Quite the alt-rock line up tonight at the Prophet Bar–especially for a Monday. Headlining what is sure to be a lengthy evening of music is St. Louis’ Story of the Year. These husky Midwesterners have been churning out anthemic and earnest post-hardcore (under a couple of different names) for the…
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 Americana…
Though the band hails out of Los Angeles, Red Sparowes plays music more akin to the cold, concrete landscape of Chicago: Forsaking vocals all together, Bryant Clifford Meyer and crew invest their “songs” with a post-rock/metal vengeance that should thrill fans of acts such as Mono and Jesu. Matter of…
At first, it was as it has been since the advent of rock ‘n’ roll—harmless, relatively small collections of musicians playing the current day’s hits at weddings and high school reunions. These were folks involved with local bands that played original songs in seedy nightclubs all across town. Problem was,…
Even though the band hails from Chattanooga, Tennessee, Jettison Never hasn’t a country or southern rock bone in its collective body. Instead, the trio led by brothers Matt and Josh Gilbert mines the modern sounds of Mute Math, Coldplay and Kings of Leon in its search for mainstream success. And,…
For almost two decades, Atlanta’s Sevendust has been making a righteous noise, a heady and heavy metal concoction that resulted in three consecutive gold albums, from 1997 through 2001. But after the departure of guitarist and founding member Clint Lowery, the band’s fortunes began to change. Management and label snafus,…
Killola is a Los Angeles-based garage-pop quartet that reminds me a lot of the ’80s new wave band The Motels (who were also from Los Angeles, go figure)–and it’s not just because both bands have semi-hot female singers. Besides appearing in such TV shows as The King of Queens and…
Australia’s dynamic duo of Kate Cooper and Damon Cox–better known as An Horse–appears to have survived SXSW 2010. And they’ll be making an appearance tonight in Denton in the wake of that festival. It’s worth checking out, too: The duo’s salty take on indie pop has gathered them all sorts…
With Pete down in Austin attending to all things SXSW, it falls to me to come up with some show recommendations for our area. And there’s a lot of stuff going on. Tomorrow brings a Dillinger Escape Plan show to The Granada Theater, and Sunday is especially busy with 97.9’s…
Local metal band Maleveller released its debut EP in January, yet frontman Brian Smith (who bartends at the Lounge on Elm Street) just informed me that the band is already going back into the studio to record a debut, full-length. To celebrate (and to promote Maleveller’s show tonight at the…
Although certainly not one of the bigger names involved in this year’s SXSW festivities, Rocko Dorsey (playing tonight at Andy’s Basement Bar & Grill in Denton) is still an enjoyable national act stopping in our area on the way to Austin. Hailing from Upstate NY, the band is called Rocko…
Ohio’s Two Cow Garage can occasionally sound a hell of a lot like Dallas’ own alt-country legends in Slobberbone. Problem is, Micah Schnabel, leader of Two Cow Garage, doesn’t see the alt-country tag as necessarily a good thing. “These days, I’d just as soon see us known as just a…
One of the ten bands taking part in tonight’s Rite of Spring Fling concert at Hailey’s, Portland’s Quasi may also well be the elder statesman of the crowded bill. And the band certainly sounds like it. Since 1993, the ex-husband-and-wife team of Sam Coomes and Janet Weiss has been parlaying…
Although Brian Warren got his band’s name from a song by Mission of Burma, the surging punk-metal of Weatherbox has little in common with those legendary noise rockers from Boston. Hailing from San Diego, Weatherbox is basically Warren and whatever collection of side players he chooses to work with. And,…
Quite the eclectic and electric bill tonight at The Lounge on Elm Street. It’s always a good thing to get all these acts heading to SXSW, huh?Headlining is Brooklyn’s all female, pop/punk trio Vivian Girls, a youthful group of gals that has been around since 2007 and released Everything Goes…
Way, way back in the day (circa 1983), there was a great band hailing out of Los Angeles called the Long Ryders. Back then, nobody had even heard the term “alt-country.” So, when Sid Griffin and Stephen McCarthy started playing songs that sounded like the legendary Gram Parsons, people struggled…
Band: The WalkmenVenue: HaileysTime: 11:25 p.m.The buzz was loud and the venue packed last night in anticipation for one of the bigger bands taking part in this year’s version of NX35: New York City’s The Walkmen. Since I got to Hailey’s early, I happened to catch a couple members of…
Band: PomegranatesVenue: Hailey’s ClubTime: 9:30 p.m.Hailing out of Cincinnati, the youthful quartet known as Pomegranates made one of my favorite records of 2009, the wonderfully chaotic Everybody, Come Outside. This evening was my first chance to catch the band live, though–and it had me (and the fairly large contingent that…
Band: Slobberbone Venue: Dan’s SilverleafTime: 12:05 a.m. Slobberbone, the reigning godfather of local alt-country acts, hit the stage just a smidge past midnight and proceeded to play all of the band’s “hits” to a blissfully inebriated crowd. It’s a testament to Brent Best’s songwriting prowess that tunes he wrote over…
Band: The Low LowsVenue: Dan’s SilverleafTime: 11:05 p.m. Austin’s The Low Lows was a band I knew very little about. And few in the audience at Dan’s Silverleaf could enlighten me as to what to expect as the band made its way on stage. It was a rather large ensemble:…
Fans of Austin’s great alt-country act Reckless Kelly may remember my story that appeared in the print edition last month–y’know the one where I mentioned the band’s CD release party which was set to take place at the House of Blues on February 11?Well, the damn blizzard of 2010 canceled…
Local rock band EpiTas has called it a day. Here’s the dope from an email the band sent me last night:Times are changing and EpiTas founding members George Miadis and Bill Mantza have decided to go different directions. Each individual will pursue personal projects. Although EpiTas has ceased to be,…
