Bonus MP3: LDFD — “Twerk It”

Yesterday, while perusing Pitchfork’s Forkcast, we stumbled across a track by an artist named LDFD. According to Pitchfork, the man behind the name is a Dallas-based 19-year-old producer/songwriter named Justin Ledford. So the glittery title track the site shared, “Outtacontrol” from LDFD’s upcoming Outtacontrol EP for Magical Properties Records, came…

On The Pros and Cons of Google’s Music Beta…

Google, that seemingly all-encompassing entity, has its fingerprints all over just about every digital realm of our lives. And, in 2011, in addition to entering the social networking fray, the technology giant is also using the fast-evolving concept of cloud computing — storing data on external servers rather than locally…

The Problem With… Lil Wayne’s “How to Love”

After a couple of delays this year, Lil Wayne’s next album, Tha Carter IV, is coming out next month. And, presumably to make amends for the pushbacks, he went ahead and released a mixtape, Sorry 4 The Wait, yesterday.I don’t mind waiting a little longer for an album to drop…

Kid Cudi, Chip Tha Ripper

Kid Cudi’s a polarizing rapper whose sonic creativity is either weighed down by gloomy self-indulgence or enhanced by his soul-baring vulnerability. His music’s labyrinthine psychedelic arrangements sometimes verge into dance, like on his biggest hit, “Day N’ Nite,” thanks to a world-beating remix by Crookers. This paean to the “lonely…

Bill Callahan is Surly and Flippant. And That’s OK.

Bill Callahan doesn’t care about Jandek. At least that’s the line he’s sticking to during our email interview. When asked about his feelings toward the Houston outsider musician, to whom Callahan has often been compared, he replies bluntly. “I don’t care about Jandek.” Off to a good start, a frustratingly…

Dolly Parton’s Been Writing Songs for 60 Years.

Dolly Parton wrote her first song in about 1951. She was five years old. “I don’t remember writing it, but my mother kept it,” Parton says. “I do remember the little doll that I wrote it about. It was a little cob doll named Tasseltop. A little doll my mother…

OK Sweetheart

OK Sweetheart’s Erin Austin possesses one of those amazing voices, the kind that oozes both desperation and sweetness. Austin can convey plenty of emotion with the slightest whisper, a talent she uses throughout Home, OK Sweetheart’s remarkable debut, an album awash in fine playing and gorgeous singing. Yet unlike the…

Bravo, Max!

Even though Dog’s Light is Bravo, Max!’s debut full-length effort, it seems that the band has been around for years. And, in a way, it has. Since 2009, these guys (and gal) have played the area extensively enough that, even with a shitty name, the word-of-mouth buzz on them has…

Free Reign

Free Reign are getting some buzz right now—but mainly because three of their members, singer Mark Colombo, drummer Cory Procter and bassist Leonard Davis, hold day jobs as pro football players. Dallas Cowboys Colombo and Davis and Miami Dolphin Procter (a former Cowboy himself), along with non-footballer/guitarist Justin Chapman, have…

Women in (Local) Rock

Men and women have been around for as long as reliable historical records can tell us. During that entire time, gender roles have changed and shifted from one extreme to the next, never settling on an equality between the two and always seeming to favor the male population. We have…

Kasey Chambers, Warren Hood

Australian treasure Kasey Chambers had the proverbial golden road laid in front of her in 1999, as her debut The Captain caught fire in her native land as well as in the United States. Thanks to her effortless, urgent blend of country, rock and folk, Chambers was rapidly saddled with…

Last Night: Fair to Midland and The House Harkonnen at Curtain Club

Fair to Midland, The House HarkonnenCurtain ClubJuly 12, 2011Better than: your average Curtain Club show. Lest anyone was concerned that Deep Ellum has softened in recent years, that it has turned its back on its hard rock- and metal-intensive past or that the neighborhood’s heavier genres had fallen by the…