DC9er Mixtape, Vol. 5: Killtron

Joel Trujillo, Jr. is better known around town as Killtron, and he’s been playing party-jams in the Metroplex since 2005. He got his start by listening to “Energy,” a segment on nonprofit listener-supported station KNON, catching the show at every opportunity he had, eagerly listening in, and even recording his…

Bonus MP3: Katie Carroll — “Paper Girl”

It was about a month ago now when I first came across Katie Carroll’s “Paper Girl” via my pal Mark Schectman, host of KDGE-102.1 FM The Edge’s “The Local Edge” (not to mention an Observer music section contributor, hey hey). He was playing the song on pretty much constant rotation…

Watch: NX35 2010… In Pictures And Sounds.

…and for the YouTube inclined, here’s your link.Surely, you already clicked through some of Danny Fulgencio’s pictures from the NX35 Conferette a few weeks back? Well, our man was all over the place, covering everything having to do with the festival–before it, during it, and after it, even–and doing it…

Bonus MP3: Spooky Folk — “Polaroid”

Turns out the EP we’ve been waiting on from Denton’s Spooky Folk–a band, which, you’ll recall, is neither spooky nor folk–isn’t an EP at all, but rather a long-player well worth sinking your teeth into. And, through the first few listens, the disc seems quite the treat, a collection of…

Radney Foster, Zane Williams

There isn’t anything simple about an artist injecting the natural beauty of true simplicity into one of his songs. And, sadly, today’s country music landscape is littered with catchy ditties that aim for an unaffected purity but instead fall into a clichéd and brain-dead compost pile filled with recycled anecdotes…

Ted Leo Turns His Frown Upside Down

Idealism doesn’t age as well as cynicism. Perhaps that’s why punk’s earnest socio-politic evolved into the ironic distance of indie rock. It may also be why there are so few artists like Ted Leo, who’ve retained both the brash challenge of their rhetoric and its compassionate spirit through two decades…

Alkaline Trio Deals With Fan Expectations

Popularity can be a mixed bag for a band. With mass acceptance often comes a form of indentured servitude, with each entitled fan expecting the band to continue his or her personal notion of the band’s trajectory, even if that trajectory is effectively standing still. Moody pop-punksters Alkaline Trio have…

It’s Good To Make Time For A Bro, Even After SXSW and NX35.

There was quite the time to be had at the Double Wide on Sunday night for Parade of Flesh’s annual post-South by Southwest bash, the recently branded Bro Fest (nee South by South Flesh), which featured among its 17-band bill SXSW stand-outs The Soft Pack, Those Darlins and Dum Dum…

Angie Stone, Joe, Chico DeBarge

There are some things you can consistently rely on from a talent like Angie Stone. Among them? Her thick, rich alto, riding old-school grooves and tales of good love and love gone wrong. It’s a familiar recipe, sure, but it’s worked repeatedly for Stone, scoring her a solid (if predictable)…

FUR

Last month, FUR’s Witches had the honor of becoming the first release on Sacramento’s fledgling indie label Waaga Records, which, if you’ve been following at home, you’ll remember is the new sister/subsidiary label of Lesfe Records and the PR gurus Banter Media (see: Neon Indian). And, yes, Witches deftly includes…

Tweed EQ

Attempting to breathe freshness into a classic—if not slightly stale—style such as soul-baring blues can be a tough task to tackle for many bands. All too often, the group brave enough to undertake such a possibly embarrassing task ends up coming off as more of a living room blues-Guitar Hero…