Pete Freedman

Night Three of Austin City Limits '11: If You're Gonna Go Out, You Better Go Out With a Bang.

Pete FreedmanArcade Fire played a familiar set to end Austin City Limits 2011. But it was still thrilling.​ The hot sun from the morning of Day Three at the 2011 Austin City Limits Music Festival persisted well into the afternoon and evening at Zilker Park. But with the festival end looming and pl ... More >>

ACL Night Two (With Pics!): The Calm of Stevie Wonder Meets The Storm of My Morning Jacket

Pete FreedmanTV on the Radio's Tunde Adebimpe, possibly among those disappointed in what would later happen with Stevie Wonder's set. Kind of an awkward second night at the 2011 Austin City Limits Music last night. The worst part: It could've been great. Alas, in the end, not so much. But, sure enou ... More >>

Day Three of Austin City Limits '11: Dallas-Born Ruby Jane Kicks Thing Off and The Sun is Back

Pete FreedmanDallas-born 16-year-old Ruby jane kicked off Saturday's proceedings in fine fashion.​ After a lackluster Saturday, things are already heating up on Sunday afternoon at Zilker Park. Actually, they were plenty hot in the morning, too: Temperatures soared into the '90s, but, more importa ... More >>

Last Night at ACL (With Pics!): Kanye West Is The Best Performer You'll See, Just Ask Him.

Kanye WestBud Light Stage -- Austin City LimitsSeptember 16, 2011Better than: what you probably heard about the show, unless you heard it from Kanye.Pete FreedmanKanye West​It didn't take long for Kanye West to buy into his own hype last night, as he headlined the first night of the 2011 Austin Ci ... More >>

Welcome to ACL '11: Zilker Warms Up For A Big First Night; It's Already Buzz-Thirty, Dudes.

Pete FreedmanCold War Kids tear down that first-day ACL wall.​Off in the distance, the song of the summer, Foster the People's can't-stop-won't-stop "Pumped Up Kicks," is blasting away over Zilker Park, blaring from the P.A. over at the Google (nee Dell) Stage. There's a marvelous tag-team effort ... More >>

Picture Show: Locals Only! with Soviet and Sealion

All photos by Pete FreedmanSoviet and Sealion both put their best foot forward last night.​Quite the time at the Jack Daniel's Saloon last night at the third installment of our monthly Locals Only! series. Best one yet, even.No, there was no mechanical bull this time around (our bad), but such add ... More >>

Last Night: Black Lips and Vivian Girls at The Loft

Black Lips, Vivian GirlsThe LoftApril 28, 2011Better than: holding your dirty hand.Pete FreedmanBlack Lips!​ You can tell that the Black Lips have been around for almost a decade at this point. It's clear from the very start of their performance -- although not necessarily because their offerings ... More >>

Download: Clay Pendergrass Passes Along Three "Pete Freedman's A Bitch" Remixes

​ At the risk of giving too much attention to a song aimed at bringing me down, I feel compelled to speak on the matter of "Pete Freedman's A Bitch" once more this morning, simply due to the fact that one enterprising area musician took the time to take me up on my halfhearted call for someone to ... More >>

Watch: "PETE FREEDMAN'S A B*ITCH THE MUSIC VIDEO"

Today's a proud one for me, as -- finally! -- my likeness has been immortalized in music video form, courtesy of an anonymous YouTuber who goes by the username "DallasOdserver" and whose interests include "Exposing Pete Freedman and everything bad about Dallas Texas [sic]." The point of the above vi ... More >>

140-Character SXSW 2011 Show Reviews: Mind Spiders, Bad Sports, Strange Boys, Curren$y, Big K.R.I.T., Odd Future (Yes, Again) and Z-Trip with LL Cool J

Pete FreedmanLL Cool J is hard as hell.​Well, we made it through another SXSW alive -- and not without seeing some of the best performances we'd seen all weekend on Saturday night.So, on that note, after the jump, we once more hit the ol' 140-character show review model we've been trusting all wee ... More >>

The Must-See Acts at 35 Conferette

I Want to Ride My Bicycle, or: On Days Like Today, It Pays to Be Car-Free in Big D

Andrea GrimesThe dog days of winter: the scene in Deep Ellum this morning​To the Dodge Ram driver who was futilely spinning his wheels on the Woodall Rodgers Freeway exit ramp this morning; the Lexus driver who locked her brakes and whirled her car across Maple Avenue; and the Ford 150 driver who ... More >>

Our Critics' Year-End Top Tens: Music Editor Pete Freedman Finds Plenty Beautiful About Kanye West's Dark Twisted Family

In this week's paper, you may notice a piece including some of our DC9 writers' choices for best albums of the year. But, space being limited, we couldn't run all of our writers' lists. So, thanks to the power of the Internet, we're doing just that, right here.​Music ed ... More >>

The Best National Album Releases of 2010

Last Night: Guided by Voices Kick Off Their "Classic" Lineup Reunion Tour at Dallas' Palladium Showroom

Guided by VoicesPalladium ShowroomSeptember 29, 2010Better than: watching almost any other group of men in their 50s get drunk in front of a large number of people.Pete FreedmanGuided by Voices​It's been 16 years since the "classic" line-up of Guided By Voices graced the stage together, and, appar ... More >>

Our 22nd annual music awards honor a thriving, collaborative scene that's finally getting its due.

Gig Alert: Freedman, Wilonsky and Grimes Bring Snark Off Blog, Into The Loft

http://www.myspace.com/rockstarkaraoke​Typically, us Observer peeps keep our ever-simmering hearts of hate hidden behind the gentle curtain of the written word. But, tonight, we are coming out from behind our mixed metaphor to make an exception for you, our readers, whosoever of you are foolish en ... More >>

Giveaway: A Pair Of Passes To See Passion Pit Perform at the Palladium

The five electro-pop gurus that form Passion Pit are touring the globe, offering up their infectious melodies and good times to audiences everywhere. This summer it's all about the U.S. of A--and the fun's making a stop at Dallas's own Palladium Showroom on Monday, June 21. And though, OK, the lyric ... More >>

School Of Seven Bells Announces Fall Tour, Includes Stop at Hailey's Club in Denton

In hometown-boy-done-good news, we just received a press release announcing School Of Seven Bells Fall headlining tour in support of their forthcoming album, Disconnect From Desire, which drops on July 13. Ben Curtis (formerly of local bands Captain Audio and Secret Machines) and identical twins All ... More >>

What It Was Like: Here We Go Magic, The Middle East, We Were Promised Jetpacks, Frightened Rabbit and Those Darlins

Night One of SXSW 2010 saw things kick off on quite the bitchin' note--and not just because of the big names. They were around, sure--Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, Broken Bells and Spoon all shared a stage at Stubb's (and a massive line to get in, natch)--but there was plenty else to see without ... More >>

Picture Show: Texas High School Rock Off at the House of Blues

Danny FulgencioIn the crowd at the House of Blues during Fly Away Hero's set Friday night.​Hundreds of hormonal teens and adoring parents rocked out to eleven local high school bands at the first annual Texas High School Rock Off at the House of Blues on Friday night.With industry professionals (l ... More >>

Our Critics List Their Fave Discs of '09

Dallas Observer Music Awards

Kid Rock, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Jonathan Tyler & The Northern Lights

Wednesday, July 1, at Superpages.com Center

Vampire Lounge Returns To The Coffin

Just months ago, Pete Freedman wrote about the reopened Vampire Lounge. Co-owners Jimi Fritz and Matt Story were confident the Harry Hines Boulevard club would succeed, despite thin crowd turnouts for national metal acts and the club's Halloween Bash. Unfortunately, the club never managed to overcom ... More >>

Poster of the Week: Everything at Flatstock 20.

Pete Freedman Art and rock come together at SXSW's 20th annual Flatstock.The bands may change from year to year, but one thing that always remains a constant joy at SXSW is Flatstock, the annual poster show at the Austin Convention Center. This year, the 20th annual showcase didn't disa ... More >>

What It Was Like: Chin Chin, Silversun Pickups, Amanda Blank, Thunderheist, Headlights, Asobi Seksu

Pete Freedman Thunderheist gets things moving at Club De Ville.Act: Chin Chin, a group of would-be yacht rockers from BrooklynWhere: Club De VilleWhat It Was Like: Trying to figure out if the whole thing was a joke or not, really. The band's blue-eyed soul sound was a little hokey, and no do ... More >>

Lets Talk | What Woodshed? | The Young and the Restless | Getting to NO | Buzz |Buyer Beware

Today In Music News: Skynyrds Loses Another Member, Joaquin Phoenix Is Doing A Bit (Maybe), Rachel Ray's Back At SXSW, Slayer and Manson To Tour Together

Your daily dose of national music news for Thursday, January 29, 2009... Lynyrd Skynyrd's keyboardist, Billy Powell, died at his Florida home at the age of 56.  It looks like the Joaquin Phoenix "rap career" could possibly be a hoax after all. I really hope it is because, well,  ... More >>

The End Of The End Of Year Lists: Pete Freedman's Favorite Albums And Singles Of 2008

Sure, 2008 may be done, but the list-making still continues... This year, five contributors to the Dallas Observer's music section were asked to participate in the Village Voice's annual Pazz & Jop critics' poll, which compiles the lists of hundreds of music critics across the country into one m ... More >>

The New Year Starts The New Year Off The Same Way It Ended The Last Year...

...which is to say that The New Year is still receiving plenty of love for its great self-titled 2008 release (and from people other than us!). Today, Stereogum returns to The New Year well to offer up a free mp3 of the song "MMV" from the band's recent disc. Furthermore, Matt Kadane gives the sit ... More >>

Best in Dallas Music, 2008: The Podcast

For whatever reason, we were feeling like a real team last week--so much so that we gathered up most of the music writing crew here at the Observer and packed everyone into my spacious fake college dorm room office to talk about our favorite local releases of the year (and to take very unlively pict ... More >>

Oh, And Tonight's Ice Cube Show? Canceled.

  Hope you watched Barbershop on Comedy Central this afternoon (no joke, it just finished up a few minutes ago), as that's the closest you'll get to seeing Ice Cube today. The Prophet Bar's Web site is now reporting that the show has been canceled. No word yet on any reschedules. --Pete Freedm ... More >>

A Few Local Freebies Across The Web Today...

Ozzy Love|Burning Bridge

Slideshow: Ozzfest 2008

Testing Their Metal

Taking a look and listen to the 20 bands confirmed for the Ozzfest bill

Poster Of The Week: Will Johnson, Micah P. Hinson, Emil Rapstine

North of the Dial

U.S. Air Guitar Championships Coming to Dallas; Guess Who’s Judging?

The Brave Combo-Scored As The Wrench Turns Premieres Tonight At 7 O'clock

The Theater Fire: Brilliant. And Now Very, Very, Very Generous.

Y'all Know What This Is: 21-Year-Old Sachse Resident Gets Primed For The Big Time

Edie and Norah Sounded Awful Good

Denton's Brave Combo To Provide Theme, Score For PBS' First Animated Prime Time Series

John Freeman: Born to Rock Opera

Evangelicals, Headlights, Gentlemen Auction House

In Da House

We've Got a New Music Editor

This Shirt Dry Enough for Ya?