Sunny Day Real Estate The Rising Tide (Time Bomb Recordings) For some reason, Sunny Day Real Estate’s 1998 album How It Feels to Be Something On was treated as if it were a one-time-only reunion, 10 new songs found while the members of the band sifted through the ashes of…
[DARYL] Communication: Duration (Urinine Records) Months ago, a friend leaned over to me at a club to say that if someone had predicted years ago that today she’d be watching (and, more important, loving) a band with keyboards, the suggestion would have been met with either violence or laughter, depending…
Groovie Ghoulies I first saw the Groovie Ghoulies three years ago at the now defunct Argo in Denton, opening up for The Queers. After the other support act, the Lillingtons, finished its set, the club’s lights came down and only the orange and red lights came back on. Taking the…
Nash Kato Urge Overkill were the virtual rock stars of the early ’90s, copping press attention beyond their record sales, winning the hearts of Geffen Records and Chrissie Hynde with their retro (but still modernly ironic) take on smooth and gleaming bubble-hard rock. Their smirking style made them redolent of…
Joseph Arthur Joseph Arthur may have some serious problems. Or maybe he doesn’t; maybe he just magnifies his regular problems for the sake of his songs. Either way, here’s hoping he continues to mine his personal demons for his music, which he manages–despite his commitment to putting his personal life…
Scene, heard The first live show by The Rocket Summer happens on September 23, on the same bill with The Get Up Kids, The Anniversary, and Koufax. Bryce Avary, the singer-guitarist-bassist-drummer for The Rocket Summer, is still putting together a band for the show since, until recently, he’s been the…
The Resentments are not a band, yet they are exactly what a band should be: five guys playing together for the sake of the song, the music. A conglomeration of Austin talent that, until recently, only played most every Sunday night at The Saxon Pub in their hometown, the group…
Marshall Mathers LP, the sophomore effort from Michigan-by-way-of-Missouri native Eminem, ranks among the year’s best from a musical standpoint. With tight production by Eminem himself, Dr. Dre, Mel-Man, and others, this record jumps from one slamming track to the next, with the adrenalized “Criminal” perhaps the most potent. Eminem’s flow…
Scene, heard Darlington is back from its recent nine-country, 26-day tour of Europe. Joining singer-guitarist Christy Darlington and drummer Steve Visneau on the trip was erstwhile bassist Angelique Congleton, who is apparently back in the group these days, though that will probably last as long as the band’s brief name…
Belle & Sebastian Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant (Matador Records) On their three previous albums, Belle & Sebastian seemed to be answering the question: What do librarians do after hours? Every disc felt as if it had been released posthumously, long enough after the band’s demise…
The Lucky Pierres My Temptation (A DIY Recording) The painting on the front cover of My Temptation, The Lucky Pierres’ follow-up to 1998’s Cocktail Country, more or less sums up all of the songs inside: A sad-eyed waitress finishes her shift with good cry and a bad cup of coffee…
The Toasters When Rob “Bucket” Hingley moved from England to New York in 1982, he was shocked and dismayed to find that ska music had yet to make a dent in American pop consciousness. Instead of waiting for someone else to make it happen, Hingley decided to do it himself…
Roger Waters In its lifetime Pink Floyd slowly amassed enough alienation anthems to win the allegiance of kids in high school smoking lounges the world over. “Time,” “Money,” “Welcome to the Machine,” and eventually The Wall, a sprawling two-LP concept album from 1977 that chronicled the fascist impulses of an…
Please forgive me if the following paragraphs amount to little more than someone crying because the neighborhood bully stole his football and refuses to give it back. Maybe I just assumed that I (or maybe Robert Wilonsky) would be the one to pull the plug, that our relationship with Yahoo!…
What jail is like We’re not too sure this belongs here–after all, this paper does have a letters section–but it’s much quicker to respond to this letter in the music section since we can’t call or e-mail the writer, or use any of the typical ways to get in touch…
You’d think there was a law or something. Should you happen to be in charge of the homes section of a daily newspaper, and should you happen to assign a piece about, God help you, stucco, you’ll likely get a story back referring in some way to “Little Boxes,” the…
And then Lou Reed says, “I love you.” It’s his way of answering a question that could, in truth, be interpreted as a vague compliment–something about how his albums have never conformed to fad or fashion, something about how Lou Reed albums always sound like Lou Reed albums. (Guess he…
When bands sign record contracts, they can’t help but believe that life will be easier, better–limousines and Lear jets, or at least someone to pay the electric bill. After all, they’re finally getting paid to do what they love: playing music, making records. What they never consider is what the…
Invariably, conversations at the Dallas Observer offices drift to topics such as, does Britney Spears need a spanking, and if so, would she accept one? (Answer: Yes, and probably.) Or, those guys from ‘N Sync and the Backstreet Boys must be gettin’ it on more than a lounge singer in…
Todd Deatherage is a sport. No matter what you think of the former Calways frontman, you have to give him that much. Well, maybe you don’t. But we definitely do. Why? Because Deatherage stood in the hall of the Dallas Observer offices for 10 minutes on Friday afternoon, while Robert…
Peter Gabriel OVO: The Millennium Show (Real World Music) Eight years after the release of Us–a meditative, self-flagellating rumination on his breakup with Rosanna Arquette–Peter Gabriel has all but disappeared. Perhaps that’s to be expected when a musician spills his guts with no one there to hold the bucket; it…
Nick Brisco Damn the Possibilities (Pluto Records) Nick Brisco and cast Centaur Battle of San Jacinto (an extended barroom brawl) (Pluto Records) Nick Brisco moved to New York at the beginning of the year, giving up on Dallas again in his quest to Make It. He’s made similar moves before:…
