Years ago, I had a running joke with a group of friends in a band. Whenever something stupid happened, I’d be quick to quip, “This is ‘part two’ of your VH1 Behind The Music episode.” That is to say, one guy dropping a ketchup bottle would become the reason behind…
Shine on, golden warriors: Allow us to make a few enemies right here, right now, by making a hyperbolic declaration. Dallas’ best chance at giving the world a Coldplay-level mega-success–one that can strike the perfect balance between mainstream adoration and critical acceptance–is Radiant. Sure, we ultimately think other local bands…
Of course, its the producer who gets the performer into these pages; this look like People magazine to you, hunh? Fact is, anybody other than Rick Rubin produces this thing (and Heartbreaker Mike Campbell, Tom Waits-Beck guitarist Smokey Hormel and ex-wunderkind Jonny Polonsky play on it) and its forgotten day…
I wonder what Metric (and sometimes Broken Social Scene) frontwoman Emily Haines was like in high school. Like most emerging indie rock icons, she was probably socially awkward, the only sort of pre-adult state of mind that allows for a future of musical talent (no dates = more time alone…
The members of the band formerly known only as Dios deserved to be pissed when metal singer Ronnie James Dio’s lawsuit forced them to add the parenthetical “Malos” to their name. But Dio may have done the band a favor. Dios, which translates as “Gods,” was the perfect name for…
If the name wasn’t French for “Girls Who Rock,” nobody would’ve noticed the girl-band theme at Saturday’s second installment of La Femme Qui Rock. This was no Lone Star Lilith Fair: no political sloganeering and no delicate acoustic folk built around teenage diary entries. It was just a long night…
Hard rock is the biggest cliché in the world, but really, the formula works for a reason–there’s no ignoring the rush that a low riff, a snarling singer and a loud, crashing cymbal create. So it’s heartwarming to hear one of the fresher hard rock releases of recent memory come…
When it comes to good music that’s best in small doses, the problem is one of extremes–consider They Might Be Giants (too cute), Zappa (too cerebral), Sonic Youth (too abrasive). San Francisco’s Deerhoof is all of the above, but they pull it off with one other extreme–too catchy. Since sweetening…
Rarely do genres blend and cross-pollinate as fruitfully as on We’re Already There, Mazarin’s gracefully noisy barrage of neo-electronic pop and retro-psychedelia. Four years in the making, Quentin Stolzfus and crew have leaped past the somewhat dated stoner buzz of their two previous releases to concentrate on writing full, concrete…
In a rare instance where musical guest stars contributed something more than their names to a sticker slapped on the CD, Styrofoam’s 2004 album, Nothing Lost, actually put Death Cab for Cutie’s Ben Gibbard and American Analog Set’s Andrew Kenny to productive use. But don’t worry about the lack of…
Corrine Silguero tells her story with wary optimism, maintaining hope that her musical future will finally become reliable. A local blues diva who finds solace in the music of Big Mama Thornton, Bessie Smith and Muddy Waters, the 47-year-old is about to begin a weekly residency at Tio Joe’s on…
If you want to see both Broken Social Scene and the Stars, two of Canada’s hottest indie-rock darlings, then you better hope DART builds a super-speed rail line in the next few days. On Friday, the Stars are opening for Death Cab for Cutie at the Ridglea Theatre in Fort…
“I’VE GOT A THROAT INFECTION, WHICH MAKES SINGING A BIT OF A PROBLEM,” writes David Gray. “TO BE HONEST IT’S A TOTAL DOWNER.” With his Dallas concert a week away, I should’ve taken Gray’s request for a written interview as an omen of bad things to come. Instead, I jump…
The world is full of inexplicable events. The 1980 U.S. Olympic Hockey victory, the fall of the Berlin Wall, Rob Schneider’s film career–you know, things you never thought you’d see. Here’s another, and it’s pretty personal: I kind of enjoy Tommy Lee. It’s perplexing, because everything Mr. Lee has done…
One of the best things about hate mail is when angry readers get upset about a band that I’ve lauded repeatedly. “Why do you go on and on about Record Hop, The Tah-Dahs and Man Factory when you could talk about a real band like Feces Frank and the Porcelain…
Bullets over Broadway: Two months ago, we reported that Undeniable Records, the local imprint behind the 2005 Dallas Observer Best Of-winning albums by The Happy Bullets and The Tah-Dahs, was going national, baby. More precisely, they teamed up with national publicity firm Team Clermont to spread the word as the…
Depeche Mode’s new album begins with a bang–15 seconds of harsh, grinding, construction-site screech seemingly designed to quell suspicions that these dance-rock elders have been softened by age and irrelevance. You can hardly begrudge them their determination; since 2001, when the trio released Exciter, their moody synth-pop moves have been…
To think, the music industry had a potential super-genre to milk and didn’t jump all over it. The suits who oversaturated our ears with boy bands, rap-rock and grunge had an opportunity to do the same with revitalized country singers after Johnny Cash’s successful American series, but it’s probably better…
Three Houston veterans–Mike Jones, Slim Thug and Paul Wall–helped our not-so-neighbors in southern Texas slowly invade the rap world in 2005. But Mike Jones dropped the ball with a platinum-selling (but notoriously redundant) CD, and Slim Thug’s album, though one of the best of the year, lost its Texas shine…
Poorly recorded with oddly muffled vocals and an overemphasized, enthusiastic audience, Jackson Browne’s late-in-the-game “unplugged” recording will come as a shock to all who thought the well-tanned West Coast icon had retired or simply become irrelevant. At 57, Browne brings a morose sense of purpose to 12 songs spanning his…
Every few years, 90.1 At Night’s Paul Slavens charms local music fans with a special movie-related concert that would make even Cameron Crowe blush. With the help of local rockers from bands like Baboon, Mission Giant and local American Idol favorite Daron Beck, Slavens puts on infrequent live performances of…
It’s not everyday that the biggest living legend in Texas music plays on the street in downtown Dallas, but this Friday, Willie Nelson will do just that during the Chevy Speed Stampede, a free event coinciding with this weekend’s NASCAR races at Texas Motor Speedway. The Whiskey River will flow…
