Shiny Around the Edges on Death Grips and Patti Smith

See also: Oil Boom on the magic of Donnie and Joe Emerson See also: Vinyl Fantasy’s Nathan Johnson on Sunn O))) We’ve started poking around in locals’ iTunes, iPods, Spotify playlists, CD players, cassette decks, turntables and brains with one question in mind: What are you listening to? We don’t…

Video of the Day: Raw Elementz, “Test My Ability”

Check out this new video from 19-year-old Dallas emcee Raw Elementz, for the track “Test My Ability,” off February’s Music From the Sole mixtape. It features a lot of sneakers, a lot of shots of downtown, and that chorus is killer. You can also check out his new EP, Flydayz,…

The Problem With… Cher Lloyd’s “Want U Back”

See also: The problem with… Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Call Me Maybe” The United Kingdom is revving up songs on U.S. charts this summer, likely in tandem with the 2012 London Olympics. However, instead of promoting fresh British artists like Michael Kiwanuka and Emeli Sandé, they’re giving America by-the-numbers pop from…

Oil Boom on the Magic of Donnie and Joe Emerson, Wolf People

See also: Vinyl Fantasy’s Nathan Johnson on Sunn O))), Carly Rae Jepsen See also: Dennis Gonzalez on Ramón Ayala We’ve started poking around in locals’ iTunes, iPods, Spotify playlists, CD players, cassette decks, turntables and brains with one question in mind: What are you listening to? We don’t even care…

Ronnie Fauss at the Common Table

If you haven’t been following the path of Dallas’ Ronnie Fauss over the past couple of years, you have quite the treat ahead of you. Beginning with 2009’s New Songs for the Old Frontier and most recently in 2011’s tribute collection Any Lovin’ Way But Wrong, Fauss’ four EPs serve…

Denton is Burning at Rubber Gloves Rehearsal Studio

This Thursday, the Denton weekly gets a little push from some other dark corners of Texas. Houston DJ Rabit drops some mystic club swerve appropriate for his city’s lineage, and celebrates his new release Terminator, which is being put out on Ben Aqua’s increasingly popular #Feelings label. San Antonio’s DJ…

Sarah Jarosz at the Kessler Theater

A couple of years ago, Austin singer-songwriter Sarah Jarosz got to open for Steve Martin, when his bluegrass band taped an Austin City Limits episode. At that point, she wasn’t even 21 yet, already had a Sugar Hill Records debut under her belt (2009’s Song Up in Her Head) and…

Kaskade at the Palladium Ballroom

A year after the Identity Festival — co-founded by Kaskade and DJ Steve Aoki, and billed as the “first-ever touring festival exclusively featuring EDM” — came to town, Chicago house DJ and producer Kaskade returns. This time he’s flying solo, though fellow EDM musicians Alvin Risk and Fareoh are opening…

The Black Dotz, New Fumes, Peopleodian at Bryan Street Tavern

As Black Dotz shows are getting, according to singer Wanz Dover, “fewer and farther between,” you’d be wise to catch this great local triple bill. If you happened upon the phenomenal Ronald Shannon Jackson show at the Kessler a couple weekends ago, you caught Dotz guitarist Greg Prickett lending his…

Bob Dylan Hits Verizon Theatre November 1

Following up his 35th (!!) studio album, Tempest, out September 11, Bob Dylan will be rolling into Verizon Theatre on Thursday, November 1, with Mark Knopfler. More info to come when tickets go on sale. Honestly, I wrote this post so I could have an excuse to use this photo…

Listen To This: Arkansas Bo’s Natural State of Mind

LA Weekly music editor and Southern hip-hop encyclopedia Ben Westhoff brought Marlon Jennings, aka Arkansas Bo, to my attention a few months ago, and pointed me in the direction of this profile from 2010. I’ve been jamming last year’s Natural State of Mind on and off since then, and was…

Dennis Gonzalez Schools Us On Ramón Ayala

We’ve started poking around in locals’ iTunes, iPods, Spotify playlists, CD players, cassette decks, turntables and brains with one question in mind: What are you listening to? We don’t even care if it’s good, we just want to know what the music community has been obsessing over, playing on repeat,…

How Many Members of Eccotone Does It Take to Change a Lightbulb?

Eccotone’s Donovan Ford has utter contempt for your eardrums. “We’re big fans of making things uncomfortable for the listener,” he says, laughing. For the Denton-based band, that means being among the loudest in the region. Over the past year, Eccotone have made a name for themselves through their chest-rattling, ear-splitting…