The Dallas Observer Music Showcase is Saturday, November 2 (tomorrow). It’s our annual celebration of North Texas music, some version of which we’ve been doing for 25 years now. Here’s what you should know before you head into Deep Ellum:…
Editor: This year, we’re celebrating the 25th Dallas Observer Music Awards. Our coverage will include recollections from last quarter century of North Texas music. Here, our clubs editor remembers the radio show that’s won more DOMAs than any other. When I was growing up, radio had so much power. I…
IN BLOOM by Greg Schroeder Directed by Josh David Jordan from TWO CANS & A STRING on Vimeo. Since 2008, with his ever-present beard and hat, Greg Schroeder has been one of the great country-folk singer songwriters in the area. Schroeder’s tunes are the kinds that can make the simple…
Thoughtful and meticulous, the songs of singer/songwriter David Wilcox belie their simple presentation. For the better part of three decades, Wilcox has been touring the States playing just about any coffee house that would have him. Wilcox hit his commercial peak with 1989’s How Did You Find Me Here, but…
This Saturday, Deep Ellum will become a North Texas music family reunion for the Dallas Observer Music Showcase, with 58 bands on eight stages. The lineup ranges from experimental noise bands to hypnotic singer-songwriters. There are rappers playing damn near their first gigs and rock bands returning from cross-country tours…
Happy Halloween, ya freaks! Our favorite holiday is officially here, and boy are there a lot of different ways to celebrate this year. Throw on your costume tonight and catch a free copy of the latest Track Meet DJ Crew compilation, one of the best local rap bills of the…
I have unapologetically loved Alkaline Trio since I was 15 years old. Everything about them worked for me: the skate-punk chord progressions, the gothic imagery, the smart-ass cynical lyrics. I’ll never forget the first time I heard their music, the first time I saw them live or the era of…
It all comes down to this. We came up with 200 nominees for the 2013 Dallas Observer Music Awards. Over 2,000 of you have voted so far (though the polls are still open!), and this coming Tuesday, November 5, we’ll announce the winners at House of Blues. The DOMA Ceremony…
The cypher is one of hip-hop’s most sacred mediums. It’s a place where emcees come together to spit freestyle verse, hone their craft, and showcase their skill. This year, we decided to put our Dallas Observer Music Award nominees for Best Hip-Hop Act to the test (vote here!). Over a…
Our annual music showcase is this Saturday, along with the North Oak Cliff Music Festival and Denton’s annual Rock Lottery. New Orleans comes to the Granada in the form of the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, and the Doublewide hosts a punk showcase. The Fall Punkstravaganza Friday, November 1, at the…
The first annual Halloween Hootenanny happens this Saturday, on the second day of November, which is obviously not Halloween. But the spooky season can always be a few days longer, and most of us will still be buzzing from sugar highs or breathing in the fumes of latex masks. So…
Editor: This year, we’re celebrating the 25th Dallas Observer Music Awards. Our coverage will include recollections from last quarter century of North Texas music. Paul Slavens was one of the only musicians to be nominated for the first DOMA, in 1988, and also this year. Here, the musician, radio host…
More sad news for the Kidd Kraddick in the Morning show. Just a few months after Kidd Kraddick passed away, fellow show personality “Psycho” Shanon Murphy revealed on the air and her blog on Monday that she has a tumor on her brain stem. Though the tumor is benign, surgery…
The “Before I Die” project allows communities all over the world to share some of their deepest, dearest and even darkest fears, thoughts and goals about their own mortality and the things they are doing before life catches up with them. University of North Texas music composition master’s student Robert…
The importance, cultural relevance, and influential impact of Dallas’ Latin music scene can not be stressed enough. Though often written off as a niche in the local market, tejano, cumbia, rock en espanol, and other Latin-centric genres are alive and thriving in Dallas. Which isn’t all that surprising, considering that…
Over the course of six years, Seattle’s The Lonely Forest have released five full length albums, each of the better than the previous and each one filled with solid, emotionally-driven indie rock. 2011’s Arrows featured the wonderfully dry “Turn Off This Song and Go Outside” and garnered the band a…
This year, we’re celebrating the 25th year of the Dallas Observer Music Awards. It’s a project we started in 1988, in the words of then-music-editor Clay McNear, to, “heighten awareness of local music and to commend those that are recognized by our readers as the best in their respective fields.”…
Recently in town performing with The Monkees, Michael Nesmith is much, much more than just the guitarist for a ’60s pop band. Over his lengthy career, Nesmith has worked as a producer, novelist, and actor and is often cited as the person responsible for creating music video. Via email and…
Legendary guitarist Lou Reed, a punk poet whose lyrics have influenced more than four generations of rockers, passed away on Sunday. He was 71 years old. His literary agent, Andrew Wylie, shared the news of his death, claiming the singer/songwriter’s death is due to complications with a recent liver transplant,…
Hoo boy. On Wednesday night, during a set performed by Alabama’s Lee Bains III and The Glory Fires at the Live Oak Music Hall and Lounge in Fort Worth, the management of the venue felt compelled to close the curtains and then switch off the power completely on the rowdy…
When this show first popped up on the calendar, it raised a lot of eyebrows. Club Dada? For Odd Future offshoot, MellowHigh? Seeing as though the full collective packed out Palladium Ballroom last time they came to town, it didn’t seem feasible that a club as small as Dada would…
All too often in the world of indie-rock, pretense dominates the conversation. Thanks perhaps to the bombast that goes into the music of the Brooklyn-based noise-pop duo Sleigh Bells, that’s not a problem you’ll find while listening to any of the group’s three studio albums, including their brand new release,…
