladium Ballroom

Last Night At 35 Conferette: !!! Pave The Road To Big Boi With Bass Intentions

​!!!6:30 p.m., Main Stage OneIt took all of one song for !!! singer Nic Offer to whip the Main Stage crowd into wild abandon; by the end of opener "AM/FM," from last year's Strange Weather, Isn't It?, Miami Horror was a distant memory. If the band's hypnotic grooves and electronic textures are ... More >>

The Music Hall's Dreamgirls, With Its Big Voices and Big Spectacle, Is A Big Crowd Pleaser; Circle Theatre's Something Intangible Is Smaller But Just As Loud.

DC9er Mixtape, Vol. 8: Wanz Dover

​This week's DC9er presents readers and listeners with not one, but two very different mixes from seasoned area musician, dubstep producer and DJ, Mwanza Dover. And not by accident, either. Dover voraciously admits that there was no way he could "really make one mix that would make sense for what ... More >>

Staff Trax: Wilson Pickett, Dom Kennedy, Yeasayer, Ash

​Welcome to Staff Trax, the weekly feature here on DC9 where we shed some light on the music we've been enjoying of late, regardless of the touring or album release schedules that tend to bear the focus of most of our coverage. Consider it a chance for you readers to get some more insight in ... More >>

Ballers and Shotcallers: Zo & Magic's 8-Ball Challenge

Mattie StaffordAlonzo Mourning lines up a shot. For a whole slideshow from this event, click here.​Zo & Magic's 8-Ball ChallengeCentennial Building in Fair ParkThe red carpet walks kicked off at 7.30 p.m., with Mourning's appearance leading the way. Early attendees were held in a "reception ar ... More >>

Good Friday: Les Americains, Black Joe Lewis, Sarah Jaffe, RTB2, Jack With One Eye, Hayes Carll, Joe Ely, Gary Allan,Justin Nozuka, Automorrow, The Golden Boys, Daniel Francis Doyle, The Steps, Salim Nourallah, 100 Damned Guns, Loretta Lynn, Starhead

As national tours go, there's really only so much going on this weekend--as evidenced by the fact that, unless I'm forgetting some, we only previously spread word on three weekend shows already: the Lola's Stockyard show tonight with AA Bondy, Doug Burr and Telegraph Canyon, the Longhorn Saloon show ... More >>

Echoes And Reverberations: The Ghosts Of The Longhorn Ballroom

Last Night: TV On The Radio And The Dirtbombs At The Lakewood Theater

Good Friday: Granada Fourth Anniversary, Skate or Rock, Bridges and Blinking Lights and more

Blowhard

Last Night: Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings at Granada Theater

Shop Till You Bop at Forever Young Records

Not to drop hints or anything, but Xmas is coming, and Forever Young is open, sooo...

Pop's Kid

DJ Rob Viktum's unlikely upbringing was in—get this—Amarillo

Hand It to Him

On the Download

Some of the best music of 2006 wasn't exactly officially released (wink, wink)

Grace Notes

Jubilee sings a joyful noise in Black Nativity

Guitar Gospel

Get ready for G chords and Jesus

Cupid's Quiver

A gift from Texas Ballet Theater

Faceless Werewolves and Single Frame Ashtray

January 29

Plaid Tidings

Good news at two musical revues; GZTC counts the 12 plays of Christmas

Supreme Fare

Talent reigns in Dreamgirls, the '80s pop-opera about hits and heartbreak in Motown

Parker right there

Out There

Beck

Out There

Prince

Soul brother No. 1

Quiet! Do not disturb while Bobby Patterson is making love to a microphone on KKDA-AM

East End story

A buddy-buddy-buddy-buddy movie barrels through the seamy side of swingin' England

Risky business

Seventeen years after its advent, sampling remains mired in legal and aesthetic controversy

Answer this door

DTC's Thunder is a sensual roof-raiser

A sharp right

In When We Were Kings, Ali delivers the performance of a lifetime

Spirit of '96

Last year showed pop still has more than a ghost of a chance

Roadshows

T.C.B. or T.Y.A.

Bobby Patterson, Dallas' great unsung soul singer, gets his Second chance

Fifteen nailsin the coffin

Or: Rock and roll isn't dead, it just doesn't smell bad