In recent years, music critics have argued the existence of “festival fatigue” and have attributed this phenomenon to the saturated presence of music festivals in the country. Despite this economic impediment, organizers of Del Mar, California-based music festival KAABOO have made it a point to deviate from the cookie-cutter curation…
It’s easy to wander your way into a drug addiction – and oftentimes, people do. But to overcome one requires a will power that, to many people, is so unprecedented that they seek out spiritual intervention in the process, whether they’re religious or not. The story of Ruston Kelly is…
On Wednesday night, the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival unveiled its 2019 lineup, which includes headlining sets from Ariana Grande, Tame Impala and Childish Gambino. There are plenty of other big names on the lineup, including Janelle Monae, Kid Cudi, Aphex Twin, Kacey Musgraves, Anderson .Paak, Pusha T and…
As Rolling Stone reports, former President Barack Obama continued his annual tradition of highlighting his favorite books, movies and songs at the end of the year. This year, Fort Worth musician Leon Bridges made the cut with his song “Bad Bad News” and is listed along with other artists, such…
Opening a live music venue is a capital-intensive business venture, and generally speaking, the return on investment is abysmal. So why do investors keep sinking hundreds of thousands of dollars into them? Are the investments a tax write-off? Are they an ego project to alleviate a midlife crisis? Having been…
On Friday, The Recording Academy dropped its list of nominations for the 61st Annual Grammy Awards ceremony, scheduled to take place Sunday, Feb. 10, 2019, at Los Angeles’s Staples Center. Over the years, North Texas has been given proud representation from artists that would win or be nominated for the…
On the same night Emma Ruth Rundle and Jaye Jayle were scheduled to play Double Wide, Drab Majesty had a day off in the middle of their tour with Smashing Pumpkins and booked a headline gig at Club Dada. Naturally, combing the two shows only seemed practical. After all, Rundle…
In 1978, Madonna dropped out of college and moved to New York with little money in her name to pursue a career in music. It goes without saying that her tireless pursuit of success in the music industry paid off, but instances like that are rare. Thousands of aspiring artists…
Emo’s staying power was reaffirmed as The Front Bottoms and Manchester Orchestra played a co-headlining bill at The Bomb Factory on Wednesday night. To understand why, consider the time and place of both bands. Manchester Orchestra formed during emo’s commercial peak in 2004, now a distant memory. In the 2010s,…
In a world as material as the one we live in, it is important to know that if you’re likely to end up penniless, you might as well put your money into as many experiences as possible. Perishable items spoil, clothes go out of style, technology becomes outdated and/or breaks,…
In 1982, a South Texas artist pulled up to Billy Bob’s in his truck, unloaded his gear from the attached trailer and loaded in for a gig at which he opened for Billy Joe Shaver. This artist’s name was George Strait, and that was the last time he’d played Panther…
There is a myth that a handful of industry executives in Nashville are the sole arbiters and gatekeepers of country music. That is not said to diminish Nashville’s importance, or even the influence music industry bigwigs in Nashville have over country music, but rather, it is to point out that…
We will never see Mitski in a venue as small as Trees ever again. The New York-based indie sensation is on the road in support of her 2018 full-length album Be the Cowboy, and every date of the tour is sold out. This tour includes four consecutive dates at the…
Country music is one of Texas’ most significant cultural exports, enough to where the phrase “Texas country” is commonly used. (Have you ever heard anyone describe an artist as “Oklahoma country?” No? Exactly.) There is nothing wrong with seeing a country act in an arena named after a credit card,…
Anyone who has achieved even an iota of mobility in the music industry will attest to its corrosive tendency to strip aspiring artists of their innocence. Dahlia Knowles is certainly no exception to this, but she continues to remain steadfast and determined to pay her dues. “I came from the…
You have to hand it to Bob Dylan. He has constantly reinvented himself and has always found a new stylistic frontier to explore, audience reception be damned. The title of his second studio album, The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, is apropos to this and did not oversell just how cavalier he…
