Just listing the bands of these two percussionists would run this blurb over its allotted word count. But there’s at least room to mention the time they spent together in Billy Goat and Ten Hands–two of Dallas’ most original funk/rock/jam/whatever bands. Dillon’s also the driving force behind Hairy Apes BMX…

Pinback’s technical prog-rock gurgles with Zach Smith’s thick yet fluid bass lines and Rob Crow’s guitars and samples. The two take turns singing, weaving together phrases over a meticulously pieced-together bed of drum machines and rudimentary keyboards. But you wouldn’t know all that from listening to the band’s new disc,…

The strange premise of Say Anything is a Real Boy as explained in the liner notes is that the album is a punk-rock opera built around a character named Max Bemis, cursed by a “supernatural power” that causes his “inner-most fears, fantasies, and thoughts to burst forth from his unsuspecting…

There’s no drummer in Guster. Instead, a standing percussionist hits skins and even cymbals with just his taped-up fingers. It may not make a huge difference in the band’s sound–there’s still a kick drum after all–but it’s the first clue that the band is a little out of the ordinary…

Julia Fordham’s slight stature doesn’t prepare you for what happens when she opens her mouth. Her husky alto is at once unexpected and beguiling. It’s this unique voice that’s drawn storied producers and musicians to the British expatriate’s side throughout her career. Hugh Padgham (Phil Collins, Sting, Paul McCartney) produced…

The most difficult situation described on Lisa Loeb’s onerously titled album is a toss-up between getting rear-ended (“Try”) and being romantically spurned by a fellow 5-year-old (“Now I Understand”). But then how could Loeb, who grew up comfortably in the suburbs of Dallas and who 10 years ago had a…

Davíd Garza may not enjoy talking about his past, but talking isn’t how musicians communicate best anyway. Maybe that’s why the Mexican-American singer-songwriter, a 33-year-old Irving native who has already released a dozen albums, is augmenting that vast catalog with a four-CD, one-DVD box set. Appropriately titled A Strange Mess…

Sure, I play guitar, but I play it like a rock critic–which is to say I play about as well as a food critic bakes a soufflé. Still, it’s fun to plug in and turn up the amp to a respectable seven or eight. And I’m not alone. All around…

Juliana Hatfield seemingly has everything going for her. She has a girly, interesting voice, a cooler-than-thou attitude, and she carries plenty of indie cred courtesy of her stint in the on-again/off-again Blake Babies. Still, on every one of her solo albums she’s managed to disappoint. In Exile Deo, her seventh,…

The first time I met Edie Brickell was in the summer of 1988. “What I Am,” the first single from Shooting Rubberbands at the Stars, her band’s major-label debut, was in heavy rotation on Q102, and the newly famous Edie Brickell and New Bohemians played a show outdoors in the…

You don’t need to hear Sonic Youth to like them. In fact, the less you hear them, the more likable they probably are. Since the band’s inception in 1981, its New York City, post-punk-rock story has been an inspirational tale: a group of young misfits who defied convention to make…

More often than not, when Boston native Melissa Ferrick takes the stage, she does it next to her drummer, Brian Winton. That’s next to, not in front of. And even though Winton doesn’t hold back when playing his full kit, Ferrick’s voice and acoustic guitar prove she deserves the equal…