To make their swinging parties even more happening, ’60s fetishists the Lollipop Shoppe came up with the perfect shiny accessory for their groovy thrift-store dresses and go-go boots: a compilation CD. Lollipop gal DJ TigerBee, aka The Shapes’ singer/bassist Patricia Rodriguez, recruited some of her favorite retro-rock acts—all Texan except…

What better way to celebrate Halloween than with the devil’s music? Strangely, Christmas has been much more thoroughly celebrated by rock ‘n’ roll songwriters than the day marked by death-mocking costumes, self-indulgence and malicious pranks. But while the wait for another smash-hit novelty song like “Monster Mash” to set the…

Money Waters is a natural storyteller who takes his sweet time telling a joke or dropping some hard-earned knowledge. You don’t wanna stop him, even if you’ve already heard it. The Pleasant Grove rapper is strongest when he and his homeboys are venting their Everyman tales of frustration about nagging…

Audiences generally respond better to the familiar than the new at big rock shows, but Wilco fans are smart enough to savor new material as Jeff Tweedy and company work them out live before heading to the studio in November. Recent set lists show the band mixing three or four…

PPT–named for members Pikahsso, Picnic and Tahiti–became the first hip-hop act ever signed to Dallas label Idol Records in August, a few months after their song “Rowdy, Loud and Proud” was chosen as the Dallas Mavericks’ playoff theme song. If you didn’t know better, that turn of events would sound…

Spune Productions has organized another endurance-testing showcase that ensures you should spend the day in Denton. But you’ll have plenty of time during bad sets to enjoy the city’s non-musical attractions: Lance Yocom was kind enough to book three hours of lousy metal from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., which…

I don’t know nothin’ about this broad who’s taking over the Dallas Observer’s music section, but I bet the only question those Village Voice Media stooges asked her during the job interview was “Do you like Reverend Horton Heat?” She must have said “No, and I’ll trash him every chance…

In a just world, a 23rd anniversary celebration in honor of EZ Eddie D would mark that many years that he’d been the highly paid Arbitron champ in his drive-time slot on a 100,000-watt hip-hop station. But this is Dallas. And for Dallas or anywhere else, lasting 23 years as…

Just as Kinky Friedman the political candidate is often dismissed as a one-liner dispensing novelty, Kinky Friedman the songwriter is usually summarized as a humorist, remembered for such memorable song titles like “Get Your Biscuits in the Oven (and Your Buns in the Bed)” and his signature song “They Ain’t…

Rock and roll supergroups are a tricky business. Too often, they consist of has-beens reaching the lowest common musical denominator of their former groups (see Velvet Revolver). Fortunately, Denton’s Spitfire Tumbleweeds transcends mere side-project status; their gritty, experimental country is just as good or better than the bands from which…

Your hipster friends will never admit they watch American Idol–at least not without adding the disclaimer that they are watching it “ironically,” however that can be explained. You, however, know someone who not only knows the difference between Elliott Yamin and Bucky Covington but plans to cheer them on in…

Three months ago, Sorta accepted its first Best Act in Town distinction at the Dallas Observer Music Awards, a major validation for a band that consistently produces some of the best music in this city–but also somewhat of an albatross. Because almost overlooked in the “Best Act” hoopla is the…

For two suburban indie-pop bands losing members to higher education, the college town setting and former college-radio DJ acting as MC was perfectly appropriate. Indie-poppers Mathstorm and Voot Cha Index commemorated the end of life as they know it Friday by rocking Denton’s Rubber Gloves with Frequency Down’s Frank Hejl…

A common tactic by rappers, especially positive MCs, is to declare hip-hop’s state of emergency and then proclaim to be part of the solution. Forney (yes, Forney, get over it) rapper Sivion takes this approach on “I Still Love H.E.R.” (“Rap music is a mess/What once was greater has now…

Angry guitar chatter, looping percussion, weird studio effects and strange synthesizer screeches: The sounds (if not “music”) of This Heat’s formerly rare debut record require total concentration. At times completely atonal and rhythmless, This Heat has nothing but the most adventurous audience in mind, influencing so many avant-garde acts since…

With Eels in town for a no-strings-attached concert (or at least no string section), it’s the perfect time to examine the art of the double album. Most two-disc sets should have half as many songs–or none at all–but Blinking Lights and Other Revelations was the rare twin platter that actually…

Is the world ready for a Dirty South rap single that’s not about ostentatious automotive modifications or garish cosmetic dentistry? Waco’s Strange Fruit Project is banking on it. “Soul Clap” marries funky brass (arranged by Denton funk-rockers Mingo Fishtrap) and jazz guitars to a handclap beat. The deceptively simple beat…

That’s the last time I huff Scotchgard after snorting a couple Oxycontin/Celebrex speedballs. Because after my arthritis flare-up subsided, it seemed like a good idea to go to Club Clearview on Saturday, July 22, to watch kids passing off what they call “punk” these days. Things were promising when I…

Through creative playing and use of effects pedals, Burntsienna Trio’s Justin Collins stretches the limitations of the banjo, an instrument wrongly stereotyped as the territory of drooling, overall-clad moonshine connoisseurs. Whether it’s the fast-picked getaway music of “On Demand” or atmospheric plucked notes in “Prelude to Theme from Little Bermuda,”…

You punks! Get off my lawn! I’m kidding. Just mind the tulips, wouldya? Judging by your Operation Ivy patch and your pal’s Green Day pin, you’re on your way to get tickets for Rancid’s Friday, July 14, show at the Gypsy Tea Room. Sixteen bucks for tickets…that’s real punk. But…

Really, Thom Yorke could loop the sounds of himself snoring and Radiohead’s obsessive fans would buy it. He’s done a little more than that on his solo debut, in which electronic beats are cut and pasted together from live instruments and synthesizer bleeps, though The Eraser’s nine tracks are songs…