5 Dallas Rappers to Watch in 2016: Sam Lao, Pat Ron and More

There are two reasons to keep an eye on the artists listed here. One, they’re established acts in the city who have been putting in work for years and have a well-founded reputation but had a relatively and purposely quiet 2015. Or two, they’ve been bubbling in Dallas’ youthful underground…

The Late, Great Hailey’s Club: An Oral History

Hailey’s Club as we know it is gone, and if we’re being honest it’s been absent for a couple of years now. Nevertheless, the club had a great 12-year run. It took Jennifer Gibbs, the club’s current owner, two years to realize running that space as a music venue had ultimately…

Lights All Night Reignites at Dallas Market Hall

Back in April, the Something Wonderful Festival at Fair Park seemed to document the end of an era, like Gimme Shelter with the Dallas Police Department stepping in for the Hell’s Angels. But that simply isn’t the case. Starting tonight, the two-day EDM festival, Lights All Night, is back and…

Dallas Metal Remembers Motörhead’s Lemmy Kilmister

Ian “Lemmy” Kilmister —  “a pirate of the rock business,” “the king of partying” and a “fucking monster” on a bass as the frontman for the English rock band Motörhead — died on December 28 at age 70. Dressed like a biker with black mutton chops, he spoke the language of a…

Dallas Hip-Hop Made the Most Important Local Music of 2015

Hip-hop has always been about struggle. The struggle of the streets, the struggle of the hustle, the struggle of being young and black in America. In 2015, after years of turmoil, those struggles reached a tipping point, exploding into the national consciousness because of an ever-increasing body count. A cop…

Grammy-Nominated Hayes Carll Is Back and Better Than Ever

If there’s a person in music who most accurately fits the description of a road warrior, it’s Hayes Carll. Since 2002, Carll has made his living touring the honky tonks and listening rooms of Texas and beyond, releasing four studio albums along the way. With the exception of a few…

Five DFW Bands Under 21 to Watch in 2016

With the return of the D.O.C., Leon Bridges’ soul revival and basically everything St. Vincent has done in the past 12 months, Dallas has been raising the bar for other musical communities around the country. With such an eclectic mix of artists calling the North Texas area “home,” it’s no…