Explosions in the Sky returns to Dallas this week for its first area performance in a few years. In turn, it’s looking like one of the most-anticipated shows of the year — mostly because, yes, with the instrumental, four-piece Austin post-rock outfit playing the outdoor Strauss Square in the AT&T…
Bon Iver, Kathleen Edwards Winspear Opera House September 12, 2011 Better than: seeing this (or any other) show outside in the reinvigorated heat-wave. Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon has left the log cabin. Hell, judging by the full-on rock show that took place in the magnificent Winspear Opera House last night, it’s…
There are a good many reasons to skip this year’s installment of Austin City Limits Music Festival down in Austin.For starters, the weather is supposed to sunny with a high of 98 degrees on all three days. in a giant field with no air conditioning, teeming with thousands of warm…
It’s probably fair to still call Tyler Bryant a guitar prodigy. Even though he’s currently 20 years old, the Honey Grove, Texas, native has been slinging since before he was the fresh-faced 15-year-old winner of the Robert Johnson Blues Foundation’s New Generation Award. Actually, Bryant’s been in love with the…
Canada’s Kathleen Edwards has, perhaps too quietly, put together one of the stronger collections of albums by any young artist in the past decade. After turning heads at SXSW in 2002, she released her debut, Failer, a vulnerable audio-diary that had people lazily drawing the typical alt-country connecting line between…
Along with Weather Report and the Mahavishnu Orchestra, Chick Corea’s Return to Forever brought jazz music to a rock audience. And though the “jazz fusion” label seemed to piss off the purists, Corea and the other talented musicians didn’t mind the increased profile and accompanying profits. Nearly four decades after…
Lots of Dave Navarro-related excitement in the local Twittersphere this weekend, as the Jane’s Addiction guitarist and band mercenary (Red Hot Chili Peppers, most notably) was apparently bouncing all around town, hitting Billiard Bar last night and the Double Wide and the Deep Ellum BuzzBrews location on Saturday night, and…
It’s coming up on two weeks now since we dropped the above bomb on you and announced that we’d somehow cobbled together the above four bold-faced names — Toadies, Old 97’s, Centro-matic and Sarah Jaffe — to headline our 2011 Dallas Observer Music Awards showcase on Saturday, October 15, in…
It turns out that Neon Indian isn’t the first area musician to essentially invent a new genre.Fourteen years ago to the week, something new was brewing in the then-somewhat dry Dallas hip-hop scene: Bhakti, a project by Dallas rapper Reggie Shaw, was garnering international attention for its new style, “Krishna…
Lil Wayne, Rick Ross, Keri Hilson, Far East Movement, LloydGexa Energy PavilionSeptember 10, 2011Better than: a Super Bowl halftime show. Lil Wayne is a shapeshifter — and, at that, one who has already taken on enough forms to be just as at home on his New Orleans streets as he is…
It seems that The Young Money Millionaire is making up for time lost while locked up last year. Lil Wayne is returning to Dallas on Saturday at the Gexa Energy Pavilion after performing at the American Airlines Center only five months ago. And the opening acts are reason enough to…
Have you seen the above billboard around town? I haven’t, but apparently it exists, and for the sole purpose of telling AT&T mobile customers how they can get into tomorrow night’s Gym Class Heroes show at the Granada Theater for free. Essentially, if you’re an AT&T customer, you just shoot…
Lots of small items of note worth passing along today before we wrap up the week. So, let’s tackle ’em — in brief form!For starters, lest you haven’t already heard, the love-’em-or-hate-’em Black Tie Dynasty is back, sort of! Two ex-BTDers — frontman Cory Watson, keys man Brian McCorquodale –…
Seems like we’ve been waiting weeks — far longer than we expected — for the scheduled Sunday, October 23, performance at the Kessler Theater from Dallas product Annie Clark, better known as St. Vincent, to finally sell out. Well, today it most likely will, promises the Oak Cliff theater’s artistic…
Lots of Spune news to share today, the first of which being that the company is hosting its “Fall Social” and return-to-school bash tonight, but in a new location. In Deep Ellum. At Dada. And, notably, not in Denton, where it’s been held in the past. For one thing, that’s…
Fort Worth’s The Moon Bar is moving on up, literally. Sometime in mid-November, the bar, currently located on the Texas Christian University campus, will move northwest to a spot in the Ridglea Theater complex. But it won’t just be a few doors down from the historic theater, according to The…
Let’s say you’ve paid really good money to see a show and, as such, you want to stay until the very end. You see the people who don’t want to stay through the encore — they’re heading toward the exits so they can get out to their cars and beat the…
Earlier this week, the Granada Theater debuted a series of posters on their Facebook page that aim to honor some local music heroes and maybe shed a little light on the their building’s 65-year history. So far, three in this “Support Local Music” series of “Granada Propaganda” designs have been released…
A well-timed cover can be just the thing to take a band’s live performance from good to great. But if the execution of the song is off, it could blow the whole set. On the flip side, although playing a cover is a risky move, sometimes the rewards can make…
The wildfires raging through the greater Austin area have everyone on edge. The Forest Service has stated that they’re taxed to the limit, Rick Perry briefly abandoned his presidential run to focus on the blaze and the smoke is causing breathing problems as far north as Waxahachie. Meanwhile forecasts show the…
Erykah Badu, Mos Def, Talib Kweli, The GritzProphet BarSeptember 7, 2011Better than: an after-school special. Because here’s an undeniable truth about after-parties: Sometimes they can be as good as, if not better than, the real thing.That, at least, was the hope held by those who turned up last night at…
Earlier this week, I was both delighted and saddened when I read that R&B performer Jason Derulo said he might take a break from music after the release of his upcoming album, Future History. I was delighted because it means we don’t have to hear his bland, sample-heavy music for a…
