A great poet once said, “I didn’t choose the thug life, the thug life chose me.” That has proven true for me as a music writer, a profession I never sought out, and yet somehow I’ve managed to clock 10 years as a hustler of the written word. That is…
By Jeff Weiss If you try to remember the late fall of 1992, all you see is smoke. Smoke smoldering from the rubble of post-riot L.A. Smoke sepulchral from the barrels of freshly fired AKs. Smoke swirling from the Zig-Zags of anyone able to purchase the bomb, the real sticky-icky,…
Black Forest Fire, Poppy Red, Leslie Sisson Monday, November 26, at Rubber Gloves Rehearsal Studios, $6/$8 Austin psych trio Black Forest Fire just released their debut album, Transit of Venus, showcasing their heavy side as well as their ballads. Legendary album designer Storm Thorgerson (Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin) created the…
Trae Tha Truth, Z-Ro, Snow Tha Product, Doughbeezy House of Blues Sunday, November 25 Last night at House of Blues was not the smoothest Scoremore-booked show we’ve seen recently. While they’ve been on a roll, booking sold-out Dallas shows for the likes of Kendrick Lamar and Wiz Khalifa, the crowd…
By Michael Alan Goldberg We wondered whether drummer Neil Peart of Rush — which comes to American Airlines Center this Wednesday, November 28 — really needs every single piece of the gargantuan kit you’ll see him surrounded by onstage. We reached out to a couple of drum lifers and Peart…
If you’ve urinated in a Denton club restroom in the past four years or so, you’ve probably come across a couple of the city’s mascots. Pee Pee Cat and Fart Dog are rendered in black marker, and exist next to urinals across Texas and some parts of the U.S. More…
Even though it’s not located in the trendiest of areas and the staff can lean a bit on the eccentric side, CD Source is still one hell of a music store. Case in point: The store’s annual Black Friday celebration once again features a killer lineup of local talent performing…
On Thanksgiving 1976, The Band performed The Last Waltz, their final concert at the time, and delivered a star-studded affair to an adoring audience, changing the meaning of the holiday for thousands of fans. The Day After Thanksgiving 2012, a star-studded cast of Denton musicians will play a tribute set…
Jersey’s Joe Budden will be promoting the upcoming release of his new mixtape, A Loose Quarter, due out the day after Thanksgiving. Budden also recently announced that his new album, No Love Lost, is slated for release January 22. As he slowly leaks tracks and details on the Internet, we…
This electronic lineup makes good use of the Golden Triangle’s dark pull. Houston’s Boan, which features Mariana Saldana, formerly of Tense and Medio Mutante, and José Cota (Medio Mutante) headline the night, along with Austin’s one-man storm front Assacre, and Thug Decay, which is one half of ATX synth duo…
Houston’s Trae Tha Truth and Z-Ro reunited as their early Aughts rap duo ABN (Assholes By Nature) in their hometown late last year. Now, they’re bringing it on the road, and they’ll be pulling from 2003’s self-titled and 2008’s It Is What It Is, the latter of which contains possibly…
If you’ve urinated in a Denton club restroom in the past four years or so, you’ve probably come across a couple of the city’s mascots. Pee Pee Cat and Fart Dog are rendered in black marker, and exist next to urinals across Texas and some parts of the U.S. More…
Z-Ro, Trae Tha Truth, Snow Tha Product Sunday, November 25, at House of Blues, $25-$40 Houston’s Trae Tha Truth and Z-Ro reunited as their early Aughts rap duo ABN (Assholes By Nature) in their hometown late last year. Now, they’re bringing it on the road, and they’ll be pulling from…
John Solis took some time out to talk about all the bands he’s in, his first concert experiences, and what he’s thankful for this year. Catch him with Hall & Oates tribute band The Rich Girls on Friday at Dada. What drew you to the drums? Ever since I had…
Mike Eli, lead singer for the ascending Eli Young Band, has seen the quartet he helped start in Denton in 2000 go from playing some of the smallest stages in North Texas to being awarded country music’s top trophies, including the recent ACM award for Song of the Year, for…
Dallas’ Rob Viktum has made beats for artists like Brother Ali, and is a standing member of 1200 Hobos, as well as Beat Fanatic, a collective of producers that includes Illmind and the celebrated Symbolyc One. Of late, you may know him for keeping your neck bobbing at one of…
On the heels of their win for Best Metal Act in the 2012 Dallas Observer Music Awards, comes the news that Fort Worth duo Pinkish Black have signed to Century Media Records, which has headquarters in California and Germany, and is home to some very metal acts, including Nachtmystium, Cryptopsy…
Welcome to Ask a Failed Musician, in which I help struggling musicians make sense of their careers and even offer some advice. Whether or not it will work, who knows? It obviously didn’t work for me. But then again, I was on Kimmel once, so there’s that.Dear Failed Musician,Should I make a Christmas…
Epica, Alestorm Trees Monday, November 19 There was a sizeable amount of hair windmilling at Trees last night, as a European metal tour of no specific genre rode into town. Indeed, Epica and Alestorm are something of a mismatch – Epica being a Dutch po-faced “symphonic metal” band (that basically…
Denton duo Dan Hill and Juliana Dieterich, aka Ethereal and the Queer Show, currently reside in Portland, but they’ve still got some North Texas ties. Their excellent new 14-track album, Cosmotopia, was just released via local cassette and vinyl label Pour le Corps, and it’s in line with their past…
Rock Lottery 11 Dan’s Silverleaf Saturday, November 17 As 10 a.m. rolled around on Saturday morning, a sea of groggy musicians filed into Dan’s Silverleaf for breakfast enchiladas and Bloody Marys, for the traditional rock lottery selection ceremony. A handful were wearing the same clothes from the night before. After…
Nothing says “I’m hurtin'” like the wail of a mournful guitar. It’s a sound that melts the heart and pierces the soul. While the blues saw a resurgence in the ’80s and ’90s, it’s fallen off the mainstream radar as of late. “In the summer of ’96, our royalty checks…
