Lenny Kravitz

Hollywood Records' John Nicholson Knows How To Make Pyrotechnics Out of Tomato Juice Cans and Gunpowder

Welcome to Local Music 'Mericans, where we get to know the people behind the scenes in Dallas/Fort Worth music. Lima, Peru, native John Nicholson has helped out a lot of DFW musicians over the years. His early gigs included Sound Warehouse, Bill's Records and label promotion for Polygram, A&M and V ... More >>

Nathan Nicholson of The Boxer Rebellion: "If I Made Music In The U.S., I Probably Would Have Met People Who Were More Like Me."

Moving from Tennessee to London proved fairly easy for Nathan Nicholson of The Boxer Rebellion. After losing his mother in 2000, he hightailed it across the pond and quickly formed a band. Speaking from a tour stop in Austin and in anticipation of tonight's show at Dada, Nicholson talked about his ... More >>

Anoushka Shankar: "All Music, Unless Made by Aliens, Should Be Considered World Music."

Sitar virtuoso Anoushka Shankar, daughter of legendary sitar master Ravi Shankar and half-sister to North Texas' Norah Jones, is an extraordinary talent who lets her inventive work introduce her vision. Shankar sees a wide, blank canvas from which to work, using regional and sonic traditions as mer ... More >>

Mayer Hawthorne, Mint Condition and This Week's Show Announcements

​In just a few weeks, Dallas bridge enthusiasts will be graced by a performance from The Relatives, a classic Dallas soul group that seems to prefer Austin's audiences to that of their hometown. But they're not the only '60s/'70s Dallas soul band whose name has resurfaced recently. Just last ... More >>

The Problem With... The Cranberries' "Tomorrow"

Last year saw a wave of popular bands from a few decades ago reuniting and releasing new material. The wave continues this year with new albums from Van Halen, puzzling announcements by Fiona Apple, and the Irish yodeling of Dolores O'Riordan and The Cranberries. The band will release a new album, R ... More >>

Lenny Kravitz, Gigantour With Megadeth and Motorhead and This Week's Show Announcements

Lenny Kravitz​The last time we heard from Lenny Kravitz, he was creating his own home video of an impromptu performance with a youth band from First Baptist Church of Lewisville on the streets of New Orleans. The people loved it, which is more than can be said of his 2011 funk album, Black and Whi ... More >>

Get To Know Your DOMAXXIII Nominees: Best Song, Best Metal Act, BestFunk/R&B Act

​Welcome to our 2011 Dallas Observer Music Awards breakdown, wherein we'll use the weeks leading up to the DOMA showcases on Saturday, October 15 (which is also when voting ends), to explain the nominees in each category Today, we look at the nominees in the Best Song, Best Metal Act ... More >>

In Defense of... Bush's "The Sound of Winter"

I feel a bit sorry for the the U.K.-spring alternative-rock band Bush. They appear only in the footnotes of '90s rock, sandwiched between the end of grunge and the rise of Oasis and Radiohead. There was a time, though, when they were huge. If nowhere else, you've probably heard tracks like "Comedown ... More >>

So There Are Celebrities in Town: A Round-Up of Some Famous Faces on Super Party Circuit

All photos WireImageAshton Kutcher, Demi Moore and noted comedy genius Justin Timberlake at the Rachovsky House​Woke up this morning to find some last-night souvenirs in the in-box -- some, from the Audi Forum at the Rachovsky House on Preston and Northwest Highway, which the car-maker's taken ove ... More >>

Catching Up With Talib Kweli and Ozomatli In Advance Of Tonight's Red Bull Soundclash...

​Right about now, over at the Palladium Ballroom, the stage is being set for tonight's Red Bull SoundClash, featuring Talib Kweli & The Rhythm Roots AllStars and Ozomatli. The two groups spawned from vastly different scenes, but share a similar alternative hip-hop jam--and we were able to watc ... More >>

Your Heartwarming Clip Of The Day: Lenny Kravitz Joins The Lewisville's First Baptist Church For Impromptu New Orleans Show

Man, celebrities can be pretty cool sometimes. Even Lenny Kravitz. Check the above clip for proof. As Kravitz explains in its start, he "was just sitting up on a terrace, having a drink, and [he] heard some strange music." It was his music, actually--the First Baptist Church of Lewisville's band was ... More >>

Top 100 Most Annoying Summer Songs

Shut up, Jimmy Buffett.​You know what really gives us the summertime blues? "Summertime Blues," not to mention other maddening summer hits like "All I Wanna Do," "Margaritaville" or the shotgun-in-mouth-inducing "Hot Hot Hot." It's bad enough global warming is cooking the planet like a plastic cu ... More >>

Dude Food: Big Al's Smokehouse BBQ

Jesse Hughey​Big Al's Smokehouse BBQ3317 Inwood Rd. 214-350-2649Dude Factor: 6, or Tony Romo, on a scale of 1 (Brad Johnson) to 10 (Roger Staubach)Texas being one of the reddest of red states, medical marijuana isn't going to happen any time soon without intervention by the federal government. But ... More >>

Listomania: Eight Jewish Musical Icons To Celebrate On This Final Night of Chanukah

​When the sun sets this evening, the final night of Chanukah will commence, ending an eight-day spree of phone calls from nagging Jewish mothers and the always pleasant gifting and receiving of holiday socks. Also coming to its unfortunate annual close? The (adorable) singing of the Chanukah praye ... More >>

Precious Pushes the Limits of Taste, But Locates the Heart--and Hell--of Its Heroine's Struggle

Radio, Radio: Ayo Says Adios, While We Look at Just What Passes for "Quality Rock"

Two follow-ups in this particular radio round-up. First, I exchanged a few messages with Alan Ayo via Facebook, and the long and short of it is, he's not at all upset that Clear Channel gave him his walking papers yesterday. Writes the former midday host and music director at KDGE-FM:I'm feeling rat ... More >>

Bonus MP3: The Kül -- "We Can Live"

In last week's paper, I reviewed The Kül's new release Soul 4 Gold, a disc that blends a whole mishmash of funk, psychedelic and even stoner rock influences into a disc that, at various points throughout its listen, recalls Jimi Hendrix, Sly Stone, Prince, Gnarls Barkley, TV On The Radio and Lenny ... More >>

The Kül

Soul 4 Gold (Rare Image)

Snaps for Theo

MJW hosts a night of poetry and jazz

Dan Dyer

Friday, February 29, at Bend Studio

Shanghai 5 to Get Political at the Space

Sure Hope You Like Norah Jones

In on the Ground Floor

Sharing a south-side secret

Ginned Up

BlackFinn takes the "Irish" out of Irish pub

My Chemical Romance

The Black Parade (Reprise)

Old Song and Dance

A one-act play reveals backstage secrets at Friday's most star-studded concert

Walking the Line

More music biopics? Good. Bad musicians starring in them? Not so much.

Oasis

Don't Believe the Truth (Sony)

Odds & Ends

Scott Beggs quits, and so do the Sparrows

Helping Out

Granada benefit show to help tsunami victims

Truly in Love With Lionel

It may be easy as Sunday morning to dis Lionel Richie. But why do that?

Various Artists

Bad Boys II: The Soundtrack (Bad Boy/Universal)

What Else Is On?

The Simpsons' new season opens with a whimper not a bang

Multiple Artists

Our writers clean out the CD bin

Jimmy Eat World, Sparta, Cave-In

September 13

Latin Beat

Plus: Angry Americans, Plague Year, A Sucker Born

Lenny Kravitz, Pink, Abandoned Pools

August 15

Trials and Tribu-lations

Austin-based salsa orchestra marries ghetto funk with barrio spice

Crit & Shap

You wanted the worst--you got it!

106.1 KISSmas Jingle Ball

December 7

Out There

Fire & Skill: The Songs of the Jam

Live from New York?

Saturday Night Live and DreamWorks Records team up for two not-ready-for-prime-time compilations

Summer suns and some aren't

Going steady with the singles of the summer

Buzz

What's the frequency, Abby?; The buck stops here

Mitch Marine, All Star

Or, how to join a pop band you really like

Roadshows

Fifteen nailsin the coffin

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

Roadshows

Reviews