Hear us out: As much as we engage in good old-fashioned music criticism, we recognize how tough and unforgiving the world of music is. Every musician who isn’t an R. Kelly or Varg Vikernes deserves at least an iota of baseline respect for baring their soul to the public and…

Riley Gale, the vocalist of Dallas thrash metal and hardcore punk vets Power Trip, died on Monday night, the band confirmed in a statement Tuesday. He was 35. “It is with the greatest of sadness we must announce that our lead singer and brother Riley Gale passed away last night,”…

Before Lollapalooza became one of the biggest destination festivals in the world, it smashed precedents as a touring festival that bands in the 1990s clamored to play. Before that, it was a farewell tour for Jane’s Addiction. The economic impact of COVID-19 has been cruel to the Chicago-based festival and…

If your new landlord comes into your house once a month and dumps a frothy bucket of garbage on your bed, it makes any landlord that doesn’t pour trash where you sleep look like Desmond Tutu. It also helps bolster the previous landlord’s image when they have better taste in…

in December, we had the pleasure of witnessing Houston rapper Megan Thee Stallion in her enigmatic glory at Bomb Factory. In our glowing review, we were particularly astonished at her ability to be the life of an absolute rager just 24 hours after taking a final exam and accepting a…

The concert industry remains lousy with economic strife during the COVID-19 pandemic, but country music mainstay Billy Bob’s Texas is reopening its doors next week anyway. There are, of course, some caveats before the Fort Worth venue can do that, namely a strict enforcement of social distancing guidelines and compliance…

People oversimplify music streaming. While it’s true that Spotify and Apple Music comprise an enormous chunk of the sector, YouTube has become a major platform for streamed music, and SoundCloud has launched many music careers. Every streaming platform worth its salt brings listeners with different tastes to the table, so…

For more than three decades, Dallas group Absu has carved a space in the industry as a quintessential black metal band, but this reign came to an abrupt end in January when the band announced its dissolution on Facebook. “After meager deliberation and zero remorse, I have decided to dissolve…

Houston-via-Dallas band Narrow Head is often classified as shoegaze, but as the band’s guitarist, vocalist and only original member Jacob Duarte puts it, “I don’t even think I like shoegaze.” He elaborates, “I like My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive, Chapterhouse — all the main stuff — but when it gets too on-the-nose, it’s like, I…

Here in the news business, we have a certain affinity for the internet acronym “RTFA,” which stands for “Read the fucking article” (or “read the featured article,” if you’re a softie who insists on a bowdlerized version). Misinformation in the era of “fake news” often parasitically festers because people have…

Last week, Astronautalis, a Minneapolis rapper with ties to Denton and Dallas, was accused of sexual and physical abuse by an anonymous Instagram user. A Twitter user shared screenshots of the Instagram post on Friday. The Instagram user alleges that the rapper, whose real name is Andy Bothwell, attempted to corner…

As Texas’ lockdown restrictions are incrementally being lifted, more people are braving the pandemic and coming out to bars. As much as we’d like to see a resurgence of nightlife, it does come with the price of having to intermingle with hoaxers and anti-maskers. However, you can always use the…

Over the past few years, post-punk outfit Rosegarden Funeral Party has made a name for itself as one of Dallas’ most hyped “it” bands of the 2010s. Sadly, the momentum its members have spent the past three years steadily cultivating was abruptly stymied by COVID-19’s merciless economic onslaught against the…