Over The Weekend: Leonard Cohen at Nokia Theatre

[Didn’t get around to doing a Last Night review of the Leonard Cohen show over the weekend, but I’d be remiss to let the day go by without recapping it to some extent. So here goes…]Leonard CohenNokia Theatre, Grand PrairieApril 3, 2009Better than: Pretty much anything.In total, Leonard Cohen treated…

Another Track From St. Vincent’s Actor Leaks…

Q: How do you make up for a slow news day? A: Hop on over to Hype Machine, click through pages and pages of free mp3s from the blogosphere and hope there’s something–anything–there worth linking to.And, oh boy! Over on this blog called Persona Sauna, you can check out the…

Ugh… The One Night I Don’t Go To Lotus…

Ohmigawd, guys. Ohmigawd.These pictures of Ms. Britney Spears after-partying it up at McKinney Avenue ultralounge Lotus post-her American Airlines Center performance on Tuesday night are just now making their rounds around the web today.And… like, ohmigawd, guys… from the looks of things, it went pretty much exactly like her show…

Faux Fox Frontman George Quartz Offers Up Three Free Solo Tracks

Over on his La Maladie Tropicale blog, charismatic Faux Fox frontman George Quartz has offered up three solo tracks for download: an instrumental track called “Butterscotch”; a simple but catchy dance track called “Pentagram,” and a short, somewhat bittersweet female-sung (don’t know by whom, though) organ-synth jaunt called “Theme From…

Smile Smile Shares In-Studio Video

That’s the duo above, in the studio with producer Dave Castell and drummer Mark Reznicek (drummer for Smile Smile labelmates the Toadies), tweaking a few tunes as they finish the record. Want more? Follow the band on its recording blog…

Spirits Were High At Last Night’s Listening Room Grand Opening…

The most common reaction to The Listening Room’s grand opening last night? Head shaking. Not because people disapproved of the room’s decor or its layout or, really, anything having to do with the room’s re-model at all. Rather, the head shaking seemed more a sentiment of disbelief than anything. Many…

Club Dada Preps For Major Renovations

Stop me if you’ve heard this before: Things are changing down in Deep Ellum. Oh, you have heard that? Well, bear with me anyway. Because as we inch closer to the proposed September opening dates of the new train stations that will connect Deep Ellum and Exposition Park to the…

Here Holy Spain

The properly named debut release from this local punk trio opens on a promising kick: There’s no musical lead-in, no build-up, just an immediate and crushing launch into the opening track “Trouble Is,” as the vocals, bass, guitar and drums all start simultaneously and hit the listener like a sharp…

Gig Alert: The Listening Room at Club Dada’s Grand Opening

As I wrote in my column for this week’s paper (in select newsstands now!), Club Dada co-owner Ben Tapia and I talk about some of the upcoming renovations coming to Club Dada. But tonight in the venue’s newly renovated, former green room space, the club is hosting the grand opening…

Download: Three New Tracks From Red Monroe

Yeah, it’s already been mentioned elsewhere, but it’s worth spreading around some more, I think: If you head over to Red Monroe’s website, you can download–for free–three brand-new, very different Red Monroe tracks. And they’re worth checking out: “Eastern PA” features a vocoder (I think), plus some distant choruses for…

Bonus MP3: The King Bucks — “Autumn Leaves”

Last week, Ms. Merritt Martin reviewed the debut disc from the greatest (and only) band currently holding down Adair’s on Monday nights. And, in it, Merritt had this much to say:It’s not quite as gritty as the Bucks’ live show, but, in the end, the band’s debut is at once…

Bosque Brown Gets Its Baby Pitchforked…

Over on Pitchfork this morning, Bosque Brown finds itself getting reviewed and such. The good news? Unlike the band’s friends in the Theater Fire, Mara Lee Miller and Co. didn’t have to wait seven months to get the treatment.The bad? Well… it’s a 4.6. And, uh, it’s not one of…

Bonus MP3: Salim Nourallah — “Endless Dream Days”

Stopped by the Lakewood Landing relatively late the other night, and ran into a friend who’d read my article on Salim Nourallah’s latest (and perhaps his last) disc, Constellation. It was a friendly conversation, of course, but my friend told me he openly doubted the story’s entire premise. “There’s no…