The Gourds

The 10 Greatest Alt-Country Bands Ever

With Jay Farrar and Son Volt playing at the Sons of Hermann Hall this weekend, it seems a good time to evaluate the entire Alt-country semi-movement. For all practical matters, Alt-country began with Uncle Tupelo's album No Depression in 1990. Shortly thereafter, the magazine of the same name was pu ... More >>

Sore Losers & Marty B at Trees and the Rest of Your Weekend

Colin McDermottSore Losers​This weekend is a big one for Sore Losers, who are celebrating the release of their new EP, We Are Sore Losers, at Trees on Saturday night. Joining them on the bill is Dallas Cowboy Martellus "I Love Cap N Crunch" Bennett, as well as a host of other local hip-hop acts.If ... More >>

Dada Turns One, Willie Nelson at Billy Bob's Texas and This Weekend's Shows

​It feels kind of weird writing the words "Dada turns one," seeing as the place has been a Dallas rock and roll institution since I spent my Friday nights watching TGIF. Granted, that was only up until a few years ago, but the place has been around forever. In 2010, however, it closed and with a n ... More >>

Get To Know Your DOMAXXIII Nominees: Best Solo Act, Best Alt-Country/Roots Act, Best Country 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 Solo, Best Cou ... More >>

Neon Indian, Atmosphere, Jacuzzi Boyz, Erasure and This Weekend's Other Top Shows

Alan Palomo's take on Max Headroom.​With the recent release of their new record, Era Extraña, the once-Denton-dwelling members of Neon Indian are blowing up once again, which means now's as good a time as any to catch them. You can do just that tomorrow night, as they headline the Granada Theater ... More >>

Good Friday: Vans Warped Tour Launches During A Busy Weekend of Shows

It's already started!​It's that time of the year again, when the heat has all of our teenage angst at an all-time high. The folks behind the Vans Warped Tour planned accordingly with this year's installment of the fest, which will be at Gexa Energy Pavilion today. So, if you're extremely pissed at ... More >>

For Your Listening Pleasure: The Gourds (and Pogues, Snoop Dogg and VU) at Barleypalooza

​Amazing the things you find when you're not looking for them. Take this morning's accidental stumbled-across, for instance: The Gourds recorded in the old Barley House parking lot on June 1, 1997, during the third then-annual Barleypalooza musical marathon on N. Henderson. (Here's some video, for ... More >>

Watch: Johnny Rodriguez Joined The Gourds For An Impromptu Performance of "That's The Way Love Goes" at the Kessler on Friday Night

The folks who showed up at the Kessler Theater on Friday night to see The Gourds and The Naptime Shake perform got a nice little gift when, out of the blue, Johnny Rodriguez stopped by the venue, seemingly on a whim, and ended up performing his hit "That's The Way Love Goes" with the Austin-based h ... More >>

Good Friday: Alter Bridge, The Gourds, Slow Burners, West End Motel, Novaak, The O's, Derailers, Styx, Dub Assembly and More!

This guitar solo, brought to you by Ed Hardy.​With the holidays behind us, we can welcome back our regularly scheduled touring bands. Not the best way to kick off the first weekend of the year, though, is tonight's performance by former Creed members, Alter Bridge, at Trees. Yes, turds will be sho ... More >>

Good Friday: The Hood Internet, The Gourds, Air Review, Dead Meadow, The Eagles, Chicago, Femme Fest, The Orbans, Sir Silky, Early Republic, and others...

Clayton HauckThe Hood Internet​The Hood Internet is playing The Loft tonight, and as Pete explained earlier in the week, "White people really like hearing their favorite rap lines placed over their favorite indie rock anthems," which is what The Hood Internet does really well. And since the theme ... More >>

Giveaway: Two Pairs Of Tickets To See The Gourds Tomorrow Night at the Granada Theater

First time I interviewed The Gourds' Kevin Russell I asked him, of course, about his band's "Gin and Juice" cover. I think it's a requirement actually. Fair enough: The band's had some great moments--and probably more musically impressive ones--over the course of its career, but there's little doubt ... More >>

Maybe Brave Combo Will Give Us A Ride To The Old Settler's Music Festival...

​This year, the Old Settler's Music Festival takes place, as it always does, at Salt Lick Pavilion & Camp Ben McCulloch, just south of Austin, from Thursday, April 15, through Sunday, April 18. It's an event that's always heavily tilted towards acts that land securely in the alt-country and/or ... More >>

Haiti Benefit Concerts Scheduled In Austin And Dallas, And Paste 'Songs For Haiti' Downloads Include Fort Worth Band

Fort Worth's The Burning Hotels are among the artists available for download once you donate to Paste Magazine's Songs For Haiti.​Perhaps the best thing about the local music scene is how generous North Texas musicians are when it comes to benefit concerts and other ways of donating to worthy char ... More >>

For Your Weekend Listening: Live Gourds!

​Sorry I didn't make it out to The Gourds show at the Granada on Saturday; had every intention, as it's been too long. And I was just thinking about the boys -- came across the Picket Line Coyotes' '88 cassette Upholstery Van Songs right before Christmas in a Sound Warehouse crate full of demo tap ... More >>

Weekend Roundup: The Crash That Took Me, The Rural Alberta Advantage, The Gourds, Emery

The Crash That Took Me at Art Conspiracy 5 on Saturday, December 12:A pretty high quality, well-edited video here featuring the emcee stylings of Paul Slavens, the auctioneering prowess of Happy Bullet/cycling advocate/Oak Cliff activist Jason Roberts, the art of Art Conspiracy 5 and the stage prese ... More >>

Giveaway: Two Pairs of Tickets To The Gourds Saturday At Lola's Sixth In Fort Worth

​"We're Bill Burroughs meets Jerry Lee Lewis at the funeral of Robert Johnson on the Millennium Falcon piloted by Joe Strummer and Neil Young," says The Gourds' Kevin "Shinyribs" Russell in an interview with William Michael Smith in this week's issue of the print product. He goes on to describe t ... More >>

Good Friday: Art Conspiracy 5, El Ten Eleven, Destry, Brave Combo, Dave Burrell, In This Moment, Sister Hazel and Underoath

​Plenty going on this weekend, not the least of which includes Art Conspiracy 5 tomorrow, featuring performances from Telegraph Canyon, RTB2, The Crash That Took Me and The Boom Boom Box. Unfortunately, we don't have much time this afternoon to expound on too many of this weekend's doings. So let' ... More >>

The Gourds Keep On Keeping On

Show Announcements: Brave Combo Family Christmas Bash, More

​Denton's own Grammy-winning, Simpsons-appearing, Bob Dylan-inspiring, nuclear polka-creating Brave Combo will brave the elements 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday, December 12, for an outdoor poolside performance at the Belmont Hotel. But the real star of the Belmont and Smoke Family Christmas Bash will ... More >>

Cross Canadian Ragweed's 4th Annual Red Dirt Roundup

Saturday, September 5, at Fort Worth's Historic Stockyards

Good Friday: RTB2, Tantric, The Weight, MATAS, This Old House, The Gourds, Grant Jones, Hawk Vs. Dove, Shaolin Death Squad, Bad Veins, The Black and White Years

​Another week bites the dust, which leads us to this weekly inevitability of us offering up our top choices for musical entertainment each weekend. And, well, there's a lot this weekend, actually, so hold on tight. First up, as always, a reminder of the shows we've already hyped up plenty...Tonigh ... More >>

Super Cool Music-Related Father's Day Gift Ideas, Guys!

You want to show your dad you really love him? Well, stop being a cheap ass and buying those lame hallmark cards. Get your dad a gift that makes up--at least a little--for all the shit you gave the old guy. Here are some music-related gift ideas that are guaranteed to have pops thinking he raise ... More >>

Poster Of The Week: Dirtfoot, Warren Jackson Hearne and Starhead

This week's featured poster is for the Dirtfoot, Warren Jackson Hearne and Starhead show at J&J's Pizza tomorrow night, part of the NX35 festival. Starhead's Ira Wile designed this poster, which, he explains via e-mail, was "cannibalized from some Russian thingy from the 1800's." Borrowed image ... More >>

Line Up Announced for Austin's 22nd Annual Old Settler's Music Festival

Hubbard's on the Old Settler's bill.A lot of you may be asking yourself--just as I just asked myself--what in hell's name an Old Settler's Music Festival is. But before getting dismissive about anything not called SXSW, you might want to check out the line up for this shindig.Over a four-day period ... More >>

Last Night: The Gourds At The Granada Theater

The Gourds, Two Tons of Steel, Hosty DuoGranada TheaterDecember 30, 2009 Better than: Spending the night before New Year's Eve shelling black-eyed peas with my relatives. Mike Alves In its annual pre-New Years Eve concert, The Gourds performed a typically well-played and enthusiastic set of o ... More >>

Gig Alert: Tonight's Americana Dilemma

Quite the packed night-before-New Year's Eve we have tonight, huh? You may have already read my interview with Kevin from The Gourds as they play (along with the great Two Tons of Steel) this evening at The Granada, but the bill at the House of Blues is also quite mighty: Old 97's, The Drams and The ... More >>

The Gourds' Kevin Russell Doesn't Understand Why People Like His Music Or Why He Has To Share The Spotlight With The Rest Of His Band. (Only He's Not As Sensational About It.)

Tomorrow evening at The Granada Theater, The Gourds will perform its annual night-before-New Year's Eve concert in Dallas. Seems the band likes playing its hometown of Austin on December 31st, so we get the night before. Either way is fine with me because, even after fourteen years, The Gourds are s ... More >>

Weekend Roundup: Ruthie Foster, The Gourds, Vanilla Ice, Death Cab for Cutie

The Gourds

Friday, June 20, at the Granada Theater

Mayfest featuring Doug Burr, 100 Damned Guns, The Gourds, Gin Blossoms and more

Thursday, May 1, through Sunday, May 4, at Trinity Park, Fort Worth

Randy Weeks Lands in Texas to Find His Muse and Room to Move

Musical Portraits

Goldberg captures Texas' best

Scoring Texas

The Gourds are back in town

The Gourds

Heavy Ornamentals (Eleven Thirty)

WakeUp Fest

Saturday, April 2, at North Texas State Fairgrounds

Odds & Ends

Festivals abound this spring; enter our caption contest and win...something

The Gourds

Blood of the Ram (Eleven Thirty)

Let's do it again, one more time

He's about a mover

Doug Sahm may spend his summers in Canada, but he's still a Texas tornado

Dreamland

Jon Dee Graham almost gave up on music; good thing it didn't give up on him

Glory Hallelujah

After working the Picket Line, Kevin Russell and the Gourds finally make a record as good as they are

Up on Cripple Creek

Chris Flemmons is finally moving upstream with his band, the Baptist Generals

Hot Damnations

Leave it to two Yankee sisters to kick it TX style

Out Here

Night & Day

June 11 - 17, 1998

Dream a little dream

During South by Southwest, the harsh reality is always a free drink away

Ten albums I played a lot in 1997

Spirit of '96

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

Out Here

Roadshows