“Blue Orchid” is a scam. The White Stripes’ first single from Get Behind Me Satan has fooled thousands of radio listeners with fuzzed-out guitar, falsetto vocals and big, banging drums, and anybody who buys the duo’s fifth album expecting another guitar-loaded affair is in for a grand piano-sized surprise. Singer…

For five albums, Memphis’ Lucero was just another traveling alt-country band: Good live show and rabid fans, but the albums never got much attention. It’s ironic that the title of their latest LP, Nobody’s Darlings, acknowledges this cult status at the very moment the band is becoming something deserving of…

To a passer-by, the first installment of printf() might have looked more like a rave than a digital arts show. The concert was held in an abandoned warehouse. Crazy, flashing graphics and techno sounds filled the room. Hell, people danced like loons while chugging bottles of water, but that had…

Rob Dunlap stands up, extends his long arm and says, “Look at this.” The tattoo on his wrist reads 7FN, and his Golden Falcons bandmate, keyboard player Jonny Mars, yells out what it stands for: “7-foot ninja!” Dunlap, the band’s unmistakable 6-foot-11 lead singer, crouches awkwardly. “I got that name…

A word of caution to the 20 die-hard Gorillaz fans who have held on since the “cartoon band” debuted four years ago: Blur’s Damon Albarn is the only contributor to return for Demon Days. While the same fictional characters fill the liner notes, every real-life musician has been replaced, and…

In 2003, Eisley had all the momentum in the world. That year saw the Tyler siblings shine with two amazing EPs, an opening slot touring with Coldplay and national press that included an MTV-produced “You Hear It First” promotion, and between every accolade for their dreamy pop songs and gorgeous…

Is Why? the future of hip-hop or a singer-songwriter gone mad? Actually, he’s probably both. A member of San Francisco indie-rap conglomerate Anticon, Why? already proved himself a terribly weird rapper in a three-member project called cLOUDDEAD, whose spacey sounds and half-sung, super-slow rhymes have since been copped by British…

Jaw-dropping. Awesome. Near perfect. On Friday night, The Strange Boys deserved just about every one of those hyperboles. The Dallas trio sounded like the entire Nuggets box set squeezed into an ultra-concentrated, garage-rock smoothie, smack dab between the vigor of The Sonics and the mad science of The Monks. Eighteen-year-old…

The last thing fans want to hear about a band’s new album is that it sounds a whole lot like the last one. Nobody wants to spend $15 on recycled songs and unoriginal material, right? Austin’s Spoon might be the ultimate exception to the rule, as the group’s latest, Gimme…

Some say The Ponys were too late to the garage rock revival–another me-too gang of half-Strokes, half-Hives hipsters–but anyone who caught the Chicago band in concert last year knows what the real problem was. Lead singer Jered Gummere had a terrible habit of squealing in falsetto after every fourth syllable,…

With a crazed glare, singer Sean Halleck declared his band’s intentions on CBS’ Late Late Show: “Chomsky is coming!” The catchy August 2004 performance was a welcome change of pace for Dallas’ XTC-loving pop-rockers, who had seen no radio or video support after signing a national deal with Aezra Records…

The title of Eniac’s final album, All That’s Left of Us, meant something different in 2002. Back then, the name was just a snippet of lyrics in “Skeleton Crew,” a declarative emo song about missing an ex. But three years later, the title seems strangely prophetic, as this album is…

In remembrance: On April 13, local band Daynger Lagoone played its first and final concert. The young Dallas band performed that evening as part of the Curtain Club’s “New Music Festival Band Search” series, and after winning the night’s contest, lead singer Robert “Tuck” Tucker walked into the bathroom. Minutes…

These days, I can’t walk into a music venue without bumping into a roller derby fund-raiser, and I couldn’t be happier about it. Sure, I dig the eye candy, but more important, the rock-loving, roller-skate-wearing chicks indirectly help me with a weird rating system: A band’s quality is proportional to…

If amusement parks in the future ever build tributes to the 20th century, you can bet your futuristic dollar that The Crystal Method will run the ’90s booth. Five years into the 21st century, the duo (Ken Jordan and Scott Kirkland) still mixes big-beat tracks that sound like rip-offs from…

When Comet broke up in 1997, the local scene moved on. The band’s spacey, shoegazer rock, part of a mid-’90s Dallas movement that included bands like Mazinga Phaser, was all but forgotten by the aughts, and members moved on to other projects, most notably drummer Josh Garza’s Secret Machines. Last…

The loss of original member and bassist Nick Oliveri has sucked the life out of Queens of the Stone Age, leaving front man Josh Homme to lead his band without the screaming bassist to add a necessary spark. Some songs on Lullabies to Paralyze are just as rocking as past…

Fair warning: On Friday and Saturday, Fry Street Fair finally returns to Denton…we think. The Denton music festival, whose attendance peaked at 20,000 in 2002, was booted out of its hometown two years ago when city officials protested rising costs, crowds and security concerns. Rather than cancel, Fair organizers at…

Micah P. Hinson’s debut album is full of lovely, haunting sounds you’d expect from a band of ghosts. After all, the Abilene singer-songwriter overcame drug addiction, poverty and homelessness while writing The Gospel of Progress, and the 13 songs, full of sadness and reflection, sound like he really did walk…

On Wednesday, Ashlee Simpson’s Autobiography tour ends in Dallas and, coincidentally, so will her career. For many Americans, the end will be welcome. But for the thousands of people gullible enough to fall for her (including me), the farewell is bittersweet. Let me explain. According to common wisdom, Ashlee’s career…

Saturday’s Wall of Sound local music festival reads like my dream birthday party. If the show only featured the spacey synth-rock of Midlake and Red Monroe, the ultra-loud blasts of Record Hop and The Golden Falcons and the catchy Brit-pop of The Hourly Radio and Black Tie Dynasty, I’d already…

Saturday afternoon at Denton’s WakeUp Fest was full of sunny skies and cool breezes, and if Deep Ellum hadn’t stolen focus with its Arts Festival, perhaps more people would’ve driven out to enjoy the bizarre musical cross section. Country stalwarts The Gourds and manic-depressive punk-rockers The Riverboat Gamblers provided headliner…