On a Sunday afternoon, Josh Kynd is camped out in a lawn chair in the middle of Club Dada, surrounded on all sides by fold-out tables filled with crates of vinyl. He’s here with a handful of other vendors for the quarterly Beat Swap Meet, a recurring pop-up record sale…
Musicians are, by virtue of their profession, creatures of the night. Playing live music often means late gigs in bars, and musicians might even have jobs working the door or serving drinks at those same establishments. But where do North Texas musicians go to unwind and, most important, where can…
Justin Bieber With Post Malone and Moxie Raia American Airlines Center, Dallas Sunday, April 10, 2016 Something interesting happened when a couch came up through the floor during Justin Bieber’s visit to American Airlines Center Sunday night. There on one of the cushions was a guitar, and for the…
Tim DeLaughter decided to take a moment for himself before playing the David Bowie tribute concert at Radio City Music Hall last Friday. He went out into the New York concert hall and sat in one of the seats to take it all in. For DeLaughter and his band, the…
This year has been a wretched year for musician deaths. Now comes the news that Merle Haggard has died as well, and on his 79th birthday. Haggard had been battling pneumonia since last year and died at his home in Redding, California, reports TMZ. The “Okie From Muskogee” singer was…
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band The River Tour American Airlines Center, Dallas Tuesday, April 5, 2016 If you’re only as young as you feel, then Bruce Springsteen must have found the fountain of youth. For three solid hours on Tuesday night, the 66-year-old lit up the American Airlines…
Everyone, quick, roll out your best weed jokes. Because, frankly, what else are you going to say about the news that Snoop Dogg and Wiz Khalifa just announced a co-headlining gig at Gexa Energy Pavilion on August 19? You don’t need to feel bad about it, either, because Snoop and…
We’ve already known it was coming, but the when and the where were still up in the air. Until now. Guns N’ Roses are coming back to North Texas — and by Gun N’ Roses we mean the real Guns N’ Roses, with Axl Rose, Slash and Duff McKagan —…
Mike Wiebe still sounds out of breath. It’s been more than a week since the Riverboat Gamblers singer fell off the bar in a crowd surfing accident at South By Southwest, and most of those intervening days were spent in the hospital with a tube stuck in his chest. Wiebe…
What took Index Festival so long? The indie music fest, originally scheduled to take place in September 2015, got postponed until this spring and this week officially announced its cancellation. Officials at Spune, the company who runs Index, say they just didn’t want to let it go. “We really love…
Jim Heath was the only one awake in the back of his tour bus when he first smelled the smoke. He and his band, Dallas vets Reverend Horton Heat, were passing through Oceanside, California early Wednesday morning on their way from a show in Hollywood to another one that night…
One of Dallas music’s worst-kept secrets has finally become official. After delaying last year’s event for several months, Spune, the organizers behind indie music festival Index, have decided to pull the plug this year. Originally slated to take place last September, Index was originally postponed until an unspecified date this…
The term “dive bar” can evoke a distasteful reaction in people who don’t appreciate them. Maybe they don’t understand the subtleties. A proper dive bar is highly evolved piece of art, with a delicate mix of the quirky and the depressing. Whether you’re looking to drink away your troubles or…
Richard Haskins looks defeated. As his face appears on the screen for a video visit from Denton County Jail, he slouches to the side, leaning toward the camera with the phone up to his ear. His orange fatigues and bushy brown beard are the only offset to the pale wall…
Another new music festival, another OK lineup with a mediocre concept. Welcome to DFW. Earlier this week, first-time Dallas festival Bulladora Music Experience announced its full lineup of bands, complemented by the rather bizarre theme of the “pugasus” — that is, a pug dressed up with a pair of wings. If…
Richard Haskins and his band the Wee Beasties were scheduled to play at J&Js Pizza in Denton on Friday as part of the opening night of music for this year’s 35 Denton festival. But he never got as far as performing, as he was apprehended around 10 p.m. for charges…
The saga over Kesha’s ongoing battle to free herself from the man she says drugged and raped her is nothing new for Dallas music fans. But new comments from Burleson star Kelly Clarkson may be more damning, not only for her accused rapist, Dr. Luke, but for Sony Music as…
Being the shortest month of the year, February often flies right by, and it was no exception this year. But it didn’t just have to do with the number of days in the month this time (it was a leap year, after all). In Dallas music, there was a hell…
We’re a week into March, which probably means one of two things for Dallas music fans: You’re either preemptively popping Xanax to brace yourself for South by Southwest in Austin or else saying to hell with it and preemptively popping Xanax to deal with the insanity of St. Patrick’s Day…
Remember all the buzz surrounding BOOM 94.5 FM’s launch in the fall of 2014? When the classic hip-hop station appeared, unannounced, one weekend in November it had pretty well everyone talking — and for a hot minute, it wasn’t the only station in the game. Fast forward about 15 months…
Getting booked to play hip-hop in Dallas clubs hasn’t always been easy. But times have changed and the number of venues regularly booking hip-hop grown throughout DFW. These 10 venues stand out as the best of the bunch. 10. 1912 Club Despite its reputation as a punk venue, 1912 Club…
Three days after the Dallas Observer spoke to controversial Portland band Black Pussy and an organizer for the 35 Denton musical festival, which had booked them to play next month, the festival has announced that that it is removing the band from the lineup. A press release issued by 35…
