2005 was a year of exploration and expansion in urban music. Against a Matrix-like background of corporate-controlled radio and TV, iPod-enabled consumers demanded more musical choices and were rewarded by indie labels and an alternative to mainstream mediocrity. For every lackluster commercial effort (like 50 Cent’s The Massacre), 10 superior…
In 2005, pop music was rock music. Between Kelly Clarkson’s tarted-up “Since U Been Gone,” Ashlee Simpson’s raspy, Courtney-Love-after-a-bender vocals and Hilary Duff’s collabs with her Good Charlotte boy-toy Joel Madden, even the biggest top-40 starlets liked their guitars cranked up to a sassy 11. Elsewhere, rockers in eyeliner (word…
As far as music goes, I am not a tribal person. I am not prodded by Pitchfork Media nor narcotized by Relix, nor are my spirits lifted by No Depression. Not to say that those media sources are entirely flawed–indeed, each has its virtues. But each of these influential outlets…
Noah W. Bailey: 1. Phosphorescent, Aw Come Aw Wry 2. Iron and Wine/Calexico, In the Reins 3. Andrew Bird, Andrew Bird & the Mysterious Production of Eggs 4. Okkervil River, Black Sheep Boy 5. Bosque Brown, Plays Mara Lee Miller 6. M. Ward, Transistor Radio 7. Magnolia Electric Co., What…
Sure, it’s easy for us at AAT headquarters to sit in our bedrooms, rifle through hundreds of albums and pick our favorites for the year. But what about the musicians in town who are much braver than us and actually get on stages? What albums moved them this year? Here…
1. Cirez D, “Rematch (Original Mix)” (Mouseville): The track of the year. Cirez D delivers an instant club classic. 2. Pryda, “Aftermath” (Pryda Recordings : Eric Prydz astonishes with the sheer quality of his production work, and his ability to shift gears from release to release puts him in a…
Unfortunately, Dallas music was better known for its losses than its gains this year. A few great bands faltered in 2005–Day of the Double Agent’s decline was public and ugly. Denton’s Skin Trade fell victim to an unexpected hiatus only a month after their first-ever write-up in the Dallas Observer…
Another year, another rich haul of Christmas CDs. But instead of coming up with another essay about the latest in holiday music, we decided to help out the ailing economy–not to mention frazzled holiday shoppers–and do a Christmas CD buying guide. Don’t waste your time at the local listening station…
On February 22, founding Korn guitarist Brian “Head” Welch announced his departure from the band, claiming the band’s music and lifestyle conflicted with his recent rededication to Christianity. However, we recently uncovered a prayer journal that suggests moral objections weren’t the only motive for his exodus. February 22, 2005: God,…
Spoiled brats, we’re already jealous of that new, video-ready iPod your rich daddy bought you for Christmas. But we still want to help you max out your new gizmo, so while waiting for Santa to deliver 60 gigs of holiday cheer, forget about tiny episodes of Lost; instead, download music…
Let us now discuss the labyrinthine, in-your-face, introspective, esoteric, head-bobbing, fist-pumping, booty-shaking, genre-defying mélange of the Rock Critic Cliché milieu. Like any other, this profession suffers from ridiculous, impenetrable jargon. I am certainly not immune to this disease, but perhaps I can diagnose specific viruses and prescribe medicine for lousy…
Oven Lovin’: After a meteoric rise in publicity and a few big-name opening tour gigs (you know, that whole Coldplay thing) in previous years, Tyler’s Eisley had all its pop-rock ducks in a row in 2005. Everything seemed set for the February release of their first major-label full-length, Room Noises…
The biggest debates in rock music are about the great mimics. The Strokes outlasted comparisons to the Velvets, Coldplay somehow became bigger than Radiohead and you can’t even speak the word Nirvana without thinking the word Pixies. So it’s understandable that one of the most refreshing groups to surface this…
This year’s edition of American Idol–the show’s fourth season since igniting a tele-musical frenzy in 2002–was something of a triumph for the South: The program’s two finalists, Oklahoma native Carrie Underwood and Alabama-born Bo Bice, proved that Dixie denizens could compete with contestants from flashier locales, and that music with…
When the Xbox 360 hit stores last month and the system sold out within hours, a Berkeley business professor commented on the genius of Microsoft’s marketing. “Shortages create a whole mystique of desirability,” the prof said. Ryan Adams, take note. With the release of 29, Adams’ third album this year…
Best thing I’ve heard all year? That would have to be this fantastic EP’s opening cut, “The Commander Thinks Aloud,” in which the Long Winters’ enigmatic frontman John Roderick caterwauls over a symphonic mess of a song. While obscurely tackling the two NASA shuttle disasters, Roderick stakes a claim on…
For whatever reason, the Polyphonic Spree is among the most despised bands from Dallas. Maybe it’s the fame, the robes or the super-happy lyrics, but something about the enormity and oddity of the Spree just doesn’t do it for hipsters and jocks alike. Well, Scrooges, it’s Christmastime, which is the…
A virtual crash course in current Southern hip-hop, 97.9 The Beat’s holiday blowout rounds up an impressive array of Dixie’s hustle-and-flow men (and one woman) to remind us of the real reason for the season: cash! Headliner Young Jeezy–Atlanta’s 50 Cent, in more ways than one–has had quite a year,…
A pair of major-label misfires confused longtime fans and turned this bone-crunching Massachusetts quartet into so much pop pabulum, but Cave In has righted their thunderous course with the recent Perfect Pitch Black. Never content to simply play along with the often-generic metal genre, Cave In mixes progressive touches a…
If you think country music is all about longnecks and two-steps, well, you’re wrong. But if you’re headed to Cowboys Arlington to see Deryl Dodd and the Homesick Cowboys, it won’t much matter. Armed with an arsenal of songs about honky-tonks and heartache, pearl snaps and rodeos, Dodd is a…
Justified or not, “trance” has become a dirty word in many IDM circles. Today’s mainstream anthem-trance sound and the crossover success–and hero worship–of artists such as Tiesto and Paul Van Dyk has polarized the hard-core dance community. Extended chord progressions and ever-popular ten-minute breakdowns conjure images of, well, Yanni and…
I must have a reputation in the local radio community. This week, I wanted to have a talk–a simple, harmless, non-accusatory chat–with the program directors at 97.9 The Beat and K104.5 FM, Dallas’ highest-rated hip-hop radio stations. Unfortunately, neither Jon Candeleria nor Skip Cheatham, respectively, returned my numerous calls, which…
