Get To Know Your 2012 DOMA Nominees: Tum Tum

Leading up to our November 10 showcase, we’ll be getting you familiar with some of our Dallas Observer Music Awards nominees, either via past features we’ve done on them, or new ones. You can vote for your favorite acts, venues and more right here. This piece originally appeared on June…

Sofar Sounds Does Denton – 10/13/12

This past Saturday, a brick house tucked away in a tree-lined neighborhood just north of Texas Woman’s University was transformed into a conduit of light and sound, serving as the 189th secret location for Sofar Sounds’ living-room shows, and the second show witnessed by Denton invitees. A cloudy day served…

Exclusive: Back Row Coverage of ACL 2012

I didn’t have a band schedule at ACL, and I also don’t have the elbow strength or intimidating enough boobs to work my way through thousands of thousands of hippies and people to get to the front row of any of the concerts I saw this weekend. So, here is…

ACL 2012: Sunday’s 10 Best & Funniest Moments at Zilker

Photos by Marco TorresGary Clark Jr.The rains came early on Sunday morning, but by the time the ACL opened up for business before noon, there was hardly a cloud in the sky, making for an extremely warm and muddy day. The biggest acts of the day — Red Hot Chili…

New Order – Palladium Ballroom – 10/12/12

New Order, Ishi Palladium Ballroom Friday, October 12 The lead-up to Friday night’s sold-out New Order show was dense with social media’s critical musings, especially that this was not the real New Order, due to the absence of bassist Peter Hook. There were claims it would never be as good…

Get To Know Your 2012 DOMA Nominees: The Colurs

Leading up to our November 10 showcase, we’ll be getting you familiar with some of our Dallas Observer Music Awards nominees, either via past features we’ve done on them, or new ones. You can vote for your favorite acts, venues and more right here. Multi-instrumentalists Max Townsley and Drew Erickson…

The Six Best Concerts In DFW This Week

Sleigh Bells, AraabMuzik Tuesday, October 16, at House of Blues, $23 Still riding out the buzz from their second studio album, Reign of Terror, Sleigh Bells finish their U.S. tour with a stop at House of Blues, with hip-hop opener AraabMuzik. Both of Sleigh Bells’ albums combined are only about…

The Nine Best and Funniest Moments from Saturday at ACL 2012

Photos by Marco TorresRufus WainwrightThe return of terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad rain made Saturday a muddy but fun mess. Thankfully, the downpours didn’t dampen the spirits of the crowd on day two of ACL, but it did seem to thin out the herds. Aside from remembering how to walk…

ACL 2012: Friday’s 12 Best and Funniest Moments at Zilker

Photos by Marco Torres In the interest of being tidy and not boring you with minute details of the three-day exercise in sweaty and human endurance underway in Zilker Park this weekend, Rocks Off is giving you a break. Our team on the ground at the Austin City Limits Music…

DC9er Mixtape, Vol. 47: DJ Wikkid Beat

Karine Fleurima spins under the name DJ Wikkid Beat, and draws inspiration from international funk, soul and rock from the ’60s and the ’70s, as well as Brazilian music. She got her start making mixtapes for some of the restaurants she worked at in New York City, and after receiving…

Tegan and Sara – AT&T Performing Arts Center – 10/11/12

Tegan and Sara AT&T Performing Arts Center Thursday, October 11 Perched in the tangle of highways near downtown Dallas sits a grassy hill inside the AT&T Performing Arts Center. It slopes no more severely than a handicapped ramp; it is surrounded by vine-covered concrete, and open to the overlooking financial…

Godspeed You! Black Emperor – Granada Theater – 10/11/12

Godspeed You! Black Emperor Granada Theater Thursday, October 11 It was one of those rarest of nights in a Dallas music venue. Godspeed You! Black Emperor returned to North Texas after a decade absence to perform music new and old in a way that held the crowd completely spellbound. Shortly…

The Six Best Concerts In Dallas This Weekend

Check out more of this weekend’s shows via our shiny new concert calendar Afghan Whigs, Centro-matic Sunday, October 14, at the Granada Theater Within the bowels of the ’90s reunion machine, Ohio’s Afghan Whigs are one of those bands you never really expected to be spat out again. Their 1993…

Sofar Sounds’ Secret Shows Are Buzzing In DFW

As torrential thunderstorms spanned North Texas one day last August, a petite woman stood clutching a clipboard on the large wrap-around porch of a colonial-style home in Munger Place. The two-story house was the seventh setting for one of Sofar Sounds’ perpetually secret locations in DFW. Musicians hurriedly lugged gear…

Ronnie Fauss Goes West

Leading up to our November 10 showcase, we’ll be getting you familiar with some of our Dallas Observer Music Awards nominees, either via past features we’ve done on them, or new ones. You can vote for your favorite acts, venues and more right here. The way in which Dallas singer-songwriter…