A while back I wrote a fairly glowing review of Somebody’s Darling debut EP, finding bliss in the local band’s fine mix of alt-country and southern soul. And, in that review, I wrote that the music on the EP was so good that a full-length CD was immediately called for…
Allen Ginsberg and Karen X. Minzer at the Starck Club in Dallas in 1986 Driving through East Dallas the other day I had the odd impulse to swing by the old KNON studio. Kind of depressing to see an empty lot taking up that space now. The studio was formerly…
Kii Arens Another impressive show to add to the growing list of jaw-droppers the Door’s been booking to its stage lately: The Eagles of Death Metal. No, seriously. On Friday, December 12. Add that to the list that already includes Ice Cube, Fishbone, King’s X, Plain White T’s, Job for…
Mount Righteous, Cryptacize, and Danielson Granada Theater November 20, 2008 Better than: Watching the Dallas Stars lose yet again. On most occasions, the biggest compliment an opening act receives is “at least their set didn’t last too long.” But for a band like Grapevine’s own Mount Righteous at the Granada…
Caity Colvard “Bling Bling” and “Krunk Ain’t Dead” are two terms I’m not exactly familiar with. However, Wednesday night, the Ghostbar was packed with girls, grillz, and ghetto fabulousness as Lil Jon spun some tracks just, seemingly, because. Lil Jon of “Yeah,” “Snap Yo Fingers” and “Get Low” fame graced…
This Poster of the Week was created in-house at C3 Presents, the Austin promotions and event planning company behind the ACL Music Festival, booking at Emo’s and Stubb’s, and tomorrow night’s Club Dada bill featuring Heartless Bastards, Black Joe Lewis and the Honey Bears (a Noah Bailey favorite) and Les…
Listening to “Eight Miles High,” even 40 years after it was an unlikely hit, it still provides a disarming shock; the rolling bass line, atonal guitar break and angelic harmonies are so unlike anything that came before or very little that has appeared since. Very few songs in the pop…
Remember the screening of The Holy Mountain and Blixaboy soundtrack remix we told you about Monday? Well, in case you needed a reminder, it’s tonight at Angelika Dallas. Blixaboy’s set will take place before the 8 p.m. screening, according to the Dallas Cinemania site. Erich Scholz at Dallas Cinemania just…
Q-Tip, The Cool Kids, The Knux House of Blues November 19, 2008 Better Than: Sitting at home remembering when hip-hop was still good. As far as opening bands go, The Knux was a decent, average opening act. The reaction from the crowd was tepid and it was obvious the audience…
Brooklyn’s Gang Gang Dance isn’t beholden to any particular style or scene; this foursome brews its own inimitable sonic pilsner. And into its (world) musical crock-pot goes Middle Eastern themes, acid techno, cracked synth-pad and guitar-struck runoff, and frontwoman Liz Bougatsos’ exotic yelp. The band’s new album, Saint Dymphna, shrugs…
On Warpaint, the band’s first studio release since re-forming in 2005, the Black Crowes show how a little time off can work wonders. The album continues to improve the band’s winning brand of Southern-fried power blues-rock, as opener “Goodbye Daughters of the Revolution” and “Movin’ on Down the Line” gallop…
For the recording of Heartless Bastards’ third album, The Mountain (to be released on Fat Possum Records in January), Erika Wennerstrom had to come to Texas to find her dream Ohio band. The singer-guitarist left her previous lineups behind when she set up camp in Austin to work with producer…
Divine inspiration brought the Blind Boys of Alabama together in 1939 at the Alabama Institute for the Negro Blind, a school that taught blind youth of the beleaguered South Braille and trained them for rudimentary careers making broom handles and chair bottoms. Today, leader Jimmy Carter is the sole remnant…
Another year, another opportunity to celebrate the existence of Dallas’ finest rock ‘n’ roll dive. And this year’s celebration looks to be especially raucous, too, thanks to the lineup: Austin’s Guitar Hero-approved Lions; fantastic indie pop rock act Baboon (in an increasingly rare live performance); the phenomenal, jangley roots rock…
What do you do after your rock band has conquered the musical world and is on a break before producing another album? If you’re The Strokes’ Fabrizio Moretti, you get in touch with your Brazilian bloodlines, start a new band with your girlfriend and name it after your favorite pub…
Tokyo rock quintet Dir En Grey has been through a number of musical incarnations over its decade-long history, but none of them resemble the kind of Japanese music that typically catches on in the States: the power-J-pop of Puffy AmiYumi, the doom-rock of Boris or the experimental noise-rock of the…
Bradford Cox’s oversized persona threatens to overwhelm almost anything his band does. In concert, the singer-songwriter—who has Marfan syndrome and is shockingly thin—sometimes bloodies himself and otherwise makes people uncomfortable. On his group’s blog, he battles music pirates and his own demons. But fans are wise to ignore the hype;…
Transitioning from overhyped buzz generator to perpetual powerhouse ain’t easy, even for figures as charismatic as the Bloc Party men, and the strain shows on the Brits’ third LP. “Ares” is the sound of a band trying too hard, albeit with assists from some pretty interesting elements: screaming sirens, kinetic…
Unfortunately for Q-Tip, he did not die. If he had, the decade or so that’s passed since A Tribe Called Quest’s unfortunate implosion (and his subsequent wayward, pop-centric solo debut, Amplified) would’ve served as a reverent mourning period, with fans and naysayers alike belatedly acknowledging the nasally Queens emcee as…
Listening to the colossal wallop of the Florida underground metal outfit Torche is a pleasure. And making that colossal wallop is equally fulfilling. But as I discover upon ringing guitarist and band co-founder Juan Montoya, there are some perils involved as well: “Can I call you right back?” he asks…
In an interview before The Supersuckers’ Thursday, November 13, show at Dan’s Silverleaf in Denton, singer/bassist Eddie Spaghetti sounded enthused about the band’s forthcoming Get It Together, which earns its release on November 25. “I love it,” he said. “It’s easily the best-sounding record we’ve ever made. The songs are…
With a scuffed wood floor, black ceiling tiles and strands of Christmas lights hanging on the sparsely decorated walls, Chaos Control looks like a ramshackle dive bar that’s, well, missing its bar. And because it doesn’t serve alcohol or allow drinking or smoking inside its space, Denton’s newest rock venue…
