Was I seeing ghosts, or did Deep Ellum just move? Maybe she was writhing and kicking in deathbed pain from yet another wounding club closure, or maybe her body was being molested by necrophiliacs who never had the chance while she was alive. Either way, for about a half-hour Friday…
If all goes according to plan, next year will herald the release of about a dozen never-before-heard songs from the songwriting team that all but created rock ‘n’ roll. And even though Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, the men behind hundreds of R&B “race records” and early rock hits including…
Regression can be so soothing. Since local children’s show Peppermint Place went off the air in 1996, anyone who saw Mr. Peppermint and Muffin is now old enough to enjoy the nostalgia that the sight of Jerry Haynes in his peppermint suit with his worn-down carpet of a puppet would…
[Backstage. The five members of Aerosmith sit at a deli table, each with a small plate of healthy snacks. A cooler of bottled water and sodas rests by STEVEN TYLER, and a nearby monitor shows LENNY KRAVITZ playing his last encore.] JOE PERRY: Anybody know what the Dow closed at…
Whether it’s the story of a musician’s rise, fall and possible redemption or a flavors-of-the-moment soundtrack in a lame teen comedy, film and music have gone together like popcorn and Junior Mints, fountain drinks and whiskey flasks or baggy pants and smuggled candy. The commercial success of music biopics Ray…
Time may be money, but Money didn’t get enough time at the last Final Friday of ’05. The local hip-hop showcase’s schedule shortchanged one of its biggest stars, Money Waters, leaving him only enough time for three songs. Too bad, because his tight set with live band Rubba Rode was…
The laws of probability and rock tradition dictate that 2006, like every year before it, will not end without a notable musical death or two. Eventually all our rock heroes end up in the Afterlife All-Star Band. Those who went to the afterparty in 2005–including Luther Vandross, Link Wray, Clarence…
On February 22, founding Korn guitarist Brian “Head” Welch announced his departure from the band, claiming the band’s music and lifestyle conflicted with his recent rededication to Christianity. However, we recently uncovered a prayer journal that suggests moral objections weren’t the only motive for his exodus. February 22, 2005: God,…
Not all Christmas songs evoke images of snow, toys or the birth of Santa Claus. Many of the greatest holiday songs empathize with those who have nobody to share the holidays with; lonely souls like the walking dead and lunar explorers. What, you haven’t heard “Zombie Christmas” or “Christmas on…
If the name wasn’t French for “Girls Who Rock,” nobody would’ve noticed the girl-band theme at Saturday’s second installment of La Femme Qui Rock. This was no Lone Star Lilith Fair: no political sloganeering and no delicate acoustic folk built around teenage diary entries. It was just a long night…
My old buddy Thom–yeah, I mean Thom Yorke from Radiohead–finally wrote me again. I was getting worried. What? Yeah, we don’t hang out much, him living in England, but I e-mail him about the band’s progress on their latest album, and he posts responses on the band’s Web site. You’re…
Leave it to Snoop Dogg of all people to put Velvet Underground co-founder John Cale in his place. “I realized I had gotten entirely away from my minimalist background,” the 63-year old Welshman says. However, the inspiration he drew from “Drop It Like It’s Hot” wasn’t Snoop’s rapping, but Pharrell…
Despite logistical and personnel complications, local legends El Gato nailed a rare Thursday night appearance so well that it reinforced questions of why the formerly Denton-based band wasn’t headlining a Saturday show instead. It shouldn’t have been this good–band manager Kirk Dixon replaced longtime bassist/keyboardist Evan Hisey not too long…
If respect was platinum and creativity diamonds, San Francisco’s Lyrics Born would be iced out like a Master P video shoot. Instead, the underground rapper continues to hustle just as hard as he did more than a decade ago when he formed hip-hop collective Solesides (later to be known as…
On the second day of the North Texas New Music Festival, the Burden Brothers got off to an early start–in fact, the sun was still out during their outdoor performance at the fest’s marquee stage. Presumably, the headliners’ opening gig was meant to lure crowds with someone they’ve heard and…
Anything less than unique would be a disappointment from the recording-company arm of local Polyphonic Spree lovers Good Records. That Water Sphere is overwhelming in its orchestration and completely bizarre, therefore, is no surprise. But who’d have thought the first DeLaughter-free band signed to Good Records would be so influenced…
“This is just like church,” Bagg drummer Grady Sandlin observed as he rode in a rented party bus back to Denton, after his band and headliners Olospo exhausted the Granada crowd with nearly six hours of jam-band improvisation and eclectic rock. The standing-room-only party bus shuttling Bagg’s Denton fans to…
After 30 years, you’d think that fans of John Prine would have gotten the hint. After all, this is the guy who wrote 1971’s Vietnam war protest “Your Flag Decal Won’t Get You Into Heaven Anymore,” in which St. Peter tells the deceased narrator that Heaven is crowded with casualties…
Dylan Silvers thanked the audience, the performers and Granada owner Mike Schoder about 50 times when playing with [DARYL] and Who cover band Happy Jack, introducing the temporarily reunited Deep Blue Something and guest-guitar-playing with Slick 57. That comes out to something like once for every 100 bucks the Red…
Odditoreum’s introductory spoken-word track sets up the story that in some alternate universe, a postwar jug band named the Dandy Warhols invented rock ‘n’ roll. It sounds like an idea left over from some stupid inside joke, at once self-important and ironically self-deprecating. In other words, it epitomizes the album…
If a club show could be likened to a sandwich, The Valentines’ Saturday night set was like a slice of off-brand bologna between two pieces of bland white bread: familiar, kinda satisfying but nothing special. The night started with a generic country-rock band fronted by former Polyphonic Spree French horn…
Voxtrot singer Ramesh Srivastava has something of a reputation for hopping around in a spastic dance during his band’s live shows, and you can’t really blame the guy. His band specializes in super-catchy retro pop that channels the melodies of the Smiths and Joy Division into upbeat, swinging indie rock…
