Folkwave is a far cry from the style of Bob Dylan or Woody Guthrie, but this dreamy, psychedelic, contemporary cousin of the once harmonica- and acoustic guitar-driven genre is just as cathartic to listen to and has just as much to say. Take Field Division, a Nashville-bred duo who recently…
We don’t really need to keep mentioning the dumpster fire that is 2020, but let’s go ahead and add one more thing to that growing list: a coin shortage. Yep, those seemingly obsolete pieces of copper and silver that end up in the cracks of our couches and awkwardly fall…
If keeping the family indoors during a pandemic wasn’t excuse enough to start introducing your kids to good music, maybe the scorching summer heat will be. It’s July, live music is all but canceled (again) and most of our kids are likely feeling a little bored right about now. If…
Thanks to the fine folks in the local music scene, we’re able to keep up this weekly list of live and live-streamed shows. Without ’em, this long, hot summer would seem endless and would definitely be less interesting. Catch several livestreams or any of the three live shows this week,…
Austin-based country artist Clayton Gardner was playing an acoustic set last Friday at Texican Court in Las Colinas when an audience member wandered up to him and asked if he could play a song by Lee Ann Womack. “You could ask that from 7 feet away,” said Gardner, whose bandana…
Remember that story last week about the 6-year-old boy who saved his little sister from a German Shepherd and had to get 90 stitches? The Avengers fan went viral, even getting a phone call from Captain America himself, Chris Evans. These are just the kind of stories that make us…
Eric Pulido and Ranger Ewing knew years ago they wanted to go into business together, even if it was just in a dimly lit garage for several hours a day. It would still mean time spent outside of their then full-time jobs elsewhere. Today, though, they’re thankful for more light…
Let’s hope your internet provider’s got some speed since our new way of enjoying live music mostly involves computer or television screens. Many artists are hustling to get their sets stream-worthy, and we should be grateful that’s even an option. So, while we wait longer to start paying cover prices,…
This week, we’re back to livestreams and half-capacity live concerts (as long as the joints operate as a restaurant). Hey, at least we can justify more nights of living room dance parties with or without pants on. But don’t forget to support these talented folks. Most live streamed shows have…
We celebrate Father’s Day this month not just with tacky new neckties or economy-sized packs of whitey tighties, but through the power of music, songs written by loving dads that amplify the father-child bond. We’ve included dads of all stripes — chart toppers from decades past to local songwriters who’ve shared…
Wavers, rejoice: It’s time to show our kids that being a little weird isn’t a bad thing. In fact, it’s pretty cool. If your child shows interest in the experimental or the obscure and prefers to march to the beat of his or her own synthesizer, this list is your…
With the rest of the school year canceled, many parents will be at home with the kids indefinitely. Home schooling is already hard enough, but teaching music doesn’t have to be, especially the type of music education they likely won’t get when the class bell rings again. This week we…
If there’s one universal truth to parenting, it’s that whatever songs your kid listens to will end up on repeat in your head at 3 a.m. Most of the time we’re fighting off tunes about frogs or balloons or shapes from Little Baby Bum, or we’re reluctantly humming a particularly…
Two seemingly opposite, long-standing Denton bands will both headline what’s being dubbed as a “polka punk apocalypse” at the Granada Theater on March 21: polka legends Brave Combo and punk band Wee Beasties. Richard Haskins, frontman of Wee Beasties, says the show is “one of those things totally by accident.” The…
They say girls run the world, and anyone who spends time exploring the entertainment scene throughout North Texas will especially appreciate that sentiment. We’ve got talented ladies in spades around here, so it was about time an event highlighting all-female or female-fronted acts came around. Last year, the Denton-based nonprofit…
“When can you have that Neil Diamond story in?” my editor asks as I begin to leave the office at the end of the day. She sighs after making the tired mistake. “I mean, the Morrissey one … I think Vegas and I think Neil Diamond.” This pretty much sums…
In a few months, a bunch of testosterone-loving men will host a convention in Florida aimed at teaching women how to be great –– great wives, great mothers and great sexual objects. It’s called The 22 Convention: Make Women Great Again, and we can’t quite wrap our minds around it…
There’s a war on sugar cookies, and it’s not just my keto diet, although I all but completely abandoned my sugar-free lifestyle for the yuletide season when I saw these delicious floofs of sugary dough and frosting spanning all colors of a pastel rainbow on seemingly every end-cap in grocery…
Last month, an ad depicting a husband gifting his wife an exercise bike pissed off a lot of people. And as if there isn’t enough senseless outrage over innocuous things today, allow us to explain what a waste of time it is to be upset over this 30-second Peloton commercial…
It doesn’t take a comic book nerd to see the significance that the genre’s had on pop culture over the years. And thanks to Hollywood blockbuster movies, you don’t even have to read comics anymore to know the stories of popular characters like Batman, Superman and Iron Man. But real…
Backyard on Bell shuttered unexpectedly Tuesday, leaving many concertgoers of the beloved Denton music venue and bar taking to social media with speculations over why. Owner Scott Bonfield confirmed to the Observer that the venue closed for good, but declined to elaborate because of legal reasons. “We’re just calling it…
It’s long been understood that hindsight is 20/20, making it no surprise that each generation takes its turn criticizing the one before it. Today, millenials are the poster children of political correctness and cancel culture, warriors of climate change who spit in the face of hypocrisy and corruption in government…
