Near the end of The Roots’ sixth album is a song (the 10-minute-plus “Water”) that underlines, italicizes and bold faces the problem that has always plagued the group: They are too smart, too thoughtful, too much for hip-hop. Sliding over drummer ?uestlove and bassist Leon Hubbard’s stuttering strut, head voice…

When Chomsky played The Door on November 23, singer-guitarist Sean Halleck announced that it was officially the group’s final show supporting last year’s Onward Quirky Soldiers. They weren’t going to play another gig until they were finished with a new record for a new label. But that’s all he said…

I began hating Christmas albums around the same time I figured out there was no Santa Claus: a long time ago and well before my parents knew any different. In both cases, I played along for as long as I could. Well, OK, that’s not quite true. As far as…

Consider this a palate cleanser. It was almost three years ago. George W. Bush was teaching the world how to laugh. People were investing in something called the Internet. This column was called Street Beat. And we were fairly new on the job. Since everyone seemed to be caught up…

Mark Ridlen hates karaoke. He begrudgingly bought a karaoke machine two years ago because he was tired of having “some anonymous drunk” mess with his equipment when he was DJing corporate parties and weddings. He figured if they wanted to belt out “I’m So Excited” or whatever, they could screw…

Had a good time at last weekend’s North Texas New Music Festival, though we noticed attendance was slightly down. Not so much that you’d see if you weren’t looking. The actual numbers probably don’t even matter; the festival got more people to come down to Deep Ellum than anything else…

If it’s a surprise that Beck follows his least necessary album (1999’s Midnite Vultures, where he tried so hard to be Prince he seemed on the verge of ditching his name in favor of a symbol) with his most essential disc (September’s Sea Change), it shouldn’t be. After all, that’s…

When Brent Best laughs, it sounds like the slide racking on a shotgun. Sounds that way when he coughs, too. Sometimes when he sings. Depends. It’s a little worse than usual right now; he and his band, Slobberbone, were on the road in Europe for a few weeks and have…

Week in, week out, we talk about what we think is right and wrong with local music, what needs to happen, what’s happening too often. That kind of thing. This week, we thought it would be a good idea to give someone else a chance to speak, especially in light…

Overseas, Ash would be touring in support of its recent best-of, Intergalactic Sonic 7″s, released in the U.K. in September. They’d be pushing their new single, “Envy” (also included on Intergalactic), which wonders what it would sound like if the Undertones heard the same symphony the Supremes did, with its…

Dan Bejar needed a change or, at the very least, a break. Needed to get away from what he was doing, needed to get away from where he was doing it. He was born and raised (mostly) in Vancouver, spent his entire adult life there. And for most of that…

The heart of hip-hop is in Billings, Montana. Really. Right now, at this moment, that’s exactly where it is. At a rest stop, to be precise, if you want to get technical. But don’t go looking for it, because by the time you get there, it’ll be long gone, back…

Business is down in Deep Ellum. Heard around 30 percent from some, a little higher from others. Some clubs are doing better than others, of course, and some are just hoping to get through this. We’ve heard plenty of off-the-record stuff, plenty of conversations that end with “and you did…

The title of Baboon’s new album, Something Good is Going to Happen to You, is truth in advertising, so long as you crack the shrinkwrap and give it a few listens or, better yet, a few hundred. It would apply just as easily to the band, had someone said it…

Christy Darlington wishes he’d never gotten so many tattoos. Well, not really, but he knows they give people the wrong idea, especially women. The girls those tats attract think they’re getting a typical punk-rock boyfriend, he says, someone who can keep up with them, raise at least a little hell…

On Tuesday, Interscope Records at long last released Nirvana, a 14-song best-of that features not only tracks from Bleach, Nevermind, In Utero and Unplugged, but the long-lost “You Know You’re Right.” The song, recorded almost a decade ago by Kurt Cobain, Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl, had been tied up…

Until 2000’s The Hour of the Bewilderbeast, Damon Gough could seep into the scenery, make his music without anyone making a fuss. Which is clearly the way he likes it: Since the beginning, he’s cultivated a sort of look-at-me anonymity, like a superhero who prefers his secret identity yet craves…

Pardon us if we’re speaking out of turn, but this is something we’ve been thinking about for a while: Why isn’t there a local label with any sort of national presence? Some have the money, most have the talent. All are run by people who know what they’re doing. And…

A few months ago, we got an e-mail from a publicist at Sub Pop Records, a guy we’ve known for three or four years. He was reminding us that one of the bands on the label was coming to town and were we going to cover it and, oh, by…

Of course, we should only talk about the music. Of course, we should. Home is, by far, the best album the Dixie Chicks have recorded, more than worthy of a few hundred listens and, at the very least, a separate discussion. But they want it this way: The group didn’t…

The first thing that’s different about the guy we’re talking to is that he says “a boat” instead of “about.” He’s from Canada–Hamilton, Ontario, specifically–so it’s an easy and obvious joke, and it’s also very true, making us smile to ourselves every time he does it, and he does it…

Matt Riggle only recently started taking his band, 41 Gorgeous Blocks, seriously. The fact that he’s been in the group for almost three years–and three albums, including this year’s Swallow the Sandwich–doesn’t really matter. It was just something that he did, because he had to, more than anything else. Not…