It’s been 20 years since the Goo Goo Dolls released Dizzy Up the Girl, an album that cemented them in the mainstream. Founders Johnny Rzeznik and Robby Takac remain active with touring and recording, but this fall, they’ve decided to play the songs from that album across the country. Rzeznik…
Taylor Young has played in a lot of bands for the past two decades. From Neon Girl to Hi-Fi Drowning to 25% Toby, he’s best known for his work with the folky stomp of the O’s. As fellow O John Pedigo works on his Pedigo’s Magic Pilsner, Young is about…
No matter what Liz Phair does with her career, she’s seen both sides of critical and audience extremes. Though she cannot remember much about her early shows in Dallas, she does recall playing a small place with the Flaming Lips. Lips frontman Wayne Coyne asked how she was doing in…
Good times continue for Interpol, which recently released its latest album, Marauder. Guitarist Daniel Kessler and his bandmates, vocalist/guitarist Paul Banks and drummer Sam Fogarino, made a huge splash with their debut EP and the first LP, Turn On the Bright Lights. With comparisons to great ’80s post-punk bands, the band was…
The founding members of Nothing might look they play in a hardcore band, and while they have a history in that genre, Nothing is one of the finest shoegaze bands around. Vocalist/guitarist Domenic Palermo, guitarist Brandon Setta, drummer Kyle Kimball and a rotating cast of bass players are constantly on…
National Voter Registration Day is today, Sept. 25. The Dallas chapter of the nonpartisan HeadCount organization will be out in force that day at three distinct places, registering voters and raising awareness. They’re strategic in going to places that are already busy on Tuesday nights. From 4 p.m. – 6:30…
Andrew W.K. is a punk rock Mr. Rogers. Whether or not you care for his amped-up music, his wisdom in op-eds, tweets and banter is a refreshing relief. What he has to say is more than the music itself. W.K. (short for Wilkes-Krier) is back on tour to support his…
No matter the venue, Yo La Tengo has an advantage of playing great music at any volume. Whether it’s an acoustic set or a noisy jam session, the New Jersey-based trio has been together since 1984. Husband and wife Ira Kaplan and Georgia Hubley formed the band then, and bassist…
Hailing from Halifax, Nova Scotia, power pop maestros Sloan have never made a huge dent in America, but it seems the people who know Sloan adore them. Formed in 1991 with musical comparisons to Cheap Trick, Sonic Youth and Kiss, Chris Murphy, Patrick Pentland, Jay Ferguson and Andrew Scott have…
Ramin Djawadi is in a rare spot for a TV and film composer: He’s currently on a tour of arenas across the country where an orchestra plays his music and he conducts. Not concert halls or theaters — arenas where people like Adele, Rush and Garth Brooks play. This Sunday,…
Two days before the deadline to register to vote in Texas, the inaugural Buffalo Tree Festival will make one last push to encourage people to vote — especially if they’re Democrats — as well as enjoy an all-day music festival. Normally the Main Street Garden in downtown Dallas is the…
Earlier this week, the Texas GOP Twitter account tried to knock Democrat Beto O’Rourke’s past in the form of a couple of tweets. One was about an old DWI charge and the other was about O’Rourke’s time in the El Paso band Foss. With a young and lightly bearded O’Rourke…
Addison-based Hand Drawn Records has taken another step forward in bringing more opportunities for bands who want to press their music on vinyl. Launched Monday, Hand Drawn’s Line-In service is similar to crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo but with better options and a human touch. Partnered with the company Bandwear,…
Toto was all set to do a summer devoted to the release of a new greatest hits compilation, 40 Trips Around the Sun. Then Weezer made them a hip band again. Earlier in the year, Weezer released note-for-note covers of “Africa” and “Rosanna,” two of the most recognizable songs Toto…
San Diego-based filmmaker Jason Blackmore has spent plenty of time playing in bands and touring the country. For the past handful of years, he’s documented a number of the most influential musicians on him. Namely, American hardcore punk pioneers. Blackmore just likes to sit down and talk to people about…
Kenny Vasoli wants to break a curse that his band Vacationer apparently has with Dallas. He has nothing bad to say about the town itself, but previous shows here have resulted in some rather strange occurrences. At one show, two women got into a fist fight. At another one, Vasoli…
White Denim is based in Austin, but they still have ties to North Texas, including tunes on their forthcoming album, Performance. Frontman James Petralli was born in Sacramento, but he grew up in Arlington, as his father, Geno, played for the Texas Rangers between 1985 and 1993. “Every day that…
On Tuesday morning, the music section of the Dallas Observer published an article on local musicians talking about addiction following former Colleyville resident Demi Lovato’s recent drug overdose. The writers of the article (myself and Stephanie Salas-Vega) shared the article on our personal Facebook pages, as writers normally do in…
An enthusiastic Shaun Cooper remembers when his band Taking Back Sunday came through Dallas last summer on July 24. “The last time we were there, I think it was National Tequila Day, so I may have imbibed a little bit,” the bassist says of the show at Gas Monkey Bar…
As news spread last week about Demi Lovato’s drug overdose, people from all walks of life (and musical genres) chimed in with their thoughts on the matter. Many were compassionate and gave regards to Lovato and her family, especially on Twitter. Yet it quickly brought up a debate about addiction,…
Dallas has seen plenty of good shows this year. Whether it was St. Vincent destroying The Bomb Factory with her guitar and vocals or Tony Bennett showing us age doesn’t matter, we were treated to an array of talent. Here are the 10 best we’ve seen so far in 2018,…
The original Smashing Pumpkins were not able to reform in 2018, so Billy Corgan and company gave fans something worth remembering: a well-crafted three-hour, 31-song marathon walk down memory lane. After people found their seats to the sounds of Metric, the Great Pumpkin came out alone just shy of 8:30…
