Dip into any scuzzy indie-punk dive right now, and you’re bound to bump into a noise-rock two-piece. They seem to spawn out of beer-stained floors all over the place these days, so it’s only a matter of time until the scene belches forth a duo with the potential to break…
Broken guitar strings are expected at a rock show, what with the slashing pick attacks and whole-step note bends. But how the hell do you break a cello string with a bow? By playing hard, I guess, which is exactly what the eight-piece Earlies did before and after the string…
Think the live album is a dying art, falling victim to rabid bootleg trading through the Internet and Pearl Jam’s 50,000 “official” bootleg releases a few years ago? Then you could probably use a reconfirmation, and luckily, five live albums released in the past month get the concept right. Consider…
After two blood-drenched decades, GWAR continues pleasing hard-core fans, slamming out thrash metal and gleefully beheading celebrity effigies in concert. But for Oderus Urungus and his mutant band of foul-mouthed space pirates (guitarists Flattus Maximus and Balsac the Jaws of Death, bassist Beefcake the Mighty and drummer Jizmak Da Gusha),…
Conspiracy theory: If you’ve flipped through our Night & Day section this week, you’ve already seen a jumbo-sized item about Saturday’s Art Conspiracy show at the historic Texas Theater–artists create works in only 24 hours, bands play, proceeds go to charity. Interesting stuff, sure. But music fans should take an…
Anyone confused by 2003’s worldwide Darkness phenomenon–How does a band this goofy compete with U2 on the charts?–shall remain so. The Darkness still has nothing up its spandex sleeve but exuberant hard rock and satire. Nevertheless, One Way Ticket to Hell…And Back does differ from the debut, Permission to Land,…
Lasting a long time in the music business is all about reinvention and supposed relevance, although icons like U2 or Madonna don’t even need quality output anymore to gain attention. But some still have to earn it after almost three decades–not that notoriously cranky Mark E. Smith, leader of the…
Why the hubbub about mash-ups? By its very nature, classic hip-hop is a mash-up; the DJ utilizes the best elements of his vinyl-filled crates to create a new yet familiar musical experience. No DJ embodies the best of that sensibility like Z-Trip, who brings his party-rocking, chunky break approach to…
August 22, 2010 Dear Sir or Madam: My name is Kanye West. I am writing to inform you of my intention to matriculate at the illustrious Chicago State University. Again. Yes, I’m that guy. The one who talked mad shit about higher education on The College Dropout and Late Registration…
San Francisco’s Heavenly States was the first American band to ever play a concert in Libya…barely. In February, the band’s Australian record label organized the trip as a super-sized chance at publicity, and unfortunately, it became just that–the barely-known quartet was put through every wringer possible, from missed flights and…
For a decade, Fort Worth native Andrew Kenny has led some form of the American Analog Set, Austin’s greatest contributor of ambient pop. But the body can only take so many cramped, smelly van drives across America, and with some members having family obligations, this coming Wednesday’s stop at Trees…
Conspiracy theorists, ready your blogs: I believe the government has unleashed this week’s Hurricane Relief: Come Together Now on the American public to convince us to stop sending aid to Louisiana. This two-disc benefit album is the musical equivalent of 9/11, each disc an unforgivable falling tower of smoldering wreckage…
What is Dallas hip-hop like? Depending on where you hung out this weekend, your answer to that question could go in one of two directions–positive and exciting, or scary as hell. You would have reached the latter conclusion if you were standing anywhere near Club Hush on Friday night around…
The hip-hop of everyday life is rare these days–that is, unless your “everydays” are spent hustling, bullet-dodging and achieving mythic sex. For the rest of us, an unpretentious record like Feeding Einstein is just the prescription. This Brooklyn-based collaboration by MC Baje One and DJ Snafu is full of funky,…
Former Meat Puppets leader Curt Kirkwood has spent much of his post-Puppet time in semi-retirement, occasionally venturing out into his adopted home of Austin to thrill small audiences with his impressive guitarwork and charmingly muddled vocals. But after a brief (and pointless) attempt to resurrect the Meat Puppets with Texans…
Kate Bush’s latest arrives loaded with topical anticipation. The overdue follow-up to The Red Shoes, Aerial is the English dream-folk singer’s first album in more than a decade, a period in which her Mystical Art Woman persona was adapted to great commercial ends by Tori Amos, Sarah McLachlan and other…
I would like to take this opportunity to personally thank the Sony music group for its short-lived, ill-fated foray into digital copy protection. Though public outcry and class action lawsuits have forced the Nipponese entertainment behemoth to discontinue discs pre-infected with heinous spyware, my review copy of Santana’s latest was…
Thanks a lot, Jet, the Vines and the Hives. You had to go and burn the country out on garage rock a year before the Strange Boys recorded the most incendiary, exciting Nuggets-appreciative music to come out of Texas, if not the entire freaking United States, in a long time…
Jeremy Word has already done enough for Dallas as Kid Icarus, a local DJ whose eclectic sets of techy hard-house have earned acclaim both locally and abroad. But his role in ringleading big-name dance events in Dallas is perhaps even more vital to the scene, and his booking group, Prototype…
Leaving town to visit family on Thanksgiving? If so, you should rethink hanging out with Aunt Ethel, because this week finds Dallas gravy-deep in can’t-miss concerts–particularly the ones plugged in B-Sides (page 67). But best of all, hands-down, has to be the Earlies, the 11-member trans-Atlantic supergroup that has overwhelmed…
The conventional wisdom on A Bigger Bang is that it finds the Rolling Stones getting back in touch with their scrappy band-in-a-room roots, that they’re once again making the kind of no-frills rock that originally seduced the world while the Beatles were busy charming parents and variety-show hosts. But this…
O spasmolytic scions of math metal, listen and listen well: Stop-on-a-dime, ADD-driven thrash-skronk doesn’t get heavier or more intense than the Dillinger Escape Plan. Their latest, Miss Machine, may have driven them out of the underground just a tad, having even appeared live on the nu-school Headbangers Ball on MTV2,…
