Next year will be the 30th anniversary of the inception of They Might Be Giants. Extremely impressive stuff. What’s even more impressive is that the band has averaged one full-length record every two years and critical acclaim along the way. They’re celebrating the occasion, of course, with a tour. And…
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 Album, Best Electronic/Dance and Best Punk…
For those in attendance at The Gin Mill last night for the Beefeater 24 Mixology competition, any memory of exactly what transpired is a little spotty. After all, 13 area mixologists turned up for the event with their own Beefeater 24 concoctions, in hopes of winning the $1,000 first prize,…
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 Group, Best Blues and Best Hard…
We’re getting in a Dallas Observer Music Awards tizzy here at DC9 at Night headquarters. The whole thing will come to a head just two weeks from tomorrow, when we announce the winners during the free-to-attend awards ceremony at the House Of Blues on Tuesday, October 18.On that note, this…
It’s difficult to pick the top show this weekend. There’s just a lot going on. All over the place, too. For instance, if you take the elevator up to the thirteenth floor, you’ll probably run into troubled genius, Roky Erickson, who is headlining at The Kessler Theater tonight. However, if…
Panda Bear, Silent Diane, BotanyGranada TheaterSeptember 27, 2011Better than: staring into a blinking strobe light while listening to anything else. In some regards, it’s kind of hard to see why Noah Lennox, the man behind Panda Bear, is the king of the blogosphere these days. It’s not like the guy…
It would be a stretch to say that this week’s show announcements are all that strong. There are some notable ones — though perhaps not for the right reasons. For instance: On Sunday, November 20, the Palladium Ballroom has Korn and a handful of opening acts with names that don’t mean…
Last week we ran a quick item about American Idol contestant, Tim Halperin, and his publicity stunt leading up to the release of his new record, Rise & Fall. He was to sit in a mock jail cell at Plano’s Shops At Legacy for 28 hours leading up the expiration…
Sixteen years ago this week, Lisa Loeb was suffering a massive fame hangover. She was a year removed from her one and only hit song, “Stay” clogging the radio waves and the charts. It started as a cute, sweet number; morphed into a record-breaking hit; then it devolved into a…
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 tomorrow night along with…
The five members of Midlake are revered recording artists, MOJO award-winners for best live act and, now, bar owners.Less than a month from now — sometime in early October — the Midlake boys will open up shop on the third floor of the building that currently houses Andy’s Bar in Denton…
On the heels of an incredible performance at Austin City Limits Music Festival last weekend, My Morning Jacket have announced that they’ll be taking their show on the road. And, thankfully, since they skipped North Texas on the first leg of their Circuital album tour, they’ll be at the Verizon…
For nearly two decades, cinematic Manchester act Elbow have been fairly silent in the U.S., despite drawing comparisons to Coldplay, Doves, and Radiohead. Meanwhile, their five records have earned critical acclaim back in the U.K. Their last two — Build A Rocket Boys! and The Seldom Seen Kid, were both…
Before this weekend, I’d never been to Austin City Limits Music Festival. Actually, I’d never been to any outdoor music festivals the scale of ACL. I’ve probably been to eight or nine South By Southwests, and, before heading down to Austin this weekend, I hypothesized that ACL wouldn’t be my…
Now that Austin City Limits Music Festival is in the rear view mirror, all we have are the memories. That is, unless you spent the weekend drunk and high, in which case you might not even remember who performed, let alone what they said between the songs.Lucky for you, we…
This week back in 1997, Texas blues man Robert Ealey was already a legend. He had worked with the likes of Stevie Ray Vaughan, T Bone Burnett, and Jim Suhler, and when this story was written, he had just released a most masterfully titled record, I Like Music When I…
Arcade Fire Austin City Limits Music Festival September 18, 2011 Better than: having to sit through an Eagles set at the end of ACL. On Sunday Night at Zilker Park, the largest crowd of the weekend converged on the Bud Light stage, where Arcade Fire was scheduled to play the one and…
And just like that, the heat returned. The hot sun beat down on the wet grass, creating an inescapable humidity in Zilker Park on Sunday. As such, the people came prepared to sweat it out. The same guys hawking ponchos yesterday now had packets of sunscreen for sale at a “discount”…
My Morning JacketAMD Stage — Austin City LimitsSeptember 17, 2011Better than: about 99 percent of any other concerts I’ve ever seen. Is My Morning Jacket the best live band on the planet? In the universe? They sounded like it on Saturday night at Austin City Limits Music Festival as they…
As the performances began at Zilker Park, they were accompanied by a much-needed downpour as venders, outside and in the festival, struggled for their piece of the poncho market-share. On the plus side — and it’s a very plus side — the rain brought relief to an area of Texas…
Coldplay AMD Stage — Austin City LimitsSeptember 16, 2011 Better than: waiting for Coldplay to release a Greatest Hits album. It would be a pretty hipster thing to say that the Coldplay show at Austin City Limits Music Festival on Friday was cheesy and overly sincere. But you won’t actually…
