The 10 Best Dallas-Fort Worth Music Videos of 2015

Combing through the area’s best music in 2015 is a big job — there’s a lot of it — and that task gets even bigger when you toss in the videos accompanying some of the best music. North Texas is rich with musical talent and with video directors helping to…

Rigor Mortis Film Celebrates Late, Great DFW Metal Venues

Production for Rigor Mortis’ documentary, Welcome to Your Funeral, started in 2007. The original idea was to make a film about the birth of the DFW metal underground. But after Rigor Mortis guitarist Mike Scaccia died in 2012, the focus shifted solely to the band, which was mixing metal with…

The 10 Best Concerts in Dallas This Week: Chicago, Rick Ross & More

T’was the week before Christmas when all through Dallas, not a venue was stirring, not even a house. That might sound like exaggeration for dramatic effect, but it’s not too far from the reality of sparse shows leading up to the holidays. But luckily, once all the trees have been…

The 10 Best Dallas-Fort Worth Albums of 2015

When it comes to the best albums made by North Texas artists, it was a year of extremes. Some, like Slobberbone front man Brent Best’s Your Dog, Champ, took years and seemingly endless series of ordeals, to see the light of day. Others, like Leon Bridges’ Coming Home, was the…

Taylor Rea Lives a Technicolor Dream Life as Dance-Pop Alter-Ego Zhora

Zhora sits at the Twilite Lounge in Deep Ellum, shooting straight “Kentucky whiskey”, as she called it, in a mock-Southern accent. Zhora is the stage and DJ name of Dallas-based singer Taylor Rea, inspired by a character from Blade Runner. Onstage, she’s a catsuit-wearing siren, moving with the swaggering precision…

After Master of the Mic, Dallas Hip-Hop Has a New Path to the Future

Performing in front of hip-hop legends like the D.O.C., Erykah Badu and Dorrough is a dream for most up-and-coming MCs. But for six lucky performers, that dream became a reality last Saturday night at Trees. The event was the finale of the first annual DDFW Master of the Mic competition,…

Texas Country’s Biggest Winners and Losers of 2015

Texas country has always been hard to define, but at the end of 2015, the task seems harder than ever. As Texas artists start to see more success in Nashville, other music scenes are bleeding into the genre. The lines between Americana, Texas country and Nashville country aren’t as neatly…

The 20 Best Dallas-Fort Worth Songs of 2015

There were some real heavy hitters that stepped up the plate in Dallas music in 2015, some of them familiar faces and some of them (most of them, in fact) coming seemingly out of nowhere. Seeing the Queen herself, Erykah Badu, return with new music was one of the clear…

The 20 Best Concerts in Dallas-Fort Worth in 2015

2015 was a year of transition for concerts in Dallas, and we mean that in the best way possible. For all the cyber ink that’s been spilled vaunting the return of Deep Ellum and Dallas music in general (this year, and last year, and the year before last…), it’s a…

Fort Worth Rapper Lou CharLe$ is an International Man of Mystery

Who is Lou CharLe$? It’s a more legitimate question than with most musicians, given that there’s next to no concrete information about the 20-something Fort Worth resident. Hell, it’s even the name of his website. But when a young artist is opening up for Chamillionaire and Immortal Technique, getting features from…

Jazz in the Atrium Comes to an End This Week After 25 Years

Jazz in the Atrium, the longtime weekly source of live jazz music at the Dallas Museum of Art, is calling it quits after this Thursday, December 17, with a performance by the Freddie Jones Jazz Group. The series is a local tradition, a place where up-and-comers from Booker T. Washington…

Adele to Play First Dallas Concerts in Over 7 Years in 2016

If Adele saved your Thanksgiving this year, then take heart: you can expect her to do the same thing right around the same time next year. This time, though, we’re not talking about another record. No, in November 2016 the current best-selling artist in the world is going to be…