The Beach Boys – Verizon Theatre – 4/26/12

The Beach Boys Verizon Theatre Thursday, April 26 In the past few decades, various incarnations of the Beach Boys toured the oldies/county fair circuit, rehashing the popular hits over and over again, usually for a cheap ticket price (or even free). Alas, with Brian Wilson back in the fold, the…

Denton’s Darcy Neal Has Gadgets and Gizmos Aplenty

I don’t get to tour the entirety of Darcy Neal’s house, but there are no working televisions in the space. She leads me through the back door of the house she shares with her roommates on Bernard Street, one block east of UNT, and into a small living room area…

Top 10 Modern Hip-Hop Ad-Libs

Throughout hip-hop’s history, rappers have sought to distinguish themselves through a variety of methods. While some have focused exclusively on lyrical content, others have focused on style and cadence. As of late, hip-hop has experienced a fundamental shift from an emphasis on substance to an emphasis on style. It’s no…

Dallas Concert Calendar: New, Improved, Sometimes Tattooed

Timothy NorrisDrum roll, please… Individual results may vary.We’ve just rolled out a new and improved calendar of Dallas concerts. Our online music listings are now sortable by artist, venue and price. We’ve also got a raw, unadulterated, alphabetical list of upcoming shows in the drop-down menus on the right hand…

Blixaboy’s Steady Electro Journey Through Futro City

In an interview a few months back, Wanz Dover explained the simple formula for dubstep, and how it helped him redefine the music he was making: “Back [in 2005], the formula for dubstep was to take whatever music you were into and stir it in a pot at 140 [beats…

Preview: Khaira Arby at Kessler Theater

Last year at South by Southwest, I happened to catch Malian singer Khaira Arby at NPR’s day show, as I was waiting to see Tune-yards and Wild Flag. I don’t remember anything about their sets, because Arby knocked the wind out of me. Her voice, in the tradition of praise…

Preview: Psychic Ills Moon Duo at Dada

Parade of Flesh scored an impressive bill from the spillover of the fifth annual Austin Psych Fest, as area favorites True Widow and Eyes, Wings and Many Other Things open for New York’s Psychic Ills and San Francisco’s Moon Duo (Wooden Shjips frontman/guitarist Ripley Johnson and keyboardist Sanae Yamada). Psychic…

Preview: The Beach Boys at Verizon Theatre

For more than 50 years and in spite of countless lawsuits, The Beach Boys have soldiered on. Brian Wilson and Mike Love finally buried the hatchet and the surviving members will begin a tour this week, the second stop of which hits Grand Prairie. Word is practices have gone well…

Meat Puppets at Dan’s Silverleaf

It’s hard to gauge how influential an album truly is. The Meat Puppets’ 1984 LP, Meat Puppets II, is often cited by musicians as a seminal work, released during the halcyon days of SST. It’s a ragged masterwork of country and rockabilly-infused punk, which, at the time of its release,…

Florence + The Machine at Palladium Ballroom

Never seen Kate Bush live. The one time I saw Tori Amos, it was in a packed SXSW venue that wasn’t appropriate for moodiness. St. Vincent was able to transform the small Kessler Theater into a relatively magical realm, but I’ve yet to see an ethereal singing goddess take on…

Starck Contrast

It was May of 1984, and young punk Frank Campagna was racing around Dallas in his ’75 burgundy Chrysler Cordova – the model with the real Corinthian leather. His mission: to find some green tea for Stevie Nicks. “It was before there was Whole Foods or any of these organic…

Preview: George Jones at Arlington Music Hall

Country legend George Jones was hospitalized for an upper respiratory infection a few weeks ago, causing him to cancel a couple tour dates and get some needed rest at his Tennessee home. It gives you some perspective on the fact that Jones, who was born and raised in South Texas,…

Deer Tick at The Loft

Although Providence, Rhode Island’s Deer Tick are often labeled alt-country, there’s more to John McCauley and crew than roots rock. 2011’s Divine Providence showed a band moving away from folk and embracing punk rock and dissonance. Even the subject matter of the songs swung toward the dark side. One of…