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…
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…
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…
The Civil Wars, Rayland Baxter Texas Theatre July 13, 2011 Better than: any other concert ever performed at the Texas Theatre. The name The Civil Wars suggests that the two members, Joy Williams and John Paul White, are at odds with each other — except the opposite is true. Williams…
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 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 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’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…
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 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…
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…
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…
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…
Good times last night in Lakewood, as Dallas rockers True Widow, fresh off their tour of the West Coast, were joined by their sorta labelmates in Dunes (Dunes’ Mexican Summer label is an imprint on Kemado Records, to which True Widow is signed) for an early evening garage show. Actually,…
We knew that Nicki Minaj was involved in an altercation on Monday night at the Hotel Palomar in Dallas. We just didn’t really know the specifics of what went down with the buzzing rapper and Britney Spears tour opener. This afternoon, however, we do; The Dallas Police Department has made…
Back in early June, we passed along the word that Dallas native Annie Clark, known to most by her stage name of St. Vincent, had set a September 13 release date for her highly anticipated third LP, the locally recorded, John Congleton-produced Strange Mercy. Today comes more news in regards…
Just a couple months after celebrating 17 years on the air as the host of KDGE-102.1 FM The Edge’s Sunday night staple, “The Adventure Club,” Josh Venable can now add another notch to his belt: This morning, he was named program director of the station. It appears for now as…
Britney Spears, Nicki NinajAmerican Airlines CenterJuly 12, 2011Better than: most shows by folks who actually sing, dance and write their own music. Here’s the thing about Britney: She’s a mediocre singer and dancer who got very, very lucky and very, very famous by singing songs that she contributed very little,…
Bright Eyes is the biggest band to come out of Omaha ever. Fronted by indie-rock icon Conor Oberst, around whom the entire city’s scene more or less revolves, they’re one of the most revered acts of the last decade. But that hasn’t stopped them from trying their hands at some…
Late-breaking news this early evening as rap femme fatale Nicki Minaj prepares to take the stage at the American Airlines Center as the opening act for tonight’s Britney Spears concert: TMZ is reporting that Minaj was “‘struck’ in the lower lip by a man” last night during a confrontation of…
Today marks the 20th anniversary of John Singleton’s Boyz n the Hood, the film that, in many ways, put the tragic world of Los Angeles street culture into our nation’s collective consciousness. Really, it’s a point relative to nothing other than the fact that it might make a few of…
Many congratulations this week to the folks at KHYI-95.3 FM The Range, who, over the weekend, earned themselves some hardware to hang up around the office, courtesy of the people behind the Academy of Texas Music.The academy announced the winners for its annual Texas Music Awards on Saturday, and, in…
