Although there are times when you might wish that songs, like milk, had expiration dates–perhaps right after the DJ says “Say, whatever happened to these guys?” and plays Frankie Goes to Hollywood–music is far more than just a diversion or background accompaniment. It is almost inadvertently a record of a…
Few bands are as startling visually–or as mixed a bag–as Carolyn Wonderland and the Imperial Monkeys. First of all, there’s Wonderland herself, the proud possessor of a truly impressive set of pipes that seem to make all previous comparisons to the Big J (Janis, as in Joplin) seem a bit…
Far from the same old news Most Things Haven’t Worked Out Junior Kimbrough Fat Possum/Capricorn Records Mr. Wizard R.L. Burnside Fat Possum/Epitaph Records There are all kinds of blues, from the downtown blues of Bobby Bland to the by-now Disney blues of B.B. King and the greasepaint blues of clowns…
Like a present Wrapped Bruce Robison Boar’s Nest Records The romantic habits of talented–or at least well-known–people often seem to get a tedious amount of attention, but the fact that Bruce Robison is married to Kelly Willis makes such perfect sense that it’s hard not to mention, especially when Robison’s…
There’s nothing wrong with a little self-empowering confidence or belief in your mission, but there comes a time when you have to acknowledge that your plan ain’t workin’. After seven years and three albums, and a period of popular ubiquity in the early ’90s, Soul Food Cafe is facing that…
Whenever–and whatever–he wants John Mellencamp deserves something. Sure, he’s a mouthy, pushy, arrogant guy who seems to take himself very seriously and often has a chip the size of an asteroid on his shoulder. In the past, he’s made much hay over “bad-ass” episodes like the punching out of a…
Only in a strange world would this happen: You settle down for a nice little afternoon nap and wake to the sound of the phone ringing. You answer, and an unfamiliar voice says, “Yo, this is Todd.” Dazed, you think to yourself, “Todd who?” But before you can ask, he…
Snap, crackle, power pop Telecommando Americano Material Issue Rykodisc There seems to be no Local Band Hell more deserving of the title than that which is found in Chicago. With the possible exception of a healthy–if a tad contrived–alt-country scene, Windy City bands slave away and slag each other as…
Twisted Willies Must’ve Been High The Supersuckers Sub Pop Records The similarities between punk and country have been remarked upon enough to skip here, so let’s just cut to the chase: In an arena filled with varying degrees of separation between the two camps, The Supersuckers’ Must’ve Been High is…
Do you hear a lone trumpet blowing Deguello as you walk from the parking lot to work each morning? Do you still mourn Lee Van Cleef’s descent back into television or wish you could peer icily out from under your flat-brimmed cowboy hat at your boss, slowly remove your cigar–a…
Reachin’ above your raisin’ Livin’ or Dyin’ Jack Ingram Universal Records Crossin the Line Barry Kooda Big Iron Records Each of these albums represents a longtime local musical mainstay continuin’ to develop past his point of origin. For Kooda, it’s that of one of Dallas’ founding punks; for Ingram, it’s…
Fort Worth’s Erotic D swims with some of the biggest fish in rap. A veteran of controversial industry figure Suge Knight’s Death Row Records, Erotic has worked with Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg, rapped with the group Life After Death, and gone on to a successful career producing other acts…
Function and form Swinging and Singing Johnny Reno Menthol Records Too often in pop, format counts for more than intention or even execution, and we’re left feeling vaguely suspicious of Andy Timmons playing the blues with the Pawn Kings (his hair is long and blond; he never picked cotton) or…
Slaid Cleaves has a soft voice: not mumbled or insecure, just diminished. More than five years of living in Texas has diluted his childhood’s Maine inflections, but apparently has not lent him the trumpet-like blare that comes so easy to denizens of the Lone Star State. Cleaves–now an Austin-based singer-songwriter…
It’s at times like these–after all the tabulation, assignments, editing, and production that go into the magnificent beast that is the Dallas Observer Music Awards–that I’m reminded of the last words of my late favorite uncle: “what truck?” No, the results this year weren’t as unforeseen as an 18-wheeler with…
I wandered around the Dallas music scene lonely as a freelance cloud, the Dallas Observer Music Awards were about as interesting to me as a medium-sized rock in a coffee can. Who cares what anybody else thinks? Ah, the carefree ways of callow youth. Now that I’m the Observer music…
Willful obscurity Straightaways Son Volt Warner Brothers Records “No one here says what they mean,” Jay Farrar sings on Straightaways, the latest offering from Son Volt. That line is accurate, the title ironic, since this album is a triumph of indirect transmission, implied feeling, and mumbled delivery unmatched since REM’s…
Nobody’s looking past this one gig, but the late, lamented Cartwrights–a virtual family tree of local bands past comprising Barry Kooda (Nervebreakers, Yeah Yeah Yeah), Alan Wooley (Killbilly), Kim Herriage (Feet First), Donny Ray Ford, and Richie Vasquez–will reassemble to open for the Skeletons’ Hightone Record-label release party at the…
They’re raiments an Aztec priest would envy, a bit faded with age but still arresting in their brilliance.MOne suit is blood red; with black patterns that race up and down its sleeves, it almost seems to breathe as country music legend Hank Thompson drapes it across the barstool in his…
Honky-tonk hero If you’re one of those folks who’s just a-brim with good intentions as far as live music goes, yet always ends up feeling bad when you don’t quite make it out to see show X or Y (especially when listening to everybody rave about it the next day),…
When the Dallas Observer ran a preview a few weeks ago announcing an upcoming Monte Warden show, said preview mentioned that Warden–like our own Colin Boyd–seemed to be haunted by the ghost of a certain bespectacled pop genius named Buddy. It was a nice bit of affirmation, then, when Boyd…
Look upon my works King of the World Horseshoe Hiccup Records In this age of calculated maneuver, it’s nice to occasionally see something like creativity unhinged, like Tom Hulce’s Mozart in Amadeus. Houstonians Scott Daniels, Greg Wood, and Eddie Hawkins are vets of late and largely unlamented bayou city bands…
