The King Bucks

They started out friends, playing with a rotating setlist of old country favorites at local bars. And, soon enough, they found the desire to write their own 10-gallon tunes. Now, The King Bucks has both a Monday night residency at Adair’s Saloon and an eponymous full-length album to its name…

At SXSW, The Bell Tolled For Thee

It wasn’t supposed to be like this. Not at all. By most accounts, this wasn’t supposed to be a strong year for the annual South by Southwest Music Conference and Festival in Austin. Nope. If anything, 2009 was supposed to be the year that the economy took the festival down…

Salim Nourallah’s New Record Could Also Be His Last

It’s hard to believe him at first. Or maybe it’s that you just don’t want to believe him. So, reflexively, when Salim Nourallah offhandedly mentions that his newest record, Constellation, is also likely his last, your first inclination is to smile it off. It just has to be a joke…

Chris Cornell’s Made Some Missteps Along The Way To Stardom

Chris Cornell’s swing through town this week has us marveling at a successful career that has lasted for more than 25 years, earning him both commercial and critical success, multiple Grammys, and sales of nearly 30 million records worldwide along the way. With career bullet points that include being a…

Denton Acts Share Their SXSW Battle Scars

Denton-based acts made quite the splash in Austin last week, with eight acts invited to play officially sanctioned showcases at South by Southwest 2009, and gobs more bands playing in and around town at unofficial showcases, day parties, house shows and coffee shops. On Friday, while playing a set at…

Britney Spears And The Greatest Music Comebacks Of All Time

As recently as a year ago, most people expected Britney Spears to ultimately wind up the target of a massive, overly televised police car chase that would end with her driving her SUV off some overpass, Thelma & Louise style. Or at least something equally dramatic. The quickie marriage and…

Gig Alert: The BS Art Fusion Show At Rubber Gloves Tonight

Live (mostly) nude models, body paint and music. What more do you need to hear about tonight’s BS Art Fusion Show at Rubber Gloves Rehearsal Studios? Well, for starters, Scott Danbom of Centro-matic and South San Gabriel will be playing a solo set, and Gazelles frontman Adam Bertholdi is scheduled…

Southbound and Down: One Last Best and Worst of SXSW ’09

If all goes to plan (which never happens, but we’ll see), we should have a few more belated dispatches from bands who played SXSW popping up in the next couple of hours and/or days. (Speaking of which: Do yourself a favor and read The O’s’ dispatch. Trust me).In the meantime,…

Joe Jonas Play Joke?

Somehow I missed this when it first appeared on Gossip Teen, but apparently Jonas Brother and Westlake resident Joe Jonas is a big fat racist jerk. At least, that’s what Us seems to imply in its item about the “controversial” photo. All Us magazine knows is that someone took a…

UNT Professor Earns Top Composition Honor

Congratulations are in order for University of North Texas professor Cindy McTee this afternoon, as McTee has won this year’s Detroit Symphony Orchestra Elaine Lebenbom Memorial Award for Female Composers, which each year is dolled out to one living female composer for, well, her work in musical composition, of course…

SXSW Dispatches: The O’s Let Us Read Their Diary

[Last week, we asked a few bands to check in with us from time to time over the course of the week to tell us about their SXSW experiences. Now, with the fest over, those diatribes are starting to show. Here’s The O’s’ take on SXSW…] Thursday, March 19, 2009Dear…

Has Tool’s Reclusive Front Man Maynard James Keenan Sold Out?

Tool and Puscifer lead singer Maynard James Keenan drew approximately 1,000 fans to the Whole Foods in Plano yesterday as he promoted his partial ownership in Arizona Stronghold Vineyards, signing bottles of wine from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. Those seeking an autograph and a glimpse of Keenan were required to…

SXSW In Pictures, One Day at a Time

While most of the DC-9 crew enjoyed SXSW’s offerings at a safe distance from the stage, note-taking and reflecting on the music, some of us did battle up by the stage to get concert shots, throwing elbows and telephoto lenses.We’ve got a handful of band photo slideshows, along with some…

South By Leftovers

Two days after returning from Austin, my feet, back, ears, lungs, and liver have finally stopped throbbing in pain, but the memories–most of them great–will last a lifetime. Here are a few I didn’t get to share while I was there.Bands I Regret Missing: Delta Spirit, Awkquarius, Peelander-Z and Wavves…

Today In Music News: Smashing Pumpkins Loses Drummer, Tool To Headline Lollapalooza, M.I.A. Is Two Years Older and Trick Daddy Has Lupus

Your daily dose of national music news for Tuesday, March 24, 2009…Drummer Jimmy Chamberlain has left the Smashing Pumpkins for unspecified reasons. Mr. Corgan I’m looking in your direction.Maynard James Keenan is taking some time off from wine-making to join Tool in headlining Lollapalooza along with the city-flubbers in The…

Zac Crain’s Dimebag Darrell Bio Gets Release Date Pushed Back

Not sure exactly what the holdup is, but over on Blabbermouth today–your source, apparently, for all things wrong with the fact that former Observer music editor Zac Crain is writing a book about the late, great Dimebag Darrell–comes the news that Crain’s 288-page Black Tooth Grin: The High Life, Good…

Eyrkah Badu’s Busy, Busy, Busy SXSW Week.

Dallas’ own Erykah Badu had herself quite the weekend, turns out. More eventful than yours, I’m guessing. Unless, that is, you somehow managed to……evade a stalker (as Unfair Park unearths this morning) and get delayed on your travels to SXSW….have your manager announce to the audience at your free SXSW…