Everyone knows the various evils of the music industry and major labels. Or, at least, they should by now. The low royalty rates, deceptively large advances, secret recoupable expenses, accountants who “don’t hear a single” and pushing-50 white guys with glowsticks and pacifiers in hand, demanding bands add drum loops…
Yvonne went skiing the day KKMR-FM (93.3), better known as Merge, went off the air. It was January 3, and the radio station had given away ski trips to a few lucky listeners–among the few listeners Merge had–and Yvonne, the host of the station’s morning show, Early Merge, was to…
Spurred on by the July 23 announcement by SMU QB Kelan Luker that he is quitting school, and hence, the football squad, to play bass full time for his band, Submersed, we also have an announcement to make. As of August 1, we are leaving our post as Dallas Observer…
Further proof that the U.S. DJ scene is getting respect globewide, Hoboken-based Chris Fortier comes to town on the heels of his new double-disc mix CD for John Digweed’s Bedrock label, Bedrock Compiled and Mixed Chris Fortier. (The 24 tracks fit together much smoother than the words in the title,…
Here’s something we never thought we’d say: We’ve heard the new Dixie Chicks album, and it’s good. Maybe great. Not sure, since we only heard it once, not near enough times to load it onto our mental six-CD changer. (Won’t pin down the means or location, because Sony seems fairly…
The Legendary Fritz and Headkrack tell completely different stories, with the same characters and a few similar plot points: Both believe they’re coming out ahead in a feud that’s been playing out (mainly) on Knowledge Dropped, Lessons Taught–Eddie D’s Saturday-evening hip-hop show on KNON-FM (89.3)–over the past few months. Both…
The OK trio’s second disc since reimagining itself on 1997’s Zaireeka, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots is casually electronic and curiously acoustic, sounds from either end of the musical spectrum crashing in the middle and collapsing into smiling, sad piles of overcast optimism and, as leader Wayne Coyne puts it,…
To be honest, most (OK, fine, all) of what we know about how our city works–or doesn’t, usually–comes from what we hear star columnist Jim Schutze say in staff meetings. Before we started paying attention, and even for a while after, when we heard someone talk about Victory or Palladium,…
John Congleton and Matt Armstrong, otherwise known as one half of the pAper chAse, sit in a tiny, cluttered recording studio, otherwise known as one of the rooms in Congleton’s house in a quiet neighborhood in northeast Dallas. The spoils of Congleton’s successful eBay bids are thumbtacked to most of…
At just under an hour, The Osbourne Family Album manages to give Jack and Kelly Osbourne’s burgeoning music-biz gigs a boost (dour Dillusion, who talent scout Jack’s been developing for Epic, appears here for that reason alone, and Kelly previews her forthcoming debut with a rote rocked-up run-through of Madonna’s…
It’s probably true in other cities, but it might as well be gospel in Dallas: If you can make it here, well, you’ve probably already made it somewhere else. Erykah Badu is the most infamous example: When her debut, 1997’s Baduizm, finally hit local airwaves, it was well on its…
It’s always been complicated for Ghetto Fame-Us. Time, money, whatever: Something always gets in the way. For example, the group finished recording its debut, Add On!, in late 1998, and then spent the better part of the next year scraping together enough nickels and dimes to release it on their…
We could ignore this, move on to something else for 800 or so words, make everyone happy. There are other things we could talk about. Say, Vanilla Ice (or V-Ice, as Robbie Van Winkle now refers to himself) and his new double-disc set, Bi-Polar, which finds him teamed up again…
The building at 508 Park Avenue isn’t much of one, just a shell, really, not that different from the dozens of other abandoned husks cluttering downtown Dallas. It’s still worth plenty to the Glazer family (whose main concern is Glazer’s Distributors, a major food and beverage supplier), owners of the…
Didn’t take long for neo-soul or whatever you wanna call it–Raphael Saadiq prefers “gospeldelic,” it seems–to become another ghetto, another programming block on MTV, another marketing tool, a sticker on a jewel case, a recommended-if-you-like shrug. Even an album title, judging from former Tony Toni Toné singer Saadiq’s solo debut…
For the third weekend in a row, a local radio station throws its annual summer shindig, a pledge drive disguised as a present to the fans, a bash studded with stars and loaded with favors. As in, X will play your concert if you start spinning Y’s record. That kind…
True story and, come to think of it, we’ve probably told this one before: A couple of years ago, we went to see the Beastie Boys at the Fort Worth Convention Center. Had pretty good seats, affording us a prime view of the in-the-round stage setup, as well as allowing…
Reasons why Guided By Voices’ new Universal Truths and Cycles (due June 18) will be called a “return to form” or some such: Because it’s filled with the kind of let-it-blurt blasts of verse-chorus-next! they turned into pop art on 1994’s Bee Thousand and 1995’s Alien Lanes. (The 36-second “Wire…
Here’s how screwed up the music business is, in 100 words or less. You’re likely familiar with this story. Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was deemed sales cyanide by Reprise Records, so they ditched the record and the band along with it. Wilco bought back Yankee Hotel Foxtrot from Reprise and…
Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts (better known to most as Arts Magnet High School) will host a 25th birthday party for itself May 26 at Gypsy Tea Room. It’s the curtain-closing event of a Memorial Day weekend that will reunite every Booker T. Washington…
The old man onstage at Rubber Gloves Rehearsal Studios–the guy with the face like a weathered catcher’s mitt who is sitting in a wheelchair in his satin coach’s jacket and gimme cap, fretting his baby-blue Gretsch with a butter knife clutched in his polio-stricken right hand–is probably the only person…
Joe Cripps sits on the porch of his house near Argyle, a sweaty glass of Maker’s Mark at his feet, a pile of dusty 45s by his side. It’s early evening in early May and the sun is setting on the home he shares with his girlfriend Ashley, their dogs…
