Music

Rocking against Regan in 1984. (John Spath) This week’s Echoes and Reverberations installment comes with an accompanying slideshow courtesy of John Spath. Check it out here. In the spirit of the presidential election, let’s reflect upon that memorable week when radical protest art and conservative politics collided on the streets…

There’s no doubting the pop sensibilities of Josh Hendrick, frontman for the band that bears his last name, and, from the start of this five-track extended play release, it’s this sensibility that shines through. Yep, Hendrick is a rock band that plays pop music and, yes, that means this band…

Given the depth of this, Dentonite Chris Day’s debut release, it’s tough to tell if its creator is a genius or a loon. The near-nonsensical lyrics certainly suggest the latter: The themes (discovery, remorse, frustration) are simple enough, the general topic matter (women) is familiar too, and the inspiration of…

Here’s a dirty little critical secret: Many times when reviewers describe an album as being a veteran band’s best since fill-in-the-blank, they remember zilch about the discs that appeared in between. That’s certainly the case for me when it comes to Oasis, which has been stylistically consistent to the point…

In recent years, I’ve taken to evaluating, somewhat subconsciously, each new AC/DC album by way of what I’ll now outwardly brand the “Send for the Man” scale. It’s a fairly straightforward system, resting on one incontrovertible fact: AC/DC—old or new, live or studio, Bon or Brian—is never a bad thing…

An expression of Los Angeles’ rich cultural melting pot, Ozomatli grew from a loose collective supporting the transformation of an old building into a community center as part of a labor dispute 13 years ago. That generous, familial spirit infuses this horn-driven octet, offering a combination dance party/celebration of the…

As Sound Tribe Sector 9 performs one of its packed shows, it’s easy to imagine the jam band kids staying on one side of the club and the rave kids standing on the other. The ravers like STS9 because the California band plays well-crafted, glowstick-friendly electro-dance music. If they close…

More often than not, going to a show is about experiencing how a band sounds outside the trappings of a studio—and maybe hearing a couple of your favorite songs. But for anyone with tickets to see the criminally underappreciated Mountain Goats, the expectation is wholly different. With a catalogue of…

Slaid Cleaves is known as a “songwriter’s songwriter,” which is usually a polite way of saying “he can’t sing.” But there’s no need for decorum with the Maine-born, Austin-based troubadour: For all of his command of songcraft, Cleaves would still be working as a pharmaceutical guinea pig were it not…

In the early part of this decade, Chicago-based rock nostalgists The Redwalls were touted as likely candidates to carry the torch of garage-rock revivalism even further into the mainstream consciousness. But though the “next big thing” tag never stuck to the band the way that major-label executives banked on, The…

Glenn Danzig is the devil’s curator for the Blackest of the Black Tour, a metal mini-festival he’s been presenting and headlining intermittently since 2003. And for the headbanger set, the tour has a little bit of everything. Ohio’s Skeletonwitch blends black metal, death metal and thrash into old-school, rip-yer-face-off shredderation…

Brightblack Morning Light is about a vibe. The Alabama-bred duo’s laconic folk-psych-soul is foggy like a Phish concert, sliding down droning, somnambulant grooves coated in Muscles Shoals funk lighting a velvet night sky. Inspired by the Staples Singers’ Southern gospel and My Bloody Valentine’s narcotized textures, Brightblack Morning Light’s spacey,…

At a table in a Borders in Lewisville, Matthew Gray looks like the kind of guy who would be leading a Dungeons and Dragons workshop instead of one of the most talked-about local bands of the year. Sporting a scraggly beard, the founder of Matthew and the Arrogant Sea comes…

Don’t know about you, but I already know what I’m going as for Halloween this year. I’m going as a hypocrite. See, chances are, I’m going to go see something I normally avoid 364 days a year. I’m going to see a cover band. Or, better yet, a tribute band…

Located a few doors down from J&J’s Pizza on Denton’s town square, Time Bandits specializes in vintage apparel and accessories. But the store has quickly become known around the city as much for its incredible selection of vinyl records as for its classic clothing. And, if Time Bandits’ owners Lisa…

In last week’s paper supplement to DC-9, I gave a pretty enthusiastic recommendation of The Frontier Brothers’ Space Punk Starlet. But in case you need more than my word to decide if you need the disc, the band agreed to let us offer the title track as a free download…

For all you overachievers who got your Halloween costumes together a week early, Moby gave you an excuse to show them off Saturday night, headlining a long list of DJ’s spinning at the Lizard Lounge. “Meltdown” was the party’s name, with James Zabiela, Dirty South, DJ Dan & Donald Glaude,…