Even if it is part of your job description, we wouldn’t recommend going out nine nights in a row, and certainly wouldn’t suggest that liquor and cigarettes be involved for the duration. That said, we recently did just that, and though we sound (and, dear Lord, look) like Bea Arthur…

Months before we got a copy of Rhett Miller’s second solo record, we heard from people in the know that it was, well, kinda boring. It’s not. Unless, of course, you’re referring to the album cover, which is like the happier answer to the photo that graces Andrew W.K.’s I…

Jimi Goodwin didn’t get it, didn’t understand why he had to go to America. And usually, when Goodwin or anyone in his band, Doves, doesn’t get it, there isn’t much to get. Not for them, anyway. Sure, other British groups had done it, tempted fate and attempted to cross the…

The last time Wilco played in Dallas, the band was awful. That’s what singer-guitarist Jeff Tweedy is saying on the phone right now, groaning as he’s reminded of the ill-fated gig. He’s at home in Chicago, taking a couple of days off between tour stops, stealing a few moments with…

OK, the name is, let’s just say, unfortunate. (If you think four guys with a name like Manplanet should be ending their set with, say, “It’s Raining Men” and/or “YMCA,” well, consider us on the same page.) That aside, this Minneapolis quartet sounds (and looks) more like Devo, only if…

Dave Minner got his stage name a decade ago, back when he was spinning records at The Hottie Shop, the electronic-music record store he opened in his hometown of Orlando. And, once you understand what it means (think AK-47, the assault weapon Jackie Brown’s Ordell Robbie is talking about when…

Two dozen musicians. That’s enough for, say, six bands, and that’s being conservative. You could book an entire weekend at just about any local club with that many players to choose from. That number, however, is not enough for The Polyphonic Spree: The group wants to add one more member,…

A.I., Artificial Intelligence (DreamWorks): Shiny L.A. synth-rockers with Ray Manzarek’s kid on keyboards, A.I. faces some pretty stiff competition from Deadsy, the shiny L.A. synth-rock outfit led by Cher and Gregg Allman’s son. Artificial intelligence? To say the least. –Mikael Wood Blue Crush: The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (Virgin): A…

It’s Monday night, a quarter till 11, and Whiskey Glass Eye is onstage. Or, they’re supposed to be. Instead, the members of the Slobberbone cover band are scattered around Muddy Waters, blending into the sparse school-night crowd in booths and at the bar, smoking cigarettes, drinking beers. Muddy Waters’ P.A…

Heard this called “progressive bluegrass” or some such, and it is, I suppose, if only because the three members of Nickel Creek aren’t one foot in the grave and may eventually cover a song from Beck’s One Foot in the Grave. The group–guitarist Sean Watkins, his sister Sara on fiddle…

“Go play in New York.” That’s the advice OHNO singer-guitarist Steve Holt has for pretty much every local band, and the rest of the group seconds the motion, nodding in unison as soon as he says it. At the moment, they’re not going anywhere, just waiting for a shipment of…

It begins with an apology because it has to. Before we can talk about his band’s new album, Kill the Moonlight, before we can talk about anything else. See, I spoke with Spoon singer-guitarist Britt Daniel a few months ago, after a Friday-night gig at Trees. He was talking to…

Three tracks in, Clipse introduces listeners to where it comes from: “In Virginia we smirked at the Simpson trial/Yeah, I guess the chase was wild but what’s the fuss about?/See plenty of my partners feeling like O.J./Beat murder like the shit is OK/That’s what our dough say.” When, say, Ja…

Red Animal War releases its second full-length album, Black Phantom Crusades, on September 17, and it’s appropriate, if not entirely coincidental, timing. The fifth song on the disc, “When I Get the Feelin’ (Back in My Hands),” directly addresses the aftermath of September 11: “I’m waking up to the sound…

To twist a line from The Usual Suspects: Jay-Z’s biggest trick was convincing the world he didn’t exist. Pretty high degree of difficulty for someone who’s got more names than God–including some (J-Hova and its many variants) that pretty much are names of God–and more fans than Christianity. (Hey, if…

Nappy Roots was a T-shirt before it was a band, something Big V, Ron Clutch, Scales, R. Prophet, B. Stille and Skinny DeVille sold out of the record shop/recording studio–ET’s Music–they owned and operated just off Western Kentucky University’s Bowling Green campus, the city’s first black-owned record store. (ET’s, by…

When we arrived at the Dallas Observer (not long after we landed in Dallas, period) one of the first albums we were given by the music editor at the time was Room 158, a disc by a band called Fugly. The name was horrible, but the music wasn’t bad. The…

The former singer for The Red Rooster Boogie Band isn’t shocked by what’s happened to him and his band in the two short years since they released their debut album. No, as he’s said before, it’s been like a surprise birthday party. He didn’t necessarily expect a party, of course,…

Look, I’m as patriotic as the next guy (unless the next guy happens to be, say, Lee Greenwood), but I’m pretty sure I’ll never need some 10-10-220 shill taking a break from telling me exactly how much a buck is worth to deliver his U-S-A! U-S-A! fight song. Which, with…

Since we’ve heard that some of you have grown tired of our recent fascination with Kelan Luker, Submursed and other bands on Wind-Up Records, we thought we’d take a few moments to clear out our inbox and cleanse the palate, dropping the needle on a handful of new local releases,…

Last time I can remember seeing Pinkston guitarist Josh Daugherty, he was sprinting past me toward the Gypsy Tea Room bathroom at the Dooms U.K. reunion gig a couple of months ago. Actually, as it turns out, he didn’t quite make it past me or my just-purchased bourbon-and-whatever, spearing both…

Immediately after Bobby Bare Jr. is asked the question, one he’s undoubtedly been asked countless times since he joined the family business, he turns it around: “Well, what did your dad do when you were growing up?” He listens for a minute to the reply, a brief biography on a…