As the driving force behind both Deerhunter and Atlas Sound, Bradford Cox is one of the most prolific and interesting personalities in music (of any classification). Between his two vehicles, he’s released three full-length albums and numerous EPs in the past 18 months. But there’s a duality here: Born with…
Kurt Weill is one of the more storied names in 20th-century music. Kurt Vile, meanwhile, is a rising name in the contemporary world of punk psychfolk, a lo-fi distortion and reverb-drenched environ that sounds like past stars of Americana and rock being channeled through a late-night and distant AM radio…
Hope Sandoval & The Warm InventionsSons of Hermann HallOctober 19, 2009Better than: having to tell everyone to shut up myself. Hope gets what Hope wants. And, four songs into Hope her Sons of Hermann Hall performance with the Warm Inventions, Hope Sandoval had had enough of some of the relatively…
Colm O’Ciosoig is back to perform in Dallas for a second time this year, but, this time, earplugs won’t be essential equipment to perhaps preserve your hearing. And you almost certainly won’t feel your clothes fluttering in a sonic wind this time around as his band plays a legendary set-closing…
Leon RussellGranada TheaterAugust 23, 2009Better than: Hearing a medley of classic Leon Russell songs sung in an Asian karaoke bar, but not much better… During the 1960s and ’70s, Leon Russell was the consummate sidekick and bandleader–and he was even solo star in his own right. Hanging with the Stones,…
Bat For LashesThe LoftAugust 20, 2009Better Than: Staind, who played downstairs at the Palladium. As lightning from a distant storm flashed through the windows of The Loft, Natasha Khan (aka Bat For Lashes) proved herself to be an entertainer equal to her reputation. With the support of a fantastic band…
Natasha Khan creates illusions to help take her audience on a journey and, in part, as a way to dispel those images for herself. She’s the wildly creative force behind Bat for Lashes, a moniker she created for herself as she made the transformation from art school student to celebrated…
Bowerbirds and Megafaun Hailey’s Club August 12, 2009 Better than: Watching a performance on La Blogotheque Some days the life of a touring musician is just a bitch, especially when you are in that stage of your career that you are traveling in a van. Yesterday was one such day…
If an instrument requires a plug for operation, you’re likely to never hear it played on a Bowerbirds recording. Indeed, the music of Bowerbirds keeps with the lifestyle that founding members (and couple) Phil Moore and Beth Tacular (great name, right?) have chosen for themselves, living off the power grid…
Grizzly Bear, Here We Go MagicGranada TheaterJune 15, 2009 Better than: pretending I wanted room to dance anyway… There’s nothing like a false start to a song to gauge an audience’s mood at a concert. Take what happened seven songs into Grizzly Bear’s set at the Granada Theater last night, for instance. …
Grizzly Bear member Chris Taylor is on a streak. In just the past few years, he’s been responsible for producing critical darling Department of Eagles’ 2008 release In Ear Park, as well as efforts from Dirty Projectors and Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson. And, in addition to producing new songs, Taylor…
The Octopus Project,This Will Destroy You, UmeGranada TheaterMay 23, 2009Better Than: Watching three exuberant non-Texas bands trying to have some fun on a Saturday night Three Texas bands delivered well-crafted, wildly diverse music to an appreciative audience at the Granada on Saturday night. Opener Ume provided a tight set of…
The Granada showcases a trio of excellent Texas bands that bring shoe-gazing—leavened with fun—to the stage for a promising Saturday night. Opening is Ume, an alt-rock power trio fronted by dynamic Laura Larsen on guitars and vocals that reminds of a cross between Autolux and Silversun Pickups but with less…
The Thermals are a Portland-based trio (they’ve gone through a troop of drummers) that retains the energy and anger of punk and grunge that famously flowed out of the Northwest in years past. Frontman Hutch Harris has always written intelligent lyrics that tackle big issues of sexual tension, mortality and…
Gaslight Anthem with Heartless BastardsGranada TheaterApril 28, 2009Better Than: Watching an anti-climatic basketball playoff. The Granada played host to brawny rock last night as the Heartless Bastards and headliner Gaslight Anthem played to a testosterone-rich crowd. In sets that were long on music and short on charisma, both bands played…
It’s been almost five years since dance-rock band Franz Ferdinand played its great first show in Dallas. At that time, the band appeared a distillation of smart, arty new wave bands of an earlier era (think lyrics like Elvis Costello, energy like The Clash, glamour like Duran Duran). Its live…
Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, children of all ages, if I may direct your attention to the center of the Big Top stage: Man Man’s musical three-ring circus is sure to amaze and amuse us all, as the band renders its sad songs through maniacal performance. Critics site an…
Collaborative musical collectives seem to be a way of life in certain regions of the world. The Canadian scenes of Montreal and Toronto come to mind—so too does Scandinavia. Musicians quite frequently move among bands within the communities of Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Denmark, contributing broad influences of rock, traditional…
Cut Copy, Matt & KimGranada TheaterMarch 7, 2009 Better than: anything that someone who originally found Matt and Kim’s cheeriness to be a little annoying could ever expect their stage show to be. Matt and Kim Yesterday was Kim Shifino’s happiest day ever. Or, rather, it sure seemed that way…
Cut Copy successfully mashes together its musical influences of disco, Motown, shoegaze and trance, while adding some melody and decent lyrics. And, as such, its second full-length release, last year’s In Ghost Colours, ended up on lots of “best albums of the year” lists. More impressive, though, is that the…
