This week’s batch of concert announcements brings a slate of shows scheduled for 2020. It’s been a busy 2019, and though there are still a few months to go, many promoters and venues are rapidly filling up their winter and spring calendars. Read on for a bevy of artists coming…
I’ve always hated the notion of the “tortured genius” since it essentially glamorizes an artist’s devastating struggle. Isn’t music supposed to, as Woody Guthrie once put it, “comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable?” I’ll admit, it has become harder for me to intellectually defend my disdain for this archetype…
Dallas indie-punk band Posival was pretty much dead in 2015. In the two preceding years, singer and guitarist Michael Zamora had written enough material to fill up three full-length albums and an EP, all released after the band members went their separate ways in early 2016. It was in those…
It seems like an eternity ago that derpy, 19-year-old Grapevine native Austin Post threw open the SoundCloud floodgates with “White Iverson” and thrust us into our current pop zeitgeist. Since then, there’s seldom been a mainstream radio hour, party or Spotify playlist sans one of his songs. Now 24 and…
When Joel Zimmerman’s, aka Deadmau5’s, team of handlers offered an interview ahead of his Sept. 12 and 13 shows at South Side Ballroom, I thought “OK, fine.” A conversation with Deadmau5 seemed like fun, after all. He’s a talented musician and no-filter guy who likes to rant about everything and…
In today’s America, where kids in high school don’t even know what a record player looks like, the yearly gross of vinyl sales is on pace to pass CD sales for the first time since 1986. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) released their mid-year report on Sep. 5,…
It was a mild evening on July 28, 1994, the first season the Texas Rangers played at The Ballpark in Arlington. Kenny Rogers had pitched to 24 batters and sent all 24 back to the dugout, one out after another. Rex Hudler, second baseman for the California Angels and seventh…
When you’re gathering and doctoring cattle across thousands of acres of Texas backcountry, chances are there may not be a food truck in sight. But there could be a chuck wagon, and people will be gathering around it playing music and telling stories. That’s part of the experience that Damon…
Yes, it’s not even Halloween yet and some people are already gearing up for the Dallas Observer Music Awards. Every year for the last 31 years, the Observer has given out awards to the best in local music — with a glamorous and slightly decadent ceremony, which will take place this…
KERA hosted a preview screening of the upcoming Ken Burns docuseries Country Music on Thursday at Southern Methodist University’s McFarlin Auditorium, and we had the esteemed privilege of attending and even speaking with Burns’ co-collaborators Dayton Duncan (writer and lead producer) and Julie Dunfey (co-producer.) Between all three producers, there are…
On a blistering late summer night in Dallas, the funk band Electric Tongues has taken refuge in a Starbucks, sipping drinks that foretell the onslaught of seasonal marketing. “These are pumpkin spiced lattes, man,” guitarist Max Ogden says. “You already know.” At this, producer and new Tongues member Sean Dream…
If your personality hinges on your musical tastes, then your ability to look smart when talking about them is imperative to your survival in the local scene. Here is a loose, easy guide to music terminology and some etiquette that will hopefully make you sound like you know what you’re…
Saturday night at the Statler Ballroom, as The Mavericks launched into “Summertime (When I’m With You),” the floor began to move beneath the crowd’s feet. That it felt as though the entire room was dancing — a couple of thousand fans pressed together in a room often on the verge…
There are plenty of good shows to attend this week, but here are a few suggestions if you don’t know where to start. If you’re looking for new wave, you’ll want to be at Granada Theater on Monday for British act The Fixx. If you’re looking for something with a…
Texas country music singer Kylie Rae Harris was responsible for causing the fatal three-car crash that killed her and a 16-year-old high school student in Taos, New Mexico, according to the Taos County Sheriff’s office. The sheriff’s office didn’t say Thursday evening if Harris was intoxicated at the time of…
Late in the evening, John Mayer leveled with us. He described to the comfortably full American Airlines Center an unhurried dinner with a companion whose presence soothes and everything feels so relaxed and easy that, before you know it, dessert has arrived: “That’s what this feels like,” the 41-year-old singer-songwriter…
Every 48 minutes, someone is killed in a drunk driving crash. It’s the leading cause of death on U.S. roads, ending more than 37,00 people’s lives in 2017, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. On Wednesday night, that someone turned out to be rising Texas country music star…
As soon as Labor Day passes, American tradition dictates that the holiday season must begin. While that may not be officially true, it does appear to have recently become the unspoken norm. As our weekly concert announcements roll in, the festivities of the Christmas season are bright, just as several…
La Goony Chonga is one of many women taking over the hip-hop scene in 2019. While rappers like Megan thee Stallion and Saweetie released some of the biggest, sexually charged rap hits of the summer, like “Cash Shit” and “My Type,” respectively, Miami native La Goony Chonga has a sexy,…
Half a decade ago, Jay and Jo Indigo started producing a unique brand of psychedelic bluesy hip-hop in a back-house Oak Cliff studio. The pair found a musical rock to stand on with the addition of Sneedless Indigo on bass and Tito Indigo on drums, and thus were born the…
In an imperfect world, it’s naive to assume there will ever be a perfect concert experience. Some things are just out of our control: noisy audiences during intimate sets, slow bar service or a band that starts an hour after its set time. But, like in the wonderful world of…
Nervous Curtains has been a staple in the Dallas music scene for more than a decade, executing their post-punk musings over the course of five albums and one film score. While the band’s sound has evolved with each release, it’s not what one would generally think of as dangerous. The…
