Hours after the 2016 shooting that ended five police officers’ lives at a rally against police brutality in downtown Dallas, Mark Hughes was making the long walk through the chaos of the night back to his truck with a friend. His friend’s phone rang. “Get away from Mark,” the voice…
Good news, music fans: There’s a show you can go to nearly every day this week. End your Tuesday the right way with an intimate set by Austin duo Little Mazarn. On Wednesday, you can hop over to Club Dada to hear The Roomsounds. Up-and-coming rap artist YUNG BANS will…
Hump day is a huge day for live music in North Texas this week with many shows to choose from. Powerman 5000, Willie Nelson, Coheed and Cambria, and Mastodon all will be coming through North Texas on Wednesday. Unfortunately, almost all of them are performing in different venues at different…
Last year, Nathan Brown, founder of Dead Media Tapes, was cooped up in his Fort Worth home with two friends, producing 1,000 copies of a new release on eight-track cassette for a band in Sweden — one of the company’s biggest orders to date. Now living in Denton, Brown is…
Let these shows guide you through the week. Cap your Monday night off with some angryheadbanging with Jawbreaker at The Bomb Factory. Dance the night away at Deep Ellum Art Company this Wednesday because you’re at the halfway mark. On Thursday, go check out Jack Barksdale and realize that if…
The Deep Ellum Art Company has a vision: growing a network of artists, and helping them prosper creatively and economically. Artistic director Amber Crimmings, along with owner John LaRue, are taking their vision a step further with their Satellite Gallery program. LaRue says the satellite galleries are a way of…
North Texans don’t have to buy airline tickets to travel the world, because the world is coming to them. Over 100 artists representing different mediums and different regions around the planet will be featured in a festival celebrating international cultures. World of Art, which will take place at Texas Live’s outdoor…
Some things never change. Although the Observer has a new Clubs Editor, and things are certainly changing for him, these posts will still be here every Monday because there’s no end in sight to good live music in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. There are plenty of local acts to choose…
There’s a new mural in the Bishop Arts District that towers over anyone who walks past it. It’s an explosion of color that would otherwise be a dull cluster of bricks on the side of an apartment building. The mural took about a week and a half to finish. During…
Ramon Mallow is a self-proclaimed hippie who says he’s been living like a 19-year-old for the last 50 years. People know him as Mr. Troll in the Dallas-Fort Worth music scene, a moniker from his biker days. Faye Price, his sister, says that family calls him Danny, after his middle…
Seventeen artists from nine countries came together to record Song Dynasty’s debut album Searching. The band’s music blends American jazz with Chinese influences to create a sound that’s out of this world. Sharp notes burst from a three-piece brass section. Electric guitars scream and whistle, floating over roaming lines on…
Tucked away on the far west side of an old Dallas office building is a spot where the Deering family helps bring music to life, through a space called Acoustic Kitchen Studios, fit for small live shows and recording sessions. The studio itself is in stark contrast to its own…
The Nashville folk-pop duo Freddy & Francine will soon be hitting the stage at the newly opened FireHouse Gastro Park in Grand Prairie. The music venue-restaurant-coffee bar combo held its grand opening earlier this month, but the duo’s show on June 1 will mark the first performance on the spot’s…
From an outsider’s perspective, Deep Ellum Art Company has been crushing it ever since it opened in 2017. They should be crushing it. There is nothing else like DEAC, a venue where every facet of the arts is represented in some way, shape or form, founder John LaRue says. Even…
Cameron Ray, a Dallas-born singer-songwriter, left North Texas to pursue his music career in Knoxville, Tennessee, just this January. He still comes back from time to time, like last week when he played The Kessler Theater for Bill’s Records’ Birthday Bash. Thanks to the advent of music streaming services, no…
Odd fellows, vagabonds, rabble-rousers and revelers all came together to bring a taste of New Orleans to the Bishop Arts District in Dallas. That is how district business owners Amy Wallace Cowan, Jason Roberts and Corey McCombs would describe themselves. In a short walk between their other creations, Odd Fellows…
In 2005 Chris McIuan began recording local bands in his home, just east of downtown Fort Worth. He called the space Buzz Studios and it was relatively cheap, equipped with Pro Tools and a 16-channel digital interface. Now working for Spectrum, McIuan says he has not recorded anyone’s music in…
More than 300 students turned out for Pseudo Stereo Showcase, a concert organized by the University of Texas at Dallas’ radio department, Radio UTD. The sun was still out as the stage was being prepared for the night, and more people gathered at The Plinth, a common area at UTD…
We asked three of our regular contributors, Taylor Frantum, Preston Jones and Jacob Vaughn, to tackle a tough question: Should we still listen to the music of the late Michael Jackson, R. Kelly or Ryan Adams, three hugely popular artists in the news over allegations they were sexual predators who…
Robert Olivas is like many Americans. He works five days a week and uses the money to pay his mortgage and car loan. He is fortunate to like the people he works with. They don’t try to micromanage him. They just let him do his thing. This is huge for…
Cameron Ray, a local singer-songwriter, will leave Dallas the right way with a headlining show at The Kessler Theater on Saturday, Jan. 26. Ray has lived in Dallas off and on for 30 years, and even though he is moving to Knoxville, Tennessee, with his wife to pursue his music…
Clay Eiland is no stranger to the DFW coffee scene. He has been selling Eiland Coffee Roasters coffee and roasting for local shops for nearly two decades. He and his employees work out of their roastery in Richardson, which is coupled with a small cafe. Eiland says coffee shops were…
