In the 1980s, Gram LeBron was a typical middle-class kid in Garland, living out his teendom in typical 1980s suburbia. He killed time at the Galleria, watched too much MTV, spent Friday and Saturday night at the dance club in the West End. He was interested in music–played in high…
Truth be told, most blues-related Christmas gifts are depressing and not just because they’re the blues. Current players seem content to substitute instrumental finagling for true passion, but several late-year releases from pioneers of the genre are here to make 12-bar melancholy sound good during the holidays. The best of…
At the box office, everyone used to be equal. The only way to get super-close tickets for U2 or the Rolling Stones was to wait in line on the first day of sales. Web site ticketing has eased the need to camp out overnight in recent years, but with a…
Who are the biggest tastemakers in local music? A decade ago the answer might have been clearer–a radio DJ, a newspaper writer, a person who booked for any given concert venue in town. But with the proliferation of Internet bulletin boards, podcasts, MP3 blogs, webzines and other cheap, easy means…
Abbott anniversary: On December 8, 2004, metal fans the world over lost an icon in “Dimebag” Darrell Abbott at a Columbus, Ohio, nightclub shooting at a Damageplan concert that took three other lives, including Damageplan security guard Jeff “Mayhem” Thompson. To honor and remember Dimebag’s years of performing in Dallas…
One of the most original bands ever to gain a bankable following is beginning to sound too comfortable in its self-invented genre. Not that any other band has duplicated the formula: metalcore mosh with auctioneer-gone-mad vocals, followed by incantational harmonies and exotic-stringed acoustic breaks. And few other bands with such…
At nearly 60, Robert Fripp continues to be an enigmatic asshole. Twenty years ago, he claimed that guitar gods Clapton and Beck didn’t even know how to hold a pick. And while fronting whatever incarnation of King Crimson he chose to gather around him, he proved that he did. Fripp…
Since doo-wop masters the Platters and the Drifters are shimmying through Irving Arts Center this week, now’s as good a time as any to take a listen to Doo Wop Vocal Group Greats, the umpteenth doo-wop box set (which happens to feature both touring groups) to hit stores in time…
If beauty is a result of tragedy, then Swedish indie whiz kid Dag Rosenqvist has picked the right name for his band. His heavily processed, static-based compositions may have little in common with the site of a Texas racial tragedy, but the pure emotion Jasper TX wrenches in this dense…
“Frances, Frances Bean…what are you doing up here, sweetie?” “I was just going through Daddy’s tapes, Mom. I wanna pick a song for the new album, too!” “Okay, honey, but we’ve only got room for three unreleased tracks, all right? The other 19 are coming from last year’s boxed set…
Not all Christmas songs evoke images of snow, toys or the birth of Santa Claus. Many of the greatest holiday songs empathize with those who have nobody to share the holidays with; lonely souls like the walking dead and lunar explorers. What, you haven’t heard “Zombie Christmas” or “Christmas on…
The unlikely fusion of rockabilly and gothic punk has produced some freakish results (Dallas’ own Ghoultown comes to mind), but Austin’s Hotrod Hillbillies only nibble at the nether regions of the mascara and tombstone crowd. The trio’s debut Under the Texas Sky is country punk saturated in Budweiser and infused…
At a recent show a barefooted Glen Phillips responded to requests from the crowd with a begrudging, I get it, you only want to hear the old Toad the Wet Sprocket stuff. He was only half right, because the crowd responded almost as well to the less familiar songs off…
Call the San Francisco dance scene eclectic if you want, but really, it has always been about house. In the past few years the dominant face of that scene has certainly become one Miguel Migs. Having a mug that could pass for a gardener on Desperate Housewives doesn’t hurt his…
Dallas Observer in-jokes usually don’t warrant mentioning in print, but this week, I’ll make an exception for our office’s Hot Dudes Wall. The music section receives a lot of goofy press photos, but we don’t just make fun of them–we stick the dumbest, campiest ones on a huge wall and…
1. In the beginning, the devil created heavy metal. 2. And it made white men and women worship him, causing them to eat bats, kill cats and carve pentagrams into their flesh. And the devil saw that it was good but that it had no impact whatsoever on black folks…
Talk about jumping the holiday gun–on Thanksgiving Day, Drams lead singer Brent Best was already impersonating Santa. The Dentonite had hitched his horse up to eBay (username: brentbest) to sell a few gems from now-defunct country-rock legends Slobberbone; highlights included a 1979 Guild S-300D electric guitar used on Barrel Chested…
It’s time to be frank: Everything I’ve written about Dallas hip-hop has been inadequate. The columns, the previews, the Dallas Observer Music Awards blurbs–chump change. I thought I was doing service to an ever-growing scene of performers around town, but on Friday night, I was forced to look the metroplex…
In “Who You’d Be Today,” a slo-mo ballad from his new album, Kenny Chesney wonders what life would have dealt a handful of dead people if they hadn’t died. “It ain’t fair, you died too young,” he sings in weepy close harmony, “Like a story that had just begun.” Penned…
Nothing’s worse than when bands hit the road together solely for convenience–labelmates get strapped together to save the boss man dosh on tour support, or MTV bands adopt buzzy newcomers to edge up their image. But every once in a while a double bill makes immediate, seductive sense, and the…
Looking for a more intimate experience than sitting on Santa’s lap at the mall this holiday season? A Grown and Sexy Christmas brings three R&B smoothies–old-hand singer-producer Babyface, hard-body heartthrob Ginuwine and new-jack quartet Jagged Edge–to the Nokia for a night of heavy-breathing melodies, bump-and-grind rhythms and determined proclamations of…
Though their name conjures up images of half-century-old pickers and grinners crowding a dilapidated front porch, the youthful and lively South Austin Jug Band adds some much needed rock grit to the new-grass sensibilities inherent in acoustic roots music. Sophomore album Dark and Weary World is country-folk with just as…
