Watch: Menkena — “I’m One”

Excuse us if we’ve spent too much time covering Menkena in these past few weeks, sharing music videos with you, and giving you free songs off their debut record and all. It’s just that, you see, we’ve been sitting on With You I’ll Travel, the full-length debut from the so-called…

Neon Indian To Collaborate With Flaming Lips?

On Tuesday, Wayne Coyne posted a tweet indicating that a collaboration between his band The Flaming Lips and the similarly I-35-sprung Neon Indian was in the works — even going so far as to post to the social networking site a link to a 46-second clip of himself playing a…

Last Night: Ozzy Osbourne and Slash at the American Airlines Center

Ozzy Osbourne, SlashAmerican Airlines CenterJanuary 20, 2011Better than: a stirring competition of Rock Band. The greatest trick the Prince of Darkness ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist. And, make no mistake, that’s just what The Osbournes did. The four-season MTV reality series that focused on Ozzy Osbourne,…

Download: Soviet’s Forever Today EP

Soviet frontman John Spies knows that his band’s music might sound a little familiar. But there’s reason for that, the 21-year-old explains: The band got its started when he and his drummer, the 20-year-old Andrew Weir, plugged in their equipment and began “copying Japandroids songs and fucking them up.”That was…

Two Denton Rock Mainstays Find Salvation in Hip-Hop

For two people known for their involvement in helping to shape the Denton rock music community, starting a hip-hop project could be seen as a bit unusual. But because of influences that expand beyond the rock sphere, Ashley Cromeens of Record Hop and Craig Welch of Brutal Juice nonetheless started…

The Problem With Home Recordings

Daniel Hall wakes up. Bleary-eyed and cloudy-minded from last night’s whiskey, he sits up in his bed and rubs his eyes. When he finally gets his bearings, he is met with an unfortunate reality as he looks around his room. It’s filled with recording equipment—microphones, computers, speakers and cables are…

Best Coast Evoke The Lazy, Hazy, Crazy Days of Summer.

So much for the Southern California sun. The rain has been pouring for days, clogging the freeways and prompting tornado warnings. But here at Best Coast singer Bethany Cosentino’s home in Los Angeles’ Eagle Rock neighborhood, it’s warm. She sits on a couch and pets her now-famous Garfield doppelganger, Snacks,…

Ume’s Lauren Langner Larson Shreds Gender Expectations.

Guitar shredding used to a males-only club. But Lauren Langner Larson, the blonde pixie guitarist and vocalist of the Austin alt-rock trio Ume (pronounced ooo-may) is working hard to change that. And while she’s joined by equally gifted female artists these days (Marnie Stern and Orianthi come to mind) in…

Ozzy Osbourne, Slash

Twenty-five years into an already remarkable career, rock ‘n’ roll’s most recognizable guitarist finally got around to releasing a proper solo album this past year. The album—which was originally going to be called Slash and Friends before the and Friends part was ultimately dropped—sees the famously coiffed shredder not only…

The Cool Kids

For a primer on the power of golden-age hip-hop, meet Chicago’s Cool Kids, Exhibit A. The signifiers are everywhere you listen. There’s the Detroit Pistons “Bad Boys” Starter cap, lovingly described in the opening bars of “Black Mags.” There’s a song simply titled “88,” which pays similar homage to Guess…

The Get Up Kids, Steel Train, River City Extension

Even though it will be on a Sunday night, The Loft will very likely be at full capacity. After all, emo icons The Get Up Kids are coming back to town. The Kansas City five-piece packed the Granada last fall on their reunion tour, and now they have a new…

Against Me!, Cheap Girls, Fences

Tom Gabel, frontman for Jacksonville, Florida, punk four-piece Against Me!, has never been scared to speak his mind. He made that much very clear when his band’s fans cried foul upon the release of 2007’s New Wave. Upset that this, the band’s fourth release, was coming out on major subsidiary…

Seryn Comes To Grips With Their Place.

It’s only natural to envy those who seem to excel at anything they attempt. Whether it’s in work, in sports, an ollie axel stall 270 flip out, whatever—these people win at life with little to no effort. They seem to live outside the limits of normal folk. Malcolm Gladwell even…