There was a time when being a saxophone player and being in a rock band were not mutually exclusive. Unfortunately for every ambitious high school geek with a pocket full of reeds, this is not that time. Being a sax player in high school is like majoring in Latin in…
For the better part of two decades, Erasure’s Vince Clarke and Andy Bell have been something akin to the Abbott and Costello of electronic pop. Straight-man Clarke feeds his synth lines to flamboyant singer Bell, whose multi-octave vocals and campy persona transform his partner’s arresting melodies into dance-floor anthems and…
In the Grand Critical Discussion of early-’90s albums, Teenage Fanclub’s Bandwagonesque tends to get the shaft. Musicologists are far more likely to slaver over Nirvana’s searing riffs while paying little note to TF’s sugar-sharp harmonies, glorious hooks and Big Star revivalism. Not the Foxymorons. The Nashville/Mesquite duo’s third album, Hesitation…
Months ago, a colleague handed me a CD of rough tracks from John Lamonica. The voice was unlike anything I’d heard in Dallas music–dangerously soulful, raucous and rich. So his new five-song EP, How Shall They Hear?, came as a bit of a shock, a series of lullabies, somber as…
To a passer-by, the first installment of printf() might have looked more like a rave than a digital arts show. The concert was held in an abandoned warehouse. Crazy, flashing graphics and techno sounds filled the room. Hell, people danced like loons while chugging bottles of water, but that had…
Quick question: Who is the rapper pictured above (twice)? If you don’t know, that’s no surprise. Dallas’ hip-hop scene has become a kind of tragically secret society, a group of talented artists too often performing for each other and the same select fans, popping up in odd venues around town…
Los Bros. Gallagher return after their Heathen Chemistry produced not a banging wallop but a fizzling so-what–the familiar story of two boys who began their careers with two miniature masterpieces (plundered from the Beatles, but what’s your point?) and then spent the remainder of their moment in the sun standing…
For five albums, Memphis’ Lucero was just another traveling alt-country band: Good live show and rabid fans, but the albums never got much attention. It’s ironic that the title of their latest LP, Nobody’s Darlings, acknowledges this cult status at the very moment the band is becoming something deserving of…
Expatriation has left its mark on Nottingham native Scout Niblett. Whereas she was once good for a solid, Cat Power-style folk ditty, three albums in and three American cities behind her (at least), she’s lost her mind in the best way possible. 2003’s I Am was transitional at worst, and…
At this late date no one expects Robert Plant to make another In Through the Out Door, let alone another Houses of the Holy. So it’s tempting to assume that Mighty Rearranger, Plant’s first album of original material in more than a decade, sounds great only because it doesn’t find…
A word of caution to the 20 die-hard Gorillaz fans who have held on since the “cartoon band” debuted four years ago: Blur’s Damon Albarn is the only contributor to return for Demon Days. While the same fictional characters fill the liner notes, every real-life musician has been replaced, and…
Daron Malakian and Serj Tankian may not be the first to have read media critic Danny Schechter while pumping Slayer. But on Mezmerize, System of a Down’s third and most consistent album, the front men take a threadbare theme–the anesthetizing effect of mass media–and have more fun aiming their piss…
Unlike Nebraska, Bruce Springsteen’s 1982 unplugged masterpiece, the Boss’ latest is a big-production acoustic venture, larded with atmospheric keyboards, earnest mandolins and all the accouterments money can buy. To his credit, Springsteen has crafted his finest album in years, far better than dronefests such as The Ghost of Tom Joad…
Emancipation, my ass. Rather than letting their client display her distinctiveness, the members of the Carey Career Resurrection Braintrust have practically erased any individuality she had left. On Mimi’s cover, she looks less like a person than a hood ornament or a carving on the prow of a ship, and…
In this year’s Dallas Observer Music Awards nominees for DJ/Electronic, one of these things was not like the other: DJ Merritt, DJ Jayson Gould, DJ Wild in the Streets, DJ Whiz T…and Tree Wave. That’s right–only one (one!) nominee fell under the “electronic” category: Tree Wave, the duo of Paul…
Rob Dunlap stands up, extends his long arm and says, “Look at this.” The tattoo on his wrist reads 7FN, and his Golden Falcons bandmate, keyboard player Jonny Mars, yells out what it stands for: “7-foot ninja!” Dunlap, the band’s unmistakable 6-foot-11 lead singer, crouches awkwardly. “I got that name…
If you have even a passing interest in Houston hip-hop, you already know the answer to the following question: “Who is Mike Jones?” And you also know that his cell number is 281-330-8004 and his Web site is www.whomikejones.com. And now, thanks in no small part to his canny marketing…
The first song on the first album by the Deathray Davies is a pounding, gloriously off-kilter pop tune called “They stuck me in a box in the ground part 1.” As introductions go, the song is terrifically instructive, not only hinting at front man John Dufilho’s fetish for ’60s melody…
A Small Stars show is nothing short of a show. Never breaking character, the musicians best known for their day jobs in Fastball, New Bohemians and assorted Austin bands don costumes, clever aliases and Vegas kitsch. With over-the-top, lounge-inspired romps like “Two Girls Are Better Than One” and the escalating…
With a sound as plain as her name, Julie Roberts isn’t a particularly flashy female country singer, especially compared with veteran showstoppers such as Shania Twain and the Dixie Chicks or an outspoken newcomer like Gretchen Wilson. But on last year’s self-titled debut, the 26-year-old South Carolina native doles out…
Soulful country balladeer Chely Wright might be too sexy for her own good. Her brand of country falls closer to Lucinda Williams than Faith Hill, but her sultry, wind-blown appearance belies some of the earthier elements of her music. Wright’s sixth effort, The Metropolitan Hotel, is full of thoughtful people…
In between tours with ascendant nautical metallers Mastodon and goth-chic pop-punkers Alkaline Trio, Death by Stereo headlines Dallas the day before the release of Death for Life, the Orange County metalcore outfit’s new album. Avenged Sevenfold fans anxiously awaiting that band’s terrific major-label debut would do well to bide their…
