Lucero is not your typical Galaxy Club fare. The roots-rock by this Memphis quartet sounds a lot more like Two Cow Garage than Seether, and they put on one helluva beer-chugging, cigarette-smoking show. Meet me there–I’ll be in the front row shouting along to loud-and-proud twang-punk songs like “Bikeriders.” Elliott…

There’s a right way and a wrong way to add violin to a rock band. For example, a 1998 University of Pennsylvania study discovered that the Dave Matthews Band exceeds the violin-to-rock ratio by 2,000 points. (OK, not really, but still.) No such test has yet been pushed upon Oakland’s…

Where?: Chalk another one up for Dallas bands on TV, as local dream-rockers Radiant have latched onto Steven Bochco’s latest TV series, Over There, on cable network FX. Radiant’s Web site, radianttheband.com, claims that single “World” was “picked as the music pilot for the series,” but singer Levi Smith explains…

I can’t blame people for asking the same question over and over: “How’s the music scene in Dallas?” But I feel silly answering it in conversation. Sure, I see a lot of bands, but I’m not qualified to make an end-all declaration. After all, too many bands are playing around…

Big Oven: We don’t question the intents of the Buzz-Oven series. Please continue giving attention to local groups, by all means, but after putting on 14 compilation concert series, can’t organizers jazz things up a bit? How about a rooftop concert with rings of fire and alligators and stuff? No?…

KERA 90.1 might prefer to forget about its music-loving past. The public radio station’s schedule would certainly suggest so, with talk, talk and more talk crowding out the six hours of weekly music that, in the past two months, have waited on the chopping block to learn their fates. In…

Nearly two years ago, Fishboy (the alias of Dentonite Eric Michener) wrote a letter to the Dallas Observer pledging that he would break Centro-matic’s record for releasing the most CDs around town. Looks like the official statement was a jinx, because since writing that letter, Fishboy and his self-named quartet…

If you picked up the Dallas Observer on Wednesday, July 6 (the day it actually hits most news stands), then you are likely reading this at the exact moment eight world leaders are deciding the future of Africa. Yes, you were already bombarded with Live 8 blather last weekend. Dave…

When did insanity and stupidity become a prerequisite for fame? One look at the newspapers makes it obvious that headlines have become a competition for the nuttiest celebrities to battle over. Why, you damn near have to pee on a girl just to make it in this crazy world. Somehow,…

Say it with me: SOOF-yahn. Last year, you could still get away with mispronouncing the symphonic-folk songwriter’s first name; his previous two records, the sprawling Greetings From Michigan and the religious, banjo-filled Seven Swans, were gorgeous works that, in spite of critical praise, never received the nationwide attention they deserved…

Robes, say, can you see: Do you think the two-dozen-plus members of The Polyphonic Spree aren’t vibrant enough? Do you think rainbow-colored robes look downright drab? Then see the happiest band on Earth play at the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra’s Concert in the Garden series on Friday, where they’ll perform…

How the heck does a musician get some press in Dallas? It’s not quite the million-dollar question–that’s the one about fame, groupies and Hummers full of cash–but for local bands, it’s a start. There’s no scientific answer. Sometimes, a band has an interesting story. Sometimes, a band’s unique music deserves…

Good luck finding anything typical in Fishboy’s world. According to Little D, the sophomore album from his Denton lo-fi pop quartet, his world is made up of Christmas trees that come back to life, Game Boys that get lost at the beach and nonstop high-fives with his Chinese friends. Even…

In 2003, Briton Sally Crewe released what has become my favorite guilty-pleasure album of the aughts. The pop-rock tunes about cars and boys on debut album Drive It Like You Stole It are cut to the bone so thinly that even Lindsay Lohan seems chubby in comparison. Similarities to Spoon’s…

Foo Fighters first double-disc album sticks to the straight-and-narrow. Yeah, I know, big shockersinger-songwriter Dave Grohl has made a career out of delivering some of the most solid, if uninspiring, American pop-rock in the past decade, but In Your Honor is such a snoozer that it makes all other Foo…

Last Wednesday afternoon, 102.1 The Edge’s Jessie Jessup read the evening’s concert calendar, encouraging her audience to see local bands like Sorta and Chris Holt and touring bands like Aqueduct and Easy Action. I couldn’t help but laugh. This was week two of my three-week Edge binge, and I wondered:…

Phone rings at Caitlin Cary’s, and it’s Ryan Adams, her bandmate from ’90s country revivalists Whiskeytown. He starts gushing about his new album, Cold Roses: “It’s like the old days,” he says, and Cary congratulates him for returning to the rootsy sound that made him (and fiddle player Cary) popular…

When the reception to her phone returns, Neko Case shouts, “Wow, a worm ranch!” The indie-country chanteuse and New Pornographers collaborator gasps at the sight through a tour bus window and puts her interview on hold to take it in. “It’s a huge building. I didn’t know these existed.” Her…

Lately, the savviest bands around Dallas are crazy about the buddy system. From the member-sharing of Sorta and the now-defunct Sparrows to the pop alliance between The Happy Bullets and The Tah-Dahs, double bills have proven a good way to double a fan base. Thus, it’s no shocker that Black…

In 1996, Pinkerton was an utter failure. Rolling Stone dismissed the lyrics to Weezer’s sophomore album as “juvenile” and “aimless” and the music as “corny.” Copyright issues with the cover art forced Geffen Records to limit the album’s promotion. Meanwhile, radio and MTV didn’t give the raw, plaintive rock songs…

Can’t be much to do in Lawrence, Kansas. Sure, there’s a university and the, um, Dole Institute of Politics, but other than those attractions, you’d be hard-pressed to entertain yourself in Lawrence if you aren’t in a band. In Kirk Rundstrom’s case, make that two bands. The guitarist for Lawrence’s…

For the past decade, Sleater-Kinney has won a sizable fan base with a perfectly decent pop-rock formula. Atypical guitar chords, foot-tapping rhythms and Corin Tuckers polarizing voice have kept listeners guessing over six albums, cementing the trios status as an American indie-rock mainstay. So who would have thought that The…