Hungry for a hot, stinking pile of emotionally stunted butt-rock, but tired of waiting for Puddle of Mudd’s next album? Then local rockers Deaf Pedestrians have just the CD for you. The Dallas five-piece prove on their self-titled debut that all the shine in the world can’t improve a piece…

On Tuesday, August 30, 102.1 The Edge’s Jessie Jessup saw a coworker getting cables ready for an off-site broadcast and made a quip–who has to do a remote show? “You do,” he replied, informing her of the news she would soon learn in a company-wide e-mail from bosses at Clear…

Quite frankly, the Polyphonic Spree is supposed to be famous. David Bowie and Brian Wilson would agree–they’ve championed the band’s pop symphonies and given Dallas’ robed warriors lucrative festival and concert gigs. After iPod commercials got the single “Light and Day” stuck in America’s head, NBC’s Scrubs and MTV’s Video…

“We’re from Denton fucking Texas!” Skin Trade lead singer Mike Melendi shouted between songs. “Not Dallas!” In a way, this shout was a call to arms for the Denton showcase, making sure everyone in attendance knew that the best Dallas concert of the week was courtesy of little D and,…

Center of attention: Congratulations are in order for local maestro of the ones and twos, DJ Nemesis (Cesar Orosco), who competes in the finals for Guitar Center’s Spin Off ’05 contest in L.A. on Saturday, September 10. After winning DJ battle contests at his local Guitar Center, then the district…

Last Tuesday, Bavu Blakes was just another hometown rapper trying to make it. Granted, the North Garland High School graduate wasn’t doing shabbily; he’d built a sizable following in his current home of Austin, recorded with hot Houston artists like Paul Wall and supported the Dallas scene on compilations like…

Just a few years ago, hopes for a Wrens tour through Texas were as optimistic as hopes for a new Wrens album. Neither had happened for nearly seven years until the New Jersey four-piece finally put the finishing touches on its home-recorded masterpiece The Meadowlands, an album that might’ve languished…

No sol no más: As of 6 a.m. Thursday morning, Clear Channel says “adios” to 97.1’s “Sunny” format and “hola, ¿ que tal?” to “La Preciosa.” The station is switching formats for the second time in 16 months, which proves that switching from The Eagle’s hard rock format to soft,…

Man Factory didn’t want me to hear their demo. That’s what the Arlington band told their good friend Eric Michener, known better as Denton’s Fishboy, when they handed him a CD-R of their four-track experiments, and fortunately, he broke his promise and burnt me a copy. Indeed, the recklessness of…

For all the accolades The New Pornographers have received for their supergroup cast, the Northwestern indie champions never made an album designed for a complete sit-down listen. Their encyclopedic grasp on the past three decades of power-pop resulted in some of the best singles of the aughts, but it also…

On March 13, 2005, Slobberbone was done. Singer Brent Best, guitarist Jess Barr, drummer Tony Harper and bassist Brian Lane finished their decade-plus run with a three-hour concert at Dan’s Silverleaf in their hometown of Denton, and a remarkably international crowd visited to say goodbye to fan favorites like “Billy…

Let’s face it–bad press and gossip about Deep Ellum hurts local music. It’s one of those vicious cycles–banter about crime and unseemliness increases, fewer bands book shows in the historic downtown district, people complain about the lack of good bands, fans stop seeing shows, etc. etc. etc. I visit Deep…

Some bands are must-sees when they come through town for the sheer fact that they tour so rarely. Two Cow Garage isn’t that band–if you miss their broken-down-van cow-punk this time, chances are you’ll see ’em again as soon as November. Hell, the Columbus, Ohio trio is on the road…

In the very last line of the very last page of Beautiful Noise’s liner notes, Salim Nourallah issues a thank-you to “the neurosurgeons at Children’s Medical Center Dallas.” Really, this tucked-away detail is where the album starts. Nourallah has openly stated that his sophomore solo album was inspired in part…

Glove to get drunk: Four years ago, the Dallas Observer took a feature-length look at the trials and tribulations that befell Rubber Gloves before it finally opened in October 2000. A series of disagreements with city officials, building inspectors and zoning boards threatened to keep the Denton music club from…

With the number of great female-fronted bands in the DFW area, you’d think door guys at local music clubs would get a clue. But when Taylor Reed, lead singer and guitarist of Denton’s Cordelane, played a Deep Ellum concert only a few weeks ago, she was reminded that the struggle…

Last week, when New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer released documents that linked record label Sony/BMG to a payola scandal, I got excited. Yes, it’s sickening to think about a record label secretly bribing hundreds of radio stations to control airplay (which is illegal if the paid sponsorship isn’t identified…

Let the Falcon soar: Two weeks ago, we reported that Golden Falcons drummer Jared Jackson became a long-distance member of the mind-blowing Dallas band after moving to Austin for grad school. Well, add guitarist Joshua Weber to the flown-the-coop-for-college list, as he splits town next week to start graduate classes…

When you look for Need New Body’s album at a music store, don’t browse through the rock section. While you’re at it, skip the jazz, metal, hip-hop, polka, folk and experimental sections, too, and go straight to the “what the hell is going on?” card. Albums like UFO and the…

Good news: This week, Good Records made a formal announcement that surprised no one: They love Pilotdrift. Before, that fondness was hardly unofficial, as the local indie record store pimped the hell out of the Texarkana synth-rock band’s self-released debut, Iter Facere, and hooked the group up with a sweet…

In the hip-hop world, Houston and New York are among the bigger scenes known for mixtapes–CD-Rs in which rappers perform over unlicensed samples to get their name out and make a quick buck. So at last May’s Conspiracy Radio Music Awards, recognizing the best in Dallas rap, I was intrigued…

From the look on Kris Wheat’s face, he’s been waiting for someone to finally say the words out loud: “The Secret Machines.” He reacts immediately. “I’ll bad blood some shit at those assholes.” The rest of Day of the Double Agent laughs nervously, but Wheat’s not joking. The New York…