Leonard Cohen

The Sales Power of In-Store Performances

This is not your everyday Billboard chart. Each week, we'll tell you which bands are selling in the fine record shops in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, where we consumers of music have impeccable taste. CD Source owner, Lance Price, saw a combination of new releases and classic albums creep towar ... More >>

The O's Beat Out Phoenix at Local Record Stores

This is not your everyday Billboard chart. Each week, we'll tell you which bands are selling in the fine record shops in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, where we consumers of music have impeccable taste. Record Store Day is still having an effect on the sales at local independent record shops; how ... More >>

Singer Clint Niosi is Grateful for his Boring Job

Fort Worth singer-songwriter Clint Niosi, 33, works in the basement of a community college library doing on-site tech support and on-call tutoring. This does not sound fascinating, and I quickly see upon taking his invitation to meet him at his job that it really isn't. For about a half hour I watc ... More >>

Alan Light's new book explains how Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" went from obscurity to ubiquity

Clint Niosi Shouldered The Pain To Make For Pleasure and Spite

Clint Niosi's 2008 LP, The Sound of Dead Horses Beaten Against Cold Shoulders, was a fine album built around his voice and acoustic guitar, but its spareness made it feel like a bookend on something bigger. Even the artist himself admits that: "I felt in hindsight that perhaps it could have been ... More >>

Amanda Shires - Dan's Silverleaf - 3/24/12

Amanda Shires Dan's Silverleaf Saturday, March 24 It's a little surprising Amanda Shires isn't a country supernova yet, and more surprising she has no representation, not even a tiny indie label from her native Texas or current home of Nashville. She started playing the violin at the age of ten, an ... More >>

The Conversation: Is Playing Other People's Songs Respectable?

Dallas disco cover band Le Freak​A well-timed cover can be just the thing to take a band's live performance from good to great. But if the execution of the song is off, it could blow the whole set. On the flip side, although playing a cover is a risky move, sometimes the rewards can make an artist ... More >>

Up the Academy: Better News, For Some, in the Latest Version of DISD Staffing Formulas

​After the jump you'll find two things of note: the proposed 2011-'12 school year staffing formulas that could be voted on by the Dallas Independent School District trustees at their 5:30 p.m. board meeting today, and a music video featuring a young pianist and singer named Cameron Ordinario. He's ... More >>

Five Shows To Go See Tonight, Tonight

Quite the busy Thursday evening of music we have here. From classic singer-songwriter fare to a trio of quality alt-country acts, there's a little something for everyone on display tonight.

Staff Trax: Kris Kristofferson, The National, David Garza, Fear and Phil Collins

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 into ... More >>

Sarah Jaffe Covers Leonard Cohen For The Latest Gutterth Podcast. Also: A Giveaway!

As far as local podcasts go, it's real tough to beat the Gutterth Podcast, which this week released its 14th installment since launching in the spring of 2009. The new one's kind of a doozie, too, featuring previously unreleased tracks from Glen Farris, New Science Projects, The Angelus, Sabra Laval ... More >>

Giveaway: Two Pairs of Tickets to Tonight's Mark Growden Show at the Kessler Theatre

When outsider troubadour Mark Growden rolled through the region back in January, Jesse Hughey previewed the show--quite excitedly, I might add. Wrote Hughey:Mark Growden creates the kind of rich, evocative, cabaret-noir-Americana that thousands of Tom Waits imitators would give their porkpie hats ... More >>

Idol Rich: Yay for Queen and Enough With the "Hallelujah"

​I'm going to warn you, I am going to disagree with the American Idol judges today. Hard. So very hard. I realize you may not like it because you may be rooting for sweet-faced hipster-haired youngsters. But, I am not related to said youngsters and don't feel the need to support anyone who decides ... More >>

One Last Year-End List: 2009's Best Concerts

​Listen: My job description requires me to see a lot of concerts. More than is probably healthy, to be honest. I'm out at least three nights a week (often more like five or six) seeing local or national shows around town. Believe me, I'm not complaining. But, when you see that many shows a year, y ... 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 >>

Literary Christmas Bonus: Music-Related Books To Gift This Holiday Season

​Judging by the lines I faced while shopping at Borders this weekend, books are one of the top gift items this holiday season. And what better gift for the music geek in your life than a rock biography? This year, there have been several interesting life stories to hit the shelves. Here are three ... More >>

Year in Review: 2009's Best Alt-Country Proves that Yes, Willie Nelson is Still a Badass

We spent 2009 sorting through piles of folk and Americana releases, revising this list in our heads till the bitter end and failing repeatedly to understand the hype behind the Avett Brothers in the process. While a year of listening brought no shortage of pleasant surprises, our hands-down favorite ... More >>

Year in Review: 2009's Best Indie Records, the College Rockers Honor Roll

Yeah, pal, that's "college rock," scare quotes very much included. Look, it's a meaningless term. As are "indie," "alternative," "hipster," etc., etc. Let's not overthink this: Here we have ten splendid records with an amorphous rock 'n' roll designation, albeit in a perhaps slightly more experiment ... More >>

Weekend Roundup: Britney Spears, the Pussycat Dolls, Leonard Cohen, Hello Lover and Chamillionaire

Britney Spears @ the American Airlines Center, Tuesday, Mar. 31 This is the first edition of roundup since B. Spears graced the stage in Dallas last Tuesday. Bald and umbrella-wielding last year, the (un)disputed Princess of Pop has reclaimed her throne. Britney showed off her musicianship showma ... More >>

Over The Weekend: Leonard Cohen at Nokia Theatre

[Didn't get around to doing a Last Night review of the Leonard Cohen show over the weekend, but I'd be remiss to let the day go by without recapping it to some extent. So here goes...]Leonard CohenNokia Theatre, Grand PrairieApril 3, 2009Better than: Pretty much anything.In total, Leonard Cohen trea ... More >>

Good Friday: Riverboat Gamblers, Quintron, True Widow, Free Reign, Two Tons of Steel, Weener, Deep Ellum Arts Festival, Hoyotoho, Obscenely Unseen IV, Taproot

It's coming up on that time of the year...Sorry this is coming a little late, folks. Been busy around here all day. In fact, I just left our first planning meeting for the 2009 Dallas Observer Music Awards. What can I reveal? Well, we turn 21 this year, so there's that. Also, the showcase will ... More >>

Building Leonard Cohen's Backing Band

Britney Spears And The Greatest Music Comebacks Of All Time

Nicholas Altobelli

Waiting for the Flowers to Bloom (Self-released)

Nokia Lounge

Bublé croons to Grand Prairie

Minus Story, Shearwater

Friday, June 15, at Rubber Gloves, Denton

Leonard Cohen

Songs of Leonard Cohen
Songs From a Room
Songs of Love and Hate

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Elvis Perkins

Friday, April 27, at the Granada Theater

Our top DVD picks for the week of April 24

Our top DVD picks for the week of November 14

The Lollipop Shoppe Compilation Featuring The Klogz, White Drugs, Prayer for Animals, Mwanza Dover and others

(Self-released)

Pinebox Serenade, George Neal

Saturday, September 23, The Doublewide

The Walkmen

A Hundred Miles Off (Record Collection)

John Guliak

7 Stories and 13 Songs (Mint)

Madeleine Peyroux | William Galison & Madeleine Peyroux

Careless Love (Rounder) | Got You on My Mind (Wake Up Music)

Twist at the End

Sometimes the worst movies have the best soundtracks

Chris Botti

January 31

Crooked Fingers

April 17

Crooked Fingers

Red Devil Dawn (Merge)

Northern Exposure

Michael Winterbottom delivers a snowy, Wild West adaptation of Thomas Hardy

Sick, Not Twisted

Moments of brilliance are few and far between in this year's Spike and Mike

Under Ogre

Shrek offers an amusing, if empty, fractured fairy tale

Wonder bread

Curtis Hanson builds us a cheese sandwich out of Chabon's novel

Out Here

The Limes

Out There

Roasting Chesnutt

No one loves Vic Chesnutt like Vic Chesnutt

Out There

The baddest seed

Nick Cave digs in and gets his hands bloody

Reviews

Of Prince and spines

It doesn't matter if you Ween or lose, it's how you play their game