Take their performances as a whole and the two Dallas acts on the bill of the Sasquatch! Festival in George, Washington, perfectly epitomize the May 26-27 experience: a combination of unexpected transcendence and disappointment. Even in challenging circumstances, St. Vincent and the Polyphonic Spree did their best to show that…

Historians studying the JFK assassination have played the “Zapruder Sequence” film footage countless times. Pretty Girl Charm Lies by the Dallas band named after that footage requires far fewer plays to reach a conclusion: It’s a mixture of great songs and boring filler that sounds like records you already own…

The third installment of the Fry Street Concert Series will be a headbanger’s dream but exhausting for those who need a little variety in a six-hour music fest. Honky—with former Butthole Surfer Jeff Pinkus on the Flying V bass—is all neck tattoos, curly brim cowboy hats and distorted slide guitars,…

Josh Baish doesn’t know when to keep his mouth shut. That’s no insult: The Rubber Gloves Rehearsal Studio owner-manager volunteers as much before an interview. The lesson must be fresh on his mind after he pissed off many a bearded man last month by entertaining the notion of moving the…

Street Fame isn’t going to help Twisted Black convince anyone that his November conviction on drug-dealing charges was undeserved, as nearly every track refers to the pistol-packin’, lean-sippin’, double-crossin’ world of a Texas dope boy. But it should convince any doubters that the Fort Worth rapper deserves to trade in…

Recent benefit shows in Dallas have managed to draw larger crowds and better lineups than for-profit indie-rock showcases and festivals, which bodes well for Sunday’s NAMBLA fund-raiser. Skeezy Productions promoter Pete O. File, who is spearheading the benefit, knew almost nothing about the bands playing. But he had plenty of…

The success of local hip-hop trio PPT is undoubtedly due, at least in part, to the group’s first official release, the contest-winning “Rowdy, Loud and Proud” Dallas Mavericks 2006 playoff theme song. But rather than enjoy the opportunities that song opened up, including their signing to Idol Records, the three…

Denton’s insular music community is getting love from the wider world lately, as Robert Gomez joins Lift to Experience, jetscreamer, Mandarin and those stonecutter guys on U.K. label Bella Union. The only thing they have in common is what distinguishes them from most Dallas buzz bands: None can be described…

Overheard conversation. Guy describes seeing Explosions in the Sky live. Guy: I was kind of disappointed, because they were just improvising it all. Girl stares blankly. Guy: I mean, I thought their music was more thought-out than that. Girl: So? I’m with the girl. Whether EITS painstakingly craft each composition…

According to not-quite-Paul-Bunyan-worthy legend, the first incarnation of the Lumberjack Fest was so named when organizers from Denton literary journal The Porch planned to have a chainsaw sculptor carve a new piece during the event as a tribute to blue-collar artistic ingenuity. The demonstration didn’t pan out, but the name’s…

Stoned Ranger and Defensive Listening made it through another mostly great We Shot JR showcase with their anonymity intact. But the notoriously picky DFW music bloggers revealed themselves to be suckers for a gimmick. War Wizards—something of an underground supergroup with Wanz Dover, Lars Larsen and Shawn Mauck—were compelling yet…

Good Records assistant manager C.J. Davis is the kind of guy for whom time and history are not defined by important geopolitical events or scientific breakthroughs, but by music. When trying to describe how it feels to look down the barrel of the big 4-0, the first thing that comes…

1. The Theater Fire, Everybody Has a Dark Side 2. Midlake, The Trials of Van Occupanther 3. PPT, Tres Monos in Love 4. Burntsienna Trio, Gregor-Jotace Mission Cathedral 5. Money Waters, Swalhaggin 6. Sivion, Spring of the Songbird 7. Strange Fruit Project, The Healing 8. Red Monroe, Red Monroe 9…

So we only hit one in 10 with last year’s list (see “Death Pool for Cutie,” January 5, 2006), and it’s painful that it had to be the Godfather. And we failed to predict some final exits that seem obvious in hindsight. But we’ve learned from our mistakes and recalibrated…

Part of the first generation of hip-hop fans now approaching middle age are suburban guys who balance family time and Frank-the-Tank weekends, guys still blasting hip-hop but doing so from minivans and sensible sedans. Coffee Nods main man Ben “Benisanna” Rogers speaks for them. With a hint of reluctance, Ben…

To see and hear a bespectacled Jim Heath play old blues and jazz standards with this side project trio is to see him lounging Clark Kent-like, without the costume he’s made of his Reverend Horton Heat persona, except that a bit of cape is poking out of his Hawaiian shirt…

Slick Rick, whose mellow voice and story-telling style featured on old-school rap classics such as “La Di Da Di” and “Children’s Story,” still calls New York home despite four years of efforts by the INS to deport him to his native England on the basis of his 1991 attempted-murder conviction…

Bringing a toy for a tot will get you half off the already affordable $4 door admission at Callithump’s New Music Tuesday. At two bucks, you’ve got no excuse, and what’s one more toy when you’ve already gotta sell plasma to pay for all your Christmas shopping? The toys won’t…

Is it too early to be nostalgic for the mid-’90s? The beautiful space rock transmitting from Denton and Austin should have ushered in a new space age of Lone Star psychedelic instrumental music but faded out sometime just shy of the millennial finish line. But someone had to buy all…

Secrecy is the key to any conspiracy, and Art Conspiracy coordinator Sarah Jane Semrad is keeping her lips sealed about the financial situation of the La Reunion group, this year’s Art Conspiracy beneficiary. That’s not to suggest there’s anything nefarious about her plans. In the city best known as the…

Ah, yes, the holidays: A time for eggnog, good cheer and…milking the Nirvana legacy for all it’s worth. That’s right: Even posthumously, Kurt still sells, especially at Christmas, and Geffen Records is cashing in this season with its release of a DVD version of Live! Tonight! Sold Out!. Like 2005’s…

Among the bands to explode from the Bright Eyes-anchored Omaha indie-pop scene in recent years was Tilly and the Wall. To those who haven’t enjoyed the treat of listening to the sweet melodies and guy-gal vocals of 2004’s Wild Like Children (the first release from Conor Oberst’s Team Love label)…