Last Night: Marc Ribot The KesslerDecember 1, 2011Better than: Not crying Listening to guitarist Marc Ribot have his way with a song is an adventure. The kind of adventure Griffin Dunne found himself on in the film After Hours. You think you’re going on a simple date, but before you…
Octopus Project, Analog RebellionNovember 12, 2011The Kessler TheaterBetter Than: Having Octopus Project play at your house party and having to clean up the mess. If limited to a single word regarding the live performance of Austin’s Octopus Project, that word would have to be exuberance. Its definition, “joyously unrestrained and…
Wild Flag, Drew Grow and The Pastors WivesThe LoftOctober 28, 2011Better than: only experiencing the album. At least every once in a while, a performance causes a person to reflect on that eternal question: “Did I waste my money on this?” While the age of digital music has made it…
In this week’s paper, we caught up with Mary Timony, the post-punk, guitar-playing darling of ’90s outfits Autoclave and Helium and currently of Wild Flag. That new outfit, unavoidably, has been given the supergroup tag thanks to its members’ impressive pasts. In addition to Timony’s credible past, the group also…
In many ways, Mary Timony is just now learning the tricks and pleasures performing live. The guitarist and co-vocalist of the all-female punk rock supergroup Wild Flag is two decades into a fairly successful career as a professional rock musician at this point. Her claim to fame is her lead…
Count Adam Granduciel among the ranks of musicians who have benefited greatly from the availability of affordable home recording technology. As the man behind Philadelphia-based The War On Drugs, Granduciel fondly recalls as the foundation for what has evolved into his career in music the countless hours he spent at…
Gang Gang Dance, Venus X and Shane Dada September 28, 2011 Better than: not paying attention and missing something clever. Sly is the word that best sums up last night’s show at Dada, which saw two groups from New York City presenting a seamless two-hour-plus performance of avant-garde electronic and…
Lizzie Bougatsos, singer and percussionist for genre-defying New York-based band Gang Gang Dance, is an artsy girl with lots of high-profile New York scenester friends. So maybe it should not have been a complete surprise to find Chloe Sevigny working the band’s merch table when they played Lola’s Saloon in…
The Horrors, StepkidsProphet Bar — Big RoomSeptember 20, 2011Better than: unpleasant surprises. The Horror’s new, third album, Skying, is hardly revelatory. But it’s decent enough. The same can be said of their live show, which came to the Prophet Bar’s big room in Deep Ellum last night…
TV on the Radio & Broken Social Scene House of Blues September 16, 2011 Better than: having a ticket with a “rain or shine” guarantee from the box office, only to have it cancelled at the last minute. As a general rule, when two bands with large fan bases of…
Handsome FursClub DadaAugust 27, 2011 Better than: getting all hot and bothered for nothing! The Handsome Furs are hot. Hotter even than the 100-plus degree evening air in Deep Ellum.They played hot music. They looked hot. Their love for each other and the fun they have performing together was hot. But…
Scattered Trees, The Alternate RoutesProphet BarAugust 8, 2011Better than: a band in a mismatched room on a quiet Tuesday. The four members of Chicago’s Scattered Trees took the stage at the Prophet Bar for a modest audience of perhaps 50 when they started their headlining set last night. Perhaps the…
SiaGranada TheaterAugust 7, 2011 Better than: watching someone with a gift trying to make it seem like work. I don’t know if Sia has been bestowed the nickname “The Voice.” She ought to, though. She certainly earned that title last night, performing before a sold out show at the Granada. And…
How does a talented songwriter cope with the death of his father? If you are Nate Eiesland, you write a suite of cathartic songs. Then you pull together the old friends whom you played with for years as the band Scattered Trees, despite the fact that the members have scattered…
Sia Furler, known simply as Sia, is a force of nature that seems to have somehow magically popped up in several of the more interesting cultural phenomena of the past decade. It was Sia you heard singing on Zero 7’s landmark album, Simple Things, which pretty much defined the down-tempo…
Iceage, Midnight SocietyRubber Gloves Rehearsal StudiosSunday, July 17, 2011Better than: Seeing punk poseurs that don’t deliver. Jesus fucking Christ! Last night the crowd at Denton’s Rubber Gloves Rehearsal Studios was treated to one of the most amazing personality transformations I’ve ever witnessed. The members of Iceage, and most particularly Elias…
Another week, another interesting musical export from Scandinavia invades our shores. This time, it’s Iceage, a band of 18- to 20-year-olds from Copenhagen making fiercely good punk music. Already, their June-released debut album, New Brigade, has been named as one of the top 40 best albums of the year so…
One of the better bars in Dallas to feature live music came to a sudden close last night. Well-located in Oak Cliff, just between the Oak Lawn and Kessler Park neighborhoods, Jack’s Back Yard, a re-purposed complex of buildings that formerly housed an auto repair center on West Commerce, Jack’s…
Manchester Orchestra, Cage the ElephantPalladium BallroomMay 29, 2011Better than: doing it by the numbers. Manchester Orchestra and Cage the Elephant are described as “co-headliners” on their current cross-country tour. Normally, that tag doesn’t always make sense. There’s always one act that outdraws the other. And let’s face it: Only one…
For the past few years, Cage the Elephant has been on a classic music industry roller coaster ride. Formed in Bowling Green five years ago, the band was signed in 2007 by the UK-based Relentless Records on the strength of an existing catalog of unreleased songs and wild live performances…
An HorseThe LoftMay 22, 2011Better than: Tying me kangaroo down, sport. Australian duo An Horse rode into town on the leading edge of last night’s storm system for a show at The Loft. The storm was a likely contributor to the smallish turn-out — 80 people, maybe. Blame the band…
Man Man, Shilpa Ray & Her Happy Hookers Sons of Hermann Hall May 6, 2011 Better Than: Wearing sunglasses at night. One of the images that comes to mind when I hear the musical chaos known as Man Man, is the clown scene in the Disney movie Dumbo. Live performances…
