It’s been quite a year enduring the Top 40 in “The Problem With….”. Looking back at the year and my reviews, I’ve noticed three things about music that I loathe and think need to change. Too many collaborations (feat. Rihanna, Lil’ Wayne, Pitbull, Jay-Z…) The less we talk about Lou…
A.Dd+ When we heard Paris Pershun and Slim Gravy teamed up with super producer PicnicTyme and DJ Sober for When Pigs Fly, we couldn’t help but be excited for A.Dd+’s 2011. They confidently took the city by storm, and When Pigs Fly achieved local legend status thanks to a Kickstarter…
…And that date is Saturday, May 26, at Main Street Garden Park. This year’s Homegrown Music and Art Festival rallied the local music community around standouts like Gallery Cat, Astronautalis, Neon Indian, Burning Hotels and more. As local music festivals go, 2012 promises to trump that, especially since organizers have…
Sure, the concept for Bruise Cruise seems like the script for a low-budget horror movie: Put a bunch of rowdy punk bands on a three-day cruise from Miami to the Bahamas, supply with booze, gambling and buffets, and watch some Lord of the Flies shit go down. Amazingly, all who…
Bob Seger, Rosehill American Airlines Center Saturday, December 17, 2011 Better than: Watching the 50-year-old woman a few rows in front of me show off her boobs. In front of a packed audience at the AAC Saturday night, legendary rocker Bob Seger, looking fit and trim, put on a fiery…
While it’s been a great year for concerts in the ‘hood, it’d be too easy to simply list my favorite concerts of 2011 (Bon Iver/Kathleen Edwards at the Winspear Opera House in September edges out the Carolina Chocolate Drops at the Granada that same month). Instead, let’s focus on the…
Man or Astro-man? Sons of Hermann Hall Saturday, December 17, 2011 Better than: Having amoebas eat through your brain. A snippet of conversation overheard before the Man or Astro-man? show: “I’m really freaked out about Neti pots right now.” “Why?” “Well, I read this story about people dying from using…
New York City’s Derek VanScoten is a musical innovator. He’s given a whole new meaning to the term “one-man band,” as he electronically dishes out tracks while simultaneously looping guitar riffs in his solo project, D.V.S*. VanScoten worked consistently over the last year on a double album, entitled Coming Up…
It’s a big weekend for shows any way you cut it. Tonight’s A Spune Christmas party at Dada with Telegraph Canyon and Air Review is certainly one of your better options, especially if you like free tacos and free beer. Saturday night, however, is stacked with shows. It’s going to…
You know how the old proverb goes: There’s no such thing as a free taco. However, tonight Spune is hoping to prove that adage wrong with like their 97th annual A Spune Christmas. (Spune owner Lance Yocom is a lot older than he looks.) There will even be free beer…
Local alt-country maestro Ronnie Fauss hasn’t been a stranger to area coffeehouses since the release of his excellent 2009 Brent Best-produced LP, New Songs For the Old Frontier. Since then, he’s released two more EPs, with each one not only improving in overall quality, but also in general range. The…
Singer/songwriter Charlie Mars has had an interesting life. Born and raised in Mississippi, Mars actually plied his craft in Dallas for a few years in the ’90s. Some heavy duty partying landed him in rehab a few years after that and those internal demons forced Mars to retreat to an…
Yep, this poster by Justin Blanks pretty much sums up a Devin the Dude show: The holy trinity is right there at the bottom. See for yourself Saturday at the Granada, and don’t miss local openers the Mohicans…
Last Night: Grieves, Budo, K. Flay House of Blues December 14, 2011 Better than: Hip-hop in a suburban church. This suburban triple-header brought out a crowd of 150 or so to the Cambridge Room at House of Blues, and the almost exclusively white 20-something crowd was treated to a brand…
Over the next couple weeks, we’ll be trotting out our 2011 music lists in print and on the blog, but I’ve been thinking a lot about guilty pleasures this year. Songs that get stuck in your head whether you like it or not. Foster the People’s “Pumped Up Kicks” fell…
Do you have a lot of free time? Are you possibly un(der)employed? Do you know DFW music like the back of your pale, writerly hand? It’s hard out there for a scribe these days but hark! The Observer music section is looking for a few good freelancers. That means having…
Denton trio Old Snack’s debut full-length is aptly titled for a nine-song LP that clocks in at 18-and-a-half minutes. Everything is Happening So Fast doesn’t stray far from garage rock nostalgia, yet each track stands as its own sonic entity and breezes by without warning. The album is grainy and…
The first words sung by Josh T. Pearson on his Rough Trade Christmas Bonus: “Angels … shit, OK.” He gets it right the second time as he plucks the album’s only accompanying instrument: an acoustic guitar. The minor blip is quickly forgotten as he makes his way through “Angels We…
For Hunter Hall, this holiday season is different from any other he’s experienced in his 28 years. At the beginning of October, the singer and his band Folk Angel began recording their third album of Christmas music, something they’ve done every year since 2009. Around midnight on October 22, Hall…
Christmastime’s a real mindfuck, ain’t it? Songs get stuck in your head whether you like it or not (currently playing: Wham’s “Last Christmas”), you’re forced to drink eggnog and eat fruitcake, two things that should be banished to the ninth circle of hell, and that goddamn Sarah McLachlan ASPCA commercial…
Don’t say Santa Claus doesn’t deliver presents earlier than December 25: Nineties sci-fi surf punks Man or Astro-man? are coming back to town. With main members Brian “Birdstuff” Teasley, Brian “Star Crunch” Causey and Robert “Coco the Electronic Monkey Wizard” Del Bueno back together, this won’t necessarily be a night…
Until this year, Bob Seger was one of the last holdouts in the digital music arena. That finally changed, but don’t think his live show will be out of touch, especially since he’s still going strong at age 66. He’s touring with his Silver Bullet Band, promoting a new greatest-hits…
