He plopped down on one of the rickety chairs on the sidewalk in front of J & J’s Pizza with a copy of the Dallas Observer, and after lighting his cigarette, he flipped through its pages. He stopped at North of the Dial. My ego could barely contain itself. Why?…

On Friday night, St Vincent headlined a rather highbrow affair in The Allen Room of New York’s Lincoln Center, providing a scenic fifth-floor view of Manhattan’s Columbus Circle as a backdrop for Annie Clark and her band–as well as a few very exciting special guests. How exciting? Well, yesterday, Pitchfork…

Well, despite a slow turnout early on in the evening, Saturday’s Spune 2K10 Winter Dance Party featuring Neon Indian, Ishi, and a slew of others turned out to be exactly the massive soirée that many predicted it would be. If you weren’t there, well, then you missed out on a…

“It’s a party at a Rodeo, man!” Big J shouted over Miley Cyrus’ “Party in the U.S.A.” during last week’s Back to School Bash at Rockin Rodeo. The crowd went wild. Wild. And, honestly, there’s nothing quite like seeing a dance floor packed with a couple hundred folks dancing in…

When an all-local bill leads to a sell-out crowd on a cold Saturday night, one usually expects to see a well-established act atop the bill. But that wasn’t the case during Yeahdef’s recent “Fresh Faces” event at Dan’s Silverleaf. In fact, more than 225 people showed up to catch three…

As eventful as 2009 proved for Darktown Strutters’ Kara Howell and Wes Darrin, 2010 looks to be an even more impressive year for the now Oak Cliff-based “satanic-disco” duo that’s been playing shows seemingly every few days for the last few months. For starters, the band is in talks with…

In the last year, The River Mouth has refined its sound to such a degree that even the experimental psychedelic rock outfit’s fans, friends or family would be forgiven for not recognizing the band by sound alone. Leaving the jazzier stuff behind, The River Mouth has moved into a deeper,…

In less than a week since its release, Play Pinball! Record’s compilation album Denton Denton USA! has already sold over a hundred copies. And, according to the label, Denton’s Recycled Books has “sold out” twice and needed to replenish–which, OK, only means about dozen copies or so, but, keep in…

Though many were captivated by Lars Larsen’s performance during last Monday’s Neon Indian gig at the Granada Theater in Dallas, few in the crowd were necessarily aware of Larsen tinkering away in the balcony. Sure enough, it was Larsen who treated a local crowd to the visual component (finally) of…

The posters and online invites promoting Hailey’s Club’s upcoming “New Wave New Year’s Eve” event each tell the story concisely enough: The party will serve as “DJ G’s Last ’80s Dance Night.” And, as advertised, after ringing in the New Year with what will undoubtedly be a memorable final set,…

In the last two weeks, two Denton-based acts received contracts from the Sacramento-based Waaga Records, a brand-new subsidiary/sister label of Lefse Records. (Yeah, the same Lefse Records who signed Neon Indian and Denton-based Sunnybrook.) So far, of the two acts that Waaga’s courted, Bryce Isbell’s futuro-lounge act FUR has already…

It’s not unusual in Denton for a crowd to possess a certain anticipatory electricity when a new band finally emerges from its rehearsal space to grace a stage or living room with a performance, but the crowd at Rubber Gloves was positively buzzing half-way through Oh Lewis’ recent set. It…

This week, denton Deluxe officially released the fifth volume in its ongoing series of compilation CDs featuring local music. And, like the previous four editions, Volume 5 delivers a few selections from every nook and cranny of Denton’s diverse tableau of musical genres. Take the first three cuts, for example,…

Tonight’s official release party for denton Deluxe Volume 5 (featuring Peopleodian, Kashioboy and Slack Beat) kicks off the first in a series of ongoing showcases put together by denton Deluxe’s Chad Withers. Check out this week’s North of the Dial for more on the compilation as well as for more…

Lately, some of the shows popping up on Dan’s Silverleaf’s concert calendar have seemed a little out-of-step and more lo-fi, ambient and/or indie-trendy than the typical folk, roots and Americana fare the venue usually books. So far, it’s a welcome refinement of Dan’s docket—and there’s a perfectly good explanation for…

Since 2006, Denton-based artist Bryce Isbell’s been steadily self-releasing experimental recordings–51 full-length albums and EPs worth of self-released material to date (according to this Facebook page). His first release, Downstairs Room, consisted of a single 45-minute-long freak-folk track that Isbell describes as “experimental electro-acoustic.” Sounds like fun, right? Well, even…

Last Saturday night, at Hailey’s Club in Denton, The Slow Burners celebrated the release of the band’s debut full-length, This Is Where We Fight. And in doing so, the band blazed through every one of the album’s tracks, from toe-tappers like “Think of Me” to, what the band really excels…

Sleep Whale’s debut full-length, Houseboat, smacks of an uncanny maturity that seems far beyond most acts’ first full-length offerings. From the album’s electro-acoustic opener “Green Echo” to folk-gaze gem “Sleep Reprise” through the positively space-age sounds of “Still Drumming” and “Giant Wings,” Joel North and Bruce Blay skillfully weave cello,…

Local punks, music fans and 7-inch collectors alike are in for a rare treat this Saturday as The Wax Museums play the band’s first, last and only show of the year at The Lion’s Den. The proof: As of last Wednesday night, Jason Kelly’s hands boasted some pretty gnarly, strawberry-sized…