It’s time to rank the best of what went around and came around again. BILLY JOEL The Stranger (Columbia/Legacy) As punk and disco exploded, the Piano Man’s deeply unhip 1978 breakthrough proved that top-shelf Broadway/Brill Building songwriting could still sell – and, occasionally, rock. “Scenes From an Italian Restaurant” and…
Pop music often gets a bad rap for being disposable or vapid, and in many cases that’s true. (Katy Perry, Danity Kane and the Pussycat Dolls, step right up!) But every year, a few irresistible bits of innovative ear candy rocket up the charts and seep into our subconscious. The…
A couple of weeks ago, an expert on the Harry Potter series told an audience of high school kids how lucky they were to have this Big Shared Experience–these seven books and 41,000 words in common. What does Harry Potter have to do with hip-hop in 2008? In an age…
In 2008, independent rock returned to the underground, where it belongs. Given the grand catastrophe that is today’s record industry, most major-label executives don’t have the time or energy to convince music fans they might like something a little out of the ordinary. They’re too busy recycling variations on what…
In next week’s paper, we’ll unveil our national package on the best music of the year (the following week, we’ll tackle the best in DFWd music). But, as a teaser, here’s our paper’s contribution to the national package: Noah W. Bailey’s picks for the best Americana/folk releases of ’08. Picking…
Was there a weekend? It sure doesn’t feel like it, but the videos don’t lie so it must have happened. Oh well, it’s Monday now, and there are videos to watch. Don’t forget that Christmas is closing in and it’s high time we all started getting those wish lists ready…
Here at DC9 this week, we took Pete’s cover story to heart, especially this dig DJ Drop takes at folks in night clubs who try out the D-Town Boogie dances: “You can tell the people that are doing it right off YouTube. They’re doing it right off the instructions.”To those…
A handful of DJ sets around town last weekend gave us a chance to burn off the turkey calories and blow off steam after battling with family around the dinner table.The Lek Brothers were out there Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday nights, and bring us these party sets:Our early weekend set…
OK, so the time of year specifically celebrating ritual turkey slaughter has come and gone and we’re all the groggier for it.However, it’s Monday now, and the time has come to shake off that holiday feeling and wade back into the everyday weekday life. And what better way to do…
As if the free mixtape he offered earlier this month wasn’t enough, Anonymous, a.k.a. rapper Anttwon Thames from the Greedy Grove, has leaked another track, SupaPowers. In fact, he promises another next week. If he’s offering all this for free but still holding onto his best stuff for the album,…
Little Joy, The Dead Trees, Cocky Americans The Lounge on Elm Street November 26, 2008Better than: Brown gravy on mashed potatoes. (We’ve also got a little video from the show after the jump)The first thing that comes to mind about The Lounge on Elm Street is intimacy. The small, boxy…
As clubs geared up for the long weekend, last Saturday was a quieter time for some. But our nightlife photo team still found plenty of DJs and dancers having themselves a good pre-holiday time out. Brett Johnson’s Pop Rocks at Zubar, with DJ Love spinning in the front, was the…
Holiday giving is all around us now. If you’re not already the generous type, you’re being guilted into it by a bell-ringing Santa, or Will Smith, or even Wal-Mart.If you think you can get away with tossing another can of creamed spinach into the bin — the one in your…
In our pulp edition this week, Robert took a look at the strange pull the TV show Dallas has on audiences, especially abroad, on the occasion of the show’s 30th anniversary.The money, the glitz, cowboy fashion–all those had plenty to do with making the show such a big hit (and…
I know the local connection here is barely tangential, but two of the best shows to come through our area this past year were The New York Dolls at The Granada in April and Todd Rundgren at House of Blues in July. Now news comes that Rundgren is producing the…
If you read our Good Friday column, you know there was a lot going on this weekend. However, we were obviously too busy actually seeing it to record and post it. But here’s a sampler platter of what the weekend in the world of Dallas music was like. A yummy…
Most nights, try shouting, “Can I get a hell yeah?!” in a Best Buy and all anyone will give you is a mean staredown from the washing machine aisle.When it happened Thursday night at the store along LBJ Freeway, though, with a whole line of Dimebag Darrell fans waiting to…
Roger McGuinnMcDavid StudioNovember 22, 2008Better than: Watching one of those Time Life infomercials about reliving the ’60s though a 10 CD compilation featuring the likes of Hermann’s Hermits and Ten Years After.Starting promptly at 8:00, Roger McGuinn treated the packed house in Ft. Worth’s McDavid Studio to a musical history…
Caity Colvard “Bling Bling” and “Krunk Ain’t Dead” are two terms I’m not exactly familiar with. However, Wednesday night, the Ghostbar was packed with girls, grillz, and ghetto fabulousness as Lil Jon spun some tracks just, seemingly, because. Lil Jon of “Yeah,” “Snap Yo Fingers” and “Get Low” fame graced…
Patrick Michels Mayor Tom Leppert and City Council Member Sheffie Kadane tenderly declare Union Station open for business. After a $23-million renovation, Union Station is back in business downtown, this time as a Wolfgang Puck-catered feed lot for hungry Hyatt guests. The 93-year-old building has been stripped down to its…
Patrick Michels Will Smith pulls off the jersey and tie almost as heroically as Mayor Tom Leppert. Will Smith is all about good deeds these days, so if you wanted to catch the Dallas premiere of his new feel-good thriller Seven Pounds, you had to come with cans. Which was…
Lek Brothers From dubstep at the Green Elephant to mod and go go dancers at Quinn, there was something for everyone looking for a way out in Dallas last weekend. Our nightlife specialists Ray and Peter Lek sprung their cameras on clubgoers in three spots, getting gang signs, finger-points and…
