Jenny Lewis has endured her share of hardships, but as she puts it, she is still “stumbling through [her] own existence.” Her eyes are fixed upon the present, but if Lewis was so inclined, she could easily look back on a life of achievement. As a child actor, she co-starred…
The stylistic intricacies of what constitutes a boy band can be debated, but one thing is certain: If a group can walk from point A to point B safely and without hindrance from fans, it’s not a boy band. The Beatles, Monkees, New Kids on the Block, NSYNC and One…
The lion’s share of songs Grandson (born Jordan Benjamin) performed Wednesday night at Club Dada followed a strict formula. Begin with a fast-tempo hip-hop verse, slow it down during the bridge and come in full-force with a bombastic chorus sans rapping that is conducive to headbanging. Granted, there are some…
Xuan (pronounced “Swan”) Nguyen has a talent for extracting lively conversation from the most mundane details. At AllGood Café on a Saturday afternoon, Nguyen takes a look at her glasses of water and begins to discuss at great length how she quit drinking. The Deep Ellum Outdoor Market was hindering traffic a…
Chances are, you have once caught yourself in line at the grocery store after a long day at your corporate job, deciding that you have endured the grating minutiae of daily life for too long. “Isn’t there more to life than this,” you ask yourself. “I used to go to…
The Academy of Country Music Awards unveiled its second round of performers for its 54th annual ceremony, which is scheduled for Sunday, April 7, at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. The Fort Worth-born and Burleson-raised pop giant Kelly Clarkson made this list along with other talent, such as…
Too frequently, the music press describes Kodak Black as a “controversial rapper.” While the title is not inaccurate, it is, to a degree, irresponsible. Bob Dylan, N.W.A. and Sinead O’Connor were controversial. So were Lou Pearlman, Roman Polanski and Jerry Lee Lewis. What makes the former three controversial is in…
It takes years to build a good name and only seconds to destroy one, so should you choose to organize concerts or festivals, tread carefully, always be prepared to take a loss and don’t bite off more than you can chew. Some neophyte promoters are legitimately slimy characters, but sometimes…
We have known since the ’00s that the country/hip-hop musical hybrid was a failed experiment, yet for some reason, it keeps being executed tastelessly. Kid Rock, Martina McBride and T.I. did it in 2010 with “Care.” Carrie Underwood and Ludacris did it last year with “The Champion.” Brad Paisley and LL…
“Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires.” — Ronald Wright from A Short History of Progress *** We rightfully mock Billy McFarland and Ja Rule for the disastrous Fyre Festival in the Bahamas, but it would…
The inaugural KAABOO Texas festival, scheduled for Friday-Sunday, May 10-12 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, unveiled its daily artist lineup and announced that single-day passes will go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday. When the initial artist lineup dropped Jan. 17, people raised eyebrows and voiced skepticism, but the Del…
Grammy-nominated Houston rapper Travis Scott will headline the seventh annual JMBLYA Festival at Fair Park in Dallas on Friday, May 3 and at Circuit of the Americas in Austin on Saturday, May 4. Lil Wayne will join him. Opening acts include repeat JMBLYA offender Kevin Gates; Louisiana rapper with checkered legal…
KISS are a tough nut to crack. Some people think KISS are washed-up shells of their former selves coasting along on their legacy with more pompousness than they are entitled to possess. Others consider KISS one of the greatest rock bands of all time, who completely changed the game and…
Before Mel Gibson’s image as a drunken anti-Semite became permanently seared into the public’s collective memory, he was Hollywood royalty and, as such, was a natural pick to star in the 2000 romantic comedy What Women Want. In that film, Gibson assumes the role of a promiscuous advertising executive who…
On Aug. 13, 2017, Wall Street Journal writer Neil Shah wrote an article titled “What Happened to the Negative Music Review?” in which he stated, “[N]egative reviews are so few and far between that they rarely impact overall scores from an aggregator like Metacritic.” Despite this, online magazine Pitchfork has…
If Nickelback is the low-hanging fruit of online mockery, then Insane Clown Posse is the long-forgotten peach that fell from the tree and has been rotting for so long that not even the newly produced mold spores want anything to do with it. What is it about ICP and their…
Sunday night, the Recording Academy hosted what they and many others call “Music’s Biggest Night” at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. While the lion’s share of the Grammy Awards were handed at an afternoon ceremony before CBS’ broadcast, several artists with ties to North Texas enjoyed a decent chunk…
As we reported in November, the aptly named King of Country is scheduled to perform an intimate show at Fort Worth’s Dickies Arena, a 14,000-seat multipurpose arena anticipated to open next fall. Predictably, thousands of George Strait fans waited patiently then in Ticketmaster’s virtual waiting room (even on the internet,…
On the patio at Jakes Burgers and Beer on McKinney Avenue lies a small gazebo with a four-top table. Sitting at this table across from me is 18-year-old Mjay Denman, and across from him is half of his management team. The former is a rising hip-hop artist who performs under…
On Wednesday morning, Fort Worth electronic act Vogue Machine released their new single “Kardio” for the soundtrack of the Adult Swim animated series Rick and Morty. A 15-second video featuring the single surfaced on the television series’ Twitter page Tuesday afternoon, with animation by Titmouse Inc., the animation studio behind…
“Unattractive” by Toadies in The Cable GuyWhen The Cable Guy was released in 1996, it made headlines for two key reasons: star Jim Carrey’s $20 million price tag for the film, and the movie’s less-than-glowing reviews. But local music fans back then were likely thrilled regardless of what critics were…
While performing at the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago on Saturday night, Dallas R&B and neo-soul legend Erykah Badu made some controversial remarks regarding the widespread allegations of sexual assault against R. Kelly. “I don’t know how everybody else feel about it, but I’m putting up a prayer right now for…
