You can’t say that Denton’s Clutch Cargo doesn’t take care of business on its debut, Colon Bruising Sounds, blitzing through 11 tracks in less than 28 minutes. Produced by ex-Hagfish bassist Doni Blair, the disc is a constant sprint to the finish line, almost ending before it begins; the album…

You can fool yourself into believing this is just like seeing Van Halen in 1982; David Lee Roth has. He’s been trying to relive his bygone glories for the past few years, since he briefly reunited with Van Halen to record two new songs for the band’s 1997 best-of collection…

When Regina Chellew, Josh Garza, and Brandon Curtis came together as Captain Audio, it was as though three painters had stumbled upon a room full of blank canvases; there was no present or past, only future. They had all been in normal bands before — although calling Comet and UFOFU…

Too often, a Robyn Hitchcock album is like a series of one-night stands: a lot of screwing around that never leads to anything meaningful. Inexplicable choruses follow free-association verses, with a flurry of gibberish obscuring everything but the chord changes. And when he does hit upon a lucid thought, it…

OZZFest ’99 A few weeks ago, I ventured to the June 4 installment of OZZFest ’99 at the Nissan Amphitheatre in Washington, D.C. To the best of my recollection, this is how it all went down. Most of it, anyway. 11:05 a.m. Denied entrance into the Nissan Amphitheatre’s parking facility…

Carl Finch never thought Brave Combo would last 20 years, never thought he’d still be playing polka music two decades after he formed the band with horn player Tim Walsh, drummer Dave “Tito” Cameron, and bassist Lyle Atkinson in 1979. He was working on his master’s degree in fine arts…

There is nothing very unusual about Chomsky, not a single thing that should catch your eye or ear right away, just four guys playing pop songs on guitars, drums, and bass. Right. Got it. Line forms to the left. At first, it’s all too easy to assume that you could…

Scene, heard Quality Park Records, the Denton label owned and operated by Matt Barnhart, recently doubled its catalog, taking Western Vinyl Records — an even smaller independent based out of Bedford — under its wing. Quality Park will now distribute all of Western Vinyl’s releases, which include singles by Knife…

Though Direct Hit Records hasn’t quite been the same since Kelly and Sean Handran were forced to close their store in Exposition Park in July 1995, the mom-and-pop label’s catalog reads like a history of Dallas and Denton music over the past 10 years. After all, Direct Hit released Bedhead’s…

Nation of Ulysses wasn’t around long — only two albums, 1991’s 13-Point Program to Destroy America and 1992’s Plays Pretty for Baby — but the quintet remains one of the best bands Ian MacKaye’s Dischord Records ever produced. The Washington, D.C.-based group wasn’t as influential as MacKaye’s own outfits, especially…

It should have been a disaster, the kind of performance bands talk about later as the beginning of the end, the exact moment things started to go all wrong. Even now, as they sit around a table at The Cavern with the moment long behind them, four-fifths of The Gospel…

The phone call couldn’t have come at a more appropriate time. It’s a publicist at Interscope-Geffen-A&M Records — a vice-president at A&M for 14 years before Seagram’s eviscerated the label — ringing on behalf of one his clients, Sinead Lohan. But quickly the conversation turns to a mutual pet peeve:…

Every few weeks, Wayne Coyne drives the three hours south to Dallas from his home just outside of Oklahoma City, a place he refers to as “Wayne Manor.” It’s a trip he’s been making since the mid-’80s, when his band, The Flaming Lips, took the stage at Theatre Gallery or…

It looks like The Old 97’s will not be performing at Rubber Gloves Rehearsal Studios on July 22 as was previously scheduled. The latest batch of 97’s tour dates sent out by Chris Blake, the band’s manager, makes no mention of the show, which was to have included Slobberbone and…

Warped Tour Lollapalooza, it seems, didn’t die after all. Instead, it became the Warped Tour, taking its disparate lineups and carnival atmosphere with it. And looking at the bands participating in this year’s installment of the skateboard-competition-with-a-soundtrack, you’d swear that’s what happened. After five years in business, it’s not an…

No one in the living room of Clutch Cargo guitarist Ted Wood’s Denton house is paying attention to much of anything except what’s happening on the television screen nestled in the corner. The rest of the group — singer Alex Karchevsky, drummer Jeremy Shelby, and bassist Chris Ott — is…

There is no good way to interview Mike Ness. He dodges questions by answering different ones, then answers them again. It’s like having a conversation with a press release, as he reads through a series of quotes that don’t necessarily even match the questions asked; you get the feeling that…

By now, you’d assume that country musicians would know it’s easier to sell your soul in Nashville than it is to sell a song there. Yet every year, dozens of people like Houston Marchman head off to Nashville to make it as singers and songwriters, and the only thing they…

The short goodbye Going Away Transona Five Drawing Room Records The title of Transona Five’s follow-up EP to last year’s Duffel Bag couldn’t be more apt: The band will indeed be going away in the coming months, beginning with bassist Scott Marks’ departure for upstate New York. The remaining members–guitarist…

The area in front of the stage at Austin’s Waterloo Park is one stray cigarette away from bursting into flames, a loose bed of hay piled on top of the park’s green grass like an accident waiting to happen. A few days ago, when it was raining, the hay seemed…

Pal Joey…and Marky This is…the Savage Young Wallys The Wallys Amp Records Day One On the Double On the Double Records There hasn’t been anything new to say about The Wallys since the Ramones released their eponymous debut in 1976, and The Ramones Leave Home and Rocket to Russia a…

Every few minutes, Baboon frontman Andrew Huffstetler abruptly leaves the table, breaking off the conversation to disappear briefly into the thinning crowd of diners at Sushi Nights. None of the other members of the group–bassist Mark Hughes, guitarist Mike Rudnicki, and drummer Steven Barnett–pays much attention to Huffstetler’s comings and…