Drumroll, please: Flip to page 80 to take a gander at the official list of nominees for the 2006 Dallas Observer Music Awards. Starting right now, you have four weeks to cast your vote, so either fill out the attached ballot and mail it in or log on to dallasobserver.com…
Last year, the Wall of Sound Festival was just another local-loaded concert in a crowded month. April 2005 saw quite a few super-sized music events around the Dallas area–Fry Street Fair, Deep Ellum Arts Festival, WakeUp Festival–and each had its share of solid local bands but little to distinguish it…
For record labels, videogames and music are a match made in target audience heaven. EA Sports pushes major-label names in rock and hip-hop on the company’s yearly Madden and NBA updates, and Tony Hawk games sport underground punk and metal soundtracks. While those are somewhat appropriate, this week’s latest music-in-games…
We always thought the greatest stand-up comedy routines about ethnic stereotypes and racial tension were best served with intelligence, fire and a desire to challenge the audience’s assumed norms. After watching Comedy Central’s Mind of Mencia, however, we realized how stupid that was—repeatedly shouted phrases like “beaner” and “how many…
Scottish folk who live in Dallas must get annoyed on a frequent basis. Every time their cultural heritage comes up, someone surely makes a jab about Highland Park’s choice of “Fighting Scots” as a team name for all of their sports clubs—football, tennis, even golf. Strange that the most conservative,…
Roller derby? I’ve had enough. Technically, I shouldn’t give a crap whether tattoo-coated chicks want to don kneepads and rollerskates and re-enact the derby leagues that bored me on TV in the ’80s and ’90s, but the punk- and rockabilly-obsessed leagues throw so many benefit concerts around Dallas that I…
Partners in kind: Two months ago, local songwriter Jayson Bales called us up with little more than an idea and a dream–to help local musicians with legal, medical and financial counsel, the kinds of things full-time musicians without insurance can use in droves. After a successful organizational meeting in February,…
In early December 2005, I walked into Club Dada for reasons that don’t normally lead me into Deep Ellum. A buddy was playing his first gig with a new acoustic trio, and he needed friends to show up so that the group might get booked again. I went to Dada…
On occasion, butt-nasty venue Tom Cat’s lands shows so fitting for its out-of-the-way underground status that I’m simultaneously baffled and impressed. Wednesday’s hip-hop showcase is a perfect example, touting under-the-radar MCs like MED, Count Bass D and, most important, Percee P, a 35-year-old veteran who still hasn’t released a debut…
On Wednesday afternoon, Austin’s Beerland was dark, humid and barren. The punk and rockabilly music club isn’t meant for the daytime, let alone daytime concerts, let alone daytime concerts by the acoustic, thoughtful cast of Fort Worth’s Theater Fire. At the sparse afternoon show, the odds were against the out-of-towners…
SXSW by the Numbers: Times we overheard people mention MySpace at SXSW: 4 (admittedly, we didn’t attend the My Chemical Romance show, which affects our count) People who looked at our badges, realized we weren’t trendy or in a band and walked away: 15 White people at Pikahsso’s Friday night…
We’re not fans of a merge-happy marketplace. AT&T is turning the phone industry into a new monopoly, media corporations are taking more control over newspaper, radio and TV outlets and, worst of all, this weekend’s AllCon will try to serve all nerds at once. Outsiders might think it’s convenient for…
Michael Bublé is the incarnation of everything I hate about adult contemporary music. His latest album, It’s Time, is tasteless, dry and uninspired pap, a childish rehash of Rat Pack standards and puffy, sax-tastic leftovers from a Robert Downey Jr. recording session that would scare every trace of VD from…
R. Kelly must love it when media outlets poke fun at him. Lord knows I’ve reveled in the comedy afforded by both an alleged underage sexual encounter and an episodic soap-opera single (“Crapped in the Closet,” July 7, 2005), as have most people utterly baffled by how the Chicago native…
Word to your motha: TexasGigs.com has been hosting some very cool local music content lately; in particular, ever since we pleaded with site founder Cindy Chaffin to hook her portable recording rig directly into concert soundboards, her bootlegs are sounding dramatically better. (Yes, we’re taking credit for it, even if…
My dream version of spring break–less shirtlessness, more music and just as much drinking–is officially underway in Austin. I’ll talk about our city’s presence at the South by Southwest Music Festival in next week’s full review (and the impatient can find daily fest updates this week at Unfair Park, the…
Spoken in the voice of movie-trailer guy: “In a world…where evil dwells and bad deeds are rewarded…one man…”—cue an image of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson walking with a torn, bloody shirt and two oversized pistols—”must muster the courage to protect one Jew”—and here’s the shot of Mel Brooks gasping as…
What would Chappelle’s Show have been without straitlaced white actors for Dave to act off of? Of course, it’s hard for comedians like Bill Burr to stand out when Chappelle gets the biggest laughs in sketches like “The Racial Draft,” but when solo, he pulls his weight. Hell, Burr’s a…
The ’70s had disco, the ’80s had Madonna, the ’90s had grunge…but what about the ’00s? Far be it from us to predict the future, but we think people will label this decade as “the years that more blades were added to razors.” Cuttin’ wars continue to this very day,…
Dudes need dude-time, much in the same way flowers need sunlight or drama students need to quote Rent every four minutes. Otherwise, they wither up and die, and you don’t want that for your favorite little dude, do ya? That’s why you should send him to the Kramer Games, an…
Every time writers gush about Neko Case, they pull out a list of classic country singers like Lynn, Parton and Cline, all of whom were always more famous for their voices than their words. In that respect, such comparisons miss the point–they nail her towering voice and country influences, but…
Tae Quon, D’oh: Calls to AAT HQ are usually from annoying PR reps begging for their terrible emo-funk-fusion band to receive coverage, so it’s not often we get calls like this: “Hi, this is Tommy Quon. I wanted to talk to you about a few projects I’m working on, and…
