Patty Griffin’s albums are popular with both fans and critics and her songs are covered by the likes of Emmylou Harris and the Dixie Chicks (just to name two). What draws so many people to Griffin’s music is her unflinching honesty and her beautiful simplicity. Over the course of 8…
This week, we get the Dallas debut of Odd Future-affiliated MellowHigh. Country music outlaw Jamey Johnson will play the most famous honky tonk in the world, and The Pharcyde bring vibrant hip-hop storytelling to the Prophet Bar. MellowHigh Thursday, October 24, at Dada MellowHigh is a three-piece offshoot of controversial…
We’re a week and a half from the 25th Dallas Observer Music Awards Showcase. On Saturday, November 2, more than 50 bands and artists nominated for this year’s awards will play on eight stages in Deep Ellum. It starts at 6 p.m. and ends around 2 a.m., and now you…
Currently on tour in support of Page Avenue, 10 Years and Counting, a reworked and revised version of the band’s 2003 debut, St. Louis’ Story of the Year has returned from hiatus on a roll. After spending two years decompressing from endless touring, the five guys in Story of the…
The North Texas tribute band Back in Black hopped on a plane to Canada last week to play a live performance in Alberta on Friday with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra. Mike Mroz, the band’s lead guitarist and Angus Young impersonator, Live Nation hooked them up with the 60-piece orchestra. “They…
Anything, absolutely anything, can now happen in Dallas. I know that’s true because I witnessed this miracle on Friday night. Performing underneath Dale Chihuly’s “Hart Window,” a wreath of blown glass platters that rises majestically north in the DMA’s grand Atrium, A.Dd+ refused to give up and call this set…
Jordan Richardson is having a particularly good time with his current band, Son of Stan. It’s not where anyone expected him to be a couple years ago, when he was touring the world with Ben Harper. How and why he arrived where he is now is the subject of this…
Run The Jewels’ stage banter Together, Killer Mike and El-P have put out one of the best albums of 2013, so it was surprising to see them in such an early time slot on Friday. The 6 p.m. crowd was noticeably thin, of course, but it made Dallas’ first time…
When I first heard Girl Talk live I was disappointed, and I never went back. And it wasn’t that I didn’t think he was doing any work on that stage. Gregg Gillis has an immensely impressive talent and skill set. It was just because I didn’t dance. Not really, really…
Often erroneously lumped into softer, newer corners of the heavy music world, California’s Avenged Sevenfold are much more influenced by the old school metal of Judas Priest and Thin Lizzy than some realize. And that was on display Saturday night at the American Airlines Center as the band (plus a…
“I just feel like I’m fucked, haha. Everything is going wrong.” My phone lit up with a text from Lord Byron as I was heading out to day two of Index Fest 2013. The day ahead was going to be a long one, ending with Boiler Room’s local rap showcase,…
The scene at First Unitarian Church of Dallas may have seem a little eerie for some rock show regulars, compared to the usual whiskey soaked, smoke filled concert halls their clogged respiratory systems are used to by now. It may have seem like an odd choice, but not for Annie…
Ronald Shannon Jackson was a jazz drummer and composer from Fort Worth whose career spans 50 albums, collaborations with free jazz legends Cecil Taylor and Ornette Coleman and his own band, the Decoding Society. Yesterday, Jackson’s cousin Tobi Hero made the announcement on Facebook, saying, “Dear America, we are so…
Index Festival kicked off in Deep Ellum last night with sets from some 30-plus bands on 9 stages. Killer Mike and EL-P’s Run the Jewels project kicked things off in high spirits, and a solid mix of local and touring bands kept the streets of Deep Ellum lively until past…
For a quarter century, Sacramento’s Deftones have done the alternative metal thing with a sense of musical growth missing from many in the genre. Expanding into darker and lighter territory, the band’s diversity has never seemed to impact its popular standing. From his home in Sacramento and in anticipation of…
The O’s are one of Dallas’ most purely enjoyable bands — two excellent musicians with storied musical pasts playing nimble folk music and cracking jokes. We brought you part one of their Busking performance, produced by Globe Trek Productions, and today we have part two. You can see the band…
On Saturday, November 2, 58 local artists will play on 8 stages in Deep Ellum for the 25th Dallas Observer Music Awards Showcase. Tickets are $10 or $15 day-of. Representatives of nearly every conceivable genre of music are on the lineup, and we encourage you to sample liberally. There will…
Here we are, at four different DFW music festivals in one weekend. What is this? Are we Austin now? Is that what we’re trying to do? We’ve got Index Fest out in Deep Ellum, Lolaspalooza in Fort Worth, Texas Veggie Fair in Reverchon Park, and The Lamar Street Festival on…
Once upon a time on Routh Street, Renfields Corner used to offer local bands a fun place to play filled with people who were filled with happy juice and aching to hear music that didn’t come from an overpriced jukebox. “Everybody in the bar, including the owners, is really into…
In 1997, Nick Urata and his band DeVotchKa began playing background music for local burlesque dancers in Denver. Soon the band’s unique combination of Eastern European folk music and indie rock began gathering the attention of critics and fans alike. With the release of How it Ends in 2004, DeVotchKa…
Index Festival comes to Deep Ellum this weekend, bringing with it a slew of impressive national acts (most notably EL-P and Killer Mike’s Run the Jewels collaboration) and locals (including our current cover story subject, Son of Stan). Elsewhere, former Polyphonic Spree member St. Vincent plays the First Unitarian Church…
The 50-foot limestone angels trumpeting from the façade of Bass Performance Hall in Fort Worth face a trio of venues hidden from the outside world. Hyena’s Comedy Night Club is down a grand staircase on the right. There’s a smaller stage next to it. And on the left is Queen…
