Football was never the game for the West Texas boys in Explosions in the Sky. They were more the shy, skinny artist types, spending more time staring into space than cheering on their hometown Midland bruisers. Yet things have come full circle for these current Austin residents and avowed film…

“Rebel Yell” was never as rebellious and was never, ever yelled as ferociously as by Dillinger Escape Plan’s Greg Puciato. Blood streaming down his face after getting bashed in the noggin with a guitar, Puciato tore Billy Idol several new orifices with the help of his Dillinger Escape Plan mates…

All hail 1988’s Operation: Mindcrime, the last great prog-rock concept album! Sure, Mindcrime bridged the gap between role-playing Rush nerds and Maiden-worshiping cock rockers while eating up the tense Cold War atmosphere of the Reagan years. But this Seattle group also set the trend for any number of futuristic conspiracy…

Once upon a time there was nobody scarier than Skinny Puppy. Their demonic soundscapes made them a one-of-a-kind proposition among the ’80s underground club crowd. There were (mostly unfounded) whispers of them maiming animals onstage. The band’s mid-’90s implosion was similarly lurid, following the nightmarish scripts of disaster, death, trauma…

There are musicians, and then there are artists. Blessed with a name befitting a gourmet cook, Southern California sound professor Boyd Rice instead took no name at all. He recorded his first batch of hypnotic looped-tape sound collages in 1975, adopting the name Non soon thereafter to describe his mission…

Back before My Morning Jacket was gracing network beer commercials, the band put out a second album, At Dusk, that was a dreamier take on the Neil Young/Dinosaur Jr. shenanigans it’s built a nice young career on. It included a second disc of spare demos that stripped the bourbon off…

Let’s face it. There is a hollow pocket of woe somewhere in your chest, a sharp pang that takes you to task three times a week for missing that Cure show. Of course, the boss man, your brain, reminds you that $40 for a lawn seat means you did the…

That screaming shard of guitar flew from the stage faster than a Coco Cordero heater, and it had decapitation written all over it. It was the final eruption of the Acid Mothers Temple’s sonic supernova that filled Boston’s Axis club at Terrastock 5 in 2002. This large troupe of Japanese…

To hear a fan say it, you’d have thought somebody killed his brother: “They sold out.” That sentence, and its many variations, has been a part of punk rock since the Sex Pistols signed with EMI. Granted, that move worked out OK–it wasn’t called The Great Rock & Roll Swindle…

The four young dudes in Explosions in the Sky are certifiable film freaks, and it shows through in their music, which is full of invisible plotlines and peppered with imagery. In fact, for the Austin instrumentalists, songwriting is something like amateur screenwriting: Come up with a couple of images that…

The glass flew everywhere as the bystanders’ jaws dropped to the floor. It was vandalism, nihilism, primal punk rage and, most important, absolute desecration. Imagine: to smash Stevie Ray Vaughan’s guitar out of its display case at the new Hard Rock Café in Austin to try a quick plug ‘n’…

In the world of collectibles, it’s always the unique that’s the most valuable. Doug Ferguson was a collector. He would drive thousands of miles for the right keyboard. His collection of vintage synthesizers, and his ability to play them, was one-of-a-kind. So it was fitting that his prize Mellotron was…

Fifteen years ago, Justin Broadrick helped create one of the most intense, groundbreaking death metal albums ever. Now, he’s co-created one of the most intense, groundbreaking hip-hop albums in recent memory. What gives? Broadrick, who drifted out of Napalm Death after its debut, Scum, to found the dense industrial group…

The natives are restless in Omaha. With their Great Plains indie-rock empire well in hand, the luminaries of Nebraska’s Saddle Creek records are turning their attention outward to the problems and hypocrisies afflicting this country and its questionable leadership. Leading the charge is Conor Oberst. To do so, Saddle Creek…

Anthrax. It was always such a cool name. Dunno about most eighth-graders, but I didn’t know much of anything about the chemical agent, only about these guys. They were cool. The name even sounded like “thrash.” And the singer was named Belladonna, like the poisonous plant. And Scott Ian had…

For the past few years, we’ve polled the Dallas Observer’s stable of music writers to determine how full of shit the bottom of the barrel was over the past 12 months in an effort to arrive at the 10 most pointless uses of studio time and jewel cases. Below, you’ll…

1. Explosions in the Sky, Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Die, Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Live Forever (Temporary Residence): This young Austin quartet finally cracked the code. They managed to inject so much life and melody into the epic instrumental drama of Mogwai and Godspeed You Black…

Like the Repeater/Steady Diet of Nothing days of Operation Desert Storm, Fugazi is still keenly aware of the injustices in the world and suspicious of the bigwigs with the big bucks, suspicious of where their loyalties lie. It’s even in the band’s name–Vietnam slang for “a fucked-up situation.” Appropriate timing,…

In Greek mythology, the Muses were gods and goddesses who were so proficient in the arts and sciences that they would inspire followers to glory by their mere presence. In the modern lexicon, the word “muse” refers to a simple source of inspiration, connoting a creative force that lies beyond…

It’s the same thing all over again for Sonic Boom, who has made a career out of repeating himself. He’s back from the far-reaching cosmos of Experimental Audio Research to once again plumb the depths of the eternal song, with guitar in tow, as he did in the great Spacemen…

He’s that guy with the crooked grin, filing away records in the corner of the store. He’s giving you that sly, sideways glance, the bemused look of a kid who’s found a new diversion. You don’t know whether or not to ask for the help you obviously need, but soon…